I'm glad there are a couple of Sloggers who are fans of the Criterion Collection. But you forgot to mention that today's announcements include their first 4K UHD titles, including Citizen Kane which was their very first laserdisc release in 1984.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Criterion_Collection_LaserDiscs

"Biden emphasized in his speech today, conveniently forgetting all that Yemen stuff. "

Do you all have to be bitches about everything? It's like you, Matt and Mudede are in competition to find the most useless snark possible, and you're all winning.

I commend Biden for this decision. He had the fortitude to do what W, Obama and Trump couldn't, and is willing to take the political hit for doing the right thing. This war had to end, and Yemen has nothing to do with this. It's okay to say something positive about moderates every now and then, you know. I say this as a non-moderate person.

“… the publisher of the Washington Post is begging the Biden administration to help with the evacuation of 204 journalists and their families from Kabul.”

they gotta fucking BEG?
smokin’Joe no more Napping
you need Someone in Charge
of that shit – someone like Wanda
fucking Sykes who’ll chat up the Taliban
and get out who NEEDS getting the Fuck out.

you don’t wanna
Wrap Up your Legacy
way too soon do you?

Delegate that Shit.

Criterion's in my Library's catalogue
just gotta Reserve 'em. most recently
watched Hobson's Choice with Prunella
Scales John Cleese's wife in Fawlty Towers

@2: Thank you. (I hope my saying so doesn't blemish your reputation.)

@2 B, +1

Well said.

Those horrifying scenes of desperate people clinging to airplanes to flee national collapse are foreshadowing of the near future in which the rabid screaming GQP MAGAts sack Washington DC and reinstall their shitforbrains lord and savior, Prezinazi AntiChrist.

Our trillion dollar "intelligence" agencies will never see it coming. They're already too busy scheming for the invasions of Iran, Pakistan, and/or Taiwan--any scam to separate taxpayers from their dollars and people of color from their lives.

And most sickening of all, another generation of dupes and suckers will support it and sign up for it, getting themselves shot and blown to hell for the all-consuming glory of making sleazy Boeing, Chevron, Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and all the gun companies, mercenaries, and various other war profiteers' executives and shareholders richer beyond the dreams of Midas. Goldman Sachs will start World War III the instant they figure out how to monetize the radioactive rubble.

Once more The Stranger is late to the party & forgets to BYOB on the issue of police accountability. Just fucking clueless, and intentionally so.
There is much to say about this absurd "less-lethal weapons ban not-a-ban" legislation, but, in brief:

(1) Under this new law cops simply need to say that there was a "violent public disturbance" (defined as 12 people "present together" with some uncertain number of whom threaten or commit violence toward a person) & they are good to unleash all forms of chemical munitions, projectiles, flash-bangs (if cops claim it was outside of a demonstration), & TEAR GAS. Yup, they eliminated blast balls, but they can still injure you with about a dozen other munitions. (PRO TIP for cops: remember to have your plain clothes buddies stand near the "violent public disturbance" if there are less than 12 people!).

Are councilmembers gullible enough to believe that cops will adhere to new policies they don't like versus just learning to adopt new rationales for decades old behaviors?

(2) The good news in this legislation is that for the first time protesters hurt by cops have a legal "right of action" under WA state law. Without this specific legislative provision it is not practical for folks to sue in state court because there is no state law that allows one to recover legal costs and attorney's fees. Having a local/state right of action eliminates concerns over federal qualified immunity, lowers the bar for suing, allows for a much larger pool of lawyers, etc.

The bad news? "A person who, in the judgment of a reasonable person, commits a criminal offense at or immediately prior to the use of less lethal force may not recover under this Section." This means it would be in the City Attorney's interest -- in defending the City and the SPD -- to encourage the SPD to lay false charges (which SPD is all too willing to do).

Imagine if a protester injured by one of the banned-not-banned munitions is successfully prosecuted on a bogus charge or convinced/threatened to plead guilty to a lesser charge? Yeah, they have a "right of action" but it will be booted out of court by a judge who deems a guilty plea or verdict "the judgment of a reasonable person." Or, how about someone engaging in graffiti? Under WA state law that is a crime, a gross misdemeanor. Hence, if a cop throws a flash-bang at you, severely injuring you, and has video of you writing on the sidewalk with chalk, it would be against policy but you would have no claim in state court!

Lisa Herbold stated in today's council meeting that:

"I want to be clear that the language in the ordinance allows the City to offer an affirmative defense that the violation did not occur. The language will not make anyone accused of a crime ineligible from using the right of action merely because they've been accused of a crime. A person accused of a crime can file suit under the right of action. It is not accurate, as some have suggested, that if the affirmative defense was used, that 'the judgment of a reasonable person a crime was committed', that the City, in order to prevail, would only have to prove that an officer said they thought a crime was committed. That is not the legal standard of the affirmative defense." (see 54:09 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6072Z5g9XY).

That was grossly misleading and disingenuous as my above examples point out.

(3) This legislation falsely appears to finally end SPD's abuse of protesters in response to property destruction: it only allows chemical weapons, tear gas, & flash-bangs to be used in situations where there is actual or threatened violence toward people.

However, all the impact munitions (inert paint balls, bean bags, rubber pellets/bullets, "blue-nose", other foam tipped projectiles, etc.) can be used against people engaged in property damage.

Hence, a predictable scenario: someone engaged in graffiti, tipping over a dumpster or newspaper box, or window breaking has a variety of impact weapons unleashed on them. Some of those weapons hit bystanders and provoke the larger crowd, resulting in someone throwing a bottle. Now the SPD can unleash all their weapons because it is a "violent public disturbance," with most, if not all, those injured having no practical state right of action because they can be charged and prosecuted with a variety of crimes (failure to disperse, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, assault, etc.).

This legislation was voted on by all councilmembers present (Sawant & Morales missing, why?). It was also wholeheartedly supported by the Seattle Community Police Commission.

For more on the specific flaws of this legislation see: tinyurl.com/StopHurtingUs

This complete betrayal of police abuse victims, and the entire Seattle community, demonstrates the urgent need for us to have full civilian community control over police policy, misconduct investigations, and discipline. Go to SeattleSTOP.org to find out how.

@10, Achoo!

@7: Cartoon talk, but fun to read though.

At least Fremont Oktoberfest is still on for September.

@13 I think it is probably a combination of two things: 1. They honestly thought that the collapse of the Afghan National Army and government would proceed slower than what happened. It can be difficult to correctly forecast a rout, as it only takes the decision of a couple of leaders opting to stand down to initiate the domino effect of desertion. 2. If there was any chance the Afghan government could successfully stand against the Taliban, the US would need to project confidence. As Biden stated, a systematic removal of American's and our local allies prior to military withdrawal would have contributed to a crisis of confidence. Clearly confidence collapsed anyway, but I can understand the decision if there was hope that they could mount a defense.

I can't imagine they wouldn't have pulled out people earlier if they had anticipated the current situation in Kabul, if only for the better political narrative. Personally I think we should accept hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees, we are a large and rich country that could easily accommodate them, but very few political commentators are suggesting something like that. Most just seem to be concerned with the bad optics of the panicked evacuation of Kabul, but this seems almost unavoidable. The people who were most responsible for organizing a resistance to the Taliban are the same group who are getting refugee visas, as soon as they decided the situation is hopeless and attempted to leave the fall would be imminent. At best the US Military could provide defense for a retreat, which is essentially what is happening now at the Kabul airport.

@2 Brent Gumbo and @3 kristofarian for the WIN!

@8 & @10: Go back to bed lil MAGA troll if you have nothing relevant to add.