350 Seattle shut down 4th Ave today to protest the banks who finance climate catastrophe
350 Seattle shut down 4th Ave today to protest the banks who finance climate catastrophe Michael Petrochuk

A bunch of climate activists shut down 4th Ave this afternoon: Ahead of the November 1 climate talks in Glasgow, "scores" of climate activists sprawled across 4th Ave with signs and banners calling for Bank of America and Chase to divest from the Line 3 pipeline and demanding the Canadian government stop construction on the TransMountain pipeline. They successfully disrupted business at a Bank of America and a Chase bank on 4th. The Seattle Times printed some fun photos.

The world's current promises on emissions reductions are too weak: According to a new analysis from the UN, if every country hit its current emissions reductions target, then we'd be on track for a "catastrophic" 2.7° C rise in global temperatures, Al Jazeera reports. That sort of warming will lead to more "fatal floods to wildfires and storms."

The carpenters want more money and parking: Yesterday the Northwest Carpenters Union "picketed at several high-profile projects Thursday, including Microsoft’s Eastside campus and Vulcan’s Block 38, the 12-story South Lake Union office building set to be finished this year for Google," the Seattle Times reports. Early this morning the picketing continued at Block 38 and at 400 WestLake. The union says work is halted at "hundreds" of construction sites in the region.

Three cheers for the Seattle Times digital union: After two years of fighting, the digital and video journalists, producers, and engagement editors "UNANIMOUSLY" voted to ratify their contract.

Fox News begins its assault on Seattle City Attorney candidate Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: The national battle lines have been drawn: Teen Vogue is on Team NTK, and Fox News is on Team Ann Davison. As you might expect, Fox is already getting stuff wrong. Before his interview with Jason Rantz, Tucker Carlson said NTK "won the primary election to become Seattle's next Attorney General." Seattle only has one AG, and that's living chess legend and heartthrob Bob Ferg. Carlson also called NTK "crazy."

We turn now to NTK for a response:

Meanwhile, Fremont Brewery co-owner Matt Linecum joined "Team Fuck the Stranger" this week: All cuz I reported that his fellow co-owner, Sara Nelson, who is running against Nikkita Oliver for a citywide city council seat, told a bunch of news outlets that the brewery didn't lay off anyone during the pandemic when in reality they laid off seven people. Rude!

Get ready to wander lonely as a cloud, my dudes: I think we've written a little about this already on the blog, but I don't think we mentioned Wordsworth when we did, so please allow me to aggregate this news as upon my office chair I sit in a vacant, pensive mood: On Saturday, October 9, the Volunteer Park Trust plans to put 25,000 daffodil seeds in the good earth on the park's west slope beds in honor of "Doug Bayley, co-founder of Volunteer Park Trust and the visionary who conceived of this beautiful and impressive swath of yellow returning permanently every spring," Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reports. When they bloom, their dances should fill hearts with pleasure as the sun dives headfirst into the Sound.

The Clipper's back, baby: After a year-and-a-half hiatus, you can now take zip up to Victoria, B.C. on the Victoria Clipper if you've got a vaccine card, a negative COVID-19 test from the last 72 hours, a passport or enhanced ID, and a plan to quarantine if shit goes south, KING 5 reports.

Keep your head on swivel in Oly tomorrow: I'm seeing flyers for two protests in Olympia on Saturday; one anti-vaxxer "world wide rally for freedom" from noon to 2 pm at the Capitol, and another "justice for [dummy Proud Boy leader] Tusitala 'Tiny Toese'" rally from 2 to 4 pm at Olympia City Hall. Expect the people at both protests to be heavily armed. "The police department is bringing on extra staff and preparing for any violence that could arise," KIRO reports.

Our last drone strike in Afghanistan killed only innocent people, seven of them kids: After the suicide bombing in Kabul during the U.S. withdrawal, the military believed with "reasonable certainty” that a man driving a white car was an ISIS militant with a trunk full of explosives, so a soldier pressed a button in a distant outpost and dropped a bomb on what turned out to be "a longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization" and a bunch of children, the Associated Press reports. The Pentagon insisted over and over again that they got the right guy until today. The US is now "considering making reparation payments to the family of the victims." Brown University estimates that 71,000 civilians were killed in the war.

France wanted to sell Australia the technology to build nuclear submarines for billions of dollars, but then the US and the UK swooped in and did it first, and so now France is temporarily pulling its ambassadors from both the US and Australia, the BBC reports. Not to be this guy, but if Trump pulled some shit like this on America's "oldest ally," there'd be furious op-eds running in every paper. In any event, this whole thing is all about increasing a belligerent posture toward China, which doesn't strike me as the coolest move. We just exited a war, people. Give it a minute.

Boosters for the olds are on the way: As poorer countries across the world struggle with access to the vaccine, greatly increasing the chances for more deadly and resistant variants, an FDA panel recommended Pfizer boosters "only for people who are 65 or older or at high risk of severe Covid-19," the New York Times reports. Biden planned to start a "broad" booster push next week, and the "high-risk" category could include workers such as "health care workers, emergency responders...and teachers."

Three Texas women beat up hostess at Carmine's over proof of vaccine requirement: The hostess asked the women to flash their vax card, the women refused, the hostess offered to sit them outside instead, and then the women attacked the hostess, the New York Times reports. I shall begin a petition to make the city offer karate classes for all service industry workers starting October 25, when King County's vaccine passport program launches.

And now for a word from my president:

Judges strike down North Carolina's racist voter ID law: The judges "noted that they did not find that any individual lawmaker supporting the voter-ID law 'harbors any racial animus or hatred towards African American voters,' but rather that the legislature’s Republican majority targeted those voters because they were more likely to be Democrats," the Washington Post reports.

The Nicki Minaj testicular news cycle refuses to die: On Friday afternoon the rapper hopped on her Instagram to "attempt to dox" reporters apparently attempting to verify a widely debunked, third-hand story about the COVID vaccine leading to swollen balls "by posting a picture of a business card, a name and a phone number, followed by a few pictures ganked from Google" of the reporters in question, Jezebel reports. Jezebel argues this anti-vaxxer stuff from Minaj mostly only serves to cover up news about her husband's legal issues, which came to light the same day this swollen ball stuff started up.

I've been listening to a lot of Ray Lynch lately: As my friend said over poker the other night, "I feel like I'm on hold with God." Should do you some good against the gray this weekend.