Comments

2

Go easy on my indoor kitty Krusty! A tip of the hat to The Stranger, the song outro's are always pretty solid on Slog.

3

Why don’t we have a mayor like Cleveland? Because the progressive kingmakers in Seattle lined up behind the wrong candidate. I voted Farrell in the primary, but switched to Harrell in the general, which is probably a common story. All the signs pointed to deep dissatisfaction with sitting Councilmembers, but progressives just got used to magical thinking I guess.

5

May a black cat cross your path.

7

Totoman @3, I'm going to need a little more context about what's going on in Cleveland. I see a mayor-elect there who's willing to engage in the provocative rhetoric of "People over cars," but I'd have to know what he plans to do to give people viable alternatives to automobile dependency.

What really raises this question in my mind is the fact that it's Mike McGinn of all people applauding this message. When he was Seattle's mayor, McGinn was very happy to engage in that sort of rhetoric, but he certainly wasn't our most effective mayor in recent history when it comes to providing viable alternatives. That would have to be Greg Nickels, someone who was not so inclined to engage in provocative rhetoric.

Signed,
Someone who can rightfully be accused of supporting "The War on Cars"

8

Staunch Marxist Charles Mudede supporting and applauding a rapacious capitalist like Gene Simmons? Whew, now I've seen everything.

9

The late progressive vote swing is a really interesting pattern. That pattern has been happening for a few elections now highlighted by Sawant's comeback in 2019 but in the last few elections the trend has actually increased from 9pt to the current 12-13. It seems clear from the data its mostly younger voters but I have yet to see any research why they wait so long to cast their ballot. If the reason is "not getting around to it" until election day that's fine and I applaud those who actually vote but I have to think there is also a huge chunk you never get around to it as evidenced by the low turnout this last election. It seems like there is a great opportunity here to try and engage these voters sooner and increase participation.

11

@4: because he killed 2 people and maimed a 3rd due to his reckless actions.

but don't fret; he'll walk on everything but the gun charge. rittenhouse's right to self-defense will outweigh huber's and grosskreutz's.

12

@10: small point, but he kept the MSSA at dominick black's house in WI, and retrieved it from there prior to defending the used car lot, so he didn't cross state lines. i am not sure if he went back to IL with it.

14

"Back in the New York Groove" > "I Was Made for Loving You"

15

@9 Some people wait until nearly the last minute to vote because shit happens. The less ideologically fixed one is, common with younger voters, the more little details can influence one's choice. On the other hand, the longer one has been voting in Seattle elections, the more likely they are to have strong opinions about particular candidates.

16

@4 because he is a racist, murdering, piece of shit?

19

We respectfully disagree.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5293968

21

do you think that maybe writing-off courthouse worker fear of rape and assault is just one reason the "progressives" got trounced a couple weeks ago here?

22

He crossed state lines with an illegally obtained firearm.

He crossed state lines with an illegally obtained firearm.

He crossed state lines with an illegally obtained firearm.

That is all that matters, his self defense is bullshit in the same way my right to self defense is bullshit if a 17 year old antifa kid crosses state lines and goes to a Proud Boy convention brandishing a rifle at angry people and using it on a crowd.

Go fuck yourselves and put that little shit in the slammer where he belongs.

24

Hell if Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev had just been a few years younger, he could have argued that having those pressure cooker bombs wasn't a big deal and using it in self defense was an expression of his sincerely held religious beliefs and he could be a champion for Chechen and Kyrgyz-Americans.

25

"He crossed state lines with an illegally obtained firearm."

A distinction without a difference.

26

@25. It means he is already under federal jurisdiction and subject to state and federal penalties up to and including imprisonment. Without violating this law, the rest of the events would have never transpired. There is a limit to self defense, for instance if you go looking for trouble and engage in a fight, you cannot simply declare self defense because you chose to instigate and left your point of defense to confront an visibly aggressive and angry person.

Too many people are putting the cart before the horse and conveniently forgetting this detail and questioning why he is even there at all and making that point an afterthought. Interstate commerce is a huge deal in sentencing and if you think he needs special treatment then you are part of the problem of institutional racism and classism embedded in our system and displayed in our media as a sideshow and political fodder.

29

@27. It's unfortunate, but I was incorrect in my facts after all. Thank you for correcting the record. I am now trying to catch up with the facts of the case.

34

@32 What if it was a 12-year old who shot the protestors in Kenosha? Or an 8-year old? Is self-defense the same for a child as an adult? I think we can all agree that children should not own guns, because they are not capable of making responsible decisions with them. Rittenhouse testified that he asked for the rifle because he thought it looked cooler than a pistol. Does that sound like a responsible gun owner who's intention was self-protection? Adults are more capable of telling the difference between a protestor acting erratically and a real threat, and that's why they have different rights. There were police officers and other armed vigilantes in Kenosha that night, and none of them shot anyone. Some of them even testified that they didn't feel threatened by the same people that Rittenhouse shot. So yeah, it is a BFD when you put an automatic rifle into the hands of a minor, and two people in Kenosha were killed as a result of that decision.

41

@39 And because you were an adult I support your right to buy any gun you want for whatever reason you choose, as long as you're not breaking any laws, harming anyone, using it sensibly, etc.

The 17-year old boy knew that he was breaking the law by obtaining a gun to begin with, but I think the trial has shown that he didn't have the maturity and common sense to operate that gun responsibly. He had no business being there, so his self-defense argument is weak. He has no gun safety or crowd control training, so he didn't know how to operate a gun responsibly or handle his surroundings that night. And he didn't know how to differentiate between someone acting erratically and a real threat to his life, as several others have testified. Even the confrontation with Grosskreutz shows Rittenhouse's lack of judgement, as he was reloading the rifle while the guy was holding up his hands to surrender. I am very skeptical of any vigilantes inserting themselves in situations where they do not belong, but a 17-year old boy simply does not have the maturity to handle a dangerous situation like this, and I think that's been proven in the trial.

42

@40 I didn't say a child doesn't understand the self-defense legal threshold, but rather children don't have the maturity and judgment to defend themselves at all. This is why we teach children to tell their parents or teachers when they feel threatened, or more importantly stay away from potentially dangerous people and situations. I think we can all agree that Kenosha was a highly dangerous situation that children should not have been part of.

Why do you assume Rosenbaum was trying to harm Rittenhouse by attempting to disarm him? If you were in a chaotic situation and saw a person with a rifle who was clearly not a police officer, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume they were a potential threat? And is disarming a potential threat not a form of self-defense too? Not sure if I've ever heard of a skateboard attack either, but simply covering your head with your arms is probably sufficient defense against skateboards. Alas, a 17-year old boy who chose to insert himself in a dangerous situation with an illegally obtained rifle and no training chose to escalate the situation and kill these people instead. That's pretty damn far from "impeccable judgment".

47

@1: Spoken like a hopelessly clueless cat hater. Cats, like dogs, are also carnivorous. They hunt birds, squirrels, mice, and other small rodents. Cats contribute to the circle of life and have their place in society like the rest of us. At least they're smart enough not to want to lustily sniff human crotches like the typical Mississippi Leg Hound.

@5: You tell 'em, Phoebe! Agreed and seconded. However shaken, I'm glad Kitty escaped Wile E. Coyote's jaws of death. :)

48

@4: Try to keep up.

@16 Greenwood_Bob for the WIN!


Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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