Great Round-up, HMW!
(thank God for a Lefty POV).

“Trump Tries
to Use IRS as a
Weapon: Do I need to say
that that’s not normal? It’s not normal.”

Fascism’s
our new normal!
getting renditioned
enhanced Interrogations
masked agents kidnapping
American citizens~free speech
Outlawed it’s all our new normal.

at
Least
Bernie’s
Out there
Fighting for
Us. and, so far
even a few Dems!

You wonder why Children's is suspending GAC and the answer is right there in the Harvard story: the Motherfucker Administration can and will punish dissent. Children's Legal has to be strongly recommending it.

I've been wondering what The Stranger will endorse on the fingerprint levy. It does put them in an unexpected pickle. Will it be...

Yay - It's a replacement levy only, and is the only way to keep its funding going per the bureaucracy - besides those NIMBY rich homeowners don't deserve a break.

Nay - Hell no - ACAB. Why do anything to facilitate Trump's police state?

The IRS is part of the executive branch and therefore is not "independent" of the President. The President oversees the whole of the executive branch. Also, conservatives haven't forgotten that Obama weaponized the IRS against conservative non-profits. I don't remember the Stranger complaining about that.

The deportation of Abrego-Garcia is not shocking to me. He entered the country illegally. He was found deportable by two immigration judges. He's credibly accused of being an MS-13 member and a wife beater. And now he's been sent back home where he belongs. Happy ending really.

A reminder to anybody still taking an SSRI. Recent studies have completely invalidated the "chemical imbalance" theory of depression. SSRIs also carry a black box suicide warning. I'm not sure what their effects on salmon might be. But for humans, you'll get more mileage by changing your diet (add healthy fats and eliminate sugar) and exercising at least 4 days per week.

If he is “credibly” accused of being a gang member and wife beater then they should have no bones with presenting his case to the courts. So far the only “evidence” we’ve been presented comes from the mouths of habitual liars who have also admitted his deportation was a mistake. Neither of these explanations is an excuse to deny due process nor to bring him back home.

But what’s most critical to this case is that due process is all or nothing. Either we have a right to it or we don’t, and if the president can get away with ignoring multiple rulings from the judicial branch, including a 9-0 judgement against him by a deeply reactionary scotus, there is no reason to believe American citizens won’t be shipped off to concentration camps, too. If they take away anyone’s right to plead their case they have taken it from you, too.

I don't know how anyone here at the Stranger could possibly be surprised at any of this. All last year, some of us commenters here stressed that no matter how bad Biden, then Harris may have been on The Only Issue That Mattered Here (Gaza), Trump would be worse even on that -- and on everything else, too. Uncommitted, Abandon Harris, and (wink wink say no more) Sawant were all celebrated and/or tolerated for promoting an anti-Harris, and therefore pro-Trump message. They all urged not voting for Harris. They got their way. And NOW you have a problem with this?

@4: Nixon's downfall really began with his attempts to use the IRS against his political enemies. This started the process of turning right-wing FBI agent W. Mark Felt into Woodward & Bernstein's very own "Deep Throat." Glad to see Trump dutifully repeating the arrogant, clueless mistakes of his disgraced, downfallen predecessor. History's Back, Baby!

Garcia's case was taken to the courts. He was found deportable by an immigration judge. Garcia appealed and the appellate immigration judges also found him deportable. He's had his due process.

The only issue with his deportation was a judge's order (dubious at best) that he could not be deported to El Salvador, his home country due to fear of persecution. If he had been deported to Guantanamo his case would never have made the news.

Murkowski's not up for re-election until 2028. She shouldn't be scared of a Primary challenge, FFS; she should be leading "reasonable" Repukes in opposing this blitzkrieg of overreach.

7 no he wasn’t you lying sack of shit

“An immigration judge determined Abrego Garcia was a member of the gang in 2019, but the evidence that judge relied was recently questioned by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, the federal judge in Maryland presiding over the mistaken deportation case.

“Xinis noted that Abrego Garcia has no criminal convictions in the U.S. or El Salvador, and said the evidence meant to support allegations of gang affiliation “consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/court-rejects-trump-request-kilmar-abrego-garcia-case-due-process-rcna201747

Murkowski's a fracking hypocrite and tool, as is Susan Collins.

At any point in the 116th Congress they could have left the Republican Party and caucused with the Democrats as Independents. This would have taken the Majority Leader gavel away from McConnell and prevented Trump from stacking the Supreme Court and more importantly prevented McConnell from stymieing the second impeachment trial.

@9 - the immigration courts did not need to adjudicate the MS-13 issue to find him deportable. Simply that he entered the country illegally. No criminal conviction is required for an order of deportation.

And if he hadn't been found deportable, there would have been no need for a judge to grant an order withholding his removal to El Salvador (due to the fear of persecution).

@11 thx for confirming your identity, thumpus. I had a feeling this was you bc nobody else uses those dumb emojis but the fluency in legalese when it suits you gives it away.

@4 The IRS investigated conservative AND liberal organizations during the Obama Administration. It was just that the Conservatives whined louder.

I'm not Thumpus. Why does everybody on this blog always accuse everybody else of being somebody else? It's rather bizarre behavior that I have never encountered on other forums.

@14, I’ve been here for a minute and a bunch of obnoxiously reactionary troll accounts started popping up shortly after your vaguely reactionary main account. It’s a lot of new activity for a blog that has been slowly bleeding to death for over a decade and every one of these new accounts had beef with the same commenters and issues. Also your voice is very, uh, unique for a grown adult, let alone one who might have a jd.

It doesn’t matter either way because your comments are in bad faith no matter who is behind them and I will now go back to ignoring you but the amount of effort you put in to annoying strangers online speaks to what a pathetic loser you are.

@10: Yeah, but that's a really tall order. Asking them to give up their inherent political disposition and then risk being soundly defeated in the next election. They'd have to have a real passion to do that, they wouldn't be motivated by altruism alone - and that would seem hypocritical.

@15: You're the one bath who seems to loose their temper most often, like @9 - para 1.

So unnecessary. You do have interesting insights. Just relax. Happy Easter.

@14: it's because there have been banned posters who've returned under different guises several times previously. perhaps you should avoid such bizarre behavior and return to the other forums.

As far as I can tell the new Washington state budget proposal is even more regressive than prior proposals. Raising property taxes and adding new sales taxes to services will hurt the middle class.

17, he’s lying about a man’s legal standing after he was sent to a concentration camp and his likely death, in defiance of the supreme court and the united states constitution. This isn’t the time for your miss manners schtick, “phoebe.” Your basic rights as a human being in the united states are at stake right now and being civil to fascists is a big part of how we got here.

@20: Being civil in discourse and civl to fascists are two different things. Hence, direct your rage at the White House but not to Slog commenters.

@21, That is the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. The people in the white house should be strung up by their toes in the national mall for treason and the scumbags who support it do not deserve a moment’s peace until that happens. Making fascists feel unwelcome in polite society your civic duty.

Speech is not entirely harmless but it’s nothing compared to an authoritarian government with guardrails. Telling nazis to fuck off is one of the most civil things you can do in America today.

*without guardrails

Fuck the thoughts and prayers. The perverted negligence to the direct effects (children being killed and killing each other) of this country's pathetic romance with firearms should result in unilateral sanctions from the rest of the world. Sanctions that won't be lifted until we stop producing more of the weapons than any other country and exporting them to other countries for the same effect, solely to kill people and destabilize society. Guns are bullshit people. Like religion and capitalism, they only serve the ones who are pushing them down our throats. Wake up and join a future for peace... fuck the GOP, fuck drumpf and fuck your civil discourse attitude (dweeeeebeeee that's youuuuu) as an attempt to sedate the honest and justifiable anger of the people who are WOKE to the regime of authoritarian ignorance and hate that you pander to, you spineless twit.

Clear as a
Bell it is:

babyback=
thumpf* You!=
the Wormtongue.

Plus!
it takes
All the Heat
offa ole wormmy.

can
You say
Plausible
deniability?

*+A 'I.'

Why are we wasting money on nonsense voting initiatives, can't this wait till the next election?

@15: As @25 seemingly exists to demonstrate, progressives here cotton to conspiracy theories as easily as do any of the hard right-wingers, whom the progressives so loudly claim to despise. @25 and others have been making completely unfounded sock-puppet accusations for years, and there's no need to make vague claims about this blog to understand why. For persons with a certain level of maturity, losing here hurts, and such chronic hurting commenters desperately need reasons other than, "your beliefs lack both logic and evidence." (I'm not saying you're one of those commenters, but you are latching on to some very weak evidence to make your assertion of sock-puppetry -- and you were just shown to have made a counter-factual accusation about another commenter.)

I'm not lying about anybody's legal status. It's just that somebody here doesn't understand the facts.

From the Memorandum Of Decision and Order, in the Matter of Kilmar Armando Abrego-Garcia, US Immigration Court of Baltimore Maryland;

"At the Master Calendar Hearing, the Respondent, through counsel, admitted the factual allegations contained in the NTA and conceded removeability as charged. Based on the Respondents admissions and concessions, the Court found his removeability to be established by clear and convincing evidence as required by INA 240(c)(3)"

Also,

"Withholding of removal, in contrast to asylum, confers only the right not to be deported to a particular country, rather than the right to remain in the US".

@22: You do realize of course that "fascist" has become as overused and diluted as "racist" thanks to bloviators like you. My threshold for using the term is certainly higher than using it on anonymous avatar. You certainly are a hothead for telling windmills to F off.

@27, Everyone dislikes being antagonized by trolls regardless of their political identity, even in online communities that are completely apolitical, and this is stretching the definition of conspiracy theory beyond recognition. Also I think the word you’re looking for is unfalsifiable, not counterfactual.

I understand that these accusations are not anything I can prove, and I don’t think it actually matters honestly because the comments are bad-faith either way, but if I had the time / cared enough I could dredge up a bunch of comments to show how these different accounts showed up at the same time, have the same general tone and temperament, and use some of the same turns of phrase. Your writing voice is like your speaking voice, you can alter it a little here and there but you’re going to fall back into your normal voice eventually. It could be coincidental but it just seems unlikely to me that a bunch of similar new accounts independently appeared on a low-traffic blog at the same time.

As for the other accusation of sockpuppetry, does anyone doubt I was right?

@28, Both of those words still have the same meaning and it’s not hard to parse, but even if you exclude “fascist” from the conversation there are a bunch of other words around it that describe the problem just as well. Whining about the precise definition of words is the last bastion of people who know they’ve lost the argument.

"Whining about the precise definition of words is the last bastion of people who know they've lost the argument."

"Also, I think the word you're looking for is unfalsifiable, not counterfactual".

Well, I guess we know who lost the argument. 😀

@30: "Also I think the word you’re looking for is unfalsifiable, not counterfactual."

No, counterfactual. You made a statement which was then demonstrated to be false. (It was the center of whatever argument you thought you were making, which you then dropped immediately.) The accusations of sock-puppetry tend to be unfalsifiable, as proving a negative usually cannot be done.

"Whining about the precise definition of words is the last bastion of people who know they’ve lost the argument."

@30 fawking Bingo.

nyt:
Say
Goodbye
to Your Kid’s
Imaginary Friend

Use of generative artificial intelligence is widespread among America’s teenagers. According to a 2024 study from Common Sense Media, “Seven in 10 teens age 13 to 18 say they have used at least one type of generative A.I. tool.

Search engines with A.I.-generated results and chatbots are considerably more popular than image and video-generating tools.” Though around a quarter of American teens say they use ChatGPT for schoolwork, we don’t really know how many teens are using bots for emotional solace or forming parasocial relationships with them.

For kids who are already socially awkward or otherwise vulnerable, creating bonds with eternally validating chatbots will just further isolate them from other people, who are imperfect and challenging.

Adolescence is supposed to be a period to test out different kinds of friendships and romances — including ones filled with conflict — so that you can learn what is healthy for you and what’s not.

You start to figure yourself out in the process. What happens when we hamper that real-world experimentation? We are starting to find out.

--by Jessica Grose; April 16, 2025

oodles:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/opinion/teens-chatbot-threat.html?smid=bsky-nytopinion&smtyp=cur

"What happens
when we hamper that
real-world experimentation?

We are starting to find out."

thanks,
wormmy.

@19 but according to TS, people who own property are ~rich~ and can afford all of the new property tax hikes! They're TOTALLY fine with it and can absorb the hit every year. /s

I feel like a broken fucking record saying this over and over again, but taxes should NOT the first solution to balancing a budget. I wanna see line by line breakdown of every government-funded entity. What are the things that absolutely need full funding to function and what can take the hit? I know we can all agree that a government shouldn't always be run like a business (at least not when Trump is the "businessman" trying to run it), but holy shit. I got exactly zero raise this year, which means when things inevitably start to cost more money (again, thanks Trump), I have to cut my spending on the things I'd LIKE to accommodate the things I NEED. It's literal basic macroeconomics 101.

33, i don’t know what you’re referring to as “counterfactual”. I’m not whining about the definition of the word, just trying to make sense of what you’re saying because apparently you’re talking about another comment entirely. I thought you were talking about my unfalsifiable accusations, not my counterfactual ones, whatever they may be.

@35: And the Stranger's keep-on-raising-taxes-without-regard-to-results schtick heavily contributed to the Stranger's endorsed candidates losing local offices, one in several variants of sticking to policy which has obviously failed. Undeterred by reality, the Stranger then sweepingly declared, "big business bought the Council," and has determinedly refused to consider any explanation with more nuance than that. Flatly labeling all of one's opponents illegitimate and/or corrupt is not the hallmark of any healthy democratic discourse, but the Stranger refuses to budge on that, either.

Good luck with your personal situation, I believe the Stranger will continue trying to make it worse.

@36: 'i don’t know what you’re referring to as “counterfactual”.'

"You don’t even know who chris rufo is...", to which I quoted a comment I'd made here about Rufo, many years ago.

(https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/04/15/80014647/slog-am-seattle-scientists-scrub-toilets-at-noaa-trump-withholds-22-billion-from-harvard-doge-accessed-sensitive-labor-data/comments/29)

And yes, what exactly is the point of making an unfalsifiable accusation? That's exactly the type of fodder conspiracy theorists use to "prove" their nonsense.

@38, lol ok, you got me, gal. You know who chris rufo is and you’ve even got the receipts to prove it.

As for unfalsifiable accusations, we all make these because we’re working with incomplete and imperfect information most of the time. I am just admitting to it because I see no point in pretending otherwise and nothing we discuss here matters anyway. I am just sharing what I believe based on the preponderance of evidence, like everyone else here. I just don’t have any problem admitting to my own shortcomings.

Can someone at The Stranger please teach Vivian how to use the "Continue reading" feature when making a slog post?

thanks

@39: "lol ok, you got me, gal. You know who chris rufo is and you’ve even got the receipts to prove it."

That was the last of many references you made to Rufo in that thread. Upon my refutation of your accusation of my ignorance, whatever argument you thought you were making abruptly ceased.

"As for unfalsifiable accusations, we all make these because we’re working with incomplete and imperfect information most of the time."

Those are two different things. No one ever really has complete, perfect information. (Although conspiracy theorists often believe themselves to have both.) An unfalsifiable accusation, as most accusations of sock-puppetry here are, just feeds folks like @25, who really shouldn't receive reinforcing encouragement.

It's also worth nothing that almost all accusations made of sock-puppetry and account replication here are made against commenters who take issue with the Stranger's statements. It's rare to find such accusations against commenters who agree with the Stranger. This combination comes across as making ad hominem attacks against dissenters, rather than addressing whatever points they make.

If only mass stabbing attacks got the same attention by The Stranger:

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/metropolitan-police-department-stabbing-northeast-crime/65-0f806345-0c32-446c-9ba5-9efe625ac2a1

6 victims.

@8,

Murkowski lost her last primary in 2022 against a Trump endorsed candidate.

She got a fourth term by running in the Alaska General Election for U.S. Senate as a write-in.

She should be worried.

@5, FTW!

Tenny, Sawant wasn’t even on the council “all of last year” and retired in 2023.

Your obsession with her is insane - she hasn’t been on a position of political power in almost a year and a half, yet you continue to blame her for everything.

@43: and then she won anyway because AK actually has a few Librulz who voted for her.

she can be concerned, but its 3 1/2 YEARS FROM NOW.

At the end of the day:
- werebackbaby is the trolliest of trolls. They exist only to come in and praise everything trump with no abandon, and are prob raindrop (tho they used to claim to not like trump) or thumpus or just another asshole who is here just to cause unnecessary drama
- Barth is right
- Kristo is also right, regardless of their weird poetry style posts, tho it is unique and fun
- phoebe is a nimby ass neo lib who isn’t helping on anything ever, but tries
- tenny is annoyingly only talking about Hamas and Sawant even when it’s not relevant but they do (occasionally) make a few good points, like the discussion about light rail in the tunnel downtown.

@45: The topic was not 2023, but last year's election season, in which Sawant stumped for Trump, and openly spoke of the need to "punish Harris," and "to defeat her." She did this in both Michigan and Seattle, and it was widely reported from both places. Yet this produced not a single word of criticism from any of her supporters here, ever. (The Stranger even approvingly cited some of her previous quotes and sayings against wealth and privilege, as if she hadn't done her best to inflict Trump upon everyone.) When it comes to your failures, I know you guys fully believe in the saving and soothing powers of the Memory Hole, but there's no reason for anyone else to indulge you on that. Ever.

@47: Auntie G., is that you?!? ;-)

“the Dems proposed a $12 million budget”

Typo - that’s a $12 billion budget

@48: No, teenieweenie. I believe that's Bmleon's comment @47.
You seem pretty desperate in your trolling lately. Why? Did you miss me?
No thanks. You're not my type. :|

It's expensive and difficult to discipline PUBLIC employees:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-council-demands-action-following-damning-city-light-inquiry/

A private utility, like PSE, would have likely fired them all after a much shorter, in-house investigation.

You have such an interesting perspective, NotMyopic, dear. I don't know what happened in this particular case, so I won't comment on it, but I can assure you that the city can move quickly to get rid of employees, particularly in their first year of employment. I have known long-term employees who were fired for petty theft, incompetence, sex on the job, and testing "hot" on a drug test. In those cases, the unions won't intervene. You're out.

PSE, like City Light, has a collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. I would take your blithe assertion of their disciplinary process with more than a grain of salt. Also, since they are a private enterprise, they are not under the same scrutiny as a government agency.

“ because he really hates the idea of balancing the budget with new taxes we obviously need”

This is false. A reminder that the deficit is primarily being driven by the legislature using faulty economic assumptions. Tax revenue is forecasted to continue growing so our economy is healthy. If the legeslature wants to start somewhere they can cut all programs that were funded by Covid dollars amd reduce the budgets to account for the fake growth assumptions they used.

And Bob isn’t doing this to appease business. He assumes (and probably rightly so) the feds will drastically reduce contributions to the state which will then spur another tax fight. He is saving his chips for that moment.

@52, So PSE only has to deal with CBA to discipline.

SCL has to to deal with the CBA, and the additional requirements imposed by the 5th and 14th Amendments that PSE is not subject to.

In this case, SCL to over 10 years from the 1st complaint to finally firing someone. They felt compelled to hire an outside firm to investigate the facts and recommend discipline they thought they could make its stick. PSE would have just done it with internal HR resources.

So what do you think PSE's cost per discipline is vs. SCL? Higher or lower? What do you think the time from complaint to final discipline is with PSE vs. SCL? Faster or slower?

I'll answer my own questions FYI. Lower and faster for PSE than for SCL. I would add that what PSE can discipline for is broader than it is for SCL.

That also doesn't address case law like Garrity that don't apply to non-public employers, since you mentioned theft. SCL can compel answers by employees in matters of theft, or other crimes, but if they do, anything they learn from the employee, or as a fruit of what the employee said, can't be used by the City or County to prosecute the crime, putting the City in the possible position of having to choose between being able to terminate the employee or prosecute the employee.

Thank you, Hannah, for sharing Fleetwood Mac's kickass live performance of Go Your Own Way.
I was singing along with the song lyrics, and needed this on rainy Easter Sunday. Hooray for classic rock! :)