Happy Friday: Today is a beautiful day, and I had a good night's sleep and a productive workday, so I’m in the mood to celebrate life, and, most importantly, the weekend. Thank union organizers for fighting for us to take a well-deserved two days off. Wish we had more, but, for now, here are some things to do tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday in Seattle, courtesy of our friends at Everout!

But please go out SAFELY: Yesterday Dr. Jeff Duchin, who is basically our county’s Dr. Fauci, said the county is actively discussing reinstating mask mandates. This comes as King County experiences an absolutely nasty wave of COVID-19 infections. Public health officials reported 941 daily average cases, which is more than the peak of last year’s Delta variant surge. Moreover, public health officials believe that's an undercount of current cases, because so many people test at home and do not get counted in the county’s data. 

Okay, one last plague thing: At least it’s a different one! Monkeypox. The CDC put out a guide for having safer social gatherings and sex during the monkeypox outbreak! Enjoy. 

Twenty more days for House Our Neighbors: Today, HON sent out an email to supporters announcing that the campaign did not collect enough signatures to make it on the November ballot. Before you scream, cry, and throw up, you should know there’s still time to act. 

After certification, the City gives campaigns 20 days to make up for any signatures its initiative lost during the verification process. Typically, campaigns bleed about 20% of signatures. Despite submitting only signatures organizers felt confident about, HON lost about 30% of its signatures, and now signature gatherers have 20 days to scrounge up about 6,000 valid signatures. But if they don’t want to risk getting boned during certification, the math would suggest they should aim for about 8,000. 

Based on the campaign’s history, HON definitely has it in them to make up the difference. In just two weeks, thanks to paid signature gathering and better weather, HON made up a 10,000-signature deficit. 

What’s disgusting? You guessed it! Union busting! Starbucks announced it would close a bunch of Seattle stores (some of which are unionized) due to alleged security issues and high crime. The workers at “Gaybucks” on Olive Way called BS. The workers shut down their store to call attention to what they believe is actually just straight-up union busting.

Here’s one worker’s explanation (sorry if it says it's sensitive content or whatever. Twitter is a bad website ran by bad people):

If you like this stuff: Then I would suggest you tune in every Friday for Conor Kelley’s weekly labor roundup.

Pastor Carey Anderson shot with BB gun: On Thursday night a "a young white male" drove by Anderson and shot him "twice at close range" with a BB gun, according to a press release. At the time, Anderson was sticking yard signs into the ground for his campaign to represent Federal Way in the State House. The shots left "minor wounds to his upper thigh." The violence comes a week after a Black canvasser working for Rep. April Berg, who is also Black, dealt with some bullshit from a white home owner in Mill Creek. That same day, a man went to Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal's house and allegedly threatened to kill her, though cops recently released him. 

Two children die to gun violence in Lynnwood: Earlier this week, an unidentified gunman shot two kids, aged 15 and 16, in a drive-by shooting in Lynnwood. Last night, the children died from their injuries in the hospital. 

Miserable motherfucker files lawsuit: Rich wrote about this story in yesterday's PM, but I want to write about this story now. This professor is suing the University of Washington for allegedly violating his free speech rights to put a “dissent statement” to land acknowledgements in his syllabus. How did the University do that? It investigated him and offered his course under a different teacher to students who didn’t wanna deal with his weird contrarian anti-land acknowledgment statement on his syllabus. He thinks land acknowledgements are performative. There's certainly examples of that, like when the County gives land acknowledgements but refuses to pay for the “Real Rent” of the organizations it funds. But the constructive response is to advocate for more, like concrete reparations or policies to address colonization and genocide, not to get all high and mighty and cringe. 

Lesbian Bigfoot: Crosscut caught up with Seattle author Samantha Allen, who dared to ask what we we've all been thinking: What if Bigfoot were a lesbian? 

Do-nothing Democrats did something
 well, half of something. Today, the U.S. House passed two bills to restore abortion access – a bill to allow travel to seek care and a bill to legalize the essential health care service nationwide. Fucking finally! But no one is optimistic that the bills will survive the Senate, which is filled with old fucks who don’t care if pregnant people live or die. At least 10 Republicans would need to vote to move past the legislative filibuster, and then the Democrats would have to get their slim majority in line.  

Joe fucking Manchin: Democwats are vewy, vewy upset with Senatah Joe Manchin for obstwucting their climate agenda. Grrrr! One Senate Democrat got as aggressive as to “question” whether Manchin should chair a key energy panel. Fighting words. 

Anyway, he couldn’t have done it alone! Fuck the Democrats LOL. 

Okay, here’s a little song for y’all. Didn’t listen to it cuz I don’t want spoiler for when they play tonight at Fremont Fridays.

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