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Its surreal to look at all these people near Jeff Bezoss balls. The days of wine and roses.
It's surreal to look at all these people near Jeff Bezos's balls. The days of wine and roses. Timothy Kenney

Washington state health officials say coronavirus cases could overwhelm the state's hospitals if current trends continue: "We know that this virus doesn't really care about the county borders," said Washington state health officer Dr. Kathy Lofy. "I'm particularly concerned about Snohomish (County), you can see that Snohomish is on a very steep incline, almost a vertical line." Health officials are crucially worried about counties' current rates of infection. Health officials continue to recommend that people wear masks around anyone who does not live in their household, including family and friends.

Many King County employees will WFH until at least July: Citing a rise in coronavirus cases, Executive Dow Constantine announced that all executive branch employees must telecommute until July 5, 2021.

A new model shows "a neighborhood by neighborhood, sometimes block by block forecast" for how fast something like COVID-19 can spread throughout Seattle: It's pretty neat and stressful.

We're headed into another weekend of insane superspreader events, courtesy Donald Trump's cult. The president's campaign team has derisively described his maskless crowds as "peaceful protesters," to use a phrase from Black Lives Matter demonstrators, despite side-stepping the issue of mask-wearing. Some states have fined the venues that host Trump's superspreader events, reports AP, but that hasn't stopped the events. "Spikes in COVID-19 cases occurred in seven of the 14 cities and townships where rallies were held," notes AP, although it's difficult to "definitely" link the caseloads to the Trump rallies.

Amazon is "crushing" it: Their revenue is up 37% compared to the year-ago quarter. In terms of profits: "Amazon reported earnings per share of $12.37, crushing expectations of $7.41, and up from $4.23 last year," reports Geekwire. In nearly every regard, the company beat analysts' expectations. To celebrate the news, Bezos touted the company's $15 minimum wage. ("Two years ago, we increased Amazon’s minimum wage to $15 for all full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees across the U.S. and challenged other large employers to do the same.") Maybe in a few years, he'll strut around acting like he invented the Amazon Tax, too.

UK's Labour Party suspended Jeremy Corbyn: The former party leader is mired in controversy after the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission identified "serious failings" within Labour leadership with how it dealt with anti-Semitism in the party. Corbyn has pushed back against the claims and said he would "strongly contest" any decision to suspend him.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden are both campaigning in Florida today: The final NBC News/Marist poll shows Biden with a "slight" 4-point lead over Trump in the Sunshine State. The poll's margin of error is 4.4 points, so this battle will likely be tight, long, and untidy.

"I feel very confident that Joe Biden will be elected president on Tuesday," Nancy Pelosi said today. She also said she'd use the lame duck session to push Covid relief and an infrastructure bill.

Seattle is featured prominently in the New York Times podcast The Daily today: The episode is basically Civil War porn and interviews new gun owners who are afraid of violence stemming from next week's election. For the Seattle section of the episode, the Times talks to a gun-owning techie who confesses that he was terrified of CHOP, even though he describes the protests as being "half a mile from where [he] used to live." He never visited or participated in the demonstrations. Instead of talking to people and reporters who were actually at CHOP, the Times highlights this dude's unfounded fears that antifa will smash down his door and hurt him and his wife. "I need a gun that can handle a riot," the man says. Then he goes and buys another gun.

It's our FINAL Stranger Debate tonight: We close out the Stranger Debate series with a battle for Capitol Hill (and the surrounding areas) between noted establishment figure Rep. Frank Chopp and insurgent soup can artist Sherae Lascelles. Reserve your spot here. And watch the closing statements from Monday's superstar debate below:

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Not to throw any shade on any of our earlier contenders, but Monday night's installment of Stranger Debates was the best one yet. The D&D-themed debate (hence Rich Smith's devil horns) taught us a lot about the two candidates running to fill former Democratic Rep. Eric Pettigrew's seat in South Seattle's 37th Legislative District. 🇺🇸 Both former interim NARAL director @electkht and Seattle Parks project manager @chukundi drew clear, meaningful distinctions between the types of offices they'd run in Olympia and the kinds of policies they'd push out of those offices, and both candidates played Dungeons and Dragons with the level of skill and imagination we want to see in politicians. Seriously, if you can't work together to save the gnome people from the lizard people in a fantasy dream world, then how the hell are you going to pass a wealth tax??? 🗳 Listen to their final statements here, then hit that LINK IN BIO to reserve your tickets to our final Stranger Debate TONIGHT, featuring a battle for Capitol Hill (and the surrounding areas) between noted establishment figure @electfrankchopp and insurgent soup can artist @sheraeforstate. Tonight's Stranger Debate is sponsored by the @acluwa, the @ubookstoreseattle, and @thereef.wa. #waelex

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Politico reports that Elizabeth Warren is vying for a position as Biden's Treasury secretary: "Warren’s moves could set up the marquee fight between the party's left and its center over what will be one of the most consequential Cabinet roles in the next administration," writes Politico. Besides Warren, some rumored contenders include Lael Brainard, Sarah Bloom Raskin, and Roger Ferguson—three people I've never heard of. If Warren doesn't get the spot, a source told Politico that she'd want to stay in the Senate and get a seat on the Finance Committee.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald has exited The Intercept: Greenwald claimed editors censored his reporting, writing that "The Intercept’s editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote this week, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression." He will jump on the bandwagon of publishing on Substack, which sounds good and nice but, c'mon dudes, email isn't going to save journalism. The future of the industry depends on healthy organizations that can train and raise new reporters and writers.

600+ pets arrived in Seattle today: The pets came from Hawaii, where homeless pets overloaded shelters because of the coronavirus. This flight is believed to be the largest pet rescue flight in history.

My second-to-last scary movie recommendation for the month: I'm only a few days away from completing the Psychotronic Challenge. Last night's challenge was "OREGON TRAIL." The pick needed to be a psychotronic film that included a road trip element and people getting picked off one by one. I watched Jeepers Creepers because—somehow—I'd never seen it. I also was unfortunately unfamiliar with the incredibly fucked up child sexual abuse sentence against director Victor Salva. How did this guy continue working in Hollywood after all that? Fucking shameful.