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Good morning! It’s still hot. Really hot. The kind of heat that reminds us that the climate crisis doesn’t stop just because we’re dealing with an authoritarian one, too. Western Washington is under an extreme heat warning until Wednesday morning, so we’ve got two more days of this to muscle through. Don’t have an AC? You’ve got options. Most libraries double as cooling centers during heat waves. You can take a dip at one of the Seattle beaches that isn’t currently shut down for sewage reasons. Or you can do what I do: put a bowl of ice in front of a fan to create a janky, but surprisingly effective, poor man’s AC. Stay cool, stay safe, check on your neighbors. It’ll be over soon.
Speaking of the Climate Crisis: The Bear Gulch fire is still burning in the Olympic Peninsula, in one of the country’s wettest forests. It sparked on July 6, caused by humans (we don’t know exactly how yet, but that date might be a clue), and has burned consistently for more than a month and a half. According to the Seattle Times, it’s the biggest fire on the peninsula since 1951.
Balducci Cracks Down on Retail Crime: There’s nothing like a crime crackdown during campaign season. Last week, standing between Kent Mayor Dana Ralph and former interim SPD chief Sue Rahr, King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci announced that she would introduce a measure to dedicate $600,000 a year for a permanent “retail crimes task force.” Why, you might ask? Because Mayor Ralph says that organized retail crime is at least partly responsible for Kroger’s decision to shut down the Fred Meyer in Kent (a claim UFCW 3000, which represents grocery workers, strongly disputes), Balducci is running for County Executive, and nothing tickles the justice boners of moderate- and conservative-leaning voters like a crackdown on crime against multi-billion dollar companies. Balducci says it’s incorrect to think of shoplifting from a grocery store as “petty theft.” We think that if you see someone stealing groceries, baby formula, or diapers from a large corporation, no you didn’t.
The Face of Honey Bucket Breaks a Record: Cal “Big Dumper” Raleigh made baseball history on Sunday with his 49th home runs of the season, breaking the record for the most homers hit by a catcher in Major League Baseball.
Feds Break International Law, a Lot: A new report from UW’s Center for Human Rights divided the Trump administration’s gross human rights violations into two categories: “enforced disappearance,” and refoulement. Enforced disappearance is exactly what it sounds like: when ICE kidnaps immigrants off the street, and puts them into the black box that is our immigration detention system—concealing their whereabouts, depriving them of legal representation, and placing them outside of the protection of the law. And “refoulement” specifically refers to the act of sending a person in government custody to a country where they will likely face grave danger. The report documents 16 cases of enforced disappearance in Washington state alone (including six that were sent to Guantanamo Bay, and Tuan Phan, who was sent to South Sudan and held in a shipping container), and says that the practice of refoulement is so broad in the Trump administration that it is “unmeasurable.”
Heard in the Oval Office Today: “I don’t like a dictator, I’m not a dictator,” Trump said while reporters were gathered in our dictator’s office, while he prepared to sign an order banning cashless bail, for some reason.
Kilmar Back in Custody: Kilmar Armando Ábrego García—who the entire country now knows as the Maryland resident and immigrant who was wrongfully sent to the notorious Salvadoran terrorism prison in March—was detained again on Monday when he showed up for an immigration interview. The Trump administration now plans to deport him to Uganda, his lawyer said, a country where he has no connection, and where the United States currently has a travel advisory for violent crime and terrorist attacks.
Flag Humper to Sign Executive Order Protecting Flags: From burning, not assault. According to Fox News, which Trump is currently using as his personal PR agency, he plans to sign an order today that directs the attorney general to prosecute anyone who violates laws “in ways that involve desecrating the flag.” Sound a little like nonsense to you? Those verbal gymnastics are trying to get around the fact that it’s absolutely legal to burn the American flag. The Supreme Court decided that in 1989. But it hurts Trump’s feelings, so if you’re caught committing another crime while burning the flag, Bondi’s going to be up your ass about it. “You burn a flag, you get one year in jail,” Trump said. Because nothing says “this isn’t a fascist state” like forced patriotism.
Trump Planning Military Deployment in 19 States: National Guard troops have started carrying weapons on the street, the Pentagon has reportedly been planning a military deployment in Chicago, another city with a declining crime rate, for weeks, and today, Trump announced that 19 states are also on his list: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. Trump’s administration claims they will support ICE’s operations and be a crime-deterring force. (I can all but guarantee he’s going to see an uptick in those flag-burning crimes he’s so concerned about.) Seattle’s not on the list, which must come as a surprise to the conservatives who are convinced Seattle is a crime-ridden hellhole.
The Woke Teacher Test: Oklahoma’s superintendent of schools, Ryan Walters, wants to require any teacher coming from New York or California to pass an “American First Test” before being hired, to try to weed out the “woke indoctrination” of the coastal elite. The test, which is designed by the conservative misinformation organPragerU, will supposedly weed out “radical gender ideology” and promote American exceptionalism. This isn’t the first time he’s shoved his nose up MAGA’s ass. He’s also tried to collect citizenship data from students, require schools to teach the bible, and open a religious charter school. Showing porn at work is fine though (actually, the local Sheriff investigated, and it’s in the hands of the local DA).
A Song for Your Monday Morning: That was a lot, so here’s something to ease you into the rest of the day. Bumbershoot is this weekend, and throughout the week, we’ll keep sharing the acts we’re stoked about. This morning, let’s spend time with one of the headliners: the delightfully unhinged Aurora. And trust me, listen to this on headphones.
