The Mayor’s Office and the Seattle Police Department (SPD) have a rightwing disinformation campaign to undo on the first Monday under the new administration.  Over the weekend, rightoid shitposters and the conservative media leaked a snippet of an email from Police Chief Shon Barnes to peddle a false narrative that cops will no longer arrest people for using drugs publicly. The rightwing conspiracy apparatus spun so hard, soon enough everyone from the Daily Mail to the regula

Over the weekend, the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a violent military action that killed dozens of Venezuelan civilians, brazenly violated international law, set the stage for occupation, and risks more imperial destabilization in South America for the express purpose of draining Venezuela’s oil rich soil under the guise of “ narco-terrorism conspiracy” charges. And you know it's a bad move when Seattle-area Rep. Adam Smith, a friend to we

After four months of unjust detention, U.S. Veteran and community activist Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry has been released from the ICE detention center in Tacoma, marking a huge victory for his family, the greater Seattle community, and the rule of law.  “My family will be whole again,” his wife, anti-war congressional candidate Melissa Chaudhry, said in a statement. “My children will have their Baba home. And our communities will be richer and stronger by his presence - and more

Last week, three congressional representatives from Washington State voted to pass the so-called “ Kayla Hamilton Act,” a  controversial bill which will subject unaccompanied immigrant children to invasive body searches and prolonged immigration detention if passed by the Senate. It’s not surprising that Washington State Republicans Reps. Dan Newhouse and Michael Baumgartner voted in favor of the bill, which narrowly passed with the full strength of the Republican caucus behi

In 2023 I had the opportunity to serve as a field director for Tacoma for All on our campaign to win a Tenants’ Bill of Rights for Tacoma and pass the Landlord Fairness Code (LFC) into law. The campaign turned into a point of major contention for the entire city, with regular dueling op-eds, town hall debates between campaign representatives, and, near election day, a record-breaking opposition expenditure, largely from outside landlord and real estate interests. At the time,

Council President Sara Nelson lost her re-election bid so spectacularly, it shows not only how unhappy her short-lived reign made voters, but also calls into question how in touch every elected official who endorsed her is with their Seattle constituency. In fact, anyone who endorsed her should be worried that the same progressive tidal wave that knocked her out will come for them next.  In November, progressive challenger Dionne Foster defeated Nelson, winning an impressive

Seattle’s June 26 FIFA World Cup game will still be gay as fuck despite complaints from soccer federations in Egypt and Iran.  Earlier this year, Seattle’s World Cup organizing committee announced it would designate the game on June 26 as the “Seattle Pride Match," complete with queer-centered community programming surrounding the stadium. “As hundreds of thousands of visitors and millions of viewers turn their attention to Seattle during Pride Weekend, we have a rare opportu

Mayor-elect Katie Wilson distinguished herself from the incumbent she toppled by standing with the overwhelming public opposition toward massively expanding the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) surveillance cameras capabilities, which advocates worried, rather fairly, would aid in the Trump administration’s unprecedented wave of ICE kidnappings and crackdown on other civil liberties. But now that she’s won her race and even as cities across the state have opted to backpedal

Tuesday marked the official start to what will certainly be a long, bloody battle over the state’s budget. In the space of a few hours, the State legislature’s lone socialist hard launched a proposal for a new, $2 billion payroll tax on the state’s largest corporations and the Governor finally admitted — what advocates had long feared — that he is writing a cuts-only budget.  Tuesday’s dueling proposals cleanly set up lawmakers with the age-old question of whether to balance

Ahead of New York City Mayor Elect Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani viral (and bromantic) meeting with president Donald Trump, the U.S. House passed a glorified subtweet condemning the “horrors of socialism.” The resolution divided House Democrats with 98 voting “no,” 86 siding with Republicans, and 29 staying out of it.  Even in Washington, a State where socialists have recently made impressive gains — winning a seat in the State legislature for the first time in 100 year