Pro-Palestine protesters block Sea-Tac airport: At around 3 pm Monday, a group protesting the US-funded genocide in Gaza parked cars along the airport's expressway. Some locked their arms together and sat on the pavement. In response, the airport closed the road, cops hopped on bikes to confront the protesters, and trucks towed away the vehicle blockade as some travelers exited their conveyances to approach the airport on foot, according to footage from KOMO. The road to the airport reopened about three hours later, and police arrested 46 people at the peaceful protest.
The airport protest happened in concert with demonstrations across the country, including in San Francisco (where they shut down the Golden Gate Bridge) and Chicago (where they blocked a terminal at O'Hare). In a statement, the Seattle group called out politicians for ignoring calls for a "permanent ceasefire" and approving weapons sales to Israel. The Seattle action aimed to hit companies such as Boeing (which builds weapons) and Alaska Airlines (which works with Boeing) in their pocketbooks. "While the full economic important of today's action is yet to be quantified, the blockade will cost the airport money in delayed flights as well as reduced commerce inside the airport," they wrote. An airport spokesperson described flight disruptions as "pretty minimal," according to the Seattle Times, thanks to the slow time of day and to Sea-Tac's rapid response plan.
Tow are moving quickly to take away the vehicles used to block the road. 3 cars towed so far. pic.twitter.com/VGZuMEGbJD
— Jeremy Harris (@JeremyHarrisTV) April 15, 2024
A transit strategy? According to KING 5, travelers en route to the airport yesterday filled the light rail when news of the protest broke. The outlet quoted an airport employee saying, "I've never seen that many crowded people ever in my life coming out of the airport going to the train."
Washington gubernatorial candidates weigh in: On x.com, Democratic frontrunner and WA Attorney General Bob Ferguson called the demonstration "unacceptable" and congratulated the cops for clearing the blockade. On the other side, establishment Republican Dave Reichert said he did not take freedom of speech "lightly," but, he argued, "When a protest is imposed on everyone else's freedom, it's neither lawful or justified." With these statements, both candidates clearly want to accomplish the same goal but from different sides. Ferguson wants to come off like a fascist to appeal to so-called independent voters who are open to voting blue this year because Trump man bad, and Reichert wants to come off like a thoughtful gentleman cop to appeal to people whose only politics are civility politics.
Protest while you can, everybody: On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case against Black Lives Matter organizer DeRay Mckesson, which leaves a decision from the batshit Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in place. That decision renders protest leaders financially liable for the behavior of anyone who shows up to protests and breaks something or someone, which means that staging a mass protest in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana just got a whole lot riskier, reports Vox.
Speaking of bad Supreme Court rulings: Yesterday, SCOTUS ruled that Idaho can enforce its gender-affirming health care ban, which threatens doctors with 10 years in prison if they prescribe care backed by "every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association," according to the Associated Press. Expect more refugees from Idaho and other states to visit Washington for care, stressing a health care system that's already stressed by the nationwide legislative assault against trans people. Moreover, analysts say the procedural arguments underlying this decision restricts judicial power to temporarily block laws that violate civil liberties as they move through the courts, which leaves us all more vulnerable to right-wing lunacy.
The SCOTUS decision today on the Idaho gender affirming care ban wasn't about the care. It was a wholesale attack on civil rights jurisprudence that will allow states to wantonly violate constitutional rights while judicial relief is severely restricted.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) April 16, 2024
Good news break:
BREAKING: An appeals court blocked a West Virginia law banning transgender girls from playing on teams consistent with their gender identity, finding the law violates Title IX and the U.S. Constitution.
— ACLU (@ACLU) April 16, 2024
It's time for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to hang up the keys. Jay Willis over at Balls and Strikes makes the case, and he's right: "The case for Sotomayor’s retirement, in other words, is not about her precise position on an actuarial table. It is certainly not about the clarity of her voice, or the quality of her jurisprudence. It is about the urgent need for Democrats to reconceptualize what it means to serve responsibly on the Supreme Court, where a single bad break can disappear a cherished fundamental right in two years flat."
Local democracies aren't very democratic: New research from Professor Katherine Levine Einstein at Boston University proves what we've been screaming about for years: Seattle's decision to hold local elections on odd years leads to a vast overrepresentation of old homeowners who do not reflect the city's demographics.
Important new paper. State & local candidates are like "unlike those fatcats in DC, I'm close to the people" but lower level elections have the most unrepresentative electorates & donors, lowest info, and are most influenced by money.
— Jake M. Grumbach (@JakeMGrumbach) April 14, 2024
ungated: https://t.co/4nFC4vYmFB pic.twitter.com/iYsNPj41ar
The Stranger's Pizza Week hath begun: More than a dozen pizza places all over town are offering FRESH and FANCY-LOOKING pizzas for $4 per slice or $25 for the whole pie. I have not eaten any of these pizzas, but judging by the promo photos, Stevie's Famous "CHEESE!" pie looks right up my alley for crust reasons, as does Palermo's "chicken, bacon, ranch swirl."I attribute my deep appreciation of that flavor trio to my Missouri roots, one of the few graces of growing up in the midwest.
Fremont Brewing sold: The Seattle Hospitality Group, "which holds stakes in Ethan Stowell Restaurants, Pike Brewing and more," will own the brewery started by Matt Lincecum Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports. They didn't reveal the price tag, but I wonder if the sale includes the anti-homeless eco blocks surrounding the Ballard facility.
One-hundred more affordable homes coming to Capitol Hill: St. Mark's plans to turn that big building next to the cathedral into apartments that people can sort of afford! Capitol Hill Seattle blog has the details.
Gaza updates: Images from a UN satellite show that Israel has destroyed at least one-third of Gaza's farmland as famine grips the country, Al Jazeera reports. The outlet also flagged an increase in violent acts from settlers in the West Bank. And the US keeps talking about of both sides of its mouth with regard to Iran. Even as US officials allegedly urge Israeli leaders not to continue the retaliation cycle, State Department weasel Matthew Miller called our commitment to defending Israel "sacrosanct." This whole thing is and has been getting way too holy war-ish for me.
Speaking of weapons: After weeks of failure, US House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to separate military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan into three different bills, and then propose a grab-bag bill that would tie the military aid to a TikTok ban and sanctions on Russian billionaires. According to Politico, some hard-right freaks still seem prohibitively skeptical, but Dems could decide to help out if they join Republicans on certain procedural votes that would force floor votes on the bills, which they rarely do.
First president to fall asleep at his own criminal trial: The Trump Trial Show is off to an amazing start, as one might suspect. As a judge considered a bunch of pretrial motions that could determine his fate as a free man, "Mr. Trump appeared to nod off a few times, his mouth going slack and his head drooping onto his chest," the New York Times reports. Trump later asked the judge to skip next week's hearing so he could root for / bully the Supreme Court Justices, who are slated to hear arguments on his presidential immunity case, but the judge rebuffed him. The jury selection process continues today, and analysts think it could take two weeks to find an impartial group in NYC.
ALERT: NY judge Juan Merchan rejects Trump's request to skip attending trial next Thursday to attend Supreme Court hearing on his "presidential immunity" argument
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) April 15, 2024
Judge: "Your client is a criminal defendant in New York. He is required to be here. He is not required to be in…
I leave you with this: Over the weekend, I saw a video of Olivia Rodrigo joining No Doubt onstage at Coachella to sing "Bathwater," and it made me ache for ska Gwen Stefani.
