Seattle Sucks

Greg and Colin listen to Brian Platt, local aerospace machinist and journalist, about the history of policing and its relatively modern militarization, the burgeoning cultural psychosis of fear and victimhood (much like that gripping American conservatism), and the Seattle Police Officers Guild’s (SPOG) recent contract “win” at City Council and what that means for the city.

Greg and Colin talk fire, the midterms, Paul Allen (for further ridicule), and Jeffrey’s new club house(s), otherwise known as Amazon HQ2.

Greg and Colin struggle through the endorsements from the Stranger Election Control Board.

Greg and Colin discuss the death of homegrown billionaire Paul Allen, and take on the takes (from Kshama Sawant and My Northwest, to the Seattle Times) in the wake of his passing.

Alex and Colin dive deep into Day One, Jeff Bezos’ opening salvo into philanthropy, bronze markers for fallen homeless people, another championship for the Storm, and the progress of the Innovation Advisory Council.

Alex and Colin talk Fall (it’s here now), the county caving to the Mariners’ request for maintenance of Safeco Field, innovative baseball themed solutions to homelessness, the Durkan Digest, C40, the threat of an NHL team, Jeff Bezos’ foray into politics, and the increasingly creeping terror of Amazon, especially w/r/t the treatment of its workers (robot, or human).

This episode is proudly brought to you by Homely™. We discuss the absurdity of the Innovation Advisory Council by way of examining similar efforts in Boston, and delve into Durkan’s neoliberal impulse to avoid systemic change via the recent announcement of recipients to the Tech Matching Fund.

Colin flies solo (without training) and tries to thread a narrative about stolen planes, smoke filled skies, the fight for the Showbox, the “charity” of the Pearl Jam Home Shows, and the black hole of displacement in Seattle’s new gilded age.

Mayor Jenny Durkan decides that Tech companies know best when it comes to solving the issues that plague late capitalist society, and forms the League of Extraordinary Tech Workers, or the “Innovation Advisory Council.” It’s, like, the future.

Greg and Colin have a big announcement, Spekulation parodies the municipal Macklemore lip sync, the looming destruction of the Showbox, the Mayor’s office bends the truth about the Streetcar project, the Mariners have a list of demands to renovate Safeco Field, the benevolent Amazon funds transit expansion at will, and the myth we are meant to believe about Jeff Bezos.

A special conversation with journalist, activist, organizer, and all around fascinating Seattleite, Dae Shik Kim Hawkins Jr. We talk about the political climate in the wake of the Employee Head Tax repeal, marginalization (in its many forms), the uncredited impact of grassroots movements, Nikkita Oliver, and the power of billionaires in local politics.

It’s the Ron & Don show, the Slog’s own Katie Herzog white knights for Jordan Peterson and in so doing provides enough rope to hang herself and Don (or was it Ron?), and Kshama Sawant’s week of wild rumor.

Mr. Wilson Goes to China, KIRO’s Ron & Don believe in Paul Allen and the Stacks, and the “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity,” Amazon, “relentlessly jams its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” (this week it’s PillPack).

A new local currency courtesy @bezostown, Burger Failson, Saul Spady, defines 7 simple rules for 21st Century Seattle, The Atlantic groans at the insidious use of the city’s “Find It Fix It” app, Crime, or the lack thereof, and life at Sea…brook.

Alex gets blindsided on the road, the coming elections, and the state of the City Council, in the wake of the Employee Head Tax repeal, Desperado Jenny heads to the border following Brett Hamil’s Proximity Law of Seattle Politics, the agony and the ecstasy of summer in Seattle, and the Great Shake Shack Debacle.

Greg recounts a story from a typical Wednesday night, checking in with The News, and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Repeal of the Employee Head Tax.

Everybody’s gone to The Collective, the travails of composting, and Jeff Bezos uses his Amazon Lottery winnings to industrialize the Moon.

Bagshaw the Copy Machine Monitor, the fastest growing city in the country, will they stay or will they go in the Seattle Times opinion section, and a nod to mussels with a little lean.

A James Beard for June Baby, the catastrophe that is Restaurant Week, adventures eating out in the city, “Governor…welcome to the #resistance,” Fremont Brewing Boycott, and a very special happy birthday.

The “abominable” compromise of the “job-killing” Employee Head Tax, and a new drink menu fit for Mr. Moneybags at Frolik.

Faustian bargains from the “future,” Libertarian candidate Matt Dubin, and the flexing of Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.

“Clever” solutions for systemic problems, #funfriends.

A nearly lethal dose of neighborly love from Nextdoor.

We hope you brought your wallet.