Vance gleefully announced that the Trump administration is banning Microsoft from a green card program to recruit immigrant workers. Vance said, “If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants.” Meanwhile, Microsoft is actually laying off employees as it shifts to AI, and thousands of jobs have been eliminated, but are Vance and Trump getting mad about AI and introducing any legislation to protect American workers from being replaced with AI? Of course not! They fucking LOVE AI! To them, AI is a white Christian American man and can do no wrong.
I mean, look at this idiot:
Everybody watches women’s sports, and Pitch the Baby is one of the best places to catch a game in Seattle. They’ve come upon some hard times and have launched a GoFundMe to get back on their feet.
Americans are dying from measles, and the government might be trying to cover it up, says Sen. Patty Murray. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro says two people have died from measles in his state, but RFK Jr. thinks Shapiro’s staff “fabricated” the deaths. He says the two patients who died had measles, but it wasn’t measles that killed them. Murray says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is going to take a closer look at how they’re defining measles deaths, but Murray rightfully asks, “What is the goal of that? In my mind it’s to obscure how many people are dying.” There have been 2,800 reported measles cases this year—the most in 30 years.
In response to the way the CDC’s handling measles and, well, everything, Murray launched the Public Health for America Working Group on Wednesday to “develop a blueprint to build America’s public health system stronger, more resilient, and insulated from political interference.” The group includes a bunch of super smart cookies with impressive backgrounds in everything from COVID-19 research and AIDS policy to a doctor who was dismissed from a CDC Advisory Committee when RFK Jr. came along.
And speaking of RFK Jr., he’s one of those assholes who doesn’t believe HIV causes AIDS and I highly recommend listening to the latest episode of Maintenance Phase to learn more about the history of all those dangerous dummies. Like, they sincerely believe poppers and “bowls of antibiotics at sex parties” cause AIDS, and holy fuck this man is in charge of our nation’s health? His newest obsession is an initiative to address vaccine injury, including a billing code to “reimburse doctors for filing reports of serious vaccine side effects.” That’s corrupt as fuuuuuuck.
There’s a new Mars picture! The Curiosity rover took some pictures of dawn on Mars and it kind of looks like the Badlands. I fucking love the Badlands.
Hurricane Isaias is expected to hit the Gulf Coast this weekend. “Feet of storm surge, up to 10 inches of rain, tornadoes and destructive winds are expected” from the first storm of the 2026 hurricane season.
Starbucks continues to close stores, layoff staff. Five more stores in Washington are on the chopping block, including two in Seattle—one store on Rainier Avenue and one on Leary Way. The closures are set to begin November 14. Guess that boycott is hitting them where it hurts, huh? Or is it more union busting? Two of the stores on the list—in Redmond and Spokane—are represented by the union.
Students are demonstrating in France again today, over public school conditions. This time around, college students are joining in after seeing how police used force against the young protestors last week. The New York Times reports, “Roughly 6,600 people have been arrested, according to the government, and some 760 police officers and over 300 students and school staff have been injured” since protests began. One college student told the paper, “We are used to seeing police in France beat people but they are normally adults. These are kids.”
Honestly, I’m proud of Gen Z. They’re protesting, they’re paying for music, they’re buying art. The kids are alright.
The Nobel Prizes are being announced this week. This morning the group announced that Canadian poet Anne Carson won the prize in literature.
Want to live longer? Be a tortoise. The oldest land animal, Jonathan, is supposedly 194 years old, and scientists are studying him to see what they can learn about longevity. Jonathan has seen some shit! I bet he remembers what bananas used to taste like.
Christa Pike’s awake, pissed. As Charles shared in yesterday’s Slog AM, Pike, who survived a botched execution last week, is awake. Her lawyers say she has a “long road to recovery.” Her lawyer said “She has a blood clot in her arm and pneumonia. She can’t swallow, so she hasn’t eaten since the date of her execution. She can’t move her arms, and her limbs are ‘tremendously’ swollen. Her legal team said they’re unsure if she will recover function in those limbs.” Meanwhile, a judge has ordered the state to preserve all evidence relating to the execution. I hope she sues the pants off the state and Governor Bill Lee, who is an absolute chode.
Tonight! Come to The Stranger office during Capitol Hill Art Walk to see work by Actualize AiR geniuses Hannah Walker, María Zamora, Sanoe Stevenson-Egeland, Lila Alexis Thomas, Colleen Louise Barry, Mary Anne Carter, Kalina Chung, and Baso Fibonacci. Afterwards, watch the Millionaires Tax debate, in which former US Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler and April Sims, president of the Washington State Labor Council, discuss Initiative 645. (VOTE NO, BY THE WAY.)
As for the rest of the week/month, our Things to Do in October calendars are packed with literally hundreds of concerts, art shows, readings, performances, film screenings, and other cool shit like make-your-own-monster craft classes. Go do something fun!
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