Well that sure narrows it down. I'm glad Sea-Tac wasn't hacked by benevolent characters. [eyeroll]

Minor nit: King County found a few errors (3?) but they either cancelled each other out or changed results for a candidate other than the two that matter. The tallies for Upthegrove and Herrera-Beutler remain unchanged.

Is there a rash of cyber-disruption of public facilities as we approach the elections or is it just coincidence?

The state also blames the driver who killed her, and if her family’s attorneys can show the state patrol blockades exits as a matter of practice during protests then they can and should be held liable for their negligence in her death.

@5 - hard to imagine they’d block the exits as a matter of practice during protests: after all, aren’t they actively encouraging people - both the protesters and drivers stuck in the resulting traffic - to get off the freeway?

This claim is just the lawyers for the grieving family going after the deep pockets of the state. After all, how much money can the murdering driver have (his insurance probably won’t have to pay out for his criminal conduct).

You know it's going to be one of those days when you first scroll and scroll and scroll so you can click on "Continue reading »" but then you realize you will never encounter a "Continue reading".

you
CAN Block
'Exits' from any
& ALL IN-Coming autos

whilst STILL Allowing
others to Exit us-
ing The Exit.

it's the fucking State Patrol.
they're (most typically!)
Quite Competent.

oh and Nevermind
our little Moral
Scold. it's Just
about the
Troll.

It’s not hard to imagine at all, but we don’t have to imagine anything because lawyers can review the state patrol’s standard practices and leverage this information accordingly. Despite what the average citizen might think about the inherent hazards of protesting on freeways, the state still has an interest in preserving public safety when this happens.

It’s not unrealistic for the state to do everything in its power to mitigate risks for protesters, particularly in a free society that values speech where civil disobedience is a routine feature of protest, but there is no way of knowing any of this based on the information we have so far.

We have a robust civil court system where all the relevant information in these cases can be formally reviewed and the case can either be tossed out, settled, or adjudicated for or against the plaintiff based on the findings of this review. If the plaintiff wins or they settle I would assume the state’s liability insurance will be on the hook but I don’t know for sure how these things work. It would likely be whoever pays out when the police kill or violate citizens’ civil rights.

It’s very easy to accuse people of chasing ambulances but the civil courts exist for a reason and oftentimes cases people dismiss as frivolous with little more than the information they glean from a headline find serious negligence or even willful harm. The McDonalds hot coffee case comes to mind. There can be a lot more going on behind the scenes the public would never know about without these cases going forward.

@10

"It's
quite
unrealistic
for the WSP to
restrict every ramp at any time... "

yeah
no shite!
but: they Dont
Gotta CLOSE EVERY
EXIT AND ON-RAMP.

Just those in
close Prox-
imity.

why on Earth are
you saying our
WSP is Incom-
petentr?

on Whose
Side are
you?!

(you're
Beginning
to sound a Lot
like Wormtongue.)

congrats!

@11 be careful what you wish for, if the state is found liable in this case that will mean they can no longer stand idly by when future protestors take to the highway. They will be incentivized to remove protestors immediately because they now know they will be held financially responsible for any injury or damages incurred by both protestors and those stuck in the protest.

I don’t know that it matters how the case plays out. Either they are liable for taking every reasonable precaution to protect protesters’ safety or they’re not, and they already have enforceable laws to keep pedestrians off the freeways. You don’t have to look too hard to find examples of the police arresting protesters disrupting traffic.

As I see it the case hinges on how much effort they put into keeping protesters safe based on any reasonable expectation and/or their past performance, but I’m not a lawyer which is why I am in favor of reserving judgment and letting the case play out.

A debate confirmed for September 10th. Kamala is not a great extemporaneous speaker, to say the least, and is going against someone who, for all his faults, has ended multiple political careers in debates. This should be watched with bated breath.

Megan
and Sue:
Seattle's Best
Power Couple!

WONDERFUL
Pic!

@14

Imagine that:
a Sesquipedalian
lecturing And projecting!

a Two-fer!

which Po-po you gonna
Bash next post-WSP?

"Does grandiloquent language, articulated via verbose (& inexplicable) constructions and multifarious lexicological composition, maximize information consumers’ appraisement of author intelligence?

Or is simple better?" --@Bigthink

hmmm.

@16, Lol come on now. The only opponent’s career you can claim he ended was Clinton’s and her failure to campaign in the rust belt was a bigger liability than any debate performance. His endorsements have destroyed more careers than his actual political skills.

@19
eltrumpfster
def has a Gift
but like ol' what's-
'isname here it's used
for Destruction & NOT making
the Planet Better for future Generations

see
what
Bad Parenting
can do to this Planet?

the
"family values"
party HATES the children
yet will not only Not help Parents in
Need, it'll also Force Women to Have Babies
they cannot fucking Afford even if it means the

Women may fucking
DIE IN THE PROCESS
tho them 'Family Values'
types do Not Give a Fuck

it's all about Marketing
the so-called "Free Market"
& Increasing Shareholder Values

and to Hell with
Stakeholder Values
(that'd be We, the Peeps').

okay.
I Rest
my case.

Yes, it’s a debate. A candidate says a thing and another candidate responds. Very insightful observation, thanks for sharing.

@19 His Republican opponents were completely annihilated in the 2016 debates, I completely forgot Clinton but you can sure add her too, and Biden's candidacy was over in a matter of days after his last debate. I guess you could call that a series of coincidences, but the more likely scenario is just that Trump does really, really well in debates against even the most seasoned politicians.

@19 - “… Biden's candidacy was over in a matter of days after his last debate”

Biden’s candidacy was over the minute he walked onto the debate stage, but that had nothing to do with Trump’s skills as a debater. It was Biden not being up to the challenge… regardless of who the challenger was.

@16,

I'll believe it once he takes the stage.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-suggests-may-back-sept-10-abc-debate-rcna168198

He's just smart enough to recognize that he's stupid as fucking shit and will get his ass handed to him by her. I hate to say it, but it might actually BE the politically prudent move for him to make up some bullshit excuse for backing out, and instead just spend the next couple months lobbing ridiculous and baseless zingers at her from the comfortable confines of an adoring base of dim-witted shitheads who are also stupid and gullible enough to lap it up.

Trump can't string two words together, literally. His speaking has become worse than ever. People don't believe COVID causes brain damage, especially in severe cases? Trump is exhibit A. He spoke at a toddler level when he was squatting in the White House. Now he's like a babbling baby that got into a bag of meth. It's literally incomprehensible how anyone, anyone at all, can listen to him and think he has any capacity to FUNCTION, let alone be POTUS (which he couldn't do and didn't do the the first time he took the office).

And to everyone shitting on Harris, you think a former prosecutor can't debate Trump? Please let me know what you've been smoking. Crack is Whack. Trump may have stalked Clinton like a wannabe rapist/murderer at their debate, but if he does that this time, not only will the optics be bad, he may get physically removed from the premises (we can only hope).

Trump literally cannot control himself in any way on any level. Listen to him to right now, babble on like a baby on meth, he's already trying to back out of the debate because his fucking lizard brain (the part that keeps zombies alive on The Walking Dead) is warning him, or at least trying to, not to do it.

@19,

Oh and I'd concede that he actually did fine in 2016, inasmuch as "fine" involves speaking of himself in superlatives and denigrating everyone else as suckers. There wasn't anything policy oriented of course, though he did also manage to bring everyone else down to his level of childish name calling and penis jokes. More importantly, that was eight freaking years ago and he's really been showing his age lately, difficult though it admittedly is to distinguish what constitutes mental deterioration on his part.

@25 Your article is dated–the developments have changed since yesterday. Kamala's camp wanted seated, both hot mikes (obviously so she can dash off the "I'm speaking" line") seated with notes, etc. Trump wanted the same rules as last debate, mics muted, etc. They have since confirmed that arrangement.

I wouldn't fall for the "Kamala good at debating" meme. She got off the "I'm speaking" line at Pence a couple times but when he countered something like "Well you should speak the truth" she had no comeback and just kind of stared blankly. Similarly, in her questioning of Kavanaugh, she couldn't pull off her leading him into a question about if he had talked to other people about a certain case and was easily frustrated by him. Couple this with countless other flubs–she is not a good debater.

I'm voting for Kamala if that makes a difference to you, but at the end of the day she is not at Trump's debating level, and he is not stupid. You're going to have to look past your own ideological biases on this one. Trump is devious and quickthinking–Kamala is not.

@28: You are the very embodiment of the concern troll schtick. Nobody believes your tepid "How do you do, fellow Democrats!" line. But you might be right about your boy being a fierce master debater...

@23, Not sure what annihilated means to you but all of his republican rivals still have cozy careers in their respective roles and some of them will most certainly run for presidency again. They lost the primaries, which happens to all but one candidate every cycle. You could say Biden ended the careers of everyone he ran against in 2020 if you were so inclined and you would sound no less dramatic or ignorant of presidential politics than when you say that about Trump. He won one election, lost another as an incumbent, and cost congressional Republicans multiple seats in the 2022 midterms. But sure, he won two primaries. Okay.

I had the same image, Vivian - Snidely Whiplash!

Who let raindrop back in?

@32 -- we were
Not consulted

@29 I certainly never claimed to be a Democrat. Try Independent–there's dozens of us!

Today's Independent is usually just a Republican with extra steps.

@20 kristofarian, @26 xina, and @35 C Dizzle (Garb Garblar?): +3 for the WIN!!!!!
And thank you all for beating me to it. 'Nuf said.

Rock on Megan and Sue!!

@35
Independent is such a bland term.
Let’s go with politically homeless or even better, politically nonbinary.

@11, @13: The protestor died because of two illegal acts: her own trespassing on the freeway, and another person's wrong-way driving. I'm no lawyer either, but I imagine it will be hard to argue the state is liable for the damages caused by illegal acts of private citizens. The argument the WSP should have closed an off-ramp against the threat of an already-illegal act would, as @6 noted, seem weak as well; the state can argue that it would be less safe than leaving the ramp open for freeway access by ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

Frankly, I'm happy if this case has a "chilling effect" upon freeway blockages, and other such vanity projects, which wildly inconvenience other citizens for no discernible benefit. Your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose.

Finally, if the BLM protestors wanted to protest in public somewhere, they could have gone to Cal Anderson Park, and protested the violent deaths of young Black men in the CHAZ/CHOP.

All trump has to do is stay upright during the debate to be declared the winner by a certain segment of society. Thanks to his diaper, he can even soil himself on stage. We're just lucky they haven't perfected smell-o-vision yet. (outside of John Water's magnificent "Polyester")

@35 No, thanks to Trump there are a lot of genuine conservatives who refuse to identify with Trump's Fascist GOP, yet are unwilling to call themselves Democrats. That's why there are a lot of prominent Republicans involved in Republicans for Harris. They are not becoming Democrats, but they are doing everything they can to prevent Trump and his sycophants from destroying the American Republic by replacing democracy with one party authoritarian rule. After all, the Heritage Foundation and it's team that produced Project 2025 are almost all people connected to Trump either through his campaigns, or his corrupt administration. After all, there is no place in today's Republican Party for patriotic conservatives who recognize Trump for the threat he is.

One of the most insufferable things about the Trump era was this chickenshit “concerned centrist” / “I don’t support Trump HOWEVER…” schtick. They won’t stand for anything and only complain about things they don’t like. They think they’re being clever but everyone can see they don’t have the guts to own their support for Trump so they mask it behind aggressive anti-left rhetoric.

This brand of contrarianism is extremely prominent in the podcast community but clearly it also found footing in the comments here. Every right of center troll lacks the courage to own their convictions so instead they endlessly nitpick democrats and progressives. I understand that people can be independent and the 2 party system naturally excludes a lot of people but anyone who is politically engaged naturally leans one way or the other and you guys aren’t fooling anyone. If you have to declaratively state “I’m voting for Harris you guys!!!!” that should be your first clue that your schtick isn’t working.

40, adding fascism to the list of words you use without knowing what they mean

@42 Ok then, I naturally "lean left" if you need to hear that too, so you could possibly rethink the extensive mind reading capability you believe you have based off of "claims to be independent despite secret Trump support".

I’m not reading your mind, just your comments. You know your entire history is public right.

In 2021 you created a profile with The Stranger so you could say this:

“Seems like complaining about an imaginary culture of white supremacy is still sort of the definition of identity politics, but I guess they're halfway there.”

“Lean left” lol ok sure

@44 Even if you needed to plumb the depths of my entire comment section for heresy, it doesn't change the fact that independents can vote for Harris and still be critical of aspects of The Party (and the candidate they didn't even get to primary). Hope this helps!

I didn’t plumb anything, I literally just read your very first slog comment. I could have told you that you don’t “lean left” based on all the other stupid shit you’ve said. In fact I already read you for it in the previous comment that you came crying to me over, so clearly I struck a nerve. I don’t need a dimwit bigot to tell me that sometimes non-democrats vote for democratic candidates but I appreciate your unwavering concern.

@46 Maybe you could read everyone's comment section and append something like "WARNING: THIS USER MAY NOT BE A DEMOCRAT, AND HAS DIFFERENT OPINIONS THAN ME" to their posts? You could inform them that you're in the Smart People Party, and your political opponents are stupid? It could be easier than your angry rants.

I’m just commenting on current events and responding to others’ comments like everyone else here. If you can’t handle being criticized for your intentionally contrarian opinions then maybe trolling isn’t the right pastime for you.

Also sorry but accusing someone of angry rants in a comment with all-cap text is just wild. I guess a little self-awareness is too much to ask.

@48 There are, of course, many Democrats and people further left than me who believe White Supremacy Culture is a bit overblown, if you insist on dredging up my years-old comment history, but since you seem more interested in purity tests and namecalling than engaging substantively on the issues like me, it's pretty clear you are the troll here.

hell
even
Elon MUX
feels White
Supremecy's
kinda Overblown
which's Why muxxy's
doing his level best to
Bring it Back to Severly
Overblown levels even if
he's gottta Destroy our wee
Democracy to do so. a Small
Price to pay for being the World's
biggest Idiot but White Supremecy
Patriarchy and far reich wing fascism
have suited Autocrats & Oligarchs well*

and all this Communism
and Socialism can only
lead to fewer Profits
for those invested
in raping Planet
Earth til she's
a fucking
Goner

it's not Your
Fault you're a
fascist, nekkysorna
you just fell in with the
Wrong Crowd & stayed Put

but your Trolling's
working out
okay so
far

at Least
you've added
a little humorus.

*keep the poor folks
angry at the non-
White ones the
Liebertarians
hating on us
progressives
ad nauseum
ad infinitum
and we'll
NEVER
look
up
!

to See who's
Stirring the
Shitpot so
fucking
Well.