Good morning! It’s officially fall. Can you feel it? The chill in the air in the morning? The papery sound of the first turning leaves? The looming sense of dread that used to be about school, and is now attached to whatever election is coming up next? They’re all signs that it’s time to break out the light layers, remind yourself how to make soup, and cue up your annual viewing of Practical Magic. If you liked the fall weather yesterday, you’re in luck: we’re looking at the same forecast all week. Partly cloudy, temps starting in the 50s, and ending up hovering right around 70.
Alright, let’s do the news.
The Canonization of Charlie Kirk: Tens of thousands of people travelled to Glendale, Arizona on Sunday for a five-hour live-streamed event honoring Kirk’s life and work. The VIP section represented virtually the entire succession line to the presidency. There were pyrotechnics. A man mimicked Jesus, carrying a massive cross across the stadium (only the cross had wheels, and he was wearing a pretty decent looking suit.) The event helped underscore just how much Christian nationalism is being infused into the federal government. Most of the speeches before Trump’s focused on Christian faith. VP JD Vance said: “I was telling somebody backstage that I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public...As much as I love the Lord, and as much as it was an important part of my life, I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life.” Trump told the crowd: “Charlie would have been so proud to hear people today giving glory to God. We need to bring back religion to America, we want to bring God back into our beautiful USA like never before.”
Trump Feeds the Frenzy: In his rambling, 45-minute speech at Kirk’s memorial, Trump fed the “Civil War” narrative that’s agitated the far-right since the shooting. “It was an assault on our most sacred God-given liberties and God-given rights,” Trump said. “The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us.” Unlike Erika Kirk, who got on stage and said she forgives the shooter, Trump said, “I hate my opponents.”
Florida Man: Private donors have decided to fund a Kirk statue on the New College of Florida. In an AI mockup, a bronzed Kirk is sitting at a bronzed table, inviting students into the “gotcha” style “free speech” conversations he was famous for.
Meanwhile, at the Sunday Service at our local far-right Christian church, Pursuit NW, Pastor Russell Johson declared that “the plans of the enemy have backfired!” He compared it to the story of Exodus, saying that like the Israelites, they would leave with their fists raised, and come back with swords. “You’re not stopping the people of God!” he shouted. The FBI still hasn’t determined any clear motive for the shooting.
Sinclair Called Their Own Bluff: Just a couple hours before their Charlie Kirk tribute was supposed to air on Sinclair-owned ABC affiliates across the country, the company pulled back, saying they would make the whole special available on YouTube, instead. The program, presented as journalism, started by saying that Kirk’s assassination was a “turning point in our nation’s history, one of those moments where you remember where you were when you heard about it.” The anchor called him an “American patriot, fearless in his faith.”
Don’t Look Over Here, They Say: While the right continues to desperately try to find a way to cast Charlie Kirk’s shooter at trans or gay, or at least antifa, and Trump threatens to classify antifa as a domestic terror organization and trans people as terrorists, 404 Media found that the Department of Justice has removed a study showing that white supremacist and far-right violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the United States. The study was conducted by the National Institute of Justice and hosted on a DOJ website, and was available there at least until September 12, two days after Charlie Kirk was shot.
Bruce Keeps Scrambling to Look Progressive Before the Election: Last week, Mayor Bruce Harrell announced that he plans to help fund the team of non-police first responders called the CARE Team (yay!) with a sales tax (boo.) The plan will double the size of the CARE team from 24 to 48 people, which is great news. Unfortunately, increasing our sales tax is just one of our incredible limited, regressive mechanisms that taxes someone making $50,000 a year at the same rate as someone making $500,000 a year.
Credit Where Credit Isn’t Due: Expanding our public safety spending wasn’t Harrell’s idea—and not all of it is new. Governor Bob Ferguson’s budget allowed cities to introduce a 0.1 percent new sales tax for public safety. And of the $39 million Harrell announced, only $19 million of it will be new. About $15 million of that will replace the city’s current general-fund spending for the city’s CARE Team, PubliCola reported, and $5 million will backfill a one-time federal investment. The remaining $19 million will be spread across fire departments, 911 dispatch, EMTs, and rehab centers. The CARE team ultimately will see a little less than $7 million in new dollars.
Shon Barnes Is Ready to Put Armed Officers in Schools: Last week, the school board delayed a vote to decide whether or not they would put an armed school resource officer (SRO) at Garfield High School, pushing it to October. But in an interview with the Seattle Times, SPD Chief Shon Barnes said he’s ready to put an officer in their halls. He said he wished we were in a world where no one needed to be armed in schools, “but that’s not where we are.” That, frankly, is uninformed bullshit. The research shows that SROs don’t typically reduce the risk of school shootings, and they do increase the risk of harm to students of color and students with disabilities. Put the gun away, Shon.
Tunes for Your Monday: Coral Grief is playing with Anika and Lauren Early at the Vera Project tomorrow. If you’re thinking of missing it, give this a listen and think again.
