The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Hannah Krieg Weather: If you weren’t already wearing boots and a trench everyday, today’s a good day to start. The morning will start out cloudy with temperatures in the low 50s. At around noon, expect the showers to start and become more intense until we hit peak raininess at around 3pm. Showers will stick around for a bit, eventually rolling out by about 7pm. Not your speed? Lucky for you, the wet, gloomy weather will turn around tomorrow! I’ll need to catch up on my steps then! You can say that again: A new 154-page Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accused Israel of a forcible, deliberate, and systematic mass displacement campaign of Palestinians in Gaza that amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity. Over the last 13 months of Israel’s genocide, they have displaced 1.9 million Palestinians—about 90% of Gaza’s population. Israel has also destroyed the majority of civilian infrastructue in Gaza, violating their obligation to ensure civilians can return to their homes.  Trifecta: The dust has settled and Republicans won control of the US House with 218 seats. Combined with the Republican’s victory of the Senate, the Republicans have achieved a “trifecta.” This certainly gives Trump a lot of power, and the man is desperate to wield it in his own uniquely horrific way. But he still might not get everything he wants. As the BBC wrote, Trump had a trifecta in the first two years of his first term. He passed one signature tax bill to reduce corporate taxes from 35% to 21%, but a few of the less Trumpy Republicans managed to block some of his other goals. I appreciate the BBC’s optimism, but it seems like Trump and his cronies are more savvy this time around, which does not bode well for working people, immigrants, people of color, women, gay people, trans people, disabled people—the list goes on and on.  Everyday we find a new reason to tear our own hair out: President-elect Donald Trump picked Florida Republican and bootlicker loyalist Rep. Matt Gaetz as his attorney general. Sounds like a random pick, but actually Gaetz has some experience with the Justice Department. Last year the department investigated him for possible human trafficking offenses! Gaetz was also currently the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation regarding sex trafficking and drug offenses. Amidst his nomination, Gaetz resigned from his post in Congress, thus cancelling any investigations. I'm only partially kidding, but maybe Gaetz's experiences with these judicial bodies goes a long way with Trump, who is seeking vengeance on the department for trying to hold him to account for his crimes. In the announcement, Trump said, "'Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System. [Gaetz] will end Weaponized Government, protest our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans' badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department." Congress still has to approve Trump’s appointments, but with the House and Senate secured for his party, he’s in a good position to get his way.  I keep loling: Trump still has the sauce. No one else could have made picks like these. Every selection is like drafting a kicker in the first round but the kicker has a Wikipedia section titled Allegations and is also not really a kicker — noah kulwin (@nkulw) November 13, 2024 Capital gains loses a supporter: Council Member Rob Saka said in a the budget meeting that he does not support Council Member Cathy Moore’s capital gains tax—a tax on profits of the sale of stocks and bonds above $262,000—even though he signed on as one of the taxes’ cosponsors along with Council Member Tammy Morales.  Reading the tea leaves: Naively, I assumed that the cosponsor would support the proposal because that’s kinda exactly how this shit works. I even argued that Saka and Morales’s cosponsorship could be a sign of broad support since they occupy different ends of the council’s political spectrum. But unless we all get our butts to City Hall or wherever else you pressure elected officials, I’m beginning to think the capital gains tax may not have the votes. Even if Moore and Morales can capture the two most obvious allies, Council Members Joy Hollingsworth and Dan Strauss, they would still need one more vote to pass the new tax. And Council Members Saka and Maritza Rivera said they’re out, which leaves possibly the staunchest conservatives: Council Member Tanya Woo, Bob Kettle, Sara Nelson. To me, that fucking sucks. Seattle came out in overwhelming support of the statewide capital gains tax when right-wingers tried to repeal it in the last election. Plus, it's the only new tax proposed to counter the Mayor’s dire austerity budget. Bleak.   Defund lives on: In other budget news, Council Member Tammy Morales proposed new budget amendments in response to community feedback at the Tuesday public hearing. The amendments restore funding to tenant services and the City’s Parks and Recreation environmental programming by taking some funding allocated to the City’s new surveillance scheme, known as the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC). Morales’s amendment would leave RTCC with about $1.5 million in 2025 and $2.1 million in 2026. Seems more than fair to me!  I caved: So, I’m starting to post on Bluesky. I don’t really enjoy it yet. Still feels like I came to the party without being a fashionable 45 minutes late. But maybe if you follow me I won’t feel so weird lol. Just a thought! If not, don’t worry. I love Twitter too much to ever fully divest.  Okay I caved — Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg.bsky.social) November 13, 2024 at 8:27 PM Help lefties in the South: The Seattle Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America will host a pizza potluck on Saturday to raise hurricane relief money to support their friends at the Florida DSA, NC Triangle DSA, and Asheville DSA. I am so heartbroken for the communities bearing the brunt of the climate crisis and also, seeing the Republican takeover and the Democrat’s general doormatiness, I feel now's a great time to support leftwing organizers in red areas. Not that there’s ever a bad time!  Thought this was an Onion headline, but it's true! Satirical news site The Onion just bought Alex Jones's conspiracy theory-slinging platform InfoWars with financial backing from the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims. Jones owes more than $1 billion to those families for calling the shooting a hoax. The Onion will also work with gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety as its "exclusive advertiser." The father of one of Emilie, one of the Sandy Hook victims, said, “The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for." Hi everyone. The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars. We are planning on making it a very funny, very stupid website. We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off. I can't wait to show you what we have cooked up.[image or embed] — Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 6:09 AM Some history: On this day in 2003, Love Actually opened in theaters. I haven’t seen it, but apparently Hugh Grant dances to this song by the Pointer Sisters. [Ed's note: He does and he is very cute and sexy while doing so.]