Slog AM: Taliban Overtakes Afghanistan, COVID Soars, and Seattle Has Twice as Many New Residents as New Homes – Slog

To what end? Stocktrek Images / Getty Images

The Taliban control Afghanistan. That weekend, the Taliban invaded Kabul and overtook the presidential palace. The president fled and other officials greeted Taliban fighters. Civilians flooded the airport, desperate to flee, and even clung to rolling planes. US soldiers coordinate evacuations. Since 2001, we’ve spent $ 83 billion (or maybe $ 133 billion) on the war in Afghanistan. Over 6,000 Americans were killed in our Twenty Years’ War, including 444 volunteers and over 100,000 Afghan soldiers and civilians. “Operation Enduring Freedom,” we called it.

Yes, we too are fed up with the world today! #KabilAirport pic.twitter.com/b0xysZgu1i
– Selin Girit (@selingirit) August 16, 2021

Twice as many people have moved to Seattle as we have built houses. That is one of the lessons learned from an analysis of new census data. We’ve got 128,000 new residents in the last decade, but only 60,000 new homes. Overall, the city’s population grew more diverse, but historically black neighborhoods lost black residents.

More food stamps, less hunger. The Biden government has significantly increased the amount of food available to people who use grocery stamps – benefits have increased from an average of $ 121 per person per month to $ 157. That still seems like an absurdly small amount of money to eat for a full month. The amount of money is based on a model of the American diet created in 1962 and never updated. Republicans have expressed resistance, which I suspect is their idea to help.

It looks bleak in Haiti. An earthquake in Haiti killed at least a thousand people this weekend, and a storm is expected to hit the island today. The US has deployed a civil protection team, but the damage from the quake has made it difficult to reach some parts of the country.

COVID-19 cases tend to be among the worst we have ever seen. Infections are up 700% since early July and are expected to increase, including here in King County. Seattle music events are to require proof of vaccine or a recent negative test as a prerequisite for entry, and as of September Washington State University will no longer allow students to opt out of the vaccine on “philosophical” grounds (although staff may still can). So far, only about half of the country has been vaccinated. Oh my god, what are you waiting for ???

Who gets a booster shot? People with compromised immune systems should get a third shot, the CDC says, and this weekend UW started giving Dose 3 for people who need it. UW hospitals have also begun postponing non-urgent surgeries as unvaccinated people continue to drain resources.

Texas is under water. A storm has inundated the Texas State Capitol, with water seeping through a skylight and filling a basement with several inches of water. If someone drives by the airport, stick your head out the window and see if you can spot Ted Cruz.

Rear hall between E2.200 and 300. pic.twitter.com/DZOhz9oYte
– Sloan Byerly (@wsbyerly) August 15, 2021

Many people were shot dead that weekend, including children. A fifteen-year-old boy was shot and killed near Judkins Park on Friday evening with police alleging he was hit in the leg. A man was shot dead near Gas Works Park on Monday morning. A seven year old girl was shot dead in Chicago. If there are mass shootings this weekend: Three dead, two injured in Texas; four injured in Chicago; four injured in Brooklyn; one dead and three injured in Indiana, then another four injured and one dead in a separate shootout; five injured in Ohio; four injured in New Jersey. The total number of American shootings that weekend was 64 wounded and 12 dead.

Detectives respond to Gas Works Park to investigate a possible murder after officers discover a deceased person. More information when available.
– Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) August 16, 2021

Finally, some good news … for fish. The federal government is investing over $ 2.8 billion in salmon restoration, including improving Puget Sound water quality and habitat restoration. It’s okay for you to enjoy the benefits of improved water quality even if you’re not a fish.

There is no end in sight to this hateful heat. Temperatures will be in the 70s all week with no hope of rain. The smoke will clear up a bit over Seattle this week, although it can stay at higher elevations, making for nicer sunsets for your IG feed. In the past few days I’ve had two different friends from the West Coast who have been hospitalized for blood clots – which can be made worse by air pollution – so if you don’t know any personal risk factors for air quality, please keep an eye out and avoid doing so inhaling smoky air as much as possible.

So this is what Venus looks like. Two separate spaceships buzzed Venus last week, and now we’re getting a look at their vacation photos. What rubbish! Just kidding, I’m sure it’s nice, definitely in my top ten planet.

The new movie Neon Genesis Evangelion is pretty good. I have a lot of thoughts on the release of Evangelion this weekend: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, which will certainly be of virtually no interest to anyone reading this blog, but here are my top three takeaways: 1) The first half is basically a Ghibli film about clinical depression; 2) The second half is like My So-Called Life in that I once identified with the child characters, but now I feel closer to the parent characters; 3) My heart really goes out to every therapist in the world who thought their patients had finally managed to compare themselves to the main character in this series. If you’d like to discuss more about anime, drop me a line on Slack.

New threat to the hobbits of the Shire: poisonous sea snakes. Yellow-bellied sea snakes wash up on the New Zealand coast and no one knows exactly why, but it’s likely a climate change issue. New Zealand has been snake free so far. Well, it was a good run.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to Carousel. Not you, Tawny.

this is my new “my husband works in the area” pic.twitter.com/dNhUL2i11x
– Zachary Jordan (@ZacharyJ) August 14, 2021

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