The World Cup Finally Starts With a Yawn: The big game kicked off in Seattle yesterday the way soccer usually does: a low-scoring tie between two teams you have never heard of (Belgium and Egypt). At least the US team is playing in Seattle’s next game on Friday against Australia. Seattle Gover nment Opposes FIFA Ban on Iranian Monarchist Flag: FIFA bans flags from its games that are “political, offensive and/or discriminatory” according to its policy, including the old flag of Iran flown by the Shah, which you might recognize from protests supporting the US-Israeli invasion of Iran (picture the Italian flag turned clockwise with a golden lion clutching a sword at the center). The Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles, which grew after the overthrow of the Shah’s government, and generally opposes the Islamic Republic, sued to overturn the ban before Iran played New Zealand yesterday in LA. They lost the case, as stadiums are private property, and private property rules. Plenty of people snuck in flags and ran up the old colors anyway.  According to the Seattle Times, Mayor of Mayors Katie Wilson and Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans are lobbying FIFA to lift the ban. The Times writeup is a little short on the history of US-Iran relations. It doesn’t mention the Shah at all, referring to the notorious dictatorship he ran between his US-backed overthrow of Iranian democracy and the 1979 Islamic Revolution simply as “the prior administration.” Ryszard Kapuściński’s book is a good place to start. Is the War Over Yet? Trump announced he’s inked a peace deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, something he has lied repeatedly about since starting the war—at least 38 times, by CNN’s count. Best to remain a bit skeptical. The real barrier to peace is the reluctance of two consecutive American administrations to yank the chain on the Israeli military as previous presidents have done when their attack dog won’t let up. Even Reagan yanked the chain, accusing the Israelis of committing a “holocaust” by bombing Beirut. Marine Corps Crashes Fighter Jet Outside Mt. Rainier, Starts Forest Fire: Did you hear that pair of F/A-18 Hornet fighter bombers buzz low over Seattle a couple times last weekend? They certainly disrupted my day at the beach. Anyway, the Marines crashed one into Mt. Rainier Saturday and started a fire, reports the Yakima Herald-Republic. The pilot survived, but the Marine Corps isn’t saying what happened yet.  Bellevue Apologizes for Whitewashing City Father’s Racist Role in Concentration Camps: Eastside businessman Miller Freeman is known mostly for two things: being a founder of Bellevue and leading the Washington Anti-Japanese League, the hate group that successfully supported the deportation of the state’s Japanese American community to concentration camps during World War II under the racist and false belief they were agents of the Empire of Japan. Bellevue College memorialized the deportation with a mural six years ago, only for college vice president Gayle Colston Barge to white-out an artist statement’s mention of Freeman and the deportation. She’s since resigned, and the college rededicated the mural last week. The Seattle Times, which also supported the deportation of Washington’s Japanese-American community to concentration camps, has the details. Millionaires Oppose Millionaires Tax in Shocking Twist: Remember when we reported on the local millionaires suing to overturn the state’s new millionaires tax? Well, there’s also a ballot initiative collecting signatures to overturn the tax, and you’ll never guess who’s funding it: techies and plantation owners, the Washington Observer reports. Ballmer Funding Abundists: Speaking of tech industry money in politics, former Microsoft executive and developers-shouter Steve Ballmer was outed by The Prospect as funding the “Abundance” YIMBY elite astroturf group to the order of $100 million. Washington Post Sued for Surveillance Pricing: The pro-Trump newspaper owned by local online book depository owner Jeff Bezos known as The Washington Post is being sued in a class action lawsuit by subscribers who say the company is surveilling their habits and using that data to algorithmically raise the price of their subscriptions. WaPo admitted to the surveillance policy in March, Courthouse News reports. All of Washington’s Refugees This Year are White South Africans: Every time you think the Trump administration’s immigration policy can’t get any more racist, he finds another way to surprise us. The feds have only let 198 refugees into Washington this year, and they’re almost all white South Africans, who you may remember from doing Apartheid. White Afrikaners claim to be a persecuted racial minority, but still hold much of the nation’s wealth. A Song Before You Go: Willie Dunn was a Mi’kmaq singer-songwriter who should be better known in Canada, to say nothing of the US. His ballad of Louis Riel, historical prophet of the Northwest, is maybe his best-known song, but it’s this early stanza from 1971 that sticks with me. Small are the lives Of cheats and of liars Of bigoted news press Fascist town criers The post Slog AM: Bellevue Says Sorry for Whitewashing Racist Founder, Seattle Lobbies FIFA to Allow Iranian Monarchist Flag, and Almost All the Recent Refugees to Washington Are White South Africans appeared first on The Stranger. ...read more read less