Category Archives: Breaking News

Breaking News, Local, National

EXCLUSIVE – Parler finds new domain host at Sammamish, Washington based Epik

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UPDATED 1/12/21 @ 5:58 PM – added information on Epik connections to Neo-Nazi website Stormfront.

Tune in Monday, January 11, 2021, at 8 PM PST for the Malcontentment Happy Hour with David and Jennifer at MalcontentNews.TV. No subscription required.

[SAMAMMISH] – (Malcontent News) Alternative social media platform Parler may have found a new host with Sammamish, Washington based Epik. Public records show that the Parler domain was transferred to Epik on January 11, 2021, indicating the platform is at least on life support. Parler has touted itself as a free speech community similar to Twitter, without moderation. The service was plagued with security breaches, became a haven for hardcore pornography and the ideology of white nationalism.

Parler has been on a rollercoaster ride since the insurrection in Washington D.C., on January 6. Twitter put President Donald Trump on a 12-hour ban for three tweets they determined were inciteful to violence. The President removed the tweets in compliance with terms of service but issued two more inflammatory and dangerous tweets on Friday after his ban ended. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram permanently banned the President, and by Saturday morning almost every social media platform had taken the same steps. President Trump tried to move to at least five more Twitter accounts, including the official POTUS account of the US government.

Parler rocketed to the number one downloaded app on the Google Play and Apple stores as the online drama unfolded, and shortly thereafter, Google removed the Parler app from their store. On Saturday Apple gave an ultimatum to Parler to add moderation or face being removed also. On the same day, Amazon announced they would no longer provide PaaS and SaaS infrastructure to Parler effective at midnight on Sunday.

A Puget Sound Internet security expert told Malcontent News “Parler has a new DNS registrar. Epik software is headquartered in Sammamish and it’s the same one used by 8chan, Gab, and The Daily Stormer. They don’t have servers up yet, but DNS is a critical part of Internet hosting.”

They went on to explain, “A DNS handles the translation of the domain name, such as “Google.com”, to an IP address, such as 198.51.100.23. This is so when a user goes to a site, they just type in “Google.com” and don’t have to remember an IP address. This also allows the site to change IP addresses if needed.”

“They don’t appear to have servers to actually host, but that’s likely a matter of time.”

Defiant Parler leadership indicated on Saturday morning that people were, “lining up to support them,” but by Sunday morning they revealed they may not be able to ever go forward with every supplier and vendor abandoning the company, including their legal team. Parler was reported to have removed a parlay from conspiracy theory lawyer L Lin Wood on Saturday, calling for the execution of Vice President Michael Pence. Attorney Wood is said to be under Secret Service investigation for his message.

In another blow, as the lights started to go out for the platform, hackers were able to download all of the public-facing information and “parlays,” the equivalent of tweets, from Parler. Hackers reported that EXIF data, which would include the date, time, and GPS location on uploaded pictures were not stripped from the data, representing a significant privacy breach for users.

This morning on Fox and Friends, Jeannie Pirro compared the services that left Parler to Kristallnacht and Nazi Germany. The First Amendment does not protect speech on privately owned platforms beyond some edge cases. The Amendment provides protection against government-backed censorship, prevents the establishment of a national religion, ensures the freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to seek redress of grievances. Social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are private businesses, who operate on a, “we reserve the right to refuse service,” basis.

Epik is facing its own challenges as a hosting platform. PayPal recently terminated their relationship with the hosting provider, which provides hosting for the platform Gab, which is a haven for the Proud Boys, and Stormfront, a Neo-Nazi Holocaust-denying website.

Breaking News, Five Facts, Local

Two SPD officers on paid administrative leave for potential involvement in D.C. ‘insurrection’

Five Fast Facts

  • Acting police Chief Adrian Diaz has put two Seattle police officers on paid administrative leave for being in Washington D.C. during the riots and attempted coup of the U.S. government
  • The two officers have been referred to the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) which will conduct a review
  • Chief Diaz has stated that if the officers are criminally charged by Washington D.C. or federal authorities for their actions, they will be immediately terminated
  • The statement from the Seattle Police Department specifically used the word, ‘insurrection” in the statement
  • Seattle Police Officer’s Guild (SPOG) President Mike Solan is under fire for making statements that the insurrection, and storming of the governor’s mansion in Olympia, Washington, was perpetrated by Antifa

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as we get more information.

BIPOC, Breaking News, Five Facts, National

Officer Rustin Sheskey will not be charged in shooting of Jacob Blake

UPDATED – January 5, 2021, 3:06 PM

[KENOSHA] – (Malcontent News} Prosecutors in Kenosha, Wisconsin have accounted that Officer Rustin Sheskey, nor any other police officer will be charged with the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Five Fast Facts

  • Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley has announced that no officer will be charged in the shooting of Jacob Blake
  • Graveley says they conduct hundreds of interviews and hired an outside expert on the use of force
  • Gravely said that he would be unable to prosecute the case because Blake armed himself, and he could not argue against “self-defense”
  • He stated that the police, witnesses, and Blake were cooperative with the investigation
  • As part of the press conference, they played the 911 call that came in to dispatch and showed the information that officers were provided on the call

Jacob Blake was shot seven times on August 23, 2020, by Kenosha police officers responding to a domestic violence phone call. Blake’s children were in the backseat of the car when he was shot. He survived the shooting but is permanently disabled.

His shooting resulted in days of civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin with multiple injuries, and two protesters shot to death by 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse.

The District Attorney has made their report available as a PDF

Digital Presentation of the Factual and Legal Conclusions in the Officer-Involved Shooting of Jacob BlakeDownload

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Breaking News, Local

Washington state provides temporary unemployment benefits to 100K

[OLYMPIA] (Malcontent News) – The $892B COVID Relief package and the $1.4T Omnibus spending bill went unsigned by President Donald Trump on Saturday, cutting off unemployment benefits for up to 14 million Americans. In Washington state, over 100,000 people collecting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, had their benefits end today. If the bills go unsigned through Monday, a partial government shutdown will sideline up to 2.1 million federal employees despite the raging COVID pandemic and the potential terrorist attack in Nashville on Christmas.

On Sunday, Governor Jay Inslee announced emergency aid for many collecting PUA. According to the state, residents on PUA should continue to file to receive a flat payment of $550 next week. If the federal government continues to not respond to the ongoing crisis, a $50 million fund is expected to last about four weeks.

While federal law requires unemployment to be paid on a sliding scale based on income, the emergency aid is a fixed payment. State officials indicated the average PUA check before federal funding expired was $300.

Breaking News, Local, Weather

Intense cold front could bring burst of lowland snow

UPDATED – official high at KSEA was 59 degrees.

[KIRKLAND] (Malcontent News) – After setting an official record high of 59 degrees on December 21, an intense cold front could bring a brief but intense burst of snow into the Puget Sound Lowlands. The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Advisory for a storm system dumping one to two inches of rain through the afternoon into the lowlands. Areas of poor drainage and clogged storm drains could create pockets of urban stream and street-level flooding.  

At 3:00 PM, it was 55 degrees with heavy rain at Seatac Airport, while less than 100 miles to the north, it was 34 degrees with heavy snow in Bellingham. A cold front moving from the north will bring dramatically colder air, and a Converge Zone is expected to form in the next couple of hours. Forecast models indicate that temperatures could drop 20 degrees in two to three hours.

The challenge of forecasting a Convergence Zone is determining its exact location. Colliding winds moving north and south through Puget Sound are left with nowhere else to go but up, creating bands of intense precipitation that can be just 10 miles wide. Areas in these zones can see heavy rain or snow, with calm conditions a few miles away. Typically these zones appear on the King-Snohomish County line. Original forecast models had the zone forming north of Everett today, but current models and weather radar indicate it could develop much further south. 

Areas that get heavy snow could see 1 to 3 inches of accumulation, which will likely melt quickly because surface temperatures are too warm. The intense snowfall could create short term travel problems with reduced visibility and slippery spots on less-traveled roads. Today’s weather system is very similar to storms that moved through the area on November 13, 2003, and November 27, 2006. The November 27 system crippled the Seattle area, turning highways and roads into parking lots filled with abandoned cars. 

Breaking News, Local, National

Seattle Police Arrest 21 in early morning sweep of Cal Anderson Park

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[SEATTLE] (Malcontent News) – Seattle Police Department, supported by King County Sheriff, executed a homeless sweep of Cal Anderson Park this morning, arresting 21. As the first glint of daylight appeared over cold and wet Cal Anderson, Seattle Police arrived at 7:34 AM. Using an LRAD, SPD made multiple announcements that people within the park had 15 minutes to vacate or face potential arrest. By early afternoon the park was clear, and Seattle Parks was well on its way to removing the encampment.

Activists had built a network of barricades over the weekend and steadily reinforced them over the week. On Wednesday, Seattle Police had planned to do a sweep but at the last minute changed direction. Later in the morning, Ada Yeager filed a temporary restraining order request with the federal court, looking to block the sweep. On Wednesday afternoon, activists took over an empty home on Denny, close to the northeast corner of Cal Anderson. On Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Richard Jones denied the TRO.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”13″ gal_title=”Cal Anderson Park Homeless Sweep – December 18″]

Overnight on Thursday, there were two attacks on the homeless encampment. A person threw an explosive device at a parked vehicle in an incident described as a targeted attack. Seattle Police described the incident as arson. There were multiple reports of either fireworks or a flaming arrow shot into the encampment, with no reported injuries.

Seattle police describe the fire bombing of a car as arson.

On Friday morning, black-clad protesters again started to gather in anticipation of the sweep. Seattle Police made multiple announcements for people to vacate the park or face arrest and stated a tent was available on Broadway Avenue for the unhomed to get support and information. At 7:52 AM, SPD moved in from multiple directions, with bike officers coming from the north and combined resources from the south. Simultaneous, a SWAT team raided the abandoned house on Denny.

Many expected strong resistance from the contingent of protesters and the estimated 30 to 50 homeless within the encampment. An opposition that never materialized. Seattle Police swept through quickly, tearing through the barricades on three sides. By 8:25 AM, the park was mostly quiet, beyond the King County Sheriff Department helicopter overhead.

In Thursday’s court hearing, city officials assured the federal court it had a plan for gathering and returning personal property after the sweep, per the Seattle Times. City representatives indicated they would only throw-away items that were damaged, wet, or soiled. Judge Jones expressed concern, indicating accurately that in December, everything is wet in Seattle. At 9:10 AM, a convoy of vehicles arrived, including multiple garbage trucks. It soon became apparent as workers tore down tents without doing any documentation that nothing would be spared.

During the raid, witnesses reported seeing Seattle Police destroying food, clothing, and medical supplies at mutual aid tents set up on 11th Ave, and breaking glass could be heard. There appeared to be no effort to document or collect any personal belongings by officials. By late morning, another convoy of heavy construction equipment arrived. Backhoes started chewed through tents, sleeping materials, furniture, and bikes, tossing them into the back of awaiting dump trucks.

Questions have arisen about police conduct, with a citizen video provided to Malcontent News. In the video, SPD placed an individual in a chokehold during an arrest. In the video, citizens plead with SPD to stopping choking the suspect. Despite Seattle Police claiming there was a tent with resources for the unhomed on Broadway Ave, no tent or representative was there. In talking to the incident PIO, they indicated they did not know what resources were available.

Through public and private investment, the city of Seattle spends over $1 billion a year on homelessness. Despite a decade long effort, Seattle now has the third-largest homeless population in the United States.

BIPOC, Breaking News, Editorial, Health and Lifestyle, Local, National

Malcontentment Happy Hour: December 14, 2020

Video

Our live webcast from the Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction

malcontentment happy hour – December 14, 2020
  • Governor Inslee proposes several equity measures for the upcoming state budget
  • Up to 40 million Americans face homelessness in 2021 and a $2.5 trillion transfer in wealth will happen if Congress doesn’t act
  • COVID vaccine arrives in Washington, but don’t take those masks off just yet
  • Right-wing violence from racists, domestic terrorists, and militant Trump supporters continues to escalate
  • Olympia Washington protest on Saturday, December 12, 2020 results in one shot – Forest Machala arrested for the shooting
  • Red House update from December 13, 2020, with approved video from behind the barricades
  • Part two of our interview with Nikayla Rice
  • Malcontent News has been approved as a Google News source

Editor comment: The video of the Olympia, Washington protest has the wrong date on it of December 10, 2020. The correct date is December 12, 2020. We apologize for the error.

Chris Rojas, our partners at Converge Media, and Concrete Reporting contributed to this program

BIPOC, Breaking News, Local

Black activist shot by right-wing extremist in Olympia, riot declared

Police declared a riot at 1:30 PM today as multiple groups squared off, resulting in one shot. Multiple groups rallied in the state capitol, including an anti-mask group demanding business reopen, another group demanding schools reopen, a “stop the steal” group protesting Trump’s loss, and Black Lives Matter activists. The groups engaged in taunts and small brawls before chaos broke out.

According to eyewitnesses, a woman aligned with one of the right-wing extremist organizations started arguing with an individual from Black Lives Matter. A man who was with the woman pulled out a gun and shot the person in the stomach. Social media reports the individual is in stable condition. Olympia police tweeted they made one arrest. Social media is sharing a picture of the alleged shooter. He has not been booked into the Thurston County Jail as of this writing.

After the riot declaration, smaller groups continued to march and engage for almost three hours. Olympia Police declared the situation under control early this evening and said they would continue to monitor the situation. The Washington State Patrol continued to have an aircraft circling the city, according to FlightAware.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”7″ gal_title=”December 12, 2020 Olympia Riot”]

On December 5, 2020, during another incident with right-wing extremists, Police arrested Chris Guenzler after shooting a protester and pistol-whipping another. In that shooting incident, the victim was grazed by a bullet and sustained minor injuries. Guenzler is still in custody in the Thurston County Jail. His arraignment is scheduled for December 22, 2020.

Right-wing extremists plan another protest in Olympia tomorrow at noon.

Renee Raketty contributed to this story.

Breaking News, LGBTQIA, Local

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan will not seek a second term


After a tumultuous year, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has announced that she will not be seeking re-election. Amid multiple calls for her resignation, she has seen her support wane, both inside and out of city hall. While enjoying some early successes, such as negotiating to bring the NHL back to Seattle, the mayor also faced challenges that many felt she was not up to handling. By the end of 2019 her leadership was being questioned, and on October 22, The Seattle LGBTQ Commission called for her resignation.

An area where most feel she failed includes addressing the civil unrest in Seattle in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Seattle was catapulted into the international spotlight when the Capitol Hill Occupy Protest, or CHOP, was formed. What she suggested would be a “summer of love” devolved into mismanaged chaos. The Seattle Police spread misinformation and brutalized protesters with excessive force.

There were two murders on the edge of CHOP, street fights with Proud Boys and Three Percenters, and no less than five documented incidents of drivers assaulting protesters by the end of July, resulting in one fatality and one severely injured. There remains controversy over who called for the abandonment of the East Precinct on June 8, 2020. Both the Mayor and now retired police chief Carmen Best deny making the decision. Political watchers have wondered aloud if the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild made the decision, which would indicate a collapse of oversight by the mayor and police leadership.

Durkan, who ran on a homeless advocacy platform and a more moderate approach to area politics, failed to deliver on most of those promises, including thousands of beds through tiny home villages and transitional housing. Even before the COVID or George Floyd protests, homelessness and street violence was worsening. Seattle currently has the third-largest homeless population in America, and during her time as mayor, the homeless population grew. Durkan and City Hall pushed for tax increases, spending over $1 billion a year on area homelessness with no measurable impact. Accusations of corruption overshadowed projects like low barrier housing at Licton Springs. Only the larger cities of New York and Los Angeles have a large unhomed population.

Another failed promise, Durkan signed the Policing and Community Safety Executive Order (PCSEO) earlier this year. Its purpose was to identify SPD response areas that could be transitioned to a civilian and community-based response. The PCSEO did not achieve any of the meaningful policy goals outlined by the mayor. In sharp contrast, Seattle decided to increase the operating budget for the coming year, amid outcries from the public.

Seattle will vote for a new mayor on November 2, 2021.

Community Manager, Ty Steele, contributed to this story.

BIPOC, Breaking News, Local

Person shot at Olympia protest, man charged with assault

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Thurston County officials have charged Christopher Michael Guenzler, with 1st-degree and 2nd-degree assault after shooting a protester on Saturday afternoon in Olympia, Washington. Guenzler was being held without bail and did not have an attorney as of this morning. If the district attorney pursues both charges, Guenzler could be looking at a maximum of 45 years in prison.

On Saturday, Trump supporters and anti-maskers planned a rally in Olympia, Washington. They are following baseless and unproven claims of widespread election fraud at a national and state level and that COVID is a hoax.

Multiple journalists aligned to the political left and right caught the incident on camera. Guenzler, wearing a lime green sweat jacket with a “don’t tread on me” graphic, brandished a sidearm earlier in the protest. Counter-protesters and Trump supporters got into a scuffle, with the Trump supporters charging as counter-protesters were moving back. 

You can hear multiple paintball rounds being fired in the videos while counter-protesters are struck, ironically, by poles with American flags on them while the flags land on the ground. One of the Trump supporters also deployed bear mace. Guenzler pulls his sidearm again and fires a single shot into the crowd. Protesters from both sides make an audible gasp after the sound of gunfire, and both groups back away. 

During the melee, police did nothing to divide the protest groups and only observed. According to social media, the victim, who has not been identified, received a single gunshot wound. Guenzler was also identified at the anti-mask rally outside of Governor Jay Inslee’s house on Thanksgiving day. During that protest, 50 to 75 anti-mask protesters, some armed, blocked the road while sharing a potluck meal. During speeches that followed streamed live by journalists, protesters got increasingly angry, with some calling for violence and criticizing Loren Culp, a failed gubernatorial candidate, for directing them to stop engaging in direct action. The governor was not at his Bainbridge island home, and no direct threats were made against the governor. At that event, Washington state police aided protesters by blocking the road.

Support for white supremacy, Trump, and election fraud theories

Guenzler’s social media footprint shows strong alignment to the Trump campaign and far-right organizations. His profile includes pictures with confederate flags in 2016. He is a graduate of Port Orchard High School, and according to his social media profiles, attended Kitsap High School for some time. His profile shows an affinity to sexualized content, guns, Trump, and white supremacy. 


Chris Guenzler in 2016, from his public Facebook profile

Stop the steal is a baseless Qanon conspiracy theory. The claims include that dead Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez tampered with Dominion’s software, a voting machine company. Recent additions to the idea include boatloads of illegal ballots arriving by ship from North Korea to a port in Maine.

In Georgia, Stop the Steal protesters advocate not voting on January 5, 2020, Senate runoff. The special election in Georgia will decide which party controls Congress’s upper chamber, with significant implications for the incoming Biden Administration. The idea being, that by not participating, impossible vote results will come out of counties, including “negative results” for the GOP candidates. Georgia has done two recounts and one audit of their results from November 4 and found no fraud evidence. 

The Trump Administration has filed dozens of court claims at the local, state, federal, and with the Supreme Court of the United States. In total, 46 court cases have been thrown out due to lacking evidence or merit, including by judges appointed by Trump. Joe Biden won the US election by more than 7 million votes in the popular vote, and with 306 delegates from the electoral college. As of Friday, 279 electors have been certified for Biden. The electoral college will meet on December 14, 2020, to cast their votes for president.

A court date for Guenzler has not been set.