Transportation Security Administration, a unionized agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is underfunded.
Transportation Security Administration, a unionized agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is underfunded. Arina P Habich/Shutterstock.com

Austerity Is Behind the Long Lines at Sea-Tac Airport's TSA Checkpoints: Sea-Tac Airport has hired a private contractor to speed up lines at its security checkpoints. But this is not a real solution to the problem, which has nothing to do with TSA being an inefficient government agency, and everything to do with the fact that it's underfunded and understaffed. KOMO: "[I]n recent years TSA has lost 5,000 agents and seen its budget shrink by nearly $250 million." It is also fair to see these cuts as an attack on TSA's union.

Seattle Ranks 12 on List of Cities that Feel the Most #RoadRage: Seattle is on yet another list. This time it finds itself below Santa Monica, California (ranked 11), and above Washington, DC (ranked 13), when it comes to car-related rage. The unscientific study that placed our city near the top of this list was based on Instagram posts that appeared between June 2013 and April 2016. (I had no idea that Instagram was so popular with road ragers.)

Washington State Hikers Be Warned of Poisonous Snakes: The species to worry about as summer approaches are the Western Rattlesnake and the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake. Do not step on these serpents. But if one does bite you, this is one of the things you must not do: attempt to take a picture of it; and this is one of the things you must do: "remove any rings or constricting items from the limb."

Donald Trump Accuses Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos of Using the Washington Post As a Political Tool Against Him and Other People Like Him: Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said this and that and much, much more about Jeff Bezos on Fox News (begin at 21:45). Puget Sound Business Journal has the story.

Vancouver Is Really Freaking Out About Its Rising Housing Costs: It is now almost impossible to visit the Vancouver Sun, which has "the largest newsroom in Vancouver," without seeing a story like this: "Housing costs 'clear and present danger' to Metro's economy." The solution to the problem? Marc Lee, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives states it very plainly. One, the government must build more affordable housing (not developers); and, two, the government must control the flows of global capital. His own words: “Vancouver is just one of the global cities where investors are using real estate to park their wealth — not as a place to live... We need to make sure that our housing supply is for people who live in and contribute to our local economy.” After the Great Depression was ended by World War Two, the universal understanding was that unchecked international capital flows harmed an economy and made democratic management terribly difficult, if not impossible. The Golden Age of Capitalism (1946 to 1971) was defined by capital controls. Those controls, however, were weakened or removed in the 1980s, which is why we now live in a world that allows capital to go where ever it pleases. This freedom has benefited the richest of the rich and retarded almost everyone else, including, as Vancouver is discovering, tech workers.

EgyptAir Plane Headed to Cairo from Paris Falls Into the Mediterranean: Was this caused by mechanical failure or terrorism? Both Trump and ISIS hope it is the latter.


While Driving Your Car Today, Think About This: We just experienced the hottest April on record (and we have been keeping records for 137 years). Worse yet, April was "the 12th consecutive month to set a new record." In short, though the city around you looks all lovely and fine, in actual fact, shit has hit the fan.

Also, While Driving Your Car and Enjoying Your American Freedom, Try to Keep This in Mind: The "biggest ice mass in the world," which is a big part of Antarctica, and which is bigger than California, is becoming unstable due to anthropogenic global warming. If this vast country of ice goes under, which would happen in stages, sea levels are expected to rise by more than 11 feet. We are entering another world.


Good News From Capitol Hill Station: You will not find a more civilized, a more with-it station on Link's line than the new one that serves Capitol Hill. Here, urban intelligence dominates effortlessly. The rules for escalators, for example, are almost automatically observed. And bumpkins are forced to wake up and learn quick. The strange thing, however, is that Westlake Station, which is only three minutes away, is the kingdom of the bumpkins. Leaving that station and arriving at Capitol Hill's is like night and day. This is all the more strange because Westlake Station's train service has been in operation since 2009 (it first opened back in 1990). Why has that great length of time failed to uproot all kinds of bumpkinisms? Indeed, one would not be surprised to hear yodeling in that cavernous station.

Just look at how urban intelligence thrives at Capitol Hill Station.
Just look at how urban intelligence thrives at the Capitol Hill Station. charles mudede



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