Seattle Times trying to put a pause on this bear.
Seattle Times trying to put its pause on this nice bear. Charles Mudede

Seattle Times Wants Voters to Press Pause on ST3: Why? Because it is too expensive, it will take too long to build, and we deserve a plan that the public has had lots and lots of time to think about, to understand, to weigh the costs and benefits, and so and so forth, and so on and so forth some more. All of this sober-sounding stuff is of course utterly hollow and reminds me of a situation in one of Anthony Trollope's best novels, The Eustace Diamonds.

What happens is this: There is a young gentleman who's broke, a young woman who has no principals but is spectacularly rich, and another young woman, employed as a governess, who has principles but no money. In a moment of clarity, the broke gentleman asks for the hand of the honest but equally broke governess. She accepts the offer immediately. She will become his wife. She loves him to bits. But later in the novel, the rich but morally bankrupt woman declarers her love to the gentleman, who would do very well indeed if he were one with her money and property (4000 pounds a year and a castle in Scotland). But he is engaged to this poor governess. What is he to do? The gentleman's mother, who also is broke, comes up with a plan to delay the marriage to the governess. In short, she finds a way to put the plan on pause because time, in situations like this, is on your side. Time, and especially lots of time, can gather the power to undo what has been done.

Seattle Times's editorial board is like this mother in The Eustace Diamonds, and the gentleman is not the voter or the city but none other than the car industry. An expanded light rail system directly challenges the dominance of that mode of transportation, which, by the way, is playing a leading role in climate change. You see, dear reader, we have run out of the very thing the car industry wants to use to delay and prevent the changes that are needed in the era of global warming. That thing is time.

Recommended Reading for Seattle Times's Editorial Board: The SDOT, or the Department of the Automobile, spent $74 million dollars on what is known as the Mercer Mess, a 1.74-mile corridor that's clogged between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.. What was done? "Lanes were added. Signal capacity was improved." The result? "An improvement of 2 seconds." Yes, $74 million for just 2 seconds. There is a word for this kind of thing. It is: Madness.

You Heard It All Night: Cats and dogs of rain fell on your roof, or on your tent, if you are homeless (and sadly many of you are). We have entered the water world of fall. Lawns are soggy and ponds are on our roads, and autumn leaves (red and gold) cover lawns or float on standing water. Expect very bad traffic today. Indeed, it's already bad on I-5, which has become clogged by a number of crashes. People at this moment are sitting in their cars and doing nothing but watching and hearing the falling rain all around them.


Everett Not Sure If ST3 Will Solve Congestion: The Herald recognizes that the car problem is very big, but wonders if ST3's big plan will really make a difference. But you must remember that light rail will not solve congestion. Do not think in that way. That way goes nowhere. New York City, for example, has an excellent subway system and still lots of very bad traffic of its roads. Manhattan at 4 p.m. is a nightmare. The thing that ST3 plans to provide is an alternative to car traffic. Americans love having choices, so how about this one in the future: Move or do not move. It will be up to you.

Washington State Stops Killing Wolves: But only after the state killed seven wolves in a pack of 12. The state took lethal action against these wild animals to protect privately owned cows grazing on its land.

On That Letter Handed to Black Students at Franklin High School: It is a handout called "Keepin it 100," it was given to black students, it encouraged that they "do better when it came to performance at school." The handout upset a number of black students and their parents. Why were they singled out? Someone in the know of this matter told me that "90% of the staff and teachers had no idea what the principal [Dr. Jennifer Wiley] was doing" and why she did it. They were just dumbfounded. All found out about the "pledge" from kids and families. The principal has, however, apologized to the black students.

My source also told me that the "Black Student Union is doing a great job holding [Wiley] accountable and also opening up dialogue for next steps and how to move forward." But the thing that must be understood in this controversy is that the problems with performance have less to do with students and more to do with cuts to programs that help students. Apparently, these cuts have happened under Dr. Jennifer Wiley. And so we have the classic neoliberal solution of shifting a problem from the public to the person. The handout reeks of this neoliberalism.

If Black People Are So Dumb: Then why are they not voting for the dumbest presidential candidate in the history of American politics, Donald Trump. Indeed, if just blacks voted, he would win not one state.



But if whites just voted, Trump would have a landslide. (White people on the West Coast and a few East Coast states are not having him).

The Third and Final Presidential Debate: "Bad hombres," "a nasty woman," and "I’ll Keep You in Suspense."

The Stranger Endorses the Presidential Candidate Who Is Very Popular With People of Color: Hillary Clinton.