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Pike Place Market Contributing to Seattle's Traffic Nightmare: With a new and massive parking garage. It opened yesterday—which happened to be Mother's Day—and can hold 300 cars. It also cost a pretty penny. Q 13 Fox is dreaming when it writes that the parking garage will make things easier for drivers, many of whom see the traffic downtown as a "nightmare." A description of the situation by one driver: “Once we got in town, there’s like no parking. Everyone is down here.” More of the same (more parking, more roads) will produce more of the same (traffic congestion).

Former Washington State Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald Says We Are Fucked: The future of transportation in Seattle looks bleak. There will be more traffic jams downtown and little can be done to improve I-5. We are pretty much stuck with the way it is now. What's to be done? There is only one real solution: transit. It's as simple as that.

KOMO Is Run By Right-Wingers Who Push Fake News: The New York Times reports that the company that owns KOMO and 173 TV stations around the country, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, is filling our airwaves with stories that appear to be legitimate but in fact are GOP propaganda. These stories are called "must sees," and the stations receive them every day and are forced to report them. "Must sees" are a species of fake news.

The Kind of Story That Sinclair Broadcasting Group Pumps Into KOMO Can Be Found on the Front Page of Every Major Newspaper Today: "North Korea: New long-range missile can carry heavy nuke." After all that happened last week, it's not at all surprising that a war-related story appeared today. Expect lots of saber rattling this week.

What To Do If You Encounter a Coyote on the Streets of Seattle: My Northwest recommends that you do not run, but face the animal. But do not stare at it in the eyes, that will make the situation dangerous. The thing to do is to try to look bigger than you are and say this in a "soft but firm voice": "I’m leaving, I’m not here to hurt you, [coyote]. I’m not here to hurt you." Slowly walk backwards while talking to the wild animal.

Global Warming Kills Giant Pine in Washington Park Arboretum: It is not easy being a tree. First, you have to make the best of the spot fate gives you. And only a few lucky trees ever get just the right spot. For most, the spot that's your whole life has something wrong with it: too rocky, too dry, too wet, too exposed, and so on. And then you have to deal with strong winds, or heavy rain, or fucking snow—all of which are more deadly if you do not live in a forest. Added to this long list of problems are ones that come with climate change. Lynda V. Mapes, the Seattle Times's environmental reporter, writes that a pine tree in Washington Park Arboretum that's 72-years-old was indeed killed by climate change. How? "Steadily warming and drier summers... stressed the tree in its position atop a droughty knoll." The tree's stress produced a smell that was sensed by red turpentine beetles. They knew the tree was in deep trouble and bored into it. The tree fought hard for its life, but eventually lost. It's now dead and will be cut down.

Trump's Inner Circle: "Two unqualified relatives, a PR rookie, and his bodyguard." It is very possible that the firing of James Comney was the bodyguard's idea.


Angry Man at Town Hall Meeting for Republican Who Voted to Repeal Obamacare Correctly Defines Morality: Most Americans define morality incorrectly. They think it has something to do with not having anal sex, or not doing drugs, or not wearing something skimpy, or not going to church. But none of that has anything to do with morality. An angry man at a recent town hall meeting in New Jersey correctly defined morality with this statement, aimed at a GOP congressperson: "Health insurance as a for-profit business is immoral. When I'm drowning and you insist that I pay before you will save me, that is immoral." Exactly. A moral act is always and only this: making a distressed person or group equal to you. If I'm drowning, and you are not, you must make me like you. Morality is about equality, and this is the core of our form of sociality. We are the equality ape. I have written three longish essays about this subject for the art journal e-flux.

[T]he human body always says this: make me equal to you. We are the equality-demanding animal. Confronted with our own kind, we insist on being recognized as equal. Resist this demand and instability will follow. Equality is a force. Remove this demand, and it becomes impossible to account for any and all of our definitive characteristics: language, cooperation, and above all, morality.


For The Fans of the Sci-Fi TV Show The Expanse: The birth of the Belters: "The Chinese government plans to find, catch and land on an asteroid – before mining and even living on it."