While Mayor For a Day, Bruce Harrell Ordered His Staff to Find Ways to Make Amazon Build Its Second Headquarters in Seattle: He then resigned and returned to his seat in the council. Many believe that Councilmember Tim Burgess will replace the man who replaced the disgraced mayor Ed Murray. (Burgess has nothing to lose because he "isn't seeking re-election this fall.") But let's give this matter some thought. Maybe Seattle should try another approach to this Amazon crisis. Maybe groveling is never going to work (and it's embarrassing as hell). What if instead we helped Amazon find another city, we gave the e-commerce giant a recommendation for its second headquarters. But what would that city be? I think it should be Vancouver, British Columbia. Why? For the same reason Microsoft opened a massive office up there: to tap into the global general intellect. Canada is far more friendly to foreigners than the US, and Amazon can benefit from this friendliness. But look at what happens if Amazon pours $5 billion into Vancouver: a bullet train between the cities comes out of the dark of feasibility studies and into the light of the near future. Connecting the cities in this way (45 minutes each way) will make them like two stars that are so close that they exchange star stuff.
Seattle Times Continues to Blame Amazon's Decision to Open a Second Headquarters in Another City on Seattle's Rabid Anti-Business Attitude: According to this view of the crisis, Seattle is simply a spoiled brat that has no idea of how lucky it is to have so many "economic assets." We, the progressives, are no better than Trump's benighted supports who claim Seattle is a hellhole. But it's not, says Seattle Times. Seattle is more equal than Miami. And though rent and houses are bloody expensive here, "itâs not among the most expensive nationally." This means the anti-business mood is mucking up things for no good reason, and Amazon is right to give this self-righteously moody city six of the best.
Seattle Times:
Iâve never lived in a city where the mayor didnât have regular, ongoing meetings with top employers. This has grown only more important as major industries have consolidated, leaving many cities behind. But apparently this is not even on the do-list at Seattle City Hall, much less a priority.
As For Bret Weinstein, the Biology Instructor and Hero of Right Wing Media and Trolls for Sparking Protests at Evergreen State College this Summer By Criticizing Racial Equality Programs: He resigned and will get $500,000 in cold cash from the college. Now you know, Bell, Biv, DeVoe. The early stages of this story, which went national, was soberly covered by Ana Sofia Knauf.
Young White Men Randomly Killing Black and Brown Men Might Now Be a Thing in Trump's America: Police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana suspect a 23-year-old white man killed two black men in separate shootings. The police also believe the murders were racially motivated. According to CNN, "in both shootings the gunman fired from his car then walked up to the victims as they were lying on the ground and fired again multiple times." One of the victims was heading to work at a joint that's popular with college students. The only thing that connects the victims, the police believe, is their skin color. But if these murders were random and racially motivated, and the killer is the 23-year-old white man in custody, we can confirm the formation of a pattern.
Recall that late last month a 19-year-old white man was charged with the murder of a Sikh cab driver in Spokane. Though the police and media portrayed the murder as nothing but misdirected anger, the family of the victim saw it as a hate crime. And it also was random. Then there was James Harris Jackson. He was charged with randomly killing an elderly black man, Timothy Caughman, in Manhattan this March. He is said to have traveled from Maryland by Boltbus, looked for a black man, soon found one, and stabbed him to death with a 26-inch black mini-sword. Is this a pattern? And if so, why is it happening or forming now? New York Times editorial board made this point in the op-ed "Timothy Caughman, the Other Terror Victim":
Trump has not tweeted about the Baton Rouge murders, and probably never will.
On Thursday, President Trump sent prayers and condolences via Twitter to the family and friends of Kurt Cochran, an American killed in a terrorist rampage in London. He called Mr. Cochran âa great American.â He did not tweet about his fellow New Yorker, Mr. Caughman.
Trump Retweets Video of Him Hitting Hillary Clinton on the Back With a Golf Ball: Now that I got your attention, the GOP is going to try again (again!) to take health insurance away from millions of Americans. This effort is led by Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy. In substance, nothing has changed from previous attemptsâit's still Trumpcare; it will still kill millions of Americans. But know that if this attempt fails, it will not be anything like the "last grasp." As the sun surely rises, expect a new attempt, a new beginning, another running up that hill because the GOP has nothing else to do but try to pull as much money as possible out of ACA. If they are not going after Obamacare, what else is there to do?
