Extended Iran War Will Tank Seattle Economy: That’s the message the city’s Office of Economic and Revenue Forecast told the public last Friday, “If the oil prices stay high for a prolonged time, there’s just nothing that can be done to avoid a recession,” the office’s chief economist said per the Seattle Times. With the US Navy now blockading the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iranian oil exports (a response to Iran blockading the Strait of Hormuz to prevent oil exports from America’s Gulf state puppets), it might be a good time for your household to budget conservatively. The city on the other hand is being told by its budget advisors to plan as if the Forever War will end sooner rather than later. In that fantasy land, the Seattle budget forecast is “unchanged from last year,” balancing out layoffs and recessions with new taxes.
Last Tankers Through Hormuz Reaching Refineries: The city’s budget forecasters might be banking on this whole “largest oil price in history” kerfuffle to blow over, but according to the Financial Times, the oil is about to stop showing up in port. “The last oil tankers to traverse the Strait of Hormuz before the outbreak of war will reach refineries in the coming days, in a pivotal moment analysts warn could herald physical shortages in Europe and the US within weeks.”
Protesters Picket Spokane Air Force Tanker Base: The US-Israeli air war against Iran requires long-distance bombing missions that get refueled mid-air by the US Air Force’s fleet of KC-135 tanker aircraft, aka flying gas stations. They’re so essential to the bombing campaign that a number of these vulnerable Boeing planes have already been lost both in the air and on the ground, and one recently landed in the UK pockmarked with shrapnel. Many are deployed out of Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, where dozens of protesters, including many veterans, gathered this weekend to protest the US invasion of Iran. “As citizens of the United States, it’s not our job to support every war or every powerful individual who loves war or who makes money off of war,” Vietnam War veteran Rusty Nelson told the Spokesman Review.
New Doc for SeaTac Hijacker Who Died Crashing Plane: In 2018, troubled 28-year-old SeaTac Airport worker Richard Russell spontaneously climbed into the cockpit of an empty Horizon Air turboprop, joyrode for an hour, and then intentionally crashed the aircraft on Ketron Island, dying by suicide. A new documentary on Hulu, “#SkyKing,” tells the story, MyNorthwest reports.
Icebreaker Returns to Seattle After Antarctic Mission: The United States has only one heavy icebreaker, the Coast Guard’s aptly named Polar Star, to resupply our far-flung outposts in the world’s coldest climates. It returned to its home port of Seattle on Monday after a 23,000-mile journey to resupply in Antarctica, KING 5 has the pictures. The Polar Star was built in Seattle with its sister ship, the Polar Sea, and have been summertime fixtures on the waterfront for so long Valve stuck one of them in Half-Life 2.
Canadians Shun Washington’s BC Exclave: A quirk of colonialism means the peninsula of Point Roberts jutting off Canada south of Vancouver is technically US territory. It’s only easy to get there from British Columbia, meaning it’s economically dependent on Canadian tourism. President Trump’s threats to annex Canada did the community no favors, and their local economy is back in the toilet after years spent recovering from the pandemic, Cascadia Daily News reports.
Makah Tribe Still Blocked From Whaling: The federal government is supposed to approve the Makah Tribe right to hunt whales as per treaty obligations, but the permitting process has been bogged down for decades. It’s still bogged down, with tribal officials telling KNKX last week they’re hoping the feds get around to it in time for a planned July hunt.
Portland Amazon Worker Dies, Boss Says “Get Back to Work”: Amazon warehouses are notoriously dangerous workplaces. At one such shipping facility in suburban Portland, when a worker died earlier this month, a manager told employees to “just turn around and not look. Let’s get back to work,” according to a worker who spoke with the Western Edge.
AI Executive Attacker Charged with Attempted Murder: A 20-year-old who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home in San Francisco was trying to save the world from the machines, according to charging documents. “Also if I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example and show that I am fully sincere in my message,” is just some of what authorities are saying the man wrote in a document found on him during his arrest. A US Attorney says they’re treating it as an act of domestic terrorism, per the Associated Press.
Here is an Unrelated Video of Delivery Drones Being Obliterated