When are the Governor, County Executive, and mayors of affected cities going to tell the Secret Service and visiting dignitaries to fuck off and charter a helicopter if they can't drive in normal traffic? The Secret Service can't lock things down without the cooperation of the local police, county sheriff, and state patrol. The rest of us would rather go about our normal lives even if it means that they miss hosting some event for the powerful.

@1 What is the point of being the authoritarian leader of 1.3+ billion people if you can't shut down the city of Seattle when you want to pop out for a cup of coffee?

18 U.S. Code § 1752 does not authorize the potential searches described by Seattle Police Department's representative. In fact, it states nothing about searches.

SPD refuse to say whether or not their staff will participate in warrantless searches ofas people demanded as condition of walking on our public sidewalks. Whose side are they on?

What @1 said.

Take the light rail from the airport like the rest of us.

Thanks, but most of this was covered in the Morning "News"

That's not how to say Xi Jinping. But it'll do. It's only as bad as Americans saying "Edinburrow".

@5: The Morning "News" comment has been broken all day, and has zero comments. Funny that no staffer has noticed.

Questions I still have: why is he here and who is he visiting?

@7, you didn't notice the inline commentary that Xi Jinping doesn't allow public commentary. That the news didn't allow comments was by design.

Seriously! did he just come here to screw with traffic? what is he doing here?

Rode through this scene on my bike commute the past two days and it gave me new perspective on how peaceful demonstrations become volatile. The police presence -numbers and tenor - gives off a very real protection of sides feeling. And I did not feel on the side that they were protecting. Shitty feeling. I also thought abut the cost of this protection. Who is paying for this shit show, and what is the price tag? That was on my mind as I rode past the usual homeless / shitluck folks that no level of government is "able" to give a niggling crumb of help to. The whole scene would be fucking disheartening enough if it were in some self-proclaimed conservative capitalism orgy center but for all the sefl-aggrandizing Seattle does about it's "socialist" left-leaning, people-first politics, it sure seems more like a poser-liberal capitalism orgy.