People keep moving to Washington State, according to U-Haul data examined by Gene Balk. And what do these people hope to find in this corner of America? Mainly “jobs and outdoor recreation.” And exactly what kind of people are moving here? Younger types. And where exactly are they moving to? The Seattle area. If this is a fact, then our city, and our new mayor Katie Wilson, must focus on affordability. We should do whatever it takes to avoid becoming another San Francisco, a city whose sustained affordability crisis keeps pushing its former greatness deeper into the past.

All I can say about the weather is that it’s still too warm. Yes, the rain is wonderfully dreary and the days are long and dark like the mind of a person whose consciousness is in that diminishing region between life and death. But Seattle needs to be colder, particularly at night. We need ice in the mornings, frozen fingers warmed by a cup of coffee, and some snow, which our mountains are enjoying. Will we always have warm winters like this? Is the real Seattle Freeze now history? How I hate global warming.

Ken Jennings, the current host of Jeopardy, was recently awarded a “customized Seattle Mariners jersey” by the Metropolitan King County Council for just being an outstanding person. He also informed the council that has no plans to leave the Emerald City. LA-LA Land is not for him. He loves it here (the rain, the trees, and all of those pretty things) and will continue to commute to Los Angeles, by Alaska Airlines, to record the popular show. Meanwhile, local director and writer David Lewis recently discovered that Jeopardy is less about your knowledge of the world and more about your command of the buzzer.

On January 5, two bald eagles decided it was on; one of them had to go; either me or you “gotta die.” The beef was apparently over a territory that included West Seattle’s Lincoln Park, the location of the battle that involved powerful talons, rock-hard beaks, a fall from the sky, and bursts of black and white feathers. One eagle had the clear advantage when concerned and alarmed parkgoers broke up their “fight to the death.” The winner flew to a nearby tree and watched, with a “now you know” attitude, his fallen enemy “oozing life.” Later that day, the humans at PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center decided the loser was a goner and did the humane thing: euthanized the badly damaged bird.

Bystanders break up bald eagles'  'fight to the death' in Seattle park

 

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

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— KT (@ktblondie.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 7:02 AM

Are Coyotes Taking Over Volunteer Park? Possibly. And, according to MyNorthwest, many were spotted “in the park on New Years Day,” of all days. The nerve of these uncouth, kitten-munching hounds. Next, we will spot them in the park on Independence Day. The wild animals, which are simply adapting to our built environment, have so far paid the humans of Volunteer Park little to no mind. You do you and I do me, appears to be their present attitude.

A major part of my philosophy concludes that the appearance of nature is more illusive or more a mirage than what we make of it in the city. There, we see a nature that's already complete, as scores that have long been settled. Here, in the city, we can finally see what makes nature extraordinary: its creativity. A coyote, for example, in the wild tells us the same-old, same-old—the cycle of life as far as we can see. But such is not the case when it's roaming our streets, or passing our shops or homes. In fact, synanthropic animals subtract, reduce, diminish the human in our conception and construction of culture. Here, we really see animals adapting, reclaiming, recreating, rethinking the nature of culture. The forest buries this Whiteheadian/Bergsonian creativity; the city exhumes it. Here, a non-human animal walks on the stage (the urban and theater sets are closely related) and we watch it rearrange the setting, the setting rearranges it in real time.

morning at carkeek Park report: bald eagles, hummingbirds, sea lions barking, sail boats, mountains, probably a whale, beautiful park. no place like Seattle. also I hate drones.

— mattoak (@mattoak.bsky.social) March 30, 2024 at 10:42 AM

The thing about mainstream and even the majority of leftist accounts of recent international developments related to Trump is they consistently lack an existential context. In the past, it was not surprising for a president to have a long view of their plans, projects, and politics. They saw themselves above the natural limits of their own existence. The president would see himself as historical. This is not the case with Trump. He lives by the day, if not by the hour. And so this bizarre business of raising tariffs is not complemented by a long-term industrial policy or  import substitution program or job training initiatives.

In fact, the US, under this administration, is waiting on fickle foreign direct investment (FDI) to resuscitate the Rust Belt. This is just plain nuts. Why? Because FDI, like government investment, takes time to realize. But the latter is far less reliable than the former. And a long-term plan must be, if anything, reliable. It requires years, even decades to complete and turn a profit. This kind of time, waiting, must naturally extend far beyond what’s left of Trump’s existence. And as he gets older, expect him to place more and more emphasis on the now, the present, the ticking of 60 minutes. So, consider this existential dimension when trying to make sense of Venezuela, whose oil might be plentiful but demands, for its extraction, huge investments that will not relieve the pain at the pump any time soon.

What matters to Trump is not the US but the headlines: “Trump discussing how to acquire Greenland; US military always an option, White House says.” Indeed, the headlines on the New York Times website this morning are all about oil, oil tankers, Venezuela, Greenland, Cuba, and American imperialism. Trump is winning.

And what’s not winning? Our job market. American employers are not feeling it at the moment. As a consequence, we’ve reached the “low hire, low fire” stage, which, of course, is just around the corner from the “no hire, high fire” stage.

With the bald eagles fight still in our minds, let’s end AM with Notorious Big’s ”Somebody’s Gotta Die”: