Traffic be increasing in the Seattle area...
Traffic be increasing in the Seattle area... Art Wager/gettyimages.com

Just As the Daily Death Count in King County Nears Zero, and New Coronavirus Cases Are Dramatically Falling: People in the Seattle area are jumping into their cars and going all over the place.

KOMO:

Across greater Seattle more people are venturing away from home. "We are noticing a bounce back in how much people are driving," said Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at Inrix. Travel hit its low point in March when mobility was reduced more than 50 percent according to Intix. That number slowly increased since.

The prediction is that traffic will greatly increase during Memorial Day weekend. This is bad news. People still need to stay at home. Believe me, it's the only way we can get out of this lockdown as fast as possible.

The thinking communicated through much of the mainstream has been those on the left are somehow enjoying the masks, the social distancing, the lockdown, the closed bars and barbershops. The right, on the other hand, are portrayed as sheer lovers of freedom—-open, baby, open. But the real difference between the right and left, is the latter wants this crisis to end soon (not sooner than soon). If we go the way of the right, the left knows the crisis will be dragged into the following year and beyond. Trust us. We want to get out of our homes and apartments. We want to be back in the bars. Please, stay at home, so this can happen sooner than later.

Washington Republicans Want an Emergency Meeting With Inslee About the State's Budget: My guess is the GOP will demand that, in the light of the considerable economic difficulties caused by the pandemic, Inslee increase state spending and generate jobs for the growing number of unemployed Washingtonians. The GOP will recommend that the state borrow this money to pay for shovel-ready projects (repairing roads and bridges, upgrading schools and hospitals in the rural areas) because right now borrowing is very cheap. But Inslee will predictably resist and insist that balancing the state's budget and eliminating the projected "7-billion state budget shortfall" is what matters most. But the GOP, whose members are fervent Christians, and therefore follow the teachings of that humble man from Galilee, will have none of it. Improving the quality of life is far more important that this ultimately meaningless business of balancing books.

This part of Slog AM was brought to you from the other side.

Seattle's Growth: Began slowing down sharply in 2019. Between 2013 and 2017, the city was, according to Gene Balk, "in the top 2 for growth among the 50 most-populous U.S. cities." Now it's not. It's new growth position is sixth.

Balk:

From July 1, 2018, to July 1, 2019, Seattle had a net gain of about 11,400 people, reaching a total population of 753,700. That pencils out to a 1.5% growth rate, a far cry from the peak year of 2016 when we grew by 3.2%, and added more than 22,000 residents.

At this point, it's easy to predict that growth between July 1, 2019 and July 1, 2020 ground to a halt.

Who Is This Man? He is white. He hit an Asian man who was walking down the street with another Asian. Both were under a blue umbrella, minding their own business. When the white man hit the Asian man, he yelled: “It’s all your fault.” This is Seattle. This kind of thing should not be happening here. Help the police find the man captured in the video.


Also, it looks like the white guy was going to get his ass kicked.

Man Walks In Renton Uwajimaya: Is told to wear a mask. He refuses to do so. He leaves after threatening to “return and shoot everyone.” The next day, he reenters the supermarket armed with a hatchet. Eventually, the police arrest him. He is now in jail.

The List of Powerful Michigan Women Trump Hates Grows: There is, of course, Gretchen Whitmer, the state's governor ("Trump approves Michigan disaster declaration after war of words with governor"). Next up is the Secretary of State of Michigan Jocelyn Benson. He called her a "rouge Secretary of State" on a mission to steal the election from him. How? By lawfully offering the citizens of Michigan the option of voting by mail in the coming election.

Jocelyn Benson hit back with tweet one:

And tweet two:

Now there is the Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. She's not having it. President or no president, you must follow the law. A mask must be worn in an indoor area. She called Trump, who didn't wear a mask during much of his May 21 visit of a Ford factory, a “petulant child who refuses to follow the rules.” She also warned that Trump will not be allowed to hold indoor events in Michigan if he does not obey the law. Wear a mask, you chump!

Trump Did Wear a Mask for a Part of the Ford Visit:

The Georgia Man Who Captured the Fatal Shooting of Ahmaud Arbery on His Handy: Has been arrested and charged with murder and the attempt to commit false imprisonment.

NBC:

When [the two suspects and victim] passed Bryan's home, Bryan got in his own vehicle and followed...
When Arbery ran around [car of suspects], Bryan tried to block him, [one suspect] told investigators. Arbery ran past Bryan's car, too, and the two vehicles reportedly turned around and continued pursuing him. At 1:14 p.m., Bryan took the video of Travis shooting Arbery...
Three makes a posse, right? (Note: handy is the German word for a cell phone.)

American Billionaires Have Made $434 billion During Pandemic: Between mid-March and mid-May, the very top of the one percent saw its wealth soar like never before. "Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had the biggest gains," reports NBC. The former added $34.6 billion to his galactic-size pot; the latter $25 billion.

NBC:

[A study by the Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program for Inequality concluded that] the net worth of America’s billionaires grew 15% during the two-month period, to $3.382 trillion from $2.948 trillion. The biggest gains were at the top of the billionaire pyramid, with the richest five billionaires — Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison — seeing combined wealth gains of $76 billion.

Elon Musk had among the largest percentage gain of billionaires during the two months, seeing his net worth jump by 48% in the two months to $36 billion.

Why is Musk even complaining? Really? What's the problem with this billionaire Boer?

And now I have to give my readers some very shocking news: This report about the "billions and billions" made people with "billions and billions" came from the universe we are all stuck in. Not that other one.