Seattle Saga

For about two weeks....I've been watching this odd mass shooting episode at the Bite of Seattle food festival (the 26th of July).

The basic story?  Somewhere around 6 PM....gunfire broke out at Seattle Center (near the Space Needle) during the final day of the local 'free' (to enter) food festival. Some gang-BS started up....shooting....with apparently three folks shooting.

Three folks dead....two were just guys hanging out....one was apparently one of the shooters.

Four folks wounded.

If you go by the textbook....cops did everything possible to halt the mess....I'd give them credit.

So....two issues pop up.

First....one shooter got away, and the cops simply didn't want to advertise his appearance.  

Second, while the got-away guy stuff was going on.....city leadership didn't want to talk about it.  You get the impression.....no one knew much of anything, and they didn't want to share that lack of knowledge with the news people.

Five hours pass.  There's a conference scheduled....but they seem to be waiting on the arrival of the Governor.

The mayor?  Well....this is the gal who is fully unqualified for the job.  

Somewhere in the middle of things....it's apparent that the chief of police doesn't really LIVE in Seattle.  The guy was hired out of Chicago....keeping the family/residence there, and simply renting an apartment in Seattle. You get the impression he was a temp-guy....waiting for a chance to return to Chicago, and be chief of police there.

The mayor gets the ideal....because the police chief is gone so much....out of the city....she needs to blame someone, and he's the 'one'.  So in the past couple of day.....she fires him.  Oddly, the city has to pay him off....at least $600,000 from the details I can figure.

The replacement guy?  Well....he's a temp-filler.....keeping a apartment in Seattle, while living elsewhere....as well.

Journalists?  Well...you get the impression that for 20 years....they've been hibernating, and just woke up...asking weird blunt and direct questions....which the mayor can't answer.

I paused here....wondering....well....does Seattle just not have mass shootings, and this was a one-of-a-kind?  NO....statistics show 3 to 7 mass shootings a year.  So it's not rare.

Finally, I come to this odd part of the story.  There is still apparently one shooter from this event....still on the run.  

My take?  The mayor probably has about six months of time left...before the pressure gets to a 'joke' level.  

Trekkie Episode

 'Strange New Worlds'....the Star-Trek series....season four opened up and I watched episode one.  I sat and watched the episode ("Valles Marineris") yesterday.  One of the weirdest and thought-provoking episodes of all the series.

Brief description?  Pike and crew are ordered to observe some 'natural-event'.  They show up....get drawn into some vortex, and lickety-split....are 65-million years in the past.  Based on stars....in 30 seconds....they figure they are in the Earth/Mars region...oddly enough.  The engine is down....fuel used up....crappy mess.

So they send three ladies to gather up fuel noted on Earth.  The intention for the 'slant' of the story....they are three bad-ass ladies.  (I can buy into this....slightly).

Meanwhile....Pike and crew now encounter this highly advanced race of Martians.  Head?  Battle Commander Kassel....bad-ass-level 9 (out of ten).  

Apparently Mars is at war with a bug-people (don't ask).....there's not much told, except the bug-people have killed off millions of Martians, and Kassel is looking for a magnificent weapon to end the threat.  Pike keeps talking about peace, and 'talks'.  

At some point...Kassel realizes the Enterprise 'fuel-cell' is the perfect weapon (makes no sense)....then steals it.  

Pike's efforts to crank-up the Enterprise....go to full power....now wrapped up.

So by the rules of the Federation.....Pike needs to recover the fuel-cell, and halt the massive threat.  Well....it's too late....Kassel has launched the fuel-cell 'bomb'.....against the 5th planet.

Well...this gets to a half-reality/half-theory problem....yeah, there is a 5th planet out there....in reality....already destroyed. Pike has begun to realize the implications.

So with 30 seconds left to halt the fuel-cell-bomb....saving the bug-people....Pike says nothing and lets the bomb dissolve the bug-problem.  They use the explosion to rig up a path back to the right time, and the Federation leadership seem to want to limit the discussion of what happened.

My take....someone knew the timing of this and rigged up Pike and crew to deliver the fuel-cell-bomb.

All of this has brought up the 5th planet issue, and making folks wonder.....in reality, what really happened to it?

I have to admit....I'd kind like to see the Kassel character brought back