Atari is opening a chain of hotels and one will be in Seattle.
Atari is opening a chain of hotels and one will be in Seattle. Courtesy Atari

What does this cryptic message from NHL Seattle mean? Are we gonna be the Krakens? Emerald Salmons? No, I think it means we're gonna be the Rain City Bitch Pigeons. Definitely that one.

The impeachment trial in the Senate has reached the stage where Senators ask questions: These questions, from Senator Kamala Harris, got a lot of attention.

But the big controversy today came when one of Trump's lawyers "pushed an extraordinarily expansive view of executive power... arguing that any action taken by the president to help his own re-election is, by definition, in the public interest," writes the New York Times.

Will we see any more witnesses in this trial? "Probably no," said Senator Chuck Schumer. The bright side: "We have won over the American people. Our Republican colleagues—at least some of them—realize that if they are to reject witnesses and documents, they’re going against not just a small group or not just Democrats but against the whole grain of America. And they know that they may be held accountable to that.”

Nordstrom is entering the used-clothing business: I think this is really smart for Nordstrom. “We want our customers to feel good not only about what they’re buying but how they’re buying it,” said Nordstrom's vice president of creative projects. Here's the T:

Starting Friday, racks of secondhand clothing will fill a space formerly occupied by Burberry in the company’s Manhattan store. Nordstrom will also begin allowing customers to drop off used clothing, handbags, shoes, jewelry and watches there in exchange for gift cards. Those items will be cleaned and repaired as necessary before being resold. Nordstrom said it will soon begin accepting merchandise by mail as well.

Cleaning and repairing accepted used items is unique: Many traditional resale shops, like Crossroads and Buffalo Exchange, don't. But if this move is successful, will Nordstrom try to kill other resale shops? Will they become the Blockbuster of used panties?

Polls: You can never have too many. (Kidding.) A new Monmouth University poll shows Sanders and Biden neck-and-neck in Iowa, with Biden eeking out a win. That poll demonstrates a clear generational divide: "Sanders is the first choice of 39 percent of likely caucus-goers under the age of 50, with Biden in fourth place at 7 percent. But among voters 65 or older, Biden is at 37 percent, and Sanders is in fifth place at only 9 percent." The olds do not like Sanders—bad news for Florida.

SCULPTURE DOWN: A car crash in West Seattle between a car and a van resulted in the destruction of a controversial wood sculpture, reports Westside Seattle. No people were injured in the crash, but it appears God has intervened and taken the life of the sculpture. More (bolding, courtesy of me):

Schlick chose to have [the trees in front of his house] carved into what the city has determined is public art.

They are controversial with some, especially a few of his neighbors, most likely because one of the figures is a naked female form albeit with six breasts.

"I felt that mythological/fantasy beings were a good match for the spirit of the trees that were being used. I wanted an edge of eroticism to them to foster conversation since we live in a very very very sex negative society."

Microsoft had a "stronger-than-expected" December quarter, specifically exceeding expectations with "a 39% increase in the company’s Commercial Cloud revenue," reports Geekwire. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted their recent $10 billion JEDI contract they secured with the Department of Defense, which Amazon is pissed about. Microsoft's gaming revenue, however, fell 21%.

Cats is thriving.

Big news out of Olympia: New legislation in Olympia revealed today made headlines because of its ambition to "allow King County to impose a tax on big businesses with employees who earn at least $150,000 a year." This would allow the county to raise funds to be spent on affordable housing and homeless services. SoUnDs A LiTtLe LiKe A HeAD TaX, but it's not a head tax, it's a payroll tax, but that tense debate has nevertheless reemerged. Mayor Durkan and King County Executive Dow Constantine have said this could raise as much as $121 million per year, which is cute but also, as Rich Smith pointed out just a few minutes ago on this here Slog blog, only "10 to 25% of the money necessary to fix" our state of emergency on homelessness:

The latest analysis from McKinsey shows that King County needs to raise “an additional $450 million to $1.1 billion per year for the next ten years, above and beyond what is currently being spent" in order to fully address the homelessness issue. Only in Seattle and King County is raising 10 to 25% of the money necessary to fix a problem considered a good policy solution upon which the legislature must "act with urgency." Excellent work, people. Truly transformational. Can't wait to solve one-tenth of this problem, finally, after five years since declaring a state of emergency on homelessness.

Getting real about the coronavirus panic: "The Wuhan coronavirus is not much more frightening than the outbreaks of other recent coronaviruses like SARS in 2003 or MERS in 2012, each of which killed fewer than a thousand people around the world," writes Farhad Manjoo in a new op-ed in the New York Times. "The new virus’s death toll has just exceeded 130; for context, according to the CDC, about 15 million Americans have been sickened by the seasonal flu so far in the 2019-2020 flu season, and 8,200 have died from it." Is the pandemic panic worse than the pandemic?

That said: "China now has more cases of coronavirus than it had of SARS."

Atari, once a video game company, now a brand: Atari plans on opening up 8 video-game themed hotels and one will be in Seattle, reports the New York Times. The company's statement announced that it will offer "gamers of all ages the ultimate in immersive entertainment and in every aspect of gaming." It will cater specifically to e-sports and host e-sport events. This is a trend.

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There's a Hillary Clinton docuseries coming out: It got decent reviews at Sundance and will premiere on Hulu a few days after Super Tuesday. Variety broke that the docuseries will premiere via Sky in the UK.

9-1-1: Don't pass the corona.