Comments

1
Scab speaking.

Look it up.

Sawant wouldn't know this, as she is in no way connected or aware of physical reality, but there is no small irony in the choice of venue the amorphous mental blob a few million dollars short of a think-tank she claims to represent has made.

Reread it. You'll get there.

See, the Labor Hall is the place where broken men of all ages show up to find work.

As of a few years ago, work there started at $16.24 an hour. You aren't guaranteed work. You get hurt. You are exposed to the elements. You often work overnight. You have to get yourself to the project site. Every now and again, you work at asbestos sites.

I spent a few nights tearing a dock apart. From below. Splinters behind my eyes.

My last night of work was a few days after a group of five Lynnwood Africans(yes, they were Africans. Not much American in them) managed to trip me after a quarter mile sprint on ice. I stopped running, because I got to the corner. My knee went out a few days later. I had to go ask an old guy where to buy a cane. I slept in my car and showered at NSCC until Uptown hired me.

Anyways. This fat commie pig was riding me extra hard because my already ruined gait - look it up - was completely destroyed. I see red, start shouting, and only stop after I realize I'm waving a sledgehammer around like a tooth pick.

He realizes the really big African war children standing on either side of me are flashing back, starts shaking, and promptly calms the fuck down.

I was being paid $16.24 an hour to swing a sledge hammer all night.

Not to ask if you'd like fries with that. That netted me a little under ten, plus tips.

The guy in charged offered me my job back after I could walk again, but I was making better money at Uptown.

You aren't worth much. You definitely aren't worth a touch screen.

Food for thought.

--

You'll miss me, because you could never determine what was real without guidance. I don't even know why you have eyes.
2
To the lone Libertarian protester: there's a reason that you are alone, that women won't date you, and that no one likes you. Congrats, you are a sociopath. Seek help immediately.
3
Was he asked what his political alignment(or lack thereof) is, or was he just handed a premanufactured label, which is all you run with?

And people wonder why everyone was let out of the institutions.
4
You exist as an insult to all that is civilized in the world.
6
The Fifteen Now campaign has a lot of work to do putting a foundation that can be easily communicated underneath the slogan. From the rally today, it seems like they have a plan that may work to do that.

We need this. We all need this to start moving toward a world that works for human beings not greedy ersatz people known as corporations.

Otherwise the earth may resist the malign processes the corporate militarists have begun by having her own intifada (shaking off).
7
If this goes through a ballot measure spearheaded by Sawant the business interests will go to holy war against her in the 2015 cycle. The Times editorials will go full on Joseph McCarthy.
8
In all likelihood, the establishment will realize that the will have to make substantive changes to reverse the worsening inequality and put us on a path back to a large and growing middle class. They'll decide to give workers fair wages and benefits, with a decent retirement and healthcare, and end the corruption that runs from wall street through corporate America and through the two party system. We'll see an end to obscene executive salaries and a new era of what can honestly be called good governemnt.

Once they do all that, Sawant and her movement will fizzle. See? It's easy to predict which direction this will go. Just put a stop to all the greed and there's nothing to get fired up about.

Of course, I suppose for the sake of argument we can imagine the alternative. The greedy masters of our country will decide to give up nothing without a fight. In that remote, unlikely alternative, well, perhaps then the socialism will be a growing movement. But surely the 1% will do the right thing, won't they?
9
fizzle?!

pshaaaww....

10
@ 2 yes he is but socialists are as well all extremists are
11
and to show solidarity with the movement, The Stranger is proud to announce that they've guaranteed all their workers from webmasters to writers to newspaper delivery is making a $15/hr minimum ?
12
Geez. And I thought the worst we'd get here was going to be something about unpaid interns or whether the Stranger pays a $15 wage.
13
@11 for the predictable troll win.
14
Lk. Superior, you are full of shit. Go away.
15
Every word I wrote was true.

High five, gangsta!
16
13

uncanny how you predicted it eight minutes after it happened.

congratulations.

moron, thy name is seatackled
17
You have made me straight.

I am impotent.

Fuck, I'm cool.
18
@1, physical reality is campaigning for and getting voted into public office.
19
this movement can't fizzle. yet.

we haven't shit on any police cars yet.
20
Kanye is going to go to bed frothing :[
21
19

uh oh...

problems in Goldyland....

"I know from personal experience how difficult it is to sustain a movement."

Goldy can never crap on a squad car when the cause demands it.

too bad there's no Viagra for spastic colons.....
22
sarah70, you have most likely confused her.

If she was aware of what physical reality is (did you catch the joke, a while back?) I was talking about something related to something in the rl and a Stranger-patrolling genius argued AGAINST physical reality, in favor of 'Cultural Reality.'

I ran with it.

Anyways. If Sawant knew where she was she wouldn't be threatening the US Air Force with a Greyhound takeover.
23
Also, said frothing-at-the-mouth genius was stating that white people will no longer be a part of Cultural Reality. Which is really just a roundabout way of saying that 'it' (I wouldn't want to hit anyone with a doctor-prescribed gender designation fully dependent upon physical reality) makes certain to keep it's head in the sand.

Because we're post-racial, and all.

I bid thee farewell, Stranger geniuses.
24
@13,
What's so hard to understand ? If The Stranger (or any other business) can't survive with all the workers being guaranteed something that close to a living wage, then The Stranger should just fold up shop and let some other place hire the workers.

Matthew 7:5
You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye.
25
Not a huge fan of @11, but why is it not legitimate to ask why the media outlet most squarely behind the (right-minded) $15 movement isn't quite literally putting money where their mouth is? Seems kinda chicken-shit, but maybe it's more complicated than it seems?
26
@25,
Tim Keck is notoriously cheap, apparently. Like, so much so that the Seattle Times says so.

http://seattletimes.com/html/pacificnw/2…
But he's also a serious businessman. Under his watch, The Stranger has grown to a constellation, with 83 employees, a sister publication in Portland called the Mercury, and annual print revenues of more than $8 million. A tight focus on costs means writers must ask permission for each pen, and young, cheap talent cycles through. The Stranger, Keck says, carries no debt and has money in the bank.
27
@25

Because the economic stimulus of the minimum wage increase, and the level playing field from all businesses having to pay it, would make it possible for companies like The Stranger to afford it. Derp.
28
As Sawant calls for $15/ hr Seattle, we watch business and political "leaders" break our unions.

Baumgartner of Spokane proposes Washington to become a Right To Work State, Boeing was effective in weakening the union and Democrats stood silent. We hear Rodney Tom and the Majority Coalition talking about "pension reform", which means eliminating pensions. Bill Gates has given the League of Education Voters $4.2M to promote charter expansion in Washington State; another mechanism to break unions.

We are in scary times and risk further erosion of the middle class.

Go Sawant!! Our "Democratic" leaders can NOT be relied upon to stand up to corporate greed i.e. Boeing.
29
@27,
So you're predicting that the SeaTac measure which only increases the wages at larger hotels and for non-unionized hospitality and transportation workers will lead to a non-level playing field and be unaffordable for the large hotels/non-unionized hospitality and transportation workers ?

Or is your reasoning two-faced ?
30
If the wage goes to $15 per hour for everyone, then tipping goes away for good. Fair trade to me.
31
Any video online?
32
@29 - I thought we were talking about what Seattle was doing, not SeaTac.
33
@32,
I care about all people. @27 is saying that only certain businesses having a $15 minimum wage is unaffordable and an uneven playing field. Apparently until all businesses have that, there's just not enough economic stimulus to afford it. SeaTac prop 1 exempted employees subject to collective bargaining, a lot of smaller hotels/transportation businesses, and pretty much all workers who weren't involved in hotels and transportation, so I guess that means the town's outlook is pretty uneven and unstimulated by Cthulu's logic.
34
@32

Not likely that he's been in either place, so the confusion would be understandable.
35
27 argues that one business in Seattle raising wages to at least $15 is untenable because of unfair competition from lower wage employers, but a citywide $15 minimum then wouldn't suffer the same effect from competition outside the city. Either 27's got a pretty deep set of spreadsheets and equations, or it's blowing smoke rings out its ass.

I think if $15 can be done then it can be done, not that there's some magical tipping point at which competition from (a nearly limitless supply of) lower-wage businesses becomes a non-factor. And who the fuck is the competition anyway? Will the Stranger be suddenly run out of business by advertisers fleeing to the RV Trader? No - it could be done and the sky would not fall, and to argue otherwise is to co-opt a position you'll soon enough be advocating against (you apologist suck-up).
36
I agree with Chef Joe for the first time ever, even if I don't follow his logic. It would make a big impact to the movement for The Stranger, a big-name media company, to declare all of their workers are making $15/hr. It would probably make The Stranger money, as publicity stunts like that can can reap rewards (ask Dave Meinert for details). But even if not, it's worth one less ski vacation for Dan Savage or tub of diamond-powder face cream or whatever for Tim Keck.
37
And hey, while we're at it, it would make an even bigger impact for The Stranger to make changes and declare its female employees make an average wage within 5% of its male employees.
38
Anyone who has lived in Seattle for longer than a few years knows that The Stranger has an undercoating of hypocrisy. And it's not just the wages or the unpaid interns. Remember the days when The Stranger had reviews of the local gay bathhouses in the mid to late 1990's? Then they suddenly became something you shouldn't go to? And let's not forget Dan's famous tirade against the pride parade which was suddenly forgotten about the same year The Stranger became a major sponsor of the event.

Like all media, Tim is trying to make money in an industry that is largely dieing out and he will whore out his staff in anyway possible and cover any story with the slant that will bring in the most money. The Stranger is the definition of a newspaper that doesn't stand for consistency, it's the definition of a paper that goes the direction of the popular wind of the moment.
39
@32 - So you're saying the economy of Seattle and the economy of SeaTac are the same and should be treated the same?

@38 - Cool story bro.
41
@38 Yeah. Right. I spent three-plus hours on a Sunday covering a political rally, because Tim told me to. That's how all our editorial decisions are made.
42
what is there to debate about the minimum wage that requires a committee to take months of work to agree on a compromise?

some business is against it. We know that now. They know it. they're not going to change their minds. The committee should put out its proposal in like one week. another issue is the meinert plea to count benefits, which are hard to quantify for each case or to see if they're real; much simpler to keep the min wage just about the wage number. Easier to enforce.

the small business exemption? there should be none. otherwise you will find the local small business dividing into two small businesses ....say, the local CPA in Madrona village "outsources" the admin work to a company called "Mini Me CPA Services LLC" which takes hald the employees. And it's so hard to allactate employees inside and outside seattle anyway.

Keep it simple. Don't belabor it. The council should go to $11 NOW like RIGHT NOW THIS WEEK to restore us to 1968 equivalent levels then in ONE MONTH pass an ordinance taking it to 12, 13 and 14 and 15 in say two years.....and if not, fuck 'em, let's go pass it by initiative. I mean Sawant won. What if the democratic party actually got off its ass and supported this full on? golly, it would be passed on the council. if the party powerful won't do it the people can.
43
@41: Oh my God, an alleged journalist has to cover news on a Sunday. The inhumanity!
44
@8 FTW.
45
I'm not worried about Stranger writers because they're choosing to be writers, and choosing to work at that particular workplace. Sure they should be paid at least $15/hr, but I have no knowledge that they aren't. McDonald's, on the other hand, is an obscenely rich corporation and employs people who are desperate. They're not choosing to be there, since it's doubtful anyone would choose to do that rather than do something else. They have nowhere else to go. And I know they're making less than $15/hr.
46
@45, so the people flipping burgers are worth more money than the writers at The Stranger?
47
@46, if you're going to question commenters, read their comments first.
48
The Stranger seems to love lying.
First, the voters are not "radicalized". Winning a Seatac measure by 77 votes is hardly "radicalized", and the Bollywood Bolshevik won by less than one percent, even though her opponent was incompetent and didn't really try.
Also, recent polls showed that 57% of Seattle would be against a fifteen dollar minimum wage, even though they hardly here anything in the media from the opposing side aside from a handful of people outside that rally. Oh, and there goes another lie, I was there for a little while and there was more than one person outside the rally fuming but it looked he was the only one who made a sign.
If the Stranger wanted to do real journalism, why not talk to business owners AS WELL as Sawant and her lemmings? And, for that matter, just walk around and talk to random people and hear what they think.
Honestly, is the editor of this rag sleeping with Sawant or something?

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