Comments

1

No harm, no foul.

Counting down to frothing troll outrage in 3...2...1...

2

Except, the printers were (presumably) already under government control, in order to be used for the public.

So in reality, she "seized" an outsized amount of public resources for her personal wants, using her power as a government official.

So yes, an excellent demonstration of socialism in practice.

3

@1

I guess your countdown could have stopped at 2.

6

@3
The time stamps are simultaneous.
Damn, I'm good...

7

@3: If mild tongue-in-cheek disagreement over meaningless issues constitutes "frothing outrage" in your mind, I can see why you project so much and act the way you do. Sounds exhausting.

8

@6: I guess #7 applies to you too.

Although we basically posted at the same time again, so maybe we should exchange numbers and see where this relationship goes.

9

Let's just vote her out next tine around and be done with it.

10

Deep City Hall State corruption.

11

Of course Sawant isn't apologize.

She's immune to ever considering herself wrong. Personally using the copiers is NBD but this also represents a greater truth about Sawant, in that she fundamentally sees herself as higher class of citizen than her constituents. She's the paving to the road to hell personified.

12

“You [co-City Council member Sally Bagshaw] can choose not to use your office for really fighting for the interests of working people and to build movements.

I strongly believe that council resources absolutely should be used to further social movements and not for the protection of the interests of the chamber of commerce.” –Seattle City Council member (and my Hero) Kshama Sawant

I know, I know, who doesn't love multi-national Corps running the Planet, but, hey -- the mutherfucker's FINITE. Our Biosphere is Fragile. So are we -- being human beings. Unbridled, unhinged Capitalism is NOT your Friend.

Y.E.S. on Kshama

13

So, let me get this straight. Sawant used City resources she is authorized to use as a member of the City Counsel for the good of the working class of Seattle. Why am I not surprised that the loudest voices come from those who think the workers should suffer so the Capitalists can get richer off our backs?

14

I can't wait to use my vouchers to benefit whomever runs against Sawant. I fully expect she'll be on the local news this evening rallying against this horrible injustice of being criticized. Except, of course, that she's secretly thrilled by it because it affords her the opportunity to once again be in front of the cameras.

17

“...for the good of the working class of Seattle.”

Is that the same “working class” who showed up to tell her off the previous time she tried a rally against Amazon?

18

@15: What depressing and illogical conflations. Just because we're a weary nation from Trump's chipping away at our norms and values doesn't diminish the severity of any other ethical violation - such as by Sawant.

19

I'm more upset that Sally Bagshaw used her taxpayer-funded office to protect and defend our predatory mayor.

20

@18:

Except for the rather significant fact that, as the article makes clear, Sawant did not commit an ethical violation. So, maybe you complaining about "illogical conflations" isn't such a stellar move on your part, now is it?

21

That wacky Sawant! I'll miss her after she gets voted out next year.

24

@12

You're right, and I'm sure producing these thousands of single-use paper products has a negligible impact on our Fragile Biosphere.

25

@23: No, the severity of the crime and anyone's opinion of the defendant are orthogonal.

@18: Okay. But an advisory commission is a weak hook to hang one's morality on.

26

In fairness, Sawant has to use public-sector workers to get what she wants, because private-sector workers simply don’t listen to her when she attempts to command them. :-P

@23 and elsewhere: the issue is the official’s unilateral and uncompensated appropriation of taxpayer money to promote a cause not all taxpayers support. That principle remains valid, even if the cost is $1. Just because there’s no prohibition in the city’s ethics code doesn’t make it a good practice. (As the old saying goes, the problem is often what’s legal.)

@19: You really don’t have to keep reminding us just how eagerly you swallowed the emissions of male convicts.

29

@blip. So it’s cool with your boss if you make 4K copies for your after hours gig on the company copier?

The rally wasn’t city (employer) business. I know you probably agree with the message and don’t value an employers resources but that aside, how is this not stealing at any other job?

30

@28. Support for the allocation isn’t an issue at all. The “allocation” is for non city business therefore it’s not allocation, it’s theft. If holding rallies was part of Sawants official duties as CC member, it wouldn’t be an issue.

31

@26:

Name one thing, just one that "all taxpayers support", because I would be thrilled to hear what that thing is.

32

@29 yeah, it seems like it would be against the rules but the article states that it isn't so I guess that's what we have to go with. Not sure what you are trying to prove by comparing a city council member with "any other job"? At most of the jobs I've held you would be fired for sitting down but its certainly allowed at the city council. Yes, different jobs have different rules.

33

@30:

Please explain how legislation proposed, debated, and voted on by the City Council is NOT city business.

34

@31: As others have made clear, holding anti-Amazon rallies isn’t part of the City Council’s work statement, and therefore a Council Member shouldn’t be allocating City resources to it.

At every private-sector job I’ve ever held, use of company resources for personal projects was forbidden, and in some places, it was by itself grounds for actions up to and including termination.

35

@31: Garbage service

37

@34:

So, basically you're taking the position that using City resources to promote legislative proposals drafted by the City Council is a violation of - well, what, I'm not exactly sure, since again, the City Ethics Commission, the body granted authority to adjudicate such matters, says there was no violation - so, what part of that is still unclear to you?

@35:

Given the state of some yards I've seen around here, I would dispute that - but, I'll admit it's probably as close as you're going to get.

38

The only people that should be annoyed by this are people that needed to use that copier.

39

@33. Debates, legislation, and voting are all part of CC job.

Rallies. Not so much.

You’re bad at this.

40

@36: So, ethical decisions are, or should be, the same as popularity contests?

@37: Good job in missing the point. “...using City resources to promote legislative proposals drafted by the City Council...”

If the City Council drafted a legislative proposal to hold a rally against Amazon, I must have missed it. Do help me out here, and cite the day, time, and resolution/proposal number for that one.

I was also clear this is not a violation of the City’s current Ethics Code, hence my saying the ethical problem sometimes lies in what is allowed.

41

@36. You’re right. I don’t like sawant. I could also care less about her copier use. I assume that government employees are wasteful. It’s built into the bureaucracy.

Kudos to sawant for showing some initiative and being wasteful on her own.

That’s some grade A stigginit.

42

@39:

Apparently not as bad as you are at this, since clearly the Ethics Commission does not agree with your opinion on the matter.

@40:

Well, not surprising you missed it, because it's only been noted about a half-dozen times in this thread, not to mention the OP. But, since you seem particularly willfully obtuse today, let's repeat it ONE MORE TIME. There was NO VIOLATION. You even admit there was NO VIOLATION. So, if there was - wait for it - NO VIOLATION of the City Ethics Code, then it wasn't unethical, was it?

43

@42: If you want to keep re-stating what I clearly wrote @26, no one can stop you, but doing so while insisting I missed the very thing I wrote just makes you look idiotic. (Abusing the caps lock key doesn’t do you any favors, either.)

Now, @37 you wrote, “...City resources to promote legislative proposals drafted by the City Council ...” What “legislative proposals drafted by the City Council” was CM Sawant using “City resources” to promote when she demanded 4,000 pieces of instant litter? (You can give the title and number of just one, because I’m feeling generous.)

44

@42. Didn’t say she was violating any ethics issues. You’re inferring that’s my point because you are so terribly unintelligent that the one I made sailed clean over that thick skull of yours. And trust me, it’s not a very nuanced point. So you look really, really stupid right now.

45

Despite being a lefty and one of many who voted her in I find Sawant's ongoing arrogance, media hunger, and Bolshevik-inspired taxing philosophy to be quite annoying.
As noble as her latest crusade might be, the city should not be paying for the promotion unless it is an actual official city business.

46

Say, who paid for those Seahawks and Sounders championship parades, which probably were not legislative proposals by the City Council?

47

@46: Sawant ordered city employees to make photocopies in support of pro sports teams’ victory parades?

If not, WTF is your point?

48

@47

That you are FOS and should GAL?

49

@48. We feel the same way when you guys nitpick about businesses making a profit and not immediately forfeiting that profit willingly to an overfunded and underperforming homeless industry.

Like you’re FOS and you need to GAL.

See, we’re playing the same game, just different teams.

50

@44:

Anything you don't understand - or refuse to understand - always looks really, really stupid - but only just to you.

51

@2 I wish I had access to this copier right now so I could send you 4000 snapshots of my balls.

52

Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO,
makes ONE HUNDRED FORTY EIGHT
MILLION DOLLARS.
Per. fucking. DAY.

His workerbee / drones?
Many are in fact on Food Stamps.
Medicaid. "Public Assistance."

Public Assistance.
Hey -- It's just Capitalism.
Much like gun massacers in America today,
there's NOTHING that can (nor should) be done.

Nope -- nuthin to see here.
Now, Move on.

53

I would be fine with and perhaps respect Sawant using the copiers to promote her personal political agenda as long as she would do the same for a CM with opposing views using the same resources that way. I don't know for instance, for signs and chant sheets for a rally in favor of the No Tax on Jobs referendum. Me thinks her giant hypocrisy tendencies would get in the way of that happening. She calls Bezos a bully, but come on, she is the most brazen bully around.

54

It's starting to seem like the Seattle political establishment is starting to develop a case of anti-Sawant derangement syndrome.

55

@46 Everyone knows that the teams pay for that. They pay for the extra police and traffic enforcement at games, etc, etc, etc. They pay (at overtime rates!). The stadiums, maybe not so much, but let's not get it twisted.

56

So this is not just a few copies... the source article said literaly thousands of double-sided 11x17 color posters. Just one toner cartridge for those copiers costs over a thousand dollars, she probably went through several, and that's not including any copies made before May 10th at 11am, those records were not retained by the copier. The ethics guy said it's OK because it falls under use to "pass legislation" which is pretty shady to me, she didn't do it to pass legislation as a member of the council, she did it for her position as a leader in her political party. If this were straight cash and not toner would anyone be okay with her giving her office budget over to her political party? I'm guessing no. Would anyone be okay with one of our state legislators giving government funds directly to the republican or democratic parties? Obviously not. I'm a city employee myself and I printed a ten page color document of hiking trails once and got in trouble for using it for personal use. How is this different? If this indicates the standards our city leaders are held to, it's no wonder we had a child molester as mayor. This is theft of thousands of public dollars and it's blatant waste like this that makes me realize that the head tax money will be wasted along with all the rest of the homeless funding. And yes, I'm a liberal. I'm just sick of seeing all the tax increases when the city is already misusing the largest they've ever had.


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