Let’s get this straight. Seattle’s next mayor, Katie Wilson, is not a socialist, as a number of headlines claim. She is a democratic socialist. The difference between the two political programs is easy to explain. The goal of democratic socialism is to construct institutions and policies that counter the failures of capitalism: billionaires, the destruction of the environment, poverty, low wages, and so on. The goal of socialism is to abolish the capitalist class altogether.
To Go a Little Deeper: Marxism, another term you’ll hear thrown around about our progressive leaders, is not socialism because it’s descriptive. A Marxist only says what capitalism is, how it works, how it reproduces, and why it divides its form of society into classes. Now, Keynesianism (named after the celebrated Depression-era British economist John Maynard Keynes) is prescriptive. It provides solutions to market failures, which were painfully evident in the 1930s. Combine Keynesianism with Marxism, and you get social democracy. Combine Marxism with socialism and you are on the way to communism. But the world has yet to produce a communist society. What has appeared instead are forms of capitalism. The Soviet Union, for example, never abolished the class structure (called by Marx “the relations of production”) generated by market forces (“the means of production”). It simply replaced the capitalist with either experts (engineers, managers, and so on) or a party. I hope that clears this up.
One more thing. The Stranger‘s former news editor, Josh Feit, put it this way on Facebook: “For those calling Katie Wilson a socialist, please note that in 2019, your bogeyman Kshama Sawant derided Wilson as the leader of Seattle’s liberal faction. In her inimitable 1930s lingo, Sawant called the Wilsonites: ‘the Katie Wilson-dominated liberal activist layer.'”
Yesterday, mayor-elect Katie Wilson wasted no time joining a protest organized by Starbucks union members. It happened outside of the closed Starbucks Reserve Roastery on the corner of Minor Street and Pike Street. Wilson also told the union members, who are demanding a fair contract from the Seattle-based corporation, that she’s “not buying Starbucks.” New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani also wasted no time “urging people not to patronize the iconic coffee chain while baristas remain on strike.” This, of course, is something Bruce Harrell or Andrew Cuomo would have ever done. Standing with workers. It’s just not their cup of tea. It’s also why they lost.
My forever lovely Kate Bush (one of the queens of the 80s), do your hear that? It’s the real rain. It fell all night. It’s falling this morning, which is universally grey. And what happens “every time it rains” just like this? Kate Bush: “You’re just in reach, when you and sleep escape me.” Today will be wet. Tomorrow, not so wet.
Look, we no longer need the Epstein Files. Let the Department of Justice keep them. Why? Because we already know the man sitting in the White House was in deep with the creep. The emails released by both parties this week, the photos that are all over the web, the birthday card—what more do you want? It’s all there. If the press had pictures and videos of Obama partying with the pimp (Jeffrey Epstein was not a “financier”), that would have been enough to destroy his career and initiate an official investigation. But with Donald (White Skin Matters) Trump, we keep needing more files, more letters, more pictures. But to insist that the matter can only be settled by the files is to give them a power that’s metaphysical and even mystical. But in truth, it’s more like a dog biting a rock.
Is this dark warning, offered by Rep. Thomas Massie of the members of his party, the GOP, of any value? “[If] you vote to cover up for pedophiles, you’ve got cover in a Republican primary. But I would remind my colleagues that this vote is gonna be on your record for longer than Trump is gonna be president. And what are you gonna do in 2028 and 2030 when you’re in a debate either with a Republican or a Democrat and they say, ‘How can we trust you? You covered up for a pedophile back in 2025.'” And so the question is not whether Trump is a pedophile or not. The question is, in Massie’s context: Did you vote to withhold or release the files. This again gives the files too much importance. The game is already up. You—Massie and your Grand Old Party—are already providing cover for the man we well know is in the files.
My god. The awfulness of this man is really on another level:
To combat all the evidence from the Epstein Files showing that Donald Trump raped children, the White House’s strategy is to show pictures of Trump on occasions when he wasn’t raping children. 👀 [image or embed]
— The Sgt Joker (@thesgtjoker.bsky.social) November 13, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Trump’s plan to deal with an issue that got Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson elected, the affordability crisis? Hit the road and hold rallies on the government’s dime. The public can, apparently, eat and pay bills with just his hot air: prices are the lowest they have ever been in the whole history of the world, I’m great, Biden bad, this is a golden age.
Dig this. Trump recently denounced a National Museum of African Art exhibit, “From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson,” that had Drexciya, a Detroit techno duo, at its center. The administration saw it as anti-White and pro-Black. But who is Drexciya? In the 90s, their electro music created an “underwater kingdom populated by the children of pregnant women who had been thrown overboard or jumped into the ocean during the Middle Passage.” Let’s end Slog AM in this underwater world that the White House hates so much.
The problem is gun violence in response to car jacking, not car jacking.
So would The Stranger, prior to the new Noisy Creek ownership have proclaimed. The Stranger is going soft.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/would-be-carjacking-victim-shoots-2-in-self-defense-seattle-police-say/
Oh what Sawant hates Katie Wilson? Guess tensorna et al have to love her now, sorry I don’t make the rules.
Banner photo = more ugly Seattle garbage + glorifying a murderer
Hey now Bi-pedo!
You never answered my question…
Tell me about 5280. Like I said before, you are probably too young to remember him. If you are old enough, well then I just pity you.
“Yes that’s Ramona Flowers. Someone said she was gonna be here tonight actually” – Comeau (knows everyone)
“But the world has yet to produce a communist society.”
No True Scotsman and all that.
@4 – go masturbate somewhere else
Re Dems ending the shutdown, from the founders of the No Kings movement:
“We’re done waiting for Democrats to find their spine. We can’t afford a weak and cowardly Democratic Party while the authoritarians invade our cities, terrorize our communities, and threaten our democracy. We get the party we demand, and we intend to demand a Democratic Party that fights.” — Ezra Levin
“A key faction of Senate Democrats have, once again, shown us they have no fight left in them. They ended this shutdown in exchange for nothing but empty promises from the same Republicans who lied their way into this crisis in the first place – in direct opposition to public sentiment generally, and from Democratic voters specifically. Our democracy is facing an existential threat. We need leaders with backbone and conviction – not timidity and excuses.” — Leah Greenberg
https://indivisible.org/statements/indivisible-launches-its-largest-primary-program-response-senate-democrats-surrendering
“This, of course, is something Bruce Harrell or Andrew Cuomo would have ever done.” [sic]
I’ve always wanted a Communism, Socialism, Marxism cheat sheet. Thank you Charles!
@ Bi-pedo…
That’s the best you got?
Holy Christ you suck at this.
I will masturbate wherever I please (in accordance to local laws and normal public decency. I wouldn’t want to unleash my monster wang on unsuspecting humans).
Again, answer my question, you coward…
Who is 5280?
Drexciya’s mythology making racists mad 20 years after james stinson’s death is a testament to their art and their genius
@7:
As I noted yesterday, there’s a difference between capitulation and strategic withdrawal. The GQP was never, repeat, NEVER going to willingly advance a bill to extend ACA benefits, and the Democrats know this full well. BUT, House Speaker Johnson is now on-record as stating he would be willing to allow it to come up for a vote, so he’s either an unabashed liar (likely) and will reneg on this pledge, or even if he does let the bill come to the floor, every member of his party will have to publicly express their opposition rather than using the shutdown as a cover to claim they weren’t opposed to it. Red State voters are far more dependent on these subsidies and losing them isn’t going to make them happy at all come next November – something the GQP knows full-well themselves. That might be enough of an incentive for at least a few of them to cross over and vote for the bill, which would then put it in the Senate’s court where the same principle applies: vote against it and face the wrath of voters or vote for it and face the bloviated threats of retribution from Lord Dampnuts. No one is under the delusion that he’s not going to veto it if it does manage to land on whatever desk is in the Oval Office that hasn’t been shipped off to Mar-A-Lago, so no matter how this plays out, the GQP is going to be stuck taking ownership of it and will have to face the consequences in the mid-terms.
I for one can hardly wait…
@10 If he doesn’t ever reply can you tell me what it means? I honestly have no idea and I’m curious. I know that’s how high above sea level Denver is but I don’t know what or who you’re referencing. And unlike every other post I make on here, I’m sincerely asking and not being a dick in anyway.
“Again, answer my question, you coward…
Who is 5280?”
Some cop. Why do you care so much?
It’s interesting that thirteen12 @7 is now presenting Indivisible as the voice of truth when not too long ago he was trying to discredit them as a voter (or mailing list) harvesting operation of the DNC in response to my holding them up as a paragon of an effective nonviolent protest movement. I would dig up the exact comment but:
(A) No time.
(B) That would clearly be evidence that thirteen12 is living rent-free inside my head.
Anyway, if there’s one thing you can count on from thirteen12, it’s bad-faith, counterproductive advice on how to effectively challenge MAGA.
@13 – 5280 was a Slog commenter in the early days of The Stranger for many years. He was from Denver. I have no idea why drewl2 is on Biped’s case in regard to 5280.
@12 you’re thinking of Majority Leader Thune. Johnson promised no such thing and is fairly certain NOT to hold a vote, even if Republican Senators don’t reneg. And this is the “empty promise” Greenberg was referring to.
Respectfully, only a fool would believe Republicans would never have agreed to extend the subsidies in order to end the shutdown, but WILL extend the subsidies just ’cause now that the Dems have forfeited their only leverage. And if they aren’t going to extend the subsidies they sure won’t actually hold the vote. The 8 Dems got played, plain and simple, and almost everyone in the country can see it clearly.
@15 I quoted the Indivisible people precisely because you and others were “holding them up as a paragon of an effective nonviolent protest movement.” Even the moderate Democrat pragmatic heroes du jour can see the Senate Dems pooped their pants.
tbass1981 @13…
Since numbnuts can’t/won’t answer…
5280 was an OG commenter when Slog first went live online. He was a retired detective from Denver (hence the nym) and there were many contentious arguments here about various issues.
Point being, he was respectful and intelligent on things he knew. I don’t know (or care) if COMTE was a cop or not, I know I value what he has to say more than some dipshit like Bi-pedo.
@1 Good find. The insane anti-gun bias at The Stranger is so baffling. The staff would insist that they could talk down the robbers with well-reasoned arguments as to why stealing is bad, actually. But of course they’ll call the people with guns (the police) to come help them when they’re in trouble. Hypocrites one and all.
@Charles your BSky link is already broken. Might want to fix that.
And thirteen12, I was pointing out your past comment about Indivisible precisely because you had done everything you could to discredit them. If Indivisible is as phony and corrupt as you say they are, why should we give any credence to anything they say? Interesting that you didn’t provide that dismissive context @18 in your original comment @7.
But hey, if it helps you make your bad-faith arguments, you’re certainly welcome to discredit and un-discredit at will.
It’s always worth noting, if the thirteen12’s of the world did not already exist, the right-wing disinformation ecosystem would have to invent them.
As for me, I appreciate everything Ezra Levin and company are doing to change the political dynamic and make anti-MAGA relevant, but when it comes to Congressional political strategy, I’ll just have to make my own good-faith judgment that he is wrong, however sincere I know he is.
@19 – I answered at #14
I also answered here:
https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/11/13/80323991/slog-am-katie-wilson-is-our-next-mayor-the-government-shutdown-is-over-and-google-chooses-evil/comments/63
Also, only an idiot gives a shit, why is this issue so important to you?
drewl2 is the most progressive commenter here besides kristofartian
@22…
Sez the guy posting the crap. You don’t know the history here, and don’t realize you are being played for a fool.
@23… I will take that as a compliment.
@19: “I don’t know (or care) if COMTE was a cop or not”
Comte is a cop, man, you can smell it on him from a mile away 🤣
@24 – ” You don’t know the history here”
Only an idiot loser like you gives a shit, AND I have been around long enough to know that 5280 was a cop, as I have answered more than once.
Why do you care so much? Did 5280 hurt your pussy?
Does anyone care if Wilson is a socialist or a democratic socialist? She’s the next mayor – we’ll know shortly how she plans on running the city, how she delivers on her promises. But thanks Charles?
Bi-pedo @ 26…
Was your’s hurt?
I care enough that I miss the conversations with 5280 where we could disagree, but still have a good discussion. About facts. And different perspectives on things.
It was way better than the drivel you post. At least he had a brain that worked. I’m not sure what your excuse is.
@28 – welp I suggest you cry about it some more
@29 I forgot all about this 5280 thing today because I got too busy watching all you republicans trying to scramble and back pedal and explain that it’s perfectly ok for grown men to fuck 15 years olds because it’s not as bad as fucking a 5 year old… so call us naive and stupid all you want. Your entire fucking party is run by child molesters.
Wow! Big write up on The Stranger at the New York Times. As if the heads at this little rag needed to get any bigger…
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/technology/progressive-newspaper-stranger-seattle.html
@30: “Your entire f’ng party is run by child molesters.”
No it isn’t. No one party, group, gender, race, ethnicity, age, or any demographic owns the copyright on child abuse. Ask any psychologist, especially a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.
@32 Is that what I fucking said?
@32 Also, I’m literally married to a therapist… so try again. The president of the united states fucks children. FULL STOP. A bunch of you are about to be on the VERY wrong side of history here and the republican party will NEVER recover from whats about to happen.
There is a clear difference is in how both sides have responded to the epstein news though. I have yet to see any liberals or democrats running interference for clinton or saying it’s not that bad because the girls were teenagers and not small children. Meanwhile those talking points are rampant on right wing media and from conservatives right here in these comments. It’s refreshing to see people like mtg breaking with the party but they are the exception. The rest of them are either too afraid of trump to take a stand or don’t think it’s that bad if the victims have gone through puberty.
“The deal for Republicans on this vote is that Trump will protect you if you vote the wrong way,” Massie said. “In other words, if you vote to cover up for pedophiles, you’ve got cover in a Republican primary.”
He continued: “But I would remind my colleagues that this vote is going to be on your record for longer than Trump is going to be president. And what are you gonna do in 2028 and 2030 when you’re in a debate, either with a Republican or a Democrat, and they say, ‘How can we trust you? You covered up for a pedophile back in, you know, 2025.’”
-United States Republican Representative Thomas Massie from Kentucky.
Yesterday afternoon.
@35 That’s because none of us worship Bill Clinton or buy golden bibles and shoes with his face all over them or even care about him even the slightest bit.
Also, the new Epstein emails literally just said Clinton never went to the island… that was just something they were trying to distract us with, as usual.
@34: Current events and the science/sociology itself are two different things.
@38: not things but discussions, even though they intersect.
@37, That’s true but i think more broadly the “purity test” approach to politics people deride on the left also means liberals are less likely to sacrifice their principles to defend a bad actor. Not to say it never happens because it does, but the fall-in-line mindset on the right more often leads people to defend things they know are wrong because they are team players above all else.
@34 “Also, I’m literally married to a therapist…”
Jeez no wonder you flop and flail around so much
You are so progressive
FULL STOP
lol
“will NEVER recover from whats about to happen.”
What’s about to happen?
A rEvOLuTiOn?
Gosh. I really wanted to share how delighted I was with Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux, the 15 year “Fedora Man,” strutting with his umbrella in elegant 1940s attire just after the heist, but Tbass is making me feel awkward.
fuLl StOp!!!!
LOL
FULL STOP!!!
hahahahahahaa
FULL STOP
oh my sides
Remember kids, “progressive” = “stupid and naive”, FULL STOP!
@40 – In the Catholic (and other) churches, in Hollywood, and sports, are areas where the politics of the perpetrators and defenders is unknown or less clear – but rampant abuse just the same.
These generalizations are risky, inaccurate, and unfair.
@21 you completely misunderstood my point about No Kings. You and others argued theirs is a superior form of protest more likely to bring about regime change because it is devotedly non-transgressive. I disagreed with that, but I very much respect and value what Indivisible is actually doing, which is trying to harness the energy of a protest movement and channel it into electoral goals. Instead of hosting thousands-per-plate fundraising dinners to drum up support they host protests. And then they use their network of support to, for example, primary Dems who capitulate to Trump, which is good.
46 who cares. We’re not talking about hollywood or sports, we are talking about how politicians, pundits and voters respond to these kinds of accusations against politicians.
I am not saying one side or the other is more likely to abuse kids, i am observing an obvious difference in how such revelations are handled by members of their respective parties. I am not making generalizations, I am watching this play out in real time. If there is a liberal equivalent to megyn kelly saying the accusations are not that bad because the girls weren’t 5 year olds i have yet to see it.
Your incessant need to police others’ opinions and observations about partisan issues like this does the opposite of what you think it does. Kind of like when that other conservative account was trying to minimize the revelations about trump by saying the alleged victims were teens. It doesn’t change anyone’s mind about the subject but it sure changes the way people look at you.
thirteen12 @47: “@21 you completely misunderstood my point about No Kings. You and others argued theirs is a superior form of protest more likely to bring about regime change because it is devotedly non-transgressive. I disagreed with that, but I very much respect and value what Indivisible is actually doing, which is trying to harness the energy of a protest movement and channel it into electoral goals.”
I think we all understood your point perfectly well. It is that you did NOT respect or value what Indivisible is doing, and you could not contain your snarky contempt for them, and you had to question their motives. So let me turn it around and question YOUR motives. I can understand why you would want to discredit a movement that drew 7 million protesters to their last protest–it is because what they’re doing is decidedly not counterproductive and is not destined to backfire.
Of course, I could dig up your original comment, so that you can’t rewrite your own comment history. And maybe I will later, but I’ve got a meeting to get to now.
@48: “If there is a liberal equivalent”
But there’s no corresponding scenario to Epstein saga to look for equivalency. It’s a one of a kind.