Comments

1

The problem with making finite resources free is that people, by and large, are shitty.

Everyone should have plenty of clean water, food, shelter, etc., and that should absolutely include electricity, but if we're not going to meter it with actual meters, the greedy, the wasteful, and whomever else crops up to abuse it, is going to fuck it all up for the rest of us.

2

Not "hostility towards shoppers" Jas, but the ramifications dismissed as "property crimes" against neighborhood businesses that you disparage as "corporate". We are indeed f*#ked as a society, but not for the reasons you think we are.

3

@2 you can only shake your head at TS continued insistence that the vagrants are just poor souls trying to get by. In TS world If you plant a garden you’re an asshole and if you take measures to protect your business you’re hostile to shoppes however if you throw an old lady down the stairs you’re a victim. To quote the wicked witch of the west., “What a world, what a world.”

4

" The Madison Trader Joe's is no longer selling booze for some reason. "

We all know the reason. It might be debatable to do it because of that reason, but the reason itself is not a mystery.

6

Haha, "electricity should be free". LIke rent.

8

@5 it’s a pretty simple equation. If an item has a high incidence of shrinkage in a store they take measures to reduce the shrinkage or if they can’t they stop selling it altogether ala Trader Joe’s. So the difference between cantaloupe and wine is that one is in demand by thieves more than the other.

12

"I went to the Safeway on E John the other day and learned they now put personal products (shampoo, soap, baby formula) in the same restricted section as liquor."

As Tom Scocca observed recently, if nobody can shop, nobody can shoplift:

https://indignity.substack.com/p/indignity-vol-2-no-63-if-nobody-can

Of course, all this is great for Seattle's (not really) own Jeff Bezos. Just order everything from him, and you won't need to hassle with your local bricks-and-mortar stores' increasingly stringent and irksome anti-shopping, er, anti-shoplifting measures.

13

@1, "the greedy, the wasteful, and whomever else crops up to abuse it, is going to fuck it all up for the rest of us."

You're talking about the wealthy.

@6, "Haha, "electricity should be free". LIke rent."

Everyone should have free food, clothing, shelter, and all basic necessities. Free. It should be paid for by seizing some of the wealth from the wealthy.

@SirTobyII,

You know what is asshole behavior?
The wealthy hoarding their treasure like dragons while their neighbors go homeless, hungry, and live in poverty.

You know what else is asshole behavior?
People idolizing greedy billionaires and vilifying the homeless.

14

@13 All little girls should have a pony too, but that won't make it happen.

15

@13: Vilifying homeless? Nobody does that. Vilifying thieves however is deserved.

16

"You know what else is asshole behavior?

People idolizing greedy billionaires
and vilifying the homeless."
--@U.F.

well
it's a
Living.

17

The stranger writers: Bleeding hearts gonna bleed.

18

@13 I really wish TS writers and fellow bloggers like yourself would someday learn the difference between wealth and income. Most of the "wealth" you decry only exists on paper in the form of equity in an asset (your home for instance) or financial instruments like stocks. That wealth only exists because the person has something that is perceived as valuable by others but is not accessible to the holder and can easily come and go. Just think how much of it has been lost in the stock market this year.

If you truly wanted to create a more equitable playing field and redistribute that "wealth" what you should be advocating for our policies that make their holdings less valuable. In the case of homes it would be increased supply and regional solutions that flatten demand. For stocks it would be regulations and policies that lesson the power some of these companies currently hold. Make Amazon separate AWS from its retail operations, eliminate the power of Google, Facebook et al to monetize user data etc etc. Trying to confiscate that wealth via taxes is the most inefficient and ineffective way to achieve what you desire and continually advocating for such policies is a fools errand.

19

Talk about losing the plot: no mention of a person literally getting themselves beat to death by one TS' 'houseless' brethren (but the real victim is the poor mentally bonkers drug addict of course), yet take away the ability to buy some cheap booze on Capitol HIll, and the millennials act as if the sky is falling and 'Seattle is Dying' at the hands of corporate overlords because they might have to make some small sacrifice of time to get wasted (and why are p.c. hipsters buying corporate booze from TJ's or elsewhere in the first place? Shouldn't they be fermenting their own gin next to their kombucha and sourdough starters?). Some serious hypocrisy at work here. The Stranger really needs to hire a writer who's still not permanently stuck in the mindset of a college freshman.

20

Sorry Jas, I guess I'm team asshole behavior then. One, those planting strips are for just that - plants. It's not called a planting strip because it's a space to plant your unhoused ass and set up a drug den/unsanitary living space. There was a shooting which led to a murder there. A FUCKING MURDER! You're mad at the neighbors for doing whatever they possible can to prevent gun crime?

22

@10:

Go back to counting bullet-riddled dead bodies, you worthless fuck.

23

@14:

Do all little girls NEED a pony? Is having access to a pony essential for human survival, like food, water, shelter, clothing, medical care, and energy all are?

24

@18 = required reading

25

@24 @18

I'd love all those things, my Boomer friends. I think most, if not all those goals could be achieved with 1) Complete transparency in the global financial system, to eliminate any possibility of tax cheating or money laundering, and 2) a progressive tax on capital, per Piketty.

I am all ready to enact this plan. All I have to do is get richer than all the other billionaires so I can afford to buy the House and the Senate and the Presidency better than other the billionaires are already doing to keep us stuck in this Monopolist Paradise/Fascistic Nightmare Hellhole they call, "Freedom in America."

Those policies are the way they are not because "most" or even "a lot" of us like them. Those policies exist because there are specific people, and a very few specific people, who benefit from them. Those people happen to be very well-connected to the people who are "in charge" of things and nearly always get what they want: limited housing supply, more cops & soldiers, and less regulation of all kinds. The rest of us are not so well-connected don't get what we want so easily, and mostly not at all.

26

@25 if that was even remotely true what's the point of voting or doing anything? It's pre-ordained and everything else is just going through the motions. I agree completely that people with money have more power than regular folks but I don't agree with the notion that there is some Illuminati making the rules. If you honestly believe America is a hellhole you really do need to get out and travel the world. America is not perfect but its much better than a lot of the other places you could be living at the moment.

27

How do some of these people in the comments have the time and energy to religiously post, not just comments, but essay-length posts about how angry they are about The Stranger multiple times a day for YEARS?? It's really the same damn jerks on each post. It's truly baffling to me. You don't like the paper!! We get it!! There's actually a whole other paper called the Seattle Times you can read, which will usually agree with you about everything! I just find it bonkers that you can't get a regular hobby but instead probably take 30 minutes to an hour out of every day, whining incessantly that the alternative local free newspaper is too lefty for you. Is it because they feel special here because in reality Seattle is run by and inhabitated mostly by neo-liberals just like them? What is their damage that they ostensibly hate this blog but can not for the life of them tear themselves away? Get a hobby, get a life, literally do anything but what you're doing currently. I imagine these insufferable negative beasts must be the bane of their 'friends' and family because they have an Opinion about Everything and Nothing is Ever Good Enough for Them. Anytime they hear a contrary opinion to their older-Gen-X-boomer-neoliberal one that they have from being so Wise and Well Read and Old and Experienced, they must condescendingly and systematically reply to each one. On a website that has never shared their values! And they'll never stop! Get a fucking grip and get off your computer or phone. Reminder: every fancy restaurant and board room and wine bar in Seattle is filled with people who have opinions just like yours. You have plenty of people to commiserate with and yet you choose to do this to yourself!

Multiple comments a day! Every day! By the same people! Talk about lunatics, and yet these are the people shaming the mentally ill on the streets as well lolololol.

I used to find it kind of funny but now I do really just find it so pathetic and sad. Please take up a hobby. PLEASE. I don't even post much here nor want to, but for the love of god get your ass to a therapist or a church or a community center or a model train shop or something. I can only imagine the equivalent for myself would be battling/debating in bad faith on Alt Right message boards or in the Seattle Times comments every day of my life. I get wanting a healthy debate but doing this all the time? What a miserable existence. Hope you people can find God*

*whatever that is for you

28

p.s. I'm also excited to try out the Des Moines ferry :)

29

"Multiple comments a day! Every day! By the same people! Talk about lunatics, and yet these are the people shaming the mentally ill on the streets as well lolololol."
--@eeeeee

perhaps they're one slip-up
away from joining them
and terrified project
their Fear and Loa-
things onto the
Least of us as
a Defense

if their Testimony ain't Heard
Daily perhaps they're on the
next bus to Looneytunesville

like Clint Eastwood in
The Unforgiven -- nah
like Jack Nicholson in just
about anything the teensiest
slip-up in the planetry alignment
could see them on the streets tomorrow

cursing tS
and every
Employee
by Name

do we
give them
Money?

30

It would indeed be nice if electricity were free. That was one of the promises of nuclear power: "Safe, clean, and too cheap to meter". But that's not how things work in this life - especially when it comes to nuclear power.

Without getting too wonky (it is the blue hour, after all) I'll just quietly murmur that City Light's residential rate structure has an incentive to conserve. The low block is charged out at below cost, and there's no reason why an apartment dweller would ever use enough power to be in the higher block. Plus, there's no other utility in the country that l know of that offers 60% off your bill if you are low income.

31

@18,

All great ideas that I'd support.

But one thing...

Mackenzie Scott used a quarter of her 19.7 million shares of AMZN stock to give $12.5 BILLION to charity in less than two years. And she's on track to donate even more.

The so-called "paper millionaire" who isn't worth anything except in the stock market, is a lie. Scott proved it. It's a lie wealthy people tell in order to stay wealthy and keep everyone else poor. Stop parroting rich people's lies.

Oh, and further proof that wealthy people are by and large assholes? Scott has donated more in two years than Bezos has donated his entire life.

Fuck the rich. Take their wealth by any means necessary and use it to make the world a better place because god knows they won't do it. They can cry all they want. Fuck em.

32

"The so-called 'paper millionaire' who isn't worth anything except in the stock market, is a lie. Scott proved it. It's a lie wealthy people tell in order to stay wealthy and keep everyone else poor. Stop parroting rich people's lies."
--@Urg

but d13r's
Always telling
us the Opposite!

so they cannot
Both be True
can they?

33

@27 -- or
perhaps their
Disdain for this
Publication leads
them to try and sink
the ship -- or at least
Poison the fucking well

but there Must come
a time when all that
bile vitriol and rage
poisons even the
Messengers

meanwhile
tS rolls
On

34

It's a shame that the reported 900 lighting bolts over Tacoma didn't zap the Orange Turd, Joe Kent, Tiffany Smiley, or any of their fellow MAGA terrorists.
This dying planet could suddenly be an infinitely better place without the GOP.


Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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