Well this is certainly news to me about Sawant! Did the Stranger report on it at all?

Nothing would make me happier than watching Pramila Jayapal beat Kshama Sawant in a primary by 70 points.

chas, the socialist needs proletariat to orgnize; the tech industry provided unaffliated labor by the bushel. I believe a sufficiant critical mass of seattle voters found themselves in the position of wanting socialism in a performative sense only; by voting for one in a market economy industrial democracy.

You don't have to be a socialist at all, in the sense you read critical theory and have a class consciousness, all you have to do is have one represent you in the most abstract way possible. I completely understand, Business Labor Unions have completely dropped the ball on this tech sector workforce, there has been no groundswell of working class movment either culturally or materially; why not just vote once in a while and be done with it?

Now the question truely is "what is to be done?"

Lest anyone think the Microsoft layoffs are some unprecedented event, be assured they have done significant rounds of layoffs at least a half-dozen times since 2000 or so.

From what I can tell, significant tech layoffs are happening right now not because of any actual event or major troubles in the industry (like the ones that accompanied the dot com crash in the early aughts, or the market collapse of the Great Recession), but because there’s enough cover from “economic headwinds” to justify culling some of the bloat that came with pandemic-era hiring frenzies.

@6: Ok Gen-Zer: The tech industry is not leaving Seattle, but Microsoft and Amazon are conducting mass layoffs, no? Could this be because instead of retaining human employees they're switching to robots and automated phone answering systems instead? That's cheapskate profiteering corporations for you. "Gotta cut costs, gotta cut costs..."

rest in Peace
David Crosby
you and the Lads
were pretty fucking
Important back in the Day.

speaking of poor potty-training
and fascinations with Poop:

"Republicans
wear their values
down around their ankles!"
--Moe Davis (Col, U.S. Air Force, Retired)

Shocking 'news.'

From my experience in tech, they lay a bunch of people off, and everyone either gets another job in a few weeks, or they take a year off to travel.

@8 -- the Croz's nyt Obituary:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/arts/music/david-crosby-dead.html

How rude. David Crosby died today but I don't like his music so I'll close with music I like from someone not nearly as famous but who died recently.

@12,

Led Zeppelin are just as famous as David Crosby or Crosby, Stills & Nash.

@5 people also are missing the fact that a big chunk of these layoffs (at least from Amazon) are coming from HR and recruiting teams. Doesn't really make much sense to keep a bunch of recruiters on board when there's a company-wide external hiring freeze. The rest are coming from devices teams once Jassy realized there's no revenue in selling Alexa devices at cost if people aren't using them for anything more than looking up the weather conditions or playing music.

As far as I'm aware, less than 2,000 of the 18k Amazon cut are based in the Seattle area. Amazon has offices or warehouses in 26 states, lest we even get into the number of countries they're in overseas.

@12, 13,

Whoops! Nevermind.

@10 It depends on their age and what they got going on. for example, if someone in their mid 30s, with no kids, very little debt, hefty savings and investment accounts, owning a condo with equity that help pay off the mortgage after they refi-ed when interest rates were below 3% got laid off, yeah i could see them traveling for a year and chilling or going back to school to learn something new.

Someone married with kids and mortgage is going to go quickly apply for new jobs. Someone on an H1-B is going to be scrambling to find a new job since they have a month to do so before having to leave the country.

"Maybe it's not really the sunset for Sawant"

The idea of Sawant as some sort of far-left version of Lauren Boebert is pretty depressing. But that's exactly what she would be as a member of the House.

@14: I'm sure those laid off at Comixology will feel better hearing your claim that "a big chunk of these layoffs (at least from Amazon) are coming from HR and recruiting teams"

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-layoffs-comixology-1850007216

Lol we've finally exiled tech back to California where it belongs, and take your pesky transplants with you!!@3# Nice work on the clickbait headline though, probably gave your numbers a little lift.

More importantly, RIP Takahashi san. Crosby san too but I don't like his music as much.

What is up with the Musak™ Youtube at the end? Should it not have been a link to Crosby singing?

@15: Thanks - I actually was searching to find if Yukihiro Takahashi actually played in the Led Zeppelin band.

@17 SwampThing: I know, right? I wasn't going to say anything for fer I'd jinx us on the sane side who know better than to vote RepubliKKKan.

@23: Awwww, shit! Not AGAIN! Make that:""....I wasn't going to say anything for fear I'd jinx us on the sane side who know better than to vote RepubliKKKan."
I guess I'll need to wait until after I've gotten sufficiently fueled on red wine before posting. It's strange how few typos Griz has upon alcoholic consumption.

Rest in peace, David Crosby. Judy Blue Eyes is among my Crosby, Stills, and Nash hits.