Comments

1

To be fair, Blizzard put way more thought and effort into World of Warcraft's economic system than Venezuela put into theirs.

To be additionally fair, neither "be better" or "be best' have any originally or intrinsic meaning at all.

2

Is good for children to be best, yes? Maybe they not do the drugs.

3

So Mike O'Brien experienced the same thing SJW's do to people they disagree with? I have to say, it's enjoyable watching the extreme left experience the same tactics they've done to people who they disagree with. It's very satisfying and just could be a learning moment!

4

Why's Nathalie's roommate such a dick to his mom?

5

And to Dave Segal?

6

Be "better" than what? Or who? Than themselves? Than their peers? Their parents? Than the vacuous toadies who came up with this meaningless slogan? And what exactly constitutes "better"? Not that I'm expecting answers, but did nobody actually bother to think about the optics of this for, like, even three seconds?

7

And is there any truth to the story line that Mike O'Brien's wife yelled "Fuck fishermen!" before being escorted out of the event? I'm sure that never happened but several folks are saying that's what happened.

9

only the extreme right thinks that bike trail advocacy and paying taxes is "extreme left"

10

I don't think anyone believes or is arguing that Amazon and other businesses of its size can't afford a head tax. What people are mad about is a complete lack of fiscal responsibility from the City Council and city leadership in general. They are not producing results with the money they have already raised. There are no mechanisms in place to prevent the additional monies from being squandered. Until they put said mechanisms in place they shouldn't get more money.

Let Durkan's efforts to coordinate the management of the homeless crisis with King County move forward and if they actual produce meaningful results in alleviating the homeless crisis then and only then should the Council consider new taxes and when they do they should look at something a little less blunt than a head tax and also make sure it only impacts companies the size of Amazon and exempts industries like grocery stores and small businesses.

11

It blows my mind that the tDUMPnazis are celebrating Eric Schneiderman's downfall while simultaneously worshipping a moronic, illiterate, lying, racist, sexual predator, and a rapist. And they consider those to be Prezinazi AntiChrist's best qualities!

12

@11:

IOKIYAR...

13

You've addressed the haters directly, Nathalie. That's like inviting a vampire into your home.

I predict a struggle for someone's mortal soul, maybe that of Seattle.

14

@11

I am surprised that @3 @7 is touching himself so much over O'Brien when there's the Schneiderman story a few column inches below. But I guess righties are not generally good with reading through.

15

@14

That's probably just foreplay. It's local, like a local anesthetic. I bet s/he'll move on to the harder stuff after s/he gets hard.

16

@6
"Also, originality. Michelle Obama delivered a speech in 2016 urging men to “be better.” "
Is it really that hard to figure out Michelle Obama meant for men to be better than they have been? It is really pretty simple. Yes people can define "better" in their own ways, but there are some pretty basic societal standards, which I assume Michelle was referring to.

17

@13

Seattle sold theirs a long time ago. If they ever had one.

Say I pay the mechanic $750 to fix my car. When I pick it up it runs worse. He asks for more money to fix it but won't tell me why or how the proposed repairs will make things better, or how the $750 already paid made any progress. Am I a hater of mechanics for questioning this approach to car repair?

Asking Seattle to use money already given them to some actual purpose before throwing more at the problem isn't a rightwing or leftwing idea. It's a sensible one.

19

You know most Ballard sailors wouldn't think was even a party if there weren't any women telling them to go fuck themselves. And when they get home and don't hear "fuck fishermen" when they walk in the door, they'll think they got the wrong house. You wouldn't expect right wing talk radio to have any idea who these people are. Wingnuts spend most of their days demonizing the waterfront unions, not defending them from ladies at parties who use salty language.

20

@11: Well, two wrongs don't make a right.

This tit-for-tat false equivalency is getting soooo passé.

21

re: Venezuela economy vs. World of Warcraft economy

In a way it makes perfect sense for World of Warcraft to have a more stable currency, after all, the people running the game can arbitrarily increase or decrease supply of commodities. In game, you can run back and forth along the same stretch of land killing stuff for gold and it'll keep respawning at the rate set by the game controllers. There's no respawning in real life.

22

@10) You invent a Straw-man argument about city council spending to try to justify your herp-derp, wing-nut position that government should not collect money for poor people. You are scum.

24

"Elon Musk is dating Grimes"
Turns out that two half-elves can actually restore the pure Elven bloodline after all (assuming they consummate under the 'Flower Moon' in late spring, in a threesome with a True Unicorn.)

25

Those Ballard businesses are dependant on existing (and already impeded) road and rail açcess. Why not reroute the bike trail to where it does not disrupt local business and jobs. I'm a biker and it's truely no big deal. Support for local business and jobs certainly trumps constuction of a pretty bike trail!

26

@ 22 Try harder.

Every major news publication in the city, including The Stranger, has reported on the City of Seattle squandering funds raised to alleviate the homeless crisis (in addition to misspending funds meant for transportation) through mismanagement and a lack of coordination between the city and King County.

Nowhere have I stated that government shouldn't spend money to help poor people. I am simply stating that the money should be well spent and produce results and until they can do that they shouldn't get more. If that’s a “herp derp," “wing-nut” position then we’ve really crossed over to the other side of the looking glass.

27

The reporting I have read generally agrees that A) an open invitation was made at the museum event and B) O'Brien agreed to leave when asked, and simply said he'd like to find his wife. Yes, you could probably find legal cover for grabbing a person and pushing them off your property, but that really isn't how we ought behave in a civil society.

I always think of rights as these spheres of influence around us. But those spheres often interact and overlap w/ other's rights- so that if we all acted to the absolute limit of our rights all the time, we would end up being a really crappy person, and often infringing on the rights of others.

So yeah, not ok. When we condone this sort of behavior the thugs and idiots win. Don't be a thug or an idiot.

28

Microsoft can tell the city how to spend it. When did they ever squander money?

29

Try harder.
You cite nothing other than your own words to supports your mythical argument:
"Every major news publication in the city, including The Stranger, has reported on the City of Seattle squandering funds raised to alleviate the homeless crisis." If so, it should be easy to find some relevant FACTS, yes?
But you won't.

30

Doug Dixon, delicate snowflake triggered by Mike O’Brien’s presence. Sad.

31

The biking tech bros need their leisure lanes, screw blue collar workers. When did the Stranger forget what progressive means? God forbid the lazy Stranger counters the city council narrative.

32

"Jordan always has a smile on his face." Seems apropos of nothing, except that sometimes black people are described as "always smiling" or "always happy" to convey that they're OK (despite being black). Would this have been mentioned if the chef was white and smiley? Probably not. Just something to be aware of.

33

@32

I've often heard white people who are cheerful described that way to people who don't know them.

The misfortune may be that another person being consistently happy is unusual enough to merit being noted though.

Just something to be aware of.

34

@28

Think I can help you here.

Microsoft is a private sector company. If I dislike how they spend money I can boycott their products or sell any stock I have and it's no longer my concern.

The City of Seattle is a public sector entity which can cause people real harm for refusing to pay whatever taxes or fees they owe. You can't live or do business in Seattle without abiding by council decisions to waste money (your money) in a way that leaves drunken sailors in awe.

You're welcome.

35

@34

Are you an incarcerated felon? That's the only reason i can think of why you might not be free to
a) leave,
b) vote, or,
c) run for office.

I'd say you're welcome, but I'm not really feelin' it.

36

@34

A group of private sector companies is agitating for keeping some or all the head tax they will owe, and decide for themselves how to spend it for homeless people. They pick the charities, service organizations, they decide what "in kind contributions" (junk they already depreciated, double deduction!) to donate.

Their reasons: private business knows best. The city is bureaucratic and wastes money. Amazon, Vulcan, Microsoft? No, they never waste money. Their decision making process will be free of bureaucracy. No meetings or dumb powerpoints. No mistakes. Because business. Seattle wasted millions on a streetcar for example. If Microsoft had been in charge, they'd have never wasted millions. Billions maybe, sure, but not millions.

The center-right should read the paper. Watch the news. Get the internet at your house, maybe.

38

We Seattle taxpayers have spent a lot of money (ten-year plan to end homelessness, anyone?) as our quality of life deteriorates. Our fellow human beings wander our streets, slowly dying from exposure and drugs, as our city spends our money and we watch their numbers grow.

Until our City Council tells us how we got here, and exactly how we’ll prevent this situation from becoming even worse, they have absolutely no business asking us for more money.

40

"“helping the homeless” is cool and all but you kind of need an action plan.". Fixed it.

41

@25 -- Because the only good place to put the bike path is along Shilshole Avenue. Besides, if the city changed the plans one bit, you would have the same sort of lawsuit as before, and the whole thing would be delayed once again. That is what happened the first time. They had a solid plan (reached by consensus) but at the last minute, and handful of businesses filed suit, and the whole thing got delayed.

If the businesses even had a clue they would simply push for traffic lights on the driveways. There aren't that many to even worry about. If you look at the street, there are only three or four spots where you could possibly need access to the waterfront. Add left turn lights, and everyone wins. Bikes have to occasionally stop, but cars would stop as well. That would make exiting and entering the businesses a lot easier. But instead these businesses are just being stubborn, and ignoring the fact that while they've been fighting bike traffic, car traffic has gotten a shitload worse. Ballard is growing like crazy, and much of that growth is on 24th. Adding signals would have solved the problem years ago, but instead you have idiots trying to drag it through the courts forever.

42

Does your business make more than $20 million a year, tensor?

"We" (most of us) pay crazy high property taxes and sales taxes. Instead of making "us" (normal people) pay even more, instead they're taxing ultra rich corporations. This is the thing that all the long-suffering homeowners and renters and workers have been asking for.

How we got here is simple: the entire global economy is growing more divided into haves and have nots. Inequality is increasing across the country, and Seattle is no exception. People once thought of as secure middle class are sliding into poverty and homelessness. People with good jobs go bankrupt because they got sick.

Washington is particularly dysfunctional, having no progressive taxes at all, only regressive sales and property taxes, and an awful B&O tax. The state can't even fund the schools. The city attracts companies like Amazon precisely because they richest classes get away with paying the least. The more ultra-rich pour into the city, the more the inequality grows, and the city's tax base doesn't grow as fast. The voters of Seattle shoot themselves in the foot, resisting any attempts to build mass transit or change the archaic single-family zoning system. Somehow we could afford $2 billion to build a giant car tunnel though.

That's only the half of it. Who would expect the city council would ever be able to solve all those problems? The very best you're ever going to see is a city government that manages to make a bad situation a little less bad. Seattle will not "fix" any of these problems.

Maybe in 5 or 10 years we'll have a totally different US Congress, and President, and the legislature in Olympia will be something other than the useless clowns we have not. Maybe we'll have universal healthcare, and everyone will get treatment for mental health and addiction issues, all the veterans will get the care they need, instead of being kicked around as a political football. Income and corporate taxes could return to the levels of the 1950s or 1960s, or even the 1980s which were hardly a golden age of equality.

Maybe then conditions will have changed enough that Seattle could start to deal with solvable problems like housing affordability. Until then, we're just treading water.

43

@Nathalie, I fixed the Header for you: Confused Progressive Weekly Sides with Tech Bro Leisure Bikers Over Traditional Blue Collar Allies.


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