Comments

1

The popular view on sweeps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKC8pSFg1Vw

3

Charles dear.....

1) Corporations don't have souls.

2) Stock buy-backs are nothing new. They're shitty, but they're nothing new.

That is all.

4

Oh, and...

3) I don't know for certain, but I would be willing to bet Maison Vel-DuRay that Amazon has engaged in stock buy-backs before. It was quite fashionable in the 90's.

5

@2 Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapproving,
Keep them dawwgies movin', Rawhide!
Don't try to understand them,
Just rope, throw and brand 'em,
Soon we'll be living high and wide!
My heart's calculating,
My true love will be waiting,
Be waiting at the end of my ride

6

“Amazon Sold Whatever Re-
Mained of Its Soul to the Devil”

well there’s your Problem Chas – AMZN Never HAD a soul (only a corpse) and yet even sans we cannot Execute one no matter how many of the Citizenry they ‘accidentally’ exterminate -- 'less they’re bilking The Rich then duh. I suppose.

PLUS they got enough for it their owner the guy who has Space Ships & Rockets and shit enough for that non-Existent ‘soul’ got him enough to BUY the Washington fucking Post – Imagnie that! -- and shape it howeverthefuck He damn well Chooses.

and tangenitally if he wants to OWN a few of “our”Politicians well this is America Inc LLC baby and it’s all as Legit as legit can Be so which ones you Want? we’re even having a Special buy two we toss in one more for Free so it’d be real Silly not to not at Today’s $candalous prices.

re Patriarchy
Oilgarchy and Slave
Mastery how long how
long Must we sing this song?

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2dgfzo

7

rowdy yates
chattin' up a
cowboy not even
There or an empty chair
not even the Eyeman could ride away on

crack that Whip

8

re: popular kitty cat instagram videos

https://www.instagram.com/p/CauLUM3AkDZ/?fbclid=IwAR0TwUcMGAO24N14V0u71tfTNjKo5SvYgrcMOc0LD68_vffnB8kKAKLHcic

9

One more nice thing about electric cars, no gas to siphon, no catalytic converter to jack

10

An electric car has an ~8-9 year carbon payback. Electric cars has something like 10 times the amount of copper, and then there is all the lithium. The GHGs emitted to mine and smelt all those resources out of the ground won't be offset by the lack of emissions from burning fossil fuels while driving an ICE car.

The solution is to drive less or use public transportation, not simply shift from one type of personal vehicle to another. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The most important one is Reduce. Humans and Americans in particular don't want to reduce.

11

The bank ordeal with Ryan Coogler appears about the unusual note written on the back of a deposit slip, the large amount of withdrawal, and reluctance of Coogler to communicate verbally, and the reaction by the teller (a Black woman) than anything race related. Certainly the cops (some were black) acted professionally.

https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/-black-panther-director-ryan-coogler-mistaken-for-bank-robber-according-to-police-135100485915

12

Amazon go, please!

13

@10 what you said. I am weary of my well-meaning friends going on about how they really want an electric car while being utterly oblivious to the tradeoff being made. It just shifts the damage to the environment, very conveniently, to countries where all the mines are located. Very much like shipping our plastic off to China.

14

Honest question here - why are people so much angrier about stock buybacks as a means of returning profits to the owners of the corporation than about paying dividends? Or would Amazon be getting as much heat for putting the same amount of money into dividends paid directly to shareholders?

15

@10 you’re repeating oil industry propaganda

16

@15 That's the thing with propaganda, isn't it.... there's always some truth buried in there. I'll bet the oil industry doesn't say to completely stop driving though.

17

@14: Lack of curiosity in digging deeper into the subject paired with reluctance to do so as it could unearth facts that run counter to a popular narrative.

18

I’d wager the Amazon buy back has more to do with employee recruitment and retention than anything else. With the price stagnating lately they are having a hard time retaining employees whose income is highly dependent on their stock grants. Splitting their shares to lower the price and buying back will start to boost that equity again. Of course they could have just used that many to increase wages but that would be too easy.

19

@16 so its ok to repeat lies in service of your agenda? Good is not the enemy of the perfect.

20

@18- Your complaint seems to be that they distributed profits to the owners of the company then. But why are buybacks somehow worse than dividends, as a means of doing so? No one pitched a fit when Microsoft declared a dividend.

21

@10 - by 8-9 year payback, I assume you mean that the carbon footprint of building the EV is zeroed out in gas savings. But if a person buys a conventional car, that carbon footprint is NEVER zeroed out. I'd argue that is the relevant comparison.

Also, any calculation of the carbon footprint of building the EV that you are looking at now would most likely reflect the energy sources being used now. As more of the economy is powered by renewables, that carbon footprint will greatly improve. Mining and manufacturing will ultimately not be fossil-fuel powered.

Your point about pollution caused by mining the raw materials is partly valid but the ecological damage caused by materials for ICE cars is also significant. Yes, we are mining lithium we would not have otherwise. Let's figure out how to do that in the least damaging manner possible.

The real point of the switch to EVs is to reduce the CO2 emissions which are going to fry us all. I would argue that is far more important than the other kinds of run of the mill pollution.

Finally you are absolutely right that getting people not to drive at all would be the best possible scenario. But I cannot see any way in which that happens. Any government that tried to ban private transport would be instantly taken to the guillotine. And when people do switch to mass transit, there are going to be some (albeit lower) emissions associated with those.

22

Yikes! That is one EEEEEEvil feral cat! Meee--@#$%ing-OOWWW!

@3 & @4 Catalina Vel-DuRay: +2 Thank you for beating me to it again.
I have nothing more to add. Bless you for being spot on as usual.

@6 kristofarian: I share your concerns, kris.

@12 GasparFagel: +1 Agreed and seconded. In a perfect world, Amazon, Boeing, Facebook, Wal* Mart, the insatiably gluttonous fossil fuel industry, RepubliKKKans ad nauseum would lose all of their ill gotten cash and bite the Big One. Then they'd all get cornholed in Hell where Rush Limbaugh, Doug Ericksen and others are eagerly waiting for them.

23

@21 dvs99 (&@10 tempur_tempur): Are my air-cooled mid-70s VW and I bad for taking leisurely road trips during the good weather months of the year? Otherwise, my beloved little SuperBeetle is tucked away in hibernation during the ever-worsening-by-climate-change Monsoon / Hurricane / Snowmageddon months. When not outside walking while my car is in storage I ride public transportation.
I don't think I'll ever be able to shake off that photo image of a 160,000 lb. (80 TON!) windblown over semi lying on its side like a dead elephant on the northbound lane of SR20 midway on the Deception Pass Bridge on November 15, 2021, back when much of Whatcom County was underwater from heavy rainfall. Severe side winds can be deadly; the Duane Berentson Bridge, also on SR20 crossing the Swinomish Channel (between La Conner and Anacortes) and Tacoma Narrows toll bridges can get really bad in 50 mph+ gusts. My VW and I wouldn't have a chance. No way will we drive in snow.

24

maybe if, waaaaay back at the start of the declaration of emergency over homelessness, the "left" started putting $100mil a year into drug treatment centers and mental health facilities instead of... wherever the fuck else the money went where it was CLEARLY wasted, then we wouldn't be in a situation where Charles is blaming all these made-up Seattle righties for sweeps.
that pesky Seattle right-wing bloc, always throwing a wrench into progress around here! riiiiiight.

25

@9 lots of copper in the motors and batteries to steal. don't kid yourself. thieves will figure that shit out soon. maybe after a handful are electrocuted to death first, but they'll get there.

26

@15: Propaganda: - A convenient retort folks use when they can't think of factual rebuttal.

27

@ propaganda:
that Shite WORKS

see: Abby Martin:
How The Media Man-
ufacturers ‘Bloodlust’ For War

Just like in the dark days after 9/11,
corporate media have responded to
the war in Ukraine with a craven
‘bloodlust’ that is making
all of us less safe.

https://therealnews.com/abby-martin-how-the-media-manufactures-bloodlust-for-war

for just ONE
Example

but you'll NEVER
find this shit on wholly-
Corps-Owned mass media

why? they have a
Lifestyle to sell You

28

@27 -- excerpt:

The problem is that we have the US corporate media which basically acts as the arm of the pentagon whenever we need critical dissent against US foreign policy. These voices kind of uniformly come together, they coalesce, and they essentially just echo whatever the foreign policy line is of the US empire and its junior collaborators.

And that is a highly sophisticated propaganda model that we basically parrot and declare as free press. We herald and cherish the notion of free press in this country, but what does that really mean if we have this ever constrictive media apparatus that essentially only echoes corporate media talking points? I mean, this is an apparatus that is controlled by five corporations. It affects more than 90% of everything we see here in Reed.

And for me, as a critical thinker and as someone who really cares about what our government is doing abroad, I feel like I need to have a wide range of views that I can navigate on my own, and I don’t want the infantilizing effect of censorship. I don’t want my reality curated for me by big tech giants. I want to be able to pick and choose what the truth is, determine my own reality based on the facts that are available.

--Abby Martin

BINGO

29

@24 -- speaking of your
Moralizing so-called "Right"

nyt:
As a Crisis Hotline Grows,
So Do Fears It Won’t Be Ready

Envisioned as the 911 for mental health, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline will soon be 988, with more services for more callers. But it’s already straining to meet demand.

one comment on the article:

"As lawmakers in Kansas debated a bill last month that would add a 20-cent monthly fee on all phone bills, John Barker, a Republican state representative, said he supported 988, but the fee would be burdensome for poor residents. “It is just like the United States Congress, though, to send us something like this” — with instructions that “you are going to fund it,” he said."

In other words, Barker means to say "I support 988....but actually I really don't...and I'd like to deflect my hypocrisy by playing "the federal government is bad" red meat playing card".

In other words, "drop dead, America".

One of the main causes of suicide is economic desperation and economic hopelessness caused by this country's vulture capitalist economy, weak worker rights, depressed wages, unaffordable healthcare and inaccessible or unaffordable mental healthcare.

It's good to see that 988 is finally getting federal support and leadership.

I'm more than happy to have my taxes raised and have the government well funded to help save lives.

Socrates, Downtown Verona, NJ

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/us/suicide-hotline-mental-health-988.html#commentsContainer

31

@30 Why should investors turn their money over to the government when they don't need to?

32

@27: The linked article is just a harangue of bashing US militarism, corporations, and juxtaposing Ukraine with how horrible America is, like using the ever so convenient Yemen for the predictable whataboutism. Same old dizzy lefty babble.

But thanks, I like to keep an open mind.

33

good question &

b. why should Investments
be taxed at far lesser
rates than income
from *Working?

*Actual Work not
your money Slaving away
on Wall $treet kinda "work."

34

Billionaires Do
Love you dewey &
it's Generous of you
to go to Bat for them
given their treatment
of We the bottom 99%.

35

@33 As an incentive to invest for the long term and not just speculate on temporary price movements or bury the cash in the ground. You're so ignorant. What do you think creates jobs? Certainly nothing you've ever done.

36

@26 it’s literal fake news. Happy to provide the numerous studies debunking this narrative that EVs take 8-9 years to catch up to internal combustion in terms of carbon footprint, but all you need to do is read @21 for a very thoughtful reality check. My point is a simple one; who do you think is interested in sowing doubt about electrification of our modern lives?

38

Who really believes the far right has anything to do with what’s happening in Seattle in terms of the sweeps? It’s like 90 percent center left. That’s why it’s laughable Sawant was being recalled by the far right. It’s democrats that are sick of what the far left nuts have done to the city. We are almost all the far right compared to the policies of the far left. We’d all be starving and jobless if the far left got what they want.

39

@23 - you and your VW are no worse than most of the rest of us, and frankly much better than the ones doing the same road trips in their SUVs/personal short buses.

40

@39 average mileage for a mid 70’s carbureted beetle is about 20 mpg, so really not any better than a modern SUV

41

The Stranger… where people that are unwilling to work more than 30 hours a week can’t understand why they aren’t getting anywhere in life. Also the Stranger… we want all businesses to suffer as they are leaches to the common man. In reality…… they provide jobs.

43

I spent the weekend responding to idiots who blamed Coogler for the bank incident but this take is even stupider:

"How did they not know this was not a bank robber but the director of Black Panther?"

What percentage of the people who have seen Black Panther could identify the director (by look or name)? Hell, take a person's top five favorite films and see if they could not only list the director but also identify them.

44

@24: It would be hilarious, if not for the multiple ongoing tragedies of Seattle's homelessness crisis. Seattle's far left got everything it wanted: homelessness was (and still is, right here at the Stranger) defined as purely economic in origin, enabling demagogues like CM Sawant to attack Amazon for it (with the full-throated support of the Stranger). Evidence everywhere of drug use and mental illness among the homeless was (and still is, right here at the Stranger) ignored completely, as dirty needles and even human excrement piled up on sidewalks, in parks, and even in playgrounds. Copious evidence that most of "Seattle's" homeless had arrived in Seattle already homeless was (and still is, right here at the Stranger) ignored for the narrative about locals falling into homelessness because of local economic inequities. The blatant squandering of public funds on failed homeless service providers was (and still is, right here at the Stranger) ignored completely, and the generosity of Seattle's citizens was (and still is, right here at the Stranger) also ignored, enabling bitterly hectoring attacks about how little Seattle's citizens cared.

The policies the far left enacted reflected their fictional beliefs, and those policies failed for lack of reality. Lacking anyone else to blame for all of this, Seattle's far left has now started manufacturing bogeymen and scapegoating them. Meanwhile, homeless persons continue living -- and dying -- in filth, disease, and violence.

45

It grates me that people whine so much about property damage from protests when it's drivers clearly causing the most property damage.

47

@39 dvs99: The longest leisurely road trip my manual shift SuperBeetle and I made was with a friend, along the Washington and Oregon coast on SR 101. We're much more comfortable and better off driving on the roads less traveled. We stay off I-5.

@40 siirf: I'm lucky my beloved VW gets ~26 mpg, and is thrifty at the pump.

@42 2CV: My VW originally belonged to my mother back in the day. I consider myself very lucky to still be blessed with this car. We've shared a lot of mileage.


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