Blogs Jan 21, 2014 at 3:30 pm

Comments

1
The entire Seattle City Council could be packed with Socialist Alternative candidates (Trotskyites!!!!), but it would still be subject to the United States Constitution, the United States Code, the Washington State Constitution, the Revised Code of Washington, and the Seattle City Charter. We live in a federal republic and a constitutional representative democracy. People should know this. Right?
2
I think you incorrectly think this is a Democracy, @1

Since 0.01% own 50% of the nations wealth, it's really a Plutocracy.

But, then, only I was invited to attend Davos twice ...
3
@1 if there were eight Sawants on the City Council, there is a LOT of leftist things they could get into law and have them stick in the face of every single thing you've listed.
4
@1 Socialist Alternative are Trotskyists. "Trotskyite" is the pejorative used by Stalinists.
5
@2 That we live in Constitutional Republic does not preclude Plutocracy. @4. Thanks for the correction. I wonder what the Maoists call them (all six of them)?
6
This is a lot like the idea that the Seattle School Board constantly fights and the votes are always 4-3.

The truth is (at least for the last 4 years) that they voted together 90% of the time.

But it makes for good press to some people look like trouble and to make the public believe that nothing gets done.
8
@4 Trotskylites is the nonpejorative term.
9
This post is lazy even by your standards, Goldy.
10
@5 Not to burst your bubble, but Socialism/Marxism is predominantly Maoist in the 3rd world. Only the west seriously mulls Stalinist vs Trotskyist thought.
11
I'll believe Sawant is to the left of everyone on the council when I see her do something that the rest of the council (and that includes the man she replaced) wouldn't have done. Everyone on the council is a leftist. Everyone wanted an income tax. Unfortunately, this puts everyone on the council to the left of the rest of a state that is to the left of the rest of the country. The problem is not that the council is to far to the left, it is that the country is to far to the right, and the council doesn't do the things that it can do (like past meaningful legislation to deal with our rent crisis).
12
So, what? The logic is that she would vote against a law that's, if anything, progressive just because Socialists are actually just contrarian?

Once councilmembers start proposing laws she has reason to disagree with, or vice versa, we'll see how effective she is.
13
"we're told can't possibly compromise, collaborate, or play well with others"

You could avoid the obvious characterization of this as a dumb shit straw man argument if you linked to even one reputable quotation that backs up your chargee. I suspect there are none.

And even if there were, voting the same way has nothing to do with compromising, collaborating or playing well. I vote the same way as tens of thousands of people I've never met before and none of those skills are implicated.

I give this post an "F."
15
Oxfam reports that worldwide, the wealthiest 85 people control as much wealth as the poorest 50% (3.5 billion) combined: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014…
16
Why would anyone, especially someone wise enough and informed enough to write for Seattle's leading opinion journal, think this issue would be or should be opposed by a socialist? Why would a socialist have to "compromise" in order to support this? Please tell us. Inquiring minds want to know.
17
Preemptive strawman. Well done, Goldy. Now you need to write more posts to shoot down all of the other imaginary arguments in your head. This type of writing suits you. As long as you don't have to attack a real argument, you hit it out of the park.
18
'But can we all get past the silly notion that her very presence makes it impossible for the council to function in a collegial manner?'

We can if you stop talking about it...
19
"the wealthiest 85 people control as much wealth as the poorest 50% "

Of course, the poorest 50% today have also never been better off in all of human history.
20
I agree with Goldy, Sawant is entering complete sellout mode.

Just wait until this summer when she is confronted by this plan to raise utility rates over 30% (compounded increase).

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014…
Officials at Seattle Public Utilities say they will need to raise rates for garbage, water, sewer and storm water services 4.7 percent each year for the next six years to maintain current service levels. The average bi-monthly residential utility bill would go from $325 in 2015 to $422 in 2020.
21
Besides, if they can put up with McGinn, Beth Goldberg, and those Stand UP America people for years, surely Sawant can't gum up the Seattle City Council process that much.
22
@19 that's pure crap.
23
Goldy sucks. Get rid of it.
24
Goldy could write three words and the same 30 people will show up and say whatever the hell they want, irrespective of what those three words mean.

25
@14 85 people. So sorry u r mixing "taxed income" with "wealth".

I'm talking Wealth. Assets. Stuff. Ownership - sux to be a serf, doesn't it "upwards striver" doomed by birth never to be a non- serf
26
Strawman schmawman. Some of you dumbass fuckers are taking Goldy's tongue-in-cheek way the fuckoff too serious-like.

(No offense intended with the dumbass fuckers part.)
27
Interesting that Sawant is expected to be "effective" when that word is not defined, and none of the other Councilmembers have been expected to come up to that or any other standard. Certainly not the one she replaced.
29
@2, 25: Davos called. They want their cum dump back again this year.

And you got the "85 people" story laughably wrong.
30
Dont worry, if McGinn won re-election, he would be fighting this all the way to the court house.
31
Goldy does effectively write the same 30 words each time.
32
Maybe it would be better if we just turned all wealth and wages over to the government. Then everything would be equal and there would be no incentive for anyone to do anything anymore. Just make sure you don't slack off or you will lose your right to breath.

Please wait...

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