Seattle elects a socialist to the city council (Bellevue, Everett: job market, calculation)

[branh0913]

Originally Posted by Seacove

Well you've moved to California so you don't have to worry about Washington State anymore. Our "educated" populace is considered pretty "educated" by some recent measures, not that it matters. It seems lately the only "education" that is valued is the "education" that they agree with.

You now can focus on the "educated" populace of the Bay Area. I was responding to a poster trashing the USPS as socialism when it is in the Constitution. I'm concerned about Washington State specifically, not broad politics which belongs in the political forum.

I think "intellect" should be measured in terms of people valuing systems that actually work. There are a great many things that are awesome to educate yourself about, and even romanticize about how grand and euphoric they are. At the end of the day, they don't work. If I were told that I had to build a new railway system that worked better than the last one, and I sat back and brain stormed all of these great ideas. But somehow my ideas never translated into anything that was useful, nor worked, then people wouldn't think I was all that great at designing a railway system, now would they? It's amazing how Seattle's population is considered "educated" and "intellectual", yet they would allow a socialist into their city council. I mean, by "all measures" socialism is an absolute failure. But people embrace it, and call themselves intellects for doing so. So is intellect measured is far fetched idealism? Or is it just someone who comes up with ideas. Anyone can come up with ideas, but the that's any of them will work.

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by branh0913

I think "intellect" should be measured in terms of people valuing systems that actually work. There are a great many things that are awesome to educate yourself about, and even romanticize about how grand and euphoric they are. At the end of the day, they don't work. If I were told that I had to build a new railway system that worked better than the last one, and I sat back and brain stormed all of these great ideas. But somehow my ideas never translated into anything that was useful, nor worked, then people wouldn't think I was all that great at designing a railway system, now would they? It's amazing how Seattle's population is considered "educated" and "intellectual", yet they would allow a socialist into their city council. I mean, by "all measures" socialism is an absolute failure. But people embrace it, and call themselves intellects for doing so. So is intellect measured is far fetched idealism? Or is it just someone who comes up with ideas. Anyone can come up with ideas, but the that's any of them will work.

Your premise "by all measures socialism is an absolute failure" is debatable. Plenty of countries lean toward a socialistic government including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, etc. and there are many portions of the US government that are socialist including schools, Medicare and Social Security. You can call all of them failures but that's because you and your party are motivated to demoralize government unless your party is in power.

Capitalism fails every day, it just doesn't make the news unless it's the size of Enron. Washington State is as corporate as it gets and the GOP is certainly represented due to E. WA. While I'm on the Eastside and don't vote in Seattle elections, I hardly think a socialist city council member is all that dramatic.

You have nothing to fear since you don't live here and have made it clear hundreds of times that you don't like Seattle.

[victorianpunk]

Originally Posted by Seacove

You have nothing to fear since you don't live here and have made it clear hundreds of times that you don't like Seattle.

I HATE people like that! If you live or work in Seattle than by all means, whine and moan...but for people in Kansas or Alabama or some other third world state to complain about who we elect is bonkers. This isn't even congress or the senate: ITS THE CITY COUNCIL! If you don't live or work in the city it will have NO EFFECT ON YOU WHAT SO EVER!

Texas elects right-wing hacks all the time who try to get evolution out of text books and make kids stare at the Ten commandments in public buildings, do you see me complaining on a Texas board? No. I just know I'll sure as hell never live there.

Yes, Seattle elected a socialist member of city council, legalized gay marriage and weed, and we have a giant statue of Lenin in one of our neighborhoods:





We'll stay like we our and in exchange for being allowed to elect our leftists, people in Alabama and Texas can continue to elect right-wing hacks who want speaking in the tongues to be taught in public schools. We can keep our statue of that douche-weasel Lenin, and in exchange the south can keep statues of their douche-weasels:

Nathan Bedford Forrest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



By the way, those are flowers under Lenin...ever time I see that statue somebody has placed flowers under it and on one occasion I saw a kid emptying half of his bag of weed to Lenin as kind of an offering... only in Seattle.

Still, I would replace that statue with an even bigger one of this guy, and REALLY make the right-winger's heads explode:
Eugene V. Debs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by branh0913

Which is why heavy taxation has done nothing but driven business away from cities/countries.

You want a political debate in the Seattle forum but rather than respond to that lengthy post, I will just say, you moved from a state that has no income tax to a state that does have income tax and the Bay Area seems to be doing quite well economically.

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by victorianpunk

for people in Kansas or Alabama or some other third world state to complain about who we elect is bonkers. This isn't even congress or the senate: ITS THE CITY COUNCIL!

I can't rep you anymore but totally agree. And if the Lenin statue annoys them, then it's worth the chuckle.

I don't agree on Obama and health care because I remember the chain of events and how that played out. Compromises and changes were made to appease people who would do anything possible to stop health care. They always have and they always will. With 20/20 hindsight, it could have been done differently in a way that you and I would have preferred, but the opposition would still be the same and always will be. It is my hope that Washington State ignores the drama of the rest of the country and just keeps moving forward making it consistently better over time.

[sean98125]

The next thing we need to do is to enact single payer healthcare in Washington State, just like they did in Vermont.

[Count David]

Warning.

This thread and its mostly well-respected banter was great, but much of it (now removed) was nowhere near Seattle and would have fit better in POC or even Great Debates.

Folks, remember this forum is about Seattle/King County issues, not governmental or economic systems around the world. If we can somehow get back to the original topic, that would be great. If not, we know what will happen.

[wutitiz]

bottom line, Kshama has a decent chance of getting the $15 minimum wage enacted but little else. She's not going to nationalize Boeing nor get her grubby hands on the bank accounts of Seattle tech millionaires.

The $15 minimum wage will be bad for Seattle, but Seattle has survived worse. We made it through $10 packs of cigs, $7 pints of vodka, and bans on sledding on Queen Anne Hill; we'll make it through this. It will be a boon to the restaurant industry of Bellevue, Shoreline, Tukwila, etc.

[eskercurve]

My only put would be that I'm glad that she's the only one on that council who's that nutty. I also take solace in the fact that she only got ~5.4% of the city as a whole to vote (i.e. 54% or so times 10% because the city has roughly that amount of the population per councilmember).

The whole "economic terrorism" thing is laughable. She clearly displays a lack of the basic knowledge of global macro economics and the dynamics that large corporations have with the world today. We're lucky Boeing is considering building everything in the USA rather than Mexico. Trust me, they would find a way to do it. Someone should muzzle her.

[RotseCherut]

They should make a new movie called "Socialist In Seattle"... Something tells me it will not be a hard sell, nor will it be hard to find any local talent to star in the movie.