So, self-described “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders, who has never ever run for office before as a Democrat, slaps the big “D” next to his name for a presidential run, and that’s totally kosher. In fact, a lot of rank and file Dems are thrilled with his candidacy. And now former Rhode Island senator and governor Lincoln Chafee declares his candidacy for the Democratic nomination, and the Democratic National Committee sends out an email welcoming the ex-Republican to the race, and that’s cool.
But local Dems wanting to endorse socialist Kshama Sawant for a non-partisan council race—that apparently is some sort of monstrous outrage or something.
Go figure.
Sawant is neither an ex-Republican nor ex-anything nor a “socialist” anything at all like Bernie Sanders. She’s a Trotskyist, which is significant if you know anything about Communist history. This shows up in occasional nonsense, such as her absurd statement that former Boeing workers could build airplanes in empty Boeing plants if the damn company moved to South Carolina. With what working capital, patents, suppliers, customers, and all the other necessities of production?
@1 She also wants to expropriate Boeing shareholders like me.
It’s not her political party that turns off the Dems, it is her grandstanding and hyperbolic attacks of anyone not 100% in step with her ideology. She is a bad politician and will be able to get little done for her district if no one else is willing to work with her.
Every elected legislative body deserves at least one cranky, disruptive ideologue in their midst to keep the rest of them focused and give them a shared purpose.
When your brand is threatened, you defend your brand.
Few Democrats in Seattle are down with the concept that Boeing should be taken over by the workers
“The workers should take over the factories, and shut down Boeing’s profit-making machine,” Sawant announced to a cheering crowd of union supporters in Seattle’s Westlake Park Monday night.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/new.....-id/nbxbC/
for the greater good.
Um, folks you seem sort of delusional. First, Sawant is the number one achieving council member of all time, helping lead the min wage hike the grass roots pressure that forced the entire council and mayor and establishmen to give in and compromise. This where despite a declining min wage for decades, in real terms the
D party just failed to do anything about it. whining the gop won’t let us, blah blah blah. Sawant did more on this than D council members (you know what I mean) generally achieve in their entire political careers. Thus, Sawant is a better D than most D politicians!
Second, whatever she says about nationalizing boeing isn’t going to happen. So your worry about it is pearl clutching and just silly. What she will do is: help ensure strong enforcement of the min wage; work for tenants protections; and in general do WAY more to reduce inequality than any other council member.
Seems like part of your pique is she’s out democratting the democratic party. This is why basically a majority of the 43d and 37th Ds voted for Sawant in their endorsement meetings (put on the ballot as no endorsement, due to silly D party rules that make no sense). Now then we see the Democratic party knows the statewide support for an initiative to go to $12 an hour is very strong. Are they out there railing and ranting and organizing and starting to you know, write it up, put it on the ballot, and pass it? why didn’t they go do this for this election year? Answer: most democratic party electeds aren’t that great at politics, except for the politics of getting reelected. Making change happen? Not so effective. They similarly are ineffective at the carbon plans or education funding, simply failing to build any grass roots movement in support of those two key things. And then we get to the income tax, where for decades their refusal to build grass roots movement and longterm support for highly regressive taxes has turned off so many D base voters from any taxes that we can’t get that either. Sawant got stuff done. That’s why the Ds or part of them, hate her. she’s showing them up. It’s embarrassing. Some like Murray seem more intent on getting her out than on advancing D party values. We walked with commies to win ww2. Churchill walked with socialists to get the first injured worker insurance scheme in UK. Working with Sawant and the SA party is smart — they’re achieving D values and helping real poor people. And if this means you have to suffer the fretworthy anxiety “one day she might grow so strong I might have my boeing stock taken away!” well tough. don’t worry, it’s not going to happen and really, you know it won’t. Seriously, you think she’s so dangerous the SA folks will grow and what, take a majority in the state leg and expropriate boeing? stop the hallucinatory LSD level freak out, please.
@3 That’s my feeling as well. It is much more fun watching the Tea Party eat their own with purity tests against conservative “RINOs” than it is watching Progressive/Socialists push their purity tests on liberals. Bernie Sanders will improve the Democratic debates. He’ll likely have my vote in the primaries. My fear is that some of his supporters will scorch the earth and pave the way for Bush III. Lincoln Chafee will never figure into it.
@6 “Sawant got stuff done.” Other than the minimum wage, what else has she actually done. I know she talks a big talk, but what else has she actually done, and who has she been able to caucus with to accomplish these things?
@6: the min wage hike alone is “doing more stuff” than every single council member in the history of the city council.
who did she caucus with? what? her grass roots pressure FORCED the mayor to make his council and that caucus. this pressure then forced the council to pass it. it was like 9-0 I think or close. so, she caucused with everyone in the way that works.
quick, tell me any other council member’s single biggest accomplishment. Burgess is touting how he “was one of the first to write a letter to DOJ calling for investigation!” as if to ignore the fact what he was investigating or wanted investigated was the conduct of SPD under his watch.
the min wage thing has spurred many other cities to take it up. it’s prodding some movement for a state initiative, which is happening way too slowly. but this alone is more than the entire legislative accomplishments of a godden or a burgess or a conlin or a whoever that ex news guy was who’s so non memorable, oh cmpton, or a wills, or a nicastro, or a rasmussen, etc. i’d say licata has done much. but you tell me, what council member has done more than Sawant? then tell me this, what council member did more in the first year of their terms?
the min wage hike also helps push up wages for not just min wage workers but many more. this is “doing more” on housing than any other program, it’s “doing more” on education than any other program, etc. jesus, it’s as if the democrats have totally forgotten that economic gains for the lower half of the pyramid are fundamental. do you think Jan Drago “I created dog parks!” has done more than Sawant? Who has? you tell me.
Poor attempt at comparison, Goldy. Bernie Sanders and Lincoln Chafee, for whatever labels they wore in the past, they now want to be considered Democrats and part of a Democratic team. Sawant has no such interest in a Democratic Party affiliation, in fact she would rather destroy that party.
And for what it’s worth, individual Democrats are free to endorse whomever they wish, and some have indeed endorsed Sawant. No different than some Democrats endorsing Gov. Dan Evans back in the day.
@9 I don’t have answers for you. I’m relatively new to this area and don’t know the local history. All I know about Sawant’s “accomplishments” is that she was the most vocal proponent of “$15 Now”, and that people who agree with her on 90% of issues are demonized as far right corporatist warmongers for their lack of full compliance; and compromise is as unacceptable to her as it is to Teabaggers. So you’re saying minimum wage (while impressive) is all she’s done? And she single handedly forced the entire council to support it? Are there any other issues you expect her to make a difference on; by herself?
“the min wage hike alone is “doing more stuff” than every single council member in the history of the city council”
Seems to me she road Sea-Tac’s coattails to socialist glory.
Would Kshama Sawant Be More Acceptable If She Were an Ex-Republican?
Would Kshama Sawant Be More Acceptable If She Were a Man?
Would Kshama Sawant Be More Acceptable If She Were a Native-Born Citizen?
Would Kshama Sawant Be More Acceptable If She Were Not A Woman Who Refuses to Back Down Before Native-Born Men?
@5 See #2, dumbass.
You can find an extensive list of employee owned and run companies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L....._companies
@6 you are missing the point on the Boeing comparison. It’s not that anyone is worried about their Boeing stock. The Boeing example illustrates how plain ridiculous some of her ideas are. She will continue to grandstand and impress ideologues and at the same time alienate those she needs to work with to get things done. Eventually the ideologues impressed by her grandstanding and rhetoric will want their district represented in a collaborative manner that gets things done.
@16 collaboration did not get things done on the minimum wage. we have had a declining minimum wage in real terms ever since 1968. collaboration made it go lower and lower. as for the new in town guy who doesn’t know the history, she didn’t single handedly get it done. it was raised by a bunch of fast food workers going on little strikes. the socialist alternative party backed it. she backed it and helped lead all those grass roots efforts. there was a lot of messaging, too, getting the media to write about how much money is needed, how the corporations get welfare when we have to give their low wage workers food stamps, human face stories, etc. she ran for city council making it her number one issue and won against a long term incumbent. kind of impressive. so with this mandate, she then filed initiatives and charter amendments to boost it to 15 real fast for all employers. this forced the council and mayor to act as they faced the threat of 15 in just a couple few years even for small employers — they feared she could get it passed by going to the voters, and more if it’s in the CHARTER they can’t even amend it EVER. so THEN the mayor and council pass a weaker version that’s still pretty strong.
that’s the history. this is more “accomplishment” than any other council member has done, in history. well maybe one led the regrade and ship canal or something but you get the idea. she’s rocking on the accomplishments meter. as to collaboration and compromise, yes you don’t know the history because that is EXACTLY WHAT SHE DID. she compromised in accepting hte mayor’s proposed legislation out of that little committee he put together and dropped the threat of charter initiative. voila, there’s the time to compromise — AFTER you create a larger threat and compromise from a position of strength, something D’s and even Obama often just seem incapable of doing. now then you resort to the “well that’s pretty huge but what ELSE has she done” mantra. gimme a break, so obvious. she’s done a bunch of stuff and some worked some didn’t. she worked with the council members on lots of things and opposed them on other things. and btw your yardstick that if you don’t get something done you’re not effective is false; by teling them their okamoto appointment was scandalous, the dears nearly fainted, omg, she WAS telling the truth and more impt. what her constituents would want her to say. so your projection that somehow cap hill and dist e are just dying to get a sally bagshaw type, a pamela banks type, who’s into compromise and conciliation with zero grass roots power is just false. those are exactly the kinds of traits of the guy she beat, conlin. as far as “I’m not worried for my stock but hre silly ideas will render her ineffective” again, please, this is just bluster, we already showed and it was conceded she was MORE effective than most all others. and you’re wrong. her silly ideas on nationalizing boeing and MS have nothing to do with other council members joining her in for example supporting the parks board thing, to take one example. so in the end, you got nothing. but hey you think you know what her district wants, you think it’s “someone who gets stuff done” — what on earth do you mean, a sally claark? a richard conlin? um dude, you’re wrong — we’ll find out in the fall. right now I am betting she beats banks in the fall 54-46. what say you? you think she’ll lose? why were her favorables the highest of ANY council member? are you just fantasizing because so far you got nothing factual backing your opinions. people last time dissed the whole council voting for districts and sawant. and your theory is folks are just dying for a normal seattle city council member like a jim compton or a jean godden? what? did they pass out drugs and not give me any or something?
I expect she’shelped arouse more lefties to run and we may see a stronger left leaning faction on the council. it’s already pressing the council to go for a big affordable housing plan. she may write up a city income tax initiative, maybe not. or propose rent controls meaning all manner of controls from a six month’s notice and some other things. she’s not going to sit back and not get things done, don’t you worry. in fact i think that is what you’re worried about!
@17 you got your facts wrong attributing the $15/hr min wage to Sawant and then pretending she drug a reluctant council & Mayor along, and is sycophantic. Ed Murray campaigned on a $15/hr phased in minimum wage. So tell who accomplished what they campaigned on, Sawant with her $15NOW!!! or Murray with his $15/hr passed in?
“Seattle mayoral candidate Ed Murray is vowing to push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage if elected, but says the effort would proceed cautiously”-sounds exactly like what we got no?
Sooner or later even the sycophants want the potholes fixed, community centers, funding for civic projects, etc, etc, things more local and not part of Sawant’s “movement” which seems to be her priority. You already see the other council members and the mayor backing her opposition candidates, which unless she changes her shrill, confrontational style will continue. Could you imagine a coworker who grandstands in every meeting and personally attacks coworker they disagree with? While maybe and effective strategy in a single meeting or issue it gets old fast and drives the people needed for collaboration away. It only took one term for her act to get old and alienate her fellow council members and the mayor.
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/.....n-seattle/
@ 17 you also attribute things to Sawants that she had nothing to do with even remotely
“she compromised in accepting hte mayor’s proposed legislation out of that little committee he put together and dropped the threat of charter initiative”
Not even remotely close to true that she “dropped the threat of charter initiative”. What happened was after Forward Seattle announced a competing initiative for a $12.50 min wage that City Attorney Pete Holmes “discovered” that neither charter amendment was allowable in an even number year, not Forward Seattle’s nor $15NOW’s. You are trying to give Sawants credit for something she never did which was to “drop the threat of initiative in order for compromise”. In fact she cast the only vote against this $15/hr law, so she neither compromised nor dropped the threat of a ballot challenge. You really seem to be “mis-remembering” a lot of things in order to paint a picture of Sawant that isn’t true. She didn’t accomplish her campaign promise, Ed Murray did. She didn’t drop the threat of an initiative, it was disallowed by the City Attorney. She also didn’t compromise, she voted in opposition. Talk about people fantasizing, Sawant has done none of the things you try to give her credit for.
http://kuow.org/post/15-now-co.....dment-year
http://www.bizjournals.com/sea.....-hour.html
Someone above farted this… Sawant is a better D than most D politicians!
Yes Sawant is! Being a cheap D means she doesn’t pay her staff as employees but as consultants! That’s something the blowhard early onset senile schismatic IDIOT Wabbit screams about Republican being! Now we know better. Why? No payroll taxes or medicare taxes paid by Sawant! No workers comp and L&I taxes paid by Sawant! You all have 24 hour moronic moonbattic memory malady mastered! Puddy posted this in late April about y’all’s hero!
How about #OccupySawant?
http://www.thestranger.com/blo.....ontractors
Butt, that’s A-OK to Sawant loving DUMMOCRETINS above because the ends always justifies the means! And…
Not much to add to this paragraph! Speaks perfectly for itself! Remember as a contractor, the “Sawant employees” have to pay the full boat on their social security and medicare taxes!
See ya! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Remember HA DUMMOCRETINS, if McDonalds, Chik-Fil-A, WalMart, Hobby Lobby or others paid their employees as Sawant does, Sawant would be all over it — because when you’re purely driven by that strange ideological position, you tend not to give anyone else a pass. And that strange purely ideological position makes Sawant a better D than most D politicians! That’s what was sad above! So the question Sawant needs to answer is: when is it OK for a big evil business to utilize contractors the exact way she’s using them?
Isn’t Sawant being a Socialist hypocrite? Isn’t Sawant acting like most DUMMOCRETINS in America; laws are for the little people, not for us of the Seattle Council ruling class… Llsten to my stump speeches… Listen to my bull horn gatherings and do as I say! Listen to me at photo-ops! Remember, I do not have to follow the same rules because I get to set them. I, Kshama Sawant am a better D than most D politicians!
Here’s what Reader’s Digest thinks of her “Boeing suggestion”! http://www.rd.com/funny-stuff/.....-bosses/3/
Just a quick Google search finds some interesting stuff! :)
Socialism always results in a rigid party aristocracy and that’s the DUMMOCRETIN way! Sawant is a better D than most D politicians! Socialism is the antithesis of freedom and being dependent on government is the DUMMOCRETIN way! Sawant is a better D than most D politicians! Puddy has covered this many times on HA DUMMOCRETINS.
Isn’t the old adage “What’s mine is mine. What’s yours is mine! And I will give yours to someone less fortunate and doesn’t have what you have. Period!” So think of that full glass of water. You turn your head and voila!, it’s now half empty. Where did half the water go? Puddy read this from the libtards at Yahoo last March… https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20150330082530AAVNrz5 We conservatives know the socialists gave half our water to someone less fortunate and kept their full glass! That’s the way y’all think! Very apparent from above!
Remember, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Therefore is Sawant:
Old Major
Napoleon
Snowball
Squealer
or Minimus? Puddy sez Napoleon!
It’s apparent from the comments above you Seattleites deserve Kshama Sawant… From the Cesspool…comments above, Seattle socialism runs rampant in this cesspool of a libtard-led left wrong city! You get what you vote for!
Maybe an Urban Dictionary entry is forthcoming!
In libtard led cities even the snow is full of trash!!! http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015.....lled-with/
Ahhhhhhhh yes, that good old socialized medicine in England. This will not make the Friday Night Comix either… http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....tloss.html
Sorry the two above posts are in the wrong thread.
Rush to post them before work!
Great web site. A lot of helpful information here.
I’m sending it to some friends ans also sharing in delicious.
And obviously, thanks in your effort!
@20.
Sawant and her team led the fight for the min wage hike. she campaigned on it and this pushed the mayor to start talking about it.
He was in politics about 20 years including in the state leg. I never heard him speak strongly on the min wage before sawant and her team all those activists created the pressure to do it at the city level. He reacted to her and the grass roots she led.
Two, the charter amendment created pressure though you can only vote on it in gen muni election year.
Three, they filed initiatives too. so the pressure was there, if the city did not do something — listen carefully and slowly because this is REAL complex — they could have (a) done the charter amendment the NEXT year (at this point your palm should be slapping your face) or do the intiative any year.
Four. okay, you say she didn’t vote for it fine. I accept your word. Still, it’s her accomplishment.
Five. all the folks saying that they want the collaborative polite blah blah blah blah blah, it’s bullshit. it didn’t get the min wage raised for YEARS. the D’s just let the real min wage fall and fall and fall the 1968 one should be 10.68 today just for inflation then for productivity you’d say it should be 15 or 16 already. apparently to murray and most leaders these facts which mean workers are getting the value they create STOLEN were not impt. enough to DO something and Sawant did do something forcing murray et al. to react.
Now, it’s spread to a dozen other cities. as to the guy saying she rode SeaTac’s coattails as if she did nothing, oh please go stick your head in a lake. No one rode any coattails to get the min wage hike done you are deliberately insulting her and the hundreds of SA activists who worked this issue and got her elected — you all do know, it was the fact of her election that made murray et al. see the writing on the wall and make him make the business leaders agree to something? without her being in office having won, murray would have done far less or made the raises take far longer.
Now then, you tell me what other council member has a bigger signature achievement. I didn’t hear anyone offer up nary a one. Jan Drago, dog parks? Burgess, downtown etiquette ordinance? Bruce Harrell body cameras, pilot program but don’t fire a single officer after DOJ finds a pattern of excessive force and complete failure of supervision? anyhoo, we’ll see election day I think it’s going to be sawant over banks like 55 to 45. Banks? btw, what’s SHE done, what did she do working for the city for decades? get consent settlements in a few civil rights cases and pull down $100K? tell me this, did she notice the gender pay gap right there in the city staff, apparently not.
ok, commenters let’s call it. what’s the vote outcome going to be in the fall election? let’s start with primary, I say
Sawant 50 Banks 31 Hearne 19.
In the fall I say Sawant 55 Banks 45.
Y’all may have noticed that (a) there’s no backlash against Sawant by the 61% who said they saw her favorably, (b) Banks? not really developing any reason to run or voter support, she is getting establishment contributions and help, (c) Hearne totally not catching fire, is failing to have a strong “why I’m running.” Both are essentially running as “I am not Sawant.” whats the Banks why I am running? Does she have one? Is it to have closer connections to eli lilly and ups and starbucks on the council, like she did at urban league?
that’s not what district 3 wants. one rich white guy and one nice AA lady with a long career in government isn’t even a profile to take on sawant. a Roderick if he were gay, or say, perhaps, a Jaime pedersen or chopp, now they could have taken her on. The challengers are facing an incumbent who not only won in district 3 but also citywide and she also has this army of doorbellers out there every weekend knocking on doors and banks and hearn just don’t have that program going. banks will have money for mail. do you think getting a couple of postcards about “I will listen and be more collaborative” is going to make a voter on capitol hill go “oh, right more consensus that’s what we need!” and vote for Banks?
Not likely.
Sawant’s not all that left either if you put her on a European scale. while I don’t want boeing nationalized, or MS, I think we’d get a lot stronger D policies such as single payer if we had a huge socialist party here in America. there seems to be a very strong correlation between “strong socialist party, like SDs or Labor type parties in Germany, Sweden, UK or France” and “well functioning health care system, more equity, fewer desperate ghettos of violence, better train system and more programs to help you go to college. not to mention more vacation and less fucking with workers.” So, not sure why Ds here have such animosity to the Socialist party here, why not welcome them? if you want D stuff actually enacted instead of just going to meetings whining about it?
Hurrah! At last I got a blog from where I be able to really take valuable facts concerning
my study and knowledge.
excuse me. I said I accept your word that Sawant didn’t vote for the min wage measure, when my original recollection that she did, was correct. Forgive my undeserved graciousness in debate, as usual someone was just making stuff up.
AN ORDINANCE relating to employment in Seattle; adding a new Chapter 14.19 to the Seattle Municipal Code; establishing minimum wage and minimum compensation rates for employees performing work in Seattle; and prescribing remedies and enforcement procedures.
Status: Passed
Date passed by Full Council: June 2, 2014
Vote: 9-0
Date filed with the City Clerk: June 3, 2014
Date of Mayor’s signature: June 3, 2014
See that 9-0? Sawant compromised. The bill as passed is a true compromise in delaying the $15 so it’s not “now.” by the time the thing is fully phased in most like the $15 then will be the same as $13.50 now. so she got $13.50/$15.00 of a loaf == more than half a loaf.
that’s compromise isn’t it.
google the story from the times and it says sawant galvanized the whole thing which I believe is fair. she certainly played MORE of a role than any other council member. I have not heard any commenter on this site mention any thing any other CM has done or that pamela banks has done to change things as much as this.
what the repetition of the memes against Sawant shows is that christian sinderman knows how to pull and tug at the little stories in your mind about collaboration, consensus, get things done but not in a LOUD way, by consensus, which is a strong ethic in seattle. the sad thing is, it doesn’t get things done for the working class and poor and lower income and renters and the bottom half of the income pyramid — i.e., those who need the democratic party to get off its ass about inequality and get us some more equality real quick after letting it lag for what, since 1981?? or since 1968? back then, when the fed min wage was at its highest peak, in real terms, the working class was more white males. think archie bunker’s nephew starting out at the loading dock. but today it’s more minority immigrant and way more female. hmmmmm…..any coincidence? well if the D party only focuses on civil rights and stuff and identity politics and simply loses the whole focus on economic justice and economic equality, yes, the lower half of the income pyramid suffers. this means kids without food. children who can’t rent a flute to be in the school band. a mom with two kids working at two jobs at two restaurants who cannot pay the copays and lets herself not get treated! and you all disparage Sawant for focusing with leading the movement for a min wage hike, berate her for not being consensus enough, when in fact she got results. Great. Really great, folks, it was so much better when the local city democratic leaders on the council did nothing or little on economic issues…..focusing on a park and reopening a street at westlake or shoveling $200 million to help paul allen in SLU mercer improvements or things like that. Really. why on earth wouldn’t you support sawant if you’re actually concerned about real poor people working hard who just are totally underpaid? whose value is taken by employers? (fact basis, min wage of 1968 adj for inflation is about 10.75, adjust for productivity, who knows but like 15 to 20) (productivity includes a better educated low wage workforce more finished HS or even college years or speak spanish or know basic operation of computers and one person can do more working with the huge investments in capital; more capital requires more training of workers, i.e. they’re more productive. productivity has been rising, wages not keeping pace, if you care you’d be out there demanding they actually go to $15 right now for everyone NOW.)