Coalition wants to ‘Trump-proof’ Seattle with income tax

[timosman]

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/coalition-wants-to-trump-proof-seattle-with-income-tax/


February 27, 2017

http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/9c0ecd26-fd1c-11e6-ba2a-c04753e3d9a3-1536x1209.jpg
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with health insurance company executives Monday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.


The Transit Riders Union, Economic Opportunity Institute and other local organizations are launching a campaign called “Trump Proof Seattle” to start a city income tax on wealthy households.

Transit Riders Union General Secretary Katie Wilson said the campaign is a response to the threat of Seattle’s losing federal funding under President Donald Trump.

But the campaign is also an attempt to test whether an income tax can be allowed under Washington state’s constitution, Wilson said Monday. If Seattle were to adopt such a tax, the measure almost certainly would be challenged in court.

“We’re looking at what’s going on at the national level with Trump throwing executive orders around and seeing what sticks,” said Wilson, whose organization wants to see the city and Washington state move to more progressive taxes. “From our side, we need to be a little bolder about trying things and seeing what sticks.”

She said discussions will continue about the details, including exactly what would be taxed, what the money would pay for and how any measure would reach the ballot.

The Trump Proof Seattle coalition — whose more than two dozen members include the King County Labor Council, Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action, Seattle Education Association and the Tenants Union of Washington State — is most strongly considering a 2.5 percent tax only on unearned income, Wilson said.

It would apply to households with adjusted gross incomes of more than $250,000 a year.

Roughly 5 percent to 10 percent of Seattle households fall into that category, according to the coalition.

Unearned income would include capital gains, interest and dividends but not business income, rental income, stock options and sales of primary residences.

The coalition estimates the tax would generate about $100 million a year. Some potential uses for the money are affordable housing, transit service and green jobs, Wilson said.

She said the money could also replace federal funding. Trump has threatened to halt grants to so-called sanctuary cities. Mayor Ed Murray considers Seattle a sanctuary city because it limits its own involvement in immigration enforcement.

“We don’t want to get too hung up on what it would fund in case there’s a challenge,” Wilson said. “We’re still talking about that.”

The Seattle-based Economic Opportunity Institute has been working for years on strategies to reform our state’s inequitable tax system.

The coalition could collect signatures for a citizen initiative. The aim would likely be to qualify an initiative for the November ballot, Wilson said.

Another option would be the City Council’s adopting an income tax directly into law. The coalition has met with multiple members, Wilson said.

“We have strong interest from a number of them,” she said.

On Monday, Mayor Ed Murray said supported a state income tax when he represented Seattle neighborhoods as a lawmaker in Olympia.

“Our state’s regressive tax system has always been a barrier to adequate, long-term funding for critical functions such as education,” Murray said.

“Today’s proposal … is intriguing, though it faces a long legal road before any revenue could be collected, making it ill-fitted to address some of our immediate needs such as homelessness and possible federal funding cuts.”

Olympia voters rejected a ballot measure in November that would have imposed a 1.5 percent city tax on all income for households making more than $200,000 a year.

The income tax, which would have raised $2 million for college-tuition assistance, lost with 48 percent of the vote.

Olympia’s mayor and City Council stood against the measure, and opponents had some success accusing supporters of not being forthright about using the measure as a legal test case, Wilson said.

In 2010, Washington voters rejected a statewide initiative that would have created a 5 percent tax on wealthy households and a 9 percent tax on superwealthy households.

Bill Gates Sr., the attorney father of the Microsoft co-founder, campaigned for that measure, along with venture capitalist Nick Hanauer. Paul Allen, Microsoft’s other co-founder, opposed it, and the initiative won only 36 percent of the vote. The measure failed in every Washington county, but Seattle voters bucked the trend by strongly supporting it.

Wilson said the Transit Riders Union is taking a leading role because the organization is tired of asking voters to grit their teeth and pass taxes that hit poor people the hardest.

The state’s tax system is among the country’s most regressive: Poor Washingtonians pay an effective tax rate seven times higher than wealthy ones do.

“We’ve been putting boots on the ground for all these transit measures because we want to improve the transit system,” Wilson said.

“But all these measures have been really regressive. We’ve had to go to our members and the public and say, ‘If you want a better transit system, then we have to raise the sales tax or slap on some more car-tab fees or raise property taxes.’ ”

John Burbank, executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, said he’s hopeful this year’s Seattle push will benefit from the new political state of play.

Turnout was down in Olympia last year, particularly among Democratic Party voters, he said. Now many Seattle voters are energized Trump resisters.

“There’s a real desire to not just protest but to do something that means real progress at the local level, so this is a great time to move forward,” Burbank said.

[milgram]

Are they going to Trump-proof their pot shops?

[Lovecraftian4Paul]

It's really a beautiful city. Such a shame they're a festering leftist sore as well.

[Iowa]

It would apply to households with adjusted gross incomes of more than $250,000 a year.

Snowflake Theft.

[ghengis86]

I am approve. Decentralization and state sovereignty, even if it's not my flavor.

[PatriotOne]

She said the money could also replace federal funding. Trump has threatened to halt grants to so-called sanctuary cities. Mayor Ed Murray considers Seattle a sanctuary city because it limits its own involvement in immigration enforcement.


Huh? Why would they need to increase taxes when illegal immigrants are a boon to the economy according to the left. Without them our economy would crash. Are they saying they need American tax dollars to support them? Gobsmacked!

[Origanalist]

It's really a beautiful city. Such a shame they're a festering leftist sore as well.

It's not beautiful, hasn't been for years. It's a high priced shithole homeless shelter.

[Origanalist]

“We’re looking at making another excuse to extort more money and seeing what sticks,”

Fixed it for her.

[PatriotOne]

It's not beautiful, hasn't been for years. It's a high priced $#@!hole homeless shelter.

Same with Olympia. My sister has to call the police on a regular basis because of the homeless camps that keep popping up behind her property in the wooded area. She had her house broken into about 6 months ago now.

[Origanalist]

Same with Olympia. My sister has to call the police on a regular basis because of the homeless camps that keep popping up behind her property in the wooded area. She had her house broken into about 6 months ago now.

Olympia, ugh.

[CaptUSA]

Fixed it for her.

Yep. This is just the latest excuse.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Origanalist again.

[osan]

Here, we see evil unmasked.


The Transit Riders Union, Economic Opportunity Institute and other local organizations are launching a campaign called “Trump Proof Seattle” to start a city income tax on wealthy households.

Note the brazen hypocrisy. These are the same ilk that make endless noises about "equality", and yet that word applies in only the narrow-set manner that suits their purposes. Those purposes have nothing to do with equality as it properly applies to men, and everything to do with their bitter hatred of any man with the temerity to strike out on his own, as an individual, and make good in the world on his God-given talents to the benefit of himself. These disrobing communists categorically refuse to account for the benefit that such "wealthy" people so often bring to others in terms of products and services, not to mention those whom they employ and make possible good lives.

And now they are so open about their hideousness, that no nominally intelligent man can say with honesty that it is not apparent what is happening in America.


Transit Riders Union General Secretary Katie Wilson said the campaign is a response to the threat of Seattle’s losing federal funding under President Donald Trump.

Money shot. These grimy little gits don't give a damn about anyone's rights, save what they consider their entitlement to spend other people's money.

This was one of the reasons I didn't like living in Seattle. The place was rotten with this mentality, even then. I am pretty certain it is now far worse.


But the campaign is also an attempt to test whether an income tax can be allowed under Washington state’s constitution, Wilson said Monday. If Seattle were to adopt such a tax, the measure almost certainly would be challenged in court.

Money shot^2: textbook tyranny in evidence. Casting about, poking and prodding in search of new limits of that with which Theye can get away.

Would it not to become what my intended jest labeled it, I should write a tyrant's broader handbook analog of Alinksy's "Rules For Radicals".



“We’re looking at what’s going on at the national level with Trump throwing executive orders around and seeing what sticks,” said Wilson, whose organization wants to see the city and Washington state move to more progressive taxes. “From our side, we need to be a little bolder about trying things and seeing what sticks.”

More brazen hypocrisy. Where were these slime when Obama was doing the same?



The Trump Proof Seattle coalition — whose more than two dozen members include the King County Labor Council, Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action, Seattle Education Association and the Tenants Union of Washington State — is most strongly considering a 2.5 percent tax only on unearned income, Wilson said.

Note the semantic chicanery. "Well, if it's unearned, then it's OK", as if the people in question have all been out robbing banks. And yet, this is the brand of thinking the corrupts of Seattle and environs will not just accept, but probably cheer.


It would apply to households with adjusted gross incomes of more than $250,000 a year.

Roughly 5 percent to 10 percent of Seattle households fall into that category, according to the coalition.


Uh huh. I wonder if anyone in Seattle is questioning whether such tax will cover the predicted shortfalls. That's a rhetorical question.

Again, this is tyrant's boilerplate - SOP: Establish the toehold, and then move forward. Once the precedent it established, regardless of degree which is always arbitrary, Theye can move from that point on with confidence and impunity.

Note also that even if the new tax covers any shortfalls, Theye will continue to expand spending because that is what they do. At some point the new tax will no longer cover their injurious profligacy, and guess what? Tax hike time, and there will be nothing the residents will be able to do about it, save to move to another state.


Unearned income would include capital gains, interest and dividends but not business income, rental income, stock options and sales of primary residences.

A load of arbitrary feces.


The coalition estimates the tax would generate about $100 million a year. Some potential uses for the money are affordable housing, transit service and green jobs, Wilson said.

A drop in the bucket for a place like Seattle, which is rotten with all manner of socialist programs, not the least of which are their "free" educational offerings over cable. It all looks so wonderful... until one starts asking how it is financed. But of course, those making use of these "freebies" don't give a rat's patootie how they are financed, so long as they don't have to pay.

The quoted line represents deep bull-dinky and is a clear giveaway that these bastards will sock it to the people of Seattle almost the moment it becomes established precedent that they can levy such taxes with the blessing of the courts. Shortly thereafter, you will see hike upon hike, even if no red cent of federal monies is withdrawn out of their greedy mitts. All of a sudden Seattle will be beset with crisis upon crisis with cries and shrieks of "how will we be able to fund the new <fill in the blank>?" The answer will be more tax, at ever higher rates, imposed on an ever expanding envelope of the population.

Once that train gets moving, the poorly designed steam valve will become stuck at full-throttle and the conclusion will be forgone. It is a by-now, old and predictable pattern of chicanery used to squeeze every last possible red cent from the wage slave.


She said the money could also replace federal funding. Trump has threatened to halt grants to so-called sanctuary cities. Mayor Ed Murray considers Seattle a sanctuary city because it limits its own involvement in immigration enforcement.

Now I'm confused. I thought the whole idea was to do precisely this. Has someone inadvertently admitted to being party to a potentially vast conspiracy to commit fraud?


“We don’t want to get too hung up on what it would fund in case there’s a challenge,” Wilson said. “We’re still talking about that.”

Holy hell - is this quote to be believed? This reminds me of the geek cartoon so many of the Dilbert crowd has pasted in our cubes where the manager stands over the programmer, the caption reading "Start coding while I go find out what the customer wants."


The Seattle-based Economic Opportunity Institute has been working for years on strategies to reform our state’s inequitable tax system.

Note the artless casting of aspersions designed to elicit an emotional response through tacit means.


Another option would be the City Council’s adopting an income tax directly into law. The coalition has met with multiple members, Wilson said.

"Meh... fuck the voters."


“We have strong interest from a number of them,” she said.

I bet she does.


On Monday, Mayor Ed Murray said [he] supported a state income tax when he represented Seattle neighborhoods as a lawmaker in Olympia.

So we now know the mayor's on the bandwagon.


“Our state’s regressive tax system has always been a barrier to adequate, long-term funding for critical functions such as education,” Murray said.

More solicitation of strong emotion through linguistic/logical chicanery.

How many schools would $100MM fund for a year? Two? My God, these people are so artless in their bullshittery... and yet the imbeciles making up what I suspect to be a strong majority of the Seattle area are likely to take this all at face.


The [Olympia] income tax, which would have raised $2 million for college-tuition assistance, lost with 48 percent of the vote.

The appalling bit there should be that 48% of the citizens voted FOR the tax.

Here we have prime example of the tyranny of our system, which is a functional democracy. The bottom-half, the dregs of the society, are well able to impose upon the rest basically whatever tyranny they please.

And Americans from sea to shining sea sit back and suck it, when they should be out slitting throats in defense of their sacred sovereignty.


Olympia’s mayor and City Council stood against the measure, and opponents had some success accusing supporters of not being forthright about using the measure as a legal test case, Wilson said.

More artless innuendo designed to steer perception and thought. Ham-fisted, but likely sufficient.


In 2010, Washington voters rejected a statewide initiative that would have created a 5 percent tax on wealthy households and a 9 percent tax on superwealthy households.

Bill Gates Sr., the attorney father of the Microsoft co-founder, campaigned for that measure, along with venture capitalist Nick Hanauer. Paul Allen, Microsoft’s other co-founder, opposed it, and the initiative won only 36 percent of the vote. The measure failed in every Washington county, but Seattle voters bucked the trend by strongly supporting it.

If I wrote a novel about such things, it would flop because nobody would consider it believable. You can't make this stuff up.

The state’s tax system is among the country’s most regressive: Poor Washingtonians pay an effective tax rate seven times higher than wealthy ones do.


“We’ve been putting boots on the ground for all these transit measures because we want to improve the transit system,” Wilson said.

And instead of advocating the "poor" get up off their lazy asses and into the game, they attack the very people that made the "transit system" possible in the first place.

You can't buy this brand and degree of blind idiocy.

Also note the militaristic mode of speech, not to mention the outright lie of wanting the measure for improvements to the transit system. They want it because it opens the door to sky's-the-limit taxation.


“But all these measures have been really regressive. We’ve had to go to our members and the public and say, ‘If you want a better transit system, then we have to raise the sales tax or slap on some more car-tab fees or raise property taxes.’ ”

Yes, because there are not other possible options.


Turnout was down in Olympia last year, particularly among Democratic Party voters, he said. Now many Seattle voters are energized Trump resisters.

These copulators don't miss a beat, now priming the perceptual stream in the direction they desire.


“There’s a real desire to not just protest but to do something that means real progress at the local level, so this is a great time to move forward,” Burbank said.

Once again, steering the narrative through the marketing of tacit assumption and other bullshittery.

Well you know what? I hope it passes. I lived in Seattle and found the people cold and simplistically minded in the ways common to "progressives". A corn-holing such as this would seem fitting for so vast a population of milquetoast stooges who so openly repudiate their rights, having apparently swallowed every lie fed them about the proper social order. Let Seattle and similar places go apey with such violative measures, that they may serve as shining beacons to the rest of us as they descend into the status of "Detroit clone". I have no sympathy for those nitwits. This is what they want? I say give it to them, right up the boot-hole, and please, no Vaseline. Some people deserve their butthurt.

[Anti Federalist]

Well you know what? I hope it passes. I lived in Seattle and found the people cold and simplistically minded in the ways common to "progressives". A corn-holing such as this would seem fitting for so vast a population of milquetoast stooges who so openly repudiate their rights, having apparently swallowed every lie fed them about the proper social order. Let Seattle and similar places go apey with such violative measures, that they may serve as shining beacons to the rest of us as they descend into the status of "Detroit clone". I have no sympathy for those nitwits. This is what they want? I say give it to them, right up the boot-hole, and please, no Vaseline. Some people deserve their butthurt.

And those with means will immediately make haste for the exits and re-settle in ohhh, let's say, West Virginia.

Where they will immediately start agitating and demanding the same policies that they just ran away from be implemented post haste.

Until secession, it is incredibly dangerous to allow such a roach infestation to thrive.

[Swordsmyth]

And those with means will immediately make haste for the exits and re-settle in ohhh, let's say, West Virginia.

Where they will immediately start agitating and demanding the same policies that they just ran away from be implemented post haste.

Until secession, it is incredibly dangerous to allow such a roach infestation to thrive.

And that is why we need CalExit/WashExit/OrExit, withthe red counties retained as American states/ turned into the state of Jefferson etc.
Then we can label THEM as Foreigners and keep them out. But the pro illegal members of this site would insist we let them come in and destroy us anyway.

[oyarde]

I support 100 percent tax on Seattle for everyone . What can I do to help ? Do they need me to help count money ?

[osan]

And that is why we need CalExit/WashExit/OrExit, withthe red counties retained as American states/ turned into the state of Jefferson etc.
Then we can label THEM as Foreigners and keep them out. But the pro illegal members of this site would insist we let them come in and destroy us anyway.

ThisExit/ThatExit is not a solution. It, at best, a palliative measure that will in the end fail. It is almost invariable that no matter how small one whittles down a population, there remains the potential for deep political disagreement. Dividing CA into two subsets is virtually guaranteed to solve nothing. Divide it into 1000 subsets and the result is likely to be better, but you will still have one portion of the resulting population imposing its will on the rest. That is the nature of Empire social architecture. The flaw lies in the very fabric of Empire. It cannot help but violate men because men cannot help it. By its nature Empire conglomerates men into superorganisms that virtually no individual can resist. Those superorganisms, for whatever the reason, seem to mostly set themselves to purposes that violate their fellow men. I make no explanation or speculation as to why this happens, but only the observation that it does.

Given the empirical evidence, there is little reason to suppose that the Empire schema can be "corrected" such that people could live among each other under such arrangements without devolving into tyranny. Here I divert from my usual pointing to people as holding ultimate responsibility in that it appears that those who have lived in tribal anarchies were not beset with this terrible proclivity for violating one another, thereby suggesting that such social behavior is strongly influenced by the basic arrangements under which they coexist. Put them into tents in comparatively small numbers and superorganisms never seem to spontaneously generate to wreak their violative havoc upon the lives of men.

The moment, however, you situate men in cities (material manifestation of Empire), the material requirements for living in such structures, which require maintenance (a KEY factor) and other treatments that are almost universally beyond the reach of the individual, the need to form superorganisms arises stridently. This need also ties into various aspects of human nature, not all of them sterling, and the results are virtually guaranteed. Some, for example, see the various necessities of this social arrangement that make possible the political power that appeals to them so deeply, and are quick to capitalize on such circumstances to their own benefit at the cost of the rest, not because the game is perforce zero-sum, but because they render it so for the sake of protecting their own positions such that all rivals, real or imagined, are kept at bay. It is all very sick, but it seems to me to be the unavoidable end to which all Empire must lead, given the general nature of men in that context.

The best, then, that we can reasonably expect for our Empire existences would involve the adoption of a proper warrior culture. I submit that it is the only path that holds the least hope of leading men to a minimal state of servitude for them so long as they choose the prison-like social arrangement of Empire. Though I have not given it any real consideration, I am of the suspicion that proper freedom would not be obtainable under the conditions that Empire impose upon men. At the very least I am certain that achieving and maintaining it would be a monumental undertaking.

But the adoption of a proper warrior culture would go a long way toward optimizing the state of men's lives in an Empire civilization. Such a culture puts strong emphasis on individualism in all its facets including both the prerogatives that derive from mens' inborn freedom and the responsibilities that attach thereto. There are many dimensions to this, the full descriptions of which might prove too voluminous to go into here. Suffice to say that the characteristics of a true warrior are all the best to be found in a man, such as honor, integrity, courage, and so forth. The one quality I would address here, albeit briefly, is his accountability to that which he knows to be right. This is one aspect of such men that has been absent in some of the more historically prominent warrior cultures, that of feudal Japan coming first to mind.

As I have written before, I hold the bushi (samurai) in the highest regard in all ways, save one: their blind obedience. The bushi were well educated, generally speaking, their training including that of moral virtue. Having such training, they held very strong senses of right and wrong, yet the culture placed such emphasis on obedience to one's liege that they would follow any order barked at them, no matter how criminal in their minds. The Germans under Hitler did much the same, the proof made ever so publicly clear during the trials at Nürnberg as the defendants in their respective turns attempted to exculpate themselves with the now-famous, "we were only following orders", which was resolutely and rightly rejected.

A true warrior nation would be made up of people who were not only well-educated in the relevant political basics of proper human relations, they would cleave to an attitude of absolute intolerance for anything even remotely tyrannical. Such people would brook none of the nonsense that Americans barely notice anymore, and they would treat such behaviors with cruel and efficient non-equivocation. Death would be the most likely end for any "government" official committing the most seemingly innocuous acts of tyranny precisely because there is no room for even the least tolerance of such trespass. Such people would hold "government" at such bay that it would be incapable of clearing the least hurdle against any attempt at expanding their powers.

This ideal appears to me to be nearly impossible to realize. At this moment I am unable to see a path to it, given our prevailing conditions, but I maintain that it is the only one that holds any real hope for a future under the pall of Empire better than abject misery. It is for these reasons my optimism remains very low.

Let CA. secede if it wants to. Let it be broken into 500 sovereign states. It will avail the people nothing because tyranny will continue to reign in all of them. I see no plausibility for any better outcome.

[Origanalist]

ThisExit/ThatExit is not a solution. It, at best, a palliative measure that will in the end fail. It is almost invariable that no matter how small one whittles down a population, there remains the potential for deep political disagreement. Dividing CA into two subsets is virtually guaranteed to solve nothing. Divide it into 1000 subsets and the result is likely to be better, but you will still have one portion of the resulting population imposing its will on the rest. That is the nature of Empire social architecture. The flaw lies in the very fabric of Empire. It cannot help but violate men because men cannot help it. By its nature Empire conglomerates men into superorganisms that virtually no individual can resist. Those superorganisms, for whatever the reason, seem to mostly set themselves to purposes that violate their fellow men. I make no explanation or speculation as to why this happens, but only the observation that it does.

Given the empirical evidence, there is little reason to suppose that the Empire schema can be "corrected" such that people could live among each other under such arrangements without devolving into tyranny. Here I divert from my usual pointing to people as holding ultimate responsibility in that it appears that those who have lived in tribal anarchies were not beset with this terrible proclivity for violating one another, thereby suggesting that such social behavior is strongly influenced by the basic arrangements under which they coexist. Put them into tents in comparatively small numbers and superorganisms never seem to spontaneously generate to wreak their violative havoc upon the lives of men.

The moment, however, you situate men in cities (material manifestation of Empire), the material requirements for living in such structures, which require maintenance (a KEY factor) and other treatments that are almost universally beyond the reach of the individual, the need to form superorganisms arises stridently. This need also ties into various aspects of human nature, not all of them sterling, and the results are virtually guaranteed. Some, for example, see the various necessities of this social arrangement that make possible the political power that appeals to them so deeply, and are quick to capitalize on such circumstances to their own benefit at the cost of the rest, not because the game is perforce zero-sum, but because they render it so for the sake of protecting their own positions such that all rivals, real or imagined, are kept at bay. It is all very sick, but it seems to me to be the unavoidable end to which all Empire must lead, given the general nature of men in that context.

The best, then, that we can reasonably expect for our Empire existences would involve the adoption of a proper warrior culture. I submit that it is the only path that holds the least hope of leading men to a minimal state of servitude for them so long as they choose the prison-like social arrangement of Empire. Though I have not given it any real consideration, I am of the suspicion that proper freedom would not be obtainable under the conditions that Empire impose upon men. At the very least I am certain that achieving and maintaining it would be a monumental undertaking.

But the adoption of a proper warrior culture would go a long way toward optimizing the state of men's lives in an Empire civilization. Such a culture puts strong emphasis on individualism in all its facets including both the prerogatives that derive from mens' inborn freedom and the responsibilities that attach thereto. There are many dimensions to this, the full descriptions of which might prove too voluminous to go into here. Suffice to say that the characteristics of a true warrior are all the best to be found in a man, such as honor, integrity, courage, and so forth. The one quality I would address here, albeit briefly, is his accountability to that which he knows to be right. This is one aspect of such men that has been absent in some of the more historically prominent warrior cultures, that of feudal Japan coming first to mind.

As I have written before, I hold the bushi (samurai) in the highest regard in all ways, save one: their blind obedience. The bushi were well educated, generally speaking, their training including that of moral virtue. Having such training, they held very strong senses of right and wrong, yet the culture placed such emphasis on obedience to one's liege that they would follow any order barked at them, no matter how criminal in their minds. The Germans under Hitler did much the same, the proof made ever so publicly clear during the trials at Nürnberg as the defendants in their respective turns attempted to exculpate themselves with the now-famous, "we were only following orders", which was resolutely and rightly rejected.

A true warrior nation would be made up of people who were not only well-educated in the relevant political basics of proper human relations, they would cleave to an attitude of absolute intolerance for anything even remotely tyrannical. Such people would brook none of the nonsense that Americans barely notice anymore, and they would treat such behaviors with cruel and efficient non-equivocation. Death would be the most likely end for any "government" official committing the most seemingly innocuous acts of tyranny precisely because there is no room for even the least tolerance of such trespass. Such people would hold "government" at such bay that it would be incapable of clearing the least hurdle against any attempt at expanding their powers.

This ideal appears to me to be nearly impossible to realize. At this moment I am unable to see a path to it, given our prevailing conditions, but I maintain that it is the only one that holds any real hope for a future under the pall of Empire better than abject misery. It is for these reasons my optimism remains very low.

Let CA. secede if it wants to. Let it be broken into 500 sovereign states. It will avail the people nothing because tyranny will continue to reign in all of them. I see no plausibility for any better outcome.

Gee thanks osan. Jeez, I need a drink now...and it's 6 in the morning. :(

[osan]

Gee thanks osan. Jeez, I need a drink now...and it's 6 in the morning. :(

Sorry for the depressing news, but the truth is important even when it sucks.

But the bright side of it is that freedom becomes more clearly important than ever before. With all the analysis that has gone on here at RPF, I would have to day that all the arguments in favor of the various flavors and elements of tyranny are resolutely dismantled. This is a good thing. If nothing else, we have something powerful to rub in the noses of the ignorant slurpers of the state spooge.

[JK/SEA]

I support 100 percent tax on Seattle for everyone . What can I do to help ? Do they need me to help count money ?


this.

i was born in Seattle, 1951....

i could write a book about this place with the subject being a then and now compilation, but i don't want to depress myself.

[Keith and stuff]

this.

i was born in Seattle, 1951....

i could write a book about this place with the subject being a then and now compilation, but i don't want to depress myself.

Lol. I've visited many times. I really enjoy visiting Seattle like how I enjoy visiting NYC. They are both pretty cities with a lot of nice parks, gardens, coasts, statues, and landmarks. The people that live in both cities are extremely statist so when it comes to living in them, it is best to be super wealthy or homeless/rent subsidized. I can't image the struggle middle class folks must go through to live in either city.