Unreal scenes on the streets of Seattle this Independence Day as black Panthers take over the streets, pic.twitter.com/9DXeT8tjHI
— Tony (@Mrtdogg) July 4, 2020
Last week, Seattle and King County leaders hired transgender stripper Beyoncé Black St. James to perform at their annual conference on solving homelessness.
Here's how they're using taxpayer money: pic.twitter.com/J0lCKVVfgO
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 15, 2019
SEATTLE – A 23-year-old DREAMer in Washington state is accused of brutally raping a 19-year-old woman in her apartment complex’s gym and leaving her with severe facial injuries — including a broken jaw and dangling ear.
The woman ended up stumbling home with missing teeth, a bloody head and wearing only a black tank top, according to court documents obtained by Fox News. She was working out in the gym in Burien, a Seattle suburb, before the June 25 assault and did not know her attacker, police said.
Continue reading “DREAMer accused of brutally raping woman in Seattle suburb”
Guest Post by Paul Jacob
It should shock no one: denying unskilled workers the opportunity to sell their labor for less ends up disadvantaging those unskilled workers against better-skilled ones.
That’s precisely what standard economic theory predicts. It’s what common sense should tell you.
And it’s what a major new study — with access to more data sets than ever before — says does happen. Minimum wage laws put workers at the lowest rung of the economic ladder out of work.
But, but . . . I hear the sputtering: minimum wage laws are nearly everywhere, and sure are popular.
Why didn’t the clerk and customer try reasoning with the agitated hatchet wielding attacker? Why didn’t they just wait for the 2nd responder heroes to arrive in 20 minutes to draw the chalk outlines around their bodies? Obama and his lefties hate the man with the carry permit who saved lives. Their warped mindset calls him a gun clinger. Fuck them and their gun confiscation agenda.
A customer shot and killed a hatchet-wielding man attacking a clerk at a convenience store in Burien Sunday morning.
By Rachel Lerman
Seattle Times staff reporter
A customer shot and killed a hatchet-wielding man attacking a clerk at a convenience store in Burien on Sunday morning.
About 5:45 a.m., a masked man about 40 years old walked into a 7-Eleven store near South 110th Street and Eighth Avenue South and swung a hatchet at a customer, said King County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cindi West. The man then went behind the counter and attacked the 58-year-old clerk, never saying anything.
Within seconds, a customer pulled out a handgun and shot and killed the attacker, likely saving the clerk’s life, West said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The 60-year-old customer buys coffee from the store almost every morning, West said, and he sits and chats with the clerks. He has a permit to carry a concealed handgun, West said.
The clerk who was attacked told a KIRO 7 reporter that he would have been killed had it not been for the customer. The regular customer is a “very nice” guy, the clerk said.
The clerk has a minor injury on his stomach, West said.
The identities of the three people involved were not released.
An investigation is continuing.
Guest Post by Jack Salmon
A new report from JP Morgan Chase & Co. finds that the summer employment rate for teenagers is nearing a record low at 34 percent. The report surveyed 15 US cities and found that despite an increase in summer positions available over a two year period, only 38 percent of teens and young adults found summer jobs.
This would be worrying by itself given the importance of work experience in entry-level career development, but it is also part of a long-term trend. Since 1995 the rate of seasonal teenage employment has declined by over a third from around 55 percent to 34 percent in 2015. The report does not attempt to examine why summer youth employment has fallen over the past two decades. If it had, it would probably find one answer in the minimum wage.
Most of the 15 cities studied in this report have minimum wage rates above the federal level, with cities such as Seattle having a rate more than double that. Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics seen in the chart show exactly how a drastic rise in the minimum wage rate affects the rate of employment.
Seattle has experienced the largest 3 month job loss in its history last year, following the introduction of a $15 minimum wage. We can only imagine the impact such a change has had on the prospects of employment for the young and unskilled.
Continue reading “The $15 Minimum Wage and the End of Teen Work”
Hat tip Francis Marion
These ‘progressive’ ideas are blowing up in the faces of the Liberals who came up with them and it’s downright embarrassing.
A man undressed in a woman’s locker room and said he was allowed to do so because of the ‘gender identity’ rule.
The issue is the first being faced by Seattle Parks and Recreation.
On February 8 at Evans Pool, a man wearing board shorts entered the women’s locker room and began to strip. When females alerted staff they asked the man to leave.
“The law has changed and I have a right to be here,” the man told them, citing the transgender rule.
No one was arrested and police weren’t called, according to King5.
Even more disturbing, the man returned a second time while young girls were changing for their swim practice.
Pool regular Aldan Shank said this rule, “sort of works against the point they’re trying to make. They’re causing people to feel exposed and vulnerable with the intention of reducing people feeling exposed and vulnerable.”
Guest Post by Stilton Jarlsberg
In what is quite possibly the most delightful news story Hope n’ Change has read in years, Socialist presidential candidate Bernie “Share the wealth” Sanders had to involuntarily share (and eventually forfeit) the stage with idiotic protestors who commandeered his microphone.
Before we dive into the actual events – which are so delicious that we don’t have to make up anything – let’s all take a deep relaxing breath so we can truly savor each delightful detail of this hilarious fustercluck. Ready?
It all began in Seattle, the very Mecca of Liberalism, where Bernie Sanders was scheduled to speak to (in the words of the Huffington Post) a “massive” rally of dozens of liberals, staged by a group called the Social Security Works Coalition. The event was a celebration of entitlement services, complete with a tacky cardboard birthday cake – presumably in commemoration of the many years that people have been getting taxpayer-funded cake.
Sanders took to the microphone and drew cheers when he thanked Seattle “for being one one of the most progressive cities in the state!” Which turned out to be his last word on that or any other subject because the microphone was quickly snatched out of his hands by protestors from Black Lives Matter.
Activist (we’d never use the word “extremist”) Mara Johnson then accused the alleged crowd of covering themselves in “white supremacist liberalism” and demanded four and a half agonizing minutes of silence to mark the sad one-year anniversary of violent cigar thief Michael Brown becoming a speed bump in Ferguson, Missouri.
Only a government drone, liberal moron, or union douchebag couldn’t see this coming from a mile away. Instituting a mandatory $15 minimum wage is about the dumbest government enforced idea ever. When Seattle announced it, Obama and his liberal minion hordes applauded and declared victory in the war against greedy capitalists. Now it goes live in two weeks. The impact in the real world is already being felt and will really sink in after more small businesses close up shop, more workers lose jobs, and prices jump for everything in the socialist paradise of Seattle.
Of course restaurants were going to close. All restaurants operate on very thin margins. That’s why very few survive over the long-term in the first place. Family owned restaurants are always living on the edge. This is how it works in the real world. Waitresses at restaurants are paid approximately $2.83 per hour. Oh the horror!!! A waitress working a 4 hour lunch shift or dinner shift at a moderately priced bar/restaurant can generally make between $80 and $120 in tips. That is $20 to $30 per hour, along with their $2.83 pay. According to the IRS, 10% of their total sales must be declared as tip income.
The restaurant only incurs $11.32 of expense for the 4 hour shift for each waitress. They incur huge costs for food, liquor, equipment, utilities, and the avalanche of taxes, fees, and regulatory expenses weighing them down from government drones. With profit margins of 5% or less, a mandatory $15 minimum wage for every waitress increases that labor cost by more than 500%. Their choice is to raise prices drastically, which will drive patrons away, or shut down. Consumers will not accept menu prices going up 25%. The restaurant is forced to close by government mandate.
It’s the same with mandatory sick days. Philadelphia just passed a law requiring small businesses to give every worker 10 sick days. In the restaurant industry, if you are sick you call a fellow worker to take your shift. It’s rarely a problem. Now the restaurant is stuck with the drastically higher expense of owing sick days to dozens of workers.
The control freak liberals act like they are helping the poor and disadvantaged, when all of their laws, regulations and taxes do is make more people poor and disadvantaged. What a fucked up country.
Guest Post by Rick Moran
Seattle is about to embark on a civic experiment that most experts predict will be an economic disaster; a $15 an hour minimum wage is set to go into effect on April 1st. And some restuarants in the city have already shuttered their doors and are either going out of business or moving to friendlier climes.
This was entirely predictable – and was predicted when the measure passed the Seattle city council. Restuarants are particularly sensitive to this sort of increase in wages since most of their employees are paid at the minimum, and such a large percentage of their operating costs go to labor.
Seattle, Washington, one of the strongest remaining bastions of liberal philosophy left in the country, passed a phased-in $15 minimum wage law earlier this year. The highest minimum wage in the country. The vote was unanimous and the throng outside cheered, but for many this is a loss from which they will never recover. It is a blow to the profitability of businesses that they just can’t take.
Even the left-leaning Seattle Times expressed concern wondering if Seattle had indeed “gone too far.”
According to the National Review Hotline, Kathrina Tugadi owner of Seattle’s El Norte Lounge, no longer hires musicians for her restaurant, she said she can’t justify expenses that don’t directly “add to the bottom line.” And, she says, hours will have to be cut: El Norte Lounge plans to stop serving lunch and only serve dinner.
“I am concerned about my business and others in the community, but it isn’t just about any one business. It’s about how the entire economic community,” she said. El Norte may be unable to remain open once the ordinance is fully in effect, she said. Even Pagliacci Pizza, a Seattle-area pizza chain, is moving its call center and some of its production facilities outside the city. That’s a lot of job loss, a lot of new people with a new wage of ZERO.
Socialist Council-member Kshama Sawant was the main proponent of the $15 ordinance. She and her supporters denied that the policy change would hurt businesses in the city. In one interview, Sawant said there need be “no unintended consequences.”
“No Unintended Consequences?” Who is she kidding? There are always consequences. In this case the consequences are the businesses that are downsizing, closing and failing, jobs that are lost, and most of all, people whose new hourly wage is ZERO. No unintended intended consequences? Are our politicians really that . . . stupid? Yes, I said it, Stupid. Do they really think taxes are irrelevant, businesses are omnipotent and that they can be drained in the name of politics without “any intended consequences?”
Do our politicians really not understand that our standard of living is the direct result
of one thing . . . the vitality of our businesses?
She went on to state that “any additional costs could come out of ‘extravagant profits’ rather than consumers pockets.” You have got to be kidding me . . . squared! Extravagant profits? Tell that to all the entrepreneurs out there who are trying desperately to make ends meet. Explain that to the mortgage companies they are trying to pay. And please pass that on to those on the street who’s job no longer exists. And, by the way:
where do you think every paycheck every employee has ever received came from?
Yes, Kshama, they came from business, all of them. And where do you think these businesses came from? They came from regular people like you and I who took a chance, rolled the dice, worked hard and were able to provide the people with something of value. All of them, that is where every single business you deplore came from.
You may think there are no intended consequences, but survey results tell a different story. Seattle Time contracted with a survey research firm to contact businesses in a broad range of industries likely to be impacted by the law. These are not businesses you’d describe as extravagant. Not surprisingly, nearly 70 percent of respondents in Seattle said that the $15 minimum wage is causing a “big increase” in their labor costs, and over 60 percent planned to pass on what they could to customers through higher prices.
But, according to Michael Saltsman, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, “price increases are not a silver bullet. After all, were businesses able to raise their prices at will without reducing sales, the minimum wage would be an afterthought. Customers have a choice: If prices increase, they could dine out less often or see one fewer movie a month. That’s why businesses are forced to adapt to a compulsory wage hike in other ways.”
In Seattle, 42 percent of surveyed employers were “very likely” to reduce the number of employees per shift or overall staffing levels as a direct consequence of the law. Similarly, 44 percent reported that they were “very likely” to scale back on employees’ hours to help offset the increased cost of the law. That’s particularly bad news for the Seattle metro area, where the unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds is already more than 30 percent — due in part to Washington state’s already-high minimum wage.
Perhaps most concerning about the $15 proposal is that some businesses anticipated going beyond an increase in prices or a reduction in staffing levels. More than 43 percent of respondents said it was “very likely” they would limit future expansion in Seattle in response to the law. One in seven respondents is even “very likely” to close a current location in the city limits.
Yes, it it always sounds good to give people more free stuff, but once again, everything has a price. I asked a group of sixth graders what they would do. It only took them a few minutes to determine that their only choices were to; fire some employees, raise prices, or go out of business. They also concluded that people won’t come to your store if you charge too much. If sixth graders grasp this, what is wrong with our politicians?
Seattle is the first city in the country to pass a $15 minimum wage. Survey results suggested it will be the first city to find out why it was such a bad idea.
No matter how badly we would like it to be otherwise, there are always a consequences,
and 2+2 will always equal 4.
The socialist party in Seattle that wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $20 per hour but advertised a job last week for an experienced web developer paying just $13 per hour is now defending itself.
The Huffington Post, which was sued by a bunch of unpaid bloggers after founder Arianna Huffington sold the website for $315 million, has the story.
The argument from the Freedom Socialist Party is that it cannot afford the minimum wage it seeks to impose on every commercial entity in America. (RELATED: Seattle Socialist Party Wants $20 Per Hour Minimum Wage, Offers $13 Per Hour For Website Manager)
Doug Barnes, the Freedom Socialist Party’s national secretary, claimed that the collectivist political organization shouldn’t be subject to its own wage demands because it is a nonprofit that receives revenue from leftist contributors.
“We’re practicing what we’re preaching in terms of continuing to fight for the minimum wage,” Barnes told the HuffPo. “But we can’t pay a lot more than $13.”
Barnes also suggested that the Freedom Socialist Party would make more money off the backs of the low-wage workers he claims make many contributions if the federal government or state governments forced businesses to pay employees a minimum of $20 per hour.
“Our donor base would all be affected, and the low-wage workers who support us with $5 to $6 a month would be able to give more,” he told HuffPo. “That would affect our ability to pay higher wages as well.”
He noted that he personally supports a $22 per hour minimum wage.
According to his Facebook page, Barnes is a graduate of the Evergreen State College. (RELATED: The 13 Most Rabidly Leftist, Politically Correct Colleges For Dirty, Tree-Hugging Hippies)
His Facebook “likes” include Occupy Seattle, Syrian Revolution Support Bases, El Centro de la Raza, Mumia Abu Jamal and Bay Area Radical Women.
Despite his spirited defense of the help wanted ad, Barnes added that the Freedom Socialist Party has since removed its ad from both Indeed.com and Craigslist.
“The right-wing attack is very hypocritical,” the socialist — who wants a $20 minimum wage but has sought a $13-per-hour web developer — lamented.
The Daily Caller predicted such an outcome, by the way, and saved a screenshot of the ad as it appeared at Indeed.com. You can see it below.
In 2012, the Freedom Socialist Party’s national platform championed “full employment” and an increase in the minimum wage “to $20 an hour” for all employees in all jobs.
The Freedom Socialist Party’s 2012 political platform also demanded a 70 percent tax rate for “the top 1 percent”; “free multi-lingual public education, including ethnic studies, through college and trade school”; free abortions; bank nationalization; and the cancellation of all free-trade treaties.
Despite last week’s offer of a part-time, 20-hour-per-week, $13-per-hour job, the party also called for a 30-hour work week for everyone “with no cut in pay” and “a guaranteed annual income.”
A part-time web developer making $13 per hour and working 20 hours per week would bring home about $13,600 annually, before taxes.
The Seattle headquarters of the Freedom Socialist Party appears to be located in an apartment building directly across the street from a Bank of America branch.
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I hope none of you white racists are celebrating Columbus Day today. That evil fucker went and invaded the land of the indigenous. We should scorn and ridicule him for his invasion of America. He was clearly a racist for landing his ships in America. We need to follow the “progressive” example of Seattle and Minneapolis to eliminate Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous People day. Too bad 90% of the students in their progressive paradise school system can’t even spell indigenous, let alone tell you WTF it means. Do the liberal jackoffs even know what it means? They do know they are replacing a “white” holiday with a “non-white” holiday. That’s all that really matters to these douchebags.
I actually appreciate when cities identify themselves with such buffoonery and idiotic laws, resolutions, and bylaws. I can rule out ever moving to Seattle or Minneapolis, based on understanding what morons are running these cities.
I love the new symbol for Indigenous People Day. It’s so inclusive.
I’m going to celebrate by wearing a Washington Redskins jersey.
According to the AP report, the resolution that passed on Monday declares “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” the second Monday of October and intends to honor the contributions and culture of Native Americans and the indigenous community in Seattle.
Supporters of the action said it will recognize the rich history of people who have inhabited the area for hundreds of years.
“This action will allow us to bring into current present day our valuable and rich history, and it’s there for future generations to learn,” said Fawn Sharp, president of the Quinault Indian Nation on the Olympic Peninsula, and president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.
“Nobody discovered Seattle, Washington,” she said to audience applause.
Italian-Americans and others objected to the move, saying the change honors one group while it dismisses those with Italian heritage.
“We don’t argue with the idea of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We do have a big problem of it coming at the expense of what essentially is Italian Heritage Day,” said Ralph Fascitelli, an Italian-American who lives in Seattle. “This is a big insult to those of us of Italian heritage. We feel disrespected. America wouldn’t be America without Christopher Columbus.”
Columbus Day celebrates the arrival of Christopher Columbus, who was Italian, to the Americas on October 12, 1492. Though the day is a federal holiday, it is not a legal state holiday in Washington.
Seattle councilmember Bruce Harrell stated that he understood the concerns from people in the Italian-American community, but he said, “I make no excuses for this legislation.” He said he co-sponsored the resolution because he believes the city won’t be successful in its social programs and outreach until “we fully recognize the evils of our past.”
Councilmember Nick Licata, who is Italian-American, said he didn’t see the legislation as taking something away, but rather allowing everyone to celebrate a new day where everyone’s strength is recognized.
David Bean, a member of the Puyallup Tribal Council, told councilmembers the resolution demonstrates that the city values tribal members’ history, culture, welfare, and contributions to the community.
The Bellingham City Council is also concerned that Columbus Day is offensive to Native Americans and will consider an ordinance on October 13 to recognize the second Monday in October as Coast Salish Day.
Last week, the Seattle School Board decided to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the same day as Columbus Day.
Similarly, Minneapolis moved to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Columbus Day, and South Dakota will celebrate Native American Day, reported the AP.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is expected to sign the resolution October 13, spokesman Jason Kelly said.
Guess who had nothing to do with stopping the Seattle Pacific University shooter? That’s right. Our beloved 2nd responders arrived in time to take away the perpetrator after a citizen risked their life to subdue the nutjob. The police will never stop a nutjob in advance or during their assault. They were even told about the Santa Barbara nutjob and did nothing. The police are too busy generating revenue and intimidating law abiding citizens to actually stop a crime. All hail the 2nd responders for arriving in time to draw the chalk outlines and put up the yellow crime scene tape.
SEATTLE June 6, 2014 (AP)
The man blasting away with a shotgun paused to reload, and Jon Meis saw his chance.
The 22-year-old building monitor pepper-sprayed and tackled the gunman Thursday in Seattle Pacific University’s Otto Miller Hall, likely preventing further carnage, according to police and university officials.
Meis and other students subdued him until officers arrived and handcuffed him moments later.
Police said the shooter, who killed a 19-year-old man and wounded two other young people, had 50 additional shotgun shells and a hunting knife. He admitted after his arrest that he wanted to kill as many people as possible before taking his own life, Seattle police wrote in a statement filed in court Friday.
“I’m proud of the selfless actions that my roommate, Jon Meis, showed today taking down the shooter,” fellow student Matt Garcia wrote on Twitter. “He is a hero.”
The suspect, 26-year-old Aaron R. Ybarra, has a long history of mental health problems for which he had been treated and medicated, said his attorney, public defender Ramona Brandes. Ybarra is on suicide watch at the jail, she said.
“He is cognizant of the suffering of the victims and their families and the entire Seattle Pacific community,” she said. “He is sorry.”
Meis, a dean’s list electrical engineering student, was emotionally anguished but not injured in the shooting, Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg said Friday. He was treated there and released.
Roman Kukhotskiy, 22, who was in the building when the violence broke out, said: “I was amazed that he was willing to risk all that for us. If Jon didn’t stop him, what’s to say? I could have been the next victim.”
He said Meis is getting married this summer and has accepted a job with Boeing, where he has interned in previous years.
The leafy campus of the private, Christian university about 10 minutes north of downtown Seattle was quiet the morning after the shooting, with a service held at midday. People stopped by a makeshift memorial near Otto Miller Hall to pay their respects.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray identified the student killed as Paul Lee, a “Korean-American student with a bright future.”
The gunman had just entered the science and engineering building when he opened fire in the foyer. Classes were taking place upstairs.
Ybarra was booked into the King County Jail and appeared, wearing a protective vest, in a jailhouse courtroom Friday. A judge found probable cause to detain him without bail.
Ybarra was hospitalized for mental health evaluations twice in recent years, said Pete Caw, assistant police chief in Ybarra’s hometown, the Seattle suburb of Mountlake Terrace.
Officers encountered Ybarra in 2010 and 2012. Both times, he was severely intoxicated and taken to Swedish Hospital in Edmonds for evaluation, Caw said. In the October 2012 incident, police found Ybarra lying in a roadway.
He was arrested on suspicion of DUI in nearby Edmonds in 2012, said Edmonds police Sgt. Mark Marsh.
“We are so very shocked and sad over yesterday’s shootings at SPU,” Ybarra’s family said in a statement. “We are crushed at the amount of pain caused to so many people. To the victims and their families, our prayers are with you.”
Ybarra is not a student at the school, police said.
Late Thursday, investigators searched a house in the north Seattle suburb of Mountlake Terrace believed to be tied to Ybarra.
Nothing is free in this world. What the government requires be given to one group of people must be taken from another group of people.
By Dustin Hurst | Northwest Watchdog
It’s easy enough to discuss what could happen under a controversial policy, but it’s a little more difficult to provide evidence after enactment to prove a claim.
In the case of SeaTac and its newly minted $15-per-hour minimum wage, the proof comes from a single photo of a parking receipt:
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSANDS WORDS: Yep, that’s a $6.93 ‘living wage surcharge’ right there.
Northwest Watchdog called Masterpark to verify the authenticity of the receipt. Kevin, the attendant on duty Wednesday afternoon, confirmed the charge is real. To deal with the higher wage, enacted on Jan. 1, Masterpark is charging customers an additional 99 cents per parking day, a surcharge that comes on top of all other taxes and fees.
The Washington Policy Center, a free-market think tank, originally noticed the receipt and offered its own analysis of the situation.
“Contrary to what supporters claim, increasing the minimum wage does not create jobs and stimulate the economy,” wrote Erin Shannon, the center’s small business analyst. “The higher wages are not free money. The increased cost must either be absorbed by the employer, which is impossible for many who already operate on shoe-string profit margins, or it must be passed on to workers, in the form of reduced hours and benefits, and consumers, in the form of higher prices. Either way, someone pays.”
Shannon calculated that the new surcharge amounts to an 8.25 percent tax hike for Masterpark’s customers.
This should stand as a warning to Seattle, which just approved a $15-per-hour minimum wage this week.
This is just a taste of what’s coming.
Via Ron Paul Forums
“An officer has to reasonably believe that a person has been involved in a crime or committed a crime” before they begin to use the program, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told KIRO-TV this week
Once the facial recognition software is initiated, though, it scours a collection containing close to a half-a-million area residents — including many who may never have been convicted of a crime.
(more on link)