Brady Walkinshaw didn't "join" The Stranger. He bought it and now owns you. Didn't you notice that Rich Smith got demoted? Maybe the new editor will improve the reporting accuracy.

Ashley you’re back - glad to see you weren’t fired (maybe stay off the cesspool that was twitter moving forward - nothing good comes of supporting Elon)

I think it’s cool white dudes are leaning in to elect a black/Indian mixed race woman. And that the Dude himself (Bridges, in character) showed up! If you think it’s “cute,” that’s like just your opinion man. Finally some humor. Yeah things are bad, but a wet blanket never helped anything.

And the roundup somehow missed the fact that Xitter* promptly banned the White Dudes for Kamala account. Because Elon is a free speech absolutist or something. FWIW the [Color] [Gender] for Kamala online meetings have been the largest Zoom meetings ever, with on the order of 200K attendees each. The three before the White Dudes one (Black men and women, white women) raised a total of ~$10M. I would assume a large number of campaign volunteers were also signed up. It's not clear what percentage of the white women one was childless cat ladies hellbent on revenge. Pro tip: Do Not piss off cat ladies or librarians. It will not go well.

With Chinese phonology, so pronounced "Shitter." It's a good thing Raindrop isn't here to scold me for swearing.

4: It's been restored!

https://x.com/dudes4harris

Nice of DoorDash to make it abundantly clear that their new fees are just extortion to punish Seattle for angering Capital. Too bad I fully expect the new Council to bend over for them--if they can ever manage to figure out how to actually pass legislation.

Who exactly thinks white affinity groups is suddenly a good idea?

USA: Number 1 petrostate in the world

Domestic oil and gas production, turbocharged by the advance of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has rocketed. No country in history has extracted as much oil as the US has in each of the past six years, with a fifth of all oil drilled in 2023 being American flavored. US gas production also tops the global charts, having surged 50% in the past decade. Every hour of every day, on average, around 1m barrels of oil and 2m tons of gas are sucked up from oil and gas fields from Texas to Appalachia to Alaska.[...]

“The United States can’t preach temperance from a barstool,” said Ed Markey, the Democratic senator and proponent of the Green New Deal. “We can’t tell other countries to reduce greenhouse gases as we export oil and gas to them.

“When the crude oil export ban was lifted, over my opposition, the US prioritized big oil over the planet. Everything I warned in 2015 has come true and it will only get worse as the years go by and oil companies rush fossil fuels to the highest bidders.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/24/fossil-fuel-liquified-natural-gas-louisiana

p.s. check out the graph showing the wild increase in oil and gas exploration licenses under Biden ....

Who exactly thinks a Zoom call is suddenly an affinity group?

I never realized that juvenile offenders are held in juvenile offender facilities after they become adults.

Grayson shouldn't worry too much. Even if he's convicted and serves time, I'm sure SPD would welcome him with open arms, assuming he ever gets out of prison; after all, he's got LOTS of previous experience with multiple LEA's, and should be able to breeze through the by then practically nonexistent application process.

@10 I mean, what could go wrong with adults in juvvie?

@7 White affinity groups have been around since at least the 1960s, when Black Power activists urged aspiring white allies to organize in their own community instead of seeking influence in Black-led organizations. See, e.g.: https://surj.org/chapter/coalition-of-anti-racist-whites-carw/

Best of luck to the Stranger under their new ownership. I'm hoping for a return to print, at least monthly.

Gee- you mandate an increase in a business's costs and it raises prices. Who’d have thunk?

You can’t have it both ways. Either you regulate these gig companies as though they actually are employers, in which case they will no longer offer cheaper services than other companies, or you continue with the fiction that they are not really “employers” so you millennials can keep pretending to have servants to deliver your Tater Tots and drive you around.

Whining that the owners of the companies won’t eat the costs of serving you is ridiculous.

@7 It was a PR and fundraising activity to throw some high profile surrogates out there in the demographic Harris is weakest with. Obama did something similar in 2008 in the Midwestern states.

@13, yup, my workplace has voluntary anti-racist whites groups as well. Just like with POC affinity groups, all are welcome, but the idea is to be a safe space for self reflection without further burdening POC. Yeah, I see @7 trying to twist this into some white nationalism trope when dudes are literally fundraising in support of the POC candidate. And the candidate that ISNT pledging to be a dictator on “Day 1” or promising this is the last election for voting ever. Trolls gonna troll.

If we want a President Harris (and I certainly do) we need as many white people as possible, both women and men, to vote for her.

Remember the lesson of 2016: there ain't no test like a purity test, 'cause a purity test gets us trump.

@15. Not trolling or twisting. It’s racist. Regardless of who they are supporting.

@15. That’s quite a word salad to say “Yeah, I’m racist and proud of it.” 😂😂. Racism is a bad idea regardless of which candidate you support. You should check yours.

Racism is the hatred of a person/people based on their race. This is a zoom call where people donated money for a political campaign.

Welcome back Ashley!
And good luck to all the Stranger workers!
I'm my own affinity group. But I got turned down for 501c3 status. Oh well

It seems pretty inevitable at this point that Trump will trounce Kamala in the electoral college, probably by a 20+ vote margin, so there are definitely going to be some interesting challenges and changes in the years ahead, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the paper meets them!

@21 Trump inevitable? That's a weird way to say Harris is starting to close the gap.

@21 I'm not so sure about that. As was clearly evident in the discourse around Biden before he stepped aside, there's a remarkably widespread consensus among voters of all ages, propensities, and partisan leanings that it's time to get rid of the boomers. Especially the oldest ones, like Trump. That undoubtedly is fueling the enthusiasm for Harris, even among those who harbored doubts about her until now. I'm not good at predictions but it seems a safe bet that such sentiments will impact voting patterns in red states as well as blue ones. It's also worth remembering that Trump's margin over Biden (at least pre-debate) was mostly within the margin of error. Harris doesn't have a 20-point hill to climb, or even a 10-point one.

@13 "Whining that the owners of the companies won’t eat the costs of serving you is ridiculous."

The owners of these companies don't serve anyone but themselves. They clearly have more than enough revenue to devote a massive lobbying effort to trying to stiff the people who actually provide the service. The Council should pass a law prohibiting delivery apps from applying these junk fees and if DoorDash and them want to leave Seattle as a result, oh well.

@23: @21 is saying a 20-point win in the stupid Electoral College. It's feasible, and he could lose the popular vote by even more than in 2020.

@23 Kamala would be in her 60s in her first term– if voters are excited for youth and vivacity this may not be a hopeful sign

@21 Not sure if you meant something else, but a 20 vote margin in the electoral college is hardly a “trouncing,” that would be the closest election in 24 years only the second within a 25 electoral vote margin in the last century.

FYI @23 Harris is a boomer (the last year of that generation). And although I love a good meme as much as the next person, maybe just focus on the candidate vs their generation (example, Trump is awful regardless of his generation).

@26 She doesn't look like she might keel over in a strong wind, and she seems to be gathering enthusiasm from the kidz. American presidents tend to be a little older than heads of state from other nations. But nice troll-y pivot.

Maybe just let the polls settle out for a week or two before you decide the election's over? Or better yet, wait until the debate.

I don’t think a candidate’s age is necessarily a dealbreaker but it comes with a lot of risks, and Trump is the one who made age an issue even though he is only 3 years younger than Biden. If you agree with Trump that being really, really old is a limitation then you should vote for the candidate who isn’t well past retirement age.

Vivacity doesn't stop at 60 dear, and you can look forward to that.

Who said anything about “vivacity.” Your risk of death and mental/physical disability increases with age and Donald Trump has already exceeded his life expectancy at birth, particularly for a man of his weight, diet, and sedentary lifestyle. Voters are right to be concerned.

@24 then don’t use them. As @13 said you can’t have it both ways, cheap services and highly compensated staff. Stop trying to legislate their business and if you don’t like it don’t work there and don’t use the service. It’s not difficult.

Not to mention trump’s addiction issues, incontinence, and dementia.

donOLD trump is living on borrowed time. The grim reaper is sharpening their scythe. Light a candle for his rotten, rotting, soul.

On second thought, never mind.

@34
Rather, sprinkle holy water on him, and watch it burn!

@33 "Stop trying to legislate their business and if you don’t like it don’t work there and don’t use the service. It’s not difficult."

I don't use them, but you can't seriously be suggesting that government has no role to play in regulating commerce. If you are serious then now do fentanyl sales at 3rd and Pike.

@24: "They clearly have more than enough revenue to devote a massive lobbying effort to trying to stiff the people who actually provide the service."

Over the past three quarters, DoorDash has posted losses totaling a quarter of a billion dollars.

"The Council should pass a law prohibiting delivery apps from applying these junk fees and if DoorDash and them want to leave Seattle as a result, oh well."

As both @13 and @33 have already told you, there's not enough value in the delivery model to pay either a minimum wage, or even to operate without those "junk" fees. Forcing DoorDash to do either will run them out of Seattle, business, or both.

And I'd be happy with that, because underpaying workers is not a valid way to run a business. Also, ridding our streets of all of the delivery trips made by private vehicles would be worth it. Right now, they are contributing to climate change, traffic, and greater risk to pedestrians and cyclists.

@36 they absolutely have the right to legislate but they have way overstepped here. What you are advocating for is setting a ceiling on revenue while continually increasing costs and dictating the entire business model. That is far beyond what government should be doing. As has been noted many a time these positions were never meant to full time “living wage” jobs.

@38 "As has been noted many a time these positions were never meant to full time "living wage" jobs."

Why should the people doing the work not make a living wage when the CEO is a billionaire? Everyone who works should receive a living wage for their labor.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5yme4/gig-work-wages-in-us-are-so-bad-theyre-a-human-rights-issue-un-poverty-expert-says

@37 "Forcing DoorDash to do either will run them out of Seattle, business, or both. And I'd be happy with that, because underpaying workers is not a valid way to run a business."

My god, you and I agree on something, must be the end times

@38: “…continually increasing costs and dictating the entire business model.”

Sounds a lot like Southern plantation owners’ complaints about the Thirteenth Amendment.

Setting labor standards is absolutely what the government can and should do, from requiring safe working conditions to minimum wages.

You and I agree on one thing: requiring these delivery companies to pay the same wages as their competitors (e.g. the pizza places) may well drive the delivery companies out of business, or even destroy their model entirely. Good. If consumers do not want to pay drivers a minimum wage, then consumers can do without this needless service.

@39 business can only pay what the labor is worth and in the case of delivery driver it’s not worth $75k / year or whatever the living wage is because customers will not pay for that service. The net result of what you are proposing is massive unemployment.

Ashley’s time out didn’t last as long as I figured it would. I was thinking a month before she was back.
What did we learn from this?
We learned it’s OK to make jokes about people getting shot.

@41: Before delivery apps existed, I had food delivered, always by persons who earned at least minimum wage. It was up to each individual restaurant or store owner to decide if offering delivery made business sense or not.

“The net result of what you are proposing is massive unemployment.”

I’m sure Costco will continue to deliver. (Everyone there has always made far above the minimum wage.)

41, You’re describing a failed business model and expecting workers to bear the loss. As it is these apps not only underpay workers, they also shortchange restaurants and still manage to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Having a personal valet deliver fast food to your front door is a luxury and consumers should expect to pay whatever that service is worth.

@41: “The net result of what you are proposing is massive unemployment.”

@38: ‘…these positions were never meant to full time “living wage” jobs.

So, no big deal, then?

@44: “As it is these apps not only underpay workers, they also shortchange restaurants and still manage to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year.”

Well, sure, if you put it THAT way, it does indeed sound like something we shouldn’t subsidize with a favorable employment policy… ;-)

@44- you’re exactly right. The whole gig model is an unsustainable scam that only works if people are underpaid. If having servants made economic sense for the middle class, those positions would have existed before DoorDash and the rest came along. Having a slick little app doesn’t change that reality. It’s almost like the whole thing was more about the company founders figuring out a way to snarf up a lot of VC money without thinking about whether the business actually made economic sense.

Sooner we kill off this unsustainable model and people go back to real jobs the better.

At least with Uber et al there was a thriving industry they were intentionally undermining by operating at a loss before jacking up prices to their true cost once the taxi industry was destroyed. These delivery apps created a new service from scratch and I guess the hope is that people will get hooked on the convenience and will turn a blind eye to the exploitation to keep them going. But they’re bad for everyone, including the consumer.

@42-46 there are two issues that are being conflated here so I want to separate them. Do gig jobs exploit workers by shifting the risk of business on to them personally? Does every job deserve to be paid a "living wage" in Seattle? I think we all agree that the answer to 1 is yes and those businesses should be regulated to some extent. Where I draw the line is when we get to #2 and that is what @39 has implied. Not every position (gig or otherwise) is worth a "living wage" which of course moves around depending on who you ask. For our purposes let's assume its around $50-$60k in Seattle. By mandating every business pays a "living wage" several things will happen. Businesses will cut back on their labor force and try to do more with less people by increasing productivity. This means if you are a lower skilled worker, say a teenager trying to start out, a senior looking to supplement retirement or even a migrant who just arrived and is trying to get started you will be out of luck. Businesses will also look to embrace automation to reduce labor costs thus putting more people out of work and finally some businesses will just close because they will be unable to raise prices sufficiently to cover the increased costs. There is no economic model where a you can mandate a fixed cost (in this case labor) and also mandate the business absorb the cost without any consequences. If you know of any instance where this has actually worked I'd be interested to hear about it.

@48 "By mandating every business pays a "living wage" several things will happen. Businesses will cut back on their labor force and ... will also look to embrace automation."

Sure but only because CEOs are unwilling to reduce their six figure salaries or shareholder profits. In this country if costs go up it's only ever the workers or customers who suffer. Our economic model is diseased, and unless you are yourself a CEO or venture capitalist you are acting against your own interest by trying to prop it up.

@48: Point 2 is just the same argument always used against any minimum wage increase. Phrasing the question the other way, should a city with a high cost of living allow poverty wages? The answer to that should be obvious.

As noted above, if the delivery service alone cannot justify paying minimum wage, then that stand-alone delivery service can go away. We can go back to either ordering from places that offer delivery, or fetching our orders ourselves. This worked just fine for a hundred years of land-line telephones.