Thursday, July 20, 2017

My Recommendation For Seattle Mayor: Why It Is Important For The Local Taxi Industry To Support A Knowledgable Candidate

On Monday I voted in the Seattle mayoral primary for Bob Hasegawa (www.bobhasegawa.com). Why, you might ask, did you vote for him when there are literally 20 other choices to pick from?  Three of his opponents have major newspaper endorsements, all three media outlets deciding there exists someone more capable and qualified than Hasegawa.  Is that actually true?

Jenny Durkan (www.jennyforseattle.com), former US Attorney for the Western District of the State of Washington, is the Seattle Time's choice, feeling the very professional Durkan is the correct combination of intelligence, experience and political connections to remedy what ails Seattle. And if there is safe choice, Durkan is certainly that, positioning herself as the "proverbial voice of political sanity," in the very real sense saying vote for me because I know, beyond anyone, how to change Seattle dirty diapers.  But I believe it is not certain that Seattle requires a political nanny, shaking her finger at the electorate, telling us it is time to drink your cup of warm milk and go directly to bed.

Nikkita Oliver (www.nikkitaoliverformayor.com), a lawyer and local civic activist, won the Seattle Weekly's backing for mayor.  In a very well written piece, the Weekly coherently describing the problems now facing Seattle, and as to just why they feel Oliver is best suited to take on the arduous task of running a city of now over 700,000 residents.  Oliver has also got the backing of defiant members of The Stranger's editorial staff, four of whom openly objecting to the newspaper's official choice, preferring the more alternative Oliver to the clearly upper-middle class, and more conventional Cary Moon.   

As said, The Stranger's first choice is local engineer and urban planner, Cary Moon (www.carymoonformayor.com), a fairly unknown candidate despite her efforts to block the construction of the waterfront tunnel that will be replacing the current Highway 99 Viaduct Bridge. For me the most interesting part of her candidacy is that she lists having no income, somehow implying she is independently wealthy.  I suppose that gives her considerable free time to think about Seattle's issues and problems but again, that might make her more theorist than someone "living and breathing" the city's thornier urban headaches, Moon another potential "nanny candidate," prepared to gently scold all us Seattle children.  


Somewhat humorous, or leastwise I find it amusing, is that whenever I search out articles concerning mayoral candidates I end up finding them flanked by a smiling Jenny Durkan wearing a custom-made Jenny Durkan sweatshirt.  I guess this is what $321,630 dollars in contributions gets you, meaning that the big political and big business money is being put upon one particular horse.

I understand it because Durkan is a political thoroughbred, having been appointed US Attorney by Obama and whose father twice ran for governor.  Whether she can come down from the mountaintop and mingle with the peasants is an open question, something the current mayor, Ed Murray could never do, superiority and arrogance his adopted middle names.  But if you like smooth, Durkan should be your pick, a filtered cigarette of a candidate, worrying about nicotine and other adverse affects later.  How could Durkan be bad for Seattle's health? 

The one odd aspect of The Stranger's July 12th endorsement of Moon and and other candidates are the use of words like asshole and f_ _k and f_ _king in their article.  I have noticed a long time ago that these folks like seeing themselves as both hip and outsiders, giving the finger to all and everyone, which makes their choice of Moon both curious and funny.  This is also the local paper featuring sex ads for you and me and _____ too!  I do recommend that you check out the new secondary Oliver endorsement in the Stranger online edition, featuring a saucy and spunky Oliver photograph, provoking my biggest question concerning her.  Just how mature is this woman?   I do wonder.  

Getting back to Mister Hasegawa and why I voted for him, it comes down to his family background and what he has done both in his working and political life.  It is a very personal bias that I trust people more who have worked, and I mean having really physically worked for a living.

Hasagawa once drove UPS trucks and led their union to victory when UPS told them they were now suddenly expected to lift twice the weight as before.  One strong point for Jenny Durkan is that she once taught school and coached basketball in Alaska, something my father also did in northern Alberta, implying that she probably understands something about the human experience.

Hasegawa certainly does, simply due to his family being interned by the FDR administration during WW II.  Need  I remind everyone that President Roosevelt was considered a raging liberal, someone to this day disparaged by the majority of Republican  party members.  Just as the it was the good liberal Seattle Council members who voted to uncap Uber, so it is in our nation's history---money, fear and ignorant public opinion often prompting both so-called conservatives and liberals to make bad and erroneous decisions.  It was none other than President Bill Clinton who set the tone for the current welfare policies, where the needy are treated as if they societal bank robbers stealing from the public good.

I can report that Hasegawa responded back to me today to an email written a few days ago, telling me that in the State Senate he spoke against Uber sponsored bills and has been in contact with Teamsters 117 concerning related issues.  If for no other reason, this is why you should vote for him because it appears to be clear that voting for Hasegawa is a vote for your own future and the future of your family.  But let me say, that regardless of who you ultimately vote for, join the democratic process and cast your ballot.  From my personal experience, there is nothing more important than voting your conscience.

A New & Improved Mike McGinn (www.mcginnformayor.com)?

Like the label upon a box of breakfast cereal, McGinn, in a statement today, said that he too is new and improved, suddenly more humble and wiser since he is now older, which is an odd statement, somehow implying Seattle voters were unwise to elect the younger (and dumber?) version of himself.

Given the incredible Seattle traffic congestion his polices have caused, it is surprising he is again asking voters trust his judgment.  And let's say he is again elected mayor, and four years from now we are again subjected to a new rationale to why he failed the city, how then are we supposed to react to yet another "heartfelt" apology?  What worries me most about the now more edible McGinn is that, just as in the recent past, he will remain oblivious to voter indigestion, voting once again for McGinn a new kind of electoral cannibalism, with McGinn eating us!  What a scary thought.

A Final Comment Upon the Outgoing Mayor

With new more alleged details coming out this past week from the Seattle Times concerning Ed Murray, one current Seattle Council member and at least four mayoral candidates advised Murray to resign.  Other than accusations, there is no bonafide evidence that the did anything to anybody.  Yes, while the reports about long ago sexual impropriety are shocking, none of it is conclusive, and from what I can see, will never be proven.  Isn't the fact that his political career is shattered and his good name sullied not revenge enough for the political vultures picking at his exposed corpse?  It is truly distasteful and speaks to the political amateurism in Seattle posing as professionalism.  As I often comment: ya gotta be kiddin'!

What these bozos don't realize that disturbed, mentally ill and emotionally distressed people have a pronounced tendency to act crazy and deranged, and often cannot be trusted to be anything but that.  I discovered that upon my first professional psychiatric job way back in the autumn of 1974.  It isn't that the patients and clients I met back then were bad people.  No, that wasn't the case at all but the majority of folks I worked with were chronically mentally ill, with all that implies, their profound illness often controlling behavior and subsequent judgment.  So despite having no love for many of Murray's political decisions, especially the uncapping of Uber and Lyft, I still hold some sympathy, seeing him as some character out of Shirley Jackson's famous short story, "The Lottery" as he is ritually stoned to death.  Not nice.  Not nice at all.















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