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99% and Les Schwab

Started 5 months ago by cbraley12
Latest reply from JanS

cbraley12
Member Profile

Just read in Mother Jones that Charles "Chuck" Schwab is a huge donor to the Republican party and its candidates---is this the same as Les Schwab, and should there be a boycott of their new store on Fauntleroy and Alaska?

Posted 5 months ago #
cjboffoli
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So the idea is to boycott people with whom we have a differing opinion? Mr. Schwab has just as much right as I do to support any candidates he wishes and to vote the way he sees fit.

Posted 5 months ago #
DBP
Member Profile

Charles Schwab sells stocks.
Les Schwab sold tires.

Les Schwab died in 2003, so if he's still donating to the Republicans, he's probably violating some campaign contributions law.

Unless there's such a thing as corpse-orate personhood.

Posted 5 months ago #
KBear
Member Profile

But yes, Christopher, that's exactly the point of boycotts.

Posted 5 months ago #
brew
Member Profile

Guess you should also boycott Home Depot, UPS, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Exxon/Mobil etc.. as they all lean republican in their donations.

Posted 5 months ago #
cjboffoli
Member Profile

KBear: Well maybe that's the INTENTION of boycotts. But often they can have opposite consequences. It just seems too simplistic to me, as does the implication that Republicans are automatically bad and Democrats are automatically good. I recognize how that idea provides the fodder for a lot of political masturbation on the West Seattle Blog Forums. But this militant adhesion to labels is what is paralyzing the legislative engine of our country.

Posted 5 months ago #
365Stairs
Member Profile

The rush to boycott something / someplace based on unresearched facts...

Awesome.

Not good.

Posted 5 months ago #
skeeter
Member Profile

Almost every big company gives money to both Republicans and Democrats. Sure - Republicans often get more because their interests line up more closely. But I would be shocked if Charles Schwab doesn't give substantial amounts of money to Democrats as well. But I'm too lazy to check.

Why would anyone boycott a business just because the business donates money to a political party? Would you also not associate with your neighbors if you learned they had different policital beliefs than you?

Posted 5 months ago #
Bostonman
Member Profile

Lol Skeeter, if that were true I wouldn't be friends with any of my neighbors. Fortunatly we are all smart enough to not let something like that dictate who we are friends with. In fact I would say about 90% of my friends lean Democratic but thats ok. They aren't my friends because of how they vote.

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
Member Profile

so...Bostonman...are you saying that not all Dems are...evil? lol...I keep telling Kootch that, but it's not making an impression ;-)

Posted 5 months ago #
KBear
Member Profile

Actually, Christopher, I agree that oversimplification and disdain for nuance is a major problem in our political system. But isn't that what you are doing when you dismiss the idea of boycotts in general just because the original poster's idea doesn't make any sense? Obviously a boycott needs to be well-targeted and widely supported in order to succeed, but not buying stuff from someone with whose politics or policies you (and many others) disagree is precisely how boycotts work.

Posted 5 months ago #
cjboffoli
Member Profile

KBear: Consider this scenario: you boycott a local business and call on your friends to do the same and (if it works) the fortunes of that business decline and the business owner has to fire his staff of workers (some or all of which might be Democrats who support the same political agenda you do). And you've decreased local tax revenue in your own neighborhood while probably having no effect at all on the vote of the business owner you were targeting. Would you call that a job well done?

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
Member Profile

and think about it..there are some people out there who do business with people just because of what it's perceived that they believe in..put a fishy on it, along with the letters PTL...works the same way..so why not do it in reverse? I don't go to a local restaurant simply because of the political beliefs of the owner. Is it affecting his business? Nope. Is it sticking to my beliefs...and guns...yes. My choice.

Posted 5 months ago #
Bostonman
Member Profile

Evil? probably not. Maybe a little off kilter though. Plus they drink my beer

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
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lol...yum...beer...

Posted 5 months ago #
cbraley12
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Thanks for the clarification and discussion everyone--I had a question and an idea, and I appreciate the information I received. I often make choices about how and where I spend my money and time dependent upon my needs and values. It is one way I have of exercising my political power and influencing the changes I wish for our society. The present group of Republican presidential candidates do not represent my values or interests, nor do the Repubican representatives in Congress.

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
Member Profile

cbraley12

i too believe in putting my money where my mouth is... which includes making choices about where I spend my money based on a company's political contributions.

the only way to speak to businesses is through your purchases.

i shall cry real tears if Les Schwab is making major donations to the Republican party...
as giving them up would be a real sacrifice.

but for the most part.. i haven't really missed any of the stores i have crossed off my favored list yet.

i still shop at some of them occassionally,
but only if i can't find what i want easily elsewhere.

Posted 5 months ago #
DBP
Member Profile

¶ If my neighbor intimated to me that he'd just given $10 to the Republican National Committee, I'd go: "Dude! You coulda bought a Zippy's Deluxe and a shake with that tenner!"

¶ If my best friend told me he agreed with the Pope's position on birth control, I'd give him a bear hug and say: "Aw . . . you big loveable idiot!"

¶ If I was eating a candy bar and someone told me the company* that made it was pushing women in developing countries to feed their babies formula instead of breast milk . . .

. . . that candy bar would turn to shit, right in my mouth.

************************************************************************************

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
Member Profile

DBP..

i find some of the positions supported by some donations from some retail outlets that reprehensible...

When i do..
i choose not to help fund those donations.

we are lucky to live where we have other retail choices

Posted 5 months ago #
SarahScoot
Member Profile

I don't understand how the OP's random assumption that Charles Schwab is the same as Les Schwab is just being glossed over here. People need to do at least a teensy bit of research before inviting others to boycott. OP, if you had just searched on Google for "Charles Schwab" you would have quickly learned that no, he and Les Schwab are/were not one and the same. I have no ideal was Les Schwab's political leanings were, for the record.
And for what it's worth, Les Schwab died in 2007, not 2003.

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
Member Profile

post #3..DBP states that Charles Schwab sells stock...Les Schwab sells tires. What was overlooked?

Posted 5 months ago #
kootchman
Member Profile

I love Courtesy Tire. They have been around this community a long time. They do good things. They are honest. Are they republican? Don't know. I patronize them cause I like em'. Would I blow them off if they were Democrats? Nope. I do suspect though that IF LES (not Charles) Schwab was alive he would be a republican.... most business persons are, .. I wouldn't shop there for that reason. Say JoB... god forbid.. but should ya need a heart by-pass... gonna politically credential your surgeon? Ha ha ... my advice? Take the best one. BTY Les Schwab... donates to republican 75% of the time.based on this little sampling link..http://www.followthemoney.org/database/topcontributor.phtml?u=13668&y=2008 .. and imports Chinese tires.. lots and lots and lots of Chinese tires.

Posted 5 months ago #
Sonoma
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Hey, some of my best friends and professional associates are Republicans, and are even pretty nice once you get to know them. They don't even look all that different. Nonetheless, some corporations are just vile, and I would never buy from Exxon-Mobile, ever since the oil spill, or use a bank like BoA or Chase. Nor would I "buy" any lies from a Republican like Newt "The Grinch" Gingrich, who screwed around on his wife while she was dying on cancer. Of course, John Edwards was no better. Herman Cain (un-abel) is only a little better in his behavior.

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
Member Profile

kootch...

i AM going to have to re-examine my loyalty to Les Schwab tires...
which makes me really really unhappy...

what i learn will determine whether i continue to do business with them

Posted 5 months ago #
kootchman
Member Profile

Job...Don't forget they gave out antibiotic laced beef raised in inhumane , confined stockyards and force fed genetically modified corn to fatten em' up. ha ha ha... Sonoma? His wife wasn't dying of cancer, she is doing just fine. It's an urban myth. She asked for the divorce long before she went into the hospital with a non-malignant tumor... not that it makes a difference. Course, if you are a family member and know ALL the dynamics of that marriage, we are all ears here. Maybe she was an insufferable witch to live with, or, a cookies baking Mary Poppins.. but I wasn't there. Funny how some liberal rags are still trying to make the myth more than the reality. First hand accounts are better sources.

http://www.creators.com/opinion/jackie-gingrich-cushman/setting-the-record-straight.html

Posted 5 months ago #
kootchman
Member Profile

If you fill up your car anywhere in the PNW Sonoma ... you are a loyal Exxon customer. Ya think those tankers going to the Anacortes refinery are special ones? The crap is sold by the tonnes, barged to any refinery anywhere, and then resold once cracked to any distributor anywhere. The same stuff is re-labeled whatever gas station it goes to. Follow a distribution tanker some day.... see how many different places it stops.

Posted 5 months ago #
Sonoma
Member Profile

You might be right about the oil, Kootchie-Koo, but I rarely have to visit a gas station regardless. Re the Gingrinch-stole-Christmas nonsense, thank you for the link. The opinion column was by Newt's daughter. And one of the commenters was most interesting:

Newt's ex-wife told the Washington Post in a Jan. 3, 1985, profile:

"He walked out in the spring of 1980 and I returned to Georgia. By September, I went into the hospital for my third surgery. The two girls came to see me, and said Daddy is downstairs and could he come up? When he got there, he wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from the surgery ... To say I gave up a lot for the marriage is the understatement of the year."

And whether it's true or not, whether Newt lizard cheated on his cancerous wife or not, he's still a glaring example of a sleazy oleaginous politician.

Oh, and from other postings, I am happy that your "handle" Kootch has other, more wholesome meanings besides the naughty one (as vividly defined in the Urban Dictionary).

Posted 5 months ago #
HMC Rich
Member Profile

Sonoma,

Just say you don't like Gingrich and find the "facts" to back it up. His first wife was not cancer ridden, she had a benign tumor.

Posted 5 months ago #
HMC Rich
Member Profile

Why don't you guys go ahead and boycott some of those businesses.

I will enjoy the peace and quiet when I need to shop at those businesses.

In fact, I find many of you on the left very snobbish at times. (As I have also noticed snobbery on the right). You guys are very humorous to listen to sometimes.

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
Member Profile

re: Newt Gingrich's marriages, if anyone cares: at bottom of page there are links to the timelines of each marriage. Marriage #1..he cornered his wife, Jackie, in her hospital room where she was recovering from uterine cancer surgery to talk about divorce. Marriage #2..he left her when she was diagnosed with a condition that could lead to MS...and both times it was for another woman who he was having an affair with...

Posted 5 months ago #
redblack
Member Profile

In fact, I find many of you on the left very snobbish at times.

oh. i'm sorry.

You guys are very humorous to listen to sometimes.

and you guys can be very condescending and dismissive of liberals. most of the time you just call us moonbats or socialists and move on without engaging in any meaningful discussion or understanding the reason for our political leanings.

i like to think that i at least show you guys the courtesy of discussing philosophical, core issues.

back to the boycott topic, the bigger picture is that i can spend or not spend my money wherever i see fit for whatever reason i choose. that's the free market at work. that's freedom of choice.

boycott? not so much. but if i have the choice between home depot and junction true value, i'll take the latter. alki lumber? those guys are obviously dino rossi supporters, but they're a local business, and i'd rather buy lumber from them than the corporate big box.

nothing wrong with shunning the big retailers. doing so helps local businesses.

back to the OT, i believe most les schwab stores are franchised - at least the one in ballard is. so there are two layers of businesses to "boycott" there.

actually, there are three - if you don't like buying chinese rubber.

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
Member Profile

redblack...

it was the mention of chinese rubber more than anything that has me investigating my options..

HMCRich...

so now it's snobbish to support businesses that make a contribution to your community?

because that is what you are doing when you vote with your pocketbook...

Posted 5 months ago #
Ken
Member Profile

The way campaign finance laws are written, employees of companies large and small have to list their employer on their campaign contributions over 200.00.

This is the origin of some of the statistics which are used to claim a particular company is either favoring the democrats or the republicans.

When you remove employee contributions from the statistics and track corporate donations to PACS, spending on lobbyists and advertising bought as bribes on corporate TV networks and cable companies (those ads for companies that don't sell anything to regular people ie Boeing, Cargill, Archer Danials Midland...) Then you see which companies are actually involved in the struggle to return us to feudalism with the corporation as the aristocracy.

Local companies have sometimes labeled themselves as wingnut to my satisfaction by the campaign signs they put up and the crazy paint jobs with Hitler quotes on their box vans :)

I take care not to leave any dollars at these locations.

Posted 5 months ago #
Cait
Member Profile

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/alan-schwab.asp?cycle=10

This is a website showing that the director of Les Schwab properties has only donated one time to one republican candidate in 2005 in the amount of $2,400. Walden for Congress. I'm not sure how accurrate this is, but it's hardly something to boycott over. If it was $2,400 one time to one candidate that's hardly a overarching Republican bias that I am going to concern myself with. As Christopher said that's not in any way worth putting people out of work for especially since, IMHO they are the best in the business and their customer service is impeccable.

There are a lot of Democrats in Seattle and if we all banded together to put every Republican out of business, we would be in a really tough spot, I can tell you that much. And I'm sorry, I don't want to live in a monopoly and that's what I'd be saying with my money if I assessed down to the nth degree what every political movement of my favorite companies were. Sure, you shouldn't put money into businesses that spend GOBS of money on political campaigns or that use little amounts of money to fund violations against human rights (and don't make the mistake of reading that as "Republican" because I don't have time for why I think that conversation is vicsiouly wrong.) This knee-jerk kind of thinking (not to mention action) is what is polarizing and crippling us as a government.

Boycotting is great and it sends a great, powerful message - but step back and think about how far you want to take it.

Posted 5 months ago #
Cait
Member Profile

And CJB - your comment about political masturbation makes me want to construct a trophy for you that heralds your accomplishment of winning the internet. I've had a hard time explaining that very thing on here so thanks for putting your finger on it... no pun intended. OK maybe some pun intended.

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
Member Profile

so "political masturbation"...when community members actually talk about their differences? Even if it doesn't change a mind? Imagine if we all kept quiet, and never discussed anything. Maybe that one conversation that maybe might change a mind wouldn't ever happen. Here's my thoughts on that. If you don't want to join in, don't. Life is about choices. But don't denigrate those who do. And that applies to many things in life. Just MHO

Posted 5 months ago #
Cait
Member Profile

I'm not going to try to put words in anyone's mouth here but I think we all know that no one is referring to productive or meaningful conversations as political masturbation, Jan. You also know me well enough to know that already so I don't know why that was necessary.

We're not having a conversation here about changing minds, we're talking about boycotting a business for (in my opinion) little to no reason based on misguided information. That has been cleared up. If we want to have a discussion about boycotting and it's benefits, I say do it - but let's make it separate from a conversation about a specific business so people don't have to wade through 33 comments (and may not bother) to figure out if they should do it because my fear is that some people won't and will think "Oh no, they're Republican supporters" the next time they drive by and take business elsewhere when that's not the case.

Posted 5 months ago #
SarahScoot
Member Profile

I agree completely with Cait. I didn't have a chance to return to this thread through the rest of the weekend, but her posts eloquently sum up what was bothering me about this conversation. It started with a lazy assumption and is now likely to influence people's perceptions of Les Schwab, consciously or subconsciously. It's unfair.
And yes, I know the world's not fair, but letting lazy connections grow to conjecture is just irresponsible.

Posted 5 months ago #
2 Much Whine
Member Profile

Hey @cbraley12, your name has the word "BRA" implanted firmly inside it and I don't like the lack of research you did jumping from Charles Schwab to Les Schwab. So to protest that flagrant violation of journalistic internet integrity I propose most (not all) women should stop wearing bras! Who's with me on this?

Posted 5 months ago #
DBP
Member Profile

I'm with you too, 2.

Down with flagrant journalistic integrity!
Down with implanting secret messages inside bras!

(Er . . . I mean up.)

UP with messages in bras!!!

Posted 5 months ago #
2 Much Whine
Member Profile

Hey DBP (formerly DP), So what do you think about this dress attire?

Hint: the correct response needs to include "I really like the tattoo but I also like the tutu too, 2"

Posted 5 months ago #
DBP
Member Profile

What the hex!? The girl is awesome. But the tattoo looks like one of those fiends from "Mars Attacks."

So I guess my answer is that I don't like the tattoo, 2. But were you to infer, therefore, that I didn't like the tutu, too, I'd go: "Not true! I do TOO like the tutu, 2."

Posted 5 months ago #
kootchman
Member Profile

Sonoma... old news, oft asked, oft answered, ad nauseum. Your sharp eye has many predecessors. WS'ites, garbed and bedecked with Chinese petro synthetic clothing, whilst stalking the urban landscape with shoes of similar origin, Target WalMart, KMart..etc. So Job, we added 180K seasonal workers for 60 days..wonder how many Chinese jobs we "supported" in doing so.? The refrain... from Bille Dee.. " walking contradiction, partly truth, and partly fiction"... True Value has as much cheap crap as Hopeless Depot. In fact, even cheaper crap.

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
Member Profile

yeah, but buying the crap at True Value puts money into local business, more local than HD, anyway.....lol..

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
Member Profile

2MuchWhine...

like all aspirations..
yours is based on too much fantasy...

have you seen the size and shape of construction required to keep what gravity calls ... upright?

Trust me..
you are absolutely tickled that i wear a bra.

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
Member Profile

kootch...

you wear me out..
not down..

just wishing for a tropical vacation somewhere
had to settle for painting my toes:(

i buy local.. at least when i can
contributing to the American economy and American jobs

Cait...

yes, there are some who jump to conclusions ...

but there are also bigger questions about how the money we spend on products is used to create laws that favor corporations or single groups of individuals over others.

i boycotted Target for a year because of the contributions their CEO made on their behalf to a political organization that actively targets gays.

When my personal boycott ended, i found i simply hadn't missed popping into Target first. Target is now my last stop if i can't find what i want elsewhere.

I stopped shopping Whole Foods for similar reasons. I can't support a holistic business that doesn't treat it's employees holistically.

I don't miss them much either. I do stop at the one on Elliot for a healthy snack for the pups when i am in the neighborhood.. but I don't regularly shop there.

I chose Home Base (?) and now Lowes over Home Depot for the same sort of reasons... and find myself shopping True Value or McClendons more often than not as a result.

Where you spend your money does matter when that money is used to undermine equality or democracy.

And.. if you can spend it where it rolls right back into your local economy.. all the better.

every day i get to vote.. with my wallet.
i try to make those votes count.

Posted 5 months ago #
DBP
Member Profile

JoB n' kootch . . .

STOP HI-JACKING THIS THREAD!!!

It's not about politics anymore, okay?

It's about more pressing issues . . .

Posted 5 months ago #
2 Much Whine
Member Profile

JoB, I said "most (not all) women" should stop wearing bras. Imagine the backlash if I said "most women (not JoB)" should stop wearing bras. I'd be a no good troll if I said that. . . . the term "most" can be 50.1% and I'll stick with that. I think it's that old adage that goes something like "a woman sees one naked man and feels like she's seen them all whereas a man sees one naked woman and feels like he wants to see them all."

Posted 5 months ago #
Bostonman
Member Profile

Dream girls also keeps the money in the local economy. Much nicer than traveling to Vegas. Plus, they don't wear bras

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
Member Profile

2MuchWhine..
now you want us naked?

Posted 5 months ago #

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