Oh man Don Benton’s make work job is going away.

Benton and three other employees’ jobs will be eliminated due to the reorganization, and could save the county as much as $1.2 million over the next two years, McCauley said. Benton’s salary and benefits package totaled about $154,000 in 2015, according to Clark County.

Benton’s position has been the subject of continuing controversy after he was appointed to lead the department in May 2013 on the orders of Republican County Commissioners Tom Mielke and David Madore. As the controversy built, both men, who at the time had sole authority to hire department heads, have denied their role in Benton’s hiring. Instead, they blame then-County Administrator Bill Barron for the action.

On the one hand, I know, I know. I know. There are all sorts of government orgs, non-profits, and businesses that hire legislators. It’s not really that different from the former members of Congress (even ones I like) who are now lobbyists. It’s not that different from Ed Murray’s job at the UW (Seattle Times link). It’s not the best look, but whatever.

But on the other hand, I am definitely petty enough to laugh when it’s an asshole like Benton. Especially given the process in the first place. So ha!

It’s been three years almost to the day since Madore and Mielke tapped Benton to lead the environmental services department during a now-infamous board time meeting in 2013. The issue has continued to be a popular subject for those who comment to the council, despite Madore and Mielke’s continued insistence that they never directed Barron to hire Benton in the first place.

Benton’s appointment also drew criticism from around the state, including a Seattle Times editorial headlined “State Sen. Don Benton for environmental post? Really?”

And I’m legit sorry to anyone else who got caught up in the restructuring.

I cast my second meaningless vote in the primary (my caucus would have been 2 delegates for Clinton, 4 for Sanders no matter how I voted; this one awards no delegates). Still, if the system is going to be this, I’m happy to participate at the cost of a couple weekend afternoons and a stamp.

Great news that the Army Corps of Engineers rejected a permit for the Gateway Pacific terminal. It’s still something that may be appealed, but for now it’s a good thing for those of us who have to live along the route. For anyone who has to breathe or to fish between Montana and Bellingham. It’s also pretty important for the climate impact going forward.

And it is important in a history of defining taking in the treaties. The right to take is pretty meaningless if what’s left to take is inadequate or non-existent.

I’ve been quite impressed by KUOW’s series on The Jungle. The most recent piece this morning on the social worker and the preacher who go into the jungle was just amazing. It tied those two to the larger situations and to the city’s looking at future policies, so well.

So, I get it. You like your arena, or at least the thought of it. You had to learn about street vacation. And you don’t like that the City Council voted against it. You or one of your Facebook friends, maybe someone on Twitter, noticed that all the women voted one way and all the men voted the other way. Instead of going “huh” and considering how to lobby for your preferred option going forward, things go off the rails.

But, you know what? Do fucking better. As a man who doesn’t take a position on street vacation, but generally supports efforts to get a men’s basketball and hockey arena, this is a disgrace.

Oh hey, it looks like people are using the Viaduct closure to bike from West Seattle to Downtown. Good news. Now that it’s overcast, maybe that number will go down a bit. But still. I hope some of them keep going.

Darryl mentioned it in this morning’s Drinking Liberally thread, but it’s kind of a big deal that the US Supreme Court won’t hear the Seattle minimum wage case. There are 2 reasons why it’s mass rad. First, for Seattle and other places where we want to set a minimum wage, and are going to have the sort of slow, multi-tiered implementation that we got. We can keep the law in place without this imaginary legal hurdle. For the fast food workers and other franchise employees who’ll get a raise going forward, it’s worth it on its own.

But, it also signals that with Antonin Scalia off the court, maybe the country won’t slip further into a new Lochner era. Maybe we won’t decide as many cases primarily on the basis of what’s good for business.

I hope you survived your May Day (or your m’aider as the news seems to think). For me it consisted of walking home and seeing a lot of cops, and wondering why there are so many. Then kind of remembering and keeping walking. And then having someone in my building freaking the fuck out. Also some people on Twitter. In conclusion, I almost feel like we need better shitty anarchists.

Oh hey, it’s super on-brand* if I talk about highways for 2 open threads this week. But here we are:

Are you planning anything different for when the Viaduct is closed? Going to telecommute? Going to tough it out? Live in the Tri-Cities and just going to laugh at us Wet Siders? Using this as an opportunity to start biking or walking to work? Going to take I-5 and hope for the best? Going to plan for some more time, and just make it happen? Unemployed? Taking the Light Rail? Working odd hours?

[Read more…]

Of all the books I’ve read while out to eat or on a bus, or whatever, I’d say this is the one that I’ve had the most people ask me about. I don’t know if the Supreme Court is an interesting topic generally. Or possibly it’s because you hear so many conservatives ranting about the court, a long haired Seattle person reading “Case Against the Supreme Court ” might seem incongruous.

Anyway, if you want to be super depressed, it’s one I’d recommend. Very interesting and really shows the importance of the court.

The Eastbound lanes of 520 are now open for bridgeness. Anyone taken them yet? Notice any difference in your driving experience?

While I haven’t read it, can’t imagine I won’t support the SEIU backed initiative to fund enforcement of the $15 minimum wage, of the sick leave/safe leave law, and other workplace issues in Seattle. While, generally I don’t think dedicated money is the way to go on those sorts of things, the city hasn’t been very good at enforcement so far. So better a dedicated tax than it being under-resourced.

When liberals and conservatives have conversations about things like homelessness, it can be frustrating. Conservatives want individuals to take personal responsibility. And while liberals find individual responsibility important, we also understand that there are systemic problems that have to be dealt with. That it’s really tough to bootstrap yourself into a house if you’re homeless and there isn’t enough supply. So, sometimes we talk past each other. Jason Rantz tries to circle that square by showing how liberals being tolerant is the real systemic problem (h/t).

I’ve been meaning to do a longer piece for a while, but it keeps being nice out. After like 4 days, it’s still too nice of a day to do a metacommentary piece on the whole thing, but here are some highlights:

But why so many in this neighborhood? I’ve never seen as many until recently. As other neighborhoods are engaged in trying to help deal with the problem, Capitol Hill seems like they’re allowing it to develop unfettered. I think I know why: ideology.

Homelessness is everywhere. I don’t know what neighborhood doesn’t have homeless people. Including suburban and rural places in King County. Also, is Cap. Hill’s tolerance new? Because otherwise, it doesn’t really apply to this supposedly new problem. Also, too, I walked from the light rail station to Drinking Liberally last Tuesday, and back fairly late at night. It was after reading this piece, so I was on the lookout for homeless people. It didn’t seem like a whole lot, at least compared to other neighborhoods. Sure, I passed by some people sleeping in doorways, but I don’t think more than Downtown or Belltown. Certainly not more than, say, the Terminal 91 Bike Path or SoDo, if we’re trading anecdote for data.

Progressive ideologues like to preach how tolerant they are. You ask them and they’ll proudly tell you. Now, they don’t support ideological diversity, but they’re pro-LGBT, pro-people of color, pro-atheist, pro-multicultralism, pro-whatever. The only things they’re against seem to be capitalism and cisgendered white Christian Republican men. And to show how tolerant they are, they seek to ban microaggressions; they support college students who need “safe spaces” from opinions that make them uncomfortable. They like to declare themselves allies of any group they believe to be oppressed.

Atheism and multiculturalism are both ideologies. So that third sentence is self-refuting. Some progressive ideologues are against capitalism, but I think most aren’t. Also, I don’t know what against “cisgendered white Christian Republican men” even means. Like, don’t think they should dominate the conversation, sure. But progressives are not the ones trying to regulate where cis people can poop or poised to nominate someone who wants a travel ban on Christians. Anyway, I guess we should just be glad he learned the word cisgendered and this isn’t a rant about that.

Oh my God there was so much wrong with that paragraph. OK. Keep going.

Nobody is trying to ban microaggressions. Pointing out how harmful they are? Sure. You can go yell racial epithets (macroaggressions if you like) in the park, and nobody is going to ban you. But you think a ban on microaggressions is in the works? Also, safe spaces and being allies to the oppressed is pretty rad. Like everywhere should be unsafe in general and harmful to oppressed people? What the fuck even is that? In fairness, he walks that back a bit in the next couple paragraphs, that I’m skipping. But still.

I think some ideological activists won’t help the homeless because they subconsciously want to live around them. They can say that they don’t judge people based on their appearance or status as someone who lives on the street, and this gives them a sense of superiority to those of us who want to intervene.

This describes literally nobody. The solutions to homelessness include build more housing and make it affordable. It isn’t just tolerate it. The closest thing I can think of to being tolerant as a policy was housing for chronic public inebriates, but that has been a success story among King County’s mixed-at-best record.

I’m going to see if some small talk spurs discussion.

Geez, 3 days of more than 80 degrees is quite enough. I’m giving up: Shorts to work. And it’s only April. Man. I’m actually looking forward to some rain in a few days. Can you believe it?

I can sort of understand grandstanding against trans people. It’s a cheap way to say you’re a horrible person. It signals to a certain type of horrible person that you’re in the tribe, and it lets you rail against imaginary horrors like people pooping in a place you’ve claimed are wrong. Also, you get to make stuff up like trans rape without actually doing anything about rape. And the costs of being an ass are borne by other people.

But what I don’t get is why people would pay money for a trans-hate initiative. I mean a fool and their money and all that, I guess.