Do Seattle politicians suffer from Selective Factiosys Syndrome?

I have a thesis that Seattle politicians suffer from a rare disease — let’s call it Selective Factiosys Syndrome.

This syndrome attacks the brains of otherwise healthy people and renders them incapable of observing facts in a consistent way. Think of the syndrome this way: a sufferer might say, with full conviction, “water is wet” while also stating, with equal conviction, “water is not wet.” It’s a fascinating disease, but has frightening implications for Seattle citizens as this disease manifests in policies created by these sufferers. What follows is a brief set of examples of how this disease works, with some of its symptoms.

Symptom Number One: Water runs down hill, but only down some hills

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes. (File)

City Attorney Pete Holmes recently shared with Seattle media his observation that having a city filled with single, young men who earn good money to work incredibly long days has attracted sex traffickers and pimps to our area along with their respective captives and prostitutes. In the same way that water runs downhill, drawn to its own level. Holmes met with the employers of these men to inform management that these guys sometimes use their work computers and work IDs to buy sex. The executives of the companies, he said, were horrified and agreed to help stop the behavior.

This is the same Pete Holmes who somehow believes that effectively legalizing heroin will not attract people addicted to heroin, drug dealers and their gang enforcers to our area. In other words, water, in that case, does not run downhill.

Also, Pete Holmes — who made a media event out of pointing out that men who want to buy sex use company assets to do it — is more than okay with his colleagues in Seattle government using taxpayer assets to enable drug use. A safe injection site will — like water running downhill — attract drug users, who will, in turn, draw drug dealers. That creates an environment for more people who sell their bodies to pay for the drugs. Pete Holmes either suffers from Selective Factiosys Syndrome or he refuses to be truthful about what we already know to be the effects of Seattle’s policies.

Symptom Number Two: 2 + 2 = 4, unless 2 + 2 does not equal 4. 

Seattle City Council. (City of Seattle)

The Seattle City Council observed that adding to their cost — in other words, adding 2 to an already existing 2 — would have the effect of limiting people’s use of certain items.

Observe:

A gun and ammunition tax would deter some people from buying guns and ammunition. A tax on sugary drinks — but for God’s sake not those made by Starbucks — would make it too expensive for some people to buy. Taxing what we exhale — carbon — would limit companies from activities that release carbon. So 2 + 2 = 4 and 4 is too much for some people.

This is the same city council that, when calling for a $100 per employee tax on companies with lots of employees, now says that adding 2 to an existing 2 does not, in fact, equal 4 — that increasing costs does not cause some people to use less of something. They claim that companies in Seattle will be unaffected by millions of dollars of added costs for having employees. Somehow, the council believes, these companies are not beholden to simple math.

Symptom Number Three: The people are not the people

Dan Satterberg. (AP/Elaine Thompson)

King County Attorney Dan Satterberg ran for office with the promise of being “the people’s lawyer.” Satterberg, however, refused to be the people’s lawyer when the people voted to put I-27 — which would have banned government funded heroin dens — on the ballot.

The people, it seems, are not the people.