"check out Marmot Pass, Big Huckleberry Mountain, Yellow Aster Butte, Green Mountain, and the Ira Spring Trail to Mason Lake"

Surprised to see the Stranger promoting destinations that are not accessible by transit. Does this mean there may be a place for cars after all?

That’s a lot of airtime to Mr Douthat, which you thought was a waste lol.

I’m a little worried what the state legislature will look like next year, so many Dems are not seeking re-election. Are they expected to be trounced that badly?

Nice of the Times to draw hearts on the dinky little monorail, but it won’t make me forget how they helped torpedo the real, actually useful monorail we could have already had by now between West Seattle and Ballard. With that in place, all we’d need to do now is connect a couple east-west lines to the existing light rail, and we might have something resembling functional city-wide mass transit. Instead wet get to wait another 15-20 years and pay three times as much! Fuck you, Seattle Times!

@3 - exactly. I don't know how many times the Times & Nickels' buddies managed to get a do-over on the monorail vote before they finally won a round, but it was a disgrace.

@4 - yes, we would still be paying for the monorail. So fucking what? Public transit is something government SHOULD be taxing people for.

I am 100% with you on the fare enforcement, though. Everyone should pay every single time. If they would have the stones to enforce that on the buses, it would be a different world.

If I spent all my free time complaining about taxes I'd probably fuck off to somewhere with lower taxes

Wow, what a pity party, woe is me op-ed by KHT. Because the caucus refused to bend a knee to her progressive vision she is packing up and going home and declaring our entire system of government as beyond salvation. How shocked she was to learn that even members of the same party have diverse viewpoints but rather than continue to fight for her supporters she gives up. The people of the 37th will be better off with new representation.

@4 "Hardly anyone uses Sound Transit" lol.

So who does KHT think is going to change the system if the ‘change agents’ like her quit in childish frustration after a single term?

What kind of change in leadership would satisfy her, given that she arrived immediately after the Speakership of the House passed from an old-straight-white-guy from Seattle (Frank Chopp) to a lesbian from Tacoma (Laurie Jinkins).

She complains about inside baseball politics and the poor leadership of her caucus - where liberal women of color are the caucus chair (Lilian Ortiz-Self) and the floor leader (Monica Jurado Stonier).

She got a handful of bills passed in a single two-year term, about what you’d expect for a freshman legislator in a safe seat, and on par with her peers. But she’s upset because her colleagues wouldn’t do everything she wanted, exactly the way she thinks it should be done. Next we’ll hear that snowflake is crying because she didn’t get a participation trophy.

@8, @9, @11:

When Ed Murray arrived in Olympia as a freshman legislator, the bigots then running the place greeted him with a Saturday session to ban gay marriage. For most of the next twenty years, he worked diligently on many issues, including LGBTQ+ rights. After he'd been in office about a decade, he got LGBTQ+ protections for employment and housing extended state-wide. He then worked to obtain first civil unions, then full marriage equality. By the time he left state office, Washington state's LGBTQ+ community had gone from a marriage ban to full equality.

Imagine if he had quit in frustration after just one or two terms. Where would the LGBTQ+ community be now?

"suburban movies"

What a dumb way to describe the better movies of the past.

Douche-hat wrote an editorial in the NYT today praising Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civiliations" thesis. Soft brain is right, although he's smart enough to dog whistle.

"I think it's time to take a hike? I'm not the REI type, so you tell me, but Seattle Times says check out Marmot Pass, Big Huckleberry Mountain, Yellow Aster Butte, Green Mountain, and the Ira Spring Trail to Mason Lake if you wanna huff Washington wildflowers. Are they right?"

The article was wrong in describing these as springtime hikes, good for seeing flowers. These hikes are mostly covered in snow until early summer.