Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Conservative Truth Is Seattle Restaurants Are Not Closing Due To The New $15 Minimum Wage

Yesterday, via WBAP talk show radio out of Dallas, I heard conservative talk show talker, Ben Ferguson, go on and on about an alleged  rash of restaurant closings in Seattle, with those closing supposedly caused by Seattle's new $15 minimum wage.

I can only take listening to Ben Ferguson for about 15 minutes. He has an annoying tendency to repeat himself. Over and over again. He repeats himself.

See what I did there?

In addition to repeating himself, over and over again, Ben Ferguson is also very fond of various iterations of "you're an idiot", in sentences such as "If you think that you're an idiot." Every time I hear Ben Ferguson repeat his "you're an idiot" phrase it crosses my mind to assume that he has had that phrase directed at himself all his life, because, well, he comes across, to me, as a bit of an idiot.

As witnessed by the idiotic nonsense he was spouting yesterday about the supposed rash of Seattle restaurant closings caused by the $15 minimum wage.

Apparently the conservative world has been all abuzz about those Seattle restaurant closings being caused by the $15 minimum wage, with those doing the idiotic conservative buzzing focusing on several Seattle restaurants which have closed, including Grub, which Ferguson repeatedly referenced.

Well.

This morning in the Seattle Times Seattle's newspaper of record, in an article titled Truth Needle: Is $15 wage dooming Seattle restaurants? Owners say No.

In the Seattle Times article we learn the truth about the Grub restaurant which Ben Ferguson was repeatedly obsessed with....

Sharon Fillingim, the owner of Grub, the final restaurant referenced, said on Facebook that Grub was “a huge success.” In fact, the restaurant was sold and is reopening imminently under new ownership as Bounty Kitchen.

The Seattle Times talked to all the owners of all the restaurants which were referenced in the various conservative media and found no owner who was closing his restaurant due to the new minimum wage. In fact, several were supportive of the new minimum wage.

And that new minimum  wage does not go into effect next month, like Ben Ferguson repeatedly repeated. The minimum wage increase is to be phased in, incrementally, over seven years.

If Brian Williams can get in trouble and lose his job due to spouting falsehoods, how does someone like Ben Ferguson repeatedly keep his job?