Ultra-liberal Washington State Representative Joe Nguyen (D – West Seattle) posted a tweet with the irresponsible, inflammatory, and factually incorrect statement that Washington doesn’t have a state income tax because our “regressive tax structure is founded upon racism” since it contains language from the U.S. Constitution. . Representative Nguyen provided little initial backing argument for his controversial tweet, though in comments he tried to lay his policy turd at the feet of fellow Democrat State Repo. Noel Frame, and later shifted credit for his “thinking” to a University of California at Berkeley professor.  While we at Shift are not constitutional scholars, we do know from our political science classes (at the UW, not Berkeley) that the Uniformity Clause was included in the Constitution so that Congress could not play favorites by taxing one geographic area and not others, or tax one individual or company and not others conducting the same business. But we wouldn’t expect Representative Nguyen to support a policy that might limit what government can do to take money from businesses and other taxpayers. (Nguyen’s tweet)

Washington Asians for Equality, the group behind the 2019 successful repeal of the state racial quota legislation (Referendum 88), has uncovered some unusual email traffic between Bob Ferguson’s Attorney General’s Office and the people pushing a new initiative (I-1234) to reinstall Affirmative Actionquotas in Washington State.  Using the Public Records Act to obtain internal email correspondence over the ballot title of the initiative, Washington Asians for Equality has found evidence that the lawyers within the AG’s office appeared to be more concerned with pleasing the initiative sponsors (including “former State Representative” Jesse Wineberry) than with conducting their work impartially and legally.  As Shift revealed in July, this is not the first questionable behavior from those supporting Wineberry and his quota ambitions. (Washington Asians for Equity and Shift)

Smoke (this time from California) will be in our state again this week (although not as bad as a couple of weeks ago), which provides us with a good opportunity to remind our readers of the science that disputes many Democrats’ false narrative that the previous wild fires were the result of climate change.  From state legislative candidates to presidential candidate Joe Biden, Democrats continue to peddle the knee-jerk reaction that the recent wildfires and resulting poor air quality prove we need to raise taxes and then spend more tax revenue on big government projects to fight climate change.  Yet, as University of Washington Atmospheric Science Professor Cliff Mass stated in his interview with Shift, (and then elaborated further in a later blog post) the scientific evidence does not support the Democrats’ arguments,  Mass said, “The key fires during this event have been on the western side of the Oregon Cascades.  These fires exploded due to very strong and very unusual easterly winds.  Regional climate models suggest such winds will become WEAKER under global warming.  Thus, major west-side wildfire events might become LESS probable under global warming.” The professor then explained that the solution to reducing forest fires is for the state to do a better job of managing our forests. (Seattle Times, Shift Newsmaker Interview, and Cliff Mass Weather Blog)

Some state agencies will be moving away from desk top phones and replacing them with phone systems run through computers.  Washington Technology Solutions, the agency that runs the state’s phone systems,  is currently moving its phone system to a Microsoft program called “Phone System”, and then the agency will begin to do the same with other state agencies, starting with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Thank God they did not try to start with the Employment Security Department, or we’d be waiting forever to get results. (News Tribune)

Virtual debates for Washington Secretary of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction will occur in the next two weeks. The Wahkiakum County Republicans and the Democratic Virtual Debates Subcommittee will host a debate between Republican incumbent Secretary of State Kim Wyman and her Democrat challenger Gael Tarleton tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at 7:00 PM.  Maia Espinoza will be debating controversial Superintendent of Public Instruction incumbent Chris Reykdal on Wednesday, October 13^th at 7:00 PM.  Both debates can be viewed on YouTube and both are seeking questions ([email protected]) from the public. (News Tribune and YouTube)

Because innovative ride-share companies provide customers with more flexibility than the monolithic public transit system and are cheaper than the union-based taxi industry, the Seattle City Council wants to impose cost increases and labor restrictions on Uber, Lyft, and other businesses.  The success of ride-share companies threatens government-mismanaged mass transit agencies and union-based taxi companies, causing the economics-challenged city council to try and make them less appealing to Seattle residents, especially those who are low-income.  In proposals that will dramatically increase the cost of ride-share trips, the city council is considering forcing the companies to increase rates to pay higher wages to drivers.  This will lead to fewer riders and ironically, less income for the drivers. (A similar proposal in New York City led to massive protests from drivers) Like the incorrectly named “JumpStart” tax is driving companies to relocate employees outside of Seattle city limits, by imposing higher costs on ride-share businesses, drivers will no longer be able to survive in Seattle and will either stop offering rides or move their services to the Eastside. (KING5 News)

The Port of Everett will begin environmental cleanup of property it owns where the Snohomish River empties into Port Gardner.  Once the $2.3 million project is complete next year, construction will begin on a 235,000 square foot manufacturing facility which is expected to bring in 300 jobs. (Everett Herald)

The innovative technology of Elon Musk’s SpaceX company provided internet connections to communities devastated by the recent wildfires.  Using satellites built in Redmond, SpaceX provided public internet access to Malden following the wildfires that wiped out 80% of the community.  This was the first time the Washington Emergency Management Division has used this technology following a disaster and a spokesperson stated that this could be extremely useful following a large-scale event like a sizable earthquake. (Geekwire)

Democrat congressional candidate Carolyn Long stated in a fundraising email that a poll shows her within two points of Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, yet she fails to mention that the pollster is connected to the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee.  Long performed extremely poorly in the only accurate poll released so far, the August primary election in the Southwest Washington congressional district.  She received less than 40% of the vote and was 16.5% behind Herrera Beutler in a heavy-Democrat turnout election.  Obviously Long needs to provide biased polling numbers to try and get any attention, due to her past donors fleeing from the faltering campaign. BTW, the first clue that this poll has suspect numbers is that it claims 49% support Herrera Beutler and 47% support Long, leaving only 4% is undecided.  This is unheard of in any election still five weeks away. (Long campaign email and Secretary of State election results)

Do you like The Daily Briefing?

Please consider making a contribution to ensure Shift continues to provide daily updates on the shenanigans of the liberal establishment.

Forward this to a friend.  It helps us grow our community and serve you better.

You can also follow SHIFTWA on social media by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.

If you feel we missed something that should be covered, email us at [email protected]