California has lifted nearly all its COVID-related restrictions, but Washington State Governor Jay Inslee continues to ignore data which shows our state has reached the 70% COVID vaccination threshold he previously promised would result in the removal of his stranglehold over economic and individual activities.  Over a week ago, the Biden White House congratulated Washington for reaching 70% of state residents receiving at least their first vaccine dose, yet Inslee refused to accept the good news for the people of the state who have suffered under his “leadership”.  Instead the governor stuck with faulty state figures (which had the state at only 64%), even though the Washington State Department of Health admitted that the federal data is more accurate, for it uses more recent census data and includes vaccines administered to military personnel and to Washington residents in other states (remember, Washington’s vaccination program was administered so poorly in the initial weeks last December and January, that many state residents obtained their shots in Idaho and Oregon).  While a citizens’ recall effort against California Governor Gavin Newsom is motivating him to keep his promises, Governor Inslee is being allowed by his fellow Democrats in the legislature (despite their fake acts of outrage) to maintain his undemocratic one-man rule over Washington residents. (Los Angeles Times, White House tweet, Shift article, Washington State Department of Health media release, MSN, and Pierce County Legislators “threatening” letter to Governor Inslee)

A series of tweets early this afternoon demonstrate that the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) is rightfully receiving criticism for its faulty numbers keeping Washington residents from breaking free of Jay Inslee’s political grip. The DOH posted a series of six tweets which only reaffirm the state is relying on its own faulty data (which currently has the state’s vaccination percentage at only 67.2%), which they admit is less accurate and complete then the federal numbers. (Washington State Department of Health tweets)

Apparently the two Democrat members of the Washington State Redistricting Commission were not “woke” enough to realize that they shouldn’t have scheduled public hearings on June 19^th now  that “Juneteenth” Is a state holiday  Previously, in an attempt to make it easier for people to participate in the democratic process by meeting on a weekend, the commission had scheduled virtual public hearings for both the 2^nd Congressional District (Island and San Juan counties, and urban areas along the coast of Snohomish, Skagit, and Whatcom counties) and 3^rd Congressional District (Southwest Washington) for this Saturday, June 19^th.  Yet, liberal activists were outraged that the commission would do anything on a day that suddenly in the past year became deserving of as state holiday (with the appropriate taxpayer-funded day off for state union employees).  So, rather than continue to make their meetings more accessible, the Democrat-run commission moved the meetings to the evening of Tuesday, June 22^nd, when it is more difficult for people to participate. (Washington Redistricting Commission)

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed motions yesterday attempting to dismiss the two lawsuits against the Democrats’ state income tax on capital gains.  One of the motions sought to have the cases dismissed because the first collections for the new tax will not occur until 2023. Evidently AG Ferguson believes that people should not be able to plan accordingly for whether or not they will have to pay this tax, but rather wants to jam it down their throats, and then leave it up to the court to pull it back out if they correctly rule the law unconstitutional.

Yet this is inconsistent with legislative Democrats including an “emergency clause” in their illegal state income tax bill, which prohibited a referendum to repeal the legislation because they falsely claimed the funds were needed for COVID relief (even though they don’t come in until ’23, at the earliest).  Ferguson also filed a motion to have the lawsuit moved to very liberal Thurston County Superior Court, instead of Douglas County where litigants in the lawsuit reside. (Bob Ferguson Twitter)

Governor Inslee’s $2 million vaccine lottery is turning out to be a bigger bust than even his strongest critics argued it would become.  Many people forewarned that very few Washington State residents, who were previously against receiving the vaccine, would suddenly change their minds due to the very remote chance they would receive a prize from Inslee’s vaccine lottery.  The reduced vaccination pace since the lottery announcement and the fact that 103 prizes have gone unclaimed from the first drawing last week, certainly show there is almost no excitement about the program.  But wasting $2 million in taxpayer money is not a concern within the Inslee Administration, especially since not one person within state government has lost their job after losing $1.1 billion in taxpayer dollars at Inslee’s Employment Security Department last year. (Q13 News)

As expected, King County is using the recent increase in violence as an excuse to expand the size of government, while doing nothing to address the impact of liberal criminal policies which are likely driving the out-of-control violence.  Seattle liberals and their allies have reduced sentences, cut funding to police departments, released repeat offenders, legalized more drugs, allowed illegal homeless shelters to explode (literally), and refused to prosecute many crimes. Yet officials do not question the impact of these policies, instead they blame guns for the increase in crimes.  Instead of the county examining the impact of a large number of early-released criminals who are now on the street due to Democrat policies, King County is spending $1.5 million to increase the size of government and focusing on gun possession to respond to recent violence in White Center and elsewhere in the county. News flash for King County, criminals will always be able to obtain guns (just like addicts will always be able to obtain drugs).  If you want to reduce gun violence, more success will likely be found in reducing the number of criminals on the street who prefer using guns. (MyNorthwest)

Guess what liberals – fun new crimes are the result of your anti-public safety policies.  Catalytic converter thefts continue to rise in Seattle, and throughout the Puget Sound area, as criminals sell them for “upwards of a thousand dollars” due to the precious metals used in the automobile part. Unfortunately, due to the reduction of law enforcement personnel, the only advice authorities give to vehicle owners is to “keep your car in a place that’s hard for thieves to get to or under,” – like Idaho. (KING5 News)

Home prices in the Tri-Cities continue to soar as restrictions on home construction keep builders from meeting demand. While population is increasing in South Central Washington, the supply of homes has not been able to keep up thanks to increased government regulations, resulting in higher prices for homes. The average price of a home in the Tri-Cities increased over 8% from April to May of this year, and almost 24% in the past year. (YakTriNews)

Because it wasn’t enough to suffer from all of the anti-farming legislation passed by the Democrats in Olympia, wheat farmers are now struggling due to drought conditions.  Winter Wheat resulted in lower yields earlier this year, and Spring Wheat could be even worse due to the low precipitation. But, since State Senate Democrats say the , the drought only hurts half as much, right? (Northwest AG Network and Senate Democrat Caucus Talking Point memo)

Speculation has been growing that poor poll numbers might inspire five-term U.S. Senator Patty Murray to be “Patty Murrayed” herself.  In 1991, Patty Murray jumped into a Democrat primary battle against Democrat Senator Brock Adams, when the first-term liberal senator was vulnerable from only one allegation of sexual misconduct.  Months after Murray announced her campaign, the Seattle Times broke a story featuring eight more women coming forward with allegations against Senator Adams, forcing him to end his re-election campaign.

Such a personal scandal seems unlikely to consume this incumbent, yet a Democrat pollster recently made public poor job approval ratings for Senator Murray, with just 40% of Washington voters giving her positive marks (generally, incumbents with less than 50% approval are thought to be vulnerable).  As restless young Democrats become frustrated by the liberal career politicians who refuse to give up their office, we are seeing more challenges against the old guard.  We saw it in 2016, when State Representative Brady Walkinshaw announced he was running against 14-term Congressman Jim McDermott, allowing State Senator Pramila Jayapal to later jump in the race after McDermott chickened out of seeking reelection. We are seeing it this year, as ultra-liberal state Senator Joe Nguyen is looking to defeat merely Far-Left three-term incumbent King County Executive Dow Constantine.  Tiffany Smiley has already announced her Republican candidacy against Murray, even as speculation grows about a possible Democrat contender.  Murray’s staff has been hard at work raising money from wealthy liberal special interest groups and currently has banked $4 million.  (Joel Connelly Post Alley, Shift’s Newsmaker Interview, and Federal Election Commission)   

Governor Jay Inslee continues to repeat the false narrative that Washington State has yet to reach the 70% vaccination rate, despite President Biden’s White House publicly congratulating the state for reaching that important threshold last Monday.  When given the choice on whether to use 1) the more complete federal data (which includes vaccinations given to those in the military and through other federal immunization programs), or 2) using the incomplete data collected by the Washington State Department of Health (which also uses out- of-date census information), Governor Inslee has selfishly chosen the state figures.  His “thinking” – by constantly repeating the incomplete state figures, the governor continues his one-man rule of the state, which still has no legislative oversight (thanks to legislative Democrats) or any input from local elected or health officials. (Click here to read full Shift Article)

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