One of the handlers for Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal should take away his Twitter privileges,  as Reykdal again uses the platform to make politically divisive and inappropriate comments. Readers will recall that the very liberal and very irresponsible SPI took to Twitter on the night of the 2019 elections to tell Democrat legislators to “step up” and remove road construction projects in counties which supported I-976 (the car tab initiative).  After this tweet caused a public backlash against the divisive Reykdal, his handlers rushed to delete this tweet (but not before many had already grabbed a screenshot).

This year SPI Reykdal didn’t wait for the elections to occur before tweeting his partisan and hate-filled missives. After happy hour on Friday evening, Reykdal tweeted his pre-election thoughts on Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and removing some of the constraints which appear to many as suppressing more conservatives than liberals. Reykdal claimed that Musk was causing civil unrest because he stated he would “remove content moderation standards” on the social media platform and that Reykdal believed Musk believes “that hate speech is protected speech” which Reykdal added in parentheses “(It’s not).”

Among the many problems with SPI Reykdal’s latest Twitter rant is how blatantly partisan he wants rules to be imposed. We checked Reykdal’s Twitter account and his media releases, and we found no evidence that the SPI was concerned about the hate-filled content of the Twitter account from his party’s endorsed candidate for Seattle City Attorney Nicole Thomas Kennedy.  Evidently to the leader of our state’s education system it was OK for Twitter to allow NTK to continue to applaud those who set fires to government buildings and tweet that all police should “Eat COVID laced shit,” while banning a conservative satire website (BabylonBee) because they made a fact-filled comment regarding the ongoing sexual identity debate which is going on in our society. Sadly Reykdal’s tweet reflects the mindset of many Democrats in our state who believe because they are in power they get to set one set of rules for themselves and their supporters, while imposing a different set of strict rules against these who disagree with them. (Chris Rekdahl Twitter, November 5, 2019 Tweet, All of Nicole Thomas Kennedy Tweets website, and BabylonBee)

Once again the media fails to report on the millions spent on campaigns by labor organizations and only chooses to highlight what a few big companies spend. The Seattle Times reported that Amazon, Microsoft, T-Mobile and Boeing spent approximately $825,000 on the 2022 elections supporting both Republican and Democrat candidates.  Meanwhile (once again) there is absolutely no reporting on the amount of money being spent by government employee unions on Democrat candidates and Democrat party organizations. This money dictates the actions of the party which has controlled our state for nearly two generations. Just recently Washington State Democrats did not follow the example of nearly all other states which had surplus tax revenues. While many states, including ultra-liberal California, were providing tax relief to its state’s residents, Democrats in Washington refused to consider any tax relief and instead used the money to increase the size of government and provide government workers with their fifth large pay increase in four years.

We found it rather ironic that the Times’ story concluded that state public disclosure requirements of campaign donations are important to reduce pollical corruption for “Sunlight is the best disinfectant against corruption.” Yet the Seattle Times appears to be afraid to shine any “sunlight” on the government union contributions which control our state’s dominant party.  (Seattle Times, CBS News, and Jason Mercier on Lars Larson Radio Show)

NPR reports that alcohol deaths rose by 30% during the first year of the COVID pandemic. A study released by the Centers for Disease Control found that “alcohol-induced” deaths (i.e.  alcohol-caused liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning, withdrawal and certain other diseases) leapt from 39,000 in 2019 to 52,000 in 2021. An increase in alcohol-related deaths occurred in all age groups, but women between the ages of 35-to-44 were especially hard hit with a 44% increase.

Alcohol stores and marijuana dispensaries were among the very few small businesses which Governor Jay Inslee allowed to stay open during the initial months of the pandemic. Throughout the 975 days the governor abused his emergency powers, he imposed no specific regulations on these stores’ operations and sales for both alcohol and marijuana dramatically increased.  At the same time, the governor placed severe restrictions on alcohol and drug treatment facilities, and he prohibited 12-Step meetings (the most effective method to help those struggling with addictions) from taking place in person for nearly 18 months, even though his random orders allowed religious groups to safely gather in the exact same locations 12-Step meetings used. This is one of many areas where the state would have been more responsive to citizens’ concerns if the governor had allowed the legislature and local health officials to have a say on the pandemic restrictions placed on Washington residents, rather than just making things up as he went. (NPR and Shift Article)

Due to good police work, the car that was stolen last week from Children’s Orthopedic Hospital parking lot –  just hours after the vehicle owner’s 1-year old child went through brain surgery – has been recovered. Police officers located the car on Queen Anne Hill on Saturday.  Since Democrats passed laws which restrict police from pursuing fleeing criminals in cars, the Seattle police officers used a technique where they boxed in a suspect’s vehicle to impede any escape attempt.  The suspect tried to flee on foot but was quickly captured. Police found in the vehicle two loaded guns (one was reported stolen) along with methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, and $8,000 in cash. This suspect is the type of person who has thrived under liberal public safety and drug decriminalization policies passed by Democrats, while the parents of children in hospitals have unnecessarily been made victims. (MyNorthwest)

It was good to see the Seattle Times finally do a report on Democrat State House candidate Clyde Shavers’ numerous lies. The Times finally ran a story on Saturday stating that Democrat party organizations and politicians were still supporting Shavers in his 10th^h Legislative District House contest, despite the fact that many of his statements about his military career, his work experience, his family’s history, and his official residence, have all been proven to be false.  Shift broke the story five days prior to the Times story.  We should note that, according to sources, the Times had received Shavers’ father’s letter outlining his son’s lies the same time Shift received the letter. Also both the Everett Herald and Lynnwood Times posted multiple stories four days prior to the Times finally mentioning Shavers’ dishonesty.  As one of Shift’s followers on Twitter said, it is almost as if the “Times waited for more ballots to be sent in before reporting on Shavers lies.” (Seattle Times, Shift, Everett Herald, Lynnwood Times, and Todd Welch Twitter)

Violent crime is rising in the Tri-Cities, just as it is in other parts of the state. So far this year there have been 16 homicides in Benton County, many involving teens and juveniles. Recently an 18-year old was killed and a 13-year old is the prime suspect.  A 19-year old was also recently killed and a 14-year old was arrested in that case. (KEPR – TV)

While City of Spokane and Spokane County officials continue to move ahead with closing the large “Camp Hope” encampment on Washington State Department of Transportation property just off I-90, the state is providing winter supplies to the camp’s residents, including warming tents and warm water. While the reports are unclear as to the motivation behind the Inslee Administration’s actions, the state has previously supported a lawsuit to keep the encampment open and have reportedly told the encampment residents that if they leave, they will lose the opportunity to be placed in a tiny home village. (KREM TV)

Seven years after liberal politicians declared homelessness an “emergency,” the problem continues to get worse and the only thing to show for the hundreds of millions of tax dollars being spent on the issue is an ever-growing homeless bureaucracy which will never go away (because it won’t ever solve the problem). On November 2, 2015, disgraced former Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine stood before TV cameras with other members of the region’s liberal establishment to proclaim they were going to solve the region’s homelessness problem by increasing the amount of tax money spent on the “emergency”.  At that time, it was estimated that there were approximately 3,800 homeless people in the county.  Today that figure is conservatively estimated to be above 5,500.  When asked where all money was spent, government officials could not provide the answer, and the only achievement they could point to is the creation of the King County Regional Homeless Authority.  Sadly, this new government bureaucratic agency (which is already demanding that its $119 million budget be increased to $209 million) is just one example of how liberals have selfishly used the pain suffered by those who are homeless to permanently increase the size and cost of government. (Click to read full Shift Article)

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