The Washington Policy Center released an extensive list of inaccurate predictions by environmentalists and other greenies, warning that the failure to not hold environmental leaders accountable for their (mis)statements will lead to even more failed policies which will impede society’s ability to thwart climate change.  Going back to the first Earth Day in 1970, the list provides a small fragment of the inaccurate predictions made by environmental “leaders”. One such example from current U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, saying in 2009, that “..we have a 10-year window, if even that, before catastrophic climate change becomes inevitable and irreversible…the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer of 2013.”

While this list provides predication failures from those at the national and global levels, last week the WPC also posted many of the flat-out wrong environmental predictions made by current Washington State Governor Jay Inslee in his 2009 book Apollo’s Fire. For example, he predicted that, by 2025, a terawatt of solar energy would be produced.  We are currently producing just 14% of that forecast, making his guess impossible at this point.

At the end of the report on failed environmental predictions at the national level, the writers point out the important lesson we must learn if we truly want to avert climate change catastrophe. “Reckless and irresponsible predictions spread misinformation and undermine people’s confidence in scientists, making the public feel it’s been lied to. When scientists and elected leaders lose credibility it becomes difficult to develop smart policies that have popular support, that protect the environment, and which serve the whole community.” (Washington Policy Center)

Many analysts agree that wind power might not be able to deliver the energy which was previously promised.  One leading analyst stated, “What I’m seeing is a colossal market failure.” The problems first began during the last decade, when large government subsidies were reduced. Now less-subsidized turbine manufacturers are facing increased costs for materials and supply chain problems. At the same time there is growing opposition from those, even on the elitist Left, who don’t want rural landscapes and water views filled with “farms” of these large structures. (Bloomberg/Seattle Times)

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson appears to be backing down a bit from his previous partisan actions regarding an initiative eliminating the state income tax on capital gains which is desperately sought by bigger government Democrats.  Shift previously reported that AG Ferguson played partisan politics in his official role to provide a title for the citizen’s initiative which is a “true and impartial description of the measure’s essential content.” The always partisan attorney general decided a week ago that the ballot title should describe the tax an “excise tax” (which is constitutional in Washington) and not an “income tax” which a Douglas Superior Court judge ruled the tax to be when he determined last month that the tax was unconstitutional. This case will be heard next by the Washington State Supreme Court later this year.

After the AG’s office released its “excise tax” title for Initiative 1929, the backers of the ballot measure immediately filed a lawsuit contending the capital gains tax has been legally ruled an “income tax” by a Superior Court judge, and thus that is what it should be called in the ballot title.  Attorney General Ferguson delivered his briefs on this latest lawsuit, and he slightly revised the title by simply calling the tax an “annual tax on capital gains.”  This is slightly better than labeling it an “excise tax,” but it still is not the legal description of the tax provided by the Douglas County Superior Court.  Just more political games being played by the AG, as he attempt to delay the campaign’s ability to collect signatures prior to the early July deadline for submitting them to the state.  Attorney General Ferguson (and all elected Democrat state officials) do not want the voters to decide this issue at the ballot, for 10 straight times the voters have overwhelmingly voted against a state income tax. (Washington Policy Center, ballot title should describe the tax an “excise tax”)

The Washington State Republican party will be holding its “Republican Action Conference” on June 2^nd and 3^rd in Wenatchee.  There will also be a rally on Saturday, June 4^th featuring many GOP candidates from across the state.  The event will feature training seminars to help precinct committee officers and party activists make a difference in this November’s elections.  The general public cost to attend all events and seminars is currently around $295 (which includes registration fees) or you can pick from a menu of events to attend.  Prices will rise after April 30^th. (Washington State Republican Party)

Officers are leaving the Seattle Police Department faster than it is able to hire replacements, as law enforcement personnel continue to demonstrate that they do not want to work for a dysfunctional and divisive Seattle City Council which places personal radical agendas over the public safety of its 775,000 residents. The departure trend began after not one city council member stood up for police officers who were consistently being assaulted (and were the targets of a mass murder attempt) or condemned the on-going political violence conducted by liberal activists during the summer of 2020. The council then caved into the rioters’ demands by slashing the budget of the already short-staffed police department.

So far in 2022, 43 well-trained and diverse officers have left the department, while 13 new officers have been hired. When asked what the city plans to do to improve the department’s ability to recruit officers, Councilmember Andrew Lewis (who broke his pro-police campaign promises when he reversed his position and chose to defund the police) replied, “We need to look holistically at the response. We’re not going to get out of the public safety crisis that we have in Seattle by hiring more officers. We need to be hiring more officers, that’s necessary but not sufficient – we need to be hiring other responders as well, that’s just the facts, that’s just the reality.” Not exactly a confidence-building response for those who are concerned about their public safety.  But what can one expect from a councilmember who gleefully tweeted a selfie of himself and other councilmembers as they supported the violence being conducted by rioters less than two years ago? (KING5 News, KOMO News, and MyNorthwest)

Evidently the conditions in downtown Seattle remain so unsafe that even a super-majority of the Seattle City Council have chosen to work from their homes and stay away from the public safety problems they have created downtown.  Seven of the nine councilmembers continue to work remotely, even though Mayor Bruce Harrell announced a return to office work last month.  The mayor’s office said that 87% of city employees have returned to Seattle City Hall.  Yet the highest paid, and those most responsible for the unsafe conditions in downtown, continue to draw their large city council paychecks (more than $11,650 a month) while conducting their reduced workload from home.  It is interesting that the one “moderate” (by Seattle standards), Councilmember Sara Nelson, has chosen to work from her city hall office. She is the one councilmember who was not involved in creating the poor safety conditions downtown, for she was just elected last November. One would think the other councilmembers would at least like to come downtown on Mondays for their full council meetings, so they can scroll through their phones while members of the public are given their one chance to provide comment on the extreme ideas coming from the council members. (MyNorthwest and YouTube)

Congressman Dan Newhouse said recent state agriculture laws written and passed by urban Democrats have hurt the Washington’s farmers and makes them less competitive in selling their crops in the worldwide market.  The former Washington State Department of Agriculture Secretary said the overtime pay regulations, state income tax on capital gains, and Governor Inslee’s proposed “buffer zone” legislation are all hurting the state’s family farmers.  Congressman Newhouse, who must deal with all these state government policies as a hops grower, said “Sometimes you think the state of Washington does not want an agricultural industry by putting out these kinds of regulations and rules and laws.” (Pacific Northwest AG Network)

The increase in violent crimes, which has plagued the state since the passage of the Democrats’ anti-police laws in 2021, has hit the Tri-Cities region especially hard during the past week.  Two homicides and a couple more shootings and a stabbing harmed the community in just the past few days. People who moved to the Tri-Cites to get away from urban problems feel like they are living back in Seattle with the rise in crime. (KEPR – TV)

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