The latest ramblings from the Spokesman-Review’s Shawn Vestal are typical of those who have supported failed liberal homeless policies – which have only made the problem worse – and have enabled more people to live a cruel existence on our cities’ streets.  Like all liberals, Vestal attacks any solution to the homeless crisis which isn’t built on making government larger and doesn’t require individuals to accept meaningful assistance or move on.  Moderate Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward has put forth a responsible and caring plan to help her city’s homeless population that provides assistance for those who want it, but encourages those who want to keep soaking up city services to go elsewhere. Vestal doesn’t like this approach for it fails to increase taxes and make government larger, so he does what all liberals do – he complains without providing a solution of his own. (Click to read full Shift Article)

As many reasonable people predicted, the passage of the Democrats’ anti-police package of laws in 2021 has resulted in a record-breaking number of murders in Washington State, significant increases in other crimes, and a drop in the number of people willing to serve in law enforcement.  The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs 2021 annual report reveals that Washington State had the highest number of murders in recorded history in 2021.  There were 325 murders last year which was a 5.9% increase over 2020. There was an incredible 27.3% increase in car thefts and 100% increase in car-part thefts.  There were 1,928 assaults on police officers in 2021, which was likely a contributing factor to a 4.4% reduction in the number of law enforcement officers in the state.

The one crime which seemingly went down in 2021? It is the Democrats’ favorite, the number of people arrested on drug charges, which was reduced 73.6% last year.  The primary reason for this reduction is not that drug consumption went down, but rather that the Democrats decriminalized drug possession during the 2021 session, allowing people to be caught three times with such harmful drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl before they are finally  charged with a crime. That’s certainly one way to drive arrest numbers down, but probably not the one preferred by non-criminals. (KOMO News and Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs’ 2021 annual crime report)

KTTH host Jason Rantz writes that Republicans should ignore baseless conspiracy theories and mail in their ballot as soon as possible.  By sending in the ballot early and tracking it, voters can still replace their ballot in the rare possibility of a problem arising.  There are some people, seemingly unclear about how our all-mail voting systems work, who have been promoting sending in ballots late to provide “cheaters” with less time to alter the ballot. Of course, there is no proof this actually occurs in our state.

One thing to remember about Washington State’s mail-in elections is that election night vote totals are the ones which get reported around the country, while the final vote tally which is certified a couple of weeks later is largely ignored.  Thus, ballots mailed early are more likely to be counted and reported on election night, while later-arriving ballots are counted but have less impact on determining the perceived strength of candidates.  Thus, if on this primary election night (August 2^nd) Tiffany Smiley has a strong showing, there is a better chance for her campaign to receive more national support than if this strong showing is not evident until two weeks later.  (MyNorthwest)

The Democrats who control King County have asked the sheriff appointed by Democrat County Executive Dow Constantine to investigate signs attributed to Republicans which have appeared near ballot drop boxes.  The signs say the ballot drop boxes are “under surveillance” and that it is illegal to accept money for “harvesting” ballots.  The sign provides a QR code which was initially connected to a King County Republican Party site which enabled members of the public to report voting irregularities.  The Chair of the King County GOP has renounced the signs (interesting how the Seattle Times buried this important fact in the story). Even though monitoring nearly all aspects of the voting process is legal, and it would be difficult to prove that a yard sign stating that fact crossed over the line into “illegal intimidation,” Democrat officials want the sheriff, who is beholden to far-Left Executive Constantine, to conduct a full-fledged partisan investigation.

Funny how none of these same King County partisan officials called on the sheriff’s office to investigate a clearer act of voter intimidation which was fully supported by the Democrat Party and by many liberal organizations.  Earlier this spring, the Democrats set up a hotline number for people to report locations whare the anti-capital gains initiative campaign (I-1929) had signature gatherers.  The I-1929 campaign decided that costs were too high to collect signatures and never launched a serious petition drive, so it is not certain what exactly the liberal activists were going to do once they were notified of a signature gathering site.  But much more than signs outside ballot drop box locations, the Democrats’ promotion of a reporting system was clearly meant to intimidate.

It appears that, since the King County sheriff is picked by partisan politicians instead of by the people , the department will only be asked to investigate and enforce election laws against the politicians’ opponents, while ignoring similar actions conducted by the politicians’ supporters.  While nearly all reasonable people agree that political party affiliation should not be a determining factor in whether or not to investigate possible crimes, those at King County obviously abide by a separate set of rules which treats people differently based on their political viewpoints. (Seattle Times and CenterSquare)

While the City of Seattle continues to wrestle with rising crime rates, a never-ending homelessness crisis, skyrocketing drug addiction, a massively depleted downtown retail core, and a continuing mass exodus of well-trained police officers, Seattle voters this November will be deciding on whether to deploy a gimmicky election process to select future city leaders.  First, a California cryptocurrency entrepreneur and local pot store owner have collected enough signatures to place an initiative (I-134) on the ballot seeking to install “approval voting” in Seattle.  Under this method, voters vote for all of the candidates they approve of (not just the one they most prefer) and the candidate with the most votes wins.

This type of switch was not complicated enough for the members of the Seattle City Council, who have also added to the November ballot their proposal to switch to a “ranked-choice” method in which voters rank their choices among the candidates with the count being conducted in rounds with the bottom candidate being eliminated until one candidate has received a majority. A Seattle Times editorial labeled this decision “mayhem” and declares, “voters have every right to wish the whole thing would go away, along with the politicians who brought it on.” (Seattle Times)

The King County Council voted to declare fentanyl a public health crisis as the number of deaths attributed to the drug continues to climb.  In 2020, some 170 people died of fentanyl overdose, 396 died in 2021, and thus far in 2022, 264 have already died from a fentanyl overdose.  Councilmember Reagan Dunn said that nearly 650,000 fentanyl-laced pills were seized in 2021, which is 10 times the amount that was seized in 2020. Fentanyl is far more accessible due to relaxed security at the Mexican border and the decriminalization of the lethal drug by Democrats during the 2021 legislative session. (MyNorthwest)

Quietly the Washington State Department of Ecology has lifted its drought declaration for Eastern and Central Washington.  Earlier this year, state officials and wealthy urban environmentalist warned of serious dry conditions which they say threatened the water supply on the Eastern side of the Cascade Mountains and crops that are grown in the region.  Yet as it often happens when one attempts to make long-term predictions about the weather, reality provided a different result with cooler and wetter weather which has left an above average snowpack (again) in the state’s mountains. (iFIBER One News)

The Executive Director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers stated that the reckless removal of the four Snake River dams would not only severely impact PNW wheat farmers, but it would also impact all agriculture across the country and contribute to higher food costs.  Michelle Henning said that if the wealthy urban environmentalists and liberal politicians are successful in tearing down the dams, then 60% of the state’s wheat (which is 10% of the nation’s wheat) would no longer be cleanly transported by barge.  “If we lose that system we will have to depend on trucks and rail, and if that happens as well, rail rates for the farmers will go through the roof.  It will increase transportation costs tremendously and that always hurts the bottom line of a farmer.” Henning went on to say that small family farms would be hurt the hardest if Governor Inslee, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, and the wealthy urban environmentalists are successful in tearing down dams. (Pacific Northwest AG Network)

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