Once again, noted University of Washington atmospheric sciences Professor Cliff Mass has used science to dispute the politically self-serving comments by Governor Jay Inslee – this time that the recent extreme heatwave in the Pacific Northwest was due to climate change.  Professor Mass is regarded as the premier expert on the climate in the region (who literally wrote the book, “The Weather of the Pacific Northwest,” on the science behind our weather conditions), while Inslee is a little-noted author of an error-filled book on climate change.  In a lengthy blogpost (because science cannot be explained in Inslee-length soundbites), Mass explains that a “concurrence of a number of factors (unrelated to climate change) coming together at one place and time was why the extreme heat occurred, with a very small (likely a degree or two) assist from global warming.”

Mass went on to criticize the actions of others trying to promote a selfish, non-scientific “big lie” about the heatwave. Mass writes, “I have spent my life trying to understand the weather and climate of our region and it is so frustrating that the media (e.g., KNKX public radio, the Seattle Times, the Seattle Stranger) and local politicians (such as our governor) have placed such a low priority on providing accurate information regarding climate change and other environmental challenges. They have put political agendas ahead of truth and we are all the worst for it.”

Mass’ comments follow similar fact-based sentiments, expressed last week by the Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers, following Governor Inslee’s irresponsible claim that some day it will be 130 degrees in Seattle.  Myers points out that there is no science which supported Inslee’s outlandish propaganda, yet the media once again failed to challenge the governor’s political commentary masked as “science”. (Cliff Mass Weather Blog, Amazon, and Todd Myer’s Facebook post)

A report from the Washington Policy Center uses the state’s own data to demonstrate that Governor Inslee’s pandemic response in three critical areas – testing, contact tracing, and vaccine distribution – was “abysmal.”  As Shift pointed out in two recent articles (Part 1 and Part 2), Governor Inslee’s refusal to include others in the state’s decision-making process, and making clearly partisan decisions during the crisis, caused a large segment of Washington State residents to lose faith in his leadership abilities and likely caused infection rates (and deaths) to unnecessarily increase.

The state initially claimed it needed to test 50 people for every COVID-infected resident in order to prevent the spread of the virus.  Yet Inslee’s crack squad of overwhelmed and overpaid bureaucrats only managed to test an average of 19.5 people per infection.  To compound the problem, state officials lied to the public about the number of test they were conducting.

The Washington State Department of Health also set a target to contact 90% of all those with a positive COVID test within one day, to begin determining who they might have spread the disease to.  As the virus rapidly spread last November, the state’s contact tracing efforts were dreadfully low, at just 6%.  Despite the DOH’s poor performance, state officials again lied to the public when they said their efforts were “better than expected.”

And, the sad truth for Jay Inslee is that the state had months to prepare for its biggest text -vaccinations. It had been well known to everyone paying attention since March 2020, that a mass vaccination effort was going to be needed to end the pandemic. Despite this knowledge, Washington State was woefully unprepared and lagged behind nearly all other states in distributing the vaccine to the public once the federal government provided it.  During the first critical weeks of vaccinating last December, Washington State’s efforts were hampered by distribution problems and political conflicts resulting in only 20% of the allocated doses being administered.  And again, Governor Inslee was not honest with the public about the state’s efforts, lying that he thought data showing the state’s poor effort was “actually quite encouraging.” The state’s efforts finally picked up when distribution experts from Microsoft, Amazon, and Costco took over the effort (something that could have been lined up in advance, had Inslee and his minions been paying attention, instead of playing politics).  (Washington Policy Center and Shift)

Despite the overwhelming evidence that Governor Inslee’s one-man rule over the state failed repeatedly during the pandemic, the governor refuses to accept any responsibility for his leadership failures or even to support measures to allow more lawmakers (or even local health officials) to be included in future crisis decisions.  When asked if lawmakers should reform the state’s emergency powers laws (which allowed the governor unlimited time to unilaterally act without legislative involvement), Governor Inslee pretentiously stated, “I’m not sure you wanna go back and reform when you won the Super Bowl.”

That’s right, Jay Inslee thinks he won the Super Bowl. After thousands of deaths, hundreds of million stolen from taxpayers, and untold bankruptcies caused by his economic shutdowns, for Jay it’s just another look back at his “Glory Days”.

Data proves (see story above) that Inslee’s solo decisions resulted in the state failing at nearly everything it had control over during the pandemic. Yet, Inslee has delusional beliefs that he just won the NFL championship, despite the data showing the state’s record is so poor that (keeping with the governor’s silly sports metaphor) even the 2-14 New York Jets would scoff at the governor’s results.

The governor is able to say the state had a low COVID mortality rate, which we should all be thankful for, though this is more due to the state’s younger and healthier population than to anything the governor or the state did during the past 16 months, and ignores the fact that states with more inclusive decision-making processes actually did far better and were able to reopen their economies far sooner (remember Washington State was the 48^th state to lift most restrictions). (Q13’s The Divide and Shift).

The City of Everett will begin the process of enforcing the city’s “no-sit, no-lie” homeless camping ordinance in a 10-block area where encampments have often been constructed.  The Everett City Council overwhelmingly passed the ordinance last March, and now that housing options are available to those who are displaced, police officers will begin to “educate” violators of the ordinance and assist them in finding housing.  Those who continue to violate the measure will be subject to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 penalty. (MyNorthwest)

While nearly all statewide Democrat politicians are already bombarding their donor lists with fundraising appeals for an election that is still more than three years away, we were pleased to see an email from King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert encouraging her donors to help those fighting fires in Washington State.  It seems every week, Land Commissioner Hilary Franz or Attorney General Bob Ferguson is begging for money to fund their 2024 campaign for governor (which they have not yet actually announced, out of fear of hurting the current occupant’s feelings). Yet Councilmember Lambert, who is up for reelection in just four months, sent out an email encouraging people to support the Soup Ladies, a Black Diamond-based non-profit group which helps to feed those who are fighting fires or assisting others during a natural disaster.  Councilwoman Lambert has long been a supporter of the organization, which received national attention on Mike Rowe’s “Returning the Favor.”  (Kathy Lambert email, Hilary Franz email, Bob Ferguson email, and Mike Rowe’s Returning the Favor)

Cowlitz County landlords are being forced to sell their rental properties due to tenants not paying rent during the state’s eviction moratorium.  Property owners are still required to pay mortgages, utility fees, and other ownership costs even if tenants are not paying their rent.  The result is fewer rental properties on the market, which in turn is leading to higher rental costs.  One property manager estimated that 10% of the tenants are not paying rent, and 5% more are behind in payments, but are attempting to catch up. (Longview Daily News)

Washington State Senator Mark Schoesler (R – Ritzville) states that competition needs to continue in the region’s energy market to bring greater technological innovations and lower prices to the consumers. Schoesler stressed in a Spokesman-Review op-ed that competition is especially important today, as we are seeking clean energy alternatives that are needed to supplement the hydropower sources which currently generate 62% of the region’s power. (Spokesman-Review)

Many readers have inquired about the status of the lawsuit legislators threatened after Governor Inslee illegally vetoed language in the climate package which linked implementation of the measures to the passage of a transportation funding package (this language was necessary in order to obtain the votes to pass the expensive (and likely ineffective) measures in the Washington State Senate).  Shift has been told by our Olympia sources to expect a suit to be filed before the end of this month.

Instead of unifying Washington residents at the start of the pandemic, Governor Jay Inslee chose to make critical decisions based on partisan factors and this negatively impacted the state’s efforts to contain the COVID virus.  In the second article of our two-part series, we examine how Governor Inslee’s partisan actions negatively impacted the state’s COVID response.  Governor Inslee took several partisan steps in his immediate response to COVID, such as ignoring letters from Republican lawmakers, forming “advisory groups” made up solely of campaign supporters, taking unnecessary jabs at the Trump Administration, forming alliances with only other Democrat governors.

He also gave pay raises to his supporters in the government unions and ignored the political violence committed by liberal activists – and that was just by the summer of last year!

These partisan acts caused many people to lose confidence in Governor Inslee.  Thus, a large segment of the state’s population have dismissed the governor’s legitimate advice about wearing face masks and becoming vaccinated, meaning his partisan actions caused the avoidable spread of the virus and likely cost lives.  (Click to read full Shift Article)

Like many of our readers, the staff at Shift has avoided learning more about a new state payroll tax that was established to fund a state-run long-term care program. The issue seemed messy and complicated, and we were busy with COVID mandates, liberal political violence, and the elections. Yet, many of our readers requested more information on the issue.  Upon learning the details, we must agree, this is an important issue for everyone to learn more about, for it will soon impact all of our personal finances and could rapidly grow into another large, expensive, and unwieldy government entitlement program. To provide everyone with an initial briefing on the long-term care payroll tax, we interviewed one of the foremost experts on the issue, Elizabeth Hovde of the Washington Policy Center.  Hovde recently joined the WPC team after being a journalist for the Vancouver Columbian and The Oregonian. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

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