Shift’s Weekly Photograph from former
Congressman Rod Chandler (WA-08) 1982 – 1992
State
Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat has labeled Governor Jay Inslee’s $2 million vaccine lottery “a dud” and writes the state would have been better off simply paying residents to get vaccinated. As was predicted by many, vaccination data reveals that the very remote chance of winning one of the prizes available from the state’s copycat lottery has failed to motivate Washingtonians who had previously refused to be immunized. The number of doses being administered today is considerably less than it was when the lottery was announced, some 40% of its prizes have not been claimed, and even last week’s big winner admitted he did not know there was a vaccine lottery.
It appears we can add the vaccine lottery to the long list of failures committed by Governor Inslee and his handpicked team during the pandemic. Among the many breakdowns, screwups, and administrative errors committed by state officials are:
- The theft of more than $650 million (one audit suggests more than $1 billion) from the Employment Security Department, allowed by dysfunctional administrative decisions which foreign criminals exploited to hack into its computer files. This forced thousands of Washington residents to go without promised benefits needed to put food on their table.
- Partisan lockdown orders which caused millions of Washington residents to lose faith in state leadership during an emergency.
- A COVID “Data Dashboard” which failed to reveal or represent any actual data.
- Failing to communicate (or even respond to calls and emails) from local elected officials about COVID concerns in their area.
- Ignoring the concerns and suggestions of local health officials.
- COVID breakouts at nearly every single state-run corrections and hospital facility due to administrative failure to following safety guidelines.
- Administering a “contact tracing” program last Fall which dramatically failed to reach its publicly stated notification levels.
- An immunization program that was so poorly designed that the state ranked in the bottom three of all states for vaccinating residents during the critical initial weeks of the mass vaccination effort last December and Ja
- A vaccination data collection method which fails to include hundreds of thousands of doses given to Washington residents by federal authorities, which state officials blame for huge discrepancy between federal data (which had Washington above the important 70% vaccination threshold two weeks ago) and state figures (which have yet to reach 70%).
While it can be expected that officials will make many mistakes responding to an unprecedented worldwide pandemic (and Inslee made several more not listed here), but all those listed here were the result of poor administration or the failure of Governor Inslee to be inclusive in his decision-making process. Jay Inslee owns each one of these errors, with no one else to blame. (Seattle Times)
Legislators and property managers are upset over Governor Inslee’s latest abuse of power, which occurred when he unilaterally altered legislation which set as the end of the state’s eviction moratorium on June 30th. Last week the governor decided he had nothing better to do, and since he does not own any rental property (and lives in public housing himself) he extended the moratorium to September 30th. Republican and Democrat legislators had previously established the June 30th deadline when they passed SB 5160 during the legislative session. Yet, Governor “One-Man Rule” Inslee obviously feels his views overrule bi-partisan legislative actions. Representative Jim Walsh (R – Aberdeen) said “time and time again the governor has acted unilaterally. The expiration date of the eviction moratorium was established through the legislative process. It’s no wonder so many people feel betrayed by the executive branch. He could have section-vetoed the June 30 moratorium deadline when he signed Senate Bill 5160, but he didn’t.” In other words, Jay Inslee broke another promise, because he never intended to keep it. (Lens and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)
The Freedom Foundation announced that it will take nationwide its successful program of informing government union members of their rights to not pay union dues. The Foundation used the 3rd anniversary of the historic Janus v. AFSCME U.S. Supreme Court decision (which ruled public sector union members could not be forced to pay union dues for political activity) to announce its expansion of its Washington State program. The Foundation claims that as a result of their efforts, more than 30,000 (out of 300,000 government union members in Washington State) have refused to have dues money (average $800 annually) taken from their paycheck. (Freedom Foundation media release)
Western Washington
Journalist Brandi Kruse criticized mayoral candidate M. Lorena Gonzalez’ self-serving and false statements regarding the composition of businesses in downtown Seattle. While just weeks ago Seattle City Council President Gonzalez claimed that the revitalization of downtown Seattle was vital to the region’s economic recovery from the COVID pandemic, the panicked candidate decided to return to her ultra-liberal, anti-business political mantra when she made public her refusal to respond to the Downtown Seattle Association’s questionnaire about downtown’s economic recovery, because she believes it would only benefit big corporations. Kruse refuted Gonzalez’ unenlightened statement by asserting, “The claim that downtown is home to only big corporations is verifiably false and borderline laughable to anyone who ever set foot downtown.”
Kruse went on to explain that downtown is filled with small retail businesses (official estimates are 13,000 small businesses in the downtown neighborhood) and while there certainly are some big businesses downtown, Gonzalez’ comments also fail to “acknowledge the number of small businesses that exist because of Amazon’s footprint downtown” because they provide goods and services to the company’s employees. It is disturbing that one of the city’s elected political leaders can be so ignorant about the economic importance of downtown Seattle (and the role big business plays in the vitality of small businesses), yet it does help to explain why so many employers (both large and small) are leaving Seattle and taking their jobs and tax contributions with them. (Q13’s The Divide/Facebook video)
Another murder took place in a Seattle minority neighborhood over the weekend. The latest fatal criminal act occurred in the First Hill neighborhood on Sunday, and brings the total number of murders in Seattle to six during June. Sadly, it’s just more proof that the hastily implemented “public safety reforms” (including some defunding of the Seattle Police Department) approved by the Seattle City Council have not only made the city less safe, but they have hurt minority communities the most, though liberal activists (falsely) claim that’s who they are seeking to protect. (MyNorthwest)
Eastern Washington
People are always talking about the weather, but never doing anything about it – except farmers who are working frantically to protect their crops during this historic heat wave. Eastern Washington cherry farmers are installing sprinklers under fruit trees (evaporation cools the temperature) and netting above them to provide shade in a desperate effort to keep the fruit from burning in the 110+ degree temperature. (YakTriNews)
A British reality show has become very popular in America, as it reveals the tough work and long hours required to be a successful farmer. Amazon’s Clarkson’s Farm follows Jeremy Clarkson (formally of Top Gear) as he assumes leadership of a large barley and wheat farm in the English countryside. This is an excellent program for liberal urban legislators (who naively believe farming is “part-time” work) to watch to broaden their narrowminded attitudes towards the state’s agriculture community. (Clarkson’s Farm)
Newsmaker Interview
This week’s special Newsmaker Interview is with our good friend, former Congressman Rod Chandler. Rod earned a reputation as a highly respected television journalist (on KOMO TV) and state legislator before becoming the first representative from Washington State’s 8th Congressional District (1983 – 1993). After his public service, Rod worked as a lobbyist and then a schoolteacher and baseball coach. Rod and his wife Joyce have lived in Nevada, Colorado, and Oregon before moving back to Washington State last year. His love of nature comes through in his amazing photography. (Rod’s pictures are featured every Monday in Shift’s Daily Briefing.) In his interview, Rod provides an update on his life, gives advice to those interested in photography, describes how politics and journalism have changed in the past decade, why he joined with many former and current Republican officials to oppose President Trump’s re-election, and who he would like to see lead the Republican Party in 2024. Rod also provides a history lesson by sharing the interesting story on how Seattle’s Convention Center is connected to Washington State’s apple maggot quarantine laws. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)
Overheard on the Internets
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