The Spokesman-Review’s liberal columnist Shawn Vestal went on another of his partisan rants, this time complaining about moderate and right-leaning contributors donating to Spokane candidates, even while pushing for liberal government employee unions to spend even more of their forced union dues on Spokane area campaigns.  It is typical liberal hypocrisy to believe campaign contributions to moderate and conservative candidates are evil, while all donations to liberal and extremist candidates are somehow noble. Vestal conveniently ignores the massive fundraising edge Democrats have in Washington State due to the large amounts of money which government employees spend to elect liberal politicians, who support efforts to increase the size and cost of all levels of government to the benefit of union bosses. (Click to read full Shift Article)

Washington State Democrats have routinely demonstrated they do not believe the public should be involved in deciding its fate in our democracy.  Even as Governor Jay Inslee is totally abusing executive “emergency” orders (for more than 600 days) to the benefit of his major campaign contributors, other Democrat lawmakers are working hard to eliminate the public’s voice in the legislative process.  Senator Patty Kuderer (D – Bellevue) wants to eliminate advisory votes on tax increases, which voters put in place over a decade ago through the initiative process.  Democrats “moved heaven and earth” to install very rarely used legislative language to make sure citizens could not repeal their state income tax on capital gains through a referendum. We should note that the non-binding advisory vote on the Democrats’ new tax is currently at 61.2% to repeal the job-killing measure.  Why do Democrats hate democracy so much? (Click to read full Shift Article)

Governor Jay Inslee held a media event at the global COP26 climate conference in Scotland to announce new executive orders aimed to please the wealthy environmentalists in attendance (many of whom hypocritically flew to the event in their very non-green private planes).  Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center said the governor should be asked three very important questions regarding his actions and Washington State’s climate policies he likes to brag about.  They are:

1. With your recent pledge to increase the availability of climate-friendly building materials, will you support increased timber harvests in Washington State forests?
2. Since your administration has consistently missed its climate targets, what are you doing differently with these pledges?
3. What analysis have you done of these new proposals to make sure they are wise investments?

All very legitimate question, but unfortunately it is doubtful the media in attendance, which is almost never skeptical of liberals’ ineffective and expensive environmental policies, asked such tough questions. (Washington Policy Center)

Republican legislative leaders warned that Governor Inslee will likely go further than President Biden with his vaccine mandate on private employers (without the oversight of the legislature or consulting with local health officials) by denying “testing options and (targeting) smaller businesses” with his orders.  If the governor does as predicted, he will abuse even further the intent of the state’s “emergency” order process by allowing just one person (himself) to determine who the state’s businesses are allowed to employ.  There will be no public debate, local health officials will again be ignored by the governor, and the voice of the people’s representatives in the legislature will have no oversight or input on the decision, as the governor again imposes severe mandates on Washington employers.

House Republican Leader JT Wilcox (R – Yelm) and Senate Republican Leader John Braun (R – Centralia) wrote in a joint statement that the governor’s abuse of his emergency powers “has caused more resistance and division in our state, as the majority party in the Legislature stands down and avoids responsibility. If the governor wants a vaccine mandate for the private sector, then bring it to the Legislature in January and allow state lawmakers – and their constituents – to have a voice on the issue.” (Senator Braun and Representative Wilcox joint statement)

Under rules adopted by the Democrat majority in the Washington Legislature, all senators and staff will be required to pass a daily COVID test in order to be in the Senate chamber during votes.   (Does it seem odd that 18,000 people can cram themselves into Climate Change Arena for a rock concert, with a sizable majority not wearing masks, but 49 senators and a dozen staff members can’t gather in the senate chambers without a daily negative COVID test?) All senators and staff will also be required to either provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test in order to be on the taxpayer-funded state capitol grounds. (Associated Press/KHQ)

A new and even more dangerous form of meth has made homeless encampments “ground zero” as liberal homeless policies have only increased the number of people living a cruel existence on Seattle’s sidewalks and in neighborhood parks.  A Post Alley article describes how the “old meth” slowly decayed people’s bodies, while the “new meth” can almost instantly impose mental illness which results in “paranoia, hearing voices, losing capacity for coherent speech, hallucinations, (and) conspiratorial thinking.”  Homeless encampments provide the perfect conditions for meth use to explode as they “are often places where addicts flee from treatment, where they can find approval for their meth use.”  Seattle’s elected officials continue to ignore the fact that drug abuse is a major contributor to the city’s homeless crisis for it doesn’t fit their liberal narrative which falsely claims that people are living in tents only because of economic conditions and because the wealthy do not pay their fair share. (Post Alley and KING5 News)

Respected former FOX 13 reporter Brandi Kruse announced today the creation of a new media outlet which she claimed will provide “political coverage that rejects fringe ideologies and doesn’t bow to some weird social pressure to pretend as if dumb and dangerous ideas makes sense.” Kruse calls the new online program “(un)Divided,” and she stated that most of its content will be available through social media platforms and a free podcast, while paid subscribers will have access to some restricted content. (Brandi Kruse Facebook video and (un)Divided)

The Seattle Parks and Recreation Department hosted an event this past weekend which openly excluded participation from those who identify as Caucasian. Seattle taxpayers funded an “interactive beach walk” at the city’s Discovery Park which was “open to anyone who identifies with BIPOC” (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). The event clearly breaks city laws (Seattle Municipal Code 18.12.280) which prohibits race discriminatory events from being held in Seattle parks and the city’s nondiscrimination policy which “assures every effort will be made to ensure nondiscrimination in all of its programs activities.”  And, remaining true to its obvious bias, the Seattle Times made no comment about the program’s racial discrimination when it was featured in a glowing article on Friday. (MyNorthwest and Seattle Times)

A Seattle Times editorial argues that the “Seattle City Council should heed voter sentiment on public safety” as it considers upcoming budget proposals.  One measure would cut police funding an additional $4.53 million.  A second one (co-sponsored by two-faced Councilmember Andrew Lewis, who won his 2019 election promising to increase police funding) would eliminate signing bonus incentives to recruit new officers (after 300 officers chose to leave the department due to lack of support from city hall officials like the promise-breaking Lewis). The final measure comes from lame duck Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan who has proposed the city provide $25,000 bonuses to encourage experienced police officers to transfer and $10,000 for new officers, as the Seattle Police Department struggles to fill its many vacancies. The Times argues that last Tuesday’s elections demonstrated that “Public safety matters to people. Seattleites should see that priority reflected in the city budget.” (Seattle Times)

A year after broken down RVs and debris forced ambulances to take longer routes to deliver emergency patients to Olympia’s Providence St. Peter Hospital, the liberal city council has finally taken action to correct the problem.   City officials have not chosen to demand the owners of the RVs follow laws, but instead have announced that the city will be helping them move their vehicles to a new “safe lot” the city is financing.  Pending county approval for the lot, 20 of the RVs which have forced both emergency vehicles and Community Transit buses to alter their routes away from Ensign Road, will be allowed to move into the new “safe lot” in December. (The Olympian)

Once again, Eastern Washington residents will be those hardest impacted by Governor Inslee’s misguided one-man policies. Due to the anticipated severe staffing shortage at the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), weather conditions will impact not only travel across the Cascade Mountains, but also throughout Eastern Washington.  The staffing shortage is due to Governor Inslee’s decision to force all state employees to be vaccinated or risk losing employment. This resulted in 6% of WSDOT employees being separated from their jobs.  The decision was made by the governor with no consultation with the Washington Legislature, as he continues to abuse his emergency authority (for more than 600 days now).

Since Eastern Washington experiences more treacherous weather conditions during the winter, road closures will impact those living East of the Cascades far more than Western Washington residents.  Not only will personal driving be impacted, but bad weather closures will also delay the transportation of goods, and thus Eastern Washington consumers will likely experience more shortages of basic necessities. (KREM)

Last week’s Newsmaker Interview was with State Representative Joe Schmick (R – Colfax), an outspoken critic of the Democrats’ desire to create a new, expensive state-run entitlement program with their poorly designed Long-Term Care payroll tax.  Representative Schmick is the GOP’s ranking member on the House Health Care and Wellness Committee.  In a Seattle Times op-ed published last week, Rep. Schmick and fellow Representative Peter Abbarno (R – Centralia) describe the many flaws in the new payroll tax (which is scheduled to begin on January 1^st), and why its implementation needs to be either delayed or scrapped all together.  In his interview, Rep. Schmick provides his thoughts on what needs to be done to improve the program so it actually fits the needs of Washington workers, and he provides the selfish reasons why the Democrats refuse to delay the payroll tax in order to fix its many flaws. Spoiler alert – your money might be involved. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

Do you like The Daily Briefing?

Please consider making a contribution to ensure Shift continues to provide daily updates on the shenanigans of the liberal establishment.

Forward this to a friend.  It helps us grow our community and serve you better.

You can also follow SHIFTWA on social media by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.

If you feel we missed something that should be covered, email us at [email protected].