PrairiePundit

 PJ Media: BREAKING: Arsonists Destroy 'Hundreds' of Ballots Inside 'Secure' Ballot Boxes in Oregon and Washington   ... ...  Joe Kent has been depicted by the left and his opponent as a white supremacist nutter. Kent is anything but. He's a Gold Star husband whose wife was killed as part of a U.S. special forces outfit in Syria —AFTER DONALD TRUMP HAD ISSUED THE ORDER TO GET ALL U.S. TROOPS OUT OF THAT COUNTRY. You'll recall how that went down. Mark Milley and those generals ignored Trump's order. Kent is a Green Beret soldier who went to work as a CIA paramilitary operator. After his wife Shannon died, he went back home to the Northwest to make sure his two young boys, barely out of toddlerhood, could be close to their grandparents. Now remarried and running for congress for the second time, Kent has been smeared by Antifa leftists and his opponent. His crime is serving the country and supporting Donald Trump. ... This is more evidence that drop boxes are...

 American Action News: Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed one of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws in 2023, and now highway shootings are surging in the state. Over 50 models of guns are banned under the legislation , including popular rifles such as AR-15s and M-16s, and the Democratic Legislature wants to crack down further with several more gun control bills in the body. The state is now seeing a surge in highway shootings, with more than a dozen reported on state highways since the beginning of the year, according to KOMO News. There have been over 190 reported “shooting incidents” in the state year to date as of Friday, Washington State Police (WSP) told the DCNF. Of these, nine are freeway shooting incidents from the Seattle area that are actively under investigation. The number of reported shooting incidents in 2023 was similar, at 199 by this time last year, WSP told the DCNF. At least seven shootings were reported on freeways near King County, Washington, ...

 Just the News: 11 states urge Supreme Court to overrule Colorado in Trump ballot case If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the state ruling, no votes for Trump would be counted, according to the Colorado Secretary of State. The Colorado court used the alleged insurrection as its excuse.  I think those allegations are not valid.  It was a demonstration by people who challenged the results of the 2020 election and not an insurrection.  Even Joe Biden says that you need F-16s if you are going to try to overthrow the government.  See also: Trump to remain on Washington ballot after judge tosses 14th Amendment challenge The case is one of a series of challenges to Trump's appearance on both primary and general ballots contending that his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Riot disqualified him under the Amendment's "insurrection" provision. ...  The Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments on Feb. 8 as part of Trump's appeal of a Colorado Supreme Court decisi...

 Victoria Taft: ... Smiley has been ascendant in recent weeks and has received key aid from Mitch McConnell and his Senate PAC money. She has acquitted herself well on the campaign trail and during debates. A recent poll put Murray up by eight points, but she’s lost that edge recently because of the horrible conditions on the ground in Washington: record gas prices with the intent to raise them even more because of the Democrats’ religious obsession with the weather. Truck drivers need diesel fuel to get goods to customers, and there’s a Democrat-policy-induced shortage. Food is more expensive.  Everything  is more expensive. Why is America funding both sides of the Ukraine-Russian war? Nobody knows but even Ukraine-flag virtue-signalers in Washington know this makes no sense. And RealClearPolitics has now listed the race as a toss-up and a statistical tie. After three decades of doing nothing in the Senate, Patty Murray may have to find a real job. ... Democrat energy po...

 Daily Mail: The fastest-cooling real estate markets in the US: Sales drop 34% in Seattle as crime ravaged West Coast sees prices tumble amid exodus of residents - and people return from pandemic refuges ...  Property prices along West Coast metropolitan areas are understood to be dipping because of a glut of properties on the market, amid a mass exodus of citizens deterred by rising mortgage rates, crime, and warnings of a looming recession. ... I think crime is probably the biggest factor in some of these cities. 

  Fox News: Seattle's transit system struggles as riders refuse to pay   Almost 70% of passengers ride for free Seattle is one of several poorly run West Coast cities where civilization is in decay. 

  Daily Mail: Owner of Seattle bakery says she was forced to close her business because drug users were constantly blocking entrance to her store and police would do nothing to help: Slams woke city leaders for failing to tackle rampant crime Seattle does not have enough police to handle most crimes because of the liberals in charge of the city.  The result could be a greater loss of the tax base of the city if more businesses close because of a lack of police protection.  It is one of the ways liberalism has become a threat to civilization on the left coast.

 Stephen Green: Washington State took a big step this week towards passing a “wealth tax” on the state’s richest residents. The state — home to uberwealthy Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, among others — is holding senate hearings on  SB 5426 , which would portion a 1% tax on “paper wealth” like stocks, bonds, futures, and publicly traded options. I’m reading the text of the bill right now, and about the first 15-20% of it isn’t even actual law. It’s nothing but happy talk, like “Washington has long led the way with innovative and bold ideas that have changed the world.” And: “Washington’s wealthiest residents can and should share more equitably in the responsibility of funding these key community programs alongside their neighbors.” Or: “The legislature intends to disrupt the long-standing systemic inequities in our tax code laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic as we recover, rebuild, and transform Washington’s economy.” Companion bill  HB 1406  got its first public hear...

  Washington Examiner: BLM fundraises in Washington despite order to 'immediately cease' Other stories indicate that BLM is operating like a scam organization and not accounting for the funding it has received. 

 Daily Mail: Crime-ravaged Seattle is now so dangerous it can no longer protect its own workers: Security guards are hired to walk county staffers to station or ferry (but you're on your own if you work in the private sector) This is another example of how left coast cities are destroying their own civilization and turning the streets over to criminals and the homeless.  It is also what happens when you turn the streets over to the kooks of BLM.

 Jazz Shaw: ...   Despite being mired in crime and ongoing protests, the staffing situation at the Seattle Police Department has reached such a dire level that they  have declared a “stage three” emergency condition . At this point, detectives, plainclothes officers and non-patrol units will now be responding to 911 calls. And residents are being warned there may be increased delays in response times. The local police union has announced that they can’t afford to lose “one more officer” at this point or they simply won’t be able to assure the safety of the populace.... ... At this point, every member of the SPD, regardless of their normal assignment, is coming to work in uniform and ready to hit the streets if required. And according to the Police Guild, it’s still not enough. They’ve already lost more than 300 officers in the past year. The timing couldn’t be worse because the deadline is approaching on Monday for all police officers to obey the executive mandate th...

  Seattle Times: The ‘two societies’: 97% of new COVID cases are among people who haven’t gotten the shots ... It effectively meant the only people still catching coronavirus here in King County are people who haven’t gotten the shots. It also means the disease that just a few months ago threatened the entire nation is now almost exclusively circulating among a shrinking few. ... What they discovered is that of the 15,397 positive cases, 14,895 were in people who hadn’t been fully vaccinated. That’s 96.7% of all local cases in April and May — a period in which King County passed the 50% vaccinated threshold, meaning half the population had been inoculated and half had not. ... There are some areas of the county where the vaccination rate is around 50 percent and those are areas where the concentration of new cases are located.  Washington state still has a higher rate of new cases than Texas.

 Kevin Downey, Jr.: Democrat cities have allowed hundreds of homeless encampments to pop up along the West Coast. Homelessness isn’t new to places like San Francisco, L.A., Seattle, Sacramento, and so on. I was in Portland 12 years ago for a comedy gig. The park in front of the club looked like a scene from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. Today it looks like the Walking Dead. Homeless camps are popping up all over the West Coast and bringing violence, drugs, weapons, and defecation with them. When I was a kid, camping meant fishing and catching toads, not getting shot and stepping in people poop. Los Angeles has seen a 50% increase in homelessness over the last five years. LA’s Venice Beach homeless encampment recently had an explosion and a shooting. The question city officials are asking: where did they find the  ammo ? A local barbershop owner was attacked by a homeless man and his pit bull. The victim, Kevin Buttress, was knocked unconscious by a skateboard. Before you k...

  John Sexton: Businesses Are Fleeing City Centers In Seattle And Portland Because Of Crime, Homelessness And Vandalism ...   “We had one female employee chased into a Starbucks,” Gluth-Bohan said. “Business partners coming in for meetings were dodging human fecal matter and homeless people on the sidewalk. We had an employee paying for parking after work. She had her driver’s side window down working the parking machine, and someone attempted to enter her car.” ... A third of businesses said they planned to relocate in the next two years, with only 6% saying they would relocate to another space downtown. That compares to 17% that said they planned to relocate within two years when the survey was last conducted in 2018… ... Liberals have failed to protect the citizens and have instead protected the criminals. 

Washington Examiner: Seattle and Portland finally decide they don’t want rioting, but bail reform could hurt clampdown Turning them loose to go riot again looks like they are facilitating the nightly riots.  They either need to hold them until trial after the second offense or enhance the punishment with each violation. 

 Red States: The FBI Joint Terrorism Task force just announced the arrests and charges in the case of a terrorist attack on a railroad in Bellingham, Washington. Ellen Brennan Reiche, 27, and Samantha Frances Brooks, 23, were arrested on Saturday night after they were caught allegedly as they were placing a “shunt” on the railroad tracks. A shunt can disrupt the train’s electrical signal and cause it to brake precipitously or disable its safety signals, the U.S. Attorney’s  announcement  explained. “Since January there have been 41 incidents of shunts placed on the BNSF tracks in Whatcom and Skagit counties—causing crossing guards to malfunction, interfering with automatic breaking systems, and, in one case, causing the near-derailment of tanks of hazardous chemicals,” said U.S. Attorney Moran. “These crimes endanger our community. I commend the agents from Customs and Border Protection, FBI, BNSF Police, and state and local partners who prioritized stopping this criminal...

Epoch Times: 4 People Arrested for Arson Across West Coast Amid Wildfires ... Authorities arrested two people in connection to fires in Washington state, identifying one as Jeffrey Alan Acord, who is accused of starting a fire along Highway 167. Officials said that he live-streamed himself setting the blaze and apparently reported himself to police. Witnesses told KIRO7 that Acord allegedly was seen walking on the highway with a lighter and cardboard. The outlet reported that he is a regular at Black Lives Matter and anti-police rallies in Seattle. ... There is much more.  This looks like an extension of some of the pyromaniacs on the left that have been engaged in arson against businesses during the Democrat riots in several cities.

Tyler O'Neil: Last week, the Seattle City Council voted to slash funding for the police department, leading the city’s first black female police chief to resign. The council defunded the police even after antifa rioters had wreaked havoc on the city in the name of racial justice. In one particularly memorable case, rioters used a van loaded with explosives to blow open a police station. On Sunday, rioters fired explosives at police, wounding at least three of them. Some businesses in the city have had enough. “What [the] city council has done has been more detrimental to our business than a global pandemic, by far, absolutely,” Joe Raetzer, co-owner of Steepologie Teas with his wife Andrea, told the  Fox affiliate Q13 last week . His wife said there are “only so many times you can hire people and lay them off because they don’t want to be in this location, they already didn’t feel safe pre-COVID, pre-riots.” Steepologie Teas boasted more than 300 loose-leaf teas on 4th Avenu...

Red States: Three Days After Seattle Police Chief Publishes Letter of Resignation ANTIFA Riots In Seattle — Police Are No Where To Be Found This is what you get when you defund the police and instead listen to the criminal elements that do not want to be bothered by obeying the rule of law.

Seattle Times: Revelations last week that this spring’s $576 million unemployment fraud, the largest in state history, started much earlier than previously acknowledged have spurred a storm of new questions over the handling of the crime. Data released Aug. 3 by the state Employment Security Department (ESD) shows that criminals were filing fake claims in the first week of March. That’s more than two months before ESD publicly disclosed the fraud and temporarily froze benefit payments, in mid-May, by which time a staggering 56% of the weekly claims ESD was paying were from criminals, many of them reportedly overseas. But even before Monday’s disclosures, some state lawmakers and others were questioning whether ESD had inadvertently abetted the scam by lowering fraud detection protocols to speed up legitimate claims by hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians left jobless by the pandemic. ... Apparently, the criminals were not just locals exploiting the system.  When over hal...