Posted inNational politics

We are all Ukrainians. Except for Putin admirers.

Four words really says it all. But being a wordy guy, naturally I want to say more about how proud I am of how Ukraine is bravely fighting against Putin and his Russian military. Many times a day I check my Twitter feed to see how the Russian invasion of Ukraine is going. I follow The Kyiv Independent, @KyivIndependent. This screenshot of their most recent tweets shows how gripping real-time coverage of the invasion is. The stories of heroism and sacrifice coming out of Ukraine are wonderfully inspiring. They spur me to exhibit more courage in my own hugely easier…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

The world condemns Putin for invading Ukraine. Trump praises Putin.

The depths of depravity to which Donald Trump will sink appear to be bottomless. As Putin was invading Ukraine, Trump was calling the ex-KGB authoritarian ruler of Russia a smart guy for sending his military into a sovereign nation without any good reason. Donald Trump on Wednesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin "very smart" for launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, suggesting that he supports a military conflict that will lead to untold civilian death.  "I mean, he's taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I'd say that's pretty smart," Trump said during a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser. "He's taking…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police reform

Here’s how Salem police killed a man for lousy reasons

A few days ago I wrote a blog post about how angry I was that Salem police killed a mentally ill homeless man after he failed to comply with a traffic stop when he failed to come to a complete stop upon exiting a parking lot. A moving violation shouldn't be a death sentence. But as I said in "Killing of mentally ill man shows Salem police are incompetent," the officers involved in killing Richard Meyers did a lot wrong in the early morning of February 7. In this post I want to use excerpts from a February 17 press…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police reform

Killing of mentally ill man shows Salem police are incompetent

Angry. Pissed-off. Furious. That's how I feel after reading stories about how a grand jury found Salem Police were justified in shooting and killing Richard Meyers, a mentally ill homeless man whose "crime" was failing to pull out of a parking lot without stopping. In Salem, as elsewhere in the country, that will be a death sentence if you have the bad luck of encountering incompetent police officers who are clueless or uncaring about deescalating a situation, choosing instead to shoot first and think afterward. Maybe you think "incompetent" is too strong a word. Actually, it isn't. If a grandmother…
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Posted inChuck Bennett

Wife of Salem’s Mayor makes anti-Muslim remarks

Chuck Bennett is the Mayor of Salem, Oregon. Cherie is his wife. Below is a You Tube video of a portion of a video someone sent me of a slide presentation by the Bennetts about their trip to London. One of the slides  In this part of the video Cherie Bennett speaks disparagingly of Muslims after noting the location of London terrorist attacks. I made a transcript of what she said. Given the nature of the terror attacks, it was truly shocking to see huge ads on buses promoting Muslim organizations and issues, calling for support of Muslim charities. "For…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police reform

Shameful secrecy surrounds killing of man by Salem police

The more I learn about last Monday's killing of a man by three Salem police officers who fired their weapons after the man drove into Northgate Park following an attempted traffic stop, the angrier I get. I'm angry that a homeless man with mental health problems is dead. I'm angry that the Salem Police Department won't say why the officers shot Richard Meyers or if he was armed. I'm angry that the Oregon State Police, which is investigating the killing, are using the grand jury system as an excuse to not provide any information about how and why Meyers died.…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police reform

Salem police not being transparent about recent killing by officers

Early Monday morning, officers with the Salem Police Department shot and killed a man who drove into Northgate Park after police attempted a traffic stop.  I'm bothered that the Salem Police Department isn't saying what led to the shooting, or if the man was armed. An OPB story describes what happened. It's unclear what caused the death of the man's dog. Salem police officers fatally shot a man Monday during what officers called a “confrontation.” The shooting happened at Northgate Park, and began as a traffic stop. A dog that was with the man was injured in the shooting, and…
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Posted inSalem-Keizer school district

Salem Keizer We Stand Together is a wacko school group

Today the Statesman Journal ran a lengthy subscriber-only story by Natalie Pate, "School boards in the Mid-Valley and beyond have become political battlegrounds."  It's well worth reading. In looking the story over again before writing this blog post, my attention was hijacked by a mention early on about Salem Keizer We Stand Together, a group dedicated to the false conspiracy theory that our local schools are hotbeds of leftist teachers and administrators pushing students to embrace critical race theory, premarital sex, Marxism, and a LGBTQ sexual orientation. But the story almost makes Salem Keizer We Stand Together sound reasonable.  What curriculum…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Read how the Republican Party views the insurrection as normal

The Republican Party now officially supports the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 that sought to overturn Biden's free and fair election and make Trump the presidential victor. Today the Republican National Committee approved the resolution below. I'll also share it as a PDF file.Download RNC Resolution It states in the last "WHEREAS" that those who stormed the Capitol, injuring hundreds of police officers and leading to several deaths, were "ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse."  Shameful. Unpatriotic. Disgusting. Keep this in mind next time you see a ballot with an R after someone's name. Don't…
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