Posted inNational politics

Israel is squandering its moral authority with attack on refugee camp

Like most people, after Hamas terrorists brutally attacked Israeli civilians on October 7 my sympathies were almost totally with Israel. Sure, I was aware that Israel has treated Palestinians badly and has done little recently to move toward the two-state solution that is recognized by everybody except for far right Israelis as the best way to assure lasting peace between Israel and its neighbors. But I felt that Israel occupied the moral high ground after the Hamas attacks. Now, though, Israel is squandering that moral authority by the brutal way it is conducting war in Gaza, which is run by…
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Posted inNational politics

Choice of House Speaker shows how extreme Republicans have become

Here in Oregon, Republican politicians often try to look moderate because they're in a state that leans Democratic. But don't be fooled. These days, virtually every Republican office holder has to be a MAGA devotee of Donald Trump in order to be elected. So they buy into right-wing craziness, no matter how hard they may try to appear all centrist and reasonable. Case in point is the newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. If you've never heard of him, join the club. He isn't exactly a household name even in Washington D.C., much less…
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Posted inEnvironment

Check out these visual facts about electric vehicles in Oregon

They (whoever they is) say that a picture is worth a thousand words. So rather than describe last Friday's Salem City Club presentation about electric vehicles in Oregon, I figured it would be better to share some screenshots from the report the presentation was based on, the Oregon Department of Energy's 2023 Biennial Zero Emission Vehicle Report. I didn't read the report. I just looked at the pictures and chose the ones that I thought were most interesting and could be grasped at a glance. My commentary will be brief. BEV stands for Battery Electric Vehicle. PHEV stands for Plug-in…
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Posted in2024 election City Council City of Salem

Salem payroll tax like blood in water to conservative sharks

As a progressive who was happy when liberals wrested control of the Salem City Council from conservatives in 2017, now I'm worried that the payroll tax debacle could be a harbinger of a right-wing renaissance in local politics. What's disturbing is that this is a self-inflicted wound by five of the six progressive members of the City Council who provided the votes to pass a new payroll tax on everyone who works in Salem on a narrow 5-4 vote. Now that wound is like blood in the water to energized conservative "sharks." (The five were Mayor Chris Hoy and councilors…
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Posted inInternational issues

Israel’s citizens lack confidence in their government, as they should

Obviously it's difficult to find any bright spots in the war between Hamas and Israel. I summed up my attitude toward the war in a post on my Church of the Churchless blog, Religion plays a large role in the horrible Hamas-Israel war. Though I'm an atheist, I recognize that wars often don't involve religion to a significant degree. But sometimes they do, which means that rather than being a force for good in the world, religion encourages death and destruction. Politically, my goal is to be an open-minded progressive. So I embrace the notion being espoused by many liberals…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council City of Salem

Watch the video of Salem Reporter’s town hall meeting on the payroll tax

Everybody should applaud the Salem Reporter, our city's online alternative to the Statesman Journal, for holding a town hall on the proposed payroll tax at the Elsinore Theatre this evening. For whether you oppose or favor the payroll tax, or don't have an opinion on it, it's great that a public debate on the tax happened prior to voters casting their ballot on it in the upcoming November election. I didn't attend the town hall. But I've watched some of the You Tube video of it, which I'll share below. (The screenshot above is just to show the debaters, Oregon…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem payroll tax looks like it’s headed for defeat

While I won't be surprised if the controversial payroll tax is passed by Salem voters this November, since nothing in politics is absolutely certain, it appears more likely that it will be defeated. I'm guessing by a 60-40 margin or thereabouts. I'm not aware of any publicly available polling on the payroll tax. But the Salem Reporter and Statesman Journal have each conducted unscientific surveys about how people feel about the tax, which would be levied on anyone who works in Salem even if they don't live here. Each survey found the payroll tax to be unpopular. Here's an excerpt…
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Posted inNational politics

It’s a Republican lie that U.S. money fueled the attacks on Israel

It's no surprise when Republican politicians lie. Donald Trump has gotten us used to that, and his love of falsehoods has spread to others in his party. Still, I was shocked when I saw that members of the not-so-Grand Old Party were criticizing the Biden administration for supposedly providing $6 billion to Iran that had been used to support the recent attacks on Israel by Hamas, a Palestinian group backed by Iran. Aside from being flat-out wrong, it bothered me that Republicans would use a horrific attack on Israeli citizens for blatant political purposes. Here's the facts about this lie. …
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Posted inNational politics

McCarthy’s ouster as House speaker is a Democratic dream come true

It was an entertaining day for political junkies like me, especially those of us who are retired and could watch Kevin McCarthy being fired as Speaker of the House in real time. The pleasure was intensified by this being a battle between two truly obnoxious people, McCarthy and Representative Matt Gaetz -- a far-right House member who initiated the "move to vacate" procedure that ended up with the Speaker position being vacant because eight Republican House members and all of the Democratic House members who voted on this wanted McCarthy gone. So today, on a 216-210 vote, McCarthy became the…
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