Posted in2024 election Donald Trump Joe Biden

Supreme Court gives Trump a big victory. But voters will decide his fate.

For progressives like me, or indeed anyone who wants to see Trump held accountable for his actions during the January 6 insurrection at the nation's capitol, today's Supreme Court decision was hugely disappointing. Trump asked the court to put on hold the January 6 case being overseen by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan until the court could rule on his bizarre contention that a president has immunity for whatever  he or she does while in office. Since it took the Supreme Court about two weeks before issuing a ruling on that request, many legal observers expected that the delay was…
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Posted inDonald Trump

The Kid’s Guide to President Trump is a scam. Naturally.

Driving around today, while listening to MSNBC on satellite radio I was surprised to hear an ad for The Kid's Guide to President Trump.  Curious to learn what this was all about, when I got home I headed to the web site mentioned in the ad. Yes, there it was -- not only the guide itself but a bundle! Even though I don't have any kids (my 52 year old daughter is an avid progressive, and no longer a kid), I like free stuff. So I was eager to get a free Kid's Guide to the Presidential Election if I…
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Posted in2024 election Chris Hoy Larry Tokarski

Julie Hoy has much more money than Chris Hoy in Salem Mayor race

As I noted in the title of a post from last November, "It'll be Hoy vs. Hoy in 2024 Salem Mayor race. Marvelous!" Julie Hoy and Chris Hoy City councilor Julie Hoy and incumbent Mayor Chris Hoy aren't related. They also aren't in the same ballpark when it comes to the current state of their campaign finances, according to the ORESTAR system that tracks this in Oregon. It's a familiar story when it comes to local races in Salem. Almost always, the conservative candidate (in this case Julie Hoy) raises more money than the progressive candidate (in this case Chris…
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Posted inNational politics Religiosity

Christian fundamentalism behind wacko Alabama court decision on IVF

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a popular way for women to have a child who have trouble conceiving in the usual fashion. A CNN story says that about 2% of births in this country are from IVF. It works this way: In vitro fertilization, or IVF, is when an egg is removed from a woman’s body and combined with sperm inside a laboratory before being implanted, said Dr. Eve Feinberg, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. To accomplish that, patients undergo eight to 10 days of fertility injections with hormones that help their…
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Posted inOregon politics

Bill to make standard time permanent in Oregon falters in legislature

Good news today for most people in Oregon, given that national polls show that about 2/3 of people either want daylight saving time made permanent, or favor sticking with the current twice-yearly time change, and there's no reason to think Oregonians feel differently. But state Senator Kim Thatcher figures that she knows best, so she introduced SB 1548, which would make standard time permanent in our state. I think this is a terrible idea. Here's the reasons why that I included in messages to my state senator and representative where I urged a "no" vote on the bill. (1) This…
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Posted inEnvironment

Owner of property where Liberty Fire began allowed use of ATVs that started fire

Thanks to an informative story by Capi Lynn in today's print edition of the Statesman Journal, we learned the cause of the August 23, 2023 brush fire in south Salem known as the Liberty Fire, because it was adjacent to Liberty Road. The fire grabbed the attention of me and our neighbors out here in rural south Salem because we live off of Liberty Road about five miles from where the fire started. Yes, that's quite a ways, but brush fires can move very rapidly under windy conditions. And of course the fire was of vastly more concern to the…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump National politics

Trump owes $454 million in civil case penalty. Don’t vote for this fraudster.

Justice is finally catching up to Donald Trump. He's spent his whole adult life, and surely part of his childhood, feeling like he can get away with anything, thanks to the power of money he inherited from his father and subsequent business dealings that not only skirted the law, but sometimes broke the law. He's been found legally liable for defrauding people who signed up for Trump University. He's been found legally liable for defaming E. Jean Carroll, who he sexually assaulted and then lied about her making the story up. His list of other lawsuits and indictments goes on…
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Posted inLand use

I love Oregon’s land use system. But it will survive some legislative tweaking.

On this Valentines Day it seems appropriate to express my love for Oregon's land use system. It dates from 1973, shortly after when I moved to Oregon in 1971 to attend graduate school at Portland State University. So yeah, I guess Senate Bill 100, which established the land use system, was intended in part to protect our state's farm and forest land from Californians like me. A Department of Land Conservation and Development web page summarizes the bill. Oregonians in the 1960s and '70s became concerned as they watched rapid population growth begin to take place around the state. Lawmakers…
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Posted inOregon politics

Oregon needs daylight saving time, not permanent standard time

One of the worst bills introduced in this year's short legislative session calls for Oregon to move to permanent standard time, thereby doing away with the much-beloved (by me and many others) daylight saving time. This is a horrible idea. State Senator Kim Thatcher of Keizer introduced Senate Bill 1548, which hopefully will have a well-deserved legislative death. Senator Deb Patterson, who represents part of the Salem area, is a co-sponsor of the bill. I hope she comes to her senses. Oregon already has passed legislation calling on Congress to allow our state, along with Washington and California, to be…
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Posted inDonald Trump Joe Biden National politics

Biden’s too old and forgetful to be president. So is Trump. We’re screwed.

It didn't take long for my reading of a story about the special counsel's report on Biden's retention of classified documents after he was no longer vice-president to turn from yay, good news to oh no, bad news. The good news was that Robert Hur, the special counsel who was a holdover Trump appointee, determined that Biden shouldn't be charged with a crime. That's a big contrast with Trump, who is facing "40 felony charges related to the documents case, including charges of obstruction of justice and violation of the Espionage Act for willfully retaining national defense information." But then…
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Posted inNational politics

Republican dysfunction on full display today in Congress

I'm so old, I remember when Republicans deserved their nickname as the Grand Old Party, GOP. They were known as solid citizens, skilled in business, dedicated to fighting communism, defenders of freedom, committed to our Constitution, competent leaders. Those days are gone, at least when it comes to Republicans in Congress. Now the GOP is best known for dysfunction, incompetence, unreliability, lack of a moral compass, fealty only to Donald Trump. Today was a clear example of this. It was a remarkable Tuesday for political junkies like me. Any doubt that the GOP is better termed the POP, Pathetic Old…
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Posted in2024 election International issues Joe Biden

Recent poll finds Biden in big trouble against Trump. Hamas war is one reason.

I enjoy watching Meet the Press on Sunday. But today's episode disturbed me when results of a new NBC poll were presented by Steve Kornacki.  For one thing, Biden trails Trump nationally by five points, with his poll numbers steadily declining. Also, Trump is seen as more competent than Biden on most policy issues. It's astounding that Biden only has a two point lead over Trump on protecting democracy. A NBC News story about the poll describes the bad news for Biden. Despite a growing economy and little opposition for his party’s nomination, President Joe Biden confronts a dissatisfied electorate…
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Posted inOregon politics

Republican state senators who walked out can’t run again. Sweet justice!

It was an Oregon Supreme Court decision that made me ever so happy. Yesterday the court ruled unanimously that a ballot measure passed by voters in 2022 meant that ten Republicans in the state Senate can't run for re-election because they walked out of the 2023 legislative session for ten days. An Oregon Capital Chronicle story describes the decision.  Republican senators who participated last year in the longest walkout in state history cannot seek reelection in 2024 or 2026, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday.  In a unanimous decision, the court rejected arguments from five Republican senators that Measure 113,…
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