Posted in2024 election Chris Hoy

Realtors and homebuilders love Julie Hoy for Mayor, not Chris Hoy

There's an almost foolproof way to tell which candidate for Mayor or City Council here in Salem is the most conservative. Check out ORESTAR, Oregon's campaign finance reporting system that's part of the Secretary of State office, and see who is getting contributions from realtor and homebuilder organizations. Whoever they're supporting, that's the conservative candidate. On Facebook this image is being shared by people who favor incumbent Mayor Chris Hoy, a progressive, over his opponent in the May election, Julie Hoy (no relation). Now, being a progressive myself, my sympathies are with the Chris Hoy backers. There's nothing wrong with…
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Posted inInternational issues

Criticizing Israel isn’t anti-semitic. Supporting Palestinians isn’t pro-Hamas.

I can't stand how so many politicians and political observers are calling the demonstrations in support of Palestinians on college campuses "pro-Hamas." That's utterly wrong. It's equally wrong to call criticism of how Israel has been conducting its war in Gaza "anti-semitic."  Back in my college days, I took part in protests against the Vietnam War. The response from conservatives back then was Love it or leave it. Meaning, either love the United States Vietnam War policy, or leave this country. It turned out that we protesters have been vindicated by history. The Vietnam War was pursued under false pretenses…
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Posted in2024 election Chris Hoy

Chris Hoy deserves to be re-elected as Salem Mayor

Ballots for the May 21, 2024 primary election will be mailed on May 1. So it's time to start thinking about who to vote for. Keep in mind that when it comes to local races -- such as Salem mayor and city councilors -- usually the "primary" ends up being the actual election, since a candidate who gets 50% plus at least one additional vote in the primary won't face an opponent in the November general election. There are only two candidates for mayor: Incumbent Chris Hoy, shown above, and Julie Hoy, a city councilor who is unrelated to Chris.…
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Posted inChris Hoy Citizen involvement City of Salem

Citizen activism prevents additional Salem Library cuts. For now.

It's great when elected officials do the right thing, even when they're forced into it by citizen activism. But most of the credit for the city's budget committee voting yesterday to prevent additional cuts to the Salem Public Library by using money from the hotel tax goes to Jim Scheppke and Lois Stark, fervent advocates for the library who did a great job organizing citizens to press for No More Cuts. Without Scheppke and Stark doing what they did, almost surely the West Salem branch would have been closed, with staff and hours at the main library severely curtailed from…
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Posted in2024 election Donald Trump

Trump falling asleep in court is amusing, yet also disturbing

Donald Trump likes to call President Biden "sleepy Joe." That's one reason I find the reports of Trump falling asleep in court yesterday on the first day of his hush money/campaign finance violation trial so amusing. Forbes has a summary of the reports of Trump's dozing that should put to rest any suspicion that this is fake news. Here's excerpts from "Trump Fell Asleep In Court -- Twice -- Reporters Say." The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman was the first to report on Trump’s seemingly exhausted manner, writing in the Times’ live blog of the trial around 12 p.m.…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council City of Salem

Help save the Salem Public Library from ruinous budget cuts

"Help. They're threatening me with grievous harm. I need my friends to defend me, because I can't do it myself." That's what the Salem Public Library would be saying, if it could speak. Since it can't, we library lovers have to do the speaking for the library.  The threat is real. City officials are planning to markedly slash the library budget again, after already making deep cuts in staffing, hours, and services.  NO MORE CUTS. That's the message from Jim Scheppke, retired State Librarian, and Lois Stark, a member of the Library Advisory Board, as you can read below. I've…
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Posted inCity of Salem

Salem Library advocates irked at city proposal to cut hours and staffing further

Library lovers may have a reputation for mildness, but actually they're fierce defenders of what they view as a top priority for City of Salem funding: keeping our libraries (main and West Salem) open a decent number of hours, staffed by a decent number of employees. Jim Scheppke, the retired State Librarian, is a tireless advocate for the Salem Public Library. Here's some recent Facebook posts from Jim. And here's a post from Scheppke about decreasing crime in Salem that is relevant to the library funding question, because "public safety" often is cited as deserving to be the top budget…
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Posted inDonald Trump

Buy stock in DJT, Trump’s media company (if you like to lose money)

In the 1980s my father gifted me some stock in a company he co-founded, thereby assuaging his guilt for ignoring me after he and my mother divorced, causing me to only spend one hour in my life face-t0-face with him aside from my very early years. The company, Systems and Computer Technology Corporation, traded on the NASDAQ as SCTC. That's where Donald Trump's company trades also. Its name is Trump Media & Technology Group Corporation; stock ticker is DJT. Aside from sharing a home on the NASDAQ, there aren't many resemblances between SCTC and DJT. When SCTC went public, the…
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Posted inInternational issues

Israel kills seven World Central Kitchen staff in Gaza. Not an “accident.”

Israel is doing its best to squander the goodwill extended to it after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel.  Since, the Israel Defense Forces, under the incompetent leadership of their despicable Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has killed about 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, two-thirds women and children.  It seems clear that Israel has committed war crimes in response to the war crimes committed by Hamas. So now there's basically a moral equivalency between the horrible things Hamas did to people in Israel on October 7, and the horrible things (on a much larger scale) Israel…
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