Posted inNational politics Salem Police Department

Salem woman (a citizen) injured by ICE in traffic stop. There’s a GoFundMe for her.

I learned about outrageous behavior by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents here in Salem from a January 31 Salem Reporter story by Madeleine Moore, "U.S. citizen injured by federal agents who demanded to see 'papers,' union says." Excerpt: A woman who’s a U.S. citizen needed medical help Thursday, Jan. 29, after federal agents pulled her from her car after demanding to see her “papers,” one of the state’s largest unions said Saturday. Service Employees International Union Local 503 said the woman, a union member, was driving to run errands when four agents stopped her on a Salem street. The…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

Once again, city council and mayor candidates in May election are divided into progressive and conservative tribes

In an ideal world, which for sure we don't have, political candidates would be judged on the basis of their unique individual qualifications and not on which political tribe they belong to. Maybe because they don't belong to any tribe, having foresworn membership in the Democratic, Republican, or some other party. But we live in polarizing times. And unlike a parliamentary system, our country has two enduring dominant political parties. So even though nationally unaffiliated voters are 47% of the electorate, with Republicans and Democrats at about 27% each, there's a strong impetus for candidates to identify as progressive or…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Trump administration is blatantly lying about the murder of Alex Pretti by federal agents

Lies, lies, and more lies. We're all accustomed to being subjected to this by Trump and his cronies. They hate truth. They love lies. But when they lie about the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal agents, this is especially despicable, because those lies attack the honor of a wonderful man who did absolutely nothing to deserve being shot ten times. Pretti's parents are appropriately outraged. In "The Trump Administration is Lying to Our Faces. Congress Must Act," the New York Times editorial board describes some of the lies being spread by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and…
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Posted inJulie Hoy Salem Reporter Vanessa Nordyke

Julie Hoy shows her fear of Vanessa Nordyke by refusing a mayoral debate

Mayor Julie Hoy is breaking new ground in Salem politics. Unfortunately for Hoy, that fresh dirt isn't making her look good. As noted in "Salem Mayor Julie Hoy is guilty of orchestrating an ethics violation, but has the delusion she did nothing wrong," Hoy refuses to admit what is plainly visible: that she was the ringleader of prohibited private conversations with city councilors regarding the city manager's employment status that ran afoul of Oregon's public meetings law. Usually local elected officials apologize for ethics violations, vowing they have learned from their mistake and won't do it again. But Hoy persists…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Vanessa Nordyke

Creation of REACH makes Vanessa Nordyke’s dream of a Salem mental health crisis team a reality

For quite a few years Councilor Vanessa Nordyke has been working to bring a mental health crisis team to Salem. I've written about her ups and downs in various blog posts: "Setback for Salem mental health crisis response team" (September 24, 2021) Led by Vanessa Nordyke, last June the Salem City Council appropriated $135,000 for a mental health crisis response team similar to the CAHOOTS program that has been a big success in Eugene — where a medic and crisis worker handle about 17% of the police department's call volume, saving about $12 million a year at a cost of…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump wants to own Greenland for amazingly stupid reasons

When it comes to Trump demanding that the United States own Greenland, trying to figure out why our Authoritarian-in-Chief is so obsessed with this reminds me of Carrie's evidence wall in Homeland -- where Claire Danes' bipolar CIA agent character would pin oodles of photos, clippings, post-it notes, and such, sometimes connected with strings, in an attempt to figure out who lay behind a terrorist plot. Fortunately, Trump isn't nearly as sophisticated as the evildoers in Homeland. While it can be really tough to figure out what Trump will do, because he changes his mind so often he doesn't even…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Trump Injustice Department wants to investigate Renee Good’s widow rather than the ICE goon who killed Good

This would be unbelievable in any other presidential administration, Republican or Democrat: threatening to conduct a criminal investigation into the grieving widow of a person killed by a federal agent under highly questionable circumstances, rather than investigating whether that killing was justified. But Trump has destroyed so many norms and precedents that have previously guided the federal government to do the right thing for the citizens of the United States, it isn't surprising that when it comes to the tragic killing of Renee Good, which plenty of evidence shows was unnecessary, the Trump administration would be doing the absolute wrong…
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Posted inCity Council Julie Hoy

Salem Mayor Julie Hoy is guilty of orchestrating an ethics violation, but has the delusion she did nothing wrong

I've heard that Mayor Julie Hoy attended Trump's Washington D.C. inauguration in January of this year. I'm surprised that she hasn't gotten a job with the Trump administration, because Hoy is fully Trumpian when it comes to refusing to admit obvious wrongdoing. An Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigation found that Mayor Hoy orchestrated an illegal "serial communication" among a majority of the members of the City Council that ran afoul of the Public Meetings Law requirements. Last February Hoy subverted what should have been a public process of deciding whether City Manager Keith Stahley should remain in his position into…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics Uncategorized

ICE just murdered a woman for no reason. Trump and Noem are lying about the killing.

Today the always-cruel Trump administration outdid themselves by murdering a 37 year old Minneapolis woman whose "crime," if you can even call it that, was using her car to block a road being used by a convoy of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents. The killing was captured on video, thankfully, because otherwise Trump and Noem (she's the head of Homeland Security) might have gotten away with their absurd claim that the woman, Renee Nicole Good, was a domestic terrorist who tried to kill ICE agents by running them over with her car. A Politico story describes who Good actually…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Today Trump claims to be running Venezuela. Tomorrow it could be Greenland. His idiocy knows no bounds.

It's beyond embarrassing to have a president of the United States behave with less maturity than a three year old. But here we are, stuck with Toddler Trump in the Oval Office for the foreseeable future. Trump loves to play with his military toys. He was positively gleeful after our competent armed forces abducted Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, last weekend. But like I said in my previous post, there's plenty of reasons to believe that after this initial tactical success, in the long run Trump's Venezuelan caper will go badly. Well, also in the short run. Because it's…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Ten reasons Trump’s Venezuela caper will go badly

I'm tempted to say that Trump just did the unthinkable. But when it comes to all things Trumpian, thinking usually is the farthest thing from the Donald's mind. So for our Authoritarian-in-Chief, nothing is unthinkable, because everything is just whim, primal urges with no coherent thoughts. I'm confident that attacking Venezuela so American special forces could abduct President Nicolas Maduro and his wife is going to turn out badly. The main reason I say this is simple: whatever Trump does almost always turns out badly. So the odds are strongly in my favor. Trump's tariffs have turned out badly. Trump's…
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