Posted in2026 election City Council Julie Hoy

This is important to know about candidates for mayor and city council

I'm a political junkie. I'm addicted to following politics closely. But many people here in Salem aren't. They believe in voting, including in the May 19, 2026 election that likely will decide the races for mayor and four seats on the city council. (While this is a primary election, a candidate that gets more than 50% of the vote in those races wins outright; such will probably happen, given that there are two candidates in each race.) But those people don't have an inclination to dig deep into the qualifications and policy positions of the candidates vying to be mayor…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

I have no sympathy for Trump, given his vicious threats against his political enemies

When I heard that a gunman had been subdued at the White House Correspondents Dinner last night, I hoped that no one had been killed or seriously injured. After I learned that everybody attending the dinner was fine, I didn't seek out any more news about the attack, largely because I couldn't care less about how Trump or other administration officials were reacting to it. Predictably, today I heard pleas to "turn down the political rhetoric." Fine, good advice. If Donald Trump would only take it. Trump has done more to create a climate for political violence than anyone else…
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Posted inJulie Hoy Oregon politics

Governor vetoes bill that would have legalized Mayor Hoy’s ethics violation

Good news for everybody who values openness and transparency in public meetings. Bad news for Salem Mayor Julie Hoy, who was the ringleader of a scheme to circumvent Oregon's public meetings law, a sleazy move that earned her an ethics violation from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. Julie Hoy Recently Governor Tina Kotek vetoed HB 4177, a seriously flawed bill passed by the 2026 Oregon legislature that would have made legal the private "serial communications" with members of the Salem City Council that Hoy engaged in because she wanted to get rid of City Manager Keith Stahley without having to…
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Posted in2026 election National politics

Democrats now lead in redistricting battle. Take that, Republicans!

Revenge is sweet. That's how it felt to me last night as I rejoiced when Virginia voters approved a redistricting plan that is expected to result in a 10-1 Democratic majority in the state's 11 congressional districts, up from a 6-5 majority under the current plan. Is this fair in a purple state where the electorate narrowly favors Democrats? No. But Republicans have been happily gerrymandering in states that they control for decades, rejecting Democratic pleas to institute a national requirement for independent redistricting commissions to redraw congressional maps every ten years after a census. So after Trump demanded that…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump’s incessant lying is making it difficult to end the Iran war

If you've been in a coma for the past ten years and have just returned to everyday consciousness, here's something important for you to know: Donald Trump is the president of the United States and he's an incessant liar. A world-class liar, in fact. Trump also is a sociopath, since he couldn't care less how his lies affect other people and, indeed, the entire world. For the rest of us, what I've just said is what we've been suffering with for over a decade. Trumpian lie after lie after lie. Many times a day, every day, virtually nonstop. This was…
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Posted inCity Council Julie Hoy

Mayor Julie Hoy keeps on lying as her ethics violation is finalized

There's a lot not to like about Salem Mayor Julie Hoy -- notably including how an Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigation found that Hoy was the ringleader of an illegal secretive scheme to get rid of city manager Keith Stahley that violated numerous provisions of our state's public meetings law. But I'll say this much regarding Hoy: she is consistent... in her lies about her ethics violation. I listed three of her lies in a November 2025 post, "Mayor Julie Hoy lied about not wanting Keith Stahley gone. That's her third lie about Stahley." Lie #1: Hoy claimed that in…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues Uncategorized

Trump wanted a fellow authoritarian to continue ruling Hungary. Hungarians voted differently today. Yay!

Thank you, Hungarian voters. You brought a big smile to my face when I learned that Viktor Orban, the authoritarian who has ruled Hungary for 16 years, had conceded to Peter Magyar -- the leader of a party that is expected to win 138 of the 199 seats in Hungary's parliament, which gives Magyar's party a 2/3 supermajority that will allow them to revise the Hungarian constitution that Orban had meddled with to keep himself and his cronies in power. It was a sweet victory for those of us here in the United States who detest Trump and J.D. Vance.…
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Posted in2026 election Homeless

Homelessness in Salem will be affected by the upcoming mayor and city council elections

Today the Salem Reporter published a great story about an important impact of the May election for mayor and four city council seats, "WHAT'S AT STAKE: How Salem city council races could impact local homeless policy." This is a summary of how the progressive and conservative slates of candidates differ in their approaches to homelessness. Candidates this year are largely divided between two philosophical approaches. In general, progressives describe the homelessness issue as a matter of affordability, particularly around rising rent costs and challenges finding housing. Conservatives point to addiction and a lack of personal accountability as the main drivers…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump is poised to order attacks on Iran that would be war crimes

Unless Trump reaches a deal with Iran's leaders, he says that tomorrow, at 5 pm on April 7, Pacific time, he will order our military to destroy every power plant and bridge in Iran within four hours. That destruction, Trump says, will take Iran 100 years to repair, sending the country "back to the Stone Age." This horrific act would be a war crime. No doubt about it. I only hope that our military leaders have more sense than Trump and refuse to carry out his illegal orders. Unfortunately, that seems unlikely, since Pete Hegseth, the Defense Department Secretary, has…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump’s Iran speech was just as useless as I thought it would be

If you didn't see the 20 minute speech Trump gave yesterday in prime time, depriving Americans in several time zones of some actual quality television watching, congratulations. You saved yourself from 1/3 of an hour of what amounted to Trump reading from his recent Truth Social posts. I listened to the speech as I was driving home from my Tai Chi class, so I didn't waste any time on the speech. In short, Trump said nothing new, intelligent, or useful. He lied about all kinds of things (no big surprise). He didn't articulate a clear reason for why he started…
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