Posted inDonald Trump Humor

Canadian Resistance Army releases super-funny videos mocking Trump’s attacks on Canada

I'm a proud member of the Canadian Resistance Army, foreign legion division, since I live in Oregon. At least I will be once my official hoodie arrives. Then I'll join the ranks of beavers, moose, bears, wolverines and other creatures who are defending Canada against Trump's stupid threats against our neighbor to the north. I learned about the Canadian Resistance Army yesterday, when my wife showed me their newest video about how Lake Ontario will never change its name despite Trump's pathetic attempt to call it Lake America. Loved it! I was thrilled to discover another recent video of the…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump’s legacy, such as it is, will be massively tarnished by his climate change denialism

It's virtually certain that Trump will go down in history as one of the worst American presidents. Probably the worst'est of them all. His first term was horrible. His second term is an even scarier horror show of incompetence, immorality, incoherence, and incessant lying. But other than that, he does seem fairly capable of remodeling White House bathrooms. There will be a lot of competition for Trump's greatest failure. Tariffs, Iran war, inflation, election interference, killing of innocent protesters, decimating science programs, attacking journalists -- to name but a few of Trump's least favorite hits. I suspect that one issue…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Why Trump’s vote by mail executive order is both unconstitutional and a horrible idea

Trump thinks he's a king. Thankfully, he's just a lousy president. Kings can issue edicts that their subjects must obey. Presidents can't. Especially when an edict is unconstitutional. Like Trump's newest fantasy -- that through an executive order he issued in March 2026, the postal service won't deliver a ballot unless the voter is on a list generated by the federal government of people who are eligible to vote in federal elections. The Supreme Court likely will decide whether this scheme is constitutional. That should take about ten seconds. All the justices need to do is remind themselves of what…
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Posted inInternational issues National politics

Democratic Socialists of America — bad. Social democracies like Sweden and Denmark — good.

I have no idea why any reasonable citizen of our country would want to be a member of Democratic Socialists of America. Take a look at their program. It isn't a holdover from some bygone day. It was developed between April and June 2026, just a few months ago. It's full of crazy ideas. Like... end capitalism draft a new Constitution abolish the presidency and supreme court do away with the Defense Department create a democratic socialist republic Unfortunately, the most extreme positions of the Democratic Socialists of America give Trump and other Republicans a broad brush to paint DSA…
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Posted inData centers National politics

Data centers are uniting the country. In opposition to data centers.

The United States is so politically divided, it's wonderful that Democrats, Republicans, and independents have come together on one important national issue: dislike of data centers. This image illustrated a Comment by Benjamin Wallace-Wells in The New Yorker's "The Talk of the Town" feature in the August 17, 2026 issue: Reading the Data. The digital version is titled, A.I. is Now a Major Election Issue. With the sub-heading, As Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s newly elected Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, put it, “People really effing hate data centers.” I'll share a PDF file if that link doesn't work for non-subscribers. A.I.…
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Posted inArtificial intelligence Data centers

If you care about the future of AI, watch this astonishing video of a Yuval Noah Harari interview

Today a friend emailed me a link to a You Tube video where Yuval Noah Harari talks about AI in an amazing fashion that only a historian with his breadth of knowledge about how the past of humanity intersects with the future of artificial intelligence could pull off. This graphic provides an overview. I watched the video earlier this evening, forsaking tonight's usual television diet of recorded Sunday political talk shows, because I'm a huge fan of Harari -- having read three of his books, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011), Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2015),…
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Posted inData centers

There’s a middle way on AI and data centers between anything goes and everything stops

Though I'm not a Buddhist, I like the notion of a Middle Way -- which traditionally avoids the extremes of asceticism and sensual indulgence. After all, most things in life seem well suited to moderation, a Goldilocks approach to life. Goldilocks went inside. First she tasted the porridge of the great, huge bear, and that was far too hot for her. And then she tasted the porridge of the middle bear, and that was too cold for her. And then she went to the porridge of the little, small wee bear, and tasted that. And that was neither too hot…
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Posted inDonald Trump

More idiocy from Trump as he issues new childhood vaccine recommendations based on his feelings

Sometimes I see Trump saying something ridiculous and I get angry. Other times I'm amused. And frequently, like today, I'm embarrassed to be a citizen of a country that elected an incompetent idiot as president. Watching CNN on my iPhone as I was exercising on an elliptical machine at our fitness club, I saw clips of Trump announcing his executive order regarding childhood vaccines. A Politico story, "Trump redoubles effort to shrink recommended vaccines ahead of midterm elections," says: President Donald Trump on Monday reignited his effort to overhaul the government’s vaccine recommendations with an executive order directing federal agencies…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

Support Mai Vang’s write-in campaign for Ward 6 city councilor

Mai Vang was treated badly by city officials when they made a screwy decision that despite Betsy Vega failing to meet the residency requirement to be a Ward 6 city councilor, Vega's narrow victory in the May election over incumbent Mai Vang should stand. I described why this decision was so unfair to Vang in "City officials ignored Salem charter in wrongly qualifying Betsy Vega as Ward 6 city councilor." Basically, the city charter says "a councilor shall have resided in the ward the councilor represents during the 12 months immediately before being elected or appointed to the office." But…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Data centers

With public opinion mostly against a Salem data center, it’s time to shed more light and less heat on the project

My approach to politics, and to life itself, is reflected in a basic principle of Tai Chi -- which I've practiced for about twenty years. Yang follows yin; yin follows yang. So two yang moves in succession is a Tai Chi no-no. Expressed in plain English, the notion is that when strength meets strength, a battle ensues. Which doesn't mean that conflict should be avoided. It means that a forceful attack shouldn't be met with an equally forceful counterattack, but with a redirecting of the opponent's energy, a softness that deflects hardness, allowing for a more favorable outcome than, as…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Data centers

Who’s to blame for Salem data center debacle? Time to point fingers.

Last Thursday I spoke with a KATU reporter about the news that Governor Kotek had blocked the sale of property owned by the state that was going to be used by a data center proposed to be built in south Salem's Mill Creek Corporate Center. Referring to the massive turnout at last Monday's City Council meeting of people who were almost entirely opposed to the data center, I said: This is democracy in action. People came out. Loud, angry, sometimes impolite. It got the city’s attention. And it looks like it got Governor Kotek’s attention. When I heard that Kotek…
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