Posted inDonald Trump

I love the photo of top secret documents found in Trump’s residence

When Trump is convicted of mishandling government documents, many of which were marked top secret, as I dearly hope will happen, this FBI photo will be part of the evidence that led to his downfall. There's so much to love about this photo. For one thing, it demolishes any argument Trump could make that he didn't know the documents were marked as classified.  The big red and yellow borders around the secret/top secret cover pages show that it would be impossible to miss that these were highly sensitive documents. Which, of course, belong to the U.S. Government, not Donald Trump,…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Salem Reporter editor criticizes secrecy of Salem city officials

Below is a indictment of what sure seems to be a coverup by officials at the City of Salem following a public records request by Salem Reporter concerning a suspicious $53,500 payment to former deputy police chief Steve Bellshaw. Written by editor Les Zaitz, I'd intended to only use excerpts from Zaitz' column, since I respect the right of Salem Reporter to make content available only to subscribers, of whom I'm one. But the more I thought about it, the more important it seemed to have this column read by as many people as possible. So I'm hoping Zaitz will…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police reform

What is Salem Police Department hiding from the public?

If anyone thought that a new police chief, Trevor Womack, would usher in an era of transparency and openness for the Salem Police Department, that thought needs to be dumped in the trashcan of unmet expectations. Last month I described two examples of the department hiding facts from the public. The people trying to lift the lid on police secrecy are experienced journalists: Joe Douglass and Ardeshir Tabrizian. When Douglass hit roadblocks from the Salem Police Department with his public record request for information related to communications between police officers and the Proud Boys militia group prior to a 2021…
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Posted in2022 election

Great letter in support of Jamie McLeod-Skinner

Salem isn't in the 5th Congressional District now, being put in the new 6th Congressional District after Oregon gained a seat in the House of Representatives when the 2020 census showed we deserved it. But most of Marion County is. So if you're a 5th Congressional District voter, or know someone who is, urge them to cast their ballot for Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the November election.  Here's a letter to the editor in today's Oregonian newspaper in support of McLeod-Skinner. Cathy Whiting, the person who wrote it, is a friend who lives in Canby. She's a member of the Salon…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump

Let’s imagine President Hillary Clinton acting like Trump

I realize that almost everybody is biased toward the members of their own political "tribe." For sure, I am. I readily admit that I'm more willing to overlook transgressions of fellow Democrat politicians than Republican politicians. But I deeply doubt that most Democrats would put up with all the crap that Donald Trump has done as president and post-president. At least, nowhere near to the extent that Republicans still bow down at the Altar of Trump. If you're a Republican who disagrees with that assessment, here's a thought experiment for you to consider. Imagine this alternative reality... In November 2016…
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Posted inTom Andersen

Tom Andersen will be missed as a Salem city councilor

Councilor Tom Andersen has resigned from the Salem City Council to focus on his campaign for Oregon House District 19 state representative.  He'll be missed.  Andersen was the most unforgettable councilor, in my decidedly personal opinion. I'm not great at remembering how I met people (other than my wife, I hasten to add), but I have no problem recalling what I'm pretty sure was my first face-to-face with Andersen. It was at a Salem City Club meeting. Someone introduced us. I was instantly taken by Andersen's intensity. His eyes were unusually alive when he spoke to me. He struck me…
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Posted inDonald Trump

Eight cartoons about FBI raid on Trump’s Florida home

I was so happy yesterday when I heard that the FBI had raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in search of classified documents that the worst president in our nation's history had carted off illegally. Word is that the FBI agents left with about a dozen boxes, which follows on the fifteen boxes that were sent back to the National Archives earlier.  Since a federal search warrant can't be issued without a judge affirming that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed, and that evidence of the crime could be destroyed without the warrant, it sure seems like Trump…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

New plan for commercial air service at Salem airport sounds like old failed plans

Here we go again, the Chamber of Commerce and Travel Salem engaging in another round of fantasies about commercial air service returning to the Salem airport. Salem's Angry Owl isn't impressed. Neither am I. Having moved to Salem in 1977, back then there really were airlines flying out of the Salem airport to places people actually wanted to go. Can't remember exactly what they were, but I recall there were frequent flights to the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, and probably other locations. Now a Salem Reporter story paints a decidedly less rosy picture of where it might be…
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Posted inLand use

South Salem Office Depot kicks out farm stand and food trucks

Office Depot acted like a corporate jerk when it kicked out a farm stand and two food carts from their vast and mostly empty south Salem parking lot. A Statesman Journal story, "Where did the food carts at the South Salem Office Depot parking lot go?," describes the bullshit reason for this decidedly unneighborly act of corporate asshole'ness. The departure was fueled by an order from Office Depot's corporate office claiming the food trucks and stands were taking up too many parking spots, food cart owners said. This left staff of the South Salem location, who confirmed the move, to…
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Posted in2022 election National politics

Kansas votes for abortion rights. Good news for Democrats.

Being an avid Democrat, I needed this. A big win for abortion rights in Kansas today. Yes, Kansas. A decidedly red state.  A Washington Post headline buoyed my liberal spirits. Political prognosticators were saying the vote in Kansas would be close. Actually, it wasn't.  This bodes well for Democrats in the November midterms. The Kansas legislature, dominated by Republicans, put this constitutional amendment question on the ballot in what they thought would be a low-turnout primary election, hoping that Kansas voters would sleepwalk their way to approving a change to the state's constitution that would take away a woman's private…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police reform

Another example of Salem police hiding facts from public

This shouldn't come as a surprise, given that so many police departments in the United States act as if they're beyond the law. Which of course is ironic, given that police are supposed to be enforcers of laws. But there's an unmistakable whiff of arrogance emanating from police officers these days that didn't seem to be nearly as apparent in years gone by. Partly this could be a defensive reaction to recent well-publicized failures of police officers to do their job competently. Partly this comes with carrying a gun. That makes many people look upon police as if they were…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police reform

Joe Douglass pursues how Salem police handled 2021 Proud Boys rally

I give Joe Douglass a lot of credit for how diligently he's sought public records related to how the Salem Police Department handled the May 1, 2021 Second Amendment gun rally in Riverfront Park where the Proud Boys provided "security." (More accurately, insecurity, since Proud Boys accosted a journalist and other people in the park, demanding that they leave the area, even though the rally had no more of a right to be there than anyone else.) Since the Proud Boys are a violent hate group that played a big role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the nation's…
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Posted in2020 election 2022 election Donald Trump

Anyone who still supports Trump is a democracy-hater

If there was any doubt that Donald Trump is the worst president in American history, the rock-solid findings of the January 6 committee have put that doubt to rest. I haven't watched all of my recording of tonight's primetime hearing by the committee into Trump's 187 minutes of utter inaction following the insurrection at the nation's capitol. But I listened to about an hour while driving around, and looked at some of the hearing when I returned home. It's amazing that there's anyone in the United States who still backs Trump. If any other president had done 1/1000 of the…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

My shameful fantasy involving Donald Trump

Hey, I survived the shame of telling my Donald Trump fantasy to a friend today, Jim, during our usual Sunday get-together at the Urban Grange coffeehouse in West Salem. So I might as well share that not-so-secret aspect of my political self with the much vaster audience who read this Salem Political Snark blog. (I have a liberal interpretation of much vaster.) I was describing to Jim the current status of my long-running depression about being a progressive Democrat in a time when everything seems to be going wrong for my side of the political spectrum. Inflation is skyrocketing. Biden's…
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Posted inPolice reform

Infuriating: video of cowardly police doing nothing for 77 minutes at Uvalde school

If there ever was any doubt that police officers are just ordinary people -- prone to mistakes, cowardice, disorganization and all the other flaws that beset every human being -- a video from inside the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman armed with an AR-15 rifle, should confirm this to even the most fervent police supporter. Thankfully, someone leaked a 77 minute video of local, state, and federal police standing around in the school hallway while the children and teachers were being murdered, and the Austin American-Statesman newspaper published…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Climate Action Plan

Climate Action Plan not getting the respect it deserves

Today was a really hot day in Salem. My car's thermometer said 99 degrees when I headed downtown at 4 pm. When I left at 6 pm, I had a reading of 107 degrees after my car sat on a sunny side of Court Street for a couple of hours. We need to get used to many more hot days, since the effects of human-caused global warming are becoming more obvious with every passing year.  To its credit, the City Council pushed for a Salem Climate Action Plan, which was accepted by the council in February of this year. Since,…
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Posted inCity Council

Salem City Council should ban fireworks

Not surprisingly, recently there's been a lot of discussion on Facebook about fireworks, almost all of it negative. Many want a ban on fireworks in Salem. People find them annoying and dangerous. Pets shake with fear at the loud booms. Wildlife are stressed by the bright lights and scary noises. Last Fourth of July I wrote "Fireworks should be shunned like cigarettes are." In researching that blog post about the bad side of fireworks, after some Googling I came up with the familiar problems: fires, trauma to pets, scaring wildlife. I also learned something new. Fireworks are highly toxic.  Fireworks…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem Fire Department is woefully inefficient, fighting few fires

Probably you've noticed that even though structure fires are rare in Salem, huge fire trucks are still frequently seen racing around the city. What the heck are they doing, since they're not fighting fires? They're doing what government bureaucracies almost always do. If your original reason for being no longer applies, then redefine your mission to avoid becoming irrelevant or having your budget reduced. So now "fire" departments actually are wasteful ways of responding to medical calls, both emergencies and non-emergencies. Oregon's Phil Keisling wrote about this in his 2015 piece, Why we need to take the 'fire' out of…
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Posted inCity Council Cycling

City Council approves protected bike lane from Harritt Drive NW to 17th Street NE

It isn't everything that Salem Bike Vision proposed for a network of protected bike lanes in Salem, but it's a good start. After all, politics is the art of the doable. Idealism is fine. In the end, though, getting part of what you want is a heck of a lot better than falling on a idealistic sword and not getting anything. A protected bike lane So even though I'd hoped for more protected bike lanes to be included in the $300 million community improvement bond measure Salem voters will be asked to approve this November, it was pleasing to watch…
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Posted inNational politics

Chaos is the real reason abortion rights have been lost

Like most Democrats, and indeed most Americans, I'm a strong supporter of abortion rights. The recent Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case which ruled that the Constitution protects a woman's right to choose an abortion, deeply irritates me. So does the weak response of Democratic leaders in Washington, especially since the leaked draft Supreme Court decision gave Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer plenty of time to formulate plans for protecting abortion rights after the court gave a green light to about half the states banning abortion entirely. Telling people, vote in November, is pretty much useless…
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