Posted in2020 election National politics

Warren was wrong about the Buttigieg wine cave event

Watching last Thursday's Democratic presidential debate, I was irritated by Elizabeth Warren's attack on Pete Buttigieg for having a fundraiser in a wine cave that featured a $900 bottle of wine. It drives me crazy when Democrats expect absolute purity from their candidates, since Republicans, by contrast, tend to be pragmatists who do whatever it takes to win an election. Buttigieg made this point after Warren attacked him, correctly pointing out that if Warren -- who is a millionaire herself -- donated $2,800 to his campaign, he certainly wouldn't be expected to do her bidding from that point on. He'd…
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Posted in2020 election Cara Kaser City Council

Cara Kaser won’t seek reelection to her Ward 1 City Council seat

Big breaking local political news today from the Salem Reporter's Troy Brynelson: "Kaser won't seek second term on Salem City Council." Citing major changes with both her family and her career, Councilor Cara Kaser told Salem Reporter on Saturday morning she won’t seek a second term as one of the city’s nine policymakers. Her term expires Dec. 31, 2020. “Serving my community these past three years as a city councilor has been both one of the most important duties I have ever taken on and one of the most important honors I have ever been afforded,” she said. “Additionally, it…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Jojo Rabbit, impeachment, and Trump’s authoritarianism

Let me make this clear. The United States isn't following in the footsteps of Nazi Germany. So when I speak of the danger of Donald Trump's authoritarianism, I'm not equating him with Hitler, though he does have Hitler'ish tendencies. However, this doesn't make Trump any less of a risk to our nation's democratic institutions and the Constitution. So his impeachment needs to be viewed from the broadest possible perspective, not just Trump's attempt to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election and then obstruct Congress in its 100% legitimate impeachment inquiry. That's bad enough, of course. Much worse, though,…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump National politics

Indivisible scorecard ranks Elizabeth Warren #1

Great idea, Indivisible folks. You've fashioned a clear, easy to understand, transparent scorecard for the Democratic presidential contenders that rates them on three criteria: Policy Platform: Indivisibles want a candidate who is committed to enacting bold, popular, progressive policies across a range of areas, including immigration, climate, economic justice, health care, and other critical policy areas. Day-One Democracy Agenda: None of the policy reforms we want to see in 2021 are possible without a democracy that responds to the people. Indivisibles want a candidate who is committed first and foremost to ambitious reforms to save our democracy. Building Grassroots Power: Indivisibles know that…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Sleaze warning: Reid Sund hires Chuck Adams in Ward 7 race

Watch out, residents of south Salem's Ward 7. A tsunami of sleaze could be coming your way as the City Council race between Vanessa Nordyke and Reid Sund heats up between now and the May 2020 primary election. Chuck Adams I say this because Sund's campaign finance reporting indicates that Chuck Adams' firm, New Media Northwest, is working for the Friends of Reid Sund committee. As you can see in this screenshot, there's a cozy (and rather incestuous) relationship between New Media Northwest and Friends of Reid Sund. In the sample of transactions below, New Media Northwest made $1,135 worth…
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Posted inHomeless

Yin and Yang homeless proposals: car camping and Hillcrest purchase

Homelessness is too big a problem in both Salem and elsewhere for one-dimensional solutions. It's going to take a wide variety of ideas, both tried-and-true and out-of-the-box, to make a dent in Salem's homeless population. So congrats to City Councilor Chris Hoy for a small "yin" proposal that would set up an organized location on private property for people who sleep in their cars.  A Salem Reporter story, "Salem official eyes organized camping for people who live in vehicles," describes Hoy's idea. As city of Salem staff hunt for a place where homeless residents may legally set up tents, staff…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Homeless

Salem City Council allows homeless to camp on public property. But where?

At last night's City Council meeting a big change was made to the homeless ordinance that passed at the previous meeting, and required a "second reading" to become law. Instead of banning camping on public property entirely, the council decided to allow homeless people to camp on approved city-owned property. Here's some excerpts from a Salem Reporter story by Troy Brynelson, "Salem bans open camping and now seeks a place to host it." (Kudos to Brynelson for using "eighty-sixing" in his story. I haven't seen this term used in a long time, and I'm old.) Tents and other dwellings will…
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Posted inStatesman Journal

Statesman Journal print circulation is down 36% in last two years

Salem's daily newspaper, the Statesman Journal, is experiencing a big decline in print circulation: it's down 36% between June 30, 2017 and June 30, 2019, which is an annualized rate of decline of 20% for those two years. Here's a screenshot from a searchable database of 200 newspapers that's included in a recent Boston Business Journal story, "Most Gannett papers are losing print circulation faster than average." This shows the results of a search for Oregon newspapers. It's interesting that while Eugene and Salem have roughly equal populations, the Eugene Register-Guard had a 2019 print circulation that was almost exactly…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump National politics

In 300 words, Katyal makes a great argument for Trump’s impeachment

Today I started reading Neal Katyal's compelling little book, Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump. Katyal has personally argued thirty-nine Supreme Court cases. He's a law professor at Georgetown University. He's taught an impeachment course there twenty times. And he's an excellent writer. Below is how his book starts out. In a bit less than 300 words, Katyal nails the case for impeaching Trump. The rest of the book is icing on the impeachment cake. So if you're in favor of impeachment and someone questions why this makes sense, say you'd like to read them a brief argument by a…
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Posted inCity Council Downtown Homeless

Salem City Council’s “sit-lie” decision seems well-balanced

Democracy in action. At last night's City Council meeting there was spirited debate about a proposed ordinance aimed at reducing perceived problems caused by homeless people, the most controversial part being a ban on sitting or lying on a sidewalk during daytime hours.  I watched much of the meeting via a CCTV feed. Citizens testifying against the ordinance far outnumbered those in favor of it, who mostly were from the downtown business community and Chamber of Commerce. Both sides had reasonable points to make. Homeless people do cause problems, both in downtown Salem and elsewhere. But the sit-lie portion of…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump National politics

Supporters of Trump need to be treated as co-creators of his unethical world

Having watched a good share of the two weeks of televised open hearings in the House impeachment inquiry, I'm well-qualified to draw some reasoned conclusions about our national politics. (1) Trump is the worst president in our nation's history. Not just recent history. Our entire history. (2) Trump doesn't care about what's best for our country. He only cares about what's best for himself.(3) Congressional Republicans have sold out their ethical values in exchange for Trump not tweeting bad stuff about them.(4) Anyone who still supports Trump is guilty of aiding and abetting his unethical behavior. To me, that fourth point…
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Posted inLand use Oregon politics

Oregon’s urban-rural divide explained by political scientist

So, why is there such a tension between people in rural Oregon and urban Oregon? We saw this divide in action earlier in 2019, when Republicans in the state Senate walked out in protest of a climate change bill, supported by loggers driving their trucks in circles around the Capitol building, horns blaring. Today a political scientist from Western Oregon University, Mark Henkels, offered up some explanations of what's going on here in the course of his presentation at a Salem City Club meeting, It's Complicated: The Politics of Oregon's Rural-Urban Divide. Mark Henkels Early on in his talk, Henkels…
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Posted in2020 election City of Salem Homeless

Homelessness is a problem that’s too big for Salem to solve

Yesterday I attended a Progressive Salem meeting that featured remarks by two highly qualified City Council candidates, Vanessa Nordyke and Trevor Phillips. (Nordyke has been appointed to the council to fill a vacancy, and is seeking a full term in the May 2020 election.)  Homelessness came up in both audience Q&A's and the initial remarks. What struck me loud and clear is a simple fact that shouldn't be overlooked even though it is obvious: Homelessness is a complex problem that will require action at all levels of government, plus the private sector and nonprofit organizations, to find viable solutions. Sure, the…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

City Council candidate Reid Sund is too right-wing for Ward 7

Residents of Ward 7 in south Salem will have a clear choice in the May 2020 primary election, when they'll vote on who should be their city councilor following the resignation of Sally Cook.  Vanessa Nordyke, a progressive like Cook, was appointed recently by the City Council to serve as the Ward 7 councilor for the rest of Cook's term, which runs until December 31, 2020. She will be on the May 2020 ballot. Reid Sund, a conservative, has announced that he also is running to be the Ward 7 councilor.  Since Ward 7 went for Hillary Clinton over Donald…
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Posted in2019 election 2020 election City Council

Good election night for Dems. Now, let’s turn Salem more progressive.

Ah, the sweet smell of Democratic election victories has temporarily banished the stench of Trump's disastrous presidency from my political nostrils. It looks like Kentucky has chosen a Democrat, Andy Beshear, to be the next Governor. Yes, Kentucky, where Trump won by 30 points in 2016, and where Trump campaigned last night for the Republican incumbent, Matt Bevin. Sweet!  Of course, I'm confident Trump will claim that if he hadn't supported Bevin, the race wouldn't have been as close as it was, with Beshear on top by about 5,000 votes. But no matter how Republicans spin the Kentucky outcome, it's…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

City Manager Steve Powers spouts more falsehoods, which I easily demolished

The more I communicate with City Manager Steve Powers about the truth of what happened with the highly controversial selection of a building owned by the Salem Alliance Church to serve as a temporary public library (the church denies basic LGBTQ rights), the more Powers comes across as sort of a Donald Trump wanna-be. Meaning, Powers keeps doubling down on his false statements, even when I present indisputable facts that contradict what Powers is saying. This should bother the Mayor, City Council, and other citizens. A lot.  Why? Because the City Manager is the top non-elected official for the City…
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Posted inBroadway Commons City of Salem

Public records show how Salem Alliance Church lobbied to be temporary library location

Only in Salem is the public library on the wrong side of LGBTQ rights. As retired State Librarian Jim Scheppke noted recently, historically libraries in Oregon have stood up for LGBTQ rights.  But in our city the library is going to be temporarily located in a building leased from an organization that denies fundamental gay rights -- the right to marry, and the right to engage in same-sex sex. A headline in a Willamette Week story about this issue summed up the situation nicely. If an anti-gay organization was a business or corporation, the bigotry of those in charge would be…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

City Manager Steve Powers makes false statements about temporary library location

Well, I've got to give Salem City Manager Steve Powers high marks for one thing: consistency. Meaning, he consistently spouts falsehoods. Steve Powers After he and his staff misled the City Council and other citizens about the church-owned Capital Press building being the only feasible location for a temporary public library, I got an email message from Powers that contained more false statements about this debacle. Because we here at the world headquarters of Salem Political Snark value truth-telling, and consider that not being able to trust City of Salem staff is a big deal, I'm calling out Steve Powers…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Why not being able to trust City of Salem staff is a big deal

So what's the big deal about City of Salem staff misleading the City Council and citizens, as I wrote about yesterday in "City officials misled citizens about temporary library location"? That post started out this way: The key thing I wanted to learn from a City of Salem public records request that ended up costing me $844.85 was whether City officials were telling the truth when they said this in a staff report for the July 22, 2019 City Council meeting. "The former Capital Press building (Site) at 1400-1440 Broadway Street NE  (corner of Hood and Broadway) is the best…
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Posted inBroadway Commons City Council City of Salem

City officials misled citizens about temporary library location

The key thing I wanted to learn from a City of Salem public records request that ended up costing me $844.85 was whether City officials were telling the truth when they said this in a staff report for the July 22, 2019 City Council meeting. The former Capital Press building (Site) at 1400-1440 Broadway Street NE  (corner of Hood and Broadway) is the best and only option available to the City that meets the project schedule and site criteria. "Best and only option." NOT TRUE. This is decidedly disturbing for those of us who value transparency and honesty in our…
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