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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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Putin lies while Russian attacks on residential buildings cause Ukrainian civilians to die

There are many sins against humanity that Donald Trump can never be forgiven. One sin, among many, is Trump so often siding with Putin, Russia's dictator, against Zelenskyy, Ukraine's democratically-elected president. Trump simply has no moral center, no values to guide him other than what seems best for Donald Trump. He couldn't care less about Ukraine defending itself against the unprovoked invasion by Russia in February 2022. Biden didn't do enough to help Ukraine either, but at least his heart was in the right place, and Biden successfully advocated for Congressional support in the form of weapons and financial assistance.…
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Posted inCity Council Public Safety

City Council rethinks whether putting convicted murderer on Police Review Board is a good idea

The story of Kyle Hedquist is a good example of how complicated it can be to decide what's right and what's wrong when it comes to the American justice system. Which needs a lot of improving, since the United States has a much higher percentage of the population in prison than other high-income countries, and we do a crappy job of rehabilitating prisoners, given our focus on "lock em' up" punishment. The Marion County District Attorney described Hedquist's crimes after his life sentence was commuted by Governor Kate Brown in 2022 after he served 28 years in prison. The boldfacing…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues National politics

Here’s the 60 Minutes video about torture of migrants in El Salvador prison the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see

Yesterday the CBS program, 60 Minutes, was scheduled to include a story about CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador that the Trump administration has been sending Venezuelan migrants to -- falsely claiming that all of them were violent criminals. As NPR reported in "CBS news chief Bari Weiss pulls '60 Minutes' story, sparking outcry," the story was kept off the air at the last moment even though it had been thoroughly reviewed and approved by CBS. Just a day and a half before it was set to be broadcast, new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss pulled a planned 60…
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Posted inCity Council Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Salem Mayor Julie Hoy refuses to admit to her ethics violation, while five councilors victimized by Hoy did

The title of a Salem Reporter story by Joe Siess pretty much says it all: "Mayor Julie Hoy stands alone as all councilors concede ethics violation." Excerpt: Three more Salem City councilors who participated in an illegal serial meeting orchestrated by the mayor in February have accepted responsibility for their actions and signed agreements with the state ethics commission. Salem Mayor Julie Hoy stands alone as the only person accused by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission of unethical conduct who has not closed out the matter. She has not responded to the commission to indicate whether she will accept wrongdoing…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Vanity Fair article about Trump’s Chief of Staff is fascinating reading. Here’s excerpts.

Today the political world is abuzz about a lengthy two-part Vanity Fair story by Chris Whipple. Susie Wiles, J.D. Vance and the "Junkyard Dogs":The White House Chief of Staff on Trump's Second Term is Part 1. It's available to everyone to read. Part 2, Susie Wiles Talks Epstein Files, Pete Hegseth's War Tactics, Retribution, and More, requires a Vanity Fair subscription. I forked out $12 for a year-long digital subscription because I appreciated this groundbreaking story that cast new light on the Trump administration. Since Trump and his cronies love to bitch and moan about "fake news" spread by the…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Five encouraging signs resistance to Trump is strengthening

We have to suffer through Trump until January 2029, unless he leaves office early for a health or some other reason. That's depressing. Good news is, there are increasing signs that Trump's inherent lame-duckness -- presidents are limited by the Constitution to two terms in office -- and obvious sleepy incompetence is manifesting in greater resistance to the Authoritarian in Chief. Here's five recent signs of this. Indiana rejects redistricting. Kudos to the state where some of my wife's relatives live. Resisting intense pressure from Trump and his lackeys to create new Congressional maps that would have changed Indiana's House…
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Posted inCity Council Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Councilors Nishioka and Nordyke admit wrongdoing to Ethics Commission even though Mayor Hoy was the chief wrongdoer

Sadly, this is typical among elected officials these days. Those who have done something mildly wrong admit to it and apologize for the violation. Those who have something majorly wrong refuse to admit it and say there's nothing to apologize for. This appears to be the case here in Salem, where two members of the City Council, Linda Nishioka and Vanessa Nordyke, have told the Oregon Government Ethics Commission that they agree with the commission's finding that they, three other members of the council, and Mayor Hoy engaged in violations of our state's public meetings law last February. A Salem…
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Posted inNational politics

Jasmine Crockett uses Trump insults as video kickoff for her Texas Senator campaign

Today Jasmine Crockett, a congresswoman from Texas, announced that she is seeking the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat currently occupied by John Cornyn, who is up for re-election in November 2026. I loved the video Crockett released. She is silent in it. All the talking is done by Donald Trump. Crockett is exactly the sort of candidate Democrats need in the 2026 midterm election. Young. Brash. Aggressive. Blunt. Creative. Fresh. Bright. Competent. She has a law degree. Whenever I hear her talk, she comes across as a no-B.S. defender of our democracy against the travesties being committed by Trump.…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics Uncategorized

Add “war crimes” and “murder” to the long list of Trump administration atrocities

President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth are adept at lying. But truth needs to have the last word, especially when the facts are so obvious about war crimes or murders being committed by the United States military at the behest of the Trump administration. Fact 1: There is no evidence that the boats in the Caribbean supposedly containing cocaine that the U.S. has been hitting with drone-fired missiles are heading to our country. For one thing they are too small to make it to the United States. Also, I've heard that most cocaine from Venezuela goes to Europe or…
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Posted inCity Council National politics

Salem City Council declares federal immigration enforcement emergency

Yesterday, December 1, the City Council approved a resolution with a lengthy title: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF SALEM RECOGNIZING THAT A STATE OF EMERGENCY EXISTS WITHIN THE COMMUNITY DUE TO THE IMPACTS OF FEDERAL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS AND SETTING FORTH ACTIONS THE CITY SHOULD TAKE TO ADDRESS SUCH IMPACTS. It passed 6-3, with Mayor Hoy and Councilors Gwyn and Matthews voting against it. I guess they are fine with the Trump administration trampling on constitutional rights and striking fear in hard-working migrants whose only "crime" is that they entered the United States without documentation in search of a…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Trump’s racism is on full display. Actually, immigrants are more law-abiding than native-born Americans.

It's a tragedy that two National Guard soldiers were critically injured (one has died) by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan refugee who served with the CIA prior to the withdrawal of United States forces in 2021 following an agreement Trump made with the Taliban to have the withdrawal happen. UPDATE: An AP story, "Subject in National Guard attack struggled with 'dark isolation' as community raised concerns," makes clear that Lakanwal suffered from mental health problems. There's no evidence so far that he was radicalized to become a terrorist as the Trump administration is claiming. Excerpt: The Afghan man accused of shooting…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

It’s sad that two National Guard soldiers were shot in D.C. But let’s remember what else is sad.

Today two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot and critically injured by a gunman in Washington, D.C. A Politico story says: A gunman opened fire Wednesday on two National Guard soldiers just blocks from the White House, critically wounding members of a force brought to Washington as part of President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops to American cities to fight crime. The two members of the West Virginia National Guard were on an afternoon patrol when they were shot in what Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called a “targeted” attack. ...The gunman, whose name was not released, came…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Trump threatens Democratic lawmakers with death for urging military not to follow illegal orders

We're in desperate times when the American president -- sadly, it's Donald Trump -- says that reminding members of the military that they aren't required to follow illegal orders is seditious behavior, punishable by death. Well, more accurately, this is how Trump put it in his all caps fashion: "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" Here's the video that set Trump off into an authoritarian rage. I find it totally acceptable, since the lawmakers are simply restating a provision in the code of military justice. But Trump clearly wants to make the United States military into his own private army. That's…
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