Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Scariest thing about Trump: trashing objective reality

Every day Donald Trump does something that irritates me. But there's One Big Thing at the heart of Trumpism that worries me the most, because there's a danger it will live on after, hopefully, Trump departs the White House in January 2021. Denigrating objective reality to such a degree, people aren't able to tell the difference between fact and fiction. There are lots of signs of this happening to a scarily great extent. Here's some of them. -- Trump decrying "fake news!" at every opportunity, even though the mainstream media is hugely more truthful than the lies that constantly spew…
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Posted inBroadway Commons Cara Kaser City Council

Salem’s City officials say “screw you” to supporters of LGBTQ rights

I thought I couldn't get any more irritated at the Salem City Council and City officials, and I was plenty mad before, but now I'm way more pissed off. I just learned that those officials have signed a contract with the Salem Alliance Church to lease a building owned by the church for a temporary public library, even though City Council rules allow for reconsideration of any council decision at the next meeting, which is August 12. The City Council voted to approve the lease on a 6-1 vote at the July 22 council meeting. But this was a hugely…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Liberty Plaza is a viable alternative to a LGBTQ-unfriendly temporary library building

On July 22 the Salem City Council voted to approve a lease with the Salem Alliance Church for use of their Capital Press building as a temporary library, while the library at the Civic Center is undergoing renovations. City officials claimed in a staff report that the church-owned building "is the best and only option available to the City that meets the project schedule and site criteria." Almost certainly that statement is wrong, for reasons I'll describe below. I don't blame the City Council for trusting the staff report. I blame Steve Powers, the City Manager, and Kristin Retherford, the…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

What’s wrong with City of Salem officials?

OK, it's a truism that when a headline includes a question mark, the answer usually is "No." But I'm not asking if something is wrong with officials at the City of Salem, Oregon variety. (Not to be confused with the witch'y Salem in Massachusetts.) Rather, it seems clear to me -- based on the evidence below -- that City officials indeed are acting in decidedly screwy ways. But I'm not sure what the cause of that screwy wrongness is. I'll throw out one idea at the end of this post. Feel free to add your own in a comment. For…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Disturbing wrongness of last Monday’s Salem City Council meeting

Last Monday, July 22, I was as angry as I've ever been at a decision by the Salem City Council. With the passage of two days, I'm even more convinced that what six of seven councilors in attendance at the meeting did was wrong.  And not just a little bit wrong. A lot wrong. Hugely wrong. Stupendously wrong. Please, scroll down and watch the four videos I made of the people who testified in person during the 3-minute public comment period, arguing against the really bad idea of temporarily housing the Salem Public Library in a building owned by the…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Here’s my testimony supporting the Salem Human Rights Commission

This afternoon I submitted advance testimony to the City Council in support of the Salem Human Rights Commission's rejection of the plan to use a building owned by the LGBTQ-unfriendly Salem Alliance Church as a temporary home for the Salem Public Library. Yeah, I'm wordy. But I wanted to cover the arguments in favor of finding another location for a temporary library that wouldn't cause members of the LGBTQ communities in our town to stop going to the library for the 18 months or so it will take for renovations to the library building at the Civic Center to be…
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Posted inBroadway Commons Citizen involvement City Council

Salem’s LGBTQ communities need your help

I get it. It's summer. The living is mostly easy. There's so many causes -- political, social, cultural -- that demand your attention. But please give some serious thought to spending a few minutes to help some people close to home: Salem's LGBTQ communities. Here's the issue they need your help with. The Salem Public Library has to be relocated while renovations are made to the library building at the Civic Center. City officials favor using the old Capital Press building adjacent to the Broadway Commons as a temporary library. Problem is, the Capital Press building is owned by the…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Jim Lewis

Three facts about the controversy over Salem library moving to church property

We love facts here at the Salem Political Snark blog. We also adore opinions, which should be based on facts as much as possible. So here's some facts about the controversial proposal of City officials to temporarily house the public library in a building owned by the Salem Alliance Church, along with my opinions about those facts. Note: I'm going to send this blog post to officials at the City of Salem so they can check my facts. First, though, I invite you to sign a petition I started last Friday in support of the Salem Human Rights Commission, which…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City of Salem

Sign a petition to support LBGTQ rights in Salem

Please sign this petition I just started to support the Salem Human Rights Commission in its stand against the City of Salem leasing a building from the Salem Alliance Church to temporarily house the public library. Click on this link to the Care2 Stand up for LGBTQ rights in Salem! petition. The church rejects same-sex marriage and considers same-sex sex to be a sin. The Commission is calling on City officials to find another location for the library while renovations are made, even if that location costs more and is less convenient.
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council City of Salem

Human Rights Commission stand on library relocation rests on secular faith

I'm a proud atheist. But for 35 years I was religious, having been an active member of an Indian organization led by a guru considered to be God in human form. So I understand how powerful religious faith can be. I also know that secular forms of faith are equally powerful and deserve just as much respect.  In fact, more so, as I'll explain below. This is why I admire the stand of Salem's Human Rights Commission, which recently unanimously voted to oppose the City of Salem paying the Salem Alliance Church for use of a church-owned building to temporarily…
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Posted inBroadway Commons City of Salem

Human Rights Commission rejects plan for library to use church building

Thanks to quick work by staff of Salem's Human Rights Commission, today I got draft minutes of two meetings that I requested. This allows me to sound like CNN's Wolf Blitzer and intone, Breaking news! Happening now! Human Rights Commission says "No" to City officials' plan to lease space from the anti-gay Salem Alliance Church to temporarily house library. As noted in yesterday's blog post, "City officials may pay anti-gay church to house library," this controversial proposal was addressed by the LGBTQ Rights Task Force of the Human Rights Commission on June 26, and by the full Commission on July…
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Posted inBroadway Commons City of Salem

City officials may pay anti-gay church to house library

This seems horrible to me. How does it strike you? I've heard from several sources that officials at the City of Salem are seriously considering paying the Salem Alliance Church to use the old Capital Press building that the church owns as a temporary public library while the library building at the Civic Center undergoes renovations. Here's the problem with this: the Salem Alliance Church is notoriously anti-gay. Meaning, anti-homosexual, anti-LGBTQ, anti-anything that their archaic view of sexuality considers a sin. So if this ill-considered scheme comes to pass, taxpayer money would be going to an organization that flaunts the…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

City Council should stop library from discarding books needlessly

The Big Weed is up for discussion at next Monday's City Council meeting (July 8, 6 pm). Unfortunately, this agenda item isn't about a garden horror or a massive marijuana plant.  It concerns the needless removal of books from the Salem Public Library.  Jim Scheppke, who spent 20 years as the State Librarian for Oregon before he retired, is aghast at how Salem's library has been allowed to deteriorate. He's amassed a lot of convincing arguments, backed up by solid data, in hopes that even though the library's ill-considered book removal policy is shown as only an information item for…
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Posted inKate Brown Oregon politics Salem Reporter

Gov. Brown and Salem Reporter shine in climate bill saga

After being deeply upset with how Democrats and Republicans behaved in the walkout of GOP members of the state Senate over HB 2020, a cap and trade climate bill, it's great to find some bright spots in this saga -- Governor Kate Brown and Aubrey Wieber, a Salem Reporter journalist. Governor Kate Brown has earned back my admiration after she responded to the first May walkout of Republican senators by agreeing to kill two bills that were opposed by the GOP, being Democratic priorities  (a pro-vaccine bill and a gun control bill). I thought this bad move would encourage Republicans…
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Posted inOregon politics

Oregon democracy threatened by Senate GOP walkout

It wasn't pleasant, but I forced myself to read How Democracies Die by two professors of government at Harvard University, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.  This is a scary book that, when I read it, seemed like it contained warnings for the United States as a whole in our age of Trumpism, with Oregon being immune from the worst of the ways democracies die. But the current walkout of Senate Republicans from the state legislature is a clear and present danger to Oregon democracy. This was a message of the recent rally at the capitol by supporters of the climate…
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Posted inOregon politics

Salem Climate Rally — photos, video, commentary

Here's inspiring photos of the Climate Rally in support of HB 2020 that I took yesterday on the capitol steps, plus a video of Gov. Brown's remarks. Even though Democratic leaders have declared the bill to be dead, I and other supporters of reducing carbon pollution and creating renewal energy jobs still have hope. Senate Republicans need to end their walkout temper tantrum and vote on HB 2020, along with other legislation they're holding up.
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Posted inOregon politics

Climate bill is dead. So are Oregon Democrats, to me.

It's time for me to face reality. Democrats here in Oregon aren't willing to fight for what they believe in. So why should I remain an active Democrat? That's a question I'm grappling with after Governor Kate Brown, Senate President Peter Courtney, and other Democratic leaders in the state legislature unilaterally surrendered to Republicans on a top priority for Dems, HB 2020, a cap and trade bill that would have put Oregon in the forefront of efforts to combat the carbon pollution that is wreaking havoc on our planet. Shortly before noon today I arrived at the steps of the…
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Posted inUncategorized

City Council needs to start work on Climate Action Plan

Hopefully, tomorrow the Salem City Council will take a big environmental step forward by approving $50,000 in the FY 2020 budget (begins on July 1, 2019) to start work on a climate action plan. The $50,000 was discussed at length at the council's June 10 meeting. Councilor Tom Andersen made a motion to amend the proposed FY 2020 budget to include what amounts to a down payment on a full climate action plan, since $50,000 apparently wouldn't be enough to complete the plan. Draft minutes of the June 10 meeting show a curious division of votes on Andersen's motion. Four…
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Posted inOregon politics

Walkout of Senate GOP gives Oregon bragging rights

I'm trying to find a bright spot in the irritating walkout of eleven Republican members of the state Senate. They're opposed to a bill that has a pretty damn good rationale behind it: preserving our one and only Earth for human habitation.  But since these ignoramuses in the GOP view carbon pollution and global warming as a good thing -- plants grow faster! summer all year long! -- they're determined to give the finger to democracy and prevent a Senate vote on the Oregon Clean Jobs bill for as long as possible. About the only good thing I can find…
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Posted inOregon politics

Walkout of Senate Republicans shows weakness of Oregon Democrats

What a complete non-surprise. Eleven Republican members of the Oregon Senate have walked out to deny Democrats a quorum needed to pass House Bill 2020, much-needed legislation to reduce carbon pollution in this state.  Many, if not most, have travelled out of state, which puts them outside the reach of state troopers Governor Kate Brown has ordered to bring them back.  Back in May I predicted bad things would happen after GOP members of the Oregon Senate pulled the same stunt, minus the going out of state part. I was so irritated at how the Democrats caved, agreeing to kill…
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