Posted inHomeless

Why homelessness is an absurd problem, philosophically

Being human is tough. We're subjective creatures, as are all other animals. Yet unlike our fellow primates with whom we're closely related, us Homo sapiens possess a strong capacity for objectivity -- seeing the world from a perspective largely, though not completely, distinct from our personal viewpoint. Many social problems are difficult to perceive clearly given the often-blurry double vision that comes with our twin capacity for empathetic subjectivity and detached objectivity. Homelessness is one such problem. I got to thinking about this after finishing a book by philosopher Thomas Nagel today, The View From Nowhere. Nagel is more famous…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

City Council shake-up: Sally Cook and Brad Nanke aren’t running again

Today brought some interesting, though not hugely surprising, local political news. The Salem Reporter broke the story that Sally Cook has decided to resign her Ward 7 City Council seat following the death of her husband, Jason. Sally Cook plans to resign her seat on Salem City Council soon, she informed City Manager Steve Powers on Thursday. The 39-year-old councilor said the sudden death of her husband three months ago and reality of being a single mother of two led to her decision. “I need to be able to spend time with my family. It really is a large commitment,…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Political moderation has a place in Salem. So does extremism.

As the saying goes, there's a time and place for everything. Like, being a political moderate. Or, a political extremist. It doesn't make sense to always embrace one or the other.  Sure, it sounds good to hear politicians say, "I want to work with those on the other side of the aisle."  But sometimes those on the other end of the political spectrum aren't interested in compromise and moderation. Barack Obama found this out when Republicans in Congress opposed almost everything he put forward. For example, a lot of time was wasted trying to get the GOP on board with…
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Posted inDonald Trump

Trump is best mocked, not ignored

Donald Trump is a joke of a president. Except, he isn't a funny joke. He's pathetic. Which makes him eminently mockable, because he's clueless about his obvious weaknesses, failings, and insecurities.  If Trump had even a smidgen of self-awareness, if he showed even the slightest bit of compassion for other people, if he even occasionally manifested respect for truth -- then my compassionate Buddha-nature (slim though it is) would look upon Trump somewhat more favorably than I view him now. But since Trump has never shown me anything but incessant narcissism, incompetence, and non-stop lying, I've concluded that mocking him…
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Posted inDowntown Homeless

Check out the City of Salem’s new “sit-lie” proposed ordinance

Something needs to be done about homeless people sleeping on sidewalks during the day, and leaving their belongings on sidewalks. The City of Salem has come up with a proposed approach that seems quite reasonable. Because there's been discussion on Facebook and elsewhere that this amounts to a criminalization of being homeless -- which isn't true -- I'm hoping that people will educate themselves about the proposed ordinance before rejecting it as a bad idea. Below I've copied in the questions and answers from a City of Salem web page, "Salem responds to growing concerns of activities in public right…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump

Donating to Elizabeth Warren is my way of dealing with Trump’s craziness

I watched some of Trump's hugely insane press conference after the G-7 summit on my iPhone. It was deeply disturbing. He made just about zero sense, blabbing on and on, for example, about Putin being kicked out of the G-8 because Obama felt something or other -- completely failing to recognize that Putin was ousted because he took over Crimea in defiance of international law. Then Trump blabbed on and on about how wonderful it was that the United States was extracting more oil, gas, and coal from the ground after being asked about his skepticism regarding climate change, and…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Dear Diary, Trump is batshit crazy. (Sorry for insult, bats)

Dear Diary, first, I realize I'm not actually writing in a diary, but I use my blogs as a kind-of-diary, because that way I can remember really important stuff that happens in my life.  Like today, it dawned on me more than ever before that we've got an exceedingly crazy guy occupying the White House. There's not much of a chance that Donald Trump will get saner before he's removed from office.  Still, just in case today marks the high-water mark for Trump's ascent, or descent, into Unheard Of Presidential Incompetence, I want to jot down what happened this week.…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Rollings resigns from Salem Human Rights Commission in protest of temporary library debacle

Bad decisions have consequences. Daniel Rollings, a member of Salem's Human Rights Commission, resigned his position today after City officials ignored the unanimous statement of the Commission calling for a location other than the Capital Press building owned by the Salem Alliance Church to be used as a temporary public library.                                                          Rollings testifying against using the church-owned building  The Human Rights Commission took that action because the church denies LGBTQ rights, and…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City of Salem

My frustration with City of Salem public records requests

"It shouldn't be this difficult." That's what runs through my mind, too often, when it comes to getting public records from the City of Salem. (Oregon variety; maybe the Massachusetts Salem can conjure up a spell and get records to requestors more easily, given their witch heritage.) Here's a chronology of my current frustration: July 29, 2019. Request submitted. I fill out a Public Records Request form, scan it, and email it to the City Recorder's office, which oversees requests. I ask for: All documents, emails, and other communications relating to the use of the Capital Press building owned by…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

A Trump recession would be utterly unsurprising

This was a nasty day on Wall Street. Also, on Main Street, for anyone who owns stocks or mutual funds. A 3% drop in a single trading session would grab one's attention under any circumstances, as an iPhone screenshot shows. However, these aren't normal economic times. Nothing is normal, so long as Donald Trump is president. Which makes it more likely that a recession is on the horizon, given that everything Trump touches turns to shit. Economic analysts dance around the issue of Trump's massive incompetence by saying things like "trade wars are undermining corporate confidence." A more honest statement…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump National politics

Let’s thank these Salem contributors to the Trump re-election campaign

We here at the world headquarters of the Salem Political Snark blog -- located, appropriately enough, in Salem, Oregon -- strongly believe in citizens being actively involved in politics. One great way to do this is by contributing to political campaigns. So when a fellow patriot shared with me a spreadsheet of Salem donors to President Trump's re-election campaign, information that is publicly available via the Federal Election Commission, I had two strong reactions. (1) I'm so clueless about spreadsheets, it's damn impressive that someone was able to combine donations to the Trump Make American Great Again Committee and the Donald…
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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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