Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Solid evidence that Russia caused Trump to win the 2016 election

Just when I thought I couldn't be more disturbed about Donald Trump becoming president, an article appeared in the October 1, 2018 issue of The New Yorker that got me increasingly angry and upset.  Why? Because Jane Mayer, who wrote "Russia Won" (online title: "How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump"), describes in convincing detail the findings of Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a scholar with solid credentials who wrote a soon-to-be-released book, Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President -- What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know. Download How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump |…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Here’s the scariest thing about Trump (hint: it isn’t about him)

At this point in Trump's presidency I've become accustomed to being shocked on a daily basis by the newest horror inflicted on us by the Liar-in-Chief. Today, for example, Trump cancelled pay raises for civilian workers in the federal government because our "nation's fiscal situation" can't afford it. This is the same Trump who regularly proclaims that our economy is the best it's ever been in the history of the United States, and he's the reason things are so amazingly great. And this is the same Trump who pushed for a massive tax cut for corporations, which, along with smaller…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Truth isn’t dead, though Trump wants to kill it

Great timing. This morning I'd just finished Michiko Kakutani's book, "The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump," when a New York Times story popped into my attention: "Giuliani Says 'Truth Isn't Truth' in Defense of Trump's Legal Strategy." Here's an excerpt from the story, which reports on today's Meet the Press interview between Chuck Todd and Giuliani. Mr. Giuliani replied he would not be rushed into having Mr. Trump testify “so that he gets trapped into perjury.” “And when you tell me that, ‘You know, he should testify because he’s going to tell the truth…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

My Google Images guide to the best 2020 Democratic presidential candidate

Today my habitual Donald Trump depression lifted a bit when I watched Chuck Todd interview the Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas about who Moulitsas thought would be the best Democrat to run against Trump in 2020.  I agreed with Markos (his last name is too tough for me to spell repeatedly) that Bernie Sanders' time had come and gone, though he'd have a role to play in the next presidential election. They joked that Markos would pay for that assessment with a flurry of nasty comments on his web site from fanatic "Bernie bros."  Markos then rattled off the names of…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Today Trump crossed the line into treason

I'm a lifelong political junkie. In eighth grade, I remember being the first name in a Hines-Hart poll that asked my fellow classmates whether they thought we were heading for a nuclear war, the poll being taken in the first part of 1962, six months or so before the super-scary Cuban missile crisis involving Russia and the United States.  (Most thought a war would happen. Thankfully, it didn't.) But I can't recall any presidential action that comes close to the treasonous behavior Donald Trump exhibited at his press conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin today.  Treason is a shocking word…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Peter Strzok is an FBI hero. Republicans who attacked him today are cowards.

Today I got obsessed. Then, angry. After that, more obsessed. And then, angrier still.  What got my emotions so fired up was FBI deputy assistant director Peter Strzok's compelling testimony before a House hearing.   The Republicans in charge of the hearing convened by the House Judiciary and Oversight committees sought to undermine the Mueller investigation by making Strzok into a rogue anti-Trump FBI agent, but anyone with an open mind who watched this debacle would have to conclude that they failed abysmally.  Strzok is notorious for exchanging text messages with another FBI employee, Lisa Page, with whom he was…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Liberals, let’s not despair. There’s hope beyond the Supreme Court.

Driving home from my Tai Chi class in downtown Salem, usually after 6 pm I listen to MSNBC on my car's satellite radio. But when I tuned in today I heard President Trump's voice, announcing his second Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh.  I quickly switched channels. The Classic Vinyl station is a good escape for me. I lucked out and heard John Lennon singing "Give Peace a Chance."  Way better than hearing Trump blab on about Kavanaugh's credentials. Ordinarily I'd be interested in listening to a president announce who is being nominated for a Supreme Court seat, but Trump's presidency…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Donald Trump

Salem progressives: Depressing national news should fire us up for local changes

Nationally, it's been a depressing week for progressives like me. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse with 5-4 Supreme Court decisions that ratified Trump's travel ban, gave a green light to gerrymandering, and trashed public employee unions, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement today.  That gives Trump another crack at appointing a highly conservative justice who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, thereby allowing states to make abortion illegal. Which surely would happen in many red states. Also, a compliant Supreme Court could refuse to put any check on Trump's authoritarian desires, making the United States a…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Trump tears up documents that have to be pieced together. Wow.

The horror show that is Trump's presidency features daily episodes of astounding corruption, immorality, ignorance, and narcissism. But a Politico story I came across this afternoon, "Meet the guys who tape Trump's papers back together," somehow filled me with more of a mixture of disgust and amazement than countless other Trumpian tales -- even including his astounding tweet storm against Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and his decision to remove the United States from a previously agreed-to  Group of Seven joint statement.  Behold the antics of the fool who occupies the Oval Office: Solomon Lartey spent the first five months…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

It’s time to be really scared about Trump

Reading "How Democracies Die" right now is akin to watching a scary movie at home by yourself, then hearing what sounds like footsteps in the kitchen. I'm terrified at what could happen, yet ignoring the danger isn't an option. The authors of How Democracies Die, Stephen Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, are Harvard professors who, according to the book jacket,  "have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America."  They consider that our American democracy is in danger -- from President Trump and his willing Republican co-conspirators. I've only finished three chapters of their…
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Posted inDonald Trump

After one year of Trump, my predictions about him get a C+

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of my January 20, 2017 blog post, "On Trump's first day as president, I predict his next four years." Overall I give myself a C+ grade on the ten predictions, since at this point five seem True, four are equivocal, and one is absolutely False.  Here's what I said Trump would do, along with comments on my soothsaying. While it certainly feels as if those four years should be up by now, in much the same way that a painful root canal seems to take forever, obviously my first prediction merits an Incomplete:(1) There's a…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Of course FBI staff have political opinions, clueless Republicans

I survived, barely. Watching part of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee this morning, I felt like my head was going to explode -- a common side effect of listening to Republicans talking about anything relating to the Mueller investigation. GOP members of the committee were shocked, no, let's make that SHOCKED!!!, to learn that an FBI agent and a FBI lawyer exchanged text messages about their desire for Trump to lose the 2016 election. Well, so did most of the country, judging from Trump's huge popular vote loss by some three million votes. So there was…
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Posted inCity Council Donald Trump

Salem City Council should do away with the Pledge of Allegiance

Every Salem City Council meeting begins with the Pledge of Allegiance. Whenever I'm at a council meeting, I'll stand for the pledge, but I don't say it or put my hand over my heart.  The whole idea of the Pledge of Allegiance just strikes me as decidedly creepy.  From what I can tell by some Googling, North Korea is one of the few other countries in the world that are so enamored of a pledge of allegiance.   Of course, in North Korea the pledge is to the Supreme Leader. Here, the first mention of allegiance is to the United States…
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Posted inDaniel Benjamin Donald Trump

Daniel Benjamin looks on as black guy gets threatened at Trump rally

If this is how ex-Salem city councilor Daniel Benjamin is working on rehabilitating his image after being unanimously censured by the Ciry Council for racial insensitivity on Facebook, he needs to rethink his approach.  Below is a video of a recent pro-Trump rally at the Capitol that drew counter-protesters to a Stand For Love rally. A Statesman Journal story, "Trump rally, protests turn violent at State Capitol," describes what's shown in the video: Cameron Whitten, a Portland activist, being threatened, cursed at, and generally treated nastily by the Trump supporters. Cameron Whitten, 25, live streamed the environment leading up to the…
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Posted inDonald Trump

On Trump’s first day as president, I predict his next four years

If the title of this blog post were longer, I'd add "...and I'm almost certainly wrong."  Nonetheless, my political-junkie side wants to make some predictions about Donald Trump's presidency. If nothing else, four years from now this post will be proof that the future always holds unpredictable surprises, and pundits who claim to be able to foretell political happenings are just talking crap. So... here's my particular brand of crap. (1) There's a good chance Trump won't be president for his full term. My wife is particularly confident about this, so if this prediction is wrong, I'll blame her. She…
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