National politics

Joe Biden’s comeback makes my progressive heart happy

All through the already seemingly endless Democratic presidential primary process I've been thinking, "Geez. Joe Biden is a boring old white guy who doesn't excite me. I much prefer... [fill in Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, or Pete Buttigieg]. But what a difference South Carolina and Super Tuesday made. I'm now totally on board with Biden being the Democrat who takes on Trump. I watched his surprisingly large victory in South Carolina and over-performance in yesterday's Super Tuesday contests with joy. Because Bernie Sanders makes my heart worried, while Biden's comeback makes it happy. All that counts, really, is…

Hines Brian March 4, 20206

Please, Democrats, no purity tests for the presidential candidates

Let's make this the overarching mantra for Democrats until Donald Trump is defeated in the November 2020 presidential election: No Dem candidate is perfect, but all of them are hugely better than Trump. Which means, ditch any thought of a purity test for the candidates still in the hunt for the Democratic nomination. I was reminded of this oh-so-important adage when I came across a piece in The Atlantic, "Bloomberg Flunks the Wokeness Test." Right on subtitle: Stop-and-frisk was awful. But to disqualify the former New York mayor from the presidency on that basis is to risk something more destructive:…

Hines Brian February 15, 20202

Here’s what worries me about Bernie Sanders

Until the November election is over, I'm going to be in a perpetual state of political anxiety. Dumping Trump is super-important for lots of reasons, preserving our democracy from authoritarian rule being high on the list. So obviously it's vital that the Democrats nominate someone who is well suited to defeat Trump. And that means winning the Electoral College, not just running up the score in the popular vote, because we saw how that worked for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. In short, not well. Which is why I worry most about Bernie Sanders being the Democratic candidate.…

Hines Brian February 12, 20207

2020 election City Council National politics

Anxiety among progressives is real. Here’s how I’m coping.

Don't get me wrong. It's always a good time to be a progressive leftie. But at the moment I'm not feeling much pleasurable buzz from being on the right, or better put, wisest, way of looking at the political world. Let's count some of the reasons. (1) Trump is emboldened following his impeachment acquittal. He's shown no sign of repentance for trying to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election. Aside from Senator Romney, congressional Republicans are kissing Trump's ass with disgusting relish. (2) The Iowa caucuses were a disaster. The messed-up tally of results makes Democrats look incompetent.…

Hines Brian February 6, 20208

Iran, if you’re listening…

Even though I can be prone to magical thinking at times, I haven't gone down that rabbit hole deep enough to really believe that if I'd written a blog post with the above title a day or two ago, Iran wouldn't have fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Iraq today. But since I spent some time this afternoon prior to the attack thinking about what I wanted to say in an Iran, if you're listening... post, I might as well start off by summarizing my advice to Iran -- some of which still makes…

Hines Brian January 7, 20205

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…

Hines Brian December 22, 20193

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,…

Hines Brian December 18, 20193

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…

Hines Brian December 11, 20197

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…

Hines Brian November 27, 20194

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…

Hines Brian November 22, 20191

Warren Binford talks about horror of migrant child detention center

It wasn't the cheeriest City Club talk I've ever been to, but it was one of the most important. Warren Binford, from my seat at a City Club table Today Warren Binford, a Willamette University law professor and children's rights expert, spoke about the history of child separations at the Mexican border and her four day visit to the Clint, Texas Border Patrol Facility. Binford told us that the Clint facility, better termed a child warehouse, was built for about 100 adults, yet housed around 400 children. When asked "How have you been treated," they started to cry. Binford spoke…

Hines Brian September 26, 20194

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.…

Hines Brian August 23, 20195

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…

Hines Brian August 14, 20191

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…

Hines Brian August 11, 201919

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…

Hines Brian August 9, 20192

We’re in a constitutional crisis. Yet Dems shouldn’t impeach.

A little while ago I watched the House Judiciary Committee vote to hold the Attorney General of the United States, William Barr, in contempt of Congress. This is only the second time in our nation's history that an A.G. has gotten a contempt citation. It's a big deal. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the chair of the committee, just told reporters that we're now in a constitutional crisis. The Trump administration is refusing to honor every subpoena Congress issues. The Trump administration refuses to allow Robert Mueller to testify about the report he issued into Russian interference with the 2016 election, how…

Hines Brian May 8, 20191

Here’s the most shocking thing Barr said today

If you like the prospect of the United States becoming a banana republic dictatorship where the rule of law doesn't apply to the Supreme Leader, you'll applaud Attorney General William Barr's trumpian display of arrogance, bad faith, and misleading testimony today at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. But being part of the majority of Americans who want our democracy to remain intact, I found one statement by Barr rose to the top of the OMG! I can't believe the head of the Justice Department just said that! pile, which was teetering precariously by the end of the hearing, the crap…

Hines Brian May 1, 20191

After drenching myself in Mueller report coverage, here’s my take on it

For a political junkie like me, today's non-stop coverage of William Barr's embarrassingly awful press conference and subsequent analysis of the redacted Mueller report has felt like taking a really long hot shower that leaves you both blissfully exhausted and pleasantly energized. I've read the tweets. I've looked over Washington Post and New York Times stories. I've listened to much of what MSNBC had to offer, while fast forwarding through repetitive or uninteresting parts. I've scanned some of the report. Here's what leaps out at me after the initial coverage of the lengthy Mueller report. Barr should be impeached. Likely…

Hines Brian April 18, 20193