Posted inNational politics

Everybody was talking to someone else at today’s Kavanaugh hearing

Have you ever been at a party, engaged in conversation with someone, and you suddenly notice that while they're talking to you, their attention has strayed to an attractive person standing behind you, and they're now looking over your shoulder rather than at you? That's how I felt watching today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who Ford has accused of assaulting her sexually back in 1982. It was can't-miss drama for a political junkie like me. I watched most of the proceedings on TV. There was everything: suspense, tears, ups and…
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Posted inChamber of Commerce City Council National politics

If all politics is national now, what about local Salem politics?

Baby boomer that I am, I'm old enough to remember when what Yascha Mounk writes about in a New Yorker piece, "The Rise of McPolitics," was the lay of the political land in this country: For much of the twentieth century, the real power in American politics rested not with U.S. representatives or senators but with the governors, mayors, and assemblymen who controlled local purse strings. In many cases, men like Chafin got people elected to Congress in order to reward them for years of loyal service or to rid themselves of ambitious rivals, but national politics was of comparatively…
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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 inNational politics

Liberals, let’s honor McCain by being moderate for a moment

Today, following John McCain's death on Saturday, there's been lots of media coverage of McCain's life, courage, and maverick'ness. I also want to honor this American hero, even though I'm a liberal who didn't agree with McCain on most of his policy positions -- though I heartily share his commitment to recognizing climate change as a reality and his voting to preserve the Affordable Care Act. Now I realize there's some debate about how moderate McCain was. A Slate article argues that he was a conservative, not a moderate. Wikipedia, though, presents evidence pointing to McCain being at least moderately a…
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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 inNational politics

Here’s 5 good reasons not to shop at Salem’s Hobby Lobby

Even if you love Hobby Lobby for its craft supplies, here's some very good reasons not to shop at the Hobby Lobby store that just opened in the Willamette Town Center mall (which used to be called Lancaster Mall).  The biggest reason was given in a Slate podcast interview with Candida Moss, a Professor of Theology who wrote a book about the company's efforts to Christianize this country, "Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby."  After hearing Moss talk about some Hobby Lobby horror stories that I'll summarize below, at about the 21:14 mark Mike Pesca, the interviewer, says…
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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 inNational politics

Great November election for Democrats. What a difference a year makes.

I needed this -- resounding victories for Democrats in the races that mattered most in this off-year election. Let's count the ways my progressive spirit was lifted in these oft-depressing Trumpian times. (1) Closest to home, the Salem Library Bond passed handily, 63-37 in the first big round of results. OK, this wasn't exactly a Dem victory, but the progressives on the Salem City Council were most in favor of making the Library earthquake-safe when the subject was discussed last year. And it's well recognized that reality has a liberal bias, so approving money for a place that deals in facts…
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Posted inNational politics

Hell, yes, today is the day to talk about American gun violence

The White House doesn't want to have a debate about gun control today, because last night 59 people were killed in the largest mass shooting in American history, with 527 injured.  That's incredibly wrong. This is precisely the day we need to start talking about why the United States has so many gun deaths compared to the rest of the world. After every mass shooting I roll out the same plain fact: more guns means more gun violence. Today Vox updated their excellent  explanation in "Gun violence in America, explained in 17 maps and charts." America is an exceptional country…
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Posted inCitizen involvement National politics

Pluralism — fox’y rather than hedgehog’y — is what Salem (and the nation) needs

We live in a polarized political world, both locally here in Salem and nationally. This is extremely bothersome. There's no way a city or a country can thrive when roughly half the population is viewed by the other half as worthy of disdain, because they hold views opposed to a supposedly Obviously Clearly Correct position. Today I finished reading Stuart Firestein's book, "Failure: Why Science is So Successful." In a concluding chapter Firestein praises pluralism. Specifically value pluralism, a notion promulgated by philosopher Isaiah Berlin. He writes: Berlin's value pluralism was at once far more radical and more constrained than…
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Posted inNational politics

Cable news, stop talking about Trump’s stupid tweets!

I've got MSNBC and CNN prominently displayed on my VW's satellite radio -- along with a couple of music stations, Classic Rock and Chill. I'm a news junkie. Especially political news.  But today I listened to a lot more music than usual, because almost every time I tuned in to MSNBC or CNN they were jabbering on about Trump's morning tweet fest about "Morning Joe" host Mika Brzezinski. Sure, the tweets were tasteless, crude, and sexist. Which isn't exactly new news when it comes to Donald J. Trump. Yet MSNBC, CNN, and other news outlets rose to Trump's bait in…
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Posted inCitizen involvement National politics

Twenty-nine years ago, Oregon showed how health care planning should be done

Many years ago, twenty-nine of them, I was the lead staff person for an Oregon Health Priorities for the 1990s project. In 1988 it culminated in a Citizen's Health Care Parliament organized by Oregon Health Decisions, which is still in existence (I was the first executive director of Oregon Health Decisions). In May 2009 I wrote a blog post just before the Affordable Care Act became law that focused on a paper I wrote for the Citizens Health Care Parliament, "Quality of Life in Allocating Health Care Resources." In the post I said: Like most Americans, I'm hoping that a viable…
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Posted inNational politics

Let’s not let horrors of Trumpism infect Salem politics

Yesterday's approval by the House of the dreadful TrumpCare replacement for the Affordable Care Act made me think: we've got to fight this sort of political craziness not only nationally, but also locally.  Understand, I'm not at all denying the need for us here in Salem to support the resistance to Trump -- who threatens to destroy the foundations of what makes American great, despite his lies about doing the opposite. I happily donated $50 to Act Blue yesterday after hearing about a campaign to fund 2018 candidates who will be taking on congressional Republicans who voted for TrumpCare in…
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