Posted in2022 election National politics

If we make the mistake Zelensky did, we’ll lose our democracy

I'm a huge fan of Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people. They've fought against Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine with amazing skill, valor, and determination.  Zelensky Since the war began on February 24, Zelensky has led his country almost perfectly. He inspires both Ukrainians and the entire freedom-loving world with his words and actions. And yet... A special report in the May 9 issue of TIME magazine, "Inside Zelensky's World," describes how close a bad decision by Zelensky came to imperiling Ukraine in the first few days of the war. The error was ignoring the obvious evidence that Russia was…
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Posted in2022 election National politics

Once abortion is illegal, gay marriage and contraception could follow

Unless you're living in a news desert where word of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning abortion rights hasn't reached yet, likely you're either outraged or ecstatic -- depending on how you view abortion.  Me, I'm in the outraged camp. I strongly favor a woman's right to choose what medical care she gets. That leads me to be upset at what anti-abortion zealots and their enablers in the Republican Party have wrought: the imminent doing-away of a constitutional right to an abortion that has been the law of the land since 1973, almost 50 years. Even worse, there's good…
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Posted inNational politics

Parents don’t get to choose the version of American history they like best

Until I read a story by Jill Lepore in the March 21, 2022 issues of The New Yorker, "The Parent Trap: How school fights, from evolution to anti-racism, pit parents against the state," I failed to understand some key points about the current controversy over teaching American history in public schools. Quite a few conservative states are passing so-called parents-rights bills that allow parents more leeway than they've enjoyed before to complain about teaching regarding slavery, systemic racism, and such that goes against the grain of a view of American history that papers over these subjects in favor of a rosier…
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Posted inNational politics

No reasonable person should be a Republican

Being a Republican used to be a respectable political position. My mother was an avid Republican. Until I went to college, I shared her conservatism. I grew up reading National Review. William F. Buckley was only one of numerous noted Republican intellectuals. Back then, Republicans believed in conserving the environment, which fit with their conservative principles. Now, in the Age of Trump, Republicans should rename themselves as the Know-Nothing Party. (Yeah, I know, that name was taken in the 1850's, but it's time to resurrect it.) There's so many examples of Republican craziness, I'm going to limit myself to two…
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Posted inNational politics

Fear of WW III can’t stop us from battling Putin with all our might

Just before I started to write this blog post, I got a reminder that it's time to use CleanMyMac, a utility program I've been using without thinking where the creators come from.Now I know. This message popped up when I opened CleanMyMac. We stop selling our products to users from the Russian Federation and Belarus with this release. Ukraine is our home, and we want to protect it in every way we can.   Despite the war, CleanMyMac is stable, and our team is safe. We try to stay calm, focused, and optimistic for a peaceful future of independent Ukraine.…
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Posted inJoe Biden National politics

Bring on higher gas prices, since it punishes Putin

Nobody likes to pay more for gasoline. But we all should be pleased to do this when it keeps American money out of the hands of the Russian thug, Vladimir Putin, who is bombing residential areas in Ukraine mercilessly. Today President Biden announced that the United States won't be importing Russian oil, which accounts for 3% of our oil supply.  Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine about two weeks ago, gas prices have risen considerably. I recall that the Shell station in south Salem where I usually fill up was charging about $3.95 a gallon pre-invasion. When I drove by today…
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Posted inJoe Biden National politics

With Ukraine, I’m becoming a progressive war hawk

It's sort of a weird feeling for me, wishing the United States would get more involved in a war after being opposed to the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan (I supported the initial push to get Bin Laden, but not the twenty years in Afghanistan afterward). However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has pushed a warmonger button in my psyche.  It's been infuriating to watch Putin's army bomb residential areas in Ukraine that have no military significance. I feel for the million or so Ukrainians who have fled their country after the Russian aggression. My heart aches to watch the…
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Posted inNational politics

We are all Ukrainians. Except for Putin admirers.

Four words really says it all. But being a wordy guy, naturally I want to say more about how proud I am of how Ukraine is bravely fighting against Putin and his Russian military. Many times a day I check my Twitter feed to see how the Russian invasion of Ukraine is going. I follow The Kyiv Independent, @KyivIndependent. This screenshot of their most recent tweets shows how gripping real-time coverage of the invasion is. The stories of heroism and sacrifice coming out of Ukraine are wonderfully inspiring. They spur me to exhibit more courage in my own hugely easier…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

The world condemns Putin for invading Ukraine. Trump praises Putin.

The depths of depravity to which Donald Trump will sink appear to be bottomless. As Putin was invading Ukraine, Trump was calling the ex-KGB authoritarian ruler of Russia a smart guy for sending his military into a sovereign nation without any good reason. Donald Trump on Wednesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin "very smart" for launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, suggesting that he supports a military conflict that will lead to untold civilian death.  "I mean, he's taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I'd say that's pretty smart," Trump said during a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser. "He's taking…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Read how the Republican Party views the insurrection as normal

The Republican Party now officially supports the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 that sought to overturn Biden's free and fair election and make Trump the presidential victor. Today the Republican National Committee approved the resolution below. I'll also share it as a PDF file.Download RNC Resolution It states in the last "WHEREAS" that those who stormed the Capitol, injuring hundreds of police officers and leading to several deaths, were "ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse."  Shameful. Unpatriotic. Disgusting. Keep this in mind next time you see a ballot with an R after someone's name. Don't…
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Posted inJoe Biden National politics

Why I’m worried about Putin invading Ukraine

Most Americans don't seem to be very worried about the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, invading Ukraine, even though Putin has massed over a hundred thousand troops on the Ukraine border, along with everything needed to invade the country that used to be part of the Soviet Union. But I'm deeply concerned. Here's some reasons. First, being 73, I grew up during the height of the Cold War. Above-ground nuclear tests were being conducted in Nevada on the other side of the Sierra Nevada mountains where I lived in California. People were building bomb shelters and stockpiling supplies in case…
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Posted in2022 election Joe Biden National politics

Here’s my plan about how Biden can bounce back

Ten days ago I wrote about how bothered I am by how poorly Biden has been performing as president. Today I watched Meet the Press and saw that I'm not alone in being disappointed by Biden. But after sharing some of the bad news on Meet the Press, I'm gong to light a Biden candle instead of cursing the darkness of his dismal poll results at this point in his presidency. So scroll past the depressing (unless you're a Republican) photos I took of some survey results, and you'll find my prescription for how Biden can restore the mojo that…
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Posted inJoe Biden National politics

I’m a loyal Democrat who’s already tired of Joe Biden

Joe Biden was really appealing when the alternative was Donald Trump. But after a year of Biden's presidency, my attitude toward him ranges from grudging acceptance to outright irritation. Today I'm at the bottom of my personal Joe Biden approval rating. And there's a good chance my mood is going to darken further. I've got this theory -- not exactly original to me -- that a person's good qualities also are their bad qualities. It just depends on how those qualities are expressed, and their context. Along with lots of other people, I relished having a calm, competent, low-key president…
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Posted in2022 election Donald Trump National politics

Every Republican candidate should answer four questions

Our democracy is in grave danger. Not from an outside enemy. From within -- the Republican Party. This is a tweet shared on MSNBC today. MAGA, of course, is Trump's slogan: Make America Great Again. If only Republican leaders were behind the party's anti-democracy movement, there wouldn't be as much reason for concern. Or, panic. But two-thirds of Republicans wrongly believe Biden wasn't elected legitimately. Trump's Big Lie that the election was stolen from him has infected the minds of a clear majority of Republicans. This has made agreeing with the Big Lie a prerequisite for Republican candidates who want…
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Posted inNational politics

Manchin puts Build Back Better bill on life support

It wasn't a great way to wake up this morning. With sleepy eyes, I picked up my iPhone to see what was new with the world, only to be met with a red banner notification from the New York Times saying that Senator Joe Manchin was a no on the Build Back Better bill. Wow. Not totally unexpected, but since President Biden had been having frequent talks with Manchin recently, I figured they were working out details of what it would take for Manchin to support the bill. Instead, Manchin went on Fox News to make his announcement. I guess…
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Posted inNational politics

Outrage should follow Supreme Court denial of abortion right

It's time for all liberty-loving Americans to fire up their outrage engine in anticipation of the Supreme Court either overturning Roe v. Wade entirely, or eviscerating it so that abortion rights exist only in name only. That's the takeaway after today's astoundingly dreadful hearing on a Mississippi law that denies an abortion later than 15 weeks after a woman's last menstrual period. Observers came away feeling that almost certainly that law will be upheld.  This is a big deal. For almost fifty years, since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, the test for when an abortion can happen has…
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Posted inNational politics Oregon politics

Bad and good news for Oregon Democrats after Tuesday’s elections

Yesterday was horrible for Democrats. There's no other way to put it.  After going for Biden over Trump by ten points in 2020, Virginia elected the Republican candidate for Governor, Glenn Youngkin, by several points. He was endorsed by Trump, but avoided an overly close connection with Trump. And it looks like the GOP will recapture the Virginia House of Delegates Almost equally disturbing for Democrats was the close race for New Jersey Governor. That state went for Biden over Trump by sixteen points in 2020. The incumbent Governor, Democrat Philip Murphy, beat his Republican challenger, Jack Ciattarelli, by just…
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Posted inCitizen involvement National politics

Sustaining Democracy book fizzles out on how to do it

I loved Robert Talisse's Sustaining Democracy book. Until I read the final chapter. Then I felt the same letdown as when I put in many hours watching a TV series that promises to eventually tie together compelling plot threads in a satisfying fashion, only to find that the final episode falls flat. But this doesn't take away from the brilliance of Talisse's analysis of what typically goes wrong in a democracy. It has a certain Marxist feel, since he persuasively argues that a democracy contains the seeds of its own destruction. In brief, his argument is that democracies want citizens…
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Posted inNational politics

If Democrats can’t pass a voting rights bill, democracy dies

There are times when it makes sense to ignore the political mess that is Washington, DC. This isn't one of them. Today may have marked a milestone in how our democracy died -- not through a violent coup, but through two Democratic senators refusing to do away with the Republican filibuster of the Freedom to Vote Act. This is the replacement for the considerably more expansive voting rights act that started off as the first bill introduced in both the House and Senate, indicating how important it was to congressional Democrats. However, Senator Manchin of West Virginia, who often sounds…
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Posted inNational politics

Debt ceiling fight shows how dangerous Republicans are

Just when I thought the dysfunction in Congress couldn't get any worse, it has. And not by a little, by a lot. What's grabbed the part of my brain that is prone to panic is another fight over raising the debt ceiling. That's the ridiculous century-old law that requires Congress to vote on paying for the federal debt that already has been incurred. The usual way of describing it is agreeing to pay for the credit card charges you've already made. For almost all people, that's a non-choice. Of course, we pay for what's already been put on our credit…
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