Oregon politics

Most of us don't pay much attention to our power company until the electricity goes off. Then we realize how important the electrical grid is to daily life. Well, "important" is an understatement.  "Absolutely essential" is a better way to put it. Without reliable electricity civilization as we know it can't exist. And this will only become more true as the United States, and the world, steadily moves away from fossil fuels. Electric cars obviously need electricity to function. So when the ice storm that hit Oregon last Friday cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes in our state,…

Feel sorry for me. My wife and I have the unfortunate distinction of living in the Oregon House District held by Republican Mike Nearman -- the guy who held a door open at the state Capitol on December 21, allowing 50 militant protesters to stream into the building, setting off a battle with police that led to a dozen officers being pepper-sprayed by the intruders. Oregon, of course, was a rehearsal of sorts for the January 6 insurrection at the nation's Capitol in Washington D.C.. It's fortunate that Nearman isn't a member of Congress, or he would have been helping…

With the coronavirus consuming so much attention, we shouldn't lose sight of another major threat to Oregon's wellbeing: the fifth walkout of Republican state legislators in just two years. Photo I took at a protest against a 2019 GOP walkout Why? Because the GOP hasn't been able to win elections in this state.  Normally the party that lacks control of a political body, like the Oregon House and Senate, sucks it up and accepts that elections have consequences. Which is nicely summed up in two images included in a February 29 Vox story, "Oregon Republicans are subverting democracy by running…

Most of us don't pay much attention to where our garbage goes after it is picked up. But if you live in Marion County (Oregon), you should. Because the end point of our trash gets burned up by an incinerator owned and operated by Covanta, a multi-billion dollar company that's trying to get the Oregon legislature to give it renewable energy tax credits. Yes, for burning garbage. Who knew that garbage was a renewable resource? (It isn't -- that's why hardly anybody but Covanta favors bestowing taxpayer money on the incinerator in Brooks, north of Salem.) On February 21, a…

Today's Salem City Club program on the controversial Covanta garbage incinerator that handles Marion County trash was as disappointing as I and others expected it to be. Back in January I criticized the City Club for making the program totally biased in a blog post called "Salem City Club sparks outrage with one-sided garbage burner program."  Last week I was included in email exchanges between environmentalists from the local chapter of 350.org and City Club members in charge of the garbage burner program. My sympathies then, as now, are with the environmentalists. For after failing to have the Oregon legislature…

There's a movement to have the most rural Oregon counties join with Idaho so those living outside of the Willamette Valley don't have to put up with annoying democratic niceties such as elections have consequences.  Here's what Greater Idaho would look like if that fantasy were to somehow become reality, against great odds, courtesy of a map in the Oregonian story. This is how a USA Today story, "Secession in the Pacific Northwest? Some Oregon residents petition to join Idaho," starts out. Frustrated by liberal policies, some Oregon residents are petitioning to leave the state –by moving the border with Idaho…

My 12-year-old granddaughter, Evelyn, did the right thing in sending me an "OK Boomer" hoodie for Christmas. While at first I took it as a putdown of my baby boomer generation, upon further reflection I see it as a totally justified putdown of my generation. About the same time as the arrival of the hoodie, TIME magazine's Person of the Year issue arrived. It featured Greta Thunberg on the cover, with the words "The Power of Youth." Since, that issue has been sitting in my pile of Things to Blog About One Day. That day has come, in part because…

I'm already irked again at Republicans in the state legislature, because they're indicating that another walkout could happen in the upcoming short legislative session over a bill to reduce carbon pollution in Oregon and stem global warming. The leader of the Senate Republicans has said a walkout is possible, as has the leader of the House Republicans.  The GOP leader in the Oregon Senate says there could be another walkout by Republicans over legislation aimed at stemming global warming. Senate Minority Leader Herman Baertschiger, Jr., told reporters Wednesday that a bill being prepared by Democrats in the Legislature, which they…

It hurts when an organization you like screws up, then offers up a weak explanation for why the screw-up happened. That's why I'm so disappointed with the Salem City Club, which has decided to only have Marion County representatives speak at a February 21 program about the Covanta garbage burner in Brooks -- a decision that has outraged environmentalists who urged the City Club to also have someone speak about the downsides of the garbage burner. Which are many, as this excerpt from an Oregon League of Conservation Voters post says. When you think of clean energy, what do you…

I'm a firm believer that Republicans here in Oregon are just about as extreme as those, say, in Alabama. Members of the GOP in our state often just try to look moderate, because they know that with only 26% of registered voters in Oregon identifying as Republican, it's an uphill battle for them to win statewide elections. (Democrats are at 35% and Non-affiliated are at 32%). But I think Oregon Republicans should be proud of their extremism. Rock on, crazy conservatives! Don't hide your right-wingless. Flaunt it! To that end, I'm pleased to share some highlights -- OK, for many,…

It wasn't pleasant, but I forced myself to read How Democracies Die by two professors of government at Harvard University, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.  This is a scary book that, when I read it, seemed like it contained warnings for the United States as a whole in our age of Trumpism, with Oregon being immune from the worst of the ways democracies die. But the current walkout of Senate Republicans from the state legislature is a clear and present danger to Oregon democracy. This was a message of the recent rally at the capitol by supporters of the climate…