Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump is poised to order attacks on Iran that would be war crimes

Unless Trump reaches a deal with Iran's leaders, he says that tomorrow, at 5 pm on April 7, Pacific time, he will order our military to destroy every power plant and bridge in Iran within four hours. That destruction, Trump says, will take Iran 100 years to repair, sending the country "back to the Stone Age." This horrific act would be a war crime. No doubt about it. I only hope that our military leaders have more sense than Trump and refuse to carry out his illegal orders. Unfortunately, that seems unlikely, since Pete Hegseth, the Defense Department Secretary, has…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump’s Iran speech was just as useless as I thought it would be

If you didn't see the 20 minute speech Trump gave yesterday in prime time, depriving Americans in several time zones of some actual quality television watching, congratulations. You saved yourself from 1/3 of an hour of what amounted to Trump reading from his recent Truth Social posts. I listened to the speech as I was driving home from my Tai Chi class, so I didn't waste any time on the speech. In short, Trump said nothing new, intelligent, or useful. He lied about all kinds of things (no big surprise). He didn't articulate a clear reason for why he started…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics Uncategorized

Photos and videos of 2026 Salem No Kings rally

Yesterday I attended the first No Kings rally of 2026 at the capitol mall here in Salem. Per usual, the signs were music to my Trump-hating ears. My wife got there before me, but I ran into Laurel and her sign before entering the crowd of attendees, who totaled about 5,000. Salem Mayor Julie Hoy got called out for her Trumpian MAGA love. This sign laid out the situation clearly. There was a No Kings dinosaur. And the iconic blow-up frog. Nice blend of Iran war and Epstein files. This woman was on crutches. "I run better than the government."…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues Uncategorized

“Iran’s Long Game” in Foreign Affairs shows how Iran can win the war while losing militarily

Whether or not you favor Trump's war against Iran, I highly recommend that you read a terrific March 26 article by Narges Bajoghli in Foreign Affairs, "Iran's Long Game." I liked it so much, after being able to read it as a guest, I just subscribed to Foreign Affairs -- so that gift link should enable you to read it also. In case the link doesn't work, here's a PDF link of the article. Iran’s Long Game | Foreign Affairs Bajoghli has some solid credentials. She is an anthropologist and Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins…
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Posted inDonald Trump

Trump ruins everything. He’s the biggest threat to the American people.

Russia. China. Iran. North Korea. Cuba. Drug smugglers. Illegal immigrants. National debt. Global pandemic. Inflation. Recession. Global warming. Rising energy prices. There's a lot out there to worry about these days. But nothing I've listed, or anything else, makes me more concerned than the President of the United States, Donald Trump. He's the biggest threat both to Americans and the world at large. Because Trump ruins everything. Like a cesspool King Midas, everything he touches turns to crap. I mean, everything. In his first term, there were a few exceptions. Well, actually I can only think of one: Operation Warp…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Iran war was started on a lie, say two of Trump’s top intelligence officials

Trump lies incessantly. Always has. Always will. He'll never stop lying until his last falsehood gasping breath. All of Trump's lies are despicable. But the lies Trump told about why he started a war with Iran are beyond despicable, because they've cost the lives of thousands of people so far, including thirteen American service members. Trump has thrown out a variety of reasons for the Iran war. None of them make much sense. However, his favorite reason, because it is the scariest, is that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States because Iran was close to having a…
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Posted inCity Council Oregon politics

If you don’t want elected officials doing public business behind closed doors, urge the governor to veto HB 4177

Every legislative session in Oregon features some bad bills that somehow get passed. Then the only remedy is for the governor to veto a bad bill. That's what needs to happen with HB 4177, which seriously weakens Oregon's public meetings law -- as I warned last month in "Really irritating that Oregon legislature may weaken public meetings law that Mayor Hoy violated." A March 11 Oregonian editorial calling for Governor Kotek to veto HB 4177 describes the worst part of the bill: a provision that allows a majority of the members of a public body to meet in secret to…
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Posted in2026 election Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Julie Hoy and Vanessa Nordyke agree on some things, disagree on others, in polite You Tube forum

I was hoping for some dramatic political fireworks, but mostly I got some mildly interesting sparklers. That pretty much sums up my reaction to a hour-long "mayoral debate" on You Tube featuring Julie Hoy and Vanessa Nordyke sponsored by What's Happening Salem and Capital Community Media. Which really wasn't a bad thing. Both candidates for mayor in the May election were polite with each other, frequently saying "I agree" to what their opponent said in response to questions posed by the moderators. Who did a very good job. The questions were thoughtful, and the production value of the You Tube…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Three disgusting things U.S. has done in Iran war

I'm no fan of Iran. I don't know anyone who is. For sure, Iran had to be prevented from building a nuclear weapon. But they were nowhere close to being able to do this. And eight months ago Trump said that the Iranian nuclear program had been obliterated by U.S. strikes, leaving them years away from being able to fashion a nuclear weapon, and about a decade away from having a ICBM capable of striking our country with a nuclear bomb. So clearly there was no imminent threat to the United States from Iran. But Trump attacked anyway, for reasons…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

In the Iran war, let’s not ignore the suffering of innocent Iranians

After three days of intense bombing of Iran by the Israeli and American military, I'm becoming increasingly worried that Iran is going to become the new Gaza: lots of civilian deaths even though those people had nothing to do with the purported reason for going to war, and large swaths of the country reduced to rubble even though destroyed areas had no military significance. I'm going to let tweets shared today by some of the people that I follow on X, formerly known as Twitter, do most of the speaking for me. The beauty of X, as with Blue Sky,…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump is at war with Iran. It’ll probably end badly, like everything Trump does.

Last night I was enjoying a hot bath, about to read more of an entertaining thriller novel, when I noticed that a real-life "thriller" message had appeared on my iPhone. The New York Times was reporting that Israel had attacked Iran. Soon that was followed by additional news. The United States also was attacking Iran. My wife and I weren't about to trade watching more of the new season of Bridgerton for CNN or MSNBC, but by chance Trump's address to the nation about the Iran attack was on just before we headed off to bed. We wondered why Trump…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Eight months ago Trump said the Iran nuclear program was obliterated. So how can Iran be a week away from a bomb?

Since I'm a big fan of Apple TV's terrific spy thriller, Tehran, from watching the third season of this Israeli production I know that the fanatical clerics who control Iran have been seeking a nuclear weapon. That's obvious from both the fictional plot of Tehran, and the reality of Iran's nuclear ambitions. Virtually nobody in the world wants to see the wacko Islamist fundamentalist rulers of Iran get a nuclear bomb. Back when Obama was president, a treaty was reached with Iran that prevented Iran from enriching uranium to the level needed for a bomb. Since the treaty was working…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

I just watched Trump give the longest State of the Union speech ever. I deserve a freaking medal.

It took a lot of strength and determination. I wanted to give up numerous times. But I persevered -- watching every damn minute of what turned out to be the longest State of the Union speech in our nation's history, 1 hour and 47 minutes. That broke the previous record, also set by Trump, which I think was 1 hour and 39 minutes. So I deserve a medal, especially since I was forced to sit through countless (almost) lies by Trump, along with his usual insults directed at Democrats like me. Commentators had been wondering which Trump would show up…
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Posted inCity Council Julie Hoy Oregon politics

Really irritating that Oregon legislature may weaken public meetings law that Mayor Hoy violated

I'm a proud Democrat, but I'm not shy about criticizing my political party when it does something stupid. Like, being on the verge of passing a bill in the current short session of the Oregon legislature that markedly weakens a prohibition on "serial communications" -- which basically means a governmental body, like the Salem city council, deliberating secretly rather than in a public meeting open to the citizenry. Salem Mayor Julie Hoy was the ringleader of a scheme to use serial communications (individual conversations with members of the city council) so Hoy could force Keith Stahley, the city manager back…
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Posted in2026 election Donald Trump National politics

Tariff decision by Supreme Court could have helped GOP in midterms, but Trump is doubling down on tariff tax

When I checked my iPhone for the latest news upon waking this morning, my mood instantly brightened. Yay! The Supreme Court has ruled that most of Trump's tariffs were illegal. And not by a narrow 5-4 margin, by a 6-3 margin, so three Trump-appointed justices ruled against him. Up until now the Supreme Court has mostly been allowing Trump to pursue his authoritarian dreams with minimal pushback. But this was a big rejection of unfettered presidential power. Even three conservative Supreme Court justices realized that the Constitution gives Congress the power of taxation, and tariffs are a tax paid by…
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Posted inCity of Salem Julie Hoy

More evidence that Mayor Julie Hoy wanted previous city manager gone for no good reason

Salem Mayor Julie Hoy is a habitual liar. In "Mayor Julie Hoy lied about not wanting City Manager Stahley gone. That's her third lie about Stahley.,"I wrote about three lies Hoy spouted on a single subject, how she orchestrated an illegal scheme to get rid of Keith Stahley, the city manager at the time, that got Hoy in trouble with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. I described Hoy's third lie. Lie #3: Hoy claimed that her motivation in talking with city councilors about Stahley’s employment status was his performance audit that showed some deficiencies in his management style. But this…
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Posted in2026 election Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Mayor Julie Hoy chickened out on debating Vanessa Nordyke at Salem Reporter forum

I apologize to all the chickens in Salem for lumping you in with Mayor Julie Hoy, but "chickened out" just seemed like the best way to describe Hoy failing to agree to debate city councilor Vanessa Nordyke at a Town Hall event sponsored by the Salem Reporter. As described in the email message below that Salem Reporter editor and owner Les Zaitz sent to subscribers yesterday (I'm a subscriber), every other candidate for the four city council seats and the mayor position that will be voted on in the May election has agreed to participate in the event. Julie Hoy…
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Posted inJulie Hoy Uncategorized

Mayor Hoy’s excuse for not signing a letter criticizing ICE is akin to “the dog ate my homework”

Back in the not-really-so-old days, students turned in homework assignments that were -- shock! -- written on paper, not a screen. (Maybe this still happens in our digital age; I'm clueless about modern homework practices.) The classic excuse for not turning in an assignment was "the dog ate my homework." "The dog ate my homework", or "my dog ate my homework", is an expression which carries the suggestion of being a common, poorly fabricated excuse made by children to explain why they have failed to turn in an assignment on time. The phrase is also referenced outside of an academic…
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Posted in2026 election Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Julie Hoy is acting like she doesn’t want to be reelected as Salem mayor

I'm beginning to think that Julie Hoy feels she would be happier if she wasn't the mayor of Salem, which entails putting in a lot of time for exactly zero money, the position being unpaid. I say this because while Hoy has filed for reelection, she's been making some dubious choices if she truly wanted to defeat Councilor Vanessa Nordyke in the May election. For example, (1) Hoy has declined to admit that she violated Oregon's public meetings law, even though the Oregon Government Ethics Commission determined that she was the instigator of prohibited private conversations with city councilors about…
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Posted inNational politics

Washington Post cuts a third of its staff. I’ve cancelled my subscription.

After Trump was elected president in 2016, one of the first things I did was sign up for digital subscriptions with the New York Times and Washington Post. I wanted to support high quality independent journalism that would serve as a factual counterweight to Trump's incessant lies. The Times has continued to do that. Under the pathetic so-called "leadership" of owner Jeff Bezos, the Amazon billionaire, the Post hasn't. In late 2024 I cancelled my subscription to the Post after the newspaper withdrew an endorsement of Kamala Harris after the editorial supporting her had been written and was ready to…
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