Posted inJoe Biden National politics

Marjorie Taylor Greene gives Joe Biden a gigantic gift

Watching last night's State of the Union address was highly pleasurable for me in several ways. One, Biden gave a great speech with energy belying his 80 years. Two, ultra-MAGA-crazy Marjorie Taylor Greene gave Biden a great gift when she yelled "you lie" and other things at him while doing her best angry baboon imitation. (To those who think it's insulting to baboons to pair them with Greene, the image popped up in my Twitter feed today, so complain to whoever came up with this inspired comparison -- which admittedly puts baboons in a bad light that they don't deserve.)…
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Posted inNational politics

Elon Musk falsely claims thousands of NATO soldiers killed in Ukraine

For supposedly being one of the world's smartest people, Elon Musk sure can be amazingly dumb at times.  I follow Musk on Twitter so I get to see both his interesting tweets about Space X, Tesla, and such, and his crazy tweets about things Musk obviously knows nothing about. Or does know about, and lies about them anyway. Like, the war in Ukraine. Today I was astounded to see that Musk had replied to an obviously false tweet by Russian Market where it was claimed that thousands of NATO troops had died in Ukraine. Yeah, Elon, it would indeed be…
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Posted inNational politics Police reform

Police acting cruelly in Tyre Nichols videos infuriates me

Here we go again. One more of many examples where police acted really badly, so much so five officers in the Memphis police department have been charged with second degree murder after they killed Tyre Nichols, a young man, for no reason at all. None. Absolutely none.  Now, many people here in Salem, Oregon are going to think, "Thank heavens our police department isn't like that." They're wrong. Our police department is exactly like that.  Meaning, the Salem Police Department is like almost every large department in the country. It's organized on a military-style basis. Officers in the department view…
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Posted inNational politics

I hate war, but I love tanks going to Ukraine

Being a baby boomer (I was born in 1948), my life as an American liberal has featured several wars that I opposed.  Notably the Vietnam and Iraq wars, at least the second Iraq war. I was fine with us going into Afghanistan to take down Al Qaeda and the first Iraq war seemed justified. Then there's been U.S. involvement in a bunch of military actions. Can't remember much about them. So by and large I've been in favor of less military spending. Up to now, my generation, unlike the generation of my mother and father, hasn't experienced a truly just…
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Posted inCity of Salem Crime

Crime in Salem has been stable from 2008-2022

Last Friday the Salem City Club had a program with the provocative title, Does Salem Have a Crime Problem? Perceptions and Realities.  It featured Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack, and two neighborhood association chairs: Lynn Takata of Northeast Neighbors and Cory Poole of the Southeast Mill Creek Association. Womack started things off by sharing slides of some of the 2008-2022 crime statistics that are available for viewing on the City of Salem web site. Below are screenshots from that web page. This is the most inclusive crime statistic. NIBRS includes homicide, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny,…
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Posted inJoe Biden National politics

Biden’s classified documents screwup irritates this Democrat

Even though I'm a proud member of the Democratic "tribe," I also believe that when my political party does something wrong, I should be almost as irritated as when Republicans do that thing. I said almost because I'm a realist: even though it would be nice if I could be evenhanded when it comes to wrongdoing by Democrats and Republicans, the fact that I'm a Democrat means that I'm going to look somewhat more positively on screwups by my fellow Dems. Which is how most parents look upon their children. When your child gets into trouble, you're disturbed, but you…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

City Council approves $2.4 million for airport in dumb move

Here we go again. Monday night the City Council approved spending $2.4 million in precious general fund dollars in yet another attempt to lure an airline willing to provide commercial air service at the Salem airport. I guess Mayor Hoy and the eight city councilors have short memories. Or a penchant to forget the not-very-distant past when airlines came to town, and soon left town. Because Chamber of Commerce types here keep promising that this time an airline will commit to providing commercial air service if enough public money is spent to show that Salem is serious about making the…
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Posted inNational politics

GOP chaos is amusing. But GOP debt limit default is scary.

If there was any doubt that I'm a political junkie, I offer as evidence how much I enjoyed watching MSNBC last night as Republicans flamed out on a dramatic 14th attempt to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, finally succeeding on the 15th try after the last GOP rebels voted "present" rather than for another candidate. I loved watching a fight nearly break out between two House Republicans. The conflicts in Yellowstone (TV series) are entertaining, but fictional. This was real life, beamed nationwide by CSPAN. The most dramatic moment by far came near the end — during…
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Posted inSalem Police Department Salem Reporter

How could a man twice sexually assault women at Minto Brown Park?

Yesterday I got an email from a woman who was understandably upset at learning that David Belluno, who sexually assaulted a woman at Minto Brown Park last Monday afternoon, had sexually assaulted a different woman at Minto Brown Park back in 2018.  David Belluno Her message said: Hi Brian, as I'm sure you've seen, the same criminal let go in 2018 attempted the same crime (attempted kidnapping, rape, assault, etc.) over the weekend in Minto Brown park. I know from your posts that you revere this park as much as I do. I was shocked to see this and I'm…
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Posted inNational politics

Kevin McCarthy’s bad day foreshadows worse House chaos

Today was supposed to be when Kevin McCarthy achieved his dream of becoming Speaker of the House, second in line for the presidency (an admittedly scary thought). He'd already had his stuff moved into the Speaker's office. But McCarthy not only failed to be elected speaker by the new Republican House majority on the first vote, losing 19 members of his own party when he could only afford to lose four, McCarthy went down in flames on the second and third votes also, with 20 defectors on the third vote. So it was a day of Republican chaos in the…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Climate Action Plan

Salem needs to get past “blah, blah, blah” about climate change

As 2022 draws to a close, I'm hoping that 2023 is when Salem's city officials get past what climate activist Greta Thunberg calls the "blah, blah, blah" approach to reducing the world's greenhouse gas pollution. Meaning, lots of talk, very little action. The Salem City Council has passed a Climate Action Plan. It includes these goals: By 2035, GHG Salem emissions shall be reduced to 50 percent of the citywide greenhouse gas emissions for the baseline year of 2016, and By 2050, Salem should be carbon neutral. But the Climate Action Plan isn't being taken seriously by city staff and…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

If a Democratic president acted like Trump, how would liberals react?

Today the January 6 committee held its final meeting to lay out criminal referrals to the Justice Department for potential prosecution.  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol accused former President Donald J. Trump on Monday of inciting insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an act of Congress and one other federal crime as it referred him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution. The action, the first time in American history that Congress has referred a former president for criminal prosecution, is the coda to the committee’s 18-month investigation into Mr. Trump’s…
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Posted inNational politics

We must keep supporting Ukraine, says Nicholas Kristof

This isn't the cheeriest time in Oregon. It's cold. We're approaching the shortest day of the year, so it's dark a lot. But imagine that a malevolent foreign power who wants to make Oregon part of their country was attacking our electricity infrastructure with missiles and drones, causing our state to suffer massive electrical blackouts in winter. And those attacks keep happening. As soon as we make repairs and get the lights and heat on again, the foreign power strikes another time, plunging a large share of Oregon's population back into cold and darkness. Oh, and to make matters worse,…
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Posted in2022 election National politics

Raphael Warnock for president. Someday.

It was quite a night for political aficionados like me yesterday. I settled in to watch MSNBC's coverage of the Georgia runoff election between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker around 5 pm. Between then and 8:30 or so, when the Senate race was called in favor of Warnock, I went through a bunch of ups and downs until the final Big Up. I'm resisting talking about the lead changing hands, because this is an inaccurate way of describing what happened.  An election night isn't like a football game where the outcome is uncertain as the teams each score in an…
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Posted inCity of Salem Peter Fernandez

Peter Fernandez’ retirement is good news for Salem

Peter Fernandez, the thoroughly sleazy Public Works Director for the City of Salem, announced he's retiring effective January 6, 2023.  This is cause for joy among those of us who follow goings-on at City Hall closely enough to be aware of what a disaster Fernandez has been during the fifteen years Salem has had to put up with his lies, dissembling, and poor decisions. It's remarkable that Fernandez wasn't fired long ago, given how poorly he's performed as Public Works Director. This shows that Salem is willing to put up with a lot of crap, so long as the crap-producer…
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Posted inSalem-Keizer school district

Wacko group fails to recall Salem-Keizer school board members

The good news is that Salem Keizer We Stand Together, a wacko group that sees "wokeness" as the biggest problem in our children's education, failed to get enough signatures to recall three school board members who didn't conform to the group's extreme right-wing agenda. None of the three Salem-Keizer Public Schools governing board members targeted in a recall effort will be removed since petitioners failed to collect enough signatures before the deadline. Casity Troutt, vice president of the parent advocacy group Salem-Keizer We Stand Together, filed paperwork on Aug. 25 to recall board Chairwoman Ashley Carson Cottingham, former Chairman Osvaldo…
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Posted in2022 election Marion County politics

Marion County out to undermine gun control and climate action

It's not easy being a conservative in a liberal area, or a liberal in a conservative area, because your elected officials tend to do things you'd rather not have done.  Of course, a lot depends on what's meant by "area." I'm a liberal. I live in Oregon, a blue state. So mostly I'm good with what statewide elected officials (all Democrats) do. Within Oregon, I live in Salem -- that's my address, though I'm not in the city limits -- which leans decidedly leftward. So mostly I'm good with what the Salem City Council does, as the council has a…
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Posted in2022 election

Ed Dover makes sense of election results in City Club talk

After every general and midterm election for the past dozen years or so, Ed Dover, Professor Emeritus of Politics, Policy and Administration at Western Oregon University, gives a talk to the Salem City Club about what just happened. I always look forward to hearing Dover, because he's so entertaining and informative. Today was no exception. He started out by talking about the power of political metaphors, the goal being to create a memorable image or phrase that will stick in peoples' minds. This year "Red Wave" was heard over and over -- the image being of a 100 foot tall…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Hopefully I don’t regret this blog post about Trump 2024

Yesterday Donald Trump announced that he's a candidate for president in 2024, a full two years before the election.  I can't stand Trump. But I'm pleased that he's running for the Republican nomination again. It'll be easy for me to explain why. I just hope that after the 2024 presidential election I don't take a look at this post and think, Brian, how could you have been so stupid? Wouldn't be the first time I've had that thought, of course. I think and do stupid stuff all the time. However, it's one thing to make a personal mistake, and a…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Reporter

Help Salem Reporter fight City of Salem secrecy

I hate it when government officials try to hide important facts from the public. I especially hate it when the officials doing the hiding are employees of the City of Salem. You know, the agency whose slogan is "At Your Service." But for sure not when the folks at City Hall are trying to cover something up. Then their unstated slogan becomes "Good Luck Learning What We Did, Sucker." That's the position the inquiring journalists at the Salem Reporter are in. For quite a few months they've been trying to learn why Steve Bellshaw, who used to be a deputy…
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