Posted in2020 election 2022 election Donald Trump

Anyone who still supports Trump is a democracy-hater

If there was any doubt that Donald Trump is the worst president in American history, the rock-solid findings of the January 6 committee have put that doubt to rest. I haven't watched all of my recording of tonight's primetime hearing by the committee into Trump's 187 minutes of utter inaction following the insurrection at the nation's capitol. But I listened to about an hour while driving around, and looked at some of the hearing when I returned home. It's amazing that there's anyone in the United States who still backs Trump. If any other president had done 1/1000 of the…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

My shameful fantasy involving Donald Trump

Hey, I survived the shame of telling my Donald Trump fantasy to a friend today, Jim, during our usual Sunday get-together at the Urban Grange coffeehouse in West Salem. So I might as well share that not-so-secret aspect of my political self with the much vaster audience who read this Salem Political Snark blog. (I have a liberal interpretation of much vaster.) I was describing to Jim the current status of my long-running depression about being a progressive Democrat in a time when everything seems to be going wrong for my side of the political spectrum. Inflation is skyrocketing. Biden's…
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Posted inPolice reform

Infuriating: video of cowardly police doing nothing for 77 minutes at Uvalde school

If there ever was any doubt that police officers are just ordinary people -- prone to mistakes, cowardice, disorganization and all the other flaws that beset every human being -- a video from inside the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman armed with an AR-15 rifle, should confirm this to even the most fervent police supporter. Thankfully, someone leaked a 77 minute video of local, state, and federal police standing around in the school hallway while the children and teachers were being murdered, and the Austin American-Statesman newspaper published…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Climate Action Plan

Climate Action Plan not getting the respect it deserves

Today was a really hot day in Salem. My car's thermometer said 99 degrees when I headed downtown at 4 pm. When I left at 6 pm, I had a reading of 107 degrees after my car sat on a sunny side of Court Street for a couple of hours. We need to get used to many more hot days, since the effects of human-caused global warming are becoming more obvious with every passing year.  To its credit, the City Council pushed for a Salem Climate Action Plan, which was accepted by the council in February of this year. Since,…
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Posted inCity Council

Salem City Council should ban fireworks

Not surprisingly, recently there's been a lot of discussion on Facebook about fireworks, almost all of it negative. Many want a ban on fireworks in Salem. People find them annoying and dangerous. Pets shake with fear at the loud booms. Wildlife are stressed by the bright lights and scary noises. Last Fourth of July I wrote "Fireworks should be shunned like cigarettes are." In researching that blog post about the bad side of fireworks, after some Googling I came up with the familiar problems: fires, trauma to pets, scaring wildlife. I also learned something new. Fireworks are highly toxic.  Fireworks…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem Fire Department is woefully inefficient, fighting few fires

Probably you've noticed that even though structure fires are rare in Salem, huge fire trucks are still frequently seen racing around the city. What the heck are they doing, since they're not fighting fires? They're doing what government bureaucracies almost always do. If your original reason for being no longer applies, then redefine your mission to avoid becoming irrelevant or having your budget reduced. So now "fire" departments actually are wasteful ways of responding to medical calls, both emergencies and non-emergencies. Oregon's Phil Keisling wrote about this in his 2015 piece, Why we need to take the 'fire' out of…
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Posted inCity Council Cycling

City Council approves protected bike lane from Harritt Drive NW to 17th Street NE

It isn't everything that Salem Bike Vision proposed for a network of protected bike lanes in Salem, but it's a good start. After all, politics is the art of the doable. Idealism is fine. In the end, though, getting part of what you want is a heck of a lot better than falling on a idealistic sword and not getting anything. A protected bike lane So even though I'd hoped for more protected bike lanes to be included in the $300 million community improvement bond measure Salem voters will be asked to approve this November, it was pleasing to watch…
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Posted inNational politics

Chaos is the real reason abortion rights have been lost

Like most Democrats, and indeed most Americans, I'm a strong supporter of abortion rights. The recent Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case which ruled that the Constitution protects a woman's right to choose an abortion, deeply irritates me. So does the weak response of Democratic leaders in Washington, especially since the leaked draft Supreme Court decision gave Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer plenty of time to formulate plans for protecting abortion rights after the court gave a green light to about half the states banning abortion entirely. Telling people, vote in November, is pretty much useless…
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Posted inCity Council Cycling

More evidence that City of Salem staff hate protected bike lanes

Totally predictable. But disturbing all the same. City staff played games with a survey intended to gauge public support for an upcoming $300 million bond measure by slanting the survey to make it less likely that those responding would say Yes! to the Salem Bike Vision proposal to build a network of protected bike lanes. City councilor and Mayor-to-be Chris Hoy recognized this game a month ago, as I noted in a May 24 blog post, "Mayor and city staff try to keep Salem from having protected bike lanes."  Discussion then turned to the public opinion research mentioned in the…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem isn’t really one of the best-run cities in America

The City of Salem Facebook page was all proud about Salem supposedly being one of the best-run cities in America. Not surprisingly, Mayor Bennett said it showed how wonderfully the folks at City Hall are doing. I'm not nearly as excited, for reasons I'll describe below. First, this isn't a scholarly bit of research conducted by an organization with impeccable credentials. It's a report by WalletHub designed to drive clicks to their web site, where I assume they do something involving being a hub for people with wallets. Second, it might make sense to speak of the "best-run city government,"…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump

Georgia election workers show what a hateful liar Trump is

At this point I'm rarely shocked by anything Donald Trump does or says. But today's televised hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol moved me deeply,  because what Trump did to two Georgia election workers -- Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman -- was so horrible even by Trumpian standards. Moss and Freeman at the January 6 committee hearing He and his lying accomplice, Rudy Giuliani, destroyed the lives of Moss and Freeman by falsely accusing them of falsifying many thousands of ballots for Joe Biden.  It was infuriating to listen to…
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Posted inHumor

These disturbing days I’m doing my best to deny reality

It's a tough time for lots of people in the United States. No, let's make that most people. President Biden said as much yesterday. Speaking to the Associated Press in a rare one-on-one interview in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon, the president touched on many topics from war to hair. “People are really, really down,” Biden told the Associated Press White House reporter Josh Boak, according to a transcript of the interview. “They’re really down.” Agreed. Maybe you aren't feeling down, but I sure am. Not totally, of course. I have plenty of cheerful moments. But I find it…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

A middle-aged white guy will be the next Salem City Manager

So after four months of searching the country for candidates to be Salem's next City Manager, the folks at City Hall came up with three middle-aged white guys.  My intuitive reaction when I saw the image below on Facebook was, Oh, no! And this is coming from an old white guy. Look, I have nothing against middle-aged white guys. I can remember being one myself a mere couple of dozen years ago. It just seems wrong for city officials to conduct a nationwide search and end up with three candidates who don't reflect the vast majority of people in Salem. Women…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council Cycling

Read why people want Salem to have protected bike lanes

Ten days ago I started a petition in support of the Salem Bike Vision proposal to spend $10 million of an upcoming $300 million community improvement bond on building a network of protected bike lanes. Please sign the petition, if you haven't already. So far 228 people have signed the petition. Over half, 130 people, left comments explaining why they support the protected bike lanes proposal.  I've copied in those comments below, which total 3,876 words. Yes, that's a lot. But the people who wrote those words spoke well, and sometimes eloquently, about how protected bike lanes are a big…
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Posted inCity Council Cycling

Weird reasons against protected bike lanes in Salem

Any user of Facebook knows that while there is a lot to like about this social media platform, there's also a lot not to like -- such as damn crazy ideas being spread around. About a week ago I started a petition in support of the Salem Bike Vision proposal to build a network of protected bike lanes in Salem. At the moment it has 190 signatures. Please sign it! To publicize the petition, I shared a post on three Facebook pages that I administer: Salem Can Do Better, Strange Up Salem, Salem Political Snark. The 591 reactions to date…
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Posted in2022 election City Council

Medlock now leads Gwyn by two votes in Ward 4 council race

If this was a fast-moving sporting event, rather than a slow-motion counting of all the votes, the contest between Dynee Medlock and Deanna Gywn to become the next Salem City Councilor in Ward 4 (a seat currently held by Jackie Leung, who didn't seek re-election) would have fans on the edge of their seats, waiting to see who ends up on top when time runs out. Here's how the contest stands as of today. Yesterday Gwyn led Medlock by two votes. Now Medlock leads Gwyn by two votes. We're not done yet with the May 17 election. A Salem Reporter…
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Posted inStatesman Journal

No opinion section in Statesman Journal getting more irritating

Wow, while eating breakfast today here in Salem, Oregon it was so great to use my iPad to read the opinion section of a local newspaper. I enjoyed seeing an editorial about a local controversy, along with intelligent commentary on the recent horrible killing of 19 elementary school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. There were columns by nationally syndicated writers, both progressive and conservative. And the letters to the editor showed me how ordinary people are viewing various important issues. Only problem was, I was reading the Portland Oregonian (which arguably is "local," especially compared to the New…
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Posted inCity Council Cycling

Why are progressives on Salem City Council so uninterested in protected bike lanes?

I'm a confused progressive. Along with many others, I've spent a lot of time, money, and energy working to get progressives elected to the Salem City Council. Now they have a 7-2 majority on the council. I put councilors Virginia Stapleton, Tom Andersen, Trevor Phillips, Jackie Leung, Chris Hoy, Vanessa Nordyke, and Micki Varney in the progressive camp, with Mayor Chuck Bennett and Jose Gonzalez in the conservative camp. So it's perplexing why the highly appealing Salem Bike Vision proposal to build a network of protected bike lanes in Salem appears to be getting such little love from the progressives…
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Posted inChuck Bennett City Council

Mayor and city staff try to keep Salem from having protected bike lanes

Given how pleasurable and safe it is for all ages to ride a bicycle on protected bike lanes, rather than dangerous white lines painted on the side of busy streets, it was irritating to watch a video of last night's City Council meeting and see Mayor Bennett, along with city staff, do their best to shoot down the popular proposal put forward by Salem Bike Vision.  One way among several to create a protected bike lane Councilor Virginia Stapleton handled the falsehoods with more patience and calm than I would have been capable of. Stapleton is taking the lead in…
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Posted inCity Council Cycling

Tell the Salem City Council you want protected bike lanes

While it is unclear whether the Salem City Council will be deciding tonight, May 23, on what to include in a $300 million bond measure to be voted on by citizens in the November election, it still would be a good idea to urge them ASAP (before 5 pm today, if possible) to include $15 million for protected bike lanes in the measure. Email your testimony to cityrecorder@cityofsalem.net Say you heartily support the proposal to use existing infrastructure to create the protected bike lanes, and want to see money for this in the bond measure. I described the proposal by…
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