Salem Political Snark

Hazardous waste from Santiam Canyon fire may have polluted Salem

A few days ago the Statesman Journal ran a story about clean-up efforts after hundreds of houses were destroyed in the Beachie Creek fire that ravaged the Santiam Canyon in early September. 

KATU News photo

Here's some excerpts from "EPA hauls hazardous waste from homes burned in Beachie Creek fire."

Static from Geiger counters and creaks from metal echoed as crews in hazmat suits carefully inspected and sorted rubble where a house once stood off E. Central Road in Gates. 

The property, devastated by the Beachie Creek Fire in early September, is one of many sites across the state being cleared of hazardous waste by crews from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

...The EPA's cleanup effort is the first in a two-step process funded by FEMA and the State of Oregon. The service is free to residents who submit Right of Entry forms. 

Crews are collecting material ranging from bleach containers to batteries, paint to propane tanks —"anything that is compromised and potentially threatens public health," said Randy Nattis, incident commander for EPA. 

So far, the teams have been able to clean up about 450 properties across Oregon, Nattis said. Officials anticipate the process will take several weeks, and each property can cost about $75,000.

The goal is to have the hazardous debris removed to start phase two: ash and trash cleanup. 

Problem is, now it's late October. As you can read below, earlier this month someone sent me their concerns about metal from burned homes being handled at Cherry City Metal in north Salem. 

It appears that this was debris being removed from the Santiam Canyon before environmental agencies began to put into place protocols for separating out hazardous waste from non-hazardous waste. Here's what I was told:

The largest environmental catastrophe to ever hit the Salem community is at the beginning stages.

 

Federal, state and local governments are allowing this catastrophe to unfold in plain sight. The impacts will last for centuries unless there is action in the next month.

 

There are two components to the environmental catastrophe. Let us begin with the "point source" in north Salem.

 

There is a plant that is raining down heavy metals, sulfur, and asbestos across the Salem metropolitan area that originates within blocks of the Blind and Deaf School in North Salem.

 

Many pounds of toxins are being released into the air six days a week with no government monitoring.  How could this be happening in Salem Oregon in the year 2020?

 

Well, here's how it's happening and it is similar to the environmental and economic catastrophe that unfolded in Kellogg Idaho in 1973 that left the region as a Superfund site.

 

"In 1973, a fire broke out at Bunker Hill and destroyed part of the baghouse—the main pollution-control system for the lead smelter. For the next year and a half, the smelter continued to operate, and dust polluted with heavy metals rained down on the area." (Quote from Newweek article in 2016. https://www.newsweek.com/2016/06/24/bunker-hill-superfund-silver-valley-lead-poisoning-469222.html)

 

Salem has our own Bunker Hill that began operation in early October 2020 that is raining heavy metals down on the area and it should be shut down before it runs for a year and a half and leaves a legacy that will need to be remediated at tremendous cost and harm the lives of thousands of Salem residents.

 

Cherry City Metal is the destination for hundreds of thousands of pounds of metal that is being recovered from the 600 plus homes that burnt in the North Santiam Canyon.

 

Six days a week plumes of toxic dust with heavy metals and sulfur originate at the Cherry City Metals operation in North Salem.  There is not even a minor attempt to control the dust which is filled with toxic ash. If they sprayed water to control the dust, they would have another environmental catastrophe like what will be washing down the north Santiam River beginning this rainy season.

 

If you have not driven up to Gates and made a loop back on the opposite side of the North Santiam River, you need to take a drive to see ground zero for the source of Salem's environmental catastrophe.

 

Metal dumpsters are being loaded and hauled west on Highway 22 to the Cherry City Metals plant. Foundations at the edge of Salem's drinking water are being cleared of ash and debris.

 

While dump trucks of ash are disappearing into private non-regulated landfills all through the North Santiam Canyon and will leach into Salem's water supply for centuries, the metal recycling semi trucks are running down Highway 22 in plain view and releasing plumes of toxin over North Salem.

 

I watched a recording of the Marion County Commissioners meeting this week where they got an update on the fire debris response. Kevin Cameron read out loud a letter from a resident in the North Santiam Canyon and then proceeded to ignore the concerns.

 

The reality is that a property owner in the North Santiam Canyon has to pay at least $2,000 just to get their ash and fire debris tested. Only after a high-priced consultant writes a report, can the ash can be trucked to Coffin Butte landfill near Corvallis.

 

There are plans being developed for how government can help to clear the burned building debris, but the deadline for initiating that process is October 16th.  Government supported efforts to remove ash will likely not begin for six to nine months. 

 

Hundreds of property owners are not waiting. The deadline for applying for help is a month and a half after the Beachie Fire raged. Many property owners are not waiting around for government, they are creating their own landfills at the edge of the North Santiam River which is the source of water for Salem residences.

 

Even aside from the toxins, there is a complete lack of awareness of the forest ash and mud flows that will impact Salem's drinking water.

 

Regarding that last observation, I was sent links to two related brief articles about the long-term impact of wildfires on water quality in streams and rivers. Since Salem gets its drinking water from the Santiam River, this certainly is something city officials need to be monitoring. See:

"Legacy of severe wildfires on stream water quality"
"The legacy of a severe wildfire on stream nitrogen and carbon in headwater catchments."

My not-so-surprising presidential election prediction

With six days to go, it seems like the right time for me to make a presidential election prediction.

Close enough to feel confident in the prediction, not so close as to be accused of waiting until the last moment when the pre-election cards have all been dealt face up.

But I'm going farther, into a prediction of not only what will happen, but how the post-election period will go -- with a bang or a whimper?

As a progressive, I understand why many in my political tribe are agonizing over all sorts of dire election possibilities. Some of this is a hangover from the 2016 trauma of expecting that Clinton would win, only to suffer the despair of Trump being elected by the narrowest of margins in a few mid-west states.

However, that was then, and this is now. 

I follow several pollsters on Twitter. Nate Silver. Harry Enten. Nate Cohn. They each have their own take on both polls and the state of the Biden-Trump race. But they agree on the basics.

Biden's lead has been steady. Nothing changed after the last debate. The divergence between national polling and state polling has narrowed to reflect Biden's lead both in the country as a whole and in the most competitive states (meaning, neither heavily blue or red).

So I'm convinced that Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight current forecast is solid. Joe Biden has an 88% chance of beating Donald Trump.

Of course, Silver correctly points out that Trump's 11% chance of winning is a long way from zero. And it also is a long way from 88%. Thus Trump could win, but this is much less likely than Biden winning.

What about polling error? Silver says that this is as likely to be in Biden's favor as in Trump's favor.

Plus, even if the state polls were as far off as they were in 2016, this still leaves Biden in a strong position given how much better he is doing in swing states than Clinton was at the point in the election year.

I'm equally optimistic about what the post-election days and weeks will look like. 

Yes, Trump is talking trash about wanting the election over on November 3, hinting, if not outright saying, that no votes should be counted after election day. Which is so absurd, even a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court isn't going to go along with that argument.

Here in Oregon, a 100% vote by mail state, ballots have to be in by 8 pm on election day. Yet election results are updated for at least several days afterward, with the final certified vote taking weeks.

In Washington and California, ballots just have to be postmarked by election day. This is why California takes forever, more or less, to report final election results, with Washington also taking a long time. 

So there's no way Trump is going to succeed in his fantasy of stopping the presidential vote count at midnight on November 3, when he hopes to have a lead based on Republican in-person voting, since in mid-west swing states mail-in ballots can't begin to be counted until election day.

My bet is that the presidential election won't be close. Biden will win handily, and perhaps in a landslide. 

Thus I'm expecting that Trump will end up going out of office with a whimper, not a bang. Sure, he will fuss and fume about voter fraud, a rigged election, and such. That's what Trump does with everything -- lie habitually. 

I could be wrong, but I suspect that the post-election period will be calmer than many anxious Biden supporters expect it to be. I don't see the Supreme Court bending over backwards to hand Trump an undeserved election victory.

That would destroy the credibility of the court. It also would guarantee that Democrats enlarge the Supreme Court if they win the presidency and gain control of the Senate, as seems likely.

Borat 2 movie shows the funny side of right-wing politics

Humor is subversive.

Lenny Bruce knew that. Other comedians throughout the ages, including ancient Greece, also have known that. To mock a political stance is to show how absurd it is, how open to ridicule it is.

Sacha Baron Cohen's new Borat movie, creatively titled Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, may not be a comedic masterpiece, but it is damn funny. 

Laurel, my wife, and I rarely laugh out loud during movies, even when we are watching them at home. But last night we fired up the Amazon Prime app on our television and hugely enjoyed Borat 2, the shorter way of referring to this film.

Yes, laughter was audible in the Hines home. We like dark edgy humor, and there was plenty of that in Borat 2.

To answer the most pressing question first, in regard to the Rudy Giuliani episode near the end of the movie it looked to me like Giuliani was tucking in his shirt rather than playing with himself in the bedroom scene with Borat's daughter, Tutar, played by a marvelous actress. 

The Borat line "She 15, she too old for you," uttered as he rushes into the bedroom trying to stop whatever might happen between Giuliani and the girl (who actually is 24) has echoes of Jeffrey Epstein. I'm sure Giuliani thought the woman pretending to be a journalist was older than 18, but this 74 year-old clearly was trying to set up a date, or whatever, with her.

Which reflects the overall theme of Borat 2. 

Right-wing Republicans (is there any other kind these days?)  talk a lot about morality, but they do a crappy job of living up to those words. So Cohen had a lot of targets to point his comedic artillery at in the movie. For example...

Children in cages -- Borat puts Tutar in a cage, this being how female children are treated in Kazakhstan. Also of course in the United States under Donald Trump's immigration policies.

Anti-Semitism -- Tutar isn't allowed to read books, but she discovers Facebook, a different sort of book. There she sees a post saying the Holocaust never happened. This disturbs Borat. However, a visit to a synagogue leads to a conversation with a Holocaust survivor, who assures Borat that the Holocaust is true. This restores Borat's faith in humanity. Or rather, inhumanity.

Trump supporters -- Borat crashes an actual Trump rally in Olympia, Washington. He ends up on stage, singing a song to the delight of the crowd. A movie review says:

“Obama was a traitor, America, he hate her. He belong inside the jails,” Cohen-as-Borat sings, affecting a country-western twang, at the March for Our Rights event. “I ain’t lying, ain’t no jokes, corona is a liberal hoax. Corona is a liberal hoax.”

He continues in song: “Obama, what we gonna do? Inject him with the Wuhan flu. Dr. Fauci, what we gonna do? Inject him with the Wuhan flu.”

Later, Cohen-as-Borat asks the crowd whether they should inject journalists with the coronavirus or “chop them up like the Saudis do.” The crowd cheers loudly.

Racism -- Hoping to give his daughter to Vice-President Pence, Borat infiltrates CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit and saying he is Steven Miller, Trump's anti-immigrant front man. 

Now, I'm sure conservatives would say that if there was a right-wing Sacha Baron Cohen, it would be possible to make an equally mocking movie of liberal excesses. To some extent that's true. But here's the thing.

Modern day liberalism is much more moderate than modern day conservatism. The Republican Party has bought into the Trump clown show almost completely, while the Democratic Party has come together around Joe Biden, who is pleasingly centrist and sane.

So it was easy for Cohen to push the boundary of right-wing politics into absurd comedic territory, because Republicans are so close to that boundary all the time. Every time Trump talks, what he says is laughable. Yet Trump's devotees don't laugh, they applaud. And that's really funny. 

Watch the new Borat movie. I merely scratched the surface of the laugh-at-loud bits. A scene in a right-to-life counseling center with Borat and his daughter was a highpoint for me (and a lowlight for right-wingers with no sense of humor). Here's the movie trailer to whet your appetite for it.

 

Trump lost tonight's debate because he is Trump

The real winner of tonight's Trump-Biden debate is everyone who's glad there's no more debates. Which definitely includes me. 

Sure, I enjoy debates. But I'm ready for the election. This debate marks the beginning of the home stretch toward November 3. I'm eager for that day to come, especially if, as I both suspect and hope, Biden defeats Trump.

Nothing I saw tonight changes my opinion about Biden being the clear favorite to become the next president. Currently FiveThirtyEight places the odds of this happening at 87%. 

It's hard to see how Trump's non-disastrous performance in this second debate, a step up from the Trump disaster of the first debate, changes the race in any meaningful way. Here's the FiveThirtyEight live blog headlines from various staffers. These nicely encapsulate the tenor of the evening.

I think that Biden won the debate for the same reason he won the previous debate. Trump can't stop being Trump. Of course, this is true of everyone. We are who we are.

But most of us have both the will and the ability to adjust how we come across to the needs of an occasion. For example, we might appear wild and crazy at a freewheeling party, yet calm and restrained in a job interview.

Trump, on the other hand, is incapable of appearing honest, coherent, empathetic, and caring. He simply lacks the capacity to rise above his habitual personality, which is decidedly unappealing to anyone who isn't a fervent Trump devotee. 

Naturally Trump lied almost constantly tonight. The New York Times fact-checked the debate. Trump got many more facts checked, probably because he gets facts wrong so often. Here's how Trump and Biden did on the NYT fact-checks. 

Trump
False - 15
Misleading - 13
Exaggerated - 3
Lacks evidence - 2
Partly true - 1
Mostly true - 1
True - 1

Biden
False - 1
True - 2

Well, damn! Out of 36 statements that were fact-checked, Trump got one that was true. Looks like the Liar-in-Chief needs to work harder.

The pandemic was the first debate topic. This also is the topic most on the minds of Americans, since it has been an ever-present backdrop to all of our lives for about eight months.

Once again, Trump wrongly claimed that the United States is turning the corner on COVID-19. Well, that's sort of true. As shown in this chart from today's Washington Post, covid cases have indeed turned the corner -- but in the wrong direction.

Flooding in Battle Creek area needs to be taken seriously

Here's another tale of how staff in the City of Salem Public Works Department are failing to be open, honest, and transparent with citizens.

Earlier this year I reported that documents received from a public records request proved that Peter Fernandez, the Public Works Director, and other staff lied about why a property on Taybin Road in West Salem was slated for purchase.

Fernandez, et. al, claimed it was for stormwater management. Actually, it was to buy right of way for Marine Drive in an area that the City Council had declared off-limits for ROW purchases.

So the credibility of city staff when it comes to stormwater (and other subjects also, like trees) is very shaky.

Keep this in mind when you read how Lora Meisner, a community activist in the Battle Creek area, describes the controversy over how seriously the City of Salem is taking the risk of flooding in that area. (Last year I wrote "Tell City officials you want Battle Creek Park to be left natural," which relates to this issue.)

This is a complex subject. Thus after Meisner and I spoke by phone, she sent me this brief summary of what's going on here.

City: “We’re doing all we can, we’re going to dig up detention ponds on Battle Creek to hold the flood water.”

Taxpayers: “So you’re counting on detention ponds which may take years to put in place depending on if all funding comes through and if/when the city has time. Doesn’t it make more sense to turn off/turn down the water faucet instead of installing more bath tubs? What happens when bath tubs are full?”

City: “They’ll never be full and the groundwater that will come up into the ponds initially will slowly seep out into Battle Creek. We have a model that shows these ponds can handle it even with “full build out.”

Taxpayers: “Really? Isn’t this modeling based mainly on past data? Because if you were using 'climate change projected rainfall impact”\' from the First Street Foundation projections which are found on Realtor.com web site, they show a very different story. According to people who served on the Storm Water Committee, they were told about it but city staff hid this information because developers/realtors who served on the Committee wanted to keep the info under wraps so as not to impact real estate here in Salem. How can city officials justify this lack of transparency?”

City: “Because we paid big bucks to a consultant who, based on the information WE gave him, shows everything will be OK.”

Taxpayers: “So you’re not going to deal with turning the faucet off or turning it down even though several years ago 1 inch of rain equaled 1 foot rise in Battle Creek and now less than 1 inch rain equals almost a 2 foot rise in the streams. I guess our tax dollars should go to paying for math lessons for the Public Works Department."

Much greater detail about the flooding concerns of people in the Battle Creek area can be found in a letter regarding changes to the Stormwater Management Plan submitted by SGNA, the South Gateway Neighborhood Association, to the Mayor and City Council on September 21, 2020. 
Download 9.21.20 SGNA Comments on Stormwater Management Plan

Here's an excerpt from the SGNA letter that talks about a key concern.

The FEMA flood maps for the Battle Creek Basin were developed from FEMA modeling done in the 1960s. This aged modeling has been used to regulate and approve the stormwater management in the basin for the past 50 years. Based on the 1996 and 2012 storm events SGNA residents have personal experience with how this planning has failed to protect the community.

The proposed Stormwater Master Plan looks at the Battlecreek Basin, for the first time using modern engineering methods, and identifies the issues that residents have stated to the Council and Public Works since 2007. 

“The old plan is not working. The creeks are beyond capacity. Turn the water off, please!”

We encourage adoption of this Stormwater Master Plan as it relates to the Battle Creek Basin. The City Code needs to reflect the findings identified, particularly changes related to storm duration. The current Salem Code uses a “24 hour Design Storm” language. The research used to identify stormwater issues in the plan demonstrate the failure of this metric to reflect the type of impact the two recent storm events had on the community. We strongly recommend the use of a 72 hour 100 year storm metric with detention on sight [sic] of large projects when the flow rate downstream will be increased greater than 350 cfs beyond current conditions.  

In other words, my understanding is that city staff are resisting making flooding predictions based on current knowledge about how global warming is affecting rainfall in our area. Around the country "100 year floods" are going to happen much more often, sometimes every year.

I took a look at some background information Meisner shared with me. A New York Times opinion piece shows the greatest risk from climate change faced by different parts of the country. Here's a screenshot for Marion County. The greatest risk is extreme rainfall.

Another New York Times story is called "New Data Reveals Hidden Flood Risk Across America." Here's a screenshot for Marion County. It shows the difference between outdated FEMA estimates and more accurate maps from the First Street Foundation.

I checked out the First Street Foundation web site. You can put in an address and get a Flood Factor estimate for that place. The web page wouldn't recognize the Battle Creek Park address (1680 Waln Drive SE) so I used the address for Battle Creek Elementary School instead (1640 Waln Drive SE). 

Here's the result.

Bottom line: residents in the Battle Creek area appear justified in their concern that city officials are downplaying the risk of serious flooding in their neighborhood. Climate change needs to be taken into account when updating city ordinances and plans related to stormwater management. 

If this means restricting development in flood prone areas, or increasing SDCs (System Development Charges) paid by developers, so be it. It isn't fair to have home and business owners pay the price when their property is flooded. The cost of mitigating extreme rainfall  events needs to be shared equitably.

One Salem Police Chief candidate seems better than the other

The City of Salem has narrowed the search for a Police Chief to replace retiring Jerry Moore to two candidates, Malik Aziz and Trevor Womack. (That link allows you to submit a question to be asked of Aziz and Womack during their October 30 interviews in Salem.)

I spent some time today Googling Aziz and Womack. Obviously this is a very rough way of coming to a conclusion about which man would be best suited to lead Salem's Police Department. 

But, hey, us bloggers are opinionated, and I came up with an opinion: Malik Aziz.

First, and most obviously, Aziz is Black. This means something given how the Black Lives Matter movement has been casting a light on the treatment of people of color at the hands of police. 

Hiring Aziz would send a message that the police department is committed to ending racial disparities in policing. Sure, there's debate about how much systemic racism exists in the department, but there's clearly a widespread suspicion among a large segment of the community that there is.

Also, Aziz speaks Arabic. That may not mean much in Salem, but it's a cool ability.

Aziz has been a deputy chief in the Dallas, Texas police department and is now a Major, having been demoted in a reorganization recently. A 2016 profile by a Memphis reporter, where he was applying for the police chief job, contains some appealing observations about Aziz. 

Dallas Deputy Chief Malik Aziz likes to describe himself as a community guy who fights crime — and he says having that emphasis on the community has made him a better law enforcement officer.

"I'm a public servant and I'm obligated to make sure people are safe. I'm also obligated to hear people who have concerns. I've never gone to a place wearing my rank. I'm a community guy," Aziz said. "When you grow up in (those) communities, you have a better understanding of how to deal with issues that have been plaguing those communities for decades."

...Aziz has a national profile — perhaps more than any other candidate. He's appeared on CNN, PBS and National Public Radio talking about community policing, race relations, the deadly shooting in Dallas and being a black police officer.

...Sara Mokuria, co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality in Dallas, said that while she doesn't know Aziz personally, he reached out to her and they will meet next month.

"He said he wants to bridge the gap and move forward to repair the issues we have regarding police brutality," said Mokuria, whose father was killed by police in 1992.

Aaron Michaels founded the New Black Panther Party in Dallas in the 90s and is critical of the Dallas Police Department, but says Aziz is one of the best deputy chiefs he's ever worked with.

"We couldn't have done some of the things we needed (inside the police department) without him," said Michaels of Aziz.

Michaels says he's known Aziz for about 30 years and that Memphis would be lucky to have him leading the police department.

"He had a hard life coming up and he turned many of the negatives around," he said. "He brings that perspective to the table."

Michaels said Aziz is also not afraid to point out bad officers.

"He's able to spot problem officers."

Aziz currently also is one of six finalists for the Milwaukee, Wisconsin police chief job. He touts his progressivism in a story by a Milwaukee TV station. Since Salem is a progressive city, with six of eight city councilors in the progressive camp, this is another way Aziz would be a good fit for Salem.

A Dallas Police Major hopes he can bring his progressive style to the Milwaukee Police Department as its next chief.

“Whatever city that decides they want Malik Aziz as a progressive police chief, that’s it,” Major Malik Aziz said. “I’m a big city commander. Those things are commonplace, working with communities and progressive cities like Dallas. The Dallas Police Department is a very progressive police department. Very progressive for community relations.”

All that said, Trevor Womack has some strong points in his police background also. 

A Bloomberg story talks about a pioneering program in Stockton, California, where Womack has been deputy police chief. I had trouble reading the story online, but was able to export a PDF file. 
Download What Police-Community Reconciliation Can Look Like - Bloomberg

Standing before the congregation of the Progressive Community Church of Stockton, California, Eric Jones, the city’s police chief, apologized.

It was July 2016, in the furious days after the police shootings of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Those were followed closely by the deadly ambush of police officers in Dallas, Texas, and in Baton Rouge after protests over the Sterling killing.

Nationwide, police departments were assuming a protective posture as outrage roiled cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. But Jones was out in his community, talking about the role of police in everything from pre-Civil War slave-catching to Jim Crow enforcement and the carceral policies of the War on Drugs.

“This needs to be said,” the white police chief told the largely African American congregation. “There was a time when police used to be dispatched to keep lynchings ‘civil,’ That’s a fact of our history that we need to acknowledge.”

...That apology marked the beginning of an unprecedented truth-and-reconciliation process with communities of color in Stockton, a high-poverty city in California’s Central Valley that for years has been struggling with a familiar American crisis. When Jones took over as chief in 2012, its annual murder rate was higher than Chicago’s.

That year, the city of 300,000 saw 71 homicides and an overall crime rate more than twice the national average. A municipal bankruptcy had slashed the size of the police force, and it could barely keep up with 911 calls.

After two decades of zero-tolerance policing tactics, a history of local abuse, and high-profile officer-involved shootings, there was a deep well of mistrust between police and the Stockton communities most beset by violence. A career Stockton officer, Jones had begun taking steps to improve, training his officers on fair practices and using more focused, less invasive strategiesto prevent violence.

But he came to believe that they wouldn’t make real headway on addressing the city’s public safety issues unless he embarked on something more radical: not just apologies but atonement.

...For the last two years, the Stockton Police Department has been working toward reconciliation using a trust-restoration script devised by American criminologists and international experts in transitional justice. Along with a host of departmental reforms, police in Stockton have held a series of dialogues and workshops designed to repair their shattered relationship with the communities they serve.

Rather than broad gestures at police “accountability” that promote measures like body cameras, the city has committed to changing departmental norms wholesale. It’s an uncertain, and maybe never-ending process, one that almost certainly will not conclude with a telegenic Hallmark display of forgiveness. What it might yield instead is a foundation for real trust and greater community control.

...Trevor Womack, one of Jones’s deputy chiefs, stood up. “I think what you just offered right there is one of the most important things in this entire training for me,” he said. “So I grew up in North Stockton. I never, ever had an experience where I was stopped by the police. No one that I knew was ever arrested. Nobody I knew was shot or killed.”

That was the understanding—or lack thereof—that he took to his first assignment as a 21-year-old white cop, when he was detaining and pointing his gun at residents of Southeast Stockton, he said. “I wish I could go back to the day I started and have this kind of conversation. I would have been a whole different police officer.”

That's great. Womack's words are admirable.

But the way I see it, Salem has a choice between hiring a Black man, Aziz, to be police chief who has direct personal experience of discrimination, and Womack, a white man who has had to learn second-hand about how police discriminate against people of color. 

That's why I favor Aziz.

Biden was warmly welcoming. Trump was coldly corrosive.

It wasn't a mistake for ABC and NBC to hold town halls with Joe Biden and Donald Trump on the same night, at the same time.

I thought it would be, but thanks to my DVR, I was able to watch the hour with Trump, then the hour and a half with Biden. I appreciated the immediate stark contrast.

Once again, Biden was the clear winner of the debate that wasn't, yet in a a way, was. The most obvious way Biden won was that he made no glaring mistakes, whereas Trump did.

Supposedly Biden is the one who makes verbal gaffes, but tonight it was Trump who had many moments that were so atrocious, there's reason to wonder whether he even cares about winning the election -- just trying to steal it.

Savannah Guthrie, who moderated the NBC town hall, did a great job holding Trump's feet to the factual fire.

For the first twenty minutes or so she elicited responses from Trump that cast a lot of light on the B.S. that he gets away with when reporters aren't able to ask follow-up questions, which Guthrie was able to do.

Her most amazing feat was getting Trump to admit that maybe he had a negative test before the first debate, and maybe he didn't. Trump claimed that he couldn't remember whether he had a covid test on the day of the debate, as required by debate rules agreed to by both campaigns. So almost certainly Trump didn't have a test.

Over and over Trump exhibited his annoying inability to answer even the simplest question. Guthrie teed up what should have been a slam dunk response from Trump, to mix a couple of sporting metaphors.

Is QAnon a purveyor of baseless conspiracy theories? Obviously it is, since neither the deep state, nor leading Democrats, are operating a pedophile ring -- not out of the basement of a pizza parlor, not anywhere. 

But Trump whiffed his answer, claiming that he didn't know anything about QAnon. Nor did Trump have an answer about how he would provide health care to Americans if the Affordable Care Act is overturned by the Supreme Court, as the Trump administration is hoping will happen. 

Guthrie pointed out that Trump has had four years to come up with the great health care plan that is better than Obamacare and way cheaper, as Trump blathers on about at every opportunity. And once again Trump had nothing substantive to say.

His demeanor wasn't as nasty as at the first debate with Biden, but Trump didn't do himself any favors by being biting, insulting, and sarcastic in his interactions with Guthrie.

Sure seems like Trump has a big problem with assertive women. Since women favor Biden over Trump by more than thirty points, Trump blew another chance to look like a caring guy, rather than an arrogant asshole.

Biden, on the other hand, was appealingly boring.

Well, boring is a bit unfair, since Biden did have some crisp compelling answers to audience questions, notably what he said about the state of international relations after Trump has done his best to coddle dictators and offend our allies. 

Much of the time, though, I was silently pleading inside my head, "Joe, make a simple point, then shut up. You're going into way too much detail." However, this did show Biden's impressive capacity to offer up a comprehensive answer to any question, something Trump is utterly incapable of. 

When a woman with a transgender child asked about how Biden would restore the rights of transgender people that Trump has trashed, Biden looked down as the question was being asked with an impossible-to-fake expression of concern on his face. This also is something Trump is utterly incapable of -- being empathetic and caring to someone who is hurting.

Likely the headline of the Biden town hall will be his sort-of answer to a question from George Stephanopolous about Biden's stance on adding judges to the Supreme Court, a.k.a. court packing. After side-stepping the question, Biden finally promised to provide a clear answer before the election, after he sees how Republican's handle Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination hearing.

And, gosh, Biden is OK with fracking so long as it is safe and used as a bridge to renewable energy and a carbon neutral United States. Biden acted like the moderate that he is, which is why he won the Democratic presidential nomination and is doing so well in the polls against Trump.

All in all, my progressive self felt really good about the dueling town halls.

Trump is the one who has to make up electoral ground, yet tonight he acted like the same old Trump. Uninformed, irritating, lying. So boring Biden won by being himself, a normal human being who wants to be president.

Danielle Bethell getting big bucks from anti-abortion groups

Here's some fun facts about Danielle Bethell, a Republican who is running against Democrat Ashley Carson Cottingham for a seat on the Marion County Board of Commissioners.

(1) Campaign finance reports show that to date, Bethell has gotten cash contributions of $7,500 from Oregon Right to Life and in-kind contributions of $57,263 from the Women's Leadership Coalition PAC -- which is a thinly-disguised arm of Oregon Right to Life.

(2) So far, in 2020 Friends of Danielle Bethell, her campaign finance organization, has gotten $151,939 in contributions. So the $64,763 Bethell has gotten from the two anti-abortion groups make up 43% of her total contributions. 

(3) At a Salem City Club meeting on October 9, Bethell and Cottingham were asked who the top three donors to their campaigns were. Bethell said Freres Lumber, Mountain West Investment, and Mid Valley Association of Realtors.

(4) What Bethell told the City Club audience, which included me, wasn't true.

She failed to mention Oregon Right to Life and the Women's Leadership Coalition PAC, both of which have given her much more than Freres Lumber ($12,500), Mountain West Investment ($5,000), and Mid Valley Association of Realtors ($0, yes, zero, according to the campaign finance reports I reviewed via ORESTAR).

Thus Danielle Bethell failed to inform the City Club audience that she has gotten $64,763 from anti-abortion groups, and so far as I can tell, fabricated a non-existent contribution from the Mid Valley Association of Realtors. 

Is this someone who should be on the Marion County Board of Commissioners? In my opinion, absolutely not. Which is why I urge you to vote for Ashley Carson Cottingham. (She correctly said that SEIU and other unions have been her major contributors.)

Daniielle Bethell (lower left) and Ashley Carson Cottingham (top right) at City Club ZOOM meeting

Now, maybe you're thinking that Bethell wasn't aware of the anti-abortion contributions because they came in shortly before the October 9 City Club meeting. Think again.

The three contributions from the Women's Leadership Coalition PAC that totaled $57,263 were received by her campaign on October 3 and October 5. The $5,000 Mountain West Investment contribution was received on October 6. 

Yet Bethell mentioned Mountain West Investment, but not the larger $7,500 that Oregon Right to Life contributed to her campaign on July 28 and September 15, nor the Women's Leadership Coalition PAC contribution that is by far the largest donation Bethell has received.

Seemingly a candidate would remember getting $57,263 less than a week before the City Club meeting. So why did Danielle Bethell fail to mention this?

My suspicion is that Bethell realizes that most people in Salem and Keizer favor a woman's right to choose whether to have an abortion. In my May 2019 blog post, "Oregon Right to Life behind deceptive Marty Heyen postcard," I shared this chart of how people in this area voted on a Measure that would have prohibited public funding of abortions.

Note that a No vote, in blue, implied support for a woman's right to choose, whereas a Yes vote, in red, implied anti-abortion support. Likely Bethell realizes that her opposition to abortion is out-of-step with a majority of Marion County voters, or at least a very large percentage of Marion County voters.

Don't be fooled if you get a mailer from the Women's Leadership Coalition PAC supporting Danielle Bethell. This is a front group for Oregon Right to Life. The two directors of the PAC work for Oregon Right to Life.

Danielle Bethell is a right-wing Republican who is trying to appear more moderate than she really is. Fortunately, the massive amount of money she's getting from anti-abortion groups is speaking the truth about who Bethell really is.

Vote for Cottingham. A Democrat should be on the Marion County Board of Commissioners to bring balance to the board, which currently is made up of three Republicans.

UPDATE: Wanted to add that at the City Club debate, Danielle Bethell said that she doesn't believe in universal health care, while Ashley Carson Cottingham said that she does. Another reason to vote for Cottingham, since Marion County provides health services to underserved populations.

Urge the Salem City Council to adopt strong greenhouse gas reduction goals

Want to do your part to preserve our one and only planet Earth for human habitation? Of course you do.

Good news is, it'll just take a few minutes for you to have that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes with doing the right thing -- for those of us alive today, and for generations to come. 

Next Monday, October 12, the Salem City Council will vote on a motion by Councilor Tom Andersen that sets strong greenhouse gas reduction goals for the Climate Action Plan being worked on this year and 2021. 

The short and simple motion says: 

I move that the City Council adopt the following goals as part of the City’s Climate Action Plan (CAP):

•  By 2035, Salem’s greenhouse gas emissions shall be reduced to 50% of the citywide greenhouse gas emissions for the baseline year of 2016, and

•  By 2050, Salem should be carbon neutral.

Beautiful! This brings Salem in line with other Oregon cities that have established greenhouse gas reduction goals, as described in background information on Andersen's motion: Portland, Corvallis, Eugene, Bend, Milwaukie, Ashland. 

So let the City Council know that you support Agenda Item 5.b, Motion from Councilor Tom Andersen regarding adopting goals as part of the City’s Climate Action Plan. Email: [email protected]

This makes great good sense for one key reason: there is no scientific debate about the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a lot, as quickly as possible, if humanity is to avoid suffering the worst impacts of global warming. 

Which includes the drought afflicting Oregon that exacerbated the recent devastating wildfires. 

Thus there is no reason to waste time in the Climate Action Plan process discussing the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By setting forth the goals in Andersen's motion now, city officials and the public at large can focus on how to bring about the necessary reductions in carbon pollution. 

Public input isn't needed on why those reductions are needed. That question was settled many years ago. The scientific community agrees that global warming is happening, humans are causing it via steadily increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and actions need to be taken to reduce those emissions.

Anyone who doubts this is a climate change denier. There are plenty of them in Salem, as elsewhere in the country. They're entitled to their misguided opinion, but the facts of climate change are unaffected by attempts to discount the scientific consensus of global warming as "fake news." 

Because it isn't. 

What Twitter is saying about Trump's Covid illness

Here's 17 right-on tweets about Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization, including his attempt to do a Mussolini impression from a White House balcony after being released from the hospital. Sure, I could try to be as informed and witty as these people I follow on Twitter, but why try? Easier to simply share screenshots of their tweets.