Salem Political Snark

GOP having Oregon legislature temper tantrums

Long ago, I was the parent of a child who went though the "terrible two's." Temper tantrums were common. Crying fits happened routinely.

So I feel for Democratic leaders in the Oregon legislature. They have to deal with Republicans who are the adult equivalent of immature children.

The worst thing is, my daughter grew out of her terrible two'ness, while Oregon Republicans show no sign of acting responsibly.

Almost certainly they're going to do the walkout thing again in this legislative session, thereby denying the 2/3 quorum that the Oregon constitution insanely requires for doing the people's business in the state House and Senate.

(A majority of members present is a typical quorum requirement.)

Oregon Republicans are acting like national Republicans. Unable to appeal to a majority of voters in this state, they're choosing to behave like wanna-be autocrats instead of making their policy positions more palatable to citizens. 

Usually a minority party aspires to becoming the majority party. 

But that takes work. You have to grasp what turns voters off about your party. For example, professing fervent loyalty to Donald Trump isn't a recipe for electoral success here in Oregon.

Yet Republicans in this state are still stuck in the muck of what Trump spread during his four undistinguished years as president.

Their newest trick, which actually is an old maneuver for them, is demanding that bills be read aloud in the Oregon legislature before being voted on. I guess that made sense in the 1800's, which is why it's in the state constitution. 

However, as an Oregonian story says, times have changed. 

Oregonians who tune in to the state House’s Tuesday floor session will hear a new voice, enlisted by Democratic leaders in response to Republican delay tactics and COVID-19 cases at the Capitol.

A computer will take the place of state House clerks, who faced the task of reading bills — some of them hundreds of pages long — aloud because minority Republicans have insisted upon it.

None of the bills scheduled for a vote in the near term are hugely controversial, but refusing to waive the state Constitution’s bill reading requirement is one of the few power moves available to Republicans, who hold 23 seats in the 60-member House, as they try to change or block parts of Democrats’ agenda this session.

...The requirement to read bills aloud before final House and Senate votes comes from Oregon’s original 1859 Constitution but in practice Democrats and Republicans routinely waive the mandate in order to save time.

The full text of bills is available on the Legislature’s website, the Oregon Legislative Information System. People can also watch committee meetings and floor sessions on the website, as the Capitol is currently closed to the public.

It's amazing how hypocritical Oregon Republicans can be. The Oregonian story quotes Republican Leader Christine Drazan as saying that Democrats “do not get to control everything.” 

Well, actually they do. Or at least, should, since voters have given Democrats healthy majorities in both the state House and Senate.

In a democracy, the majority rules. So if you want to rule, you need to become a majority. Like I said, this takes work -- and Oregon Republicans aren't willing to do what it takes to accomplish that.

So political temper tantrums are the childish way the GOP is acting out in the state legislature. They're demanding that Democrats give up on progressive priorities, even though when Republicans controlled Congress, they made zero substantive efforts to reach out to Democrats. 

Likely Oregon Republicans will be walking out of one or both legislative chambers before too long. This is akin to my daughter turning over the Monopoly board and yelling "it's a tie" when I was about to bankrupt her.

It took her a while to completely let go of temper tantrums, but even so, she did much better than the Oregon GOP.

Oregon Senate Republicans walk out again

This is a political non-surprise. Totally predictable.

Today every Senate Republican in the state legislature walked out for the fourth time in two years, denying Democrats the two-thirds quorum needed to do anything.

And why wouldn't they? 

Like I said in a 2019 blog post, "Oregon Dems surrender to Republicans like scared little mice," rewarding the GOP when they behave badly virtually guarantees that the bad behavior will continue.

Every parent of a young child knows this, but not Democratic leaders. Here's what I said in 2019. The "you" refers to Senate President Peter Courtney.

The institution of the Oregon Senate didn't "work" when you and other Democratic leaders agreed to kill the vaccine and gun control bills in exchange for Republicans returning to do the job they were elected to do: take part in Senate proceedings.

Actually what happened here is that Democrats gave in to a ransom request by Republicans.

Not surprisingly, we can expect that since the GOP ploy worked, they're going to try it again.

Which Republicans did. In the 2020 short session, there was another GOP walkout in protest of a climate change bill. The only good news this time was that Democrats didn't make any deals.

The session simply ended, as I described in "Make Oregon Republicans pay for their anti-democracy walkout."

Problem is, so far as I know there weren't any negative consequences for those who walked out, failing to perform their duty as elected officials. No fines. No attempt to revise the 2/3 quorum requirement. Nothing.

Now Senate Republicans aren't walking out in protest of legislation proposed by Democrats.

They've walking out because they don't feel listened to by Governor Brown after demanding that Oregon schools open up immediately for full in-person instruction, among other Covid-related demands.

But all 11 members of the Republican caucus signed a letter to the governor in which they insisted she “immediately reopen schools because science says it’s safe” and increase the amount of COVID-19 vaccines available to older Oregonians, especially in rural areas.

“Our previous efforts to bring these issues to your attention have gone unacknowledged,” the 11 Republicans wrote in their letter. “Thus, we are protesting today’s floor session. In this show of solidarity with Oregonians who are being failed by the current direction of your policies, we hope this action conveys the importance of these issues.”

Oh, boo-hoo. 

Republicans in Oregon hold no statewide office. They aren't close to controlling either the state House or Senate. They have no real platform other than professing eternal loyalty to Donald Trump.

Voters keep saying NO to what the GOP is offering Oregonians.

Instead of changing their right-wing policies to appeal to moderate voters, which would be the reasonable thing to do, Oregon Republicans persist in acting like babies -- having a tantrum and spilling the legislature milk because they aren't being allowed to get their way by the Democratic parents who run the state Capitol.

The only thing Democrat leaders in the legislature should do in response to Republican walkouts is simple: nothing. 

Meaning, give the Republicans nothing. No attention. No rewards. No conciliatory talk. If the GOP wants to grind the legislature to a halt, fine. Have a daily press conference with a chart showing how much the Republicans are getting paid while shirking their oath of office.


"Best of my ability" doesn't mean walking out on the job whenever you don't get your way, politically. The minority party shouldn't expect to control things in Oregon. 

That's the reward a majority party earns for winning elections. Win more elections, GOP. That's the way to get back in power, not by walking out in hissy fits.

Oregon Republicans are acting like Congressional Republicans, a majority of whom voted to overturn Joe Biden's free and fair victory over Donald Trump. Likewise, our local right-wing extremists basically are trying to overturn recent Oregon elections that gave Democrats healthy majorities in both houses of the state legislature. 

As I've said before, democracy is threatened by what the Oregon GOP is doing. If Republicans cared about democracy, they wouldn't be acting the way they are. Keep that in mind, voters.

PGE's storm communications are astoundingly inept

Along with a disturbingly large number of other people, my wife and I have endured a full week of no electricity after the February 12 ice/snow storm devastated much of Oregon.

(Our dog is doing just fine.)

How much longer will our electricity be off? Starting last Monday, Portland General Electric, or PGE, has considered this to be a secret not to be disclosed to their customers. 

Whenever I log into my PGE account, I'm met with a cryptic "not available at this time" in the Estimated Time On part of our outage report.

OK, I can understand that PGE wouldn't be able to provide its customers with a valid estimate of how long their power will be off in the early days of a widespread outage.

But even after a week, PGE still won't tell people how much longer they have to put up with all the inconveniences that come with having no electricity. 

This is causing a lot of frustration. 

I know, because regularly I pick up my iPhone, click on Tweetbot, a Twitter app, and search for tweets matching "@PortlandGeneral."

Maybe a quarter of tweets with this tag praise PGE for restoring the person's power.

The rest run the gamut from mildly critical of PGE to full-on rants about how horrendously awful PGE's response to the storm has been -- both in terms of turning electricity back on and PGE's dreadful communications strategy, which seems focused on keeping customers as much in the dark as possible regarding when their power will return.

This afternoon, though, I noticed a tweet from PGE that seemed promising. 

It didn't take long, though, for me to realize that the new online map not only wasn't useful, it was less than useful. Here's why.

On Thursday, I think it was (yesterday), PGE announced that it expected to have power restored to 90% of its customers by Friday. This is what the Storm Restoration Update page on the PGE web site says.

It's difficult to tell how many customers comprise that 90%, or the remaining 10%, without knowing what "currently" means in the screenshot above.

Regardless of the number, the important thing is that thousands of customers are going to be in the unfortunate 10%, which includes me, since our power is still off. 

On that same web page, PGE described how many customers would lack power after Friday night and where the longest waits to have power restored would be.

This certainly implies -- in fact it basically says it outright -- that the 15,000 customers who haven't had their power turned on by Friday night, tonight, and don't live in the areas listed above, won't have to wait as long as the people who do live in those areas.

UPDATE: I just came across a PGE tweet that said "As of 5pm today, 54,900 customers are still without power." So unless a lot of customers got their power restored between 5 pm and midnight today, PGE underestimated how many customers would lack power on February 19 by 39,900. Sure doesn't make me feel any more confident in PGE's competence.

So, yay, I thought after reading this. My wife and I live in rural south Salem near the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge. We're nowhere near the areas hit hardest -- Silverton, Woodburn, West Linn, Canby, etc.

I looked forward, then, to learning from the new map when we'd have electricity again. 

That hope was dashed when I actually looked at the map. The title above the map was a giveaway: Check Your Zone. I didn't want to check a zone. I wanted to check our specific outage area, our local neighborhood which had been showing 503 customers without electricity.

This is a screenshot of the overall area, showing the Legend. Light blue has an estimated restoration time of up to 3 days; yellow, up to five days; brown, up to nine days.

The map looks much different when it is zoomed in on my iPhone. This is Salem.The whole city of Salem appears to be in the yellow "up to 5 days" category. The purple dots show individual outages. I'm assuming the mass of dots obscuring much of Salem is covering up yellow.

How useful is this information? So minimal I'd call it useless.

People want to know when the electricity for their home or business will return, not the maximum amount of time it will take to restore power in all parts of Salem, which could range from one day (Saturday) to five days (Wednesday).

Likewise, here's the screenshot for my area. Our house is a bit north and east of Spring Reservoir, better termed Spring Lake. Our neighborhood is in the brown "up to nine days" zone. Again, though, this information is useless.
Here's a zoomed-out screenshot of the brown area. It's huge. There's no way every customer currently lacking power in this area is going to wait a similar length of time to have their electricity back on.

Thus PGE has produced a map that contains essentially zero useful information. It seems to be a way for PGE to say "we're providing customers with an estimate of when their power will be restored" without actually doing this.

Also, saying "up to nine days" is meaningless. A neighbor talked with a PGE employee today who was inspecting a downed line in our neighborhood. Reportedly the PGE guy said we might have power restored as early as tomorrow.

That's within the "up to nine days," because tomorrow would be one day. But one day is much different from nine days. 

Botton line: PGE is persisting in its screwed-up post-storm communications strategy -- which is aimed at giving customers as little useful information about their specific outage as possible. I sure hope legislators and state officials conduct hearings into how PGE has handled getting electricity back for its customers.

I have many questions about this, as I'm sure others do also.

Lastly, the conflict between this map and the list of hardest hit areas listed on the PGE web site -- Woodburn, Silverton, West Linn, Canby, etc. -- is huge. Most of those "hardest hit" areas are shown in the same color as Salem, yellow, up to five days restoration time.

So PGE is saying one thing at the top of that web page, then it is saying another thing in the map further down the page. Like I've been saying, the PGE communications strategy is so bad, it would be comical if being without electricity weren't so serious.

Ice storm disaster should prompt close look at PGE

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, the ability to conveniently charge electric cars became impossible.

The widespread power outages affected most people in Northwest Oregon, though, not just electric car owners. Wells don't run without electricity. Neither do most heating systems. 

I've been critical of how Portland General Electric, Oregon's largest utility, has handled the ice storm crisis from a communications standpoint.

Along with many others, PGE's failure to provide even a rough estimate to customers of when power would be restored struck me as a serious error -- causing anguish, uncertainty, and frustration.

At a time when people were already physically in the dark, it was decidedly unhelpful for PGE to keep people mentally in the dark regarding details of how power would be restored to certain areas.

Tomorrow PGE is going to start holding daily press conferences. That's almost a week too late. PGE management should have been doing this during the entire ice storm aftermath. 

The basic point I'm making here is that while the efforts of PGE employees to restore power as quickly as possible deserve a lot of praise, this shouldn't stop politicians, state/local officials, and others concerned with how public utilities function from asking some tough questions of PGE executives.

When a mass shooting occurs in this country, defenders of the gun status quo say, "It's too early to point fingers at the cause of what just happened." 

That's wrong. Immediately after a disaster is the correct time to seek answers to questions that, when answered, can shed light on how to prevent future similar disasters.

I got to thinking about this more seriously after talking with a couple of people today about PGE.

We'd started off talking about something else, but not surprisingly the conversations edged around to the subject on everybody's mind after the February 12 ice storm hit. When will electricity come back on? 

Which leads to another question. Why did the electricity go off for hundreds of thousands of people? 

The people I talked with both had friends with some inside information about how PGE operates. Obviously I have no way of knowing whether that information is true. It has a certain ring of truth, though, and helped inform the questions that I believe need to be answered in coming months.

These aren't exhaustive. They're just questions that have been on my mind as a PGE customer who, at the moment, has gone five full days without electricity.

(1) It's well known that climate change will lead to more extreme weather events. Did PGE engage in scenario planning that included a polar vortex bringing cold arctic air into the Pacific Northwest that was combined with a moisture-laden storm moving in from the Pacific? (Which is what produced this ice/snow storm.)

(2) If "yes" to #1 above, did PGE plan ahead for how to cope with such a scenario? If "no" to #1 above, why wasn't this done?

(3) Has PGE engaged in adequate preventive maintenance, such as tree trimming/removal, aimed at reducing outages during an extreme weather event?

(4) Regarding that sort of preventive maintenance, has contracting out tree trimming/removal to private companies led to better or worse outcomes as regards storm-related power outages?

(5) PGE has reported significant damage to major transmission lines and substations during the recent storm. Ice storms are common in Northwest Oregon. Why so such damage to important electrical infrastructure from a foreseeable weather event?

(6) It appears that out-of-state utility crews weren't called in by PGE until several days after the ice/snow storm. If this was the case, why the delay when the scope of damage was evident early on?

(7) For several days PGE provided an estimate to customers of when their power would be restored. On the Monday following the storm, these estimates stopped being made. Who made the decision to do this, and why was it done?

(8) Why did PGE fail to hold any press conferences about its response to the electricity outages for six days following the storm? 

(9) What steps will PGE be taking to help assure that hundreds of thousands of its customers won't lose power for such a long time when the next major weather event strikes Oregon? 

(10) In line with #9, does PGE have plans to place electrical lines underground in areas that are prone to extreme events such as wildfires and ice storms?

Rep. Mike Nearman and Oregon GOP are dangerous crazies

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 the Trump mob break into the Senate and House chambers, perhaps with murderous results far greater than the single police officer killed by the insurrectionists. 

Pleasingly, the Statesman Journal reports that a coalition of state leaders is calling on the Oregon Legislature to expel Nearman. 

A coalition of local and regional leaders, business owners and organization directors are calling on the Oregon Legislature to expel Republican Rep. Mike Nearman for allowing violent demonstrators into the Capitol building in December.

The growing group includes three Salem city councilors; the executive director of the Eugene/Springfield NAACP; the executive director of the Northwest Accountability Project; union leaders; and environmental activists.

The Salem city councilors are Chris Hoy, Vanessa Nordyke, and Trevor Phillips. Hopefully the three other progressive councilors will join them.

Laurel, my wife, reads the constituent newsletters emailed to us by Nearman. So far I've held off on reading them out of a fear that my head would explode from the craziness they contain. {Laurel tells me about some of the lies in the newsletter, which are astounding to those of us who embrace reality rather than conspiracy theories.)

Speaking of conspiracy theories, the Oregon GOP has covered itself in lying grime after its executive committee issued a resolution calling the January 6 insurrection a "false flag" event. Meaning, supposedly the thousands of demonstrators carrying Trump flags and wearing Trumpian clothing actually were antifa masquerading as Trump supporters.

Of course, there is no evidence of this, but little details like facts don't stop today's Republican Party from spewing out the latest QAnon bullshit. 

It's embarrassing that news of Oregon's GOP craziness made its way to Great Britain, where The Guardian ran a story, "Oregon Republican party falsely suggests Capitol attack was a 'false flag.'"

The Oregon Republican party has falsely claimed in a resolution that there is “growing evidence” that the 6 January attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob was “a ‘false flag’ operation”.

The resolution, which was published on 19 January and was endorsed by the executive committee of the state Republican party, suggested that the storming of the capitol by Trump supporters was an orchestrated conspiracy “designed to discredit President Trump, his supporters and all conservative Republicans” and to create a “sham motivation” to impeach the former president.

To back up these false claims, the resolution cited links to rightwing websites, including the Epoch Times, a pro-Trump outlet that has frequently published rightwing misinformation, as well as the Wikipedia entry for “Reichstag Fire.”

On the plus side, the craziness of the Oregon Republican Party isn't going to win over the voters they need to become competitive in statewide races. So says an Oregonian story about the GOP conspiracy theory resolution. 

“It is a really curious strategy for a political party that is so weak in the state right now to try to find a way back,” said John Horvick, a pollster with DHM Research. “Republicans haven’t won the governor’s mansion since Vic Atiyeh. They’ve won two statewide races in the last two decades. They’re in the wilderness in the Legislature and they spent the summer trying to recall Kate Brown.

“Maybe this represents their base to some extent, but it doesn’t make any sense to me as a short-, medium-, or long-term strategy.”

Armed right-wing protesters look foolish at Capitol today

There was a successful one-day special session of the Oregon Legislature today, where several Covid relief bills were passed. There also was a farcical protest by Patriot Prayer members and other right-wingers who were outraged about... something or other.

Being asked to wear a mask? Not being allowed into the Capitol building, even though no members of the public were able to go inside during the special session? Angry that their Beloved Leader, Donald Trump, lost to Joe Biden?

Who knows. These days it doesn't make sense to ask what right-wing wackos are protesting about, because even when they give an answer, it doesn't make much sense. 

I suspect that those who showed up at the Capitol had finished their Christmas shopping, needed something to do, figured that Salem is a great place to do something, and wanted another opportunity to play toy soldier -- since some of those protesting were armed, as shown in a Daily Beast photo accompanying a story, "Heavily Armed Far-Right Mob Floods Oregon Capitol."

Wow, that would have been a funny Halloween costume, but today was December 21, not October 31. I wonder if this person with the scads of extra ammo attached to their waist realizes how foolish they look. 

Probably not, since self-awareness isn't much in evidence at these sorts of right-wing protest costume parties. 

These jerks also came with pepper spray. Which they used on police, according to a Statesman Journal story, "Arrests made after protesters attempt to enter Oregon State Capitol during session."

Oregon State Police said at about 8:30 a.m. protestors entered the building and at least one used "chemical agents" on officers. 

Two hours later, state police and Salem police started to push people out of the Capitol. Bear spray was used against police. 

“At one point we used pepper balls. I don’t know what else," said Lt. Treven Upkes of Salem Police. "When people attempted to come into the building they actually used pepper spray and other things on officers. In return, we used those to separate ourselves and get them to hold that spot. So I don’t know what all was used but I know at least pepper ball was used.

The Salem Reporter also has a story, "As lawmakers meet, protestors attempt to storm Capitol building." It includes some of the ridiculous things protesters were saying.

The crowd of protesters that arrived Monday morning was mostly maskless. Many were decked out in Donald Trump hats and waved flags from the president’s campaign. Some carried long rifles and sported body armor. One man wore a shirt calling for the imprisonment of Gov. Kate Brown.

Many yelled angrily at lawmakers gathered inside.

“Cowards!”

“What they are doing in that building right now is illegal!”

“The Chinese have taken over!”

“Vaccines are not effective!”

“I do not consent to a new world order!”

Well, my advice to these protesters is that what you're yelling should have at least a tenuous connection to reality. Otherwise you sound like a mentally ill person standing on a street corner shouting crazy stuff. Which likely would make more sense than "The Chinese have taken over!" 

Here's some tweets that came across my Twitter feed today.

Oregonians need to step back from the brink of Crazy Cliff

A moderate amount of craziness adds spice to life. Who wants to be perfectly rational and reasonable all of the time? But currently there's way too much craziness going on -- both here in Oregon and elsewhere in the United States.

So join me in making a heartfelt plea to all Oregonians to take several big steps back from the brink of Crazy Cliff. Going over the edge won't benefit anyone on the left, right, or middle of our political spectrum.

I think of myself as an open-minded progressive. As you can read below, I'm fine with criticizing people on the left when they've done something objectionable. 

However, it seems indisputable that those manifesting the greatest degree of craziness these days are right-wingers. I can't call them conservatives because what those crazies are espousing has very little to do with traditional conservatism. 

Here's examples of the craziness in Oregon that needs to be dialed down.

Denying Biden won the election. Since Oregon isn't a swing state, we've been spared the worst of President-elect Biden denialism.

But since polls show that a clear majority of Trump voters feel that Biden didn't win a free and fair election, there's little doubt that hundreds of thousands of Oregonians have jumped on board the train to Crazy Town (to mix my crazy metaphors).

There's no evidence to support that assertion. Trump and his crazed legal team are simply out to steal the election. Rudy Giuliani and Co. are throwing out increasingly bizarre claims about how massive fraud was carried out on November 3.

Notably, "a claim by Trump lawyer Sidney Powell that U.S. voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems Inc. used software made in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chavez. Chavez, who served as that country’s president, died in 2013."

That's super crazy! So it gets top billing in this blog post. 

Dowplaying the skyrocketing COVID-19 case, hospitalization, and death count. Throughout the pandemic Oregon has been doing better than most of the rest of the country. That's good news.

Yet instead of trusting Governor Brown and her public health team to continue doing what's necessary to combat COVID-19, there's been resistance to Brown's recent two-week rollback of some reopening policies, such as no longer allowing in-person dining at restaurants.

The Oregon Restaurant Association has sued the governor, objecting to the two-week restaurant policy. Protesters gathered at the state capitol, saying they wouldn't comply with Governor Brown's orders. Courthouse Club Fitness here in Salem is defying the two-week closure of health clubs. 

Crazy!

I can't understand why people are reluctant to save lives and lay the foundation for complete reopening of the Oregon economy by doing their part to comply with public health orders.

Oregon is facing the worst COVID-19 crisis of the pandemic, but many people are only thinking of themselves, not the common good.

Two counties make it a crime to enforce gun laws. Columbia and Umatilla counties in Oregon have passed ordinances that make it a misdemeanor crime for police to enforce certain gun laws.

Northwest Oregon’s Columbia County and eastern Oregon’s Umatilla County approved ordinances directing county workers – police included – to ignore the state’s extreme risk protection law, the concealed carry law and most other state regulation of guns. Passed in 2017, Oregon’s extreme risk protection law gives judges discretion to remove guns from people not convicted of a crime who show signs they might shoot themselves or someone else.

Deputies and officers who choose to enforce those laws risk prosecution and hefty fees -- criminal sanctions that “we are very proud of,” said Rob Taylor, an Oregon gun rights activist who has lobbied for such measures across the state.

Sometimes civil disobedience is called for. But this isn't one of those times. It is simply right-wing gun-nut craziness to claim that enforcing necessary laws is illegal. Almost certainly courts will agree and put a stop to this particular craziness. 

Portland "protesters" trash buildings. I'm not completely sure if this is an example of left-wing craziness, though it seems like it is, since it's hard to put anarchists on any part of the political spectrum. All they care about is creating chaos. 

It bugs me big-time when the nightly news calls those who damage businesses and other property in Portland protesters. They're thugs, rioters, criminals. Those are the names they deserve. An Oregonian story says: 

Crews cleaned up broken glass and boarded up shattered windows Saturday in Northeast Portland after demonstrators marched through the area the previous night.

Wooden boards covered broken windows and doors of multiple buildings along Northeast Sandy Boulevard, including a State Farm, Chase Bank, Whole Foods, Wells Fargo and Rite Aid. The Portland Police Bureau on Saturday said 26 businesses or workspaces and one apartment building were damaged with graffiti, broken windows or both in the Hollywood District.

Hey, Oregonian reporters. These aren't demonstrators. They are vandals. All they're demonstrating is how crazily stupid they are. They need to be charged with crimes and made to pay for the damage they do.

Why I'm feeling post-election progressive joy

Tuesday's election could have been better, but it also could have been a whole lot worse from my progressive point of view. So I'm feeling fine right now, for these reasons.

Biden appears to have defeated Trump. This is the biggest contributor to my positive mood, since another four years of Trump would have thrown me into a serious depression. Last night I was anxious, but as I checked election results throughout today, I started feeling better and better.

At the moment it looks like Biden has a good chance of winning Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.

Coupled with the states Biden already has won -- notably Wisconsin and Michigan -- this gives him numerous options to get to 270 electoral votes. So I'm counting my Biden-win chicken before it has completely hatched. 

Sure, right now it seems Biden won't have a Democratic Senate.

That sucks. It makes it a lot harder for Biden to push the legislative agenda he campaigned on. But simply having Biden rather than Trump as president is huge. (Note: at the end of this post I talk about the non-sucky possibility of the Democrats winning two Georgia Senate seats in January 2021.)

Winning the Senate would have been the icing on the election cake. Which means, there's still the cake to be enjoyed. (Assuming Biden wins.) Biden will be able to do a lot of good things even with Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans stonewalling him.

Here's a series of tweets by Daniel Hemel that illustrate this. 

A Biden presidency w/a narrow GOP majority in the Senate is not half a loaf. It's the loaf. I'd be happier if Ds had flipped the Senate -- to mix baked-goods metaphors, that would be icing on the cake. But this still will make an enormous difference in Americans' lives 1/

Probably the most important task facing the winner of this presidential election is SARS-CoV-2 vaccine rollout. This won't be easy under any President. But imagine doing it under a President who doesn't believe in science, downplays the virus, & stokes anti-vaxxer sentiment 2/

Instead we'll have vaccine rollout under a President who puts public health first, empowers scientists, & tells the truth. That's a world of difference 3/

The 2nd most important task facing the winner of the presidential election is saving the planet. Will Biden be able to get an ambitious clean-energy package through a GOP-majority Senate? We'll see, though if anyone can, he's the guy. & in any event, here's what he can do: 4/

-Reinstate & strengthen Obama administration corporate average fuel economy standards -Reinstate & strengthen Obama administration regs requiring power plants & other large stationary sources to reduce GHG emissions -Return the US to the Paris climate accords on Day 1 5/

We'll have a President who acts w/in the ACA to expand health care coverage. We'll have a President who works w/in the immigration statutes to make it easier to come to the US legally. Dreamers won't be deported. Refugee admissions will increase dramatically 6/

We probably won't get tax reform until 2023 at the earliest, but we'll likely get aggressive regulatory action against some of the worst loopholes & shelters. We'll likely see IRS focus audit resources on very high-net-worth folks rather than EITC claimants 7/

We've stalled since the end of the Obama administration re: motor vehicle safety standards. We'll now likely see National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rulemakings that reduce auto deaths by thousands 8/

A Biden administration -- even w/out control of the Senate -- won't just end the long national nightmare of the last 4 years. It will put us on a better path. This is cause for celebration. 9/9

Yeah, it sure is cause for celebration. That's why I want to keep our Biden-Harris sign up for the next four years.

Out here in rural south Salem some people in our neighborhood have had a giant Trump sign displayed since he was elected in 2016. It annoys me every time I pass it on my daily late afternoon dog walk. Time for some progressive payback.

Oregon election results also were pleasant. I was thrilled to see that Democrat Deb Patterson narrowly defeated Republican Denyc Boles in the Senate District 10 race. Patterson is competent, super-nice, and will be a terrific state senator. Boles deserved to lose, having walked off her legislative job with other Republicans after being appointed to Jackie Winters' seat after Winters died.

It also was great that all four statewide ballot measures passed, and that Shemia Fagan became Secretary of State, getting that office out of Republican hands.

I wasn't sure if Measure 109 would pass. "Magic mushrooms" show promise for treating PTSD and other mental health problems. Oregon is the first state to authorize the supervised use of psilocybin. 

We also are the first state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs, a step that hopefully will be taken by many other states. When it looked like Trump could be re-elected last night and I'd have to suffer through four more years of the Liar-in-Chief, I took some solace in the fact that if I became a heroin addict to soothe the pain, at least I wouldn't go to jail.

Now I'm looking forward to celebrating Biden's victory -- may it come soon -- with less potent, but decidedly healthier, home grown Oregon marijuana.

To end on another positive note, I just saw a tweet by someone who said it appears that both Senate races in Georgia will be going to a January runoff. Incumbent Republican David Perdue is down to a 50.2% winning percentage, with 5% of the vote from mostly liberal areas left to be counted. So if he dips below 50% Perdue would face off again against Democrat Jon Osssoff, joining Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler in another runoff race. 

If the Democrats won both races, that would produce a 50-50 split in the Senate, with Vice-President Harris breaking ties. Love that idea! It isn't all that far-fetched, since Biden and Trump are separated by just 0.6 of a percentage point in Georgia at the moment.

Dumb and dumber: Capitol vandals and Sam Brentano

Saturday's Statesman Journal featured stories about a couple of spectacularly dumb local people. It took me a while to decide who deserves the "dumb" award in this blog post, and who the "dumber," but I'm going with this:

Dumb -- whoever spray painted two marble sculptures in front of the state Capitol building during the first weekend of Black Lives Matter protests.

Dumber -- Marion County commissioner Sam Brentano, for being so irritated at Governor Brown's pausing of county reopening plans due to a spike in coronavirus cases in Oregon.

Sure, it can be argued that these dumb and dumber awards should be switched, and I could go along with that argument, because each of these individuals engaged in some spectacularly misinformed behavior.

Looking at the spray painter first, who so far hasn't been identified, I wish I could share an online link to this Statesman Journal story. But after two days it hasn't appeared on the newspaper's web site, for some baffling reason. 

Anyway, here's a photo of the front page of the print edition.

This is how the story by Capi Lynn starts out.

A pair of massive marble sculptures stand sentinel in front of the Oregon State Capitol. Their heroic figures, carved deep into the history of our state, flank the majestic granite steps leading to the main entrance, acting as both guards and greeters. 

But their vulnerability was exposed during the first weekend of protests.

Vandals defaced the 81-year-old sculptures by spray-painting profanity-laced messages on their stone surfaces. Their pedestals are made of granite.

A mason restoration company from Tigard has been working all week to remove the paint with little success, and the sculptures remain covered with tarps.

"It's not working very good because we didn't get on it soon enough," Joe Bryson of Pioneer Waterproofing Co. said Friday. "The longer it sits on there, the harder it is to get off. We keep trying, but I don't know if it will ever come off." 

The vandalism occurred between 10 p.m. Saturday, May 30, and 12:30 a.m. Sunday, May 31, the first weekend crowds gathered at the Capitol protest [against] police brutality and the death of George Floyd.

l have no idea how anyone could think that spray-painting graffiti on the sculptures helps in any way to further the Black Lives Matter movement. Actually, it hurts the movement, by distracting attention from the many positive aspects of the protests to this senseless act of vandalism.

Hopefully the vandals will be identified and punished. The story ends with: "If you have information about the incident, contact Trooper Greg Williams at the Capitol Mall Area Command, 503-986-1122."

Now, as dumb as the spray-painting was, it didn't cause physical harm to any people, just the statues. So Commissioner Sam Brentano gets the dumber award because another front-page story, "Marion, Polk, wait for more reopening," shows how clueless Brentano is about the danger reopening too quickly poses to Oregonians.

Here's excerpts from the story by Claire Withycombe.

Bars and restaurants in Marion and Polk counties will still be closing by 10 p.m., and residents still can't go bowling or to a movie theater, for at least one more week due to a recent jump in cases of COVID-19.

Nearly all of Oregon's counties have been approved by the governor's office to "reopen" for some public activities after months of what was practically a lockdown to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. 

Brown's office has laid out a plan that allows each county to apply to reopen in three phases.

Marion and Polk counties are currently in the first phase, which allows limited reopening of restaurants and bars and gatherings of up to 25 people. You can see what else you can do during the first phase on the governor's website.

But no county will be permitted to open up any further for another week at least, Brown announced Thursday. That means Marion and Polk counties' efforts to move into the second phase won't be approved for at least another week.

...On Thursday, the Oregon Health Authority reported 178 new cases, the most in a single day since the pandemic started. On Friday, another 142 cases were announced.

...Local county commissioners expressed disappointment after Brown's decision.

"We're not going to be able to go like this forever," said Marion County Commissioner Sam Brentano, reached by phone Friday morning. "All government should be doing is alerting when there's a problem and then let people make their own choices to protect themselves."

Brentano said he was concerned by the uptick in cases in Marion County, which reported 29 new cases Friday.

"Right now is a dangerous time, and that part's right," Brentano said. "But I don't feel I want to continue leaving authority to make decisions to live or operate up to the state."

Spoken like the true science-denier that you are, Commissioner Brentano. He has been an outspoken opponent of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, since Brentano doesn't believe that humans are causing the global warming that is having increasingly disastrous consequences.

So it isn't surprising that just as Brentano wants people and corporations to be able to spew as many carbon emissions as they want, he also wants to allow individuals and businesses to be able to spread the coronavirus in any way they want.

Fortunately, Brentano isn't in charge of Oregon. Governor Kate Brown is. And she is relying on advice from our state's public health experts as she makes decisions about how to re-open Oregon safely, decisions that the Oregon Supreme Court recently has ruled are totally legal.

UPDATE: Just came across this apt passage in a Texas Monthly story that I read vis Apple News.

A version of “personal responsibility” that looks like “I’ll take responsibility for my risk, and you take responsibility for your risk,” though, neglects the reality of a pandemic. Responsibility may be personal—but risk is communal. Everyone can both get sick with the virus and pass it on to someone else.

A person who gets infected while packed into an overcrowded bar can pass the disease to a supermarket cashier who is otherwise steadfastly avoiding high-risk situations. A healthy young person whose sense of personal responsibility leaves him comfortable spending a leisurely evening in a bustling restaurant can infect a roommate who works in a nursing home.

Trump will have to pry Oregon's stay-home order out of my cold, dead hands

Today President Trump's authoritarianism reached a peak when he said at the White House coronavirus briefing that his authority is total. This was in reference to his supposed ability to order states to relax their stay-at-home and physical distancing orders.

“The president of the United States calls the shots,” he said at his evening news briefing. “They can’t do anything without the approval of the president of the United States.”

Asked what provisions of the Constitution gave him the power to override the states if they wanted to remain closed, he said, “Numerous provisions,” without naming any. “When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total.”

Well, I'm eager to learn how all the conservatives who champion states rights will react to this extremely dubious interpretation of the constitution, which gives a lot of power to states, including when it comes to public health. 

Twenty years ago Charlton Heston warned of government overreach when he said at a NRA (National Rifle Association) speech:

"So, as we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: 'From my cold, dead hands.'"

Mr. President, that's exactly how I feel about your absurd attempt to determine how Oregon should respond to the coronavirus crisis. Our governor, Kate Brown, has issued an executive Stay Home, Save Lives order. It's working well, and it needs to remain in place until, according to Brown, Oregon has ten days without a COVID-19 death.

There's no way that I, along with most other Oregonians, would patronize a business that chooses to ignore the governor's order if it is more restrictive than whatever plan for reopening our state's economy Trump comes up with. So Trump needs to understand that most Americans trust our local leaders a heck of a lot more than the would-be dictator who currently inhabits the White House.

It's beyond absurd that while Trump has been saying for weeks that it is up to each state to determine how it will deal with the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to stay-at-home orders in most states, Trump now is claiming that he has the sole authority to rescind or alter those orders even though he had nothing to do with putting them in place.

My wife and I live in a rural area about five miles from the Salem city limits. That isn't far geographically, but it is a light year politically from the mostly liberal capital city of Oregon. 

We regularly are treated to the sound of loud gunshots as some of our mostly conservative neighbors do some target practicing. They aren't shy about saying that they want to be ready when either social breakdown occurs as a result of the coronavirus crisis and urban hordes descend upon us country folk, or when the black helicopters arrive from the United Nations or a Democratic president to take away their guns.

But it turns out that the biggest threat to our freedom is coming from a Republican president who wrongly believes that the president can do whatever they want. 

Imagine what would happen if somehow, against all odds, Trump was to succeed in getting the Supreme Court to agree that, as Trump argued today, the president's authority is total. Meaning, there are no curbs on it. None. Zilch. Nada. This would mean that a President Biden could do whatever he wanted to combat global warming, reduce gun deaths, or deal with any other emergency that was declared from the Oval Office.

I can guarantee that Fox News would have a total freak-out, along with other right-wing organizations and leaders. So that's why I'm intensely interested in how conservatives are going to respond to Trump's assertion that there are no limits on what a president can do. 

Sure, Trump has been acting as if this was the case -- ignoring subpoenas from Congress, bashing reporters who dare to ask probing questions, and in so many other ways trashing the norms of how a president should behave in a constitutional democracy. Today, though, Trump explicitly stated that he can do whatever he wants. 

And when a reporter asked Vice President Pence if he agreed that this was the case, Pence stood in front of the microphone and said the powers of the presidency are “unquestionably plenary”. In other words, absolute. 

This should scare all Americans, liberal, conservative, everybody. A bit of good news is that a story in the Washington Examiner, a conservative newspaper, took issue with Trump's bizarre interpretation of the Constitution.

Contrary to what President Trump seems to think, he does not have the authority to dictate when and how individual states reopen as the threat posed by the coronavirus diminishes. Nor should he want it.

This assertion — that only Trump can decide the question of reopening — is obviously wrong, as anyone remotely familiar with the U.S. Constitution and the principles of federalism understands. Only the individual governors can decide when their states will begin to reopen, and only they can determine what that process will look like.

...Whatever plan Trump does roll out must be specific, and it must be respectful of the states. He cannot rule by fiat, and a pandemic does not change that.