Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

If I would have been smart – how many times in life have I said that? – I would have added a key point yesterday in a blog I wrote about my support for changing a golf rule, divots in fairways.

The point would have been this:  The late professional golfer Payne Stewart had bad luck with his ball coming to rest in a fairway divot during the 1998 U.S. Open at The Olympic Club, then again a year later in the Open at Pinehurst.

This stands as the hallmark of the need to change the unfair golf rule.

Of course, Stewart didn’t like what happened either time.  But, what do you do?

Official golf rules say, “live with it.”

When the “divot problem” happened again at Pinehurst, Stewart was ready for it the second time around because he had practiced on how to escape from such a predicament.

Here is the way golf writer Lee Pace put it in a story I found through Mr. Google:

“Payne Stewart made a remarkable personal metamorphosis over the 1990s.  Always a graceful and talented performer on the course, Stewart, as a young tour pro, wasn’t universally embraced away from the course as his somewhat bratty, churlish ways rubbed many he encountered the wrong way.

“A variety of circumstances and lessons conspired over the 1990s to soften and smooth the edges, and the 42-year-old Stewart who came to Pinehurst for the 1999 U.S. Open was significantly more humble and likeable than the one who won the 1991 Open at Hazeltine.”  Or, I add, almost won at Olympic in 1998.

“That evolution of Stewart, Pace writes, “is perhaps best illustrated in the story of the divots of Olympic 1998 and Pinehurst 1999. 

“Stewart enjoyed a four-shot lead to begin the final day of the ’98 Open in San Francisco, but he was two-over on the front nine and his lead had shrunk to two shots over Lee Janzen by the time he reached the tee of the par-four 12th hole.

“Stewart hit a good drive but encountered a bad break — his ball landed in a divot made earlier in the week and subsequently filled with sand and tamped down by course maintenance workers.

“Stewart and his caddie took a little extra time to examine the lie and contemplate the shot, then Stewart hit his approach from the divot into a greenside bunker.

“USGA official Tom Meeks had been clocking Stewart’s shot and told him, as Stewart walked to the green, that he had taken too long and that Stewart was being issued a slow-play warning.  

“Stewart was stunned and aggravated.  Unsettled by the divot and the warning, Stewart made two consecutive bogeys, fell out of the lead and opened the door for Janzen to rally from behind for the win.”

Given what happened, Stewart said something with which I agree — there should be relief when a good drive in the fairway lands in a divot.

Then, in 1999 at Pinehurst, the same thing happened to Stewart – a drive in a divot.  He was ready for it and played well from that divot to win the Open title, but the bottom-line point is the same:

Even if golfers demonstrate the ability to hit out of a divot in the fairway, a good drive should not be punished in that way.  Just as occurs on a green where there are ball marks and spike marks, give golfers relief in the fairway.  A free drop out of the divot without penalty.

It’s the fair and right action to take.

Payne Stewart’s experience in the 1990s is one of the best illustrations on this change in golf rules – and I wish I would have cited it yesterday.  It’s not too late today.

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

One of my favorite golf magazines – Links – came up this month with a good story, citing 10 golf rules that it said should be changed.

I didn’t agree with all its recommendations, but, for one, a solid yes.

This:  “Relief from Divots/The Rules of Golf grant relief from many kinds of abnormal ground conditions — including by way of Rule 13.1c(2), which allows a player to repair ball marks and spike marks on putting surfaces.

From Links:  “The rules look to strike a balance between the longstanding tradition of playing the ball ‘as it lies’ and fairness, and in the case of this rule, they indicate that on greens, such relief is warranted.  But no such relief is offered in the case of a ball coming to rest in a divot, which is manifestly inconsistent.”

My vote – again a solid yes.

It is a condition – the unlucky bounce that, even for a good drive, ends up in a divot – always strikes me as patently unfair.  So change it.

One other major rule change for me is this:  Re-write Rule 12, which makes a number of ill-conceived comments about permitted actions in bunkers.  One of these, incredibly, says it is “allowable to strike the sand in anger and frustration.”

Say what? 

If a golfer did this in Oregon Golf Association sponsored events where I often volunteer, he or she would get a “code of conduct” penalty.

There is absolutely no reason for this to be included in the Rules of Golf.

Drawing on the Links Magazine article, I list below all the rules it advocates changing – but just by title without all the detail.  And, then I add my agreement or disagreement.

1. Limit of 14 Clubs/the magazine wants to allow as many or as few as a player wants:  Disagree. 

2. Relief from Divots:  Agree.

3. Relief in Bunkers…if your golf ball is in areas not previously raked:  Agree.

4. Stroke and Distance Penalty for Loss of Ball or Ball Hit Out of Bounds:  Disagree.

5. Three-Minute Time Limit to Find a Lost Ball…by adding more time:  Disagree.

6. Ball Embedded by Someone Stepping on It:  Agree.

7. Interference from Boundary Objects…if your ball comes to rest in bounds but in a position where the boundary fence interferes with your stance or swing, there is no relief, but it should be granted:  Agree.

8. Use of Distance-Measuring Devices – allow them:  Agree (though I don’t know that allowing such devices would necessarily speed up play).

9. Rules for Relief from Penalty Areas…to provide consistency:  Agree

10. Pace of Play Rule:  Either throw this out or enforce it…I vote for the latter.

There it is.  Enough.  With that, I am heading out to play golf…again.

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Back when I was a lobbyist in the State of Oregon, there would have been a major event last week for me and my firm’s clients.

This:  State government economists appeared before a joint legislative committee to unveil the latest quarterly forecast of tax revenue available for the state in the next “biennium,” an unusual word that means the next “two years, 2025-27).”

This time, during what lobbyists call “the interim between legislative sessions in Salem,” few paid much attention.

For me, a new revenue forecast always was a critical development for at least two reasons:

1. How much money is available sets the stage for the ONLY decision lawmakers in Oregon must make as they meet in a regular legislative session — approve a new two-year spending plan for such issues as health care, higher education, K-12 education, and public safety (including state [police and prisons].

• The predicted total also sets the stage for another major decision —  how much to spend and how much to raise in taxes, if any of the latter.

I remember many days when, along with a bevy of other state lobbyists, I waited impatiently in the hearing room for the next revenue forecast to be made public. 

During various recessions, the event was even more critical because state legislators would begin to understand how much they had to cut in state government, many of which were important to citizens.  Decisions about what to cut are often more difficult than decisions about what new spending makes sense.

As for the U. S. economy, here’s what state economists said:

“…it remains in an inflationary economic boom, albeit one that has cooled somewhat over the past year and a half.  Real GDP is growing above potential.  Ongoing employment and income gains allow households to spend even as prices are rising faster than the Federal Reserve’s target.

“Given the strong economy, the Fed has yet to cut interest rates.  The outlook indicates the Fed will begin to reduce interest rates late this year, only after further slowing in inflation is seen in the data.”

As for the outlook in Oregon, the economists added:

“The Oregon economic outlook remains solid, but this cycle has been different.  The state’s topline population, employment, and income growth is in the middle of the pack across all states.

“However, the economic outcomes for individual Oregonians have been noticeably stronger than the nation.  While still lower than the U.S., Oregon’s per capita income and average wage are at their highest relative point compared to the nation in decades.

“A record share of working-age Oregonians have a job.  And the state’s labor force participation rate has risen the second most across all states.

“The major economic forecast change is a larger U.S. population due to increased international immigration.  This boosts the national employment, income, and spending forecasts.

“The Oregon population forecast remains essentially unchanged, and Oregon is not a major port of entry for international immigrants.  As such, the local impact of the U.S. forecast changes is smaller.  That said, a larger U.S. economy boosts non-wage Oregonian income, like investments and proprietors’ income, as local firms sell more goods and services into that larger customer base elsewhere in the country.”

So, lawmakers will have more to spend for the 2005-27 biennium when they return to Salem next January.  This is a summary of the projections:

• About $533 million more in the “general fund” arriving from individual taxpayers, which sounds like a lot, but only up about 1.6 per cent from the last forecast.
• About $588 million in corporate tax revenue for the “general fund,” up about 26 per cent from the last forecast, with most of the increase due to federal tax policy changes.
• Almost the same projection of lottery revenue as the last forecast – lottery revenue goes to education, economic development, and other specific purposes outlined in state law – so functions just like the “general fund”…another bucket of money.

This means the 2025 Legislature is not likely to face major debates over tax increases, even if some Democrats – that party is likely to remain in charge in both the House and Senate – would like to have such debates.

Instead, the basic issue will be what it always is:  How to allocate state revenue and work to assure that spending will achieve what it is supposed to achieve, a tough task given the reality that expenditures and revenue must be in balance.  No deficit spending.

That’s a key distinction from the federal government where deficit spending always occurs.

One more issue is just around the corner for Oregonians.  Current Oregon law requires legislators to return money to taxpayers if revenue is more than 2 per cent over previous projections.  This has come to be called “Oregon’s kicker law.”

In the past, some legislators have said they don’t like the law, so have tried to repeal it.  To no avail.

It is popular – many Oregonians what their “kicked back” money.

Enough for now because, in retirement, I am heading to the golf course, not to review more tax and spending detail.

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The question in this blog headline has two answers:

1. If you look at Donald Trump, now a convicted felon, the answer is “no” – a clearcut no.

• If you consider politics generally, the answer should be “yes” – a clearcut yes.

At least to Trump, and those who follow him blindly, character is not an issue.  If it was, they wouldn’t follow Trump.

I say all this the day after Trump was convicted in a New York Court of delivering hush money to a porn star to avoid information about his tryst becoming a negative part of his presidential campaign.

This headline appeared in the Washington Post in a column by Ruth Marcus:  “No matter what he says, Trump is a felon.”

So, as I have done, consider politics 10, 20 or 30 years ago. 

Would it be possible for a person with the following records ever win election?

• A person who was a reality TV show host, with no public service experience
• A person who said it was easy to grope women
• A person convicted of rape
• A person who expresses his disdain for American military heroes, including the late John McCain
• A person who glorifies Hitler as a model, despite the fact that Hitler organized the largest mass murder in history — killing six million Jews
• A person who hates immigrants, calling them “vermin” and “a poison on this country” (though all of us either are immigrants or come immigrant stock)

Ten, 20 or 30 years ago, that person would never have had a chance to be elected to a public office.

Then comes Trump.

Not only are the facts above true of Trump, he revels in those facts, calling them attributes as he threatens to make America into a dictatorship, with him at the top in the same way another of Trump’s heroes, Vladimir Putin, rules Russia.

It may be tempting for some Trump followers, even in the aftermath of his felony convictions, to say they don’t like his opponent, Joe Biden.

But whatever Biden’s faults – and there are some – none even remotely approach Trump.

So, I intend to vote for Biden.

And, I’ll give the New York Times the last word this morning as it wrote:

“In a humble courtroom in Lower Manhattan on Thursday, a former president and current Republican standard-bearer was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.  The jury’s decision, and the facts presented at the trial, offer yet another reminder — perhaps the starkest to date — of the many reasons Donald Trump is unfit for office.”

Perspective From the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Under this headline – “Not Even Portlandia Wants a Progressive Prosecutor” – the Wall Street Journal went on record lauding the decision by Multnomah County residents to vote for a new prosecutor.

Nathan Vasquez, a lead prosecutor in District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s office, beat his boss by a wide margin.

By the Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman, here is what the article said:

“It wasn’t all that long ago that people talked about Portland, Oregon, in terms of craft beer and music rather than chaos and mayhem. That was of course before the city and the state began testing the outer limits of social policies deemed “progressive,” which has turned out to be the most deceptive label in the history of politics.

“The ironic adjective now stands for a descent into human degradation, and it seems Portland voters have had about all the degrading policy experimentation they can stand.

“Earlier this year the state of Oregon reversed its trendy and tragic embrace of drug decriminalization.  Now in the Portland area voters have tossed a prosecutor who just wasn’t that into prosecuting.”

Here is way Oregonian reporter Noelle Crombie described the change:

“Nathan Vasquez, a career Multnomah County prosecutor, has defeated one-term incumbent District Attorney Mike Schmidt.

“’The voters have made it clear that they are ready to take our county in a new and safer direction,’ Vasquez said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

“As DA, he said he is ‘dedicated to fulfilling my campaign promises.  I am committed to ending open air drug dealing and drug use while helping connect individuals to treatment, to rebuilding the broken relationships between the DA’s office and the community, and to ensuring that victims are the number one priority of my office.’”

More from the Wall Street Journal:

“Portland’s degradation accelerated in 2020 when new D.A. Schmidt decided not to prosecute various offenses committed by leftist protesters.  This week voters made it clear that their aspiration is for city streets to be peaceful, not mostly peaceful.

“Now there’s new cause for optimism and no doubt a few draft microbrews are being raised in Portland as residents hope for a safer and more vibrant community.”

As is often the case, the Journal’s Freeman has no trouble pontificating from his post in the East.

He doesn’t always provide context, which he would say isn’t necessary.  But, this time, Freeman has a point, buttressed by the Oregonian’s reporting.

Vasquez will set a new direction for the District Attorney’s Office in Oregon’s largest county.

THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT CRYSTAL APPLE AWARDS IN SALEM-KEIZER   Perspective from the 19th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.   Leave it naysayers to advance untrue allegations about what otherwise would a great event in Salem-Keizer – Crystal Apple Awards, which honor great teachers.   Salem Reporter set the record straight, as if often does these days, displaying solid journalism under the leadership of Les Zaitz, a former top-level reporter for the Oregonian newspaper.   Here’s the story:   “Just days after layoffs at schools were announced, the community gathered at the Salem Convention Center to honor school employees.

“The annual Crystal Apple Awards ceremony has become a hot ticket in town. One reason is the red-carpet treatment the nominees get, complete with cheering sections, signs, and photography.

“A few readers questioned the cost.  Given deep school budget cuts, they wondered how the Salem-Keizer School District could find money for a gala.

“It didn’t.  The event is hosted by the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce and the McLaran Leadership Foundation.  Tom Hoffert, the chamber’s chief executive officer, explains.

“’It is managed like each of our events in partnership with our generous sponsors,’ he wrote to us in an email Friday. ‘The district does not pay a sponsorship fee or any monetary amount to either the Salem Chamber or the McLaran Foundation.  The event is 100 per cent funded by the generosity of our sponsors and ticket sales.’”   There!   The facts.   Too bad for the early negative perception.  At a time when teachers need all the help they can get, naysayers deserve debit, while Salem Reporter deserves credit.

Perspective from the 19^th hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

First, I post this blog on Memorial Day 2024, so it is appropriate to write something on that important Day before moving into another column on how Donald Trump boggles the mind – my mind.

Think of the standard phrase, “Thank you for your service.”

When I say that to a veteran who has served the United States of America with distinction, I mean it.  “Thank you for your service.”

It is an appropriate accolade for those who have served – and, to get back to Trump, he has never done so (though, below, I recount how he, incredibly, he has denigrated those who have served).

So, back to my blog post for today.

Okay, as a regular human being, think of stuff you would never say.

Then, think of Donald Trump.  He says all that stuff.  Plus, he believes it.

Such as:

• Wants to model himself after Adolph Hitler who supervised the killing of six million Jews, even as he, Trump, keeps the Hitler book Mein Kampf, by his bedside for easy reading.

• Says immigrants are “poisoning the blood of country,” even as the fact is that all of us either are immigrants or have been descended from immigrants.

• Says the late Senator John McCain, a veritable hero from the Vietnam War, was not a hero because he got captured – and that stupid statement comes from a person, Trump, who never bothered to serve his country.

• Wants to model himself after Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal in the Silence of the Lambs film, whom Atlantic Magazine describes this way:  “Amid an anti-migrant tirade at a rally earlier this month in New Jersey, Trump gave a shout-out to the “late, great Hannibal Lecter, referring to the fava bean–loving cannibal played by Anthony Hopkins as a ‘wonderful man.’”

• Sees women as sexual objects, believing that groping and raping them is the province of every man.

• Sees President Joseph Biden as the architect of the FBI’s trip to Mar-A-Lago to find the national security papers that Trump had embargoed and sequestered.  Plus, Trump even said Biden was “out to kill” him by the FBI’s actions.

But, have no doubt – every time Trump talks he will liken himself to dictators and autocrats that he wants to model.

I’ll give Atlantic Magazine the last word today.

“’At what other moment in American history could a presidential candidate praise a fictional serial killer (Lecter), and inspire almost no reaction at all?’

“…the nation shrugged, because this was simply the latest in a long list of 2024’s bizarre and disorienting moments.  ‘The scale of the abnormality is so staggering,’ ABC’s George Stephanopoulos argued recently, ‘that it can actually become numbing.’

“But Americans’ reaction is less like numbness and more a response to something like airsickness, which results when we experience a disconnect between our senses — a nausea-inducing conflict between what we know and what we see.  

“Motion sickness is caused by a discrepancy between what the inner ear detects and what the eye sees.  The effect can be vertiginous — so the way people avoid being nauseated is by trying to ignore the dissonance.

“Call it anomie or call it airsickness — we find ourselves in a land of confusion. Trump pays off a porn star and yet is hailed as a champion of Christian values.  He mocks prisoners of war and calls dead soldiers ‘suckers,’ and his MAGA base is thrilled by his patriotism.

“And, Trump brags about his tight relationship with America’s implacable adversary, Vladimir Putin, claiming that the Russian president will release detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, ‘for me, but not for anyone else.’

“To hear conservative Christians argue that personal character doesn’t matter, or to witness self-described constitutional conservatives defend a relentless attack on the rule of law, is disorienting.

“To see advocates of law-and-order embrace rioters who attacked the Capitol and beat police officers is baffling.

“To watch the party of Ronald Reagan embracing isolationism and following Trump in truckling to the Butcher of Ukraine, Putin, is bewildering.”

My conclusion:  Fully agree.  Trump is ludicrous and disorienting.

And, the point about the duplicity of so-called Christians who hail Trump despite paying off a porn star is worth another post from me.  Later.

For now, allow the unsettling Trump stuff to boggle your mind.

Subhead:  No, Trump isn’t Hitler. But his copycat words lead nowhere good.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I borrowed the headline and subhead in this blog from a column that ran in the Washington Post.

By columnist Dana Milbank, the column made a key point better than I have done in the past.  This:  Donald Trump fancies himself like Adolph Hitler!

Scary?

Yes.  Very.

To compare himself to a despot who supervised the killing of six million Jews portends great problems for our country, the United States of America, if, as he vows to do, Trump becomes president again.

Our country may not survive.  And, with Trump, that is just fine with him.  He wants to be a dictator who kills people for the fun of doing so.

Today, rather than write another of my post deriding Trump and emphasizing his aspiration to be like Hitler, I choose to post the entire column by Milbank.

It is worth reading.

**********

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As you’ve probably heard, Donald Trump has once again raised a führer.The former president’s Truth Social account posted a video posing the question “What happens after Donald Trump wins?” and providing a possible answer: In the background was the phrase “unified Reich.”

This follows Trump’s echoing Adolf Hitler in campaign speeches, saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and calling his opponents “vermin.”

And that, in turn, followed Trump’s dining at Mar-a-Lago with high-profile antisemite Ye (Kanye West) and white supremacist leader Nick Fuentes, who likened incinerating Jews to baking cookies.

Under the three-Reichs-and-you’re-out rule, Trump should be on the bench. Yet he keeps swinging — and this week provided a sobering measure of how numb we have become to his undeniably fascist rhetoric.

Almost exactly eight years ago, Trump attacked Gonzalo Curiel, then the district judge in the Trump University fraud case, saying that his “Mexican heritage” posed “an inherent conflict of interest.” In the uproar that followed, even Republican leaders were appalled, and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump’s statement was “the textbook definition of a racist comment.”

This week, Trump did almost the same thing when he left court on Tuesday after his defense rested in the Stormy Daniels hush money case. “The judge hates Donald Trump,” he said. “Just take a look. Take a look at him. Take a look at where he comes from.” New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan emigrated from Colombia as a child. But this time there was little outcry from the inured populace, and if Republican leaders had any complaints about Trump’s textbook racism (or on his third Reich moment of this campaign) I must have missed them.

Vilifying migrants is a standard fascist trope. So is the constant claiming of victim status. Trump falsely alleged in a fundraising email this week that his opponent conspired to kill him. “Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger” during the FBI’s 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago for missing classified documents, Trump wrote.

He separately claimed that Biden’s Justice Department “AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.” In reality, the FBI took extra precautions to avoid a confrontation by conducting the search when Trump was away and alerted the Secret Service. Agents were operating under the same standard rules of engagement they used when searching Biden’s home: Lethal force can be used only if in “imminent danger of death or serious physical injury.”

Also this week, Trump, asked by Pittsburgh’s KDKA-TV whether he favored restricting Americans’ access to birth control, responded: “We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly.” After the televised interview was broadcast, Trump said the notion that he would advocate restrictions on contraception was “a Democrat fabricated lie.”

That maneuver — floating an outrageous policy and then pretending he had done no such thing — is another tool that Trump routinely uses. After Trump’s Truth Social account shared the video with the slightly-blurred “unified Reich” message during a lunch break in Trump’s trial in New York, his spokeswoman claimed the video had been “created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the president was in court.” The campaign removed the post.

Sound familiar? During the 2016 campaign, Trump tweeted an image that had been used by white supremacists of a Star of David atop a pile of cash. The campaign removed the offending post and Trump said it had been posted by a staffer. He later told a crowd that his aides “shouldn’t have taken it down.”

During that same campaign, Trump also tweeted an image of an American flag containing an image of what appeared to be Nazi Waffen-SS soldiers. The campaign removed this post, too, and blamed an intern.

The disavowal is part of the game, says Jason Stanley, a Yale philosophy professor who specializes in the rhetoric of fascism. “You do it and then you deny it and it’s just systematic, over and over and over again,” he told me in a phone call. “The people who want to hear it hear it, and it signals the direction you want to go in.” And for those uncomfortable with the extremism, the denial provides “a way of lying to themselves and telling themselves this is not what’s really going on.”

But it is. From Nazi Germany to Viktor Orban’s Hungary, Stanley says, people invariably thought the rhetoric of the rising authoritarian was exaggerated and just for dramatic effect. “Historically, people always, always don’t take it seriously,” he said.

Perhaps they don’t realize that Trump is deploying the exact same tropes — against migrants, judges, gender nonconforming people, universities, the media, “Marxists” — now being used by autocrats in Russia, India and Hungary. “If you look at what Trump is saying … everywhere in the world the authoritarians are saying that.”

And yet we drift, placidly, into autocracy. Okay, Trump is unifying the Reich. But Biden is so old!

Trump’s fascist rhetoric is supported by an array of authoritarian polices, which he and his campaign have helpfully divulged.

Trump has said that his (false) election fraud claims justify “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” He said he wouldn’t be a dictator, “other than day one,” when he would use absolute power to seal the border and drill for oil. He has proposed that those shoplifting from stores should “fully expect to be shot.”

He said he would round up as many as 20 million illegal immigrants and, perhaps, put them in mass deportation camps, taking money from the military if necessary.

He said he would appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden, his family and “all others involved with the destruction of our elections, borders and our country itself.” He said he would order prosecutors to “go down and indict” his political opponents if they are “doing well and beating me” — and he would fire prosecutors who don’t follow such orders.

He said he would use the National Guard, and perhaps the regular military, to crack down on protests against him. He would strip civil service protections so he could replace federal workers with Trump loyalists, and he might take over independent agencies, including the Federal Reserve. He suggested he would change laws to attack what he perceives as “anti-White” bias.

Speaking at the National Rifle Association, Trump asked the crowd whether he should “be considered three term or two term?” Several in the crowd shouted out: “Three!” Earlier this spring, the American Conservative published an article titled “Trump 2028” that argued the 22nd Amendment, which limits a president to two terms, “is an arbitrary restraint on presidents who serve nonconsecutive terms.”

The group is part of Project 2025, to which the Trump campaign has informally outsourced its policy planning.

Trump has hinted that he would pardon those sentenced for attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He included in his courtroom entourage this week two convicted felons, Bernard Kerik, the former New York police commissioner he pardoned, and Chuck Zito, a former Hells Angels leader.

During testimony, defense witness Robert Costello showed the same sort of contempt for the judge as Trump did outside the courtroom. He rolled his eyes, talked under his breath, called the proceedings “ridiculous” and complained with a “jeez” when he disagreed with Merchan’s ruling.

Trump has promised “retribution” against his political opponents, and outside Trump’s trial this week, his allies amplified the threat. “They fear Donald Trump and they fear what’s going to happen if he becomes president again — and, I tell you, they should fear,” said Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas.).

“Yes,” agreed Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas.), at his side, wearing a necktie with Trump’s face printed on it.

Trump had one final thing to say before he left the courthouse this week. Just a day after his post about the “unified Reich,” he offered a message for “Jewish people that vote for Biden and the Democrats: They should have their head examined.”

Well, I have had my head examined, and it was found to contain the following memories of things Trump has said and done:

He told his White House chief of staff John Kelly that “Hitler did some good things” and complained that U.S. generals weren’t “totally loyal” to him the way Nazi generals were to Hitler. He spoke of the “very fine people” marching among the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville.

He closed out his 2016 campaign with an ad that singled out three prominent Jews with suggestions that they manipulate a “global power structure.” He was reluctant to disavow David Duke or supporters of his who harassed and threatened Jewish journalists. He has shared innumerable messages on social media from white supremacists. He has repeatedly questioned the loyalty of American Jews.

Long ago, Vanity Fair reported that Trump’s ex-wife Ivana said he read from a book of Hitler’s speeches, which he kept in a cabinet by his bed. Trump confirmed that he had the book but denied that he read it. By coincidence or design, there has been a startling overlap in their language of late.

Trump speaks of immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country” and “coming in with disease.” Hitler said that great civilizations died “as a result of contamination of the blood,” and he called Jews “the worst kind of germ-carriers in poisoning human souls.”

Trump calls his political opponents “radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” Hitler called Jews “an inferior race that multiplies like vermin.”

Trump says that “the enemies from within are more dangerous, to me, than the enemies of the outside. Russia and China, we can handle.” Hitler spoke of “the greater inner enemy” and said that when “the internal enemy was not recognized … all efforts to resist the external enemy were bound to be in vain.”

Trump complains that “fake news is all you get, and they are indeed the enemy of the people.” Hitler complained of “the lying Marxist press” and said “the function of the so-called liberal press was to dig the grave for the German people.”

Trump claims that “we’ve never done worse than we’ve done now. … We’re so disrespected. The whole world is laughing at us.” And he warns: “If we don’t win this election, I believe we will no longer have a country.” Hitler claimed that “the Reich had fallen from a height which can hardly be imagined in these days of misery and humiliation.” He warned that “one year of Bolshevism would destroy Germany” and transform it “into chaos and a heap of ruins.”

Trump, at the end of his speeches, likes to say: “We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists, fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.” Hitler spoke of a “world conspiracy” made up of “Jews and democrats, Bolshevists and reactionaries” and motivated by a “hatred” of Germans.

No, Trump isn’t Hitler, and the 21st century United States isn’t Weimar Germany. But Trump’s words, so obviously ripped from history’s darkest pages, lead no place good. The only thing poisoning the blood of our country is his copycat fascism.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

It seems these days that Donald Trump is always on trial.  Sometimes in court.  Other times facing a future court date.

Most of the time appearing not to care about anything other than himself.

As the hush money trial in New York heads toward the jury, two seasoned political observers – Dan Balz in the Washington Post, and Aaron Blake, also in the Posts – provided recent commentary.

Here is a summary of their views:

FROM DAN BALZ, chief political analyst for the Washington Post:

“Throughout his life, whether as a flamboyant developer, a reality-TV star or a politician who became president, Trump has always found ways to keep the bright lights focused squarely on himself.  Good stories or bad stories, it never really mattered.  

“What was always important was to dominate, to be the center of attention, to win the ratings war, to cloud out everyone else.

“Rarely has there been a time that underscored that aspect of his being. Both the justices on the Supreme Court and the jurors in the Manhattan courtroom were confronted with the alleged misdeeds of the former president.  Nothing about either matter cast Trump positively.

“And yet it is not knowable today whether these proceedings will help or hurt his chances of being elected president again in November.”

FROM AARON BLAKE, another political analyst for the Post:

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“One of Donald Trump’s most tried and true political strategies is rubber-and-glue:  When he gets accused of something serious, he’ll just accuse his opponents of the same thing in the service of creating distractions.

“Mentally unstable?  It’s actually his opponents who fit the bill.  A ‘bigot’ and a ‘racist?’  Again, his opponents.  Ditto inflammatory rhetoric, threatening democracy, being a puppet for Vladimir Putin, habitual lying, obstruction of justice, and on and on.

“But rarely has this strategy been as pronounced and transparent as it is right now.  In his first criminal trial in Manhattan, Trump has relentlessly claimed his various prosecutions and civil court cases amount to 2024 ‘election interference.’

“It’s not only the same crime that he stands accused of in this case; Trump’s own actual and alleged election interference defines most of his biggest scandals and legal issues to date.”

So, there is Trump.  Under criminal charges that would make most of us worry about our future.

Not Trump.  He loves the limelight, no matter how dim it is.  And he translates whatever is happening to him into fodder for the MAGA clan.

For the future, I am hoping that Trump’s misdeeds eventually will catch up with him.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

In recent weeks, with probably too much time on my hands, I have thought of this:

What I would do differently in one past major assignment if I knew then what I know now.

Stupid, I know.

Handsight is great, I guess.

This came to my mind the other day when I saw Gerry Thompson at a social event and, sitting around, both of us recalled a very strange time in Oregon’s history – the time when a cult leader from India, Bhagwhan Shree Rajneesh, invaded Oregon with hundreds of followers.

Gerry was the chief of staff for Governor Vic Atiyeh when I served as the governor’s press secretary back in the mid 1980s.  So, Gerry and I knew each well then and have maintained a friendship over the years.  We also were close with Atiyeh, the last Republican governor in Oregon – working for him on one hand, and maintaining a friendship on the other.

Leaders of the cult came to Oregon, asking thousands of “members” to re-locate here, garbed in what came to be famous – all red clothing.  They went to a ranch in Eastern Oregon, near the town of Antelope.

There, they tried to take over local government in that part of the state and, not just with cult members. 

One strategy for cult leaders was to transport “homeless persons” from around the country, transplant them into Eastern Oregon, register them to vote and, thereby, control local government.

It turned out to be a strategy that did not work out well, so cult leaders, with too many homeless persons in Eastern Oregon, decided to “dump” them into Portland, thus giving charities in Oregon’s largest city there more than they could handle.

That was the context I entered.

Governor Atiyeh and Gerry asked me to head up to Portland from my home in Salem each day to coordinate with the heads of charities. 

What to do?

Too many homeless persons taxed local infrastructure beyond any ability to respond.

By hindsight, this was the assignment which, upon reflection, I could have handled better, knowing what I know now about how government works.

I told Gerry this the other day and she said “not to worry.”

I was there in Portland, she reminded me, as a visible of a “Governor’s Office presence” to make sure local folks knew that had a governor who cared about what they were facing.

The eventual decision?  Buy bus tickets for the homeless persons to get back “home” as a way to spread the responsibility for their care.  Oregon, of course, would take its share.

Here is an excerpt on all this from a biography on Atiyeh that has not reached print:

“…the Oregon Community Foundation was able to help raise money which was funneled to the Salvation Army to help pay for bus tickets.  By the third week in November, the Salvation Army reported that it had raised $56,000 for its efforts, including $20,000 from Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.

“Behind the scenes, the governor was ready for whatever happened.  The State of Oregon quietly directed donated funds to the Salvation Army to deal with the homeless who were flooding back into the cities.  None of this was ever public.

“Atiyeh remembered:  We couldn’t let the homeless be the victims, so we got some money…to the Salvation Army.

“A report by the State Police counted around 1,900 homeless people departures from Rajneeshpuram (the cult’s name for Antelope).”

Fond memories?

No.

It was a difficult time in Oregon history and my memory is that Governor Atiyeh and Gerry Thompson responded with skill, aplomb, and diplomacy.

If I was able to help.  Good.

Still, I wish I would have found a way to do better.