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.

Therese Bottomly, editor of The Oregonian newspaper, struck a chord with me the other day when she wrote about typos in newspapers.

I hate them, too, based on my background in journalism.

One risk in writing about this is that, as I do so, I might make an error – a typo, a wrong word, or a misspelled word.  Irony of ironies.

Oh well.  Such is life.

Here is a summary of Bottomly’s comments in an e-mail memo she sends to Oregonian subscribers:

“Back in the day, many layers of editors would stand between a reporter’s typed copy and the printed page.  Now when we publish rapidly onto OregonLive, the process is greatly streamlined – and readers notice.

“To take an example from the past, a suburban reporter might turn in his article to the bureau chief, and she would edit it and send it to the suburban editor, who would pass it along to the city desk. A news editor then would read it to decide placement within the newspaper. On the copy desk, a rim editor would make copy edits and write a headline. Then, the slot editor would take a careful read.

“The article would be placed on the page in the composing room, where the makeup editor would check it.  Then, page proofs would be generated for more checks.

“In the current fast-paced world of digital first news, a routine article might go straight from reporter to OregonLive’s home page with just a quick glance from a single editor.”

Of course, Bottomley adds, “The Oregonian/OregonLive has thousands of copy editors.  They are also known as readers.

“And they have something to say.”

A few recent Oregonian examples of what the newspaper got right or wrong: 

Right: Defuse/diffuse.  “They tried to defuse the situation on their own …” “Defuse” means to render harmless or make less tense.  “Diffuse” means to spread out or disperse (not to be confused with “disburse”).

Wrong: Loathe/loath.  A national opinion writer recently said: “One is loathe to pick a fight with a lawyer taking a well-deserved victory lap after a hard-fought trial.”  “Loathe” is a verb meaning “dislike greatly”; “loath” is an adjective meaning “not willing.”

Right: Fazed/phased.  A reporter wrote that “employees seemed relatively unfazed” by the stray bullet.  To faze is to bother; to phase is to do something in stages.

Wrong: Between/among.  We recently reported on “Oregon’s gubernatorial matchup between” three women.  A reader responded:  I hate to complain about one of the grammatical slides that seem to be happening in printed articles all over (even the New York Times), but this one comes up quite often now and particularly irks me:  Writers saying “between” when referring to three or more singular entities.  It just makes sense that you can’t be between more than two things.  You can be “among” them, however.

For me, a person who likes words, the examples are good ones.

I would add one important one as I cite an oft-used mistake:  Using a plural pronoun when the right one is singular. 

Here is an example:  “The committee did their work.”  It should be, “The committee did ITS work.”

Critical stuff, right?  For me, a “words person,” yes.

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.

The headline on this blog deals with a very important public policy challenge:  Public records.

Or, in the case of the City of Salem recently, the ongoing attempts to keep records secret.

Les Zaitz, editor of the Salem Reporter and a long-time journalist in Oregon, wrote about this in a recent column.  I reprint key parts of it below.

First, in the spirit of full disclosure, I know Zaitz well because when I worked for state government and when he worked for The Oregonian as an investigative reporter, we dealt often with each other.  And the subject often was public records.

On occasion, we might have disagreed, but I would say both of us had the ability to “disagree, agreeably.”

In Oregon, state law says essentially this – all government records are public unless they can fit into a special exemption written into the law.  Examples are personal information about state employees (such as addresses) that might subject them to danger, specific information on collective bargaining negotiations, information on public property the state might want to acquire that, if the value was known, could boost the price, and private company records (read, trade secrets) of companies considering expanding or locating in Oregon.

You can see the potential for controversy, though the weight rests on the side of disclosure.

Today, as editor of Salem Reporter, Zaitz and his staff of reporters aim to provide what’s often missing in the Salem area these days, which is quality local news.  Good for him and for my friend, Larry Tokarski, who has helped to fund Salem Reporter.

Now, for excerpts from Zaitz’ column:

“Salem city officials are determined to keep from you the information on why a top official under investigation was able to leave office with an unearned $53,500.

“Salem Reporter is working to change that, but powerful forces are lined up against us.

“Faith in government and transparency in public affairs are at stake.  Here’s the issue.

“Earlier this year, a deputy police chief in the Salem Police Department was under suspicion for some sort of misconduct.  As we have since learned, city leaders couldn’t advance their investigation because – and this is surprising – they couldn’t find an investigator.

“Instead, they cut a deal with the executive, who would retire from his city job, pack up his office, and walk out with an extra $53,500.

“This seemed striking and seemed to warrant an explanation.  Why would a top city official get paid to walk away while under investigation?

“The city took nearly three weeks to release a single document, doing so only after our news organization initiated legal action to force its disclosure.”

Zaitz goes on to report that Salem city officials deflected question after question about the release of documents.  And, when Salem Reporter did what the law requires, which is to appeal to Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson, she took the side of the city.

He also said Salem Reporter believes it will continue to be re-buffed by Salem officials.  But he also said the city cannot “blunt public opinion and this is where you come in.”

By “you,” he meant Salem area residents and he asked them to weigh in on the side of the public’s right to know.

I, for one, have done so.

Therese Bottomly, executive editor of The Oregonian newspaper, entered the fray the other day in her weekly “Letter to Readers.”  She wrote this:

“One of the underpinnings of public disclosure laws is that the public has the right to see how government is spending the public’s money.  That’s why salaries for public officials are open to all, budgets are posted on-line, and contracts can be examined.

“Secret settlements corrode the trust in public bodies.  We all know that employers sometimes make a judicious decision:  Pay a little money to help a problem employee move along and save a lot of expense, time, and headache that might come from a lawsuit.

“But if that’s what Salem did, the citizens have a right to know it.

“Under Oregon’s public records law, some documents are exempt from disclosure.  Many exemptions, however, have what is known as a “public interest” test — that is, does the public interest in the information in a particular instance weigh in favor of disclosure.”

Whether government information is public or private is always a subject for debate.  Often, there is solid rationale on both sides.  But, in Oregon, the good news, as Zaitz and Bottomly know, is that most records are deemed to be public, not private – and that’s a solid test of meeting the “public interest.”

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.

Every day, we learn more about the papers Donald Trump took from the White House.  Papers, many of which, were labeled “classified” and which, in a few cases, involved sensitive nuclear war information.

Is Trump guilty of being stupid or pilfering sensitive information for his own gain?

Both.

And, Paul Waldman in the Washington Post, writes about the situation this way:

“In a complicated case like that of Donald Trump’s pilfering of government documents, instead of learning everything all at once, we get information piecemeal.  When the Justice Department makes a filing or the judge releases a document, the picture gets a little more focused.  Every time, Trump’s defenders fervently hope this new development will demonstrate his innocence.

“And every time, the opposite happens.  The more we learn, the more guilty Trump looks.”

Then, Waldman hits the nail on the head.

“Hovering behind this controversy is the frightening possibility that Trump could become president again.  Just this Thursday he promised ‘full pardons with an apology to many’ for January 6 rioters.  If he’s eager to pardon perpetrators of a violent insurrection against the American government, what else might he have in store?  How would he treat sensitive national security information in a second term?  The very thought ought to make you shudder.”

And, shudder is what I am doing even as I write this.

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.

When a president gives a major speech, it’s normal practice for all sorts of individuals to parse what the president said.

Was the speech well-written?  Did the president strike the right chords?  Did the president utter lines that could resonate over time?  Did the president make any stumbles?

These questions surround what President Joe Biden told the nation a few days ago in a speech that was entitled, “The Soul of the Nation.”

My view is at least three-fold:

1. Biden did just what he had to do by calling out those – he called them “MAGA Republicans” – who don’t honor the country, who don’t respect the Constitution, and who, often by violent means, want to install THEIR leader, Donald Trump, even though he lost the last election.

• Biden made sure not to paint all Republicans with a broad brush.  He called out MAGA Republicans, not all Republicans.

• Biden asked all Americans to rally around retaining American democracy, not a perfect form government, but one better than all the rest.  [The last phrase in the sentence above is mine, not Biden’s.]

In The Atlantic on-line magazine, writer Tom Nichols said he felt Biden had no choice but to deliver his speech.  He called it a “sad duty,” suggesting that any president would have had to rise to the occasion, given what is at stake for the country.

Here is what Nichols wrote:

“…make no mistake:  He had to give it.  His duty demanded it.  As Biden rightly said, the American democracy faces an ‘ongoing attack’ from what he termed ‘MAGA Republicans’ who do not respect the Constitution, the rule of law, the will of the people, or the results of free elections.  No president could remain silent under such circumstances.”

Biden’s best line may have been this:

“Democracy cannot survive when one side believes there are only two outcomes to an election:  Either they win or they were cheated.  You can’t love your country only when you win.”

In the Washington Post, Eugene Robinson wrote this:

“President Biden’s bold rhetoric and stagecraft in his speech Thursday night were, if anything, understated.  We are in a fight to save our democratic system, and it would have been wrong to pretend the battle is not both political and partisan.

“’Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,’ Biden told the nation. There, he said it.  He named names.  One of our two major parties, in thrall to a would-be autocrat, is no longer committed to the American experiment — and thus can no longer be trusted with power.”

I agree with Robinson.

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.

Salem’s Ellie Slama, one of the best golfers in our area, if not THE best, has advanced out of the Stage 1 of the Ladies Professional Golf Qualifying School.

That means she has a chance to become a professional golfer, one of her dreams.

I have followed Ellie for years, often as I served as a starter for Oregon Golf Association events in which she played.  If she was in the field and you get on her to win, you’d make money.

In the heat of the Palms Springs area last month, she entered the Stage 1 qualifying event for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).  She  four rounds on three courses – the Arnold Palmer Course at PGA West, the Mission Hills Dinah Shore Course, and the Nick Faldo Course at Shadow Ridge.

Over those four rounds, Ellie finished tied for 18^th place, shooting eight under for four rounds — 70-71-68-71 – a great score.  One hundred players advanced to Stage 2.   

Plus, on the bag as caddie:  Ellie’s brother, Tim.

It had to be a great family experience.

Stage 1 in blistering Palm Springs heat showed Ellie’s capability.  A total of 311 hopefuls teed it up for the four rounds of Q School.  They were allowed to play in carts given the heat, which often topped 110 degrees.  Ellie was under par in each of her rounds, qualifying with relative ease.

When I asked Ellie about the experience, she answered with a quick, understated phrase:  “Boy, it was so hot!”

So was her golf!

Here is a snapshot of Ellie’s career drawn off the Oregon State University Women’s Golf Website:

“Finished her five-year Oregon State career with a scoring average of 72.95, the best in Oregon State history.  Played 127 rounds, the sixth most in Oregon State history.  Had 14 Top 10 finishes, the second most in Oregon State history.  Won three individual titles (Ron Moore Invitational as a freshman, Trinity Forest Invitational as a sophomore and Silverado Showdown as a senior).

“Became the first golfer in Oregon State history to be named Pac-12 Golfer of the Month (October 2018).  Holds the Oregon State records for career scoring average (72.95), top-10 finishes in a season (7), lowest single-round score (6-under 66), lowest three-round score (11-under 205) and sub-par scores (46).  Also holds the Oregon State records for single-season scoring average as a freshman (72.79), sophomore (72.43), junior (72.72) and senior (73.19).”

Besides being a great golfer, Ellie has always struck me as a uniformly positive person with a consummate ability to meet anyone and share perspectives, both on life and on golf.  To greet her is always a positive experience.

During this summer before Q-School, Ellie has been practicing and playing at my home course here in Salem, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club.

Based on her quality performance in Stage 1, Ellie now will be preparing for Stage 2, which will be held October 18-21 at the Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Florida.  From there, players will advance to the Q-Series, a two-week contest in Mobile, Alabama, and Dothan, Alabama, after which LPGA cards will be handed out.

Later this month, a number of Ellie’s friends are getting together to discuss how we can continue helping her prepare for the remaining parts of Q-School.  Yes, one of the ways is to help her defray some of the expenses.

She’ll also continue using Illahe for practice rounds.

So, keep playing well, Ellie.  We’re rooting for you!

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.

No, not that word.

“Fascism.”

President Joe Biden made a good point a few days ago when he said this, as reported by The Atlantic and other newspapers:

“We cannot, however, let our understandable fear of words such as fascism scare us out of talking about the reality staring us in the face.

“The GOP itself might not meet the full definition of a ‘fascist’ party—not yet, anyway — but it’s not a normal party, and its base is not an ordinary political movement.

“It is, instead, a melding of the remnants of a once-great party with an authoritarian, violent, seditionist personality cult bent on capturing and exercising power solely to benefit its own members and punish its imagined enemies among other Americans.

“Is that fascism?  For most people, it’s close enough.  A would-be strongman and a party of followers enveloped in racism, seized with nostalgia for an imagined glorious past, and drunk on mindless blood-and-soil nationalism all stinks of fascism.”

So, beyond reading the last paragraph, I decided to check the dictionary for an explicit definition of the term “fascism.”  Here is what I found:

“A political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Sounds like Trump and his cronies.

At various times in the past, I have agreed that much of the Republican party has gone off the rails, especially in relation to its mostly conservative roots.

But I also have opined that Democrats often were not much better.  They always supported new and more aggressive government that peaked into every corner of everyday life and spent government money as if there was no tomorrow.  Socialism?  Perhaps, or at least the way there.

Wall Street Journal commentator Daniel Henninger put the two-party tension this way:

“But an unexpected opportunity has emerged.  Biden, by blurting out unscripted what he and many progressive Democrats believe — that much of the country is now semi-fascist — has opened a door to debating whether his presidency is semi-socialist.  And whether that’s where America wants to go.”

In view of this tension – autocracy vs. socialism — what I wish for is:

• Either a two-party system that functions effectively in this country for the good of the country from different, but not violent, perspectives.
• Or, a third party that arises to represent those, like me, who believe the best solutions to pressing public policy problems lie somewhere in the middle, not either the right or left extremes.

The very future of our country is at stake. 

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 past blogs, I have used three words to describe those who follow Donald Trump blindly into what could only be called a political and governmental abyss.

Each is accurate.

Here are the words and their definitions:

• Minion/A follower or underling of a powerful person, especially a servile or unimportant one.

• Acolyte/An assistant or follower.

• Sycophant/A person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage.

Think of each of them and then, for example, consider House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.  He illustrates all three perfectly. 

So does Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Then, consider what Senator Lindsay Graham said over the weekend.  This, as reported by Washington Post writer Ruth Marcus – and she even labeled Graham accurately as an “acolyte.”

“Then, on Sunday, Trump acolyte Senator Lindsey O. Graham didn’t bother with the disingenuous niceties.  He went straight to the threat. ‘Most Republicans, including me, believe when it comes to Trump, there is no law.  It’s all about getting him.  And I’ll say this:  If there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information after the Clinton debacle … there’ll be riots in the streets.”

My hope that all four – Trump, McCarthy, Cruz and Graham, not to mention the rest of their ilk — fall into the abyss they have created.  They deserve it.

And, what’s the abyss?

It’s the make-believe political arena Trump and his minions, acolytes, and sycophants have created for themselves.  Only this group of narcissists, led by Trump, benefits.  That’s just the exactly the way they want it without any care about risks for the country, including that they raise the prospect of a civil war if they don’t get their way.

And, then, this from Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin as she anticipates President Joe Biden’s address to the nation on the eve the Labor Day start of the political season:

“Americans need to hear from Biden that all of this (the stuff from Trump and his acolytes, minions, and sycophants) is antithetical to democracy.  It is the stuff of fascist, authoritarian states.  And politicians — read: Republicans — who invoke violence against the FBI, the National Archives, or any American should be banished from public life.”

Agreed!

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 was a first for me. 

What?

Attending a college reunion.

With my wife, Nancy, I did so last weekend.  It was 50^th reunion for my graduation from Seattle Pacific College, now called Seattle Pacific University.  [She went along, though she graduated from the University of Oregon.]

Yes, it has been more than 50 years since I graduated in 1970, but like many other things these days, our reunion in 2020 was postponed due to the pandemic.

A few perceptions from attending this time around:

• I only knew about five people who were there from my class.  Two I did know – John Glancy, a long-time SPU guy who attended college with me, then worked for the institution for about 30 years, and Mel MacDonald, a great athlete back in my day who now sometimes plays pickle-ball with my son, Eric, in Palm Springs – were the ones who invited me by phone.  I agreed to attend.

• The program for the evening was long – too long – for anyone like me to pay much attention after about two hours.

• Before dinner, Nancy and I walked around the campus on a self-guided tour, but all the doors to buildings were closed and locked.  At least a few of them should have been open to us.

• For me, that included the office of The Falcon, the student newspaper I edited as a senior.  It would have been good to see the office and remember the hundreds of hours I spent there, toiling over the campus daily newspaper.

At dinner, I sat next to one of my friends from college days, Don Mortenson.  When I was a senior and he was a junior, we lived together in an off-campus apartment with two other guys.

He recalled a particular memory.  At our apartment, he said I would often get calls late at night or early in the morning from someone on “my” college newspaper staff wondering about, (a) how to write a story, (b) what to cover, or, (c) even, reporting about a typo in the paper after it had been printed.

On the latter, Don remembers that I often exclaimed in a loud voice, “Oh no, how did that happen?”  Well, I might have used harsher words.

Will I attend future reunions?  Probably not.

They are not my thing.

But not bad being there once, though I wish arrangements would have been a bit more welcoming for those of us who survived past 50 years from graduation – like open doors.

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.

Remember, this is one of the three departments I run with a free hand to manage as a I see fit.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of “Just Saying.”

So today, as a towering management figure, I open the Good Quotes Department…again.

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:  “Administrators of school districts and public universities across the country will soon welcome thousands of new teachers and professors to orientation sessions.  And then those administrators will have to leave the room so unions can recruit new members.

“The on-boarding process has become a key battleground for the country’s government unions.  For decades, labor could count on collecting hundreds of millions of dollars annually from public employees from the moment they were hired.  Even workers who didn’t want to join had to pay special fees akin to union dues.  That changed in 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. Afscme that these involuntary payments violated the First Amendment.

“With the unions suddenly having to make the case for paying dues, access to new hires became crucial.  Some unions had already worked out deals to let their recruiters speak at orientation sessions, but plenty hadn’t. Sympathetic politicians responded by giving unions new privileges to help pressure workers into joining.  Lawmakers in New York provided unions “mandatory access” to orientations sessions, something management could previously deny.  Other states passed similar measures.  Central California’s Mariposa County made attendance for the union pitch mandatory.

“Unions are now taking things a step further:  Getting public employers to agree to let them speak to new hires without anyone from management present.  The New York City Department of Education, the nation’s largest public school system, has held official orientation events for new teachers at United Federation of Teachers headquarters since 2015.  But in 2018 the city agreed to let the union address new hires attending mandatory orientation “without any agent of the DOE present.”

COMMENT:  When the Janus decision came down, I celebrated.  Because public employee unions would have to compete for members and potential members would have the ability to say “yes, I join” or “no, I don’t join.”

In turn, that also would have meant that public employee unions wouldn’t have a guaranteed nest egg of money to make election contributions.

Now, it appears that unions, again, have found a way around the new law.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:  “If there’s one thing a top-notch grifter knows how to do, it’s exploit a crisis.

“So it is that Donald Trump has transformed the F.B.I.’s search of his Mar-a-Lago home from a potentially debilitating scandal into a political bonanza — one that threatens to further divide a twitchy, polarized nation.

“His formula for this alchemy?  The usual:  Playing on pre-existing grievances among his followers — in this case, the right’s bone-deep suspicion and resentment of federal authority.

“If you thought members of the MAGAverse were jacked up on Deep State conspiracy theories before, just wait until they spend several more weeks consuming the toxic spin-sanity that Trump and his enablers have been pushing out like black tar heroin.

“Once Trump donned his trusty cloak of victimhood, which by now must be threadbare from overuse, the Republican response to the search was predictable:  His base roared in outrage, a display of blind fealty featuring threats of lethal violence against their savior’s perceived persecutors.”

COMMENT:  This post was written by one of my new favorite cmmentators, Michelle Cottle. 

She gets Donald Trump just right by calling him “grifter in chief.”

His narcissistic response – everything revolves around him – leads me to continue wondering why so many Republicans in this country still tolerate his over-the-top actions.

FROM NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL WRITERS:  “Trump’s unprecedented assault on the integrity of American democracy requires a criminal investigation.  The disturbing details of his post-election misfeasance, meticulously assembled by the January 6 committee, leave little doubt that Trump sought to subvert the Constitution and overturn the will of the American people.

“The president, defeated at the polls in 2020, tried to enlist federal law enforcement authorities, state officials and administrators of the nation’s electoral system in a furious effort to remain in power.  When all else failed, he roused an armed mob that stormed the Capitol and threatened lawmakers.”

COMMENT:  No one should be above the law and that includes Trump.  For all of his actions – lying incessantly, provoking an insurrection, and declining to turn over classified documents (plus many more) – Trump deserves to be tried and, I say, convicted in a court of law.

What appears above are only excerpts of the New York Times editorial.  In full length, it is well-written and well-researched, worthy of being read in full.  And it proves beyond a shadow of doubt that Trump deserves oblivion.

IS AMERICA’S TWO-PARTY POLITICAL SYSTEM IN JEOPARDY?

“Increasingly, Republicans and Democrats view, not just the opposing party but also the people in that party, in a negative light.  Growing shares in each party now describe those in the other party as more closed-minded, dishonest, immoral, and unintelligent than other Americans.  Nearly half of younger adults say they ‘wish there were more parties to choose from.’

According to the PEW report, perhaps the most striking change in American thought is the extent to which partisans view those in the opposing party as immoral.  In 2016, about half of Republicans and slightly more than a third of Democrats said those in the other party were a lot or somewhat more immoral than other Americans. Today, 72 per cent of Republicans regard Democrats as more immoral, and 63 per cent of Democrats say the same about Republicans.

“The pattern is similar with other negative partisan stereotypes:  72 per cent of Republicans and 64 per cent of Democrats say people in the opposing party are more dishonest than other Americans.  Fewer than half in each party said this six years ago.

“Large majorities in both parties also describe those in the other party as more closed-minded than other Americans, and this sentiment also has increased in recent years.”

Yet, PEW writers add, there is one negative trait that Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to link to their political opponents.  A 62 per cent majority of Republicans say Democrats are “more lazy” than other Americans, up from 46 per cent in previous studies in 2019 and 2016.  

Here is the tension in what PEW reports:  Many of those who identify with the two-party system are wedded to it strongly and have no intention of giving anything to anyone but their standard bearers; many others want something different in how Americans participate in politics.

It is too early to tell how all of this will sift and sort itself out in the coming months.

But, for at least one clue, watch Oregon.