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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager OUR VIEW E ach week we recognize those people and organizations in the community deserving of public praise for the good things they do to make the North Coast a better place to live, and also those who should be called out for their actions. SHOUTOUTS This week’s Shoutouts go to: • The crew of crabbing vessel Ballad and its captain, Chester Bushnell, for their quick actions in coming to the aid of the crew of the Star King, a 55-foot stern trawler crabbing ves- sel that capsized and sank near the entrance of the Columbia River last Saturday on the opening day of the crabbing season. Bushnell and his crew responded to a mayday call and quickly pulled all five of the Star King’s crew out of the frigid water. Each of the hands in the water were wearing survival suits, and U.S. Coast Guard officials said the combination of the quick action of the Ballad’s crew and the survival suits saved the lives of the Star King’s crew. Trump, sex and lots of whining Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian The Columbia River Maritime Museum recently purchased the North Coast Auto Center, seen here on the right, and plans a park- and-pond project next to the Barbey Maritime Center. • The Columbia River Maritime Museum and North Coast Auto Service owner Denis Renaud, on agreeing on a deal for the museum to acquire the auto repair shop’s property. The $850,000 deal, which has been in the works for several years, will allow the auto service to continue operating on the property for up to two years before the museum converts it into a park- and-pond area that will complete the campus around the Barbey Maritime Center, according to Sam Johnson, the museum’s executive director. • US Bank and its regional president, Kevin LaCoste, for awarding Camp Kiwanilong a $3,000 program grant to support the arts and creativity programs for campers in 2017. The pro- grams give campers unique opportunities to learn and grow as they experience Camp Kiwanilong through arts, crafts, music, drama and other cultural activities. • The organizers, producers, participants and support- ers of the community’s outstanding annual production of “The Nutcracker” presented this past month at Astoria High School. Under the artistic direction of Jeanne Maddox Peterson, this sea- son’s entertaining production featured an orchestra with 50-plus members with a cast of dancers from the Little Ballet Theater along with other local talent. Two professional dancers from the Oregon Ballet were featured in the major roles. • Cynthia Weber, who was honored with a Cooperator award from the Oregon State University Extension Association for her 47 years of service to 4-H. Weber, the 4-H Food Booth “Chicken Coop Manager” at the Clatsop County Fair, has been involved with 4-H for more than 60 years and has been running the food booth for most of that time. She was one of 31 individuals and businesses from Oregon who were honored for making a difference in their communities, based on their service to an Extension Program. • Dan Campbell, of Seaside, who recently appeared as a con- testant on an episode of “Wheel of Fortune.” Campbell went through a selection process for the show that began last July and ended with his TV appearance on Dec. 19. While he didn’t win the game show that evening, Campbell said he felt “privileged” to be selected to compete. CALLOUTS This week’s Callouts go to: • Motorists who don’t use common sense by slowing down and taking extra precautions while driving in bad weather like we’ve been recently experiencing. While most people realize the danger that the weather presents, especially on crowded, hilly roads and in snow and icy conditions, there always seems to be some who don’t take heed and drive without any regard and cre- ate even more danger for everbody else traveling nearby. Suggestions? Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know about? Let us know at news@dailyastorian.com and we’ll make sure to take a look. AP Photo/Evan Vucci President-elect Donald Trump , accompanied by family members and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Wednesday. By GAIL COLLINS New York Times News Service F inally, Donald Trump held a press conference. I know you want to hear the sex-in-Rus- sia part. The world learned this week about memos from a retired British intelligence offi- cer on relations between the Trump campaign and the Russians. They included some speculation about whether there were compromis- ing videos of Trump cavorting in a Russian hotel that might explain his enthusiastic support for Vladi- mir Putin. The report wasn’t prepared by our intelligence agencies — it was opposition research done on con- tract for some other campaigns. It had been bouncing around Wash- ington for a while. You didn’t hear about it because nobody could con- firm any of the allegations. But a summary of the memos showed up in the briefing Trump got from the intelligence agencies last week. Wouldn’t you have liked to be there to see the reaction? Then a version of the report showed up online, and naturally it came up Wednesday at Trump’s press conference. ical heart, since there are no con- flict-of-interest rules for the presi- dent. (“... as president I could run the Trump Organization — great, great company. And I could run the company, the country. I’d do a very good job, but I don’t want to do that.”) • He’ll release his taxes once the audit is finished. (You remember that audit. Its friends call it Godot.) • The inauguration is going to be “a beautiful event” because “we have great talent.” (Military bands were mentioned.) This kind of rapid-fire diversion could be the work of a political genius, but in fact it’s just how our next president’s mind naturally seems to operate. What we learned About that press conference. Here are some of the things we learned: • The reason he hasn’t shown up to answer questions from reporters since July is “inaccurate news.” • The Russians don’t have any secret tapes of him behaving badly in a hotel room because every time he goes to hotels abroad, he warns everybody: “Be very careful, because in your hotel rooms and no matter where you go, you’re gonna probably have cameras.” Of every- thing Trump said during the press conference, this was perhaps the most convincing. • He is not going to divest him- self of his businesses, but his two adult sons will be running them. He was just doing this out of his eth- • “If Putin likes Donald Trump I consider that an asset, not a liability.” • “Over the weekend I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai.” He was all over the place. It was, in a way, a great strategy. We’ve been waiting for a long time to hear how Trump would deal with his businesses, and his refusal to divest drove ethics watchdogs crazy. But on Wednesday, the whole topic got drowned in the hubbub over the leaked report. And Trump’s relation- ship with Vladimir Putin. And his theory on hotel cameras. Hither and yon This kind of rapid-fire diver- sion could be the work of a politi- cal genius, but in fact it’s just how our next president’s mind naturally seems to operate. It bounces hither and yon. The only ongoing focus is what it all means to Trump. Did he look good? How was the crowd? Did anyone betray him? He was definitely playing the victim when it came to the leaked report. He blamed the intelligence services, which he compared, with great originality and careful choice of words, to Nazis. Keep in mind that although gov- ernment investigators have been looking into these allegations for a long time, they never became pub- lic during the campaign. “I would never comment on investigations — whether we have one or not, in an open forum like this,” FBI Director James Comey said during one of the multitudinous Senate hearings this week. This is, of course, the same guy who told Congress — 11 days before the election — that the FBI was investigating Hillary Clin- ton emails that wound up on a lap- top owned by Anthony Weiner, aka “Carlos Danger,” the estranged hus- band of her aide and world-famous sex texter. The FBI later announced it had found nothing. Meanwhile, people who were already voting in some states had been reminded to connect Clinton with a guy who sent pic- tures of his private parts to strange women. Clinton thinks it cost her the election. There’s no way to tell. She got nearly 3 million more votes than Trump, but by the rules we live under, she lost. End of story. Trump is never going to admit his win was anything but a record-shattering triumph. But his preening, and his whining about being persecuted by the intelligence services, really twists the knife. Since the election, the media and many Democratic politicians have wrung their hands over their failure to pay attention to the legit- imate anger in the Trump-tilting parts of the country. And good for them. But it’s time to remember that there are about 66 million Clinton voters who have a right to be angry, too.