JULY 21, 2017, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Will Republicans break from Trump?
By E.J. DIONNE JR.
“Will he tell the president ‘no’?”
This question was at the heart
of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s opening
statement at last week’s confi rmation
hearing for Christopher Wray, Presi-
dent Trump’s nominee as FBI direc-
tor. Wray was there because the man
who appointed him had fi red James
Comey for failing, as Feinstein put it,
to “pledge his loyalty” to Trump and
to soft-pedal inquiries in-
volving Russian meddling
in the 2016 campaign.
The test for Wray, Fein-
stein said, will be his “will-
ingness to stand up in the
face of political pressure.”
There is good reason
to feel uneasy about hav-
ing anyone appointed by
Trump lead the FBI at this mo-
ment. It is obvious to all except the
willfully blind that we now have a
president who observes none of the
norms, rules or expectations of his
offi ce and will pressure anyone at
any time if doing so serves his per-
sonal interests.
We also know beyond doubt that
this team will lie, and lie, and lie
again whenever the matter of Rus-
sia’s exertions to elect Trump and
defeat Hillary Clinton arises.
Donald Trump Jr. met with a
Russian lawyer connected to the
Putin regime after he received an
email from an intermediary prom-
ising “sensitive information” about
Clinton that was “part of Russia
and its government’s support for Mr.
Trump.” His decision exploded the
president’s claims that neither he nor
his campaign had anything to do
with Russia’s efforts to tilt our elec-
tion his way.
The son’s response to the invi-
tation, “I love it,” will become the
iconic summation of the Trump ap-
parat’s attitude toward the assistance
the president received from Vladimir
Putin’s regime.
Almost as instructive were the
number of outright lies the Trump
camp concocted to try to disguise
the real motivation behind the en-
counter. Their story changed as New
York Times reporters developed more
information as to what happened.
The White House ini-
tially seemed to think it
could get everyone to
buy its fi ction that the
conversation—which
also involved Trump’s
then-campaign manag-
er, Paul Manafort, and
his son-in-law, Jared
Kushner—had focused
on policy toward Russian adoptions.
Feinstein’s suggestion that telling
this president “no” has become the
true measure of patriotism applies
far beyond Wray. So far, Republican
politicians, with a precious few ex-
ceptions, are failing this ethics exam.
The revelations about Trump Jr.
might have been the moment when
Republican leaders at least started to
grab their luggage in preparation for
disembarking from the Trump train.
After all, as Washington Post blogger
Greg Sargent underscored, there is
evidence that the president him-
self cooperated in putting out the
original lies about his son’s meeting.
This may prove to be the wedge that
opens up a larger examination of the
president’s determination to cover-
up.
Yet the GOP is having trouble
kicking its Trump habit.
While some Republican senators
see the administration’s dysfunction
as a barrier to their Obamacare re-
peal efforts, others are hoping the
other
views
Paying for Keizer’s livability
The Keizer City Council has
passed new fees to support the po-
lice department and the city’s 19
parks. Each fee is $4 per month that
is added to the water/sewer bills
(the bi-monthly addition to invoices
total will be $16).
The collection of the new fees
will start in November.
Instead of receiving a
water bill, homeown-
ers and business owners
will receive a city ser-
vices invoice which in-
clude the two new fees.
The approval of the
two fees was not done
in a vacuum; it was not done in the
dark nor away from public scrutiny.
The discussion of a parks fee has
been in public arena for more than
a year; both hearings and public fo-
rums have been held to unveil the
current state of our parks as well
as how much money is needed to
maintain them.
Both the parks fee and the public
safety fee will be dedicated—mean-
ing revenues from each fee may only
be used for parks or police and can-
not be diverted to any other part of
the city’s budget.
The city’s charter and state law
allows the council to impose a ser-
vice fee. It is the imposition of a tax
that requires a vote of the people.
Again, the council did not approve
the two fees lightly. A detailed sur-
vey about parks was sent to every
Keizer home earlier this year asking
about everything from park ameni-
ties to frequency of use by members
of the household. It gave options for
a monthly fee and what each one
would pay for. Interested persons
could also fi ll out the survey online.
The state of Keizer parks and
the impact of a fee were the top-
ics at neighborhood meetings, parks
board meetings and other gather-
ings.
There was no lack of transparency
when it came to what why and how
the parks fee would be. There was
no survey regarding a public safety
fee, but again there was transpar-
ency in the effort to add $4 a month
to water/sewer bills to add the fi ve
people Police Chief John Teague
says is needed to keep up with the
needs of Keizer’s police department.
Early in the process Mayor Cathy
Clark was on the record saying
that it should not and must not be
a choice between parks and police,
that it was vital to fund both for the
betterment of the city and
its residents.
They say that freedom
isn’t free, well, neither are
city operations. Keizer has
the lowest tax base of any
full service city in Or-
egon; the rate was locked
in with passage of several
state-wide measures in the early
1990s. Keizer’s founding fathers
were content with a rate of $2.08
per $1,000 of valuation. The city has
lived with that rate for more than
30 years. Some in the private sector
say that the city should live within
its means. That’s a nice view but no
one foresaw in 1982 (when Keizer
was incorporated into a city) how
PERS and health insurance would
affect municipal budgets in 2017.
The city is mandated to pay into
PERS, an expenditure which in-
creases every year. To be a preferred
employer the city has to offer health
insurance, and increases in that fi eld
are a given.
Some people wanted voters to
have a say on the fees. There is no
guarantee that voters would approve
either fee; the city needs extra mon-
ey now to fund two items that are
crucial to the livability and market-
ability of Keizer. Those are the key
points: homeowners need to feel se-
cure that their investment will grow
in value. That’s accomplished with
keeping Keizer the most desired ad-
dress in the Willamette Valley.
The city should not behave as it
has received a big infusion of cash to
play with; parks will get better, pub-
lic safety will be more secure. Keizer
has shown to be a good trustee of
the taxpayer dollar, but city leaders
must understand that their budget
decisions in the coming years will
be under the citizen’s microscope.
—LAZ
our
opinion
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RECEPTION
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Trump Jr. distraction will lower the
level of scrutiny of their forthcom-
ing second draft of a health care bill.
Could scandalous political behavior
provide a shield for scandalous pub-
lic policy?
Vice President Pence’s effort to
stay loyal to Trump while tip-toeing
away from the latest disclosures is
another sign of chaos. Marc Lotter,
Pence’s press secretary, attempted
to draw a bright line, saying of the
vice president: “He is not focused on
stories about the campaign, particu-
larly stories about the time before he
joined the ticket.”
But there is no bright line. This
statement should widen, rather than
narrow, interest in Pence’s behavior
because denying any relationship
with Russia was central to the cam-
paign that he was part of. It was also
Pence who (in theory, at least) was
in charge of vetting Michael Flynn,
the national security adviser who
had to resign after 24 days because of
his own dissembling about Russian
contacts. Pence publicly defended
Flynn, and then pleaded ignorance
as to what was going on.
Pence cannot be allowed to slink
away from the administration whose
cause he has advanced. If he’s start-
ing to see reasons for breaking with
Trump, he’ll have to do it outright
and end his own collusion with one
of the most disingenuous White
Houses in our history.
The same applies to Republican
leaders in Congress. When will they
tell the president “no”? Feinstein’s
question is the right one for Wray. It
should haunt Paul Ryan and Mitch
McConnell, too.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
Who will bring us all together?
By GENE H. McINTYRE
After Rodney King came in-
famously close to death by police
offi cers’ beating, later, he famous-
ly asked, “Why can’t we just get
along?”
I wonder the same these days
about a number of matters,
one of the most poignant
is getting along without
a nuclear war with North
Korea. Such a war would
mean near total obliteration
to Koreans, both North
and South, while further
threatening the world’s cli-
mate to human long-term
survival.
It is imagined tiresome to the av-
erage person throughout the world
that certain persons among us rise
to positions of power and infl uence
which for centuries has meant near-
ly constant readiness for war and, in
more recent times, total world war.
World War I for example got under-
way by the assassination of an Aus-
trian archduke and his wife but re-
ally had to do with the fi ght among
European nations for hegemony.
World War II began by Hitler’s Nazi
Germany invasions and Japanese
war mongers, talking the Emperor
into an attack on Pearl harbor.
The world has been on the verge
of more world war since 1947 with
the founding of the Warsaw Pact by
the Soviet Union and its counter-
part, the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization. When Russia replaced
the USSR in 1991, the next crisis
was founded by Mao Zedong’s Chi-
nese government which staged a se-
ries of bold nuclear and missile tests.
More upstarts to war again have
brought tense years with the pros-
pect of another world war dominat-
ing the world in recent years.
Meanwhile,
most
people
throughout the world
want to enjoy family
lives that can be lived
in loving peacefulness
with a home, children,
recreational and educa-
tional opportunities and
a long life. Although
these conditions may
never have been expe-
rienced by most people in North
Korea, it’s imagined that daydreams
of such a life by the average North
Korean is commonplace.
Paths to a lasting world peace are
constantly being identifi ed. Most
of these have been tried again and
again, this time regarding North
Korea, with consideration given
to “surgical” military strikes, im-
posed sanctions and isolation, di-
plomacy and pushing China to
do more. To date, nothing has
worked in what’s become known
as “The Land of Lousy Options.”
President Trump criticized war
before becoming commander-in-
chief but has since his inaugura-
tion added American troops to al-
ready existing numbers of them in
Afghanistan and Syria and has not
closed Guantanamo any more than
reducing troop numbers all over the
world. He’s also proven himself in
all matters unpredictable, a pledge
guest
column
loyalty from every American his
most important objective.
However, what bothers me most
at present and will do so into the
foreseeable future has a little less to
do with more war as much as does
global warming, out of which the
Paris (climate) Accord President
Trump has now withdrawn the U.S.
It’s not just the rising of sea levels
and the fl eeing of coastlines alone.
Indeed, based on what’s anticipated
to happen, parts of the Earth for-
merly ideal for human habitation
will become close to uninhabit-
able while other parts will be to-
tally inhospitable. These human
eradication conditions are, without
a world community-of-interven-
tions, forecasted before the end of
this century.
Yes, most assuredly we must stop
warring with each other (that state
of peace would help decisively) de-
voting ourselves instead, all of us, to
fi nding more successful ways to get
along. Immediately, that’s today, we
earthlings must put our heads to-
gether to save the Earth from most
of it being inhospitable while those
remaining parts being too hot and
stormy and too contaminated of air,
water and soil to support human life
anywhere on this planet.
(Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)
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