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.