OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 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
Court rulings
on terminals
benefit coast
N
ews since the start of the year has not been good for
proponents of fossil-fuel terminals in our region. There are
lessons to be learned from this experience.
Early this month, Washington state Public Lands Commissioner
Peter Goldmark denied a key lease for the proposed Millennium
Bulk Terminals coal export facility in Longview, Washington. This
wasn’t necessarily the last nail in the project’s coffin, but it further
weakened the economic arguments for a plan already on shaky
ground.
And last week, the Washington State Supreme Court issued a
ruling that effectively blocks a crude-by-rail terminal in Hoquiam
on Grays Harbor. The ruling was based on a state law that places a
top priority on making sure the coastline is safe from catastrophic
environmental damage. The ruling was celebrated by the Quinault
Indian Nation and fishing groups.
“This is a strong decision protecting and preserving coastal
communities now and into the future,” said Dale Beasley of
Ilwaco, Washington, the president of the Coalition of Coastal
Fisheries, a group that includes fishermen, oyster growers and
charter boat operators. “Today’s decision gives commercial fisher-
men another handle to protect our livelihoods.”
These decisions have direct implications for communities on
both sides of the Columbia River. Commercial fishermen have
been worried about the potential for oil spills that could decimate
their industry. At a recent meeting with newly elected Washington
State Rep. Jim Walsh, Lower Columbia fishermen said they were
equally worried about the Longview coal terminal — which might
result in coal-particulate pollution and increase the potential for
shipping accidents. Tourism, home values, and recreational and
commercial shellfish harvesting also would be endangered by fos-
sil-fuel pollution.
Supporters of these projects point to job creation, society’s con-
tinuing need for energy and the generally good safety records of
railways and ocean-going ships. The Longview terminal, by pro-
viding a cost-effective way to export Powder River Basin coal to
Asia, would bolster coal-state economies and improve the U.S.
trade balance sheet.
Ramping up U.S. energy development is a major priority of
President-elect Donald Trump — a way of firing up the national
economy while continuing to increase our independence on oil
imports. Based partly on this promise, the coal states of Wyoming
and West Virginia provided Trump’s largest winning margins.
The Washington state terminal decisions suggest limits to
Trump’s ability to deliver. This doesn’t mean his administra-
tion won’t try. The federal legal arsenal includes a variety of tools
designed to keep states from interfering with national policies,
including the possibility of coercive measures like tying federal
aid to compliance with federal wishes.
The West Coast states have been described as the “Thin Green
Line” blocking coal and other carbon fuels from reaching pur-
chasers and, ultimately, the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse
gases. Citizens of our states are far from united on this position.
In our area, however, no matter our individual feelings about
U.S. energy policies, we should be united in defending our
long-established industries that rely on pure water.
The Trump and pony show
By TIMOTHY EGAN
New York Times News Service
A
s a professional skeptic,
I’m going to remain doubt-
ful that Donald Trump has
been a willing Russian tool, mas-
terfully serving
the needs of a dan-
gerous American
adversary. I’m not
going to buy all
the sordid details
of “that crap,” as
the president-elect called intelli-
gence reports of his being compro-
mised by nasty people operating
out of the Kremlin.
I’m going to believe Donald
Trump, for now, which is more
than he ever did for the graceful
president soon to exit. Trump has
been a garbage conveyor belt,
passing along every bit of half-fer-
mented slop that came his way.
“An extremely credible source has
called my office and told me that
Barack Obama’s birth certificate
is a fraud,” he tweeted in 2012, to
cite one lie among thousands.
I’m going to believe this same
Donald Trump who urged Russia
to interfere with an American elec-
tion, because to believe otherwise,
without irrefutable evidence, is a
pretty damn horrific thing to imag-
ine. It would mean that in a week,
the Russians will have installed
a stooge — and done it with the
right wing of this country cheering
them on.
I’m going to follow the advice
an old journalism hand gave me
when I started out at City Hall: pay
more attention to what a politician
does than to what he says. In that
sense, Trump’s adviser Kellyanne
Conway was half-right when she
urged people to largely ignore
“what’s come out of his mouth.”
His tweets are a diversion,
many of them celebrity-on-celeb-
rity drivel without a dust mite of
dignity. They move markets, and
ignite news cycles — an addictive
power for an insecure man. His
Trump Tower perp walks, showing
off the latest poor soul to kiss the
king’s ring, reveal little but the
everyday nourishment needs of a
narcissist.
In the combustible Wednesday
news conference, the skills of a
talented charlatan were on display.
Trump is a terrific showman,
and the press was no match. He
belittled, bragged, dodged, told a
half-dozen half-truths. His motto
should be: stay unclassy! He said
he could run the country and his
business at the same time. And
judging by the paper-thin con-
flict-of-interest wall he set up, he
probably will.
You know
we’re in
trouble when
the only
reasonable
voice during
a week of
capital chaos
is a man whose
nickname is
Mad Dog.
His tax returns could reveal
many of those opportunities to
enrich himself from the Oval
Office. But he refuses to release
this vital information. He never
answered two essential questions
of the transition: What will he
replace Obamacare with? And,
did anyone in his campaign have
contact with Russian operatives
working to ensure that Hillary
Clinton would not get elected?
Watch. Trump mentioned that
over the weekend he was offered a
$2 billion deal with Dubai, which
sounds like a bribe. Don’t worry,
the Trump organization will not do
deals abroad while he’s president,
he said. But he will be making
decisions that can fatten his own
family holdings at home, and he
will be conducting foreign policy
with countries where the Trumps
have business entanglements.
“This is not a blind trust,” said
Walter Shaub, the director of the
Office of Government Ethics. “It’s
not even close.”
Watch. When Russia preys on
a defenseless neighbor, or Trump
allows Vladimir Putin, a man U.S.
Sen. John McCain called “a thug,
a murderer, a killer and a KGB
agent,” to commit war crimes
without consequence, we’ll have
something to talk about. Will Rex
Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil
chief picked to be secretary of
state, earn his Order of Friendship
Award from Putin, or act like the
top diplomat of a nation long com-
mitted to defending human rights?
Watch. When Trump’s only
real infrastructure program is a
wall along the Mexican border,
saddling taxpayers with a bill that
could exceed $50 billion with no
discernible economic benefit at
home, then he must answer for
something far more consequential
than his opinion of the acting skills
of Meryl Streep.
Watch. When the executive puts
his signature to real policies. First
up is likely to be the Obamacare
repeal, which would give a
huge tax cut to the wealthiest
Americans. The 400 highest tax-
payers would each get a break of
about $7 million, on average. Soon
to follow, gutting the estate tax,
which could benefit his Cabinet
and his family by upward of $9
billion total.
Watch. When that same
Cabinet, heavy on billionaires and
people with no government expe-
rience goes to work. In the inner
circle, Trump’s national security
adviser will be Lt. Gen. Michael
Flynn, who was paid to give a
speech by RT, the Kremlin’s main
propaganda outlet for English-
language television.
Watch for a counterweight of
sanity, the nominee for defense
secretary, retired Marine Corps
Gen. James Mattis. On Thursday,
he broke with Trump, saying the
United States must confront Putin
and should try to make the Iran
nuclear deal work. You know
we’re in trouble when the only
reasonable voice during a week
of capital chaos is a man whose
nickname is Mad Dog.
What happened to the post-election honeymoon?
By CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER
Washington Post Writers Group
ASHINGTON — The
shortest honeymoon on
record is officially over.
Normally, newly elected presidents
enjoy a wave of
goodwill that allows
them to fly high
at least through
their first 100 days.
Donald Trump has
not yet been sworn
in and the honeymoon has already
come and gone.
Presidents-elect usually lie low
during the interregnum. Trump never
lies low. He seized the actual pres-
idency from Barack Obama within
weeks of his election — cutting
ostentatious deals with U.S. manu-
facturers to keep jobs at home, chal-
lenging 40-year-old China policy,
getting into a very public fight with
the intelligence agencies. By now he
has taken over the presidential stage.
It is true that we have only one pres-
W
ident at a time, and for over a month
it’s been Donald Trump.
The result is quantifiable. A Quin-
nipiac poll from Nov. 17 to Nov.
20 — the quiet, hope-and-change
phase — showed a decided bump in
Trump’s popularity and in general
national optimism. It didn’t last long.
In the latest Quinnipiac poll, the
numbers have essentially returned
to Trump’s (historically dismal)
pre-election levels.
For several reasons. First, the
refusal of an unbending left to accept
the legitimacy of Trump’s victory.
It’s not just the demonstrators chant-
ing “not my president.” It is lead-
ing Democrats pushing one line after
another to delegitimize the election,
as in: he lost the popular vote, it’s
James Comey’s fault, the Russians
did it.
Second, Trump’s own instincts
and inclinations, a thirst for attention
that leads to hyperactivity. His need
to dominate every news cycle feeds
an almost compulsive tweet habit.
It has placed him just about contin-
uously at the center of the national
conversation and not always to his
benefit.
Trump simply can’t resist play-
ground pushback. His tweets gave
Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes
screed priceless publicity. His mock-
ing Arnold Schwarzenegger for bad
“Apprentice” ratings — compared
with “the ratings machine, DJT” —
made Trump look small and Arnold
(almost) sympathetic.
Nor is this behavior likely to
change after the inauguration. It’s
part of Trump’s character. Nothing
negative goes unanswered because,
for Trump, an unanswered slight has
the air of concession or surrender.
Finally, it’s his chronic indisci-
pline, his jumping randomly from
one subject to another without rhyme,
reason or larger strategy. In a week
packed with confirmation hearings
and Russian hacking allegations,
what was he doing meeting with Rob-
ert Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activ-
ist pushing the thoroughly discredited
idea that vaccines cause autism?
We know from way back during
the Republican debates that Trump
himself has dabbled in this dubious
territory. One could, however, write
it off as one of many campaign oddi-
ties that would surely fade away. Not
so, apparently.
This is not good. The idea that
vaccines cause autism originally
arose in a 1998 paper in the medi-
cal journal The Lancet that was later
found to be fraudulent and had to be
retracted. Indeed, the lead researcher
acted so egregiously that he was
stripped of his medical license.
Kennedy says that Trump asked
him to chair a commission about
vaccine safety. While denying that,
the transition team does say that
the commission idea remains open.
Either way, the damage is done. The
anti-vaccine fanatics seek any valida-
tion. This indirect endorsement from
Trump is immensely harmful. Vacci-
nation has prevented more childhood
suffering and death than any other
measure in history. With so many
issues pressing, why even go there?
The vaccination issue was merely
an exclamation point on the scat-
ter-brained randomness of the Trump
transition. All of which contributes
to the harried, almost wearying feel-
ing that we are already well into the
Trump presidency.
Compare this to eight years ago
and the near euphoria — overblown
but nonetheless palpable — at the
swearing-in of Barack Obama. Not
since JFK had any new president
enjoyed such genuine goodwill upon
accession to office.
And yet it turns out that such aus-
picious beginnings are not at all pre-
dictive. We could see it this same
week. Tuesday night, there stood
Obama giving a farewell address
that only underscored the failure of
a presidency so bathed in optimism
at its start. The final speech, amaz-
ingly, could have been given, nearly
unedited, in 2008. Why it even ended
with “yes we can.”
Is there more powerful evi-
dence of the emptiness of the inter-
vening two terms? When your final
statement is a reprise of your first,
you have unwittingly confessed to
being nothing more than a historical
parenthesis.