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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 19, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager CARL EARL, Systems 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 The guardrails can’t contain Trump This week’s Shoutouts go to: By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group W Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Flowers were a popular item at the first Astoria Sunday Market of the year last weekend that coincided with Mother’s Day. • Astoria Sunday Market, which operates through a nonprofit organization by the same name and began its 17th season last weekend, on Mother’s Day. The opening day brought an overflow crowd downtown throughout the afternoon browsing the booths of vendors offering locally-made products that have been hand- crafted, grown, created or gathered by the farmers, craftspeople and artisans. Sunday Market also features live music and an appe- tizing food court. The marketplace runs every Sunday downtown on 12th Street from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Oct. 8. The Astoria Sunday Market organization has a goal of revitalizing downtown, with funds being reinvested in downtown projects, enterprises and efforts that support the nonprofit’s mission. • Margaret Frimoth, who was chosen to be Clatsop Community College’s new vice president of academic affairs. Frimoth is the director of the successful Lives in Transition pro- gram, but will be stepping down from it to oversee academic stan- dards and prepare the college for its accreditation review in two years. Teena Toyas, who had been sharing the duties with Frimoth as the interim vice president, was named dean of transfer edu- cation and will focus on scheduling, curriculum and instruction, while teaching part time. • The Seaside Visitors Bureau, which was honored by Travel Oregon with the Outstanding Overall Oregon Marketing Program Award in its 2016 Travel and Tourism Industry Achievement Awards. The recognition came during the recent 2017 Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Salem. The award was presented to the visitor’s bureau after it completed a full rebranding effort that included a new responsive website and a more visual and con- tent-driven visitor’s guide. • Local high school athletes who are competing in the state high school track and field championships today and Saturday at historic Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The Astoria girls team is favored to repeat as champions in Class 4A after capturing their third consecutive Cowapa League title last weekend. The Astoria boys team is sending four athletes to state. Seaside High School has one girl and five boys who qualified for the competition. In the 3A division, three girls and four boys from Warrenton qualified for the meet, while in Class 2A two girls and one boy from Knappa will be competing. In Class 1A two girls and one boy will be representing Jewell High School at the meet. CALLOUTS This week’s Callouts go to: • Scammers who have been targeting local businesses with what the Better Business Bureau calls the “Vanity Award Scheme.” In the ploy, the scammers send email notices to small businesses and nonprofits notifying them they are a recipient of a “Best of” award of one of the region’s cities or organizations, but in order to claim their trophy or personalized plaque, the busi- nesses are asked to pay first. The BBB serving the Northwest says to avoid falling for these types of scams, businesses should ask plenty of questions because most awards don’t come with a cost to the recipient. Learn everything about who is giving the award, and if it is coming from a mystery company, chances are it’s part of a scam. Businesses and organizations that offer legitimate awards will usually be willing to provide detailed information on why a specific company received the award, and who nominated them. Businesses can research the company’s BBB Business Review at bbb.org to ensure the offer is legit. 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. ASHINGTON — The pleasant surprise of the First 100 Days is over. The action was hectic, heated, often confused, but well within the bounds of normalcy. Policy (e.g., health care) was being hashed out, a Supreme Court nominee confirmed, foreign policy challenges (e.g. North Korea) addressed. Donald Trump’s character — volatile, impulsive, often self-de- structive — had not changed since the campaign. But it seemed as if the guardrails of our democracy — Congress, the courts, the states, the media, the Cabinet — were keeping things within bounds. Then came the last 10 days. The country is now caught in the inter- nal maelstrom that is the mind of Donald Trump. We are in the realm of the id. Chaos reigns. No guard- rails can hold. Normal activity disappears. North Korea’s launch of an alarm- ing new missile and a problematic visit from the president of Turkey (locus of our most complicated and tortured allied relationship) barely evoke notice. Nothing can escape the black hole of a three-part presi- dential meltdown. • First, the firing of James Comey. Trump, consumed by the perceived threat of the Russia probe to his legitimacy, executes a mind- lessly impulsive dismissal of the FBI director. He then surrounds it with a bodyguard of lies — attrib- uting the dismissal to a Justice Department recommendation — which his staff goes out and parrots. Only to be undermined and humili- ated when the boss contradicts them within 48 hours. Result? Layers of falsehoods giving the impression of an elabo- rate cover-up — in the absence of a crime. At least Nixon was trying to quash a third-rate burglary and associated felonies. Here we don’t even have a body, let alone a smok- ing gun. Trump insists there’s no there there, but acts as if the there is everywhere. • Second, Trump’s divulging classified information to the Rus- sians. A stupid, needless mistake. But despite the media hysteria, hardly an irreparable national secu- rity calamity. The Israelis, whose asset might have been jeopardized, are no doubt upset, but the notion that this will cause a great rupture to their (and others’) intelligence relationship with the U.S. is nonsense. These kinds of things happen all the time. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik President Donald Trump, followed by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, arrives for their joint news conference in the East Room of the White House Thursday. When the Obama administration spilled secrets of the anti-Iranian Stuxnet virus or blew the cover of a double agent in Yemen, there was none of the garment-rending that followed Trump’s disclosure. Republicans are beginning to panic. Once again, however, the cov- er-up far exceeded the crime. Trump had three top officials come out and declare the disclosure story false. The next morning, Trump tweeted he was entirely within his rights to reveal what he revealed, thereby verifying the truth of the story. His national security adviser H.R. McMaster floundered his way through a news conference, trying to reconcile his initial denial with Trump’s subsequent contradiction. It was a sorry sight. • Is it any wonder, therefore, that when the third crisis hit on Tuesday night — the Comey memo claiming that Trump tried to get him to call off the FBI investigation of Michael Flynn — Republicans hid under their beds rather than come out to defend the president? The White House hurriedly issued a state- ment denying the story. The state- ment was unsigned. You want your name on a statement that your boss could peremptorily contradict in a twitter-second? Republicans are beginning to panic. One sign is the notion now circulating that, perhaps to fend off ultimate impeachment, Trump be dumped by way of 25th Amendment. That’s the post-Kennedy assas- sination measure that provides for removing an incapacitated president on the decision of the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet. This is the worst idea since Leno at 10 p.m. It perverts the very intent of the amendment. It was meant for a stroke, not stupidity; for Alzhei- mer’s, not narcissism. Otherwise, what it authorizes is a coup — will- ful overthrow by the leader’s own closest associates. I thought we had progressed beyond the Tudors and the Stuarts. Moreover, this would be seen by millions as an establishment usur- pation to get rid of a disruptive out- sider. It would be the most destabi- lizing event in American political history — the gratuitous overthrow of an essential constant in Ameri- can politics, namely the fixedness of the presidential term (save for high crimes and misdemeanors). Trump’s behavior is deeply dis- turbing but hardly surprising. His mercurial nature is not the prod- uct of a post-inaugural adder sting at Mar-a-Lago. It’s been there all along. And the American electorate chose him nonetheless. What to do? Strengthen the guardrails. Redouble oversight of this errant president. Follow the facts, especially the Comey memos. And let the chips fall where they may. But no tricks, constitutional or otherwise. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Providing enjoyment I t is regrettable, but an unfortunate sign of our times, that Gearhart pub owner Terry Lowenberg must not only seek permission from the city government to install four lot- tery machines in his place of busi- ness, located on his own property, but that he must appeal to that gov- ernment on the grounds that the machines will be “good for Gearhart and good for Oregon” (“Gearhart’s video lottery decision challenged,” The Daily Astorian, May 12). The Gearhart City Council, in denying the request, is quoted as saying, “there is no evidence of demand for the machines in the cen- tral city core.” Of course there is not. The “evidence” of demand can only come after the machines are installed, and the measure of that “demand” will become evident from the amount of money patrons spend on those machines. Mayor Matt Brown is then quoted, after casting his “no” vote against the machines: “It’s hard for me to see a public need was proven.” It is not for Lowenberg to secure a public need. That, in fact, is the business of government, and those public needs are a fire depart- ment, police protection, clean water, paved roads, etc. After needs, come enjoyments, or, those things, great and small, which can make life an occasional delight rather than a daily struggle to secure needs. Enjoyments are private, personal and individual. No one else but me is qualified to say what I will need by way of enjoyment. Lowenberg is hoping, as all business people hope, to provide, profitably, a modicum of enjoyment to those residents of, and visitors to, the city of Gearhart. His success can only be measured by the number of patrons who visit his pub, and the amount of dollars they choose to spend. If he is success- ful, he will have thereby provided that evidence of demand, which the Gearhart City Council and Mayor Brown require of him. And, what could be better for Gearhart, better for Oregon, or better for all people, than those moments of convivial enjoyment which we are fortunate enough to find here and there? LOUIS SARGENT Gearhart
