The daily Astorian., July 12, 2017, Page 4A, Image 4

OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2007
Talk has turned again to a Goonies II movie, although not the feature
film director Richard Donner envisioned.
In fact, the director sounded less than thrilled when he confirmed
rumors of a straight-to-video sequel by Warner Premiere, a new “direct to
DVD” production arm of Warner Bros., which claims “Goonies” rights.
“There’s talk that Warner is doing a ‘Goonies’ film — for 12 days or
something — just to go right to DVD for $11.” Donner told www.iesb.net
at the annual Saturn awards for science fiction, fantasy and horror movies
a while back, “I think it’s a mistake.”
The issue split the Astoria High School auditorium in two.
Supporters of the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas
project sat behind the NorthernStar Natural Gas Co. execu-
tives at the first hearing before the Clatsop County Planning
Commission.
Opponents filled seats on the other side of the room and
urged commissioners not to approve any zone changes that
would allow the company to build a $600 million LNG receiv-
ing terminal 20 miles east of Astoria on the Columbia River.
At the start of the daylong meeting, the split was nearly even.
But the ranks of opponents grew in later hours, and by the end
of the night — 12 hours later — the opposition dominated.
As flames leapt into the night air, firefighters were able to save the
buildings at Astoria Warehousing on W. Marine Drive Wednesday night.
But 6,000 wooden pallets, valued at $50,000, that were stored outside
went up in smoke.
50 years ago — 1967
The Daily Astorian/File
This air photo by Don Roberts of The Daily Astorian shows smoke
rolling across the 200-acre tract being cleared at the Northwest
Aluminum company plant site. Photo shows the size of the area
from which brush has been cleared. Jetty Street in Warrenton can
be seen leading to the edge of the cleared area at center. Warren-
ton is in the upper left corner and the mouth of the Skipanon Riv-
er, where a dock is planned. A conveyor belt is planned to carry
bauxite ore from the docks to the plant site.
Federal approval has been received for a downtown recre-
ational center for Tongue Point Job Corps Center girls, it was
announced at the community relations council meeting Tues-
day night.
The center will be located at 14th and Duane in the build-
ing formerly occupied by Bjorklund’s Furniture on the Duane
Street side. Lynn Wykoff, community relations director at the
Job Corps, said the center would be operated similar to a USO.
It will be staffed by local people.
The federal government stepped into the squabble over Indian fishing
rights in the Columbia River by reaffirming Tuesday ancient treaties not
recognized by Oregon and Washington state.
The regulations provide for cooperation between the states and Indi-
ans in regulating the Indian fishery to insure conservation of salmon runs.
A similar proposal was offered in 1965 but the Northwest states
refused to accept it, terming the regulations as an intervention of the right
of the states to manage and regulate their own fish and wildlife resources.
The first midsummer closed season for clam diggers in his-
tory goes into effect July 16 on the Clatsop beaches, to con-
tinue until Sept. 1. Always before clam diggers have been free
to delve in the sand throughout the year.
The new closed season does not result from a diminution of
the clam supply as one might suspect. On the contrary, Ore-
gon Fish Commission reports 1967 has been a good year for
clammers.
Instead, the OFC has ordered the closure simply because so
many small, immature clams are being dug.
75 years ago — 1942
Fear that the Army may requisition the motor boat Imperial, which
daily carries passengers, freight and mail between Astoria and Cathlamet
and other north shore points has led Foster Bros., operators, to appeal to
the Astoria Chamber of Commerce for help in maintaining this long-es-
tablished transportation service.
They have appealed to Congressman Martin F. Smith, who has advised
that the war department has no knowledge of such contemplated action
although it may be possible that steps have been taken by the Western
command to secure the boat.
Port Commissioner William McGregor was telling about a
trip to Svensen to hunt the big bullfrogs that inhabit the sloughs
of Svensen Island, as the other Port commissioners listened.
“Say, how are those frogs getting along up there?” asked
Commissioner Frank Sweet. “You know, I planted those bull-
frogs there about eight years ago.”
Mini-Donald’s major fail
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service
S
ometimes the apple doesn’t fall
far from the tree. Sometimes
the apple is also considerably
dimmer than the
tree. And some-
times the apple
must be thrown
under the bus so
that the tree and
a few of its most
crucial limbs don’t
tumble to the forest floor, where
they’ll be chopped up and used as
firewood by Democrats.
Is that the fruity fate of Donald
Trump Jr.?
On Tuesday morning, he
released a chain of emails from June
of last year that prove that he was
eager to get dirt on Hillary Clinton
from a representative of Russia,
that the information was indeed
characterized as “part of Russia and
its government’s support” for his
father’s presidential bid and that
he held a meeting in the hopes of
learning more.
It was, for my money, the most
jaw-dropping development yet in
an already-surreal presidency, and
making sense of it requires some
conjecture.
But evaluating the damage
doesn’t. This erodes whatever
credibility President Donald Trump
and those in his inner circle had left
(which wasn’t much). Adamantly
and incessantly, they have charac-
terized questions about the Trump
campaign’s possible cooperation
with Russia as ludicrous — a
“witch hunt,” in their preferred
parlance.
And yet here is a document
showing that the notion of such
a concerted effort was dangled
before the eyes of Trump’s eldest
son, who responded with glee — “I
love it,” he wrote — and hauled his
brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, and
Paul Manafort, who was then the
campaign’s chairman, into a meet-
ing about it.
With the walls now closing in
around Donald Jr., I wouldn’t be
surprised if he says that he didn’t
really believe the written claim that
this was “very high level and sensi-
tive information” from the Russian
government itself.
But evaluate any and all spin
from him through the lens of his
evasions and empty grandstanding
to date. When The New York Times
first disclosed the meeting in an
article on Saturday, he released
a statement implying that the
meeting’s purpose was to discuss
Russian adoptions.
A day later, he significantly
changed his story, admitting in a
new statement that he had been led
to expect material “helpful to the
campaign” and that he cut the meet-
ing off when the Russian lawyer
who came to Trump Tower diverted
the discussion toward adoptions.
Read the statement: Bizarrely
and hilariously, it’s so focused on
the lawyer’s bait-and-switch and
Donald Jr.’s disappointment that
it boldly confirms how badly he’d
AP Photo/Darron Cummings
Donald Trump Jr. speaks in Indianapolis in May. President Donald
Trump’s eldest son acknowledged Monday that he met a Russian
lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign to hear information
about his father’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
craved dirt and how misleading his
initial response to The Times was.
Like I said: dim.
The emails released Tuesday
make clear how incomplete both
of those versions were, and they
appeared to contradict his insis-
tence in the second statement that
Kushner and Manafort knew noth-
ing about the meeting’s intent.
It was, for
my money,
the most
jaw-dropping
development
yet in an
already-surreal
presidency.
The release of the emails, at
least, is no head scratcher: Donald
Jr. apparently believed that The
Times was about to publish them
anyway and figured that if he beat
us to the punch, he’d make it look
as if he had nothing to hide. He
tweeted that he wanted “to be totally
transparent.”
Right. “Transparent” has as
much to do with his last four days
as “modest” does with his father’s
entire 71 years.
And flash back to July 24 of last
summer, which was just a month
and a half after the meeting with the
Russian lawyer, and Donald Jr.’s
response when CNN anchor Jake
Tapper asked him about the Clinton
campaign’s assertion that Russians
could be engaged in “a plot to help
Donald Trump.”
“It just goes to show you their
exact moral compass,” Donald Jr.
said, in what will go down as one of
the most priceless instances ever of
the psychological phenomenon of
projection.
He railed to Tapper about “lie
after lie” from the Clinton camp,
said they’d “do anything to win,”
and — my favorite part — claimed
that if a Republican were making
the kinds of wild allegations of
Russian meddling that they were,
there’d be a call “to bring out the
electric chair” for that person. The
electric chair, no less!
Well, he’s on the hot seat now,
and the days — by which I mean
48 hours ago — when we were all
worked up about Ivanka Trump’s
presumptuous place at the G-20
table suddenly seem quaint. That
actually is a nothingburger in the
context of this whopper.
Of course Papa poo-poo’ed
it, releasing a statement Tuesday
afternoon that vouched, “My son
is a high-quality person.” I can buy
that Donald Jr. is too low-wattage
a political operative to have under-
stood that his Russia hugging was
extraordinary and possibly treason-
ous, but not that he considered it
virtuous.
I wonder whether Ivanka actually
factors into this. Among the Trump
children, she always sopped up the
most lavish praise from Dad and
drew the most media fascination.
She was cast as his secret weapon.
Such a designation eluded Donald
Jr. When he met with the Russian
lawyer, was he clumsily trying to
maneuver his way to greater utility,
favor and relevance?
Instead, in the grand tradition
of ne’er-do-well namesakes, he
brought his sire grief, and it will be
interesting to watch the president’s
next moves.
Enamored of loyalty and deaf
to charges of nepotism and conflict
of interest, he has kept his kids in
a tight circle around him. But to
survive, he may have to push this
bad apple away.
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