Oregon stays true blue

All the national stories about how Democrat Kate Brown was in trouble of losing to a generic Republican in the progressive state of Oregon were dead wrong.

Less than a minute after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Brown had cruised to re-election according to numbers on the state's election website.

Even the state's largest daily newspaper, The Oregonian, which hammered away at Brown for the last three-plus years and did not endorse her, was forced to call the race shortly after 8 p.m.

In fact, most of the newspapers endorsed her main rival, Republican Knute Buehler of Bend. Obviously, no one pays attention to what a newspaper says these days because so few citizens subscribe to a daily paper.

Even cable TV ads are having less influence than they once had.

All the millions spent on negative advertising failed to persuade voters to Buehler's side. This article may help to explain why.

Buehler, who campaigned as a pro-choice centrist, raised $18.5 million to Brown's $17 million. At least $2.5 million of Buehler's haul came from Phil Knight. And yet all that money given to Buehler's campaign was like pissing into the wind. Evidently, Oregon Republicans like the sensation.

Brown flushed Buehler down, 50 percent to 44 percent.

Hey, Oregon Republicans, until you ditch the anti-government rhetoric and your neanderthal policies, you will always lose the governorship and most of the seats in Congress. Stop wasting money on losers.

Oregon is a true-blue state.

From land-use to bottle redemption to Death with Dignity laws, Oregon has led the nation. Hopefully, the Democrats will gain super majorities in the Legislature so that more progressive policies will be enacted.

The common-sense voters in the Beaver State also rejected draconian statewide measures by sizable margins.

In spite of the millions spent by Coke and Pepsi to cloak their measure as a "no tax on groceries" proposal, Oregonians clearly saw it was a "no tax on soda" initiative. It was getting crushed by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin.

The anti-abortion crowd tried again with a measure of "no public funds for abortion" and, as expected, were clobbered again by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin.

The anti-immigrant rhetoric from Trump and most Republicans was totally repudiated in this state. Oregon became a sanctuary state 30 years ago and voters rejected an attempt to end that status by a 63 percent to 37 percent margin.

The anti-government crowd in this state tried to limit the Legislature's ability to raise revenue. That measure was whipped by a 65 percent to 35 percent margin.

After this election, maybe more Republicans will move out of state to regressive areas of the country. Wouldn't that be nice.

The sun also powers

Solar fields on eastern edge of Bend

With recent news that California will mandate all new homes include solar power, it's worth noting how affordable solar power has become.

Solar energy is now 50 percent cheaper than coal, the former gold standard of cheap energy.

Also, the solar industry employs more workers than coal, wind or nuclear energy combined.

Across the globe, from Australia to India to Germany, solar is causing headaches for the entrenched fossil fuel industries.

With China leading the solar revolution, the Trump administration is doubling down on coal and offshore drilling, even though more Republicans back renewable energy than coal.

With Tesla Powerwall batteries, which are designed to store solar energy and are coming soon to Home Depot, this country isn't counting on Trump to lead anyone anywhere.

Even in Central Oregon, solar fields have proliferated in the last couple of years.

It's about time.

This region brags about all the sunshine it gets, in comparison to western Oregon, but, until now has done little to capitalize on this solar energy revolution.

Central Oregon cities should join California in mandating that new homes be solar energy self-sufficient.

In fact, the whole state should flex its progressive street cred and mandate it by 2025.

Not only is it good for the planet, it's good for the pocketbook.

Also, the less reliant we are on natural gas or oil, the less likely we are to fund fracking-induced earthquakes in Oklahoma, or terrorism from the Middle East or election meddling from Russia.

City of Bend's septic-sewer extortion

The Bend City Council is expected this summer to pass a motion to smack 599 southeast Bend homes with a $50,000 sewer bill - each.

It's expected to cost every homeowner a minimum of $500 per month.

As a result, many southeast Bend residents in Desert Woods or Kings Forest subdivisions will be forced out of their homes. They'll likely have to sell their homes at a reduced price. Call it a gift to the real estate cartel in Bend.

Of course, nowhere else in Bend has the city added $50,000 to the cost of an existing home.

The city says it is forced to do so for a variety of reasons. The state mandates that any home with a septic system within 300 feet of a sewer line must connect to the sewer if their septic system fails.

The city recently completed the Southeast Interceptor sewer line that runs through Kings Forest and Orion Greens. By doing so, any home within 300 feet of this sewer line much connect to it if their septic system fails. This could result in someone, living 290 feet away, having to pay the exorbitant cost - more than $100,000, of running a sewer line down the street to their home.

So, in order to avoid one house close to the sewer line paying a much smaller price than one house farther away, the city wants all households to agree to a more equitable solution. The city wants the 599 houses to share, 50-50, the public cost of the sewer installation. The private costs of each home to connect from the house to the sewer line is all on the homeowner.

Well, the city's extortion attempt is wrong.

Twenty years ago, Bend residents brought this problem on themselves when they forcibly annexed these southeast subdivisions. The residents in these subdivisions voted against annexation but were overwhelmed by the vast majority of Bend residents at the time.

The city knew then that it would eventually have to face this problem of adding these homes to the sewer system. Yet, the city set aside no money until last July to help pay for the forced sewer expansion in southeast Bend.

In addition, the city chose to run the Southeast Interceptor through these subdivisions. It did so largely to relieve a stressed system caused by NorthWest Crossing and other westside developments.

The city also wants to decommission many of the sewer-pumping stations that now exist and occasionally fail throughout the city.

Because of decades of poor planning, Bend has far more sewer-pumping stations than any city in Oregon.

The city also notes that there are no federal or state grants available for this southeast sewer project.

Those types of funds dried up in the early 1980s, they said.

Coincidentally, there was a huge federal tax cut for the rich in the early 1980s followed by two more this century. As a result, there will never be any federal money available for any public infrastructure projects again unless Congress passes legislation to do so.

If all else fails, the city should be like the federal government and just borrow the roughly $30 million cost of the project. The city can get better rates than individual citizens, particularly through the Dept. of Environmental Quality.

Bend appointed an advisory committee to come up with solutions of how to pay for the sewer project in southeast Bend.

Naturally, the city mayor and other councilors said from the beginning that the city would not pay more than 50 percent of the public cost.

Well, the advisory committee is likely to recommend to council that residents not be saddled with more than $25,000 each in total debt for public and private sewer costs. The committee will likely recommend that the monthly cost to a homeowner be about $250 per month.

In order to make up the difference, the advisory panel will likely recommend a $5 monthly fee to all sewer users in Bend, both business and residential. It seems like a modest amount considering that the residents in the affected subdivisions didn't vote to join the city and had no choice in where the Southeast Interceptor was installed.

But, advisory committees are just that. They have no clout and really no say in the outcome. They exist primarily as political cover for the council, which can turn around and say, "hey, we engaged the public and gave them their due."

Well, it's another reason why residents sour on local government. They don't listen to their citizens.

'Thoughts and prayers' save the day again

This cartoon was prompted by Sandy Hook massacre in 2012

Or do they?

After yet another mass shooting at a school, NRA-backed Republicans showed how much they cared about the massacre by offering their "thoughts and prayers" for the victims.

But, does it depend on what thoughts, what prayers?

If the prayers are to Allah, Buddha or Ra, do they count?

Or, do the prayers have to be only to Jesus or God?

And, what thoughts are allowable?

Can someone have thoughts that this country finally join the developed world in curbing access to military-grade armaments?

Or, are the only "thoughts" that count are the ones that hope this anti-gun outrage blows over like in all the other mass shootings?

Well, I think we know the answer to these questions. It doesn't matter.

"Thoughts and prayers" mean "tough luck." Wrong place. Wrong Time. Keep Calm and Carry On.

The GOP/NRA knows there is one right that is above all others: It is the right to kill schoolchildren with an assault rifle.

All those who support the GOP/NRA are complicit in all these mass killings.

The GOP/NRA response to this latest outrage will likely call for more gun ownership, not less. They'll say that if those high-school victims had their own AR-15s, they wouldn't be dead today.

It wouldn't be surprising if the GOP/NRA introduced legislation similar to "motor-voter" registration laws that Democrats pass to enfranchise more potential voters.

The GOP/NRA version, let's call it the motor-revolver law, would require all those who apply for a driver's license must show proof of gun ownership before getting approved to drive a car.

Nevermind that you can't even rent a car in this country until you turn 25.

The alleged shooter in Florida on Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day was all of 19 and bought his AR-15 legally last year.

I once had a discussion with a gun-fetishist who claimed that the murder of 20 first-graders in Sandy Hook was a small price to pay to enshrine the 2nd Amendment and its right to bear arms.

This is where we are as a nation. We now tolerate a school shooting every 60 hours.

Even the Supreme Court denied the District of Columbia, and by extension all jurisdictions, the ability to regulate gun ownership. In other words, the Supreme Court said that the right to kill with a gun supersedes the right not to be killed by a gun.

This is called American "exceptionalism."

No developed nation, except the U.S., allows the relentless carnage caused by men firing assault rifles or handguns.

And, no "thoughts" or "prayers" will ever change that.

Oregon votes for healthcare tax increase

Oregonians this week voted overwhelmingly, by a 62 percent to 38 percent margin, to increase taxes for Medicaid.

In the era of Trump, where it's fashionable to spit on those less fortunate, Oregonians emphatically said bullshit to that by backing Measure 101.

Over that past 40 years, Americans have been conditioned to believe that tax cuts cure all ills. We're told that a giant tax cut like the corporate one that Congress barely passed in December, boosts the economy, reduces the deficit, decreases income inequality and reverses male pattern baldness.

We now know, thanks to Reagan's slash-and-burn tax cut of the 1980s, that the opposite actually occurs. Yes, bald men still roam the streets of this land.

The so-called "trickle-down" economics leaves us with a national deficit so impossibly large that it will eventually ruin the country. China owns us now.

Because we pay less federal taxes, we have crumbling infrastructure, unaffordable college education and income inequality the likes of which the world has never seen before.

Just three Americans, Bezos, Buffett and Gates, are worth more than the combined assets of 50 percent of their countrymen and women.

Worldwide, just 42 people own the same wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the population.

No wonder the Doomsday Clock is now just two minutes 'til midnight, or the hour of reckoning.

In Oregon, a 2016 report showed that the state ranks 29th in income inequality, with the Bend-Redmond corridor the worst metro area in the state.

And yet, Deschutes County, home to Bend and Redmond, voted 54 percent to 46 percent for Measure 101 on Tuesday. That is a profound shift from historical patterns here.

Naturally, the local daily newspaper along with the state's largest newspaper repeatedly urged Oregonians to vote "no" on the measure. This just shows how out of touch they are with their readerships and why they are hemorrhaging subscribers.

This county narrowly voted for Trump (46 percent) over Clinton (43 percent) in 2016, although Bend went with Hillary.

Deschutes joins seven other counties in Oregon that favored Trump in 2016 and said yes to Measure 101.

Even southern Oregon's Jackson County, a conservative stronghold, backed the tax increase.

This could bode well for Democrats in the November election. Perhaps even Greg Walden, the GOP congressman who represents the huge, rural 2nd District in Oregon, could be vulnerable this time around.

Wouldn't that be sweet.

Let the anti-Trump movement flourish.