“The U.S. is in an information war with itself. The public sphere, where Americans discuss public issues, is broken. There’s little discussion – and lots of fighting. One reason why: Persuasion is difficult, slow and time-consuming – it doesn’t make good television or social media content – and so there aren’t a lot of good examples of it in our public discourse.”
A lot of what I’m reading and hearing seems like propaganda.
“Propaganda is anti-democratic because it influences while using strategies like fear appeals, disinformation, conspiracy theory and more.”
I think most people know that social media (now essential for social contacts) can be an unreliable source of accurate information:
“A lot of people use their social media connections and platforms to knowingly and unknowingly spread misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy and partisan talking points – all forms of propaganda.”
Social media sites employ rating systems to promote engagement.
“Social media platforms train users to communicate as propagandists: Recent research shows that platform users learn to express polarizing emotions like outrage through ‘social learning.’ Social media users are taught through app feedback – positive reinforcement through notifications – and peer-learning – what they see others do – to post outrage even if they don’t feel outraged and they don’t want to spread outrage.”
And so we end up using derogatory terms for those whose opinions we don’t like, and we resist any effort to understand their situations or credit them with any intelligence. I’m reading too much of that and the differences between sides seem irreconcilable.
I thought Kamala Harris was proposing policies to bring us together. Maybe there wasn’t enough time for the message to get through, or maybe we have just become so angry from all the propaganda that we’re not ready to resolve anything yet. I am hopeful the new Pope is a step in the right direction. He is in a position to influence possibly billions of people.
-Dave
I’m confident that this deep care will underpin Christy’s efforts to safeguard NCRD’s long-term fiscal sustainability, and to ensure that NCRD offers a range of programs and services that are relevant, beneficial, and available to everyone in our special community.
Please join me in supporting Christy Kay for NCRD board.
I strongly support Christy Kay’s candidacy for the North County Recreation District Board. Her compassion, leadership, and commitment to inclusive, healthy, and creative community spaces make her an ideal candidate.
From organizing teen nights at North Coast Pinball to hosting game nights, music jams, recycling programs, and community dialogues, Christy leads with integrity and care. Her focus on collaboration and wellness aligns perfectly with NCRD’s mission.
I’m confident Christy will bring thoughtful, joyful and positive leadership to the board, and I encourage you to support her candidacy.
Sincerely,
Harout Akdedian
from Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American” yesterday 5/8/25.
I have capitalized some words i would like to emphasize. Otherwise, i have changed not one word from HCR nor the pope.
om peace namaste
lucy brook
nehalem resident
U.S. citizen
May 8, 2025
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
Today, on the second day of the papal conclave, the cardinal electors—133 members of the College of Cardinals who were under the age of 80 when Pope Francis died on April 21—elected a new pope. They chose 69-year-old Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was born in Chicago, thus making him the first pope chosen from the United States. But he spent much of his ministry in Peru and became a citizen of Peru in 2015, making him the first pope from Peru, as well.
New popes choose a papal name to signify the direction of their papacy, and Prevost has chosen to be known as Pope Leo XIV. This is an important nod to Pope Leo XIII, who led the church from 1878 to 1903 and was the father of modern Catholic social teaching. HE CALLED FOR THE CHURCH TO ADDRESS SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES, AND EMPHASIZED THE DIGNITY OF INDIVIDUALS, THE COMMON GOOD, COMMUNITY, AND TAKING CARE OF MARGINALIZED INDIVIDUALS.
In the midst of the Gilded Age, Leo XIII defended the rights of workers and said that the church had not just the duty to speak about justice and fairness, but also the responsibility to make sure that such equities were accomplished. In his famous 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, translated as “Of New Things,” Leo XIII rejected both socialism and unregulated capitalism, and called for the state to protect the rights of individuals.
PREVOST’S CHOICE OF THE NAME LEO INVOKES THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTH LEO XIII AND HIS PREDECESSOR, POPE FRANCIS. In his own lifetime he has aligned himself with many of Francis’s social reforms, and his election appears to be a rejection of hard-line right-wing Catholics in the U.S. and elsewhere who have used their religion to support far-right politics.
In the U.S., Vice-President J.D. Vance is one of those hard-line right-wing Catholics. Shortly after taking office in January, Vance began to talk of the concept of ordo amoris, or “order of love,” articulated by Catholic St. Augustine, claiming it justified the MAGA emphasis on family and tribalism and suggesting it justified the mass expulsion of migrants.
Vance told Sean Hannity of the Fox News Channel, “[Y]ou love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.” When right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec, who is Catholic, posted Vance’s interview approvingly, Vance added: “Just google ‘ordo amoris.’ Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense.”
On February 10, Pope Francis responded in a letter to American bishops. He corrected Vance’s assertion as a false interpretation of Catholic theology. “Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity,” he wrote. “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups…. THE TRUE ORDO AMORIS THAT MUST BE PROMOTED IS THAT WHICH WE DISCOVER BY…MEDITATING ON THE LOVE THAT BUILDS A FRATERNITY OPEN TO ALL, WITHOUT EXCEPTION.”
“[W]orrying about personal, community or national identity, apart from these considerations, easily introduces an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth,” Pope Francis wrote. He acknowledged “the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival,” but defended the fundamental dignity of every human being and the fundamental rights of migrants, noting that THE “RIGHTLY FORMED CONSCIENCE” WOULD DISAGREE WITH ANY PROGRAM THAT “IDENTIFIES THE ILLEGAL STATUS OF SOME MIGRANTS WITH CRIMINALITY.” HE CONTINUED: “I EXHORT ALL THE FAITHFUL OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND ALL MEN AND WOMEN OF GOOD WILL, NOT TO GIVE IN TO NARRATIVES THAT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST AND CAUSE UNNECESSARY SUFFERING TO OUR MIGRANT AND REFUGEE BROTHERS AND SISTERS.”
The next day, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who said he was “a lifelong Catholic,” told reporters at the White House, “I’ve got harsh words for the Pope…. He ought to fix the Catholic Church and concentrate on his work and leave border enforcement to us.”
Cardinal Prevost was close to Pope Francis, and during this controversy he posted on X after Vance’s assertion but before Pope Francis’s answer: “JD VANCE IS WRONG: JESUS DOESN’T ASK US TO RANK OUR LOVE FOR OTHERS.”After the pope published his letter, Prevost reposted it with the comment: “Pope Francis’ letter, JD Vance’s ‘ordo amoris’ and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration.”
On April 14, Prevost reposted: “As Trump & [Salvadoran president Nayib] Bukele use Oval to [laugh at] Feds’ illicit deportation of a US resident [Kilmar Abrego Garcia], once an undoc[ument]ed Salvadorean himself, [Bishop Evelio Menjivar] asks, ‘DO YOU NOT SEE THE SUFFERING? IS YOUR CONSCIENCE NOT DISTURBED? HOW CAN YOU STAY QUIET?’”
The new Pope Leo XIV greeted the world today in Italian and Spanish as he thanked Pope Francis and the other cardinals, and called for the church to “be a missionary Church, BUILDING BRIDGES, DIALOGUE, ALWAYS OPEN TO RECEIVING WITH OPEN ARMS FOR EVERYONE…, OPEN TO ALL, TO ALL WHO NEED OUR CHARITY, OUR PRESENCE, DIALOGUE, LOVE…, ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO ARE SUFFERING.”
As an American-born pope in the model of Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV might be able to appeal to American far-right Catholics and bring them back into the fold. But today, MAGAs responded to the new pope with fury. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who is close to Trump, called Pope Leo “another Marxist puppet in the Vatican.” Influencer Charlie Kirk suggested he was an “[o]pen borders globalist installed to counter Trump.”
In the U.S., President Donald Trump, who said he would like to be pope and then posted a picture of himself dressed as a pope on May 2, prompting an angry backlash against those who thought it was disrespectful, posted on social media that the election of the first pope from the United States was “a Great Honor for our Country” and that he looks forward to meeting him. ‘It will be a very meaningful moment!” he added.
Please pay attention to #10 in the article below:
www.cnn.com/2021/01/24/politics/trump-worst-abuses-of-power/index.html
Again, please join us in Nehalem on Saturday, May 10 between noon and two. Bring a chair, stay as long as you can, wear your layers, and don’t forget your water. Looks like a little rain before noon. Please don’t park in the businesses parking spaces-there is plenty of room to park in the city parking lot and after that we can park up the North Fork Road. After all, there will be many of us. A can or two of food for our North Tillamook County is greatly appreciated. Thanks to all who are protesting. We can’t give up on this. Best.
I bless everyone who wishes to participate in giving their time and energy to govern. And, to all of you running all of the systems that make our community function -from the county, to the city, to the non-profits that make our unique community vibrant and unique, thank you!!!
My friend Christy Kay wants to be on the NCRD board. She wants to give more than she already does to our community by bringing her energy of inclusion and compassion to the NCRD. I think its a great way to blend a pillar of the non-profit compassion centered giver community with the resourced recreation district. Her message and platform of accessibility and inclusion inspires me to want her on that board.
I have a free subscription to the Hartmann Report.
This one just came into my email inbox.
I am horrified, terrified, and very concerned. as i sign with my usual ending words, my heart is heavy. many decent American citizens are at risk in so many ways, and have no peace. The word “namaste” means “the spirit in me salutes the spirit in you.” Our federal government’s actions are the antithesis of that.
om peace namaste
lucy brook
nehalem resident
U.S. citizen
The Hartmann Report is a reader-supported publication where all weekday articles are free and available to everyone.
America’s Moral Collapse Is Not Hypothetical — It’s on a Plane to Libya
As warlords rake in millions, America exports migrants into a system of rape, slavery, and death…
THOM HARTMANN
MAY 8
Good God.
America stands at a moral precipice, and we’re about to tumble over the edge. The Trump administration is now planning to transport immigrants on U.S. military planes to detention centers in a warlord-controlled part of Libya, a decision that reveals how far we’ve strayed from our foundational values and basic human decency.
If this shocks you, it sure as hell should. The news broke this week that the administration is preparing to send migrants to Libya on military flights as early as tomorrow. And this isn’t just another policy announcement from the daily outrage factory; it’s the latest escalation in a deliberate strategy of cruelty that began during Trump’s first term.
The timing is no coincidence. Just last week, Saddam Haftar — yes, that’s his actual name — the son of Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, visited Washington and met with Trump’s advisors including Massad Boulos (Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law) at the State Department. The younger Haftar commands eastern Libya’s land forces and represents his father’s self-styled “Libyan National Army” militia.
This isn’t even the official government of Libya that the Trump family is doing business with; it’s the half of the country that’s run by a warlord who the UN doesn’t recognize!
But let’s back up and ask the most fundamental question: Why the hell are we sending immigrants to prison at all, instead of simply deporting them back to their countries of origin like Obama did?
Crossing the border without authorization is primarily a civil violation, not a criminal offense worthy of imprisonment. These aren’t violent criminals; they’re people seeking safety, work, or a better life. Many were literally fleeing for their lives. Yet instead of processing and returning them through established deportation channels and procedures, Trump is creating a shadow penal system outside of normal judicial oversight. But why?
The answer, as with so many things in this administration, appears to be a toxic blend of profit, politics, and purposeful cruelty.
When Trump started shipping migrants to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT concentration camp earlier this year, he and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele struck a $6 million deal to detain about 300 migrants there for one year. Now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is openly boasting about the administration’s efforts to find more countries willing to imprison migrants.
“Follow the money” is always good advice in Washington. It’s hardly coincidental that this Libya deportation scheme comes immediately after Saddam Haftar’s visit to Washington. The Trump family has had friendly relations with warlord Haftar’s regime since Trump’s first term, when he shocked the diplomatic community by giving Khalifa Haftar a supportive phone call in 2019 that completely contradicted the State Department’s and the UN’s official position.
“I say this unapologetically,” Rubio declared at a recent Cabinet meeting. “We are actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries. We are working with other countries to say, ‘We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries — will you do that as a favor to us?’”
Let that sink in for a minute. Our Secretary of State is publicly describing migrants — many of whom have committed no crime beyond crossing a border without permission — as “the most despicable human beings.” This dehumanizing language isn’t accidental; it’s strategic. It prepares the American public to accept increasingly inhumane treatment of migrants by portraying them as somehow deserving of such cruelty.
This is where the brutal reality of warlord-run Libyan detention centers enters the picture, and where it gets even more disturbing.
Human rights organizations have documented horrific conditions in Libya’s migrant detention facilities for years. The country has been in chaos since the 2011 revolution, with rival governments and militias vying for control. The eastern half is controlled by Haftar’s forces, while the western half including Tripoli is run by the internationally recognized Government of National Accord. Migrants caught in this system face unimaginable suffering.
What are these places like? Amnesty International has documented “severe beatings, sexual violence, extortion, forced labor, and inhuman conditions” in these prisons. Detainees report being starved, tortured, and subjected to extortion. Guards have been documented shooting at detainees for sport, causing deaths and injuries. Women have described being coerced into sex in exchange for food or promises of freedom.
The State Department’s own annual report — yes, our OWN government’s report — described conditions in Libya’s detention centers as “harsh and life-threatening” with migrants having “no access to immigration courts or due process.” Doctors Without Borders has documented female detainees being told by guards, “You’re going to die here.”
These aren’t exaggerations or hysterical claims from the left. These are documented realities from respected international organizations, the State Department, and the United Nations. And this administration damn well knows it.
Libya’s detention centers are run by various private armed groups in a fractured country with no stable central authority. Some centers are essentially criminal enterprises run by human traffickers. Migrants are frequently held for ransom, with those unable to pay facing execution. Many facilities have become sites of forced labor, beatings, rape, torture, and murder.
This is the system to which the Trump administration plans to deliver people who came to America seeking safety and opportunity. And for what? A sweetheart deal with the Haftar regime that controls most of Libya’s oil resources?
And now we’re getting reports that ICE is locking immigrants in solitary confinement as punishment for not signing a document agreeing to be deported to one of these Libyan hellholes.
As Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA) told Raw Story:
“It’s deeply distressing and disturbing to think that there would be a time in this country where we would find the worst places to deport people to instead of places where they came from. Their homelands. Not sending them back there but sending them to the worst location we could send them to just to punish them.”
Why is all this happening? Because this is a continuation of the strategy first employed by Trump and his immigration architect Stephen Miller during the previous Trump administration, when they deliberately separated children from their parents at the border. The calculation was brutally simple: If America becomes known for extreme cruelty toward migrants, fewer people will attempt to come here.
It’s deterrence through atrocity. A strategy that says, “We’ll make examples of these people by subjecting them to such extreme suffering that others will be too terrified to follow in their footsteps.”
But here’s what these sadistic bastards don’t get: this strategy doesn’t just harm migrants. It corrupts America’s soul. It transforms us from a nation that, despite our many failings, at least aspired to ideals of human dignity and justice, into one that purposefully inflicts suffering as policy.
As President Biden would say, “This is not who we are.” Except now, under Trump, it apparently is.
And don’t fall for their justifications. The administration claims they’re only targeting “criminals” and “gang members.” But we’ve already seen that this is false. Kilmar Abrego Garcia and a young man known in court only as “Cristian” were among those deported to El Salvador’s CECOT prison.
According to their families and lawyers, their “crimes” amounted to having tattoos that authorities associated with gang membership. Federal judges ordered both men returned to the U.S., but they remain imprisoned.
So, let’s cut the crap: Trump and Miller’s policy of mass detention isn’t about safety or security. It’s about punishment, deterrence, and performing cruelty for political gain the same way dictators around the world run their countries.
And cruelty inflicted like this, now “limited” to immigrants, rarely stays limited; what Trump and the GOP do to the least of us, history says, they’ll ultimately do to all of us.
And why isn’t anyone talking about the money? Millions of dollars are being funneled to private detention contractors and foreign governments through these agreements. Who’s profiting? Follow the damn money.
When Trump and Bukele struck their $6 million deal for El Salvador to detain migrants, where did that money actually go? And who stands to profit from similar arrangements with Libya, Rwanda, and other countries reportedly in talks with the administration?
It’s no coincidence that just days after meeting with Libyan warlord Haftar’s son at the White House, the Trump administration is ready to ship migrants to Libya’s hellhole prisons. The stated reason for that meeting was that Libya “would be better positioned to engage with the United States and US companies,” meaning more oil contracts and business deals. (Warlord Haftar now controls most of Libya’s oil wells.) Connect the dots!
These “deportation partnerships” represent a disturbing privatization and internationalization of immigrant detention, moving it further from public scrutiny and constitutional protections. They create a shadow system where basic human rights and due process are easily discarded.
This isn’t just happening to “them”: it’s happening to us. Every time we allow our government to treat any human being as disposable, we diminish our own humanity. Every time we turn away from cruel policies because they don’t affect “people like us,” we chip away at the moral foundations that protect all of us.
And make no mistake: this slippery slope is real and dangerous. The Trump administration has already floated the idea of detaining U.S. citizens abroad. In conversations with El Salvador’s president last month, Trump was overheard saying, “The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You’ve got to build about five more places.”
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the administration’s legal arguments suggest the U.S. government believes it “could deport and incarcerate any person, including U.S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.”
This should terrify every American, regardless of political affiliation. When we build systems of unchecked power and cruelty for use against the most vulnerable, history tells us those systems rarely remain confined to their original targets.
So what can we do?
First, we must break through the normalization of cruelty. Call your representatives in Congress TODAY and demand they oppose these deportation schemes. Insist on hearings, investigations, and legislation to block funding for these programs.
Second, support the legal challenges already underway. The ACLU and other organizations are challenging these deportations in court. They need our vocal and financial support.
Third, keep this issue visible. Share accurate information about these detention centers and what’s happening to the people sent there. Don’t let this fade from public consciousness in the endless churn of outrages.
Fourth, demand transparency. Where is the money going? What are the terms of the agreements with warlord Haftar’s regime? Who’s profiting? What oversight exists to ensure humane treatment?
And finally, remember this: America is better than this. We’ve lost our way before, and we’ve found our way back. From the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II to the separation of families at the border in 2018, we have periodically succumbed to our worst instincts. But we have also, eventually, recognized our errors and sought to correct them.
The question now is how much suffering we’ll allow before that correction begins. How many people will be condemned to Libya’s hellish prisons — run by a warlord whose son was just welcomed at the State Department — before we say, “Enough is enough”?
Call your representatives today: 202-224-3121. Tell them America doesn’t torture people to send a message. Tell them we are better than this.
Because if we aren’t, what exactly are we defending in this land of the free?
This is the first “Pledge of Allegiance” from 1892.
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
This is the second: 1892-1923
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
This is the third:1923-1924
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The fourth: 1924-1954
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The fifth and current version: 1954 to current times
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Whatever version of this Allegiance you believe in is what brings us all together. This also makes me think of the oath of office all our leaders take:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:— “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”[2]
This goes on for a bit, but perhaps some will find it interesting.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 8:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 provides that the President must swear or affirm to faithfully execute the Office of President and preserve, protect and defend the Constitution to the best of the President’s ability. Presidents since George Washington have reflected on the oath’s significance and the burden it places on the President. In his second inaugural address, Washington declared that a violation of the presidential oath would occasion not only constitutional punishment, but the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.1 Of the oath, Justice Joseph Story wrote: [t]here is little need of commentary . . . . No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.2
The Constitution requires many officials to swear oaths or affirmations,3 but the presidential oath in Article II is unique because it prescribes verbatim the language an official must use. Government officials generally must swear an oath to support the Constitution, but the Constitution does not demand any exact language.4 Because Article II provides a verbatim presidential oath, misadministration of the oath might elicit questions as to the President’s legitimacy. For example, while President Barack Obama re-took the oath after Chief Justice John Roberts mistakenly reordered words in the oath’s text,5 President Herbert Hoover declined to do so, believing such mistakes to be inconsequential.6 Many presidents have appended the phrase so help me God to the presidential oath;7 this phrase has been included in statutorily defined oaths since 1789, but is not required of the President.8
Although Article II sets forth the text of the presidential oath, it omits other details, including who shall administer the oath and when and where the oath shall be administered. By common practice, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court administers the oath at a President’s inauguration. The practice of receiving the oath publicly began with George Washington’s inauguration. A joint committee of Congress appointed to organize the inauguration emphasized the importance of having the oath administered to the President in the most public manner such that the greatest number of the people in the United States, and without distinction, may be witnesses to the solemnity.9 President John Adams was the first President to receive the oath from the Chief Justice.10 Several Vice Presidents who became President through succession were administered oaths outside the nation’s capital and by people other than the Chief Justice.11 For example, President Calvin Coolidge, who succeeded President Warren G. Harding after his death, received the oath from his father, a notary public, at his father’s residence in Vermont.12
The presidential oath’s language mirrors other provisions of the Constitution—such as the President’s obligation to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed13—though much of the language in the presidential oath appears nowhere else in the Constitution. The significance of the oath’s unique text has been a matter of debate for centuries. James Madison’s notes suggest that even delegates to the Federal Convention of 1787, where the Constitution was drafted, lacked a shared understanding of this language: while debating whether the text of the oath should include a promise to preserve protect and defend the Constitution, Delegate James Wilson of Pennsylvania suggested that the general oath required by Article VI would render such text unnecessary.14
I believe somewhere here our President and all of us who spoke the Pledge of Allegiance so many years ago have a conflict of interest.
The proposed increase of 4% over time would go toward supporting the Sheriff’s Office and emergency communications services. This, in turn, eases the pressure on the County General Fund, which also employs +/- 34% of our Union local. These workers provide crucial legal, electoral, taxation, permitting, Veteran and Victim advocacy and support, and Short-Term Rental administration services to residents, visitors, and business owners alike.
We reject the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association’s unacceptable proposed solution to re-allocate the 30% of the TLT currently dedicated to our County Road Department, which funds the salaries of +/- 15% of our Union local. These workers maintain over 200 miles of roadways and bridges–the infrastructural conduit for tourism and all other industries that benefit from operating in our County.
Our County Parks Department, whose operating costs are partially funded by the TLT, employs +/-8% of our Union local, who provide hospitality and recreation services in our County Campgrounds. This is a service in high-demand in an international tourism destination like Tillamook County.
Combined, these workers represent just shy of 60% of our Union local, and we believe our jobs have value–cuts to services benefit no one in this equation.
Simply put, services rendered must equate to services paid, and a small increase borne by the customer is fair.
When workers feel valued and secure in our jobs and supported by the public we serve, we are able to focus on providing quality services without the looming threat of job insecurity. Thus, what is good for Tillamook County workers is in turn good for Tillamook County. A vote for this increase is a vote of support for Tillamook County Union workers–both Tillamook County AFSCME Local 2734 and our Union siblings in the Sheriff’s Department Teamsters Local 223.
A vote for this increase is a vote to keep layoffs off the table because Tillamook County works when we do!
Vote YES on County Measure 29-183 today!
Thank you,
Local 2734–Tillamook County Employees Union
American Federation of State, County, And Municipal Employees
Inertia
Long ago at a local Double Happiness
I opened a fortune cookie with this note,
“You’ll accomplish more if you start now.”
The message was and remained strangely
arresting. As I held the little note in my
two hands, I drifted back into a dream,
decades old. A sequence opened where
I was kneeling in a garden that was clearly
neglected. Immediately, I realized it was
my garden, the dream offered an awakening.
As awareness returned, turning to the note,
then to our table, I felt gifted. If the opposite
of loneliness is presence, we can all abandon
wishing. A begging bowl will often remain
empty. Danger lies in not stopping.
The inertia of what is not seen brings gravity.
“You’ll accomplish more if your start now.
Neahkahnie School Superintendent, Dr. Tyler Reed gave an informative and lively presentation last week at the Manzanita Pine Grove Community House, highlighting the financial challenges our school district faces, and the need for a local school levy.
In short, revenues from logging are falling in Tillamook County, and our schools face a $2.7 million deficit. To maintain a high level of educational support for our students, our schools need a new funding source. Please visit the links below to learn more, and be sure to vote YES on Measure 29-184
nknsd.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Mailer-4-25-1.pdf
nknsd.org/levy_calculator/
Sincerely
Mark Kuestner
Manzanita
I pointed out that the case for the Q hut being eligible for City and County TLT funds for rehab would be easy given its potential to enhance the Farmer’s Market activities. An indoor space for local artisans and vendors for Saturday market activities including expanded space for the Hoffman Center for arts and performance activities year round would additionally be possible to satisfy the funding requirements as a tourism related facility.
Local benefits included the fact that our Public Works loved the covered storage space the building provided for its equipment. And don’t forget how the EVC told us when the Underhill site was purchased, it would serve as the City site to shelter displaced locals and visitors in the event of disaster. 3,200 square feet of covered space would have been a nice addition to the EVC ability to fulfill this promise.
The costs to repair and remediate the structural issues with the Q Hut were estimated to be $260,000. Manzanita currently has almost $1 million dollars in its Tourism Fund that has to be spent on tourism related projects like the Q Hut and it struggles to spend that existing $1 million with another $285,000 forecast to be collected this budget year. Tillamook County Tourism is also begging cities to apply for annual grants for projects to pass out the growing surplus of funds that it must distribute.
Our Council could have saved an interesting architectural structure that preserved a piece of Manzanita’s history, saved $40,000 in demolition costs and kept a facility that provided all of the above community benefits that was totally paid for by visitors. Somehow the practical and financial logic of that decision escaped our City officials.
This matter reminds me of the quote that citizens should be concerned when leaders who have all the facts and proper information and still make the wrong decision.
Randy Kugler
Here is Riley Gaines (below) in her own words. I find her to be well-spoken, kind, and, although she is a Christian, very much based in scientific reality. She fights to keep men out of women’s sports. You see, she was the number one college female swimmer in the world, then a man with a penis showed up in the locker room and, after making all the women athletes feel awkward as hell, he then went on the win the college women’s swimming championship! Now he has a gold medal for winning the women’s championship AND he has a penis!!! Talk about accomplishments!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-kinevyxJg
Riley was scheduled to speak at PSU, but members of the trans community would have none of Riley’s logic and reason!
Luckily, there are still some folks good enough and brave enough to be cops in Wokeland and several of the violent protestors were arrested!
Thanks for coming to Wokeland Riley! Wish I coulda heard ya talk!
BONUS!
Here is a geo-engineering conference at University of Washington that might have been of interest to folks! Unless of course you STLL don’t believe that SAI is happening in Tillamook and Clatsop counties…
And remember to look up and investigate the Johnson Near Space Center in Tillamook!
phil.washington.edu/news/2017/10/23/geoengineering-political-legitimacy-justice-conference
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Christy’s collaborative work with other local businesses and the non-profit HUGGS has breathed life into our city at critical times. Much of her volunteer work has focused on recognizing our local teens; providing them opportunities, encouragement, and fun.
Our local teens are one portion of our community who are underserved at our local recreation district, and I am confident that Christy’s contributions can improve this. I also look forward to the great potential that her presence on the NCRD Board will bring toward fostering a closer partnership between the City and NCRD, which has historically existed since the district’s inception.
I am voting for Christy because she is in-tune with the pulse of the community. Christy Kay has the spirit of North Tillamook County and the best interest of the community close to her heart. She will offer much both programmatically and fiscally to support the mission of the North County Recreation District, as well as for the people it serves.
Phil Chick
Mayor
City of Nehalem
We have been in business here for 10 wonderful years helping with your cleaning needs. I have many years of experience with both private homes and vacation rentals, making sure everything is clean and running smoothly.
We do Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or whenever you need cleanings for friends & family visits, for your home or Vacation Rental.
Please call 503-717-2585 to help you with your cleaning needs.
Thank you,
Thanks so much for all your support, everyone!!!!
A: They have all given up on this world. They’ve bought into a kind of apocalyptic fever?”
For me, this has been one of the least understandable pieces of our new extremist age. How can so many disparate people, groups and movements possibly believe they will benefit by signing up for this horror?
Here’s an article by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in The Guardian: The Rise of End Times Fascism
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk
The point that made my hair stand on end: Once Trump’s policies fail, the only thing left will be sadism.
Also here’s a link to an interview with Klein on Democracy Now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtYSyb6fCxo
Gene Dieken
Climate change is simply observed and has nothing to do with feelings or beliefs. Historically it changes slowly over thousands of years along driven by global warming or cooling. The problem now is it’s changing rapidly, noticeably affecting life on our planet in just decades and leaving insufficient time to adapt. What we are experiencing is more analogous to dinosaur extinction, except we still have a choice in the outcome.
There’s a good, simple page on the subject at the link below to climate.gov. It was published June 17th, 2015 (pre-Trump). It’s still up there now, but we’ll see for how long since the administration is eliminating what it doesn’t like. If they had any principles they wouldn’t need to silence scientific findings or other points of view.
www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/whats-difference-between-global-warming-and-climate-change
