Category: General Interest

Submitted By: Cpossibility1023@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Community as those compelled to make a difference.

Entering this 2024 election season, have you wanted to get more involved, but were not sure how? Becoming a Democratic Precinct Committeeperson (PCP) might be the path for you. PCPs provide the connection between the county party and the registered voters in their precinct. This 2024 election is going to be more crucial for Democracy than the 2016 and 2020 elections. If you have been registered as a Democratic voter at your current address for the 180 days, you may be eligible. We want your voice and support.

The March 12 deadline is fast approaching to file. Click below to follow the steps to file or refile.

Step 1: Check That Your Voter Registration Is Up To Date: sos.oregon.gov/voting/Pages/myvote.aspx?lang=en

Step 2: Current PCPs Find Your Current PCPs Find Your Precinct Number Here:
tillcodems.org/precinct-committee-people

Tillamook County Precincts Maps With Precinct Numbers:
www.tillamookcounty.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/clerk039s_office/page/72391/county_precincts_color.pdf

Step 3: File to become an Oregon Precinct Committeeperson Candidate SEL Form 105 Online Here With The Secretary of State, Or Print And Take To The County Clerk’s Office At The Court House In Tillamook: sos.oregon.gov/elections/Documents/SEL105.pdf

For more info contact Constance at: cpossibility1023@gmail.com

Submitted By: mkuestner10@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Last Night’s City of Manzanita Virtual Town Hall, February 27 2024: video of the event with Manzanita Mayor Kathryn Stock, all Manzanita City Council: Brad Hart, Linda Kozlowski, Jerry Spegman and Tom Campbell. City Manager Leila Aman and a bevy of architects/contractors/specialists describe and clarify all the ins and outs of the process.
There was a great overview from way back when, to where we are now (almost) construction!
It’s clear there has been a massive amount of work from many, many people, past and present to get us to this point. This includes all of us as participants over the years in helping narrow down what we want and can afford.
To view available video of the event go to the City of Manzanita website and select Town Hall Recording.

Submitted By: dixiegainer@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

from Rep. Kevin Mannix – district 21
This is his plan to clean up the streets and give addicts help

Measure 110 Update
House Bill 4002, the proposal by Democratic leaders to “fix” Measure 110, is simply not enough on its own to solve the drug crisis. We need real accountability and rehabilitation for drug users.
That’s why I proposed a comprehensive plan last week to ensure House Bill 4002 has the teeth needed to get hard drug users the treatment they need. Penalties for drug traffickers are also critically important.
I remain committed to working with my colleagues every day to ensure we get the results Oregonians deserve. You can read my full press release on the comprehensive plan below.

Here is a link to his plan:

www.oregonlegislature.gov/mannix/PressReleases/Mannix

Plan for Special Drug Misdemeanor, Statutory Overhaul of M110.pdf

Perhaps this will work; I noticed that there is a lot of noise about treatment – after all drug addiction is a medical problem. Locking up a person for addiction is ridiculous I certainly am for treatment. But is the addict? Usually not! But let me mention – The addicts may get treatment but the crime victim gets nothing. When the addict commits a crime – (not too much noise about the crime) the crime also needs to be addressed in the criminal justice system also.
Perhaps this plan will work, we have to get crime off the street.

Submitted By: whmatthews@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

While I welcome the addition of a new NBHD medical building on highway 101 in Wheeler, the proposed building design shown in the latest North Coast Citizen is unappealing and very commercial looking. This is an opportunity to improve the look of Wheelers downtown area and this structure would not do that. I suggest the NBHD chair Mr. Marc Johnson send their architects back to the drawing board and come up with a more attractive design.

Mike Matthews
Wheeler Citizen

Submitted By: rkinor@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

The release of the report on the alleged misconduct of Mayor Simmons is that rare subject that every Manzanita citizen should agree to support. Those who voted for the Mayor will want to know if their trust was violated and just how her actions manifested themselves within City Hall. The Mayor’s critics will also seek to confirm that her disruptive behaviors threatened City operations and the well being of staff. Finally, the Council must reassure citizens that the expenditure of $147,738 to conduct this 5 month investigation was a wise investment to preserve the integrity of City government.

Getting any details on this matter to date has been met with strong resistance by City officials. It took a public records request by the Headlight Herald for the City to finally release the original $139,043 investigation costs. Despite repeated citizen requests for information on what misbehavior took place, the City has finally settled on the official response that this is a record that is protected by attorney-client privilege and citizens will not be told anything. As for the Mayor herself, she not only will not be told what the accusations were by the “anonymous employee” which turns out to allegedly be the City Manager, she will not be able to obtain a copy of the investigation.

Think about that for a moment. Mayor Simmons was put into office with the largest number of votes in City history. Within 5 months of taking office and attempting to learn her new responsibilities as a public official, an investigation by a Portland law firm is initiated based on unknown accusations allegedly by the City Manager and the City’s position is that this is none of our business.

The ongoing investigation by the Oregonian and other media interests into sexual harassment allegations involving Nike managers demonstrate the legal posturing utilized to keep the public in the dark when those in power seek to avoid public scrutiny. Nike first hired a law firm to investigate the sexual harassment claims by employees and initially refused to release the investigation findings arguing it was protected by attorney-client privilege. A media coalition successfully argued that the public’s interest in the matter was paramount and thousands of pages of documents were subsequently released.

When Nike refused to release additional records containing the redaction of specific executive’s names who were accused of sexual harassment on the grounds that such release would only “embarrass and shame” those individuals, Nike again lost that argument.

Is there any citizen who has been following this story who believes that the expenditure of $147,738 of public funds to investigate these unknown accusations of Mayor Simmons would be of no public interest? Is there a lesson here for our Council based upon Nike’s Board of Directors failed attempts to bury the tawdry details of what takes place out of public view in their corporate world?

Fortunately, in cases like this the Tillamook County District Attorney will now have the opportunity to evaluate just what records City officials will be permitted to withhold from citizens. The DA will evaluate if the public interest involving the material facts of this complaint and how our elected and appointed City officials conducted themselves in this matter outweighs the City’s need to preserve confidentially and continue to deny the records release.

If you believe that the public interest is best served through transparent disclosure of our elected and appointed City’s official’s actions, consider respectfully sharing your thoughts with an email or letter to our District Attorney to have this investigation report released for public review.

Aubrey M. Olson
Tillamook County District Attorney
201 Laurel Ave.
Tillamook, OR. 97141
aolson@co.tillamook.or.us

Submitted By: dixiegainer@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

#3 WHERE DID PUBLIC SAFETY GO?
(releasing criminals back into the streets)

Governor Brown released many convicted persons early. After being released one criminal killed 4 people. Governor Brown granted early release to 10 convicted murderers without notifying families of the victims of this fact. She also granted early release to 975 convicted felons. (in California. a now “trashed” state – they did the same thing) Keep criminals where they belong – which is on the street – I guess.

Governor Tina Kotek would expand the “earned discharged program,” which now lets people on probation, people who have served sentences in local jails and people whose prison sentences began on or after Jan. 1, 2022, reduce their supervision by up to half if they meet their goals.!!

So I assume that this “works”? It reduces crime? But Gov Tina Kotek says we need to have our homes taxed because we need to fund “public safety” because crimes are becoming so out of control. Public Safety is under siege.

So which is it? Too much crime or not?
Gov. Kotek says, after implementing Democratic measures to reduce crime (measure 110), that we have too much crime.

Because everyone in Oregon knows by now that measure 110 was disastrous because it increased crime and deaths by addiction. Another measure is looking to fix this but the criminals will still on be the street and the FIX won’t be a FIX. But taxes from marijuana sales will still flow into the capitol. SHHHHh – thats the most important thing!

So this new measure will keep people quiet maybe for about 6 months.

Submitted By: dmmonico@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

An eye-opening article of hope for the fight against Alzheimer’s and Dementia:
www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/25/is-the-100-year-old-tb-vaccine-a-new-secret-weapon-against-alzheimers-dementia-bcg

Submitted By: Cpossibility1023@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Always
Constance

On Feb 24, 2024, at 9:14 AM, Constance Shimek <constance@nehalemtel.net> wrote:

Hello all, another beautiful day in Paradise! As some of you know we’re in the middle of the annual Girl Scout cookie drive.

With a strong commitment to empower our young people, I’ve taken on supporting Abby in her goal of selling 1000 boxes of cookies! I’ll be bringing 20 + boxes for purchase @ $6 per box to our NBGC meeting Tuesday at the Calvary Church in Manzanita, 1:30. Have you ever considered freezing them? What an inexpensive, surprising, tasty gift (Christmas)? Please bring cash or a check, thank you! I’ll also have a QR code for easy ‘tech-wise’ payments.

I’m looking forward to SRO for the always entertaining, always informative Ketzel to talk “Strategies for Thirsty Plants: Some Just Gotta Go”

See you Tuesday! $$
Constance

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

I agree with Dixie about something!
Oregon must put much more money and attention into the public defender system. Trying to avoid hiring public employees by hiring private lawyers for gig work is largely inadequate to live up to the requirements of the 6th Amendment or MLK’s famous quote, “Justice long delayed is justice denied.”
I can’t entirely agree with her that the point of Defender reform should be to put more people in jail. I worry that compassion denied can soon become enmity applied.
Here’s an interview with the executive director of the Oregon Office of Public Defense Services that aired last August: www.opb.org/article/2023/08/22/head-of-oregon-office-of-public-defense-services-on-progress-toward-solving-the-attorney-crisis/
In the same post, Dixie worried about where her Kicker refund was. Oregon’s not stiffing you. File your 2023 state tax form. www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/individuals/pages/kicker.aspx
Gene Dieken

Submitted By: walnutstudiolo@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Hi neighbors, we went through the Start.coop Incubator to start Artisans Cooperative in Nehalem last year. Sharing this opportunity.

They have a (free) new program specifically for starting new rural cooperative businesses that comes with mentorship, training, networking, and a $1,000 stipend.

“With generous support through the USDA’s Socially Disadvantaged Groups Grant, we are able to provide support during this Incubator to rural cooperative entrepreneurs whose Founder groups include women, African Americans, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, Hispanics, Asians and/or Pacific Islanders.

We are open to all kinds of rural projects, including but not limited to those interested in starting child care cooperatives, home care cooperatives, housing cooperatives and food-related cooperatives.”

If we can answer any questions about Start.coop or starting a cooperative business, ask us!

The program is fully virtual – no travel needed. It runs May 9-June 27, 2024. There are info sessions and more about the application on their website.

Learn more at: www.start.coop/incubator

**********************************************************************
Valerie & Geoffrey Franklin
Walnut Studiolo
Original Modern Designs / Handcrafted Leather Goods
36005 Highway 53, Nehalem, OR 97131
Phone +1 503-447-6889
Email walnutstudiolo@gmail.com
URL walnutstudiolo.com

Subscribe to our newsletter for new products, special offers, and our annual AS-IS / Dents & Dings Sale (it’s a good one!)

Submitted By: dixiegainer@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

PUBLIC SAFETY WHERE DID IT GO?

NO. 2

Defunding the police? I couldn’t believe this when I heard it. No civilization can exist without law and order and where we live – law and order is the the police!

But they did defund the police. And so now we do not have law and order to the point where crime is right in your face in these little coastal towns. The Oregon governor is asking for a tax to be put on our homes to pay for law and order otherwise known as Public Safety.

You know what – Lets just fund the police again – OK

Are there things wrong with the police – yes – can they be addressed? yes Usually these things can be addressed by hiring requirements and screening, and training. Screen out the bullies, screen out the personalities that don’t match with good policing/public relations.
Really – it is hard to be a police person – they do face danger every day – don’t forget that. I do know that there are cops that like to harass people, certain types of people, and I think they pick on the citizens who will easily react badly to being harassed. I have seen this happen here. That is a really bad thing but you know what they say about the baby and the bathwater. Don’t throw out the baby along with the dirty bathwater.

Don’t defund the police because if you do crime will escalate. And it has, terribly -right in your face!
Tillamook county is not favorable to policing. The commissioners tried to cut positions but due to citizen action did not. We might not need more police if we could put the offenders behind bars and have a stiff penalty.

The criminals around here might not be hard to catch but the police cannot arrest them or if they do they are right back on the street again.

More taxes will not fix this.

More money for more police. Not more money for the governor – because she will not spend it on policing.

1. There are more criminals on the street because we have not taken care of the problem of providing for more public defenders.
2. There are more criminals on the street because the state decided to defund the police.
leading to more crime and increasing the number of murders.
.

Submitted By: dixiegainer@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I have lived in Oregon for 73 years, so I know that in the past we did not have burgeoning crime in our streets. So what are the things that have promoted crime in this state?
It just turns out this is a great state to commit crime in
because:

NO.1 The law says that when persons are incarcerated they have a right to an attorney. But when they can’t afford an attorney they get a public defender.
There is an extreme shortage of public defenders in Oregon. This is not a new problem, but it has not been addressed. Oregon must get criminal defendants attorneys within 7 days or release them from jail, judge says.
So the criminals are on the street right away. Oregon has 1/3 of the number of public defenders we need.

The states that do not have this problem have public defenders as employees of the state and as such they get retirement benefits and other perks and a much better income than they do now working for charitable organizations. It is not a good paying job and it is overwhelming. So nobody wants this job – you can understand why.

So if we want to increase public safety we need to get criminals judiciously processed into or out of the system.

This is not happening and putting criminals back on the street just encourages them to commit more crime because there does not seem to be any penalties for that.
Drug addicts included. Democrats are soft on crime! The state has not addressed this long time problem. They just don’t address it. Before we become insane about paying more taxes in a high tax state. Let us see the state solve one problem that is part of the cause of crime. They are not trying to solve the problem, they just want to convince you that they need more taxes. Don’t you believe it.

Right now our state is buried in money. We are supposed to get some of that money back in the kicker. It is supposed to be the biggest kicker ever.

I say the state should take care of the lack of enough public defenders by changing the way this job is paid for and hire public defenders as state employees. This would make the job more desirable. Other states do this.
NO on taxing homes for public safety, (cause lack of money is not the problem)

Submitted By: nehalembayexperience@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

https://youtu.be/khtGT3ygo7I

Submitted By: babbles@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

I stand by my post last night in reply to this one from the night before: “Have a question about Manzanita City issues Ask a councilor.”

I made a mistake however. The person who submitted the original post, Mark Kuestner, is not a city councilor.

Again, i stand by the sentiment that this is a good way to find accurate answers. You know, “straight from the horse’s mouth.”

I apologize for my error–i do NOT want to create confusion!

om peace namaste

lucy brook

Submitted By: rkinor@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

When the City raised our water rates last July, the City Manager failed to review the Ordinance which administers our water utility and have the Council amend the requirement that meters will be read “approximately 90 days apart” and “water service shall be billed on a quarterly basis”. In effect, the City is and has been in violation of Ordinance 90-8 for 8 months. 
The Tillamook County Pioneer has investigated this matter and will be reporting in more detail in the coming days. While embarrassing, mistakes happen and there is a way to fix the problem after the fact with an Ordinance amendment to match the current monthly meter reads and billing. I suspect that the City Manager will rush to place an amending Ordinance before the Council, place an emergency clause on it so that it can go into effect immediately and try to get past this as soon as possible.
But is that a solution in the best interests of water customers? Monthly water reads and billings require more staff administration and clerical effort, increased processing costs by the City’s billing service all of which  provides no benefit to the customer. How many CEOs in the private sector would recommend that the company increase service delivery costs which provide no customer benefits to its Board and expect the customer to be grateful?
What a monthly read and billing does do is increase the opportunity for the City to bill the tier surcharge each and every month that a customer exceeds the 2,000 gallon base water allotment now in effect. With City staff now increasing its workload with this self imposed busy work every month, the City can claim that these additional efforts  justify taking more money as overhead expense to be transferred from the Water Fund to the General Fund. This now becomes the Water Fund’s contribution to the City’s new revenue diversification program. 
The City told us that the monthly reads would promote water conservation. The Public Works Director has told the Council that we have plenty of water from our well sites. Another reason given was monthly billings would help customers more easily budget their household expenses. I would suggest that most water customers are responsible enough to manage their finances and budgets without this assistance from City Hall. 
If you are one of those customers that has paid a monthly tier surcharge during these past 8 months, ask the City to recalculate your water usage on the legally required quarterly billing schedule and see if you are owed a credit for your total quarterly usage.
The Council continually reminds us that they are listening to what we want. Send them a quick email at cityhall@ci.manzanita.or.us with the following message:
Unless you can provide a common sense reason as to why monthly billings are in my best interests, there is no need to amend the Ordinance language for water billings. I prefer to be billed quarterly and pay for what I use every 3 months. Let’s see who’s listening.

Randy Kugler

Submitted By: mkuestner10@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Submitted By: northcoast812@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Hoping to find child care for a kid under 2 years old. If you have any ideas my email is northcoast812@gmail.com. Thank you!

Submitted By: tevisdiii@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

DOOLEY, UKRAINE, DIEKEN
CONTINUED EDUCATION
I watched the time lapse video of Europe’s changing borders from 400 BCE to the present and recommend it to anyone. What stands out is that the “Ukraine” has been swept by armies from east to west and west to east for centuries. Also north and south. It is truly a crossroads for history. There is no mystery as to why there are multiple ethnicities living there.

I also read the Brookings educational article explaining the cooperation between the US, Russia and Ukraine when dismantling the past Soviet nuclear arsenal. All three parties knew it was a task that had to be done and I see it as a lesson to be remembered regarding the art of compromise.The fact that Ukraine came out of the deal with an assured security umbrella could be seen as a carrot for a future invitation to NATO, and therefore a worthwhile investment for the US, besides clearing the nukes from the newly formed sovereign country. As it turned out, Ukraine, being populated by several groups with some very contentious history has never been a model democracy and soon gained a reputation for corruption. No nukes, no brainer.

It seems a bit specious to say that for reasons of ego and Empire expansion, Russia fomented civil unrest in a neighboring country, which resulted in a civil war that lasted seven years, just so she could then invade with no apparent provocation and risk starting a world war. Granted, this is in fact something we, the US, has done numerous times so perhaps it’s natural to suppose that this was the case. If this supposition were true then the US would be treaty bound to defend Ukraine.

If on the other hand, we dig into the muddy buildup to the Maidan massacre, starting a few years before with contested elections, the Orange protests, covert and overt interference by NGOs and our State Department, culminating in the 2014 coup that sent the elected president Yanukovych, running and left Victoria Nuland’s hand picked, right, very right wing, as in Nazi crew in charge. By accepting the West’s “trade” agreements Ukraine cut trade and commerce with Russia and gave the West additional access to their internal affairs; military planning for one.

This new regime quickly enacted laws that repressed all things Russian which generated resistance, more repression and violence in a wave from west to east . The people of the Donbass drew the line and the Crimea cried out immediately for protection. (It should be understood that resisters were being killed). Since the whole Russian Black Sea fleet has been there forever, protection was close by; Crimea held a referendum, succeeded and just like that was accepted back into Russia. This constitutes an invasion of Ukraine which began the avalanche of sanctions imposed by the US and all her vassals.

Now we have Russians both east of the Donbass line and west, with family members in Russia, because there has always been free movement and trade between them, forever, and the military supplied by Kiev starts lobbing shells indiscriminately onto towns and cities of the Donbass. Those Russian speaking “Ukrainians” being shelled get military supplies from Mother Russia next door. There was nothing good about all this.

What followed was Minsk I and II, both led by Russia’s efforts with Germany and France, to help Ukraine find a peaceful settlement, a compromise that would give the Donbas fair representation in Kiev and maintain Ukraine’s national boundaries but both failed and were finally abandoned in 2021. Angela Merkal later admitted that the Minsk II treaty was purposely stalled to give Western support enough time to build up Ukraine’s military. It was never going to be signed.

During those seven years, over 14,000 men, women and children were killed in Donbas from western Ukraine’s constant bombing. During the same time, the collective west, led of course by the US, levies wave after wave of sanctions on Russia, turns the Putin is evil meter up to ten, and begins to seriously pour funds into Ukraine, all of which appears to Russia as existential threat,- there is that continual NATO expansion thing also -, just one more attempt to weaken and break up it’s Federation.

When the Kremlin concluded that all attempts for a diplomatic resolution had been exhausted and it was obvious that Kiev would move forces into the Donbas, Russia took the initiative. Russian forces were lined up on the road to Kiev when a new effort to negotiate was attempted. This was brokered by Turkey in mid March, 2022. Diplomats from Ukraine and Russia, having met in Belarus and Istanbul, had made significant progress toward a peace deal. This turned out to be the final opportunity for both countries to avoid what followed but the errand boy from the West, Boris Johnson, “convinced” Zelensky to walk away. Since then it has been bombs away.

The scenario presented above regarding how the civil conflict in Ukraine began and the stages of escalation can surely be debated but the question has to be asked, why did the West get involved and dump fuel on a conflict that could’ve been settled in 2015, knowing Russia’s concerns and how adamant their stance would be, if not to try and burn the whole of Russia down. To believe our nation jumped in to help Ukraine negotiate a reasonable solution, which would have truly been helpful under an umbrella of security, and which would have ensured stability, is delusional.

The US, spearheading sanctions along with confiscating foreign Russian assets over the past eight years has only confirmed to Russia, and much of the world, that the West will never view them as equal partners so Russia has turned east and while America’s pride and misbegotten, outdated foreign policy has just about wrecked Europe, let’s not forget Nord Stream, the rest of the world has moved on to form multiple trade and security agreements based on respect for sovereign rights. The sanctions have done far more to damage and isolate the West than influence Russia’s decisions in Ukraine. But the greatest folly of the West has been to push this conflict right up against the nuclear option. How did we think this would go?

It makes one wonder if the headlong policy wasn’t meant to bankrupt NATO countries, Germany especially, destabilize all of eastern Europe and dump billions of US dollars into what was once a country but is now a black hole sucking down deals for weapons, land and resource grabs. It looks like war as a business model. Before shaking hands with the West for loans and security guarantees, Ukraine should’ve looked at Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and closer to home, Georgia. We goaded their corrupt president, Saakashvili, to attack the S. Osetians in 2008, and Russia came to their defense. Georgia lost some territory as a result. Russia only reacted.

Ukraine however is different in that almost every time Russia has been invaded from the west they have come across the Ukraine. Referring to President Putin’s lesson for Tucker Carlson, and whomever, ( I hope millions of Americans tuned in), he made it clear, several times, that Russia’s offers for participation, their requests for cooperation and their willingness to engage in diplomacy has been spurned by the West far more often than not. Five waves of NATO expansion towards their border and now, under the guise of protecting Ukraine, weapons would be placed on their front porch. How do the people of America think this will go? European countries have a shared history with Russia and they have no doubts. Besides, they have internal problems of their own, as does America, which Mr. Putin pointed out. Many of these problems are a result from sanctions against Russia that have backfired.

Unless someone does something very, very foolish, poor Ukraine will be lucky to find itself only at the mercy of Russia’s demands which are what they asked for from the beginning; a neutral buffer zone with no Nazis. The Ukraine that rebuilds will not be the same country it was and the loss of some territory will by the least of their tragedies and for what, to be one last brick in the wall to keep The Bear at bay.

Again, why would Russia want to invade Ukraine? What would they gain that could not be achieved through diplomacy and trade agreements that would benefit both countries? Would the Russian people want to acquire more “empire” through bloody aggression just to end up with a rebellious vengeful citizenry and invoke the condemnation of the whole world? What kind of security would that buy? How contradictory is the thinking that the largest country in the world, with vast resources needs to expand aggressively? It is not Russia that has 800 military installations scattered all over the globe. Is it unreasonable for them to ask that one or a dozen more not be placed on their doorstep? The debate about who and how the strife in Ukraine began and how much effort to find compromises by who really needs to be answered, especially by each and every American. Where is the wisdom? Where have the billions gone and are we more secure now, or would it be better for our nation to have invested those billions at home? It’s a guarantee Ukraine would have fared much better.

I read the Wikipedia histories of the Russian/Chechnya wars and that was educational. I did note that there was no mention of US aid for Chechnya, but Wikipedia is known for bias by omission, at the very least. As to military techniques, I’m not sure what the comparison is to Syria, Mariupol and the rest of Ukraine other than war is hell. If the reference is to compare the loss of civilian lives as well as wanton use of the common soldier, I would recommend listening to Colonel Douglas MacGregor for his assessment of military actions in Ukraine since 2014, (which is when the war began), as well as an in depth history of the whole Eurasian Gordian knot. Also, former marine and weapons inspector Scott Ritter offers comprehensive insights. Both have done dozens of interviews covering the war; just as a bonus.

Submitted By: andynorris21@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Last week, after a bit of a raucous night here in Wheeler (The City Formerly Known as Tweakerville, maybe?? if we get our shit together??) I posted on this site in the For Rent section, and then I was publicly asked a question on this here portion of the forum, and I of course felt obliged to reply. I am definitely looking for rentals on Craigslist next time.

So, hopefully, once again, this will be my last post on BBQ.

Anyway, I was thinking…oh wait a minute…I hear something…what’s that sound?? Oh! It’s a collective sigh of relief coming across the bay from Wokezanita. I though it was a flock of Canada geese taking off because an American Bald Eagle was circling overhead.

(Just playing with some creative imagery…it’s not a threat….jeez, how did ya’ll get so fragile over there?)

This past Thanksgiving I was casually checking email before going to a friend’s house for dinner. And I see an email with the headline “I am grateful for you!” and I’m like ‘awwww…’ and it felt kinda good, you know? And then I look at the sender’s name and it reads “Candace” and I’m like “Who the hell is that?” And I linger on the name for a sec, it’s kind of familiar, and then it clicks: “Oh! It’s the arcade-token scandal lady! What the hell is she emailing me for?” And it’s a personal email, to me, and it’s kinda short and dopey and she starts thanking me for helping her and I’m like “what the hell is this lady talking about?” I’m totally confused. So I stop for sec to think about it.

Here’s what happened:

Last spring or whatever a local guy posted sh*t about me on a local Facebook page or something, and I took to this here forum to reply, because while I don’t do social media, I knew that a lot of his friends use this site.

And then I was on here for a few weeks or whatever making so many of you so happy.

It was election season then, and I was reading some of the local election stuff just for fun (I don’t pay attention to local politics, I’m into geopolitics) and I’m kinda giggling and laughing a bit to myself, at the small town comedy of it all, and then I see this one post from a candidate (Candace) where she is blatantly speaking about her intent to violate election law, and I’m still laughing and thinking, in a friendly way, ‘what a bunch of clowns!’. So I come up with a dead-pan post (I’m laughing my ass-off inside) and titled it – I think – “The NCRD race and the arcade-token scandal”, and smiled as I set it off. Funny, right?

Later, I heard Candace lost that race, a race for a sorta-meaningless functionary position on the NCRD board, because not enough Democrats had enough confidence in her for that job and she was not well-liked. Erin somebody won I think.

So let me get this straight, clown world, ya’ll then elected Candace to be Chair of the Tillamook County Democrats???? Haha! (Sorry, but I’m doing that ‘LOLing’ or whatever the kids call it these days.)

After I sent the dead-pan post, a friend who was following the race said ‘you should have let her commit the offense, then she would have been knocked out of the race and maybe politics forever.’ And I replied, ‘Don’t worry bro, she’ll never win, she’s a total blah ditty blah blah.’ And I won’t translate blah ditty blah blah because then I will sound mean.

And I am not a mean person Candace, and I want to help. And in that light, in the interest of your career, I would suggest that you don’t send me any more emails. Keep sending them if you want, send as many as you want, just sayin….

And I’m glad I didn’t knock her out of the race with the arcade-token scandal, because that law is designed to combat major grift in and of itself, and that’s not what this was, it was just stupidity and incompetence. We shouldn’t elect folks based on their race, sex, gender, or the ‘D’ or ‘R’ or ‘I’ next to their name, etc., we should elect them based on their ideas and competency. And that leads me to…ahem, Republicans? You couldn’t find anybody to beat this lady? That does not bode well for your party or the people of Tillamook county.

But I don’t know who you ran, maybe it was the drunk guy from the fair.

And now the Tillmook County Democrats have presented to us their “Gaza Resolution”. Haha! (It’s that LOL thing again.)

First of all, nobody in Tillamook County, AT ALL, cares what the five of you think about Gaza. AT ALL. You are here (supposedly) to serve the people of Tillamook County, not Palestine.

If you want to do something for the people of Palestine, you should do that on your own dime and on your own time, and there is a place to do that. Every Saturday, when it’s not raining, folks gather at the intersection of Laneda Avenue in Manzanita and the intersection of Hwy 101 to protest “The Current Thing.” You can bring your signs and your pronouns and your smiles and wave to all the cars and take pictures to post on your virtue-signaling Facebook pages.

A Gaza resolution! Haha!

NEWSFLASH!

YOU’RE NOT THE STATE DEPARTMENT

(But it woulda been fun to have been a fly on the wall during that meeting, and watch ya’ll take yourselves all seriously and sh*t while drafting your Gaza resolution! Watch ya’ll play State Department like children play house. Hahahahahaha! Yeah, that woulda been some good comedy!)

REMINDER: YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN THOSE POSITIONS TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF TILLAMOOK COUNTY, NOT PALESTINE

Furthermore, your beloved Bomb’s-Away-Biden’s war-pigs, whom you ALL voted for, will NEVER hear about your resolution, nor would they give a sh*t about it if they did.

A great way for ya’ll to help Tillamook County, and the rest of the world, would be to draft a resolution asking Governor Kotek to send the Oregon National Guard (people who care about America and Oregon) to help out at our Southern Border. Not to help Homeland Security process them, but to keep them out and to keep the all the liquid heroin and sh*t out. We used to be pretty good at that. Our country has legal immigration, and of course, everyone in the world is welcome to apply for asylum, legally.

I kinda have no opinion on Governor Kotek, she doesn’t come across my radar much. Seems kinda quiet, keeps her cards close. Probably a good idea when you’re riding a dragon.

But if Governor Kotek were to send our National Guard to help at the border…whoa…I don’t know, she might just go down as the 2nd best governor in Oregon history. The first best, and ask any DEMOCRAT in Salem, was REPUBLICAN governor Mark Hatfield. (I don’t see a Mark Hatfield anywhere in the current Republican crop, just sayin that the letter next to a politician’s name shouldn’t mean all that much. Ideas and competency, remember?)

Gaza Gaza Gaza Gaza Gaza Gaza Gaza

Why is Gaza so trendy every few years?

And how come Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iran aren’t in your resolution, Tillamook County Democrats? Like it’s okay for you democrats to murder Muslims in those countries? It’s okay for you to destroy those Muslim lives, but not those in Gaza? (This is when the clown show isn’t so funny.)

And of course, there is nothing about Ukraine in your resolution of ‘global importance’, because deep down you all know what you did to those people in that country. 110-billion dollars murdering those people and destroying their lives, woulda been $300,000,000 for EACH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT in America. Shame on you all for that. Now I’m starting to get angry. Gonna take a break.

Continuing…

When I was a freshman at a satellite branch of the University of Connecticut, two hours north of NYC, I drove into town for a 10th anniversary memorial of John Lennon’s death. It was something to do, for fun, and a kind-of historic event, you know? There wasn’t too much happening when I was there, early in the afternoon, maybe fifty people, mulling about and placing flowers on the sidewalk outside the brownstone where John bled to death, after the CIA had him shot. A few dozen people were across the street at “Strawberry Fields”, a tiny chunk of Central Park that the City of New York turned into a memorial, some were playing guitars, etc. It was cool, I didn’t stay too long.

And that makes me think of his song, ‘Imagine’, and the part about no borders. That’s a great notion, I get it, but in reality, ‘no borders’ DOES NOT WORK. We can see this with the drugs and violence and the terrorist hit teams that are stateside, in place for their Hamas-style attacks, just waiting to see what you Woketard Dems do their friends and family back home in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Or maybe its too late; we’ve been murdering so many of those people over there for so long and have been destroying so many of their lives, it may be too late. I don’t know. But the hit teams are here, lots of them. We don’t have a southern border, people over the world know that of course, and some of them out there are real pissed at America. We need a border, duh. Like, super duh.

Anyway, John’s song ‘Imagine’ is a dream, and it had it’s place it time, for sure. But in my view, the song below is not only more peaceful and loving than John’s song, it embodies more potential for cooperation than his did; it has the potential to bridge more divides than Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. It is an incredibly powerful song.

Plus, Kid Rock ALWAYS cracks me up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyFnLqJx-uU

And this is one of my all-time favorite documentaries, seriously. The way she constructed it, how it flows, etc., super-impressive from a director standpoint. Plus, this is why we destroyed downtown Portland, remember? George Floyd? Billions of dollars of damage done, the downtown cop shop is STILL barricaded like a war zone, most former businesses are gone. Downtown has yet to come back.

Anyway, this doc is outstanding:

rumble.com/v3wz426-fall-of-minneap-olis.html

Like I said, last week I was watching a movie in bed (that I bought at the Hope Chest for a dollar! Score!), then was rousted, and then all this BBQ sh*t happened.

All the dude wanted was to watch his dvd.

🙂

Andy

BONUS!

V for Victory! V for Vendetta!

www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/san-francisco-waymo-arson-sparks-fresh-debate-self-driving-cars-2024-02-13/

This will never happen in Wokeland, do you know why? Because soon the antifa punks are going to figure out how badly the tech-whore Dems have ruined their lives, and the tech pigs know this, and they also know that antifa would burn every robo taxi to the ground. The Dems now this too. And the Dems also know that those Antifa punks, once they figure out how much ya’ll have lied to them and fucked up their lives, are gonna be real pissed, and they are serious shit, like they would scale the new downtown Ritz Carlton (gross) with ropes and roust George Soros and D.A. Mike Schmidt from a penthouse meeting, or something like that. (We’ve all seen that 30-foot banner hanging on the side of Dante’s asking Portlanders to make sure Schmidt doesn’t get reelected.) Don’t fuck with antifa, trust me, you want them on your side. And they’ll figure it out soon enough, and they are. Furthermore, there has been droid delivery in Arizona and D.C. for several years. Wokeland seems perfect for droid delivery, right? Wrong. Do you know why there isn’t droid delivery in Wokeland despite the tens of millions of dollars the city has spent on ‘bike’ lanes (actually purposed for droid delivery)? There is no droid delivery in Wokeland because of tweakers and
Antifa, but mostly Antifa. Trust me.

And just for fun!!!!!!!!!!!

Other than the fact they they filled their local fishing hole with lead, it’s great!

LIKE SUPER FUN!!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KnAzpi4avo

Submitted By: tevisdiii@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

MAPS
For those of us who appreciate visual aids, the link below is to a very comprehensive history of not only Ukraine but of the whole region. Since we, as a nation, are supporting the war there, it would be enlightening for all of us to understand how borders have ebbed and flowed in the past thousand years. Compared to our Eurasian partners, our collective national memories are like a five year old. These maps can offer a deeper perspective.

original.antiwar.com/david_stockman/2022/10/09/maps-not-to-die-for/