Category: General Interest

Submitted By: codger817@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I’ve always thought of myself as “too cool” to ever feel kinship with Howard Beale in the iconic 1976 movie, “Network”, but I’m there today. This last presidential election truly has me “mad as hell’.
For the second time in eight years I’ve seen a well-qualified, intelligent woman lose a presidential election to a loud-mouthed shill for the upper class who talks “populism” but is actually stealing my children’s and grandchildren’s freedom.
I’m not mad at him, you really can’t be mad at a snake for being a snake.
It’s my beloved Democratic party and what it’s become that has me boiling. Our strategy of “When they go low, we go high” clearly doesn’t work.
I grew up with the idea that the Democratic Party, the party of FDR and Harry Truman*, stood for the common man and the working class. I do not believe either party holds that belief in the hearts any longer.
In a 1956 speech, Dwight Eisenhower, the first president I remember, said “ if a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.
It started gradually about 1970, but that’s what our parties have become, “a conspiracy to seize power”. We spend advertising billions quibbling and our real problems are ignored.
Presidents of both parties have come and gone since then. The “real” freedom of affordable housing and education has withered continuously.
Somehow, we have to return to “Truman” Democrats and “Eisenhower” Republicans who truly are dedicated to a “cause that is right and that is moral”.
I don’t think we can do it living in our screens and social media. We need to start talking to real people here in our real community.
National media is in it strictly for the bucks and if our planet perishes, I guess that’s what they call the cost of doing business.
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com

• I found it amazing how topical Harry Truman’s 1948 acceptance speech is still today. Here’s a link to the speech,

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

Manzanita Today newsletter just out today
www.manzanitatoday.com/

Submitted By: andickson@outlook.com – Click to email about this post

Congratulations to Holly and her team! The new Cloud and Leaf Bookstore location is amazing! I’m grateful to have such an incredible independent bookstore in Manzanita. Be sure to check them out.

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

Dear Generous Community Members,

I told you in the last communication I would let you know more about Meals for Seniors, Inc. in Rockaway Beach. I started to underline what I thought was important in their letter, but found I was underlining everything. So, I will just send their entire letter. Again, this is from Meals for Seniors, Inc., PO Box 852, Rockaway Beach, Oregon, 97136. For more information, please call 503-317-8967.

“As you know, our senior citizens are the riches of our communities and all of us at Meals for Seniors, Inc. continue to work hard to provide nutritious meals for our senior citizens we serve. If you are looking for opportunities to help others during this holiday season we would appreciate your consideration of a donation.

We are on track to provide about 14,000 meals this year which would be a record for us. We have recently conducted a Customer Survey of those who receive meals from us. Those results show 27% of our respondents are over 80 years of age while another 10% are over 90! Of our respondents, 47% have been receiving for five meals or more and another 26% for 8 meals or more. Also, 24% have been receiving meals for less than one year, yet three of our seniors have been coming for 17 years or more. Our diners hail from the Portland area to Tillamook and Nehalem and communities in-between. We serve and deliver meals 52 weeks of the year; not missing a meal date since we began in 2003. For that we are grateful.

We also have a Family Fund you might consider. This is a separate project with its own funds yet is housed under our non-profit status. It is managed by the Meals for Seniors, Inc. Board of Directors. This fund assists families in need who might otherwise “fall through the cracks” during as well as at the holidays. In December we work with Tillamook County CARES which identifies families in need. Last year we were able to assist 15 families with a total of 61 children: we also help with utility bills. This year we have 12 families.

We are also working with the Neah-Kah-Nie School District resources counselors who identify students in need, along with their families. The district has schools in Nehalem, Rockaway, and Garibaldi. We are adopting another 14-18 families this year through the school district, about a total of about 44 families. We speak with the head of the household to determine the number of children and through Black Friday shopping we purchase clothing, toys, a complete holiday dinner along with a Fred Meyer gift card. Everything is wrapped and delivered by our volunteers a few days before Christmas.

We are learning there may be a need for lunches for students during the summer. Counselors note they see students coming back to school in the Fall, having lost weight. In one case they could tell this, s the student wore the same pair of pants during the school year, but now in the Fall they were baggy-they were the only pants he had. There are similar reports from counselors.

If you consider a donation to the Family Fund, please note so in the byline of a check or notation on PayPal as these fund and projects are separate from our meal service. We do not receive on-going local, state, national or federal funding. We are federally designated non-profit with a 501 (c)(3) status and your donation is deductible to the extent allowed by the law. We appreciate your consideration.

Our Board members, our volunteers and our seniors thank you for your past support and wish your and your loved ones a safe, healthy and happy holiday season”

If you divide the number of meals they serve a year, 14,000 meals by 52 weeks of the year, you come up with 269 meals per week!

Again, this was a letter I received from Meals for Seniors, Inc. Tax ID# 90-0097197. The letter is signed by Theresa Bruneau, President

The address for Meals for Seniors, Inc., PO Box 852, Rockaway Beach, Oregon 97136

Rockaway Beach Lions, PO Box 611, Rockaway Beach, Oregon 97136-Meals for families Thanksgiving and Christmas

North County Food Bank, PO Box 162, Wheeler, Oregon 97147, Meal’s weekly, Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner also Clothing Bank-bring warm clothing

Nehalem Bay Community Services, PO Box 232, Nehalem, Oregon 97131 CHILD Program, Nehalem Senior Lunches, Nehalem Bay Food Pantry

If you want to look for more information about the above programs, please go to their website.

Again, many thanks! Your Holiday will be better if you are sharing it with others!

Submitted By: Coastbbqfree@protonmail.com – Click to email about this post

United Paws’ Kittens of the Week
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your eyes, and read here the tale of two wonder-kitties, Cassius and Flavia! Flavia is the wild child, super silly and always ready to play. As the big sister and the biggest of her siblings, Flavia takes charge as the first one out the door for playtime and the last one to call it a day. Although she is a little ball of energy, don’t let her wild side fool you; she is a total sweetheart. Flavia buzzes with adoration when she is around people and is super cuddly and affectionate.

Cassius is so handsome he belongs on the cover of Cat Vogue! He has a beautiful spotted tabby pattern on a silvery coat and bright green eyes. He is a brave little adventurer, who loves exploring and playing. When Cassius is ready to rest, he will find the highest spot to perch and keep watch like a true protector. While he may be a bit cautious when meeting new people, once you earn his trust, he’ll reward you with endless purrs and cozy lap cuddles.

Cassius and Flavia are about 12 weeks old and have been in a loving foster home. They are good with other cats and probably gentle dogs. They are are now ready for their forever home. Could that be you?

You can learn more about these two kittens as well as other cats and kittens available for adoption at unitedpaws.wordress.com, where you can also complete an adoption application and get pre-approved. Once pre-approved, you can schedule a “Meet & Greet.” You can also email unitedpawsapps@gmail.com or call United Paws at 503-842-5663 for more info.

You can view videos of these cuties the United Paws website or at the following links.
Flavia: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe3xY_E-Uj2akL1adicLubKYXMfVe9kTU
Cassius: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe3xY_E-Uj2ZK-tvTq6_YfNXaAgJX8Mx5

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

What income qualifies for Affordable Housing in Tillamook County? What rent is considered Affordable in Tillamook County?
For some of these questions, you can find facts and figures at the Tillamook County Webpage:
www.tillamookcounty.gov/bc-hc/page/income-and-rent-limits

You’ll learn what “Area Median Income” (AMI) means, and why it’s an important term, along with a few others.
To learn more about Housing in Tillamook County, please join the Tillamook County Housing Commission the first Thursday of every month at its monthly meeting, online or in-person: www.tillamookcounty.gov/bc-hc

Submitted By: dixiedarrow@icloud.com – Click to email about this post

Thank you, Mr Dieken for warning people of my leanings, but you are not quite accurate. It gives me a chance to point out a few things. What does it matter how I lean? I definitely do not lean towards belonging to a political party, which I will never do again, simply because it keeps people from utilizing all of their brain. An example of this is the following. Voting is the cornerstone of Democracy. Information, due to a lawsuit, came out before the election that Oregon has the dirtiest voter rolls in the nation. For putting out this information I was called a “threat to Democracy”.
Can you explain this? Are there any Democrats in this area of Oregon who want to follow up on this, and assure those of us who care about democracy will get accurate voter rolls in Oregon? I doubt it!

People who belong to a political party lock their brains into a box and cannot think outside the box. I feel our country is on the brink of imploding
because of corruption. Corruption happens to all governments over time. My beautiful country, with the best constitution of all, is extraordinarily corrupt, and the state of Oregon is also, simply because it has been under one party control for a long time. It doesn’t matter what party it is. Majority party rule over time leads to corruption

I have been a Democrat most of my life and most all of my kids and grandkids are Democrats. I have been registered lately as a Republican, a Democrat, and an Independent so I can vote in the primary election for persons running on both sides of the aisle that I would like to see In our state legislature.

I would like to see our election process change, so that in the primary a person could vote for all who are running in their area. This would include all independents, all democrats and all republicans listed on one ballot. Then I wouldn’t have to change my party identity. I almost voted for rank choice voting but didn’t. I think there is a better way. In closing I would like to say I lean toward common sense, and I don’t see much of that in the current Democratic Party.

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

Hello to our Very Generous Community,

Thanks to all of you who have given cash, checks, and donations to our many local organizations who keep so many fed and clothed. Below you will find the names and addresses of these organizations. You can continue giving through this holiday season, or on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Yes, people need help year around in our community, not just the Holiday Season. I am seeing other individuals and businesses asking for clothing and food for locals. This is good! Please help them as much as you can.

Remember the Nehalem Elementary School Food Drive. This Food Drive is an especially important food security tool for our kids during their 2-week winter break at the end of the year. Already the Family Resource Center at the Nehalem Elementary School is collecting for the Weekend Backpack Food Program. Each food bag contains 2 lunches, 2 breakfast items, 2 servings of fruit, 4 snacks, and Top Ramen. Other items they collect are new and gently used jackets, shoes, socks, and clothes. Consider giving Hygiene products to the whole family. They also provide extra swim gear for children so they can participate in the swim program. These provisions for children are provided all school year. This is keeping people remarkably busy. One of these people is Heaven Hartford. To help this program you can stop by the office or mail a check to Nehalem Elementary, PO Box 190, Nehalem, Oregon, 97131.To contact Heaven at the Family Resource Center, call 503-355-3639 or text at heavenh@nknsd.org.

To help this Food Drive for the Holidays please think about what you would want your kids to have to eat. Consider cereal, bread, pasta, rice, healthy snacks, flour, sugar, canned goods, and such. If you have fresh or frozen items to donate, please call Nehalem Elementary School to arrange drop off or pick up. 503-355-3650 or 888-218-2455.

If any of you got a letter from Meals for Seniors, Inc. This year you know they have really expanded their already busy work in the community. Will need to get back to this in another email. In the business of helping people for over 20 years, you can help them with their Meal program by sending what you can to Meals for Seniors, PO Box 852, Rockaway Beach, Oregon 97136. Phone 503-317-8967.

Rockaway Beach Lions will be giving out baskets of food and presents for Christmas. Contact them at Rockaway Beach Lions, PO Box 611, Rockaway Beach, Oregon 97136.

The North County Food Bank is in Wheeler, open on Tuesday. They need food, money, warm clothing, and volunteers, especially this time of year. If you have questions, call them at 503-368-7724. Their mailing address is NCFB, PO Box 162, Wheeler, Oregon 97141.

Nehalem Bay Community Services is the umbrella for three organizations which were previously run by Nehalem Bay United Methodist Church. The CHILD Program provides new clothes to children at the beginning of the school year and at Christmas, along with Christmas presents. Nehalem Senior Lunches, served at the church on Tuesday and Thursday. The Nehalem Bay Food Panty rounds out these services with food and clothing for people and pet food for your dogs and cats. For questions about these programs, you can call the church office 503-368-5612 and leave a message. The mailing address for this organization is NBCS, PO Box 232, Nehalem, Oregon 97131.

Thank you-do your best-whatever that might be to help others!

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

Filmed W112024 5:35 a.m. Nehalem Bay
Not great but lightning is challenging.
www.youtube.com/channel/UCtDisMjv9_ezqqTav8qUrdg

Submitted By: dixiedarrow@icloud.com – Click to email about this post

The interim between a US presidential election and the swearing in of a new Administration has for most of our history been a non-eventful period where the outgoing Administration winds down operations and the incoming Administration ramps up new personnel before the inauguration. Something about losing the popular and electoral vote has led Biden’s people to disregard the threat of WWIII and give the green light for attacks with US missiles deep into Russian territory. That means that American military officers are shooting American missiles into Russia – something unimaginable even in the depths of the cold war. The American people did not vote for an expansion of war, either in eastern Europe or the Middle East. A recent CBE News/YouGov poll has shown that a majority of Americans favor an end to all US military aid to Ukraine. Upending the card table just because you lose the game not only shows blatant disregard for the “democracy” his party constantly preached on the campaign trail, but by pouring gasoline on these two very dangerous conflicts as he heads for the door President Biden puts each and every one of us in grave danger. This abridged version of the article was taken from RonPaulInstitute.org.

Submitted By: dixiedarrow@icloud.com – Click to email about this post

The interim between a US presidential election and the swearing in of a new Administration has for most of our history been a non-eventful period where the outgoing Administration winds down operations and the incoming Administration ramps up new personnel before the inauguration. Something about losing the popular and electoral vote has led Biden’s people to disregard the threat of WWIII and give the green light for attacks with US missiles deep into Russian territory. That means that American military officers are shooting American missiles into Russia – something unimaginable even in the depths of the cold war. The American people did not vote for an expansion of war, either in eastern Europe or the Middle East. A recent CBE News/YouGov poll has shown that a majority of Americans favor an end to all US military aid to Ukraine. Upending the card table just because you lose the game not only shows blatant disregard for the “democracy” his party constantly preached on the campaign trail, but by pouring gasoline on these two very dangerous conflicts as he heads for the door President Biden puts each and every one of us in grave danger. This abridged version of the article was taken from RonPaulInstitute.org.

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

As this Holiday Season continues it’s a reminder to preserve and share past celebrations and adventures.
Turn old 8 mm, VHS and DVD videos along with Cassette/CD/Vinyl audio into digital files you can watch and share with family and friends. Affordable and local-contact Drew at nehalembayexperience@gmail.com

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

to the BBQ readers,

another “Letter from an American” by Heather Cox Richardson, political historian. anyone can subscribe to these free almost-daily newsletters.

i find a lot of common sense in what she writes.

tonight i inserted no comments. this is today’s post in its entirety.

HCR always includes links to her references, and an opportunity to be a free subscriber. i posted those as well.

lucy brook
nehalem resident
U.S. citizen

November 30, 2024
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
DEC 1

Cas Mudde, a political scientist who specializes in extremism and democracy, observed yesterday on Bluesky that “the fight against the far right is secondary to the fight to strengthen liberal democracy.” That’s a smart observation.

During World War II, when the United States led the defense of democracy against fascism, and after it, when the U.S. stood against communism, members of both major political parties celebrated American liberal democracy. Democratic presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower made it a point to emphasize the importance of the rule of law and people’s right to choose their government, as well as how much more effectively democracies managed their economies and how much fairer those economies were than those in which authoritarians and their cronies pocketed most of a country’s wealth.

Those mid-twentieth-century presidents helped to construct a “liberal consensus” in which Americans rallied behind a democratic government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, and protected civil rights. That government was so widely popular that political scientists in the 1960s posited that politicians should stop trying to court voters by defending its broadly accepted principles. Instead, they should put together coalitions of interest groups that could win elections.

As traditional Republicans and Democrats moved away from a defense of democracy, the power to define the U.S. government fell to a small faction of “Movement Conservatives” who were determined to undermine the liberal consensus. Big-business Republicans who hated regulations and taxes joined with racist former Democrats and patriarchal white evangelicals who wanted to reinforce traditional race and gender hierarchies to insist that the government had grown far too big and was crushing individual Americans.

In their telling, a government that prevented businessmen from abusing their workers, made sure widows and orphans didn’t have to eat from garbage cans, built the interstate highways, and enforced equal rights was destroying the individualism that made America great, and they argued that such a government was a small step from communism. They looked at government protection of equal rights for racial, ethnic, gender, and religious minorities, as well as women, and argued that those protections both cost tax dollars to pay for the bureaucrats who enforced equal rights and undermined a man’s ability to act as he wished in his place of business, in society, and in his home. The government of the liberal consensus was, they claimed, a redistribution of wealth from hardworking taxpayers—usually white and male—to undeserving marginalized Americans.

When voters elected Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Movement Conservatives’ image of the American government became more and more prevalent, although Americans never stopped liking the reality of the post–World War II government that served the needs of ordinary Americans. That image fed forty years of cuts to the post–World War II government, including sweeping cuts to regulations and to taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, always with the argument that a large government was destroying American individualism.

It was this image of government as a behemoth undermining individual Americans that Donald Trump rode to the presidency in 2016 with his promises to “drain the swamp” of Washington, D.C., and it is this image that is leading Trump voters to cheer on billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as they vow to cut services on which Americans depend in order to cut regulations and taxes once again for the very wealthy and corporations.

But that image of the American government is not the one on which the nation was founded.

Liberal democracy was the product of a moment in the 1600s in which European thinkers rethought old ideas about human society to emphasize the importance of the individual and his (it was almost always a “him” in those days) rights. Men like John Locke rejected the idea that God had appointed kings and noblemen to rule over subjects by virtue of their family lineage, and began to explore the idea that since government was a social compact to enable men to live together in peace, it should rest not on birth or wealth or religion, all of which were arbitrary, but on natural laws that men could figure out through their own experiences.

The Founders of what would become the United States rested their philosophy on an idea that came from Locke’s observations: that individuals had the right to freedom, or “liberty,” including the right to consent to the government under which they lived. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” and that “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

In the early years of the American nation, defending the rights of individuals meant keeping the government small so that it could not crush a man through taxation or involuntary service to the government or arbitrary restrictions. The Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments to the Constitution—explicitly prohibited the government from engaging in actions that would hamper individual freedom.

But in the middle of the nineteenth century, Republican president Abraham Lincoln began the process of adjusting American liberalism to the conditions of the modern world. While the Founders had focused on protecting individual rights from an overreaching government, Lincoln realized that maintaining the rights of individuals required government action.

To protect individual opportunity, Lincoln argued, the government must work to guarantee that all men—not just rich white men—were equal before the law and had equal access to resources, including education. To keep the rich from taking over the nation, he said, the government must keep the economic playing field between rich and poor level, dramatically expand opportunity, and develop the economy.

Under Lincoln, Republicans reenvisioned liberalism. They reworked the Founders’ initial stand against a strong government, memorialized by the Framers in the Bill of Rights, into an active government designed to protect individuals by guaranteeing equal access to resources and equality before the law for white men and Black men alike. They enlisted the power of the federal government to turn the ideas of the Declaration of Independence into reality.

Under Republican president Theodore Roosevelt, progressives at the turn of the twentieth century would continue this reworking of American liberalism to address the extraordinary concentrations of wealth and power made possible by industrialization. In that era, corrupt industrialists increased their profits by abusing their workers, adulterating milk with formaldehyde and painting candies with lead paint, dumping toxic waste into neighborhoods, and paying legislators to let them do whatever they wished.

Those concerned about the survival of liberal democracy worried that individuals were not actually free when their lives were controlled by the corporations that poisoned their food and water while making it impossible for individuals to get an education or make enough money ever to become independent.

To restore the rights of individuals, progressives of both parties reversed the idea that liberalism required a small government. They insisted that individuals needed a big government to protect them from the excesses and powerful industrialists of the modern world. Under the new governmental system that Theodore Roosevelt pioneered, the government cleaned up the sewage systems and tenements in cities, protected public lands, invested in public health and education, raised taxes, and called for universal health insurance, all to protect the ability of individuals to live freely without being crushed by outside influences.

Reformers sought, as Roosevelt said, to return to “an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him.”

It is that system of government’s protection of the individual in the face of the stresses of the modern world that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and the presidents who followed them until 1981 embraced. The post–World War II liberal consensus was the American recognition that protecting the rights of individuals in the modern era required not a weak government but a strong one.

When Movement Conservatives convinced followers to redefine “liberal” as an epithet rather than a reflection of the nation’s quest to defend the rights of individuals—which was quite deliberate—they undermined the central principle of the United States of America. In its place, they resurrected the ideology of the world the American Founders rejected, a world in which an impoverished majority suffers under the rule of a powerful few.

Notes:

Megan Slack, “From the Archives: President Teddy Roosevelt’s New Nationalism Speech,” December 6, 2011, The White House, President Barack Obama, National Archives, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2011/12/06/archives-president-teddy-roosevelts-new-nationalism-speech

Theodore Roosevelt, “The New Nationalism,” in The New Nationalism (New York: The Outlook Company, 1910), 3–33.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/emerging-republican-majority/595504/

Bluesky:

casmudde.bsky.social/post/3lc3t5tehfk2j

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

REMINDER: Applications Open for Housing Commission’s New Round of Funding.
We are also pleased to announce that the application materials are now available in Spanish!
The Tillamook County Housing Commission has opened applications for its third round of funding to aid development of multifamily rental housing in Tillamook County. Proposed projects must be to build new multifamily rental housing of three units or more and may be located anywhere in the county, including cities and unincorporated areas. To support the immediate needs in the county, funding is prioritized for affordable and workforce housing options.
The online application is available on the Tillamook County Housing Commission webpage: Applications will be accepted through December 31, 2024.
For more information and answers to questions about Tillamook County’s Housing Production Solutions Fund, please contact Housing Coordinator: Parker Sammons, at Parker.Sammons@TillamookCounty.gov or, visit the Housing Commission website, tillamookcounty.gov/bc-hc.

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

www.youtube.com/channel/UCtDisMjv9_ezqqTav8qUrdg
I’m looking for a female co-writer to help develop these rough pilot episodes of NEAH into a web series.
We can work on Zoom. Cheers, Drew. nehalembayexperience@gmail.com

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

Heather Cox Richardson is a political historian who daily writes “Letters from an American.”
I have copied and pasted the portion of her November 26 letter that pertains to tariffs. CAPITALIZATION is mine. This is not the reality that each of us want to see happen. Just as one example, do we want to see the price of fresh fruits, avocados and tomatoes soar?
Lucy Brook Nehalem resident American citizen
November 26, 2024 Letter from an American HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
Last night, Trump announced on his social media site that he intends to impose a 25% tariff on all products coming into the U.S. from Mexico and Canada “until such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all Illegal aliens stop this Invasion of our country!” Trump claimed that they could solve the problem “easily” and that until they do, “it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
In a separate post, he held China to account for fentanyl and said he would impose a 10% tariff on all Chinese products on top of the tariffs already levied on those goods. “Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he added.
In fact, since 2023 there has been a drop of 14.5% in deaths from drug overdose, the first such decrease since the epidemic began, and border patrol apprehensions of people crossing the southern border illegally have fallen to the lowest number since August 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. IN ANY CASE, A STUDY BY THE LIBERTARIAN CATO INSTITUTE SHOWS THAT FROM 2019 TO 2024, MORE THAN 80% OF THE PEOPLE CAUGHT WITH FENTANYL AT PORTS OF ENTRY—WHERE THE VAST MAJORITY OF FENTANYL IS SEIZED—WERE U.S. CITIZENS.
Very few undocumented immigrants and very little illegal fentanyl come into the U.S. from Canada.
Washington Post economics reporter Catherine Rampell noted that Mexico and Canada are the biggest trading partners of the United States. Mexico sends cars, machinery, electrical equipment, and beer to the U.S., along with about $19 billion worth of fruits and vegetables. ABOUT HALF OF U.S. FRESH FRUIT IMPORTS COME FROM MEXICO, INCLUDING ABOUT TWO THIRDS OF OUR FRESH TOMATOES AND ABOUT 90% OF OUR AVOCADOS.
Transferring that production to the U.S. would be difficult, especially since about half of the 2 million agricultural workers in the U.S. are undocumented and Trump has vowed to deport them all. Rampell points out as well that Project 2025 calls for getting rid of the visa system that gives legal status to agricultural workers. U.S. farm industry groups have asked Trump to spare the agricultural sector, which contributed about $1.5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product in 2023, from his mass deportations.
Canada exports a wide range of products to the U.S., including significant amounts of oil. Rampell quotes GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, as saying that a 25% tax on Canadian crude oil would increase gas prices in the Midwest and the Rockies by 25 cents to 75 cents a gallon, COSTING U.S. CONSUMERS ABOUT $6 BILLION TO $10 BILLION MORE PER YEAR. Canada is also the source of about a quarter of the lumber builders use in the U.S., as well as other home building materials. Tariffs would raise prices there, too, while construction is another industry that will be crushed by Trump’s threatened deportations. According to NPR’s Julian Aguilar, in 2022, nearly 60% of the more than half a million construction workers in Texas were undocumented.
Construction company officials are begging Trump to leave their workers alone. Deporting them “WOULD DEVASTATE OUR INDUSTRY, WE WOULDN’T FINISH OUR HIGHWAYS, WE WOULDN’T FINISH OUR SCHOOLS,” the chief executive officer of a major Houston-based construction company told Aguilar. “HOUSING WOULD DISAPPEAR. I think they’d lose half their labor.”
Former trade negotiator under George W. Bush John Veroneau said Trump’s plans would violate U.S. trade agreements, including the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA). THE USMCA WAS NEGOTIATED DURING TRUMP’S OWN FIRST TERM. HE PRAISED IT AS “THE FAIREST, MOST BALANCED AND BENEFICIAL TRADE AGREEMENT WE HAVE EVER SIGNED INTO LAW. IT’S THE BEST AGREEMENT WE’VE EVER MADE.”
Trump apologists immediately began to assure investors that he really didn’t mean it. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman posted that Trump wouldn’t impose the tariffs if “Mexico and Canada stop the flow of illegal immigrants and fentanyl into the U.S.” Trump’s threat simply meant that Trump “is going to use tariffs as a weapon to achieve economic and political outcomes which are in the best interest of America,” Ackman wrote.
Iowa Republican lawmaker Senator Chuck Grassley, who represents a farm state that was badly burned by Trump’s tariffs in his first term, told reporters that he sees the tariff threats as a “negotiating tool.”
Foreign leaders had no choice but to respond. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum issued an open letter to Trump pointing out that Mexico has developed a comprehensive immigration system that has REDUCED BORDER ENCOUNTERS BY 75% SINCE DECEMBER 2023, and that the U.S. “Customs and Border Protection One” program has ended the “caravans” he talks about. She noted that it is imperative for the U.S. and Mexico jointly to “arrive at another model of labor mobility that is necessary for your country and to address the causes that lead families to leave their places of origin out of necessity.”
She noted that the fentanyl problem in the U.S. is a public health problem and that Mexican authorities have this year “seized tons of different types of drugs, 10,340 weapons, and arrested 15,640 people for violence related to drug trafficking,” and added that “70% OF THE ILLEGAL WEAPONS SEIZED FROM CRIMINALS IN MEXICO COME FROM YOUR COUNTRY.” She also suggested that Mexico would retaliate with tariffs of its own if the U.S. imposed tariffs on Mexico.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau did not go that far but talked to Trump shortly after the social media post. THE U.S IS CANADA’S BIGGEST TRADING PARTNER, AND A 25% TARIFF WOULD DEVASTATE ITS ECONOMY. The premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, seemed to try to keep her province’s oil out of the line of fire by agreeing with Trump that the Canadian government should work with him and adding, “The vast majority of Alberta’s energy exports to the US are delivered through secure and safe pipelines which do not in any way contribute to these illegal activities at the border.”
Trudeau has called an emergency meeting with Canada’s provincial premiers tomorrow to discuss the threat.
Spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington Liu Pengyu simply said: “NO ONE WILL WIN A TRADE WAR OR A TARIFF WAR” and “the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality.”

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

A friend’s request:

What We Love

                 When all our notions are quiet,

the stories and superstitions seen,

                 a smile welcomes the unknown.

               And sometimes, we will awaken,

rise in darkness, gladly await

the arriving light. We sense clearly

                 how joy and sorrow can diffuse

on a timeless palette,

                 bright notes for songs that lift

our circles. Each word,

               a whale breaking the surface, 

                 spray of an offshore wind,

tracks of a winged migration.

  Enough has been known

                 to give away what we love.

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

Thank you to all who have given food, money, your time, and presents to our North Tillamook County Non-Profits. Makes you feel good to help others. Just a reminder to those of you who want to help our community, I’ll mention names and addresses again. I know getting out for some of us is hard, but with these addresses you can make life easy and send a check. Thanks for being a good neighbor!

We are starting up in the north end of Tillamook County today. You remember Nehalem Bay Community Services (NBCS) is the organization which was run under the umbrella of the Nehalem Bay United Methodist Church. It includes Nehalem Senior Lunches, CHILD Program, and the Nehalem Bay Food Pantry. You may note on your check if you want your donation to go to just one of these programs or split between all three. The CHILD Program is currently collecting items for children’s Christmas presents. New clothing and new toys for kids are being collected at the Methodist Church in Nehalem. You will find tags locally at Nehalem Lumber, Bayway Tavern, Manzanita Grocery & Deli (who also has a donation jar), the U.S. Bank and First Security Bank.

The North County Food Bank (NCFB) is in Wheeler. NCFB distributes food and clothing on Tuesdays. If you have extra canned foods or gently used and warm clothing for both adults and children, this is a good place to leave them. They will be busy this next week as they are distributing Thanksgiving dinners to people. To support them year around it is good to send them what you can each month. The address is NCFB, PO Box 162, Wheeler, Oregon 97147.

Rockaway Beach Lions Club provides a basket of food to families and seniors at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Their contact information is Rockaway Beach Lions, PO Box 611, Rockaway Beach, Oregon 97136.

Meals for Seniors, also in Rockaway Beach, has a meal site and delivers food to people who cannot make it to the site. Donations to this organization can be made to Meals for Seniors, Inc., PO Box 852, Rockaway Beach, Oregon 97136.

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

Please look… I’m posting for my neighbor Melinda Graunds, please call her if you’ve seen Russel, (503) 440-7099. He is arthritic and would need assistance getting into a car.

Russel is an elder Great White Pyrenees and was frightened by the recent thunder storm and took off. Russel lives near MP12 on Hwy 53.

If you’ve seen him, please let his family know, they are very worried about him. Thank you Community. /Constance

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

NEAH and the Pups at Kelly’s Marina, Brighton, OR.
www.youtube.com/channel/UCtDisMjv9_ezqqTav8qUrdg

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

Here’s your chance to win a 2 night getaway at the beautiful Nehalem River Inn located alongside the scenic South Fork of the Nehalem River!

Raffle tickets at $5 each or 5 for $20 from now until the winner is drawn on *Feb 8, 2025*.

Chris and Heather, owners of the Inn and White Clover Grange members, have graciously donated this prize for which we are extremely grateful.

Proceeds will be used for maintenance needs of this grand old building that has meant so much to our tri-village community.

Tickets are available at Manzanita Lumber or at various upcoming Grange sponsored events -the next being our Xmas baazar, from 11-3 on Saturday Dec 7th. You may also contact WCG member Gayle Stephens at 503-440-7311 for ticket purchase or information.

*Please note Feb 8, 2025 is the date of our famous ”Pie Day Auction/Feast” so mark the date and come on down to see if you are the lucky winner and to fill up on pie!

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

Oregon’s Democratic leaders, including Gov. Tina Kotek, signaled the state will stand ready to oppose Trump administration policies that run counter to values the majority of Oregonians support, as it did during his first term.
“Oregonians have shown they will continue to lead with compassion, courage, and conviction — protecting a place where everyone can be themselves, feel welcome and have equal opportunity to a healthy, prosperous life,” Kotek said Wednesday. “We will continue to march forward and stand together as a shield against any attempt to undermine our fundamental freedoms. Our laws, our policies, and our actions will remain a deterrent to any attacks on our values and our democracy.

My feelings? – so shut up about Trump already – you are protected by a healthy prosperous life. OK?
Inflation will continue.
Oregon schools will still be way behind/ even last!
Emphasis on sex will be primary focus in education.
Parents who object will still be called terrorists.
Parents will have no idea what is happening to their minor kids.
The state still controls your minor kids reproductive organs.
We will continuously pay higher taxes.
Your state election system will continue to have dirty voter roles.
And farms will continue to go under.
So whats to complain about?
A healthy prosperous life lies ahead!

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

I have a Sony Bravia TV that won’t turn on. It flashes a red light 3 times when trying to turn it on. Google hasn’t helped. Do you or someone you know ever had to fix something like this. If so, please reach out. We don’t want to replace of we don’t have to. We will pay for a fix.

Thanks,
Paul.

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

JUST WONDERING if YOU OR i are going to be affected by the draconian measures and appointees that trump is proposing.

once again, a “Letter from an American,” by Heather Cox Richardson.”

i have left all her references and research links for anyone’s further reading interest.

om peace namaste

lucy brook
nehalem resident
U.S. citizen

November 18, 2024
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
NOV 19

On Friday, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo locked in a $6.6 billion deal with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company for it to invest $65 billion in three state-of-the-art fabrication plants in Arizona. This will bring thousands of jobs to the state. The money comes from the CHIPS and Science Act, about which Trump told podcaster Joe Rogan on October 25: “That CHIPS deal is so bad.” House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he would work to repeal the law, although he backed off that statement when Republicans noted the jobs the law has brought to their states.

Also on Friday, a Trump-appointed federal judge struck down a Biden administration rule that would have made 4 million workers eligible for overtime pay. The rule raised the salary level below which an employer has to pay overtime from $35,568 to $43,888 this year and up to $58,656 in 2025. The decision by Texas judge Sean D. Jordan kills the measure nationally.

On Sunday, speaking from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, President Joe Biden said that it would not be possible to reverse America’s “clean energy revolution,” which has now provided jobs across the country, primarily in Republican-dominated states. Biden noted that the U.S. would spend $11 billion on financing international responses to climate change in 2024, an increase of six times from when he began his term.

But President-elect Trump has called climate change a hoax and has vowed to claw back money from the Inflation Reduction Act appropriated to mitigate it, and to turn the U.S. back to fossil fuels. What Trump will have a harder time disrupting, according to Nicolás Rivero of the Washington Post, is the new efficiency standards the Biden administration put in place for appliances. He can, though, refuse to advance those standards.

Meanwhile Trump and his team are announcing a complete reworking of the American government. They claim a mandate, although as final vote tallies are coming in, it turns out that Trump did not win 50% of the vote, and CNN statistician Harry Enten notes that his margin comes in at 44th out of the 51 elections that have been held since 1824. He also had very short coattails—four Democrats won in states Trump carried—and the Republicans have the smallest House majority since there have been 50 states, despite the help their numbers have had from the extreme gerrymandering in states like North Carolina.

More Americans voted for someone other than Trump than voted for him.

Although Trump ran on lowering the cost of consumer goods, Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk, along with pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, have vowed to slash the U.S. government, apparently taking their cue from Argentina’s self-described anarcho-capitalist president Javier Milei, who was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after the election. Milei’s “shock therapy” to his country threw the nation into a deep recession, just as Musk says his plans will create “hardship” for Americans before enabling the country to rebuild with security.

Ramaswamy today posted on social media, “A reasonable formula to fix the U.S. government: Milei-style cuts, on steroids.” He has suggested that cuts are easier than people think. The Washington Post’s Philip Bump noted that on a podcast in September, Ramaswamy said as an example: “If your Social Security number ends in an odd number, you’re out. If it ends in an even number, you’re in. There’s a 50 percent cut right there. Of those who remain, if your Social Security number starts in an even number, you’re in, and if it starts with an odd number, you’re out. Boom. That’s a 75 percent reduction done.”

But, as Bump notes, this reveals Ramaswamy’s lack of understanding of how the government actually works. Social Security numbers aren’t random; the first digit refers to where the number was obtained. So this seemingly random system would target certain areas of the country.

Today, both Jacob Bogage, Jeff Stein, and Dan Diamond of the Washington Post and Robert Tait of The Guardian reported that Trump’s economic advisors are talking with Republicans in Congress about cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) formerly known as food stamps, and other welfare programs, in order to cover the enormous costs of extending tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Medicaid is the nation’s health insurance for low-income Americans and long-term care. It covers more than 90 million Americans, one in five of us. Rural populations, which tend to vote Republican, use supplemental nutrition programs more than urban dwellers do.

The Washington Post reporters note that Republicans deny that they are trying to reduce benefits for the poor. They are, they say, trying to reduce wasteful and unnecessary spending. “We know there’s tremendous waste,” said House Budget Committee chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX). “What we don’t seem to have in the hour of action, like when we have the trifecta and unified Republican leadership, is the political courage to do it for the love of country. [Trump] does.”

Those cuts will likely not sit well with the Republicans whose constituents think Trump promised there would be no cuts to the programs on which they depend.

Trump’s planned nominations of unqualified extremists have also run into trouble. Senate Republicans are so far refusing to abandon their constitutional powers in order to act as a rubber stamp to enable Trump’s worst instincts. Former representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a Trump bomb thrower, was unqualified to be the nation’s attorney general in any case, but as more information comes out about his alleged participation in drug fueled orgies, including the news that a woman allegedly told the House Ethics Committee that she saw him engage in sex with a minor, those problems have gotten worse.

Legal analyst Marcy Wheeler notes that the lawyers representing the witnesses for the committee are pushing for the release of the ethics committee’s report at least in part out of concern that if he becomes attorney general, Gaetz will retaliate against them.

According to Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, fear of the MAGA Republican colleagues who are already trying to bully them into becoming Trump loyalists is infecting congress members, too. When asked if Gaetz was qualified for the attorney general post, Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID) answered: “Are you sh*tting me, that you just asked that question? No. But hell, you’ll print that and now I’m going to be investigated.”

The many fringe medical ideas of Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., earned him the right-wing New York Post editorial board’s denigration as “nuts on a lot of fronts.” The board called his views “a head-scratching spaghetti of what we can only call warped conspiracy theories, and not just on vaccines.” Kennedy is a well-known opponent of vaccines—he called Covid-19 vaccines a “crime against humanity”—and has called for the National Institutes of Health to “take a break” of about eight years from studying infectious diseases, insisting that they should focus on chronic diseases instead.

Writing in the New York Times yesterday, Peter Baker noted that Trump “has rolled a giant grenade into the middle of the nation’s capital and watched with mischievous glee to see who runs away and who throws themselves on it.” Mischievous glee is one way to put it; another is that he is trying to destroy the foundations of the American government.

Baker notes that none of Trump’s selections would have been anything but laughable in the pre-Trump era when, for example, Democratic cabinet nominations were sunk for a failure to pay employment taxes for a nanny, or for a donor-provided car. Nor would a president-elect in the past have presumed to tap three of his own defense lawyers for top positions in the Department of Justice, effectively guaranteeing that he will be protected from scrutiny.

A former deputy White House press secretary during Trump’s first term, Sarah Matthews, said Trump is “drunk on power right now because he feels like he was given a mandate by winning the popular vote.”

Today Trump confirmed that he intends to bypass normal legal constraints on his actions by declaring a national emergency on his first day in office in order to launch his mass deportation of undocumented migrants. While the Congressional Budget Office estimates this mass deportation will cost at least $88 billion a year, another cost that is rarely mentioned is that according to Bloomberg, undocumented immigrants currently pay about $100 billion a year in taxes. Losing that income, too, will likely have to be made up with cuts from elsewhere.

Finally, today, CNBC’s economic analyst Carl Quintanilla noted today that average gasoline prices are expected to fall below $3.00 a gallon before the Thanksgiving holiday.

—

Notes:

azmirror.com/briefs/biden-locks-in-6-6b-for-huge-tsmc-chip-factories-in-arizona-ensuring-trump-cant-rescind-chips-act-deal/

apnews.com/article/biden-amazon-peru-g20-3cc827382d1e3c32865a14616ddfe467

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/11/18/appliance-efficiency-standards-biden-trump/

news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/overtime-expansion-for-4-million-workers-tossed-by-texas-judge

www.cnbc.com/2024/11/15/trump-elon-musk-javier-milei-government-cuts.html

www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/10-things-to-know-about-medicaid/

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/18/trump-medicaid-food-stamps-welfare

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/18/trumps-2024-mandate-isnt-robust-bidens-was-2020/

lexfridman.com/vivek-ramaswamy-transcript/

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/18/dream-gutting-government-offered-with-technocratic-veneer/

www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/18/gop-targets-medicaid-food-stamps/

www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/woman-told-house-ethics-committee-saw-gaetz-sex-minor-lawyer-says-rcna180435

www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/11/15/congress/robert-f-kennedy-jr-new-york-post-00189800

www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/rfk-jr-comes-home-anti-vaccine-group-commits-break-us-infectious-disea-rcna123551

www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-vaccine-access-hhs/

abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-confirms-plan-declare-national-emergency-military-mass/story?id=115963448

protectdemocracy.org/work/presidential-emergency-powers-explained/

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-30/undocumented-immigrants-in-us-paid-nearly-100-billion-in-taxes

www.huffpost.com/entry/matt-gaetz-attorney-general-republicans-shocked_n_67351edce4b0958bad3e0cb5

www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/us/politics/trump-signals-a-seismic-shift-shocking-the-washington-establishment.html

ForecasterEnten/status/1858527168608829707

VivekGRamaswamy/status/1858559544202502250

gabrielsherman/status/1858150639513002043

Bluesky:

kevinmkruse.bsky.social/post/3lazmbaly4k2d

emptywheel.bsky.social/post/3lbavtjxuzk2y

carlquintanilla.bsky.social/post/3lba2dqbgfk2e

grantstern.bsky.social/post/3lba2dxjyrs22