Just a brief note as the next primary election rolls in upon us.

I became politically active in Clark County back in November of '88, I believe it was, when I volunteered for the Bob Williams campaign. I spent 30 years on that course.

I ended my active political involvement roughly 5 years ago with my final term as a PCO as I moved to Cowlitz County. Along the way, I served as a District Chair (17th) delegate to the county and state conventions, legislative assistant in Olympia and Executive Director of the State GOP. I consulted on campaigns for years (It was my business for 14 years) and won more than I lost. My degree is in government/political science.

Unlike some (Kathy McDonald or Jon Russell) I never sold out for a paycheck and, on occasion, walked away from money on the table.

There were candidates I refused to support or work for. They were crooks or liars. They were dishonorable. And when I found out, their party didn't matter. I was done. (Which, come to think of it, is why I opposed Jaime Herrera from the moment she was parachuted in here to run against Brian Baird)

I learned a lot and saw a lot, I observed the worst in people and occasionally, the best.

And the thing I regret the most is this: There is, essentially, an almost complete lack of accountability on the part of those we elect.

They have one job: to represent us. They are SUPPOSED to be our voice. And all too frequently, they forget all about us. They forget all about the promises made to GET elected as they become coopted in the positions we put them in.

They make horrific decisions that hurt us but benefit them directly. Some, like Steve Stuart, former Clark County Commissioner and current city manager of Ridgefield, NEVER represented us in his deliberations. Due to the almost complete lack of accountability of our electeds there was no need, and he admitted his position on video at a county council meeting:

"And I've said it before: I don't speak for the people... I will NEVER speak for "the people," I speak for Steve and some of you are going to agree with me and some of you aren't."

I give him props for telling the truth about THAT at least. But I'm pretty sure that's not particularly what the Founding Fathers had in mind back in the day.

I mention all of that to set the table for the most important thing I'm learned about campaigns.

When I first got here after I left the Army, (Nov '87) campaigns were, to put a point on it, quite different.

When people ran for office, they'd generally tell you with some specificity what they would do and what they wouldn't do.

Most of it was rather straight forward: pledges such as "I will not vote to raise your taxes."

Or "I oppose funding illegal aliens in our colleges." Or this classic: "I will oppose the CRC Scam."

Straight forward. Easily understood. Boxes that could be checked. Promises made that could be ran on as an incumbent.

If the promises were kept.

Sometimes, these people we trust(ed) lied to us. The easiest example that comes to mind was Ann Rivers' Senate campaign back in the day, where she promised to oppose any gas tax or tab fee increases.

And she did.

Until she didn't. And then, she lied about WHY she didn't.

But, like most politicians, even today, she calculated that the voters of the arguably arch-conservative 18th District, who never would have elected her at all had she ran on a platform of increasing our taxes (which she did more than once) would not remember at ballot time, and she would be easily reelected.

And she was.

That was an example of zero accountability.

And along the way, the promises of campaigns changed. Subtly at first. Now, blatantly: Candidates (not just Rivers, pretty much all candidates) sank to the level of non-specific glittering generalities.

They would say or pledge something like "I support the 2nd Amendment"

What they rarely to NEVER do was tell you HOW they'd support it.

Would they run a bill protecting our rights? What would be in the bill? How would it work? What would it do? What bills would they stop?

That part gets left out. And it gets left out on purpose.

Why?

Zero accountability. The more specific candidates are? The easier it is to hold them accountable. Solution? Leave out the specifics.

As our ballots come to our mailboxes in our easy fraudulent mail-in-only voting system, I urge you to do the work. Do more than read the soap-sales garbage candidates put in the voter pamphlets.

Identify the issues important to you. Do the work to find out if YOUR representative represented YOU or OPPOSED you.

Otherwise, you have to settle for a Steve Stuart, never-been-a-voice -of-the-people type.

And that rarely ends well for us.

Hillsboro Hops threatening to leave town?

Remember the ballpark scam Steve Stuart and others tried to run on Clark County years back? The one where EVERYONE was going to have to pay a tax on admission to everything from movie tickets to golf courses to pay for it?

Well, ultimately, people wised up and that deal got killed.

So instead, the team from Yakima moved to Hillsboro; in the process, getting a much bigger/better facility in their sports complex... 4500 hundred capacity compared to Vancouver's planned 3000... for $7 to $10 million less... a facility estimated to cost $13 to $15 million back then.

Hillsboro did what Clark County SHOULD have done.

It's a great facility. It's located in a modern, well-built, well-designed neighborhood facility. It was generally fun to go to and watch these kids play... obscene vender prices notwithstanding.

Years went by... the team did well, the area did well and crowds grew. It was a success...

Until now.

Two years ago, Major League Baseball reorganized the farm system.

Several teams in the system, which essentially eliminated Short-Season Class A baseball, changing it over to full season; were eliminated from the Minor League system. Hillsboro was not one of them.

The problem?

MLB's requirement for Class A regular-length season baseball facilities to field a team. To remain a team in the Minor League (MiLB) system, Hillsboro and several other teams had to sign what amounted to a promissory note, in which they would declare that they would either improve their current facility to the MiLB specifications for Class A or build an entirely new facility that met the new specifications.

Such as:

Clubhouses for both home and visiting teams must be 1,000 square feet or larger. Again, most newer ballparks already feature larger home clubhouses; the issue for many teams will be expanding visitor clubhouses. The clubhouses must also feature improved lockers.

Nutrition is now emphasized for many organizations, some of whom send out their own food-prep staff and don’t rely on team for the post-game buffet. That’s why you see food-prep and dining areas for both home and visiting clubhouses as a new spec. The challenge here will be carving out the space out of existing office and storage space.

Better field lighting. This is an easy sell: installing the next generation of LED lights will both save money on daily usage and improve the player experience. The installation of new LED lights can be done with existing stanchions in some cases. This is not a new trend; newer ballparks feature LED lighting and beginning several years ago teams like the Lowell Spinners installed LED lighting.

Better training facilities for players. That means weight rooms and two pitching/batting tunnels. Many newer ballparks, like Hodgetown, feature indoor batting cages directly on the concourse. In Fort Wayne, the indoor batting cages at Parkview Field are a draw even when there’s not a game going on. Now, these batting cages don’t need to be located directly on the concourse–but for teams with flexible space, they may be a nice upgrade.

Separate spaces for female staffers. Welcome to the modern world, Minor League Baseball.

______________________

These are just the initial requirements.

Well, Hillsboro felt compelled to plan on an entirely new facility... as opposed to modifying the one already built.

A new facility that is budgeted at a paltry $120 million.

And if they don't get one, then they'll do what they do in the big leagues: threaten to move.

As near as I can tell, they expected Hillsboro to cough up $18 million and the State of Oregon's legislature to throw a paltry $20 million on the table.

Now, why they'd expect the legislature to do that is anyone's guess. Hillsboro certainly lacks the legislative muscle of, say, Portland, required to get that kind of check.

But that's neither here nor there:

The Hops are $20 million short of making their commitment.

Now, I freely admit we were season-ticket holders to the Hops. We traveled around the state to watch these guys... until we moved to a place that required a 104-mile round trip to go there and come back (52 miles there, 52 miles back)

Now, we just keep track of them... which is how I stumbled across this article.

Imagine if this facility had, somehow, been built in Vancouver and the Hops stuck an additional multi-million dollar weapon like this to the taxpayer's head.

I don't know why they went this route instead of merely improving the facility they already have.

But I'm reminded of the axiom concerning greed:

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And no Class A baseball team is worth a facility costing $120 million.

No matter how much I support them

Lack of funding for new stadium could force the Hops to leave Hillsboro

The MLB requires teams to meet certain facility standards. To do that, the Hops plan to build a new facility. Now, they're scrambling to get the last $20 million.

Is Longview Assistant City Manager/State Senator Ann Rivers (R?-18) in increasingly hot water over questionable actions for Longview in the Legislature?

For the last 8 years or so, State Sen. Ann Rivers has become that which many people abhor: an all too typical politician.

For years now, We, The People, have been assaulted by politicians following the Steve Stuart school of politics.

Stuart, best known for both selling Clark County out to TriMet, Portland's Nazi-level Loot Rail authority by being the deciding vote to allow an unelected, out of state agency to exercise eminent domain... and for falsely accusing then county commissioners David Madore and Tom Mielke of violating state sunshine laws... got a cushy gig as city manager of Woodland, WA as payment for his betrayal of the people.

Famously, on the way out, he acknowledged that the only person he was representing and advocating for was, well, Steve Stuart himself.

"And I've said it before: I don't speak for the people.. I will NEVER speak for "the people," I speak for Steve and some of you are going to agree with me and some of you aren't."

(Strangely reminiscent of now Longview Assistant City Manager Ann Rivers, who, having been primarily responsible for the death of the hated Columbia River Crossing scam, underwent some sort of epiphany, did a complete 180, and is now primarily responsible for resurrecting that hated zombie, only to find herself with an equally cushy gig as Assistant City Manager of Longview. But now? Now it appears there maybe 2.5 million reasons why that gig might not last.  Was Stuart's reward for his betrayal of Clark County coincidental to Rivers' reward for selling us out on the massive gas tax/tab fee increases she engineered as a Republican Senator in the then GOP-controlled Senate?)

An initial effort to pay her off for the gas tax scam (Employment by a democrat campaign firm while she was "negotiating" with the teacher's union toadies on the rip-off AKA the McCleary budget that, besides wasting unnecessary billions on unearned teacher salary increases and subsequently being responsible in large part for our exploding property taxes, has accomplished nothing concerning academic outcomes in the state of Washington, where only half the kids out of the 1.1 million attending school are actually achieving grade-level competencies in English, 1/3rd in math and less than half in science for the billions we throw away every year, according to state-provided figures) blew up in her face when that employment was made public by the company's owner, Ron Dotzauer (democrat former Clark County Auditor) who up to this point had only been known for a sexual liaison with Maria Cantwell (yes THAT Maria Cantwell) shortly before (as in a few days before) his then impending marriage.

Now, like far too many who practice the art of shiny object politics, she got far too cute acting as Longview's apparent lobbyist in the Legislature. $2.5 million surprisingly got pushed out by the Capitol Budget Committee in the Senate, a small committee that Rivers happens to be one of the more senior members of, and surprise, surprise: Longview now wants to build yet another homeless destination resort, AKA Camp Alabama/Camp Hope.

Clearly, Rivers should have recused herself from any consideration of legislation concerning Longview. Failure to do so is an obvious conflict of interest.

Coincidence?

Nah. There's no coincidences in politics. And neither the Senator (Jeff Wilson) actually representing Longview nor either State Representative (Jim Walsh or Joel McIntire) seems to have known anything about it.

How is that possible?

Much like Rivers' sudden, unexplained promotion to Assistant City Manager from whatever the other made-up position built for her was called. 

            Rivers was hired in October 2021 as the city’s director of community development. The department manages many of the city’s housing and planning roles including building permits, inspections and the recently created Community Outreach division.

One wonders: Was their a job announcement for the assistant city manager gig? If there was, how long was it up? Did anyone else apply? Did Rivers double dip and get paid for both positions while she was in session?

Who knows?

So... is the Big F still into censorship? A comparison between a local alleged GOP candidate and a national democrat.

I wrote a post detailing the similarities between a local politician (alleged Republican) and a national level politician (definitively democrat).

It was, I thought, rather Shakespearean.

It was also accurate.  And there was nothing threatening or harassing about it.

Facebook, which has not stopped me from any other posting, nor have they taken the original post down from Opinions of Southwest Washington, is refusing to allow me to share.

Here's what they say:



It's NOT "spam," of course: posting in a private group when you're a member is, in no way, spam.  They know it.  You know it.

The original post is still up, so obviously it doesn't violate FB's TOS.

It's ALSO the only thing I can't share.  Sheer coincidence, I'm sure.

But mention Biden's name?

So, it would pretty much seem that yes, full-bore censorship is a fact of life in Facebook land.

Now, Blogger, here, is owned by Google.

I don't know if Google is overly censoring or not, so it will be interesting to see what happens when I post this.  But meanwhile, here's the "offending post" in its entirety.  You decide.

Parallels between Rivers and Biden.

Yeah, I'm going there.

Here's the thing: while the wheels seem to be coming off the Biden campaign in ways that likely will mostly brutalize independents, I am struck by some of the parallels between Rivers and Biden. Biden, for his part, refuses to answer specific questions about what they are going to do and what they support or oppose.

Well, Rivers' issue is that she, like Biden, is a proven liar when it comes to her political issues. Biden's lies are well known to those who care enough to pay attention. River's lies directly and massively impacted our wallets and our lives. Further, if you visit her campaign website, she refuses to say with specificity, what she will or won't do, what she will or won't support or oppose, and what, for example, her positions are on jacking up our taxes.

Why?

Simple: she doesn't want to be held accountable for ANYTHING she does.

Which is why, for example, she's cosponsored DEMOCRAT social engineering bills like the hideous 25% of all corporate boards in Washington State must at least IDENTIFY as women that she was so hot to pass.

She's fully signed on to the leftist school of political thought, best illustrated by former county commissioner Steve Stuart right before he took that sweet deal to become a city manager instead of running for reelection so that TriMet could get $5 million off of us in the event we killed their CRC/Loot rail scam:

"And I've said it before: I don't speak for the people.. I will NEVER speak for "the people," I speak for Steve and some of you are going to agree with me and some of you aren't."

Neither does Rivers. Weird, that.

Of course, Rivers lied about her opposition to the largest gas tax and tab fee increases in the history of this state in ways that resulted in Clark County picking up a $700 million tab, $500 million of which is going to King County, while Clark County itself gets the crumbs off Rivers' table when it came to these two increases.

Rivers' character was revealed when she actually blamed the county assessor for the massive property tax increases she jammed down our throat, showing herself incapable of taking responsibility for her actions. Biden, for his part, refuses to take responsibility for his racism; his codified, "systemic" racism as illustrated in the 94 Crime Act; his multiple racist speeches on the floor of the Senate and elsewhere, his unbridled arrogance towards those who question his judgment, SOOO reminiscent of Ann Rivers' disparaging remarks and tone towards anyone who questions her actions and judgement; and his now documented efforts at extortion and selling out to China, much like Rivers sold us out during her McCleary negotiations by accepting a fat contract with a democrat campaign firm and, of course, her seeming efforts to extort a campaign bribe.

While admittedly Rivers' Biden imitation is at a much smaller scale, some of the comparisons are remarkable. And what we have are a cult-like group who wouldn't be caught dead voting for Biden who engages in these things on a macro scale, and who will cheerfully turn around and vote for Rivers who does all this on a comparative micro scale. 

If Biden wins, as he may (and he will certainly win Washington State) we'll turn around, shake our heads and ask, "With all of the proven corruption, racism and dementia of Biden, how could anyone have voted for him?"

How, indeed.

And the answer is "the same way blinded Republicans will vote for Rivers."

Those who support a corrupt allegedly GOP politician have no moral high ground to question those who supported an equally obviously corrupt democrat. After all, no one wants to be a hypocrite, do they?

Drain the swamp. Write in Mielke... Otherwise? We deserve whatever we get.