We awake this morning to a fresh round of hell: News that Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions—critical of the NAACP, opponent of sentencing reform—will be the next US attorney general if Donald Trump gets his way. It's pretty much just bad. Sessions was tapped for a federal judgeship in the '80s but failed to be confirmed because of testimony he'd called minorities "boy" and once joked that he was okay with the Ku Klux Klan “until I found out they smoked pot." And this man might be your new attorney general (and therefore responsible, by the way, for deciding whether US justice officials continue to allow recreational pot laws in individual states).
Do you know how psychotically racist you had to be for 1980s senators to deem you 'too racist?' Jesse Helms was still filibustering MLK day
— Zeddonymous (@ZeddRebel) November 18, 2016
We're not done. Trump's new national security adviser is Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who's said some super concerning things about muslims, and whose son and chief of staff "regularly shares conspiracy theories, expletive-filled posts, and racially insensitive sentiments on Twitter and Facebook,"according to CNN.
Not done: Trump, in victory, continues the practice of spreading blatant, easily refuted falsehoods to the American people. Yesterday he crowed about saving an entire Lincoln plant from fleeing to Mexico, but Lincoln was never going to move the plant. Just one production line.
Meanwhile, Trump is hoping to test anti-nepotism law to allow his son-in-law a role in the White House, and he's letting his daughter sit in on diplomatic meetings with the leader of Japan. (Also, he's letting the leader of Japan see his terrible home.)
Don't look at this photo. Trumpland says it's not supposed to go out. Don't do it! https://t.co/Mxr70VH6Ee Oh man you did it. pic.twitter.com/UVzGzdfOYR
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) November 18, 2016
Locally, the Trib takes the first crack at an exit interview with outgoing Mayor Charlie Hales, who's proud of his time in office, and seems to place lots of blame on any unpopularity or mistrust on the part of his failed "street fee" proposal in 2014. And he's pretty up front that his "safe sleep" policy that allowed homeless camping in certain instances was a failure. (We'd argue he never actually enforced the policy he put forward.)
More interesting, the Tribune reported yesterday on a federal report, based on a one-night count of people in shelter, that suggests Portland's homeless population has risen slightly. It's a far more cursory effort than the every-other-year "point in time" homeless counts the city and county conduct (and even that is seen as a lowball). Anyway, Hales' office says it's confident that when those numbers come in next year, they'll be down, since officials made a concerted effort to get homeless vets off the street. Time will tell, but Hales will be long out of office by then, so it's an easy position for him to stake.
Portland Public Schools says it'll keep immigration agents from snooping on students or their families using school resources. It might be a symbolic step, but good.
Speaking of immigration agents, you seen this story about a Vancouver man who was deported to South Korea after amassing a felony record? He'd been adopted at the age of three by an American family, has no recollection of the country or its culture, and doesn't speak the language.
The Marion County judge who's seen frequent GMN play for refusing to marry same-sex couples now faces felony charges. Authorities say Vance Day allowed a convicted felon to handle guns.
Contractors caused another natural gas leak downtown yesterday. No explosion this time!
Worst for last: Read this Washington Post interview with a fake-news writer whose tripe rocketed around Facebook in the days prior to America's Worst Election. Read it and abandon all hope. " I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything."
Sun-rain. Your weekend is sun-rain.
