Back from the brink

Oregon's had its own mini-insurrection last December, with armed protestors making their way into the building where the state legislature was meeting. There were no deaths or serious injuries, but, like what happened in DC, there is evidence of collusion on the part of a state legislator, Mike Nearman. No accusations of sketchy "tours" here; there's video of Nearman opening the back door for the protestors, and a Facebook video where he spells out the plan.

I am happy to report that another difference is that no other Republican was willing to support him in any way. His colleagues sent an open letter urging him to resign; when that didn't work, Nearman became the first person ever expelled from the Oregon House.

In these days of extreme partisanship, it's nice to see that, at least locally, there are limits to it.

The upswing, week 21

Showers forecast for the back half of this past week have turned into full-on rain most of the weekend, alleviating the drought a bit but also taking a branch off the maple tree in the backyard. So part of today was spent cutting off as much of it as I could fit into the yard debris container. Also today I made a batch of minestrone, did laundry, and made dinner. Yesterday I played some short games at an online gaming convention, and had enough time and a dry spell to make it to the farmers' market. Pretty much the standard weekend routine, these days.

Oregon's covid rates are gradually coming down. The state health department thinks we have entered a virtuous circle with enough people vaccinated that they will keep going down now, excepting flare-ups among the unvaccinated. The predicted date for 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated keeps slipping later, though.