By Freedom Foundation,

Oregon politicians can restrict outreach. They can threaten lawsuits, protect government unions and make it harder for public employees to receive information about their constitutional rights.

But they can’t force workers to believe SEIU membership is worth the money.

That’s the real reason Oregon public employees continue leaving their unions. The problem isn’t the Freedom Foundation, adverse Supreme Court decisions or bad karma.

The problem is that SEIU simply hasn’t made the case that it provides sufficient value to justify the money taken from every paycheck.

I’ve spoken personally with hundreds of union-represented employees while canvassing all over Oregon, and the response has been remarkably consistent.

The vast majority of those I’ve encountered can’t see how they benefit from being SEIU members. They feel under-represented. They’re convinced their union is more concerned with advancing their leadership’s political agenda their workplace concerns.

Most SEIU members rarely see representatives meaningfully involved in their workplaces. Many can’t even remember the last time SEIU helped them resolve an individual problem.

What they do see is an organization constantly working to grow its membership, revenue and political clout while fixating issues that have nothing to do with workplace representation.

The workers don’t need the Freedom Foundation to make them angry about SEIU. They already are.

The conversations usually begin with a few simple questions.

• Do you believe SEIU represents you well?
• Do you know how much you pay in dues every year?”
• Can you identify a benefit that makes that cost worthwhile?
• Did you know union membership is voluntary?

Those questions often reveal how disconnected SEIU is from the workers it claims to represent.

For members of SEIU 503, the state’s largest public-employee union, dues generally add up to 1.7 percent of a worker’s gross regular salary, along with an additional monthly issues assessment. An employee earning between $4,000 and $5,000 per month can easily owe the union $849 to $1,053 every year.

That’s real money that could be used to pay utility bills, buy groceries, repair a vehicle, reduce debt or remain in the worker’s family budget.

Workers might willingly pay dues if they believed they were receiving effective representation in return. But when employees feel ignored, poorly represented or politically alienated, every deduction becomes a reminder of what the union is failing to provide.

Workers see lobbying, ballot campaigns, political spending and activism. Meanwhile, many employees continue dealing with understaffing, workplace grievances, poor communication and management problems without seeing the same urgency from their union.

Employees joined expecting workplace representation. Few signed up to become a permanent, unquestioning source of political funding for an organization whose priorities may not reflect their own.

A union can’t simultaneously claim everything it does benefits workers while failing to demonstrate that value in their daily lives.

Many disgruntled Oregon employees still decline to opt out of their union because they’ve been told their wages, health coverage or other negotiated benefits are tied to their membership.

It’s a boldfaced lie that gives SEIU enormous leverage.

Public employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement generally remain covered by that agreement regardless of whether they choose to remain dues-paying union members. They may lose internal union privileges, such as voting in union elections, but resigning from membership does not suddenly erase their negotiated pay or employer-provided benefits.

Once workers understand that distinction, the decision becomes practical.

Instead of looking in the mirror and asking why their members are leaving in droves, Oregon’s union-backed political machinery prefers to demonize anyone telling the truth about their First Amendment rights.

Oregon State House Bill 3789, which last year made it illegal to “impersonate” a union, created new restrictions and legal risks to communicating with union-represented workers. The Freedom Foundation maintains that the law was designed to suppress effective outreach and has challenged it on constitutional grounds.

The political strategy is clear: Rather than improving the product, union officials and their allies sought to muzzle the messenger.

But limiting outreach does not make SEIU representatives more responsive. It does not resolve grievances. It does not reduce dues. It does not repair years of frustration.

Most importantly, it hasn’t stopped workers from leaving.

Even after the new restrictions severely limited the Freedom Foundation’s Oregon outreach, public employees continue resigning from their unions in huge numbers.

That harsh reality destroys the claim that workers leave only because the Freedom Foundation pressured them to do so. Employees are examining their paychecks, discussing their experiences with coworkers and reaching their own conclusions.

A good product doesn’t require heavy-handed legislation preventing customers from considering alternatives.

A valuable organization doesn’t need employees to remain uninformed about their fundamental right to leave.

Oregon lawmakers may restrict some forms of outreach, but they can’t create value where workers see none. Nor can they erase employees’ experiences or outlaw dissatisfaction.

Oregon public employees are still leaving because the underlying problem was never the Freedom Foundation.

The problem is SEIU.

Public employees who want to understand their rights and review their options can visit OptOutToday.com.

The post Oregon can’t legislate member loyalty first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

The new film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, shattered movie box office history with a record-breaking $360 million domestic opening weekend and $932 million global take making it the biggest North American film opening of all time.   Because it is a film for kids (there were 6-years-olds in the audience) and young people, this movie is one of the biggest social influences our youth will experience this year.   Too bad, they used it to bash free enterprise and free markets.

Here is the transcript of the super-hero (Peter Parker) talking to his friend, M.J., about her getting a job.

——————-

MJ: And I got the job.

PETER: Oh, my God, MJ, that’s amazing.

MJ: I turned it down.

PETER: What?

MJ: Yeah. I don’t wanna work for some soulless corporation.

PETER: They’re not all soulless. Okay. They’re all mostly soulless. But don’t you want, like, health ?

MJ: Yeah, of course I do. But at what cost?

PETER: Depends on your deductible.

MJ: You mean, like, your principles?

PETER: Yes. Sorry.

———————

This is a terrible message to children and younger people who just happen to be bowing out of the workforce.  Work gives people dignity.  Work builds character.  Work gets people to work together.  Work makes you self-sufficient and not to be dependent on others.

This is also an attack on the Free Enterprise and Capitalism.  In the previous Spider-man film, Across the Spiderverse, capitalism is described as something that destroys itself.  Hollywood screenwriters are using their children-film scripts to teach children that capitalism is bad and socialism is good.

Also, the film gives children a lot of obscenity:

1 “motherf*****” word

15 “sh*t” words

6  “a**” words

When children sees their heroes use profanity on the silver screen, it teaches children that it is normal.

The film provides superheroes without clothes:

– In the film the superhero is forced to take off most of his clothes to join a superhero woman in a big Turskish bathtub.  She is without clothes.   In the comics, superheroes existed for over 50 years without having to remove their clothes.

The post Record-breaking kids’ film bashes work, free enterprise first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

Top 5 headlines

1 16 Democrats call for PERS audit
2 We should manage forests before they burn
3 Firefighters pulled back after threats, harassment
4 Universal health care board: single-payer report
5 MultCo Dems calls for Rep. Bynum’s resignation

Bonus

School consolidation plan, change for public education
How ‘defund the police’ ideologues laid waste to Portland

The post Top headlines for the week of 8/7 first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

The Wall Street Journal laid out a chart on national fundraising between the two major political parties.

Great update, read here.

Larger version below:

The post Chart: DNC vs. RNC on fundraising first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Larry Huss,

A little over two years ago – July 21, 2024, to be exact – Joe Biden (D) suspended his campaign for re-election as President of the United States. He did so not because he had promised to be a one-term president and hand the presidency to his DEI Vice President KalamataHarris – because he was lying when he said it the first time and each time thereafter that he reiterated it. He did so not because he was incompetent – which he was. He did so not because he was visibly senile – which he was. He did so not because the facts of the massive corruption undertaken by him and his family were coming to light – they were. He did so not because his wife, the power-grasping Jill Biden, was frightened for his health and asked him to withdraw – because she did neither.

No, Joe knew he was going to lose and lose big. He was going to lose to the very man that he had branded as an existential threat to America. Can you imagine the humiliation of losing to a man whom you had spent eight years telling people meant the end of democracy, that he was a fascist, a Nazi, and a Russian propagandist, only for them to reply by saying they would still rather have him than you?

I do this in large part because I want people to remember how bad Joe was, what a congenital liar he was, what a sleazebag grifter he was, and how he let the country slide rapidly into the abyss. Look, I don’t care whether you like President Donald J. Trump or not. This isn’t about him – not even by comparison. I want people to remember Joe as he was. To be so disgusted that they will cringe when his name is read.

I also do this to chronicle, in part, the fall of Joe. So let’s update you.

1. Former Vice President Kamala has turned on Joe and blamed him for her loss. That is despite the fact that the only reason that people remember her name, except as the “other woman” in former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown’s extramarital exploits, is because Joe picked her as his running mate and again as the successor nominee in the behind-closed-doors nomination of her as the Democratic nominee in 2024.

2. His son, Hunter Biden, has stated that the family is broke and deeply in debt – so much so that they have to borrow money to pay current expenses. Good, although I’m not sure how you are dead broke when Joe gets two retirement checks ($246,400 as a former president and $166,400 as a former senator) from the federal government for life. Joe also gets paid for speeches – mostly for book clubs, tea parties, and lectures at retirement homes – but nothing like the riches that former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama command. Gone are his dreams of riches. He is going to have to support himself and his deadbeat family like everybody else.

3. A federal judge ruled against Joe, granting access to his private notes and recordings with his “ghostwriter.” The recordings remind us that a) Joe knowingly violated federal law by first possessing top secret documents he gathered before he was president, b) he shared those documents with his “ghostwriter” even though he knew that the “ghostwriter” did not have clearance to read, possess, or refer to those documents, and c) his halting and confused responses were yet another instance of establishing his cognitive decline and demanding answers from those who clearly knew that he was not cognitively capable of performing the duties of his office. But the most surprising thing was that those recordings were from 2016 and 2017 which means there was a clear demonstration of Joe’s diminished capacity  over four years before he became president.

4. Joe’s presidential library remains on hold. There is no evidence in required filings with the IRS that Joe has raised any significant amount for his library. At this rate, the prospects are that Joe’s library will likely be a “bookmobile.” Joe is not cognitively capable of supervising any form of a library, and so, if there is a library, it will be supervised by Jill and will likely reflect her time in the East Wing more than Joe’s disappearing accomplishments.

I know that this all sounds like a slur against Joe, and it is meant to be. But there is an ancillary purpose. Two years have passed and no one has gone to jail. Keeping the sins of Joe in the public discussion at least raises the possibility that someone may finally be arrested, perp-walked, tried, convicted, and given jail time for their participation in those four years of the worst administration ever.  More importantly it may lead the electorate to finally realize what is going on in Washington while they are asleep at the switch at home.

*In addition to his retirement payments, Joe and his wife receive lifetime medical care, an office allowance (including staff for the office), a travel allowance, Secret Service protection, and a mailing allowance.

The post Biden sliding into irrelevancy first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,

As Oregon is embroiled in near-record breaking wildfires, we draw your attention to the fact that lopsided environmental laws are making wildfires more frequent and worse.

A 2025 report by Journal of Environmental Management showed that protected areas increase fires because they let dead trees build-up. In SW Europe, the protected forestland made up 38% of the land but 55% of the burned area burned by wildfires. Simply put, protected forests are more likely to burn. They also saw this replicated in California and Australia.

Radio host Lars Larson recently pointed out that the recent “Grasshopper Fire”, has burned 14-thousand acres of trees in the Mt Hood National Forest. The practice to remove fire-prone dead trees and under-growth was delayed by environmental lawsuits. Now it is burning up in flames and now the environmental extremist have no forest and Oregonians have no tax revenue.

Also, it was announced of an arrest in Jackson County of a man who confessed to starting two wildfires himself alone. Another arson suspect was arrested in Spokane. Liberal soft-on-crime policies lead to more arsonists on our streets.

Healthy Forest, Healthy Communities had this chart that shows the difference between how land is protected. When overly restrictive environmental laws are applied, you make the forest more likely to burn.

The post Data shows Liberal enviro-laws make wildfires worse first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

It’s not very often that Oregon state government stands on the side of freedom when litigating with the federal government, but last year we did and won, as the Oregon Attorney General led a coalition of states in opposing the Trump administration’s IEEPA tariffs. The Supreme Court ultimately sided with us last February.

The Trump administration followed that defeat by launching the same restrictions under a different law, called Section 301. This week, Oregon filed again, in opposition.

Given that the Trump administration is instituting the same socialist trade policy that Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Ralph Nader would have pursued, I hope Oregon has similar success. It’s not like the Democrats offer better trade policy. The Biden administration kept the first Trump administration’s tariffs in place. Yet, call it Trump derangement syndrome, the knee-jerk instinct to sue works in America’s favor in this instance. And, at the Supreme Court, the conservative justices’ non-delegation doctrines will further claw back arbitrary executive power, with three voting against the president who appointed them, a healthy sign of an independent judiciary.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.

The post Oregon et al v. Trump: Another Rare Instance Where We’re the Good Guys first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon,
OregonWatchdog.com

The Portland petition to full fund Portland police failed to qualify for the November city ballot.  Over 60,000 signatures were raised in just around a single month, with some 40,000 needed to qualify, but the error rate was too high.  There was great criticism over the elections office and how they conducted the count.  So bad, that the State Elections Office issued a rare reprimand. The Portland Elections Office even admitted to one error on their processing.  These problems are setting the stage for a potential lawsuit as it threatens to derail future city petitions.

The Taxpayers Association was deeply involved in this battle and is greatly sadden that it will not be on the November ballot.

The high signature count in just a matter of weeks is a sign that people want this idea on the ballot.

The post Petition to fully fund Portland police misses qualification first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon PAC,
OregonWatchdog.com

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek released an ad showing images of American custom officials and saying “But every time Donald Trump attacks Oregon, I will fight back with every tool I have to always protect our people and our rights.” Ad can be found here.

TINA KOTEK SAID SHE IS PROTECTING US FROM ICE …

HERE IS WHO ICE HAS ARRESTED/CHARGED OF OREGON RELATED ARRESTS:

Sengkham Soumpholphakdy, a criminal illegal alien from Laos, convicted for first-degree rape and THREE counts of first-degree sodomy in Springfield, Oregon.(*)

– Details here

Cristobal Felipe-Sarmiento – 2x released illegal migrant: Rape, Sodomy. (*)

– Details here

– Francisco Olmedo-Silva, counts of meth/heroin dealing, robbery, escape custody. (*)

– Details here

Jesus Ruben Lopez Gonzalez, a TDA member arrested in Oregon in February 2026, who has been charged with weapon offense – racketeering conspiracy and has prior charges for theft, assault, criminal possession of a firearm, and obstructing law enforcement. (*)

– Details here

Vidal George-Jimenz, 2x counts of rape attempts, sodomy attempt.  (*)

– Details here

Juan Pablo David Tellez-Cabezas, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, convicted for TWO counts of strangulation, coercion, third-degree assault, and unlawful use of a weapon in Portland, Oregon. (*)

– Details here

Vicente Margarito Lopez-Sixto, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, convicted purchasing sex with a minor, sexual abuse in the first degree, and stalking in Marion County, Oregon. (*)

– Details here

Rodrigo Vasquez-Martinez, 10x counts of rape in the third degree of a child, sodomy, incest, and carrying a concealed weapon. (*)

– Details here

— Support independent journalism.  Contribute online at OregonWatchdog.com (learn about a Charitable Tax Deduction or Political Tax Credit options to promote liberty).

(*) these criminal citations reflect charges and counts, and may/may not reflect the final court decisions. Everyon be is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The post Kotek TV ad demonizes ICE agents first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

WILSONVILLE, Ore. – Christine Drazan’s campaign for governor today announced the launch of its first television advertisement of the general election, which will begin airing statewide on TV and digital platforms.

“Oregon has everything it takes to be the best place in America to live, work and raise a family, but we need leaders who are focused on solving problems for Oregonians,” said Drazan. “I’m running for Governor because it’s time to hold government accountable to the people of Oregon and deliver the results they deserve.”

The ad points to the state’s worsening homelessness crisis, struggling schools, a lack of accountability in state government and businesses leaving the state as evidence that Oregon’s challenges are the result of failed leadership from the Governor’s Office.

The new advertisement can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/VcqI0mH-SqE

The transcript:

“In Oregon we pay more taxes than every other state but one – but where’s the money gone?
Zero accountability. Zero results.
The Governor loves to talk about all the money she’s spending – but what do we have to show for it?
Businesses are leaving, homelessness has gotten worse and education is absolutely failing our kids.
I’m Christine Drazan. Our problems are not partisan problems – they’re leadership problems.
I’m running for Governor to hold government accountable to you.”

The post Sen. Drazan launches first TV Ad first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Guest Submission meme,

More memes below:

The post (5 memes) Perfect AI quote first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.