Can't Burn 'Em? Hide 'Em

In Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a supporter of President Donald Trump keeps visiting the public library and repeatedly picking out all the books deemed to be anti-Trump. The patron then proceeds to hide the books so would-be readers — and the librarian — can't find them. Librarian Bette Ammon says the patron regards such books as "propaganda" that must be kept away from young readers.

The patron's censorship campaign also includes nonfiction books on gay-rights issues, gun control and women's suffrage. In some cases, the book-hider has made a political statement by putting the books in the library's fiction section.

A note Ammon said she received says: "I am going to continue hiding these books in the most obscure places I can find to keep this propaganda out of the hands of young minds."

In a similar move to promote ignorance, county commissioners in Citrus County, Florida, voted unanimously to reject expenditures on New York Times subscriptions for local libraries. The spreading philosophy appears to go like this: The more uninformed people are, the more likely they'll be to support Trump.

Safety in Clean Syringes

No matter how good private efforts are to improve health conditions for local addicts, it is illegal for private groups to set up syringe and needle exchanges. St. Louis Ward 20 Alderman Cara Spencer took a bold step toward legalizing such efforts, correctly noting that the priority should be to save lives and halt the spread of disease. Addicts who share needles and syringes contribute to the spread of hepatitis C and other communicable diseases.

Spencer sponsored a bill to establish a pilot program under city health department supervision to allow for distribution of clean needles and syringes while, at the same time, providing ways for drug abusers to get addiction treatment. Creating what Spencer calls a "point of intervention" is a smarter approach to fight drug abuse than shunning addicts and forcing them to use unsanitary conditions such as abandoned buildings when they shoot up.

In an ironic twist, Spencer teamed up with Craig Schmid, a health department official and the man Spencer defeated in 2015 to win her aldermanic seat. The unification of two political rivals around this issue is testament to how strong the rationale is behind the proposed program.

Senator Punching Bag

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions hopes to return to the U.S. Senate from his home state of Alabama. It should be interesting to see what campaign slogans emerge from a tenure marked by meekly accepting multiple humiliations from President Donald Trump, and then being fired. As reported in Politico, Sessions can't count on Trump's support in his Senate run, but Trump has signaled he will at least stay neutral — which is better for Sessions than it could have been.

Trump appointed Sessions as his attorney general but then was furious when Sessions — in the brightest moment of his tenure — recused himself from the Russia investigation. Trump, not bothering to hide his view that the attorney general should be his personal servant rather than a servant to the country, publicly and privately lambasted Sessions, calling him a "dumb Southerner," "mentally retarded" and "disgraceful," before unceremoniously dumping him in November 2018.

Sessions reportedly is steering clear of any campaign criticism of Trump. Just the kind of guts America needs in the Senate.

Made-for-TV Presidency

President Donald Trump has reportedly mused with his old reality-TV producer about resuming his television career after the presidency, possibly with a reboot of his old show, "The Apprentice." It's a great idea, given how much better he was at that job than this one. In fact, why not enter the post-presidency phase and start now?

The Daily Beast reports that Trump has talked informally with "Apprentice" creator Mark Burnett, a close friend, about post-presidency television projects. Among the discussions, sources say, has been the possibility of a variation on the original formula, to be called "The Apprentice: White House."

The site reports it would be "explicitly politics-themed and take full advantage of Trump's status as a former president of the United States and a newfound Republican kingmaker." (Trump and Burnett both deny the reports.)

Possibly the best reaction to the report came from Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former "Apprentice" star turned Trump White House official turned anti-Trump critic and author. Asked about the reports that Trump might return to reality TV, she noted that his presidency is "already a reality show."

Arpaio Inspires Anti-Racist Politicians

Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's racist reign of terror against migrants has had an unexpected and welcome blowback: A new crop of young Latino politicians, emboldened by their persecution, has sprung up in Arizona. As Politico reported, they include people like Carlos Garcia, a Mexican immigrant turned Phoenix councilman who campaigned on accountability among local police. And Betty Guardado, a former hotel housekeeper who became a union organizer and now is on the Phoenix City Council. And Lane Santa Cruz, a Tucson council member who is an advocate for poor undocumented immigrants — as her parents once where.

"This is about stepping into the electoral space and saying, 'Hey, not only can we put pressure from the outside, but we can infiltrate these systems and do something radically different,'" said Santa Cruz says. "It sounds very subversive, but it is not. This is the way through the front door."

Arpaio, longtime sheriff of Maricopa County, was found guilty of criminal contempt in 2017 for refusing to stop targeting Latinos. President Donald Trump pardoned him.

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