16 Comments

Hopefully the scoundrel is surfing an ebb tide. More likely he’s vouchsafed himself re-election for mortal perpetuity.

Think the WW comments were all against his marketing program. Think Reddit was a deal more sympathetic to his monkeyshines.

Well, if I may paraphrase: Portland delenda est.

Now, sitting next to the wood stove in my rural fastness I must return to a very young Gordon Jackson in Whiskey Galore, a thoroughly alarming tale of wartime privation in the Outer Hebrides.

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Perhaps of interest to Portland motorists and the pedestrian less spry, surprise flaws in the Vision Zero approach to traffic law enforcement. Ah, the fleeting chimera of social justice:

https://www.takimag.com/article/blacks-behaving-badly-in-memphis/

https://www.takimag.com/article/american-driving-in-2021-reckless-and-wreckful/

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Brave writing. Let's hope state Rep. Travis Nelson reads it. He complained that he was stopped by police driving home from the legislature, first for going too fast and, second, for being on a Zoom call.

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Perhaps this link is wrongly placed. Its author died this week of a quick cancer.

I read about these people that we discuss here. They are without exception awful and in no way fit to manage the affairs of a community. They are not capable of conceiving of any destination much less of advancing toward any good place the lives of any people, anywhere, at anytime. This much is self-evident. Then again, the citizenry has placed them or tolerates them in their positions.

https://www.newamericandigest.com/the-name-in-the-stone/

I advise that we all remember the fair, broad, abounding lands, the happy homes, that have been desolated by our defeat.

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What a fine piece of writing. Thanks for passing it along.

Tonight I zoomed in on another Q-and-A with the Police Accountability Commission, this one held virtually instead of in the flesh. These commissioners are the opposite of young Gerard in that beautiful essay. They want someone — lots of someones— to step up and handle the horror show. They want “police culture” to magically change without realizing how much the clientele dictate the culture.

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Crime, gender mutilation, race-baiting - we seem to be socially devolving, but we don’t knew how to stop it.

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Thanks for pointing out that incidents such as those mentioned above, have nuances that invalidate simplistic and categorical approaches.

People like Whoopi Goldberg are promoting ideas such as having white people experience getting beaten down, as part of police reform. Many (on different sides) seem to want to reduce issues like the Tyre Nichols case to the attitudes and behavior of a particular race, which can best be solved by reducing police presence and even abolishing jails. But now there is talk that Nichols' death may have actually been planned as a revenge-beating by a jealous police officer, to send a message to an ex-wife, making it a completely different kind of problem. Those who formulate policy need to stop listening to the ill-informed voices of political activists, amplified by the viewership-hungry media. Crafting policy by public opinion has not served us well.

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A magisterial portrait of modern group-victimhood chic and its destructive interface with influential governmental entities comprised primarily of poseurs and dilettantes. “Trauma-informed” in Rodney King’s case is a quantum leap from Victoria Lara’s, methinks….

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Magnificent.

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Thank you for your powerful writing

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After you stop laughing, this is pretty terrifying.

These are public bodies, just like the City Council, and while unelected and in theory with much less power, they are supposed to be governed by the same priciples of open government that pertain to ALL public meetings.

That means citizens have a right to be present, and while (unlike many of these same people when they were shutting down City Council meetings) the observers can't take over the meetings, they also cannot be required to identyify themselves, whether it is ZOOM or in actual fact.

"A facilitator?" These appointees (however murky their path to appointment) are public officials and governed by the exact same laws that regulate City Council and the legislature.

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I'll never forget the day I went running around Grant High School during the summer of 2020 - the height of the Defund the Police movement. Virtually every house bordering the school had a Black Lives Matter sign in their lawn, some with the accompanying Defund the Police and/or RESIST! sign next to it. On one of my laps a skinny white guy who appeared homeless and high was hanging around the south side of the school near the entrance to the track pacing back and forth from the front yards of the homes back across the street to the school grounds - yelling and cussing to no one in particular. He was sketchy and loud, but otherwise harmless. As I continued to lap the school I watched as, one by one, each neighbor came out of their home, dismayed and distraught calling 911 on their phones and sharing with one another their concerns. I had wanted so badly in that moment to approach them, and to tell them them that they had forfeited their rights to call 911 seeing as though they were actively against policing and couldn't have it both ways. I continued to run a few more laps until the guy disappeared and the neighbors retreated back inside. That situation still frustrates me when I think about it!

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Thank you. Excellent coverage of a maddening topic.

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Excellent article! Again pointing out what the deniers can’t face. Well done!

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