Portland is turning more and more chaotic. Trump’s “gestapo” are being met with a backlash. Not bad yet. However obvious that people will not remain silent for long when being defecated upon by the man sworn to protect them.
Trump is playing the Portland game merely for political glory. Whatever, it can at some point become retaliatory.
Though the protesters have been on Portland streets evenings for more than 50 days, their conduct for the most has been respectable.
Allison Hyder is a Portland resident. She wanted to see up close what was going on. She grabbed a helmet and googles and was off to the demonstration. Her intent to stand in the rear and watch. Nothing more.
Allison is no teenager. She is a grandmother of 5.
In the early hours of tuesday she found herself not in the rear, but up front. Locking arms with other mothers dressed in yellow.
Allison told a reporter, “I am the face of anarchy. The people of the United States need to know that moms, grandmas and nurses are out here in the middle of the night demanding rights for everybody.”
Interesting. Grandmothers, mothers and nurses protesting front line on the streets of Portland.
Pew Research Center recently completed an analysis as to the composition of the Portland protesters. Surprising results.
Only 1 in 6 Black Lives Matter protesters are black.
The percentages speak for themselves. Whites 46 percent, Blacks 17 percent, Hispanics 22 percent, and Asians 8 percent.
Texas coronavirus numbers keep sky rocketing. No end in sight. Hospitals claim they are facing a “tsunami” of patients who will finally overwhelm them.
One doctor said, “Our hospitals look like war zones.”
The numbers tell the story. One thousand deaths in 10 days. As many deaths as occurred in the previous 3 months.
Not good.
No one seems to know what they are doing. Similar in most of the rest of the U.S.
The head public health official for Hidalgo County issued a “shelter-at-home” order monday. Governor Greg Abbot says it’s unenforceable.
Called “working together.”
Trump’s new reality show aired for the first time yesterday at 5. Doubt it will receive any awards. Doubt it will last long.
He read his report. No speaking off the cuff as he enjoys. His report overall not interesting.
There were 3 significant points made.
He changed his position on face masks and social distancing. Finally!
He did not wear one during the broadcast, however.
One of the doctors speaking on a news show afterwards said if Trump had taken that position 3 months ago, there would be 50,000 fewer deaths today.
The final item concerns Jeffrey Epstein’s good friend and procurer who is presently under arrest. A reporter asked about Ghislaine Maxwell. A put Trump on the spot question. He handled it with a smile on his face and his foot in his mouth.
The question was baited. Trump bit hook, line and sinker!
Note Ghislaine is accused of aiding Jefferfy Epstein in the sexual abuse of minors.
Trump’s response, “I just wish her well. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and they lived in Palm Beach. I wish her well.”
Dana Milbank in a Washington Post Opinion piece yesterday described Trump’s show as the “Five O’Clock Follies.”
Milbank said the show was dull. Predicted it faced an early cancellation. Not so much because of ratings. Primarily because “the lead actor hates his role.”
This is day 127 of my self-quarantine.
Amazing how many people are self-quarantining also. I have received e-mails from all over the U.S. from people who are doing as I. Most from people 60 and older. A few in their 90’s.
I confess I have cheated 6 times. Out of necessity. Doctor visits and hospital visits for tests. Still in the cycle. I have intentionally failed to share the purported problem. Probably bullshit. Hopefully bullshit.
The 6 visits were quick. I was only out of the house 45 minutes each time.
Yesterday was a doctor visit day.
Let me say in passing I am impressed how most doctor’s offices are handling the coronavirus problem.
My primary care physician is Dr. Norris.
In order to gain entry into his offices, I now press a bell. His door always locked. A nurse comes out immediately. Takes my temperature while I am standing outside. Then takes me in. Quickly does the blood pressure, etc. routine. Then to an examining room to await the doctor.
No siting in a waiting room first. No one ever in the waiting room these days.
Not what I intended to share with you. Interesting, however.
As I drove down US 1 to Key West, then down North Roosevelt Boulevard, ending up at Dr. Norris’ office on Southard, there was no traffic. Like nothing. Almost zip. Eerie.
Parking places. Whole blocks of them.
Very few people seen walking.
Key West was a “ghost town” yesterday morning. Probably has been for a while and will continue to be for some time to come.
The desolation reminded me of 2 movies. The 1959 film On The Beach with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardener and the 1971 film The Omega Man with Charlton Heston.
Both involved backgrounds where war or some disease had killed most everyone world wide. Only a handful left. Anticipating death or doing everything to avoid it.
In both, the streets were desolate. Empty. Stores and buildings, also.
The Monroe County Commission and the Key West Commission have overall done a good job in dealing with the virus. There have been screw ups, however.
Both have failed as regards lobster mini-season which occurs next week.
Florida is rampant with coronavirus. Miami-Dade and Broward Counties are the worst for the disease in the nation.
Drinking and partying rules stringent in certain instance. Especially as to bars and beaches.
So the people in those counties hop in their cars and drive down to the Keys. Bringing with them, coronavirus. Key Largo has suffered the worst. The first “major” community in the Keys as one drives south.
Mini-lobster season will bring these same party goers back. Most are young.
The Monroe County Commission should have shut down mini-lobster season. Did not. Apparently only the Governor could. He refused.
Rules in this time of major disease are meant to be bent. Just the way it is.
The County Commission should have said no mini-lobster season this year and closed all boat ramps from Key Largo to Key West to everyone, except locals.
Instead, the County Commission closed certain boat rams in the Key Largo area. No where else.
Islamorada is located mid Keys. Islamorada closed their boat ramps before the County even decided what they were going to do. And Islamorada intends to keep the boat ramps shut.
Key West should follow Islamorada’s example. Close down the ramps! Pay no attention to what the Governor or County Commission say in this instance. Key West should do the right thing. Close down the boat ramps and declare no mini-season in Key West.
My plan is appropriate. Key Largo is effectively closed to non-locals. Islamorada likewise. The next major Keys community is Key West. Do the same here.
Those who want to come down for mini-lobstering know they cannot go to Key Largo or Islamorada. Most will say no problem. Let’s go to Key West. The only major partying town left open for mini lobstering and partying! The two go together.
If Key West remains open, I predict that 2-3 weeks thereafter Key West’s coronavirus numbers will go up dramatically.
Some forget lives are more important than money. There are those instances.
Love the William Hackley and May Johnson diaries the Key West Citizen has been running!
I continue to learn.
Two comments received by my blog yesterday involved “Household Words.”
Household Words was an English weekly magazine. It was edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850’s. Household Words’ name was derived from a line in Shakespeare’s Henry V: “Familiar in his mouth on household words.”
Hackley’s diary covers 1855. Hackley frequently mentions he spent an afternoon or some time reading Household Words.
Today’s blog way longer than intended. I got hooked up with the mini-lobster season/coronavirus thing. Everyone’s life has value. I feel strongly that life should be protected.
Enjoy your day!
Saw a 27 year old skinny girl on TV who was very sick with covd without a fever. She was in an ICU on oxygen for 11 days and her appendix failed and it was removed during that time.
Hope you said “hi” for me.
Sandy, that is sick. a new low for you.
Trump’s “gestapo” are being met with a backlash.
Trump is very likely hoping his “agents” fall to an angry citizenry. That is what people like Trump do- play others for their personal gain while well insulated from the fallout.
Hard to have sympathy for the state and people of Texas. They were defiant about any and all safety measures and rushed to reopen and brag about their so called superiority and how they felt this was overblown and all a hoax. They were warned and could have been at least 1% cautious and careful but rather chose to be pricks.
Meanwhile, New York Covid deaths top 35,000 people. No other state, even close.
New York Covid deaths are irrelevant to the discussion and only serve as cheap junior high school type tit for tat troll. Texas should have half the number of cases and deaths, having learned from places like New York who’s deaths are NOW way down and completely under control. The bulk of New York’s problem started before we even knew what was causing it and before any kind of treatment procures were developed. Texas chose to defy reality and arrogantly opened with abandoned disregard and no plan at all. They deserve what they got and should have know better.
How do we know Florida doesn’t have the highest number of Covid deaths so far and not even close? They were caught reclasifying any deaths in retirement homes (Florida for god’s sake) and now have officially stopped hospitals from reporting deaths do to Covid and these are just what we know about their thumb on the scale.
You, little louie? You’re nothing but the face on top of a liberal douche. Irrelevant, old, miserable, and surely soon to just frickin’ die already.
So if you want to really know what Trump is up to with his Storm Tropper campaign, just look at his latest “CHAOS & VIOLENCE” campaign scare ad. It is actually a 2014 photo of helmeted protesters, gathered around a downed police officer desperately clutching his nightstick. Thing is it is actually a photo taken during pro-democracy protests in Ukraine in 2014, not Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle or anywhere else.
He has no shame and is willing to create chaos and violence just to get reelected.
Lou describes the conduct of the protestors in Portland as “respectable” for the most part. Portland police have had to declare a riot in progress numerous times in the weeks since May 29th. DHS officials report that rioters are armed with rifles, tasers, slingshots and sledgehammers and have committed multiple acts of arson. The Portland Police Union Building has been torched. The Hatfield Courthouse has been firebombed with people inside and the exits blocked. On Monday night a jewelry store was looted. Property damage now exceeds $3.8 million. Videos of downtown Portland look like some ravaged third world country.
I dread the day when these “respectable” protestors arrive in my city to violently demand whatever they think should be demanded at the moment.
This post is misleading and false. Lou has it correctly as to the situation in Portland, echoing recent comments and reports from the Portland Mayor, the Oregon Governor, the Police chief, Portland newspapers and just about every other legitimate national news source and my personal observations, despite what this unnamed poster (who I’m pretty sure we all know anyhow) wants us to believe or may even believe himself. It might be good advise for him/her to stop watching FOX News’ incendiary and inaccurate reporting, which like their similar reporting in Seattle, is at best biased and often outright lies.
He is of course, totally entitled as to his opinions, especially where he wants to live, and for what ever reasons that may suit him, but spreading false facts about Portland, where I live, is just plain wrong.
To Tim.
I have close family members in Portland. They are afraid to go anywhere near downtown at night. They confirm that the situation is out of control. I don’t know what Fox says about it, because I don’t watch. But for anyone who wants to see the actual riots in progress, there are ample sources of videos showing the a$$aults and firebombing of the Hatfield Courthouse and other federal facilities. This is the 54th day of violent disorder in downtown Portland. How is that even possible in a US city? If you live there you must condone these nightly attacks on public buildings. Do you? How can you approve of this? Incredible.
Total nonsense and if they really do have ‘close family’ members in Portland that are afraid to go anywhere near down town, it’s because they’re watching too much Fox News. The BLM marchers are basically only in the evenings and the only recent flare ups lately have been with Trumps goons and their teargas parties. Maybe your ‘close family’ members are worried about getting picked up by the border control acting like soldiers. You are nothing but a phony Trump fan making things up, that just aren’t true.
Wow. I can’t think of a response to that, except to wish you well. We can drive thru the streets of our town ar any time of day or night without a second thought. Some nights we make that drive after midnight on our way to walk on the beach. We never see anything or anyone that doesn’t belong there. We don’t even have graffiti. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in Portland where there are nightly episodes of violence and arson against public and private property, that have been happening now for 54 consecutive nights. That is such a sad thing for a city. Saddest of all is your apparent need to defend it, as if everything is perfectly normal and not unusual. It would not be normal in my town, and citizens here would not pretend that it was. Good luck to you. I hope Portland survives. It used to be a pretty city.
Enjoy where you live, it sounds idyllic. Mayberry-ish indeed. We have many cities like that here in Oregon too. Unfortunately Portland, like most larger cities everywhere, is not like that, nor is it as you describe it and THAT was my point. BTW, do you have any black people dying of police brutality in your town? Do you have any police brutality in your town?
Portland did indeed have a lot of BLM PROTESTS some of which got out of hand with violence (mostly provoked by outside sources, not normally see here in Portland) and yes rioting and some looting too. But the majority of any mayhem. had ceased by the time you wrote your post about Portland. Now days we have Mom’s and Grandmom’s forming peaceful human barriers to keep Trump’s Federal Police from provoking and attacking what ARE only peaceful protesters. These guys are the only thugs in Portland nowadays.
But Lou’s posts and your responses to his posts were NOT about your town or how nice that is, not even about how much you like your town compared to Portland, because it doesn’t suit YOU. My posts, in response to yours were to call you out for misleading and false information you were spewing about MY town.
BTW, aren’t you the guy who was ranting on with almost the exact same story about Seattle? How it was on fire, downtown mostly destroyed, how the so called antics had commandeered vast swaths of the central city and was patrolling it with vicious and armed guards? Same basic scenario, same complaints, same perps, same fear and loathing. All way overblown BS that turned out to be fake too and stopped when it was proven that FOX News had made much of that up and even used fake photos of the mayhem in Minneapolis and relabeled them as “Seattle.” Even Trumps own Justice Department investigated and found no connections to anything “antifa.”
Another night of violence in Portland last night. Was that number 56? Another riot declared by Portland police. Mayor Wheeler shouted down by the “peaceful protesters” and rushed into a city building for protection.
No, Portland is not my home. If it were I would be packing up and moving out, probably with a financial loss due to dropping home values. I mentioned my city because I can’t imagine living in yours. No, we don’t have reports of police brutality in my city. Not against black citizens or any other. I feel okay with commenting about what Portland used to be because I liked the city and visited from time to time. I even attended a Rose Festival Parade there. Not anymore.
I could have had lots to say about Seattle. Another sadness in another beautiful city. But I kept my mouth shut for a change, so that wasn’t me. Most of the time it’s not worth the effort to comment here because any replies tend to be angry accusations of political affiliations and/or an addiction to FOX news. I have not understood why such accusations are necessary or relevant if you have a good arguement to make.
Best wishes to you and to Portland
Yes, there were protests again last night in Portland, but NO there was not violence. If you’d like I can point you to several local sources reporting the evening’s activities. That is why the Portland Police did not report violence. Portland Mayor himself was there and was removed when the Federal Police released (without warning) tear gas to disperse the vocal but not violent crowd.
I cannot comment about your concern with angry comments towards you here on Lou’s blog. But my advise to you would be to NOT post lies or misrepresentations of what is happening in Portland or anywhere else. I find you post just now to be one of those instances, at least the part of suggesting last nite was another night of violence in Portland. Not so.
If you don’t want to be criticized for posting garbage, don’t post garbage. If you are just posting garbage to be clever and start a fight, then you deserve what you get and shouldn’t use Lou’s blog to shed your snowflake tears. Please commiserate elsewhere with more like minded comrades
I cannot witness the events in Portland from here. So I rely on media sources and eyewitnesses who are on the scene. The following is a report this morning from TV station KPTV in Portland:
“Portland police said soon after Wheeler’s presence, some protesters began throwing flares and other incendiaries over the fence along the west side of the Federal Courthouse..
“Over the next 45 minutes, the group continued to throw flammable material as well as incendiary devices over the fence, eventually starting a large fire”.
“Just after 12:30 a.m., Portland police declared a riot “due to the violent conduct of the large group creating a grave risk of public alarm.”
The Portland police used the term “riot” and “violence” last night. That corresponds to a video shown this morning on CBS News. The police say violent riot. You say not so. Are we talking about the same event?
Once again, it seems to me that if someone has posted a reply on a blog, and they are satisfied that they have made a good argument then why not leave at that? It cheapens one’s argument and reduces one’s credibility to add personal attacks and silly references to FOX News.
I would Not use FOX News as a reliable news source about anything. Particularly protests that FOX does not like to begin with. They have a long and documented history of embellishing without regards to truth.
Many might suggest things got a little more out of hand after Trump’s goons tossed tear gas into a peaceful crowd where the governor was giving an interview. Those incendiary devices were most likely the teargas tossed at them by the goons.
Virtually EVERY authority in Oregon has publicly said that things have gotten a lot worse since Trump’s secret police showed up.
The Governor gave a live interview today on NPR, at which time he said it was a completely peaceful until the Federal police showed up and suddenly started throwing teargas canisters, for no reason, other than the TV cameras were on and interviewing him. He called for Trump to withdraw his troops so that Portland would not escalate into a national disaster.
I’m thinking you probably would not have approved of the Boston Tea Party either, claiming it more a disgraceful riot and not at all like a place where you would want to live.
Ummmmm. Governor Kate Brown was not at last night’s riot. She has not appeared at any of the protests.
I think that poster was referring to the Mayor of Portland. It was him that did the NPR interview and is on all the news posts. I heard that too, pretty convincing that the only problems they’re having are caused by Trumps army.
Governor vs mayor. Kind of an important distinction, don’t you think?
I though every one had a helmet and googles ready to be garbed on their way out the door. Maybe I should get a couple guns ready to garbed on the way out the door.
Sandy is that annoying pest of a TROLL who posts provocative nonsense and false statements on Lou’s blog just to start fights. He is thoughtless and often vulgar, especially with his personal comments about Lou.
” here in the middle of the night demanding rights for everybody.” to pay no taxes and get paid by the Government—right
See above references to Sandy Feet’s attempts to corrupt Lou’s blogs
Isn’t Trump himself the one who “pays no taxes and get’s paid by the Government”?
This Sandy guy is so quick to try and mock Lou, but not smart enough to see how poor he really is at it!
What do you bet that Ghislaine Maxwell has the photos or maybe video of Trump he doesn’t want to surface. Sure is acting strange on the subject.
Sure wish Trump would put aside his ever-present bucket of red meat for a while and get serious about covd.
So, How many people in all of America have died from ALL of these recent BLM protests? And, how many people have died from the Covid 19 Carona Virus crisis?
And our president is providing how much Federal Resources and in what amount, free to those states he’s chosen to help with the violence related to these BLM protests AND how many Federal Resources in that same amount (free) to help with the Covid 19 Carona Virus crisis?