American Elephants


Portland, The National Bad Example by The Elephant's Child

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Portland, Oregon mayor Ted Wheeler (D) just wrote an angry public letter to President Trump:

Dear President Trump:

Yet again, you said you offered to aid Portland by sending in federal law enforcement to our city.

On behalf of the City of Portland: No thanks.

We don’t need your politics of division and demagoguery. Portlanders are onto you. We have already seen your reckless disregard for human life in your bumbling response to the COVID pandemic. And we know you’ve reached the conclusion that images of violence or vandalism are your only ticket to reelection. …

In Portland, we are focused on coming together as a community to solve the serious challenges we face due to systemic racism, a global pandemic and an economic recession.

I forget the exact number of days Portland has been under a siege of rioting, something like 89 or 90 that Portland has been a national symbol of a city completely out of control, a case study in Antifa and Blac Bloc violence that the national news media has used as the shining example of worst possible outcomes, surpassing even Seattle in the really bad example category. When they were attacking the Federal Courthouse and attempting to set the building on fire, unconcerned about workers inside, that did set some kind of new standard.

Seattle’s “CHOP” on Capitol Hill finally ended when rioters discovered just where Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan lived. Now the protesters have discovered Mayor Wheeler’s condominium and presented themselves there, though a condo on an upper floor is not as vulnerable as an ordinary house.

Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf has declared that the Left-wing group Antifa “absolutely” meets the standard worthy of condemnation as a “domestic terrorist group.” Whether that precludes some tougher action remains to be seen. As does the presence of rioters in Mayor Wheeler’s building. Mayor Wheeler is running for reelection.

In the meantime, we have Kenosha, Wisconsin. I have not been able to discover why it was the city of Kenosha that was selected to go up in flames. President Trump is sending in Federal help to bring back order to that city. He’s not going to stand for cities out of control and endangering ordinary folks lives, which seems the correct thing to do.

There is more talk now about civil war,which should have been impossible. But there is so much going on that should have been impossible. Senator Rand Paul and his wife and another woman were accosted and threatened by a mob when they attempted to walk across the street from the White House to their hotel which was just on the other side. They weren’t sure they could make it, even with police protection and feared for their lives.

Democrats are beginning to realize they  made a major mistake in excusing and encouraging “systemic racism” and race riots over the death of George Floyd, and defunding the police. They are dimly beginning to realize that the American people don’t like riots. Who knew? We apparently need more policing, not less It has been confirmed that George Floyd died of a massive overdose of fentanyl, apparently a enough to have killed him twice over. Things are not always as they seem at first glance.

We will, as the Chinese proverb goes, apparently continue to “live in interesting times.”


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I think the phrase is, “If you can’t do well enough to be a good example, then do bad enough to be an object lesson”.

Do you remember those books when we were growing up you’d see occasionally, or maybe as a filmstrip in elementary school? The ones where they showed contrasts in behavior between “Helpful Harry” and “Terrible Ted”? You had situations ranging from picking up trash in a park to responsible driving.

Looks like Portland has “Terrible Ted”. And, unfortunately, too many other mayors across the country are thinking he’s the good example, and not the object lesson.

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Comment by Lon Mead

Just saw a piece that notes that they are coming up on 100 days of riots this weekend. We seem to have a lot of mayors who never considered the possibility that part of their job might be keeping the peace from an invasion of rioters, a big thing rather than just keeping the utilities and the police functioning.

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Comment by The Elephant's Child




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