[PJMEDIA] The people elected and selected to run Portland, Oregon, are like kids who get their first car and never think to change the oil. The city is led by a cadre of ardent leftists who thought they could just rev the engine, ignore maintenance, and see the city magically run itself. Instead, they’ve driven the City of Roses into a Doom Loop.
At one time not so long ago, Portland leaders turned the sleepy town into a progressive hub for the creative class, spending billions on 19th-century light rail Choo Choo trains to convey bus riders to their planned utopia. The more the plans failed, the more the planners planned, as Ronald Reagan once said. Because of the hard hand of the planner class, a corrupt system of regulatory capture, and the certitude of those who know better than we do how to run our lives, Portland leaders never really stopped to consider if anyone wanted what they were selling. They went on blithely singing kumbaya and giddily handed the match to the activist left, which lit the Molotov cocktail that sparked the city’s self-immolation.
Now these leaders have regulated, locked down, and scared away a third of the downtown office buildings. When the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... hit this marker it was called a "doom loop."
"Referred to as ’death lists’ among real estate professionals, the documents outline properties that are economically unsustainable," according to The Real Deal. These buildings are troubled assets that are in danger of defaulting on loans and handing them over to the bank.
Willamette Week, the city’s lefty weekly, which did the digging to find out how bad this problem is, concludes that Portland is worse off than other Democrat cities on the doom loop roller coaster because of its Antifa ...the armed wing of the Democratic Party... and BLM riots.
A level of intellectual honesty one does not expect to see in a lefty weekly. They are to be congratulated.
The question—and it’s a contentious one—is whether Portland is worse than any place else because of blight. Plywood that went up during the 2020 protests still obscures some downtown storefronts. Homeless camps that took root during the pandemic are only now being removed. On some downtown blocks, you’re just as likely to see someone smoking fentanyl as sipping a Frappuccino.
The question is only contentious in the leftist echo chamber. For the rest of the country, we saw what you did there, Portland.
The unfortunately named Tina Kotek, Oregon’s governor, has convened a blue ribbon panel of all the same lefty friends, NGOs, quasi-governmental groups, and favored business owners to fix the problem they spent years cheerleading.
A former president of First Interstate Bank of Oregon, Bob Ames, who’s now free to speak without being canceled, told Willamette Week that the problem is that Portland is reaping what it sowed. He told the publication, "The problem with downtown Portland is that you don’t want to be in downtown Portland." He added, "We’ve driven a lot of capital out of here, and a lot of tenants. You’re not going to book another major employer into this city for a decade."
Lefties in Portland want to blame the doom loop on a COVID hangover, but with all the missteps by Portland’s ruling class besides dumb COVID lockdowns, no one’s buying it. Indeed, this goat rodeo is getting worse. The Real Deal reports that "loans secured during the last real estate boom, marked by low-interest rates, are now reaching maturity and their value has diminished while interest rates have surged, creating an unfavorable environment for refinancing."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2023 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM
#1
I almost moved to Portland for job 30 years ago. I woke up the first morning, looked out the window, and a little voice said "this is the wrong place".
I an sooo glad I tossed that offer.
It's really pretty up there, don't get me wrong. But the prevailing attitude among people seemed to be that someone was supposed to just bring them money.
There's a lot of that along the west coast.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/27/2023 10:17 Comments ||
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#2
Lean a little bit closer, see
Roses really smell like poo-poo-ooh
Yeah, roses really smell like poo-poo-ooh
OutKast
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/27/2023 12:00 Comments ||
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#3
I was working there in 1990. I liked it. The job was temporary, and I left in November 1990. I considered staying but decided to go back home to Tennessee. Best decision I ever made.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/27/2023 16:47 Comments ||
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[NYPOST] Times Square is looking a lot like its bad old self, with vagrants, boozy migrants colonists, junkies, and scofflaws making the Crossroads of the World look more like the third world, infuriating those who played an important role in its cleanup. They keep voting for the same set of dipshits. That must be the way New Yorkers wanna live.
The City is so much more interesting and real when it’s gritty instead of livable, donchaknow.
On three separate days over the past week, The Post saw junkies brazenly smoking crack pipes on West 43rd Street, drug pushers peddling their wares within eyeshot of cops, hobos conked out wherever they can find a spot, and scores of aimless migrants colonists loitering the day away.
"A lot of people are worried about [Times Square] collapsing. And unless they start getting it together for a rebuild, it might actually collapse," said William Bratton, the NYPD commissioner who helped then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani clean up the area in the 1990s.
"We had a lot more to work with than the current commissioner and the mayor have in 2023," Bratton added. "There was a lot more of a criminal justice system back then. The courts, district attorneys, and the police were pretty much united about doing something about crime in Times Square. So you had a collaboration that is not in place today."
By contrast, "we [now] have a number of district attorneys not wanting to deal with a lot of ... the so-called ’broken windows’," signs of social disorganization and lead to crime, he explained — referring to the far-left, soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ...Soros-owned and operated Manhattan DA. Putting vicious and blood-thirsty criminals in jail only makes them unhappy, and they've led such hard lives after all... , who critics say is pushing "reforms" which favor criminals instead of victims.
"Until we get better collaboration between various elements of government, we’re not going to see it improve dramatically," Bratton warned.
The lawlessness, vice, and depravity that ruled Times Square since the 1960s came to a screeching halt in the mid-90s, when Giuliani cracked down on crime and closed down the area’s notorious sex shops and peep shows.
The redevelopment plan then accelerated in the 2000s under billionaire former Mayor Michael Nanny Mike Bloomberg ...former Republican mayor of New York. He tried to take the credit for Rudy Giuliani's actions in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. He was known as Nanny Bloomberg for his war on 32-ounce Slurpees. Nanny was a candidate for the Dem presidential nomination in 2020. He was born on Valentine's day, 1942, which makes him 81.45345 years old, which is pretty ripe. Mike has lots of money, some of which he spends on grass roots organizations pushing for common sense gun laws along the same lines as his common sense Slurpee regulations.... , who helped lure national store and restaurant chains to the new-look area and complete its "Disneyfication," as some critics whined at the time.
Since the pandemic, there’s been "a lot of change for the worse," in Times Square, said Raymond Kelly, the city’s police commissioner from 1992 to 1994 under then-Mayor David Dinkins ...the former mayor of New York. He sez he lost to Rudy Giuliani in 1993 because of racism, which is pervasive in places like Manhattan... , and again from 2002 to 2013 under Bloomberg.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
Disneyfication is probably more accurate than New York City or Disney would like to admit.
#2
I used to have a sign in my office, on the side of a file cabinet where it couldn't be seen by the casual passer-by. It said "This MUST be what they want."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/27/2023 10:04 Comments ||
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#3
Renaissance over.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/27/2023 11:52 Comments ||
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[Townhall] It's election strategy V2.0
Here we go again— the Biden Administration has plans to roll out a new COVID-19 vaccine this fall, requiring Americans to get another jab.
Despite declaring earlier this year that COVID is no longer a threat, President Joe Biden said his administration will "likely" recommend that all Americans receive the updated booster, including children.
Over the weekend, the president told reporters that he plans to ask Congress for additional funds to develop a new vaccine, adding that he may force everyone to take it whether they previously received the initial vaccine.
"Yes, I can," Biden said. "I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works."
The new vaccines, developed by Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax, have been re-designed to target the dominant XBB variants that magically popped up just in time for the general election. The jab is expected to be rolled out sometime in mid-September.
Earlier this month, the Biden Administration requested $40 million from Congress to go toward Ukraine, U.S. federal disaster funds, and funds to help slow the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. despite Biden refusing to close the southern border.
However, the funding request did not mention any money for COVID-19 vaccines.
The White House did, however, use $1.4 billion of taxpayer money to develop new drugs and shots against the China virus.
In 2022, the Biden Administration requested $9.25 billion to stop the spread of COVID, but congressional lawmakers refused the request.
The Democratic Party is again fear-mongering Americans into thinking the virus is a threat.
Hollywood studio, Lionsgate, and several universities have already announced their plans to mandate masks for all.
Additionally, a TSA whistleblower allegedly reported that mandates would return in October. CNN also pushed the Left's Covid hysteria, citing so-called "experts" who say to "dust off those N95 masks and place them snugly over your nose and mouth to protect yourself from a recent uptick of the virus."
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/27/2023 12:56 ||
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Posted by: Boss Lumumba5383 ||
08/27/2023 13:49 Comments ||
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#3
They only think they are powerful because we continue to comply. Imagine if every American who thinks the country was going in the wrong direction, all 76% of us, had a "sick day" in protest to this bullshit. Just spent the day at home, not working, not shopping, just unplugged for a day. Massive, non-violent, utterly peaceful display of frustration. Imagine the impact.
#5
I'll take it after Biden demonstrates it's safety by having 1 every hour on the hour for 12 months straight. Better yet, every Biden Admin official needs to do this. If any one of them dies, then no:p
#8
"I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works."
This current house of Representatives will tell you to shove it up your pee hole.
#9
He'll try Exec Order. Massive disobedience and backlash. Alternative is unacceptable: he'd actually have to campaign outside his basement & handlers
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/27/2023 17:33 Comments ||
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#10
Wish I could trust enough of the GOP house members to kill this, but I think about half of them will go for it bigtime, especially with a little lobbying from Moderna and Pfizer.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/27/2023 18:08 Comments ||
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Of course. He’s just what the Biden administration wants: a recognizable, favoured minority willing to toe the party line to the point of shooting to kill.
[THEGATEWAYPUNDIT] On January 6, 2021, US veteran and Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was shot in cold blood by Capitol Police Lt. Mike Byrd inside the US Capitol. Michael Byrd
In July 2021 The Gateway Pundit was first to confirm that Lt. Mike Byrd was Ashli Babbit’s killer.
Lt. Byrd killed Ashli Babbitt in cold blood on Jan. 6 inside the US Capitol.
Another woman and Trump supporter, Rosanne Boyland, was killed by Capitol Police outside the US Capitol. Her body was then dragged through the US Capitol.
Ashli Babbitt was bumped off in cold blood inside the US Capitol. She was 98 pounds and posed no threat and had no weapons.
Mike Byrd also had a habit of leaving his loaded gun in US Capitol restrooms.
In August 2021, Lt. Mike Byrd was exonerated for killing Ashli Babbitt in cold blood. He gave no warning, he ran from the scene of the crime, and he shot an unarmed woman dead who posed no threat.
Lt. Mike Byrd was reportedly NEVER INTERVIEWED before he was exonerated for killing Ashli Babbitt.
Judicial Watch released documents that revealed the US Air Force spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to House Mike Byrd in a "distinguished visitor suite" after he murdered Ashli Babbitt in cold blood.
Today RollCall reported that Lt. Mike Byrd was promoted to Captain.
The Capitol Police are poised to promote a lieutenant who shot and killed a pro-Trump rioter on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as an officer who vividly testified before a House select committee about the violence she encountered during that attack.
Michael Byrd, who fatally shot rioter Ashli Babbitt as she tried to break into the Speaker’s Lobby, will be promoted to captain, according to an internal announcement reviewed by CQ Roll Call that lists more than 30 employees moving up the ranks on Sunday.
And Caroline Edwards, who recounted how she was knocked unconscious and described the environment at the Capitol that day as a "war zone" with officers bleeding and throwing up, will be promoted to sergeant.
A spokesperson said the department doesn’t discuss specific personnel matters but that "the promotional process is competitive and equitable" and the promotions "were well earned across the Department to include multiple Captains, Lieutenants, and Sergeants." Well beyond disgusting.
[FoxBusinessNews] Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's office announced that the city filed the lawsuit against automakers Kia and Hyundai, alleging that both companies have failed to include "industry-standard engine immobilizers" in several models of vehicles, which resulted in a "steep rise" in crime.
"The impact of car theft on Chicago residents can be deeply destabilizing, particularly for low- to middle-income workers who have fewer options for getting to work and taking care of their families," Johnson said. "The failure of Kia and Hyundai to install basic auto-theft prevention technology in these models is sheer negligence, and as a result, a citywide and nationwide crime spree around automobile theft has been unfolding right before our eyes."
The complaint specifically accuses both companies of failing to equip their U.S. cars sold between 2011 and 2022 with "vital anti-theft technology," stating that both companies "deceptively assured consumers that these vehicles possessed ’advanced’ safety features, despite knowing about this critical defect and its consequences."
Johnson's office said that after social media videos exposed the "defect," thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles surged from near 500 in the first half of 2022 to over 3,350 in the second half of 2022
In 2023, thefts of Kia and Hyundai cars compromise over half of all Chicago car thefts in 2023.
"Because these vehicles are entry-level models, Kia’s and Hyundai’s failure to include engine immobilizers disproportionately impacts low-income Chicago residents. Moreover, offenders have used stolen Kia and Hyundai vehicles to commit other crimes, including reckless driving, armed robbery, and murder," Johnson's office said.
In a statement to FOX Business, a spokesperson for Hyundai said that engine immobilizers are now standard on all vehicles made by the company as of Nov. 2021.
"Hyundai is committed to the comprehensive actions we are undertaking to assist customers and communities affected by the persistent theft of certain vehicles not equipped with push-button ignitions and engine immobilizers. Our dealers across the country are maximizing the number of anti-theft software installations that can be performed on a daily basis, contributing to steadily increasing completion rates, which we report to NHTSA weekly," the spokesperson said.
#2
I've this idea for an alternate history book. It turns out that some local north american insect pest really likes cotton plants making cotton cultivation impossible.
[APNEWS] North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a sweeping Republican elections bill Thursday that would end a grace period for voting by mail and make new allowances for partisan poll observers.
In a video message, the Democratic governor accused legislative Republicans of using their slim veto-proof majorities to execute "an all-out assault on the right to vote," which he said has nothing to do with election security and everything to do with their party keeping and gaining power. The bill would make voting more difficult for young and nonwhite voters who are are more likely to vote absentee and less likely to elect Republicans, he said.
"They’re making it harder for you to vote, hoping that you won’t bother," he said, urging North Carolinians to contact their representatives and demand they uphold his veto.
Another bill Cooper vetoed on Thursday would take away the governor’s appointment power to several boards and commissions, such as those that set electricity rates and environmental regulations. The bill marks another attempt by Republican legislative leaders to wrest control of key panels from the governor and give his appointment power to the General Assembly or to other statewide elected officials.
#2
Equally amazing is how none of their media cheerleaders has ever located a single individual who could not vote due this heinous and obviously widespread situation.
[BIZPACREVIEW] President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. S You're a lyin' dog-faced pony soldier... was serenaded with boos and jeers when he stepped out in public on Friday while on vacation in Lake Tahoe, and the look on his face was absolutely priceless.
The deeply unpopular leader has spent most of the month of August away from the White House, padding the number of vacation days that he has taken since his inauguration, which recently topped an entire year, this time staying at the opulent $18 million home of billionaire Democrat donor and climate alarmist Tom Steyer.
A video that has gone viral on social media captures the moment that the elderly Biden realizes that he isn’t nearly as beloved as portrayed by spinmeisters and that outside of his protective bubble, he is despised by a large percentage of Americans.
"I’ve been talking to the UAW. Obviously, I’m concerned. I think that there should be a circumstance where the jobs that are being displaced and replaced with new jobs, the first choice should go to the UAW members who had the jobs, and the salary should be commensurate," the president told a member of the press in response to a question about the huge automakers union that is prepared to go on strike, hardly being able to be heard above the din of booing.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2023 00:00 ||
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[10 views]
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#1
Rude? Rude? Gosh golly hope his feet aren't hot.
'For only $700 you, too, can sponsor a Hawaiian child.'
#2
Tahoe is not in Alabama. He is losing his base.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/27/2023 11:55 Comments ||
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#3
Douglas County NV, chock full of California refugee's, and actual Americans. My little hilltop in the Carson Valley has two retired Oakland PD cops, the newest arrival commenting on meeting, "It's nice to finally move back to the USA!"
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...the armed wing of the Democratic Party...
...Soros-owned and operated Manhattan DA. Putting vicious and blood-thirsty criminals in jail only makes them unhappy, and they've led such hard lives after all...
[Townhall] 
...46th president of the U.S. S 
