This is Portland, we do what we like. This is Portland, we do what we like.

Your flu can't be making this any easier. Get well soon.

Snow days aren't nearly as much fun when one is out of PTO

boy 100 miles makes a big difference right now, streets are almost clear in Eugene but we are slated for more snow tonight in the 1-2" range

last weekend was rough, finally got out of the house to buy food on Sunday and it was still pretty sketchy

Every time I've visited Portland in the winter it's been rainy and grey but not cold; last week felt really strange by comparison because it never rained once and was shockingly cold and windy. Plus I saw Hood and St. Helens a couple of times which felt really strange in January.

just had to dig my car out enough to back it away from a tree who's neighbor in the plot completely uprooted. Missed me but took out a jeep.

@pdxalerts
Vancouver--police to area of 70th/Ward Rd-report of reckless traffic--vehicle pulling a guy on skis down the road--skier also holding a beer

We got roughly 8 inches here last night. Woke up this a.m. with electricity intact (hurray!), but our internet (via cable) was out until 20 minutes ago. I shoveled a couple of tons of wet snow for 3 hours this afternoon, but the temp was (a bit) above freezing and no wind, so not too bad.

sorry i'm missing this tbh

stay safe everybody

Already got a FlashAlert that my office is closed tomorrow.

not abating

https://apnews.com/96be8a461ab0f3886fc1723607c926e7

Two nights later, a potluck at a park in the heart of the Black community morphed into another violent clash with police, who unleashed tear gas to quell the crowd of several hundred people.

“Violent clash,” huh. Cop riots ain’t going away anytime soon

didn't even know there was a portland thread here

i haven't kept up on local news, but this seems to be about in line with what little i've already learned about portland's racial history

getting portland cops involved, of course, does nothing whatsoever to help

?

welp

this whole situation seems extremely not good and kind of fascist

i love our governor, but yesterday she dismissed what's going on here as a "campaign stunt". i don't like that. i don't think "campaign stunt" is an appropriate descriptor for kidnapping civilians off the streets into unmarked vehicles.

so fucked up, ofc Ted Wheeler's voicemail box is full, grrrrr

As unmarked feds snatch protesters off the streets in Portland, memo leaked to me shows they'll be deployed indefinitely and in undisclosed locations, with drones "on standby to assist as needed":https://t.co/dIrNSlbM6B pic.twitter.com/LR4COtuvGs

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) July 17, 2020

The militarization of policing continues apace, along with the use of 'School of the Americas' counter-insurgency techniques to quash public demands for the redress of grievances. iow, another giant step toward turning the USA into Guatemala or El Salvador.

So "Naked Athena"...

word is that the person was NBPOC, it says a lot about how whiteness is assumed by people imo

post from FOAF:

"For white folx applauding the images and video of a naked protestor in Portland that causes cops to retreat momentarily, I wanted you to know that a lot of BIPOC folx are not feeling great about how this action is being focused on and applauded, particularly as if this is a white woman and as if it’s revolutionary. Please do not believe this person invented this idea. African women have done this as a form of protest (link in the comments).

UPDATE: I think I need to post for clarity, I am not suggesting this person should not protest this way or that this is not a version of weaponizing privilege with the intention to help. I am sharing thoughts of Black folx in BIPOC groups I’m in because I think white folx and NBPOC like me need to consider these perspectives. I don’t know that the naked protestor is white or that they are a woman TBH (I’ve been informed the person is NBPOC by a few folx). I was not there, I don’t know what happened post these images.

The issue is how the images and action are being shared and applauded by white folx in a way to center whiteness, white feminism and the martyrdom of white women. Those folx seem to be reading the person as a white woman, calling her “Athena” and “Lady Godiva” and hash tagging ‘pussypower.’ That is the problematic behavior I am trying to discuss. The shift of the focus from Black folx to white women or NBPOC women and the lack of open understanding about the privileges at work. The second image was shared in one of the BIPOC groups I’m in online. I believe it’s a response to the first image (and others like it) posted by white women."

Is there a source on NBPOC? I've seen the same claimed but didn't see a source

other than that post (who is a real person that I have friends in common with), that's all I got atm

Thanks that's still helpful!

i applaud the aplomb with which the FOAF post roasts this deplorable problematic applauding, but i can't not help but wonder if 'folx' ought not be incorporated into BIPOC & NBPOC as output BIFOC & NBFOC to really stick it to those WASPy AFAB TERFs

fortunately, nobody cares what you think

that's colder than the coffee at Shari's

lol, ok maybe you *have* been to Portland

had a kimchee omelette at the Cameo Cafe on Sandy last summer. I love occupied chinook land and its people, forgive me my obnoxious intrusion into this ontological exposition

i applaud the aplomb with which the FOAF post roasts this deplorable problematic applauding, but i can't not help but wonder if 'folx' ought not be incorporated into BIPOC & NBPOC as output BIFOC & NBFOC to really stick it to those WASPy AFAB TERFs

Are those all streaming services?

good article

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2020/07/20/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-battle-of-portland/

it's really frustrating to live here right now. really frustrating.

everything is happening on twitter and i don't read twitter because it's not a good environment for me, a healthy environment for me, because you go on twitter and people spend hours arguing about the naked person if they were a guy or a woman or an enby and if they were white or a poc and those are important questions to ask, important discussions to have, and i don't need to be a part of that.

in the meantime i do have questions and the question i have is what the fuck is _happening_

from what i can tell, me sitting in my home just like most of everybody else is sitting safe in our homes because while this is not ok, none of this is ok, i have other important things that i'm trying to do to the best of my ability, because my ability to be of help depends on my being able to do those things...

from what i can tell the federal government is trying to create a fucking war here

from what i can tell there were a couple dozen kids who describe themselves as "feral youths" and they turned the apple store into a george floyd monument and anybody who wants to buy an apple is just getting one online probably

and last night a couple thousand moms and dads showed up and the police, in conjunction with federal forces, tear-gassed them and smashed shit and it's probably going to be on the news today

and who's going to be there tonight, nobody, nothing is planned, nothing is organized, maybe there's some twitter hashtag i'm not aware of where this stuff is being talked about

what the protesters are doing is important and what the media is doing is important and i want to do _something_ besides staring blankly into space terrified for hours on end but there's not really anything for me to do.

i tell myself over and over that what i need to do is take care of myself but what the president is doing in portland is making it extremely difficult, and i envy those of you who are still able to function on a daily basis, not because you're ok with it, like literally nobody is, even the people who are supporting the federal troops want _something_ else to happen

because i am not only not ok, i am not safe, and i don't know how to be safe, not now, not here.

Kate, please do what you need to do to take care of yourself.

If you’d like to check what’s going on, groups like Popular Mobilization (PopMob) have been posting updates, the Portland Mercury has a calendar of events, and there’s a lot of stuff listed at https://www.pdx-blm-events.com/

A federal judge is investigating whether the head of the Homeland Security Agency broke the law by publically posting photos taken inside a federal courthouse, which law, just like the HSA itself, was formulated to protect courthouses from terrorist attacks. It's time to bring back the facepalm.

is that what the kids are calling it nowadays

and who's going to be there tonight, nobody, nothing is planned, nothing is organized, maybe there's some twitter hashtag i'm not aware of where this stuff is being talked about

People are probably going to be there tonight, if Seattle's main two weeks of police riots are any indication. If you want to join a protest, just walk down and join in - it's easy and affirming! you can pick how close or crowded you want to be - if you feel better personally or as a contributor to helping society staying home, stay home.

If you feel more equipped for marching or chanting during the daylight, kingfish's tips look good.

thanks y'all, i'm feeling better about this, things are rapidly evolving as they say and my hope is that there will ultimately be a positive resolution to the situation

i'm still really pretty afraid of having my skull cracked open, still, uh, really broken and fucked up already to be honest, but the people who are down there anyway are giving me strength

Pretty incredible play by play of the Portland mayor entering the fray:

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is entering the protest crowd right now. People are already confronting him. pic.twitter.com/H7uJSGYlma

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 23, 2020

Seeing a crowd of people jeering and booing the mayor as a coward while he's being fucking tear-gassed doesn't exactly gladden my heart.

I assume the people booing the mayor as he's getting tear-gassed are the same people who would tear down a statue of Harriet Tubman because someone told them she had something to do with slavery.

hard to think of a worse analogy tbh

Is that a challenge? Gauntlet thrown!

I meant driven by inchoate rage is all.

Like Kate, I'm not gladdened that unaccountable federal "cops" teargassed a mayor, but AIUI Wheeler is the police commissioner and his police force has made extensive use of tear gas in this and other protests, so I don't agree that their rage is "inchoate," it seems pretty specific to me.

I also think it's...off the mark to analogize Wheeler to Harriet Tubman or even a statue of her.

Oh, that wasn't my intent. I was thinking specifically of the protestors in Madison, WI, who took down a statue of an abolitionist and a monument to women's suffrage. That's the kind of inchoate rage I was referencing. If Portland's mayor has a history, then by all means, boo away. But if he's part of the problem and not the solution, then I don't know who is going to push to get the feds out of there. The AG? Governor?

The frustrating thing for me is watching a national battle play out over what are properly local fucking issues. I understand why the protestors are jeering the mayor. People watching on Twitter, probably a lot of people watching on this thread, won't, and will dismiss it as the radical left eating its own.

I don't think the President and his forces are engaging in divide and conquer tactics on purpose. I'm not convinced he's smart enough for that. I don't think it matters.

I have friends overseas who don't understand why the President is still in office, who don't understand why we don't do something about it. Well, of course, it's because we have no legal recourse. And I have... well, I guess people who I considered friends, and they say that what the federal officers are doing is bad, of course, but that doesn't excuse what the protestors are doing, and they are just going to have to sit this one out, sorry.

I am way more afraid of the federal government than I am of the protestors. Way more afraid. Since I don't have recourse to the law, since the federal government does not consider itself bound by the law, my only hope is that a decisive number of people will see it the same way and that they will make their decisions, live their lives, in accordance with those beliefs.

At this point it's basically a blind hope, and I'm not very good at that.

Oh, that wasn't my intent. I was thinking specifically of the protestors in Madison, WI, who took down a statue of an abolitionist and a monument to women's suffrage. That's the kind of inchoate rage I was referencing. If Portland's mayor has a history, then by all means, boo away. But if he's part of the problem and not the solution, then I don't know who is going to push to get the feds out of there. The AG? Governor?

― Josh in Chicago

Jo Ann Hardesty.

Oh, that wasn't my intent.

No worries, I figured as much. It just struck me in the moment as misguided, hence my response.

Hardesty does seem great, but I haven't lived in OR for years now (and that was Eugene anyway) so I will shut up now.

Anybody who wants more information - here, people will read it, other places, people are less likely to - this OPB article explains pretty well what the situation is here.

https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-faces-protesters-and-tear-gas-head-on/

Ted Wheeler deserves the tear gas tbqh