Portland is turning into Paris

Protests are a recurring presence in Paris, a nearly constant inarticulate howl of anguish.

If it isn’t nurses demonstrating against budget cuts and staff shortages or faculties mobilizing against proposed university reforms, it’s protests over French labor reforms or the arrival of a controversial foreign leader.

As in Paris, protesters and counter-protesters outraged at all sorts of things turn up everywhere in Portland at all sorts of venues these days. Former president George H.W. Bush once called Portland Little Beirut, a description that still holds.

In early November protesters gathered on Waterfront Park demanding that Robert Mueller’s investigation be protected from interference by the Trump administration and objecting to the selection of Matthew Whitaker as acting Attorney General.  Indivisible Portland and Nasty Women Get Shit Done PDX organized the protest, which even drew Sen. Ron Wyden who chanted “this is what democracy looks like” with the crowd.

In October, protesters marched to protest police use of deadly force after Portland Police officers on patrol near the intersection of SW 4th Avenue and Harvey Milk shot and killed a 27-year-old man.

Also in October, police in riot gear broke up a fight at a Portland protest between the right-wing group Patriot Prayer and leftist Antifa counter protesters.

During June-July, protesters set up camp behind the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building on Portland’s South Waterfront, insisting that ICE be abolished. The protesters vowed that their camp would continue operating until ICE shut down, but Portland Police cleared the protest encampment in late July.

The right to protest is a long-standing protection afforded by the U.S. constitution, but protests, many of which spiral out of control, have become a primary means of communication in Portland.

Don’t like the results of an election? Take to the streets, block traffic, assault people. Object to how the city is handling homelessness? Disrupt City Council meetings with shouted grievances.

Bothered by police actions? Camp out in front of Mayor Wheeler’s Portland Heights home, spread refuse, write “ACAB” (all cops are bastards) in chalk on his sidewalk, brag online about urinating in front of the mayor’s house in full view of police. It’s no wonder Wheeler was recently overheard muttering that he can’t wait for his term to be over.

Frankly, all this is getting us nowhere. A shift to civil discourse intended to enhance understanding would accomplish so much more.

“Civility is simply demonstrating respect for the dignity of our fellow humans— even those humans with whom we have sharp disagreement,” Rabbi Steve Gutow said at an Episcopal Church’s event, Civil Discourse in America. “Civility is allowing others to speak, and having the humility to admit that we may have something to learn. Civility favors truth over cheap gain, and patience over knee-jerk judgment.”

Given the complexities and nuances of the many issues before us, it’s often unclear what is right or wrong, what is ethical, or what the consequences of a policy will be compared with what is intended.

Unlike unruly protests, respectful exchanges of diverse viewpoints that reveal our common humanity and avoid demonizing the “other”support civic mutuality and critical empathy, strengthening democracy.

In disruptive times like these, that’s what we need most.

As James Calvin Davis said in In Defense of Civility, “When we open wide the doors of public discourse, when we extend civility and respect to all citizens and demand it from them as well, we lay the groundwork for an enriched public discourse that might just make some progress, some move toward greater understanding on the issues that most divide us.”

 

 

 

 

 

A tsunami of taxes is about to wash over Oregon.

The Democrats’ supermajority takeover of the Oregon Legislature, along with Kate Brown’s reelection, are the reason.

So, if you’ve seen your pay go up because of Trump’s tax overhaul (which, by the way, Democrats in Congress want to roll back) or a pay raise, get ready to see your gains disappear.

A Joint Interim Committee on Student Success that’s been touring the state gathering ideas on education policies and spending has already come up with an expensive wish list that includes:

• Expanding career-technical education programs, including funding the $300 million that voters approved for high school programs with Ballot Measure 98 in 1916.
• Extending the school year.
• Fully funding the latest version of the Quality Education Model  all at once or over a specific period, such as three years. This could include: limiting class sizes (requiring more teachers and facilities); increasing the counselor-to-student ratio; adding counselors, librarians, TAG specialists, arts, music and physical education teachers; increasing spending on Pre-K programs; and reducing class sizes in the early grades and in schools with larger shares of students with higher needs.The State School Fund requirement to fund K-12 schools at a level   recommended by the Quality Education Commission (QEC) is estimated at $10.734 billion in the 2019-21 biennium, $1.963 billion more than the funding required to maintain the Current Service Level—that is, to keep up with inflation and enrollment growth.

An activist Legislature controlled by the Democrats, and supported by a Democrat governor, may also:

• Modify Measure 5 to increase property tax revenue.
• Seek a new gross receipts tax or value-added tax charged to businesses.
• Set a cap on greenhouse emissions and require companies to buy pollution permits to cover their emissions.

And let’s not forget the likelihood of new sin taxes on tobacco and alcohol, including e-cigarettes, as proposed in the Oregon Health Authority’s draft 2019-21 budget.  That budget proposes increasing the cigarette tax from $1.33 to $3.33 a pack and the retail price of beer, wine and cider by 10 percent. The new taxes would cost consumers an estimated $830 million to help cover growing Medicaid costs.

Then, of course, there are the measures just passed in Portland and the Metro Area, including:

• Measure 26-201, Portland Clean Energy Initiative. Created a 1 percent surcharge tax or gross receipts tax on large retailers to pay for clean energy projects and job training. Before Nov. 6, supporters of the measure estimated it would cost affected businesses $30 million a year while opponents estimated it could cost affected businesses up to $79 million a year.

• Measure 26-199 authorized $652.8 million in bonds to fund affordable housing in Washington, Clackamas, and Multnomah counties. The regional bond will cost 24 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, or $60 per year for a home with an assessed value of $250,000.

And don’t forget the multiple local money measures on the ballot on Nov. 6.

Voters in the North Clackamas School District, for example, approved Local Option Levy 2018, a levy intended to address an anticipated $17 million operating shortfall to maintain current programs beginning in 2019. The levy will be collected through a property tax charged at a rate per $1,000 of assessed will be up to $1.63 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Homes with a median assessed value of $221,800 will pay up to $30 per month.

And in Eugene, voters in Eugene School District 4J passed Measure 20-297, a $319.3 million school improvement measure. Property tax rates will increase by about $0.66 per $1,000 of assessed value. Property taxes will increase by about $11 a month or $135 a year for the median homeowner in the district, with an assessed property value of $204,000.

And how about off-the-cuff proposals from politicians, such as Jo Ann Hardesty, who will be sworn-in as a Portland city commissioner in January. During her campaign she said she’d like to put a $2.50 tax on Uber and Lyft rides, which would, of course be paid by passengers.

Because the bulk of a tsunami lies beneath the sea surface, tsunamis are hard to detect when they travel across the open ocean and they can arrive unexpectedly. So consider this an early warning. Even if you can’t see it yet, a tax tsunami is coming.

A multi-university study has concluded that voting in Oregon is easier than anywhere else in the U.S.

But despite Oregon’s efforts, the fact is voter turnout isn’t all that great.

In the just concluded 2018 midterm elections, 1,99,142 Oregonians voted. That was just 61 percent of the state’s voting-eligible population.

The voting-eligible population includes all persons eligible to vote regardless of voter registration status. The voting-age population is all persons over the age of 18, including persons who are ineligible to vote, such as non-citizens, felons (depending on state law), and mentally incapacitated persons. Registered voters are persons who have recorded their name in the voting register and are entitled legally to cast a vote.

When talking about election turnout, state officials and politicians are usually referring to the percent of registered voters who vote so the number looks better.

In the just concluded 2018 midterm elections, for example, registered voters totaled 2,762,622 and, as noted earlier, 1,902,953 ballots were turned in as of Nov. 8, 2018, according to the Secretary of State’s online election report. The Secretary of State reported that this translated into 68.88 percent turnout.

This number is deceptive, however, because a lot of Oregonians in the voting-age population haven’t registered. If the number for Oregon’s total voting-eligible population, 3,113,178, is used instead, then, as noted previously, the turnout was 61 percent. That’s not bad, but it’s disappointing because it means four of every ten voting-eligible Oregonians skipped voting.

Still, that’s far better than the 49.2 percent turnout for the U.S. as a whole, less than half of those eligible after $5.2 billion in political spending.

And it is certainly better than the historic national rate. In fact, the last time more people turned out for a midterm election was in 1914, when 50.4 percent of eligible voters went to the polls.Midterm turnout was at its highest level in 104 years, according to an analysis first obtained by Axios. A little more than 49 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot in the 2018 elections. The last time more people turned out in a midterm was in 1914, which was when 50.4 percent of eligible voters went to the polls.

The following table, using data from the Oregon Secretary of State’s Elections Division and the United States Election Project, shows Oregon’s voting-eligible population and actual voters in other recent general elections:

Year    Voting-eligible pop.   No. of voters      Percent      

2016          3,024,174                     2,051,452           61.7

2014          2,887,517                     1,541,782            50.9

2012          2,836,101                     1,820,507            63.1

2010          2,760, 607                     1,487,210           53.9

2008          2,700,327                      1,845,251            68.3

2006          2,628,937                      1,399,650            53.2

2004         2,550,887                      1,851,671             72.6

2002          2,495,730                        1,293,756          51.8

2000          2,364,402                        1,559,215          65.9

 

 

 

Earlier this year it became clear that Special Olympics Oregon was struggling through a long-term financial crisis. Britt Carlson Oase, the organization’s chief executive officer, told The Oregonian that its financial condition had worsened in 2017, but it wouldn’t know how much worse until the Independent Auditor’s Report for the year was completed.

That report by CPA Richard Winkel is finally in. Now we now know how bad things really were in 2017.

According to Winkel’s report, Special Olympics Oregon’s revenues in 2017 totaled $6,8 million, down $1 million from 2016. Meanwhile, 2017 expenses totaled $8.1 million, about level with 2016. That left the organization with total net assets deficit of $417,196, substantially less than its total net assets of $944,000 at the end of 2016.

One sign of the organization’s problems in 2017 was a decline in contributions. During the year ended December 31, 2017 the organization received $618,610 in contributions from direct marketing, down from $870,838 in 2016. Total contributions were also down, slipping from $2,534,178 in 2016 to $2,203,519 in 2017.

Another indicator of trouble is the situation with its line of credit. According to Winkel’s 2017 report, Special Olympics Oregon maintains a line of credit for up to $1,000,000, secured by all of the organization’s assets and bearing interest at 3.5%. The line was extended to mature on April 20, 2018. At December 31, 2017, $1,000,000 was outstanding.

The agreement with the bank requires that the organization maintain a minimum tangible net worth (interpreted by the bank to mean total net asset balances) of not less than $1,000,000, measured annually. The agreement also requires that, for 30 consecutive days during the calendar year, the aggregate principal advances outstanding under the note should not exceed $500,000.

As of and for the year ended December 31, 2017, the organization was not in compliance with either covenant. In September 2018, the short term note payable was renegotiated with the lender forgiving $500,000 and the remaining balance refinanced through a short term note with a private lender that has not been disclosed. The short-term note is payable at the earlier of December 2019 or on demand. The note bears interest at 2.195% per annum and is unsecured. Interest is payable at maturity.

Then there’s the “going concern” requirement. The management of non-profits are required to assess whether there are conditions or events that raise substantial doubt about the organization’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the financial statements are issued.

Winkel’s reportsaid that the 2017 financial statements reported a decrease in unrestricted net assets of $886,142 and a decrease in total net assets of $1,361,493. That followed decreases in net assets in 2016, 2015 and 2014. As a result, the organization’s cumulative unrestricted net assets deficit has increased from ($1,304,800) at December 31, 2016 to ($2,190,942) at December 31, 2017.

In addition, during 2017, outstanding trade payables grew by $325,601 and the line of credit increased by $348,768. At December 31, 2017, current liabilities exceeded current assets by $1,619,913. All of these factors affect the organization’s liquidity, the 2017 report said.

“The Organization’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on many factors, including successful efforts to raise additional contributions and grants and successful cost reduction plans,” the report concluded.

Steps Special Olympics Oregon is taking to address the “going concern” issue include: new management; dramatic cost reductions, including staff downsizing; moving to donated office space; and pausing the Summer and Fall 2018 and Winter 2019 State Games.

Margaret Hunt, CEO of the nonprofit from 2003 to May of this year, portrayed the organization’s current troubles as part of the normal ebb and flow of a typical nonprofit’s finances. “There are always ups and downs in the nonprofit world,” she told The Oregonian.

Financial reports make clear, however, that Special Olympics of Oregon has been in trouble for years and that 2017 continued the trend.

Will 2018 be an improvement? Can the organization dig itself out of this mess? A lot of kids and parents are staying tuned.

This time of divisiveness, outrage, combativeness and disillusionment is a good time to look back at a time of hope, lump-in-your-throat patriotism and pride in America when we set a moon landing as a goal and achieved it.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” President John F. Kennedy said in a rousing speech at Rice University on September 12th, 1962.

At 10:56 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong, born in the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, planted the first human foot on another world. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbed down the ladder and proclaimed: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” (› Play Audio)

The astronauts left behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen Apollo 1 crew, and a plaque on one of Eagle’s legs that reads, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”

I still remember being glued to the television through the entire tense and thrilling event, transfixed by the sublime vision of Americans on the moon, in the living room of my family’s Connecticut home.

I was vividly reminded of that time of optimism and common purpose during another tumultuous period in our history when I watched Steven Spielberg‘s movie “First Man” yesterday. (View trailer)

Retelling the story of the American space program from its initiation in the 1960s to the Apollo 11 mission through the lens of Armstrong’s life, the movie unfolds the setbacks, obstacles and tragedies that led to the ultimate triumph and launched us into a new era of science, technology and discovery.

It’s important to remember, though, that the ’60s were also a time of ferment. President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were slain, race riots broke out, urban decline was on the upswing, and the country was going through the national trauma of Vietnam.

On top of all that, protests against the draft were escalating, Cesar Chavez was pushing for agricultural boycotts, the Bay of Pigs Invasion failed, the Cuban Missile Crisis had Americans fearing nuclear war, the militant Black Panthers emerged and National Guardsmen shot and killed four Kent State students at an anti-war protest.

As one historian put it, “In the 1960s, dissidents shook the very foundation of U.S. civil society.”

But America came through it all.

The same will hold true today if we commit to a better future. America can still be the shining “city upon a hill” that John Winthrop, an early pilgrim, described.

“In my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind swept, God blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace,” Ronald Reagan said in his farewell address. “…after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm.”

So, take a break from your hectic life and spend a couple hours in a darkened theater watching “First Man”. You will celebrate America’s triumphs and emerge with a strengthened belief that this too shall pass.

 

 

 

Jovanka Beckles, a Democratic Socialist running in an East Bay Assembly race in District 15, has expressed sympathy for people in her district who believe they have been victims of hostile mind-controlling space weapons and suffered head pains as a result.She even went so far as to win passage of a Richmond city council resolution expressing sympathy for such “targeted individuals”.

On her website, Becklessays she also “consulted with police who agreed to treat these individuals with more respect.”

According to a Bay Area TV station, since the resolution passed, the Richmond Police Department has been fielding calls from people throughout the world who feel targeted by anything from surveillance to mind control to insidious nanotechnology.

Richmond Mayor Tom Butt said his office has been receiving requests for help as well, including a message from a woman living in her car in Carson City, Nevada, who says she has been electronically stalked but has received no help from law enforcement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wrote previously  that former Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick has been hired by Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum’s Oregon Department of Justice as a Special Assistant Attorney General (SAAG).

Novick’s entire salary is being paid by an out-of-state private source, New York University’s State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, which is backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Center is covering Novick’s legal fellowship with the aim of strengthening state attorney general offices in their crusade against the Trump administration’s environmental policies.

Creation of the Impact Center was spurred by former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who resigned his post in May 2018 amid assault claims by 4 women. t was an unexpected fall from grace for a rising star in Democratic politics who had portrayed himself as a relentless opponent of President Trump.

The guiding force behind Bloomberg Philanthropies is Michael Bloomberg, the founder of the global data and media company, Bloomberg LP, and a former Mayor of New York City. Bloomberg Philanthropies made a grant almost $6 million to the Center in August 2017. Earlier this month, Bloomberg announced that he re-registered as a Democrat, saying the party must “provide the checks and balances our nation needs so badly.” He is known to be toying with the idea of running for president in 2020 as a Democrat.

According to The Hill, an online political news site, Bloomberg has reserved more than $30 million in TV advertising for Democratic candidates in swing districts in the final two weeks before the midterm elections. Bloomberg has pledged to spend $80 million to help Democrats take back the House.

Bloomberg Philanthropies providing external funding to Rosenbloom to push a policy agenda is bad enough. But it’s worse, much worse.

I dug further and found that Rosenblum’s is one of TEN State attorney general offices where 14 NYU Law Fellows are working as a Special Assistant Attorney General (SAAG).

And although 22 State Attorney’s General are Democrats and 27 are Republicans (one is independent), every single one of the Attorney’s General taking in an NYU Law Fellow is a Democrat:

Illinois: Lisa Murray Madigan

Maryland: Brian E. Frosh

Massachusetts: Maura T. Healey

New Mexico: Hector Hugo Balderas Jr.

New York: Barbara Dale Underwood

Oregon: Ellen F. Rosenblum,

Pennsylvania: Josh Shapiro

Washington: Robert Watson Ferguson

Washington, D.C: Karl Racine

Virginia: Mark Herring

The Impact Center claims to be non-partisan, but that’s hardly the case.

“Each of the attorney general offices chosen to participate in the initial phase of the fellowship program has demonstrated a commitment to advancing progressive policies on clean energy, the environment and climate change,” David J. Hayes, executive director of the Impact Center, said on Oct.17, 2017. Hayes was deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the Department of the Interior for Presidents Clinton and Obama.

Should billionaire activists be able to bankroll “special assistant attorneys general” as an almost invisible legal army in state law enforcement offices to pursue ideological agendas?

I don’t think so. Do you?

Lake Oswego resident James Burdett Thayer’s obituary in The Sunday Oregonian mentioned that on May 4, 1945 his Army platoon discovered and liberated the Nazis’ Gunskirchen Lager concentration camp in Austria.

But there’s so much more to the story.

Major Cameron Coffman, Fort Thomas, Ky., Public Relations Officer of the 71st Division, visited Gunskirchen Lager on the afternoon of May 4, shortly after its liberation by American troops. The news release he wrote about Gunskirchen is gut-wrenching:

With the 71st Division of the Third Army in Austria, May 4, 1945: Nazism at its worst was unfolded in stark reality before Doughboys of the 71st Infantry Division today when they stumbled upon a carefully concealed concentration camp six kilometers north of Lambach, Austria, which held 18,000 persons who were not true “Aryan” or whose political opinions were contrary to Hitler’s “New Order”.

My days of reading about Hun atrocities were over. I visited that camp today. The living and dead evidence of horror and brutality beyond one’s imagination was there, lying and crawling and shuffling, in stinking, ankle-deep mud and human excrement. The sight and smell made your stomach do funny things like an egg-beater churning within. It was impossible to count the dead, but 200 emaciated corpses would be a very conservative estimate. For the most part they had died during the past two days, but there were many other rotting bodies inside the barracks beside living human beings who were too weak to move.

It is practically impossible to describe in decent or printable words the state of degradation in which the German guards had permitted the camp to fall. Located in a dense patch of pine trees, well-hidden from the main highway as well as from the air, the site was well-suited for the slimy, vermin-infested living conditions that existed there. To call the camp a pig sty would be doing injustice to a self-respecting pig. The sight was appalling, and the odor that reached you a hundred yards or so from the camp site was nauseating.

Traveling into the camp along a narrow wagon road was an experience in dodging the multitude of dazed men, women, and children fleeing from the horrors of this living hell. The natural impulse of these people after the Americans arrived was one of hysteria – a desire to escape — to leave that place forever behind them. The road was clogged with hundreds, but many did not get far. Dozens died before they had gone but a few hundred yards from their “hell-hole” prison, Americans soldiers cussed violently in disgust as their trucks roared past the grotesque figures in the ditches and shuffling feebly along the road.

As we entered the first building the sight that met our startled gaze was enough to bring forth a censorable exclamation from a sergeant who had seen the bloodiest fighting this war has offered. He spat disgustedly on the filthv dirt floor and left the building which was originally built for 300 but now housed approximately 3,000. Row upon row of living skeletons, jammed so closely together that it was impossible for some to turn over, even if they could have generated enough strength to do so, met our eyes. Those too weak to move deficated where they lay. The place was crawling with lice. A pair of feet, black in death, protruded from underneath a tattered blanket just six inches from a haggard old Jew who was resting on his elbow and feebly attempting to wave to us.

A little girl, doubled with the gnawing pains of starvation, cried pitifully for help. A dead man rotted beside her. An English-speaking Jew from Ohio hummed, “The Yanks Are Coming”, then broke out crying. A Jewish Rabbi tripped over a dead body as he scurried toward me with strength he must have been saving for the arrival of the American forces. He kissed the back of my gloved hand and clutched my sleeve with a talon-like grip as he lifted his face toward heaven. I could not understand what he said, but it was a prayer. I did not have to understand his spoken word.

Few of those remaining in the building could stand on their feet. The earth was dank and a chilled wind cut the smell of death and filth. Small fires of straw added to the revolting odors that filled the air. One man crawled over several prostrate bodies and patted the toe of my muddy combat boot in child-like manner.

Everywhere we turned the pathetic cry of “wasser” (water) met our ears. An English-speaking Czechoslovakian woman told us that they had received no food or water for five days. The appearances of the starving horde more than verified her statement. A lieutenant stooped to feed one creature a bit of chocolate. The man died in his arm. That lieutenant, formerly an officer in the Czech Army, fingered his pistol nervously as he eyed a group of German soldiers forcibly digging a grave outside. I also pumped a cartridge in my automatic. As I left him there were tears streaming down his face. His mother was last reported in a concentration camp “somewhere in Germany”.

Before our arrival conditions had been so crowded that all could not lie down to sleep at one time. Those with strength enough to stand took turns sleeping. The dead were buried in mass graves behind the so-called barracks, but the death rate became so high that unburied piles of dead remained with the living. Many of these unfortunates were using the corpses as pillows. I counted 27 in one heap in a dark pine grove in the camp area. It was not a pretty sight.

An unforgettable drama was enacted when a sergeant of our group of five raced out of one building, his face flaming with rage. The sergeant, a Jewish boy of Polish descent, had found three of his relatives lying in the filth of that barracks. They are sleeping tonight between white sheets for the first time in three years in one of the better homes in Lambach. Their diet of a daily cup of anemic soup has suddenly changed to eggs, milk, and bread. A Yank with an M-l rifle casually drops in at regular intervals to see how they are faring.

Military government and medical personnel of the 71st Division were busy at work before we left the camp two hours later attempting to bring relief to the chaos of suffering the fleeing Germans had left behind.

Extended supply lines made the food situation a major problem until ingenious doughboys discovered a German supply train nearby. Captain William R. Swope, Lexington, Ky., assisted by an excited Austrian girl brakeman, drove the train onto a siding near the camp. Physical force was necessary for order when the first food lines were organized as it was the first these hunger-sated persons had seen in many days.

A scene on the return trip to Lambach was a fitting climax to the horror we had left. Two “fugitives from hell” were ravenously tearing the entrails from a long-dead horse and gulping huge bites. Another sergeant, whose mother and father disappeared into a Nazi concentration camp three long years, ago, turned his head and in a tear-choked voice remarked:

“And Hitler wanted to rule the world.”