The Portland Observer

I am a White, 65 year old male. I have been an active member of the Portland NAACP branch for several years. Mr. Mondaine’s Jan. 12 article in The Portland Observer was troubling to me. This is the first statement (private or public) from him that I have read since the October 2020 Mercury article alleging s*xual (and other) improprieties and his subsequent resignation from the branch. While he was congratulatory of the new officer slate, many things about the article were disingenuous:

1. It is true, as he states, that branch membership and fundraising increased dramatically under his watch. What he fails to acknowledge is that those increases were in direct response to the racial justice uprising of 2020. Omitting this context helps to portray him as the driving force behind the changes. The reality is that before those events, public engagement with the NAACP chapter was on a downward trajectory.
2. Regarding his and the branch’s involvement in passing the Portland Clean Energy Fund, Mr. Mondaine and the local NAACP were a helpful, but relatively small, part of a large coalition of People of Color led organizations that helped the measure pass. 3. Finally, and probably most concerning, is that Mr. Mondaine’s article presents him as graciously conceding his position to a leadership that he supports. This could not be further from the truth. He did all he could to silence anyone who presented any kind of challenge to his authority and opinions, including illegally (according to NAACP bylaws) dumping people from the Executive Committee and deposing committee chairs. He even attempted to void memberships of several people who contested his decisions - something the branch president has no authority to do. Two of those people currently sit on the new leadership team he claims to support. To my knowledge, he has made no attempt to apologize for his bad behavior or to reconcile with people that he has harmed. His congratulatory words ring hollow.

It further troubles me that there has been so little comment from Portland leaders who formerly were anxious to curry Mr. Mondaine’s support and friendship. My hope is that he never again is given the opportunity to lead publicly at any level. His words and actions are not ultimately becoming of a true leader. To the contrary, he has caused deep and extensive harm. Portland will be far better off moving forward without his voice.

https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1310818339011264512

If the wealthy dont like paying high taxes they should trickle the wealth down through increase wages, profit sharing, lower prices increasing the value of the $, donating, etc. which would put them in a lower tax bracket, rather than relinquishing control of my money to invest in retirement schemes which make the wealthy wealthier, talk about one world order where the few control the many, it wasn't those invested in these schemes that sold off shares causing it recent collapse and then rebound from using tax reductions to buy stock shares to drive up the price. If not for tax $ our infrastructure including communications network would never have been built but which in turn made many extemely wealthy. send the trading traitors to the 3rd world country who's low cost of living they which to exploit if they don't want to contribute to it.

RACIST, MARQUISE LOVE, on de RUN, cath this CRIMINAL, PRISON for beating a man, stop the RACISM ALL!.

BARCELONA'S CONCERT FOR PLANTS TAKEN FOR A COVER BY ARGENTINE BAND REYNOLS
https://la.indymedia.org/js/?v=cont&url=/news/2020/07/299761.json

I am a fairly new customer of this newspaper. It seems OK, but it sure would help if the headlines were at least in bold print. Everything looks like an afterthought.

New Normal XVI: A Choice Between Talking and Doing!!!!
By John Burl Smith
I try not to get involved with “biter people on the left who inflict or suffer self-inflicted wounds based on not getting what they want, as a political outcome.” A recent statement by Nina Turner, a co-chair of the Sanders campaign, during an interview with Joseph A. Wulfsohn on Fox News, where she declared “The decision between Trump and Biden is, ‘Like saying to somebody, You have a bowl of s--- in front of you, and all you’ve got to do is eat half of it instead of the whole thing. It’s still s---,” illustrates my point. Her statement was very disappointing, coming from someone who is identified as a leading personality on the left. I reference her statement because it could reflect negatively on all supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders.

I was a Sanders supporter from 2016, as well as 2020. Moreover, I have supported Democrats campaigns for President going back to 1952, as a nine year old, walking door-to-door with my mother. Along the way there were some candidates I loved and others I disagreed with some of their policies. My mother, Mrs. Willie May Gray, who is a lifelong Democrat, at 100, is looking forward to voting from home for Former Vice President Joe Biden and she taught me that “politics is the art of the possible.” For her that meant, “You work as hard as you can for what you want, but when the smoke clears, one must accept the outcome, and try to make ‘gains’ in the situation you find yourself.” She would say, “If the house is dirty, rather than burning it down, help clean it up!!”

The election in November is about for more than any one or group of people getting what they want. The choices before the country are what they are. Progressives that are in this for the long haul, are fighting for “what is possible and best under those circumstances for America,” at this point. Progressives must learn to fight for relevance within the Democratic Party in order to gain real political position in American politics, and because we have a democracy, we live to fight another day.” I have never been a sideline heckler; only those willing to get into the fight can help make things better. That is why I continually tip my hat to the “Black Lives Matter” movement, Tik Tokers, K-poppers and our other children, who have joined the effort to help save American democracy, without being invited to join the fight or given a seat at the table.

For instance, another news story by Starr Bowenbank entitled “So K-Pop Stans Are...Saving Us All!”, in Cosmopolitan Magazine, which begins by outlining how busy K-Popers are. If you are not a K-Popper or Tic-Tokers, you were like Donald Trump and his campaign coming up to his Tulsa boondoggle. Although Trump, is arguably, the most powerful man in the world, with the FBI, Department of Justice, Secret Service, CIA, Homeland Security and countless other law enforcement agencies at his disposal, how was it possible that he was not only outwitted and snookered by teenyboppers, and no Trump-iteers ever had a clue? Trump’s entire campaign was fooled so well by these children, it blew over 5 million bucks on the pipe dream of over 100, 000 nonexistent rabid screaming Trumpty-Dumpies would show up.

After Trump’s encounter with Tic-Tokers and K-poppers in Tulsa, disembarking back in Washington, he showed the world what a whipped puppy looks like. Crushed by America’s children, who saw him for the fraud he truly is, they stuck it to him, like a hot poker. With his fragile ego dragging along behind, like a tail, the smartest man in the world was psyched out, hornswoggle and bamboozle by a gang of kids, many still in junior high, that took this flimflammer, who is continually toting his intelligence, to the cleaners.

The write-up begins by detailing K-pop’s activities, “Busy as in: protecting peaceful protesters in Dallas by flooding the police department’s crowd-sourced surveillance app with footage of K-pop concerts. Or Busy as in: drowning out racist tweets filed under by using that hashtag to post more concert videos.” Given that the current resident of the White House loves to try and bring thousands of people together to show his drawing power, even though we’re in a pandemic, thanks to K-pop and Tic-Tok, American voters know Trump’s genius is only a figment in his imagination.

With tens-of-millions-strong, these groups hit Trump exactly where it hurts most, in Trumpty-dumpty’s pocket, without even leaving home, while making their disapproval known. Wielding social media like Excalibur, their exploits have become legendary in the annals of politics. They have become so efficient and motivated they are planning their own “October surprise,” with their fun-to-swing sword, as a spoof on King Arthur, while killing Trump’s threat not to leave office on January 20th.

Their capper—K-poppers and Tic-Tokers—will have a MAGA-improvement on Tulsa, and will be reminiscent of when they used hashtag spamming, involving an all-night streaming to make BTS’s “Boy With Luv” the most viewed YouTube video ever in a 24-hour period. Or the time they helped the band “Blackpink,” set three Guinness World Records streaming titles. Now, Stans are using these same mimics—spamming, streaming, ticketing—for the greater good, says Tamar Herman, author of BTS: Blood, Sweat & Tears, replicating when the BTS Army raised $1 million to match the band’s donation to Black Lives Matter.

The fans themselves, explains Herman, are a diverse mix of people who are eager to actively combat racism and police brutality, and those who hop on the bandwagon because it seems kind of awesome to be a part of. (And, just guessing here, but maybe, also because it feels pretty damn empowering being able to actually subvert intolerant authorities at a time when so many people feel so powerless.) Children at heart, there are spinoff groups, plotting to be the dagger in Trump’s heart, killing his reelection nightmare looming over America.

If all this seems like the most hilarious 2020 slam bank thing to ever explode upon the political scene, that’s because…it is. As social media and political engagement become inextricably linked, the barrier to the entry level participation in politics has been hacked by America’s children, thankfully this time not by Russia, and that is good news for everyone! All it takes to join this army of tiny-tots, and a new wave of activism is a smartphone or computer, a desire to do something, and a bit of free time. Which, if our screen-time reports are to be believed there’s plenty of it going on right now. When it comes to what K-Popper and Tic-Toker devotees can accomplish, the limit probably does not exist. And let everyone take it as the new type of protest evolving, as we speak, of how democracy can fight for survival in a hyper militarized free society, according to the reporting of Bowenbank.

This is a time for patriots like Major Adam DeMarco, who served as a liaison between the D.C. National Guard and the Park Police at Lafayette Square. He plans to tell the House Natural Resources Committee Tuesday why the disproportionate use of force he witnessed against largely peaceful protesters is “deeply disturbing” to him and other Guardsmen. Major DeMarco believes the “excessive” use of force around Lafayette Park in June, when law enforcement, some on horseback, used rubber bullets, shields and chemical irritants to clear protesters gathered near the White House ahead of President Trump’s controversial photo op at St. John’s Church. The National Guard was not actively involved in the assault on protesters on June 1, but was at the scene to “reinforce and relieve” the Park Police if needed, according to Major DeMarco’s prepared remarks.

Also, he will relay to lawmakers the impact of tear gas, which he felt irritated his eyes and nose during his time at Lafayette Park. Based on his exposure to tear gas both at West Point and in the Army, DeMarco said, effects were “consistent with CS or tear gas.” He later found spent tear gas canisters on the street, but was told by Park Police no tear gas was used that day against protesters, and that the smoke at the scene was “stage smoke.” Having worked in stage production, I can tell readers there is a world of difference between “tear gas” and “stage Smoke” at a concert. DeMarco went on, “From my observation, those demonstrators—our fellow American citizens—were engaged in the peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights. Yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force.”

The Trumpty-dumpty administration has denied any connection between the photo op and the clearing of protesters, as well as denying the use of tear gas on the protesters. Asked whether the Park Police had used tear gas against the protesters on June 1, Acting Park Police Chief Gregory Monahan said the Park Police’s rules of engagement “specifically prohibited the use of CS gas on June 1,” but they did use smoke canisters and “Stinger ball” grenades that explode and disperse rubber pellets.

In response to Monahan’s testimony, Democratic lawmakers connected the clearing of protesters to current controversy over the Trump administration’s response to protests in Portland and Seattle. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., slammed the incident as “motivated by partisan hostility directed from above” against Black Lives Matter protesters. Republican Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, a Trumpty-dumpty who used Trump’s talking points to railed against the hearing, calling the format a “pre-determined narrative” about Lafayette Square, whereas the “reality of the case is much different.” Law enforcement was simply involved in “restoring the peace” on June 1, he said.

The entourage included former Trump Defense Secretary James Mattis, who blasted the administration for clearing protesters and called the event a “bizarre photo op.” Gen. Mark Milley said it was a “mistake to accompany President Donald Trump, after protesters were cleared from Lafayette Square, on his walk to St. John’s Church.” The entourage also included Patrick Semansky, Ivanka representing her defunct “Be Best” initiative, and son-in-law Jared Kushner on the walk to St. John’s. The Interior Department’s inspector general’s office later opened an investigation into the clearing of protesters. He may soon go the way of other IGs that were brave enough to investigate Trump.

“There’s not much going on here in the United States,” mused Seth Meyers, the new guy in for David Letterman—“unless you count all that is basically happening all at once. It’s overwhelming, but it’s also just another week in America in 2020.” In any case, Seth Meyers had some thoughts about all of it, with his new “A Closer Look” on Monday where he showcases Republicans trying to pretend they haven’t botched the pandemic response (It is all Barak Obama’s fault). Seth used Kayleigh McEnany, Donald Trump’s press secretary, for target practice, after her Trumpty-dumpty’ “new hoax” calling it all “cancel culture” by mentioning that kids’ “Paw Patrol” was canceled because of the protests against unlawful police violence, trying to make a point about Trump’s great response to COVID-19. Of course, as usual, she didn’t make sense.
According to Seth, “This is where the Trump administration and the Republican Party are: whining about cartoons and Legos while sending secret police to gas moms and vets, while they send sen. Tom Cotton out,” as their point man. Cotton thought he was being cute, as well as informative, arguing that slavery was a “necessary evil.” Meyers zinged him, “Cotton looks like the Confederate slender man.” Seth Meyers doubled down with, “Trump Is ‘Obsessed with proving to everyone that his brain works,’” sometimes. If you doubt this just wait until the so-called “Presidential Debates,” now that would be hilarious, if it wasn’t so tragic.

However, Trevor Noah brought the house down when he hung Tom Cotton out like a confederate flag, flapping in the wind, ripping him for his remarks, calling slavery a “NECESSARY EVIL.” A month ago Tom Cotton denounced a New York Times op-ed, saying “it is time for the U.S. government to squash protests against systemic racism, police brutality and use of the military,” the Arkansas senator ignited even more controversy with his explanation. For those that are unaware, “In an interview on Sunday, Cotton told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that a proposed school curriculum based on the New York Times’s 1619 Project was ‘left-wing propaganda’ and ‘revisionist history at its worst,’ because it postulates that ‘slavery is inextricably tied to the founding of America.’”

Trevor Noah could be heard all the way to Atlanta screaming “Hooold up!!! Hooooold up!!!” Monday night, during an episode of The Daily Show. Trevor skewered Tom, “So Senator Cotton thinks this curriculum is racially divisive? You know what’s really racially divisive, Slavery? This guy acts like racial division didn’t exist until the suggestion slavery be taught in school.” Cotton’s actual quote is, “We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country. As the founding fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.” “BULL!!!!!” Cotton must thing slavery’s descendants do not still suffer from the same kind of mental impairment Donald Trump is presently showing, except he is white, and black people got theirs doing slavery.

“Seriously, these guys just keep coming up with winners,” Meyers continued. “I mean, what’s next? Is Trump gonna say something nice about his partner in crime, they chased teenage girls, an alleged s*x trafficker and predator, who after his arrest by the FBI, allegedly committed su***de and his other alleged partner in crime, now sits in jail awaiting trial. Tune in next week for the next exciting episode of “As the White House Turns!” starring “Donald Trump and his Little Rascals!!!” Ho! Hold up!! By the way, maybe they can get Nina Turner for that show, as a foil, since she loves doing “standup” and cracking jokes. She would fit right in!!!