Portland is not a war zone

My social media feed keeps telling me that it is mostly quiet on the Portland front.

The short videos I get are reassuring in their similarity. Someone points a camera at a quiet intersection, at a park, at storefronts, or at a schoolyard with children playing. It is all quiet. All normal city life.

The videos go one of two ways. Sometimes the narrator states flatly that nothing bad is happening -- See? No war here, Mr. Trump. Other times the narrator is ironic, shoving the Trump/Fox story back at them, with visuals that show a peaceful city at leisure while the narration uses words like "chaos," "rubble," and "war-torn." 

"It's like living in hell."

A frequent theme is teasing Portland for its reputation as a place now run by laid back hippies and their children and grandchildren, a city still steeped in Age of Aquarius consciousness. Like this:

Today's guest post expresses a theme of this blog, that we are all eyewitnesses to history as it is being made, and that each American's observations have value in explaining this moment. We are all up close. 

Guest Post by an Oregon parent

We have all undoubtedly heard by now that Donald Trump has announced plans to deploy troops to "war ravaged" Portland. (Apparently even the Pentagon was caught by surprise - Trump did not bother to notify our military leaders of these plans).

I have been been reading Peter's blog for years, and have been tempted many times to post comments. I generally don't respect those who aren't courageous enough to identify themselves, but I need to remain anonymous because I am a local professional who does business with many local governments. An unfortunate (and very un-American) reality of the current political situation in this country is the heightened need to keep our mouths shut in order to avoid negative repercussions at work, up to and including even getting fired, for stating political opinions that MAGA doesn't like (or even stating facts that MAGA doesn't agree with!).

Getting back to this latest tomfoolery from Trump - I was just in Portland on Thursday and Friday, delivering one of my children to college (in downtown Portland).

There was no unrest in Portland, no protests, just the usual loveliness and quirkiness of Portland, one of the best cities in the world.

Sure, there were quite a few homeless people, some trash, the occasional odor of urine. Just like you will see in every city in this country (and in many other countries as well). My spouse noted that Portland was the cleanest and most attractive that they have seen it in years.

It is obvious to all but the most MAGA-brainwashed among us that Trump's deployment of military troops into our cities is at best, political theater, and at worst, an effort to bait opponents into becoming violent and thereby giving Trump an excuse to rachet things up even more.

One of my children is in the Oregon National Guard, and is concerned that they may be called up on farcical orders to "protect" Portland. They just returned from a year-long deployment in the Middle East, and now they may be ordered to patrol the streets of Portland?? This is unbelievable. And very bad for troop morale. My child tells me that the Guard is having trouble recruiting new members - not surprising given how the National Guard are being used as political pawns.

I feel like this is a "laugh so you don't cry" moment, and people's reactions on social media to Trump's announcement are providing a good dose of humor. 

"Portland? The place with therapy llamas at the airport?" quipped one social media poster.

Another funny comment: "Portland Farmers Market was absolutely terrifying this morning. I was almost attacked by a bin of ornamental squash!"

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Trump: "Another targeted attack on Christians."

Trump immediately reacted to Sunday morning's tragic shooting and arson at a Michigan church.  

The church shooting fit the "we"-are-under-attack-by-"them" frame that justifies his targeting people and institutions he calls "the radical left." 

Trump wrote:

This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America. 

Trump has a go-to response to newsworthy events of violence. He acts quickly to seize the first impression. He condemns the act and blames it on his political opponents, describing it as part of an organized political movement with leaders, funders, social media influencers, public interest groups, the media, and voters, i.e. Democrats. Trump presents himself as representing and defending the normal, regular White Christians, i.e., real Americans.

It is a simple, clear frame: Trump-the-hero fighting a murderous internal enemy.

Trump did this with his immediate description of the assassin of Charlie Kirk. Blame first. Get facts later. Once the first impression is established, subsequent facts which contradict that impression simply muddle and create forgettable nuance. Facts barely matter, and they can be explained away or massaged into the established narrative. 

We don't know the motivations of the apparent shooter, and in any case it is almost certainly inaccurate to generalize him into some greater identity group and to presume his actions were part of some greater policy agenda.  But that is what Trump did.

Apparent shooter: Thomas Jacob Sanford. Trump 2020 Make Liberals Cry Again.

The apparent attacker of the Latter-day Saints church in Michigan was Thomas Sanford, a 40-year-old White native-born male Marine veteran. His house had a 2020 Trump/Pence sign, visible in a Google map image. He was photographed in 2019 wearing a Trump campaign shirt. Sanford was a hunter. He drove a Chevrolet Silverado pickup when he rammed it into the church and set fire to it.

I watched White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on Fox this morning as I made coffee. She said Christians are under attack by crazy radicals and that Trump is on the job fighting to protect us from this evil. The Fox chyron at the bottom of the screen put in quotes Trump's "Targeted Attack" on Christians, but failed to mention the now well-established information that Sanford displayed Trump campaign material. 

I don't blame Republicans, Marine veterans, White men, native-born men, hunters, or Silverado owners for the shooting. If Thomas Sanford did it, I presume he did it without the support of any of those groups. I blame Sanford.

But Democrats need to understand the asymmetry in the message war. Trump understands and exploits the media environment of this moment in a way that Democrats do not. Trump has a simple story he is telling, and he uses these events to illustrate this story:

Good American Christians are under attack, so very strong measures are necessary to protect us from radical leftist, anti-Christian, antifa, trans-loving, communist murderers, funded by the likes of George Soros. Donald Trump is protecting you. Democrats do not protect you because Democrats agree with those enemies of good Americans. 

Democrats are frustrated by how wrong and unfair that story is. The Democrats' story is about how wrong and dangerous Trump is for telling those lies and for his autocratic response to them. In both stories, Trump is the main character and the center of attention -- the star of the American adventure.

Democratic leaders need to emerge who will tell a story that is at least as clear and vivid as the one Trump tells. 

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Easy Sunday: Portland, "Don't take the bait."

Oregon Democrats wised up. 

Five years ago Portland Democrats failed to keep order. The world noticed.

This time they know what to do.

Here is U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley:

Trump is sending troops to Portland with the goal of quote 'doing a number' on the city. And we know what this means. He wants to stoke fear and chaos and trigger violent interactions and riots to justify expanded authoritarian control.    

Let's not take the bait.

Portland is peaceful and strong and we will take care of each other.

Click

Here is Governor Tina Kotek:

I have a message for Oregonians. Let's not take the bait. Let's not respond to what the president is trying to do. We have to raise our voices, absolutely peacefully, to do the things that we believe in. But I also want to say that property damage or violence of any kind will get us nowhere and will not be tolerated. If you want to stand in opposition to the Trump administration I would ask that you lean into supporting your community helping people, making things better here, because that's who we are as Oregonians.

Click

The real test will come this week. Trump's ICE people can be provocateurs by how they arrest people. That is the bait. I expect that. Some willful people will take that bait and do violent show-off things, e.g. set fire to a parked car, which is exactly the story Trump and Fox News want to tell. The question is whether the Portland police will shut violence down immediately and look professional while they do it. If they do so, it is a huge win for America. 

Democrats have a job to do: Demonstrate that they can maintain a safe and orderly city.

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Covering up Epstein to protect Trump

U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (R- OR) said he is not trying to protect Trump on the Epstein matter.

Wednesday, Sept 24, 2025

He told my Rotary group that he opposes U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie's "discharge petition" to force a U.S. House vote on releasing the federal investigation files on convicted sex offender and financier Jeffery Epstein.

Bentz said he opposes this because House Republicans have an even better plan, one that reveals even more Epstein material on Trump and others.

That doesn't pass the smell test.

Trump and the Justice Department say there is nothing to see here. Forget it. Quit asking questions. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson went so far as to abruptly adjourn Congress to stop a vote to open up the Epstein files. In this context it doesn't seem remotely plausible that the GOP is in favor of more disclosure.

Are there images and video of Donald Trump having sexual relations with 14-year-olds? Massie says he thinks Trump is innocent of that, and that the files will reveal crimes of that sort by other rich and powerful men. Not Trump. But Trump's strenuous efforts to keep the files secret make Americans like guest post author Rick Millward suspicious.

Millward is a singer, songwriter, and music producer, now living in Medford, Oregon after having worked in Silicon Valley and Nashville. I consider him representative of the many millions of people whose curiosity has been aroused by the Epstein files. His guest post raises questions.  Some things don't make sense.

Cliff Bentz's position that Republicans are actually pushing for more disclosure is one more suspicious thing that flies in the face of what Millward can see with his own eyes.

Millward suggests that the coverup continues because sensitive people want to avert their eyes. These crimes are too terrible to contemplate. Maybe so. I suspect a different reason. My guess is that the files make Trump, or someone very close to Trump, look bad.

Millward

Guest Post by Rick Millward

Rep. Massie's “Epstein 20”

Kentucky GOP Congressman Thomas Massie has been leading the effort in the House to release the “Epstein Files”. Recently he referred to 20 men that are allegedly in them:

1 A royal prince
2 A rock star
3 A magician
4  Billionaire
5  Billionaire
6  Billionaire
7  Billionaire
8  Billionaire
9  Canadian Billionaire
10  A high-profile individual in the music industry
11  A very prominent banker
12  A high-profile government official
13  A high-profile former politician
14  The owner of a car company in Italy
15  Hollywood producer worth hundreds of millions of dollars
16  ??
17  ??
18  ??
19  ??
20  ??
No names yet, so we are playing a guessing game with questions that may be answered in the DOJ files on the Epstein investigation. 

There may be some information at the DOJ, but there’s also a very real possibility that these documents are gone. Shredded, burn-bagged. I have this suspicion because it’s entirely plausible that one of the reasons, maybe the biggest one, that the files are being suppressed is that investigators were waved off at the beginning. Maybe the names are there, but no other facts. When “Mr. X” showed up at the island, no more questions were asked. If this is true, releasing the “files” would reveal that no action was taken beyond an innocuous mention.

Without facts, these names escape any connection to crimes. And if there was no investigation, there would be no facts. This speculation leaves us with wondering if any agents might be able to shed some light on what actually happened. Were they told not to look into specific events?

Another weird, suspicious thing: no leaks, no whistle blowers.

It’s tight. This is not normal. We live in a society that has information pouring out of every orifice. Usually, when a government department is holding back information in the public interest, some brave and principled soul calls a journalist. Not here. Not yet. This suggests that whatever is being hidden is terrible and might possibly shake the foundations of power here and elsewhere, or maybe just embarrass some A-listers. Every category on this list contains a plethora of possibilities. 

Despite a continuing effort to distract and minimize it, the Epstein scandal is growing, but it still does not dominate public discourse. I think it’s because it’s too terrible to contemplate. Moral and empathetic people shy away, deny its importance to our collective conscience. I understand this. It’s hard. Children were sexually abused by rich and powerful men. We can’t allow ourselves to look away. They need to be held accountable to redeem our own culpability.

 

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Global is retro. It is also alive and well.

"I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to buy the world a Coke
And keep it company
That's the real thing".
          Coke ad, "Buy the world a Coke," Hilltop commercial, 1971

 

"We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives"
     By the supergroup Food Aid for Africa: "We are the World," 1985

 

"Global" used to be a good word. 

Now "global" is a bad word in some circles, the supposed cause of misery and national failure.

At the United Nations this week, Trump spoke at length about immigration and racial/ethnic mixing:

If you don't stop people that you've never seen before, that you have nothing in common with, your country is going to fail. I'm the President of the United States, but I worry about Europe. I love Europe. I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer. You're doing it because you want to be nice, you want to be politically correct and you're destroying your heritage.

I have a different view. Immigration is American heritage. President Trump is riding a wave of sentiment about immigration, and we are at full tide. It is hard to weigh in against the tide, but in the longer view, I recognize that the waves come and go. Trump is laboring under a misunderstanding. The true American Volk has always been a lumpy melting pot undergoing change. 

America has never been an imagined first "real" American of a White Protestant Christian from northwest Europe. From the very beginning, the two groups of religious dissidents in Massachusetts, the "Pilgrims" in Plymouth arriving in 1620, and the "Puritans" who started coming to Boston in 1630 -- 40 miles apart --were in severe disagreement about how best to separate from or purify the church. When our country started in the 1770s, there were Protestants from England in Massachusetts; Germans and Quakers in Pennsylvania; the Dutch in New York; Roman Catholics in Maryland; Blacks imported from western Africa, living in slavery; and the indigenous people already here, sometimes in and sometimes outside the polity. The Constitution and Bill of Rights linked freedom and tolerance for minority rights so that the different people in different regions could live together in a single nation. 

That early nation was changed over the centuries by waves of immigrants from different places. My mother's people came from Greece 120 years ago. My wife's family came from China 70 years ago. The people who help me tend my grapes came from Mexico, here legally, arriving in the past 20 years.

Let me recommend once again the Medford Multicultural Fair. It celebrates that American heritage. It is a feel-good gathering of music, dancing, home-country costumes, booths, ethnic food trucks, and activities for kids. It is at Medford's Pear Blossom Park next to the Lithia Building from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday.

Global is retro but it is current, too. Global is all-American.

Annual event. This from 2023

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Cringe

Trump's speech to the UN this week was totally cringe.

Young people use the word to mean something so bad, weird, and tasteless that you want to cringe upon witnessing it.

There was method in the cringe.

You can watch the speech or read a transcript here: https://www.rev.com/transcripts/trump-speaks-at-un

Trump addressed the UN and told preposterous self-serving lies. He said that he ended wars. He said he brought instant prosperity. He said he should have gotten a Nobel Prize and that he should have gotten the contract to refurbish the UN building. Your countries are terrible, he said, and our country used to be terrible but within weeks after he had returned to office that reversed, and that now things are great. He repeatedly derided his predecessor as president. He told the audience that they were fools and suckers for thinking wind and solar were useful technologies, but that the U.S. knew better. He told the audience they were fools and suckers for allowing immigrants into their countries. He told the audience he had contempt for the mayor of London, a Muslim. He told the audience they had taken advantage of the U.S. but that is over because he will tariff who he wants, bomb ships at sea when he wants, and carry out diplomacy with people he personally likes. So be likable.

He sounded like a rude, vainglorious, maniacal buffoon. World leaders are taking this all in and re-calibrating what it all means. So must Americans.

Trump had a meta message to communicate. He gave the finger to the world. 

Are other countries offended? He doesn't care. Do other countries think he is wrong about climate? He doesn't care. Is he destroying long-term alliances and trade relationships? He doesn't care.

Trump's middle finger sent a message to Western democracies. Get control of immigration or your voters will get desperate enough to elect a madman. 

Trump's middle finger demonstrates the power of the incumbent fossil fuel industry. That industry won't give way easily nor will it  gracefully participate in a transition. It will elect a Trump in self protection.

Trump's middle finger demonstrates that Pax Americana is over. We aren't a "good citizen of the world." We are taking care of Number One.

Trump's middle finger demonstrates that the USA has new freedom of action, and will use it. There is no need to be consistent, no need to honor old agreements. World War II is over. The Cold War is over. The UN, the Geneva Convention rules, and the dollar as reserve currency, and American support for Israel now must prove their value to America all over again. 

Trump -- for better or worse -- pushed "reset." Trump had a cringe-worthy speech. He did it on purpose to send a message. It is a new era for America and the world.

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Crosscurrents on free speech in America

Irony is not dead.

Google bent to pressure from Biden to suppress Covid misinformation. Now it repents. Republicans celebrate.

ABC/Disney bent to pressure from Trump to suppress Jimmy Kimmel. Now it reverses itself. Trump is furious.

I woke up this morning to news on Fox that Google "finally came clean," as the Fox host put it. He said Google admitted that the Biden administration had urged them to suppress and de-platform certain content in 2021.

Google had taken down content on YouTube that presented what the Biden administration, plus the majority of medical and public health officials, thought was Covid-related misinformation. It blocked some material it considered dangerous and false that supported the January 6 insurrection.  After some behind the scenes urging by the Biden administration it also was slow to publish information about the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop.

We don't do that anymore, Google wrote the House Judiciary Committee.

Google is making nice with Trump and Republicans. Its general counsel signed an obsequious five-page letter saying:

The company appreciates the accountability from the House Judiciary Committee -- led by Chairman Jim Jordan -- and its critical role in advancing the core American value of freedom of expression.

The Company has a commitment to freedom of expression. This commitment is unwavering and will not bend to political pressure.

This is a "win" for Republicans who felt abused by YouTube having suppressed "alternative facts" contrary to the "so-called science" of establishment experts.

Alphabet, the parent of Google and YouTube, agreed to end nearly all content moderation. If there was inaccurate content, it would be up to fellow users to "add notes to provide relevant, timely, and understandable context." This is an elegant and cynical approach for Google. It off-loads responsibility for dangerous misinformation; content flame wars increase viewer engagement and therefore YouTube's value to advertisers; it wraps the solution in the All-American value of free speech; and it pleases the now-dominant political party. 

Jim Jordon said on Fox that this is a victory for free speech. Controversial people have a right to be heard.

Meanwhile -- simultaneously -- a second free speech issue is playing out. Jimmy Kimmel is back on ABC, although he is conspicuously absent from Sinclair and Nexstar affiliates. Kimmel thanked Charlie Kirk's widow for "the very beautiful moment" of her words of forgiveness to the shooter. He thanked ABC, which for years has "defended my right to poke fun at our leaders and to advocate for subjects that I think are important."

But the theme of the day is contradiction, not free speech. Within the hour, switching my kitchen TV to CNN, I learned that Trump is furious that ABC reinstated Kimmel. He wants Kimmel deplatformed. He wrote on Truth Social that he will "test ABC out on this" and hopes for another lucrative settlement.

My kitchen TV

Trump wrote:

I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.

He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings. 

 

"First you say you will and then you won't

Then you say you do and then you don't."

     Charlie Shavers, "Undecided," 1938, popularized by Ella Fitzgerald, 1939

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Jimmy Kimmel is back

     "Trump is not the first president to get into a pissing match with a celebrity. I will never forgive Obama for taunting Trump into running for president, with Obama's comedian act at the White House Correspondents dinner."

     "Ayla," an anonymous commenter to this blog

I had never watched more than a couple of minutes of "Celebrity Apprentice," but I knew the show had an audience. I had seen the movie "Home Alone 2" with the cameo by Donald Trump, and saw that he had a brand as a New York City tycoon. He entered my consciousness, mostly as a frequent guest on Fox News arguing that Barack Obama's birth paperwork in Hawaii was fraudulent.

Obama humiliated him at the White House Correspondents event. Trump was formidable and troublesome enough that Obama wanted to make seem ridiculous, and did so. Obama hit him with a sledgehammer of ridicule.

Trump didn't slink away. Trump continued to go onto Fox saying Obama was a fraud. I saw Trump's celebrity translate into direct electoral advantage on a late-September evening in Rochester, New Hampshire. I attended my first Trump rally.

Other Republicans got small crowds. Trump got several thousand people to his event. 

"Ayla" makes a good point. Obama erred. He elevated Trump by validating his importance, and likely motivated him to extract payback. Trump had power: He commanded an audience. Being attacked by a president didn't diminish that power. Trump had a brand. 

Jimmy Kimmel has that same power. Trump and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr made the same mistake Obama made. They hit Kimmel with a sledgehammer, which made Kimmel bigger than before, and a sympathetic, even heroic, figure. Trump and Carr were showing off. See how powerful we are! The mob-boss "easy-way-or-hard-way" language framed the issue as illegitimate power targeting an abused hero. It was too much, too raw.  

Democrats have been saddened -- indeed disgusted -- by Congress' failure to preserve its Constitutional power to make laws, determine taxes, and control spending. Democrats are powerless; Republicans are compliant. James Madison would weep.

The courts are slowing Trump at the district and appellate level, but those same lawsuits are heard by a Supreme Court that lets unconstitutional executive actions stand until, in the fullness of judicial slow-motion time, or until a Democrat is back in the White House, it will consider putting checks on presidential power.

The Constitution and laws turn out to be pieces of paper, having power only if people insist on exercising them. Trump says that he represents the true and legitimate will of the people, and institutions are consenting to this.

Kimmel's return to TV is a very positive event. It marks a boundary, a limit on Trump. The people said "no," so ABC/Disney said no. Kimmel commands an audience. A celebrity turns a confrontation into one between two competing entities, two competing brands. YouGov asked Americans if they approved of ABC/Disney pulling Kimmel off the air under pressure from Trump. Americans disapproved. 

This is a democracy. It is OK for Democrats to reflect popular values and policies. The job of Democratic activists is to make their policy goals popular, not to work to elect politicians who win hard races despite advocating policies the public dislikes. That approach got Trump elected. The ultimate power is the public will. We see that institutions fail in the face of a strong-willed autocrat. But institutions do resist pressure when they see the people demand it. ABC/Disney isn't responding to a notion of right and wrong, or to the principle of "free speech." They responded to its sense of the public will. 

Kimmel is a tiny victory, but we can learn from it.

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The Big Chill.

     "Charlie Kirk. . .was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent. And I don’t want the best for them." 
       President Trump at Charlie Kirk memorial service

I believe the big news in America is the invisible change happening amid the daily news drama.  A big chill is underway.

People across the U.S. are recalibrating what they can do in this political environment. What they can say. What they must not do. How to stay under the radar.

Trump moved the goalposts. The consequences for getting this wrong are huge.

We got back-to-back messages from Trump in the past two days. The speech at Charlie Kirk's service came right after a Truth Social post that was a direct message to Attorney General Pam Bondi. 

“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’"

He told her he wanted indictments and prosecutions. Trump complained that U.S. Attorney Erik Seibert found insufficient evidence to indict Leticia James on mortgage fraud charges. Trump called him a "woke RINO." Trump said, "I fired him, and there is a GREAT CASE." Trump concluded with "JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! "

The big chill affects everyone.

    -- Immigrants, even ones who have lived and worked here for  years

    -- The media, and not just opinion writers.

    -- Politicians, even Republicans

    -- Businesses -- every single one.  

    -- Every person who has ever contributed to a campaign, signed a petition, has their name on a political sign-up list, or posted on social media.

    -- Even, and maybe especially, members of Trump's Cabinet and top appointees. They must not be less loyal or obedient than someone in the next office.

Trump has demonstrated that old boundaries don't apply. Doing what was normal, ethical, and required in 2024 may make you a target in 2025. And the consequences are meaningful; you can be fired, defunded, or prosecuted. 

Prudent people are seeking safe harbor. Having been exactly legal under the old rules is not a defense. The rules changed.  And Trump hates his opponents.

Surely some people can relax. American-born citizens have the protection of the law. Right? But Trump suggested that sometimes-critic Rosie O'Donnell, a U.S. citizen born in New York, might have her U.S. citizenship taken away.  She made an error. She came to Trump's attention.

Erik Seibert was a Republican in good standing, a Trump supporter. He sought a way to prosecute Leticia James and came up empty. That wasn't a defense. It was the error.

The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, ABC, NBC, CBS, the Des Moines Register, and many others came to Trump's attention. They did journalism. That was the error. 

People are considering where to find safe harbor in the new America. It requires a calculation of duty versus prudence.  Trump isn't hard to understand. Getting along in a Trump world isn't easy, but it is simple: Don't anger or disappoint Trump. Anticipate his wishes. If you can do it without totally abandoning your principles, go along. Obey in advance.

He only hates his enemies. He rewards his friends, especially generous ones. Be a friend.

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Easy Sunday: 32nd Annual MultiCultural Fair next Saturday

Celebrating America's diversity isn't unAmerican.

Cultural diversity is American.

Remember: It's our nation's motto: E pluribus unum. Out of many, one. 

The 32nd annual Greater Medford MultiCultural Fair will take place next Saturday, September 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It will be at Pear Blossom Park on Bartlett Street in Medford, next to the Lithia Building.

It's a feel-good, easy-going, colorful, party-atmosphere outdoor event. People sing and dance on stage. Kids wander around. Food trucks. Booths from local groups. 

When the City of Medford sanctioned the MultiCultural Commission and its headline event, the MultiCultural Fair, 32 years ago there was no special political implication. There was a sense of pride that Medford was "growing up," getting big enough to have some diversity. 

The MultiCultural Fair continues as a patriotic celebration. There are American flags, the pledge of allegiance, and a celebration of America as a place where people from different lands came together. I attend every year. My wife, Debra Lee, is founder of the event, and in recent years our son, Dillon, has helped organize it. They are doing so again this year. 

Below are images from last year:   

Song and dance:

Booths from organizations:

A little bit of politics. Democrats had a booth last year, with a cut-out image of President Trump, dressed in a shirt the real Trump would not be wearing:

A booth where people were given supplies to paint a tile to take home. It is a coaster for my coffee cup. This booth is returning this year.

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Oops, that worked TOO well.

Wait! 

The FCC did NOT force ABC to cancel Jimmy Kimmel.

It just looks like a shakedown. It wasn't.

Oops. 

FCC chairman Brendan Carr is backtracking. ABC caved too quickly to Carr's threats. 

Trump announced the plan:

[Networks] give me wholly bad publicity, press. They're getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.

Carr used mob-boss language in a threat to the networks: 

“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. . . .These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

It was a credible threat. Trump can be cruel and decisive, cutting health grants to research hospitals, food to starving children, firing employees who aren't personally loyal. 

Mafia warning

At first, Carr misunderstood the danger of a quick win. He was delighted that ABC was scared into compliance. It took a day for him realize the error. They needed ABC to get the hint that there was a new sheriff in town, to wait a moment to absorb the new reality, not to come out with their hands up. He needed it to look like it was their idea to cancel Kimmel. Obey in advance, not under duress.

Even Republicans were unsettled, and Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas dared to disappoint Trump, a rare occurrence..

Trump sent a warning shot back at Cruz: 

 I think Brendan Carr is a great American patriot. So I disagree with Ted Cruz on that.

Carr is backtracking and trying to change his story. He now claims ABC was bowing to market pressure from affiliate stations owned by Sinclair and Nexstar. 

It is hard to change a story once it is embedded in the public mind, partly because Trump is still sounding triumphant and is calling for more cancellations. Trump's allies in the Rupert Murdoch media aren't helping change the story. The Wall Street Journal is minimizing the Trump/Carr move, calling it turnabout for Democrats. Minimization is the wrong approach. Minimization just confirms that the government did, in fact, threaten ABC. 

First impressions matter. Trump has a brand. Mr. Tough guy. Menacing. Cruel. Get things done, quick and dirty. The Trump-bullied-ABC story fits that brand. Saying that ABC responded primarily to pressure from affiliates may well be factually true, but it contradicts 10 years of Trump branding and the vivid language Trump and Carr used.

This event is another brick in the foundation of Trump cultural power. Businesses, governments, and universities are tiptoeing, feeling the chill. They are running their language and actions through a filter to see if they might draw the ire of Trump or MAGA crowds. They want to avoid "the hard way." They are making adjustments. People are reviewing their social media posts. Some things get you fired. It used to be that it was forbidden to praise Hitler or say you were OK with Russia invading Europe. Now it is dangerous to criticize Charlie Kirk or Trump.

 RV Times link.

Every action brings a reaction. This may backfire on Trump. He has added a feature to his brand: Trump the thin-skinned censor. The easiest target of humor is the powerful person who demands flattery. We love the little girl who says the emperor has no clothes. We tolerate leaders because we can laugh at their foibles.

Thin-skinned censorship is a point of vulnerability for Trump. Democratic leaders tolerate jokes. Not autocrats. Autocrats want people to fear them. If he continues demanding flattery and punishing critics, Trump will give Democrats an opening.

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