We had some heat exhaustion on computers running the site that us down for a few days. It is all cool now. Weather blows, but we keep going.

From the open publishing newswire: Below are our comments on four Directives posted for review in late June
<  http://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/59757>.

Our comments on the Force-related Directives are pending, but we have asked for more time on those and hope our request will be granted. We once again had to spend considerable time reviewing these Directives to see what was changed, made all the more challenging by the fact that "First Universal Review" are posted as text and "Second Universal Review" are posted as PDFs, making conversion to text and comparison challenging to say the least.

From the open publishing newswire: We are children of darkness and/or victims of state failure and market failure. Shriveling the financial sector and expanding the public sector are lessons from the 2008 financial meltdown. All personal and corporate success is based on state investments in schools, libraries, hospitals, roads, airwaves, food safety, and water quality. This letter was sent on July 21, 2017 with no response.

Dear Mayor Wheeler and Portland Commissioners,
Someone on Oregonlive.com said Portland rents have doubled in the last 5 years. To me, this is prima facia evidence we are children of darkness. Is there a right to turn housing into a speculative pot of gold? [...]

The state should protect the social peace. Nevertheless, the neoliberal regime only protects owners and capital. I am translating a German article from Freitag.de that grapples with the rising rents in Berlin and ways out of the crisis.

From the open publishing newswire: Tuesday afternoon, in downtown Portland, OR, a man* was violently attacked by a white supremacist. The story originally broke on social media with a photo of the hospitalized man, appearing to be in serious condition with visible bruising. The man was kept in ICU until Wednesday. [...]

In our interview, he described coming across a man shouting racist and classist slurs at some houseless people of color, near Union Station. When he intervened, asking the man to stop and leave them alone, the man viciously attacked him with a 2 inch thick, 3 foot long, steel pole. [...]

Joey Gibson's next rally and march is planned to be held June 30 at the Salmon Street Fountains near the Blues Festival from 6-8pm. Local anti-racist organization, Rose City Antifa, has publicly called for a counter-presence from 4-8pm in the same location and a call-in campaign to speak with Joey Gibson's employer: Summa North.

Reportback:  http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2017/07/434894.shtml

From the open publishing newswire: This project of the "Unity Through Reparations" campaign will feature speaker Gazi Kodzo of the African People's Socialist Party! Tune in to learn why it is crucial for LGBT white people to unite in principled solidarity with Black Power and African liberation! You can watch via livestream or register @ Anymeeting: tinyurl.com/NoPrideInGenocide

 link to www.uhurusolidarity.org

From the open publishing newswire: Portland, OR, June 28, 2017-- Portland Copwatch, a civilian group promoting police accountability, today accused the Portland Police of under-reporting information about Use of Force and stops of pedestrians.

Under the Settlement Agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the Bureau puts out quarterly statistics on Use of Force. The data for October-December 2016, released back in April, should include police uses of force at the protest against the police "union" contract at City Hall on October 12 as well as multiple protests following the election in November. Specifically, the report says [...]

From the open publishing newswire: Show your solidarity with refugees & send Ramadan food packages to Syrian & Palestinian families. A full-course dinner will be served and ANERA's Director of Donor Development, Hani Almadhoun, will be speaking about the current refugee crisis in Lebanon and conditions in Gaza and the West Bank [...]

TICKETS & INFO  http://www.anera.org/portland

Join ANERA at Taborspace in Portland, OR, for a #RamadanSolidarity Iftar!

From the open publishing newswire: Upstander Festival today noon to 5pm
Portland Art Museum Mark Building
1119 SW Park Ave
FREE EVENT
5/27/17


Art - Music - Speeches

Information video interview with organizer Teresa
 https://youtu.be/snQVfO6KHzo

From the open publishing newswire: A weekly 30 minute review of international news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio and the internet. With times, frequencies, and websites for listening at home. 3 files- Highest quality broadcast, regular broadcast, and slow-modem streaming. NHK Japan, Radio Havana Cuba, Sputnik Radio, and Spanish National Radio.

The latest Shortwave Report (May 12) is up at the website  http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml in 3 forms- (new) HIGHEST QUALITY (160kb)(33MB), broadcast quality (13MB), and quickdownload or streaming form (6MB) (28:59)

Dan Roberts
Shortwave Report-
www.outfarpress.com
YouthSpeaksOut!-
www.youthspeaksout.net

From the open publishing newswire: rate increases for water and sewage.

Dear Members of the City Council,

On Thursday afternoon about 1400 you will be considering rate increases and we, Individuals For Justice will oppose all three items, 519, 520, and 521.

I am enclosing a statement by a citizen in arms who sees these rate increases as the height of arrogance and we concur with her assessment. We fully expect you to pass these ill-thought out rate increases but will go on record opposing all three so you cannot claim that no one objected. We objected to your ill-thought out move to cover the reservoirs and you spent hundreds of millions of dollars and could have left our water supply alone, due to the EPA being stopped by the mad-man in the WH.

We demand an outside audit before any more of our money is spent on these projects that only help developers and construction corporations.

From the open publishing newswire: Here is some picture[s] and video footage from Mayday in Portland Oregon

Video on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/9I2hbAy0elI (1 hour 19 minutes)
Pictures on Tumblr:  https://portlandmayday2017.tumblr.com/

====================

A related post & discussion on black spiders can be found here:
 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2017/05/434678.shtml?discuss

And few more pictures on this post:
 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2017/04/434646.shtml?discuss#450875

From the open publishing newswire: The event began with two speeches, both at first extolling the importance of free speech and then complaining how those who oppose their ideology are interfering with theirs. There was a large of amount of that going on, as one can hear on the video.
Much emphasis was put on taking the high road and refusing to interact with counter protesters, further claiming that the other side is afraid to engage in honest debate with them.

 https://youtu.be/kIrt_oPkkrc [video link]

Though at first making valid points about the importance of the First Amendment, the first speaker rapidly descended into name calling, personal attacks on opposing ideologies and self righteous Nationalistic flag waving. Communists and Antifa were singled out to the general applause of the crowd.

Some might believe that uploading the content of their speeches is providing them with a platform to spread their mistaken and delusional ideas. This is a valid point, but I believe that their platform is being shaped and polished, slowing learning how to engage the general public with ideas and images that paint them more favorably.

They are beginning to use the violence and all first amendment interference against them to their advantage. This mechanism will be difficult to counteract without people hearing and understanding the threat from what seems like common sense arguments and accusations. [...]

From the open publishing newswire: Join the Portland May Day Coalition to rally and march in unity and solidarity with immigrant workers and communities.

Meet at 12pm,

Rally at 2pm,

March at 3pm.

Portland Farmer's Market - Shemanski Park, 1010 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR 97205, USA

From the open publishing newswire: An anti-capitalist march is set to take place here on Monday May 1st. Open to the public, ALL are welcome except: police goons, Nazi/Alt-Right boot-lickers, and agent provocateurs. Meet-up is scheduled to take place at Shemanski Park in SW Portland at 1:00pm. This is a more radical march than the city-sanctioned permitted one which is scheduled for 12:00pm that day, same location.

Attendees of the anti-capitalist march are encouraged to wear all black and mask up. While the Portland Police Gestapo will likely provide friendly and courteous escort service for the permitted march (much as they did for the Women's March back in January), a wholly different response is expected for the more radical one. Police abuses and excesses are guaranteed. [...]