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Good Morning, Portland! The temp is tickin' up to 88 degrees today (tomorrow is 91), so considering fucking off early. How many beautiful swimming days do we have left? Let's hit the nudes š!
IN LOCAL NEWS:
ā¢ Saturday saw Portland in its truest form as the city played host to a downtown music festival and a World Naked Bike Ride simultaneously. Punk and new wave legends marked the return of Project Pabst. The two-day music fest featured headliners Iggy Pop (Saturday) and Death Cab For Cutie (Sunday), and included notable sets from DEVO, and Japanese Breakfast. Saturday's lineup was a heavily punk-infused soundscape that ended with a blistering set from Iggy Pop, who still refuses to wear a shirt on stage and still summons feral energy from a crowd of street walkin' cheetahs. Project Pabst also seems to be among the summertime events shifting public opinion about downtown Portland, at least according to a few festival attendees that KATU interviewed. Music editor Nolan Parker and teamĀ captured the magic of day one, and the photos are šÆ.Ā
ā¢ In the latest instance of "hey wait, isn't that blatant discrimination?ā The Oregonian reports St. Agatha Catholic School in SE Portland rescinded the enrollment of a child whose parents are gay. The move has angered other families at the school and the broader community. According to the reporting, the parents were called to a meeting with school leaders in late June, to discuss why the couple wanted their child to go to a Catholic school and the āmission and valuesā that guide the private school. When the parents arrived, they got a check refunding their registration fees. The news outlet got no answers from the school or its affiliated church, and didnāt get anywhere with the Archdiocese of Portland, noting the Rev. Father Luan Tran āreferred all questions to the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education at the Archdiocese of Portland, which is in the midst of a concerted effort to refocus on an evangelical mission for the 41 Catholic schools it oversees from Portland to Medford.ā
ā¢ While local government leaders and nonprofit groups figure out how to shelter and feed the more than 14,000 people living unhoused around the Portland region, one organization is helping out with an element that often goes unconsidered: laundry. Wash House, run by local group Ground Score Association, offers no-cost drop-off laundry services for folks living unhoused who don't often have the spare change or time to hang out at a laundromat. OPB spotlighted the nonprofit organization's work in this recent piece.Ā
ā¢ Mark your calendar and get ready for the return of the Mercuryās glorious Burger Week happening Aug. 11-17. You know the drill: From Monday to Sunday, a buttload of restaurants around the Portland area cook up limited time, special renditions of a burger. You then get to map out your culinary journey for just $10 a pop.
IN NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
ā¢ The US agreed to a new trade deal with the European Union on Sunday, setting a 15 percent tariff on most EU imports. Plenty of news authorities are hailing this as encouragingāand sure, itās their job to report developmentsābut does the President keep agreements? Does his word mean anything? Anyway, plenty of folks are saying itās not all that great of a deal, and steel tariffs are still at 50 percent.
ā¢Also in stuff grandpa is saying today, President Trump gave Russia two weeks to figure out this peace shit regarding its invasion of UkraineĀ or face āvery severe tariffs.ā This follows a sudden shift two weeks ago, when Trump gave Russia 50 days to figure it out its whole invasion deal. While Iām as happy as anyone to see a peace timeline move up significantly, it only reinforces that the President is deeply changeable. Itās the Purge but just for himāitās a single man Purge. Onward.
ā¢ Also in LARGELY SYMBOLIC, the International Court of Justice ruled last week that the world's countries are obligated to limit climate change under international law. And that nations can be held responsible for climateĀ damages if they don't. NPR reports, "It's the court's first major ruling on climate change, but the decision is only advisory, meaning that countries are not legally bound by it." The US will probably ignore it.
ā¢ More harrowing stories of abuse are emerging from people the Trump administration unlawfully kidnapped and sent to an infamous mega-prison in El Salvador, CECOT. We'reĀ hearing more accounts now because of a prisoner exchange negotiated by Venezuela to free around 250 Venezuelans being held at the prison. Some of those freed were the kidnapped men. The fate of the imprisoned migrants who are Salvadoran is unclear, as is the future of those who are now in Venezuela, but were deportedāsome in the midst of asylum proceedingsāfrom the US and presumably uprooted from their families and homes. Stories of abuse are not a great way to start the morning, so read with care. Mercury readers already know this, but since the government never proved that these people were guilty of gang affiliation and other crimes, their fates could be those of any person the government decides to kidnap and disappear.
ā¢ There's an assortment of interesting people out thereāTom Lehrer fansāwho are freshly experiencing the loss of musician and mathematician Tom Lehrer. He died Saturday, at age 97. While the majority of his sardonic musical theater compositions were written between 1950ā1973, Lehrer contributed several songs to educational children's television show The Electric Company. In 2012, rapper 2 ChainzĀ sampled one of Lehrer's songs, and by all accounts Lehrer was thrilled. In October 2020, Lehrer put his music and lyrics into the public domain. Two years later he relinquished all rights to his music, saying "help yourselves, and donāt send me any money." If you, like I, cannot get enough Tom Lehrer this morning, this 2014 Buzzfeed piece is just so much longer than it needs to be and brimming with delights.
ā¢ You're probably kind of sick of reading about reviled, recently-deceased Hulk Hogan, BUT IF YOU ARE NOT check out this opinion piece by Elizabeth Spiers (who co-founded Gawker in 2002) wherein she lays out what Hogan teamed up with Peter Thiel in "a friendly jurisdiction in his hometown" to prove: "someone with deep pockets can try to drown an outlet in legal fees and make truth legally irrelevant."
ā¢ Now get into that Monday with the courage and perseverance of this viral turtle.
