Spoiler, P-town: Pretty much everything’s getting worse.
First, we’ve bombed Syria. Days after his administration suggested that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could remain in power, Donald Trump lobbed nearly 60 missiles at an air base yesterday (or today, in Syria time). Not many US leaders are outraged by what Politico calls “Trump’s Syria whiplash,” because of a reprehensible attack earlier in the week that American officials have concluded used the nerve agent sarin, and targeted civilians including infants.
Even two of Trump’s staunchest critics, Oregon’s own Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, aren’t necessarily taking issue with the missile barrage. They are, however, saying Trump needed to ask for authority from Congress before launching what could lead to a protracted conflict. This is the first time the US has directly attacked dictator Assad’s forces.
Russia, meanwhile, is sticking to its story that Syria possesses no chemical weapons, and putting an end to an accord it had with the US regarding the country. The Syrian government, days after attacking its own people, called the US action a “disgraceful act.”
That’s but one bleak thread. As I was writing this, a truck drove into a crowd in Sweden, in what people on the ground believe was a terrorist attack.
And as promised, the Senate filibuster is dead for Supreme Court nominees, meaning going forward, nominees will only ever need a majority vote to be confirmed. For decades, the minority party has had the ability to stanch that process using the filibuster, though it never happened until yesterday. And now, apparently, it never will again, after Republicans voted to change Senate rules to kill the practice. SCOTUS nominee Neil Gorsuch is expected to be formally confirmed today.
Locally, the Morrison Bridge is even more broken. Multnomah County sent out a press release last night announcing that one side of the bridge can’t close, meaning that even the two lanes that are open in theory won’t be at your disposal today. And it’s not like things were going great, anyway. I am a partisan in this matter, but if there was ever a summer to try out bike commuting, this would be it.
In a deeply reported story, the Seattle Times reports that Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has been accused by several men of sexually abusing them decades ago, while they were underage, and he was a lawyer in Portland.
A bit of good news: A day before it was headed to eviction, the homeless rest area Right 2 Dream Too got a new lease on life (again). Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office found a temporary place for the camp in the Rose Quarter, and it’ll have two months to prepare for the move.
And ICYMI: Attorneys for the city and a landlords group squared off in court yesterday, as local landlords continue their attempt to kill the city’s new renter protections.
The Tribune has a profile on the Village Coalition, the low-key group that’s done a lot of good pushing the idea of new homeless villages around town. Give it a read.
The Iran-born Troutdale resident whose home was vandalized by bigoted assholes plans to give roughly $10,000 raised in his name to help Iranian refugees, and says he forgives the bigoted assholes. Good on him.
Dug in the wrong spot and blew up an entire building in the state’s densest neighborhood? That’ll be $4,900.
Hey, so I know we all decided earlier in this thing that you’d be riding your bicycle from here on out. Just maybe don’t judge the activity on your experience today. Gonna be windy.
