Book of Days: asher553

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/my-university-sacrificed-ideas-for

'But brick by brick, the university has made this kind of intellectual exploration impossible. It has transformed a bastion of free inquiry into a Social Justice factory whose only inputs were race, gender, and victimhood and whose only outputs were grievance and division. ...'

Read the whole thing at the link. My good friend Michael Weingrad writes:

'His resignation letter is a fierce and sorrowful indictment of the contemporary academy and a testament to his principles.'

https://twitter.com/weingradmichael/status/1435675338218954755

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1429585019702480899

'Antifa are retreating & throwing explosives in the process after launching an attack on the right-wing rally in northeast Portland. They’re being chased & hit. '

UPDATE:
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1429613814945828868

'1. Claim: Man is pointing a handgun.
False. He's pointing his hand.

2. Claim: A medical van to help the injured was flipped.
This is the vehicle antifa used to crash into the right-wing rally, sparking the riot.'

This morning I paid a visit to the Chabad synagogue in Southwest Portland where I used to pray. I hadn't seen the shul since the fire. (There were actually two fires - the first probably accidental, the second almost certainly arson.) I'd heard at the time that it had been "damaged", which I assumed meant something short of "completely gutted", and in my imagination I pictured perhaps a few scorch marks around the roof. That was wishful thinking. What I saw when I got there was that the building was completely boarded up on all sides, and padlocked. It was readily apparent that there were going to be no prayer services held there at any time in the near future.

The congregation also operates a religious school across the street, and I believe that's where they are holding services now. Still, the burned building was a grim sight.

The period following the mourning of Tisha b'Av (commemorating the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem) is designated as a period of consolation, when we look forward to the redemption of a better era in the future. And that's the feeling I will try to hang on to now.

https://www.wweek.com/news/2021/01/20/a-key-indicator-of-real-estate-investors-interest-in-portland-shows-a-precipitous-decline/

'At Jan. 5 budget meeting for the city's Bureau of Development Services, economists advising the bureau on the outlook for new construction presented dismal news: Portland has gone from one of the most desirable locations in the country just four years ago to near the bottom of an 80-city ranking.

That ranking was compiled by the Urban Land Institute in a report titled "Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2021." It shows that a survey of more than 1,300 lenders, investors, developers and other national real estate experts found Portland the third-most desirable real estate market in the nation in 2017. For 2021, it now ranks 66th of 80 cities on the list ...'

The article explains that Portland's fall may be attributable to 'factors that include widely broadcast images of protests and nearby wildfires. It may be exacerbated by the documented flight of businesses from the city's core and factors such as the cost of property insurance rising 30% to 50% amid repeated vandalism.'

My political buddy Erin Smith has a very informative article at Center for Security Policy:

https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2020/08/25/contextual-insurgency-lessons-from-a-week-observing-portland-black-bloc/

'This article examines an ongoing effort by a complex, distributed antifa network to conduct a “dilemma action,” intended to target the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) based on several days of open-source research and direct observation.

Put simply a dilemma action is a strategy using carefully-targeted types and degrees of civil disobedience to cause security forces to either concede the space and thus exhibit weakness, or respond in a manner that appears disproportionate and evokes negative sentiments in the population. (Sorensen, 2013)

Civil disobedience for a dilemma action is usually characterized as “non-violent.” but it must be remembered that within radical left organizing circles property damage by itself is considered non-violent by definition. Portland protests in particular have been marked by a nightly damage toll heavily biased towards law enforcement and government property and buildings.

The course of the nightly action against the PPB followed a fairly predictable pattern: a contingent of notional BLM protesters rendezvoused with a group of antifa black bloc at a public park close to their objective. As they moved towards the police building which was their target, “corkers” -a sort of bicycle-mounted blocking force- closed off side streets and the scouting line -typically on mopeds- moved ahead and on the flanks. Behind them came the main contingent of black bloc. Upon arrival at the PPB the streets were blocked with vehicles and burning dumpsters, with the “corkers” stationed to direct traffic away from the action and the scouts setting up a picket line extending out several blocks, watching for police reinforcements and creating the strong impression of antifa control of territory. ...'

Read the whole thing at the link.