A View From The Brink ... the beach is backwards

Trump suggests delaying November election

      

Voters cast ballots on Nov. 6, 2018 at the North Hollywood Recreation Center. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

     

President Trump on Thursday suggested delaying the November election as he continued to raise the false specter of widespread voting fraud.

“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” he tweeted.

CHRIS MEGERIAN of the Los Angeles Times newspaper reports that there is no evidence to support Trump’s claims of voting fraud on a massive scale, and adjusting the date of the election would be difficult, if not impossible.

However, the suggestion was an alarming indication that Trump is considering ways to prolong his stay in office as the country reels from a deadly pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.

He tweeted about the election shortly after new data showed the economy shrank by a record one-third in the last quarter.

Trump has also been badly trailing in the polls behind Joe Biden, the likely Democratic candidate and former vice president.

     

Go here for the full story on the website of the Los Angeles Times   --->>>

      

Portland Moms: Please Don't Shoot!

     

Norma Lewis holds a flower while forming a "wall of moms" during a Black Lives Matter protest on Monday, July 20, 2020, in Portland, Oregon. Photo by AP.

        

A new fixture in the city’s ongoing protests, moms wearing bike helmets and bright yellow shirts returned in even greater numbers on Monday night to protect demonstrators in Portland, Oregon, clashing with federal agents.

“Just left the front lines,” wrote Shelley Reetz Monday morning in the “Wall of Moms” Facebook group. “Federal agents approached us and without warning began firing tear gas canisters and flash bangs at us. A flaming canister hit my foot as I was trying to run away and a dad with a leaf blower blew it away from me. It felt like an absolute war zone out there.”

Jemima McEvoy of Forbes reported that Portland became the center of controversy last week when local reports emerged alleging federal agents were driving up to protesters, reportedly arresting them with no explanation of why and then driving off in unmarked vehicles. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown immediately denounced the agency’s presence in their city, while the state’s attorney general filed a lawsuit requesting a temporary restraining order against the federal forces.

The agents are part of “rapid deployment teams” overseen by the Department of Homeland Security. Trump gave the agency authority to deploy personnel to protect statues, monuments and federal property in an executive order earlier this month.
     

Go here for the full story on the Forbes website   --->>>

      

Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Streets

       

Federal agents standing guard in front of the Justice Center on Fourth of July weekend. Photo by Austin Johnson.

        

In the early hours of July 15, after a night spent protesting at the Multnomah County Justice Center and Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, Mark Pettibone and his friend Conner O’Shea decided to head home.

It had been a calm night compared to most protesting downtown. By 2 a.m. law enforcement hadn’t used any tear gas and, with only a few exceptions, both the Portland Police Bureau and federal law enforcement officers had stayed out of sight.

A block west of Chapman Square, Pettibone and O’Shea bumped into a group of people who warned them that people in camouflage were driving around the area in unmarked minivans grabbing people off the street.

“So that was terrifying to hear,” Pettibone said.

They had barely made it half a block when an unmarked minivan pulled up in front of them.

“I see guys in camo,” O’Shea said. “Four or five of them pop out, open the door and it was just like, ‘Oh shit. I don’t know who you are or what you want with us.’”

Jonathan Levinson and Conrad Wilson of Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14. Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off.
      

Go here for the full story on the OPB website   --->>>

      

Toy Boat Dessert Cafe Owners Set Sail After 38 Years in Business

     

Roberta Mindich-Fink and Jesse Fink share stories of the people they have met since opening the Toy Boat Cafe in the Richmond District of San Francisco in 1982. 

          

Story and photo by Thomas K. Pendergast

     

Roberta Mindich-Fink and Jesse Fink remember so many people who have come through the doors of Toy Boat Dessert Cafe, at the corner of Clement Street and Fifth Avenue, that it is hard to recall all of them at once.

Sitting in their small ice cream parlor surrounded by a menagerie of 20th century Americana toys, they reminisce about Mike, who always said “hubba, hubba, hubba;” the elderly lady, Bernice, who made the Toy Boat a part of her daily routine; and famous people who stopped by, like actor Robin Williams or Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

They started their business in 1982, so they have been a part of the neighborhood fabric for 38 years.

But, just as all fairy tales must come to an end, this “Toy Boat” is sailing off into the sunset, because Jesse and Roberta are retiring.

         

Go here for the full story   --->>>

        

Trump answers cries for justice with threats of fascism

         

OPINION

     

          

By Thomas K. Pendergast

      

Change, inevitable and constant, flows like a lazy river until the currents of history accelerate into rapids of sudden crises, hitting boulders of status quo resistance, then rolls past a tipping point over the falls.

Lately, the pace of change seems to be accelerating. Six months ago, U.S. unemployment stood at 3.6 percent; President Donald Trump had been impeached but was about to be acquitted, as predicted, so it seemed likely he would ride the economy and the perception of vindication to another four years in the White House.

Then, a virus started its world tour — and changed everything.

      

Go here for the full story   --->>>