Elizabeth Hovde and Oregonian vs Mayor Wheeler, Portland Resistance and Antifa

Elizabeth Hovde did the unthinkable, she dared to tell her truth in a Progressive city. On October 28^th 2018 the Oregonian published her opinion piece titled The Misunderstood Joey Gibson and the backlash was swift and aggressive.

Misunderstood

Elizabeth Hovde’s opinion piece was based off her time spent with a local activist group known as Patriot Prayer and their leader Joey Gibson. The rally opposing Washington gun-control Initiative 1639 took place at Washington State University Vancouver campus.

Ahead of the rally the university chancellor cancelled classes and advised students to remain off campus fearing violence. The Patriot Prayer rally was anything but violent. Joey Gibson even set up a question and answer period so that he could discuss his opinion with those who disagreed.

Hovde wrote what she experienced and submitted it to the Oregonian editorial board for publication. It was published and immediately attracted the attention of some powerful people who condemned her, called for her to be fired and for people to target the Oregonians sponsors in an attempt to shut down the long standing publication.

Journalists and Public Officials for Censorship

It is a strange sight to see writers and journalists offering support for censorship. They of course would deny that is their ultimate goal. This denial would not be a lie, because they would believe that they are not supporting censorship. Yet these same people would celebrate if Hovde's article were taken down and she were fired.

I am reminded of Matthew 7:20 “Therefore by their fruits you shall know them.” While they may not be calling for censorship directly nor do they believe they are asking for that, their actions are going to result in that outcome. As Thomas Sowell once said, “Consequences matter more than intentions.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler, who has attempted to use his position as Portland’s Mayor (and police commissioner) to falsely spread public fear in an attempt to stifle the individual’s first amendments right to freedom of expression, had this to say about Elizabeth Hovde article.

His statement shows that he clearly does not understand what Patriot Prayer and Joey Gibson stand for. Joey Gibson has repeatedly called out white supremacists and neo-Nazi’s and told them they are not welcome at his rallies. The speakers at Patriot Prayer rallies are from different backgrounds and ethnicities. At an event on June 30^th 2018 Patriot Prayer had Asian, Black, Hispanic, male, female, Trans and LGBTQ attendees. Speakers included people of various ethnicities and even a Trans person.

Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury had this to say.

She is stating that the Oregonian ‘complicit’ in stoking ‘violence and hatred’ and that it is ‘unforgivable.’ If you were a supporter of Deborah Kafoury and trust what she has to say, what are you supposed to take away from this statement? She wants you to be mad at the Oregonian and to believe that they are spreading hate and violence.

What sort of response should you have to an individual or organization spreading hate and violence? Naturally you would experience fear and in order to protect yourself from that fear you must oppose the Oregonian.

People like Ted Wheeler and Deborah Kafoury will tell you that in order for them to protect you from this boogieman they must be given more power and authority. Authority over where, when, and how people can protest in Portland. Power over what can and cannot be published in the press.

Anna Griffin news director for OPB and Samantha Swindler video producer, editor, and writer for the Oregonian had this to say about their fellow writer and journalist:

Half Truths and the Weasel Rhetoric of Alex Zielinski

Alex Zielinski of the Portland Mercury penned a response to Elizabeth Hovde and the Oregonian. She starts by mentioning the tragedy of 11 people killed in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Why? Because she is trying to tie two unrelated events together to make one look worse through association.

She even calls Hovde article The Misunderstood Joey Gibson a ‘love letter to the leader of the Portland area’s own far-right extremist group.’ She even falsely calls Patriot Prayer a ‘militaristic group of far-right provocateurs.’ Patriot Prayer is in no way militaristic, which means advocating or pursuing an aggressive military policy.

She also goes on to mislead the reader about violence at Patriot Prayer rallies. She frames these acts of violence as if they are spontaneous and happen in a vacuum, when in reality there would be no violence if Antifa did not show up and attack people, throw mortars, urine and bricks at crowds peacefully taking part in a permitted march.

Alex also misleads her readers about claims made by Mayor Ted Wheeler that Patriot Prayer members were ‘lugging rifles and ammunition’ to a peaceful protest, which she puts in scare quotes. These claims were refuted by Portland Police. The men with guns all had legal concealed carry permits and 100% cooperated with the police. When asked to leave the guns in a locked container in one truck and the ammunition in a locked container in another truck the men complied with the request. According to Portland Police “No laws were broken, and there was not imminent danger to the public.”

Yet Alex and Mayor Ted Wheeler would have you believe they were on the roof top with sniper rifles. Alex also makes the claim that LGBTQ friends and Muslim neighbors ‘feel they must stay indoors or leave town altogether’ when Patriot Prayer plans a protest. She offers no evidence or proof of these statements but claims them as fact in the hope that you, the reader, sympathize with these terrified characters that she created out of whole cloth.

As Christopher Hitchens once said “What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” She also outright lies about Jeremy Christian, framing the man accused of fatally stabbing two men and wounding a third on a MAX train as someone who is a mainstay of Patriot Prayer rallies.

The fact is he was kicked out of the one Patriot Prayer event he tried to attend. Here is video evidence of him being kicked out of the one Patriot Prayer event he attended by Tiny and other Patriot Prayer members.

She again tries to mislead her readers by saying “Every single protest in Portland that ended in violence over the past year and a half was organized by Patriot Prayer.” She makes is sound like Patriot Prayer is going out and committing these acts of violence, but in reality the only reason there is violence at these events is because Antifa shows up and attacks, harasses, threaten and antagonize people who attend.

Antifa even left someone who came to protest Patriot Prayer bloody laying in the street with a wound on the back of his head that would require 4 staples to close. They did this because he was carrying an American flag, a symbol of freedom and liberty. She then goes on to accuse Hovde of “cropping out hateful rhetoric and violence.” Patriot Prayer has offered a $2000 reward for video proof of Joey Gibson’s hateful rhetoric and no one has been able to claim this prize.

Alex ends by condemning the Oregonian editorial board and insinuating that her fellow citizens, who are part of Patriot Prayer, who could be her neighbors, the guy pumping her gas or the mechanic working on her car, are not worth listening to.

Portland Resistance Demands Action or Else

Portland Resistance offered a condemnation of the Oregonian claiming that “giving platform to this message is unconscionable, unethical, and dangerous behavior.” They continue by making a list of demands. The demands include:

1)      Issue a front-page apology to our community for their callousness and carelessness in publishing the “The misunderstood Joey Gibson” opinion piece.

2)      Fire Elizabeth Hovde.

3)      Discontinue the practice of lending fascists a platform to recruit and legitimize their hate.

First they do not represent a community, they were not elected or selected and simply claiming you stand for someone does not mean you actually represent them. You are not entitled to an apology for simply reading an opinion you did not like, grow up.

They then want to destroy the career of Elizabeth Hovde over an opinion piece they did not like. Lastly they accuse the Oregonian of “lending fascists a platform to recruit and legitimize their hate.” A baseless accusation of a paper that has published pieces criticizing Trump, Patriot Prayer, and Joey Gibson in the past.

If you are on the Oregonian editorial board I offer this one piece of advice, do NOT apologize. It will only be taken as an admission of guilt on your part and will make things worse. Stand by your journalistic ethics.

They also threaten that if these demands are not met they “will result in a strategic boycott of Oregonian advertisers, beginning with local companies with progressive leanings and proceeding from there.” Essentially they are threatening to bring financial harm to people who had nothing to do with this opinion piece in the hope that they can force the newspaper to do what they want.

This is a naked attempt to hold businesses and charities hostage so that they can force the press to submit to their will. They justify this use of force by claiming they are opposing “white supremacists.”

It is okay to disagree and I do not want any of the people mentioned to be censored or fired, I would rather their ideas be out in the open for everyone to see. But it is not okay to attempt to shut down, censor, and suppress through the force of social ostracization. It is not okay to hold businesses and charity hostage in an attempt to damage a newspaper who published an opinion piece you disagree with.

I have often disagreed with the Oregonian and probably have disagreements with Elizabeth Hovde, but I stand with their right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

NPC the Meme and The Progressive Reaction To It

What is an NPC? NPC stands for Non Player Character and the term comes from the world of video games. In video games NPC’s are the characters who you, the player, do not control.

Typically they have stock responses when you talk to them and pre-set reactions to things you do. For example you might talk to ten different NPC’s and they will all say “Hello, crazy weather we’ve been having lately.”

They will also all get angry at you if you do something they do not like. Again they will have a canned reply for this behavior as well. If you go somewhere they do not want you to, they will all say “Hey! You need to leave now before I call the guard.”

Meme Magic

The NPC meme has gained popularity lately. This is due to the observation that these ‘protesters,’ Progressives, and Antifa parrot the same talking points. They all use the same chants regardless of what it is that they are protesting or where they are protesting.

They all use the same language, such words as problematic, marginalized, patriarchy, people of color, Nazi, Drumpf (or some other insulting variation on the name Trump), fascist, my truth, privilege, rise up

, and misogynist.

Worldwide you can hear the same chants or slight variants. Chants like ‘hey hey, ho ho, subject has got to go’ and ‘cops and klan go hand in hand’ and ‘ACAB all cops are bastards.’ Though this meme has really taken off with the introduction by the left of mob politics.

Mobs as NPC’s

Part of what make a meme great is how it is able to use humor to check off and bring together so many ideas under one image. Recently we have seen mobs of people in the nation’s capital screaming at and harassing politicians, chasing them out of restaurants, or pounding on the doors of the Supreme Court.

These mobs have rightly been called out as such by many Republican politicians. In one of the great way that shows how connected the word mob and the NPC meme have many connections.

First if you take the word mob and add one to each letter you get NPC (m+1=N, o+1=P, b+1=C). That is not where the connection stops either. In the world of video games, especially in online role playing games, mob is used to describe a large group of the same or similar monsters. These mobs are also NPC’s because they are characters that you, the player do not control.

Initiate Program Outrage

Of course those on the left are upset over this meme. They say that it dehumanizes and marginalizes people. The same people who are willing to liberally apply the term Nazi to anyone who disagrees with them while saying it is okay to punch a Nazi. The same people who will call anyone who supports Trump online a Russian bot and then advocate for all the Russian bots to be banned from social media.

 

The NPC meme is a comedic criticism of the Progressives so it is expected that they would act as they always do when criticized. Instead of laughing and understanding the joke, they follow the programing and get outraged, which is exactly what is expected of them, thus making the meme even funnier.

Twitter even started banning accounts who were using the NPC image to create parody accounts for famous people. As we have seen before, the harder you push against a meme the more popular it will become.

So do not be an NPC, think for yourself and be the hero in your own story.

Alexander Flores has Oregon Democrats Very Worried

On Saturday 13^th 2018 I spent some time helping out Alexander Flores and his campaign. We met at the new Washington County GOP office, an office made possible by the hard work and dedication of the Washington County Republican Chair Tracy Honl, by donations from generous individuals, and staffed by dedicated volunteers. (You can donate here or find volunteer opportunities here, every little bit helps.)

  

When I arrived Alexander was very welcoming and offered to take me on a tour of the office. I got to meet some of the other volunteers and what struck me first was the level of engagement from everyone. Most the volunteers were young students who were excited about helping in any way they can.

The more time I spent in the office I also noticed the level of hard work from everyone, including Alexander Flores. Alexander was not shy about doing the work necessary to ensure his campaign was doing everything they could. He had spent some time earlier that morning knocking on doors, he made phone calls and helped set me up with the app they were using for canvasing.

No detail, no matter how small, was beneath his attention. This is the work ethic that has made his campaign successful despite the uphill battle he has faced. It is hard enough to be a Republican in Oregon much less run for office on a Republican ticket. This success has his Democratic Party opposition worried, which can be seen in a disgusting attack ad taken out against Flores.

Racist Attack

Flores is running against incumbent Chuck Riley (D-Hillsboro) for the state senate seat in Washington County. This race is close, much closer than the Democratic Party of Oregon expected. It is so close in fact that the Democratic Party of Oregon paid for a mailer attacking Flores.

The mailer, as reported by Oregon Catalyst, included a photoshopped image of Alexander Flores with a sideways MAGA hat attempting to evoke a racist caricature of Hispanic-Americans. Condemnation of this caricature was immediate with the Independent Party of Oregon, through twitter, calling on Chuck Riley and the Democratic Party of Oregon to “withdraw & apologize for the vile photoshopped race-baiting photo…”

These kinds of attacks are an attempt to discredit a candidate’s character while trying to cover up for years of failed policies. It is these sort of failures that Alexander Flores seeks to address if he is elected.

Education

The education system in Oregon is one of the worst in the country. According to the Oregonian a new study puts Oregon at 38^th out of 50 when it comes to public education. This is despite the fact that Oregon spent $10,842 per pupil according to the Census Bureau.

Alexander hopes to take this issue on in a couple different way. First, according to his website, he wants to “fight for relief for students and families struggling with debt by allowing tax deductions on student loan interest.” He also seeks to rein in the increasing PERS cost that take dollars out of the classroom.

 

He plans on fighting to rework the budge to ensure more dollars going to the schools reach the classrooms. This will increase the resources available to each class and help set up Oregon children for a better future.

Government Spending

Working in the private sector and raising a family, Alexander Flores knows the importance of budgeting. He understands that raising taxes puts an increased burden on hard working families and small businesses.

Instead of raising taxes or proposing new taxes, Flores plans to find areas where the government is wasting money and shift those funds toward things such as education. Alexander opposes the introduction of a sales tax as well as an increase in taxes on “childcare, groceries, healthcare and energy bills.”

Alexander Flores will bring to his incredible work ethic to Salem. He wants to reduce wasteful spending and protect against increasing taxes that places an additional burden on hard working Oregonians. He wants to make sure our tax dollars go to where they should, to help create a better future for our children through education. This is why I believe you should support Alexander Flores for State Senate.

Backing Buehler: The Right Person for Oregon

Lately I have been frustrated with some of the positions Knute Buehler has taken. It seems he has gone out of his way to disrespect his own party in order to prove to swing voters he is not the typical Republican.

Even though we disagree on issues that are important to me, I will still be voting for Dr. Knute Buehler in November.

It’s Okay to Disagree

Growing up near Portland and going to college at Portland State University as a non-Democrat you have to learn to be okay with people who disagree with you. If I were shocked or offended every time a student or teacher said something I disagreed with, I would have been in a constant state of outrage.

Instead I made the choice to accept that people have different opinions. An event that crystalized this view came my freshman year of college when I asked, a bit naively I admit, ‘When does life start?’ I asked this question publicly on our class forum page so everyone in class could see and comment.

When I returned to the forum page the next day I was shocked to find close to 100 comments. I remember thinking this was odd because we only have about 35-40 students in the class. As I scrolled through my classmates comments I realized two things. First thing was that I had accidentally touched on a hot button topic. The second was that everyone had an opinion and reasoning to back up their opinion.

This topic got heated at times and got so many replies that my teacher brought it up in the next class session. He was excited to have the discussion and glad to see so many of us engaged. I, only 18 at the time, was mostly embarrassed from all the attention. Even though the class was divided on this issue it never devolved into shouting, name calling, or cult-like chanting.

Instead what I saw were people who were able to set aside this difference and work together on other projects. Throughout the rest of my time at college I had teachers openly bash candidates I had voted for. We even had a teacher cancel the lesson plan for the day to have everyone sit in a circle and talk about how the 2004 election made us feel.

I was uncomfortable saying I voted for Bush and mostly just observed the meltdowns from my fellow classmates. It was clear I was in the minority of opinion. Yet through all of this I learned that it was okay to disagree with someone. That just because they did not think or believe the same thing as me that did not mean they were a bad person.

While Dr. Knute Buehler and I disagree on certain issues that does not mean he is incapable of effectively running the state. In fact I believe he is a highly competent person and would be a vast improvement over his opponent and the incumbent Governor Brown.

Reality Check

Some people hold out hope that a write in campaign will have a chance at successfully getting someone into office that more aligns with their beliefs. The optimist in me secretly hopes this is true and on a theoretical level this might be possible.

In order for a write in campaign to work the person written in must be both very active in promoting their candidacy as well as have massive name recognition across the entire state. Currently no one matches that description.

The only thing a write in campaign would accomplish would be to split the vote. In a tight race such as this that split, even a minor one, could end up costing Dr. Buehler the Governorship. I am not going to tell you who to vote for, it is your right to make that choice yourself. I would just ask that you consider everything before you cast a vote for a write in or refuse to vote at all.

Who would you rather vote for, someone who will listen and talk with you but might disagree with you on a few things or would you rather vote for someone who does not need you, will not listen to you, and will do everything they can to #resist?

End the Insanity

It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. Oregon has a lot of problems facing our state. Our education system over spends and under performs. Our roads are congested and we have a problem with homelessness in our major cities, specifically Portland.

Will Dr. Buehler be able to solve all these problems for us? No most likely not, after all he is only one man. While Dr. Buehler might not be able to fix everything in our state alone he is definitely a step in the right direction, a direction that Oregon sorely needs. It will take all of us working together to fix these problems.

We know that over 30 years of steadily increasing Democratic control of the state these issues have not improved, in fact they have become worse. Even if you think Kate Brown and Knute Buehler are similar, you have to admit they are not the same.

We can either continue to try and do the same thing over and over hoping for a better result, or we can take a chance and try something new. I might not agree with Knute Buehler on everything but it is okay to disagree. In the end he is the right man for the job and any attempts to mount a write in campaign will only result in more of the same.

When you go and vote ask yourself do you want to vote for someone who is willing to do what is necessary to get the state back on track, or are you going to hand the election to the party of resistance and mob rule?