Portland’s future is seen through a crack pipe darkly. Greetings, West Coast, Messed Coast™ readers. This week we learn that instead of trying to clear homeless camps fentanyl flats, Portland will institute a crack pipes for everybody! plan. They call it harm reduction, but in the end, like Seattle and San Francisco before it, this plan will only harm the people paying the bills and living by the law, and encourage more people to use drugs with impunity.
Multnomah’s House of Glass
The positive spin is that Portland—really all of Multnomah County – is simply showing its allegiance to longtime local business Mary Janes House of Glass but in reality, these “leaders” lack pattern recognition and powers of observation. It’s really not their fault. They went to PCC and PSU looking for a degree with a paycheck and fell into indoctrination camp intake instead. Now they give out crack pipes to show that smoking crack and fentanyl isn’t good.
But that’s not the whole story. Multnomah County “health” officials announced it would give out “tin foil, straws, and glass pipes to active drug users” to make sure they don’t share needles with other drug users—oops, wait, they don’t really use many needles anymore. When blowback came after promising to deliver “safe smoking supplies,” the county announced the program would be “paused” until everyone forgets about the story.
When the program is invariably resumed, do not look for Multnomah County to provide “safe smoking supplies” to tobacco users.
Community Pool
There’s excellent news for people who live in a newish Highland Park (Seattle) development. A new pool has been installed for respite from this long, hot summer for use by the entire community.
Where the pool came from and how it was filled with water are still not clear.https://t.co/q9aZ7Mbc4O
— KOMO News (@komonews) July 13, 2023
The homeless camp began last spring as a collection of a few RVs and has grown to “a sprawling homeless encampment,” according to Seattle’s KOMO News. The neighbors absolutely love the new neighbors who are close to their senior apartment building.
“I never dreamed I would have to worry about things like this when I was 72, but times have changed. As elderly people, especially, we should not have to worry about our possessions or our lives,” one said.
And Saturday nights, hell, most nights, are far more exciting than they’ve been in years.
Egge and other seniors who live in the apartments near the encampment said they regularly hear gunfire coming from the encampment, to the point that some seniors said they keep their curtains closed out of fear of a bullet coming through the wall.
Now we both know that doesn’t make sense, but then neither does the idea that local authorities would allow this disease-infested camp with a pool to thrive.
“When I hear the shooting, I stay down and away from the windows,” said Cheryl Galyeam. “There are times I’ve had to get on the floor in the middle of the night. It’s not safe.”
In May, a man was killed in the encampment days after a KOMO News report on safety concerns from seniors who live across the street at the Arrowhead Gardens apartments.
But don’t worry, King County’s “harm reduction” team will be there in no time to medicate the scofflaws.
Everything’s FINE on the West Coast, Messed Coast™
A few weeks ago I saw a homeless guy in front of the Target in downtown Portland. His pants were halfway down his ass. He was asleep on the bare concrete in the middle of the day.
I bet he has no idea that he’s 5x better off than he used to be.
It’s all about mindset folks!
— Vinem et Lex (@vinemetlex) July 7, 2023
Shhh, Don’t Tell Mom and Dad
From our sister publication RedState we get this story of two Seattle schools offering “gender-affirming care” to students as young as 11 years old at no cost, which one critic called a “whole new level of awful for schools to be involved.”‘
Colleague Mike Miller reports that the program was outed by a group called “Parents Defending Education (PDE),” which no doubt will soon be referred to as a hate group by the morally impoverished Southern Poverty Law Center.
The group reveals that students at Meany Middle School and Nova High School “can receive ‘no-cost comprehensive, trauma-informed, and gender-affirming care, conveniently at the school,'” according to the Seattle Public School document.
School staff are ordered to “conceal students’ so-called gender identity from their parents.”
Sex Trafficking? What Child Sex Trafficking?
I’ve been interested in the child sex trafficking problem well before it became popular, and one thing that helps is, you know, making it illegal and stuff. But California Democrats aren’t especially eager to do that.
Related: West Coast, Messed Coast™ — 9th Circuit Judges Promise More Tent Cities for Everyone!
After spending years reducing penalties, letting criminals out of jails and prisons, reducing felonies to misdemeanors, and the like, California State Assembly members were not OK with a new bill to “make child trafficking a ‘serious felony.'” Can’t have that.
KCRA reports that the bill being considered by the Assembly Public Safety Committee would have “classified human trafficking of a minor as a serious felony under state law, an effort that attempted to keep repeat offenders behind bars and make them ineligible to be released from prison early.”
In the spring, the Senate blocked the measure with the leadership of Senator Scott Wiener.
The legislation was introduced by this man, Scott Wiener. The leather-clad deviant you see before you is subverting your God-given parental authority over your kids. I wonder if he’ll attempt to lower the age of consent for other things as well, if this gambit works? https://t.co/fvkc795GuS pic.twitter.com/hrFrPPCS7X
— Defiant Baptist (@DefiantBaptist) January 22, 2022
He also supported a bill to lower the age for medical consent to 12.
But don’t try to get your ears pierced.
Anchor Aweigh
The oldest craft brewer in the United States is closing. Anchor Brewing announced this week that it has to leave its headquarters on Potrero Hill in San Francisco because of declining sales and the fact that the city is a cesspool.
“The impacts of the pandemic, inflation, especially in San Francisco, and a highly competitive market left the company with no option but to make this sad decision to cease operations,” the company said in a statement. Fox News reported that Anchor tried to sell its building on the hill for more than a year but that no one wants to buy it.
The news about Anchor follows the sad tale of the Goorin Brothers haberdashery on Union Square closing its more than 100-year-old business. The company cited—stop me if you’ve heard this before—the pandemic and crime.
West Coast Newsom Watch
The Joe Biden stand-in has been hurriedly trying to build a legacy of normalcy before anyone can figure out he’s an empty suit who skirts his own laws.
To wit: Governor Hair Gel this week looked at the city he helped usher into woke-dom and decay and said—wait for it—”Enforce the damn law.”
“I can’t take it anymore,” he told anyone who would buy his grumbling over gambling at Rick’s. The man who backed laws and initiatives to go easy on crime couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw open-air drug dealing in his beloved City by the Bay or Los Angeles, or San Diego, or …
Gavin Newsom's California. pic.twitter.com/gKQUetlIkO
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) July 13, 2023
“There are plenty of laws on the books, and it’d be nice to see some of these damn laws enforced for a change,” he said, according to The Chronicle.
Recommended: And Just Like That, It’s No Longer an Insurrection
We’re sure that Axios, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and the rest will regurgitate this phony line to “prove” that the man who has managed the Golden State into decay is ready to take it nationwide.
Love Letters to West Coast, Messed Coast™ and Victoria
Tribal Horn emailed me this week and was quite concerned over a turn of phrase I’d used in last week’s West Coast, Messed Coast™ report.
Here’s the item with which he took issue:
Newsom was on a PR swing through Idaho to visit his former constituents who have fled California and to shop at a bookstore that specializes in “banned books.” Read PJ Media’s Athena Thorne’s analysis on the big fat political cow paddy Newsom stepped in during his self-own star turn.
Here’s Tribal Horn’s note:
It’s cow patty, as in pancake-shaped bovine excretion, not cow paddy which seems to be an enclosure for cows.
Writers need to know usage and too many don’t on the Internet. These kinds of mistakes call your writing into question.
Another writer wanted to call attention to the excellent report earlier in the week about the FBI.
Jake wrote:
Kudos for the recent article on the FBI and the listing of their transgressions in the light of their asking for help to report crimes.
It’s amazing what has happened in our country and this once respected crime fighting organization, and I hope that it doesn’t get worse. Thanks for exposing, or just reminding since these things are public knowledge, some of the things that they themselves are guilty of. Keep up the good work.
I’ve got to say that I’ve written several stories about the FBI this week. Many, many, many, many, many.
And please keep the letters coming.
Aren’t you glad someone tells you the truth about the West Coast, Messed Coast™?
The social media companies, at the behest of Democrats, have been preventing you from seeing our brand of opinion journalism for years now. They’re trying to starve us into compliance — or non-existence. PJ Media has been censored, disappeared, thrashed, and throttled by social media companies at the behest of political Leftists. It’s wrong and un-American. That’s where you come in.
Stand up for free speech by becoming a VIP Gold member for unfettered access to the entire Townhall family of sites and live chats. Use the promo code SAVEAMERICA for a 50% discount on your annual membership. Sign up today and help us hold these “leaders” accountable.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member