What Happened to Your Curiosity?
Several local media outfits seem incapable of getting the full story. Are they overworked or just cowards?
For readers looking for an exhaustively researched piece on the Tammy Carpenter situation I reported on last time: I will be releasing that separately. The situation is now too frightening and serious to rush. Look for it this weekend. I’m still combing through the mountain of evidence. No one will be spared.
This was a busy two weeks here and in Beaverton for the our Portland Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). You can be forgiven for not knowing that based on local reporting. I’ll touch on a protested press conference about public safety and a new women’s shelter. At the end, you’ll get a small sample of the horror show out of Beaverton. Very little of this was well covered, and that’s kind of our theme today.
Terrence Hayes and Sandy Chung
Former District 1 City Council Candidate Terrence Hayes held a press conference in East Portland over public safety. Future Portland helped organize along with Partnership for Progress. Speakers included Gresham City Council President Jerry Hinton, Monica Cory, Eli Arnold, Vadim Mozyrsky… and surprise guest Sandy Chung from the ACLU! We’ll get back to her.
Full disclosure: I helped Future Portland put together this “best of” clip compilation because the yelling and nonsense made some speakers inaudible. If you got cut, I’m sorry. It was too hard to hear you over the assholes. I subtitled what I could by hand because even the AI was having trouble picking out what people were saying over “Fuck ICE, they pigs too!” and “Abolish the Police!”
The shouting down was impressive. Speakers handled it well but it’s not fun to have a bunch of aggressive communists lie about what you’re saying and try to drown you out. Good job ACLU. I really felt like people’s civil liberties were defended.
The point of the presser, which I’m sure is obvious, was to challenge the toxic narrative that Portlanders need to choose between Parks and Police. It’s not an “either/or” problem. It’s a “both/and” solution. I support this messaging fully. The event should have been a pretty cuddly, undramatic affair. This is a unifying message that rejects false choices and unnecessary arguments. Terrence is great at bridge building and I thought this was a solid idea when I heard about it.
Then Sandy Chung of the Oregon ACLU and the gang of DSA members she brought were tipped off by Street Roots. You read that right. Local press forwarded an invite to an activist group to give them advanced notice and stir up drama.
KATU covered it very softly with Heated debate over Portland Police versus Parks budget continues.
Save for a handful of interruptions and a couple of harsh words exchanged, both groups interacted peacefully, with many pointing out that city leaders should find other places to siphon money from rather than pitting parks against police.
The problem is the debate is fake. It’s a dog and pony show by the DSA and their allies to force the Police Abolition movement back to the forefront. You could hear that shouted when Vadim spoke. “We’ll say it. Defund the Police! Abolish the Police!”
You can read about all of this over at PDX Real - so far the only publication who covered the story thoroughly.
I can already hear the usual suspects complaining about me linking to a “conservative news source.” They got the story correct. Local papers and television stations either missed it or didn’t care. They quoted Chung as a reliable source and one equal side of a “debate” that isn’t real. I recommend reading that report. A lot of familiar names crop up.
And then there’s the fucking Mercury.
So not only are the DSA lil sweethearts who just love Parks and Free Speech1, but everyone else is a right wing grifter, because only a bunch of millionaires and MAGA types could think police are a good idea.
If you know a local business that still advertises with these clowns or participates in their Food Weeks, ask them to pull out. To hear East Portlanders and working class residents who started a political group to explicitly be what Portland For All pretends to be2 referred to as “conservative shit-stirrers,” the “wealthy business class,” and “rich white people” is a bit too much for me. There need to be costs associated with lying this often while posing as a newspaper. If you’ve got Mercury issues at your shop, chuck them in the bin and cancel delivery of future issues.
So we’ve got the (now) classic template:
Normal people organize around something.
The DSA shows up to disrupt and intimidate.
Local media doesn’t care or notice.
The Portland Mercury spins it for them.
Bonus shout out to the DSA’s Chris Olson (former District 2 Council Candidate). He started his own Substack and covered this story creatively:
Olson focused on Partnership for Progress having representation at the event.
This organization is another ploy by the business elite and right-wing reactionaries to rebrand themselves to fool uninformed voters with their neo-liberal solutions that have continually failed this city. Their attempt to pass off faux-populism and right-wing ideology as “apolitical”," rational, “and “moderate” is played out, and Portlanders won't fall for it anymore.
I love this guy. He’s just such an unbelievable parody of a communist. Down with liberalism! It’s only ever failed. Vote even harder for the DSA. They’ll rescue us.
We should have functioning core services and a thriving business sector with robust public-private partnerships doesn’t sound like faux-populism. It sounds like Portland in 2012, which of course was right-wing to someone like Chris. Fascist even.
I have been in closed-door meetings with the Vadim Mozyrskys of the world as well as the Chris Olsons. Only one of those groups theorizes about who will need to die in order to make a better world.
The Great Firewall of Curiosity
My chief complaint about local coverage is that every time the DSA pulls something like this, they brag about it:
But then the media softens up the story for them. Almost as if the press hits a wall the moment something touches the DSA. They don’t criticize (or even contextualize) the DSA the way they would if it were a right wing fringe group stirring up conflict. They are the Left’s MAGA and we’re treating them like they barely exist.
Here’s Sophie Peel on the budget fight:
Police Bureau Amendments Take Up Third of Council’s Emergency Budget Session - WW
Trying to navigate that time crunch, the council held a meeting on the morning of May 28 to discuss some of the amendments—called budget notes—that don’t affect the budget total to cut down on the time spent on them June 11. No votes were taken: The session just allowed councilors to ask one another questions about various amendments presented.
But two budget notes—presented by Councilor Angelita Morillo—took up an hour of the three-hour meeting.
As has become a pattern, the twin budget notes struck on a point of deep division on the council: the police budget.
In the entire article there is no mention of the fact that Morillo is a police abolitionist or that she is in the DSA, which has a platform of defunding the police and eventual police abolition. Morillo is characterized as just another progressive member of the city council making tough choices on the budget. Councilors are just divided on the issue. Not like six of them have formed a voting bloc and are running wild.
The DSA went after Prosper Portland a few weeks ago, so now we get this story (also from Peel):
Director of Prosper Portland Will Step Down at Mayor Wilson’s Request - WW
“The mayor spoke with [Prosper board chair Gustavo Cruz] and conveyed his request for Shea to step aside from his role as interim executive director and return to a role in the economic development portfolio,” Bowman tells WW. “The mayor would have welcomed Shea’s continued contributions at Prosper Portland.”
Bowman added: “A few members of the City Council did reach out to the mayor’s office and raise concerns about leadership at Prosper Portland.”
Prosper was offended that the DSA cast their organization as Plutocrats, attempted to defund them, and then lied about the defunding (sound familiar?). That’s pretty fair to be upset about. But “a few members of the City Council” had concerns.
Peel goes on to reference criticisms of WW’s reporting. Weak sauce Sophie. Grow up. WW and the Oregonian are the best we’ve got and lately neither of you have been up to the job.
There is no mention of the fact that, again, this was a DSA backed initiative following their extremely available public platform. Why does Peel suddenly become a halfwit when the DSA comes up? Nothing sets her reporter’s instinct off? Really? She’s competent, sometimes even very good — but not on this topic, which is part of her beat.
Also: Mayor Keith Wilson, what the fuck? Can you please stop bending over backwards for “a few members of the City Council?” There is a persistent kid-glove handling of the DSA in City Hall. They are assholes, daily, but when anyone pushes back it’s time for apologies and shaking hands. Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney does it too. Have none of you ever dealt with groups of children? This is school yard bullying 101.
Even when Councilor Mitch Green threatened PSU (covered in Portland city councilor threatens PSU project funding over response to pro-Palestinian library takeover - Oregonian) his membership in the DSA was mentioned, but no context provided re: their obsession with shoehorning Palestine into every aspect of their work. No mention that DSA members were involved in organizing the actions that led to that takeover. The threat was made at a rally cohosted by the DSA. This wasn’t “leave those students alone.” This was Mitch saying “let my comrades do what they want or we will make you sorry. We have the numbers.”
This was made to mock Green and they fucking love it. Imagine a City Councilor being compared to Hitler and his own political party replying “based.” Edge-lord children are steering our ship.
And then Rose City Reform published this… thing:
Viklands Harris covers what’s happening factually, but almost characterizes it as scrappy and inventive.
Their alignment was no fluke. In April, the same six councilors issued a press release announcing they had “united as allies” to advance shared values. Among them: economic, racial, and climate justice, support for the working class, and police accountability. The alliance traced back to the campaign trail. As early as November 2024, a newly elected Mitch Green spoke to OPB about plans to form a progressive bloc. Those efforts now appear to be bearing fruit.
Completely devoid of context on who the DSA are. Avoiding the question of whether or not they are even allowed to meet in private and collect votes like this. They have probably broken several laws at this point and few in local media seem to notice. It’s just… not discussed.
Given that Maja Viklands Harris is a wealthy woman who is politically connected with a lovely home… maybe she should be more concerned with the communists who want to tax, kill, and/or eat her?
The curiosity and concern just sputter out when the DSA, ACLU, and PAT are involved. We start to get a little drowsy and the critical skills fade for some reason.
On the violent communists note, I’m regularly inundated with useful idiots (Hi John!) pushing back on me when I call a spade a spade. (they’re just socialists bro, like Bernie) And then I have DSA members sending me anonymous messages like this:
If you’re gonna troll me, at least read my work. I know you guys aren’t Social Democrats. I did an entire article on it. The DSA are communists. If anyone is still confused I can’t help you.
Proportional Representation
The DSA are now essentially 50% of our City Council.3 As Viklands Harris explained above, they can block almost any proposed amendment. They only need to win over one swing vote to get almost any idea through. But, to paraphrase Vadim Mozyrsky from that press conference, they simply don’t represent what 50% of Portlanders want.
50% of Portland are not communists. They want more police officers, not fewer. They want traffic laws enforced. They want bloated middle management cut. They want slightly lower taxes or a huge increase in quality of core services.
Councilor Candace Avalos is big on Proportional Representation. So is Maja Viklands Harris of Rose City Reform. They should be, because they both helped write the charter. It’s what they sold us on — 12 councilors each representing 25% of their district. Leaving approximately 25% of Portland without a voice instead of as high as 49% in a winner-takes-all election.
This is where the math falls to shit.4 Avalos doesn’t have a 25% constituency. She received 25% of the votes in a low turnout year, and only after her gains from the single transferable system.
Around 20% of those who voted chose Avalos, with a District turnout of only 55%. On top of that, around 29% of District 1 ballots didn’t have a city council representative marked at all.
If you find that math confusing or you don’t understand single transferrable voting, you’re starting to see the problem.
Depending on how much weight you give transferred votes as an indication of “representation,” between 7.5% and 10% of registered D1 voters chose Candace Avalos. If you stack Jamie Dunphy’s votes on top you still won’t make it to 20%.
So less than 20% of registered East Portland voters are truly represented by the 66% of their councilors who voted to defund public safety budgets and ally with police abolitionist while lying and claiming to just want accountability.
That 20% number lines up almost perfectly with the percentage of District 1 residents who said they“strongly approve” cutting the police budget in one poll. 62% disapproved. So I think we can guess that most of Avalos’s true supporters showed up and voted for her. There probably isn’t a giant crowd of people who didn’t vote but would have been excited to choose her.
That is not proportional representation when Councilor Loretta Smith is the only voice echoing what the majority of East Portland clearly wants. It’s a lie, just like the refusal to call defunding what it is, and the claim that we must choose between Parks and Police.
The Oregonian’s Shane Dixon Kavanaugh started barking up this tree last year, The Portland Mercury and “a few members of the City Council” tore into him for it, and he came down with the same lack of curiosity we are seeing across the city.
What a shame. It’s almost like Portland isn’t getting what she voted for but talking about it is gauche.
NW 17th Ave Women’s Shelter
As a counter example, the NW Examiner covered the public meeting over Blanchet House’s new proposed women’s shelter in NW Portland — a few blocks from my place.
I don’t have much to add. I thought the meeting went well. It was nice to see normal Portlanders disagreeing and asking hard questions. It’s even nicer to see the DSA sit something out for a change. There were no personal attacks. No screaming or accusations of fascism. It was refreshing to be in a room with adults and it was a nice contrast with the press conference described above.
John Hacker showed up to continue his arc of accusing Echelon Security of a variety of crimes and abuses. The fact that Blanchet was working with Echelon was one of the only broadly accepted “good” things about the proposal. Hacker seemed to be the odd man out on that issue. Worth noting that one of his criticisms of the Society Hotel from that night, was their use of Echelon Security to keep the hotel staff and guests safe.
I don’t know. Maybe if we had adequate police staffing and fewer pro-terror groups harassing people, Echelon wouldn’t have been needed? Just a thought.
And speaking of terrorism and its apologia…
Next Time: Beaverton and the American Intifada
Yes. That’s Oregon State Representative Farrah Chaichi standing with a crowd gleefully calling for Intifada. Chaichi is a DSA member. So are most of the participants.
A loud and clear call for terrorism.
Specifically political violence against Jews.
Days after the latest attack against Jews in Boulder, Colorado.
In front of the Beaverton School District Office.
Also in attendance: A Beaverton City Councilor, School Board members, several Portland DSA members you will recognize, and a PSU Professor who claimed “We are all Hamas.”
The DSA left this out of their social media posts. So did all of the local papers.
We’re going to be covering all of it — with video and photo evidence. Next time.
Stay safe out there.
Since when?! Is it just for screaming to kill Jews?
An actual grass roots org that helps you choose competent, sane candidates while also working on voter outreach and advocacy.
There is absolutely no reason to treat Avalos and Dunphy as independent from the DSA. Dunphy is cosponsoring amendments with them and Avalos regurgitates DSA platform points on social media, including reposting them directly.
Max, It’s killing me to read this stuff. Please run for office and convince a couple of other normies with steel spines to join you.
Great piece, Max. You're killing it. And you are absolutely right: what we are fighting here is communism, not it's more palatable and weakly cousin, "Democratic Socialism." These people hate actual democracy, which is why they decided to bypass actual democracy in favor of the the convoluted voting system they manipulated the public into buying. And the other fact is this: the local news organizations refuse to engage in it in any honest way. As much good as Sophie Peel seems to do, she mostly falls short, including her coverage of Dre Miller's intimidation tactics at public meetings. They simply run cover for the left, and even the far-left, and always have.
Two interesting points: my parents grew up in a mining town that was heavily unionized. They are died-in-the wool, old-school, union Democrats. And you know what they hate? Communism.
Also, when we took poll of our 200k followers, 44% of them identified as "liberal/progressive." People engage with us because we, like Portland Dissent and others, because we will report the stories the local media refuses to acknowledge. The left/right dichotomy is no longer an accurate description of what is happening in this city, regionally, or even, country-wide.