[guest post by Dana]

This report, by Kale Williams of Oregon Live, refers to the victim, photo-journalist and editor at Quillette Andy Ngo as a right-leaning provocateur, just in case you were looking for something to justify the violent attack on him. And don’t forget, he willingly went into the potentially violent situation in order to do some reporting, so, you know, shouldn’t have worn that short skirt:

Despite a large showing — left-wing protesters showed up in the hundreds while right-wing demonstrators numbered only a few dozen — Saturday featured only a few isolated flashpoints of violence. Still, one of them has garnered outsized attention with many in conservative circles condemning the mayor and police for perceived inaction in the face of violence.

Andy Ngo, a right-leaning provocateur with online news and opinion outlet Quillette, which identifies Ngo as an editor and photojournalist, went to the left-wing demonstration around noon on Saturday. Around 1:30 p.m., Ngo was attacked by a group of masked individuals who kicked, punched and threw milkshakes at him. He quickly left the scene and was admitted to a local hospital, he said on Twitter.

Pictures he posted after the attack show cuts and bruises to his face and neck as well as what appears to be the remnants of milkshake coating his hair and clothing.

The “milkshake” that landed on Ngo was quite possibly made of quick-drying cement, according to the Portland P.D. Michelle Malkin tweeted late this afternoon that Ngo remains hospitalized. He is reportedly suffering from a “brain bleed”.

And, in what is becoming all too familiar:

Police were lined up along the perimeter of the park before the attack, but no one intervened to break up the fight. Late Saturday, police reported that three people had been arrested, including one for assault, but it was unclear if that person had anything to do with the attack on Ngo.

Here is the “right-leaning provocateur” doing uh, you know, his job yesterday (Photos via Michelle Malkin):

The response from Big Media has been thin at best. A search at the New York Times and the Washington Post links me to a the same AP report. A search of the Los Angeles Times drew a blank. Several mainstream reporters have condemned the attacks:

Even @MrAndyNgo's critics should have no trouble saying this: The assault against him was unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/VLKc4M0P05

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 30, 2019

Anyway, the deafening silence from prominent members of the media who have been raging of late about unfair treatment toward those in their profession, is telling. The danger of assuming the moral high ground is that eventually the smug stance will be tested. This is very often followed by an ungracious tumble down from their vaunted position. Too many people in certain professions just seem to be consistently blind to their own soul-crushing hypocrisy. Journalists, as a whole, respect colleagues who take risks to write stories and report on any number of issues. Yet when a photo-journalist who thinks about things differently, is violently attacked while reporting on a group of dangerous thugs is met with silence from the very same people who are outraged at the mistreatment of those in media, hypocrisy is again exposed. And it doesn’t stop there: The victim is blamed and vile suggestions are made that victimization was his goal all along.

Here are how three news sources framed their tweets about the attack and evidenced that no one at these outlets is aware of the “left-wing” and “far-left”:

Also, here is video of the attack, provided by Jim Ryan of the Oregonian:

First skirmish I’ve seen. Didn’t see how this started, but @MrAndyNgo got roughed up. pic.twitter.com/hDkfQchRhG

— Jim Ryan (@Jimryan015) June 29, 2019

Malkin is spearheading a GoFundMe campaign for Andy Ngo here.

UPDATE: Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler addressed the violence this weekend in a string of tweets. Nowhere does he mention Andy Ngo and his sustained injuries, nor anyone else who was also victimized at the “protests”. Basically it’s the standard, toothless string of word vomit that elected officials churn out when compelled to say something. Anyway, I’m sure he feels good about it:

Portland has always been a beacon of free speech. We are proud of that history.

But in the last couple of years, some have increasingly used their opportunity to exercise their 1st amendment rights, as an opportunity to incite violence.

Over the weekend some chose to engage in violence in Portland, which is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

We stand against all forms of violence – regardless of someone’s political leanings.

Portland police officers have the unenviable task of keeping the peace. It’s a difficult job and hard decisions are made in real-time.

While we continue to learn more about what transpired over the weekend, we will keep you informed.

We will do everything we can to make sure that those who have committed violence are held accountable.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

It is the third Sunday after Pentecost. Today we have a Bach cantata, and then a special treat: an offering to God written by yours truly, many years ago, but newly transcribed and turned into a MIDI file.

It’s probably a bad idea to put my own offering up in the same post as one from Bach. But my piece was inspired by Bach, so it’s appropriate even if it makes the contrast in quality too obvious.

Let’s start with today’s Bach cantata: “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” (Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing). This is a lovely live performance:

Today’s Gospel reading is Luke 9:51-62:

Samaritan Opposition

As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village.

The Cost of Following Jesus

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words:

Cross and crown are bound together,
struggle and reward are united.
Christians have at all times
their suffering and their enemy,
yet their comforts are Christ’s wounds.

I follow after Christ,
I will not let go of Him
in prosperity and hardship,
in life and mortality.
I kiss Christ’s shame,
I will embrace His cross.
I follow after Christ,
I will not let go of Him.

Bach used the beginning of first chorus for the Crucifixus portion of the Credo in his Mass in B minor:

That makes for a nice tie-in to my piece, which was inspired by Bach’s Mass in B minor.

The current setting of my piece is for string quartet. It’s a piece I always envisioned being sung by a choir, but I would have to transpose it to a different key (which I may do in the future) for that purpose, as the notes don’t fit the usual vocal ranges of a church choir. I warn you that it is somewhat rhythmically monotonous, but I like the various resolution of the different dissonances — and I hope that for a 2 1/2 minute piece, you find that it has an arc to it that makes up for the dirge-like rhythm.

Here is the score:

[pdf-embedder url=”https://patterico.com/app/uploads/2019/06/Offering.pdf”]

And here it is as performed by a wooden MIDI string emsemble:

I always saw it as a Kyrie, since the very beginning was inspired by the Kyrie from Bach’s B minor mass. Here are a few seconds from the Kyrie from Bach’s B minor mass so you can see the similarity of the opening:

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

[guest post by JVW]

Say what you will about the Democrat debates which took place earlier this week (and really, we already have), but in many ways the breakout star has to be Marianne Williamson. Before Thursday night I just knew of her as a Baby Boomer enthusiast for assorted New Age bunkum and hokum, and a fringe independent candidate for the Congressional seat in my district back in 2014, a year in which Democrats were pasted nationally (but, sigh, not in California). In my let’s-compare-the-candidates-to-high-school-students post I characterized her as follows:

Cute chick who read Jonathan Livingston Seagull and listened to Dan Fogelberg, whose music she thought had really, really deep meaning. Believed strongly in using crystals for health and healing. You wanted to like her, but her thoughts were so banal and silly that you limited yourself to smiling and waving at her when you saw her in the hall. Spent most of her time in the art studio making stained glass doodads and painting rainbows and peace signs.

I think I was proven fairly prescient in the debate on Thursday, where Ms. Williamson called for harnessing the power of love and pledged that her first item of business as President would be to call that bitch who runs New Zealand and put her in her place.

But what I realized in reading through Ms. Williamson’s delightful wackiness is that, much to my chagrin, I hadn’t been following her on Twitter. There, one gets treated to the full range of Marianne’s Musings. Various websites and bloggers are now compiling lists of her most, uh, lyrical (if perhaps esoteric) Tweets, and most of them are must-reads. I’m going to add some of my favorites:

Nothing you've ever done or could ever do can make your spirit not beautiful. Or anyone else's, either. Just think what that means. #fb

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) December 16, 2009

This must be a relief to Adolf Hitler as he burns in hell.

God = Love. Will = Thought. Done = materialize. "God's will be done" means "May love materialize."

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) November 29, 2010

I think I finally understand the Transitive Property of Equality.

When you're missing someone, know it just means that on a soul level they've come to visit.

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) January 28, 2012

It helps if you imagine the sound of a gong being struck immediately after reading that tweet.

Each of us is pregnant with a better version of ourselves.

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) August 8, 2012

But most of us head straight to Planned Parenthood.

The most important things in life are not visible to the physical eye. It’s only when we soul-explode beyond the confines of the mortal self, expanding the boundaries of what we think is real, that we begin to glimpse the truth of who we are and why we’re here.

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) August 23, 2018

“Soul-exploding” is a concept that I would like to learn more about.

Anyway, there are hundreds more of these that can be found on her timeline, even if you do have to scroll through the 16,000+ pearls of wisdom that have issued forth from her iPhone over the past decade.

Republicans are now donating to her campaign in order that she can hit the 130,000-donor threshold for this fall’s debates. She’ll also need to reach two percent in the polls, but hopefully her marvelously whimsical style will encourage Democrat voters to keep her on stage to counterbalance Sanders’ grumpy Marxism, Warren’s gross pandering, Harris’s indignant umbrage, and Biden’s morbid cluelessness. It was worth it to me to send her a buck, even though I had to register an account with Act Blue. Here is the link if any of you are so inclined.

As the joke goes, we’re really going to regret lending her our support in January 2021 when she is inaugurated as our nation’s forty-sixth President. But what the hell — we might as well go out laughing all the way.

– JVW

[Headline from DRJ]

Trump ended the G20 by making more news about Russia:

A Russia 24 television reporter approached Trump during a morning event and asked, “Mr. Trump, how did you like your meeting with President Putin?”

Trump responded: “He is a great guy. I think we had a really good meeting. I think he is a good person, we started discussing trade. I think we should have trade between Russia and USA, two great countries. We had a great meeting yesterday. He is a terrific person. Thank you very much.”

And about the Koreas:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been one of the most enthusiastic proponents for peace between the US and North Korea.

He is currently attending the G20 alongside other world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, who earlier today tweeted out an invitation to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to meet him in the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.

It’s not known whether Moon was aware of Trump’s invitation before it was issued, but the South Korean Blue House confirmed that Trump had brought it up with Moon on Saturday morning.

Walking up to Moon in the G20 coffee lounge, Trump asked, “Have you seen my tweet?”

— DRJ

[Headline from DRJ]

The Hill — Judge blocks Trump from using billions in military funds for border wall:

A federal judge on Friday issued a ruling blocking the Trump administration from tapping billions of dollars in military funds to construct a wall on the United States’s southern border.

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam issued the permanent injunction in a California federal court, after initially ruling last month to temporarily halt the administration’s use of military funds for the border wall.

President Trump declared a national emergency earlier this year in order to divert roughly $6 billion in Defense Department funds toward border wall construction. Friday’s ruling blocks the administration from using $2.5 billion in military funds for a border wall.

— DRJ

[Headlines from DRJ]

Hot Air: Judge Reduces Oberlin Damages To $25 Million

But there is a twist:

The president of a school facing a $25 million judgment for aiding student efforts to label Gibson’s Bakery a racist institution is insinuating on a conference call with alumni that Gibson’s is a racist institution. So no lessons learned at Oberlin I guess.

Details at the link.

Last week the Oberlin President reportedly repeated a “false claim” it was “held liable for the speech of its students.”

– DRJ

[Headline from DRJ]

Daily Mail — All eyes on Trump as he is reunited with the VERY glamorous Argentinian first lady for the G-20 ‘family photo’ – but what does he whisper that has everyone in fits of giggles?

Feel free to suggest better captions for the photos.

— DRJ

[Headline from DRJ]

The Hill — ‘Unmasker in Chief’ Samantha Power spewed anti-Trump bias in government emails:

It turns out that [Samantha] Power — the diplomat whose authority inexplicably was used to unmask hundreds of Americans’ names in secret intelligence reports during the 2016 election — engaged in similar Trump-bashing on her official government email, according to documents unearthed by an American Center for Law and Justice lawsuit. The conservative legal group is run by Trump defense attorney Jay Sekulow.

The discovery could add a new dimension — a question of political bias — to a long-running congressional investigation into why Power’s authority was used to unmask hundreds of Americans’ names in secret National Security Agency intercepts during the 2016 election. That practice of unmasking continues to grow today.

— DRJ

[Headlines from DRJ]

WSJ — Trump, With a Smile, Tells Putin ‘Don’t Meddle in the Election’:

Two leaders also planned to discuss trade and ‘some disarmament’

OSAKA, Japan—President Trump called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay out of the 2020 presidential election, but the tone of his comment Friday was open to interpretation.

The Wall Street Journal article is behind a paywall but this Guardian link has the same story about Trump joking about election meddling, plus something about Fake News and getting rid of journalists (“… 26 journalists have been murdered since Putin first became president, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), many of them investigative reporters scrutinising governmental abuses”). The usual.

As a bonus, here is a related PBS News Hour story — Putin invites Trump to visit Russia next year:

OSAKA, Japan — The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin has invited President Donald Trump to visit Russia next year.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the Russian leader wants Trump to attend festivities marking the 75th anniversary of the World War II victory.

Peskov says Trump reacted “positively” to the invitation at the two leaders’ meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 nations’ summit in Osaka. Peskov says a formal invitation would be sent shortly.

All the world’s a stage to some.

— DRJ

[guest post by JVW]

The consensus debate winner from last night’s second Democrat festival of gasbaggery, California Senator Kamala Harris, has been all over the map regarding what, if any, role private health insurance plans will play in her version of Medicaid for All. Witness:

January 29

California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, speaking during a town hall Monday night, vowed to eliminate all private health care insurance for approximately 150 million Americans if she is elected president.

Asked by CNN host Jake Tapper if people who like their current health care insurance could keep it under Harris’ “Medicare for All” plan, Harris indicated they could not — but that, in turn, they would experience health care without any delays.

January 30, the very next day

[. . .] Harris’s national press secretary Ian Sams and an unnamed advisor told CNN that she would also be open to pursuing more moderate healthcare reforms that would allow the 177 million Americans currently using private health insurance plans to keep them.

“Medicare-for-all is the plan that she believes will solve the problem and get all Americans covered. Period,” Sams told CNN. “She has co-sponsored other pieces of legislation that she sees as a path to getting us there, but this is the plan she is running on.”

May 12

Tapper asked about her support for Medicare For All and her call in a January town hall on CNN that she supports “eliminating” the private health insurance industry.

“That’s not what I meant!” Harris said.

“I support Medicare for all but I really do need to clear up what happened on that stage,” she said. “It was in the context of saying let’s get rid of all the bureaucracy.”

And then later in that interview:

TAPPER: OK. [The Sanders bill which Harris supports] doesn’t get rid of all insurance.

HARRIS: OK. Right.

TAPPER: … but for all essential health care benefits.

HARRIS: But — but why? Ask the question, why?

The question — the answer to that question is because Medicare for all and the vision of what it will be includes an expansion of coverage. So, Medicare for all will include vision. It will include dental. It will include hearing aids.

TAPPER: There are a lot of members of unions, for example, who like their private insurance…

HARRIS: Right. Right.

TAPPER: … and the plans that have been negotiated on their behalf and don’t want that replaced.

HARRIS: Right.

Well, listen, let me just tell you something. I completely agree with those members of organized labor who have negotiated for plans and have, in those negotiation processes — processes, often give enough what could have been higher wages in exchange for a higher coverage for health care.

June 27, earlier tonight

When the Democratic candidates at Thursday night’s debate were asked if their Medicare for All plan would eliminate private health insurance, two people’s hands went up: Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris. Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio were the only candidates to take that position last night.

Tonight's candidates who raised their hands to abolish private insurance: Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/MG58k71hUV

— Axios (@axios) June 28, 2019

Then, just 90 minutes after the debate ended:

Just asked @KamalaHarris after the debate about raising her hand to the health insurance question — she said she interpreted the Q to mean *her own* insurance plan.
Lester's question: pic.twitter.com/ZYde1pndPk

— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) June 28, 2019

Harris maintained that folks should continue to opt into private supplemental insurance, as well as union members satisfied with already-negotiated health insurance plans. https://t.co/Z1zkHU1jQs

— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) June 28, 2019

In Senator Harris’s defense, it was a very poorly-worded question. But the question begins with “many people watching at home” which is the subject of the sentence, so when the object of the follow-up sentence is the pronoun “their,” it seems that it ought to refer back to “many people watching at home,” not “we narcissists on the stage tonight,” though, in fairness, it’s unreasonable to expect politicians not to be thinking of themselves first. Yet somehow it seems that nine of the ten participants understood what was being asked (though, in all honesty, we can’t ever be fully sure where Marianne Williamson is concerned), so Sen. Harris is probably the only candidate over whose head the question apparently passed.

So maybe, just maybe, Kamala Harris has a coherent and consistent plan for the role of private health insurance in her Medicaid for All scheme, but I kind of think her problem is that she is just trying to be everything to all extremes of her party’s disparate coalition. Expectations seem to be that her strong performance last night will raise her up in the polls and solidify herself in a Top Four with Biden, Sanders, and Warren. If so, she may find that the long knives are now pointed at her, and her notoriously sloppy and inconsistent answers might not cut it any longer.

– JVW