Portland can write off the rest of 2020

The nightly "protests" here in Portlandia haven't been primarily about Black lives mattering lately – not for a while. Starting about a month ago, they gradually became more about the conduct of the police at the previous night's demonstration.

But then the federal stormtroopers arrived, a young man's face got rearranged by a "less lethal" bullet, and masked jackboot heavies from the border patrol started cruising around downtown and throwing protesters into Enterprise rental minivans for rendition to an interrogation room.

So now it's all about Trump and Barr, which is a whole different level of trouble.

It's sad news for Portland, in a couple of ways. First, this is going to go on all summer – maybe all the way to the election, or even the inauguration. The downtown core won't get to start picking up the pieces for many months. 

What's even worse, though, is that every wingnut with a television set now sees Portland as the forum for the ultimate throwdown. And if they're within 1,000 miles of here, the extremists are either planning to make the trip or already on their way.

The situation was way beyond the competence of the local politicians even before the federal invasion. The City Council foolishly renewed the police union contract for another year just three weeks ago. Now they're caught not only between the protesters and the local cops, but also between the protesters and Orange Caligula. 

The "acting" Cabinet secretary in charge of the hideous Homeland Security operation was in town this week. He stiffed the mayor and the governor, and instead spent his time meeting with the arrogant police union. (He's "acting," by the way, because nobody who would work for Trump can get confirmed, even with Moscow Mitch ramming them through.)

One of these nights, somebody's going to get killed downtown. It almost happened last weekend. Now it seems inevitable. God help us.