“Progressive Paradise”

“What do Democrats really do when they have all the power?” The New York Times asks that question in a video from earlier this month, and … Democrats and progressives will not enjoy the answer.

San Francisco’s mayor and police chief have promised “changes” after a night of massive looting, a crime becoming more and more common in the city, and one that’s driving businesses away.

Numerous stores, including Louis Vuitton and Bloomingdale’s, were hit on Friday night as part of a massive looting spree hitting businesses in the California city’s Union Square.

In a Saturday press conference addressing the attack on businesses, Mayor London Breed promised “changes” to the area that will limit car access after the “horrible” night of crime. Police Chief Bill Scott similarly pointed to infrastructure changes as a measure that will prevent future mass robberies.

A clothing store on the South Side of Chicago (the baddest part of town) ran into some trouble recently. Thieves came along during the night, smashed out the store’s windows, and ran off with all of the merchandise they could haul out. Of course, this is such a common occurrence in the Windy City these days that it’s almost not worth mentioning. But in this case, something happened in response that could almost inspire a bit of hope in the city’s beleaguered citizens and business owners.

Chicago’s wealthiest neighborhoods are not safe from the crime wave plaguing the Windy City and are being deprived of much-needed violence prevention funding, an Illinois lawmaker raged, after he shared harrowing footage of a drive-by shooting right outside his front door.

Rep. Jaime Andrade, 49, posted video from his Ring doorbell showing two vehicles driving into his a picturesque street lit only by porch lights in the North Side neighborhood of Albany Park.

Within seconds, dozens of loud gunshots go off one after the other. One car appears to back away while another is heard speeding off in the distance.

Portland, Oregon is nearly dead last on the list of cities where tourists and conventioneers want to spend money and time. And it makes sense. Portland is circling the drain.

The leaderless city from which police are fleeing, where Antifa thugs are ascendant, and which people in nearby towns avoid, is dying before our eyes.

Key prosecutors are leaving District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s office to join the recall effort.

How does one keep the party going when key guests gather their coats and leave? And what if they’re not leaving quietly? Such is the situation for San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin. Prosecutors who work in his office are defecting. In fact, since Boudin started his term in office, at least 51 of the department’s attorneys have either been fired or have left of their own accord. The most dramatic departures have been the recent resignations of two assistant district attorneys, Brooke Jenkins and Donald du Bain. Both consider themselves progressive and committed to “restorative justice,” yet they not only quit and took their scathing reviews of Boudin to the media; they’ve also joined the Safer Without Boudin recall campaign seeking to oust their former boss from office.

The city’s richest and whitest district wants to secede

More and more Americans are desperate to redraw their country. In California and Texas, campaigners want their states to secede. In the Pacific Northwest, farming communities in Oregon’s rural, red counties want to split and form part of a reconfigured state called “Greater Idaho”. One recent poll found that 40% of Biden voters and 50% of Trump voters would rather blue and red states break apart and go it alone.

And nowhere does this sort of reconfiguration stand a better chance of success than in Atlanta, where an organised and well-funded group of residents is pushing for Buckhead, the city’s wealthiest neighbourhood, to break away from the de facto capital of the South and form a municipality of its own. But while ‘Buckxit’ may be a local campaign to create a city of just 80,000 residents, it also goes to the heart of the challenges facing cities — and the Democrats who run them — across America.

“No one in our family wants to see the result of this be more police presence.”

9-year-old Hadar Kedem was playing with her father, brother, and family dog in a Portland city park when the gunmen came and the bullets began flying.

“They huddled up into this group and we thought they were going to do a race or something, but instead they pulled out guns and started shooting and then I got really scared,” the little girl told the Portland City Council. “There was a bullet that shot like four or five feet away from my right..”

I became afraid at the knowledge such people exist.

There’s a crisis in San Francisco. Homelessness has skyrocketed and drug use is rampant.

Michael Shellenberger moved to San Francisco in 1993 to work on liberal causes, and even spent time working for George Soros’ foundation. He advocated the decriminalization of drugs and promoted drug treatment programs. But, Shellenberger says, he began to worry when he saw the number of drug overdose deaths in America rise from 17,000 in 2000 to more than 70,000 by 2017.

“Clearly, we are in the midst of a massive drug crisis,” Shellenberger says, “and it felt like nobody was offering a particularly clear explanation of it or offering very good solutions.”

At a party over the weekend I was introduced to a college professor, and fell into conversation with him about teaching and Covid. Then I asked about how wokeness affects his teaching. I had no idea of the man’s politics, but I would bet the farm that he is a liberal, given that his academic field skews heavily to the left.

He told me that there is a lot of stress on professors at his university regarding grading students of color. He said everyone is afraid of being accused of racism if a black student doesn’t like his grade. The anxiety around this is deep, he said.

Chicago is the latest city to be hit by rampant shoplifting and its Magnificent Mile, the once highly-populated retail destination, is now dotted with empty storefronts as businesses are being driven away by the brazen thieves.

The city has been plagued by a string of robberies and a wave of crime in the past few months, as some say that the city’s ‘soft-on-crime’ policies embolden the thieves. The issue may only grow worse as at least 50 cops have been put on unpaid leave for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Shoplifting cases grew more common following a December 2016 motion from State’s Attorney Kim Foxx that mandated Chicago prosecutors only issue felony charges for theft of property over $1,000.

San Francisco mayor London Breed has disputed Walgreen’s claims it needs to shutter five stores in the city because its soft laws on shoplifting have led to rampant theft, claiming that the big chain was simply trying to slash costs and increase profits – and that retail theft was an easy scapegoat.

Mayor London Breed told reporters last week that she thinks ‘there are other factors that come into play’ and San Francisco District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston tweeted that the pharmacy chain has ‘long-planned to close hundreds of locations.’

The national chain has closed 17 of its 70 San Francisco locations in the past two years and cited the shelf raiders, who have swiped every kind of product not behind lock and key.