“Progressive Paradise”

David Frum versus ‘settler colonialism’

The Canadian Institute for Historical Education hosted author David Frum for a December speech in Toronto, “settlers & colonialists,” which has now been turned into an article for The Atlantic (you can read it here), where Frum is a staff writer. Frum, a former aide to U.S. president George W. Bush and chairman of the U.K. centre-right think tank Policy Exchange, spoke to the Post’s Rob Roberts via email…

Liberals say they want ‘livable’ cities, but their policies produce high taxes, crime and chaos.

New York is the backdrop for famous holiday films such as “Miracle on 34th Street,” “Home Alone 2” and “Elf.” This year came a less felicitous kind when a video appeared of a woman burning to death on the subway while the man who lit her on fire fanned the flames. It was a nightmare before Christmas.

The video ignited conversation at my family’s table and doubtless many others. What happened? On Dec. 22, a 33-year-old undocumented immigrant from Guatemala allegedly lit the sleeping subway rider on fire. Police identified his most recent address as a homeless shelter in Brooklyn for men with substance-abuse problems.

The video is a snapshot of the city’s problems: crime, mentally deranged and intoxicated vagrants, undocumented migrants and unsafe subways. It’s also an apt metaphor for the destruction of the Big Apple and of other once-great cities by progressive arsonists.

Portland’s ‘open-air asylum experiment’ is largely over, making the city – with its fantastic food scene – an appealing holiday option again

I get off the bus at SW 6th Avenue, a handsome tree-lined street at the heart of downtown Portland. The site of the notorious former open-air fentanyl market outside an abandoned shopping mall, where until last year the strong and very cheap synthetic opioid was being freely traded, is now boarded up. The streets are quiet. On the next block I admire the handsome, historic facades of the US National Bank and Wells Fargo buildings and the securely-fenced new Midtown Beer Garden throngs with smart professionals seeking lunch from a score of food carts.

I find her enthusiasm premature.

A California bike mob ransacked three separate 7-Eleven stores in under 20 minutes just hours after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a “landmark” package to crack down on retail thefts.

Approximately 20 bicycling riding thieves targeted the Hollywood area convenience stores two miles apart on Friday night, according to NBC Los Angeles, citing the LAPD.

The brazen bunch broke into each store and stole food and drink items beginning with the 7-Eleven located at 7040 West Sunset Boulevard just after 8 p.m.

To showcase his city, the mayor puts his antipolice policies on hold until after the convention.

The Democratic National Committee presented its 2024 convention site as a show of confidence. “Chicago is a world-class city that looks like America and demonstrates the values of the Democratic Party,” Brandon Johnson, then mayor-elect, said in the DNC’s April 2023 announcement.

Fast-forward to this July 4. Over the four-day holiday weekend in Chicago, 19 people were fatally shot and more than 100 wounded by gunfire. One of them, 8-year-old Bryson Orr, was killed along with two women in a drive-by shooting. This wasn’t unusual. On Memorial Day weekend, 10 people lost their lives to gun violence, including 5-year-old Reign Ware. On Father’s Day weekend, more than 70 people were shot and eight killed. The child victims this summer include 7-year-old Jai’Mani Amir Rivera, fatally shot in the chest while walking to a neighbor’s house on June 18. A 3-month-old boy named Jemimah—his parents, fearing for their safety, have kept the family name out of the news—was shot in the chest on July 27 while riding in a car and remains in critical condition. On Thursday, a 3-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet fired by an adversary of his father.

I hope the convention blows up real good.