@JennyWriterPDX

No EMPs or global nuclear annihilation! Wasn't WWII enough? Put down the nuclear football, President Trump.

Traditionally, that's a suitcase with comms and missile launch codes chained to the president's wrist. I assume Putin has one too.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters, by Simon & Garfunkel (VEVO)

We shall not weary, we shall not rest, as we stand guard at the entrance gates and the exit gates of life, and at every step along way of life, bearing witness in word and deed to the dignity of the human person—of every human person.

Richard John Neuhaus

Photo: Vecteezy.com

Now someone wants the lower class to pay for sunlight? No thanks! I still don't like the concept of buying water.

One ad says, "Light up your night!" Take a breath, corporate startups. A dark bedroom, living room, cot or tent, along with natural dusk, makes it easier to sleep and wake with the sun, and if you mess with your circadian wake/sleep cycle, you can stomp your own mental health.

I already pay for electricity, and shelling out bucks for sunshine means less money for groceries, plus substantial risk to our already fragile ecosystem.

That's just my first impression, but in general, don't try to sell me the Brooklyn Bridge either.

Bird on the roof of an apartment building, considering breakfast options.

The bird's not a vegan, vulture or bot, and is probably against devouring people — or eggs — in principle.

The bird has left the building.

BELOW: Charlie "Bird" Parker, Yardbird Suite

Rest In Peace, Ryan Zimmerman

In 2022, Sarah E. Buzzard pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated murder in the death of Ryan Zimmerman, 21, of Columbus, Ohio.

Her guilty plea allowed the Court to dismiss 18 other charges, and she received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years .

This crime, the YT video, and written descriptions of it are extremely graphic with multiple triggers: #TW crime; #TW violence; #TW murder. Not appropriate for children. Please do not read or watch the video if you think you will be triggered.

Zimmerman born and grew up in Mississippi, and later lived in Corbin, Kentucky, before moving to Ohio; in 2015, he moved in with Buzzard and her ex-husband. He disappeared in November that same year.

In January 2016, a dog walker found human remains in West Bank State Park off U.S. 127, but it wasn't until June 2020 that the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office announced they had identified Ryan Zimmerman as the victim.

Authorities used DNA analysis and forensic anthropology to determine his identity.

Ryan Zimmerman met Sarah Buzzard and her ex-husband on social media before he moved in with them.

Randy Zimmerman remembers his brother Ryan was “one of a kind," a man who loved his family more than anything and was always searching for good friends.

“Someone obviously took advantage of his heart," Randy said.

Even so, he'd like others to remember Ryan Zimmerman as a caring, warm individual, and in his memory, "Maybe teach your kids to be sweet.”

August 5, 2026—A two-hour barrage of Russian drones and missiles killed 17 people near Kyiv, Ukraine and wounded dozens more, said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Zelenskyy added that he hopes Elon Musk will allow Ukraine to use Musk's Starlink satellite communications system to guide ballistic missile strikes inside Russia. Ukraine's supply of interceptors is almost depleted.

By Jenny Westberg, guest column in The Oregonian, May 14, 2010, republished by author on Tumblr August 4, 2026

In her column this week, The Oregonian’s Anna Griffin notes that any time James P. Chasse Jr.‘s name is in the news, she gets the same phone call: “Why won’t this story go away? It’s been four years. He was nobody. Why do you think anyone still cares?”

Those are good questions, and the caller probably speaks for many Portlanders. Each point deserves a response.

“He was nobody.”

What do we know about this “nobody”? James Chasse was a writer, artist, poet and musician. He had many friends and a loving family: a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a niece. Friends and strangers knew of his gentle spirit. Yes, he happened to have a serious mental illness. He struggled more than most of us. But we also know he put effort into getting well. We know he was not drinking or using drugs. We know he made art and music. We know he touched many lives.

What did Jesse Jackson tell us? “I am somebody.” James Chasse was somebody. He mattered. He was loved. He is still remembered.

“It’s been four years.”

That was true at the time. And the city should be ashamed. An investigation that should have happened immediately took three years. In fact it was delayed so long that the city must now pay an outside firm to investigate the investigation.

If city government had done its job in the first place, we wouldn’t be dealing with it more than three years later. Taxpayers could have avoided paying lawyers to defend the city, the county and police, racking up billable hours to devise legal strategies that offend the conscience, such as the suggestion that Chasse was responsible for his own death.

If officials had taken immediate and forceful action, we might not have witnessed this week’s city government shakeup, with Mayor Sam Adams removing the Police Bureau from under Commissioner Dan Saltzman and telling Police Chief Rosie Sizer to clean out her desk.

There’s not a single good reason this case needed to last this long, cost millions of dollars and cause immeasurable damage to the public trust.

“Why won’t this story go away?”

Maybe some Portlanders would like to forget about James Chasse. Certainly city leaders would be relieved if the whole thing quietly slipped away. But the case lives on, in part due to the appalling number of insults that kept getting heaped onto the original injury.

When the officers involved in Chasse’s death went undisciplined, it was an insult. When Saltzman announced token disciplinary action, then obediently withdrew it when police objected, it was an insult. When years went by without an investigatory report, it was an insult.

Prior to Chasse’s death, we had heard about other people with mental illness or in crisis who had been killed at the hands of police. Deontae Keller. Richard “Dickie” Dow. Jose Meija Poot. Kendra James. James Jahar Perez. And the deaths didn’t stop. Aaron Campbell was shot in the back and killed on Jan. 29. Jack Dale Collins was shot and killed on March 22.

Tragic occurrences all. But tragedies no longer seen as mere “accidents,” but as “normal,” predictable and all too frequent.

We learned more about the officers involved in Chasse’s death. On Nov. 14, 2009, Officer Chris Humphreys shot a 12-year-old girl with a beanbag gun. On April 7, 2010, Officer Kyle Nice pulled his gun on a civilian in a road-rage incident. Two more insults. As the final Chasse lawsuit approached, city attorneys added another to the pile: They would try to pin Chasse’s death on Chasse himself.

Portland has been battered by these insults. The story won’t go away as long as the wounds keep getting ripped back open.

“Why do you think anyone still cares?”

Unpackaged, this question speaks to injustice, to impunity, to authoritarian rule. It asks the community to ignore unreasonable police brutality. It asks for the issues around mental illness to be ignored, forgotten, for those persons with unsolvable problems to vanish.

The question expresses fear, ignorance, shame and disgrace.

We care about the person and the facts. James Chasse was brutally killed. He did not commit a crime. He was defenseless. He died in fear and agony, in the custody of those we expect to “protect and serve.”

If compassion and facts don’t move us, infuriate us and make us wonder what’s happening to our city, what would it take?

Yes, we still care, because we, like James Chasse, are human beings. He didn’t deserve to die. This must never happen again.

###

Jenny Westberg wrote this article as a board member of the Mental Health Association of Portland.

The story was published in The Oregonian, but it's now behind a paywall. That's why I pasted the full article above — for free, because of freedom of the press, the U.S. economy in 2026, and because death by cop still happens.

The full-length documentary, Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James P. Chasse, Jr., is also available online.

The Wall Street Journal reports President Trump has launched a secret fundraising operation, and the funds aren't going to enrich anyone but Trump.

🦮 💭 Woof! That's right.

Arf! Arf! Dogs don't smoke. But what happens if your faithful dog eats or inhales too much marijuana?

Cannabis poisoning in dogs can be serious. Here's some information on what to do for your puppy, and when to call the veterinarian.

👤"Lassie, did you push Timmy into the well?"

🐶 "Woof! No comment."

Logan Barclay gets called on his b_llsh_t.

April 17, 2024: Wisconsin officers responded to a 911 caller who said she found what she first thought was a backpack near the Peace Trail, off Afton and Hanover Roads. The caller then told officers it wasn't a backpack after all; it was a deceased woman. Authorities identified the victim as Kiersten Hansen.

Officers brought Logan Barclay in for questioning and read him his rights.

One of the detectives in this interrogation told Barclay, "I'm gonna be fair with you and say that 50% of what you just told me was b_llsh__."

Wisconsin Remembers

🌷Kiersten Hansen🌷

Video: Interrogation Files

Remembrance ©Jenny Westberg, August 3, 2026

✝️

Cannabis psychosis, DMT horrors, ghoulish trips on LSD, heroin/Fentanyl addiction, hash crash, 'shroom sickness, alcoholic delirium tremens (DTs), marijuana edible freak-outs, party drug and synthetic nightmares, cocaine, Ritalin and Adderall ODs, PCP, meth, speed, Datura, Salvia crises, who cares, whatever — just don't.

Don't do drugs —especially around children. 😮 You may not be back later.

No consumas drogas.

Take medications as prescribed, but if you find you're overdoing it, mixing drugs with alcohol, running out of rent money due to refill expenses, or have other problematic symptoms, you may be abusing your prescribed meds. Get help.

ABOVE: Cannabis psychosis, blown on DMT

Thomas More was part of Henry VIII's inner circle, a husband, father, and trusted advisor to the King. But unlike the Archbishop, the courtiers, and the many others who told the King whatever he wanted to hear, More refused to lie.

"I didn't leave my conscience at the market." — Thomas More

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act has long prohibited women — and men — from accessing abortion clinics and places of worship, whether as protesters, ICE agents, or medical personnel on their way to church or the U.S. Congress in Washington, DC.

They may be prohibited from visiting Nancy Pelosi's California organizing site, the Bay Area Reproductive Rights establishment in San Francisco, the Margaret Sanger commemorative clinic in New York City, or the site where masked ICE agents started aggressing against people in Minnesota.

How dare they?

"There's a very real chance that Dr. Anthony Fauci will be prosecuted" — Rand Paul

Elsewhere in Medical Fraudsters Today, four individuals have been charged in the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Take Down. They are accused of healthcare fraud in the amount of $6.5 billion.

The four (below) are among 455 suspects, including 90 medical professionals, who are caught up in schemes totaling $6.5 billion in false claims to Medicaid, Medicare, and other health care programs, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

In addition, telehealth prescribers are under fire for overprescribing stimulant medication, says Psychiatry.

These four have been charged. More to come.

Murad "Mike" Ayyad, 45, of Roswell, was charged by indictment with conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks and to defraud the U.S. government, payment and receipt of remuneration, and making and using false documents, all in connection with a scheme to submit fraudulent claims for lab testing, including cancer genomic testing, toxicology screening, and COVID-19 testing to Medicare, the Health Resources Services Administration, TRICARE, and other payers, resulting in over $15 million in payments.

Lonnie Releford, 57, of Stockbridge was charged by information with concealment of material facts related to health care matters in connection with a scheme to trick health care providers into hiring him as a licensed practical nurse when he wasn't one. Releford allegedly impersonated an actual licensed practice nurse by using their name and license number.

Murrell Carnell Rutledge, Jr., 52, of Atlanta was charged by indictment with health care fraud in connection with services not rendered and services misrepresented, which were billed to the Georgia Medicaid program in the amount of about $4.3 million, resulting in a loss of about $2.6 million. The indictment alleges that Rutledge was the operator of Rutledge Medical Associates in East Point and caused the billing of thousands of fraudulent claims to Georgia Medicaid for wound care, psychotherapy, and allergy testing services never performed.

Okah Anyokwu, 60, of Marietta, and his outpatient practice Avant Interventional Psychiatry reached a settlement to pay $375,000 to resolve allegations that Anyokwu and his clinic submitted claims to Medicaid under Anyokwu's provider number when the services were rendered by others who were not licensed or enrolled with Medicaid.

"Dr. Fauci, the COVID vaccine almost killed me!"

Fauci: "I plead the Fifth."

"And you got rich! Who the F-- do you think you are?"

Fauci: "You can look at my diary with all my notes."

"We've seen it. Dr. Anthony Fauci, did you lie to your own diary?"

🚨 The Hardcore Fest in North Portland 97217 has drawn Portland Police officers. Their job is to keep the peace. No rioting, ripoffs, meth or other illegal drugs.

If you're under 21, no cannabis, tobacco or alcohol. Careful with your cars; there is not unlimited parking.

If an officer wants to see your ID, please produce a photo identification.

If you are arrested, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed for you at no charge. Officers will tell you the rest of your rights, but they may have to drive you away from the scene to do so.

Officers are not allowed to show any bias or preference. It doesn't matter if you're Black, white, Indigenous, Asian-Pacific Islander, or other, or whether you speak Spanish.

To Alex and his two droogs, NO ultraviolence! You know who you are.

Have fun. 👮🚨

Today, Saturday, August 1, 2026, NASA offers "Asteroid Watch" at this link, so that ordinary people can see what huge asteroids may be coming, where they're likely to hit, are any of them the size of Texas, and whether this'll be The Big One that causes the collapse of modern civilization. 🌐

NASA Asteroid Watch:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch/