UNEXPECTEDLY! 911 callers in Portland face lengthy hold times amid efforts to defund the police.

According to The Oregonian, starting in the late spring, the riot-gripped city has faced a sharp increase in 911 calls placed on hold for two minutes or longer.

The national standard for 911 hold times is 15 to 20 seconds, but according to data from the Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications obtained by The Oregonian, 574 of the 911 calls in the city had to wait on hold for more than five minutes in July. This number is more than double that of May, in which 221 calls waited that long, and is drastically more than the figure in March, when only eight 911 calls took more than five minutes to answer.

Bob Cozzie, director of Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Communications, said, “I think it’s horrible. There’s no other way to state it,” in regards to the dramatic jump in wait times. “We’re at a tipping point now. It’s become unmanageable,” he said, acknowledging the delay. “The system is broken.”

And not by accident.

ROBERT SPENCER: As Biden Says Islam is Peaceful, D.C. Imam Calls for Jihad.

ALEX J. POLLOCK: Seven Possible Causes of the Next Financial Crisis. “The great financial historian, Charles Kindleberger, pointed out in the 1970s that over several centuries, history showed there was a financial crisis about once every ten years. His observation still holds. In every decade since his classic Manias, Panics and Crashes of 1978, such crises have indeed continued to erupt in their turn, in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and again in 2020. What could cause the next crisis in this long, recurring series?”

WELL, GOOD: Charges Dropped Against NY Radio Talker Arrested for ‘Improper’ Masking at School Board Meeting.

CANCEL CULTURE IS ALL IN YOUR MIND: 74% of professors targeted for unpopular speech or research end up punished by administrators. “Attempts to sanction scholars for their speech, research or teaching practices has skyrocketed since 2015, with about three in four campaigns leading to some form of professional sanction — including termination — according to a new report by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.”

AJ KAUFMAN: Treason? Resignation Calls Follow Report of General Milley’s Secret Calls to China. “Normally I am not so rash, nor do I toss around words like treason, but as a historian, I realize civilian leadership is paramount.”

COLORADO REDISTRICTING: New Maps Paint Colorado Blue. “More subtly, given the current trends, both Districts 4 and 5 are poised to swing to Democrats in the long run. District 4 will cross its inflection point in 2024 and District 5 will cross its inflection point in 2026. This means that come 2026 this map would most likely result in only one Republican holding Congressional office in Colorado, in CD-3.”

BREAKING: Federal Judge Blocks Forced Vaccination for Medical Personnel in New York.

NO. ‘Consume and cover,’ ‘quick sip rule’: Harvard wants students to eat, drink with mask on.

WE’RE HAVING A VIP MEMBERSHIP DRIVE AT PJ MEDIA and would truly appreciate your support.

I MIGHT NOT MIND SO MUCH IF I GOT SOME VALUE FOR MY TAX DOLLAR: Americans Spent More on Taxes in 2020 Than on Food, Clothing, Healthcare and Entertainment Combined.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Racist CA Democrats Reject Chance to Elect Historic Black Governor. “It’s no use exhorting my friends there to get out, even though I really wish they would. I know they would love living in America. California mesmerizes people though, especially Southern California. The perfect weather and the beaches help you block out the politics and the fact that lunch always costs at least $100. It’s a sort of lifestyle-induced Stockholm Syndrome that makes conservatives stay. I did it for almost 25 years, all the time believing that I would eventually help bring about some change.”

BOMBSHELL: Blinken Just Told Us How Many Biden Really Left Behind in Afghanistan.

TWO AMERICAS: Startup Will Provide Conservative Alternatives to Woke Corporations.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Nevada Dems Violated State’s Mask Mandate at 9/11 Costume Party Honoring Casino Billionaire.

Two senior Nevada Democrats violated the state’s indoor mask mandate by attending a costume party on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Photos obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show Sen. Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.) and Rep. Susie Lee (D., Nev.) decked out in boxing gear while attending a benefit gala honoring billionaire Elaine Wynn, ex-wife of casino magnate Steve Wynn. Neither politician was wearing a mask, even though Steve Sisolak, Nevada’s Democratic governor, had imposed an indoor mask mandate that went into effect the previous day.

The Democratic lawmakers were wearing personalized boxing robes—Rosen’s, for example, reads “Jolting Jacky”—while schmoozing at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, an “urban chic” venue that mandates “all guests … wear masks while indoors on property.”

I’ll take mask mandates seriously when the people telling me to take mask mandates seriously start taking mask mandates seriously.

GOOD FOR HIM: ‘SNL’ Alum Jim Breuer Cancels Gigs With Proof-of-Vaccine Requirements.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG — OTHER THAN EVERYTHING THAT ALREADY HAS? Retreat From Afghanistan Makes Taliban Best Armed Islamist Group on Earth.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Conservatives Are Now Counter-Culture: True Liberalism Is Dead and Antifa Is Pure Establishment.

EMILY JASHINSKY: The Revolution Will Be Bureaucratized.

Why, wondered Chris, should we spend a second worrying about deficits while the culture is crumbling around us? Why should we waste precious time fretting over the growth of the state when children are being mutilated in the name of social justice, with the full support of our institutions?

Chris came around. President Biden’s new federal vaccine requirements show the dangers of treating these issues as mutually exclusive. Indeed, many on the right are increasingly tempted to treat them as such, exhausted by the useless Republican establishment and animated by the swift radicalization of our institutions.

It’s boring and sounds tired, I know, but ballooning state power is not a silly fear of “Zombie Reaganites” and insufferable libertarians. It’s a vehicle of cultural tyranny as much as economic. It’s a tool for the political establishment to bulldoze our culture from their sad office buildings here in Washington.

Read the whole thing.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: ‘New York Times’ Quietly Removes Claim That Hunter Biden Laptop Story Was ‘Unsubstantiated.’

LOCKDOWN FALLOUT: Farmers hit with most disruptive price hikes, supply shortages in decades as pandemic slowdowns catch up to Colorado. “International markets were upended by pandemic-related disruptions to supply chains, that in recent decades have become increasingly global and responsive. Boats stuck waiting to be unloaded at California ports have ripple effects that blow back to plants in Asia, on to suppliers in the U.S., and eventually hit small business owners, grocery stores and customers. A winter storm that crippled Texas’ infrastructure in February and a shift to more online shopping have further disrupted supply chains.”

“F*** JOE BIDEN”: ‘Blood on Your Hands’: Idahoans Welcome Biden With Large Protests. “Chants of ‘traitor’ and ‘Joe Biden sucks’ greeted the president, with people irate over his unconstitutional new vaccine mandates for tens of millions of Americans announced late last week.”

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: Half of Americans Call Jan. 6 Suspects ‘Political Prisoners.’

Plus:

• Introducing “genderfae” and “generfloret” because we’re cruel like that
• “Alexandria Ocasio Cortez wore a ‘tax the rich’ dress *to a tax shelter*”
• See the truly dark side of white supremacy

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

TO BE FAIR, HE MAKES A LOT OF THOSE: Joe Biden Just Weakened His Cyber Redline With Russia. That’s A Mistake. “Since cyberspace attack on all US targets was already illegal, the list moves US redlines higher, to allow for more criminal activity, since the list implies *other than these targets,* the United States won’t even consider inflicting unacceptable costs for illegal Russian attack on US territory. Toothless indictments – yes; counter cyberspace attack — no. By not defending them, President Biden and his national security advisors are erasing these international norms and redlines. Under international law, you defend norms and sovereignty by *physically defending them,* not by abandoning them.”

#REFUNDTHEPOLICE: Austin Hits All-Time Homicide High. “Higher crime rates in Austin are a direct results of a homeless policy that lured more transients to Austin, of police budgets that were cut so more taxpayer money could be diverted to leftwing activists, and of a Soros-backed county DA that has installed a revolving door to put dangerous criminals back on Austin’s streets without prosecuting them.”