Hemming and hawing with Killer Kate

Ted Sickinger of the O is one of the few writers in Portland who bring the unvarnished truth. Here, behind the Paywall of Pity, he writes up Governor Kate Brown's most recent month of magical thinking on Covid. The consensus is that she has failed to lead. She started a staring contest with local politicians around the state, and she lost.

To make matters worse, the governor refused to let Sickinger interview her on the subject.

She's going to fail to lead on school reopening, too. "It's up to the local school boards." Really? All those unvaxxed kids in buildings together six or seven hours a day? The virus is going to have a field day. But Brown's been hell-bent on in-person schooling all year. People have died as a result.

Covid doesn't care about opinion polls. Covid doesn't give a damn about anyone's day care situation. Covid isn't the least bit concerned about your business.

When the Trump people said, "Just let it rage through the population until we all have acquired immunity," we progressives howled. But it's hard to see the government's current posture as anything but that. Arm-twisting people who won't get vaccinated and wear masks has pretty much run its course. Given the degree of ignorance we have in the population, more drastic steps are necessary. We took them in 2020, but I guess we're just too tired now.

Speaking of tired, Brown has another 16 months left on her term, but the way she's isolating herself and making bad calls, I'm starting to wonder whether she'll make it to the end. If she quits or keels over, we get Shemia Fagan as governor. Holy to the moly, my friends.