So much winning
It's a familiar slogan among the tighty righties: In Portland, nothing succeeds like failure. But it seems especially apropos of yesterday's absurd "state of the county" speech by the Multnomah County commission chair, Jessica Chevy Vega.
She listed decades of federal disinvestment in housing, a broken and unaffordable child care system, a historic lack of treatment and services for people who struggle with addiction or mental illness, people entangled in the criminal justice system, and the issues of food and transit deserts.
According to the county chair, the good news is that Multnomah County residents' tax dollars are helping, although she did not cite specifics on those metrics. Vega Pederson said she wants to build on "last year's success" in the coming year.
"(We must) continue to make meaningful strides to address homelessness, the fentanyl and drug crisis, new behavioral health resources — including sobering and deflection — and investments for community safety across the entire county," she said.
In Oregon prog language, "investments" means taxes, and it sounds like she's saying in that last part that if you want more law enforcement, you'll have to pay more to get it. But my real concern here is for the tone-deafness of "last year's success" and "meaningful strides." What in heaven's name is she talking about?
At least some people see through the empty word salad.
“The problems we’re solving aren’t easy,” Vega Pederson said. “Many of them have been decades in the making. Our community is anxious for change – and isn’t afraid to say so.”
One of those people is Commissioner Sharon Meieran, one of Vega Pederson’s sharpest critics who said she came away from the address unimpressed by its lack of specifics.
“It’s like if we just use the words collaboration, outreach, partnership, systems, ‘helping people,’ and progress often enough, people will believe we have a plan,” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “The problem is we don’t. And we don’t seem to have a plan for getting one.”
It's really too bad that Meieran lost to Chevy in the race for the chair seat. Due to term limits, Meieran's leaving the county building, probably for good, at the end of the year.
Anyway, Portland, enjoy all the "success" that our "meaningful strides" have produced. We all know everything's fine.
JVP also did the usual Portland prog deflection - they are taking on “racism” and that makes people “uncomfortable”. Therefore implying that it’s not her, it’s us- if we have issues with the county, we’re racist. I guess the dead dogs at County animal control must have all been white supremacists. Time for another DEI consultant!
ReplyDeleteIt bears repeating, as I continue to do: Nothing's getting done very gradually.
DeleteWord salad indeed... Also, the euphemism "investment" for "taxes" is common political blather. I used to hear it all the time with respect to gas taxes for road repairs in Silicon Valley. Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteToo many soft and distracted sheeple. If you point out the obvious F-ups and malfeasance, they'll just start BAAAAAAing and run away to play with their fellow woolies.
ReplyDelete“i’m ready for my close up, mr. demille.”
ReplyDeleteYou can't improve what you don't measure.
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to refer to "progress" made, you should quantify that "progress" or it's meaningless at best, and a complete fabrication at worst.
Does literally anyone thing any progress was made, at all, on either homelessness or rampant drug addiction and abuse besides these clowns that have to convince people they aren't just telephone sanitizers waiting to be loaded onto "ark B" ?
Has there been any meaningful dent made in either issue? Is there anything currently in-flight that is expected to make a dent? If the answer is no, then these people have lost the clarity and perspective required of them to actually solve problems, and have themselves become problems to be solved.