{"id":1939345,"date":"2023-05-26T21:45:04","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T01:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/resident-cheers-john-mellencamps-new-song-for-portland-land-of-plenty-where-nothing-gets-done\/"},"modified":"2023-05-26T21:45:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T01:45:04","slug":"resident-cheers-john-mellencamps-new-song-for-portland-land-of-plenty-where-nothing-gets-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/resident-cheers-john-mellencamps-new-song-for-portland-land-of-plenty-where-nothing-gets-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Resident Cheers John Mellencamp&#8217;s New Song for Portland: &#8216;Land of Plenty Where Nothing Gets Done&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fresident-cheers-john-mellencamps-new-song-for-portland-land-of-plenty-where-nothing-gets-done%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1939345&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Looking at American cities over the last few years, evidence suggests a connection between progressive Democratic rule and ruinous increases in urban blight.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most notorious American hotbeds of chaos and decay is Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n<p>Up until a few years ago, Portland had a reputation as a gentle hippie and hipster hangout, as depicted in the skit comedy show \u201cPortlandia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, like many other Democrat-run cities, Portland is dissolving into a morass of out-of-control homeless encampments, drugs and violence.<\/p>\n<p>The turn in the city\u2019s fortunes caught the attention of rock star John Mellencamp. He recently released a song, \u201cThe Eyes of Portland,\u201d describing the city\u2019s failures in dealing with its homeless problem.<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-embed\">\n<\/div>\n<p>Some residents of the besieged city were pleased to finally have someone calling attention to their plight.<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/john-mellencamp-nailed-song-portland-residents-land-plenty-nothing-gets-done\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fox News<\/a>, Portland resident Bridget Barton said, \u201cIt is pretty bad, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0The city of Portland and the state of Oregon are really in crisis at this time. And John Mellencamp has nailed it with a couple of these lines in the song. I think my favorite is one of the ones you just said, \u2018The land of the plenty where nothing gets done.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mellencamp received some local criticism as well. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pdxmonthly.com\/arts-and-culture\/2023\/05\/john-cougar-mellencamp-eyes-of-portland-homelessness-los-angeles-new-york\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Portland Monthly<\/a> griped \u201cThe Eyes of Portland\u201d video featured imagery of tents and begging individuals from Los Angeles and New York City instead of \u201cour own brand of urban decay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If anything, using footage from other places reinforces that the same wretched conditions are festering wherever the Democrats are in control.<\/p>\n<p>However, the news is full of reporting on genuine Portland-style blight.<\/p>\n<p>In September, 10 disabled residents sued the city, stating the tents and filth blocking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/portlands-homeless-problem-bad-residents-disabilities-suing-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Portland\u2019s sidewalks<\/a> violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires sidewalks to be wheelchair and walker accessible.<\/p>\n<p>In October, it was revealed that $139,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/portland-100000-public-toilet-now-appears-disgusting-open-biohazard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">public restrooms<\/a> set up in downtown Portland had degenerated into vandalized, disgusting biohazards.<\/p>\n<p>In December, a mother shared how she felt forced to move away from Portland after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/portland-mother-finds-horrifying-objects-garden-now-getting-kids-town\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fentanyl pills<\/a> \u2014 most likely from a nearby homeless encampment \u2014 wound up in her garden and near her small children.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s not the only one making that choice. In December, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wweek.com\/news\/state\/2022\/12\/24\/oregon-population-declines-for-first-time-since-1983-when-timber-was-ailing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Willamette Week<\/a> reported the Census Bureau said Portland\u2019s population decreased by 11,000, or 1.7 percent, in 2022, down to 641,000.<\/p>\n<p>Why is homelessness such a daunting problem?<\/p>\n<p>Portland resident Stue Peterson blames the politicians for subsidizing the lawlessness. According to Fox News, Peterson said, \u201cOne of the problems we have here is the government wants to administer to the homeless and they\u2019ve created a homeless industrial society, in my opinion, that doesn\u2019t really get to helping or to alleviating what the real issues are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview from December, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/homeless-woman-gives-brutally-honest-answer-better-handle-crisis-blue-city-leaders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">homeless woman<\/a> in nearby Seattle seemed to support that analysis.<\/p>\n<p>When asked what it was like to be homeless, she replied, \u201cIt\u2019s a piece of cake, really. I mean that\u2019s why you probably got so many out here, because they feed you three meals a day, you don\u2019t have to do s*** but stay in your tent, or party, or smoke a lot of dope, you can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>WARNING: The following tweet and video contain vulgar language that some readers might find offensive.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cIt\u2019s a piece of cake\u2026you get three meals a day and don\u2019t have to do shit\u2026wake up, eat get high, wake up eat get high\u201d repeat. A homeless woman shared with me why it\u2019s so easy to be homeless. She was brutally honest because she hates the enablement \u201cThey are loving us to death\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HxRUoSFFFu\">pic.twitter.com\/HxRUoSFFFu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kevin Dahlgren (@kevinvdahlgren) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kevinvdahlgren\/status\/1609300954112987137?\">December 31, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In California, at least one mayor has tried a different approach with great results. Republican Mayor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/gop-mayor-california-virtually-eliminates-homelessness-making-1-minor-change\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Richard Bailey<\/a> of Coronado has stamped out urban blight by simply enforcing the existing codes on the books preventing public camping and other misbehaviors.<\/p>\n<p>Mellencamp, even though he names Portland, implies the homeless situation is more of an American problem. He is right, in that we are called to help those less fortunate than us. Despite the line repeated in the chorus of his song, \u201cYour tears and prayers won\u2019t help the homeless,\u201d prayer is what many of the homeless need most.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s interesting to note that the singer is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/blogs\/click\/2012\/04\/mellencamp-to-walker-hey-im-liberal-120385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proud liberal<\/a> who has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wthr.com\/article\/news\/politics\/mellencamp-taking-stage-both-obama-clinton\/531-5920a8b3-efec-4152-bbd8-3a2e227f0a8e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">campaigned<\/a> for Democratic politicians \u2014 the very people whose policies encouraged the current homeless crisis to metastasize.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/resident-cheers-john-mellencamps-new-song-portland-land-plenty-nothing-gets-done\/\">Resident Cheers John Mellencamp&#8217;s New Song for Portland: &#8216;Land of Plenty Where Nothing Gets Done&#8217;<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking at American cities over the last few years, evidence suggests a connection between progressive Democratic rule and ruinous increases in urban blight. One of the most notorious American hotbeds of chaos and decay is Portland, Oregon. Up until a few years ago, Portland had a reputation as a gentle hippie and hipster hangout, as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2035,"featured_media":1939346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[17489,19004,4475,12948,27759,15498,3619,9251,10787],"class_list":["post-1939345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily","tag-cheers","tag-done","tag-john","tag-land","tag-mellencamps","tag-plenty","tag-portland","tag-resident","tag-song"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2035"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1939345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1939346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1939345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1939345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1939345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}