We're unable to even recognize the problem
if I die after I pay my rent, sit me on the couch till da 30th
— c mo (@Cxlby_) July 6, 2020
I commute to work from San Francisco to Oakland.
Something I do every morning is count homeless encampments. My arbitrary definition for encampment is four or more tents or cars.
In the last six months the number of homeless encampments I can see went from two to five.
And this has barely started.
Though the U.S. coronavirus crisis is far from over and millions remain unemployed, landlords in parts of the country have begun evicting tenants at almost the same rate as before the pandemic, according to a report Friday from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
...Of the 44 jurisdictions evaluated in the report, roughly one-third are no longer protected by eviction bans and in those places, evictions have resumed as before.
But as state and local bans lift, and federal unemployment benefits expire at the end of this month, the study predicts the housing threat will only worsen and as many 6.7 million households could face eviction.
So if we are already at pre-Covid eviction levels, and 2/3rd of areas are protected by eviction bans, then evictions are set to triple.
To put this into perspective, in 2019 there were 562,000 homeless people in the U.S.
By comparison, 10 million people lost their homes in the Great Recession.
This is an Economic Extinction Level Event.
“This level of displacement would be unparalleled in U.S. history and carries the potential to destabilize communities for years to come,” UrbanFootprint’s report reads.
We've got a tsunami on it's way that will destabilize the entire nation, economically, politically and socially.
So with this catastrophe about to strike, how will Americans react?
SEATTLE - Ballard neighbor Chris Tutolo says one by one, the homeless started coming back to pitch tents in Ballard Commons Park.
“And people saw there was no consequence, “ says Tutolo.
Yes, there are no consequences to being homeless.
WTF?
Recall that it was only a few months ago that outlawing homelessness was popular.
Las Vegas recently began cracking down on people living outdoors. In November, the city council approved a law that made sitting, resting or “lodging” on sidewalks a misdemeanor punishable with up to six months in jail or fines of up to $1,000 in most neighborhoods...
With no state income tax and dwindling federal support for social services, Nevada has long been ill-equipped to treat problems associated with homelessness.
If this nation's attitude is to criminalize poverty, then we are entering very dark days.
If we actually wanted to prevent this tragedy from happening, then we need to acknowledge the roots of the problem pre-date covid-19.
Barcelona has the right idea.
Comments
Woke liberals will save us
because this is what homeless people need
Let's virtue signal over trans rules for homeless shelters, rather than housing homeless people.
Oh, we're entering dark days all right.
It's amazing how the political class thinks this situation is totally kewl and bitchen. "Let's sit around and lie about the cops while the Border Patrol enacts Operation Condor in Portland, Oregon." Yeah, that'll do the trick.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
There is so much to unpack here
First, the sheer volume of the numbers of people devastated by this pandemic. There have been approximately 50 million claims filed for unemployment. Many states have still not filled all the unemployment claims filed due to the massive volume that has overwhelmed the system.
Second the poverty rate in the United States in 2020 is estimated to be 17.8%, the fourth highest in the world. This is obscene for a country that is the richest country ever known to have existed. According to one study, the wealth inequality in the United States is at its highest in over fifty years.
Third, of the jobs lost during the pandemic, it is estimated that over 40% will never return. And the remaining jobs will lose benefits and pay as a result according to Richard Wolff.
This is a tsunami of disasters that could have been mitigated if Congress and the Trump administration had bailed out the people and legitimate small businesses instead of propping up the stock market and bailing out massive corporations, most of which could have weathered the pandemic. We have been a third world country in a lot of ways for a long time and now we will actually look like one in the near future. It is not going to be pretty.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Good interview with Wolfe
Gee I’m shocked that this is happening. Just shocked.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
Professor Wolff nails it again
The future here in the United States is very frightening.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
This sure seems like what the 1%
would have wanted. Cheap labor cons that they are.
Instead of taking covid on the chin.
I wonder what the death toll of this choice will be?
It shouldn't have been a choice, but facing reality of America, it was.
The unavoidable conclusion
is that our political and economic "leaders" have known this would be the outcome, how could it be any different? It doesn't take a math wizard to know that people who can't go to work can't pay their bills and will end up on the street. What does it signify that none of those who had the position and power to avoid this used it as an opportunity instead to further enrich themselves, even as they knew what the broader cost would be?
The smaller the mind the greater the conceit. --Aesop
One has to wonder if they know or not.
Yah, doesn't take a rocket surgeon to see what is coming. The elites are either deliberately screwing the nation or they live in ideological bubbles. David Dayen who wrote about Pelosi wrote that she has rejected student loan help, etc because she is obsessed with deficits.
I can't plead hard enough.
I've donated more money and fresh veggies to the local food bank than ever this year.
Yet their donations are down while requests for assistance are up. A sure sign of bad to come.
Please everyone. Give as much as you can and volunteer if you have the time.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Not just food either
My late sister-in-law's house had several unopened packs of Depends. On a hunch I brought them to our Township food bank. They gratefully accepted them and told us that people often ask about availability. Old Folks, people with Chron's or other maladies, urinary incontinence...
I brought some emergency stores of canned tuna and canned flaked chicken (good for thickening soup) that only had a month left to expiration. I figured "it's supposed to be good until that point, including flavor". He assured me nothing lasts longer than a week on their shelves. I'm working on a bag of Craisins that expired in 2016 myself. Haven't gotten sick but they taste rather musty. Really thinking of burying them in the garden. If I had a compost heap I definitely would. Well, an Italian peasant has an iron stomach. I'm sure my ancestors ate worse.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
My Chinese ancestors always seem to be whispering
in my “third ear” about properly appreciating the availability of good food, seeing as how, from their clairvoyant perspective, the next famine is already well on its way.
Our food bank has also added 4 masks to the box
in the last two weeks.They also ask if any 'women's products', or things like 'depends' are needed.
They also allow people to be picking up for two households (no paperwork needed) and as far as I know those that only pick up for one are very few in number, with the exception of the homeless because it's too much to carry.
I picked up for three apartments for a short while, one for me and the others to two other apartments in the building. Then I was told, even with a note from the neighbors, I could only get food for two households, rules, but I found out home deliveries are possible for those unable to come to the drive-thru to get food.
That is a great service, I gave the number to people in this building and I know of at least three people now getting it brought to their door.
I still pick up for two households, and I'd take more if they let me, because the food gets eaten by somebody in this building. I've been a vegetarian forty-eight years and every time there is meat in the boxes, or food with meat in it, so I just take out what I'll use then put everything else out in the 'common area' by the mailboxes, and it always disappears quickly.
I have a small pickup so I called the Bellingham Food Bank extension number for people wanting to volunteer delivering the food boxes and the conversation began very well with the lady thanking me for volunteering because more drivers were really needed (the food bank distributes food three days a week) as more people found out about home delivery.
But when she was collecting information like the usual phone number, address, she also asked my age and that killed it right there, I was too old.
She apologized but I understood her point,they weren't taking anyone over 65 (or was it 60?) because I was in the 'target' category and some would be hesitant to come in contact with an old stranger at their door and even if you leave it at the door you have touched everything nearby, risky.
Oh well, for the time being I will continue to pick up for two households, at least until I can talk them out of more.
I gotta add this to their credit,they distribute food Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but just like they did when they operated out a building downtown they are open several hours later each Wednesday for those might have day jobs.
Learned more today
They can also use unopened aluminum foil. We had brought over unopened packages of napkins and paper plates. They can also use toilet paper, but who can't, it's like gold!
That reminds me. Three major supermarket chains, Mariano's (Kroger), Jewel (Albertson's) and Target are all out of Jimmy Dean products. Coronavirus at the plants? OTOH, I had an e-mail about a on-line store stopping orders for two weeks because of the backlog. Can't find transport.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Tyson
If it's Jimmy Dean products, then you're looking at Tyson Foods. They've had some COVID problems at their plants. Maybe they still are having them.
Ah! Tyson!
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
But the market is up!
Which makes the situation really insane as we print $ to prop up a failed system, but not the people. The failure is plain to see.
And how about the COVID crisis? The US is about 4% of the world's people and we have a quarter of all deaths and cases. Yeah, we're great again.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The ruling elite have betrayed and abandoned us
but you can't just let the U.S. go under without global consequences.
The ruling elite are so out of touch that they believe that they can hold it together by sheer police/military force.
Last days of the Roman Empire?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Stonks are doing great.
And the elites are getting wealthier by the minute. And they're not personally afraid of the pandemic anymore. So this is it.
I like to think R. Ann has it right
The virus is going to move us to a better place. No doubt people all over the world are rethinking the situation in the US.
One of the most profound things I've heard recently was Ret. Maj. Danny Sjursen comment here...(about 5 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2OFPiatPvc&t=29m]
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Wow!
Great interview!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
The empire has come home
Exactly right and it’s been here for some time, but nothing on the scale we’re seeing now. He talks about how his own government used tear gas on him. He was forbidden to use it over the pond. Whether they obeyed that law or not it’s being used here. If cops need training by the military then why does it have to be Israel’s and not ours? Because Israel’s troops are getting away with human rights abuses? I don’t know but it needs to stop and people need to put it on their list of demands.
How long will federal officers continue to take part in policing the protests when it’s people in their own families being thrown out into the streets or are having problems with feeding their families?
Lots of questions, very few answers.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
Sorry, Abe...
Well, yes. Once upon a time I had no animosity toward modern-day Israel. The more I learn about them, from the formation of the country to their present behavior, that feeling has reversed. Now, I look at them and see a nation that's too often become what they abhorred.
I am more and more feeling the same regarding this nation. So, I'm not surprised that we send out black-uniformed, licensed-to-kill police there to be trained. In a way, it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
Ditto and me too
I have been here for some time and I’m more ashamed at what this country does to others every day. We are putting such brutal sanctions on Syria people are starving. As they are in Iran, Venezuela and everywhere else we are doing this. Pompous Pompeo is busy spouting off about how well we support human rights and that we will always stand up to bullies. Bullshit! We know the truth, but there are still too many people who have been brainwashed into believing that and think that our military is overseas defending our freedoms. How do you reach people like that and get them to see that they are just mercenaries for corporations that don’t care if they live or not? Even ex military folks believe that they did that.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
We have sanctions on 39 Countries ! app. 2 billion people
on the planet. George Galloway mentioned those figures when one of the callers to his (weekly) show was calling from Lebanon and he talked about the effect of sanctions on people's lives there, and George said he'd counted the number of Countries under sanctions by the US (and lackeys).
He was right when he said many people hear about sanctions but will be surprised to know they affect thirty-nine Countries, representing two billion people.
Covid ain't got nothing on the USA,but sooner or later the former may end by vaccine, but the only shot that may cure the earth of the latter, might kill us all.
Unbelievable
39. Do many people here even know that we are killing people just because we don’t approve of their governments? Or would it make a difference if they did?
What is happening here reminds me of a Terry Goodkind book series. The military from the old world doesn’t approve of the people in the new one ways of life and so the people don’t either. They have to live in abject poverty to keep the military funded with money and food stuff.
I’d say we should make this number 40 because we too are being sanctioned by congress so that they can continue to raise the military budget.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
I rent 2 places out to 2 great tenants. Very lucky as
one tenant works for a booze wholesaler, the other is a long time manager of several fast food joints. Both have been in my places for over a decade. Hubster and I donate monthly to a local food bank, and I am a lifelong compost freak. We aren’t wealthy, and I am disabled retired. We live in FL. We are informed/ educated regarding the CV crud. I have been dreading this nationwide civic collapse for 40+ years since Raygun. I will be voting tho not for the orange maggot nor the brain dead one. Rec’d!,
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Dickens nailed it 177 years ago.
“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” he said, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
How many elite are thinking just that?
Isn’t this what people think Gates and others like him want to do? Well surprise Billy because it’s already going down. Nothing like throwing gas on a fire that’s already burning. Unintended consequences and all that.
Hey. Anyone need a pickmeup?
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
I think the government is expecting people to not just roll over
and just take being thrown out of their homes when it was the government mandated shutdown that caused them to not be able to pay their mortgages and rents. So what we are seeing in Portland is going on the road.
What the anti government folks will do will be interesting to see when they too are met with violence from cops and federal officers. This might just be the event that gets left and right to join together finally and see who their real enemies are..
Pelosi is telling Trump that he is making the country look like a banana republic. Oh Nance that ship sailed long ago.
Hey folks if you want to see where this is headed watch V for Vendetta. It starts out with the media talking about how the Great USA over extended itself and people finally rose up against their government and all hell has broken out.
ETA
This is my all time favorite movie. If you haven’t seen it before you are in for a treat. If you have watch it again and see how it lines up with what we’re going through right now. I really thought I’d be dead before this shit happened. Guess I didn’t realize how easily it could be put in motion.
Anyone else paying attention to the national coin shortage? We were told 3 weeks ago that it was just temporary. Cashless society here already? If not it’s comin.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
The Unicorn Riot lives streamed Portland protest last night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yftq93I3wE
I started watching and couldn't stop, there were great interviews of protesters as they walked around the whole area of protest, at least until the tear gas started flying.
But one interview in particular really stands out to me,that's with a black man whose age I can't guess because of the darkness and his glasses, but he doesn't sound like he is very young.
Some of what he said was spot on, some of it was way off the wall and you hear that his solution is something that won't, and can't happen, but if you ignore that and listen to the pain in his voice as he spells it out you see he is wishing for the simplest of things, a safe life somewhere.
He doesn't put in those words, but look at his 'ask', more like a Country within the Country, land where he and others could live peacefully without any level of government able to interfere with their lives. Leave us alone!
That guy is hurting.
I rewatched the film
and it looks like a script of today. Unidentified military snatching people off the streets into unmarked cars rings of SS troops.
Thanks for the recommendation. Found it on Netflix.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Glad you found it
and enjoyed it. The book is even better and goes into greater detail of what happened that the movie doesn’t cover.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
It doesn't have to be this way.
Capitalism is a weird beast. No one should be forced to lose their shelter in a pandemic, or really anytime. It's all about private capital and return expected. The rules of capitalism are insanely harsh. It's really people and societies that build infrastructure, yet everything has to be owned by someone, and they must make a return. We don't do public infrastructure that way. Although there are many right wing nuts who wished it was that way. At one point in our development many roads were private and you used to have to pay a toll to use them. We have some roads and bridges that are that way, but they usually become free when the bonds are paid off, except in New Jersey. Ever hear of that in the private sector? "Oh, my landlord payed off his mortgage from his rental income and now I just pay utilities." The highways in CA are called freeways, why is that?
The rules make the ownership class very wealthy, and they like that. We pay them economic rent of all sorts. They make income for doing nothing. The irony is that most people want to work and they need to consume. Capitalism makes it as difficult as possible for the singular cause of making fabulously wealthy people even richer. We have the most wealthy country in the history of the world, yet the pandemic has proven that it just doesn't work for all of the people as gjohnsit has observed in his commute to work. In fact, it might not work very well at all when stressed as we are about to find out. When you take away all of the hyperbolic bullshit about American Democracy and the singular nation and start evaluating it on objective measures you just might find out that the American experiment has run its course and is in fact not very successful at all. Income disparity is a huge negative factor for all civilizations. It affects stability and compromises the very reason for its existence. As long as we were a frontier nation, and I mean that in a very broad sense, we could get away with that. As long as the economic underclass kept quiet we were OK. It would be amusing if it were not so evil, that Ronald Reagan stood for demolishing the unions and celebrating the wealth of the ruling class. Maybe exposing American capitalism for what it is, is all for best in the long run. FDR's New Deal was a bandaid on an enormous wound. We have now suffered through FDR light for the last 75 years, brought to you by the American Democrat Party. In the end, it gave them power and gave us almost nothing. We can't even come to M4A in a pandemic. How screwed up is that?
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Yep
As wealth inequality has skyrocketed during the shutdown the billionaire class has made more than $600 billion since March. This is obscene and they are still refusing to pay their workers a living wage. Not one city in America is it affordable for people making minimum wage to rent an apartment. Not one. The federal wage is still stuck at $7.25. Bezos could house every person here and still have many billions left over. Walmart too could help with every aspect that needs funding. Corporations need to stop offshoring their profits and start paying taxes on them. If we had a functioning government....
On top of the massive tax cuts and the recent congressional heist congress now wants to let corporations stop paying their payroll taxes. And give companies immunity for killing their workers if they don’t make work places safe to go back to. This is an all out theft at every level. Next person who tells me that it’s okay that companies pay less taxes because they are the job creators I’m gonna punch em. We’ve seen how they are parasites sucking the wealth out of the country. And now they also get to destroy the environment at a faster rate.
Especially when we have seen the enormous fraud in our elections during the primary starting with Bush and the Supreme Court decision that gave him the presidency. In 2004 when he stole Ohio. The Clinton creature and the DNC last primary and this one should remove all doubt.
Hey Nancy you’re right. This is a banana republic, but it’s not all Trumps doing. You’ve been in congress for 3 decades and things have gotten worse on your watch you old dingbat!
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
Not a bug
We most certainly do have a functioning government. The problem is that it's functioning only for the benefit of a tiny handful of Americans. For them, it's humming along like a top.
And it's functioning well for those of us who are not multi-billionaires, too. It's running exactly as designed; functioning as intended – screwing the 99% out of life, liberty, and home, and transferring all of that to the owners of the nation.
This series of comments beginning with the Wizard's
and continuing with snoopy's and travelerxxx's replies is outstanding! Kudos to the three of you.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Some "petty borgoise" wil be going under too
They evict the renters because they cannot pay, but the banks will foreclose on them because the mortgage can't be paid without rents. The banks ... The banks don't have to worry. The FED pumped $5 trillion into the stock market in two weeks and the Chairman has vowed to save the banks. "Whatever it takes", a quote.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
AirBnB speculators
How many of them are going to find their big house with the rentable apartment (that paid the mortgage) or the extra house that was a full-time hotel in a residential neighborhood is suddenly a stinking albatross tied around their neck? I suspect there are going to be a lot of foreclosures/bankruptcies, and the coming times seem unlikely to be good ones in which to try and recover from becoming bankrupt.
A relative studying in Madrid got a great deal on Airbnb
He started grad school before the pandemic and was in a shitty very expensive efficiency. When things started to open up got a really good Airbnb for much less. I would guess that the owners were thrilled to get somebody in given that Madrid may not be on anybody's travel list for awhile.
It has been much more than $5 billion
When congress passed the first CARES bill I read that the banks had received $19 billion since September. Add that to the $29 trillion that they got from Obama. Wall Street on parade provided this number.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
Friendly edit
Do you mean $19 Trillion not billion?
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Yes and thanks for it
I don't know why I said it was the CARES act that brought it to my attention. I read about it before COVID made its appearance. WS on Parade has been a great source for keeping up on what banks have been getting.
Lets see:
$19 Trillion
+
$29 Trillion
=
A hella lot of money that could have gone towards single payer and so much more to make our lives less of a living hell for so many people. Can you imagine what people's lives are in so many cities where poverty rates are staggering? SO many forgotten people here that congress doesn't think they represent. The whole hero worshiping of Lewis and other members of the black congressional caucus after their deaths is so hypocritical when you know that they cared nothing for the minority poor in their states that they represented. Trump called out one of them whose name I don't remember who represented Baltimore and he called it the worst shithole in the country. The stats backed him up.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
Was it Elijah Cummings?
What irks me more than anything is that once these people become entrenched in Congress, the only color that matters to them is the color of money. The CBC is a great example of that.
I continue to be amazed at how Congress can find money for anything except if it actually helps real people. And I would love one member of Congress to explain to me why we need to have bases in nearly every country in the world and why we are bombing the shit out of so many nations with which Congress has never declared war? If I hear one more time that it is "to protect our interests," I am going to vomit. My interest is not in spending trillions of my tax dollars bombing the world. My interest is in having the people of this nation have health care as a right, a clean environment and clean water to drink, safe housing, food on the table, and a quality of life for everyone. That should not be difficult for Congress to do on all the trillions of dollars that have been wasted on the MIC and war.
As for the banks, they own and run Congress.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I was speaking of the FED
Congress, which can't fix SS, did more.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
True
but it will always be this way unless there is action by the people we elect. The 1930's US saw a huge number of programs, so many aimed at keeping families afloat. With WW2 the tax and regulatory structure of the depression shifted to a massive defense effort. Capitalism was muzzled for the greater good, and we slid so seamlessly into the cold war maintaining the same social programs and business regulations and tax structure. That, plus a couple of million combat veterans and 3x as many citizens weapons trained must have been a caution to the new robber barons. Once that started to be dismantled it was all over.
Sometimes I wonder if this big push to reopen isn't about capitalism totally. I mean, having millions of people with nothing to do but think about their lives and country must worry the haves at the top. You can't do that if you're running for your life on the hamster wheel day after day.
If supply and demand were real
The rents would go down.
Funny how it never works that way.
BlackRock and other banks
deliberately held homes and apartments off the market to drive up mortgages and rents. They will do that again if millions of homes and apartments are empty. During the 2008-continuing Obama let BlackROck buy houses for pennies on the dollar and they did just that.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
But don’t you see? The worse it gets, the better, because
it all hurts Trump and helps elect Biden !!! /s