Day: February 13, 2025

Criminalizing Homelessness

We have officially joined the bandwagon.

Mississippi has joined the list of states that are doing their level best to make homelessness illegal.

There is just such a bill making its way through the legislature…..

Two pieces of legislation aiming to limit where homeless people can sleep and where they can solicit donations from the public have advanced in the Mississippi House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary A Committee passed two bills, House Bill 1197 and 1203, respectively. Combined, they would require any person soliciting for money or anything of value in a roadway to acquire a permit with a local police department and also prohibit them from “camping on public property.”

“It’s a safety issue,” said Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson. “We limit (HB 1197) to just roadways. We’re not talking about sidewalks or any other areas with that. It’s literally just the roadways and the median. It is a public safety issue.”

…

HB 1197 states: “‘Solicitation or solicit’ means to request money or anything of value as a donation or contribution while standing, sitting or positioned in any manner on any road, street, highway median, traffic island or highway intersection; or to request any other thing of value in exchange for any goods, wares, merchandise or thing of value while standing, sitting or positioned in any manner on any road, street, highway median, traffic island or highway intersection.”

(clarionledger.com)

To help understand….what is homelessness?

In a nutshell:

  • A homeless person is one who is without a home, often one who is living on the streets. The term “homeless” and “homelessness” are most commonly used in lay terms and by government agencies.
  • An unhoused or houseless person is one who has no physical address, whether they live on the streets, in a tent or have temporary lodging at a shelter or other location.
  • An unsheltered person is one who is without shelter, for instance a tent or other place to get out of the elements.
  • Housing insecurity happens when a person does not have stable or adequate housing, including those who are being evicted or regularly come up short when paying their monthly bills.

Here are the stats on the Mississippi homeless…..if anyone cares….

https://www.wjtv.com/news/state/mississippi-has-lowest-rate-of-homelessness-in-us/

Where did all this recent hatred of the homeless originate…..

In June 2024, the US Supreme Court made this promise much easier to keep by overturning a lower court’s decision on criminalizing homelessness. Grants Pass, Oregon, where the case originated, had been punishing the unhoused with fines ranging from $295 to $1,250 and 30 days in jail. Ed Johnson was the initial lawyer who successfully argued this practice was unconstitutional. But after the Supreme Court weighed in, Grants Pass now was able to resume this practice. Other cities are likely to do the same.

Trump has promised to get the homeless off the streets…..and so it begins….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ukraine, What Say You?

Back when this whole Ukraine/Russia debacle started many of us, including myself, called for there to be some sort of ceasefire to avoid all the death and destruction of a beautiful country…but right on cue the US put the whammy on any such occurrence.

Most of the war hawks did not like the idea that the East of Ukraine would remain in Russian hands….and then Trump came to town and proposed his brand of diplomacy which is now the War Department’s stand as well.

And now we know where the Trump Admin is coming from…..Howdy Doody tries to make it clear….

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday dismissed the idea of NATO membership for Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Russia and said the goal to restore Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders was “unrealistic.”

Hegseth made the comments while addressing a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels. “The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome for a negotiated settlement,” he said.

Hegseth said the Trump administration’s goal is to end the war through diplomacy, which he said must start “by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”

Restoring Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders has been a war goal of Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, although there have been signs in recent months that he’s accepted that’s unrealistic. But he is still calling for strong security guarantees from the US that involve the deployment of troops, which Hegseth also dismissed.

“Any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops. If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, and they should not be covered under Article 5,” he said.

“There also must be robust international oversight of the line of contact. To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine,” Hegseth added.

…

Hegseth said that the US wanted to reduce involvement in Ukraine to focus on the border and a military buildup in the Asia Pacific aimed at China and claimed Beijing was a threat to the US homeland.

“The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must, and we are focusing on the security of our own borders. We also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland,” he said.

(antiwar.com)

An ambitious plan but we will see just how serious these people are when the arms industry kicks in to high gear.

For all those that we against the earlier ceasefire conditions…..I ask….whay say you now?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”