Tag: Homelessness

Homeless And Hungry (Just Another Country Song)

There are two situations that have been with us since the beginning and will be with us when this world ends its life cycle……homelessness and hunger.

The promise of politicians says that if you live right then these two situations will never know your name……well my dear friends….that is a LIE! (capitalized for effect)

Take homelessness…….

These men and women, and increasingly children, are the collateral damage of the corporate state, their dignity and lives destroyed by the massive transference of wealth upward, deindustrialization and the slashing of federal investment in affordable housing begun during the Reagan administration.

It is 8 a.m. I am in the small offices of Street Roots, a weekly newspaper that prints 10,000 copies per edition. Those who sell the newspaper on the streets—all of them victims of extreme poverty and half of them homeless—have gathered before heading out with their bundles to spend hours in the cold and rain.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/10/08/homeless-america

The necessities are shelter (home) and food…..in some regions food is almost a luxury item…..famine is always with us somewhere in the world….(BTW an Iphone is not a necessity)

Scientists are getting concerned about the global food supply…..

Researchers from Washington State University have published a new report of the Great Drought, the most destructive known drought of the past 800 years – and how it sparked the Global Famine that claimed the lives of 50 million people. The scientists warn that the Earth’s current warming climate could spark a similar drought, but even worse.

One of the lead researchers, Deepti Singh, a professor in WSU’s School of the Environment, used rainfall records and climate reconstruction models to characterize the environmental conditions leading up to the Great Drought, a period in the mid-1870s known for widespread crop failures across Asia, Brazil, and Africa. The drought was connected to the most extreme manifestation of the El Nino supercycle ever recorded.

“Climate conditions that caused the Great Drought and Global Famine arose from natural variability. And their recurrence — with hydrological impacts intensified by global warming — could again potentially undermine global food safety,” lead author Singh and her colleagues wrote in the Journal of Climate, published online Oct. 04.

The release of the study came days before the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that global warming could cause intense droughts, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-15/scientist-warn-world-brink-major-famine-lead-severe-shocks-global-food-system

I realize that the term “climate change” is a dirty word in some circles…..but that should not matter…..making damn sure that the food supply holds should be a priority…..not a partisan issue….sadly it is not.

Why not?

On a side note….Americans lead the world in wasted food……Americans waste about a pound of food per person each day, with people who have healthier diets rich in fruit and vegetables the most wasteful, research has found.

About 150,000 tons of food is tossed out in US households each day, equivalent to about a third of the daily calories that each American consumes. Fruit and vegetables were the most likely to be thrown out, followed by dairy and then meat.

How pathetic is that?

3-D Printing

Hopefully my Sunday will be better than my Saturday…..for my time in the garden was cut short by monsoon rains all afternoon and into the evening…..

Homelessness is a big problem for many of our cities and towns and local governments have treated it like the plague…..they have made sleep illegal, made so benches could not be used for naps and put in spikes in places that would be good for napping….in other words a problem with these “bums” as so many like to call them….

While doing my reading I came across an article that I found very interesting……and it involves 3-D printing……

Food, water, and shelter are basic human needs, but 1.2 billion people in the world live without adequate housing, according to a report by the World Resources Institute’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. Today at SXSW, an Austin-based startup will unveil its approach to combat that deficiency by using low-cost 3D printing as a potential solution.

ICON has developed a method for printing a single-story 650-square-foot house out of cement in only 12 to 24 hours, a fraction of the time it takes for new construction. If all goes according to plan, a community made up of about 100 homes will be constructed for residents in El Salvador next year. The company has partnered with New Story, a nonprofit that is vested in international housing solutions. “We have been building homes for communities in Haiti, El Salvador, and Bolivia,” Alexandria Lafci, co-founder of New Story, tells The Verge.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/12/17101856/3d-printed-housing-icon-shelter-housing-crisis

A fascinating way to use 3-D printing and it would provide a much needed service to the community…..

Please let me have your thoughts on this…..

They Come Out Of The Woodwork

Sunday…….the day after the big march for our lives…..

Summoned to action by student survivors of the Parkland school shooting, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied in the nation’s capital and cities across the US on Saturday to press for gun control, the AP reports. Organizers of the March for Our Lives rally in DC hoped their protest would match in numbers and spirit last year’s women’s march. Bearing signs reading “We Are the Change,” ”No More Silence,” and “Keep NRA Money Out of Politics,” protesters packed Pennsylvania Avenue from the stage near the Capitol, stretching many blocks back toward the White House. “We will continue to fight for our dead friends,” Delaney Tarr, a survivor of the Florida tragedy, declared from the stage. The crowd roared with approval as she laid down the students’ central demand: a ban on “weapons of war” for all but warriors.

Large rallies also unfolded in such cities as Boston; New York; Chicago; Houston; Fort Worth, Texas; Minneapolis; and Parkland, the site of the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead. The police presence was heavy as more than 20,000 people filled a park near the Florida school, chanting slogans such as “Enough is enough” and carrying signs that read “Why do your guns matter more than our lives?” and “Our ballots will stop bullets.” Gun violence was fresh for some in the DC crowd: Ayanne Johnson of Great Mills High School in Maryland held a sign declaring, “I March for Jaelynn,” honoring Jaelynn Willey, who died Thursday two days after being shot by a classmate at the school. “For our kids, feeling safe is fundamental, and they don’t feel safe,” said the mother of an 11-year-old marching in DC.

When the last school shooting and the ensuing debate/conversation thee NRA came out with this lame ass ideas on what should be done about the violence and of course none of had anything to do with actual solutions to the problem.

But as lame as the NRA is and their thoughts the GOP has them beat at times….candidates to show their support for the 2nd and their acceptance of gun deaths to win their election  have been known for some of the dumbest and the lamest ideas ever…..

There is a candidate that is at the top of my list of morons…..

For years, the gun lobby, led by the NRA, has pushed the idea that more guns make the world safer. Most recently this has manifested in the argument (endorsed by Donald Trump) that the answer to school shootings is armed teachers. But Brian Ellison is taking it one step further. Ellison is a Libertarian running for US Senate in Michigan, and though his third-party run is obviously hopeless, he drew some media attention this week for his plan to, uh, hand out pump-action shotguns to Michigan’s homeless population.

To be fair, Ellison isn’t the first person to come up with this idea—19th-century revolutionary anarchist Lucy Parsons implored “tramps” to “learn the use of explosives” and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine famously wrote “Arm the Homeless” on his guitar. But Ellison (who has not yet gotten enough signatures to qualify for ballot access) seems to have thought very thoroughly about his idea. He even started a GoFundMe campaign to buy 20 shotguns for homeless people, though the platform shut down his campaign for violating the terms of service.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ne9jyb/the-senate-candidate-who-wants-to-arm-the-homeless-explains-himself

Wait!  Is not part of the problem as the GOP sees it as there is a mental illness problem with these shooters and if I am not mistaken that a good portion of the homeless are suffering from some form of mental illness….does anyone see a problem with his dumbass proposal…..

This why there can NEVER be a substantive conversation on gun violence because some people are just not prepared for the debate.

Go now and start your weekend and thanx so much for your time and your visits……chuq

Closing Thought–23Dec17

It is Saturday and I will post just a closing thought…..It is a couple of days before the Big Day which is just around the corner…….

As Christmas approaches keep in mind that there are some that have neither home nor food on this season of joy…..and it is getting worse…….

The nation’s homeless population increased this year for the first time since 2010, driven by a surge in the number of people living on the streets in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development released its annual Point-in-Time count Wednesday, a report that showed nearly 554,000 homeless people across the country during local tallies conducted in January, per the AP. That figure is up nearly 1% from 2016. Of that total, 193,000 people had no access to nightly shelter and instead were staying in vehicles, tents, the streets, and other places considered uninhabitable. The unsheltered figure is up by more than 9% compared with two years ago.

Increases are higher in several West Coast cities, where the explosion in homelessness has prompted at least 10 city and county governments to declare states of emergency since 2015. City officials, homeless advocates, and those living on the streets point to a main culprit: the region’s booming economy. Rents have soared beyond affordability for many lower-wage workers who until just a few years ago could typically find a place to stay. While the overall homeless population in California, Oregon, and Washington grew by 14% over the past two years, the part of that population considered unsheltered climbed 23%, to 108,000. That’s in part due a shortage of affordable housing. The AP has more.

This thieving bastard that some Americans helped elect has given homeless vets a Christmas present early…..

Donald Trump, from the outset, cast himself as a champion of veterans, and promised that he would improve veterans care as president.

But the toxic right-wing ideology of Trump and his administration has nonetheless seeped into the way they take care of and prioritize veterans.

According to Politico, a popular program to house homeless veterans is on the chopping block — and at the worst possible moment:

Four days after Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin held a big Washington event to tout the Trump administration’s promise to house all homeless vets, the agency did an about-face, telling advocates it was pulling resources from a major housing program.

The VA said it was essentially ending a special $460 million program that has dramatically reduced homelessness among chronically sick and vulnerable veterans. Instead, the money would go to local VA hospitals that can use it as they like, as long as they show evidence of dealing with homelessness.

Anger exploded on a Dec. 1 call that was arranged by Shulkin’s Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans to explain the move. Advocates for veterans, state officials and even officials from HUD, which co-sponsors the program, attacked the decision, according to five people who were on the call.

Donate your time or to a food bank or homeless shelter…..anything that can help make this season a little better for those that have nothing.

Remember what the spirit of the holiday is all about…..and try to help when you can.

Peace and joy

Children Are The Future

How many times have you heard that piece of political crap?  My fave tag line by the mental midgets we elect is the one that states….”we must secure the future for the children”……then these same “saviors” set about destroying any program that would benefit the children.

But the US is not alone…..we hear all about the children from international sources and they too are concerned for the future…..another really poor tag-line.  If these people truly cared one iota about children crap like this would not happen…..

“Children have been killed while studying in the classroom and while sleeping in their beds. They have been orphaned, kidnapped, tortured, recruited, raped, and even sold as slaves.” That’s Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF, explaining why the UN organization has designated 2014 as the worst year on record for children across the globe. “Never in recent memory have so many children been subjected to such unspeakable brutality.” Lowlights from the UNICEF report, per the New York Times:

  • As many as 15 million children are directly affected by violent conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, and Ukraine. And 230 million are estimated to live in regions where armed conflicts are taking place.
  • In the Central African Republic, where 2.3 million children are affected by violence, more than 430 have been killed or hurt and as many as 10,000 have been recruited as child soldiers.
  • The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza has left 538 children dead, 3,370 hurt, and 54,000 without homes.
  • The Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS have disrupted the lives of 7.3 million Syrian children and 2.7 million Iraqi children.
  • South Sudan’s civil conflict has left hundreds of thousands of children displaced, as refugees, or suffering from severe malnutrition.
  • West Africa’s Ebola outbreak has also left thousands of kids orphaned.

There is NO excuse for the deliberate targeting of children……….and the children have a very limited future unless the powers that be pull the collective heads out of their butts…..and I do not see that miracle occurring any time soon…….

Society: Breaking Records

The news almost daily are the breaking of records….like Wall Street day after day or the massive bonuses received by CEOs or maybe the huge profits some are raking….it is all good news….right?

Sad all these all time records do NOTHING for the hard working American….they are looking at massive debt, loss of home, rising costs, etc.  With all these records there are some that we just do not hear much about….thanx to the MSM…….

The number of homeless children in the US has surged in recent years to an all-time high, amounting to one child in every 30, according to a comprehensive state-by-state report that blames the nation’s high poverty rate, the lack of affordable housing, and the impact of pervasive domestic violence. The National Center on Family Homelessness report calculates that nearly 2.5 million American children were homeless at some point in 2013. That’s based on the Department of Education’s latest count of 1.3 million homeless children in public schools, supplemented by estimates of homeless pre-school children not counted by the DOE. The problem is particularly severe in California, which has one-eighth of the US population but accounts for more than one-fifth of the homeless children—nearly 527,000.

The federal government has made progress in reducing homelessness among veterans and chronically homeless adults, but “the same level of attention and resources has not been targeted to help families and children,” says a report author. “As a society, we’re going to pay a high price, in human and economic terms.” Child homelessness increased by 8% nationally from 2012 to 2013, according to the report, which warned of potentially devastating effects on children’s educational, emotional, and social development, as well as on their parents’ health, employment prospects, and parenting abilities. The report ranked states on the extent of child homelessness, efforts to combat it, and overall level of child well-being. Minnesota, Nebraska, and Massachusetts scored the highest, while Alabama, Mississippi, and California scored the lowest.

But NONE of the pundits seem to care about these children….only at election time and they use them as a campaign prop…..this should make EVERY American ashamed…..and yet it barely gets noticed…..and that makes me ashamed of my country.

Side note….as usual my state, Mississippi, is in this list…….that is just too sad for words.

The Land Of The Free

I have read another report that shows me that this country is losing all compassion…….we accuse people of being poor by choice…..we accuse people on Social Security as being freeloaders……..the country turns its back on its vets…..just a few incidents……

And then I read one that makes me ashamed…….

A simple citation couldn’t keep Arnold Abbott off the streets of Fort Lauderdale, where he’s been feeding the homeless for more than two decades. The 90-year-old man, charged Sunday with violating a new ordinance that clamps down on public feeding of the homeless, dished out meals at a public beach Wednesday, just as he has every Wednesday for 23 years in honor of his late wife, ABC News reports. Shouts of “God bless you, Arnold!” were heard as almost 100 homeless people and volunteers gathered around, the AP reports. Though officers at first only recorded “Chef Arnold,” they later stepped in to issue him another citation.

But Abbott remains undeterred. “You cannot sweep the homeless under a rug,” he tells Local 10. “There is no rug large enough for that.” Fort Lauderdale’s mayor admits Abbott is “a super nice guy” but wants to see him move his program to a nearby church in order to provide a “sanitary” and “safe, secure [setting]”; per the new ordinance, which went into effect a week ago, those handing out food outdoors must make public toilets available. As for what’s next, the World War II veteran says he’ll feed some 200 people at a local church on Sunday, but “I don’t plan to give up the beach,” he says. “I’ll fight for the beach as long as there’s birth in my body.” The AP notes Abbott also runs a culinary school that trains the homeless and finds them jobs in kitchens. (Click for more on his first arrest this week.)

So but in my mind what this man is doing is not a crime…..if anything he should be rewarded for his humanitarianism……not be treated like a criminal………

Any thoughts?

21 US Cities Restrict Sharing Food With Homeless People | PopularResistance.Org

I wish I had a good intro to this press….but the best thing I can think of…….it is a disgusting idea…..that any American would consider this a good idea and if they do………. how can they sleep at night.

At what point does this fly into the face of what this country stands for?……..has compassion been replaced with selfish indulgence?

A shameful story…….

 

21 US Cities Restrict Sharing Food With Homeless People | PopularResistance.Org.

Sorry, But You MUST Have A Permit!

Yippee skippy….the weekend and something besides the political shenanigans………

You need a permit to fish….or hunt….our to start a business or to park…..in other words you need a permit for a whole bunch of stuff…….but this is just beyond belief…..

”A new law would give Nevada City the power to hand out permits to a small group of homeless, which would give them permission to sleep in public.”…(SEE MORE)

**The world (society) around us has been in slow decline and decay for a long time.   It used to be shocking to me each time I heard about yet another freedom being striped away from us to feed the greed and control appetite for the disgusting elitist pricks.   I think this new travesty trumps them all.   Nevada City now requires their Homeless to have permits to allow them to be Homeless in their City.

Is this an idea that could catch fire?  So what will happen if they do not have a permit?  A night in jail?  That should solve the problem of the raising numbers of the homeless.