Ontopic Poo-litical Thrad

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As someone who lives ~30mi from Ohio I can tell you it doesn't get nearly as much shit as it deserves. There's a reason so many folk from there are willing to strap themselves to a rocket to get as far away as possible.
 
We just spent the weekend in super-rural texas between dallas and houston
So much open-carry
So much yay-trumping
So many confederate flags
It was exhausting
Eh I don't see the problem with open carry.

You should see the homemade tump signs in suburban MD and the lifted f250s with straight pipes with DOUBLE AMERICAN FLAGS in the bed.
 
These folks driving around with their Trump flags flying off the back of trucks reminds me of the 80s/90s when you'd see the same thing going on in the middle east and other We hate America countries. Big flags with pictures of whoever happened to be in charge at the time. Raised AK47s in the air, yelling about lord knows what.
 
The City Council here in Albuquerque approved a "safe outdoor space" bill yesterday for permanent homeless encampments.

The Star Trek nerd in my hopes they're known as "Sanctuary Districts", but after watching what's gone on in the parks over the last few years, it seems like it would be more practical for the City to just pay rent for these folks (given how much the city has paid to send the police in and wreck up the homeless' stuff, and then have the city sanitation workers clear it out).
 
The City Council here in Albuquerque approved a "safe outdoor space" bill yesterday for permanent homeless encampments.

The Star Trek nerd in my hopes they're known as "Sanctuary Districts", but after watching what's gone on in the parks over the last few years, it seems like it would be more practical for the City to just pay rent for these folks (given how much the city has paid to send the police in and wreck up the homeless' stuff, and then have the city sanitation workers clear it out).
It'd be cheaper on the whole if we just housed them, but that isn't cruel enough to be viable.
 
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The City Council here in Albuquerque approved a "safe outdoor space" bill yesterday for permanent homeless encampments.

The Star Trek nerd in my hopes they're known as "Sanctuary Districts", but after watching what's gone on in the parks over the last few years, it seems like it would be more practical for the City to just pay rent for these folks (given how much the city has paid to send the police in and wreck up the homeless' stuff, and then have the city sanitation workers clear it out).
After being homeless myself. The process to get back into housing is insane. I found an illegal house share but the program they put me on 2 years ago. Im still on the fucking waitlist. I can't imagine what it's like if you have a real problem. They request like 40 documents every month. Paystubs, tax stuff, they wanted a utility bill this month and I was like wait what?! Im technically homeless and you want to see a utility bill?
 
It'd be cheaper on the whole if we just housed them, but that isn't cruel enough to be viable.
I've been advocating for a "housing first" model for the better part of a year, after the City spent $5m on a bunch of tuff sheds (excuse me, "tiny houses") with beds in them on a lot downtown. The lot has something like 50 houses, but only 4 have ever been simultaneously in use, because of their stupid sobriety first model.
 
After being homeless myself. The process to get back into housing is insane. I found an illegal house share but the program they put me on 2 years ago. Im still on the fucking waitlist. I can't imagine what it's like if you have a real problem. They request like 40 documents every month. Paystubs, tax stuff, they wanted a utility bill this month and I was like wait what?! Im technically homeless and you want to see a utility bill?
yep, completely impossible cycle for a lot of folks.

Section 8, just not gonna happen without years wait. If you're not elderly or WIC, your chances are really low.
Rent... ahahaha.
Roof over your head in a shitty bedbug ridden hotel, 78 a night these days, up for 52 a couple years back

On top of all that, without reliable transpo, you're not working, and you're not maintaining rent.

So you end up busting into an unoccupied house until someone catches you, or living rough.
 
yep, completely impossible cycle for a lot of folks.

Section 8, just not gonna happen without years wait. If you're not elderly or WIC, your chances are really low.
Rent... ahahaha.
Roof over your head in a shitty bedbug ridden hotel, 78 a night these days, up for 52 a couple years back

On top of all that, without reliable transpo, you're not working, and you're not maintaining rent.

So you end up busting into an unoccupied house until someone catches you, or living rough.
Yup. It is completely impossible without massive intervention. I had help. There is no bootstrap mcjesus for most people, The social safety net in the US is deplorable.

and... yeah there are WIC queens... don't get me started. If your full time job was playing the system you can make it work. I have a real job.
 
This place got setup a number of years back in an area with a huge homeless population, and its a good effort.



Not housing related, but they provide showers, a safe place to change, do laundry, transportation to job centers, and most importantly see a doctor.


A huge network of churches here also do something called "code blue" here on days when its below 15 degrees in the winter where just just open their doors to unhoused people so they have a warm place to sleep.
 
This place got setup a number of years back in an area with a huge homeless population, and its a good effort.



Not housing related, but they provide showers, a safe place to change, do laundry, transportation to job centers, and most importantly see a doctor.


A huge network of churches here also do something called "code blue" here on days when its below 15 degrees in the winter where just just open their doors to unhoused people so they have a warm place to sleep.
Yeah. The food pantries are great. They mostly got shutdown with covid? I haven't checked recently but their is a place in Annapolis that literally you can take 10kg of food every week for free and it's all whole foods/trader Joe's stuff.

And showers since covid have been tough. You can sneak into golds at like 2am but everything else is completely disgusting.

The thing is it's really not... all that stuff, it's the constant sense of not being grounded that really gets to you. You can never relax. You are always operating at 100% or you just want to crash.
 
Somebody in my lab calls Mark Ronchetti, now the Republican gubernatorial candidate for New Mexico, "Fart Buttchetti" and now I have a plan for the Cricut this afternoon.