Gypsy Encampments of the Hollywood Freeway
On our way to downtown Los Angeles Saturday night for the annual Churchill Dinner of the Claremont Institute at the venerable Biltmore Hotel, my wife Sheryl and I took the Hollywood Freeway, a route we had taken uncountable times before.
Only something was different. Small encampments of homeless had been set up on the edge of the freeway. We were used to them under freeway bridges, but these were more elaborate, makeshift tents and blankets positioned on slopes along the freeway, so that, we speculated, they were in full view of the constant passing traffic. That way the violence frequently visited on the homeless by themselves and by others would at least partly be discouraged.
I was reminded of Victor Hanson’s poignant descriptions of the California Central Valley and also of when I lived in Southern Spain and would see impoverished gypsy encampments along the roads to Grenada and Seville. But that was decades ago and that part of Spain, Andalucia, was desperately poor then, struggling to play catch up with the rest of Europe. It did — for a while anyway.
The Hollywood Freeway was not so simple. This was a parade of the haves and have-nots, Mercedes and Lexuses, streaming past the tattered homeless: Obama’s America.
The president has a solution to this problem, even as it gets worse. Tax those folks in the Mercedes. Only that’s been tried a thousand times, most notably in the Great Depression, and it never worked. For someone so versed in Frankfurt School “critical theory,” the president has a convenient way of forgetting history.
He prefers, as we know, the pursuit of “fairness,” but in so doing he has seemed to make things less fair. The stock market is up at the same time as the number of those who have dropped out of the labor force reached a jaw-dropping 89 million in January. I wouldn’t be surprised to find gypsy encampments along all the freeways soon. African-Americans, as we also all know, have been hurt worst of all.
And yet Obama’s adversaries are accused of racism. La vie à l’envers, life upside down, as the French say.
"Utopia is not under the slightest obligation to produce results: its sole function is to allow its devotees to condemn what exists in the name of what does not."
~Jean-François Revel...Last Exit to Utopia
"Utopia is not under the slightest obligation to produce results: its sole function is to allow its devotees to condemn what exists in the name of what does not."
~Jean-François Revel...Last Exit to Utopia
The healthy dependent classes -- ie. welfare... (show more)
The healthy dependent classes -- ie. welfare recipents and all quote single moms living off the rest of us, almost universally with baby daddy sharing the household, have experienced absolutely no negative effects from the recession. Self-inflicted wounds aside, the people who are suffering most are those from the unstable yet independent working class who refuse to live off others. And yes there are many African Americans among them. But not all or most.
Homeless people are almost overwhelmingly that way because of substance abuse or untreated mental illness or both, no matter what the activists say. Add in illegal status as a complicating factor but one that most throttles the job chances of the endangered American workers discussed above.
It is 2013. Take a look at who is bagging groceries and who is using food stamps while diddling their smartphones through forty dollar nail wraps. 20 years in social sevices and Atlanta politics, where the amount of money redistributed racially is mind-boggling and never-ending, left me cynical. The Mercedes and Lexuses there are far more likely to be driven by the race activist with the no-show school administration job than by the guy who owns a small construction company that can't meet the city's mafioso affirmative action standards. We all know it. Perhaps if Republicans would find their spines and pull their own paws out of the racial/ethnic spoils honeypot (Rubio, anyone?) more often, the productive classes (poor, middle, and upper classes) could feel as if someone was representing them.
There are only two kinds of people: those who try (whether they succeed or not) to be productive and independent, and those who exploit one ghost, memory, or scapegoat after another in their quest to line their pockets or avoid responsibility for their own lives. (show less)
And then when that money is gone, they're back to starving on the streets where they started...or you have to confiscate more money to keep feeding them.
And then when that money is gone, they're back to starving on the streets where they started...or you have to confiscate more money to keep feeding them.
He sets.
He shoots.
He SCORES!
Nothing but net.
He sets.
He shoots.
He SCORES!
Nothing but net.
A lot of Americans love to proclaim that we don’t exist within a traditional class system controlled by those who achieve the majority wealth holdings in our society. Nothing could be further from the truth as evidenced by the popular theory of a ‘trickle-down’ economy and the historical wealth disparity gap. As this gap widens, it produces less... (show more)
A lot of Americans love to proclaim that we don’t exist within a traditional class system controlled by those who achieve the majority wealth holdings in our society. Nothing could be further from the truth as evidenced by the popular theory of a ‘trickle-down’ economy and the historical wealth disparity gap. As this gap widens, it produces less income for the middle working class and increases the poverty classes. When this problem arises, one thing is for certain! The majority wealth holders do NOT want to be a part of the economic social safety net. They want to government via the majority tax revenues paid by the middle working classes to provide for that safety net – a double indemnity damage to the working middle class taxpayer. A recent report stated that on average, the nation’s major corporations pay only 17% in taxes on their record making profits today. Likewise, the majority of ‘individual’ wealth holders use tax loopholes to shield large amounts of wealth ‘away’ from the statutory tax rate while the working middle class and the working poor have little to no substantial exemptions to shield their measly incomes.
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1</a> (redirect takes a minute)
The nation nor any developed nation has nor ever had an economy for which would provide 100% unemployment! That means a substantial part of the population’s able bodied workforce has no sustainable means of income to survive adequately on. This ripples through the entire able bodied workforce from time to time meaning an even larger portion of the population never gets into a position of saving for a future a rainy day or retirement adequately. They eventually join the rest of the population trying to survive on credit available until exhausted and thus the circular catch-22. Again, who shoulders the majority of the government tax revenues to provide a safety net for this class of the population. The working class! Here’s why it is so! The corporate world gets government subsidies at or near what they pay into federal taxes while the working class taxes paid, has to support the government social safety net for millions of Americans unemployed and or infirmed unable to work and pay taxes . You can see the historical unemployment data below from 1920 through 2010. The statutory tax rates use to be more equitable for dealing with this problem but corporate special interest groups and lobbyists have succeeded over the past few decades in leveraging not only lower tax rates, but a multitude of favorable tax exemptions and technical loopholes in addition.
<a href="http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104719.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104719.html</a>
Today, the majority corporate and individual wealth holders have abandoned ‘duty’ to a national society and become consumed with individualistic corruption and greed. All too many today, look down with disdain upon those less economically fortunate and disadvantaged by the ‘systems’ stacked against the middle working class and poor and poverty classes. For certain, the wealthy elite don’t wish to see the lowly classes littering the roadsides with their tramp hollows – especially alongside the roads they travel.
This kind of problem should not be a political partisan one to deal with! It is a real problem of any society and needs to be dealt with in reality and equality by those with the means – that trickle-down system so many are so proud of. Is that not a part of national pride and patriotism?
(show less)
I had invested emotionally waaay too much in getting barry out. I felt drained. Slowly I am coming back. The Churchill quote helps.
I hope it is not too late by 016.
I had invested emotionally waaay too much in getting barry out. I felt drained. Slowly I am coming back. The Churchill quote helps.
I hope it is not too late by 016.
1. Teach your kids to defend themselves. Martial arts, firearms, etc.
2. Teach your kids a trade. Let them know that student loans are the kiss of death. Teach them about the barter economy.
3. Teach your kids to budget.
The gun ban just flopped in the Senate. The House actually had the guts for the sequester. Admittedly, it's a minor cut in projected growth, but it's a start. We still live in a country where blue collar skills will earn a living. The unemployment problem is largely... (show more)
1. Teach your kids to defend themselves. Martial arts, firearms, etc.
2. Teach your kids a trade. Let them know that student loans are the kiss of death. Teach them about the barter economy.
3. Teach your kids to budget.
The gun ban just flopped in the Senate. The House actually had the guts for the sequester. Admittedly, it's a minor cut in projected growth, but it's a start. We still live in a country where blue collar skills will earn a living. The unemployment problem is largely a white-collar problem. Many of the trades are still screaming for people.
Obamacare is our biggest obstacle to progress, but when people are suffering enough under leftist policies, and other people's money runs out, the system will collapse. People that are self-sufficient will be the ones to survive. (show less)
Demoralization is the first step in the intentional process described in that (too often linked) video from ex KGB guy and defector Yuri Bezmenov.
Demoralization plows the ground for the next stages: destabilization, crisis, and "normalization" into the new socialist state.
Demoralization is the first step in the intentional process described in that (too often linked) video from ex KGB guy and defector Yuri Bezmenov.
Demoralization plows the ground for the next stages: destabilization, crisis, and "normalization" into the new socialist state.
John Brunner's 'Shockwave Rider' may be the best version.
The refugees from the collapse of California move East into
the desert and are quarantined there by the government;
Problem solved. >:)
Every crisis is an opportunity to get rich. Offer the many
soon-to-be jobless, homeless, hopeless a safe haven in
return for their government compensation.
John Brunner's 'Shockwave Rider' may be the best version.
The refugees from the collapse of California move East into
the desert and are quarantined there by the government;
Problem solved. >:)
Every crisis is an opportunity to get rich. Offer the many
soon-to-be jobless, homeless, hopeless a safe haven in
return for their government compensation.
SF LITERALLY has an SF convention called "Diversacon." How much stupider can artists get than that? That used to be a ha-ha joke, never happen. Now it's staring us in the face. Why not rename the SFWA the Diversa-Glee Writers of America or the Literary Suicide Cult of America?
We need a group of new writers to warn us against the dangers of SF writers. We're so far into The Onion territory here it makes my head... (show more)
SF LITERALLY has an SF convention called "Diversacon." How much stupider can artists get than that? That used to be a ha-ha joke, never happen. Now it's staring us in the face. Why not rename the SFWA the Diversa-Glee Writers of America or the Literary Suicide Cult of America?
We need a group of new writers to warn us against the dangers of SF writers. We're so far into The Onion territory here it makes my head spin. It's like being lectured about justice by monkeys or dragging Winston Smith's lifeless body to the Ministry of Love and asking for advice. (show less)
What is that quotation...All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing ?
I would think that "Obama Catholics" is an oxymoron, just as putative Catholics Crazy Joe Biden and Queen Bee Pelosi are walking contradictions when it comes to tenets of their "faith".
What is that quotation...All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing ?
I would think that "Obama Catholics" is an oxymoron, just as putative Catholics Crazy Joe Biden and Queen Bee Pelosi are walking contradictions when it comes to tenets of their "faith".
Apparently, at least half of the population of the USA who voted him in the second time is also economically illiterate; they are also historically illiterate and morally bankrupt. They don't care if the country crumbles, so long as they are OK or come out on top.
The driving belief of the left was summed up by Milton quite nicely:
"Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven".
Apparently, at least half of the population of the USA who voted him in the second time is also economically illiterate; they are also historically illiterate and morally bankrupt. They don't care if the country crumbles, so long as they are OK or come out on top.
The driving belief of the left was summed up by Milton quite nicely:
"Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven".
States with highest busniess failure rates:
<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/19/smallbusiness/small_business_state_failure_rates/index.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/19/smallbusiness/small_business_state_failure_rates/index.htm</a>
Startup business failure rate:
<a href="http://smallbiztrends.com/2008/04/startup-failure-rates.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://smallbiztrends.com/2008/04/startup-failure-rates.html</a>
States with highest busniess failure rates:
<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/19/smallbusiness/small_business_state_failure_rates/index.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/19/smallbusiness/small_business_state_failure_rates/index.htm</a>
Startup business failure rate:
<a href="http://smallbiztrends.com/2008/04/startup-failure-rates.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://smallbiztrends.com/2008/04/startup-failure-rates.html</a>