New York Times: Liberal Hypocrisy Is Fueling American Inequality. Here’s How.

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The greatest wealth transfer in history is here, with familiar (rich) winners

An intergenerational transfer of wealth is in motion in America — and it will dwarf any of the past....Of the 73 million baby boomers, the youngest are turning 60. The oldest boomers are nearing 80. Born in midcentury as U.S. birthrates surged in tandem with an enormous leap in prosperity after the Depression and World War II, boomers are now beginning to die in larger numbers, along with Americans older than 80. Most will leave behind thousands of dollars, a home or not much at all. Others are leaving their heirs hundreds of thousands, or millions, or billions of dollars in various assets. In 1989, total family wealth in the United States was about $38 trillion, adjusted for inflation. By 2022, that wealth had more than tripled, reaching $140 trillion. Of the $84 trillion projected to be passed down from older Americans to millennial and Generation X heirs through 2045, $16 trillion will be transferred within the next decade....

....And it’s already impacting the broader economy, greasing the wheels of social mobility for some and leaving obstacles for those left out as the cost of living, housing and raising families surge. The wealthiest 10% of households will be giving and receiving a majority of the riches. Within that range, the top 1% — which holds about as much wealth as the bottom 90%.... — will dictate the broadest share of the money flow. The more diverse bottom 50% of households will account for only 8% of the transfers....

A key reason there are such large soon-to-be-inherited sums is the uneven way boomers superbly benefited from price growth in the financial and housing markets....The average price of a U.S. house has risen about 500% since 1983, when most baby boomers were in their 20s and 30s, prime years for household formation. As U.S. corporations have grown into global behemoths, those deeply invested in the stock market have found even bigger returns: The stock market, as measured by the benchmark S&P 500 index, is up by more than 2,800% since the beginning of 1983, around the time index funds took off as a mainstream investment for corporate employees and many other middle-class professionals. (Those figures do not include dividends and are not adjusted for inflation, which they have far outstripped; consumer prices have risen about 200% over those 40 years.)...

....High-net-worth and ultrahigh-net-worth individuals — those with at least $5 million and $20 million in cash or easily cashable assets — make up only 1.5% of all households. Together, they constitute 42% of the volume of expected transfers through 2045....That’s about $36 trillion as of 2020 — numbers that have most likely increased since....The scale of the transfer is made possible in part by the U.S. tax code. Individuals can transmit up to $12.9 million to heirs, during life or at death, without federal estate tax (and $26 million for married couples)....As a result, although high-net-worth and ultrahigh-net-worth individuals could inherit more than $30 trillion by 2045, their prospective taxes on estates and transfers is $4.2 trillion.

....Fiona Greig, the global head of investor research and policy for Vanguard, has been working on a report detailing the “self-financing gap” — the insufficiency in “pre-retirement incomes” threatening to leave tens of millions of workers unable to afford retiring in their 70s....In her research, she’s found “all but the most wealthy” are on a trajectory to be financially unprepared to retire to some degree. The bottom 50% of households had an average annual income of about $28,000 in 2022... feel a bit squeezed — emblematic of the “sandwich generation” of working-age upper-middle-class adults dealing with both costly or time-consuming child care and beginning to serve as caretakers for parents....the chief economist at RSM, a consulting firm, thinks changes will come — but only when high-income salaried workers, who still seem to be managing, can no longer comfortably afford families, housing, elder care and leisure. Once white-collar workers left out of the wealth transfers feel the burn, “large companies will back” a bigger welfare state, Brusuelas concluded, “because they’ll want the government to subsidize it” rather than taking on the costs of providing more benefits themselves....“It’ll have nothing to do with social justice, nothing to do with right or wrong, and everything to do with the bottom line....”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/14/business/economy/wealth-generations.html

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Billionaires Spent Over $1 Billion on 2022 Elections—More Than Any Year in US History

...Americans for Tax Fairness on Monday released the group's latest report on "the threat posed to American democracy by billionaire political spenders," revealing that last year their collective congressional campaign contributions topped $1 billion for the first time...."That 'Billionaires' Billion' was almost three-quarters more than the tycoons' total spending on the last midterms, in 2018, and 300 times more than what billionaires spent on congressional races as recently as a dozen years ago....The Billionaires' Billion—contributed by fewer than 500 individuals—represented about one of every nine dollars raised from all sources in the 2022 elections," the analysis continues, noting that 15 of the nation's richest households were responsible for $658 million, or nearly two-thirds, of the contributions...."Nearly 80% of billionaire cash—$782 million—went to outside campaign groups," the document adds, and in eight key races that decided which party controlled the Senate....

..."Billionaires spending a billion dollars on a shopping spree for democracy should wake us all up to the threat posed by nearly unlimited wealth applied without limits to our elections....There are well-known solutions to the problem, including overturning Citizens United....Those tax reforms include.... closing the stepped-up basis loophole that allows investment gains to go untaxed forever....."

....In March, Biden unveiled a budget blueprint—which included various tax reforms—that then-ATF executive director Frank Clemente said "plainly shows whose side he's on: working families struggling with the high cost of healthcare, childcare, housing and more—not the wealthy elite and their big corporations rolling in dough and dodging their fair share of taxes."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/billionaires-congress-election-2022-midterms

 

 

 

[EternalShinyAndChrome 2,034]

Using the phrase "Liberal Hypocrisy" is redundant.  Hypocrisy is already implied with just using the word "Liberal".

There is no universe where you can be a liberal and NOT be a hypocrite.

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America’s Poverty Is Built by Design

....How did the U.S. become a land of economic extremes with the rich getting richer while the working poor grind it out? Deliberately....Matthew Desmond....his ground-breaking new book, Poverty, By America to suggest that a movement to abolish poverty could transcend our toxically divided politics.....that systems are rigged to favor people who are already advantaged. He makes a refreshing, brutally honest case that poverty is pervasive in America by design, to enable the lifestyles of affluent people. U.S. rates of poverty are substantially higher and more extreme than those found in 25 other developed OECD countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

How did America become a land of economic extremes, with entrenched, grinding poverty for those struggling at the bottom — even as most poor adults who are not seniors are working?.... asking and answering the larger question, “Who benefits from practices that keep people poor?” Poverty, he argues, results from three quintessentially American habits: exploitation of the poor; subsidization of the rich; and the intentional segregation of the affluent and the poor such that opportunity is hoarded and social mobility is rare.

....Well-paid professionals.... benefit as consumers from the poverty wages paid to others in an economy where Uber is a verb and surveilled and squeezed gig workers respond to —and deliver — our every need. Our stock investments swell as companies cut or outsource jobs, stagnate wages and oppose unions. We get free checking; the poor get usurious fees from banks and “payday” lenders. Meanwhile, zoning codes that allow only single-family homes create artificial housing scarcity that enhances our property values while foisting high costs and homelessness on others. Segregation encourages “private opulence and public squalor,” ......as affluent people withdraw from public institutions and society systemically disinvests in the public goods ordinary people need.

.....shows how the federal government, through the tax code, greatly subsidizes the affluent. In 2021, the U.S. spent $1.8 trillion on tax breaks, forgoing revenue that otherwise would have been paid in taxes, much of it going to very rich people. For example, each year the U.S. loses more than $1 trillion in unpaid taxes because of the tax avoidance strategies of multinational corporations and wealthy families..... a bold proposal. He argues that we could bring nearly every family in America above the official poverty line without adding to the deficit simply by collecting unpaid federal income taxes from the top one percent of households — from closing loopholes...... That would amount to an estimated $175 billion annually; those resources would then be allocated to expand broadly popular programs, like the Earned Income Tax Credit, that directly alleviate poverty.

....in 2019 other western democracies like France and Germany raised as much as 38 percent of their GDP in tax revenues and invested broadly in public goods while U.S. total revenues were at 25 percent and the U.S. “lavished government benefits on affluent families and refused to prosecute tax dodgers.”.... He is arguing that if the rich pay their taxes and the government stops over-subsidizing them and instead invests in the general welfare with aid to the poor, poverty can be eliminated, without adding to the deficit....

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/21/theres-a-path-out-of-poverty-00097399?

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Home foreclosures are rising nationwide, with Florida, California and Texas in the lead

.....Lenders began the foreclosure process on 23,245 properties in May, up 4% from last month and up 5% from a year ago. States with the most foreclosure starts in May included Florida, where 2,901 foreclosures got underway, followed by California, with 2,451 foreclosures started, and Texas, where 2,286 properties fell into the foreclosure column. Illinois and New York foreclosure starts came in at 1,358 and 1,287, respectively.....“The recent increase in foreclosure filings nationwide indicates a trend that has been observed throughout the year, and what we have expected to occur,” Rob Barber, ATTOM’s CEO, said in a statement. “This upward trajectory suggests the possibility of continued heightened activity, and with foreclosure completions seeing the largest monthly increase this year, we will continue to monitor the potential impacts this may have on the housing market.”

.....Still, U.S. workers' incomes remain below their pre-pandemic highs as the cost of consumer goods and services remains elevated, putting them at greater risk of falling behind on payments. The quarterly median weekly earnings for full-time U.S. workers have given up all their post-pandemic gains when adjusted for inflation. The median usual weekly earning for a full-time worker was an inflation-adjusted $363 in the first quarter of 2023. That compares with $367 in the first quarter of 2020, just as the pandemic was starting to bear down.

.....While the rate of inflation continues to fall, at 4.9% in April, it is nearly double pre-pandemic levels. The Federal Reserve has said interest rates will most likely need to stay higher for longer to keep inflation in check.....“It’s likely that foreclosure filings will keep rising....” 

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/home-foreclosures-rising-in-us-where-which-states

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Column: The truth about our homelessness crisis: As Californians age, they are priced out

.....Public policy and common perception have long tied the road to homelessness with mental illness and drug addiction. But a new study out Tuesday — the largest and most comprehensive investigation of California’s homeless population in decades — found another cause is propelling much of the crisis on our streets: the precarious poverty of the working poor, especially Black and brown seniors.....

....“These are old people losing housing....They basically were ticking along very poor, and sometime after the age of 50 something happened,” Kushel said. That something — divorce, a loved one dying, an illness, even a cutback in hours on the job — sparked a downward spiral and their lives “just blew up,”.....Kushel and her team found that nearly half of single adults living on our streets are over the age of 50. And 7% of all homeless adults, single or in families, are over 65.....And 41% of those older, single Californians had never been homeless — not one day in their lives — before the age of 50.....

....We have come to the point of income inequality that if you are older and unable to work, homelessness is a real threat throughout the Golden State. For every 100 extremely low-income people in California, defined as making less than 30% of area median income, there are only 24 units of affordable housing available.....found that more than a quarter of those surveyed identified as Black, while only 6% of Californians overall are Black. Native Americans are also over-represented in our homeless population.....She discovered that many of the older people living on the streets were employed for most of their lives, often in physically demanding jobs such as waitressing, warehouse work or construction. The kind of jobs our economy depends on, where workers are easily replaced and often are....

....found another myth-dispelling fact: Most of the homeless people on California‘s streets are Californians. While conservative pundits love to scream about lazy homeless people flocking to the state for easy living, “we have to stop these narratives that people are flooding into California,” ....Kushel found that 9 out of 10 people lost their last housing in California and three-quarters live in the same county as where they most recently had a place to call home.....She found in the six months prior to their being homeless, people’s average income was $960....

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-20/homeless-crisis-housing-californians-older-seniors-study

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[seafoam1 1,183]

On 5/20/2023 at 4:10 AM, EternalShinyAndChrome said:

Using the phrase "Liberal Hypocrisy" is redundant.  Hypocrisy is already implied with just using the word "Liberal".

There is no universe where you can be a liberal and NOT be a hypocrite.

yep

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The San Francisco Homeless Crisis: What Has Gone Wrong?

....This investigation into the causes and costs of San Francisco’s homelessness crisis....gets one important thing right: The city’s progressive leadership has proved totally incapable of ending the huge spectacle and tragedy in the streets. Today in the City by the Bay, one of every 100 residents is homeless, and between 2005 and 2020, the number of people sleeping on the streets or in tents nearly doubled, even as the number of unhoused people elsewhere in America declined. Of the city’s estimated 8,124 people who are currently unhoused, a full 73 percent are “unsheltered” — meaning they sleep out of doors, in tents, under highway overpasses. (In New York City, by comparison, just 3 percent are unsheltered.) Across the Bay, in Alameda County, which includes Oakland and Berkeley, the situation is by some measures even worse — homelessness has nearly doubled in the last five years. “There’s a cruelty here that I don’t think I’ve seen and I’ve done outreach on every continent....”

....San Francisco, which allocated $1.25 billion for homelessness and related services from 2018 to 2021, spends more per resident than Los Angeles or New York City, but a failure of clear leadership and planning, and ineffective nonprofit management, has led to tremendous waste. Last year, for example, city officials turned Civic Center Plaza into a “safe sleeping site,” installing tents for 262 unhoused people. Each tent cost the city $61,000, 2.5 times the median annual rent for a one-bedroom apartment.....blaming the “pathological altruism” of woke progressive culture. “One word, ‘homeless,’ entails an entire, insidious discourse that acts unconsciously and subliminally on our hearts and minds rendering us unable to understand the reality before us.....”

.....Stymied from building shelters, permanent supportive housing and affordable apartments by years of federal and state defunding, astronomical construction costs, rampant manipulation of the state’s environmental and zoning laws by special interests and a general lack of political will by .... their representatives, officials have instead invested taxpayer money in ineffective solutions like safe sleeping sites or providing portable toilets and hygiene services to encampments..... Shellenberger’s central question remains a valid one — why have Bay Area cities, under progressive leaders, failed so spectacularly? Why is homelessness so pervasive when huge sums of money are spent.... “What kind of a civilization leaves its most vulnerable people to use deadly substances and die on the streets?” 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/books/review/san-fransicko-michael-shellenberger.html

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'Everything is on the Table': NYC Officials Considering Relocating Migrants To City Parks

.....Nearly 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City over the past 15 months after being transported from various cities along the U.S. southern border. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on July 31, “From this moment on, it’s downhill. There is no more room,” in a plea for help in resolving the crisis, which is now resulting in migrants sleeping on city streets because shelters are overcrowded. Illegal aliens have waited for days outside the Roosevelt Hotel, “sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalk in hopes of a bed in the city’s shelter system,” the Associated Press reported.....

.....The AP added that some critics are accusing city officials of exploiting the outside lines as part of a campaign to pressure state and federal officials to send more money. Now, the city is considering housing migrants in Central Park to cope with the influx of illegal aliens that has grown exponentially under the Biden administration. “Everything is on the table,” the city’s Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said during a Wednesday press conference in response to a question about housing migrants in city parks.....

....“One person who was briefed on the plan but not authorized to speak on the matter publicly told Gothamist that the city is also looking at erecting tents in Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Randalls Island, where officials briefly opened a tent facility on a parking lot last fall,” according to the outlet. “On Tuesday, the Daily News reported that the administration is currently eyeing putting the tents on several soccer fields. That plan has sparked backlash from recreational users.....”

https://timcast.com/news/everything-is-on-the-table-nyc-officials-considering-relocating-migrants-to-city-parks/

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‘Bidenomics’ is a record of failure

.....With the 2024 campaign gearing up, the president is presenting more of a public relations blitz attacking his predecessors than a serious examination of his own economic record. In one speech, Biden derisively repeated the “trickle-down” straw man 15 times, which exceeded his combined mentions of his own record on inflation, wages and the stock market. Perhaps distraction was the president’s best option, given the public’s 36% approval rating of an economic record dominated by soaring federal debt, surging inflation and stagnant real incomes....Start with the runaway spending and bailouts enacted by a unified Democratic government that will cost $5 trillion over the decade. Annual budget deficits — less than $1 trillion before the pandemic — are now projected to approach $3 trillion within a decade....

.....In reality, he let $2 trillion in pandemic spending expire on schedule, and then added $300 billion in new spending of his own, leaving the yearly deficit nearly 40% above pre-pandemic levels. Equally disingenuous is the claim that the president’s new budget proposes $2.5 trillion in 10-year deficit reduction — which was measured by simply not counting trillions in proposed tax cut extensions.....Disregarding warnings from liberal economists like Lawrence Summers, this spending spree played a key role in driving prices upward by more than 16% in the 30 months since the president took office, at a cost of more than $10,000 for the typical household.....

.....Even as the inflation rate normalizes, it will not undo the recent price increases that have rendered many goods and services unaffordable for many families. This inflation exceeded wage growth and caused families to fall further behind. Since Biden took office, hourly compensation (adjusted for inflation) has fallen by 5%. When incomes cannot keep pace with inflation and families are falling behind, few other economic variables matter. The president frames his economic agenda as obsessively focused on building the middle class. Yet it’s the middle class that has been slammed by rising inflation and declining incomes.The president highlights the 13 million new jobs added since he took office. However, most were the natural job returns after the pandemic lockdowns were lifted. And the additional progress toward the current 3.7% unemployment rate — while impressive — is driven by the inflationary overheating of the economy. One cannot take credit for the faster job growth without also owning the inflation that the same policies brought.....

Steep inflation, declining real incomes, a falling stock market and deepening inequality. Not usually cause for a presidential victory lap.....Many of these policies are designed to aggressively raise labor costs and to shield favored industries from competition. This has hampered American competitiveness, worsened inflation, angered our trading partners and risked retaliation against America’s export industries. The supposedly “pro-investment” policies have taken the form of aggressive industrial policies to pick winners and losers, further limit competition and spend massively on corporate welfare....All in all, Bidenomics relies on vast subsidies and regulations to shield favored industries from competition, at the expense of consumers and taxpayers. It’s a spoils system for big labor and politically connected industries....

https://nypost.com/2023/06/29/bidenomics-is-a-record-of-failure/

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More Americans turning to credit cards to cover basic expenses as inflation rages

.....A growing number of Americans are relying on credit cards to pay for basic expenses as relentless inflation erodes more households' purchasing power. ....New data released by the Census Bureau this week found that more than 35% of households used credit cards or loans in December to assist with spending needs in the past week. That marks an increase from 32% in November and just 21% in April 2021, according to the Household Pulse Survey.  The rise in credit card usage is somewhat concerning because interest rates are astronomically high right now. The average credit card APR, or annual percentage rate, set a new record high of 19.14% last week, according to a Bankrate.com database that goes back to 1985. The previous record was 19% in July 1991....

.....If people are carrying debt to compensate for steeper prices, they could end up paying more for items in the long run. For instance, if you owe $5,000 in debt – which the average American does – current APR levels would mean it would take about 191 months and $6,546 in interest to pay off the debt making the minimum payments.....By comparison, the 16.3% average rate at the beginning of the year would mean paying about $5,517 in interest and getting out of debt after 185 months. ..."Credit card rates are much higher than most other forms of debt," Bankrate.com analyst Ted Rossman said. "We’re talking three, four or even five times higher than most people are paying for mortgages, car loans and student loans. Paying off your credit card debt should be a top priority, especially with interest rates at record highs....."

https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/more-americans-turning-credit-cards-cover-basic-expenses-inflation-rages

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ICYMI: 58% OF AMERICANS NOW LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK, COUNTING ON CREDIT CARDS TO MEET NEEDS

.....A new CNBC survey released last week found 58% of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck while 70% of the nation said they feel stressed about their finances due to ongoing economic headwinds. Even as a growing share of consumers are leaning on credit cards to afford increasingly expensive necessities such as food and rent....Financially vulnerable Americans say a lack of savings or credit card debt is a problem and twice as likely to fear being laid off.....To cover the costs of everyday purchases and emergency expenses, more Americans are relying on credit cards, with overall utilization and balances continuing to rise over the last year.....Missing payments can negatively impact ones’ credit score and therefore their ability to qualify for a home or auto loan. It can also trigger a higher penalty interest rate....

https://www.consumerbankers.com/cba-media-center/media-releases/icymi-58-americans-now-living-paycheck-paycheck-counting-credit

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President touts ‘Bidenomics’ though new poll shows just 34% approve his handling of the economy

.....President Joe Biden made his pitch Wednesday to a skeptical public that the U.S. economy is thriving under what he now touts as “Bidenomics” -- even as a new poll showed that could be a hard sell as the foundation for his 2024 reelection campaign....In a major economic speech in Chicago, Biden said his administration’s efforts were sparking recovery after Republican policies had crushed America’s middle class. But the poll said only one in three U.S. adults approve of his economic leadership....That 34% figure is even lower than his overall approval rating of 41%, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research....

....Biden’s approval figures have barely moved for the past year and a half, a source of concern for a president pursuing a second term on his ability to govern and focus on workers. ....As he was departing Washington on Wednesday, Biden said he believes the U.S. will avoid the recession that many economic analysts have been expecting. Republican leaders such as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said last year that the high inflation under Biden’s watch meant that “we are in a recession...”

https://apnews.com/article/biden-poll-economy-survey-jobs-inflation

 

Bidenomics Spin vs. Economic Reality

.....The annual inflation rate when Biden took office was 1.4 percent. In May, it was 4 percent, or nearly three times the rate he inherited and still double the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target rate. Here’s an actual fact: “Under the Biden Harris Administration Inflation Has Risen.” Of course, what the Biden team is attempting to take credit for is the decline in the inflation rate from its 9.1 percent peak in June of 2022. The Biden video goes on to claim that “inflation is less than half what it was last summer.” That claim is misleading for two reasons. First, inflation continues to increase, inflicting greater and greater pain on consumers. Only the rate at which inflation is increasing has slowed. Keep in mind that inflation is cumulative; much like compound interest, it just keeps adding up. After a large increase in the prior year, it is not particularly impressive that the current year increase will be lower, but that lower number comes on top of — or in addition to — the prior year’s number. For example, the 4 percent increase this May was on top of last May’s 8.3 percent increase for a two-year increase of nearly 13 percent. That’s nothing to boast about....

......In fact, since Biden took office, inflation has increased by about 16 percent. If inflation slowed to zero through the rest of Biden’s presidency, that would still be the largest increase for any four-year presidential term since the 1980s — a fact that somehow didn’t make it into the Biden video. Second, the inflation rate slowed because the Federal Reserve dramatically increased interest rates, not because of any Biden economic policies. In reality, rather than slowing the current inflationary surge, Bidenomics was a primary cause. This surge began the very month Democrats passed Biden’s ironically named $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Prior to the bill’s passage, Larry Summers, the secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton, warned that it could “set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.....”

.....That inflationary pressure compelled the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates at a historic pace over the past 15 months — from near zero to a 5 percent–5.25 percent range today. The consequences have been severe, leading to three of the four largest bank failures in our nation’s history, undermining the banking sector’s integrity, threatening our financial stability, and requiring federal intervention. Buying a home or a car, paying down credit cards, or getting a small-business loan are all more difficult, which puts additional economic pressure on Americans as interest rates rise....The Biden video’s final claim is that, “Wages are up, accounting for inflation, that’s real breathing room.” On its face, this claim is also not true. When Biden took office in January of 2021, real average hourly earnings — that is average hourly earnings adjusted for inflation — were $11.39. As of May 2023, that number had declined to $11.03. That simply doesn’t feel like breathing room for most Americans.....Inflation is a regressive tax that hurts families more the less money they have. The fact is that Americans, particularly working- and middle-class Americans, are poorer today than they were during the Trump administration, and Biden’s approval rating on the economy reflects that reality.....

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/07/bidenomics-spin-vs-economic-reality/

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Biden Wants To Build Housing For Illegal Immigrants At Border: Report

....President Joe Biden is reportedly asking Congress to approve a housing program for illegal immigrants at the southern border as part of his $40 billion emergency funding request....Biden’s plan would provide housing for illegal immigrants where they could come and go as they please while the Department of Homeland Security puts them through an expedited process, Axios reported....

....Biden’s proposed housing program would give illegal immigrants the freedom to leave during the day before they would have to check in and stay the night at the housing facility, a DHS official told Axios......The president took heat from the Left earlier this year when he reportedly considered returning to detaining illegal immigrant families, a policy he harshly criticized former President Donald Trump over. The president’s apparent reversal on the issue came at the end of Title 42, a Trump-era public health order that forced illegal immigrants to await their asylum claims in Mexico due to the COVID pandemic.....

.....U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested just under 100,000 illegal immigrants in June before the number spiked to more than 130,000 in July. In the Tucson, Arizona, sector, U.S. agents arrested around 40,000 illegal immigrants in July alone — setting a 15-year record for the sector, according to CBP data...Biden’s $40 billion emergency spending request includes $4 billion to address the border crisis, which is $20 billion less than he requested be sent to Ukraine, according to POLITICO.....

https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-wants-to-build-housing-for-illegal-immigrants-at-border-report

 

*****

Many American citizens are struggling to find affordable housing, including many minorities, and particularly minorities in many impoverished urban areas, but Joe Biden wants to take American tax dollars and spend them to house illegal immigrants. They are free to run around all day long, doing who knows what, some of them will be working for Cartels and other criminal organizations, but if you are an American citizen who can't afford rent instead? Too bad. 

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How can anyone rationalize the Biden Administration spending untold billions to feed, house and process illegal immigrants, when it's clear many large cities and states cannot support them in any fashion already, while using ACTUAL TAX DOLLARS, then doing absolutely nothing as housing costs and the entire pathway around that collapses on working class every day Americans. 

How can you ask actual hard working taxpayers to support illegals and essentially pay to house them, when many of these exact same Americans are struggling to house themselves? 

[Flipper 43]

1 hour ago, Blue Horseshoe said:

How can you ask actual hard working taxpayers to support illegals and essentially pay to house them, when many of these exact same Americans are struggling to house themselves? 

Financial struggle or not - F that ... and I'll bet he won't do it, either

[League Champion 1,241]

Liberal hypocrisy, wow. Where do we start?

 

 

 

[League Champion 1,241]

 

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Possible Giant grocery store closure in Southeast DC causes concern

....Word has gone around that the rampant theft and crime may drive out the Giant Food on Alabama Avenue in Southeast D.C. Shirl Holsey said she’s sick of the violence. The D.C. resident lost her nephew to a shooting last month. “I’m concerned about crime period. In grocery stores. In our streets,” she said outside the grocery store on Friday. She said they need this grocery store....“That means where would we go then?” Holsey said. “This is necessary. We have senior citizens that have no where else to go....”

....While Giant officials .....they are concerned about the theft and violence at the store that is “getting worse, not better.” They say it has cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars....District councilmember Trayon White Sr., held a news conference on Friday in the store’s lot on the subject. He said regional Giant brass told him in a Zoom meeting that they have grave concerns about staying in the location without the growing expense....“What we heard was disheartening,” White said. “We learned that this Giant has lost over $500,000 in product loss which is about 20% of its sales after theft.”....White, who represents Ward 8, said that it’s critical to keep Giant open because this is the only grocery store east of the Anacostia River. It serves many people who do not have transportation to go to other grocery stores....“We cannot afford to hurt ourselves by constant taking from the store because that means that everybody is going to be without a place to eat....” 

....He said that he has contacted D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office regarding the topic of keeping the store. Her deputy mayor is scheduled to also meet with Giant officials soon. Ralph Nelson, who has lived in the area since the 1950s, said it was a difficult task to get the grocery store to even come into Southeast D.C. because of the violence in the area. “I’m concerned because it’s been a long time before we ever had a grocery store over here,” he said. Nelson said one of the problems he’s seen are people loitering and dealing drugs right in front of the store. He would like to see more police presence to tamp down on the crime, he said....

https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/washington-dc/possible-giant-grocery-store-closure-in-southeast-dc-causes-concern/

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Residents, business owners fleeing Dem-run cities in droves as homeless camps wreak havoc: 'Absolute madness'

.....Residents of major Democrat-run cities across the country are sounding the alarm about the growing number of homeless encampments as government policies do little to help – and in some cases, make things worse. The increasingly visible crisis has resulted in business owners fleeing some areas as some residents describe feeling less safe. "I felt safer when I was walking around in downtown Saigon when I was in Vietnam than I do here in Portland," 83-year-old Vietnam veteran Armand Martens told Fox 12 Oregon about a homeless encampment rife with reports of drugs, thefts and multiple fires. In one incident, exploding propane tanks sent his neighbors running and screaming in fear. Real estate developer Dustin Michael Miller told "Fox & Friends First" that he’s moving his business out of the city after his office was riddled with bullets in an incident he called "absolute madness....."

.....Portland census data showed the city has lost 0.04% of its population after growing for 30 years straight. While the general population has declined for three years in a row, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office reported a 50% increase in homelessness from 2019 to 2022.  A common theme in the reports of businesses and residents being terrorized by homeless encampments is that they often have no recourse, and in many instances, cities have been accused of pushing to make life easier for the homeless at the expense of the business owners. Critics say that’s the case in Portland where the Democrat-controlled City Council responded to the growing homeless crisis last month by proposing legislation that would decriminalize public camping with a bill known as the "Right to Rest Act."....Additionally, the bill would have allowed homeless individuals to sue for $1,000 if they are harassed and told to relocate..... 

.....In nearby Eugene, Oregon, homeless encampments are proving equally taxing on residents, including an "RV squatter" encampment where a resident recently said he asked a homeless individual performing a sex act in public to leave, prompting the individual to attack him with a metal bat and spit blood on him. ...Roughly 300 miles north, in Seattle, residents say homeless encampments are preventing them from safely going to church, and critics say the homeless are emboldened by the lack of penalties they face for crimes...."It's largely because there is no consequence for anything of this nature in Seattle," former Seattle firefighter Andy Pittman told "Fox & Friends First" last year.....In Los Angeles, 69,144 people were living on the streets in 2022, which is up 4.1% since 2020. L.A. business owners said they are having similar problems getting any help from the city to address the homeless crisis....Graphic scenes of lawlessness continue to emerge from L.A. homeless camps, including recently in the Beverly Grove neighborhood where a naked homeless woman was spotted lounging in public on a couch....

....To the north, in San Francisco, retailers are fleeing in droves as the homeless crisis and the crime that comes along with it has led to shoplifting and violence against employees. Despite the anguish expressed by residents and businesses, a San Francisco Democrat recently proposed legislation to "specifically prohibit security guards from drawing their weapons to protect property."..."Homelessness and the increase in homelessness would not happen to the extent it is happening had there not been, and continues to be, a push to legalize every drug," Stimson said....."The more people who are somnolent, the more people who are stoned, the more people who are given a free pass to use whatever drugs you want, the more you're going to have people who are incapable of holding down a productive job...They're trying to create a socialist nightmare scenario for everybody," Stimson said. "In their world, I guess they think it's hunky-dory. Everyone else knows it diminishes the quality of life and public safety to the point where they leave, and so the only recourse these people have and these businesses have now is to leave, and they've done it in droves...."

https://www.foxnews.com/us/residents-business-owners-fleeing-dem-run-cities-droves-homeless-camps-wreak-havoc-absolute-madness

 

******

I'm going to ping @jonmx because I bet he and I are thinking the exact same thing. Who is going to swoop in to buy property in these "distressed" Big Blue Cities riddled by crime and homelessness?  And for cents on the dollar. 

So this is more than what jon has pointed out before about Team Blue wanting to set a pathway for a federalized police force ( easy for jackboots to shove you to the ground that way) , but it's also a blatant corrupt hijacking of public policy to convert it to critical "wealth distribution". And which pockets are going to get lined first? I don't think it's hard to figure out. David Cohen was a high level Comcast executive who supported Joe Biden for close to four decades with influence, political donations and leverage with the media industry. Guess who got an Ambassadorship out of it? Who else will Neera Tanden anoint in Big Finance to come and buy up tons of property next? 

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Hundreds protest potential new migrant site at former NYC senior citizen home

.....More than 200 raucous demonstrators rallied outside a former Staten Island nursing home Sunday, chanting, “Close the border!” to protest its possible conversion to an emergency shelter for migrants.......“Don’t call them immigrants. Call them ‘illegals,’ ” Ray Thaisz, 66, said outside the currently shuttered former Island Shores Senior Residences in Midland Beach. “I don’t mind people coming here, but they’re coming here illegally, and then we have to support them.”.....Another local, retired nurse Claire O’Toole, said she just didn’t want the asylum seekers housed in her neighborhood .....“I have four grandchildren,” said O’Toole, 64. “I don’t want this by my house. Why would I want that worry? They want to put 800 men here, but we have no idea who they are, period. Are they rapists? Are they murderers? Are they vaccinated?.....”

.....The possibility of converting the former Midland Beach nursing home first surfaced last year, when the 288-bed facility was on the verge of being sold, according to a report this month by the Staten Island Advance......The sale meant that 53 senior citizens would have to be relocated from the assisted living facility — and local pols raised fears that the site was being eyed for conversion to a migrant shelter.....“This site was an important cornerstone in our senior care system and we have been advocating to the owner of the site to sell to an entity with a similar end-use as a senior retirement facility,” Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella and other elected officials wrote to Mayor Eric Adams, the outlet said.....“With several potential buyers interested in providing some type of long-term care to Staten Islanders, this migrant shelter sets back Staten Islanders’ senior health care options,” the letter said....

....On Sunday, city officials bused in the first 150 of now-3,000 expected migrants to be housed at a massive tent city erected on soccer fields on Randall’s Island. The state-funded site is expected to cost taxpayers $20 million a month, officials said this month.....“As we have repeatedly said, with more than 100,000 asylum seekers asking for care since the spring of 2022, New York City has been left largely alone to respond with a national humanitarian crisis,” a spokesperson for Adams said in a statement....

https://nypost.com/2023/08/20/hundreds-protest-potential-new-migrant-site-at-former-nyc-senior-citizen-home/

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Biden cites busy schedule when asked about visiting East Palestine, Ohio: 'It's going to be a while'

.....President Joe Biden cited his hectic schedule when he was asked Saturday why he had not yet visited East Palestine, Ohio, months after the town was devastated by a train derailment that polluted the environment and contaminated water......"Well, I haven't had the occasion to go to East Palestine," Biden began. "There's a lot going on here, and I just haven't been able to break."...."And so it's going to be a while. ...." he concluded...

.....East Palestine was devastated by a derailed freight train on Feb. 3, which spewed toxic chemicals and caused health and environmental worries for locals. Though officials reassured the public that the town's air and water were safe, residents claimed to suffer from nausea, dizziness and headaches in the days after the disaster.....Biden promised to visit East Palestine "at some point" when asked about it March 2. According to Senator J.D. Vance, cleanup efforts are still ongoing, with "thousands of tons" of local soil still containing chemicals....

During an August flight to Milwaukee, Biden nearly flew over East Palestine, which invited criticism from Ohio Republicans....."One hundred and sixty-six days ago, Joe Biden promised he would visit East Palestine. He has failed to keep that promise," Senator J.D. Vance said in a previous statement. "Not only has Joe Biden refused to visit East Palestine, but he has also refused to grant critical assistance to the recovery effort....."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-cites-busy-schedule-asked-visiting-east-palestine-ohio

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*****

 

Major devastation against poor working class people, particularly white rural Christians, who didn't vote for Biden?  He pretends they don't even exist. ESAD. 

Minimal impact against wealthy connected rich liberal neighborhoods that do vote hard Democrat and donate heavily for Team Blue?  Fixed in 48 hours. 

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[seafoam1 1,183]

1 hour ago, Blue Horseshoe said:

 

I'm starting to be happy that "black and brown" people are getting hurt the most. 

Maybe they'll focking wake up one day and get their lives together and stop allowing themselves to be used by the democrats. 

If not, then I don't care. It's now up to them. 

[RLLD 3,022]

Gov. Kathy Hochul has message for migrants looking to come to New York: 'Go somewhere else'

 

This might fall under "they focked around and found out"  

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BU launches inquiry into 'management culture' at Center for Antiracist Research

Following sudden layoffs last week at Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research, the school said it is conducting an inquiry into the center’s “management culture” and “grant management practices” under its leader and founder, the scholar and activist Ibram X. Kendi. In a written statement provided to WBUR Wednesday, a BU spokeswoman said the university had initially launched an examination into the center's grant management practices after receiving complaints in the wake of the layoffs, which was first reported by The Boston Globe.

News of the sudden layoffs sent a ripple of shock around the BU community given the stature and prominence of Kendi, a nationally renowned scholar on race and best-selling author of the 2019 non-fiction book, "How to Be an Antiracist." Kendi, 41, originally founded what used to be known as the Antiracist Research and Policy Center in 2017 at American University in Washington D.C. BU recruited him to move the program to Boston University in June 2020. At the time, BU leadership told WBUR the new Center for Antiracist Research would "bring together researchers and practitioners from across the university to engage around issues of racism and racial justice."

Staff at the Center was tasked with pursuing multiple projects, including the creation of a racial disparities database, an anti-racist graduate degree program and a media publication. That multimedia platform, The Emancipator, "will continue and is not impacted" by the recent layoffs, BU spokesman Colin Riley told WBUR last week. Some former staff members disclosed to the Globe their concerns about management of grant funds and the progress of several projects housed at the BU Center for Antiracist Research. The center reportedly received up to $43 million since its inception, reported The Daily Free Press, BU's independent student newspaper. Among its financial contributions were tens of millions of dollars in financial gifts and grant money, including $10 million from Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter. Other donations came from companies like biotech company Vertex and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Staff members also told The Daily Free Press that the center had been struggling with high staff turnover, disorganization and a toxic work environment for much of its existence.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/09/21/boston-university-inquiry-management-culture-center-for-antiracist-research