One of the outcomes of the grotesque wealth inequality in the United States has been the massive increase in homeless people. In many American cities, if you walk the streets of the city or look in the parks or along the highways you see thousands of men and women who have been reduced to living in a tent or a wooden box. It has become something that defines American cities and that visitors from Europe, the Nordic countries, or Asia find so appalling it is one of the major memories they take away from a visit to this country. I just got an email from a reader who lives in Norway telling me he had read about this, but found it hard to believe how bad it actually was, asking me, “Why are your city, state, and federal governments doing so little to help theses desperate people?” The answer, of course, is that to politicians, especially MAGAt politicians, financed by the uber-rich the poor are nothing but peasants whose wellbeing is of little interest to them.
Frank, a homeless man, sits in his tent with a river view on June 5, 2021, in Portland, Oregon. Credit: Paula Bronstein / AP
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — The Supreme Court has granted mayors broad powers to combat the homelessness crisis, including by jailing people for sleeping outside. Now, leaders along the West Coast must decide how far they’re willing to go.
The Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling last month will have major ramifications everywhere from Northeast cities struggling with a deluge of migrants to Sun Belt boom towns facing huge shortages of affordable housing. But the effect is most dramatic along the West Coast, where lower court rulings had severely limited city officials’ authority to clear encampments even as the region became the epicenter of a national homelessness crisis.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed captured the frustration among many Democratic mayors when she praised the conservative-majority Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Those who refuse our help or those who already have shelter will not […]
The six ultra-conservatives on the Supreme Court who lied at their confirmations have placed the US in a position of lawlessness and devastating power for themselves! What Americans have to realize is that this is a consequence of who is elected president!! We now technically have no Constitution because these six care naught for it! Trump himself has vowed to get rid of the Constitution should he be re-elected! So what have we here if Trump wins? We have a fascist government with no Constitutional rights, a Supreme Court deciding (with no expertise on the topics) what agencies can and can’t do by the Court’s decisions, allowing a president to have practically no immunity for crimes no matter what it is—-even having rivals assassinated, and the president able to rule by executive privilege! Is that the country the Forefathers envisioned? No way!!! Is that what Americans, especially the MAGA nutcases actually want for their country? America has reached a nadir in its democracy and rule of law and we have only ourselves to blame when we elect the wrong people. Donald Trump is overwhelming the wrong person!!!!
The six ultra-conservatives on the Supreme Court who lied at their confirmations have placed the US in a position of lawlessness and devastating power for themselves! What Americans have to realize is that this is a consequence of who is elected president!! We now technically have no Constitution because these six care naught for it! Trump himself has vowed to get rid of the Constitution should he be re-elected! So what have we here if Trump wins? We have a fascist government with no Constitutional rights, a Supreme Court deciding (with no expertise on the topics) what agencies can and can’t do by the Court’s decisions, allowing a president to have practically no immunity for crimes no matter what it is—-even having rivals assassinated, and the president able to rule by executive privilege! Is that the country the Forefathers envisioned? No way!!! Is that what Americans, especially the MAGA nutcases actually want for their country? America has reached a nadir in its democracy and rule of law and we have only ourselves to blame when we elect the wrong people. Donald Trump is overwhelming the wrong person!!!!