things i saw...

[Magoo]

huge homeless encampments.
Little tent cities, under bridges, parks, railway corridors.
they go for marginal spaces that are hard to police without 'owner dissension'.
i saw one camp had about 70 tents and structures, dont know where the ablutions were, probably none.
this, and doing laundry seem to be the most challenging aspects of homelessness.

loneliness. as many as half of employed San Franciscans work from home after Covid.
the workplace was their grounding point, where they knew and were known.
while they no longer have a shitty commute, save on time and parking fees, they have lost the only human contact they had.
i saw countless solo diners in restaurants, empty bars, on the road and in church (yeah, went to church, but only because i was banned from it, wanted to see if i were persona grata by now.) no one noticed.

We think our inflation is bad, theirs is worse, and going on longer.
for the first time ever clothes, shoes, sunglasses and electronics were more expensive after calculating exchange rates.
Saw lamb at Costco, bone in leg, $113. about $45 a pound. Gas at a record level $6.70 a gallon. still under $2 a litre, but they do way more mileage than us.

the machine guns and the fucking slaughters of innocents. An elementary school while we were there, think he got about 20 people. brought the guns and ammo day after his eighteenth birthday. but cannot drink for two more years.
guns easier to get than booze.
much hand wringing and angst, ultimatums and excuses, but no change. mr mitch mc'connell  house minority leader has accepted more than $20 million $ from the gun lobby in 30 years of politics. he said 'ownership rules need to be tightened'. gosh, that will fix it mitch, you amoral waste of skin, good one. meanwhile children are gunned down in their classrooms.

Taxation is throttling them. local body Property Taxes, (same as our council rates) run at about 2-5% the value of the property per year, depending on location etc. Explosions in property prices have left folks in multimillion dollar properties, with tax bills like the retired FIL sitting in 3 million dollar homes with $60k property tax p/a. Scary.

things might seem a bit bleak down here at times, but we are head and shoulders above the yanks for quality of life.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

The nation that touts itself as the leader of the free world still allows influences to exist that twist its young men into child killing machines, and thinks it has a right to pronounce other nations 'good' or 'bad'?

There is a sickness at the heart of the society...

[Olive]

huge homeless encampments.
Little tent cities, under bridges, parks, railway corridors.
they go for marginal spaces that are hard to police without 'owner dissension'.
i saw one camp had about 70 tents and structures, dont know where the ablutions were, probably none.
this, and doing laundry seem to be the most challenging aspects of homelessness.

......

things might seem a bit bleak down here at times, but we are head and shoulders above the yanks for quality of life.

Thanks Magoo.   I've read some harrowing photo-essays in WaPo and other media, but it's always better to get some direct observations.

[Oldfellah]

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the most powerful organisation lobbying for gun owner rights in the US.

And they all talk about gun law reform
But not while these guys own half the politicians.

USA USA USA 
Sick bastards!

[harm_less]

USA, home of the paranoid!

[Magoo]

and home to some of the loveliest, most generous, most genuine people on the planet.
the racism here is worse than there.
california = 34% asian, 33% hispanic, 32% anglo/afro american, 1% other.
Americans are the minority.
only 1 in 8 inhabitants were born in california.
they are an inclusive and accepting people, taking in twice as many refugees per populous than the nearest rival, and about 20 times more by populous than we do.
They are very polite until they get behind the wheel, like everywhere.
they are a long way from 'the land of the free', but dont tell them that, they dont go anywhere else and think they still are a paragon and beacon of free society and democracy to be envied. *bless*

[Magoo]

one of the wifes cuzzies is a trumptard anti everything
i did my level best to make him cry at each family event to no avail.
mockery, belittlement, taunts, insults and casting aspersions about his sexual preferences were all fruitless.
shameless. hes a doctor.
i shit you not, a doctor. not vaccinated no mask over bearing cock twaddle of a man.
a vacuous moron walking amongst us, were i a younger man i would almost certainly bullied him relentlessly until his hippocratic arse snapped and he attacked me. as it was i had to be content with poisoning his children against him and humiliating him at the dinner table.
never mind, we all have our cross to bear.

[Lilith7]

There were camps of homeless unemployed in Steinbeck's time, & there has been many more than one school shooting. We humans really are extremely slow learners; especially Americans it seems.

Maybe they need another FDR & New Deal; what they & the world do not need is yet another war.

[Magoo]

There were camps of homeless unemployed in Steinbeck's time, & there has been many more than one school shooting. We humans really are extremely slow learners; especially Americans it seems.

Maybe they need another FDR & New Deal; what they & the world do not need is yet another war.

i dont know what the solution is
FDR and the Deals were about employment and cash generation.
its not about employment, there seems to be plenty.
it seems to be spiralling costs and stagnant wages.
the disparity between the haves and have-nots is wider than ever.
the reality of it is that many others are only one or two paychecks away from financial catastrophe as well.
any hiccup in income flow will see you lose everything.
there is no middle class. you either rich or you aint.
it is deplorable that the biggest cause of bankruptcy in america is from healthcare.

[Lilith7]

There were camps of homeless unemployed in Steinbeck's time, & there has been many more than one school shooting. We humans really are extremely slow learners; especially Americans it seems.

Maybe they need another FDR & New Deal; what they & the world do not need is yet another war.

i dont know what the solution is
FDR and the Deals were about employment and cash generation.
its not about employment, there seems to be plenty.
it seems to be spiralling costs and stagnant wages.
the disparity between the haves and have-nots is wider than ever.
the reality of it is that many others are only one or two paychecks away from financial catastrophe as well.
any hiccup in income flow will see you lose everything.
there is no middle class. you either rich or you aint.
it is deplorable that the biggest cause of bankruptcy in america is from healthcare.

Yes their health system is disgraceful - basically only for the wealthy. Thanks mainly to the selfish, greed based Neo Liberalism, those western countries which embraced it all now have a much smaller or non existent middle class.

And it doesn't need to be that way which is what's really annoying; they only need to take a leaf out of the book of those Nordic countries which do it all with higher taxation. What it comes down to is allowing people to suffer while a few become immensely wealthy.

[Magoo]

i would be surprised if their taxes were less than the nords
as well as state and federal sales tax, and property tax, their income tax is also high.
they have to keep the military machine fed.
would be free healthcare all round if they just relied on nuke warheads for defence.

---

the americans accept gun massacres like we accept infanticide.
perspectives

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3...h-auckland

[Oh_hunnihunni]

There cannot be extremes of wealth without extremes of poverty. The one is dependent upon the other.

[Lilith7]

Our record in that area is appalling, there are no two ways about that & we need to do far better at prevention.

I don't know that either Americans accept school shootings or Kiwis accept baby killings; they happen despite most of us being horrified by them.

---

There cannot be extremes of wealth without extremes of poverty. The one is dependent upon the other.

Yes, exactly. Greed is one of those things we should be trying to eradicate as far as possible; perhaps we need both an income ceiling & a floor.

[harm_less]

Their cost of living is reflective of the defects in their society in many ways. A friend ran a plumbing and gasfitting business in the LA area for just under 20 years and returned to NZ in the early 2,000s. He imported one of his F250 work trucks when he came back home and when told the insurance premium for it here was ready to set up a monthly AP to cover it until he was corrected that the premium was annually rather than monthly. That is an indication of the expected insurance costs in America due to the user pays health system and their litigious legal system. He also recounted a visit to an ED for a minor finger injury that resulted in a bill of close to $1,000, by an associate without health cover, which is something that my friend considered essential.

The labour unions also have a lot to answer for in respect of the strangle hold they have on supply chains there. This video is interesting in its portrayal of the American distribution system and how it is on the brink of failing due to current events:

[Magoo]

lillith
I don't know that either Americans accept school shootings or Kiwis accept baby killings; they happen despite most of us being horrified by them.

yes, shock horror at the abomination
angst and anger, another one, and another
but what do WE do about it?. what do we do between babies deaths to prevent the next?
for a start i would have thought as with an taking of any life, infanticide deserves the full force of the law, with the extreme end of sentences being applied by the justice system 
id call for capital punishment but id settle for a conviction at his point.
the deaths of these children go unanswered, their killers walk among us, unpunished and impervious 
very little is done, same as america with gun control.
lip service at best, posturing at most, while tragedy after tragedy not only occurs but at an increasing rate.
they accept it.
 do you see any evidence of the perpetrators being bought to justice here for murdering children? i dont.
they act with impunity, closing ranks and shutting down investigations.
we accept this.
hard decisions need to be made, rights need to be infringed upon, with a policy of prosecuting all if none presented.
as a society we need stronger, unequivocal, relentless leadership.
there is no place for empaths or yogurt knitting, woolly mindsets and wishy washy wellness outcomes if we
are to make change.
academia and any university of waikato subversives need not apply, oranga tamariki sit down. do nothing. it could only help at this point.

id do it but it all sounds too hard.

---

Their cost of living is reflective of the defects in their society in many ways. A friend ran a plumbing and gasfitting business in the LA area for just under 20 years and returned to NZ in the early 2,000s. He imported one of his F250 work trucks when he came back home and when told the insurance premium for it here was ready to set up a monthly AP to cover it until he was corrected that the premium was annually rather than monthly. That is an indication of the expected insurance costs in America due to the user pays health system and their litigious legal system. He also recounted a visit to an ED for a minor finger injury that resulted in a bill of close to $1,000, by an associate without health cover, which is something that my friend considered essential.

The labour unions also have a lot to answer for in respect of the strangle hold they have on supply chains there. This video is interesting in its portrayal of the American distribution system and how it is on the brink of failing due to current events:

the numbers are obscene, they are profane.
the greed and avarice of corporate america and the slavish adherence to a deeply flawed, inequitable system of employers paying medical insurance, binding the employees to the company like indentured servants, and leaving those not employed high and dry. this includes the aged, ill and disadvantaged demographics that make up a good portion of society.
my wife had good medical insurance. i saw the bill for delivering our baby.
less than 24 hours in the hosp, $34,680 cha ching. (type i diabetic high risk birth, but still) this was 25 years ago
we paid zip. nada.
$30 grand. whatever happened to the womenfolk gathering around with hot compresses and camomile tea and a magically clean healthy baby is presented to the glowing father next morning, for the price of the tea?
$30 grand, its like buying a new pick up or renovating the bathroom, its a cost like everything else it needs a number attached. i might have shopped around, gotten a couple of quotes but wth.
$30 k, wtf i slept on the floor. the lifts didnt work, maternity was on 8th floor.
i had to pay $31 for parking.
folks are being fucked over sans grease everywhere,  teeth clenched eye watering financial sodomy

[Lilith7]

Those who are responsibly for killing babies or small children are generally themselves the product of a lack of good parenting & are often the product of a violent upbringing. If we're to break that particular chain, we need to help people become better parents.
And that's long term; there's no quick fix.

Demanding ever harsher punishments isn't useful; they just don't work. Education is the long term remedy.

[Magoo]

Those who are responsibly for killing babies or small children are generally themselves the product of a lack of good parenting & are often the product of a violent upbringing. If we're to break that particular chain, we need to help people become better parents.
And that's long term; there's no quick fix.

Demanding ever harsher punishments isn't useful; they just don't work. Education is the long term remedy.

woolly thinking lillith my chinois, at the very least we could pretend to try, we cant even do that.

lets make a start by enforcing the laws we have first, why are infants precluded from the right to a fair and thorough investigation not dictated by the perpetrator and the shitbag family that raised him and now lie and obfuscate to protect them, it is they who are complicit, we are complicit by allowing them to do it. we have the right as society to stop this, if that nfringes the rights of those who continue to enable it should be removed. the many trump the few.

so theres a start lil, kick in some doors and lock those present in these environments up as co conspirators. cut benefits, housing and state support at every level. see how quickly the tune changes.
To do nothing and accept that its 'long term' and systemic, that it needs 'education' are just platitudes that encourage acceptance while we wait to 'educate ' them. when pray tell was this education gong to commence? we could be removing some of this cancer and taking steps to change it right now, we have the means and the right, but apparently lack the will, the backbone and the conviction to act in any way. muted. cuckolded, emasculated, weak.

[Magoo]

interrupting a debilitating systemic cycle will require a will and a driving force we do not at this time possess.
well theres me of course, but im too flat out with other projects to deal with this.

[Magoo]

i think the empaths and academics have had a fair crack at it
for the last 50 years we have pissed money and resources on social programs and caring and rational approach to the problem.
this has achieved dick. less than dick, it has gotten worse.
i hear the platitude 'laws and control dont work'
how the hell would we know? weve never adhered to them, of course they dont work, we've allowed it to be so.

so ineffective have our social programs been that we have normalised the ineptitude and hubris by encouraging this narrative decade after impotent decade.

perhaps the sight of police kicking in doors and making arrests will spur those charged with the jobs dealing with this to get off their collective arses and earn their pay, and perhaps a little respect as well.
would you be proud to admit to working for oranga tamariki? id be ashamed.
they have zero mana.

[Lilith7]

"Woolly thinking " my arse; its what needs to happen.
And it was Celia Lashlie - who was greatly experienced - who said that the best, most effective way was not to continually judge & berate but instead to get alongside & give support & help.

Although I agree about entire families just clamming up; ways & means of ending that particular nonsense may have to include imprisonment for attempting to pervert the course of justice; I'm fairly sure we have a law about that. And probably the threat of using it would be sufficient.

But not the rest since that's likely to have far reaching effects which are likely to make things worse for any children involved.