Tag: poverty

New Congressional Bill Would Let People Use Marijuana In Public Housing Without Being Evicted

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) have filed a bill in Congress to allow people living in federally assisted housing to use marijuana in compliance with state laws without having to fear losing their homes.

Under current policy, people who live in public housing are prohibited from using controlled substances in those facilities regardless of state law, and landlords are able to evict them. The new bicameral legislation—titled the “Marijuana in Federally Assisted Housing Parity Act”—would change that.

The bill would provide protections for people living in public housing or Section 8 housing from being displaced simply for using cannabis in states that have legalized it for medical or recreational purposes.

Norton has filed similar versions of the proposal over recent sessions, but the reform has yet to be enacted. Booker joined Norton in sponsoring the legislation last Congress as well.

“Tenants should not be discriminated against, evicted, or denied federally assisted housing for legally using marijuana or treating a medical condition in states where it is permitted,” Booker said in a press release on Wednesday. “The Marijuana in Federally Assisted Housing Parity Act would end these discriminatory practices and ensure tenants are not punished for personal choices made in accordance with state law.”

The bill would further require the head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to enact regulations that restrict smoking marijuana at these properties in the same way that tobacco is handled.

“Individuals living in federally funded housing should not fear eviction simply for treating their medical conditions or for seeking a substance legal in their state,” Norton said. “Increasingly, Americans are changing their views on marijuana, and it is time that Congress caught up with its own constituents. With so many states improving their laws, this issue should have broad bipartisan appeal because it protects states’ rights.”

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Newsom’s ‘National Model’ For Homeless Wracked By Fraud

Gov. Gavin Newsom has made reducing the homelessness crisis in California a top priority, saying the scale of the state’s efforts is “unprecedented” and calling for the continued expansion of his signature effort – Project Homekey – that has already cost $3.75 billion. 

But in a state with more than 181,000 homeless individuals, or about one-third of the U.S. total, Homekey has been marred by failures and scandals, including a lack of government oversight and accountability as well as a federal investigation into allegations of fraud in Los Angeles. 

Newsom, who appears to be preparing for a presidential bid in 2028, could make Homekey, which he calls a “national model,” a talking point in his campaign. The state claims the program has created almost 16,000 permanent housing units that will serve over 175,000 people. But since the state doesn’t track outcomes – whether people placed in housing saw their lives improve or if they returned to the streets – the program’s effectiveness is unclear, according to a critical 2024 state auditor’s report. 

“[Our budget] is bloated with homeless spending, a bottomless pit and taxpayer boondoggle that doubles down on failure year after year,” the Republican-turned-Democrat Los Angeles Councilwoman Traci Park said at a meeting in May. “Hundreds of millions of dollars on bridge homes and Homekeys and interim housing sites, and no one can even tell us which ones are operational.”

What is clear is that homelessness in California has skyrocketed in the five years Homekey has been in place, growing by more than 20%, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. That’s an increase of some 36,000 people between 2019 and 2024.

Homekey has been touted by officials as a more cost-effective way to house the homeless. By hiring developers to convert excess motel and hotel rooms and other existing structures into permanent housing, the costs are two to three times lower than building new units, according to the auditor’s report.

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Just 0.001% hold three times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds

Fewer than 60,000 people – 0.001% of the world’s population – control three times as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity, according to a report that argues global inequality has reached such extremes that urgent action has become essential.

The authoritative World Inequality Report 2026, based on data compiled by 200 researchers, also found that the top 10% of income-earners earn more than the other 90% combined, while the poorest half captures less than 10% of total global earnings.

Wealth – the value of people’s assets – was even more concentrated than income, or earnings from work and investments, the report found, with the richest 10% of the world’s population owning 75% of wealth and the bottom half just 2%.

In almost every region, the top 1% was wealthier than the bottom 90% combined, the report found, with wealth inequality increasing rapidly around the world.

“The result is a world in which a tiny minority commands unprecedented financial power, while billions remain excluded from even basic economic stability,” the authors, led by Ricardo Gómez-Carrera of the Paris School of Economics, wrote.

The share of global wealth held by the top 0.001% has grown from almost 4% in 1995 to more than 6%, the report said, while the wealth of multimillionaires had increased by about 8% annually since the 1990s – nearly twice the rate of the bottom 50%.

The authors, one of whom is the influential French economist Thomas Piketty, said that while inequality had “long been a defining feature of the global economy”, by 2025 it had “reached levels that demand urgent attention”.

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At the end of the climate change illusion lies the poverty trap

The German government has shifted into hyper-mode to defend its green patronage economy. To pay for it, heirs, high performers and savers are being drafted into service. The end of the eco-socialist nightmare will be convulsive and chaotic.

On Friday, the federal cabinet agreed to introduce a new EV subsidy. Roughly three billion euros are set to flow into this bloodless market segment over the coming years – a drop in the bucket compared to the vast sums used to artificially keep the green patronage complex alive. But it is a signal.

A Negatively Sloped Learning Curve

The decision joins a long list of political misfires in recent months – a list unlikely to end with subsidised industrial electricity, heat pumps or refinancing packages for wind turbines. The state simply has too much money at its disposal to be forced to abandon its wasteful, destructive project.

For Bavaria’s minister-president Markus Söder, the revival of this failed subsidy instrument was cause for a small celebration. He promised a “huge boost” for the domestic market, claiming state intervention would secure value creation and jobs – a thoroughly “Söderized” view of reality.

Once again, Söder proved that his personal learning curve has flattened into a downward-sloping line – a phenomenon broadly visible across European politics.

Debt Union And Professional Manipulators

Germany’s EV subsidy stands pars pro toto for the broader European situation. Public debt is exploding across nearly all EU member states. Next year, Germany will post net new debt of around 5.6% of GDP – placing it among Europe’s top debt creators.

This figure is honest – and shows the true fiscal position once the government’s accounting tricks, exemptions, “special funds” and skyrocketing municipal debts are properly added back in.

France and the UK look equally grim. Even once-disciplined Finland is stumbling toward 90% debt-to-GDP with a similarly large deficit. It can no longer be denied: Europe is trapped in a debt spiral.

Schäuble and the Troika

How times have changed. Some may recall the theatrically staged visits of former German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble and the Troika, who – with maximal media firepower – pinned the sovereign debt crisis squarely on Greece.

In reality, it was perfect camouflage – designed to divert attention from the bailout of Germany’s banking and insurance sector, which had sailed into heavy waters due to political mismanagement.

The public was never meant to see what is now obvious: the EU has degenerated into a debt club trying to execute its ideological mega-projects – like the green transition – through a credit pump, with taxes and inflation serving as the extraction mechanism from ordinary citizens.

Heirs, asset holders, small business owners and the productive middle will pay the bill. The emotionally charged debate over inheritance taxes – and the faux rhetoric about “fairness” – reveals that the political class is now openly planning the confiscation of accumulated private capital.

Inflation as a Hidden Tax

The permanent crisis will inevitably lead to a growing state apparatus – a debt-financed Leviathan that accelerates the inflation spiral with every intervention. No one is supposed to notice how quickly money loses value in this environment. The seigniorage – the hidden gain – goes to the biggest debtor of all: the state.

With every new green initiative, every EV subsidy, every publicly funded wind turbine, the bill rises. Only the delayed price effect helps politicians obscure cause and effect and decontextualise the economic damage of their intervention.

Von der Leyen, Merz, Macron & Co. rely heavily on this effect. They hope the majority of voters never add one and one together – and never question the soft-edged tax squeeze and deliberate erosion of their savings.

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Rich People, Poor Morals: Wealthy Are The Most Likely To Rip Off Self-Checkout Machines

Rich people, poorer morals? A new LendingTree report claims the shoppers most likely to rip off the self-checkout machine aren’t the desperate — they’re the well-off, according to the NY Post.

Americans making over $100,000 a year are twice as likely to steal at self-checkout compared to low-income shoppers. A hefty 40% of six-figure earners admitted they’ve deliberately skipped scanning an item, while just 17% of those making under $30,000 confessed to the same.

The Post writes that middle-income households didn’t look much better: 27% of people earning between $50K and $99K say they’ve helped themselves without paying. And men are the biggest culprits overall, with 38% admitting to theft versus only 16% of women.

Even with AI scanners and weight sensors trying to outsmart sticky fingers, self-checkout theft is still rising.

A chunk of shoppers don’t feel bad about it either. Nearly one-third say big retailers make plenty of money, so swiping something “doesn’t hurt.” Another 35% defend the habit by claiming they’re basically unpaid store workers and grabbing an item or two is “compensation.”

Still, most blame inflation rather than guilt-free shoplifting. Forty-seven percent say rising prices are forcing people to cheat at the register — meaning even wealthy shoppers might be feeling the squeeze, just not enough to pay for everything in their cart.

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Americans Worry Most Among Developed Nations About Food Security

Concerning nations surveyed in Statista’s Consumer Insights, Americans were among those most worried about food and water security.

Indeed, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, while for most European nations, worry about the topic peaked during the coronavirus pandemic and the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, concern has remained elevated in the United States into 2025.

Food and water supplies were not considered a particular issue among developed countries for a long time. But the data illustrates how that is starting to change.

As many as 1 in 5 respondents in France said that food and water security was one of the biggest challenges their country faced in 2025.

The proportion was similarly high in the United Kingdom and Italy (23 percent), while it had fallen a little lower again in Spain (16 percent) and Germany (13 percent).

As wars (trade and kinetic) continue to disrupt international trade and affairs in recent years, the constant chatter about climate change shifting droughts and destructive fires more top of people’s minds, and inflation (groceries becoming more expensive), more people are seeing how these and other issues can affect the security of their food and water supply even in richer countries.

In the United States, shifts in government benefit programs by the Trump administration might also add to peoples’ feeling around food security.

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Why Digital IDs, CBDCs, and UBI Will Be Eagerly Welcome

Here’s the story so far…

Poverty is Growing, Becoming More Common, and More Exposed

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about poverty. Mostly because during the government shutdown, the federal government food program, SNAP, ran out of funding. Out of some 330+ Million Americans, 42 million rely on SNAP to supplement their grocery purchases every month. In New York State alone, $770 million is spent by the federal government every month, and California, over $1 Billion. It’s a big deal.

As a result, there was a world’s share of celebrity lip-wagging and open wallets. Pop Star, Billie Eilish reportedly donated 25% of her wealth to those solving hunger in the United States. She also did as much as she could to call out billionaires like Elon Musk.

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Trump Admin To Stop Food Stamp Payments To Democrat States Covering Up Welfare Fraud

he Trump administration announced that it will soon stop food stamp funding to 21 Democrat-led states and Washington, D.C., because they refuse to provide data about recipients, choosing instead to run cover for illegals and massive welfare fraud.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a Tuesday cabinet meeting that 28 states and Guam, run by Republicans, have provided data like names and immigration statuses for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, but that the remaining Democrat-run states are refusing to comply.

“So as of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states, until they comply and they tell us and allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer,” Rollins said at the White House.

Over 20 million SNAP recipients live in the Democrat-run states, nearly half of all 42 million recipients — a enormous number that should make anyone suspicious of the program.

The data was requested earlier this year, but the Democrat states filed a lawsuit claiming the data request violated privacy laws, essentially arguing that the government and taxpayers are not allowed to ensure accountability by tracking people who use the program.

The lawsuit is really a ploy to keep illegal immigrants in the country and on public welfare. As the lawsuit points out, the data could be used to inform better immigration enforcement. While the Trump administration maintains that the data will be used to clean up waste, fraud, and abuse, it should absolutely use the data to help deportation enforcement as well.

SNAP, much like other welfare programs, is notorious for fraud and abuse and often allows people who do not really need food assistance to game the system, not to mention the fact that the program allows recipients to purchase massive amounts of junk food that are clearly not “nutrition” as the program implies.

What’s worse is that 59 percent of illegal immigrant households use at least one welfare program, and 52 percent of legal immigrant households do the same. Native-born households account for 39 percent.

Food assistance like SNAP is one of the biggest categories of welfare for immigrants.

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USDA Will Withhold SNAP Funds From 21 States That Refused To Provide Data

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins says she will be moving to stop federal funding to 21 non-compliant states that have refused to provide data from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

In February, the Trump administration had asked all states to provide their SNAP data to the federal government as part of the administration’s efforts to root out waste and fraud in the welfare program.

29 mostly Republican-led states provided the data and revealed 500,000 cases of duplicate benefits as well as 186,000 deceased individuals’ Social Security numbers in use.

But 21 mostly Democrat-led states, including California, Minnesota and New York,  have dug in their heels and refused to provide the information, citing concerns over privacy.

Secretary Rollins told reporters that if a state refuses to share data on criminal use of SNAP benefits, “it won’t get a dollar of federal SNAP administrative funding.”

Rollins said that cooperation is needed from all states in order to root out fraud in the SNAP program and that action is impending for those states that refuse to provide names and immigration status of aid recipients.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Rollins said, “We asked for all the states for the first time to turn over their data to the federal government to let the USDA partner with them to root out this fraud, to make sure that those who really need food stamps are getting them, but also to ensure that the American taxpayer is protected.”

Rollins accused former president Joe Biden of trying to “buy an election” by ramping up food stamp funding by 40% last year.

Roughly 42 million recipients currently use SNAP benefits to help buy their groceries, at an annual cost to taxpayers of nearly $100 billion a year.

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Campbell’s Soup VP recorded ridiculing ‘poor people’ for eating ‘bioengineered meat’ in ‘s**t’ product: Lawsuit

ACampbell’s Soup executive was allegedly recorded mocking the company’s customers and making racial comments against its Indian employees, according to a lawsuit from a former employee.

Robert Garza of Monroe, Michigan, says that he was fired from the company after complaining about the comments made by the executive in an hour-long rant he recorded from a meeting at a restaurant.

The executive, Martin Bally, is now the vice president of the company.

“He has no filter,” Robert Garza said to WDIV-TV. “He thinks he’s a C-level executive at a Fortune 500 company and he can do whatever he wants because he’s an executive.”

Garza was hired as a remote security analyst in September 2024 for the company’s headquarters in Camden, New Jersey. He said he recorded the conversation with Bally because he felt there was something off about his former supervisor.

“We have s**t for f**king poor people. Who buys our s**t? I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely anymore. It’s not healthy now that I know what the f**k’s in it. … Bioengineered meat — I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer,” said the man identified as Bally by Garza on the recording.

He also derided the workers from India at the company.

“F**king Indians don’t know a f**king thing,” the man said on the recording. “Like they couldn’t think for their f**king selves.”

Garza said he felt “pure disgust” after hearing the rant. He says that Bally admitted to being high on marijuana edibles on the job as well, which is included in the filing.

In Jan. 2025, Garza went to his supervisor to complain about the comments, but Garza says he was fired weeks later.

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