Tag: poverty

Southern California mayor’s twisted plan to wipe out homeless people sparks widespread condemnation

A Southern California mayor has sparked mass condemnation after revealing he’d give homeless residents ‘all the fentanyl they want’ in an effort to wipe them out.

R. Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, made the remarks in front of stunned residents and councilmembers at a city council meeting earlier in the year but footage of his speech has just emerged.

Huge swathes of California have been gripped by a fentanyl crisis as the highly addictive and deadly drug becomes more accessible and affordable on the streets.

Just a tiny, two milligrams dose of the drug is enough to kill a human.  

Most of California is also in the grips of a housing crisis, as home costs soar and new developments stagnate – made exponentially worse by the devastating bushfires which tore through Los Angeles in January.

The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count registered as many as 6,672 people experiencing homelessness in Lancaster and its surrounding areas in 2024.

Asked about his vision to tackle the crisis, the 73-year-old Republican mayor did not mince his words.

‘What I want to do is give them free fentanyl,’ Parris told the February 25 meeting, to the bewilderment of everybody else in the room.

‘I mean, that’s what I want to do. I want to give them all the fentanyl they want.’ 

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A Visual Breakdown Of Who Owns America’s Wealth

There are two types of households in the U.S.: the rich half and the poorer half.

And the data is quite striking in this regard.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, breaks down America’s wealth (the total net worth of all U.S. households) by wealth percentile, and lists the number of households in each percentile.

Data for this chart is sourced from the Federal Reserve as of Q3, 2024.

For reference, the total net worth of all U.S. households is close to $160 trillion.

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Affluent New Jersey city considers controversial ordinance that would fine or jail homeless people for sleeping outside

A tony New Jersey city is considering approving a controversial new ordinance that would fine or jail homeless people found sleeping in public spaces.

Summit Councilman Jamel Boyer, a Republican, introduced the ordinance last Tuesday, claiming it serves to “preserve the safe and accessible use of public property for all residents, pedestrians and businesses.”

The ordinance in Summit would prohibit the homeless from camping in public areas, including parks, sidewalks, alleyways, and benches.

If approved, anyone found violating the ordinance would face a fine of up to $2,000 “and/or imprisonment or community service for a term not to exceed ninety days,” the order says.

A similar ordinance was presented in Morristown, NJ, in February but was struck down following massive backlash from the community and advocacy groups, NJ.com reported.

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Javier Milei’s Free Market Reforms Are Starting To Pay Off

Argentina’s poverty rate fell sharply in the second half of 2024, according to official data released this week, marking a major milestone for President Javier Milei’s sweeping economic reforms.

According to the country’s official statistics agency, the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), the poverty rate fell to 38.1 percent between July 2024 and December 2024—down nearly 15 percentage points from the first half of the year. Household poverty also declined by 13.9 percentage points, hitting 28.6 percent. And extreme poverty was cut by more than half, falling from 18.1 percent to 8.2 percent.

It’s a major turnaround from the beginning of Milei’s presidency. When he took office in December 2023, he inherited a poverty rate of 41.7 percent, which quickly surged to 53 percent as his administration launched a “shock therapy” program to end Argentina’s economic misery.

One of the biggest drivers behind the poverty decline is the sharp drop in inflation. Annual inflation, which reached 276.2 percent a year ago—one of the highest in the world—dropped to 66.9 percent last month. Monthly inflation has also dropped, from 25.5 percent in December to just 2.4 percent in March.

“These figures reflect the failure of past policies, which plunged millions of Argentines into precarious conditions while promoting the idea of helping the poor, even as poverty continued to increase,” Milei’s office said in a statement following the release of the INDEC report. “The current administration has shown that the path of economic freedom and fiscal responsibility is the way to reduce poverty in the long term.”

In other words, Milei’s bet on free market reforms is starting to pay off. 

It’s worth remembering the situation he walked into. “Milei inherited a country suffering from more than 200% inflation in 2023, 40% poverty, a fiscal and quasi-fiscal deficit of 15% of GDP, a huge and growing public debt, a bankrupt central bank, and a shrinking economy,” writes Ian Vásquez of the Cato Institute.

In response, Milei promised a radical shift in Argentina’s economic model. His government slashed government spending, eliminated price controls, devalued the peso, cut subsidies, suspended public works, and laid off thousands of government workers. The changes weren’t popular, but they were necessary. And now, the numbers are catching up.

The economy is growing again. Gross domestic product grew in the last two quarters. The gap between the black-market dollar and the official rate has narrowed. Rents have fallen and the housing supply has increased since rent control laws were scrapped. Meanwhile, investor interest in Argentina is beginning to return, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is in talks with Milei’s government over a new program. The IMF projects a 5 percent growth for Argentina in 2025. 

Still, challenges remain. Despite the improvement, over 11 million Argentines are still living in poverty, with 2.5 million facing extreme poverty. And more than half of all children ages 14 and under in Argentina are poor. 

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Modern OPSEC And Thirdworldization

Last year, International Man published an intriguing article by Jeff Thomas about American society during the Great Depression period. Duly named Duesenberg In A Barn, it opens with a story about shifts in culture and the lifestyle of wealthy individuals and families during the 1930s and beyond (Duesenberg produced luxury sport cars between 1913 and 1937).

He recounts how the riches that didn’t get snuffed out by, or even profited from, the 1929 Stock Market Crash, kept flaunting their wealth trying to outcompete each other, in an attempt to extend the 1920s Jazz Era hedonism and largesse into Depression times.

However, as the crisis aggravated, these individuals and families started to realize that such behavior amidst the rampant misery was quickly becoming a liability. 

“Whatever the psychology involved, in 1930, those who had fared well soon learned that it was unwise to be conspicuous in their continued wealth. At that point, an interesting but little-remembered development occurred. Such people put their mink coats in the closet, their jewelry in a safe place, and found barns in the countryside into which they could park their Duesenbergs, Cords, and Auburns.”

The rich toned down not from sympathy or compassion but as adaptation. Contrary to what many think, the wealthy have a sharp survival instinct.

That’s a crucial distinction, with the keywords being “adaptation” and “survival”, and the main takeaway an important social dynamic typical of all crises: the nail that stands out gets hammered. 

Those born and living in unstable and hostile contexts are constantly reminded of all the unwritten rules that keep us, our kin, and our stuff, safer. From criminals, sure, but also from tyrannical, greedy governments and corrupt authorities. 

I call that Thirdworldization OPSEC. It applies to criminality and government overreach mainly, but as Thirdworldization expands, it’s now applicable to other areas of social existence. Illegal immigrants, as well as political, religious, and ideological extremists from our own society, must now be added to the list of official (i.e., state) and criminal threats.

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Town Secretly Seizes Developers’ Property Then Threatens Them With Trespassing Citation

As readers might recall, in the Providence suburb of Johnston, the town government and its very outspoken mayor have been attempting to seize a family of developers’ land to prevent their construction of an unsubsidized affordable housing project.

Last week the developers sued to stop the seizure in federal court, alleging that the “municipal campus” Johnston was seizing the land for was merely a pretext to stop new affordable housing.

Already, Rhode Island law establishes a fairly elaborate process that local governments have to follow when using eminent domain to take land for public buildings.

The developers’ constitutional challenge to the town’s seizure would typically delay things even more.

But in a surprise turn of events late last week, the town is claiming to have already seized the developers’ plot without providing any advance notice to the owners and without following the processes laid down in Rhode Island law.

The owners first learned of the seizure via Johnston’s mayor’s X post. With the town now alleging that the seizure is complete, it’s telling the former owners of the land they have until Friday to get off it or else they’ll be cited for trespassing.

In response, the developers are now filing for a temporary restraining order to stop what they describe as the town’s unprecedented lawlessness in taking the land.

“In 40 years, I’ve seen some pretty outrageous exercises of eminent domain powers. Never anything like this,” says Robert Thomas, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public interest law firm, who is representing the developers.

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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – We Need to Be Extremely Concerned

When it comes to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) most people have no idea what this means. That beggars belief when considering the potentially dire consequences for we-the-people in our everyday lives if these goals are achieved. 

Under the guidance of the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs these 17 SDG’s, to be achieved by 2030, look quite uplifting for humanity. For examples, who wouldn’t want to have a world without hunger, no poverty, have food security and global health, reduced inequalities, affordable and clean energy… 

However, it’s all a perception deception: When you scratch below the surface, read the small print, it reveals deeply disturbing hidden ulterior motives diametrically opposing the so-called intentions related to their SDG’s. For instance, goal number one is “No Poverty,” but the overseers have no respect and don’t care about we-the-people. Therefore, they have no intentions of ending poverty. It’s no surprise that poverty has become an increasingly complex problem. 

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USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks

The Agriculture Department has axed two programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy food from local farms and ranchers, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending.

Roughly $660 million that schools and child care facilities were counting on to purchase food from nearby farms through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program in 2025 has been canceled, according to the School Nutrition Association.

State officials were notified Friday of USDA’s decision to end the LFS program for this year. More than 40 states had signed agreements to participate in previous years, according to SNA and several state agencies.

The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which supports food banks and other feeding organizations, has also been cut. USDA notified states that it was unfreezing funds for existing LFPA agreements but did not plan to carry out a second round of funding for fiscal year 2025.

In a statement, a USDA spokesperson confirmed that funding, previously announced last October, “is no longer available and those agreements will be terminated following 60-day notification.”

The spokesperson added: “These programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency. LFPA and LFPA Plus agreements that were in place prior to LFPA 25, which still have substantial financial resources remaining, will continue to be in effect for the remainder of the period of performance.”

The Biden administration expanded the spending for both programs to build a more resilient food supply chain that didn’t just rely on major food companies. Last year, USDA announced more than $1 billion in additional funding for the programs through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a New Deal-era USDA fund for buying agricultural commodities.

The Trump administration’s move to halt the programs comes as school nutrition officials are becoming increasingly anxious about affording healthy food with the current federal reimbursement rate for meals. As food costs have risen in the last few years, more people are turning to food banks and other feeding organizations to supplement their increased grocery bills.

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London council chiefs spend £140million to send homeless people out of the capital by snapping up hundreds of properties in deprived areas elsewhere in England

Councils in London have spent more than £140million snapping up homes outside the city to relocate homeless people.  

Local authorities in the capital have acquired more than 850 properties across England since 2017, with many in the most deprived areas of the east and southeast of the country, The Guardian reported. 

Bizarrely, some London councils have already bought properties in the Midlands and are planning to send some people as far as Liverpool and the northeast. 

Officials identified 704 people living on the streets of the capital between October and December last year – a 26 per cent rise on the previous year.

Meanwhile, a total of 4,612 individuals were found to be sleeping rough, a five per cent increase on the year before.

People are deemed to be living on the streets if they have had been seen rough sleeping on several occasions over a period of three weeks or more. 

In order to deal with the scope of the problem, and faced with an extreme shortage of social housing and skyrocketing private rents, more than a dozen local authorities – and the housing companies they partially own – have invested heavily in property outside of London’s boundaries. 

The non-London residences are used to house homeless individuals or families either as temporary emergency accommodation or permanently as a privately rented home. 

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