Tag: poverty

Why Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Sewer Socialism’ Won’t Help Poor People

New York City is poised to elect a Jew-hating, jihadi-loving, police-defunding socialist for mayor. But New York Times contributor E.J. Dionne thinks that this is fine, because Zohran Mamdani wants to be a “sewer socialist.” Which is to say that “he is far more interested in the practical task of being a successful mayor than in the impossible dream of turning a single city into a socialist paradise.“

Dionne is the sort of self-described Catholic Democrat who prefers the party platform to the catechism of his church, and so he is a willing mark for Mamdani’s efforts to reassure voters that he isn’t a dangerous radical. Per Dionne, Mamdani understands that the best advertisement for socialism is success, and he therefore seeks to revive a tradition of socialist mayors who eagerly worked on “the grubbiest of urban amenities because doing so underscored their aim of running corruption-free governments that did whatever they could to improve the lives of working-class people.” 

That sounds nice. It would be good for the Big Apple if Mamdani delivered on this ideal. Indeed, if the Democrats who run our nation’s cities focused on good government, it would be good for their constituents, their party’s political fortunes, and the nation as a whole, which is harmed when Leftists such as Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson run our cities into the ground. But an outbreak of good government via urban socialism is not going to happen, no matter how much credulous liberals such as Dionne want to believe.

The first barrier is ideological. Socialism has changed since the early 20th century days that Dionne pines for. It is not about taking from the haves to give to the have-nots anymore (if it ever was). Rather, today’s socialism is an amalgamation of woke ideology, from intersectionality to anti-colonialism. Its advocates don’t care about sewers in working-class neighborhoods nearly as much as they do about climate change and letting sex offenders into the girls’ locker room. Today’s Left will enthusiastically take food from poor kids to pressure schools into implementing the rainbow agenda.

The result is an incoherent agenda that will hurt those whom Mamdani claims to want to help. For example, because socialism views excellence with suspicion, he wants to eliminate gifted programs for young public-school students. This will do nothing to advance the interests of the working class; it will only sabotage the chances of bright kids whose parents cannot afford private school tuition. Likewise, his antipathy toward law enforcement will undermine his signature initiatives, such as free busses. It is not just that “free” busses will, by his own estimate, cost taxpayers billions, but that people will avoid them because the Left refuses to enforce the laws that keep public spaces safe.

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Changes to Food Stamp Program SNAP Coming in November

Federal officials plan to enforce changes to the food stamp program, formally the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), beginning in November.

The changes will cut federal funding for SNAP by $187 billion through 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. SNAP gives money to people to buy groceries.

Here are the changes that are coming.

Updated Work Requirements

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the requirements that SNAP recipients work are being changed.

The requirement that recipients work a minimum of 80 hours per month to receive food stamps for more than three months every three years remains the same. While the requirement used to only cover adults aged 18 to 54, it will now be in place for adults who are younger than 65.

Another change regards people with dependent children. Parents with children who are not yet adults used to be exempt from the work requirement. Under the bill, parents will only be exempt if they have one or more dependents aged 13 or younger.

The bill also removes exemptions for people who are homeless, veterans, and individuals aged 24 and younger who aged out of foster care.

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Nonprofits Cruelly Normalize Poverty for Climate Virtue

The last two decades should have been a period of accelerating economic development for Africa, South America and much of Asia. Discoveries of abundant oil and gas supplies offered a rescue from poverty, industrial stagnation and poor access to electricity and other basic services.

Instead, they got a man-made disaster, a deliberate slowdown of growth driven not by geographical disadvantage or domestic inefficiency but by a global campaign to divert affordable fossil fuels from poor nations.

Examples abound. At the United Nations’ COP26 of 2021, more than 30 governments and a number of public financial institutions committed to the so-called Glasgow Statement, also known as the Clean Energy Transition Partnership. The objective was to end new public finance for fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022 and instead prioritize “green” energy.

The European Investment Bank stopped financing all fossil fuel projects by the end of 2021, affecting billions in planned natural gas infrastructure. Major European pension funds and commercial institutions – BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale – reduced or eliminated support for development projects for oil, natural gas and coal, citing targets to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

The coercion was unequivocal: Pursue fossil fuels and lose access to Western capital. The opposition to hydrocarbons was embraced by Western nonprofit organizations and even by people who had made money from oil.

Just Stop Oil, a malicious anti-fossil fuel outfit, has been bankrolled by the Climate Emergency Fund and Hollywood filmmaker Adam McKay, maker of the alarmist movie Don’t Look Up. The fund draws heavily on contributions from Aileen Getty, heir to the Getty oil fortune, and other wealthy donors.

Rainforest Action Network, Sunrise Movement, Oil Change International, and 350.org are just a handful of so-called non-profit organizations that inject funds into domestic campaigns across the developing world. 

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New Report: How Extremists Infiltrated Homelessness Advocacy in America

Today, the Capital Research Center (CRC) released a new report in cooperation with Discovery Institute exploring how extremist ideological movements are exploiting America’s homelessness crisis, which can include hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people on any given night.

Using financial data, legal records, and original research, the report uncovers a vast network of homelessness advocates that spend billions in taxpayer dollars and philanthropic grants on everything but obvious solutions. The report demonstrates that counterproductive policies have been used for years which do not solve the homelessness problem, but rather exacerbate common root causes of homelessness, including mental health challenges and substance abuse.

The key findings of the report expose the groups that have co-opted the homelessness issue in order to advance their own policy agenda, which, if left unchecked, will result in radical transformations for the entire nation. Groups aligned with radical — and even extremist — worldviews, ranging from anti-police and anti-capitalist movements to groups that express support for foreign terrorist organizations. They include, among others:

  • Western Regional Advocacy Project: The Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), a 501(c)(3), has received support from Tides-affiliated entities and has coordinated anti-sweep campaigns across cities, tying housing to anti-capitalist critiques in publications like Street Spirit, which labels U.S. governance “neoliberal fascism.” In fact, the nonprofit glorifies violence targeting law enforcement and is a state-level endorser of the Housing Justice platform.
  • Autonomous Tenants Union Network (ATUN): The group believes that “overthrowing capitalism” is required for solving the country’s homelessness problem. Its website states: “We fight for a world without landlords and without rent. We fight to build tenant power in order to end the immiseration of the poor and working classes that housing represents under capitalism and to contribute to the struggle to end capitalism itself.”
  • Right to the City Alliance: This 501(c)(3) nonprofit, known for its protests through the national Homes for All campaign, has engaged in joint endorsement of pro-Hamas 501(c)(3) nonprofits including the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance that declared, “From Palestine to Mexico, all borders and militarized violence have got to go!”

These are a few examples of actors exploiting structural vulnerabilities in the nonprofit sector — including lax oversight, complex funding channels, and even the legal system — to advance ideas that are not merely unorthodox, but deeply destabilizing for our country.

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More Americans Experienced Homelessness During Biden’s Term

The number of adults experiencing homelessness is on the rise in the United States.

As Statista’s Anna Fleck shows in the chart below, using data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 771,480 people were living in a state of homelessness in 2024, marking an 18 percent increase from the year before.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Two thirds of these were individuals, while one third were people in families.

Last year saw a particularly worrying rise in the number of families entering homelessness, up 39 percent from 2023, as individuals saw a 9.6 percent rise.

While it remains more common for men to experience homelessness than women in the U.S., at 459,568 men (60 percent) to 302,660 women (40 percent), the gap is narrowing.

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California Court Blocks Trump Admin’s Access to SNAP Recipients’ Data

A San Francisco district court temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Oct. 15 from accessing information about food stamp recipients in several states.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit jointly with 20 other states against the USDA in July, alleging the agency violated several federal laws and the U.S. Constitution by asking for detailed information about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients.

“The Trump Administration can try all it wants to strong arm states into illegally handing over data, but we know the rule of law is on our side,” Bonta said in a statement.

“We will continue to vigorously litigate this lawsuit and defend our communities, protect privacy, and ensure that remains a tool for fighting hunger—not a weapon for political targeting.”

The USDA has threatened to cut off some federal funding to states that don’t hand over SNAP data.

California receives more than $1 billion a year to administer the program.

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Auto Loan Delinquencies Surge 50% As Cracks Deepen Across U.S. Credit Markets

A month after bankruptcies of subprime auto lender Tricolor and auto-parts supplier First Brands, new cracks emerged in U.S. credit markets. This week, Zions and Western Alliance disclosed they were victims of loan fraud tied to funds investing in distressed commercial real estate. The revelations come amid broader credit trouble, and shifting our focus back to autos, there’s new data this morning about credit products tied to the riskiest consumers that have seen a 50% surge in delinquencies. 

Bloomberg cites data from the credit-scoring company, VantageScore, which reveals that delinquencies among the low-tier consumers have surged 50% since 2010. Fueling the delinquencies is a perfect storm of record-high car prices, elevated interest rates, longer loan terms, and monthly payments that average nearly as much as rent for some folks. 

Since 2019, new vehicle prices have jumped over 25% to $50,000, while average monthly payments reached $767, with 20% of borrowers paying over $1,000 per month. Loan rates now exceed 9%, worsening the affordability crisis.

Notably, prime and near-prime borrowers are now defaulting faster than subprime consumers, as lenders tightened standards for the lowest-credit segment, according to the report. The average auto loan balance has risen 57% since 2010, and many borrowers are “upside-down”, owing more than their cars are worth.

“We’re seeing the cost of cars and the cost related to car ownership increase enormously,” VantageScore chief economist Rikard Bandebo said in an interview. “In the past five years, it has increased even faster.”

Bandebo continued, “That’s a double… You’ve been hit by the increased cost of the car and then the financing cost of the car.”

“Consumers now are in a more precarious position than they’ve been since the last recession,” Bandebo said. “We’ve seen this growing trend over the last several years of more and more consumers struggling to make ends meet, and it’s looking like that trend is going to continue into next year.”

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2 LA men charged with fraud in misuse of public funds meant for combating homelessness

Two Los Angeles-area men faced federal charges in separate criminal cases as they are both accused of fraudulently acquiring public funds that were allocated to address homelessness and build affordable housing, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.

Cody Holmes of Beverly Hills was in custody as of Thursday after he allegedly used fake bank records to receive nearly $26 million from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for Shangri-La Industries LLC, for which he previously served as a CFO.

The money from Project Homekey was supposed to be used to build affordable housing in Thousand Oaks, but instead, Holmes, 31, spent the money to pay credit card bills and purchase good at luxury retailers, the DOJ alleged.

“Even though the developer received all the money from the state, the developer did not complete the construction of the Thousand Oaks project,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference Thursday. “Essentially, he stole the money.”

In a separate case, Steven Taylor, a developer and real state agent, of Brentwood was released on a $3.6 million bond, the DOJ said, after he was charged with bank fraud, identity theft and money laundering.

Federal investigators said Taylor also used fake bank records to obtain loans and lines of credit. The 44-year-old is accused of using the fraudulently obtained funds to flip a Cheviot Hills home and selling it to a homeless housing developer for more than double his original purchase.

“Taylor had contracted to sell the property, which he acquired for only $11 million, fraudulently, to Weingart, a homeless housing developer, that purchased the property for a whopping $27 million in a transaction that was hidden from the victim lender and others,” Essayli added.

Akil Davis, FBI’s assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles Field Office. said Taylor also tried to enrich his business in high-end neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

“Taylor’s actions not only misled banks, but also took advantage of the city and state’s efforts to combat the homelessness crisis, Davis said.

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Migrants Taking £10 Billion Per Year in Direct Welfare Benefits in Britain: Report

The British taxpayer is funding over £10 billion in direct welfare subsidies to migrants, who now account for one in six pounds sterling spent on universal credit, a report has found.

According to internal government data seen by London’s Daily Telegraph, £10.1 billion of the annual £61.2 billion spent on the universal credit scheme for those out of work, on low incomes, or those struggling with living costs was paid to foreigners living in Britain last year.

The figures, released under Freedom of Information Act requests, mean that one sixth of all direct welfare spending was given to foreigners or 16.5 per cent of the Universal Credit budget.

According to the broadsheet, this represented a significant increase over previous years, with £6.3 billion being spent on foreigners in 2022 and £7.9 billion in 2023.

The actual cost of the mass migration agenda is not even fully demonstrated by the figures; however, given that the data set does not include migrants who have been awarded citizenship, or indeed second-generation migrants.

The Universal Credit scheme also represents only one avenue through which foreigners can benefit from state subsidies, with the money spent on education and healthcare for migrants being counted separately.

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Sin City’s shame: As tourists abandon Las Vegas, 1,500 forgotten ‘Mole People’ are left behind in rat-infested tunnels below the Strip

Tourists may have deserted the gambling capital of the world but the number of homeless has skyrocketed. Among them are the ‘Mole People’ who dwell in the decaying tunnels below the Las Vegas Strip. 

A petite blonde-haired woman in a red sundress, who goes by Natasha, emerges from her home under the Sahara Hotel and Casino on a sweltering late September day.

She is just one of an estimated 1,500 people, many of whom are drug, alcohol or gambling addicts, who live underneath the glittering Strip in a vast 600-mile system of storm drain tunnels built in the early 1990s.

At first glance she could be mistaken for an average tourist in town to play blackjack or see a show.

It’s not until she makes her way through the piles of garbage, including discarded shoes, a broken stroller, used syringes, old pizza boxes, dirty blankets, torn-open pillows, and leftover bags of junk food, and comes closer that you can see she’s missing a front tooth and has sores all over her legs that are a telltale sign of fentanyl abuse.

Natasha, from Anchorage, Alaska, admits she’s high but is also lucid enough to explain her situation and describe life in the tunnels because, she says, many who live alongside her cannot. 

She has been underground on and off for two years.

‘When I first came on the Strip – I’ve been here for a year – I was living in a truck,’ she told Daily Mail.

‘Then my boyfriend died [of an overdose] and so I’ve been down here off and on for weeks. I never knew how bad the whole [homeless] situation was here.

‘People are sleeping in alleyways and living by dumpsters or they’re in shelters. The people in the tunnels don’t want to stop using drugs. It makes them happy. 

‘They can’t do that with a normal lifestyle or any place where they have to follow rules.’

Since 2022, homelessness in Las Vegas (and the wider Southern Nevada/Clark County area) has risen sharply, according to federal Point-in-Time counts.

In 2022, there were just over 6,000 people counted as homeless on a single night. By 2023 that number grew to 6,566, and by 2024 it had jumped to about 7,906 — an increase of 20 percent in one year and about 36 percent over two years.

By contrast, Vegas has seen a sharp decline in tourism through 2025, with visitor numbers down more than 11 percent year-over-year in June and about 7 percent for the first half of the year. 

Analysts say rising prices – bottled water can cost as much as $12 or $14 in hotels along the Strip and resort fees, parking and food costs have increased exponentially – along with weaker foreign currencies and a slump in international visitors have caused Vegas to be a city currently down on its luck. 

International tourism has suffered the steepest drop: visitors were down by more than 13 percent in June alone.

Homeless people in Vegas do not have to live in the tunnels. They have the option of going to what locals call The Courtyard, the primary hub for unhoused people in the city.

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