So, this is now America. I'm glad I hardly leave my rural neighborhood in the South. I have seen homeless and drug addicts in the past, but never the hordes that you described in Eugene. [That was a good case for universal carry as guaranteed by the Second Amendment.] It hardly seems possible here, the place of the "American Dream." Since the liberals and neo-cons took over in the time of Clinton, the country has been on a downward path, much accelerated in the past four years. I guess the America I grew up in is now and forever sitting in the dust heap of history. What a sad commentary on a once great Republic.
By the way, my nana and pappa were Joseph and Rose, may they rest in peace.
Well, this essay reminds me of our trip to Tuscon AZ where my sister in law was in the hospital there after having brain seizures. The college and hospital there were beautiful and big but the city was filled with drug addicted homeless. Everywhere. We were in the CVS and it was robbed twice in the 20 minutes we were there and the employees let them take whatever they wanted. Almost ran a guy over who was zombied out standing in the middle of the street. Extremely sad. When I got home to NY and looked up who the mayor was and the staff, I saw they were all democrats. Nuff said.
My wife and I travel by train as much as possible now that we are both retired. In fact I am picking her up in St. Louis in the early AM on the 31st. We will stay at the Drury Union Station in SL that morning. She came round trip on the Empire Builder to Vancouver, WA from. SL. We have two of our four boys stationed on the west coast. One Coast Guard and one Army. We are now settled in Branson, MO. Both of us are retired Air Force.
Really enjoy reading your work. The Pfizer papers was a bit of a chore. Not for the size but the content. You can see the nails being driven in the coffins of the world as you read and comprehend. I honestly don't know how we will halt or even slow this evil juggernaut. May God bless us all and give us grace and strength.
Your experience in Eugene reminded me of the last time I drove through Portland in 2021. That beautiful city I once loved was burned out and boarded up, thousands of drug addicts were "housed" in tents on the sidewalks, and half-naked savages brawled in the streets. That beautiful city had become the Seventh Circle of Hell. High school test scores in Oregon were once the highest in the nation, and I read just today they are among the lowest in the country. Crime, drugs, poverty, ignorance, homelessness and despair are the legacy of a corrupt generation of one-party politicians. Those politicians are the fanged demons in Lorenzetti's "The Effects of Bad Government" that hangs in Siena's Council Hall.
So now you are a modern conservative or libertarian beause you have seen through the Illusion of Democrat "compassion." Not, make no mistake, the sort of asshat "Conservative" that reads National Review and sneers at the unsuccessful as lazy and deserving of poverty, but the humanist who sees through the alleged good intentions to what they truly are...rigging the economy to serve the luxuries of the new feudal nobility that can never lose and can never be removed from sinecures because they have sold out to Black Rock and the future for the privileged. Working the "masses" (a favorite reference to the undeserving they learned as freshman in college) as cattle to provide them the sustenance for their estates. This is NOT America, but you know who votes for this status quo. Those who must identify with their caste by reference to idiotic, demoralizing, but above all self-serving tenets of the rent seeking Eloi to keep the dirty people controlled by providing them the "liberty" to die of despair.
We kept our first home, a row house in DC that we got in a redevelopment lottery for district residents. We have since moved and rent out the two units. So I know all about Section Eight and yes, it is a total racket. We quickly learned how entitled the Sec 8 tenants are, and how destructive many can be. And the law is written such that you almost cannot deny their applications.
Wow! I think Ha Shem put the HUD guy there for you. Years ago peoplewere thrilled when they finally paid off their mortgage. Then in the 80s , I think, a house became an asset. Many families had 2 mortgages. Years ago the goal was to stay far away from government then it slowly became part of our lives.The planned 15Minute cities is Section 8 on steroids. Let's see what Trump does with this. Great piece.
I have a friend in San Diego who applied for Section 8 years ago. She was eligible - a single mom with 3 teenage children, no child support. Yet the wait list was/is 8 years long. Had she been an immigrant from a third world country, however, she would have gone to the front of the line. Another big problem with government handouts is the people who just need a bit of assistance to get by are being shoved out by non working immigrants who take everything. It makes no sense.
This essay should become a lesson in every high school! Allow the students to construct solutions to these problems through art, debate, drama, math and government classes. How much does a free ride cost? High schoolers as an American Think Tank!
As Trump recently and correctly noted that the late 19th and early 20th centuries were our wealthiest - prior to the explosion of government starting with the racist - DEMOCRAT - Woodrow Wilson. It usually was democrats until Dubya really grew government in very evil ways.
This comment to be understood literally, intended as a thanks-giving, is that you make it possible for me to read the most horrendous things that I do not want to know, issues not commonly known. So the educator here, (in this case Naomi), is a prolific writer who appeals to the intellect and the soul....very well done.
Thanks for another Naomi snapshot of the environment surrounding you. Always look forward to them.
We have a sizeable “welfare” or “ODSP” class up here in Canuckistan. The monthly cheques issued are inadequate in the face of absurdly high rent, fuel and food costs. Yet to get a part-time job at the donut store or local grocers to put more food on the table for the family means government clawbacks of the welfare cheques. If someone leaves welfare to find a full-time job - and the job ends up falling through - it takes many, many months to get back on welfare. Some resort to under-the-table cash jobs (if they can find them) hoping they are not caught.
The “karen” bureaucracy is endemic. Bureaucrats with their smug little fiefdoms hide behind the over-regulatory municipal, provincial, or federal law.
It’s broken. Can Humpty Dumpty be put together again? Ora et labora.
To me, this is chillingly reminiscent of Ayn Rand's descriptions in Atlas Shrugged. Thank you for the information you always present so poignantly.
uh oh CNN AND NYT REPORT ON DC PLANE COLLIDE BEFORE THE INCIDENT OCCURED!
https://x.com/Red_Pill_US/status/1884839482186514780
So, this is now America. I'm glad I hardly leave my rural neighborhood in the South. I have seen homeless and drug addicts in the past, but never the hordes that you described in Eugene. [That was a good case for universal carry as guaranteed by the Second Amendment.] It hardly seems possible here, the place of the "American Dream." Since the liberals and neo-cons took over in the time of Clinton, the country has been on a downward path, much accelerated in the past four years. I guess the America I grew up in is now and forever sitting in the dust heap of history. What a sad commentary on a once great Republic.
By the way, my nana and pappa were Joseph and Rose, may they rest in peace.
Well, this essay reminds me of our trip to Tuscon AZ where my sister in law was in the hospital there after having brain seizures. The college and hospital there were beautiful and big but the city was filled with drug addicted homeless. Everywhere. We were in the CVS and it was robbed twice in the 20 minutes we were there and the employees let them take whatever they wanted. Almost ran a guy over who was zombied out standing in the middle of the street. Extremely sad. When I got home to NY and looked up who the mayor was and the staff, I saw they were all democrats. Nuff said.
My wife and I travel by train as much as possible now that we are both retired. In fact I am picking her up in St. Louis in the early AM on the 31st. We will stay at the Drury Union Station in SL that morning. She came round trip on the Empire Builder to Vancouver, WA from. SL. We have two of our four boys stationed on the west coast. One Coast Guard and one Army. We are now settled in Branson, MO. Both of us are retired Air Force.
Really enjoy reading your work. The Pfizer papers was a bit of a chore. Not for the size but the content. You can see the nails being driven in the coffins of the world as you read and comprehend. I honestly don't know how we will halt or even slow this evil juggernaut. May God bless us all and give us grace and strength.
Your experience in Eugene reminded me of the last time I drove through Portland in 2021. That beautiful city I once loved was burned out and boarded up, thousands of drug addicts were "housed" in tents on the sidewalks, and half-naked savages brawled in the streets. That beautiful city had become the Seventh Circle of Hell. High school test scores in Oregon were once the highest in the nation, and I read just today they are among the lowest in the country. Crime, drugs, poverty, ignorance, homelessness and despair are the legacy of a corrupt generation of one-party politicians. Those politicians are the fanged demons in Lorenzetti's "The Effects of Bad Government" that hangs in Siena's Council Hall.
So now you are a modern conservative or libertarian beause you have seen through the Illusion of Democrat "compassion." Not, make no mistake, the sort of asshat "Conservative" that reads National Review and sneers at the unsuccessful as lazy and deserving of poverty, but the humanist who sees through the alleged good intentions to what they truly are...rigging the economy to serve the luxuries of the new feudal nobility that can never lose and can never be removed from sinecures because they have sold out to Black Rock and the future for the privileged. Working the "masses" (a favorite reference to the undeserving they learned as freshman in college) as cattle to provide them the sustenance for their estates. This is NOT America, but you know who votes for this status quo. Those who must identify with their caste by reference to idiotic, demoralizing, but above all self-serving tenets of the rent seeking Eloi to keep the dirty people controlled by providing them the "liberty" to die of despair.
We kept our first home, a row house in DC that we got in a redevelopment lottery for district residents. We have since moved and rent out the two units. So I know all about Section Eight and yes, it is a total racket. We quickly learned how entitled the Sec 8 tenants are, and how destructive many can be. And the law is written such that you almost cannot deny their applications.
Wow! I think Ha Shem put the HUD guy there for you. Years ago peoplewere thrilled when they finally paid off their mortgage. Then in the 80s , I think, a house became an asset. Many families had 2 mortgages. Years ago the goal was to stay far away from government then it slowly became part of our lives.The planned 15Minute cities is Section 8 on steroids. Let's see what Trump does with this. Great piece.
I have a friend in San Diego who applied for Section 8 years ago. She was eligible - a single mom with 3 teenage children, no child support. Yet the wait list was/is 8 years long. Had she been an immigrant from a third world country, however, she would have gone to the front of the line. Another big problem with government handouts is the people who just need a bit of assistance to get by are being shoved out by non working immigrants who take everything. It makes no sense.
This essay should become a lesson in every high school! Allow the students to construct solutions to these problems through art, debate, drama, math and government classes. How much does a free ride cost? High schoolers as an American Think Tank!
As Trump recently and correctly noted that the late 19th and early 20th centuries were our wealthiest - prior to the explosion of government starting with the racist - DEMOCRAT - Woodrow Wilson. It usually was democrats until Dubya really grew government in very evil ways.
I felt that train trip! Looking forward to your next essay on Trump's America. Is there no where to go but up?
That's a helluva tale, Naomi. It'll be a long road to someplace better than where we're at now.
This comment to be understood literally, intended as a thanks-giving, is that you make it possible for me to read the most horrendous things that I do not want to know, issues not commonly known. So the educator here, (in this case Naomi), is a prolific writer who appeals to the intellect and the soul....very well done.
Thanks for another Naomi snapshot of the environment surrounding you. Always look forward to them.
We have a sizeable “welfare” or “ODSP” class up here in Canuckistan. The monthly cheques issued are inadequate in the face of absurdly high rent, fuel and food costs. Yet to get a part-time job at the donut store or local grocers to put more food on the table for the family means government clawbacks of the welfare cheques. If someone leaves welfare to find a full-time job - and the job ends up falling through - it takes many, many months to get back on welfare. Some resort to under-the-table cash jobs (if they can find them) hoping they are not caught.
The “karen” bureaucracy is endemic. Bureaucrats with their smug little fiefdoms hide behind the over-regulatory municipal, provincial, or federal law.
It’s broken. Can Humpty Dumpty be put together again? Ora et labora.