Michael, I'm glad you mentioned SS and Medicare can be done online completely. After the gov. shut down so many social security offices, most of us have to use online services. Just making it harder to sit face to face with a human being pertaining to your hard earned benefits, but on the sunny side, it saves you time and expense just to go online. I like online better, but it would be nice if SS would answer their phone for your questions. Don't you think so?
There is a concerted effort by the big bank criminals to grab our Social Security Trust Fund and fritter it away (i.e., steal). The hope is that the customer service will be so bad that we will demand privatization of the program.
I know of singles who made good friends, chose to live near or with each other. Some even built a communal kitchen with wings for apartment style living. We must have options. I hear this is done in Austria, Nordic countries, and elsewhere. Good luck and good friends to you.
Thank you for sharing this important story, Carol. As a van lifer myself, I have met many of these people on the road, in Walmart and Cracker Barrel parking lots, and in BLM. There is one characteristic that is so important and that is courage! WhileI chose vanlife ... some do not have that luxury. But, when you ask them if they are happy, the answer is a resounding yes. Life still happens whether you are in a sticks and bricks or in a van. But, sometimes, life in a van can be better. Not instagram better (as you said), but just better.
It's good to know that you're a van lifer yourself. Do you work as you travel, or do you just enjoy the adventure? I believe life in a van or automobile is a better option for homeless people who have been evicted over the street. And yes, happiness is not defined by material objects alone, I believe it must come from the heart. Don't you?
Yes, I agree Patrick. Life in a van or living in a small space but having access to the wide open spaces makes up the difference of space, don't you think so?
It's unconscionable that in the richest country in the world, people who've worked and worked and worked their whole lives away, kept house, done everyone's laundry, cooked a million dinners, raised kids, are left with MOTHERFUCKING NOTHING while REPUBLICANS VOTE TO CUT SOCIAL SECURITY, telling us "We can't afford it!" yet we can somehow afford to send our poor people to Iran to kill their poor people.
Oh, yeah, sure. Hundreds of thousands of women, and for sure none of them ever bore and raised a family and spent hours daily caring for children, cooking, and cleaning. When society has told women for hundreds of years they are NOTHING unless they have a man and take care of HIS home and kids.
First of all, you as a man have nothing to contribute to this issue. You have no idea how these lives have been lived. Family does not always step up and care for the older generation. I have worked since I was 16 and I am 77. My retirement is next to nothing because I worked on call when my children were young. My husband worked for the city and county of SF and has a great retirement. Without his money I could not pay taxes and insurance never mind upkeep on an old home. I volunteer in my community and through my church. I volunteered for years after I retired at a free clinic. You as a man have no idea what hardships women face.
And our society would literally fall apart without women's free labor. It's invisible to the suits, so they don't understand it. Can't put it into a spreadsheet? Must not be real. Yeah, tell that to the gals making sandwiches at the soup kitchen, feeding someone's widowed grandma.
Make that THOUSANDS of years women are nothing in the Patriarchal system: sold by their fathers, traded for goods, disallowed education, no say in where or how theur lives were spent. I tried to tell 2 young women how early 1900s a woman would get escorted off the ranch or farm she worked for 30years if the husband died. The sheriff would load up the kids in a wagon with one horse and everything she could carry and "off you go". They didnt believe me.
But USA manages to have SOME of the richest people in the world and they ally with other rich people in the world and, like predators, strip USA of its assets while stripping USA citizens of their rightful inheritances. USA billionaires, aided by USA politicians, could solve USA debt in a day.
This is the great chasm! The most informative and stunning book ever written on this topic, imo, is “The Hidden Globe”, How wealth hacks the world, by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian. The shell game has an incredibly long history, reaches far beyond US borders, deeply involving the 0.00000031% wealthiest individuals on Earth, is impenetrable, and impossible to expose from the outside. Here’s my “advice” to myself and anyone else who wants to hear: Live life as the best of yourself, radiating love, kindness, peace and inclusion toward all beings. Know deeply that the sinister false powers will not prevail indefinitely. Love is all there is.🩷
And the simpler you can make your life the better. It's not wise to try to keep up with the "Jones'" anymore, never was. And in the end "Love is all that matters>"
Oh yes, the US has some of the richest people in the world, however, the retaining their wealth for themselves. It’s not going back in to build infrastructure or benefit the people.
And these guys like Zuckerberg, Thiel, Bezos, musk… They’ve taken a double dip as not only do they not pay taxes on their wealth, neither personal or corporate tax…
they also get lots of governmental contracts i.e. taxpayer money to create their wealth that they retained for themselves
Then they get pulled in to ru(i)n the government, because "only rich people know how to do anything!" and "Government should be run like a BUSINESS!!!"
The billionaires have no loyalty to any country. They are an entity unto themselves. They enjoy a different set of societal rules, and have a contempt for the rest of us. Some of the oligarchs, like Bill Gates, actively engage in eugenics programs, like the next plandemic they are getting ready. His face, alongside of Epstein and the Clintons and others, literally makes me nauseated.
I agree. And clothes and necessities for women are twice as expensive as men’s. Men don’t spend their money like women do because they don’t care as much about appearance. Women are the workers and organizers of the world.
I doubt the assertions that you make. Rents & other prices (except for gas & commodities) are slower to come down.
The tightening of asylum rules probably have to do with the volume of illegal aliens here in the country as well as a determination that the burden of newcomers (both legal and illegal) is straining our country’s ability to absorb, accommodate, and acculturate that volume of people. A similar situation occurred in the early years of the Twentieth Century, with similar political adjustments.
The government’s first priority is to the safety and security of its citizens. Clearly, the Biden administration neglected that duty.
Let’s not forget Trump was a liberal democrat in the real estate industry. The mindset that all greedy real estate or rental vultures are republican are absurd. I know plenty of brilliant democrat real estate/rental property owners who skirt tax laws and charge ridiculous amounts of rent on homes. It’s sad to see that we cant even have a conversation about the future of our parents and grandparents and our ailing society without trying to point the blame on one person. We don’t have a magic wand to make all the corruption go away, or greed go away. All we have is our own morals and standards that aren’t being represented in our corrupt government. We have ourselves to blame for allowing our society to fall so far from what’s right.
Sure , it is out of reach because they won’t raise minimum wage which decreases eventually the amount one collects in social security and they don’t raise social security because wealthy don’t want to pay in after clearing $186k and they don’t expand healthcare and prescriptions so if you have prescriptions you can’t afford housing so yes, it’s republicans fault
Raising minimum wage results in increased unemployment and when the economic value of the work done by the low wage employees is less than what the employer can afford to pay at the higher minimum wage.
Besides, why did the rent go up? Because of the increased demand for housing resulting from the foreign invasion of Biden’s illegal aliens.
Biden’s policies also responsible for increased gas prices (green new deal), increased food prices(ditto ).
Any attempt to blame Republicans is both simpleminded and wrong
You’re just an indoctrinated, brainwashed cult cunt who has no independent thinking skills of your own. You shouldn’t be practicing medicine as you are morally bankrupt.
No it does not. All the refusal to raise the minimum wage does is suck people deeper into poverty. Eventually the numbers stop working for the employee.
You really have drunk the koolaid, haven’t you? I bet you’re a Republican who has never wanted for a thing in your little narrow minded life. No care for others. What’s good for you is just fine, fuck everyone else. Got it. What an asshole.
Roger, it all tied into maximizing return on investment. The apparent buildings have x number of units and the rent goes up due to mysterious market forces. So investing in someone who always pays their meager rent on time and keeps a clean apartment and isn’t engaged in risky behavior, it seems preferable to keep rolling tenants and with each new tenant bump up the rent. So you now make $1500 per month on the unit and $1600 a month in 6 to 12 months and so on. Your risk factor increases because you reach beyond normal affordability and achieve rents that make you wealthier than expected. At what real cost?
Republicans are in total control. They could do more to save America and they could give Americans affordable housing and health insurance. But the problem is they don't want to tax the rich and give people like Kristie Noem the keys to steal millions of dollars from hard working Americans to fund ICE and pocket money for herself.
Rents still continue to rise. Biden has been out of office over 1 year now. It's time to stop blaming Biden or Obama and republicans need to rise up to the needs of American people and tax the rich to make American Great Again.
Well we still have a bunch of illegals who are creating excess demand, the war in Iran is pushing fuel prices up (& that was necessary because O’Biden gave them billions to fund terrorists Abd build nuclear weapons); you can’t get away from that trait Muslim mulatto Obama being majorly responsible for where we are today (& he was running the Obama regime.
Oh, & how is taxing the rich even more working out for California, Illinois, & New York. Do you doubt that the rich won’t move their money offshore. Or just put it in tax advantaged holdings.
If you let the rich invest their wealth, it will create jobs somewhere & with Trump’s tariffs that will most likely be here in the USA.
Illegals/immigrants are not creating excess demands...in fact they bring into this country, $650 BILLION in federal taxes, state and local taxes. They pay taxes just like we do, through their wages and they pay into SS, which they do not benefit from.
They do the jobs that WHITE Men don't want do. How many white men or women have you seen work the fields? Or cleaned homes or clean hotel rooms or clean office builds late at night? Or work in building homes?
I know because I lived in Salinas, CA for 20 years and I watched these people work in the fields in all sorts of weather conditions...rainy, cold, hot, windy...and yet they continued to work. They work harder than any white man would.
So instead of making things more difficult for people to become legal and become citizens...let's make it workable for all.
Elon Mush, Peter Theil and Murdock were all immigrants and they become American citizens very easily because they were WHITE MEN of wealth...well look how well they have treated this country that allowed them in!? They contribute NOTHING to Federal, State or Local taxes...they are takers! They have ruined this country! They should all be kicked out!
Raise the pay of a minimum wage worker struggling to keep a roof over their head and food in the house, and they'll spend that money. On food. Toilet paper. Soap. BOOTS, so they can pull themselves up by the straps like Republicunts keep telling them to do. Maybe even a new cellphone since theirs is cracked and doesn't work half the time.
When they spend more money, businesses who supply what they buy experienced increased demands. Increased sales and demands = increased profits = more money to pay more staff.
When more people have jobs, they spend more money, which in turn profits business owners.
Blaming the same immigrants who paid $650 billion in total taxes in 2023 is nothing more than racism and outright ignorance. They pay taxes into a system the undocumented NEVER benefit from. NO Medicaid. NO Social Security. NO Section 8 housing. NO FHA loans. NO TANF.
Any attempt to blame Biden and immigrants for the rampant greed, hate, and apathy of Republicans who want the poor and disadvantaged dead is a lie.
And you are undoubtedly, a pompous, arrogant doctor and MAGA supporter. Unfortunately, I've met a few of your kind in person, but never choose to keep suffering them as a patient.
And it's also the fault of most of the Democrats who are more committed to corporations and billionaires and the appearance of politeness above everything else.
We have more Democrats who are NOT than we have Republicans who are NOT. Republicans all subscribe to "This is AMERICA, anyone can make it, and if you didn't you are just lazy!" and worship multimillionaires AND the tax cuts that primarily benefit them.
Raising minimum wage raises rent, mortgage rates etc. Getting inflation under control should be the top priority. Rent reduction will occur when banks and conglomerates stop buying up apartments and housing and renting at exorbitant prices. Rent has outpaced wages for at least two decades. This isn’t a republican thing it’s a greed thing. We need to de-list all healthcare companies from the NYSE and make them non profits that answer to the customers not stockholders. Again greed at a 1600% gain since 2010 when Obama made the sweet deal making healthcare companies for profit companies and he gets royalties to this day. Again not a Republican thing - just corruption and greed thing. No one has had our interest at heart. Trump did push an executive order through preventing banks and realty conglomerates from owning and renting apartments and homes. Maybe this plus mass deportations will make cheaper availability in the rental markets. 🙏🙏🙏
This is an immigration issue as well. Rents go up because more people are competing for housing. The open border is an awaiting death trap for older American women. This is what happens when Capitalism get out of hand.
Immigrants can't AFFORD anything. They are the poorest people coming over to work shit jobs Americans won't work. So, at the very lowest end of housing, maybe. But big money buying large tracts of housing is the biggest thing driving prices up for most people, just like big money buying up medical practices and dental practices and veterinary practices and nursing homes is driving all those prices up, too.
MAGA always wants to blame the poor for everything. But poor people have no money and no power.
Republicans ram through policies that essentially funnel the nation's GDP to a tiny handful of little people and leave everyone else without. When the conservative hysteria about taxes ends up leaving average, regular working people paying pretty much what they always paid, but the people who were multimillionaires anyway have to pay less and less and less and less (while being supported by conservative "patriotism" in paying their workers 1970s wages), they end up becoming billionaires, just sitting on more money than any king or queen in recorded history ever had. Elon Musk will soon be the world's first trillionaire.
And what do these people do?? Well, they MUST have more money! And the first thing a new elected representative to Congress must do is sit in the phone bank, asking these people for their money so they can get reelected. So WHOSE policies are enacted? You guessed it: Policies that favor obscenely rich people and help them collect more and more and more and more.
Now, rich, rich, rich people don't just sit on their money. They want to invest it to get yet MORE money. This is one reason housing costs so much now, because rich people are using it as an investment. With so much money, it's easy for them to buy tracts and tracts of housing. How can an average working family bid against a multimillionaire or billionaire for a house? They can't. So rich people buy up lots of housing, thus driving up the price of a house, and then rent the housing back to the people they outbid ... YOU AND ME. This forces rents up, too. "Whatever The Market will bear" isn't what you and I can afford.
They also fund conservative think tanks that put out harmful messages encouraging everyone to think that people are essentially bad and essentially lazy. Therefore social safety nets MUST be cut, because they are just taxing those poor-poor, hardworking billionaires to give "free stuff" to "lazy people who do not want to work." Everyone whose life does not look good in some way is in those circumstances because they are a bad person, and bad people must be punished or they will never shape up. Rich people need "incentives;" poor people need to be horsewhipped by survival level fear. That woman with three kids on SNAP needs to just get a job.
This kind of thinking has been pumped into society by right wing think tanks for decades, which is why conservatives do not support unions or a raise in the minimum wage, or taking the cap off social security, and why they believe the only hope of saving the country is to appease multimillionaire and billionaires with more and more and yet more money. Which leads to everything I've just described, which is why we elected Dump. Who is trashing the economy and everything is falling apart for people who weren't already rich.
FUCK "Republicans don't have anything to do with it." Republicans have been against the common man since FDR and they're not going to rest until the Musks have it all and we're living in TENTS.
Short story: family, Uncle Sam & me in roughly equal measure. Long Story: Undergrad: ~25% me-summer & school job savings, ~50-75% my parents savings
Medical school: ~10% me & wife working ; 25% federal student loan; 75%+ National Health Service Scholarship (similar to military scholarship where you are paid a basic stipend ($6700/year in 1974–77), tuition, fees, books, & supplies); in turn you are an indentured servant of Uncle Sam year for year for the number of years that they supported you with a salary that was certainly adequate, but less than one could make on the open market by probably 25-40 K/ year 1975 dollars. Oh, and I was at risk of getting drafted.
I payed off all my loans, paid for 1/2 my wife’s master degree while she was going to school, and my loans in ~10 years. We were able to get a mortgage for a $48K house when we started out in my first practice in the Public Health Service. 1 used sequential car for 8+ years .Didn’t get a new car until 1984; didn’t have a second car until 1987.
Ah, the smug saga of the self-made man, well good for you, I get it. You boot-strapped and lived really frugally, and had all the good luck you needed to not have any setbacks or shortfalls that could have caused you failure in your career path anywhere along the way, such as a serious illness, a car crash, or any other kind of common occurrence that ends or derails the lives of so many members of the working poor or disadvantaged members of our society from ever achieving their dreams or getting the education or career they had the brains and aptitude to succeed in.
Well even if you did beat the odds or live the Horatio Alger myth, you still did it with the help of our government programs that funded the med school programs like yours, by the taxpayers, as well as the loan programs you used, so stop trying to justify your whole ladder pulling up behind you, same as Clarence Thomas, the most famous ladder puller, who benefitted from affirmative action programs, and then proceeded to pull up the ladder behind him, for other minorities, as soon as he got on the SC. You disgust me, with your self-serving hypocrisy..
Your personal standards of individualism and self reliance, are not just or fair standards for setting social and economic policy for everybody else in America, as to who is deserving and not deserving of help from others and the society. Heaven help you if you ever end up depending on the tender mercies of people like you, when it comes to needing care for yourself in old age, due to poor health or dementia, as you will deserve no more mercy than you seem willing to give to others in need, who don't have your wealth..
So you didn’t do it all alone. You worked hard, got help and now make more money than most. But you pull the ladder up behind yourself, and say we are illiterate. Perhaps we just weren’t as ‘fortunate’ as you.
I know, a truly modest, humble person who wasn't arrogant or feeling superior to others, wouldn't include the MD in their Substack username, just to try impressing the other commenters, but of course, Roger simply can't help himself. Thus proving my point about pompousness, etc. with him...
They don’t like to hear how you “worked” so hard for yourself and your wife and how you sacrificed to get where you are today… Doctor… and of course you were blessed to have such a wonderful family who contributed to your education.. and you lived below your means .. and you were a hard working man and frugal and you had a plan to get to where you are right now.. and I understand hard work .. and everything you said… and I was taught that you’re not going to make any money if you don’t have a skill.. because no one is going to pay them a fair living wage for flipping burgers.. but if they changed their attitude towards flipping burgers .. and not fussing over the fact that they have no life skills.. and if they thought to themselves .. well I will start here .. flipping burgers.. but I want to know how to be the manager.. you know work your way up.. and then maybe they might want to be the owner of the burger joint .. but no one ever taught them how to achieve it… in fact .. they have whined themselves out of work by fussing about their woes and a fair living wage.. and that’s why they are being replaced with AI .. robots and robotics.. just look at the dark factories in China.. that use robots .. because robots don’t need lights to work in.. and they don’t call in sick and they don’t whine and complain about a fair living wage.. I admire you and agree with you.. and I have a similar story .. to get to where I am today.. I want go into details .. but when I do make a suggestion to people.. especially the woman.. on how to better themselves … they don’t want to hear it and they blame everything .. their woes.. on the billionaires and millionaires and the Republicans.. and not the person in the mirror ..who is the responsible person.. who has a lot of power to make better choices for their own interests .. and they need to learn a skill .. to earn a better living.. or they should have joined the military.. because the military will train you for a better future .. than flipping hamburgers… or being a barista.. just saying.. and I find it such a pity that the government run schools did away with shop and home economics and business classes, etc.. I grew up working in my grandmothers and parents motel and restaurant …and that’s where I learned how to cook homemade meals and bake and wash dishes and bus tables, etc.. and I said to my dad one night .. late.. midnight.. we had been very busy at the restaurant.. anyway.. he was teaching me how to run the tape on the cash register and count the money and fill out the deposit form for the bank,etc .. and I said to him.. daddy why do you make us work so hard and he said to me.. because if I’m not here one day you will know how to take care of yourself l.. because you know how to cook and bake and you know how to run a motel and restaurant.. and he was absolutely correct .. because he died in a terrible accident.. when I was just 15.. and I always knew that I would eat.. etc because he left me with life skills.. and I thank him everyday for it.. and I thank the dear Lord everyday for my parents and grandmother and grandparents .. and my farmer.. and together ..we’re the A-Team. Thanks for sharing your experience and thanks for reading my story.
Oh puhleasse! . Can we settle one thing once and for all?
You have it better now because someone made a way for you. You didn’t have to fight tooth and nail for every dime.
I most likely won’t end up in a van in a Walmart parking lot. Because my family owned property and I bought it cheap. I might und up in a caravan but it’s in my own damn field
The fastest way in to poverty is working for the stunted wages that corporate America offers
Yes , I have worked hard. Got an education on Pell grants and loans. Worked since I was 14. No kids no drugs
My big mistake was working for others for shit wages but that’s how I was brought up
Right on, Emily! Nobody is truly completely self-made. They all benefitted from the generosity of others, or collective help, such as government aid programs, as well as almost always having had at least one or more mentors who guided and encouraged them. And yes, like Bernie Sanders has said countless times, the economic system in America is rigged against everyone but the rich and corporations, while the rest of us are kept insecure and afraid of our employers, while working for shit wages and bad or no benefits, all so a relative few can become millionaires, billionaires, or now even a trillionaire like Musk..
Well let me tell you something dear Emily.. I sold everything that I owned and I bought a one way ticket to Alaska ( I was working at the Luau at WDW) and I was supposed to go commercial fishing for the summer .. and when the fishing permit didn’t come through… I didn’t have a pity party for myself.. so I went to job service in Kenai and on the job board it said.. needed camp cook in very remote area and must be able to make bread.. and I thought to myself well I can cook and make bread 🍞… and I interviewed with the lodge owner and I got the job which included a salary and room and board.. and after that job I got other jobs in remote areas .. the bush of Alaska … and the last 6 years I worked in the oilfields Prudhoe Bay where the caribou have the right of way.. I worked 6 weeks on and two weeks off.. 7 days a week for 6 years.. and I saved my money.. because I received room and board and a good hourly wage and overtime .. and at the end of the project we got a big bonus.. and before I worked on the north slope of Alaska…. I bought a house in Florida.. my retirement home… and a place for my mother to live … because she had inherited her parents cottage and her baby brother found a crooked attorney to say that my mother was crazy .. she wasn’t crazy he just wanted the cottage… so he conned his sisters into signing the paperwork and he then gave my mother notice that she had to be out of the house by a certain date.. and the SOB wouldn’t even fix the water heater..
and she was the only sibling who took care of her parents in their golden years.. two of her nice brothers had already passed away … because I know they would not have signed the paperwork…
and way before that.. when my dad died his estate was tied up for years and years and the crooked lawyer .. another one…. got a lot of money off of my dad’s estate and businesses..
and the motel and restaurant that my grandmother built.. well her husband .. who was a player … took their last construction company equipment payment … and decided to buy a new set of clothes and then he picked up his lady friend and took her to dinner and the next day the Great Depression happened and my grandmother lost everything that she owned … and she got rid of the SOB..
and then she had a cart built … to sell sandwiches and coffee and cookies to the workers at the blanket mills. and her and her 10 year old son.. my dad.. ran the cart through the blanket mills in Swannona NC to make money…
And she .. my grandmother .. she didn’t have a pity party for herself… she rolled up her sleeves and got to work…
and here’s what I would do … I would apply for work in Alaska.. there’s all kinds of jobs posted on Alaska jobs starting in January… and right now they are hiring people to work in Prudhoe Bay.. and you don’t have to work in the oilfields because they’re hiring in the camps.. for housekeeping and cooks and bull cooks etc…
because a lot of shops in Alaska hire people during the tourist season.. I know a gal who has worked in Juneau Alaska for the last 20 years.. she works 6 months in a gift shop and the shop pays her way to Alaska and she makes a good salary and she gets room and board … and they pay her way back to Orlando … and she also gets a bonus if she stays the season.. and she owns a little cottage in Ormond Beach..
so to all off you who are whining and having a pity party for yourself… find a way to earn more money.. start a business.. clean houses or clean newly built homes.. like here in Florida… and right now the construction companies in Florida.. they are hiring and they offer a sign on bonus …and they also offer 401 k benefits and health insurance , etc… there’s all sorts of way to make money.. one just needs to have a open mind..
and like I said… not only look at Alaska… but look at Florida .. because it’s booming in the great free state of Florida and there’s lots of roof tops…
and instead of paying apartment rent.. I would buy a used travel trailer and park it in a trailer park.. we have the cutest little trailer park here in the middle of our little beach town.. and there’s tiny houses in the park .. as well as travel trailers .. and mobile homes.. and there’s a few mobile homes for sale…
along with some lots for rent… and lot rent is cheap … and you don’t need a car because you could work at a local restaurant or shop on the island .. and you can walk to work and back home.. and you can walk to the beach and there’s a Farmers Market on Saturday… so you could buy your groceries at the Farmers Market… good luck.. but here’s the thing… all of you… you need to change your mindset and get real.. and realize that there’s all kinds of alternative ways to make money.. and I agree with Dr. Roger Kimber, MD .. he’s a sensible gentleman..
Thank you, I was beginning to think that I was an irredeemably evil person (well, we all are except for putting our faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus whose death and resurrection we celebrate today.)
1.) Hardly exists anywhere, so this is a specious argument.
2.) At least where it does exist, old people who have lived in the same apartment for fifty years can’t get thrown out because of exorbitant rent, as just happened in D.C.
3.) What’s wrong with that?
4.) I notice you haven’t argued in any coherent way my prior points. At ALL. That’s because they can’t be argued with. Idiot.
WOW that's quite a comment you made. After Trump leaves office, how long do you think it will take for our economy to get back to normal? Or at least provide a decent living for the average American.
It’s never going back to normal again.. and look at the fools who just voted in the new Governor of Virginia.. she has raised taxes and she doesn’t give a hoot about her constituents…
Don’t you know that we’re heading for The Great Reset and Agenda 2030 and America 2050 Mega Regions and 15 minute cities.. and C40.org cities.. and autonomous cars and trucks and AI and robots and robotics.. and remember that robots don’t pay taxes.. and they want you out of the rural areas living in a 15 minute city. C40.org city.. go and look at the America 2050 Mega Regions map and note the gray areas where no one will be allowed to live or visit .. and you said that under Biden the costs were lower.. that’s not true .. maybe you just forgot..
and don’t you know that he gave a lot of money to the 20 million illegals that he allowed to walk across our border.. after all .. him and Kamala and their band of thieving 🐀 they gave illegals 3 squares and a cot in a nice hotel and food stamps and Medicaid and a new iPhone and a Visa card with mucho $$$$ on it.. that’s where a lot of the money went to. and healthcare was not cheap under the cadaver in chief and his laughing hyena sidekick.. and don’t you know that Kamala husband .. he has invested over $250,000 million in the mines in WNC after the man made hurricane.. go read the book Behind the Green Mask by Rosa Korie and you can listen to her sights she gave in Denmark 🇩🇰 about her book .. you will find it on YouTube.. start being prepared and save every penny you can.. remember no one is going to save you.. not even the democrats.. and let’s look at the fraud waste and abuse that has been discovered.. look at the fraudulent programs and now the fraud with Medicare and Medicaid and Medicare Hospice.. just think what that stolen money could have done to help the elderly and disabled and veterans and children.. the reason for the deportations is because Biden and Kamala allowed over 20 million immigrants and criminals into our country.. and another reason they are being deported is because they over stayed their visas or they never became a U.S. citizen .. or they never paid traffic tickets.. and they didn’t show up for court etc.. we’re the only dumb country in the world 🌎 who allows this to happen … and how do I know .. is because we use to live in the jungle in Central America .. where they have a lot of laws .. and if you try to cross their borders.. Nicaragua into Costa Rica or Panama 🇵🇦 into Costa Rica 🇨🇷 without the proper visas and passport.. they will shoot you or detain you and deport you.. wig you over stay your visa and they pick you up and detain you then they deport you and you can never return to Costa Rica 🇨🇷 no one in this country is mistreating illegals.. they’re just being deported..because we’re tired of paying for our families and the illegal families.. and there will not be any jobs due to AI and robots and robotics and self driving cars and trucks.. and again they do Not pay Taxes.. the robots and their other automated machines..
I agree.. that the Single woman ( mother ) with 3 kids and SNAP benefits and section 8 and Medicaid.. she does need to get a job ‼️ novel concept … because we’re tired of paying for her and our families.. and besides that there’s not going to be any benefits soon because Ai and Robots and robotics and automation don’t pay taxes.. and she should have thought to herself that if she couldn’t afford to feed herself then she should have never had 3 children.. probably with 3 different men.. 😩…
and she should realize that she shouldn’t be dependent on the government for her life choices.. and a check… and she needs to go to work to support herself and her kids.. and she needs to buy a used copy of the Tightwad Gazette and see how frugal this family was raising 5 children..
we’re sick and tired of taking care of our family and then we must take care of the single mothers.. because the democrats knew how to give a check to a single mother for a VOTE … and now those days are over and they ain’t gonna ever come back.. it’s all part of The Great Reset and Agenda 2030 .. and she should have thought to herself what happens if the government cuts me off.. how will I feed my children..
I was taught that if give a man a fish he eats for a day but if you teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime.. and that’s how she should think..
and she should grow a garden .. A Victory Garden and grow Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes 🍅.. because Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes 🍅 helped a gentleman to pay off his mortgage during the Great Depression and that just one way he made a living .. was by selling Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes 🍅.. he was able to pay off his $6,000 dollar mortgage.. and it got him 6 years to get his tomatoes 🍅 😋 tasty.. true story..
Some of what you say is true but this isn’t not a Republican thing and it’s not a democrat thing. It’s a greed and corruption thing. When Congress, under Wilson made the sixteenth amendment applying taxes to the working America they assumed great power over the people. Then Wilson introduce foreign influence on our economy through the FEDERAL RESERVE. They are truly addicted to power, influence and money. They don’t use their elected position to represent you and me anymore. It’s just a stepping stone to a fat bank account with a side of falsehood, public manipulation and corruption along the way. They use the News Media in their Psyops to sway people and keep us at each other’s throats.
Tariffs are used all over the world except the US. We give our wealth away when we don’t control trade deficits. When we allow our markets to be flooded with cheaply made goods, you de-industrialize which put American businesses out of business. When our GDP is zero, which it was negative under Biden, inflation goes up, cost of living goes up and life gets hard. Right now the economy is trying to recover with a GDP of 4.5%. The highest it’s been in a decade or more. My suggestion is get rid of income tax on $250,000 or less and use tariffs to fund government not evil and corrupt NGOs. Non profit funding needs oversight and control. Give federal money to the states from tariffs by apportionment Per capita, per US citizen which is what our Constitution says to do. The sixteenth amendment is a direct tax and was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court long ago. We need to revisit those cases and the Supreme Court needs to reaffirm Constitutional law. We would have a third more take home pay. We could increase SS and Medicare withholdings and do so gladly, we wouldn’t even notice the 1.5% increase they want to impose to rebalance the 2% SS Trust fund. Honestly, partial privatization of 20% of the SS trust fund needs to occur. We are the only country in the world that doesn’t reinvest in their own country. We trusted the government, it stole from SS, didn’t repay and now the dollar is defunct and the bonds are worthless-not worth the paper they are written on. The Promise in promissory has evaporated over years of the spinning greedy war machine known as the US government. What we have now is a bunch of drunk two year olds in charge of our bank accounts. I’m a republican who doesn’t like unions from personal experience, I want to raise the minimum wage, there should be no cap on Social security withholdings and LARGE COMPANIES WITH WINDFALL PROFITS should go directly to SS Trust fund, Medicare, Veterans and Elder Care and housing. I’m all in for capitalism, American ingenuity and invention but at what point do we draw a line and say to big companies that this is a partnership with America and you must fund the people, give back in a big way. Not buy up land, poison our food, vaccinate us into illness and death and hold us hostage to for profit healthcare companies.
It’s a lot to navigate and think about. I don’t have a magic wand, you don’t have a magic wand but we do have God. I pray everyday that he fixes this mess. Pray for America. 🙏
Not totally true when they are getting huge tax breaks. When President Eisenhower was in the top tax bracket paid 97% income tax. Now from 450,000k to the very top pay 37% income taxes… all Republican initiatives beginning with Reagan. The fairy tale the rich would reinvest creating jobs, all they did was buy their stocks back. The middle class is hollowed out . In the fifties my Dad bought a house, had a wife and five kids and a car. We are well, weren’t rich but had what we needed. His job was setting type for the local newspaper. You couldn’t do that now. Then he got a job with the NY Times and we got to go on a shore vacation every summer.
So true and matching with my story. The only two jobs I ever had where I had good enough benefits and pay to ever get ahead and save anything for retirement were, you guessed it, both jobs where I had representation by a public employees union. Everything else, was working shit wages for little or no benefits, which is what leads to most Americans having to work until they either die or become disabled. Where voluntary retirement, much less a comfortable retirement, is a pipe dream...
Dude, everything we suffer in modern American society sits squarely on Republican policies shoulders. Do a tiny bit of reading, research. It’s very easy since libraries exist online. They have always held that the masses issues are not theirs.
Republicans vote against every social program, every minimum wage increase and will not remove the cap on social security program to make wealthy individuals pay more into the trust fund
I’ve been voting and involved in politics since Nixon. I have watched them do it
All while hiding behind the wall of “ God” Family” and the second amendment
HERE'S WHAT IT'S GOT TO DO WITH THE RENTAL MARKET:
1.) Rich, rich, rich people who are untaxed outbid the average person for housing and then rent the housing back to the same people they don't want to hire and don't want to pay a living wage, at exorbitant rates.
2.) Conservatives believe the wealthy should be left to run their businesses ANY way they see fit (no matter who it hurts.) "The Market" left completely alone is supposed to solve every problem. So of course if people don't want their neighborhoods overrun by Air BnB's or huge tracts of corporate owned housing ... well, passing any law regulating any of that would be frowned upon.
3.) Might I remind you that Citizens United was NOT a liberal initiative.
4.) The wealthy always get their way because only they can afford big campaign donations. And only one party sees anything wrong with that.
The rich don’t live in apartments. There is a surge of people who can afford the apartments, but they aren’t rich. And they are making life impossible for working-class Americans.
Nope it's all about supply and demand. And when 20 million people poured across our borders in one of the biggest invasions any country has ever seen in history, the supply was not there to meet the demand for housing. So guess who got the short end of the stick? It was the citizens of this country who worked paid taxes their whole lives. No one is providing food, housing, transportation, or job training to the elderly citizens. It's absolutely criminal!
Decades ago I realized being a homemaker/housewife was not a position with a pension or a paycheck which I had control over. I worried about getting old and sleeping on a park bench with no money.
I saved “egg money” out of my monthly grocery budget given to me by my husband.
Went to school; old “friends” made fun of me. My husband did not like me going to school. Today his tune has changed.
I graduated and had a successful professional career. I never regret the effort. I had a paycheck and now a pension.
It’s sad to see women left with nothing and living in a vehicle or a shelter. I think of young females who want to be trad wives. It’s a big mistake.
And everyone who voted for Dumpy and all the RethugliKKKan congressmen who let him have whatever he wants voted for this. And it’s going to get worse, because you can bet conservatives want NOTHING in the federal budget other than war.
Yeah…that Ukranian Russian thing. All conservatives. 🤦♀️
Let’s test your theory:
Clinton:
• Somalia (1993): U.S. forces continued the UN-backed humanitarian mission but shifted toward confronting warlords. The Battle of Mogadishu (“Black Hawk Down”) killed 18 U.S. soldiers, leading to withdrawal by 1994. This was a tactical failure with lasting political impact. 
Obama:
• Afghanistan: Troop surge (additional ~30,000 in 2009 on top of prior increases) to combat the Taliban and al-Qaeda, followed by drawdown. Combat operations continued; the mission shifted toward training Afghan forces. U.S. involvement spanned his entire presidency.
• Libya (2011): NATO-led air campaign (U.S. provided key early strikes, including cruise missiles) to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians during the civil war against Muammar Gaddafi. Obama described it as “leading from behind”; it contributed to Gaddafi’s fall but without U.S. ground troops. Post-intervention chaos followed, which Obama later called his worst mistake due to inadequate planning for the aftermath. No formal congressional authorization; justified via UN resolution and NATO.
• Drone strikes and counterterrorism: Expanded operations in Pakistan (including the bin Laden raid), Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere targeting al-Qaeda and affiliates. These involved hundreds of strikes, often via CIA or JSOC, with debates over civilian casualties and legality. CIVILIANS CASUALTIES!!
• Syria: Airstrikes began in 2014 against ISIS (extending from Iraq operations); limited support to some rebel groups earlier. No large ground force, but special operations and air power were used. Obama drew a “red line” on chemical weapons but opted against major strikes after 2013 incidents.
• Yemen: U.S. support (logistics, intelligence) for the Saudi-led coalition against Houthis starting 2015; limited direct U.S. strikes against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Biden:
Russia/Ukraine (I won’t summarize…assume you’re familiar with that one)
• Syria and Iraq (Ongoing Counter-ISIS and Retaliatory Strikes):
• Continued Operation Inherent Resolve with ~900 troops in Syria and ~2,500 in Iraq (advisory roles, raids with local partners against ISIS remnants). Raids and strikes occurred throughout the term, including high-profile ones killing ISIS leaders (e.g., 2022 operations against Hajji Abdullah and Maher al-Agal). 
• Early action: February 2021 airstrikes in eastern Syria targeting Iranian-backed militias (in response to rocket attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq). 
• Post-October 2023 (after Israel-Hamas war): Multiple retaliatory strikes on Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria following attacks on U.S. bases (over 170 incidents reported; one deadly drone attack in Jordan killed three U.S. troops). In February 2024, strikes hit over 80 targets.
• Yemen/Red Sea (2023–2025): U.S. (with UK and allies) conducted repeated airstrikes and naval actions against Houthi targets starting late 2023/early 2024, in response to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea (linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict; over 50 vessels affected). Strikes targeted radar, missile sites, and infrastructure to protect navigation. Biden described them as necessary but noted they hadn’t fully stopped attacks initially. Operations continued into 2025 with coalition support. 
• Somalia and Africa: Conducted airstrikes and supported partner forces against al-Shabaab (e.g., strikes in 2021 onward, framed as “collective self-defense”). U.S. troops remained in advisory roles across parts of Africa (thousands deployed regionally under counterterrorism missions). 
• Other Counterterrorism: Drone strikes and special operations in various locations (e.g., against al-Qaeda affiliates).
To review:
U.S. presidents across BOTH parties have used military force for humanitarian, counterterrorism, or strategic reasons. Public and congressional support fluctuated (which is reasonable), and media and casualty sensitivity influenced decisions, especially amongst Democratic presidents (which surprised no one ever).
How do they vote to cut social security? The administration is working hard to to identify & stop fraud in that system which is good, lowers the amount spent, but is not a cut to legitimate recipients (I know, I am one.)
Yet we send $3.8 BILLION to Israel every f*cking year. They can afford to give FREE healthcare to their citizens & FREE college education for their kids!! That’s BS! That needs to stop now!
We need to build small home communities for women…and their rent shouldn’t be more $400/month!
We have a Uniparty., led by the globalists, who said you will own nothing. They are currently taxing people out of their homes with abusive property taxes, so they can give them to illegals, brought in by a Dem admin.backed by a communist Uniparty Congress, govs. Remember Obama said, we need to redistribute the wealth, (but not his.)
I will grant you that we have a uniparty in America, where the same corporations and billionairies bribe and fund the campaigns of both major parties, which is why I hate and distrust both major parties, for different reasons with each one. But I disagree with the rest of your comment..
Nobody wants to "give YOUR house to an illegal." GOD what a STUPID thing to write. Rich people want to make BANK, baby, which is why they are jacking rents up to $2000 for a one bedroom apartment. What illegal immigrant can pay that?
Maybe real bottom-feeder slum lords are making something off illegals, but nobody is "giving" them housing. People go into real estate TO MAKE MONEY, stupid.
Republicans did not vote to cut social security for hard working Americans...they are cutting social services paid to illegal invaders who are not Americans and have not contributed
Terrible meanwhile the fascist zionist Rothschils Epstein criminal billionaire mafia is stealing by trillons the Wealth of People and therefore making their living and possiblities of living down to the core.
Whoa. That’s a strong statement. We are a country that hands out freebies to people who are here illegally and simultaneously neglects its own citizens. We are a country that has allowed fraud to run rampant and fund bogus NGOs that finance political campaigns and funnel money out of the country. Social Security has not been cut. Nor will it be. Members of both parties are complicit in the grift. Let’s stop finger pointing and start cleaning up. The money is there…it’s being misdirected and the system is being abused. The system is designed to keep us divided. Don’t let it win.
The system is being abuse to funnel all the wealth from the labor of the lower classes, and most taxpayers, into the Military Industrial Complex, and to the rich and corporations, thru corporate welfare from the govt. subsidizing those corporations, and continually cutting the tax rates for the rich and corporations.
No argument from me there, both major parties are complicit in the rigging of the economy, as well as our militaristic foreign policy of imperialism. See my other comment about the bipartisanship of corruption in our political system. The main diff these days between the two parties is the amount of cruelty in the Repubs, as well as their culture war policies pushing bigotry and theocracy, as well as misogyny against women..
Misogyny means hating women — yet this administration has women in some of the highest-ranking positions in government. That’s a strange kind of misogyny.
Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary. Scott Pressler, one of the most effective GOP voter registration organizers in the country. Both gay. Openly. Where exactly is the bigotry?
Policies protecting minors from irreversible medical procedures aren’t bigotry — they’re prudence. Adults can make whatever choices they want. We’re talking about children who can’t yet drive, vote, or sign a contract being permanently altered. Most of the world agrees with that caution, by the way — including many European countries labeled as progressive.
As for cruelty — both parties own that one. The previous administration lost track of tens of thousands of migrant children. Lost them. Made minimal effort to find them. If that’s not cruelty, what is?
Culture war cuts both ways. It’s time we own that, too.
"Misogyny means hating women — yet this administration has women in some of the highest-ranking positions in government. That’s a strange kind of misogyny."
It's nice that Dumpy appointed a few token females. (Mostly because they're willing to follow his utter lunacy.) But this is hardly proof that Republicans don't hate women when you look at the whole "trad wife" and "purity culture" movement, the fact that they are publicly airing names and photos of the Epstein victims while protecting the perpetrators, and oh, let's not forget the constant attempt to eradicate ALL control women have over their own bodies, including birth control. And how can anyone forget "Grab 'em by the pussy?"
"Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary. Scott Pressler, one of the most effective GOP voter registration organizers in the country. Both gay. Openly. Where exactly is the bigotry?"
Again, the success of TWO (2) gay men takes nothing away from the fact that all churches who call themselves Christian and vote Republican consider gay people sinners and are making widespread discrimination against them acceptable and fashionable again.
You cannot take a few token success stories to prove discrimination and hate do not exist, when it's very clear all around us what conservative culture is really thinking and saying.
"Policies protecting minors from irreversible medical procedures aren’t bigotry — they’re prudence. Adults can make whatever choices they want. We’re talking about children who can’t yet drive, vote, or sign a contract being permanently altered. Most of the world agrees with that caution, by the way — including many European countries labeled as progressive."
Why not let the family decide what's best for their transgender child?
"As for cruelty — both parties own that one. The previous administration lost track of tens of thousands of migrant children. Lost them. Made minimal effort to find them. If that’s not cruelty, what is?"
Soooo ... whataboutism makes it okay when Republicans do it?
At least "libtards" didn't shoot Renee Good in the head.
One of many reasons I hated Obama, not that I like the Repubs either. But Obama let us down on this, by not jailing any of the bankers who crashed the economy as well as giving us the ACA instead of ever allowing single payer to pass, much less fighting for it. He was such a sellout disappointment, after running as more of a progressive and getting people's hopes up for radical change. As George Carlin said, "It's one big club, and you ain't in it". And never will be, either...
Yes, they should have been jailed. No argument from me on that one.
Nobody would EVER have passed single payer. They had to water the ACA down incredibly to get it passed. Nancy Pelosi sacrificed her speakership to pass that.
The truth is that the American mind has been so, so poisoned against a Medicare For All type system that the people who need it most are SURE it would be bad for them. WHILE they are struggling with their insurance company to cover that surgery they need. This is how bad it is.
You cannot blame Democrats for not being able to pass desperately necessary legislation over the heads of a country that's been badly misinformed for DECADES, and ruled by the superrich.
Yes, this is exactly what is happening. "We mustn't tax the rich, ohhhh, they won't hire us! Ohhhh, they'll go overseas!! Ohhhh, no one will have a job anymore without obscenely rich people!!! Ohhhh, they need more and more and more and more profit, tax cuts, RICH people need REWARDS and INCENTIVES!!" and blahblahblahblahblah.
But you know, if we can just get enough people to believe evil libtards want to rob everyone and give it illegal aliens, they'll keep on votin' MAGA ...
NO, we do NOT “hand out ‘freebies’” to people here illegally. We don’t even want our own starving citizens to be able to get their hands on food or help anymore.
Everyone loves to perpetuate this myth but never have I seen a single source quoted ANYWHERE that actually PROVES THIS IS TRUE.
Sort of like those illegals who Dumpy said were eating everyone’s pets …
*State-funded health coverage or prenatal care, depending on the state.
*Housing or hotel stays in local emergency programs.
*Free food from certain non-cash or emergency programs, depending on eligibility rules and location.
*Stipends and pre-paid credit cards, depending on the state.
In Colorado, “asylum seekers” (which includes M13 gang members and members of Tren De Aragua) are eligible for SNAP, WIC, free child care, cash, housing, Medicaid, health insurance, CHIP, etc. Also in Colorado, NGOs promote and facilitate workshops for illegals to teach them to “game” the system. I know, because I’ve attended. So yes, people who are in our country illegally receive a lot of free benefits (and are encouraged and instructed in how to do so) while US citizens, who have worked hard all of their lives, are living in vans.
Here are two sources…now you’ve seen more than one 😉
Surely we're justified in shooting a man and woman in the head over ONE state. I mean, fuck knows, the demonstrators in MN have no valid points at all. (Or ... do they?)
Clearly the citizens of COLORADO are okay with their own policies, or they'd change the law. Funny how conservatives are all for state's rights, except in this case.
The other forty-nine states (that's 98% of the country) do NOT bear your argument out.
Emergency medical care. Do you really intend to tell me that if someone crosses the border from Mexico illegally and gets hit by a car, that human being should be let to die in the street? Really??
How about we check citizenship of all heart attack victims and stroke victims in the ER before any medical intervention? Surely you jest.
Second argument, again: "DEPENDING ON THE STATE." I guess if that state wishes to do this they can if they want. Big, fat, hairy deal. I would question how many states (other than Colorado) actually do this, and whether it's truly a good idea to allow babies to be born with no prenatal and no medical care based on what their parents did. (I guess for the embryo/fetus/baby to matter, it must be the right color and from the right place, with the right papers. Okay to let a baby die if it's the wrong baby, I see. So much for "pro-life.")
Exactly how many states offer illegals these benefits?? With the current wave of vicious hatred of foreigners, illegal or not, my guess would be: Not too many.
If you looked at the sources, there was another state. Illinois, Michigan, California, Massachusetts and many other states have similar if not identical programs in place. It only takes a teeny tiny bit of research to confirm. But that would shatter your narrative and lead you into the wonderful world of cognitive dissonance….
Oh, wait. I think you’re already there.
Sure…free food, phones, housing, etc, you said there were no freebies. I’m not here to argue the rights or wrongs of said freebies…Just to say that there ARE freebies. Which clearly there are. Given priority status to non-citizens over citizens.
You started your outrage over our country not supporting the women in the vans and ended it with defending freebies for illegal immigrants over provision for American citizens. Senior Citizens. Veterans. That’s. Really. Something.
And, ps. Bureaucratic policies aren’t laws🤦♀️.
Rant all you want. Facts are facts, and they don’t care about your feelings.
By the way, do you live in those states? Why do you care what some other state does? It doesn't affect you. The same people who think states and not the federal government should decide reproductive rights don't think the same when it comes to what some other state decides to do regarding people you hate.
I would be greatly surprised if illegals anywhere are getting anything free over American citizens. Prove it. NOBODY gets "free housing," baby. This is America, landlords want BANK.
In any case, I would MUCH rather advocate that people, ANYone, I don't care who they are or where they're from, be seen in ERs in the middle of a medical emergency than advocate, as you seem to, that illegals just be left to die in the street. I don't know why New York City is offering debit cards for food to illegals. Maybe they don't want people dying in the streets of NYC. In any case the source does not prove that benefits are being offered to them that legal residents can't get via some other program.
Looking at that second source, I see the words "LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENCY" repeated an AWFUL lot.
If someone has LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENCY, then they are not "illegal." They are allowed to be here. Maybe take a closer look at your own source again?
Thank you, Carol for sharing this. I see the van life in my community. It is heartbreaking to think this has become a way of life for many in a country of wealth. Yes, it takes courage to accept the realties of inflated rent and groceries. Praying for their safety.
Friends, please connect with me on my profile page. There's no subscription page. I hope to offer more encouragement to your unique community of brave women.
Let me offer this...you can register as a resident of South Dakota with minimal effort. And you can then license your vehicle without having a fixed address. There are two other states that allow it, but they are more restrictive. And if you don't understand how hard it is to register a vehicle without a physical address, you probably shouldn't look into this lifestyle.
I looked into this four years ago, so check to make sure it's still the same. You go to South Dakota and spend a night in a hotel. Get a receipt! You get a mailbox at one of the local services. You take this information to their DMV where you change your registration. And that's it! There are You Tube videos by people that did this and info online.
Thank you for sharing this information. It's true that without a land address one cannot access most of our public services, including PO boxes. The hidden pitfalls are enormous.
There is a subreddit on Reddit..this is where i learnt more about car living, #urbancarliving, #vanlife…reading posts about people who live in their cars. There are many, many more happening. Makes no sense to pay so much and have nothing left.
You are right. We live in Fl and corporations are buying up mobile home parks and raising the lot rent so people can't afford it. You can buy a double-wide cheap but lot rent will be $800+ a month. And in Orlando they are building subdivisions for rental purposes only. It's disgusting not only for retired people but young people too. God help us all..
I live in Fl too. I have a friend with a full time job who can only afford an efficiency apt. The rent is $1,000 per month. Obscene! I’m still in my tiny condo…..for now.
These kinds of practices should be regulated by states, imo. This shouldn’t be allowed. Eventually, I’d imagine these places will become empty because no one will be able or willing to pay those prices. I wish communities would get their heads together and start fighting these issues HARD everywhere. We all have so much to fight against right now but that is a huge issue.
Here in Michigan, lot rent in a nice but by no means luxury mobile home park is $1k per month. Plus your water bill, plus whatever the resident(s) might owe on the mobile home itself. You do get 3 br, 1 and 1/2 bathrooms, and a full kitchen for that much, rather than a studio or older 1 br apartment in a building with a foundation. But that's a lot of money for a retiree, or a couple of retirees, or parents of young children who would need day care if they both got jobs.
Thank you Carol for sharing this story. It's hard when "freedom" doesn't seem like much of a choice, born out of necessity to survive in the overarching patriarchal, capitalist structures. It would be wonderful if all the women who lived in vans did so through real choice, and for the others: comfortable, warm, safe, affordable (free?) housing. Is that too much to ask? If only women were in charge...
STOP IT! Really why do you always have a need to go towards the hate and judgement bandwagon towards women you don’t know! Either you care about women’s issues all women or you don’t. You don’t have to agree with their positions, but to chastise them all the time because you didn’t like them geez! Grow up mean girls, stay on message!
My cousin is in the process of choosing this way of life for a bit. She’s having to make changes in her life at a young age (mid 30’s) because she cannot sustain the pace of working and demand on a body that is communicating different needs.
I ended up living in a static caravan for a few years in my early 40’s to reduce the financial pressure whilst I continued prioritising my health after disability by ill Health in my mid 30’s. I had no central heating but did have hot water, a fridge and was able to heat my home. It opened up a dream way of living and new levels of freedom.
I’ve heard since the pandemic here in the uk that van life was taking off and it was becoming increasingly common. Same with narrow boats too.
It’s beyond time for state & Federal governments to have affordable housing especially for older women. This population is growing fast. Costs are too high & incomes are not rising. We need doable programs to assist but not a socialist/ communist control.
You make no sense! Women mostly out live men & when that happens older women live on much smaller incomes . That puts them at higher risk of poverty , & severe poverty & loss of housing as their incomes are not rising to meet the present costs! We should protect the elderly in our country who gave so much to family & country. That’s called prevention .& preparation. Having compassion for those who have given so much . Have a Blessed Easter!🐣
With a SD address and mail service. Everything for SS and Medicare can be done online. Been in an RV for 10 years but having to downsize to a van.
Michael, I'm glad you mentioned SS and Medicare can be done online completely. After the gov. shut down so many social security offices, most of us have to use online services. Just making it harder to sit face to face with a human being pertaining to your hard earned benefits, but on the sunny side, it saves you time and expense just to go online. I like online better, but it would be nice if SS would answer their phone for your questions. Don't you think so?
There is a concerted effort by the big bank criminals to grab our Social Security Trust Fund and fritter it away (i.e., steal). The hope is that the customer service will be so bad that we will demand privatization of the program.
I know of singles who made good friends, chose to live near or with each other. Some even built a communal kitchen with wings for apartment style living. We must have options. I hear this is done in Austria, Nordic countries, and elsewhere. Good luck and good friends to you.
Thank you for sharing this important story, Carol. As a van lifer myself, I have met many of these people on the road, in Walmart and Cracker Barrel parking lots, and in BLM. There is one characteristic that is so important and that is courage! WhileI chose vanlife ... some do not have that luxury. But, when you ask them if they are happy, the answer is a resounding yes. Life still happens whether you are in a sticks and bricks or in a van. But, sometimes, life in a van can be better. Not instagram better (as you said), but just better.
Hi Patrick,
It's good to know that you're a van lifer yourself. Do you work as you travel, or do you just enjoy the adventure? I believe life in a van or automobile is a better option for homeless people who have been evicted over the street. And yes, happiness is not defined by material objects alone, I believe it must come from the heart. Don't you?
Hello, Carol - yes, happiness truly must start in the heart.
I no longer live and travel full time, but I still travel a great deal.
I am fortunate to have remote work that allows the freedom to travel and enjoyed 5 years of full-time life as a nomad.
Thanks for your response.
Yes, I agree Patrick. Life in a van or living in a small space but having access to the wide open spaces makes up the difference of space, don't you think so?
It's unconscionable that in the richest country in the world, people who've worked and worked and worked their whole lives away, kept house, done everyone's laundry, cooked a million dinners, raised kids, are left with MOTHERFUCKING NOTHING while REPUBLICANS VOTE TO CUT SOCIAL SECURITY, telling us "We can't afford it!" yet we can somehow afford to send our poor people to Iran to kill their poor people.
Oh, yeah, sure. Hundreds of thousands of women, and for sure none of them ever bore and raised a family and spent hours daily caring for children, cooking, and cleaning. When society has told women for hundreds of years they are NOTHING unless they have a man and take care of HIS home and kids.
Yeah, right.
You assume that they had "careers and jobs."
First of all, you as a man have nothing to contribute to this issue. You have no idea how these lives have been lived. Family does not always step up and care for the older generation. I have worked since I was 16 and I am 77. My retirement is next to nothing because I worked on call when my children were young. My husband worked for the city and county of SF and has a great retirement. Without his money I could not pay taxes and insurance never mind upkeep on an old home. I volunteer in my community and through my church. I volunteered for years after I retired at a free clinic. You as a man have no idea what hardships women face.
And our society would literally fall apart without women's free labor. It's invisible to the suits, so they don't understand it. Can't put it into a spreadsheet? Must not be real. Yeah, tell that to the gals making sandwiches at the soup kitchen, feeding someone's widowed grandma.
Make that THOUSANDS of years women are nothing in the Patriarchal system: sold by their fathers, traded for goods, disallowed education, no say in where or how theur lives were spent. I tried to tell 2 young women how early 1900s a woman would get escorted off the ranch or farm she worked for 30years if the husband died. The sheriff would load up the kids in a wagon with one horse and everything she could carry and "off you go". They didnt believe me.
The US is not the richest country in the world. It’s the poorest. It has unbelievable debt and has been declared and solvent.
But USA manages to have SOME of the richest people in the world and they ally with other rich people in the world and, like predators, strip USA of its assets while stripping USA citizens of their rightful inheritances. USA billionaires, aided by USA politicians, could solve USA debt in a day.
This is the great chasm! The most informative and stunning book ever written on this topic, imo, is “The Hidden Globe”, How wealth hacks the world, by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian. The shell game has an incredibly long history, reaches far beyond US borders, deeply involving the 0.00000031% wealthiest individuals on Earth, is impenetrable, and impossible to expose from the outside. Here’s my “advice” to myself and anyone else who wants to hear: Live life as the best of yourself, radiating love, kindness, peace and inclusion toward all beings. Know deeply that the sinister false powers will not prevail indefinitely. Love is all there is.🩷
Amen!
And the simpler you can make your life the better. It's not wise to try to keep up with the "Jones'" anymore, never was. And in the end "Love is all that matters>"
Absolutely. Simplicity is freedom, especially when it is freely chosen.
Oh yes, the US has some of the richest people in the world, however, the retaining their wealth for themselves. It’s not going back in to build infrastructure or benefit the people.
And these guys like Zuckerberg, Thiel, Bezos, musk… They’ve taken a double dip as not only do they not pay taxes on their wealth, neither personal or corporate tax…
they also get lots of governmental contracts i.e. taxpayer money to create their wealth that they retained for themselves
Then they get pulled in to ru(i)n the government, because "only rich people know how to do anything!" and "Government should be run like a BUSINESS!!!"
The billionaires have no loyalty to any country. They are an entity unto themselves. They enjoy a different set of societal rules, and have a contempt for the rest of us. Some of the oligarchs, like Bill Gates, actively engage in eugenics programs, like the next plandemic they are getting ready. His face, alongside of Epstein and the Clintons and others, literally makes me nauseated.
So true.
Amen. It is horrible. Unconscionable. Despicable.
I agree. And clothes and necessities for women are twice as expensive as men’s. Men don’t spend their money like women do because they don’t care as much about appearance. Women are the workers and organizers of the world.
The reason the rent is so high has nothing to do with Republicans.
I think that you paint with too broad a brush. Tens of millions of illegals living in the country area big factor in high rents.
I doubt the assertions that you make. Rents & other prices (except for gas & commodities) are slower to come down.
The tightening of asylum rules probably have to do with the volume of illegal aliens here in the country as well as a determination that the burden of newcomers (both legal and illegal) is straining our country’s ability to absorb, accommodate, and acculturate that volume of people. A similar situation occurred in the early years of the Twentieth Century, with similar political adjustments.
The government’s first priority is to the safety and security of its citizens. Clearly, the Biden administration neglected that duty.
Rents have come down.
You don’t understand how leftist policies raise the price of housing. Housing would be half the price it is now without leftist policies.
Interesting how these far "rightists" always drop in to say things like this yet they never explain them.
So, please. How is the high price of a house the fault of Democrats??
Let’s not forget Trump was a liberal democrat in the real estate industry. The mindset that all greedy real estate or rental vultures are republican are absurd. I know plenty of brilliant democrat real estate/rental property owners who skirt tax laws and charge ridiculous amounts of rent on homes. It’s sad to see that we cant even have a conversation about the future of our parents and grandparents and our ailing society without trying to point the blame on one person. We don’t have a magic wand to make all the corruption go away, or greed go away. All we have is our own morals and standards that aren’t being represented in our corrupt government. We have ourselves to blame for allowing our society to fall so far from what’s right.
Sure , it is out of reach because they won’t raise minimum wage which decreases eventually the amount one collects in social security and they don’t raise social security because wealthy don’t want to pay in after clearing $186k and they don’t expand healthcare and prescriptions so if you have prescriptions you can’t afford housing so yes, it’s republicans fault
Raising minimum wage results in increased unemployment and when the economic value of the work done by the low wage employees is less than what the employer can afford to pay at the higher minimum wage.
Besides, why did the rent go up? Because of the increased demand for housing resulting from the foreign invasion of Biden’s illegal aliens.
Biden’s policies also responsible for increased gas prices (green new deal), increased food prices(ditto ).
Any attempt to blame Republicans is both simpleminded and wrong
Bullshit
We don’t call names on this site or attack .!if you want to act like trash, go to twitter . So piss off and I’m blocking you
Bullshit.
Simpleminded & wrong? Is that your AI opinion?? Maybe consider buying a dictionary, thesaurus, &/or encyclopedia.
No need for AI, or thesaurus. Just the 6 syllables.
Guessing the MD stands for MAGAt Dumbass, because you sure sound like one. 🤡
As you like it. I am comfortable with my life, warts & all; and when compared to the political alternative I am even more comfortable.
You’re just an indoctrinated, brainwashed cult cunt who has no independent thinking skills of your own. You shouldn’t be practicing medicine as you are morally bankrupt.
No it does not. All the refusal to raise the minimum wage does is suck people deeper into poverty. Eventually the numbers stop working for the employee.
You really have drunk the koolaid, haven’t you? I bet you’re a Republican who has never wanted for a thing in your little narrow minded life. No care for others. What’s good for you is just fine, fuck everyone else. Got it. What an asshole.
Roger, it all tied into maximizing return on investment. The apparent buildings have x number of units and the rent goes up due to mysterious market forces. So investing in someone who always pays their meager rent on time and keeps a clean apartment and isn’t engaged in risky behavior, it seems preferable to keep rolling tenants and with each new tenant bump up the rent. So you now make $1500 per month on the unit and $1600 a month in 6 to 12 months and so on. Your risk factor increases because you reach beyond normal affordability and achieve rents that make you wealthier than expected. At what real cost?
The real cost is the "breaking down of America and American values."
There is nothing American about leftist values.
Republicans are in total control. They could do more to save America and they could give Americans affordable housing and health insurance. But the problem is they don't want to tax the rich and give people like Kristie Noem the keys to steal millions of dollars from hard working Americans to fund ICE and pocket money for herself.
Rents still continue to rise. Biden has been out of office over 1 year now. It's time to stop blaming Biden or Obama and republicans need to rise up to the needs of American people and tax the rich to make American Great Again.
Well we still have a bunch of illegals who are creating excess demand, the war in Iran is pushing fuel prices up (& that was necessary because O’Biden gave them billions to fund terrorists Abd build nuclear weapons); you can’t get away from that trait Muslim mulatto Obama being majorly responsible for where we are today (& he was running the Obama regime.
Oh, & how is taxing the rich even more working out for California, Illinois, & New York. Do you doubt that the rich won’t move their money offshore. Or just put it in tax advantaged holdings.
If you let the rich invest their wealth, it will create jobs somewhere & with Trump’s tariffs that will most likely be here in the USA.
It has been enjoyable discussing this with you.
You neen hornswaggled by the Epstein elite club buddy.
Do you have any brain cells up there?
Illegals/immigrants are not creating excess demands...in fact they bring into this country, $650 BILLION in federal taxes, state and local taxes. They pay taxes just like we do, through their wages and they pay into SS, which they do not benefit from.
They do the jobs that WHITE Men don't want do. How many white men or women have you seen work the fields? Or cleaned homes or clean hotel rooms or clean office builds late at night? Or work in building homes?
I know because I lived in Salinas, CA for 20 years and I watched these people work in the fields in all sorts of weather conditions...rainy, cold, hot, windy...and yet they continued to work. They work harder than any white man would.
So instead of making things more difficult for people to become legal and become citizens...let's make it workable for all.
Elon Mush, Peter Theil and Murdock were all immigrants and they become American citizens very easily because they were WHITE MEN of wealth...well look how well they have treated this country that allowed them in!? They contribute NOTHING to Federal, State or Local taxes...they are takers! They have ruined this country! They should all be kicked out!
Raise the pay of a minimum wage worker struggling to keep a roof over their head and food in the house, and they'll spend that money. On food. Toilet paper. Soap. BOOTS, so they can pull themselves up by the straps like Republicunts keep telling them to do. Maybe even a new cellphone since theirs is cracked and doesn't work half the time.
When they spend more money, businesses who supply what they buy experienced increased demands. Increased sales and demands = increased profits = more money to pay more staff.
When more people have jobs, they spend more money, which in turn profits business owners.
Blaming the same immigrants who paid $650 billion in total taxes in 2023 is nothing more than racism and outright ignorance. They pay taxes into a system the undocumented NEVER benefit from. NO Medicaid. NO Social Security. NO Section 8 housing. NO FHA loans. NO TANF.
Any attempt to blame Biden and immigrants for the rampant greed, hate, and apathy of Republicans who want the poor and disadvantaged dead is a lie.
Shove your racism where the sun don't shine.
You are an economic illiterate
😅🤣😂
And you are undoubtedly, a pompous, arrogant doctor and MAGA supporter. Unfortunately, I've met a few of your kind in person, but never choose to keep suffering them as a patient.
You are: “I got mine, fuck you” sociopath…
And it's also the fault of most of the Democrats who are more committed to corporations and billionaires and the appearance of politeness above everything else.
We have more Democrats who are NOT than we have Republicans who are NOT. Republicans all subscribe to "This is AMERICA, anyone can make it, and if you didn't you are just lazy!" and worship multimillionaires AND the tax cuts that primarily benefit them.
That has nothing to do with why the rent’s so high.
If they made more money , it wouldn’t be considered high to them. ‘High’ is a relative term.
Why is rent so high? G-R-E-E-D.
Raising minimum wage raises rent, mortgage rates etc. Getting inflation under control should be the top priority. Rent reduction will occur when banks and conglomerates stop buying up apartments and housing and renting at exorbitant prices. Rent has outpaced wages for at least two decades. This isn’t a republican thing it’s a greed thing. We need to de-list all healthcare companies from the NYSE and make them non profits that answer to the customers not stockholders. Again greed at a 1600% gain since 2010 when Obama made the sweet deal making healthcare companies for profit companies and he gets royalties to this day. Again not a Republican thing - just corruption and greed thing. No one has had our interest at heart. Trump did push an executive order through preventing banks and realty conglomerates from owning and renting apartments and homes. Maybe this plus mass deportations will make cheaper availability in the rental markets. 🙏🙏🙏
This is an immigration issue as well. Rents go up because more people are competing for housing. The open border is an awaiting death trap for older American women. This is what happens when Capitalism get out of hand.
Immigrants can't AFFORD anything. They are the poorest people coming over to work shit jobs Americans won't work. So, at the very lowest end of housing, maybe. But big money buying large tracts of housing is the biggest thing driving prices up for most people, just like big money buying up medical practices and dental practices and veterinary practices and nursing homes is driving all those prices up, too.
MAGA always wants to blame the poor for everything. But poor people have no money and no power.
Not only what the writer below said, BUT ...
Republicans ram through policies that essentially funnel the nation's GDP to a tiny handful of little people and leave everyone else without. When the conservative hysteria about taxes ends up leaving average, regular working people paying pretty much what they always paid, but the people who were multimillionaires anyway have to pay less and less and less and less (while being supported by conservative "patriotism" in paying their workers 1970s wages), they end up becoming billionaires, just sitting on more money than any king or queen in recorded history ever had. Elon Musk will soon be the world's first trillionaire.
And what do these people do?? Well, they MUST have more money! And the first thing a new elected representative to Congress must do is sit in the phone bank, asking these people for their money so they can get reelected. So WHOSE policies are enacted? You guessed it: Policies that favor obscenely rich people and help them collect more and more and more and more.
Now, rich, rich, rich people don't just sit on their money. They want to invest it to get yet MORE money. This is one reason housing costs so much now, because rich people are using it as an investment. With so much money, it's easy for them to buy tracts and tracts of housing. How can an average working family bid against a multimillionaire or billionaire for a house? They can't. So rich people buy up lots of housing, thus driving up the price of a house, and then rent the housing back to the people they outbid ... YOU AND ME. This forces rents up, too. "Whatever The Market will bear" isn't what you and I can afford.
They also fund conservative think tanks that put out harmful messages encouraging everyone to think that people are essentially bad and essentially lazy. Therefore social safety nets MUST be cut, because they are just taxing those poor-poor, hardworking billionaires to give "free stuff" to "lazy people who do not want to work." Everyone whose life does not look good in some way is in those circumstances because they are a bad person, and bad people must be punished or they will never shape up. Rich people need "incentives;" poor people need to be horsewhipped by survival level fear. That woman with three kids on SNAP needs to just get a job.
This kind of thinking has been pumped into society by right wing think tanks for decades, which is why conservatives do not support unions or a raise in the minimum wage, or taking the cap off social security, and why they believe the only hope of saving the country is to appease multimillionaire and billionaires with more and more and yet more money. Which leads to everything I've just described, which is why we elected Dump. Who is trashing the economy and everything is falling apart for people who weren't already rich.
FUCK "Republicans don't have anything to do with it." Republicans have been against the common man since FDR and they're not going to rest until the Musks have it all and we're living in TENTS.
Another economic illiterate.
Who paid for your education?
Short story: family, Uncle Sam & me in roughly equal measure. Long Story: Undergrad: ~25% me-summer & school job savings, ~50-75% my parents savings
Medical school: ~10% me & wife working ; 25% federal student loan; 75%+ National Health Service Scholarship (similar to military scholarship where you are paid a basic stipend ($6700/year in 1974–77), tuition, fees, books, & supplies); in turn you are an indentured servant of Uncle Sam year for year for the number of years that they supported you with a salary that was certainly adequate, but less than one could make on the open market by probably 25-40 K/ year 1975 dollars. Oh, and I was at risk of getting drafted.
I payed off all my loans, paid for 1/2 my wife’s master degree while she was going to school, and my loans in ~10 years. We were able to get a mortgage for a $48K house when we started out in my first practice in the Public Health Service. 1 used sequential car for 8+ years .Didn’t get a new car until 1984; didn’t have a second car until 1987.
Ah, the smug saga of the self-made man, well good for you, I get it. You boot-strapped and lived really frugally, and had all the good luck you needed to not have any setbacks or shortfalls that could have caused you failure in your career path anywhere along the way, such as a serious illness, a car crash, or any other kind of common occurrence that ends or derails the lives of so many members of the working poor or disadvantaged members of our society from ever achieving their dreams or getting the education or career they had the brains and aptitude to succeed in.
Well even if you did beat the odds or live the Horatio Alger myth, you still did it with the help of our government programs that funded the med school programs like yours, by the taxpayers, as well as the loan programs you used, so stop trying to justify your whole ladder pulling up behind you, same as Clarence Thomas, the most famous ladder puller, who benefitted from affirmative action programs, and then proceeded to pull up the ladder behind him, for other minorities, as soon as he got on the SC. You disgust me, with your self-serving hypocrisy..
Your personal standards of individualism and self reliance, are not just or fair standards for setting social and economic policy for everybody else in America, as to who is deserving and not deserving of help from others and the society. Heaven help you if you ever end up depending on the tender mercies of people like you, when it comes to needing care for yourself in old age, due to poor health or dementia, as you will deserve no more mercy than you seem willing to give to others in need, who don't have your wealth..
You know education was more affordable then?
So was everything else
And in 1979 my summer job paid $5.25 an hour (USD) now minimum wage in my state is $7.25 an hour See a problem there?
For comparison, in 1979 a new car average cost was $10,654. In 2026 it is over $48,000.
Car prices matter because many ares of the US don’t have reliable public transportation
So you didn’t do it all alone. You worked hard, got help and now make more money than most. But you pull the ladder up behind yourself, and say we are illiterate. Perhaps we just weren’t as ‘fortunate’ as you.
😅🤣😂
Bullshit you’re an MD
I know, a truly modest, humble person who wasn't arrogant or feeling superior to others, wouldn't include the MD in their Substack username, just to try impressing the other commenters, but of course, Roger simply can't help himself. Thus proving my point about pompousness, etc. with him...
Yeah. Just give conservatives a free hand, and we’ll soon find nothing but war in the federal budget.
Uh, were you born yesterday???
WWI WILSON: D
WWII Roosevelt: D
Korean War: Truman: D
Vietnam War: Kennedy&Johnson: D (Nixon R ended it
Kuwait war: George HW Bush: R
Kosovo: Clinton D
Iraq War: Bush: R
Totals: D =5 R = 2
I think the D’s have it as the most warlike.
?????
They don’t like to hear how you “worked” so hard for yourself and your wife and how you sacrificed to get where you are today… Doctor… and of course you were blessed to have such a wonderful family who contributed to your education.. and you lived below your means .. and you were a hard working man and frugal and you had a plan to get to where you are right now.. and I understand hard work .. and everything you said… and I was taught that you’re not going to make any money if you don’t have a skill.. because no one is going to pay them a fair living wage for flipping burgers.. but if they changed their attitude towards flipping burgers .. and not fussing over the fact that they have no life skills.. and if they thought to themselves .. well I will start here .. flipping burgers.. but I want to know how to be the manager.. you know work your way up.. and then maybe they might want to be the owner of the burger joint .. but no one ever taught them how to achieve it… in fact .. they have whined themselves out of work by fussing about their woes and a fair living wage.. and that’s why they are being replaced with AI .. robots and robotics.. just look at the dark factories in China.. that use robots .. because robots don’t need lights to work in.. and they don’t call in sick and they don’t whine and complain about a fair living wage.. I admire you and agree with you.. and I have a similar story .. to get to where I am today.. I want go into details .. but when I do make a suggestion to people.. especially the woman.. on how to better themselves … they don’t want to hear it and they blame everything .. their woes.. on the billionaires and millionaires and the Republicans.. and not the person in the mirror ..who is the responsible person.. who has a lot of power to make better choices for their own interests .. and they need to learn a skill .. to earn a better living.. or they should have joined the military.. because the military will train you for a better future .. than flipping hamburgers… or being a barista.. just saying.. and I find it such a pity that the government run schools did away with shop and home economics and business classes, etc.. I grew up working in my grandmothers and parents motel and restaurant …and that’s where I learned how to cook homemade meals and bake and wash dishes and bus tables, etc.. and I said to my dad one night .. late.. midnight.. we had been very busy at the restaurant.. anyway.. he was teaching me how to run the tape on the cash register and count the money and fill out the deposit form for the bank,etc .. and I said to him.. daddy why do you make us work so hard and he said to me.. because if I’m not here one day you will know how to take care of yourself l.. because you know how to cook and bake and you know how to run a motel and restaurant.. and he was absolutely correct .. because he died in a terrible accident.. when I was just 15.. and I always knew that I would eat.. etc because he left me with life skills.. and I thank him everyday for it.. and I thank the dear Lord everyday for my parents and grandmother and grandparents .. and my farmer.. and together ..we’re the A-Team. Thanks for sharing your experience and thanks for reading my story.
More bullshit, from another self made ass!
Uh, are you related to Justice Brown?
You are replying to a woman. 🙄
Oh puhleasse! . Can we settle one thing once and for all?
You have it better now because someone made a way for you. You didn’t have to fight tooth and nail for every dime.
I most likely won’t end up in a van in a Walmart parking lot. Because my family owned property and I bought it cheap. I might und up in a caravan but it’s in my own damn field
The fastest way in to poverty is working for the stunted wages that corporate America offers
Yes , I have worked hard. Got an education on Pell grants and loans. Worked since I was 14. No kids no drugs
My big mistake was working for others for shit wages but that’s how I was brought up
Right on, Emily! Nobody is truly completely self-made. They all benefitted from the generosity of others, or collective help, such as government aid programs, as well as almost always having had at least one or more mentors who guided and encouraged them. And yes, like Bernie Sanders has said countless times, the economic system in America is rigged against everyone but the rich and corporations, while the rest of us are kept insecure and afraid of our employers, while working for shit wages and bad or no benefits, all so a relative few can become millionaires, billionaires, or now even a trillionaire like Musk..
Well let me tell you something dear Emily.. I sold everything that I owned and I bought a one way ticket to Alaska ( I was working at the Luau at WDW) and I was supposed to go commercial fishing for the summer .. and when the fishing permit didn’t come through… I didn’t have a pity party for myself.. so I went to job service in Kenai and on the job board it said.. needed camp cook in very remote area and must be able to make bread.. and I thought to myself well I can cook and make bread 🍞… and I interviewed with the lodge owner and I got the job which included a salary and room and board.. and after that job I got other jobs in remote areas .. the bush of Alaska … and the last 6 years I worked in the oilfields Prudhoe Bay where the caribou have the right of way.. I worked 6 weeks on and two weeks off.. 7 days a week for 6 years.. and I saved my money.. because I received room and board and a good hourly wage and overtime .. and at the end of the project we got a big bonus.. and before I worked on the north slope of Alaska…. I bought a house in Florida.. my retirement home… and a place for my mother to live … because she had inherited her parents cottage and her baby brother found a crooked attorney to say that my mother was crazy .. she wasn’t crazy he just wanted the cottage… so he conned his sisters into signing the paperwork and he then gave my mother notice that she had to be out of the house by a certain date.. and the SOB wouldn’t even fix the water heater..
and she was the only sibling who took care of her parents in their golden years.. two of her nice brothers had already passed away … because I know they would not have signed the paperwork…
and way before that.. when my dad died his estate was tied up for years and years and the crooked lawyer .. another one…. got a lot of money off of my dad’s estate and businesses..
and the motel and restaurant that my grandmother built.. well her husband .. who was a player … took their last construction company equipment payment … and decided to buy a new set of clothes and then he picked up his lady friend and took her to dinner and the next day the Great Depression happened and my grandmother lost everything that she owned … and she got rid of the SOB..
and then she had a cart built … to sell sandwiches and coffee and cookies to the workers at the blanket mills. and her and her 10 year old son.. my dad.. ran the cart through the blanket mills in Swannona NC to make money…
And she .. my grandmother .. she didn’t have a pity party for herself… she rolled up her sleeves and got to work…
and here’s what I would do … I would apply for work in Alaska.. there’s all kinds of jobs posted on Alaska jobs starting in January… and right now they are hiring people to work in Prudhoe Bay.. and you don’t have to work in the oilfields because they’re hiring in the camps.. for housekeeping and cooks and bull cooks etc…
because a lot of shops in Alaska hire people during the tourist season.. I know a gal who has worked in Juneau Alaska for the last 20 years.. she works 6 months in a gift shop and the shop pays her way to Alaska and she makes a good salary and she gets room and board … and they pay her way back to Orlando … and she also gets a bonus if she stays the season.. and she owns a little cottage in Ormond Beach..
so to all off you who are whining and having a pity party for yourself… find a way to earn more money.. start a business.. clean houses or clean newly built homes.. like here in Florida… and right now the construction companies in Florida.. they are hiring and they offer a sign on bonus …and they also offer 401 k benefits and health insurance , etc… there’s all sorts of way to make money.. one just needs to have a open mind..
and like I said… not only look at Alaska… but look at Florida .. because it’s booming in the great free state of Florida and there’s lots of roof tops…
and instead of paying apartment rent.. I would buy a used travel trailer and park it in a trailer park.. we have the cutest little trailer park here in the middle of our little beach town.. and there’s tiny houses in the park .. as well as travel trailers .. and mobile homes.. and there’s a few mobile homes for sale…
along with some lots for rent… and lot rent is cheap … and you don’t need a car because you could work at a local restaurant or shop on the island .. and you can walk to work and back home.. and you can walk to the beach and there’s a Farmers Market on Saturday… so you could buy your groceries at the Farmers Market… good luck.. but here’s the thing… all of you… you need to change your mindset and get real.. and realize that there’s all kinds of alternative ways to make money.. and I agree with Dr. Roger Kimber, MD .. he’s a sensible gentleman..
Thank you, I was beginning to think that I was an irredeemably evil person (well, we all are except for putting our faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus whose death and resurrection we celebrate today.)
You’re welcome 😇 God Bless you and your family. ✝️ 🙏
Oh, ye voters of low information …
https://247wallst.com/personal-finance/2025/10/30/president-trump-is-quietly-planning-to-cut-important-social-security-benefits/
Amen!
And I've lived, briefly, in a tent WHILE WORKING, and let me tell you, it stank. A camper van would have been a big upgrade.
I'm in an apartment now, but I am keenly aware that that could change in a nanosecond.
Now explain the effects of rent control . You are all for that I am guessing. TDS and ignorance must be a heavy burden for you.
Rent control.
1.) Hardly exists anywhere, so this is a specious argument.
2.) At least where it does exist, old people who have lived in the same apartment for fifty years can’t get thrown out because of exorbitant rent, as just happened in D.C.
3.) What’s wrong with that?
4.) I notice you haven’t argued in any coherent way my prior points. At ALL. That’s because they can’t be argued with. Idiot.
Well said
WOW that's quite a comment you made. After Trump leaves office, how long do you think it will take for our economy to get back to normal? Or at least provide a decent living for the average American.
It’s never going back to normal again.. and look at the fools who just voted in the new Governor of Virginia.. she has raised taxes and she doesn’t give a hoot about her constituents…
Don’t you know that we’re heading for The Great Reset and Agenda 2030 and America 2050 Mega Regions and 15 minute cities.. and C40.org cities.. and autonomous cars and trucks and AI and robots and robotics.. and remember that robots don’t pay taxes.. and they want you out of the rural areas living in a 15 minute city. C40.org city.. go and look at the America 2050 Mega Regions map and note the gray areas where no one will be allowed to live or visit .. and you said that under Biden the costs were lower.. that’s not true .. maybe you just forgot..
and don’t you know that he gave a lot of money to the 20 million illegals that he allowed to walk across our border.. after all .. him and Kamala and their band of thieving 🐀 they gave illegals 3 squares and a cot in a nice hotel and food stamps and Medicaid and a new iPhone and a Visa card with mucho $$$$ on it.. that’s where a lot of the money went to. and healthcare was not cheap under the cadaver in chief and his laughing hyena sidekick.. and don’t you know that Kamala husband .. he has invested over $250,000 million in the mines in WNC after the man made hurricane.. go read the book Behind the Green Mask by Rosa Korie and you can listen to her sights she gave in Denmark 🇩🇰 about her book .. you will find it on YouTube.. start being prepared and save every penny you can.. remember no one is going to save you.. not even the democrats.. and let’s look at the fraud waste and abuse that has been discovered.. look at the fraudulent programs and now the fraud with Medicare and Medicaid and Medicare Hospice.. just think what that stolen money could have done to help the elderly and disabled and veterans and children.. the reason for the deportations is because Biden and Kamala allowed over 20 million immigrants and criminals into our country.. and another reason they are being deported is because they over stayed their visas or they never became a U.S. citizen .. or they never paid traffic tickets.. and they didn’t show up for court etc.. we’re the only dumb country in the world 🌎 who allows this to happen … and how do I know .. is because we use to live in the jungle in Central America .. where they have a lot of laws .. and if you try to cross their borders.. Nicaragua into Costa Rica or Panama 🇵🇦 into Costa Rica 🇨🇷 without the proper visas and passport.. they will shoot you or detain you and deport you.. wig you over stay your visa and they pick you up and detain you then they deport you and you can never return to Costa Rica 🇨🇷 no one in this country is mistreating illegals.. they’re just being deported..because we’re tired of paying for our families and the illegal families.. and there will not be any jobs due to AI and robots and robotics and self driving cars and trucks.. and again they do Not pay Taxes.. the robots and their other automated machines..
I agree.. that the Single woman ( mother ) with 3 kids and SNAP benefits and section 8 and Medicaid.. she does need to get a job ‼️ novel concept … because we’re tired of paying for her and our families.. and besides that there’s not going to be any benefits soon because Ai and Robots and robotics and automation don’t pay taxes.. and she should have thought to herself that if she couldn’t afford to feed herself then she should have never had 3 children.. probably with 3 different men.. 😩…
and she should realize that she shouldn’t be dependent on the government for her life choices.. and a check… and she needs to go to work to support herself and her kids.. and she needs to buy a used copy of the Tightwad Gazette and see how frugal this family was raising 5 children..
we’re sick and tired of taking care of our family and then we must take care of the single mothers.. because the democrats knew how to give a check to a single mother for a VOTE … and now those days are over and they ain’t gonna ever come back.. it’s all part of The Great Reset and Agenda 2030 .. and she should have thought to herself what happens if the government cuts me off.. how will I feed my children..
I was taught that if give a man a fish he eats for a day but if you teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime.. and that’s how she should think..
and she should grow a garden .. A Victory Garden and grow Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes 🍅.. because Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes 🍅 helped a gentleman to pay off his mortgage during the Great Depression and that just one way he made a living .. was by selling Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes 🍅.. he was able to pay off his $6,000 dollar mortgage.. and it got him 6 years to get his tomatoes 🍅 😋 tasty.. true story..
This is all stereotypes and most people on SNAP are ALREADY WORKING.
Some of what you say is true but this isn’t not a Republican thing and it’s not a democrat thing. It’s a greed and corruption thing. When Congress, under Wilson made the sixteenth amendment applying taxes to the working America they assumed great power over the people. Then Wilson introduce foreign influence on our economy through the FEDERAL RESERVE. They are truly addicted to power, influence and money. They don’t use their elected position to represent you and me anymore. It’s just a stepping stone to a fat bank account with a side of falsehood, public manipulation and corruption along the way. They use the News Media in their Psyops to sway people and keep us at each other’s throats.
Tariffs are used all over the world except the US. We give our wealth away when we don’t control trade deficits. When we allow our markets to be flooded with cheaply made goods, you de-industrialize which put American businesses out of business. When our GDP is zero, which it was negative under Biden, inflation goes up, cost of living goes up and life gets hard. Right now the economy is trying to recover with a GDP of 4.5%. The highest it’s been in a decade or more. My suggestion is get rid of income tax on $250,000 or less and use tariffs to fund government not evil and corrupt NGOs. Non profit funding needs oversight and control. Give federal money to the states from tariffs by apportionment Per capita, per US citizen which is what our Constitution says to do. The sixteenth amendment is a direct tax and was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court long ago. We need to revisit those cases and the Supreme Court needs to reaffirm Constitutional law. We would have a third more take home pay. We could increase SS and Medicare withholdings and do so gladly, we wouldn’t even notice the 1.5% increase they want to impose to rebalance the 2% SS Trust fund. Honestly, partial privatization of 20% of the SS trust fund needs to occur. We are the only country in the world that doesn’t reinvest in their own country. We trusted the government, it stole from SS, didn’t repay and now the dollar is defunct and the bonds are worthless-not worth the paper they are written on. The Promise in promissory has evaporated over years of the spinning greedy war machine known as the US government. What we have now is a bunch of drunk two year olds in charge of our bank accounts. I’m a republican who doesn’t like unions from personal experience, I want to raise the minimum wage, there should be no cap on Social security withholdings and LARGE COMPANIES WITH WINDFALL PROFITS should go directly to SS Trust fund, Medicare, Veterans and Elder Care and housing. I’m all in for capitalism, American ingenuity and invention but at what point do we draw a line and say to big companies that this is a partnership with America and you must fund the people, give back in a big way. Not buy up land, poison our food, vaccinate us into illness and death and hold us hostage to for profit healthcare companies.
It’s a lot to navigate and think about. I don’t have a magic wand, you don’t have a magic wand but we do have God. I pray everyday that he fixes this mess. Pray for America. 🙏
Wow! So sad but true!
Not totally true when they are getting huge tax breaks. When President Eisenhower was in the top tax bracket paid 97% income tax. Now from 450,000k to the very top pay 37% income taxes… all Republican initiatives beginning with Reagan. The fairy tale the rich would reinvest creating jobs, all they did was buy their stocks back. The middle class is hollowed out . In the fifties my Dad bought a house, had a wife and five kids and a car. We are well, weren’t rich but had what we needed. His job was setting type for the local newspaper. You couldn’t do that now. Then he got a job with the NY Times and we got to go on a shore vacation every summer.
My Dad was in his twenties and thirties when he started in NYC.
So true and matching with my story. The only two jobs I ever had where I had good enough benefits and pay to ever get ahead and save anything for retirement were, you guessed it, both jobs where I had representation by a public employees union. Everything else, was working shit wages for little or no benefits, which is what leads to most Americans having to work until they either die or become disabled. Where voluntary retirement, much less a comfortable retirement, is a pipe dream...
Sure Jay. Sure sure sure.
Of course it’s the republicans
Dude, everything we suffer in modern American society sits squarely on Republican policies shoulders. Do a tiny bit of reading, research. It’s very easy since libraries exist online. They have always held that the masses issues are not theirs.
Uh, just NO.
It has everything to do with them.
Like hell!
Republicans vote against every social program, every minimum wage increase and will not remove the cap on social security program to make wealthy individuals pay more into the trust fund
I’ve been voting and involved in politics since Nixon. I have watched them do it
All while hiding behind the wall of “ God” Family” and the second amendment
What has that got to do with the rental market? (Think supply and demand.)
HERE'S WHAT IT'S GOT TO DO WITH THE RENTAL MARKET:
1.) Rich, rich, rich people who are untaxed outbid the average person for housing and then rent the housing back to the same people they don't want to hire and don't want to pay a living wage, at exorbitant rates.
2.) Conservatives believe the wealthy should be left to run their businesses ANY way they see fit (no matter who it hurts.) "The Market" left completely alone is supposed to solve every problem. So of course if people don't want their neighborhoods overrun by Air BnB's or huge tracts of corporate owned housing ... well, passing any law regulating any of that would be frowned upon.
3.) Might I remind you that Citizens United was NOT a liberal initiative.
4.) The wealthy always get their way because only they can afford big campaign donations. And only one party sees anything wrong with that.
The rich don’t live in apartments. There is a surge of people who can afford the apartments, but they aren’t rich. And they are making life impossible for working-class Americans.
Where did I say rich people lived in apartments?
Although. I can sure show you some swankety-swank-swank apartment-style living around here that rich people live in. Condos, but still.
Please share what the “reason” is.
Simple supply and demand. There are more people looking to rent, and able to pay the exorbitant prices. Who are these people?
*looks around at all the homeless*
Say what???
Who said it was she simply stated that it was the Republicans who were voting to cut SOCIAL SECURITY. Don’t read into things.
Nope it's all about supply and demand. And when 20 million people poured across our borders in one of the biggest invasions any country has ever seen in history, the supply was not there to meet the demand for housing. So guess who got the short end of the stick? It was the citizens of this country who worked paid taxes their whole lives. No one is providing food, housing, transportation, or job training to the elderly citizens. It's absolutely criminal!
Really 'Cause where I live, the immigrants can't afford anything but the shittiest trailers in the shittiest trailer parks.
Decades ago I realized being a homemaker/housewife was not a position with a pension or a paycheck which I had control over. I worried about getting old and sleeping on a park bench with no money.
I saved “egg money” out of my monthly grocery budget given to me by my husband.
Went to school; old “friends” made fun of me. My husband did not like me going to school. Today his tune has changed.
I graduated and had a successful professional career. I never regret the effort. I had a paycheck and now a pension.
It’s sad to see women left with nothing and living in a vehicle or a shelter. I think of young females who want to be trad wives. It’s a big mistake.
You're not smart at all.
WTF?
Sorry I fixed the sentence. Typical libtard blaming others for your shit. Notsmart enough to see everyone in government hates you.
Hon, you write like a two-year-old.
No shit! Thank you for your clarity in defining the inexcusable.
Nobody. I repeat. NOBODY!!!! Had voted to “cut” social security!!! Stop with the lies and fearmongering! Turn off CNN and MSNBC and do some research.
The OP claimed Republicans cut Social Security and that’s why women are living in vans. It is not true.
That's a complete lie
You can’t really be that clueless. Stop going to sleep at night with Fox Noise on the tv. Wake up with some empathy and sanity.
https://247wallst.com/personal-finance/2025/10/30/president-trump-is-quietly-planning-to-cut-important-social-security-benefits/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/president-donald-trump-has-dug-a-nearly-169-billion-hole-for-social-security/ar-AA1ZBWry?ocid=BingNewsSerp
And everyone who voted for Dumpy and all the RethugliKKKan congressmen who let him have whatever he wants voted for this. And it’s going to get worse, because you can bet conservatives want NOTHING in the federal budget other than war.
Yeah…that Ukranian Russian thing. All conservatives. 🤦♀️
Let’s test your theory:
Clinton:
• Somalia (1993): U.S. forces continued the UN-backed humanitarian mission but shifted toward confronting warlords. The Battle of Mogadishu (“Black Hawk Down”) killed 18 U.S. soldiers, leading to withdrawal by 1994. This was a tactical failure with lasting political impact. 
Obama:
• Afghanistan: Troop surge (additional ~30,000 in 2009 on top of prior increases) to combat the Taliban and al-Qaeda, followed by drawdown. Combat operations continued; the mission shifted toward training Afghan forces. U.S. involvement spanned his entire presidency.
• Libya (2011): NATO-led air campaign (U.S. provided key early strikes, including cruise missiles) to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians during the civil war against Muammar Gaddafi. Obama described it as “leading from behind”; it contributed to Gaddafi’s fall but without U.S. ground troops. Post-intervention chaos followed, which Obama later called his worst mistake due to inadequate planning for the aftermath. No formal congressional authorization; justified via UN resolution and NATO.
• Drone strikes and counterterrorism: Expanded operations in Pakistan (including the bin Laden raid), Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere targeting al-Qaeda and affiliates. These involved hundreds of strikes, often via CIA or JSOC, with debates over civilian casualties and legality. CIVILIANS CASUALTIES!!
• Syria: Airstrikes began in 2014 against ISIS (extending from Iraq operations); limited support to some rebel groups earlier. No large ground force, but special operations and air power were used. Obama drew a “red line” on chemical weapons but opted against major strikes after 2013 incidents.
• Yemen: U.S. support (logistics, intelligence) for the Saudi-led coalition against Houthis starting 2015; limited direct U.S. strikes against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Biden:
Russia/Ukraine (I won’t summarize…assume you’re familiar with that one)
• Syria and Iraq (Ongoing Counter-ISIS and Retaliatory Strikes):
• Continued Operation Inherent Resolve with ~900 troops in Syria and ~2,500 in Iraq (advisory roles, raids with local partners against ISIS remnants). Raids and strikes occurred throughout the term, including high-profile ones killing ISIS leaders (e.g., 2022 operations against Hajji Abdullah and Maher al-Agal). 
• Early action: February 2021 airstrikes in eastern Syria targeting Iranian-backed militias (in response to rocket attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq). 
• Post-October 2023 (after Israel-Hamas war): Multiple retaliatory strikes on Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria following attacks on U.S. bases (over 170 incidents reported; one deadly drone attack in Jordan killed three U.S. troops). In February 2024, strikes hit over 80 targets.
• Yemen/Red Sea (2023–2025): U.S. (with UK and allies) conducted repeated airstrikes and naval actions against Houthi targets starting late 2023/early 2024, in response to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea (linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict; over 50 vessels affected). Strikes targeted radar, missile sites, and infrastructure to protect navigation. Biden described them as necessary but noted they hadn’t fully stopped attacks initially. Operations continued into 2025 with coalition support. 
• Somalia and Africa: Conducted airstrikes and supported partner forces against al-Shabaab (e.g., strikes in 2021 onward, framed as “collective self-defense”). U.S. troops remained in advisory roles across parts of Africa (thousands deployed regionally under counterterrorism missions). 
• Other Counterterrorism: Drone strikes and special operations in various locations (e.g., against al-Qaeda affiliates).
To review:
U.S. presidents across BOTH parties have used military force for humanitarian, counterterrorism, or strategic reasons. Public and congressional support fluctuated (which is reasonable), and media and casualty sensitivity influenced decisions, especially amongst Democratic presidents (which surprised no one ever).
Think you'd better watch what's going on with Southern Poverty Law. Caught sending money to real racist to keep race baiters alive.
How do they vote to cut social security? The administration is working hard to to identify & stop fraud in that system which is good, lowers the amount spent, but is not a cut to legitimate recipients (I know, I am one.)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/president-donald-trump-has-dug-a-nearly-169-billion-hole-for-social-security/ar-AA1ZBWry?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Also, the more they cut staff, the harder it will be for retirees to even access the system.
Yet we send $3.8 BILLION to Israel every f*cking year. They can afford to give FREE healthcare to their citizens & FREE college education for their kids!! That’s BS! That needs to stop now!
We need to build small home communities for women…and their rent shouldn’t be more $400/month!
We have a Uniparty., led by the globalists, who said you will own nothing. They are currently taxing people out of their homes with abusive property taxes, so they can give them to illegals, brought in by a Dem admin.backed by a communist Uniparty Congress, govs. Remember Obama said, we need to redistribute the wealth, (but not his.)
I will grant you that we have a uniparty in America, where the same corporations and billionairies bribe and fund the campaigns of both major parties, which is why I hate and distrust both major parties, for different reasons with each one. But I disagree with the rest of your comment..
Nobody is giving illegals our property taxes. Good grief. God some people are STUPID.
Nobody wants to "give YOUR house to an illegal." GOD what a STUPID thing to write. Rich people want to make BANK, baby, which is why they are jacking rents up to $2000 for a one bedroom apartment. What illegal immigrant can pay that?
Maybe real bottom-feeder slum lords are making something off illegals, but nobody is "giving" them housing. People go into real estate TO MAKE MONEY, stupid.
Republicans did not vote to cut social security for hard working Americans...they are cutting social services paid to illegal invaders who are not Americans and have not contributed
Not true. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/president-donald-trump-has-dug-a-nearly-169-billion-hole-for-social-security/ar-AA1ZBWry?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Terrible meanwhile the fascist zionist Rothschils Epstein criminal billionaire mafia is stealing by trillons the Wealth of People and therefore making their living and possiblities of living down to the core.
Totally agree. Our society prioritizes the young, rich and healthy. It’s a society that has lost its way.
Whoa. That’s a strong statement. We are a country that hands out freebies to people who are here illegally and simultaneously neglects its own citizens. We are a country that has allowed fraud to run rampant and fund bogus NGOs that finance political campaigns and funnel money out of the country. Social Security has not been cut. Nor will it be. Members of both parties are complicit in the grift. Let’s stop finger pointing and start cleaning up. The money is there…it’s being misdirected and the system is being abused. The system is designed to keep us divided. Don’t let it win.
The system is being abuse to funnel all the wealth from the labor of the lower classes, and most taxpayers, into the Military Industrial Complex, and to the rich and corporations, thru corporate welfare from the govt. subsidizing those corporations, and continually cutting the tax rates for the rich and corporations.
And USAID, and ACT Blue, and… again. Both sides are complicit.
No argument from me there, both major parties are complicit in the rigging of the economy, as well as our militaristic foreign policy of imperialism. See my other comment about the bipartisanship of corruption in our political system. The main diff these days between the two parties is the amount of cruelty in the Repubs, as well as their culture war policies pushing bigotry and theocracy, as well as misogyny against women..
Interesting take. Let’s test it against reality.
Misogyny means hating women — yet this administration has women in some of the highest-ranking positions in government. That’s a strange kind of misogyny.
Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary. Scott Pressler, one of the most effective GOP voter registration organizers in the country. Both gay. Openly. Where exactly is the bigotry?
Policies protecting minors from irreversible medical procedures aren’t bigotry — they’re prudence. Adults can make whatever choices they want. We’re talking about children who can’t yet drive, vote, or sign a contract being permanently altered. Most of the world agrees with that caution, by the way — including many European countries labeled as progressive.
As for cruelty — both parties own that one. The previous administration lost track of tens of thousands of migrant children. Lost them. Made minimal effort to find them. If that’s not cruelty, what is?
Culture war cuts both ways. It’s time we own that, too.
Maybe the women are more capable for the job. Have you thought about that?
Please tell me you're kidding.
"Misogyny means hating women — yet this administration has women in some of the highest-ranking positions in government. That’s a strange kind of misogyny."
It's nice that Dumpy appointed a few token females. (Mostly because they're willing to follow his utter lunacy.) But this is hardly proof that Republicans don't hate women when you look at the whole "trad wife" and "purity culture" movement, the fact that they are publicly airing names and photos of the Epstein victims while protecting the perpetrators, and oh, let's not forget the constant attempt to eradicate ALL control women have over their own bodies, including birth control. And how can anyone forget "Grab 'em by the pussy?"
"Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary. Scott Pressler, one of the most effective GOP voter registration organizers in the country. Both gay. Openly. Where exactly is the bigotry?"
Again, the success of TWO (2) gay men takes nothing away from the fact that all churches who call themselves Christian and vote Republican consider gay people sinners and are making widespread discrimination against them acceptable and fashionable again.
You cannot take a few token success stories to prove discrimination and hate do not exist, when it's very clear all around us what conservative culture is really thinking and saying.
"Policies protecting minors from irreversible medical procedures aren’t bigotry — they’re prudence. Adults can make whatever choices they want. We’re talking about children who can’t yet drive, vote, or sign a contract being permanently altered. Most of the world agrees with that caution, by the way — including many European countries labeled as progressive."
Why not let the family decide what's best for their transgender child?
"As for cruelty — both parties own that one. The previous administration lost track of tens of thousands of migrant children. Lost them. Made minimal effort to find them. If that’s not cruelty, what is?"
Soooo ... whataboutism makes it okay when Republicans do it?
At least "libtards" didn't shoot Renee Good in the head.
Thank you.
2008 was a prime example...bailing out the banks, while thousands of Americans were losing their homes.
One of many reasons I hated Obama, not that I like the Repubs either. But Obama let us down on this, by not jailing any of the bankers who crashed the economy as well as giving us the ACA instead of ever allowing single payer to pass, much less fighting for it. He was such a sellout disappointment, after running as more of a progressive and getting people's hopes up for radical change. As George Carlin said, "It's one big club, and you ain't in it". And never will be, either...
Obama's hands were probably tied. Big banks and insurance companies run the USA.
Yes, they should have been jailed. No argument from me on that one.
Nobody would EVER have passed single payer. They had to water the ACA down incredibly to get it passed. Nancy Pelosi sacrificed her speakership to pass that.
The truth is that the American mind has been so, so poisoned against a Medicare For All type system that the people who need it most are SURE it would be bad for them. WHILE they are struggling with their insurance company to cover that surgery they need. This is how bad it is.
You cannot blame Democrats for not being able to pass desperately necessary legislation over the heads of a country that's been badly misinformed for DECADES, and ruled by the superrich.
Yes, this is exactly what is happening. "We mustn't tax the rich, ohhhh, they won't hire us! Ohhhh, they'll go overseas!! Ohhhh, no one will have a job anymore without obscenely rich people!!! Ohhhh, they need more and more and more and more profit, tax cuts, RICH people need REWARDS and INCENTIVES!!" and blahblahblahblahblah.
But you know, if we can just get enough people to believe evil libtards want to rob everyone and give it illegal aliens, they'll keep on votin' MAGA ...
NO, we do NOT “hand out ‘freebies’” to people here illegally. We don’t even want our own starving citizens to be able to get their hands on food or help anymore.
Everyone loves to perpetuate this myth but never have I seen a single source quoted ANYWHERE that actually PROVES THIS IS TRUE.
Sort of like those illegals who Dumpy said were eating everyone’s pets …
Yes, we do. Illegal immigrants receive
*Emergency medical care.
*State-funded health coverage or prenatal care, depending on the state.
*Housing or hotel stays in local emergency programs.
*Free food from certain non-cash or emergency programs, depending on eligibility rules and location.
*Stipends and pre-paid credit cards, depending on the state.
In Colorado, “asylum seekers” (which includes M13 gang members and members of Tren De Aragua) are eligible for SNAP, WIC, free child care, cash, housing, Medicaid, health insurance, CHIP, etc. Also in Colorado, NGOs promote and facilitate workshops for illegals to teach them to “game” the system. I know, because I’ve attended. So yes, people who are in our country illegally receive a lot of free benefits (and are encouraged and instructed in how to do so) while US citizens, who have worked hard all of their lives, are living in vans.
Here are two sources…now you’ve seen more than one 😉
https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/wp-content/uploads/CO-Public-Benefits-Screening-Chart-9.5.22.pdf?utm_source=perplexity
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/02/nyc-giving-53-million-to-illegal-immigrants-in-pre-paid-debit-cards/
Colorado. ONE state.
Surely we're justified in shooting a man and woman in the head over ONE state. I mean, fuck knows, the demonstrators in MN have no valid points at all. (Or ... do they?)
Clearly the citizens of COLORADO are okay with their own policies, or they'd change the law. Funny how conservatives are all for state's rights, except in this case.
The other forty-nine states (that's 98% of the country) do NOT bear your argument out.
Emergency medical care. Do you really intend to tell me that if someone crosses the border from Mexico illegally and gets hit by a car, that human being should be let to die in the street? Really??
How about we check citizenship of all heart attack victims and stroke victims in the ER before any medical intervention? Surely you jest.
Second argument, again: "DEPENDING ON THE STATE." I guess if that state wishes to do this they can if they want. Big, fat, hairy deal. I would question how many states (other than Colorado) actually do this, and whether it's truly a good idea to allow babies to be born with no prenatal and no medical care based on what their parents did. (I guess for the embryo/fetus/baby to matter, it must be the right color and from the right place, with the right papers. Okay to let a baby die if it's the wrong baby, I see. So much for "pro-life.")
Exactly how many states offer illegals these benefits?? With the current wave of vicious hatred of foreigners, illegal or not, my guess would be: Not too many.
If you looked at the sources, there was another state. Illinois, Michigan, California, Massachusetts and many other states have similar if not identical programs in place. It only takes a teeny tiny bit of research to confirm. But that would shatter your narrative and lead you into the wonderful world of cognitive dissonance….
Oh, wait. I think you’re already there.
Sure…free food, phones, housing, etc, you said there were no freebies. I’m not here to argue the rights or wrongs of said freebies…Just to say that there ARE freebies. Which clearly there are. Given priority status to non-citizens over citizens.
You started your outrage over our country not supporting the women in the vans and ended it with defending freebies for illegal immigrants over provision for American citizens. Senior Citizens. Veterans. That’s. Really. Something.
And, ps. Bureaucratic policies aren’t laws🤦♀️.
Rant all you want. Facts are facts, and they don’t care about your feelings.
Links.
By the way, do you live in those states? Why do you care what some other state does? It doesn't affect you. The same people who think states and not the federal government should decide reproductive rights don't think the same when it comes to what some other state decides to do regarding people you hate.
I would be greatly surprised if illegals anywhere are getting anything free over American citizens. Prove it. NOBODY gets "free housing," baby. This is America, landlords want BANK.
In any case, I would MUCH rather advocate that people, ANYone, I don't care who they are or where they're from, be seen in ERs in the middle of a medical emergency than advocate, as you seem to, that illegals just be left to die in the street. I don't know why New York City is offering debit cards for food to illegals. Maybe they don't want people dying in the streets of NYC. In any case the source does not prove that benefits are being offered to them that legal residents can't get via some other program.
Looking at that second source, I see the words "LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENCY" repeated an AWFUL lot.
If someone has LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENCY, then they are not "illegal." They are allowed to be here. Maybe take a closer look at your own source again?
Thank you, Carol for sharing this. I see the van life in my community. It is heartbreaking to think this has become a way of life for many in a country of wealth. Yes, it takes courage to accept the realties of inflated rent and groceries. Praying for their safety.
🙏🏻🙏🏻
what would be a way to offer help to these women if we see them in the community?
Ask them what they may need and give them any helpful resources, contact information etc.
Advocate. They have no base from which to speak for themselves.
Friends, please connect with me on my profile page. There's no subscription page. I hope to offer more encouragement to your unique community of brave women.
Ì was ignorant about any of this so thanks for informing me. I live in an apartment now. We’ll see what later brings.
Let me offer this...you can register as a resident of South Dakota with minimal effort. And you can then license your vehicle without having a fixed address. There are two other states that allow it, but they are more restrictive. And if you don't understand how hard it is to register a vehicle without a physical address, you probably shouldn't look into this lifestyle.
I looked into this four years ago, so check to make sure it's still the same. You go to South Dakota and spend a night in a hotel. Get a receipt! You get a mailbox at one of the local services. You take this information to their DMV where you change your registration. And that's it! There are You Tube videos by people that did this and info online.
Thank you for sharing this information. It's true that without a land address one cannot access most of our public services, including PO boxes. The hidden pitfalls are enormous.
There is a subreddit on Reddit..this is where i learnt more about car living, #urbancarliving, #vanlife…reading posts about people who live in their cars. There are many, many more happening. Makes no sense to pay so much and have nothing left.
That’s an option? Love it
I have been thinking of doing this.
I blame all the corporations buying up as much real estate as possible and then hiking the rent all over the country.My heart goes out to you all.
You are right. We live in Fl and corporations are buying up mobile home parks and raising the lot rent so people can't afford it. You can buy a double-wide cheap but lot rent will be $800+ a month. And in Orlando they are building subdivisions for rental purposes only. It's disgusting not only for retired people but young people too. God help us all..
I live in Fl too. I have a friend with a full time job who can only afford an efficiency apt. The rent is $1,000 per month. Obscene! I’m still in my tiny condo…..for now.
These kinds of practices should be regulated by states, imo. This shouldn’t be allowed. Eventually, I’d imagine these places will become empty because no one will be able or willing to pay those prices. I wish communities would get their heads together and start fighting these issues HARD everywhere. We all have so much to fight against right now but that is a huge issue.
Here in Michigan, lot rent in a nice but by no means luxury mobile home park is $1k per month. Plus your water bill, plus whatever the resident(s) might owe on the mobile home itself. You do get 3 br, 1 and 1/2 bathrooms, and a full kitchen for that much, rather than a studio or older 1 br apartment in a building with a foundation. But that's a lot of money for a retiree, or a couple of retirees, or parents of young children who would need day care if they both got jobs.
Oregon and Idaho, too. Commonwealth.
Lot rent in mobile home parks out in the West can range from 1200 and up per month. And then you have to buy the mobile home!
Rent took a shit when government got in rental business. Greedy landlords could pretty much charge what they wanted under section 8.
Watch Nomadland, the movie with Frances McDormand - it’s about this way of living
Hi Susan, I immediately thought of Nomadland when I read this piece. A brilliant film. This is hard read.
The book it was based on is great too
great movie too.
Very good movie, indeed!
Thank you Carol for sharing this story. It's hard when "freedom" doesn't seem like much of a choice, born out of necessity to survive in the overarching patriarchal, capitalist structures. It would be wonderful if all the women who lived in vans did so through real choice, and for the others: comfortable, warm, safe, affordable (free?) housing. Is that too much to ask? If only women were in charge...
Yes but some other women besides Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, or the like. Kind women only, please!
Well yes, Pete. I hope that went without saying!!!
STOP IT! Really why do you always have a need to go towards the hate and judgement bandwagon towards women you don’t know! Either you care about women’s issues all women or you don’t. You don’t have to agree with their positions, but to chastise them all the time because you didn’t like them geez! Grow up mean girls, stay on message!
Yes, it would be a better world I think.
I know so!
My cousin is in the process of choosing this way of life for a bit. She’s having to make changes in her life at a young age (mid 30’s) because she cannot sustain the pace of working and demand on a body that is communicating different needs.
I ended up living in a static caravan for a few years in my early 40’s to reduce the financial pressure whilst I continued prioritising my health after disability by ill Health in my mid 30’s. I had no central heating but did have hot water, a fridge and was able to heat my home. It opened up a dream way of living and new levels of freedom.
I’ve heard since the pandemic here in the uk that van life was taking off and it was becoming increasingly common. Same with narrow boats too.
Nomadland (2020) captured this beautifully
It’s beyond time for state & Federal governments to have affordable housing especially for older women. This population is growing fast. Costs are too high & incomes are not rising. We need doable programs to assist but not a socialist/ communist control.
Who made you afraid of those words?
You make no sense! Women mostly out live men & when that happens older women live on much smaller incomes . That puts them at higher risk of poverty , & severe poverty & loss of housing as their incomes are not rising to meet the present costs! We should protect the elderly in our country who gave so much to family & country. That’s called prevention .& preparation. Having compassion for those who have given so much . Have a Blessed Easter!🐣
The words you used that I was referring to were “socialist communist control”
You’re really up the creek without a paddle!