Life (for millions) in the Grand Banana Republic

What is an Obama fallout shelter? It should be called a capitalist fallout shelter, but never mind, you can see it in some of these photos (and go here; make sure you pull down the “Show More” under the video to get a full description of this family).

“The experiment”

I read this in disbelief, though knowing what I know about government now I shouldn’t have been surprised in the least: “…New York City is applying the same methodology to assess one of its programs to prevent homelessness. Half of the test subjects — people who are behind on rent and in danger of being evicted — are being denied assistance from the program for two years, with researchers tracking them to see if they end up homeless…” Here.

Las Vegas “rat people”

You know I posted on this last year (I’m too lazy to find the post but I think it was from The Sun in Britain; in fact, I think this latest article uses some of the same photos). Deep in the flood tunnels under Vegas hundreds upon hundreds of people, about a thousand or so, have made their homes, living like human rats in constantly damp and wet conditions. Nevada newspapers evidently don’t like reporting this story, so we have to turn to the freer foreign press.  A British commenter said it best, Civilized America”, the land of the free……to live like rats. It’s like this…”Deep beneath Vegas’s glittering lights lies a sinister labyrinth inhabited by poisonous spiders and a man nicknamed The Troll who wields an iron bar. But astonishingly, the 200 miles of flood tunnels are also home to 1,000 people who eke out a living in the strip’s dark underbelly. Some, like Steven and his girlfriend Kathryn, have furnished their home with considerable care – their 400sq ft ‘bungalow’ boasts a double bed, a wardrobe and even a bookshelf…” Here (London Daily Mail). Let’s face it, what an ugly third world country this is…well, maybe when China takes over things will get a little better.

Note: For a lot  more info than you can get from some newspaper articles you might want to read Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas, by Mathew O’Brien, published as part of the  Travel Holiday Guides series. (Travel holiday guide? The title of the book doesn’t seem to fit in with a tourist series, does it?)

Under the bridge

“…Tomorrow, an advance party for the chief will leave to claim another spot across the river that turns out not to be on public property. Many in the camp will decide it’s time to move on anyway, to a spot under a bridge in East Providence. Camp Runamuck will begin its recession from sight and memory. At least tonight there is a communal dinner: donated chicken, parboiled and grilled; donated corn on the cob; donated potatoes. People line up with paper plates. The rain falls harder, pocking the river’s gray surface, surrounding the dark camp with a sound like fingers drumming in impatience. The chief hears it, but what can he do?…” Article here.

Twittering the Homeless

Some Twitter postings. A sampling from the Twitter crowd:

• A band is playing outside Starbucks. There is a drunken, bearded homeless man dancing animatedly, much to the delight of patrons.
• This morning on the bus, a homeless guy who smelled like dead fish sat down next to me.
• I locked the bathroom door, apparently the lock was broken. On venice beach. Homeless man walked in on me.
• Just finished an 8 AM photo shoot that included 150-year-old churches and antagonistic homeless guys.

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You never know who you’ll meet wandering on the street. For example, several years ago a once famous African-American dancer was found roaming the sidewalks of Brooklyn, homeless, hungry and out of his mind.

Prior to sleeping in a rundown Jeep…

“…her eyesight deteriorated rapidly as cataracts left her struggling to read street signs and unable to drive at night. She stopped raking in the money needed to keep up on the $10,000-a-month combined mortgages she was paying while supporting her husband, a guitarist… The houses foreclosed, one in September 2006, the other two months later. And, she said, her husband was found to have been living a double life as a cross-dressing meth addict… They are now divorced” Continue reading this depressing article, I used to be normal.

San Francisco as Calcutta

NY Columnist Ralph Peters describes his tour of San Francisco and finds it wanting. Its homeless population gives him the distinct feel that he’s in refuse-teeming Calcutta. And Calcutta is ugly; ergo, San Francisco is ugly. “The greatest difference between the two isn’t the greater wealth of San Francisco, but the sense of the homeless as fellow human beings in Calcutta. From its asylum policies for violent illegal immigrants to its dog-biscuit “generosity” to the homeless, San Francisco’s a city of ethically oblivious hypocrites: 6,377 homeless, 776,733 heartless…As I walked the streets in the light of day, foreign tourists dodged the meandering, muttering homeless. I was ashamed of the image those visitors would take home..” Continue reading story  in the NY Post.

Of course San Francisco’s public arena is not one-dimensional. And we might refer to this second part of the post as San Francisco NOT as Calcutta. Take a look at this creepy public festival (Up Your Alley) in the heart of the city. Caution: this two-part photographic chronicle from Zombietime of a street sex fair is extremely sexually explicit, so you will first come to a disclaimer at the link.