President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Well, hell.

 

We can discuss. I'm not calling you names. We can do this.

The first time I remember being struck by the sheer number of homeless around me was one sunny day in a park in Haight Ashbury. It was pretty noticeable. But I think Los Angeles trumps it, at least in terms of total population, or population density. For me, where I live, it's the large number of mentally ill homeless that's especially shocking. I mean, it makes sense in some ways, but it's still jarring to see, when you walk out of the ArcLight past the Bloomingdale's and Starbucks and someone is screaming at a bus stop shelter. I could be wrong, but I'm not used to that, and I've been to every major American city. Maybe it's just because now I'm sometimes living in one and I see it more. I don't know.

I just looked at statistics, and who knows how reliable they are, but Toronto has a homeless population of 5,000 or so, and LA has one of 55,o00. LA is obviously bigger by total population, but it's not ten times bigger. It's maybe twice as large.

According to this list (no idea how accurate it is), four of the top ten cities for homelessness are in California: LA, SF, San Jose, and San Diego.

10 US Cities With The Largest Homeless Populations

It lists New York as first, Los Angeles second. Again, maybe it's just where I'm living, but I haven't had the same sense in New York. And the rich parts of LA seem richer to me. Maybe they're just more obviously or ostentatiously rich.

 

Which shows he was insane back then.

 

L.A. has land. N.Y. doesn't.

L.A. gets you the Playboy mansion. NY gets you 740 Park Avenue. From the street, guess which one looks more ostentatiously rich?

 

The warmer weather, a perceived friendlier environment and to an extent the Hollywood mystique draw tons of transients to California.

 

I just can't live in a place where you're one bolt of bad luck from being fucked. Just not wired like that.

 

Yeah, I get that. New York has less showy wealth, for sure. Makes the inequality in LA more striking, though.

 

Well, not everybody is.

One thing that struck me about Eliza Dushku's sexual harassment settlement. She was to be a supporting character on a TV show—Bull—that has never crossed my radar. She was awarded $9.5 million, which is what she would have earned for not full-time work for four seasons.

Think about that. That's nuts.

 

Someone needs to 'splain this to the Trumpites.

 

In New York, you're standing next to the poverty. You're walking with it. You're riding the subway with it. You can smell it. You can talk to it. It has a story. It's human.

In Los Angeles, you're mostly driving past it.

 

Where is such a place?

Every farmer or rancher I've ever spoken to is one bad year away from the poorhouse.

 

From the article:

That's what Rush Limbaugh has been doing for 30 years. It's suddenly news when a group in Saint Petersburg does it? All I can say is . . . what took them so long?