Homelessness: Daytime nightmare about to unfold in Portland

 

Public domain, Creative Commons..

By Hal Brown, MSW, Retired psychotherapist

This is a classic case of municipal decision makers putting the cart before the horse, only in this case the cart is a shopping cart. A ban of daytime camping just enacted in Portland, Oregon may make daytime scenes like this (above) more common.

Homelessness is multifaceted problem but not a particularly complex one to remedy. My intention isn't to elaborate on how to solve the problem. It should be a no-brainer. It certainly isn't the harsh measure of forcing people currently living in tents to wander the streets during the day in the hopes that this will force them to live in approved housing. 

Aside from the fact that there are not enough places for them to live, there are reasons that have to be addressed as to why those who don't avail themselves of such housing make the choice to live on the streets.

Here's the disturbing news for everyone who calls a tent their home in Portland, OR, and anyone with a modicum of empathy for them:

Click above to read article

I have a Portland (Oregon) street address although I really live a few hundred feet from the line between the city a suburban town that is on the terminus of one of the light rail lines from downtown. Low income passes are free or cost as little as $3. This is only relevant because Portland is banning daytime camping. More people will be able to head outside of city limits to find places to live on the street.

This may result in more homeless people deciding to set up camps in the town closest to me where we don't have resources to serve their needs.  Here's another article:

‘Inevitable’: Portland City Council passes daytime camping ban

The ban requires people living in tents to pack up and vacate between 8 AM and 8PM. It will go into effect on July 7th. Talk about a very unhappy Independence Day for the numerous people who live in tents within the city limits of Portland.

I appreciate Portland, the western part of Oregon, and our state government for being very progressive in numerous ways. Unfortunately, I am ashamed for the city because they are taking this inhumane and draconian measure before there are enough solutions in place so nobody has to be ejected from their tents to pay a fine they can't afford, and possibly end up in jail. Lest anyone forget, these tents are their homes and when in clusters they are their neighborhoods.

Update: 

People living on the streets, business owners have mixed reactions to Portland daytime camping ban

If you watch all 10 mins. of Tucker Carlson's first Twitter show and are like me it will be 10x longer than you've ever watched him

 

By Hal Brown

This morning I went there and watched Tucker Carlson's Twitter debut show so I could write this blog. Until now the most I'd seen of Tucker Carlson were brief segments aired on MSNBC. 

I did this after finding out about his new "show" from HUFFPOST and clicking on the link to Twitter in their article 

Tucker Carlson’s New Twitter Show, Seen By Millions, Starts With Conspiracy Theories

Click above to enlarge image

I doubt you'll do it, but you can watch the Tucker's Twitter debut by clicking here.

I am too lazy to offer a complete summary of what he said though I want to share a few impressions.

I was surprised that some of his references went so far beyond sarcasm that I wondered if they would fly like the alien UFO's he said he were in possession of the US government (along with the bodies of alien pilots) over the heads of many of his viewers. Really, he spent about two  minutes on how the "fact" that alien UFOs exist and we have been studying them and their the bodies of their pilots is the covered up story of the century.

He also explained what using tautology as a  persuasion technique was, and he accused the mainstream media of using this technique of argument incessantly when I doubt most of his viewers know what the term means. In fact, Carlson's stock in trade is tautology. Having graduated from Trinity College (ranked 39 among US liberal arts colleges) and being one of their best known alumni he certainly is familiar with the concept. Of the hundreds of notable alumni listed on Wikipedia, alas (for him) he's only number four of the 10 who are pictured as select alumni in the sidebar. He is after Christine C. Quinn, David Cage, and Dov Zakheim who aren't household names. If he ever looks at this I assume he can beat his chest over being above George Will and the creator of MyTunes.

Click above to enlarge

He managed to get in references to trans women calling them skinny dudes in dresses. 

Unanswered questions apparently trouble Carlson. For example, who organized the BLM riots, what  really happened on 911, and who killed JFK?

Although Nikki Haley and Lindsey Graham got knocks, there were two primary villains in his 10 minute Twitter debut. One was the media and the other was Zelenski who he described with a string of insults saying that he was ratlike and a shifty dead-eyed man in a tracksuit.

Perhaps time limitations kept him from gushing or crushing over Putin, the dictator who likes to be photographed barechested. He didn't even mention his name.  He supports Russia in the Ukraine war. In fact, one of his segments was replayed on Russian TV:

He began his debut "show" explaining why he is sure they weren't responsible for blowing up the Kakhovka dam blaming it on Ukraine.

Describing the media toward the end of his show (I'll take the word out of quotes) he says they have stories like "here's a story about racism now go eat each other." I have no idea what he meant by now go eat each other.

How many of his regular viewers will follow him to Twitter and watch him on their Internet devices rather than on television remains to be seen. Unless Elon Musk decides to pay him I don't know how he can make much money off of this although his net worth has been estimated to be $30 million.

Of course with an ego like Tucker's maybe money isn't all that important to him.

...........................................................

Related blog from June 2nd: The unemployed TV personality who could beat Trump.

Here's a mystery. For unknown reasons all week the blog has had the largest percentage of readers logging on from Singapore. All I can think of is that this had something to do with this:

World's spy chiefs connect in secret conclave at Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in Singapore

Click above to enlarge

IF SO:

If you don't see the Disquis comment section below it is on the bottom of the page here.

Reading how the magnificent in his own mind megalomanic was mocked by George Conway as nihilistic moron led me to think of what it would be like if Trump was imprisoned.

 

Click above to enlarge my photoshop of Trump
playing with his little putter in prison yard.

Trump in jail for the documents would be like Jack the Ripper
 getting caught and sent to a London gaol for filching a bicycle.
 For such a magnificent in his own mind megalomanic
 this would be the ultimate affront. In some countries
an attempted coup to subvert a legitimate election
a conviction could mean the death sentence.

By Hal Brown, MSW, Retired psychotherapist

George Conway mocked Donald Trump as a "nihilistic moron" for risking years in prison by hoarding classified documents at his private resort at Mar-a-Lago on Morning Joe this morning:

Click to watch video

This is some of what he said:

"We are approaching the very end. I kept hearing this ear worm in my head as I was coming to the studio this morning, 'this is it, make no mistake.' We're getting down to the final strokes of this race, and what's clearly really remarkable about it is that of all the things that this man has done, eight decades of lying and cheating and stealing, this case, this documents case, is probably the easiest, shortest, simplest and yet carries the most severe penalties, likely penalties, of any of the cases, any of the legal issues that he's ever faced."

"Now people will say, you know, he really, in a just world, he would go to jail for what he did on Jan. 6, the weeks approaching Jan. 6... And I kind of agree with that, but for this man who is basically a nihilistic moron, for him to go to jail potentially for a long time, these Espionage Act charges bring very heavy sentences to potentially go to jail for something so pointless and silly and useless as keeping these documents is actually kind of fitting."

Instead of being imprisoned among criminals who worked their way up to being crime bosses by making their bones by cutting the throats of their rivals in the underworld, he'd be with a bunch of pickpockets and and shoplifters. Sure, he'd be their king, but he'd be a rock star among ruffians. 

Seriously, though, it doesn't matter whether Trump goes to a county jail or a state or federal prison. While he may end up, if convicted of a felony, ending up in home confinement which would be a travesty considering that his home is a mansion where staff will wait on him hand and foot. He might even be able to entertain anyone he want to have there. 

For justice to be served he needs to be locked up where, while inmates may be thrilled to have him there, and correction officers may enjoy telling their friends and family stories about what he'd like, he'll still be subject to all the rules of the facility.

From having his freedom of movement dictated to and having to wear standard prison clothes Trump will have to suffer the indignity of no longer being in charge of his domain. I doubt he'd be able to wear a MAGA hat, let alone a t-shirt like this:

While there is no proof Trump uses a golden toilet obviously he uses a normal porcelain one. It would be an adjustment, to say the least, to find he has us one of these for his morning ablutions and must perch his prodigious posterior on this:

I've never being in jail, but I have been inside of two jails numerous times in my capacity as a mental health consultant where I assessed inmates who were thought to be suicidal. It was always disconcerting to go through the sally port, the double doored entry area where a corrections officer briefly had you in a small locked area. If they didn't know and like you they could make you wait as long as they felt like it in the locked area. 

Not surprisingly some of these CO's took perverse delight in keeping me waiting for a few minutes while they pretended to attend to some more important matter. I knew I would soon get in and be escorted to interview an inmate, again in a locked room. More importantly I knew I would be getting out, but even that short loss of freedom had an impact.*

Actual inmates are at the absolute mercy of corrections officers for everything. Even a former president would be compelled do what he is told to do.

* I have also been given private tours of the Bidgewater State Prison (MA) by the stress officer who worked with staff and who was a friend who referred many CO's to me for therapy.