“If you’re homeless in LA, it’s the end of the line.” by John Fleming

by Vanderleun on March 26, 2018

They say, that LA has 58,000 homeless. I passed through an encampment today, tents and trash and worse everywhere. It wasn’t there two years ago. Saw one enterprising Mexican-style sturdy shanty mixed in with the flimsy tents. At least Mexican shantytowns are organized. This was wretched helter-skelter.

If you’re homeless in LA, it’s the end of the line. There’s nowhere else to go, it’s 400 miles of desert in any direction. In LA you will stay. And since the City and County are now subsidizing the homeless, more LA will have, streaming in from every corner of the FUSA.

If you think it’s bad now, think about 100K, then 150K, then 200K. And then imagine that furtive thoughts never spoken will give way to whispers and then to secret trials and then to … Look, when it gets that large, it’s completely out of control, it becomes a metastasizing cancer. Where are 50K or 100K housing “units” going to come from, in a densely built-out city, to house people who are homeless because they can’t get it back together or are broken? Or have been “displaced” by the influx of automation and high-techery.

The other day I met a guy with bad teeth who ranted at me for 5 minutes with almost unintelligible speech, then got in a nice late-model car and left. Wtf? High, stoned, or strung out, who could tell? That was a new one. He’ll soon be joining the ranks of the 58K.

Those whispers … Imagine a designer virus. Sorta like the flu. Not particularly virulent, not airborne. It has one critical feature. It sort of just loafs along in your body, waiting for the right signal to go postal. Perhaps that signal is a person who for a few days becomes extra immuno-challenged. Perhaps that signal is a specific enzyme or antigen. Now imagine mobile showers for the homeless. Perfect delivery vector. Yecch. Showers again.

It has to be deniable. One person in a hundred every month. It has to look like the person just gives up on life. I’ve seen that, from relatives. People whose grip on life is fierce, even though their body is a wreck going down fast. And then one day, something happens that kicks them over the edge, they just start fading away, they just don’t care anymore, and you know the end is nigh. For deniability, it has to look like that. Who would notice 1 in a 100 just fading away?

Except of course, The Omega Man, and Twelve Monkeys. You were warned. But when 200K homeless are tearing your city apart, you’re gonna start thinking about and then doing desperate things.

Maybe it will be those AI machines that tend to the homeless with silicon-charged lovingkindness. Behind those crystalline eyes, the churning Zuckerberg-programmed AI engines are toting up the account of each of the unfortunates, and when one reaches the “too much trouble to maintain” threshold, they slip him the mickey. John Fleming commenting on "Homeless in Seattle" A Drive-By by Ol Remus Plus My Own Footnote

Comments on this entry are closed.

Snakepit Kansas March 26, 2018, 4:13 AM

With all that trash piled up, I can only imagine the smell.

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Bill in Tennessee March 26, 2018, 8:53 AM

When will LA institute such a (hidden) policy? It would be a form of Triage, weeding out the most absolute helpless and irretrievable, in their sight. It’s not a huge stretch from many policies they have in place now… abortion etc. I’m sure the liberal mind can rationalize anything to fit their desired ends. Can Soylent Green be far behind?

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Bram March 26, 2018, 8:59 AM

I lived in LA for a while in the 90’s. The problem had started – Santa Monica parks were bum-housing even then. Now it’s so out of control I have to wonder how it ends. Concentration camps in the desert?

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BillH March 26, 2018, 9:46 AM

If 400 miles of desert in any direction is keeping the old ones in, why isn’t it keeping the new ones out? I say the political climate that enables the bum culture in these homeless-plagued cities has way more to do with it than 400 miles of desert in any direction.

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Tad March 26, 2018, 9:52 AM

This is why they brought in millions of Mexicans – to destroy Americans by taking jobs away.

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Bram March 26, 2018, 11:17 AM

The bud fare in is just a few days’ worth of panhandling. And who would want to be a bum in Chicago, Michigan, or Minnesota all winter?

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Chalkie March 26, 2018, 12:16 PM

Whole lots of nope there. That’s why I refuse to live in the third world shithole that is Kalifornia or any large city.

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jrod March 26, 2018, 4:55 PM

Anyone have some napalm?

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ghostsniper March 26, 2018, 7:03 PM

@jrod, this is about as close as you can get in civilian life:
(1) 5 gal steel bucket with lid
(4) gal of 93 gas
1 c.f. of hard styrofoam, crumbled
1 bag moth ball crystals
mix all ingredients in the bucket, silicone caulk the lid on, place where needed
shoot bucket with tracer round from a distance of more than 100 yds

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jwm March 27, 2018, 10:29 PM

And those pics don’t show you how filthy the camps really are. They’re all over here. A five mile bike tour the other day in my formerly lovely corner of North Orange County featured no fewer than four skid row grade negroes using local bus stops for day camps, lunatic asylums and drunk tanks, one homeless camp at the railroad easement, and one half naked crazy begging at the nearest large intersection. At least the half naked crazy is a local. He’s the brother of one of my brother’s old friends. A few miles down the bike path another skid row grade negro was unconscious off to the roadside. The big camp, and attendant detritus is spreading again down at Rosecrans avenue. Used to be the Golden State…

JWM

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Lori April 1, 2018, 10:44 AM

I have quit buying most commercial products, what I still purchase I use about ten percent of what I used to use. I went to all natural cleaning and hygiene products. Much healthier and immeasurably less expensive. I started buying super foods in powder form. I eat less because of it. I try to buy organic produce. I barely touch meat and dairy anymore because of factory farming. The only reason I did this is because of the beliefs of the ruling elite. Disgusting!

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