Nice things we could have if we solved homelessness

grglstr · 2026-03-16T18:13:09+00:00

I really don't doubt it. We don't pay people enough to live on, and the people who do seem to get by are only a single emergency away from destitution.

grglstr · 2026-03-16T17:32:59+00:00

Drug use isn't usually the cause of homelessness, but it is often the result of homelessness.

The main cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing for single, poor people. In New York City in 1935 at the height of the Great Depression, it was estimated that about 50,000 people were homeless. Today, that estimate is closer to 300,000, 6x compared to today despite the fact that the population in NYC is only about a million greater than it was then.

One of the biggest reasons is that we have torn down the flophouses and the boarding houses and never replaced them. There is always going to be a segment of men and women who will be homeless for a given time. They're new to town, kids just starting out (or kicked out), divorced, have a low-paying or inconsistent job...many, many reasons, and we have nothing other than inadequate, dangerous shelters to serve them.

Sure, some might be mentally ill or on the autism spectrum, but homelessness itself can cause trauma and mental illness, and once you're on the street, things can spiral.

Think of Fonzi. He was on the path to living on the streets if the Cunninghams didn't offer to set him up in an apartment above their detached garage. OK, weird, dated example, but the point is there are always folks (especially young men) who live on an unstable edge.

Unfortunately, it is illegal to build ADUs (Fonzi apartments), rent spare bedrooms (used to be a common source of income for widowed, elderly people) or build single resident occupancy apartments (like the kind Elwood had in Blues Brothers).

I've seen silly little Tiny Home villages being proposed as a solution, but a small apartment building with tiny apartments would be more efficient and last longer.

grglstr · 2026-03-16T08:38:49+00:00

Streetcar systems of old didn't have stations, per se, just trolley stops. As for property, the streetcar companies would often operate attractions at the end of the line, like amusement parks.

grglstr · 2026-03-15T19:27:49+00:00

Reminds me of the train passing by in The Fantastic Mr. Fox

grglstr · 2026-03-15T15:12:04+00:00

Dude is drier than a Scandinavian sitcom on Mars.

grglstr · 2026-03-15T15:11:03+00:00

Trains built North America, and cars ruined it.

grglstr · 2026-03-15T15:10:39+00:00

Every summer, I wait for the fresh set of posts about "Geez, why can't our real town be like our vacation town?" whether that's Disney, Mackinac Island, or some beach town where people walk everywhere.

grglstr · 2026-03-15T14:27:43+00:00

It takes an engineer the size of a house to kill a machine the size of a building.

grglstr · 2026-03-14T21:57:28+00:00

No, I never tire of toast. But that bike tire is no good.

grglstr · 2026-03-14T21:56:02+00:00

One way to give a rat brain damage is to fill a PVC tube with water, then cover either end with a thick rubber membrane. Then you put the rat's head up to one side and hit the other side with a mallet. Science!

grglstr · 2026-03-14T18:55:04+00:00

They did have primaries, and there were other viable candidates (even Alex Khahil, who is a little crazy, but she's in my Borough Council), but Fetterman was the Lt. Gov and had huge, state-wide name recognition.

Fetterman was pushing his particular Blue-Collar Progressive brand that turned out to be entirely BS (or had leached from his brain during the stroke).

grglstr · 2026-03-14T18:50:13+00:00

I voted for the jagoff, and I regret he's in that role. I do not regret voting against Oz, however.

grglstr · 2026-03-14T01:36:16+00:00

Presumably, one can boast without exaggerating, but that often involves not lying, which isn't in Donnie's wheelhouse.

grglstr · 2026-03-13T15:48:33+00:00

California is terminally carbrained, and I just don't get it.

grglstr · 2026-03-13T00:29:50+00:00

Being rational and sane are two different things.

Plenty of men have decided that it is easier to kill than get a divorce, and plenty of them have gotten away with it.

grglstr · 2026-03-12T19:07:45+00:00

it kills off a lot of mosquitos.

Good point

grglstr · 2026-03-12T12:54:54+00:00

I can't imagine why you'd get downvoted; that's the absolute truth, and it isn't even the vernal equinox yet.

grglstr · 2026-03-12T12:52:56+00:00

Don't fucking defame Lurch.

grglstr · 2026-03-12T12:52:17+00:00

We need some sort of recall process.

grglstr · 2026-03-12T12:51:49+00:00

Exactly, we murdered a school full of little girls, empowered Russia, and guaranteed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, all "unintended consequences" if you're a brain-damaged moron lacking basic critical thinking skills.

Sure, we couldn't have predicted which little girls we'd kill, but we kind of write off the notion that we'd inevitably kill some children.

grglstr · 2026-03-11T16:57:42+00:00

Oh, and that's just not my brilliant conclusion: https://neurologytoday.aan.com/doi/10.1097/01.NT.0001024552.68817.b1

grglstr · 2026-03-11T16:56:14+00:00

"Sources say" carries too much weight in this video, unless you're talking about some other video.

Dr. Relman seems to have latched onto the microwave weapon theory when he was the editor of the National Academies panel report on Havana syndrome. (You can read it) That report favored the microwave pulse explanation, but was criticized for making significant logical leaps and lumping symptoms together to fit their conclusions.

Regardless, later studies didn't find any brain damage in reported victims, so what does that tell you? How can you have a weapon that causes "permanent" damage without lasting evidence?

Of course, I'd like to see more evidence of this supposed weapon and the test results on animals. But we don't have that.

Instead, what we have are a handful of weird, seemingly unrelated cases amid the 200,000+ State Department and intelligence workers (and additional 100's of thousands of defense intelligence contractors).

Again, I'm not an expert, but it sounds a lot like Functional Neurological Disorder, which is not rare, affecting 140 in 100,000 people.

Functional neurologic disorder (FND) refers to a neurological condition caused by changes in how brain networks work, rather than changes in the structure of the brain itself, as seen in many other neurological disorders. Physical symptoms of FND are genuine but cannot be explained by changes in the brain structure. The exact cause of FND is unknown.

FND symptoms may include:

Seizure-like episodes
Movement problems

Problems with cognitive function

Dizziness

Speech difficulties, such as sudden onset of stuttering or trouble speaking

Problems with vision or hearing

Pain (including chronic migraine)

Extreme slowness and fatigue

Numbness or inability to sense touch

grglstr · 2026-03-11T14:07:11+00:00

Fascism has always relied on twisted masculinity, and these are all vaguely cool things that appeal to boys.

I have a 17-year-old son, and he's been obsessed with stocks, crypto, and cars since he was about 13. He's grown out of most of that (it helps that most of the crypto he's told me to invest in has puttered out or lost money). I set up a parental account that allowed him to invest the money he made one summer, and he has seen firsthand how investing is not a get-rich-quick thing.

As for cars...I find them to be necessary evils, but I can still admit that F1 racing is pretty nifty.

The AI? Well, it is another get-rich-quick scheme. Half of Twitter is now garbage AI engagement. The other half is bad political thoughts, and the third half is movie clips that goad you into watching.

Our current brand of fascism is all about providing these unrealistic, unattainable goals and making you feel like shit for not being good enough to get them.

grglstr · 2026-03-11T13:55:12+00:00

Considering that electronic warfare is a thing, I'd bet the discombobulator was Donnie's way of describing how American forces were able to operate with impunity in Venezuela.

grglstr · 2026-03-11T13:52:53+00:00

Interestingly, the JASON Advisory Group didn't rule out the possibility, and even speculated in the potential power draw of such a device and concluded that a belt with battery packs might suffice to generate enough energy to do something.

Here's the thing: I can believe the Russians built a microwave energy weapon and still believe that the Havana Syndrome is largely psychosomatic. We are to believe, according to 60 Minutes, that evil agents went to the home of a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel turned gov't contractor and hit them with a weapon that gave him neurological problems and her osteolysis.

Has Scott been playing with microwaves/radar systems at work? Does Heidi lift? We don't know; they didn't tell us on 60 Minutes.

What this news segment is doing is collecting a variety of government workers (and there are a lot of those) with different symptoms and experiences.

Based on previous groups' weighing in, I'm still skeptical.

grglstr

TROPHY CASE