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With so much poverty hidden in plain sight, you have to ask: is this still America?
The Guardian ^ | 21 March 2016 | Brigid Delaney

Posted on 03/21/2016 12:20:01 AM PDT by Cronos

Last week, in America, I was in one of the country’s most celebrated tourist spots – renowned for it’s natural beauty, swanky resorts and marine life.
I spent the first part of the week in what could be kindly termed as a service hub. Let’s call it Depresso.
On my morning walk – instead of the vista of palm trees, beaches, gelato shops and yachts I was expecting, the footpaths stopped abruptly, or crumbled, the roads buckled, people were searching for food in bins, buildings were vacant with the paint and signs peeling and there was rubbish everywhere.

I can deal with a grim high street – after all I lived in London for years - but having to step over people sleeping in the parks, bedded down between the branches of a banyan tree, American flags affixed to their carts, signs saying they were returned servicemen, was distressing.

This was America: one of the world’s richest countries, yet the vibe was distinctly third world.

Want to buy some socks or underwear? Well there’s nothing downtown except for some forlorn places selling dreamcatchers and posters with inspirational slogans. To get anything remotely useful you need to drive 10 miles to a Walmart, and if you don’t have a car, you get a cab.

I don’t drive and wanted to get out of Depresso – but I was warned off public transport. There was one bus a day out of the town, but sometimes it just didn’t arrive. Locals told me they occasionally passed people waiting on the side of the road who had been there all day, waiting for a bus that never came.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
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I was in Cincinnati last week after quite a long time and the stark differences were appalling.

I don't really look out for race, but there was also the racial dimension to this -- the office workers in suits or getting to offices were white or south asian indians or chinese, while the hard-working workers in restaurants were white or latino and the workers in fast food places were black. The poor were all black and the people loitering around doing nothing were predominantly black (with a few whites, but no Latinos or Asians that I could see).

The homeless were all black.

The Democrats have ruined this country for black people, destroyed the chances of black people for rising -- I just take a look at pictures or videos of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr or watch Selma and see cultured, erudite, educated, well-dressed black men and women -- and I look at the african-americans of today and think that the Rev would be appalled as well -- what a shame.

1 posted on 03/21/2016 12:20:01 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

go to So Cal. you can live and work for months and never see another White person. I am not exaggerating. I fled. I am 1000% happier now


2 posted on 03/21/2016 12:25:57 AM PDT by ghosthost
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To: Cronos

The white middle class is disappearing... along with it the bastion of American democracy.

We’re regressing to medieval Europe where a wealthy few ruled over masses of desperately poor people clinging to the margins.

Americans have no hope their children will be able to inherit the American Dream.

The country increasingly does have a Third World vibe to it. Not that its elites care.


3 posted on 03/21/2016 12:26:59 AM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: Cronos
Adding in to the last bit -- it's not race, as African immigrants of today coming directly from Africa, who may be from poorer backgrounds with far less opportunity; they do BETTER and area hard-working, cultured, well-mannered and successful. And there are whites who adopt the "ghetto" vibe and are zero-culture, zero-hope, zero-anything people.

It's not race, it's a self-identified "society" - and I blame socialism and Democrat cynicism for this (you see the same among whites in Labour areas in the UK)

4 posted on 03/21/2016 12:28:32 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: ghosthost

That’s a bit overstated my friend.


5 posted on 03/21/2016 12:28:58 AM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: Cronos
The Democrats have ruined this country for black people...

Welfare, that's half the story. But the other half is this: In the 1970s a black kid (or any kid) could graduate high school, then go get an entry job at the local mill or factory. Those companies are now all overseas. The Democrats and the Republicans share responsibility for letting that happen.

6 posted on 03/21/2016 12:29:45 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: ghosthost

I used to live in So Cal. Its so hideously expensive, living there is just impossible.

The typical two parent family cannot even afford a home on two salaries.

When I was a child, life was great there. I don’t want to imagine what it looks like now, a decade after I packed up and left for Colorado.


7 posted on 03/21/2016 12:31:52 AM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: SoCal Pubbie

Nope, accurate appraisal around Los Angeles. It is Majority Hispanic mi amigo.


8 posted on 03/21/2016 12:32:35 AM PDT by ghosthost
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To: Leaning Right

All the good paying factory jobs are gone.

People have two choices: either live on welfare or go to prison.

The jobs that are left don’t provide upward mobility.

Nowadays all you can buy are cheap Chinese goods.

No, America is not great again. In Washington, they live in a bubble.


9 posted on 03/21/2016 12:35:03 AM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: Cronos

Ms. Delaney can’t put a name on this place, or just made up “Depresso”?


10 posted on 03/21/2016 12:37:03 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: SoCal Pubbie

No kidding.


11 posted on 03/21/2016 12:37:33 AM PDT by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: goldstategop

I left 4 years ago, it is unliveable. So much decay. When I was born there, it was a paradise. It is a heap. No hope for it left.


12 posted on 03/21/2016 12:37:34 AM PDT by ghosthost
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To: ghosthost

The bureaucracy, the taxes, the cost of living and all the rest... not a fun place.


13 posted on 03/21/2016 12:39:35 AM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: goldstategop

it was all the rest that was driving me nuts


14 posted on 03/21/2016 12:40:18 AM PDT by ghosthost
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To: Cronos

Hi Cronos, long time


15 posted on 03/21/2016 12:42:24 AM PDT by indcons (Lurker mode mostly)
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To: Cronos

I thought at first he was talking about Honolulu. Most of the island has turned into a third-world country. Homeless everywhere, roads falling apart, it takes people 3-4 hours a day just to get to work and back home in terms of commute time, it’s desperately depressing in much of the island.


16 posted on 03/21/2016 12:50:36 AM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: SoCal Pubbie

Way overstated... Troll poster IMO...


17 posted on 03/21/2016 12:50:59 AM PDT by antceecee (Bless us Lord, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life.)
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To: Olog-hai
Ms. Delaney can’t put a name on this place, or just made up “Depresso”?

I'm thinking it might be the Keys?! Where else would there be bus access so infrequently.

On a different note, here in Phoenix, the homeless in our area are typically white. They look older, but it could just be the aging that occurs from living on the street. There are usually half a dozen hanging around the shopping center where we have lunch. Some are begging. Some are just enjoying the shade.

18 posted on 03/21/2016 12:51:11 AM PDT by the_Watchman
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To: Olog-hai

I think he said it was an island, Hawaii maybe...


19 posted on 03/21/2016 12:55:53 AM PDT by mowowie (`)
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To: Cronos

In Tempe, there are commonly beggars at major intersections and highway on/off-ramps. Quite a variety of people.


20 posted on 03/21/2016 1:00:33 AM PDT by AZLiberty (A is no longer A, but a pull-down menu.)
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