I'm A Virgo

 Boots Riley is a genius.

And Charles Mudede at The Stranger agrees.

A shed on the side of the road

I had not been back to the Vancouver, Washington area in seven years. Was shocked at how fast and how big the hyper-gentrification of slope-shouldered "Fort" has been.

 

When I moved here in early January 2015, I experienced a) a "no cause" eviction, b) a psychotic drunk who pissed on my Toyota because he hated having a roommate and c) a power-mad little Hipster all within the first five months. My housing situation in Vancouver was like a Stephen King-inspired nightmare I couldn't wake up from.

In May, I rented a room in a basement from a Millennial for $700/month. I thought I would only be there for a few months. Instead, it was almost ten months. I was so happy when I moved out of that over-rated 'burg I practically kissed the stained carpet of the $550/month one bedroom I found.

No surprise, it's now even more expensive then it was back then.

In June 2015, in a fit of desperation I stopped at a weird weekly motel on NE Hazel Dell Ave with a FOR RENT sign. There were five tiny motel rooms planted flush to the gravel driveway. It looked like a place where junkies went to die in in the 1980s. The "unit" I was shown was a "studio" with a tiny bathroom and no kitchen, maybe 200 square feet. They wanted $600 first, last, plus a $400 no-refund deposit. And I would have had to put down a $300 deposit with the utility company for electric, gas and water. That was $1,900 just to move in. And there was a $35 application fee. I was making $12 an hour.

And everybody wonders why the homeless situation in Portland and in Washington state is so bad.

The FOR RENT sign in front of that creepy weekly motel was gone a week after I looked at it.

The Big Lie (since 1983)

 At about the 11 minute mark ...

The U.S. will hit debt limit January 26, 2023.

What’s really creepy is (the Republicans) are going to start threatening Medicare and Social Security. They will do that by saying mandatory spending – there are two kinds of spending: discretionary and mandatory. Social Security and Medicare are mandatory. (The Republicans) want to put that in the discretionary column. This is exactly what Ronald Reagan did. Reagan decided to tell you a lie, he told you the same lie in 1983 (the GOP) are telling you now. He said “Social Security and Medicare they’re gonna default, they’re going bankrupt!” None of that is true.

What is true is we need to raise the cap on salaries because up to $110,000 a year, you pay into Social Security and Medicare. After that, people who make more than $110,000 and one cent are un-taxed for Social Security and Medicare. If you make a million dollars, you only pay into Social Security and Medicare on your first paycheck, that's it!

Reagan told the same lie. He said Social Security and Medicare would be bankrupt because of the Baby Boomers by 2010. So he raised the Social Security tax by $2.7 trillion. Social Security now is short about $49 to $50 billion every year. Where did this $2.7 trillion go? It didn’t go to the Social Security trust or the Medicare trust fund, no, no. Reagan put that $2.7 trillion he raised into the General Fund. They did this so they could use the money for tax cuts for the wealthy. Now, we who are ready to collect Social Security realize that we raised $2.7 trillion not for our Social Security, but for tax cuts for the wealthy. Anything in the General Fund can be used for any damn thing that Congress wants.