In my HOA almost all of the board members own multiple units and they don’t even live in our neighborhood. I know one is a realtor, as she sold me my place, and another is just an investor.

They’re not always the most pleasant people, but they do an ok job the majority of the time. People seem to hate owning a house but still getting told no on things.

I don’t know if they actually vote multiple times, but I think we’ve had less than a half dozen rule changes in the almost 20 years I’ve been there.

They have a vested financial interest in making the neighborhood as attractive and successful as the rest of us. While their motivation is purely a financial interest, the petty and self-centered things I’ve seen my fellow residents try to demand is crazier than anything our board has actually done.

I had been feeling the same thing in Eastern Pennsylvania. Used to see lots of both, but last few years the lightning bugs were hardly noticeable and I hadn’t seen a rabbit in quite a bit when they used to be a regular sight in the neighborhood. But the last week or 2 there have been some nice lightning bug shows, though not as great as when I was a kid, and I’ve notices some bunnies grazing by the entrance to my road again.

I think it’s just less talked about because it seems to be going on so far from most English speaking places.

I’m not super familiar on any details, but of course there is a wiki for Buddism and Violence and there is plenty of current day stuff going on.

People are always going to eventually act their worst when enough refuse to back down on their personal beliefs, no matter their religion, or lack thereof for that matter. It’s sad seeing all the discrimination in the comments.

I imagine so. Everyone is looking to “see results,” but for the majority that is just going to mean make them invisible, while for the actual homeless, the answer is much more complicated and less popular with a lot of other people.

It’s very disappointing, but I don’t know how you get good people in a job like that. With so much responsibility, up to having people’s lives in your hands, while having to usually reach some type of consensus with other people, half of whom act like it’s their job to make you fail, and having the majority of the population second guess you on every action you take or don’t take, I’d never want that job.

With power consolidated into so few people in a top down power structure, it may only leave bull headed know it alls and egomaniacs in those positions. Add in our current technocrats pushing AI and this is the slop I think we’re going to start seeing much more often.

I commented in another post today about San Francisco’s mayor canceling his personal plan to address homelessness because after starting it against the advice of the actual people working to address homelessness, he tried a quick fix to Steve money to make the problem go away, he found the exact same issues those volunteers told him he was going to have. I know if I were stuck in the job, I’d be wanting to solicit experts for everything like this, but at the same time, your term would probably be over before you got anywhere.

Perhaps we’re just reaching the limits of what our current power structures can handle? It feels like everywhere is in just about the same mess these days.

Sounds like Grok is writing policy now.

This was a good supplement to OPs article, thanks.

I’m not sure why governments seem so willing to meet with commercial solutions who profit off these building projects, but not volunteer organizations that are out there working with the people who need these benefits and resources. The quotes from the workers seem to make it really clear how just making beds for individuals with no privacy or safety for their stuff doesn’t really draw in the people that need help. The homeless have families and pets and precious possessions they can’t give up to stay in shelters. A one size fits all approach isn’t going to work while not ending up being something cruel.

For anyone else that doesn’t know this guy, here are the significant wiki bits:

Of the major candidates in the 2024 United States presidential election he said (before Joe Biden withdrew): “I think they’re both too old. I think they’re both incompetent. There’s a good chance I won’t vote for president.” He later said he does intend to vote for one of the two major-party candidates.

Osborn has been registered as nonpartisan since registering to vote in 2004. Although Democrats chose not to run a candidate in the Senate election, Osborn declined their endorsement. The state Democratic Party considered running a write-in candidate, accusing Osborn of misleading them about his intentions, but Osborn said he had always been clear that he would not accept endorsements from any political party. Osborn wanted to form an independent caucus in the Senate rather than caucus with either party. He has called the current system a “two-party doom loop”. The Reform Party of the United States endorsed him in September 2024. Senate Democrats did not engage with or help Osborn’s campaign.

Osborn’s policy positions included raising the national minimum wage; lowering the tax rate for small businesses and overtime work; increasing border security and building the Mexico–United States border wall to stop illegal immigration; reforming the immigration system and exploring ways to legalize some long-term undocumented workers; ensuring resources for law enforcement and first responders; legalizing and taxing marijuana; improving railroad safety; guaranteeing access to abortion within the limits set by Roe v. Wade and opposing a national abortion ban; facilitating union organizing; and protecting gun rights. Osborn supported a “libertarian approach” to hot-button issues and said that government should be kept out of private lives. He supported the right-to-repair of consumer goods such as cars and electronics, raising the cap on Social Security contributions for those with higher incomes and moving the full retirement age for Social Security benefits back to 65.

Osborn supported protecting gun rights and the Second Amendment, while also supporting gun safety education in schools.

Here’s his current platform page where you can get more stances and details.

Doesn’t seem too bad, all considered. I’d take him over my senators (Fetterman (D) / McCormick ®) in PA.

I like he specifically calls out fiscal support for small farms/ranches, not the conglomerates. I dislike his strong support of military/police funding and his vagueness about “border security” isn’t reassuring. But for a strongly held Republican farming state, this guy is probably the best realistic type of candidate to bring in someone different.

That French taco doesn’t sound too bad. Sounds like a crunchy kebab.

I’ve made Canadian style donair with the traditional garlic sauce fries, and this reminds me somewhat of both of those, only put together.

“Next Sunday we will be moving away from the typical bread and wine, in favor of our new sacraments, hunks of Big Mac and Diet Coke.”

Thanks for the links. I hadn’t gotten around to really learning anything about this guy yet.

Most things sounded like basic things a government should do for people. The real “controversy” seems to be that he wants rich people and businesses to chip in more and not get quite as many special privileges at the sale of other people

The city owned grocery stores sound interesting. The one article said other cities have recently started testing the same idea. In Pennsylvania we have state owned liquor stores that have gotten better now that rules have been loosened to create some competition. They’ve traditionally been looked at as a monopoly, limiting selection and keeping prices high.

With it being just city owned stores, they’d seem to still have all the same competition that exists now, but the city could get volume pricing and not have to include massive real estate expenses into the operating costs. If it continues to be run for the benefit of the people and doesn’t line anyone’s pockets, it sounds like it could be a great benefit.

With the low cost housing, one thing I thought while reading is how do you keep those units from being scooped up by investors?

He’s really got a lot of lofty goals, and it seems like a very intense and complicated job if he gets to be mayor. I wish him luck!

I’m grateful it’s off the table for now. We best keep an eye on this guy though, I’m sure he’s not going to quit trying.

We usually get things like the chocolate covered cashews or sea salt caramels. They occasionally have some peanut butter or maybe cashew butter cups and those I remember being really good.

Aldi has such awesome chocolate! Thanks for pointing out the reason.

Pennsylvania, so it varies. My friends are of diverse backgrounds, but my extended family is very red and that was how I was raised.

Most people I talk to just follow what “their people” tell them and don’t learn about it any more. We’re on a political community because we’re into it, but the majority of people don’t know or care beyond the sales pitch they get from whomever their preferred media source is.

I find them more politically ignorant than malicious. They’ll say stupid stuff, but if you can get conversation going to where you can present things in a way that is equitable to most people you get “that sounds like a good idea” but tell them that’s a lefty stance and they dig in their heals and won’t believe it.

I’ll hear them say racist or sexist or homophobic things, but they’ve always been respectful to my girlfriends, my gay friends, and I’ve never actually seen them be rude to anyone they thought for their race. They’re just scared of shit they don’t know. Put something in front of them, they see it isn’t scary, and they can accept it because now it’s familiar.

The in laws are worse than my family, but they all drove 6 hours to the one cousin’s lesbian interracial half Jewish, half Christian wedding. They hated the food because it had flavor, but they didn’t make a deal about it in public, and they had a great time and celebrated them as much as at any other wedding, and they love her and accept them both.

Trust me, the cognitive dissonance blows my mind, and it’s hard to accept the duality that people can talk one way and support hateful things while they could turn around and be nice to the people they were just hating on, but that has been my years of experience with people here.

I got experience outside my bubble and learned to love it. I stopped being selfish, learned empathy for strangers, and started trying to understand issues, even if they didn’t directly affect me. They are capable of that. It might never work, but they’re not hopeless. I can’t say I’ve ever met someone who would look at anyone else and to their face wish harm or struggle upon them. They might not be immediately comfortable around them, but I can’t say anyone would wish something negative for them.

I know people that evil do exist, but I again say that is not the majority of people. Nowhere close to it. If we can’t see the potential of the other third to half of our country, we’re done for.

My patience is only for the everyday people in our lives. Most of them I think are poorly or wrongly informed or just have no interest or understanding of politics. I’m plenty interested in politics and the economy, etc, and I maybe have a solid grip on 1% of what all the government actually does or can do.

Those who are public officials, elected or appointed, or in some other way active participants such as citizen “militias”, Jan 6ers, etc… those people can burn in hell for what they’ve done to this place. They’ve done irreparable harm and did it purposefully over decades. They know and understand what they’re doing. They have no excuse. They’re criminals and traitors to our country.

I assume we’re all somewhere left of center here, so I may have not been clear on that distinction.

I agree with the assessment of willful/blind ignorance. This could hardly be proven more than by Rep. Kat Cammack blaming the Democrats for Florida’s abortion ban almost killing her. But while she almost got her own face eaten by the leopard, there would be some karmic justice there one could argue, but again, to see people in America suffer or die for very preventable conditions is insane to me.

The real upside, if we wish to see one from this spiteful and asinine budget cut, is an opportunity to show we’re not whatever it is they’ve been told we are. Make sure your neighbors and family are ok, if they’re MAGA or not. We can look for revenge, or we can live in an egalitarian way that we’d want things to be. Don’t preach people your beliefs, show them why you believe it. You won’t always win people over, but most folks will remember if you gave them a hand when they needed it and didn’t guilt them or hold something over them, but were just a good human being.

We’re allowed to be mad. We deserve to be mad. But we should still act right. Somebody’s got to be the adult in the room.

The downside is those people have kids that didn’t vote for this.

And while I’d like the people that did vote for this to understand what they supported, I really don’t want them to starve either. It feels more cruel than helpful. If we’re supporting basic human rights, which we should, that includes shitty people, for better or worse.

Agreed. While people should continue to fight politically as well, that is much slower and more stacked against them. They (the MAGAs) have been and continue to lose the lawsuits and civil cases against them. Mike Lindell just lost his $2.3 million defamation case and a Jan 6 rioter lost a $500,000 case for wrongful death of a capital police officer within just the last few days.

While I hope Newsom wins this lawsuit, he’s not going to get my vote in a presidential primary. He can certainly be right in one circumstance and not in another.

I am very aware, as someone in one of Pennsylvania’s blue dots. But I don’t want to live fully encircled by active hostiles.

Close down a few major roadways and it’s siege tactics, and blue areas would get starved out or cut off from water pretty quickly. Most people won’t be fighters, and it just seems like a bad situation.

Plus that red land, while not necessarily lived on is where a lot of food, resources, and commerce is. How much food can we grow or raise in cities. How much defense industry do we have? Where do we get wood or my minerals/ores?

Secession just seems like a way for a lot of people to suffer. We need to get the whole place back, not specks here and there that are dependent on (?).