‘Racist’ Trees Cause Controversy in Palm Springs

Palm Springs, California: Race-conscious activists want the city to chop down a grove of 60-year old tamarisk trees, labeling them ‘racist’, because they border a golf course and separate it from a black residential neighborhood. The claim is that the motive for planting them was unacceptable. If they had been planted to separate a white neighborhood from the golf course, that would have been acceptable but not to separate it from a black neighborhood. [Does anyone see a flaw in this proposal? Or is it a flaw in the people making the proposal?] -GEG

A Federal Judge Partially Lifts Trump’s Refugee Ban

President Trump’s immigration ban includes a 90-day suspension of admission of refugees from 11 countries, and a full suspension of the so-called follow-to-join process, which reunites family members with refugees already in the US. However, US District Judge, James Robart of the federal court in Seattle, ruled that the federal government must process refugee applications for people “with a bona fide relationship to a person or entity within the United States.” This ruling was in spite of the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump’s ban was Constitutional. The lower court challenges were brought by a Jewish pro-immigration group and the ACLU.

A federal judge in Seattle has partially lifted the latest Trump administration ban on refugees.

U.S. District Judge James Robart of the federal court in Seattle on Saturday ruled that the federal government must process refugee applications for people “with a bona fide relationship to a person or entity within the United States.”

The new set of restrictions on refugees include a minimum 90-day suspension of admission of refugees from 11 countries, nine of which are predominantly Muslim, and a suspension of the so-called follow-to-join process, which reunites family members with refugees already in the United States.

The ruling to allow the reuniting of refugees with family members in the United States was in response to two challenges heard in court on Thursday. One of the challenges – Jewish Family Service v. Trump, was brought by HIAS, the Jewish immigration advocacy group, on behalf of its partners, Jewish Family Service of Seattle and Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley. The second case was ACLU of WA v. Trump.

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California’s High Property Prices Force Workers and Seniors to Live in Their Cars

The cost-of-property and rentals in the state of California has become so high that many middle-class workers, seniors, and disabled people are forced to live in their cars.

Hundreds of people are sleeping in parking lots in areas like Santa Barbara
Rising cost of rent and housing has forced middle class workers to take up residence in their cars to make ends meet
Most of those sleeping rough in cars are part of the area’s Safe Parking program
It is run by the New Beginnings Counseling Center and aims to provide a secure area for the homeless to sleep in their vehicle

The rising cost of rent and housing in California is forcing residents into alternative accommodation with middle class workers taking up residence in their cars and RVs by the side of the road to make ends meet.

Hundreds of people, including nurses and chefs, are sleeping in parking lots in affluent areas like Santa Barbara as they make the most of the only homes they can afford.

Marva Ericson, who works as a nursing assistant, has been sleeping in her Kia for the past three months. She wakes up before dawn each day, showers at the local YMCA and dresses in her hospital scrubs to head to work.

I wake up and I say, ‘Thank you God for keeping me safe last night, and thank you for the Safe Parking program’,’ the 48-year-old told the LA Times.

Like Ericson, most of the people sleeping rough in their cars are part of the area’s Safe Parking program, which is run by the New Beginnings Counseling Center and aims to provide a secure area for the homeless to sleep in their vehicles.

The program has roughly 150 clients and 40 per cent of those are working but they just can’t afford an apartment with the rising cost of housing.

About 35 per cent of those in the program are seniors and about 30 per cent are disabled. The majority are living out of their small cars with only 25 per cent sleeping in RVs.

Ericson ended up homeless after a series of medical set backs. She suffered a number of seizures that forced her to quit her job and was eventually diagnosed with a brain tumor.

She overcame the illness while caring for her dying mother and is now working two different jobs to make ends meet. Up until three months ago, Ericson was living in apartments for $1,000-1,600 a month but became homeless when she fell behind in rent.

Kathy, 65, and Phil, 74, have been living together in their old RV after losing their condo in 2013.

‘I was always into December and making the house wonderfully warm and beautiful,’ Kathy said of the holiday season. ‘I’ve got some little lights on the ceiling of the RV and I got out my mom’s old snow globe, with a music box on it.’

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Surging Rents: 30% of American Adults Now Live with a Roommate

A new study from Zillow shows that a record 30% of American single adults, up from 21% in 2005, have been compelled to take on roommates to afford monthly rent payments. High rents have resulted from central banking policies that provide low-interest loans that drive up asset bubbles (like real estate) while wage growth is minimal. -GEG

A staggering new analysis from Zillow highlights perfectly the unintended consequences of central banking policies that drive massive asset bubbles but minimal job/wage growth. According to the study, surging home prices and rising rents have now resulted in a record 30% of American adults, up from 21% in 2005, being forced take on roommates just to afford monthly rent payments.

As rent consumes a growing share of household income in many cities, some people must relocate or find ways to offset rising prices. An increasingly popular way to cut costs is by adding a roommate. Nationally, 30 percent of working-age adults—aged 23 to 65—live in doubled-up households, up from a low of 21 percent in 2005 and 23 percent in 1990.

We define a doubled-up household as one in which at least two working-age, unmarried or un-partnered adults live together. For example, a 25-year-old son living with his middle-aged parents would constitute a doubled-up household, as would two 23-year-old roommates who are not partnered to each other. A doubled-up household contains people who might choose to live apart under different circumstances, financial or otherwise.

Not surprisingly, large metropolitan areas like New York, LA, Miami and San Francisco saw the highest percentage of their adult populations doubling up on housing.

“As rents have outpaced incomes, living alone is no longer an option for many working-aged adults,” said Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas. “By sharing a home with roommates — or in some cases, with adult parents — working adults are able to afford to live in more desirable neighborhoods without shouldering the full cost alone. But this phenomenon is not limited to expensive cities. The share of adults living with roommates has been on the rise in historically more affordable rental markets as well. Unless current dynamics shift and income growth exceeds rent growth for a sustained period of time, this trend is unlikely to change.”

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Sweden: Citizen Journalist Dies After Announcing Video Exposing Leftist Organization Funded by Soros

Bechir Rabani, an ethnic Palestinian migrant who became a genuine Swedish nationalist, was well known for his opposition to mass immigration and multiculturalism. He was found dead in his apartment shortly after releasing a video about Robert Aschberg, director of a communist organization funded by George Soros.

Bechir Rabani was a brave journalist who infiltrated Swedish Antifa and confronted globalists. In this video, made in March 2017, he turns the tables on a journalist and his boss, the editor-in-chief at Expressen, a far-left newspaper, by going to their homes to interview them on video. The journalist exposed and publicly shamed a Swedish citizen, ‘Fabian’, who had complained online about government policies. Rabani was dangerous to the establishment because he was a fervent nationalist who was exhorting Swedes to unite to become powerful, and he showed them how to demolish political correctness that threatens free speech in Europe.

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