won’t
let
people
forget
either!’
(Photo
by
DON
EMMERT/AFP
via
Getty
Images)
We’ve
finally
got
a
Stalin
to
call
our
own.
Just
like
Soviet
Russia,
homelessness
is
now
basically
a
criminal
offense,
thanks
to
Trump’s
latest
executive
order,
which
pretends
it’s
about
crime
but
actually
just
wants
to
put
homelessness
people
in
places
where
other
Americans
won’t
be
inconvenienced
by
them.
Like
most
Trump
executive
orders, it’s
got
Orwell
all
over
it:
“Ending
Crime
And
Disorder
On
America’s
Streets”
What’s
the
crime
and
disorder
so
troubling
it
needs
yet
another
executive
order
that
further
expands
the
power
of
US
law
enforcement
past
the
troubling
amount
it
already
possesses?
Tough
to
say,
since
it’s
the
president
saying
it,
and
he’s
never
been
great
with
words.
Even
with
ghostwriters,
this
is
barely
coherent:
Endemic
vagrancy,
disorderly
behavior,
sudden
confrontations,
and
violent
attacks
have
made
our
cities
unsafe.
The
number
of
individuals
living
on
the
streets
in
the
United
States
on
a
single
night
during
the
last
year
of
the
previous
administration
—
274,224
—
was
the
highest
ever
recorded.
The
overwhelming
majority
of
these
individuals
are
addicted
to
drugs,
have
a
mental
health
condition,
or
both.
Nearly
two-thirds
of
homeless
individuals
report
having
regularly
used
hard
drugs
like
methamphetamines,
cocaine,
or
opioids
in
their
lifetimes.
An
equally
large
share
of
homeless
individuals
reported
suffering
from
mental
health
conditions.
The
Federal
Government
and
the
States
have
spent
tens
of
billions
of
dollars
on
failed
programs
that
address
homelessness
but
not
its
root
causes,
leaving
other
citizens
vulnerable
to
public
safety
threats.
Yep.
Drink
that
all
in.
DID
YOU
VOTE
FOR
THIS,
REGRETFUL
TRUMP
VOTERS?
The
first
sentence
does
a
lot
of
conflation
in
service
of
the
ultimate
goal.
It
also
does
the
usual
bloodlust
thing
where
it
pretends
US
crime
rates
are
the
worst
they’ve
ever
been
while
not-so-slyly
insinuating
the
(made-up)
crime
problem
is
the
result
of
too much compassion
towards
the
less-fortunate.
The
conflation
is
followed
by
stats
that
aren’t
supported
by
any
citations.
And
that’s
followed
by
two
compounded
assertions
(again,
without
citations
to
supporting
facts)
that
most
homeless
people
are
both
(1)
addicted
to
hard
drugs,
and
(2)
suffering
from
mental
health
conditions.
The
final
claim
is
the
lousiest,
at
least
in
this
context.
Trump
claims
the
government
has
wasted
billions
of
dollars
trying
to
“address”
homelessness
while
never
bothering
to
examine
the
root
causes.
Trump
expects
you
to
just
sort
of
ride
that
wave
of
bullshit
into
the
next
paragraph
—
one
that
reveals
Trump
will
also
spend
billions
of
dollars
without
addressing
the
root
causes
of
homelessness!
Brace
yourself.
It
gets
ugly
almost
immediately.
Shifting
homeless
individuals
into
long-term
institutional
settings
for
humane
treatment
through
the
appropriate
use
of
civil
commitment
will
restore
public
order.
Surrendering
our
cities
and
citizens
to
disorder
and
fear
is
neither
compassionate
to
the
homeless
nor
other
citizens.
My
Administration
will
take
a
new
approach
focused
on
protecting
public
safety.
Hell
yeah,
we’re
bringing
back
involuntary
commitment!
(Maybe
the
draft
will
be
next!)
It’s
time
to exhume
John
Kellogg and
see
if
he
can’t
enema
the
homelessness
out
of
the
homeless.
Or,
more
likely,
we’ll
just
see
whether
it’s
possible
to torture the
homeless
out
of
people
in
federal
institutions
that
are
only
indistinguishable
from
prisons
by
the
orderlies’
willingness
to
be even more
inhumane than
the
average
screw.
It’s
clear
Trump
prefers
the
indefinite
discomfort
of
the
unhoused
to
the
momentary
“disorder
and
fear”
he
claims
routinely
bother
citizens
who
actually
have
houses
and
acceptable
levels
of
substance
abuse.
It’s
unclear
where
all
of
these
unhoused
people
will
be
forcibly
housed
because
the
man
who
laid
the
groundwork
for
this
hateful
brand
of
conservatism
basically burned
that
system
to
the
ground during
his
eight
years
in
office.
(Trust
me,
there
are
also
a
lot
of
eugenics
enthusiasts
behind
this
resurrection
of
forcible
commitment
because
throwing
“subpar”
humans
into
inhumane
circumstances
has
always
put
the
lead
in
their
pencil.
This
administration
has
no
shortage
of
people
with
a
head
full
of
bad
wiring
willing
to
push
people
out
the
Overton
window
for
the
next
four
years,
knowing
there’s
a
pardon
in
their
future
if
they
happen
to
go a
bit
too
Special-K during
this
particular
purge.)
First
against
the
wall
en
route
to
the
padded
room:
(i)
enforce
prohibitions
on
open
illicit
drug
use;
(ii)
enforce
prohibitions
on
urban
camping
and
loitering;
(iii)
enforce
prohibitions
on
urban
squatting;
Legalize
weed
all
you
want
but
it’s
still
a
federal
crime,
so
get
used
to
being
abused,
pot
smokers
who
look
possibly
unable
to
pay
rent.
As
to
anyone
else
not
fortunate
enough
to
have
a
roof
over
your
head,
you’ll
soon
have
one,
even
though
it
won’t
actually
be
anyplace
anyone
would
willingly
call
“home.”
This
is
just
ground
work,
which
is
ghastly
considering
how
awful
it
already
is.
There’s
an
undercurrent
that
suggests
anyone
not
living
in
the
way
the
Trump
government
wants
them
to
probably
has
mental
health
issues.
Nothing
in
this
order
suggests
the
erection
of
affordable
multi-family
housing
might
reduce
homelessness.
Nothing
in
the
order
suggests
expanding
the
social
service
safety
net
might
prevent
more
people
from
becoming
homeless.
That
vacuum
is
instead
filled
with
presumptions
about
the
inherent
dangerousness
of
homeless
people,
which
allows
the
administration
to
justify
them
being
detained
en
masse
and
tossed
into
whatever
federal
institution
is
still
semi-operable.
The
only
mention
of
funds
being
allocated
are
directed
solely
towards”removal”
efforts
targeting
homeless
people.
The
only
mention
of
addressing
mental
health
issues
is
a
series
of
restrictions
that
threaten
to
remove
even more funding
from
existing
social
programs
if
they
can’t
demonstrate
(using
getting-set-up-for-failure
metrics)
what
they
do
actually
reduces
homelessness.
Most
specifically,
the
administration
says
there
will
be no additional
funds
allocated
for
actually
providing
housing
for
people
currently
without
homes.
These
actions
shall
include,
to
the
extent
permitted
by
law,
ending
support
for
“housing
first”
policies
that
deprioritize
accountability
and
fail
to
promote
treatment,
recovery,
and
self-sufficiency.
“Pull
yourself
up
by
your
bootstraps,”
says
the
Trump
administration,
which
first
takes
your
boots
because
you’re
probably
just
using
them
to
stash
drugs
and
then
your
bootstraps
because
you
might
try
to
hang
yourself
with
them.
Now
that
Trump
has
decided
it’s
okay
to
lock
up
the
homeless
for
being
homeless
while
pretending
it’s
all
about
providing
(forcibly
applied)
mental
health
care,
it’s
only
a
matter
of
time
before
he
moves
on
to
the
rest
of
the
people
he
thinks
are
sick
in
the
head,
ranging
from
transgender
people
seeking
psychiatric
assistance
to
political
opponents
he
routinely
publicly
disparages
as
insane,
stupid,
or
otherwise
mentally
deficient.
This
is
undiluted
evil
from
an
administration
that’s
no
longer
even
willing
to
pretend
its
ultimate
goal
is
to
secure
their
existence
and
a
future
for
whatever
children
are
considered
white
enough
to
be
given
an
opportunity
to
thrive
in
the
former
Land
of
the
Free
—
a
downhill
slope
greased
with
the
blood
of
the
less
fortunate,
overseen
by
an
administration
that
is
nothing
more
than
a
bunch
of
greasy,
overfed
thumbs
pressing
down
on
the
scales
of
justice.
Trump
Administration
Says
It’s
Going
To
Start
Locking
Up
Homeless
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