Michael Ramirez for July 16, 2019

go ahead and thumb your nose at the real Jesus and see what happens when you stand before the Ultimate Judge.

We can learn a lot from Mr. Ramirez’ cartoon, today. Homeless humans = pestilence. Feeding hungry humans = encouraging pestilential humans to eat. Therefore, starvation is a good thing!? Perfect. That is right in line with our (temporary) President’s policies, which are presently in view on the nightly news. So, what should we look forward to?

At least someone cares.

Wait, so you’re saying people are homeless because we’re too liberal? I assume because some feed them, house them, care for them?

Like, what would you have us do? Arrest them? Round them up, bus them to the desert and abandon them?

And are you really comparing the treatment of PEOPLE to feeding animals in the park?

The ’Cons equivalent would be sitting in his or her limousine while briefcases of money from their policies are being poured in. Yea, the ’Cons are too pure to play that game, Mr. Ramirez.

BDDCs do flow to the cities that give them the most benefits and are laxest in enforcing social mores.

Obviously Ramirez knows nothing about homelessness. He should go volunteer at a shelter for a while and learn something.

People do not come to the US for free food. They come here for jobs. They come here to send money home to Mama, wife and family. Immigrants are mostly hard working.

Provocative!

Well there is an obvious solution.. feed them poison like we do to vermin the world over.

It’s OK; the bird seed is free. ;-)

I think CA is the obvious target of this ‘toon. CA has the most homeless people in the country, the greatest wealth divide and the highest median home price in the country except for Hawaii. CA Median house price is well over half a million while the national avg. is around $230k. Rents are the highest in the US, as well. The wealth divide and lack of affordable housing are what has driven the recent dramatic rise in homelessness in CA. Many people have fled to more affordable states – CA has a net negative migration, which is always a bad indicator, especially for a state with a fair climate. However, those on the bottom edge of viability are less mobile and more often than not end up suffering the consequences in place. Yes, liberal dem policies and regulations along with dem controlled local regs are the chief driver behind the very, very high cost of housing. There are certainly other factors that typically exist anywhere you have high housing costs but CA has exacerbated the problem. It’s good to see that some places are getting some state funds to deal with the homeless crisis but I’ve seen no discussion let alone actual efforts to address the root causes.

Ha ha, look at all the oppressed people trying to come to America!

Trump will show them it belongs to rich white republican people, yay!

“Free” stuff…

And yet again, Mikey has chosen to ignore the fact that the homeless population multiplied tremendously because of St Ronnie’s policies. And he has chosen to ignore the latest unimaginable, inconceivable rant from his leader

Question: Where do you suppose all those hungry pigeons came from?

(Other than cities that followed conservative policies of letting them starve in the streets.)

should have had another last panel, with the birds taking flight and leaving the skeleton of the person on the bench

Yes, the alternative of ignoring them and leaving them to die is so much better, isn’t it.

How about we focus on stopping people from becoming homeless in the first place? A huge percentage of homeless youth came from foster care. Many homeless suffer from brain damage and from ailments such as FAS. Veterans and others suffering from PTSD often end up homeless… how about directing our resources towards these people and go to the source of the problem, rather than the typical Conservative solution of blaming them for their misfortune, or the typical Liberal solution of waiting until they are homeless then throwing money at shelters.

I thought the Republican economy was paradise for everyone,

so why is homelessness increasing?

In Ramirez mind, Liberal policies that help everyone, including the homeless, overtaking the fascist christian conservative control of our cities is frightening to him.

Those crumbs are jobs.

Being contrary… Pigeons do not equal pestilence. Neither do rats equal pestilence. Living in cities and anti-vaxxers cause epidemics, pandemics.

so Ramirez’s argument that providing shelter, housing, food, and services CAUSES homeless. Really? I guess umbrellas cause rain then, too. Brilliant!

The solution to the homeless problem is obvious and used by many cities.

You just buy them a one way bus ticket to a different city. Problem solved.

Ramirez, as silent as any Republican on the racist tweets. Typical…

We have a large and growing homeless population in my town/city. We have evidence from several experiments that giving the homeless actual homes (apartments, tiny houses, whatever) is the least expensive way to change the homeless population from “a problem” to “a system”. We also have a lot of evidence from careful studies that homeless people do not migrate toward liberal places. They_do_ to some extent migrate to good climates for living outside, but even that’s not a big trend. And…

In my town, even trying to site a homeless shelter, even if only during the winter… has been a real ongoing problem for more than a decade. The folks who have good intentions, science, and money cannot seem to get past the NIMBYs who have (at best) disdain and money. And one of the NIMBYs’ most repeated lies is that “putting up a shelter will attract more problems.” Anecdote, not study: My wife’s church hosted a free meal several times a week, offered a warm dry “coffee on the house” room where folks could gather, talk, play games or do puzzles etc every weekday, and also provided sleeping bags, soap, socks and tents to those who needed them. There were probably an average of 90 people per meal and probably 20 to 70 each day at the coffee house. The rugs and plumbing did in fact get a lot of wear, but once they figured out how to deal with the most difficult ones -and there were some - (the solution: Hire one of them to be a “white knight” aka bouncer), there were no more problems with the homeless than they had before they began that mission and than they’ve had after they stopped it (grant funding for doing all that was removed and to some extent redirected).

Those are pigeons, they are Republicans….

There are 6 empty homes per homeless person in the U.S. Many are owned by banks that foreclosed (sometimes without proper paperwork) after the 2007 – 2008 meltdown.

Many of the homeless have mental health issues. Others have a problem getting a job because of a criminal or drug history. Others have just had a lot of bad luck.

There are many areas that are becoming unaffordable. When low income housing is proposed, the neighborhood screams “NIMBY”.

Utah reduced homelessness by 91% but funding has dried up and homelessness is increasing again.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-homelessness-housing/once-a-national-model-utah-struggles-with-homelessness-idUSKCN1P41EQ

Finally, at long last, Ramirez found or bought a clue. Hunger cannot be addressed at only a local level. Thank God we have a great liberal constitutional republic where national problems get national solutions.

Even notice how conservatives constantly bring up how screwed up liberal-run cities are, but never offer up conservative examples of how things SHOULD be done?

Think it was Lehrer who wrote Mike and the Republicans solution and theme song; “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”.

Right… And of course, what cities like San Francisco have been doing up to now has worked out SO well.