Subject: Re: Vote Republican, cut ACA
You said the entire list was nothing more than the reheated sardine sandwich known as Marxism. Since the list included a whole host of different and disparate policy prescriptions, everything from gun regulation to a path to citizenship to anti-trust regulation to progressive taxation, labelling all such ideas as "Marxist" certainly seemed like you were arguing that all Democratic proposals were Marxist.

Oh, so your list is representative of the entire democrat party?

Marxism involves the complete abolition of private ownership of the means of production and total collective control of the entire economy - you can't just point to something that's directionally increasing collective action (however slightly) and claim it's Marxism, any more than you can point to something that's directionally deregulating an activity and claim it's Anarchism. Marxism and Anarchism involve a degree or level of collective regulation and ownership (or none) - not a direction.

Sure I can. Especially when you yourself want government healthcare for all via Medicare.
Top-down government control via a pool of "experts" is Marxist to the core - which party constantly tells us to Shut Up And Listen To The Experts? Of course this "policy prescription" is predicated on having a group of "experts" who actually understand the thing they're supposed to be in charge of.

Do you not also have discussions in generalities? Fail to present your opinions in the form of a White Paper, identifying specific tax brackets and what income levels they should be cut off at or the specific provisions of the CFR you think should be modified in support of your ideas? I don't recall you - or me or anyone - coming in with the level of specificity you are describing here.

You mean besides yours truly citing source material and/or basic documents to propose or promote an idea?
That's all me, my man. None of your running buddies ever have.

But let's give it a shot - what's your policy prescription to solve homelessness?

Wow. Glad you asked! Because I've covered this AT LENGTH in the past.

First off, homelessness is a local issue best dealt with at the city/county level.
Second off, homelessness is generally is problem with drug addiction or mental illness. It's not Amazon's fault or some other Big Massive Corporation's fault that a drug addicted and/or mentally ill person is living on the streets: they tended to landed there based on actions they've taken at some point in their lives.

What doesn't work? Enabling their drug addiction. Taking a drug addled person and dropping them into taxpayer subsidized housing that has zero accountability, zero rules for living there. All that gets you is a destructive drug addict inside a shelter and pretty soon your shelter is destroyed, too.

So what does work?

1. Person to person outreach.
We Heart Seattle started with one woman who'd had enough of her neighborhood (South Lake Union in Seattle) being home to tents, garbage and discarded drug needles. She started doing something by going out and picking up litter near homeless camps by herself and now WHS is an outstanding organization that makes contact with people in tents and connects them with services 1:1 and/or their families. Their success rate in getting people off the street is orders of magnitude better than the city of Seattle programs. In fact, their litter picks are often staffed by ex-homeless who now want to give something back to the community:

https://weheartseattle.org/

2. Accountability.
You can't keep enabling bad behavior; if you're going to integrate somebody into society then they have to be made to understand that societies have rules and expectations. This means a night in lockup for low level assaults, shoplifting, littering, graffiti, etc.

Know why junkies really fear a night in jail? Because withdrawal's a bitch. Ergo, you can't let small crimes slide - you have to break up the homeless bike chop shops and put those people in jail for the property crimes they routinely commit. You also don't let them block streets with their RVs and trailers nor do you let them behead geese in public parks. (Routine features in the city of Seattle).

Since someone will whine about a link, here. Don't say I didn't warn you: https://www.facebook.com/story...

3. Drug addiction treatment.
Ironically, the very best program in the entire country is from a blue state: Rhode Island's Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program. It starts with getting prisoners in jail hooked up with addiction services then follows through with care after release:

https://bhddh.ri.gov/substance...

Their recidivism rate among people who've gone through the program is *shockingly* low. In other words, it works.
See? Not all democrat ideas are bad!. When democrats embrace logic and winning ideas, I'll praise them.

The state of Washington has unused facilities that could be a perfect home for a WA MAT-style program.

Outreach + Accountability + Addiction Services = = Fixing homelessness.

Enabling a drug addict to do more drugs nets you more overdoses as well as unsafe parks. WHS routinely removes foil and other drug paraphernalia from parks:
https://www.facebook.com/share...

So there you go. Specific, measurable, actionable proposals. Best part is, it works in blue states already.