Comments

2

"We must follow California’s lead and dramatically expand programs to create new occupied hotel rooms and new shelter spaces until every person and family has a place to go."

Oh yeah, build hotel rooms for every homeless person. The greater morality is to actually keep homelessness a situation to be avoided. In addition, there are some homeless who want to remain homeless.

4

It would be great if one good, permanent change could happen as a result of this unmitigated shit show. This country could have ended homelessness at any time in its history and has chosen not to do so. If COVID-19 and all of the sickness and death caused by it ends homelessness in this country forever, I'll take it.

Do I think this society will actually do that? No fucking way. Americans are greedy, stupid, hateful and obsessed with themselves (fuck everyone else even each other). Right now most people in this country are just hoping all of the homeless people die so they don't have to deal with them anymore. All people in this society do is vilify and demonize the poor, the sick, the addicted, the mentally ill, anyone and everyone who needs help of any kind because goddamn it they ruin it for everyone else. Anyone not contributing 100% to the profit margin of billionaires in this country is just a taker. Why do you think so many people want all of the old people to die as a sacrifice for everyone else?

5

You're gonna cure sloth and heroin addiction?

I wish you luck!

6

Americans are ...
Most people ...
All people ...
Anyone not ...
So many people ...

@4 - You'd be a lot more interesting, and far less tedious, if you nuanced just a tad.

9

Oh my god! Are you telling me that all this time my priorities have been out of whack? That's it!

I am quitting my job tomorrow, taking all my savings and retirement and blowing all it on coke and heroin! And the rest, everyone else will pay for! :) I will never get arrested, because cops always let homeless junkies off the hook! And get my meals, all while living in a luxury suite! Sign me up!

10

Troll one and Troll two asking for nuance on the comment thread of SLOG, that's fucking hilarious. Nuance? Generalizations are accurate in these cases, look around you, There is literally reams of facts, statistics, proof all around you. You can find it yourself. It's easily acquired information. it's not complicated. If you can tippy type nasty comments here you can Google the shit for yourself. Why do trolls always need to be spoon fed like babies? And then if you do spoon feed them they just complain about what you've fed them. Nuance? Truth? Facts? Reality? Troll one and troll two and all of their friends are not interested in any of that. You are fuller of shit and stupidity than Trump on his golden throne having to flush 15 times as he unleashes his insanity on the world. All of you need pacifiers.

12

@4 - in all seriousness, why do you stay here?

14

Point #1 - We were told by the United Way more than a decade ago that we were "ending homelessness in 10 years!" Well, heh heh...nope. So kibosh on your point that we've been told it was unsolvable. What we WERE told, however, was that we needed to hand over more of our money and it would get fixed. It's very possible it could have been, or could be - but it isn't going to be by the goon platoon that has occupied our civic position of elected leadership over those years.

Point #2 - I don't disagree that a lot of people suddenly found housing very fast in the face of the pandemic. It certainly reveals the dithering and feckless spending that has transpired in the years before.

Point #3 - I also don't disagree that it would be pretty awful to put these folks back out on the street after this is over, but...

Point #4 - What do we do with the folks who don't LIKE a structured life, with that pesky social worker who keeps subtly pushing about heroin/meth/booze/whatever? When they want to leave the hotel and join their buds at Ballard Commons for a do-what-thou-wilt lifestyle, do we let them pitch that tent in the park? Shit on the parking strip? Steal packages from porches? Is that my thanks for paying more taxes to provide the services you and I both agree are important?

15

@3 - "real people" ??? Way to negate their humanity, brah.

16

Now we get to pretend like we spent at least as much on homeless in the last year as we gave to the richest people in America in the last month.

17

@1,

Do you have a proposal to solve the problem that doesn't involve more money?

18

@12 In all seriousness, why do you believe I want to leave or even if I wanted to that I am in any position to leave? Why do people like you believe that people who do not like the way things are here should leave and go somewhere else? Love it or leave it is the motto of the stupid and the complacent and the white male shit bags who like things the way they are fuck everyone else for wanting anything.

Seems I was brought up in a different world than you. Do you have any concept of history at all? Even regarding the conception of this country? Seriously? Because love it or leave it is lazy. Love it or leave it is empty and baseless and requires nothing. Love it or leave it is a turd.

By your logic any and all advances this country has made (civil rights, women's rights, voters' rights, gay rights, workers' rights, etc.) are just totally pointless and if all of the people who hated how things were here had just left the country would be just fine. By your logic any and all problems our society currently faces and all of the people who are unhappy with them existing, well they are just the way things are and everyone who doesn't like it should leave.

Where exactly in the world should we go? By my logic the problems here exist everywhere (the extent to which they exist depends on the location), so how would it be any different anywhere else?

22

Coronavirus Will Change the World Permanently. Here’s How.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/19/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579

The rules we’ve lived by won’t all apply.

All along, evictions were avoidable; the homeless could’ve been housed and sheltered in government buildings; water and electricity didn’t need to be turned off for people behind on their bills; paid sick leave could‘ve been a right for all workers; paying your mortgage late didn’t need to lead to foreclosure; and debtors could’ve been granted relief. President Donald Trump has already put a freeze on interest for federal student loans, while New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has paused all medical and student debt owed to New York State. Democrats and Republicans are discussing suspending collection on—or outright canceling—student loans as part of a larger economic stimulus package.

It’s clear that in a crisis, the rules don’t apply—which makes you wonder why they are rules in the first place. This is an unprecedented opportunity to not just hit the pause button and temporarily ease the pain, but to permanently change the rules so that untold millions of people aren’t so vulnerable to begin with.

23

@3:

I hate to break it to you, but homeless people are "real people" just like you and me. But homeless.

24

"we can't throw money at the problem" say people who want to throw money at failing corporations and endless wars

27

@18: You are a rockstar xina. <3

28

@27 thank you. i can't help myself, even if i am just screaming into the void.

29

@27, 28:

Two thumbs up.

30

@28 - Obviously you're enjoying it, as we all are. Typically, humans don't do things they don't enjoy doing.

31

@18 - I am in no way saying "love it or leave it" (I agree that is lazy, and am old enough to recall the asshats who used it as their response to everyone who wanted to change anything in the '60s and '70s). But your posts are filled with what really seems like unbridled hate for pretty much all of us. We're all assholes who don't care about anyone else,"greedy, stupid, hateful," "most Americans" want all the homeless to die, etc.

I know many many people who are dissatisfied with the state of things here and are trying to get things to change. None of us think that everyone who is unhappy should just leave. The idea that I think changes like women's rights, gay rights, etc. are "pointless" is ludicrous.

There is a big difference between wanting constructive change in the country (which pretty much everyone I know wants) and just hating hating hating on everyone here. Rage at the system is different than the rage you are directing at almost all of us as individuals. I don't know you and would not presume to suggest where you should go, but it is honestly very hard to imagine how you can stand to live among us when I read the things that you say about "all Americans" or "most Americans." Maybe you do see something in this society that can be redeemed but it certainly doesn't show in what you say.

I honestly don't bear you any ill will, and hope you find some kind of happiness at some point.

33

@31: She wasn't talking to you, she was talking to a sour old troll. If you're not the sort of person xina rails against then don't sweat. I mean I certainly don't ever feel personally attacked when xina speaks in generalities and that's because, like you, I know I'm not who she's talking to or about.
Xina never bows to a troll and she always counters their shit with facts and citations.
You know they say when you post or comment you're not really talking to the others in the thread so much as all the people reading and not necessarily chiming in. Slog is where xina fights the fight and brings receipts. That information benefits us all. She is a rockstar for that, but you're right, that doesn't mean it doesn't take a toll on her or that her anger doesn't come from pain.

Now, one of the riot of the unregistered will probably take our moment of sincerity and compassion and take what they think is a cleverly tagged shit on it.
They're the ones you actually described when you wrote
"Your posts are filled with what really seems like unbridled hate for pretty much all of us".
Not xina.

34

@31 I am in no position to go anywhere. So telling me to go somewhere or believing I can go somewhere else is pure fantasy. As for my comments here I AM extremely angry and disillusioned. You call out my comments as being directed at you and people here as individuals. Sorry you feel that way. Why do you feel that way? Do you engage in behaviors I call out here? Do you have beliefs I call out as despicable here? Do you read the comments here? Seriously, do you read what is expressed here by your "fellow man?" (and I am not even talking about the nasty comments about me, viciously attacking me or other individuals personally, mostly the women who express opinions), I am talking about the commentary in general. You come off as a concern troll. You are not concerned about me.

What people write here is just a microcosm of the society at large and it is so sick and so disturbing and so unbelievably RELENTLESS. The endless vitriol against the homeless, people wanting affordable housing (any rights for tenants), people wanting livable wages (and $15/hr is not a livable wage in most cities and certainly not in Seattle), people who believe health care is something everyone has a right to have access to, people who believe black people should not be gunned down by cops on a daily basis, people who are sick and horrified by daily mass shootings in the name of murder weapon obsession and worship, people who believe in a woman's right to her own body, people who are liberal, (the list could go on endlessly)... Then there is the constant worship of corporations and unmitigated capitalism, the endless insistence that wealthy people and corporations don't need to pay taxes because because because... Then there is the constant denial of other people's reality, other people's experiences, other people's humanity, even other people's existence.

I don't even have the words to describe how sick I am of this country's vilification of the poor, the homeless, the sick, the elderly, the people who work hard in this country (but are deemed too stupid and irrelevant to deserve a living wage or the right to have health care or humanity or dignity or respect >>> like so many of the now "essential " workers in this pandemic), the disabled, anyone in need of any kind, anyone not interested in tearing down everyone else in the pursuit of getting whatever the fuck it is THEY want and what THEY believe THEY deserve.

I am sick and fucking tired of a non-representative government that does nothing for the people and everything for itself. I am sick to fucking death of witnessing decades of people having to fight for the same rights over and over and over and over and over because so many people believe that other people don't deserve those rights. I am sick to fucking death of the denial of reality and facts and truth. I am sick of the white supremacist ideology and privilege that permeates everything in this country from birth to death. I am sick to fucking death of the misogynist ideology and male privilege that permeates everything in this country from birth to death.

Trump and his Republican enablers are destroying everything and they are getting away with it. His ability to be absolutely and thoroughly incapable in every possible way to do the job he has been given (that he stole outright from Hillary Clinton with aid from Russia, now proven without a doubt by the Intelligence Committee in Congress) and the fact that he continues to be enabled and emboldened and allowed to do as he pleases by the rest of the GOP and corrupt, criminal, craven people who have decided this is how they get what they want is something I am absolutely incapable of comprehending.

Our current reality and Trump's endless insanity (DRINK BLEACH!!!) is a one I am not able to navigate rationally. I see no way out of the wholesale destruction being done. It is an incomprehensible level of hate and destruction and nihilism. Trump's entire "presidency" has been a total cluster fuck of epic proportion. It is surreal and extraordinarily disturbing. It has exposed just how sick, dysfunctional, and pretty much irredeemable the people in this country are.

No, I do not see anything in this society that can be redeemed. I feel like we are all living in our extinction event - but it's not going to be like we all feared - a nuclear war and an instant ceasing to exist - it is going to be long and painful and it is going to take an excruciating amount of time and going to involve an excruciating amount of suffering. I won't be alive when it's finally over. I also don't have to be happy about being forced to live through it while I am alive. And please refrain from telling me to kill myself thank you very much.

35

I'm surprised nobody at informed Erik Houser of the work by the paper's former reporter Erica C. Barnett showing that only 95 of the ballyhooed 1900 were actually new living spaces. The rest are a combination of unpacking spaces for existing shelters and hospital beds and such for homeless COVID-19 patients. Separately, the main way coronavirus has changed my state of homelessness is by making it impossible for me to spend much time inside. So I devoutly hope he's wrong in saying "We can't go back". After the past weeks, I REALLY don't want to spend the rest of my life outside.

37

New rule, if we give homeless free housing and/or guaranteed income we also pass law that if they are subsequently found back on the street they are immediately arrested and imprisoned.

38

@34: Do you have any "blessings" to count?

40

Ah 404 and his buddy Rainy, like clockwork. Please excuse me while I eye roll myself into another dimension.

41

@40: I know, right? And GreenArrow and the the aptly named ballsack. But I will say that in a sense Raindrop is right that there are still blessings in this world, and your heart is one of them.
It's hard to resist despair, something ironically you and 404 have in common, but I read something recently that helps me to fight it:
"However long you may live, the world will never lose its ability to surprise you with its beauty." It's for that, that we fight. It's for that, that I want you to hang on.
<3

42

@41: Indeed Lissa, that is very true.

Ok xina, name something, anything, that you are enjoying today or this weekend. Devoid of politics or the covid-19 crisis. Or does that give you an eye-roll too?

43

@41 I have plenty that I enjoy and for which I am grateful, even 14 years in with a horror show of a progressive, degenerative neuromuscular disease that will ultimately take my life. My life is full of people and personal triumphs. Until I became sick I lived my life exactly as I chose to and did everything I ever wanted to do in this life EXCEPT travel the world.

I don't see why I should have to write about my personal life and how I spend my days or what brings me happiness and joy in my life, HERE. No one else does.

My feelings about the shit show state of this country and how unbelievably fucked we are is not about me personally. What is happening around us in this country and this world is beyond bad. Pretending otherwise is denial of reality. I am able to exist in both places at once - my personal daily life and joy found within it, despite everything - and the reality of humanity as a whole that is in full on destruction mode. I actually care about humanity and sit and watch in absolute horror how humans treat other humans, how humans never seem to learn, how humans are hell bent on not only destroying each other and the only planet on which we all have to live, but are succeeding in doing so (and in some cases are taking great pleasure in that destruction).

The relentless nihilism exhibited by those who seem to believe they can take everything (all of the wealth and power) and destroy everyone and everything else they hate and still somehow have something left after that is not just incomprehensible it is deranged and delusional. I am exhausted by it. I am literally sick to death of it.

45

@43: Thank you. You're quite passionate and verbose, so although you don't have to write about your personal life you shouldn't be surprised if some feel you have no respite from the anxiety of all troubles of the world that cause you relentless despair.

Your empathy level is exceedingly high. When you don't see that same level in others it causes you anxiety, and maybe that's a stress you can triage.

46

@44 - you're a complete asshole.

47

@44 That's all you've got? Only an incel believes other people aren't getting fucked because they are so bitter they aren't and never will. I live in a DWD state, so I get to choose when and how I die, when the need arises, so you wishing I die slowly and painfully will never happen. That must really chafe your ass, huh? Which is worse? My getting fucked on the regular or my not dying the way you wish I would?

48

@36 -- Just how many times did you beat off to the collected works of Leni Riefenstahl while you posted that?

49

@46: Oh yeah, TeeHee's got the personal charm of a backed up septic tank.

50

@48: Indeed! They kept edging riiiiiiiight up to chanting blood and soil.

52

"Your" and "your". Lol. Whoopsie.:)

53

@51 & 52: Starting earlier and earlier apparently. I also see that your sexual insecurities regarding who penetrates who are on full display as usual.

54

It's easy to get mad at someone who is very negative about the world when some of us (and I fall into this category) don't see the world as so dire. But the debate is not merely philosophical and academic: xina is genuinely hurting.

For me, it's time to lay off barking at xina. I'm going to try to restrain myself from reacting. This covid-19 crisis is getting very real, and I realize every day how I've been underestimating its impact and future impact.

I got to do my part to dial down the heated discourse.

55

@51 No one believes anything you say, let alone who you are pretending to me. You are clearly a woman hating male who thinks if he pretends he's a married dyke his hate filled vitriol and woman bashing will be more what? believable? acceptable?

I won't have a grave for you to piss on, either by the way, as my brain and spinal cord/spine will be donated to science >>> a contribution to humanity in an attempt to help find a cause, treatment and a cure for my particular neuromscular disease. Even when I'm dead you'll still be a 404 troll. SAD!

Real people don't hide behind 404 accounts using all of their time and energy going after women and expressing such vicious, nasty, misogynist hate. My bet is still that you are a Stranger employee, why else would they allow you to continue with your endless toxic waste postings? 404 trolls can be banished entirely. It's been done by the Stranger's sister paper the Portland Mercury, it can be done by the Stranger, too. They simply refuse to do it.

Dan Savage does hate women.

56

@54: <3
@ 55: I really wish they would fix that commenting loop hole, but the trolls do drive traffic and traffic keeps the lights on.
It stinks.

58

Yeah. Nope. You have no wife who revels in your woman bashing vitriol. You have no wife that laughs at your never ending chasing of a woman on the internet. Your obsession with me (always revealed by the fact that you bring up a long ago comment made about Amazon that you've taken out of context and twisted and chew on like a dog on a bone, relentlessly) is truly a sickness. I didn't say you were Dan Savage and I don't believe that. I do believe he hates women and allows all of you 404 trolls to troll women viciously on this site because of it. And you may believe no one notices, but you ignore and deflect with every comment the truth of who you are and what you do here.

59

Well this is a fun thread!

Good news Xina, when The Stranger folds you can apply for unemployment benefits. Seems to be your only contribution to society, so maybe the State of Oregon will toss a bone to you in Seaside.

60

five nine good God yet another (version of the same?) one.

Thanks for what you do here, xina.
You fucking ROCK.

& these
incels
sux
.*

*period
U know

61

@59 I am in no need of unemployment. I am financially secure and will be for life.
Contributing to society happens out in the real world, engaging with real people. What goes on here has nothing to do that.

When the Stranger folds I will just have to find something else to do. shrug So will you and everyone else here.

62

@57 & 59: Awww you kids. Ya just can't quit her can ya.

64

@63 LOL Feminazi? Feminazi is a term created by Rush Limbaugh. Any use of the term feminazi is automatically invoking Godwin’s Law, which means you lose. Sorry. That’s just the way it is.

65

Boy, the smart money is on Xina in this one. And BTW both homelessness and addiction disorders/disease are extraordinarily complex problems that take a lot of time and study to even begin to understand. My fear is that those running the show suffer from the same confidence in knowing they're right based on biases and not data. Sunlight and clorox will not solve it.

67

Enough. While I find xina's outrage at her pet issues pedantic, lay the fuck off her. I've taken my jabs but I'm done. I'm sorry, xina, you don't deserve these vile comments for speaking your mind.

70

@69 It's almost like if you don't feed pigeons, you won't have a pigeon sh*tting all over your house and neighborhood.

Who wudda thunk it.

71

‘You know
it’s a Sin
to be
a Ghoul
and
Feed on
everyone’s
Pain?’

--Meighan (Mad Men)

trollingtrollytrolley-Troll
Our Resident Ghoul.

Thnx, The Stranger!
And. remember to:
ALWAYS BE KIND
TO EVERYONE

Part of the Funds Drive?
Kinda counter-intuitive
dyt?

72

But IS it
a 'sin' to
sin for
God?

73

"Those places didn't make things better by spending a bunch of money on social housing for junkies to shoot up in." --@Gassy Duck

I looked up the definition of 'self-righteousness' in the Dictionary and what you said WAS definitely the definitive Definition. Which is why I put it in "quotes."

Like Rush, the Oxymoron, you deserve the Medal of Freedom for NOT being hooked on drugs. kudos.

But, assuming the moral choice is the right one, how is punishing people for their failures -- how is that Moral?

75

@18 & @28 xina, @27 Lissa, and @28 kristofarian @29: Count me in!

76

@64 xina: ol' Laughing Boy @63 and his minions, @66 & @68 are already dying of TRUMPVID-19. Apparently they feel that injecting themselves with nitrous oxide is going to save their pathetic little 404 asses. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if all trolling comments here were made by the same sick little incel signing in under multiple screen names, hoping to dear god his mother doesn't find out he hacked her account.

78

@76: 404 comments are created by posting a comment via the 'Sign up' option but with a fake email address that is not verified before the comment is posted.

79

@77 Hey, fibromyalgia is real!

80

@71 -- "We can't say enough
how much we appreciate
your support. Thank you."

81

LOL look at Buzzy and the 404s! More and more desperate. Even our reliably conservative leaning posters are starting to take the time to call you out.
Xoxo

82

@77 Your mind is diseased and deranged. It must be so hard sitting around believing other people are getting something you don't believe they deserve. That free money is handed out to others while you have to work for a living (like those who are receiving assistance in this society don't work, haven't worked, and do work every single day).

My mom does not get a check for taking care of me! Where do you get this shit? Your constant nonsense blathering about something you know nothing is truly mind boggling.
No one gets paid for being the caregiver of a sick adult with a physical disability if that adult is their child or parent and they live with them in the same home. And as far as I know they don't even if that person is not related to them. People are left to twist in the wind and care for others the best they can with whatever they may have. And there are millions more in this country who do not have anyone to care for them in any capacity, no matter their need.

You constantly pushing this delusion is deeply disturbing.

My being with my mother and her being my caregiver and her taking care of me with money she earned through a lifetime of work and saving (her pension, her social security, her 401k, and her additional savings) is the epitome of what all who hate people like me expect, family to take care of them. And my mom is a conservative's wet dream. She grew up in abject poverty and earned her way into the middle class (as a single mom of two) and saved to craete an extremely comfortable retirement, even with staggering stock market losses after 9/11 and currently due to COVID-19. We live well because of my mother and her hard work. We enjoy everything we have and are able to do and have because my mother earned every penny of it through a lifetime of work. That thoroughly destroys your false narrative.

As for SSDI it is based on MY work history, MY taxes paid into the system, and I am not ashamed. I EARNED every penny. I PAY for my Medicare ($145/mo). I full accept my SSDI every single month knowing I earned it and that I still earn it with the full time "job" of having to manage my health care (health care which costs far more annually than I earn in SSDI).

So yeah, you're welcome, for all of the taxes I paid in my working life (and I paid taxes on every paycheck from the time I was 16 to the time I got sick and could not work). SSDI is based ONLY on the 10 years of work and taxes paid prior to becoming disabled and unable to work. You're welcome for all of the taxes my mother paid in her working life (and since we lived most of our lives in New York State, we paid far more in taxes than you will ever pay in your entire life living in WA).

We live in a society where taxation revenue is paid so that when those in need need it, it is there. We live in a society where taxation revenue is paid so that when our working population retires, that safety net is there.

Thanks Joe Taxpayer? (Oh and don't forget the nearly 12 BILLION DOLLARS paid in taxes by undocumented immigrants in this country annually, people who can't get a dime of it in return - not through SSDI or SS retirement or Medicaid or Medicare or any other taxpayer funded social safety net). You're welcome.

If you want to rail at people taking ALL American taxpayer money and not deserving it or earning it or doing anything at all useful with it, let's look at corporations and all of their corporate welfare (especially the bailouts of the banks and the airlines and the tax breaks all taken taken taken, never put back into the economy, only used to enrich themselves and their stockholders). Let's look at the over one billion dollars Trump has used up playing golf, just golf, ONLY golf. TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS of dollars are taken by the wealthy and the corporations, TRILLIONS they have NOT paid into the system and TRILLIONS they do not deserve and steal outright from the American taxpayer.

Right now, during this unprecedented public health crisis and the economic devastation it is causing, it is the PEOPLE who should be being bailed out by the federal government with taxpayer money - not big corporations, not airlines, not the cruise ship industry, not hotels and amusement parks, restaurants, banks, or any other business, ALL of the money should be going to PEOPLE. And the fact that is NOT going to the PEOPLE is just another theft of epic proportion. Canada, people pay taxes and in return they have universal health care and right now they are each receiving $2000/month until this over. UNTIL THIS IS OVER.

What did Americans get? A one time payment of $1200 and some are getting $2400 extra a month in unemployment for a few months. Meanwhile, corporations have been paid out over one TRILLION dollars between the two stimulus packages. And the federal government is forcing states to buy PPE on the black market while they outbid and outright steal it and hoard it.

I am not now nor will I ever be ashamed for being disabled and collecting SSDI.
I also got all of my student loans discharged due to disability! Nearly $13,000. And that's after paying for 20 years (with interest) and I only took out $15,000 in loans when I went to college because the rest was paid for through scholarship and work study.

I hope my existence chafes your ass every minute of every day. Every time you post a comment about this after this one, I will know that it does.

84

@82 Cool story bro

86

Apply a thick layer of a zinc oxide diaper rash treatment, such as DESITIN® Maximum Strength Original Paste or DESITIN® Rapid Relief Cream, at each diaper change to soothe and protect your irritated skin. ... There's no stronger treatment available without a prescription.

87

@82 No student loans, no rent, financially secure parents; must be nice to be so privileged that you can spend the entire day feverishly refreshing the Stranger comment section to argue with other morons.

88

@87 I resemble that remark!

89

@82- "No one gets paid for being the caregiver of a sick adult with a physical disability if that adult is their child or parent and they live with them in the same home. And as far as I know they don't even if that person is not related to them." That's not quite true. If someone is on SSI or SSD, they may qualify for either a home care aide, or an individual provider. They are assessed for levels of activities of daily living by a DSHS case manager and assigned hours based on needs. I don't know the particulars of your situation, but your mom could potentially be your paid caregiver. It's a union job with union insurance and benefits. Since you live together her earnings fall under the difficulty of care act and are free from federal tax. It would take some research on your part to see if you qualify and some state training for your mom if you do.

90

@87 I pay rent. My SSDI goes to pay for my half of our housing (rent, utilities) and my health insurance premiums and all other health care costs. My mother supports me, but I contribute everything I have to our household, thanks for playing.
I have a financially secure parent. My mother.

I'd give it all up in less than one second to go back to my life before without having to think about it.

I would give anything to be a healthy, able-bodied person.
I would give anything to be able to work, earn income to use any way I chose to use it.
I would give anything to be able to live where and how I wanted to live.
I would give anything to do whatever I wanted to do, whenever I wanted to do it.

I would give up everything I have in less than one second to go back to the life I had before with my student loans and all other financial responsibilities - even in the current situation the country is in with COVID-19.

I would do anything to never have to see a doctor again.

I would do anything to be the one who when my mom needed me in the future to be the one to take care of her and make sure she has everything she needs and to be her caregiver.

I find it strange that so people care what I do or how I spend my time. There are just as many other people here pretty much 24/7 either commenting or trolling, harassing, and threatening people who comment here.

Must be nice to be so privileged? You can have my privilege. Come and get it. All you have to do is take my illness and live and die with it. You can have all of the privilege that comes with it. I'll take life without it and all that that entails.

91

@90 Amazon is hiring!

92

@83-85,

She repeatedly posts thoughtful, articulate and factually accurate, vetted refutations of any slobbering shit you sling her way, and you repeatedly reply with sophomoric, fragmented gibberish. By any measure whatsoever, she's already won this argument convincingly, and at this point is performing one of those ridiculously well planned out touchdown dances that wide receivers are bringing into vogue these days, only she's invoked like Stephen fucking Sondheim to choreograph the whole thing. You've lost dude. And I'm sure that it sucks, but get over it.

94

@92: Thank you, mike. Agreed and seconded.
@93: Stick a fork in your sorry, pathetic trolling 404 ass, already. You're done.

95

@81 Lissa: I know, right?
@82, @86, & @90 xina: Rock on!

96

@89 I have never heard of such a thing. We don't need it anyway. Thanks.

97

@94 and @95 Thank you.

98

@92 but the whole point of trolling is to get someone to irrationally engage with you, wasting their time, enraging them, etc.
Xina seems to take the bait every time. From where I am sitting, the trolls are repeatedly winning while the rest of you cheer on the whole back-and-forth between Xina and said trolls.

99

@98 Winning!

101

@98: What trolls do is akin to throwing rocks at cats and considering the pain they cause "winning".
What xina does is consistently posts good information with the links to back it up. That's winning for all of us.
When pretty much everyone in a forum despite their political differences band together against you behavior and most of your comments get deleted?
That ain't winning punkin.

102

@100 my capacity to write only seems like a rate skill. I know people who write for a living and I am not capable of doing that.

My ability to write has been used since I got sick solely for the purpose of attending to my health care needs: filling out my SSDI application, going through 3 years of correspondence with the DOE to get my student loans discharged, fighting with insurance companies (before Medicare) to pay for what they said they'd pay for - one claim took an entire year of fighting before they paid it and it was for $7000, writing appeals to Medicare to obtain the medical care and the medical equipment I need to live my life, reporting fraud committed by providers and insurance companies to investigators and Attorney Generals, advocating for patients' rights regarding public transportation, reporting violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, filing reports with state government agencies and federal government agencies regarding mistreatment and abuse of power by pharmacists and medical providers, etc. etc. etc. the list is endless. It is exhausting and time consuming.

If you know of a way I can get paid for all of the writing mentioned above, I'll take it. Managing my health care and all of the bullshit bureaucracy I have to navigate in order to obtain what I pay for and should get without a fight is a full time job that I never wanted. I have no idea how people without the capacity to engage and fight/advocate for themselves manage. Even my mother says she is grateful for what I am able to do, because if she had to do what I do in addition to everything she has to do as my caregiver, she would not be able to do it.

And I will not go into the graphic detail of what my daily life is with my illness and disability. I am not able to work. If I could work, I would be working. When I initially presented with neurological symptoms my neurologist in Seattle (who misdiagnosed me as having MS) kept telling me to apply for SSDI. I refused. I said "why would I do that???" I was in deep denial about the severity of my illness. I simply believed they would figure out what was wrong, they would fix it (or help me live with it), and that I would find another job and move forward with my life. It wasn't until 7 months after I got fired from Amazon (for being sick) and 6 months after I was forced to move home to live with my mother that I finally applied for SSDI and at the time I believed I was going to die within 5 years (as it was presumed I had ALS).

The writing I do here is to vent. It's a release valve. It is a way to escape my life. That is all.

103

@101 trolls aren't here to post good information, or change anyone's view, or dissuade them from leaning toward socialist ideals; trolls exist to get a response out of people for their own shallow amusement.
You must be new to the internet. Never heard, "don't feed the trolls"?
Any response to a troll, even if it provides good information and links, is essentially pointless you are only validating them.
But, you will assume I am the same person as whoever is fucking with Xina day in and day out and call me a cuck Trump-lover and ignore my advice, more than likely.

104

@103:LOLOLOLOLOL
My dear. I have been on Slog for over a decade and I have never called anyone a cuck or a Trump-lover because I'm not that intellectually lazy.

When one comments on a post, one's audience isn't just those who are participating, (trolls or otherwise) but also the many, many, many more who are just reading with out chiming in.

The information which xina brings to the table is good for them as well as all of us commenting, including you. Frankly telling xina to shut up, by way of "not feeding the trolls", is the opposite of useful, when we are facing something of an existential crisis in this country and can use all the pertinent information she has been providing.

The goal of the 404s to torture xina until she gives up in despair, to which she says, and I say, fuck them. The can drown in their own bile, but the rest of us benefit from her courage and I will back her when she needs it.
Not because I've been provoked so much as to let HER know that she isn't alone and that I value her contributions.

But you know, if you'd rather buy into their narrative, that they should be allowed to run riot, actively tormenting dying women, and trying to shut down a source of accurate data during a pandemic, then by all means, do please stop commenting on Slog.

105

@104 Exactly. The trolls want to silence people. I will NOT be silenced by anyone. Thank you for getting it and speaking up. The 404s will never win against an intelligent and informed counter argument. The Stranger's refusal to fix the problem says so much about the people who run it and write for it. And the trolls themselves know exactly what they.

106

“You must be new to the internet.
Never heard, ‘don't feed the trolls’?”

Yes, we have. Everytime one of them Loses on the innernets.

“but the whole point of trolling is to get someone to irrationally engage with you, wasting their time, enraging them, etc. . . . trolls exist to get a response out of people for their own shallow amusement.”

Well, at least you appear to have some
shallow semblances of self-awareness.

“Xina seems to take the bait every time.”

Yes, she takes your bait, chews it up, and spits You out Every
Time. You’re Stuck in a downward-spiraling Loop, my fiend.

“From where I am sitting, the trolls are repeatedly winning”

That’s ‘cause when Reality bites your ass, you cognititive dissonances
Won’t allow you to know your ass from a hole in the wall.

Insert middle finger; wait till Message comes.

“Any response to a troll, even if it provides good information and links, is essentially pointless you are only validating them.”

Your pithy Protestations are not gonna save your
sorry ass from repeated right spot-on rebuttals, lil buddy

Right or Wrong
You just gotta Keep on keepin’ on
It’s really all you know
How to do.
Sad

107

xina, you're awesomesauce.


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