Joe Biden – The T-800 destroyer
Joe Biden has been called a lot of different nicknames signifying his lack of leadership, wisdom, and moral character. He’s been called the Perv in Chief (reference Ashley Biden’s diary). He’s been called an empty suit -- the man actually took orders from the Easter Bunny for crying out loud. One of my personal favorites is President Sock-Puppet. It comes close to describing the actual situation. He lacks the intelligence or character to provide any actual leadership, and is merely speaking the words and doing the deeds of some hidden puppet master (who has mansions in Hawaii and Martha’s Vineyard no doubt).
But I think there’s a better descriptor. He’s a T-800 Terminator . Think about it. The T-800 portrayed in the movie Terminator was powerful and relentless, but was still a simple machine, with simple programing, performing a simple task, without reservation or remorse -- just like Joe Biden.
Remember the scene in the movie when a man knocks on the T-800’s door and complains about the smell. The terminator scans its heads-up display for a reply
- Yes
- No
- Come back later
- F*** you A** hole
And picks the last option -- because its instinct is to default to the most inflammatory response possible -- just like Joe Biden. I can support this theory with some examples.
At a campaign stop in New Hampshire, a student asked candidate Biden if his campaign could recover from his poor showing in the primary. He checked his heads-up display for answers.
- Explain that early primaries rarely indicate the eventual winner -- rejected
- Tell her that he’s depending on her vote to turn things around -– rejected
- Claim that the work he is doing is too important to give up -– rejected
- Call her a “lying dog faced pony soldier” -– option selected.
At another campaign appearance a prospective voter questioned the Biden family connections with the Ukrainian government. Joe checked his response options:
- Ask the citizen what his concerns are – rejected
- Explain that Hunter got his Ukrainian job because of his integrity and work ethic – oh, hell no
- Explain that the Ukrainians are under constant threat and it’s imperative that we support them – rejected
- Tell the man, “You’re a damn liar,” and call him fat – option selected
Joe is informed by his staff that political opposition to his agenda threatens the party’s success in the midterm election. He checks his heads-up display for possible responses.
- Let’s take our show on the road and sell our agenda to the voters – rejected
- Let’s invite the opposition to the White House to understand their grievances – rejected
- Let’s encourage public debate of our agenda in Congress – rejected
- I’ll make a public speech and call the opposition semi-fascists – option selected
None of this should be a surprise. Biden has always been a T-800 destroyer.
He has continued the destruction of our institutions. At the time of his inauguration the DoJ had already demonstrated its corruption via the Mid-Year Exam and Crossfire Hurricane. Under Biden it targeted parents as terrorists and threatened states if they protect children from sexual grooming. Now he plans to do the same with the IRS and its 87,000 new armed agents.
Joe is a simpleton -- a simple man with simple mental programming. Just as a robot would, he operates to two prime directives.
- Serve his masters by destroying everything that made America exceptional.
- Enrich the Biden family if it can be done without violating directive 1.
That’s why the conflict between Biden and Trump is so epic. One is a builder and one is a destroyer.
John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He has written for American Thinker, American Free News Network, and The Blue State Conservative. He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
Image: Dick Thomas Johnson
A Corrupt and Rigged Government
By Pete McArdle
A recent University of Chicago Institute of Politics poll showed that a majority of Americans think our government is corrupt and rigged against them. And almost a third of respondents also feel it may eventually be necessary to take up arms against the evil empire currently running the show.
Subtract from that poll the bleeding-heart libs who think feelings matter more than facts, and the numbers are scarier still.
Big Government, including their toadies in the mainstream media, has clearly blown its cover. And it appears, based on this poll, that the American people are mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore.
Why have so many lost faith in our government to the point that armed rebellion is being considered?
Double standards, that’s why. Americans see them and they’re rightfully furious.
They see the despicable treatment afforded President Trump, whose term in office surely seems like the good old days when compared to the turmoil Democrats have unleashed in just a year and a half at the helm.
They watched the press question Trump’s mental fitness and acuity while staunchly supporting the corrupt, dried-up turnip currently occupying the Oval Office.
They observed the media constantly demonizing Trump’s family and then totally supporting “Dr.” Jill and the hapless, hopeless Biden spawn.
They’ve seen every aspect of the Donald’s financial dealings examined with a fine-tooth comb, while the Big Guy (Hunter’s nickname for Crusty Joe) gets half of his crack and sex-addled son’s ill-gotten millions with impunity.
They’ve watched the FBI run multiple coups against both candidate and President Trump, while sitting on the treasure trove of Biden family criminality contained in Hunter’s laptop, which the Feebs have been “investigating” for two and a half years now.
They’ve observed how law enforcement looked the other way as BLMers peacefully rioted, taking lives, ruining businesses, and causing billions of dollars in damage -- all this while authorities pretend that January 6 was another Pearl Harbor, instead of a relatively small dustup where the crowd was rife with Feds, officers obligingly opened the doors to the Capitol, and the only person killed was an unarmed woman, shot to death with impunity by a cop.
They see criminals, perverts and drug dealers released without bail to continue their wicked ways while the Jan. 6th defendants rot in D.C. jails, their Constitutional rights suspended and their personal lives ruined.
They’ve watched in stunned silence as Democrats and the Deep State pulled every dirty trick in the book on President Trump, while the Republican members of the D.C. Uni-Party sat silent or, as in the case of Cheney and Kinzinger, eagerly concurred.
They’ve listened as Hollywood, the media, and academia all denigrated Trump’s burning desire to make America great again, at the same time supporting the notion that our country is a racist, sexist, xenophobic hellhole, and always has been.
They’ve undoubtedly noticed that Democrats, with the help of Big Tech and many millions of Zucker-bucks, made it incredibly easy to cheat in the last election; yet Trump has been portrayed as a psychopathic monster for pointing out that he was clearly jobbed out of a second term.
They watched President Trump fight the COVID-19 pandemic with all his might, even as wee Dr. Fauci and Dr. Scarf purposely undermined his efforts with their lies, double-talk and obfuscation. While Trump fought the good fight, white-coated bureaucrats and their pals in Big Pharma got incredibly wealthy.
They watched Trump castigate China for loosing COVID-19 upon the world, causing millions of needless deaths, even as the NBA, Hollywood, influential leaders of both parties, and the Biden Crime Family all filled their pockets with yauns while defending the fine folks of the Chinese Communist Party.
They surely observed how President Trump’s policies lifted all financial boats, setting records for black and Hispanic employment, while the Swamp was busy calling Trump and his supporters irredeemable racists.
They couldn’t help but notice how Trump was deemed a scoundrel for pointing out that women generally allowed him easy sexual access because he was a wealthy celebrity. But those same folks upset with Trump’s statement of fact, were totally incurious about our current demented president’s fondness for touching, fondling, and smelling small children; nor did they show any interest in reports that Creepy Joe took showers with his young daughter, who then became a promiscuous young woman and an addict.
They surely took note of Trump’s incredible energy in his old age, how quick he was to travel the world, campaign for his undeserving party, and speak to reporters. It must have been shocking then to see Senile Joe garble his words, hide from the press, and spend long weekends out of sight and out of mind in Delaware, all this while falling up stairs and off his bicycle.
They also noted how firm President Trump was with other countries, telling Germany to pony up for NATO, forcing Mexico to stop enabling illegal immigration with financial penalties, and reducing IRGC general Qasem Suleimani to a grease stain on the desert floor for threatening U.S. soldiers and diplomats. Now, of course, they watch as Iran plays Biden’s diplomats for fools, Russia feels secure enough in Biden’s impotence to start a war, and the Saudis laugh in the doddering old fool’s face when Biden comes begging for more oil.
They could see that President Trump made the U.S. energy independent, creating jobs and prosperity for everyone; while the current administration has crushed the energy industry, making gas and oil unaffordable for the common man, even as the climate-change crusaders fly around in private jets, party maskless during a pandemic, and buy up oceanfront mansions.
They watched Donald Trump become the first president to stand up for the rights of unborn babies and choose like-minded justices for the Supreme Court; this followed by an administration vowing to use all means, legal and extralegal, to facilitate the dismemberment of unborn innocents, not to mention choosing a Supreme Court justice solely on the basis of her genitalia and skin color.
They observed Trump praising and building up our military might, even as turncoats like General Mark “White Rage” Milley and Col. Alexander Vindman, surely the softest Ranger ever, purposely undermined their commander-in-chief by providing comfort to the enemy and conspiring to impeach the president, respectively.
In summation, it’s clear to me and anyone with eyes to see why a majority of Americans thinks our government is rotten to the core, and why many think a second American Revolution may be necessary to restore integrity in government. What’s not clear is why anyone who’s lived through the obvious double standards I just enumerated, doesn’t feel that way.
Image: University of Chicago Institute of Politics
The recipe for a Democrat October surprise
Start with one divisive presidential speech accusing 74 million voters of being enemies of the state. Add two Marine guards against a blood-red background for flavor. Whip up the base. Stir in a large pool of resentment and bring to a boil. Sprinkle in a large contingent of FBI operatives to mix with low-intellect stoned bloggers living in repair shop basements and calling for civil war.
Bake for a few weeks and allow resentment to rise. The FBI will supply the necessary heat and preparation to foment Insurrection 2.0. Frost the cake with the state-controlled news and social media reacting in horror and disgust at the evil, violent actions of MAGA Republicans.
This is the recipe for a Democrat October Surprise.
The corrupt media are already working overtime to set the stage by playing up the "civil war" potential and predicting violence from "white supremacists and far-right extremists."
The president and Dems in Congress will have no choice but to react decisively to save democracy and protect the American people from this horrible MAGA threat. The critical decision will need to be made: will they have time for more televised show trials before the election, or should they just move on to declaring martial law and postponing the election indefinitely?
A year ago, I would have thought this scenario impossibly absurd. I also never thought an ex–U.S. president's home could be raided by the FBI, or a current president could make such a hateful, incendiary, and shall I say "semi-fascist" speech.
Perhaps they will not need to make that decision at all if the media do their "job" and manufacture enough hate and resentment toward Republicans. Highly edited video clips and overheated commentator vitriol can be very effective in influencing independent and passive voters who just want to live their lives without all the drama and politics. Just give the Democrats what they want and turn down the volume.
A provoked violent reaction by FBI-organized radical right-wing dupes could sway the election and allow the Dems to continue to control Congress for at least another two years. All they need is a few coordinated attacks at abortion facilities or Dem campaign headquarters. A large group of rioters calling for civil war would be perfect.
Provocation of violence was the obvious intention behind Biden's insane speech last Thursday night.
Do not fall into their trap. It's a recipe for disaster.
Andrew Thomas: http://darkangelpolitics.com.
Image: 10 Tampa Bay via YouTube, CC BY 3.0 (cropped).
Street Level Signs We’re in a Recession
Americans are angry over the 'double standard' on Hunter Biden: Rep. Emmer
Goldman Sachs is About to Sell Another $47 BILLION in Global Equities
15 Facts That Prove That The Quality Of Jobs In America Is Going Down The Drain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf-NY7o2eig
Do you wish you had a better job? Do you wish you had a better salary? If so, you're not alone. More than 47 million Americans have left their jobs in the past year in the search for better working conditions, a clear sign that U.S. workers are getting increasingly fed up with long-hour, low-wage jobs that leave them scrambling to make ends meet every month. Over the past decade, the quality of jobs in America has drastically declined, and the vast majority of job openings out there are for underpaid positions that don't allow workers to afford the bare minimum. That's the consequence of a long-term trend that has been unfolding for the past 50 years, when middle-class jobs started to be shipped to overseas markets. Millions of good-paying jobs have been lost in that process, and even though the population has significantly increased since that period, today, U.S. workers compete for a shrinking pool of good-quality jobs while they see the cost of living steadily going up and their purchasing power going down. Wages are simply not keeping pace with inflation, in fact, once you adjust for inflation our paychecks have been getting smaller for years. Needless to say, all of this is absolutely destroying the middle class and eviscerating the working class. And now that the economy is taking a turn for the worse, these trends are likely to only get worse in the months and years ahead. Almost all of us know someone that is working a low-quality job. In America, working conditions can be harsh. According to a survey conducted by the RAND Corporation, 61% of American workers perform repetitive or intense physical work, which can include moving heavy loads or maintaining painful positions. More than half of these workers are exposed to hazards such as loud environments, extreme temperatures, hazardous materials, or unhealthy air. On top of that, many working environments can be hostile. Around 20% of American workers report abuse at work. Many of them are often subject to humiliation, bullying, or harassment — from their superiors, co-workers, or customers. Many positions are hectic. The survey reported that nearly 50% work in their free time to meet workplace demands. Ten percent do so nearly every day. Twenty-seven percent of workers say they don’t have enough time to do their job, and 66% work at high speed or on tight deadlines. To make things worse, 36% have work hours set by their employers with no possibility for changes. We have to deal with all of this and more only to collect a check every month that barely pays for our everyday essentials. Perhaps you find yourself stuck in such a situation. This can really suck the life right out of someone. No wonder why so many people are quitting right now. As the quality of jobs in America continues to worsen, we're going to see a stunning amount of families financially struggling as we move towards another economic recession. Challenging times are ahead. For that reason, today we gathered some shocking statistics that reflect the rapid decline of working conditions in the United States.
THE BIDEN DEPRESSION
VIDEO
Boots on the Ground...July 10th...Health care system is on life support.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6mJK56MMx0
Prepare Yourself For A Housing Market Crash That Will Freak Americans Out As Prices Collapse By 50%
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRLTBBIIwkI
The last time the U.S. housing market looked this bubbly, property values sharply crashed. Over the past couple of years, double-digit appreciation has been the rule. Buyers were being forced to pay more than the asking prices – sometimes $100,000 more. Since March 2020, home prices skyrocketed by 45 percent, reaching levels that are impossible for many to afford. However, in recent months, a major shift has started to take place. Home sales and price cuts are becoming the new norm, leading the scorching-hot real estate market to a well-deserved slow down. The bubble has been popped by rising interest rates, and a housing market crash that can slash home values in half has begun. The nightmarish memories of the last boom and bust remain fresh in the minds of homeowners, lenders, and Realtors. With affordability issues squeezing potential homebuyers, the latest price increases are creating no shortage of concern. A new report by Redfin exposes that some of the hottest corners of the market are already seeing some of the sharpest price cuts and big drops in demand. Since August 2021, mortgage rates have more than doubled, and approximately 20 million prospective buyers have been priced out. According to data compiled by Wolf Richter of WolfStreet.com, price cuts spiked by 50% in June from May, and doubled year-over-year. A Moody’s Analytics report outlined that homes are overvalued in at least 93% of markets across the country, with markets in 11 states overvalued by 50% or more. They are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, Tennessee, and Washington. Now, all of these markets are at risk of seeing home prices being slashed in half. “Homes are now even more overvalued than they were during the 2000s housing market bubble,” Moody’s Analytics said. At this point, American families are facing record-high prices on about every item they need in their day to day lives. And the supply shortages for housing are forcing many to keep renting despite record rent prices. In fact, there is less housing available for rent or sale now than at any time in the past 30 years. Current rent prices are about $1,100 higher than they were in 2020. A separate report from Redfin uncovered that nationally listed rents for available apartments rose 15% from a year ago. And the median listed rent for an available apartment rose above $2,000 a month for the first time.It really goes without saying how crazy these numbers really are. It’s clear that the housing and rent market can’t keep recording one all-time high after the other. We’re moving towards an affordability reset. More and more sellers and landlords are coming to grips with a new reality: Prices have to go where the buyers and renters are, and they’re are around somewhere, but they’re a lot lower, so prices have to readjust accordingly. The ones who have benefitted from speculative bubbles had powerful incentives to deny that this massive bubble could bust. But just as all bubbles that arise from speculative excesses, the U.S. housing market bubble reached extreme levels and started to reverse. All these gains are eventually going to be reversed, and if the system is destabilized any further, then the price drops could be far below previous lows. A property value collapse is already underway. And we can only hope this doesn’t end in another global financial disaster. For more info, find us on: https://www.epiceconomist.com/
VIDEO
20 Signs Of The Staggering Decline Of The American Middle Class Family
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHc3TS2JFzU
We just got more evidence that the middle class is being systematically destroyed in America. At this point, millions of people out there have already grown accustomed to barely scraping by from month to month. But that is not what being “middle class” is supposed to be about. Middle-class families should be able to make more money than they have to spend on everyday necessities because is only by doing so that they can build long-term wealth. Unfortunately, income growth has not kept up with the pace of the rising cost of living, and millions of households have taken massive amounts of debt. At the same time, the labor market doesn't offer good-paying jobs that support middle-class life, and the lack of these positions has been contributing to the decline of this income group all across the country. In the early 1970s, the middle class accounted for around 60 percent of the population, but now middle-income households are rapidly becoming a minority in the United States. And as economic conditions continue to deteriorate, millions of hard-working families all over America are being stretched financially like never before. “In America, the middle class can no longer afford retirement. Middle-class Americans face sharp economic inequality, with ownership of financial assets highly concentrated among the wealthy,” explained Tyler Bond, NIRS research manager. “Now that we have a retirement system largely built around the individual ownership of financial assets in 401(k) accounts, middle-class Americans are struggling to accumulate sufficient financial assets during their working years. This means the retirement outlook for many in the middle class is bleak at best.” Since the onset of the health crisis, the U.S. economy has been decaying at an alarming pace. Over the past two years, the middle class has gotten smaller and smaller in this country, and now it seems that another economic downturn is upon us once again. So many families are already living on the edge right now. Recent surveys have exposed that well over 50% of the population is living paycheck to paycheck and that most Americans don't have emergency savings or a financial cushion to fall back on. When you are living on the edge, there is always a danger that you could fall over. Since 2020, we have never seen so many middle-class Americans falling straight into poverty. In other words, unless dramatic changes happen in America, the middle class is going to be absolutely eviscerated in the next decade. We must wake up now. The middle class is dying right before our eyes, and if we want to save it, we must take action now. Today, we compiled a series of new numbers that expose the rapid downfall of the U.S. middle-class.
VIDEOS:
It's Too Late To Stop This Now, Get Your House In Order
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u7173SPBF8
15 Signs That The Social Decay In America Is Worse Than It Has Ever Been Before
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDTdgIJcoD8
The social fabric of the United States is rapidly deteriorating. Right now, virtually any measure of social welfare is showing us that social decay in America is accelerating at a very shocking pace. Our main institutions are either being dismantled or falling apart. At the same time, civil disorder continues to trigger unprecedented chaos in several parts of our country. Millions of Americans don't have access to proper housing, food, and education, and the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' has never been wider. The lack of proper education to help Americans thrive and accomplish financial stability is another sign of societal breakdown. Most colleges and universities are failing in one of their most basic missions: to equip students with the tools they need for a career. Millions of students graduate each year totally ill-prepared to earn a living and pay off the debt they’ve accumulated getting their degrees — at least 40% of those who start college don’t finish within six years. Despite these problems, colleges continue to raise tuition and to pay for these ever-increasing costs, students are borrowing more money and taking on more and more debt. And with federal loans accounting for much of the $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, and more than a million people defaulting on their loans, taxpayers are picking up much of the tab for this broken system while our younger generations remain utterly unprepared for the challenges of adult life. In the world’s wealthiest country, more and more people are living on the streets. Homelessness is a significant indicator of social decay. There are 750,000 Americans who are homeless on any given night, with one in five of them considered chronically homeless. Around 70% of the homeless are individuals, and families with children make up for the remaining 30%. Living without proper access to housing puts many people in very a vulnerable position, oftentimes, their lives are at risk. An examination of 20 US urban areas found that around 13,000 homeless people are victimized by disease, extreme weather, and substance abuse every year. The number of victims shot up by 77% in the five years ending in 2020. Today, the average life expectancy of a homeless person in America is just 50 years. There will be no future for us if we stay on this highly self-destructive path. The choices that we make individually and collectively as a nation are critical for the health of our society. Throughout all human history, great empires have fallen because societies have consistently made the wrong choices. So if we want to prevent the downfall of America, we must start making better choices. But if we are going to change direction, we better start doing it now because time is running out, and it won’t be too long before it is gone completely. Today, we decided to expose some worrying facts about the social breakdown happening all around us.
VIDEOS:
Why New York’s Billionaires’ Row Is Half Empty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wehsz38P74g&t=1439s
VIDEO
Prepare for the EVICTION WAVE about to hit US Housing Market (13 MILLION NOW IN DEFAULT)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-XhzvHUgB0
VIDEOS:
Why New York’s Billionaires’ Row Is Half Empty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wehsz38P74g&t=1439s
From Book Stacks to Psychosis and Food Stamps, Librarians Confront a New Workplace
For nearly two decades, Lisa Dunseth loved her job at San Francisco’s main public library, particularly her final seven years in the rare books department.
But like many librarians, she saw plenty of chaos. Patrons racked by untreated mental illness or high on drugs sometimes spit on library staffers or overdosed in the bathrooms. She remembers a co-worker being punched in the face on his way back from a lunch break. One afternoon in 2017, a man jumped to his death from the library’s fifth-floor balcony.
Dunseth retired the following year at age 61, making an early exit from a nearly 40-year career.
“The public library should be a sanctuary for everyone,” she said. The problem was she and many of her colleagues no longer felt safe doing their jobs.
Libraries have long been one of society’s great equalizers, offering knowledge to anyone who craves it. As public buildings, often with long hours, they also have become orderly havens for people with nowhere else to go. In recent years, amid unrelenting demand for safety-net services, libraries have been asked by community leaders to formalize that role, expanding beyond books and computers to providing on-site outreach and support for people living on the streets. In big cities and small towns, many now offer help accessing housing, food stamps, medical care, and sometimes even showers or haircuts. Librarians, in turn, have been called on to play the role of welfare workers, first responders, therapists, and security guards.
Librarians are divided about those evolving duties. Although many embrace the new role — some voluntarily carry the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone — others feel overwhelmed and unprepared for regular run-ins with aggressive or unstable patrons.
“Some of my co-workers are very engaged with helping people, and they’re able to do the work,” said Elissa Hardy, a trained social worker who until recently supervised a small team of caseworkers providing services in the Denver Public Library system. The city boasts that some 50 lives have been saved since library staffers five years ago began volunteering for training to respond to drug overdoses. Others, Hardy said, simply aren’t informed about the realities of the job. They enter the profession envisioning the cozy, hushed neighborhood libraries of their youth.
“And that’s what they think they’re walking into,” she said.
Across the U.S., more than 160,000 librarians are employed in public libraries and schools, universities, museums, government archives, and the private sector, charged with managing inventory, helping visitors track down resources, and creating educational programs. Often, the post requires they hold a master’s degree or teaching credential.
But many were ill prepared for the transformation in clientele as drug addiction, untreated psychosis, and a lack of affordable housing have swelled homeless populations in a broad array of U.S. cities and suburbs, particularly on the West Coast.
Amanda Oliver, author of “Overdue: Reckoning With the Public Library,” which recounted nine months she worked at a Washington, D.C., branch, said that while an employee of the library, she was legally forbidden to talk publicly about frequent incidents such as patrons passing out drunk, screaming at invisible adversaries, and carrying bed bug-infested luggage into the library. This widespread “denial of how things are” among library managers was a complaint Oliver said she heard echoed by many staffers.
The 2022 Urban Trauma Library Study, spearheaded by a group of New York City-based librarians, surveyed urban library workers and found nearly 70% said they had dealt with patrons whose behavior was violent or aggressive, from intimidating rants and sexual harassment to people pulling guns and knives or hurling staplers at them. Few of the workers felt supported by their bosses.
“As the social safety net has been dismantled and underfunded, libraries have been left to pick up the slack,” wrote the authors, adding that most institutions lack practical guidelines for treating traumatic incidents that over time can lead to “compassion fatigue.”
Library administrators have begun to acknowledge the problem by providing training and hiring staff members experienced in social services. Ensuring library staffers did not feel traumatized was a large part of her focus during her years with the Denver libraries, said Hardy. She and other library social workers in cities such as San Francisco and Washington have worked in recent years to organize training programs for librarians on topics from self-care to strategies for defusing conflict.
About 80% of librarians are women, and the library workforce skews older, with nearly a third of staff members over 55. As in many professions, salaries have failed to keep pace with rising costs. According to the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association, the average salary for a public librarian in the U.S. was $65,339 in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available.
Studies confirm that many librarians experience burnout.
In Los Angeles County, with more than 60,000 people who are homeless, the past few years have tested the limits of a public library system with more than 80 sites.
“The challenge is that the level of need is off the charts,” said L.A. city librarian John Szabo. “Unfortunately, we are not fully and effectively trained to deal with these issues.”
Libraries began their transition more than a decade ago in response to the number of patrons seeking bathrooms and temporary respite from life on the streets. In 2009, San Francisco decided to formally address the situation by hiring a full-time library social worker.
Leah Esguerra leads a team of formerly homeless “health and safety associates” who patrol San Francisco’s 28 library sites looking to connect sick or needy patrons with services big and small, from shelter beds and substance use treatment to public showers, a model that has been copied in cities around the world.
“The library is a safe place, even for those who no longer trust the system,” said Esguerra, who worked at a community mental health clinic before becoming the “library lady,” as she’s sometimes called on the streets.
But hiring a lead social worker hasn’t erased the many challenges San Francisco’s librarians face. So the city has become more aggressive in setting standards of behavior for patrons.
In 2014, then-Mayor Ed Lee called for library officials to impose tougher policies in response to rampant complaints about inappropriate conduct, including indecent exposure and urinating in the stacks. Soon after, officials released an amended code of conduct that explicitly spelled out the penalties for violations such as sleeping, fighting, and “depositing bodily fluids on SFPL property.”
The city has installed extra security and taken other steps, like lowering bathroom stall doors to discourage drug use and sex and installing disposal boxes for used needles, although people still complain about conditions at the main library.
Some rural libraries have sought to make social services more accessible, as well. In Butte County, along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California, library workers used a $25,000 state grant to host informational sessions on mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia, as well as how to help people access treatment. Books on these topics were marked with green tags to make them easier to find, said librarian Sarah Vantrease, who helped build the program. She now works as a library administrator in Sonoma County.
“The library,” said Vantrease, “shouldn’t just be for people who are really good at reading.”
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