Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Let there be snark.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

People are weird.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

This fight is for everything.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Biden on the Picket Line

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  2. 2.

    jackmac

    Best friend labor has ever had in the White House. Drive that point home with the estimated 40 percent (at least according to one figure I saw)  of union members who supported TFG in 2020.

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    ‘Unconscionable’: Baby boomers are becoming homeless at a rate ‘not seen since the Great Depression’ — here’s what’s driving this terrible trend
     

    Many baby boomers across the country are now coming to terms with the hard reality that working for your entire adult life is no longer enough to guarantee you’ll have a roof over your head in your later years.

    Thanks in part to a series of recessions, high housing costs and a shortage of affordable housing, older adults are now the fastest-growing segment of America’s homeless population, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, based on data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

     

    “The fact that we are seeing elderly homelessness is something that we have not seen since the Great Depression,” University of Pennsylvania social policy professor Dennis Culhane told WSJ.

    Here’s what has triggered what some experts are calling a “silver tsunami” — and what they say needs to change to reverse the tide.

     

    ………………………..

     

    “Elderly homelessness has been rare within the contemporary homeless problem. We’ve always had very few people over 60 who’ve been homeless historically,” Culhane from the University of Pennsylvania told PBS NewsHour.

    But in recent years, Culhane says that has changed. Older Americans, he says, are “now arguably the fastest rising group.”

     

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/unconscionable-baby-boomers-becoming-homeless-103000310.html

  6. 6.

    trollhattan

    “Fight for five!”  [dollars/day]

    I hope, and do not necessarily expect that they appreciate what it means to have the president’s support and have his back come November ’24.

  8. 8.

    cain

    @rikyrah: Ugh – that’s awful – for the most prosperous nation in the world that is shameful.

    We really need a working govt – and I hope those homeless folks will vote Democratic so that we can get the majorities we need to help.

    There is so many things we need to pass especially against hedge funds and others that are buying up real estate and then increasing rents and housing costs.

  9. 9.

    TriassicSands

    Forty percent raise over four years sure sounds like a lot. On reflection, I could get behind 45%-50% with a simultaneous 50%-60% pay cut for executives. Workers? Underpaid. Executives? Overpaid. Oh, and the banning of golden parachutes.

  10. 10.

    MattF

    Good to remind people that Trump’s asshole persona means he will screw over anyone who works for him.

  12. 12.

    dmsilev

    Post:

    But while Biden came at the invitation of union leaders, Trump was making his visit despite their warnings to stay away. And while Biden joined the picket line in solidarity with union members, Trump plans to deliver remarks at a non-union shop.

    Remarkably straightforward reporting.

  13. 13.

    Michael Bersin

    Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez traveled to Wentzville, Missouri on Sunday and spoke at the rally at the UAW Local 5250 hall in support of the UAW’s stand up strike at the GM plant.

    She raised the roof. The crowd was really happy to see and hear her.

    Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) – UAW Local 2250 Stand Up Strike Rally – Wentzville, Missouri – September 24, 2023

    It was a three hour drive to Wentzville from west central Missouri. The road trip was well worth it.

    I took over 1000 frames.

  15. 15.

    Alison Rose

    It’s really cool to see him there, and I’d imagine those workers appreciate it quite a lot. Way to go, Joe 😎

    I’ve shared this essay here before, but this feels like a good time to do so again: In Search of Solidarity

    As elusive as its meaning may be, from the amorphous cloud of centuries’ worth of usage and citations, two general categories of solidarity emerge: the mundane and the sublime.

    In its mundane sense, solidarity means a robust feeling of togetherness, a ​“one-for-all, all-for-one-ness” that holds fast a group of people in a common activity. It is best summed up in Benjamin Franklin’s exhortation to his co-conspirators that they must all hang together or surely they would hang separately. This kind of solidarity is morally neutral. Union members refusing to cross a picket line exemplify solidarity, but so do white homeowners in a Chicago neighborhood signing restrictive covenants to keep black families out.

    Sublime solidarity, on the other hand, embodies a powerful moral aspiration to realize the fundamental fellowship of humankind. The human subject imbued with full solidarity would treat each person the same way she would treat the interests of her closest kin. My father, a community organizer and one-time Jesuit seminarian, explains why solidarity is his favorite word by sketching a continuum that ranges from pearl-clutching pity through sympathy and empathy to arrive finally at solidarity, wherein you are propelled to do something for your fellow human beings, to act as if their interests were your own.

    It is this solidarity Jane Addams described as ​“not philanthropy nor benevolence, but a thing fuller and wider than either of these,” and what Gandhi referred to when he spoke of the ​“essential unity of all people.”

  16. 16.

    FastEdD

    I worked for the American Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO Local #1794) in 2008 in 3 states, Virginia, California, and Oregon. We bust our butts and spent millions of dollars to get Obama elected and we hugged and cried when it happened. But we never saw him go out on a limb for labor. We loved him, yeah, and I know there were other considerations, but we never saw that effort reciprocated. That’s why it thrills me to my core to see Biden show up and give his support. It means so, so much to the thousands of union members and friends of unions who knocked on doors and made calls and worked so hard.

  17. 17.

    TriassicSands

    @rikyrah:

    Wait, old people shouldn’t be homeless, aren’t they just supposed to die? i thought that was one of the lessons of the pandemic.

    Note: After which they may not be able to afford a funeral, cremation, or a cemetery plot (which, IMO, is a terrible waste of space). Having dug up and moved a graveyard once — college summer job — I know what it looks like to be buried. It’s not pretty.

    Sadly, for the big food corporations, old people make lousy Soylent Green. We’re either too fat or too stringy. Hmm. What about elderjerky?

    Yeah, cynical.

  19. 19.

    wjca

    @rikyrah: Thanks in part to a series of recessions, high housing costs and a shortage of affordable housing, older adults are now the fastest-growing segment of America’s homeless population,

    Naturally, if you’re homeless you don’t have a residence address.  Which mostly means you can’t register to vote.  Which, in turn, means you can’t vote against those politicians whose actions got you there.  Hmmm

  21. 21.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @FastEdD:

    Exactly.  Biden is easily the best (D) president of my lifetime.  The best two (R) presidents of my lifetime: Clinton and Obama.

    I’ll probably get hammered for that last sentence.  I’m no leftier-than-thou Dem but the neoliberalism that predominated in those two administrations makes it hard for me to look back on them the way I look at Biden’s performance now.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    I’ll probably get hammered for that last sentence

    As well you should be. Every day we decry how the media ignores what the Republicans have become, and here you are just throwing the (R) label around like it means nothing.

  28. 28.

    Citizen Dave

    We will fight you from the mountains

    And we will fight you in the streets

    And we will fight you in the valleys

    You cannot take what isn’t yours

    And we will fight your goons and lawyers

    And we will fight your Pinkertons

    And we will fight your bought off Congressmen

    You cannot take what isn’t yours

    2:13
    Torches and Pitchforks- Cracker 2014
    crackerrocks

  29. 29.

    wjca

    @narya: People experiencing homelessness can vote in many jurisdictions

    Why am I guessing that those places are rarely run by MAGA types?

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    @FastEdD: ​
    Of course Biden has done a lot more than showing up in solidarity. That’s mostly symbolic. His appointments to NLRB have done a lot more concrete. One really exciting thing I haven’t heard discussed much is that it sounds like Biden is trying to reinstate card check.
    As I understand it, the letter of the law actually says a union is supposed to start representing employees when it can get a majority to sign up. There is an exception if the union tries to coerce people into signing up, in which case there is an election under NLRB auspices to protect the employees from coercion. That’s the way things were for a while, but the Nixon NLRB started accepting any employer claims of coercion without bothering to investigate. The Biden NLRB wants to revert to the older system by forcing employers to support their claims. It would make it much easier for unions to organize.

  33. 33.

    VOR

    The “Blue Collar Billionaire” who built Trump Tower with non-union labor, whose campaign merch is made in China, whose branded clothing is made in China, hires guest workers at his golf clubs, and who is famous for stiffing suppliers and contractors – that guy is a friend to union workers?

  34. 34.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Alison Rose:

    I’ll grant you that the Clinton admin was not exactly a haven of progressivism, but calling him a Republican is a little silly.

    Agree completely. It’s as ridiculous as MAGAts calling Romney or Cheney a closet Democrat. When people make statements like that, they are basically implying that if you aren’t progressive, you aren’t a Democrat. That is garbage. It’s a big tent, even if they want to pretend like it isn’t.

  37. 37.

    FastEdD

    @VeniceRiley: No, we didn’t take sides in the primary. We did, however work for a number of candidates in the general. In Oregon, Obama looked like he didn’t need much help, so we spent lots of effort to get Jeff Merkley elected the first time. He watched a presidential debate with us and I even spoke to his elementary teacher to make sure she’d vote for him (she did.) Senator Merkley has been there ever since and we’ve been quite proud of him. It was fascinating, because we mostly worked in Portland where the votes were-the rural areas were mostly red. Election night we were behind, but a few days later the city put us over the top. It was a BFD because we flipped a red Senate seat.

  38. 38.

    Alison Rose

    LOL

    The president, dressed in a baseball cap, zip-up sweater and brown shoes, put his arm around a picketer as Mr. Fain praised him for being the first modern president to join marching workers.

    I understand wanting to describe his outfit to show that he didn’t turn up in a fancy suit, but I’m not sure why they felt the need to tell us he was wearing brown shoes. Is that notable?? I feel like he probably wears brown shoes quite often, just maybe slightly different styles.

  40. 40.

    Alison Rose

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Yeah, during the J6 hearings, a friend of mine wondered if Cheney would switch parties. Took me a while to stop laughing. Like, yes, I offer a modicum of respect to Cheney for having a few shreds of decency and for doing the right thing even though she knew it would probably tank her reelection chances. But the woman is absolutely still a Republican.

  41. 41.

    Jay

    @Roger Moore:

    This is the change:

    https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/interfering-with-employee-rights-section-7-8a1

    America’s resurgent labor movement has won a useful victory with a decision by the National Labor Relations Board that will make unionization easier at firms that break the law while resisting organizing campaigns.

    The new framework means companies that are found to have committed illegal acts during unionization-election efforts will be forced to immediately bargain with the union rather than just have to run the election again – which is what happened previously.
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/02/union-nlrb-decision-delays-busting

  43. 43.

    FastEdD

    @Roger Moore: I know it is mostly symbolic but symbols matter. I really wish there was more discussion in the media of how TFG’s meeting tomorrow with scabs is organized by something called the “Right To Work Foundation” which is total bullshit. Getting rid of card check is also a BFD.

  44. 44.

    VOR

    @Alison Rose: It’s a way to hint at an Republican attack. Apparently Axios did a piece about Biden wearing special shoes to avoid slipping and doing balance exercises. In reality, it’s probably just not wearing smooth leather-soled dress shoes on a wet surface. And I could benefit from balance exercises.

  45. 45.

    TriassicSands

    @Baud:    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    CSAoR may be old enough to remember when at least some Republicans weren’t fascists and/or criminals. His(?) consideration of Clinton and Obama as Republicans in the context of 2023 is more than a bit out of whack. But Clinton didn’t look that different from some of the Republicans in the late sixties/early seventies. Then, along came Reagan and the descent began in earnest. For someone who doesn’t think either Clinton or Obama met expectations, it makes more sense to call them lousy Democrats than Republicans. That’s an individual perspective.

    The terms RINO and DINO are thrown around carelessly and almost never apply to the politicians to whom they are attached. Joe Manchin, for example, is not a DINO — he’s just a really crappy Democrat. Similarly, Susan Collins is not a RINO. Look at their voting records. Manchin’s is much worse for a Democrat than Collins’ is as a Republican, but his voting record doesn’t look anything like that of any Republican. He does have a nasty habit of grandstanding, especially on really important issues.

  46. 46.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Alison Rose: I respect Cheney too, even if I disagree with her about most things. At least we agree on the importance of Democracy. Plus, I’m glad she’s finally budged a bit on the gay rights issue. Took her long enough.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @Alison Rose:

    I’ll grant you that the Clinton admin was not exactly a haven of progressivism, but calling him a Republican is a little silly.

    The Clinton administration had to deal with the political situation in the 1990s.  I remember that Clinton made passing healthcare reform his top priority only to have it shot down in Congress.  He spent the last 3/4 of his time as President dealing with a Republican controlled Congress, which precluded any attempt at implementing a progressive agenda no matter how progressive he was personally.  If you want the president to govern the way you want, you need to support him with Congressional majorities.

  48. 48.

    Jackie

    Deja vu? Is this June, again? “My Kevin” knows if he is ousted as Speaker, no one else will get the 218 votes needed to replace him.

    “Speaker Kevin McCarthy has reached a new point in spending negotiations, with only five days until a shutdown deadline: pushing for a meeting with President Joe Biden,” Politico reports.

    “While McCarthy and his allies are increasingly projecting confidence they’ll be able to notch at least one minor spending win this week, it won’t do anything to avert a shutdown. To prevent that from happening, the speaker would almost certainly need to work with Democrats, given conservative opposition. Asked about that possibility Tuesday afternoon, McCarthy implied it’d be easier to cut a deal directly with Biden.”

  50. 50.

    BellyCat

    @rikyrah: Thanks for raising this. As if aging (with escalating healthcare costs) is not difficult enough. Wondering what remedies look like?

    One small improvement might be easing restrictions on Tiny Home communities so that the the elderly may downsize more easily/affordably while forestalling or even possibly avoiding the high costs of assisted living or nursing care facilities.

  51. 51.

    Gravenstone

    @Jackie: To which Biden should just say “I’m not solving your problem for you, Kevin.” and ignore anything McCarthy says afterwards.

  52. 52.

    Jackie

    @FastEdD: My post at #20 has multiple links about TIFG’s speech tomorrow being held at a non-union company and financed by anti union supporters.

  54. 54.

    BellyCat

    @rikyrah: Also related (in the possible solutions department) was a recent news blurb (NPR?) in which Biden is spearheading efforts to reverse urban planning codes in which multi-family homes (such as duplexes) have been trimmed way back.

  55. 55.

    JaySinWA

    @TriassicSands: This morning I read this which seems to be an intersection between the need for us olds to die rather than be homeless. TL/DR why not both.

    https://www.inoreader.com/article/3a9c6e74bbd503a9-memorial-ceremony-october-25-2023-for-king-county-residents-who-died-without-resources-or-family-to-claim-their-remain

    ETA Burien bans camping to “solve” homeless proble

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/burien-prohibits-camping-amid-high-profile-homeless-encampment-debate/

  56. 56.

    wjca

    @Roger Moore:  If you want the president to govern the way you want, you need to support him with Congressional majorities.

    And if you want Congressional majorities, you have to get state legislature majorities.

  57. 57.

    Matt McIrvin

    @TriassicSands: I remember it was fashionable for a while during both the Clinton and Obama administrations to say that at one time they would have been Rockefeller Republicans. One or the other of them may have even said it at some point as a rhetorical tactic. But I’m not sure it’s true. They never had the cultural-reactionary streak of even the “nice” Republicans of the 1960s.

    It was also popular to say that Obamacare was based on a Heritage Foundation healthcare-reform plan, but it wasn’t–the only thing they really had in common was a coverage mandate, and the courts threw that out.

  58. 58.

    Jay

    @Jackie:

    which ever ReThug House member frist say’s “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” in a row after a Bobert rant will get the Speakership. It’s in the fine print of a Covenant they signed on taking office, with a currently unnamed 3rd Party.*

    *Not No Labels, the Greens, etc,……. a certain individual,……

  61. 61.

    CaseyL

    @BellyCat:

    One huge improvement would be to prevent investment firms (usually, but not always, private equity) from buying income for low-income individuals and razing it to put up luxury condos.  That’s happened to a number of mobile home parks, low income apartment buildings, and small single homes on lots.

    Another big improvement – though there’s really no way to implement it -would be to outlaw buying a property that you have no intention of living in, to use as an AirB&B/VRBO.  It’s amazing how many homes and even condos have disappeared into that maw.

    Many of these investors that private equity are working with tend to be international buyers, particularly from Asia. People wealthy enough to buy up multiple properties and do nothing but rent them out for top dollar.

  62. 62.

    trollhattan

    Meanwhile, in the People’s Republic.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a series of bills Tuesday to further strengthen California’s gun control measures, drawing praise from anti-gun violence advocates and prompting legal action from firearm rights groups.

    The measures include limiting where concealed weapons can be carried in public, imposing a first-of-its-kind state excise tax on firearm sales and requiring that certain guns contain technology that makes it easier to trace ammunition back to a gun owner.

    “We recognize humbly that we’re not solving every one of the cases or an incident, we’re solving for a pattern and that’s the important point,” Newsom said. “We have a responsibility to do more and continue to lead in that conversation.” The governor’s announcement was shortly followed by a lawsuit from a gun rights group, teeing up a legal battle that could end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Newsom and legislators already have passed some of the nation’s strictest gun control laws. They range from restrictions on the size of ammunition magazines, a ban on assault weapons and a crackdown on ghost guns — privately-made firearms without serial numbers, often sold as unassembled kits. Yet many of the state’s efforts have been blocked or overturned by San Diego federal judge Robert Benitez, an appointee of President George W. Bush.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article279741009.html#storylink=cpy

    Benitez is the fucker who favorably compared the AR-15 to the Swiss Army knife and last week said that mass shootings are “rare” but it’s common for somebody protecting themselves to run out of ammo and thus, big magazines are crucial.

    I wonder which Koch jets he’s been flying on?

  63. 63.

    Jackie

    More threats to judges in three… two… one…

    “A judge has ruled that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House,” the AP reports.

    “Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling Tuesday in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.”

    “The decision, days before the start of a non-jury trial in Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, is the strongest repudiation yet of Trump’s carefully coiffed image as a wealthy and shrewd real estate mogul turned political powerhouse.“

    🫢😂😂😂

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    @CaseyL: We have a huge housing shortage and huge surplus of office space and there’s not a bloody thing the locals can do about the investment firms sitting on all those empty offices, “waiting for the market to turn around.” To your point, most of it is owned outside the region and a good deal, offshore.

  65. 65.

    JaySinWA

    @JaySinWA: It’s starting to sink in for me at least that the visibility of homeless people now is such that all the good economic news is kind of lost in the realities that even with lower inflation “the prices are too damn high”.

    On the one hand people seem to not have much sympathy for the people in the encampments and just want them out of sight and out of mind. On the other hand, that visible sign of poverty may be driving the angst as much as the high prices for gas, food and shelter. With shelter costs especially leading to “but for the FSM, go I” at least in our subconscious.

  68. 68.

    Citizen Alan

    @Alison Rose:  I don’t even give her that much credit. Imagine that it’s 2004, only Howard Dean is the Dem nominee, he’s running on a “Get us the hell out of Iraq ASAP!” platform, and he’s leading in the polls. (Fanciful, I know, but work with me here.) Now imagine he wins the election by the same margin that Biden beat Trump in 2020.

    Anyone want to reassure me that the Cheney family would be on the side of “peaceful transfer of power” as opposed to trying to pull a fast one in the House?

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @JaySinWA:

    ETA Burien bans camping to “solve” homeless proble

    Ugh.  My sister is on the Burien city council and has been telling me about the homeless situation there.  She was one of the 3 who voted against the measure, and her comment is right on point.  There’s a real problem with lack of housing, and you can’t just ignore that immediate need while waiting for more housing to be built.

  72. 72.

    Michael Bersin

    @Jackie:

    Very much so.

    The friend who joined me on the road trip, a retired Army NCO, said of AOC to one of the St. Louis TV affiliate reporters covering the rally, “She [AOC] is going to be President some day.”

  73. 73.

    Alison Rose

    @trollhattan: Benitez is a jackass. Also, I was watching the livestream of this event and when the press was asking questions, one of them said he talked to gun dealers and manufacturers and they’re feeling like they are being “targeted” and that leaders in the state are trying to “push them out”. The reporter asked Newsom “Is your goal to make it so hard to do business here that they have to leave?”

    First off, fuck the death merchants and their fucking feelings. Yeah, you should feel targeted, just like every one of us feels targeted by the weapons of war you sell. And boo fucking hoo, cry me a river about “well we might just take our ball and go play in another state”. GOOD. Go. Leave. Bye bitch.

    Newsom’s response was a shrug and “How about a little damn accountability?”

  74. 74.

    lowtechcyclist

    @catclub:

    He looks more like a standing President to me.

    Don’t’cha know he’s old? They probably hired a body double to do the standing for him.  ;-)

  75. 75.

    Barbara

    @Alison Rose: ​Oh that’s rich. Gun dealers and owners feeling targeted. So fucking what.

    “How about a little accountability” is absolutely the perfect response.

  79. 79.

    Dan B

    Trump guilty of bank fraud by Engoron, a NY judge.  All business licenses to be terminated and Trump Corp. dissolved.  And this is just the first of seven charges.  Letitia James is yet to come

    And Albatrossity got there first.

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @CaseyL:

    Another big improvement – though there’s really no way to implement it -would be to outlaw buying a property that you have no intention of living in, to use as an AirB&B/VRBO.

    You can’t make it illegal to buy the property, but plenty of cities have limited short-term rentals to owner-occupied properties.  For example, my city requires home owners who want to use their property for short term rentals to notify the city and their neighbors and restricts those rentals to 30 days per year.  Here in the LA area that’s significant because those short term rentals can include use renting it out to studios, either as a filming location or to host support staff for filming at a nearby location.  The key is willingness to enforce those rules if someone tries to violate them.

  82. 82.

    Barbara

    @cain: It’s not happening, at least not in the industry I spend most of my time working with.  Not all sectors are going to react the same way, some can’t, but the new normal is going to be less focused on office buildings.

  83. 83.

    MattF

    @Albatrossity: Quote of the day:

    Trump attorney Christopher Kise said in response that the valuations reflected “Mr. Trump’s investment genius.” He pointed to Trump National Doral Miami golf club, which was purchased out of bankruptcy for about $150 million in 2012. Kise said it’s worth “well more than $1 billion” now.

    “What Doral demonstrates is that President Trump is a master at finding value where others see nothing,” Kise said.

  84. 84.

    Roger Moore

    @trollhattan:

    It’s not that easy to convert offices to living space.  I’m sure Suzanne will chime in, as she’s done on many occasions before, to explain exactly why this is true, but converting offices is unlikely to be a solution to homelessness.

  85. 85.

    Jay

    @trollhattan:

    As Suzanne has pointed out many times, converting commercial space to residential space is not cost effective. It’s cheaper to tear stuff down and build from new.

    Across the street from us, they are prepping to tear down a mini mall and 2, 3 story apartment buildings for towers. 240 large 1970’s affordable apartments, ($950 mo) gone from “inventory” for the next 5 years while they build 1500 tiny boxes, as condo’s, some which will rent for $2800 mo.

    Mount Pleasant is a cautionary tale.

    The City of Vancouver built a large block of social housing, (900 one, two and three bedroom condo’s) in the early 60’s. An actual community formed. In the early 80’s, due to increased maintenance costs, they decided to tear it all down, sell the land to a developer for new builds, with the caveat that 50% of the homes had to be social housing.

    30 years later, 30 homes have been built, none are social housing.

  86. 86.

    Barbara

    @Roger Moore: ​Condo buildings are also changing their rules to prohibit short-term rentals. My SIL and her husband live in a condo that confronted someone who had bought one of the units to use essentially as a hotel. The owner apparently either sold or found a permanent renter.

  88. 88.

    Subsole

    @Alison Rose:

    I’m guessing they are trying to imply he is all fancy and effete, because he isn’t wearing steel-toes or sneakers.

    Y’know, because working people don’t wear nice clothes. They wouldn’t be authentic Noble Savages if they weren’t too busy hauling pig iron and wrestling with powertools and getting into shirtless Greco-Roman fistfights over Pabst Blue Ribbon for such snobbish Liberal frippery.

  92. 92.

    Matt McIrvin

    @cain: Obama’s signature policy achievements were an economic stimulus program to mitigate the Great Recession, and a massive expansion of public healthcare that got huge numbers of people health coverage who didn’t have it before.

    The stimulus wasn’t big enough, and the healthcare program wasn’t socialist enough–those are the things that drive people to call him a Republican or a neolib or what have you. Actual Republicans would have given us nothing. I also struggle to imagine a Republican President coming around to support same-sex marriage.

  93. 93.

    RaflW

    @Dan B: “All business licenses to be terminated and Trump Corp. dissolved.”

    Dang.

    Though that will no doubt be stayed pending appeal. Can AG James prevent the Trump Org from just shuffling the assets to other shell corps?

  94. 94.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Michael Bersin:

    Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez’s speech was excellent. She is a very talented politician and a very good Democratic Party rep. Really excellent seeing US Dem pols and the President stepping up to support organised Labor. ✊✊✊✊

  96. 96.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @CaseyL:

    Another big improvement – though there’s really no way to implement it -would be to outlaw buying a property that you have no intention of living in, to use as an AirB&B/VRBO.  It’s amazing how many homes and even condos have disappeared into that maw.

    That is a serious problem in St. Louis. I wish we’d do what NYC did and require AirBnB/VRBO rental owners live on site. That would solve 2 problems 1) people renting them out for massive, disruptive and often destructive parties and 2) some of the housing crunch.

  101. 101.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @VOR:

    The “Blue Collar Billionaire” who built Trump Tower with non-union labor, whose campaign merch is made in China, whose branded clothing is made in China, hires guest workers at his golf clubs, and who is famous for stiffing suppliers and contractors – that guy is a friend to union workers?

    Of course. He hates the same people they hate.

  102. 102.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @MattF: A lot of the housing stock in St. Louis is very old. The AirBnB properties tend to be tiny single family homes, duplexes, or four-plex apartments that were built 30s, 40s, & 50s. Now they sit mostly vacant because there is a glut of short term rentals. We have a worsening homeless problem. There have been serious issues caused, including shootings, by some of these short term rental parties.

  103. 103.

    Jay

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    Here, Short Term Rentals are now licensed, taxed extra based on value and income, and limited. Offshore’s are taxed extra.

    It’s not helping much.

    Both the Fed’s and the Province functionally got out of “Social Housing” in the 1970’s, and it’s really hurting now.

    Vancouver used to have a boom and bust cycle, now that we are an “International City”, we havn’t had a bust since the mid-90’s. It’s just up, up, up. The 3 bedroom rancher we sold in the early 2000’s, (to move to the Interior), for $330,000 just listed for $1.8 million.

  104. 104.

    CaseyL

    @Albatrossity: ​

    Wow. Just wow. If a Judgement and Order like that was levied against me, I’d probably want to change my name and leave town. (I’d also wonder if anyone in the world would ever want to do business with me again, but Trump’s business is with oligarchs, mobsters, and other corrupt entities, who have their own remedies against being defrauded.)

    That Summary Judgment is a thing of beauty. They pissed off the Judge good and proper, they did – not just the Trumps, but the attorneys who argued on their behalf. $7,500 each seems like chicken feed, but I guess there are statutory limits to the sanctions that can be applied in these cases.

    Just… WOW.

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    @CaseyL

    The dollar amount might not seem much but such a blot on an attorney’s permanent record (as it were) from being so sanctioned carries ponderous and ineradicable weight within the legal profession.

  109. 109.

    Morfydd

    @BellyCat: In no way are tiny homes a solution for elderly people.  Usually they are built on wheels or otherwise elevated to avoid the foundation problem, which can absolutely trap an elderly person inside.  Then the sleeping area is usually a loft, also impossible.  Finally, tiny spaces don’t allow any space for wheelchairs or walkers to maneuver in kitchens, bathrooms, or just through the space.

  112. 112.

    wjca

    @Albatrossity: Trump Org should be dissolved and go into receivership, according to a summary judgement by a NY judge.

    Full document of the summary judgement here.

    To call the court’s decision blistering is to massively understate the case.  Especially the court’s comments on the defense attorneys.

  114. 114.

    wjca

    @MattF: President Trump is a master at finding value where others see nothing

    “Others” including a majority of Americans, when it comes to the strictly notional value of TIFG himself.

  115. 115.

    Roger Moore

    @wjca:

    Especially the court’s comments on the defense attorneys.

    I especially like the part where the judge implied Trump was engaged in influence peddling.  I’m sure it’s true, and it’s really nice to see someone come out and say it.

Comments are closed.