Trump Seeking to Privatize Fannie and Freddie – Without Congress | Habitat Magazine

Trump Seeking to Privatize Fannie and Freddie – Without Congress | Habitat Magazine

"First the Trump administration announced a “national emergency” in an effort to secure funds for a southwestern border wall without Congressional approval. Now, the Financial Times reports, the White House is moving to privatize the nation’s two largest mortgage guarantors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, without Congressional approval."

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Fannie Mae has assets worth over $3 trillion. Freddie Mac, over $2 trillion. If this goes through, we are looking at the end of constitutional government in the US. For 8 years, Republicans ranted about Obama's supposed executive overreach. Now Trump is going flat-out dictator, and what do we hear from Republicans in Congress? Mostly crickets.

Military Families Report Major Problems With Privatized Housing : NPR

Military Families Report Major Problems With Privatized Housing : NPR

Privatization is never the panacea that Republicans and libertarians claim it is. Introducing the profit motive creates an incentive to cut corners.



"Severe mold, asbestos and electrical hazards are among the dangers in private military housing for thousands of service members' families, according to a new survey conducted by the Military Family Advisory Network. The report was released Wednesday, in conjunction with a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about the state of privately managed military housing. Nearly 17,000 people responded to the survey across 46 states. And more than 55 percent of participants who lived in private housing said they were dissatisfied with how management companies oversaw their dwellings."

Watch for Republicans to use the shutdown to privatize government

The shutdown’s real lesson: Government has taken hostage too much of the economy - MarketWatch



I expect Trump and the Republicans to use this self-engineered shutdown as a pretext to privatize as many government functions as possible. The over-arching objective of the Trump regime, to the extent that it has one amid the chaos, is to advance the project of letting plutocrats strip-mine the national government of as many of its assets as they can grab before they are thrown out. This op-ed from Market Watch is part of that project. The national park system is one of the main targets. Airport are on the list. With airport terminals starting to shut down as unpaid TSA screeners call in sick, it won't be long before Trump and his enablers start talking privatization.

'Privatizing the coast': are wealthy Californians seizing public beaches? | Environment | The Guardian

'Privatizing the coast': are wealthy Californians seizing public beaches? | Environment | The Guardian

"Meanwhile near Santa Barbara, a homeowners association have blocked off 8.5 miles of coastline, and the only way for non-residents to access it is to rent a boat, anchor offshore, and swim or boogie-board the rest of the way in. The state is considering using eminent domain to regain access. It has also spent the last 40 years fighting property owners in Malibu who blocked their beaches, and at the end of 2016 it issued more than $5.1m in fines."

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By law, the California coastline is open to the public, but rich people block parts of it off and it leads to litigation.

Airbnb and the so-called sharing economy is hollowing out our cities | Gaby Hinsliff | Opinion | The Guardian

Airbnb and the so-called sharing economy is hollowing out our cities | Gaby Hinsliff | Opinion | The Guardian

"Landlords have realised they can make more money out of short lets to well-off Airbnb users than from renting to conventional tenants who live and work in the city year round, so when contracts come up for renewal it’s not uncommon to find the rent suddenly shooting up to levels that young Spaniards can’t pay. Once they’re forced out of the neighbourhood, the empty flat promptly disappears into what’s still sometimes euphemistically known as the “sharing economy”, although what happens next sounds like the antithesis of sharing. Those lucky enough to own a desirable property get steadily luckier, by pimping it out to the highest bidders. Meanwhile, those who don’t have such an asset become ever less likely to get one, as property prices are pushed up across the city. Thus does inequality harden, and resentment deepen, while the failure of mainstream parties to solve the problem drives the young and frustrated ever closer to the political fringes."

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There are many forces that are increasing inequality and pricing people, especially young people, out of cities. This is one of them.

Look to Sheffield: this is how state and corporate power subverts democracy | George Monbiot | Opinion | The Guardian

Look to Sheffield: this is how state and corporate power subverts democracy | George Monbiot | Opinion | The Guardian

See below--this is George Monbiot's take on what is going on in Sheffield, UK, where a privatization deal is leading to the destruction of thousands of street trees.
Here's a statement from STAG, a group that is trying to save the trees. The privatization deal is a PFI, or "private financing initiative," with Amey, a private infrastructure company that is a subsidiary of Ferrovial, a huge Spanish company that does the same sorts of things.

For the chop: the battle to save Sheffield’s trees | UK news | The Guardian

For the chop: the battle to save Sheffield’s trees | UK news | The Guardian

I was in Sheffield the week before last, and I heard this story about privatization gone bad (or so people say) from friends there. The city contracted with a private company called Amey to maintain streets, and the company is chopping down thousands of street trees. There are theories as to why this is going on, some of which are quite troubling. I will be saying more about this as I learn more and develop a better understanding of what is going on.

Donnie Rudd guilty of killing wife in ’73, making it look like car crash: 'It's been a 45-year nightmare' - Chicago Tribune

Donnie Rudd guilty of killing wife in ’73, making it look like car crash: 'It's been a 45-year nightmare' - Chicago Tribune:



This article doesn't mention it, but Donnie Rudd was the principal author of much of the Illinois Condominium Property Act. The act was originally adopted in 1963.   The legislature did a major set of amendments in 1983, and Rudd co-authored the amendments. At that time he had huge HOA and condo practice. Eventually he got in trouble for allegedly cheating his clients and was disbarred. There was suspicion that he was involved in the murder of one of his clients who was going to complain about him, but he was never charged. Then there was the wife of 28 days who, he claimed, died of injuries from a car crash. But now he has been convicted of bludgeoning her to death for the insurance money. Here's a timeline of the Rudd legal saga.

Gun toting squatters terrorizing Las Vegas condo community

amp.ktnv.com/2623234589/neighbors-gun-toting-squatters-are-terrorizing-las-vegas-condo-community.html?__twitter_impression=true



Yet another condo community suffering from the failures of public and private government.

Loop North Mobile: Chicago has a bridge to give you

Loop North Mobile

Chicago will give the Chicago Avenue bridge to anybody who will take it.