DL Open Thread: Saturday, October 22, 2022
Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Papers Held US Secrets About China And Iran. You know, the papers that were ‘his’ papers:
At least one of the documents seized by the FBI describes Iran’s missile program, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation. Other documents described highly sensitive intelligence work aimed at China, they said.
Unauthorized disclosures of specific information in the documents would pose multiple risks, experts say. People aiding U.S. intelligence efforts could be endangered, and collection methods could be compromised. In addition, other countries or U.S. adversaries could retaliate against the United States for actions it has taken in secret.
Enough already. Indict him, arrest him, (Oxford comma?) and ask for no bail as he is a clear threat to national security.
Court Halts Student Loan Plan–Temporarily. As usual, Democrats run for cover:
Many Democratic lawmakers facing tough reelection contests have distanced themselves from the plan.
Didn’t the Supreme Court already dismiss a similar suit? Doesn’t matter. There will always be a MAGAt judge somewhere to do Rethugs’ bidding.
Remember The RealPage Story About Its Algorithms And How It Screws Renters? The company is being sued:
Renters filed a lawsuit this week alleging that a company that makes price-setting software for apartments and nine of the nation’s biggest property managers formed a cartel to artificially inflate rents in violation of federal law.
The lawsuit was filed days after ProPublica published an investigation raising concerns that the software, sold by Texas-based RealPage, is potentially pushing rent prices above competitive levels, facilitating price fixing or both.
The lawsuit accused the property managers and RealPage of forming “a cartel to artificially inflate the price of and artificially decrease the supply and output of multifamily residential real estate leases from competitive levels.”
The lawsuit said that RealPage’s software helps stagger lease renewals to artificially smooth out natural imbalances in supply and demand, which discourages landlords from undercutting pricing achieved by the cartel. Property managers “thus held vacant rental units unoccupied for periods of time (rejecting the historical adage to keep the ‘heads in the beds’) to ensure that, collectively, there is not one period in which the market faces an oversupply of residential real estate properties for lease, keeping prices higher,” it said. Such staggering helped the group avoid “a race to the bottom” on rents, the lawsuit said.
RealPage brags that clients — who agree to provide RealPage real-time access to sensitive and nonpublic data — experience “rental rate improvements, year over year, between 5% and 12% in every market,” the lawsuit said.
Can someone, either in an official or unofficial capacity, come on here and assure us that no Delaware property managers are using RealPage? I’m looking at you, Buccini/Pollin, and your, wait for it, ilk.
Rethug Intimidation Laws Impacting Georgia Voters. We’re talking laws that enable voter intimidation:
Under the state’s new Election Integrity Act, Georgia citizens can challenge a voter’s eligibility on the state’s voting rolls an unlimited number of times. Right-wing groups, spurred by baseless claims that the 2020 election was rife with voter fraud, have mounted thousands of organized challenges across the state, putting even more pressure on the election process for voters, poll workers and election officials. While most have been dismissed already, more challenges cropped up ahead of early voting.
Other states are likely to have even more onerous provisions. All in the name of ‘election integrity’, an oxymoron for the ages.
What do you want to talk about?
Remember the Cold War Era when mythical Communism scared the bejesus out of Gullible Americans? They executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving “atomic secrets” to the Russians, and yet I think we all know Putin got all the secrets he needed out of Trump. Yet nothing has happened. Suspect nothing will happen as American politics fails yet again as cowardice rules the day.
As noted “Venue shopping” in search of a friendly judge (Calling Aileen Cannon) should be banned, the rich are the only ones who can play this game, as such they guard it with care. Reminds me of the “Carried interest ” game as only a few can play.
Rising rents IMHO are a symptom of income inequality. When people reach the upper middle class and buy a bigger house, often they no longer sell their starter homes, they can afford to keep them and rent them out. Those individual rentiers probably don’t use RealPage but by decreasing home inventory they contribute to the increase in rents and home prices.
Part of RealPage’s recommended strategy is for managers to keep properties vacant rather than rent them out for a more reasonable rate.
Artificially shrinking available inventory.