September 19, 2024

Thursday, September 19, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup,

The New York Times chose to ignore that Donald Trump was running against someone most of the day yesterday. Article upon article on Trump. Anybody know what to do?

The Times said - To share feedback, please visit nytimes.com/readerfeedback.

I sent this last night.

I hope you will reach out to the Times or any other media group when you see Media Injustice or have any other complaints - or praise.

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The 1.3-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union has refused to endorse a Presidential candidate.

According to the New York Times, the former president worked hard to curry [Sean O’Brien, President of the Teamsters Union’s] favor, inviting him to his private club and residence, Mar-a-Lago, this summer and then granting him his wish for a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in July. The Democratic convention rebuffed him.

But the Teamster Board vote was 14 for not endorsing and three for Ms. Harris. No board member backed Mr. Trump.

But that is not the whole story. Other Teamster groups - local unions- are endorsing Kamala. Here are some examples.

Yes, those Unions with the yellow dots and those without them back Harris.

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111 Former G.O.P. Officials Back Harris, Calling Trump ‘Unfit to Serve’

The signatories of a letter endorsing the Democratic vice president included former members of Congress, defense secretaries, C.I.A. directors and other national security officials.

More than 100 former national security officials from Republican administrations and former Republican members of Congress endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday after concluding that their party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, is “unfit to serve again as president.”

In a letter to the public, the Republicans, including both vocal longtime Trump opponents and others who had not endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, argued that while they might “disagree with Kamala Harris” on many issues, Mr. Trump had demonstrated “dangerous qualities.” Those include, they said, “unusual affinity” for dictators like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and “contempt for the norms of decent, ethical and lawful behavior.”

“As president,” the letter said, “he promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests and betrayed our values, democracy and this country’s founding documents.”

The letter condemned Mr. Trump’s incitement of the mob attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, aimed at allowing him to hold onto power after losing an election, saying that “he has violated his oath of office and brought danger to our country.” It quoted Mr. Trump’s own former vice president, Mike Pence, who has said that “anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”

The letter came not long after former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, both said they would vote for Ms. Harris. Democrats featured a number of anti-Trump Republicans at their nominating convention last month, including former Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Mr. Pence has said he will not endorse Mr. Trump but has not endorsed Ms. Harris.

The 111 signatories included former officials who served under Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush. Many of them had previously broken with Mr. Trump, including two former defense secretaries, Chuck Hagel and William S. Cohen; Robert B. Zoellick, a former president of the World Bank; the former C.I.A. directors Michael V. Hayden and William H. Webster; a former director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte; and former Gov. William F. Weld of Massachusetts. Miles Taylor and Olivia Troye, two Trump administration officials who became vocal critics, also signed.

But a number of Republicans who did not sign a similar letter on behalf of Mr. Biden in 2020 signed the one for Ms. Harris this time, including several former House members, like Charles W. Boustany Jr. of Louisiana, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Dan Miller of Florida and Bill Paxon of New York.

In their letter, the Republicans acknowledged concerns about “some of the positions advocated by the left wing of the Democratic Party,” and some of them have been quite critical of the Biden-Harris administration. Just last year, Mr. Zoellick wrote a newspaper essay eviscerating Democratic economic policies. But the letter said that “any potential concerns” about Ms. Harris “pale in comparison to” those over Mr. Trump. (New York Times)

Read the letter.

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Kamala was at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual conference in DC.

Touch to watch.👇 20 minutes.

Saying that for years she has worked with “this incredible caucus,” she warned of “mass deportations” and “massive detention camps” if Trump returns to the White House.

“We all remember what they did to tear families apart,” Ms. Harris said, “And now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history. Imagine what that would look like and what that would be, How’s that going to happen? Massive raids? Massive detention camps? What are they talking about?”

Kamala is extraordinary and fights to give us the country we want. If you have an extra $5.00 or an extra $500 or $5000, let her feel your support. Donate what you can here.

One more thing.

This amazing actress, the first Latina to win a major Emmy , is joining this fight.

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Harris-Walz has announced its intention to BUILD AN OPPORTUNITY ECONOMY and LOWER COSTS FOR FAMILIES.

As part of those goals, Kamala has discussed how to make rent more affordable and home ownership more attainable.
For example, she has said she will provide $25,000 to help first time homebuyers with home down payments, with more generous support for first-generation homeowners. She knows rent is too high and will sign legislation to outlaw new forms of price fixing by corporate landlords.

This is all good.

Here is other approaches too. Don’t be surprised if you hear echoes of it on the campaign trail.

It may take awhile but perhaps some day soon, after January 20th, 2025, when the newly elected President, with her Blue Senate and Blue House, will sign a comprehensive housing bill, moving America closer to its promise.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Tina Smith: Our Solution to the Housing Crisis.

Ocasio-Cortez (often called AOC by people and press) is a Democratic U.S. representative from New York and Tina Smith is a Democratic U.S. senator from Minnesota, the same state which proudly elected Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz its Governor twice.

Stop almost anyone on the street today and you’ll hear we’re in a housing crisis. In most American counties, minimum-wage workers can’t afford to rent even a modest one-bedroom apartment. Working families are bidding against the world’s biggest financial firms for homes. On top of it all, people living in public housing complexes across the country are increasingly exposed to inhumane conditions after years of federal neglect and underinvestment.

It’s becoming nearly impossible for working-class people to buy and keep a roof over their heads. Congress must respond with a plan that matches the scale of this crisis.

For generations, the federal government’s approach to housing policy has been primarily focused on encouraging single-family homeownership and private investment in rental housing. The mortgage-interest deduction provides roughly $30 billion in tax write-offs to homeowners annually. In addition to their support of the mortgage market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide up to $150 billion in financial backing to the multifamily rental market every year, but much of it goes to large, corporate landlords. These lucrative loans come with very few tenant protections or labor requirements. And the largest affordable housing incentive our government offers — the low-income housing tax credit — too often ends up in the hands of for-profit developers.

Outsourcing development to the private market leaves affordable housing subject to the boom-and-bust cycle of private investment. What’s more, the federal government relinquishes the oversight needed to protect tenants from abusive landlords and racial discrimination.

The result is a housing market where corporate landlords make record profits while half of America’s 44 million renters struggle to pay rent. For a generation of young people, the idea of home has become loaded with anxiety; too many know they can’t find an affordable, stable place to rent, let alone buy.

Why is this happening? For decades, thanks to restrictive zoning laws and increasing construction costs, we simply haven’t built enough new housing.

There is another way: social housing. Instead of treating real estate as a commodity, we can underwrite the construction of millions of homes and apartments that, by law, must remain affordable. Some would be rental units; others would offer Americans the opportunity to build equity. These models of rent caps and homeownership are already working around the world, such as in Vienna, and in some parts of the United States.

In Congress, the two of us represent very different parts of the country, but New Yorkers and Minnesotans have both benefited from social housing.

The Electchester complex in Queens and Co-op City in the Bronx today house over 50,000 New Yorkers. Co-op City stands as not only one of the largest housing cooperatives in the world — with its own schools and power plant — but also the largest, naturally occurring retirement community in the country, a testament to its financial and social sustainability.

In Minnesota, trusts, such as Saint Paul’s Rondo Community Land Trust, give people the chance at more affordable homeownership, because the homeowners don’t buy the land; instead, it’s held in trust and leased to homeowners on a long-term, renewable basis. The model has expanded across Minnesota, in rural and suburban communities alike.

Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or health care, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing. That’s why we’re introducing the Homes Act, a plan to establish a new, federally backed development authority to finance and build homes in big cities and small towns across America. These homes would be built to last by union workers and then turned over to entities that agree to manage them for permanent affordability: public and tribal housing authorities, cooperatives, tenant unions, community land trusts, nonprofits and local governments.

Our housing development authority wouldn’t be focused on maximizing profit or returns to shareholders. Rent would be capped at 25 percent of a household’s adjusted annual gross income. Homes would be set aside for lower-income families in mixed-income buildings and communities. And every home would be built to modern, efficient standards, which would cut residents’ utility costs. Renters wouldn’t have to worry about the prospect of a big corporation buying up the building and evicting everyone. Some could even come together to purchase their buildings outright.

To fund social housing construction, our development authority would rely on a combination of congressional spending and Treasury-backed loans, making financing resilient to the volatility of our housing market and the political winds of the annual appropriations process.

Our bill would also invest in public housing and repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prevents the construction of new public housing. Passed in 1998, with the support of both parties, the amendment helped entrench a cycle of stigmatization and disinvestment. Our legislation would reinvest federal money in local public housing authorities to fund the backlog of much-needed repairs.

We know that housing looks a lot different in Bemidji, Minn., than in the Bronx. It shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach. That’s why our bill would task local governments, unions and established local nonprofits with developing homes that blend seamlessly into the landscape of the town and fit the needs of the people living in them.

Research from New York University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Climate and Community Institute estimates that our bill could build and preserve more than 1.25 million homes, including more than 850,000 for the lowest-income households.

We can’t wait for the private market alone to solve the housing crisis. This is the federal government’s chance to invest in social housing and give millions of Americans a safe, comfortable and affordable place to call home — with the sense of security and dignity that come with. (Op-ed, New York Times).

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Here is some good news from the state of Pennsylvania.

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Here is some good news about two great women.

For those who may want to lift a cup 🥂 to Billie about this honor, remember on September 20th, 1973, she crushed Bobby Riggs 🎾 … reminds me of how Kamala Harris beat Trump on September 10, 2024! 🥂🥂

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New Kamala ad. More Kamala information and tweets. Enjoy.

This is good, but sad.

This is what we expect from the woman who must become our 47th President. 👇

One more time.

Kamala is extraordinary and is fighting to give us the country we want.

If you have an extra $5.00, an extra $50, an extra $500 or $5000, let her feel your support. Donate what you can here.

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Your daily reminder.

Trump is a convicted felon.

On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.

The Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11th and September 18th. He will now be sentenced on November 26.

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Defendant Trump held a huge rally at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island in NY last night.

The press sure did cover it. But this happened too.

Touch to watch.👇

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As Michelle Obama said, Do Something!!

Don’t wake up on November 6th and think “I should have done more.”

Donate! Take action! Talk to someone. Remember voting has begun in Alabama and Pennsylvania. It starts today in Wisconsin.

And don’t forget tonight. Sign up now. There will be joy! If you need more push, you will find it with Oprah and Kamala.

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