This week at progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Here is the Sept. 9 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents. |
At Eclecticablog of Michigan, Chris Savage writes—Foreclosure leech David Trott resigning from Congress. His work is done there, back to screwing over poor people:
Before buying a seat in getting elected to Congress to “represent” the 11th Congressional District three years ago, David Trott was a quiet, unassuming parasitic leech on the jugular vein of society. He had built up a vertically integrated business where he got money from foreclosing on poor people’s homes every step of the way.
Here’s how David Dayen described Trott’s operation on “All in with Chris Hayes” back in 2014:
CHRIS HAYES: What money is there to be made the process of [foreclosure]?
DAVID DAYEN: There’s not a whole lot of money to be made if you’re just doing the legal work. But Trott & Trott had a unique business strategy where they bought up practically every company down the line that gets a little bit of money out of the foreclosure process. There’s a requirement in Michigan that you have to put legal notices out in the newspaper. They bought the newspaper that did that. There’s a requirement that you have to do a title search. They bought the company that does the title searches and they get money off of that. They bought a real estate agency that then sells the houses after they go into foreclosure. So they kind of made money at every step down line and once you add that up, it’s lucrative. [...]
Once in Congress, Trott did pretty much exactly what you’d think he would do: He set out to pass laws that will financially benefit his foreclosure business. The most blatant of these was the introduction of H.R. 1849 – the “Practice of Law Technical Clarification Act of 2017”.
The bill is now in the House Committee on Financial Services and, fortunately, it hasn’t gone anywhere. But Trott knows his Republican colleagues have his back and that’s probably why he has decided not to run for his seat again in 2018.
I mean, why should he? With a corporatist despot like Trump in the White House and a cadre of complicit Republican supplicants in Congress, there’s not much Trott can add to the conversation.
At Montana Cowgirl, Montana Hat writes—Steve Daines Votes Against FEMA Funding, Takes Credit for FEMA Money:
A tipster pointed out that Steve Daines voted agaisnt the Hurricane Harvey relief package last week. I didn’t think much of it. An alleged champion of fiscal conservatism like Daines surely doesn’t feel it is the government’s role to protect communities during natural disasters. [...]
Thankfully, FEMA is finally starting to pony up and help Montana with these wildfires.
You know how FEMA wouldn’t have the funds to help Montana fires? If they went broke providing aid for the hurricanes. If Congress had not passed a funding measure for FEMA. If Senator Daines had got his way.
But that nugget of truth hasn’t stopped Senator Daines from taking credit in the Montana media for the money coming to Montana.
3 days after voting to allow FEMA to go broke, Senator Daines told KECI, “”With more than a million acres of our state up in flames, these additional resources to help our firefighters attack the flames is much needed. I will continue to work to ensure firefighters have all of the resources they need until this terrible fire season is over.”
To vote against funds one day, then take credit for them three days later is disingenuous hypocrisy at best and outright lying at its worst. Stand by your votes Senator, don’t pretend you didn’t take them.
At Bluestem Prairie of Minnesota, Sally Jo Sorensen writes—Child Protection League totally fretting about schools hijacking minds for LGBTQ & Islam:
While much of the United States of American mourns for the victims of September 11 and celebrates its heroes, the Child Protection League of Minnesota is fretting about public schools hijacking children's minds.
Oh noes. On August 1, the ultra-conservative group shared an event page for its Hijacking Their Minds Fall Fundraiser with the details:
How Safe Schools and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Indoctrinate our Children: Learn to identify the dangers as our expert speakers unmask the radical, child endangering trends in education. Two agendas, the sexualizing of children and the teaching of Islam, have emerged under the pretext of "safe schools" and 'social emotional learning". You don't want to miss this important event!
A recent Mail Chimp email reminds those on the receiving end that the Early Bird Special ends today. [...] From the email:
In alignment with Hussein’s presentation, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) has a Stop Bullying blog to “protect Muslim youth.” Remarkably, that blog encourages schools to counter bigotry against Islam by having female students wear a hijab for a day. The blog links directly to many anti-bullying resources from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a group recognized by most observers as a far-Left advocacy group. One ADL link is a resource for children’s literature, a collection of pure Islamic indoctrination. Another links to “anti-bias“ lesson plans,” with such topics as, “The Muslim Ban and the Power of Protest” and “Sanctuary Cities and Non-Violent Resistance.”
This isn’t anti-bias. It is training children to be activists and agitators and to adopt a sanitized view of Islam. [...]
A review of the Welcoming Schools bullying prevention program for elementary children is available on our website. Welcoming Schools is designed to coerce children into approving homosexual behavior and rejecting the authority of their parents—especially if their parents hold traditional views regarding human sexuality.
At Left in Alabama, countrycat writes— Post Equifax Breach, It’s Time Alabama Cared About Consumer Protection:
Want to freeze your credit after Equifax failed to safeguard the personal data you didn’t ask them to collect in the first place? In Alabama, you’ll pay some of the highest fees in the country for the “privilege” of not having your identity stolen. Here’s a golden campaign opportunity for anyone planning to run in 2018. Alabama elected officials need to get serious about consumer protection.
In case you’ve been so transfixed by hurricane, fire, and earthquake coverage that you missed the big credit news, Equifax lost control of the personal data of roughly half the adult population of the entire country – 140+ million people. It’s everything, y’all: full social security number, driver’s license, places you’ve lived, mother’s maiden name, answers to security questions…. In short, they failed to protect the data that you would use to prove your identity if someone else tried to steal it.
Financial experts urge people NOT to wait until there’s a problem and advise putting a full “security freeze” on your credit reports. This means that nobody can access your personal credit data unless you specifically “unfreeze” it to allow the bank or car dealership to request your data during a small window of opportunity (24-36 hours). [...]
Nice work if you can get it, eh?
See the big company collect your personal data.
See the big company sell it without your permission so you can be inundated by credit card offers.
See the big company screw up and get hacked.
See the big company offer to sell you “credit monitoring” and profit when you want to lock down your data.
Talk about a no-lose business model….
At FortBoise of Idaho, Tom von Alten writes—They're not the only ones:
Politico leads with GOP lawmakers jittery over lack of tax reform details, and my first thought was "how would I go about writing tax reform legislation?" and imagined diving into lots and lots of details, and, simplifying, snicker snack. How complicated could it be?
Starting from where we are, it is inevitably hugely complicated.
One reason "lawmakers" might be jittery is that none of them write legislation these days. All the good stuff is done on K-street and delivered pre-cooked for the guys and gals with the lapel pins. Special interests don't write general legislation, they write special interest legislation, duh. And thus, the sorry state of our tax code, replete with disproportionate tax benefits to a select few, starting with the capital gains tax rate, home mortgage interest deduction, the second home mortgage interest deduction, carried interest, the break for offshoring jobs, the blasted ethanol polluting our gasoline, the NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR venues and on and on.[...]
We have Rep. Dave Brat declaring "no room for error" this time around. "This has got to be a home run." And "a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak freely said, “It is frustrating and concerning that we don’t have the details and yet we’re going to be asked in 60 days to vote on something.”
A member of the tax-writing committee. Anonymously speaking freely. Doesn't have the details. Granted, 60 days is nigh on forever, but what the hell?
At Calitics, Brian Leubitz writes—We Must Do More to Create Affordable Housing:
The California housing situation is bad. Really, extremely bad in some places like San Francisco where housing affordability levels put families making over $100,000 into contention for affordable units. Getting housing at less than $2000/bedroom/month is really hard. I think we can all agree that is crazy. And across the state, there is a long-standing shortage of both market rate and affordable housing. That situation was not improved with the ending of the redevelopment districts a few years ago. While supply and demand cannot fix everything, we clearly need to build a lot of additional housing units (of every affordability level) across the state.
The Senate has a legislative package for that:
The two marquee measures — Senate Bill 35 from Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Senate Bill 3 from Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose) — would force cities that have fallen behind on their state housing production goals to reduce some of the hoops they put in place to approve developments and would authorize a $3-billion bond to spend on low-income housing on the 2018 statewide ballot.
“What the bill does do is create actual accountability,” Wiener said of SB 35. “Because local control is about how you meet your housing goals, not whether you meet your housing goals.” (LAT – 6/30/17)
Much of the package passed one house already, but several of the bills in this package have faced stumbling blocks. Most notably, Sen. Toni Atkins is trying to pass a $75 fee on non-home sale real estate transactions, but the 2/3 requirement is giving a lot of power to Bakersfield’s Rudy Salas in providing the final vote. Though, he seems to have found something that would work for him by presenting a bill that added a low-income exception to the fee.
At Juanita Jean’s of Texas, El Jefe writes—An Adult at Harris County?
As we all know too well, the Texas Gulf Coast, including our own Harris County, home of the Planet Hooston, received its THIRD 500 years storm 10 days ago, flooding over 100,000 homes and causing $150 to $180 billion of damage in Texas. AGAIN.
Ed Emmett, who is our illustrious County Judge, just had a brilliant idea – why don’t we fix that? Good idea, Ed. First let’s talk about some numbers.
- 178,000 structures sit IN the 100 year floodplain (remember, we’ve had [three] 500-year plus storms in 3 years. County flooding guru Jeff Lindner said Harvey was the 40,000 year storm. How’s that feel?
- Here’s what really stupid…The county’s 2,450 miles of bayous and streams can only handle 20% of a 100 year storm. This is why it floods when it gets humid here.
- There is almost unbridled development going on in flood prone areas.
- Our two western flood control basins, Addicks and Barker, have outlived their limited capacity to control flooding, as demonstrated by the thousands of homes that were flooded after the county started releasing water to protect the dams themselves.
Emmett, who is a mainstream Republican (he uses his brain) is known for his pragmatic management style. He’s calling for sweeping changes to thinking on flood control, including a new reservoir, buyouts of flood prone houses, and other flood control measures. In presenting the plan and speaking of the now common flooding, he said, “We can’t continue to say these are anomalies. You’ve got to say, We’re in a new normal, so how are we going to react to it?”
All I say is amen to that. The $20 billion it would cost to mitigate flood damage is just a fraction of ONE of these debilitating events.
At The Progressive Pulse Blog of North Carolina, Lisa Sorg writes—DEQ delays water quality decision, dealing setback to Atlantic Coast Pipeline:
Just a week ago, the utility companies behind the Atlantic Coast Pipeline had urged federal regulators to fast track their application, citing “contractual obligations.” Their letter claimed that “the state’s actions for water quality certifications and other state requirements are proceeding and align with our anticipated construction schedule.”
Apparently, that was merely wishful thinking.
The NC Department of Environmental Quality has delayed by three months its decision on whether to grant a 401 water quality and buffer permit to the owners of the ACP. In a letter to the ACP, state environmental officials laid out in two pages myriad missing information, some of it very basic: construction drawings, erosion control plans, a calculation of cumulative impacts and stream restoration plans.
DEQ had originally set a deadline of Sept. 19 for the decision.
Southeast Energy News first reported the story this morning.
Given the ACP’s application history, it’s not surprising that vital data has still not been provided. Both the draft and final environmental impact statements, issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, contained large information gaps. In other cases, such as the environmental justice section, the issue was given short shrift, as if it were a box to be merely checked off. [...]
At Bleeding Heartland of Iowa, desmoinesdem writes—Privatized Medicaid makes no sense for people with disabilities:
Who could have guessed that privatizing Medicaid would lead to for-profit companies cutting essential services to Iowans with disabilities? Aside from anyone who spent five minutes reading how the same approach had played out in Kansas?
When Iowa Democratic lawmakers sounded the alarm two and a half years ago, Governor Terry Branstad and his aides dismissed the warnings as “Washington D.C.-style partisan attacks.” They insisted privatization would allow Iowa patients to “enjoy the increased quality of service and care that comes with modern plans administering Medicaid.”
Instead, thousands received less in-home care or had trouble accessing medications and services after private insurance companies began managing their cases. The state now faces a class action lawsuit on behalf of 15,000 Iowans with disabilities.
Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven admitted yesterday what should have been obvious from the start: letting for-profit companies control access to health care for people with disabilities makes no sense.
At Bold Nebraska, Mark Hefflinger writes—Sept. 16: Solar XL Installations #2 & #3:
Join Bold Nebraska on Saturday, Sept. 16th for the next Solar XL installations on the farms of Diana and Byron “Stix” Steskal, near Stuart, and Bob and Nancy Allpress, near Naper, NE.
The solar panels will help power the homes of Nebraskans resisting Keystone XL, and are being installed by the family-owned rural solar business, North Star Solar Bears, run by Jim Knopik.
The first “Solar XL” installation in the path of KXL was erected on July 29th on the farm of Jim and Chris Carlson (seen in photo above) — who rejected a $307,000 offer from the pipeline company TransCanada to build Keystone XL through their backyard.
Bold Nebraska, 350.org, Indigenous Environmental Network, CREDO, and Oil Change International are the sponsors of the Solar XL project, which underscores the need to center solutions to climate change while rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline and resisting the expansion of the fossil fuel industry.
At Colorado Pols, a staff blogger writes—Buck Now Says He’s “Very Unlikely” to Run for Attorney General:
After first mulling a run for Colorado attorney general if current AG Cynthia Coffman decided to enter the gubernatorial race–and then allegedly being on the verge of diving into the race and creating chaos–U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) is now saying it’s “very unlikely” he’d run for state AG.
Asked by KHOW 630-AM’s Ross Kaminsky whether he’d run for the office if Coffman ran for governor, Buck said, “Probably a month ago I would have said yes. Right now, I think it’s very unlikely that I do anything other than stay focused on running for the 4th Congressional and doing the job that I enjoy doing here in DC.”
“I think it’s getting late in the game to put a campaign together for governor or for attorney general,and therefore I am happy doing what I am doing,” Buck continued.
Buck’s comment about it being late to start a gubernatorial campaign may come as news to Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton and Coffman, both of whom are still rumored to be considering a run. Former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo may still jump in, he’s said.
Buck grabbed headlines last month for stating, in a Denver Post op-ed, that the Republican Party is “dead.”
This pessimistic view fueled rumors that Buck would jump at the chance to run for Colorado attorney general.
But after penning the op-ed, Buck said on a Denver radio show:
“I am very happy where I am,” Buck told KNUS’ Dan Caplis. “And I am really feeling emboldened, in a lot of ways, about things – having a voice that can try to change the direction of policy in DC. And so I’m very thankful for that.”f
At Show Me Progress of Missouri, WillyKay writes—Ask Ann Wagner why, after Equifax fail, she wants to gut the CFPB?
The CFPB went after Equifax and TransUnion earlier this year for deceiving consumers about the usefulness and cost of credit scores they sell. Given their record to date, I don’t need to add that the CFPB got results; it cost the credit agencies $5.5 million in fines and $17.6 million in restitution paid to consumers. The CFPB’s got a track record when it comes to Equifax and its ilk.
Of course, it’s the very independence of the CFPB that sticks in [2nd District Rep. Ann] Wagner’s craw. It’s what lies behind the usual Republican charges of government overreach or, in a more grandiose vein, charges that it is not constitutional to have a government agency with so much power that is funded independently of congress and is led by an executive appointee who cannot be dismissed on the whims of various and sundry elected officials without substantial cause. So far, the courts, our constitutional arbiters, don’t agree with Wagner et al. when it comes to questions of constitutional overreach. (Do you, too, find “unconstitutional” kind of funny coming from GOP politicians who seem to be purposely blind to the constitutional issues that bedevil their current President?)
Wagner’s onus against the agency extends to its director. She has been in the forefront of trying to drum up an appearance of malfeasance on the part of CFPB director Richard Cordray, even going so far as to level poorly substantiated charges of workplace discrimination. Most recently, she and her anti-CFPB cadres have tried to besmirch the record of the CFPB investigation into Wells-Fargo’s financial malfeasance.
But right now, when a truly huge number of Americans are facing the potential of identify theft or worse, and the company responsible for losing their data is acting poorly, do you think Wagner could be prevailed upon to leave the CFPB alone and let it serve the people who need it? I’m not optimistic – it’s clear that Wagner sees the Trump presidency as a lifeline when it comes to her heretofore ineffectual crusade to re-empower our financial overlords, but maybe, nevertheless, we should ask her to “can” it? Or else.*