I know I can come of like a jerk sometimes, but let me be brutally honest anyway: if people who voted for Trump get evicted, GOOD! They deserve it-- and worse. Now, Kushner-in-law would have never done this before election day but his real estate management firm, Westminster Management, has submitted hundreds of eviction filings in court against tenants with past due rent... despite the pandemic. I hope lots of Trump supporters learn a little something about who the Trumps are. It's the non-Trump supporters I'm worried about. As for the Kennedys' "Let's Lynch The Landlord," that's always been one of my favorite songs. Washington Post reporters Johnathan O'Connell, Aaron Gregg and Anu Narayanswamy wrote this morning that "A state eviction moratorium currently bars Maryland courts from removing tenants from their homes, and a federal moratorium offers renters additional protection. But like other landlords around the country, Westminster has been sending letters to tenants threatening legal fees and then filing eviction notices in court-- a first legal step toward removing tenants. Those notices are now piling up in local courthouses as part of a national backlog of tens of thousands of cases that experts warn could lead to a surge in displaced renters across the country as eviction bans expire and courts resume processing cases. Many of the Westminster tenants facing eviction live on low or middle incomes in modest apartments in the Baltimore area, according to tenants. Some of them told the Washington Post they fell behind on rent after losing jobs or wages due to the pandemic." Vultures in Maryland like Kushner are unable to evict anyone from their homes right now-- and the state moratorium was renewed last week. Now, they're just laying the groundwork. and by the way, last year Kushner, personally made $1.65 million from his ownership stake in Westminster.
Last year Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh sued the company for its management practices, alleging that the company collects illegitimate fees for applications and evictions, and illegally claims tenants’ security deposits. Kushner Cos. representatives have called the suit politically motivated and are fighting the charges. Westminster manages more than 20,000 apartments, according to its website. It is far from the only company moving to evict tenants despite the pandemic; housing experts have been warning for months that as Americans’ stimulus benefits run dry and eviction moratoriums expire, backlogs in eviction cases may be leading to a surge in renters being forced from their homes, particularly at the end of the year when the CDC moratorium ends. Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, which tracks evictions in 24 cities, found that landlords there have filed for 92,619 evictions during the pandemic. Election Lab’s Alieza Durana said that the lack of federal data made comparing time frames difficult but that whoever is elected president will face “increasing numbers of people at risk of eviction, particularly among marginalized communities.” Data from past years suggests that evictions have a disproportionate impact on racial minorities. From 2012 to 2016, Black renters had evictions filed against them by landlords at nearly twice the rate of White renters, according to Eviction Lab data. Some of Westminster’s tenants, including those facing eviction, are Black, and their plight was highlighted Oct. 26 by public backlash to comments Kushner made on Fox News. Kushner said on the air that Trump wants to help Black people but that they have to “want to be successful” for his policies to work. “President Trump’s policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they’re complaining about, but he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful,” Kushner said. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Kushner, issuing a statement saying it was “disgusting to see internet trolls taking Senior Advisor Jared Kushner out of context as they try to distract from President Trump’s undeniable record of accomplishment for the black community.” Another research and advocacy group, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, found that corporate landlords have filed more than 10,000 eviction notices in five states-- Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas-- since September. “There is definitely a question about what happens as time goes on,” said Jim Baker, the group’s executive director. “Clearly we are seeing some increases. It doesn’t add up to a surge yet. But with big companies making these filings and with moratoriums expiring, we are wondering if we will see more.” Kushner is in a unique position to understand how the coronavirushas ravaged the national economy and the real estate industry. After joining the nascent coronavirus task force with Vice President Pence, Kushner said at an April 2 news conference that “the president wanted us to make sure we think outside the box, make sure we’re finding all the best thinkers in the country, making sure we’re getting all the best ideas, and that we’re doing everything possible to make sure that we can keep Americans safe.” But his handling of the federal pandemic response, in which he quickly assembled a team of private-sector volunteers with limited expertise in health, ended with the administration leaving large parts of the response to the states. “The bottom line is that this program sourced tens of millions of masks and essential [personal protective equipment] in record time, and Americans who needed ventilators received ventilators,” Kushner said in a May statement. “These volunteers are true patriots.” Before Trump ran for president, Kushner had taken over his family’s real estate company from his father, Charlie Kushner. Jared Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, reported combined assets valued at between $204 million and $783 million last year. Kushner has passed on some chances to avoid conflicts of interest. He planned to divest his stake worth between $25 million and $50 million in the real estate start-up he co-founded, Cadre, and received an approval in February from the Office of Government Ethics to do so tax-free. But in June he withdrew the request, according to a filing with the office. Kushner’s company has struggled to pay some of its own debts, including by missing payments to one of its lenders on the retail space at the old New York Times building on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, according to securities filings. Kushner Cos. did not comment when asked about the property. Advocates credit President Trump, Congress and some states for moratoriums that they say have kept people in their homes despite job losses and pay decreases due to the pandemic. The Cares Act prohibited landlords at properties supported by federal housing programs, including Westminster’s Owings Run property, from making any court filing to start legal action. That moratorium expired July 24, allowing landlords to begin filing after a 30-day grace period, as early as Aug. 25. ...Even with the moratoriums in place, tenants and advocates say landlords can effectively bully some families out of their properties without a formal eviction taking place. Experts say they see far more “constructive evictions”-- cases in which people leave because they are pressured over missed rent and don’t know their rights. Some tenants don’t want an eviction on their permanent record because it can show up on credit ratings and other legal screenings, experts and tenants said. Others move out to avoid court fees. “This is the warning shot-- do you want to have your stuff just thrown out on the street, or do you want to just go?” said Georgetown University law professor Adam J. Levitin. “I suspect in many cases landlords are hoping to move people out without having to go through the actual formal eviction.“ Several tenants said they were regularly being charged court fees for eviction cases that started before the pandemic and have been reopened in recent months. Zafar Shah, an attorney with a Baltimore-based legal aid nonprofit, the Public Justice Center, said even relatively small fees “can make the difference between the eviction going through or not, or the tenant being able to take the bus to work.” Booker, one of the Owings Run residents, described the eviction threats as “heartless” coming from a company owned by the president’s son-in-law. “The way they’re treating us is just making us feel like we’re nothing. It feels like we’re … what’s the word … disposable,” she said. “They just want us gone so someone else can come in."
Homelessness is horrific at any time-- but during a pandemic! And remember, it was the policies of the Trump Regime that Kushner is such a big part of that has turned the U.S. into the world's worst COVID hellhole. The U.S. daily reports will absolutely be north of six figures today-- just as they were yesterday, when the U.S. had it's worst day in terms of new cases since Trump decided his role in the pandemic was to politicize it and kill as many people as possible. On Tuesday, the U.S. reported 94,467 new cases (and 1,187 new deaths). Wednesday there were new 108,353 new cases reported (and 1,201 new deaths). Numbers are still coming for today but there are already 118,204 new cases reported and 1,125 new deaths. Any state or country with more than 20,000 cases per million residents has an out-of-control pandemic. Right now Trumpistan is the worst place on the planet earth, coronavirus-wise. These are the unlucky 13 states with their cases per million (along with what percentage voted for Trump's reelection:
• North Dakota- 65,398 cases per million residents (65.0% Trump, up from 63.0%)• South Dakota- 57,820 cases per million residents (61.8% Trump, up from 61.5%) • Iowa- 44,987 cases per million residents (53.1% Trump, up from 51.1%)• Wisconsin- 49,924 cases per million residents (48.8% Trump, up from 47.2%) • Mississippi- 41,627 cases per million residents (59.3% Trump, up from 57.9%)• Alabama- 40,618 cases per million residents (62.3% Trump, down from 62.8%)• Louisiana- 39,973 cases per million residents (58.5% Trump, up from 58.1%) • Tennessee- 39,796 cases per million residents (60.7% Trump, same as 2016)• Nebraska- 40,329 cases per million residents (58.7% Trump, same as 2016) • Utah- 38,769 cases per million residents (58.3% Trump, up from 45.5%)• Florida- 38,523 cases per million residents (51.2% Trump, up from 49.0%)• Arkansas- 38,889 cases per million residents (62.7% Trump, up from 60.6%)• Idaho- 38,935 cases per million residents (63.7% Trump, up from 59.3%)
I just saw this new analysis by AP that shows that 93% of the most infected counties in the country, 376 of them, went for Trump! Makes sense. Their survey showed that 36% of Trump voters described the pandemic as "completely or mostly under control" and another 47% said it was "somewhat under control," while, 82% of Biden voters said the pandemic is not at all under control. So which group wears masks and practices social distancing and doesn't get COVID and which group doesn't wear masks and doesn't parctice social distancing... and gets COVID and then spreads it to their families, colleagues and friends? The biggest tragedy of the Trump Pandemic!