June 17, 2021: 8 Million Face Eviction; Richest Families Gained $136B During Pandemic; Proud Boys In Poor Shape

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TODAY'S HEADLINES:


A new report says eight million Americans are at imminent risk of
getting thrown out of their homes. President Joe Biden could
spare them with the stroke of a pen, but he hasn’t yet made a
move to do so.


Meanwhile, research shows the country’s richest
families have done spectacularly well during the pandemic. That’s
in part because they still aren’t paying their fair share of
taxes.


And lastly, months after the Capitol
insurrection, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are strapped
for cash and bleeding members. Where’s Daddy Trump when you
really need him?


THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:


More Americans will be homeless very soon, this report from CBS
News suggests. Even as the nation rebounds from the pandemic,
more than two million homeowners are behind on their mortgages
and risk being forced out of their homes in a matter of weeks, a
new Harvard University report warns. Most of the homeowners at
risk are either low-income or families of color, said researchers
behind the 2021 State of the Nation's Housing report. Congress
has dedicated $10 billion to help homeowners get caught up on
payments, but it’s unclear if that funding will make it to
families before foreclosure notices arrive. Separately, millions
more renters are on the brink of eviction, the researchers found.
Census data show that six million households are still behind on
rent and could face eviction at the end of June, when federal
eviction protections expire. The Center for Disease Control order
halting some evictions, and federal liminations on foreclosures
for federally backed housing, both expire on June 30. Advocates
have pushed for the Biden administration to extend both, but
there is no indication an extension will happen.


CBS reports that more than seven million homeowners took
advantage of the foreclosure moratorium passed as part of the
Cares Act last spring. The provision was extended by the Biden
White House. As of March 2021, most of those homeowners have
started repaying lenders. But that leaves about two point one
million still behind on their mortgages. Biden must act now to
keep these families, including renters, housed.


Richest Families Gained $136B During Pandemic


This status check on the rich and useless comes from the
Guardian. Ten of the US’s richest families, including the Walmart
family and the dynasties behind industries including candy and
cosmetics, saw their assets balloon over the pandemic, with a
shared increase in their combined net worth of over $136 billion
in fourteen months. That’s according to a report by the Institute
for Policy Studies published yesterday. The report details how
these families have not only increased their wealth by billions
in the last year, but have also worked to ensure the system
supports this exponential growth over decades. In 1983 the Walton
family, who founded Walmart, were worth $2.15 billion. By the end
of 2020, the Waltons had a combined net worth of over $247
billion, an inflation-adjusted increase of four thousand three
hundred percent. The wealth of the Mars candy dynasty increased
by three thousand five hundred percent over the same period.


According to the Guardian, Chuck Collins, a co-author of the
report, said these families weren’t just making more money, they
were also getting better at putting it out of reach of taxation.
The report outlined several proposals to curb this wealth
accumulation, including the Make Billionaires Pay Act, a proposal
introduced in 2020 to institute a one-time sixty percent pandemic
wealth tax on billionaires. But more must be done, Collins said,
to stamp out tax loopholes, offshore tax havens and certain
trusts that allow families to hide their wealth. Or we could
simply eat the rich.


Proud Boys In Poor Shape


This delicious update on Donald Trump’s loyal foot soldiers comes
from the Wall Street Journal. The far-right group the Oath
Keepers is splintering after board members accused the founder of
spending its money on hair dye, steaks and guns. The leader of
the Proud Boys, choked off from the financial system, is printing
Black Lives Matter T-shirts to make money. The finances of the
two most visible groups with members involved in the January 6th
riot at the US Capitol are sputtering. Leaders are low on cash,
struggling with defections and arguing over the future. The Oath
Keepers and the Proud Boys have seen more than three dozen of
their members arrested in connection with January 6th. Within
both groups, an escalating crackdown and the departure of Trump
from office has spurred new levels of disarray.


The Journal reports that Oath Keepers membership has dropped
eighty percent from its peak. The organization had less than
$10,000 in its bank account as of April. Bank records show
thousands of dollars of Oath Keepers funds spent on goods and
services in Montana, where founder Stewart Rhodes lived until
recently. That includes $12,000 at an auto-repair shop, $886 at a
bar, and $229 at a lingerie shop called Alley Katz Nighties ’N‘
Naughties. The Proud Boys aren’t faring much better. Members have
turned to cryptocurrency, local credit unions and alternative
payment brokers to replace a mainstream financial system that has
largely cut them off. There’s a lesson here, folks: anti-fascist
organizing gets results!


AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:


Politico reports that the US and Russia will return their
ambassadors to Moscow and Washington, DC, respectively, following
President Joe Biden’s summit with Vladimir Putin yesterday. They
concluded their summit, which Putin called constructive, earlier
than expected, after about four hours with breaks. Coulda been a
Zoom call!


The AP reports that Israeli aircraft carried out a series of
airstrikes in the Gaza Strip yesterday. There were no immediate
reports of casualties. They were the first such raids since a
shaky cease-fire ended the war with Hamas last month. The new
Israeli government is not off to a great start.


NBC News reports that Minnesota authorities charged the driver of
an SUV that plowed into a protester-filled intersection with
second degree murder. The Sunday crash killed one woman and
injured another person. Nicholas D. Kraus, thirty five, is jailed
on $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court today. He
has a lot to answer for.


The Associated Press reports that the US Education Department
yesterday expanded its interpretation of federal Title Nine sex
protections to include transgender and gay students. The move
reverses Trump-era policy and stands against anti-transgender
proposals in many states. Here’s hoping this new directive holds
back the tide of discrimination in those Republican states that
are trying their hardest to persecute transgender students.


AM QUCKIE - JUNE 17, 2021


HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner


WRITER - Corey Pein


PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw


EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn