Rising Rents and Tenant Struggles

Happy Monday! Emma speaks with Tracy Rosenthal, writer and organizer, to discuss her recent book Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End The Housing Crisis, co-authored with Leonardo Vilchis. Then, she speaks with Luke Savage, writer based in Toronto, author of The Dead Center: Reflections On Liberalism And Democracy After the End Of History, to discuss the state of play in Canadian politics as the elections inch closer. First, Emma runs through updates on Trump’s massive gutting of the FAA, another plane crash in the US, Musk’s access to IRS data, DOGE’s privacy violations, Trump’s attacks on the NPS, HUD, and IRS, Trump’s NLRB, Utah’s ban on collective bargaining for public sector employees, Hamas’ release of hostages, Trump’s support for Israel, Trump’s threat to education funding, Trump’s request to Romania, and major flooding in Kentucky, before watching Mark Levine get Mike Johnson to fully bend the knee to the incel Musk regime. Tracy Rosenthal then joins, briefly touching on her introduction to organizing and her evolution to helping found the LA Tenants Union in 2015 before diving deeper into the massive growth of the renter population (amid dropping homeownership rates) to the point of producing tenant-majority cities. Expanding on this, Rosenthal and Emma unpack the importance of tenant organizing as a source of community power amid the increasing immiseration of the Trump regime, walking through the role landlords played in bolstering his many conspiracies around crime and immigration, and touching on the insane wealth the industry generates. After expanding on the complete normalization of homelessness under capitalism, Tracy steps back to parse the essential role land ownership played in the founding of the US, with the practice of “eviction” central to our practices of ethnic cleansing and playing an important role in aligning white settlers with the state, while the concept of the vote was entirely tethered to a white man’s claims to land. Tracy and Emma also assess the insanity of the rent boom over the last decade, with millions putting a majority of their income into keeping a roof over their head, wrapping up the interview with a discussion on what tenant organizing looks like and the importance of getting involved. Luke Savage then joins, jumping right into the recent boost Canada’s Trudeau-less Liberal Party has gotten at the hands of Trump’s nativist tirades in recent weeks, stepping back to briefly assess the rise and fall of Justin Trudeau from liberal icon to voter anathema, before digging deeper into the rise of the Conservative party over the last couple of election cycles amid COVID and a major Cost of Living crisis, and assessing the strength of their lead before Trump assumed office. After walking through some of the major MAGA-esque players involved in the rise of the Tories, and why the majority of them have acquiesced to Trump’s attacks,  Savage and Emma wrap up the free half by exploring the likely successor to Trudeau as liberal leader, and what that will mean for a (potentially) impending election. And in the Fun Half: Emma unpacks the insanity of Josh Shapiro’s pledge to “work with Republicans” to “aggressively cut taxes,” watches Chris Dols, an Army Corps engineer and union leader, unpack Elon’s attack on federal workers, and Jim from Portland calls in to update us on his ongoing graphic novel Kickstarter “F*ck Billionaires.” Hakeem Jeffries says Eric Adams should have the chance to “make his case” to New Yorkers that being in Trump’s pocket is okay, actually, Mike Gallagher reveals the reality behind the US TikTok ban, JD Vance pisses off some Germans, and Helen from the Twin Cities discusses debate tactics. Matt Walsh dissects the fundamental differences between Men (need quests) and Women (could never handle a quest), plus, your calls and IMs!

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