Many cities with housing shortages have laws prohibiting empty residences. Just sayin.

Third grade always outranks Kindygarden.
If only, he'd never had them bonespurs....

I gotta be the 1st on my block to get Me an AOC ActionFigure!

Does it knee recalcitrant neocons in the nads?
Hoo Boy!

I had lunch with a classic Leschi Socialist (way too much money, a house that is worth a gazillion dollars, highlights, lots of scarves and chunky jewelry) and she has bailed on Sawant, because she feels that Sawant is "not authentic" and "too divisive".

I told her that I bailed on her because she's a nitwit. We laughed and had another glass of wine.

I let her pick up the tab.

There are whole neighborhoods in London that are like dead malls. All the lights are functioning. Streets are kept clean. Weeds are removed. Hedges are manicured. But nobody lives there. There are no shops or stores open because there's no business, no cars, no pedestrians... nothing. You can almost hear the muzak playing softly in the background. All the properties are owned by billionaires who live in Saudi Arabia or the UAE or Kuwait or similar. They don't live there. They don't rent them out. They just buy them and lock them up and add them to their list of possessions.

"All the properties are owned by billionaires who live
in Saudi Arabia or the UAE or Kuwait or ... "

Hoarding wealth is BAD for the rest of us.
Three peeps own more Wealth in these United States than
the 'bottom' half of the population. Three people.
Like fawking Pharaohs, they are.

This is untenable.
We need a Maximun Wage.

And a Livable Wage.
And schooling so we can have people who can
build (or fix) the infrustructure required for the next Century
and beyond.

Trump! Is! Insane!
God! Help! Us!
We! Are! Screwed!
@6
And well done Ms Vel-DuRay for your lunchtime redistribution of income!

I love your boat, Chase! It looks like you had a blast.

Why doesn't the House just sic the alligators on Trumpty Dumpty, Dencey Pencey, Mooch McDumbbell, Babyface Kavanaugh ad nauseum, already? Mar-a-Lunatic must be teeming with reptiles. Forget Trump / Pence = Prison in 2020--make it Trump / Pence = Landfill in 2020. At this point, I don't think even Greta Thunberg would object.

@6 Catalina Vel-DuRay: I second pat L's (@9) well done on your luncheon outing.

Pat L dear, it's MRS Vel-DuRay. Please make a note of it.

@2 Hey now, this is Slog! Don’t come in here wavin’ yer facts and statistics around, ya hear? Rich people are evil and that’s the end of it!

That is a very unfortunate frame for the Twitter video to end on.

If you guys are only now figuring out that money laundering, and wealth hording are the real point of modern real estate development—it's definitely not creating housing—then you're about 20 years too late. Why else all the shell companies?

And yes, in many cities like my own, if a housing unit stands empty for more than 6 months or so, it may be legally squatted. Tricky, though, since there are ways around it (like hiring "anti-squatter" tenants), and it's hard to break into a 28th floor penthouse. Plus the rich own the police force. Maybe it's best these places were just burned down.

What the heck did Sawant spend all her money on? That table shows that she actually has raised the most money, but her campaign is broke because she's outspent everyone else by a pretty large margin. Granted I'm not in her district, but I don't feel like I've seen an ad blitz or anything.

@16 Money laundering via luxury condos is one of the cornerstones of the Trump real estate empire, specifically Trump Tower in NYC. Billionaires on sanctions lists need places to get their cash away from the corrupt governments from which they've stolen it.

@15: Think of it as a halloween face she made just for you knat.

@18 -- thanks, republicans.