It's About the Water

 And the Air, Roads, Bridges, Schools, Government Buildings, Post Office......

Hang on to your hats folks because the great American estate auction is about to begin. The powers that be have been privatizing public assets for decades now, but that has just been a warm-up to what is about to begin.
Two posts I read this morning address this topic from different perspectives. The first is from Huffington Post on the looting of Fannie May and Freddie Mac:

"On Friday, Trump’s transition team announced his selection of Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) as the nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget. Earlier this year, Mulvaney introduced legislation blocking payments by the housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to funds that support low income housing unless both Fannie and Freddie are recapitalized and released.
....
When the housing market tanked and the Great Recession of 2007-2009 began, the federal government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both deeply underwater, sending their stock prices plummeting. The Obama administration has since insisted on keeping the housing lenders under government authority and has redirected their profits into government coffers.
During this time speculators like Paulson bought up stock at bargain basement prices and began lobbying the government to end federal control and oversight of the lenders and then recapitalize them and release them back to the private market. Such a policy would, undoubtedly, send the stock price soaring and those who had tens of millions worth of penny-stock would see billions in profit ― including Paulson. Trump had invested between $3 million and $15 million into Paulson’s funds, according to the president-elect’s most recent disclosure report filed in May. "

Again Our Dear Leader is setting himself up to profit handsomely off the office he has not yet assumed along with his Billionaire Buddies (TM), shoving an even larger slice of the national wealth into the hands of the Chosen.

The second item is posted by Tom Sullivan over at Hullabaloo on the conversion of utilities into "profit centers":

" But let's look at another source of fouled drinking water which the residents of Flint, MI might recognize. Some 81,000 homes in Pittsburgh received letters this summer warning of possible lead contamination in their water. Financially stretched public utilities around the nation are turning to the private sector water companies to help out with their aging infrastructure: global water barons such as Nestle and Suez, and smaller for-profit outfits such as Aqua America. Mother Jones from October:

Pittsburgh's utility called in Veolia, a Paris-based company that consults with utilities, promising "customized, cost-effective solutions that reflect best practices, environmental protection and a better quality of life." Veolia consults or manages water, waste, and energy systems in 530 cities in North America, with recent contracts in New York City, New Orleans, and Washington, DC. Last year, the company, which operates in 68 countries, brought in about $27 billion in revenue.

By the end of 2015 "the utility had laid off or fired 23 people—including the safety and water quality managers, and the heads of finance and engineering." Veolia switched from soda ash to a cheaper corrosion inhibitor:

Such a change typically requires a lengthy testing and authorization process with the state's Department of Environmental Protection, but the DEP was never informed of the change. Nearly two years later, as news spread about the disaster in Flint, the utility switched back to soda ash.

After Veolia took control in Pittsburgh, prices went up, billing became erratic, and customers initiated a class action lawsuit over "grossly inaccurate and at times outrageously high bills." Mother Jones reports:

Last December, facing the class-action lawsuit, a state citation for changing corrosion controls, and mounting debt, Pittsburgh terminated its contract with Veolia. All told, PWSA had paid Veolia $11 million over the course of the contract.

Earlier this month, the utility announced it was suing the company. According to a press release, Veolia "grossly mismanaged PWSA's operations, abused its positions of special trust and confidence, and misled and deceived PWSA as part of its efforts to maximize profits for itself to the unfair detriment of PWSA and its customers."

Pittsburgh follows Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Gary, Ind., and Buenos Aires and other international cities that found for-profit water not such a bargain. There's a reason for keeping public utilities public."

So, we take a vital necessity that no one can do without and start squeezing dollars out for private profit. We see this pattern repeatedly in Republican proposals to "unleash the free market", "outsource" services and sell off national assets. In the name of "eliminating fraud and waste" and "streamlining" the government and "privatization", they are first, foremost and always concerned with getting public funds into the hands of the connected power elite. 

And let's be clear who the real power elite is - not the visible stars, celebrities & talking heads, and not even the elected office-holders but rather the shadowy figures who recruit, promote, fund and control those officeholders. Lobbyists write the bills (see "ALEC" for example) and hand them over to the "lawmakers" to pass, directly serving corporate interests. As always, to understand what is really going on, follow the money.

One of my pet peeves (I have a cute menagerie of them) is the general ignorance of what government, both federal and local,  provides for us. Things we don't even see, taking completely for granted, are the product of our tax dollars at work. Postal service, paved roads, police, fire, EMS, street lighting, (sometimes) clean water, bridges, airports, all these things. Many true-believer conservatives think the federal government should patrol the borders, protect us from foreign invasion and that's about it. The best example of this conservative paradise were actually put in place (they are doing their best at it in Kansas)