Money

Money.

Money.

Money.

Money.

• Paul Krugman (via Janet Allon at AlterNet) on false populism and Donald Trump.

  If that sounds like populism, we definitely have a bridge to sell you.
  
  Since GOP-ers in Congress probably don't have enough votes to overturn Dodd-Frank, they may have to settle for crippling enforcement of it, which they can fairly easily do by "undermining the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose goal is to protect ordinary families from financial scams," Krugman points out. The recent Wells Fargo scandal was only revealed because of this entity.
  
  What gives then? Why are consumer protections in the so-called president's sights? His oh-so populist Goldman Sachs appointee to his National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, made the analogy that the fiduciary rule is like “'putting only healthy food on the menu' and denying people the right to eat unhealthy food if they want it," Krugman writes. And we do know that Trump likes fast food. Krugman thinks the analogy is inapt, however. To him, it is more like "preventing restaurants from claiming that their 1400-calorie portions are health food."

  Actual populism favors consumer protections.
• When I typed that last sentence, the Internet cut out.
• Enriching private prisons and criminalization of immigrants.  (Crooks and Liars, The Liberal Yell, a former Border Patrol person.)

  The GEO Group and CoreCivic will be paid millions if not billions of our tax dollars via the Trump Administration. Trump will insist he’s keeping America safe when in reality he is tearing families apart, destroying our economy that relies on immigrant workers and business owners and creating an endless supply of clientele for private prisons.