Mammon category archive
The Privatization Scam 0
And it is a scam. You can voucher on it.
(At about the eight minute mark, Emma and the crew veer off from that subject and discuss listener comments. but the part up to that is well worth a listen.)
The Unelected Co-Conspirator, Reprise 0
Thom Hartmann talks with Representative Mark Pocan about possible motivations for Elon Musk’s recent DOGEy actions.
“Nice Little Business You’ve Got Here. Wouldn’t Want Anything To Happen to It.” 0
Joe Conason marvels at Trump’s grift of grab. A snippet:
Follow the link for context.
This New Gilded Age 0
Robert Reich sees a strategy emerging from the Trumpled chaos. Here’s a bit:
He thinks he can accomplish this by getting the rest of us so angry at one another— over immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, diversity, and the like — that we don’t look upward and see where most of the wealth and power have gone.
Now. to be fair, I’m not sure that Donald Trump is capable of thinking in terms of a such long game; he seems to live in the moment. But some of the persons behind him (think Project 2025, for example) most certainly are. Our new generation of robber barons founded those “conservative” think tanks as part of their long game to return us to the 1890s.
The Privatization Scam 0
And it is a scam. You can voucher on it.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
The Washington Monthly’s Bill Scher hears a rhyme in the firings this time. A snippet; follow the link for a parsing of the parallels.
Less than a week after Trump was sworn in, he fired 17 inspectors general.
Inspectors general are federal government investigators embedded in government agencies to ferret out waste, fraud, and abuse. Lofgren’s prediction came in a review of the book Watchdogs by Glenn Fine, a former inspector general fired by Trump after 20 years of exemplary service.
Last week’s pink slips violated a law enacted three years ago in response to Trump’s first-term firings, which mandated 30 days’ notice to Congress before the president could terminate an Inspector General.
Trump’s illegal assertion of executive power echoes the attempt 158 years ago by President Andrew Johnson to fire Secretary of War Edward Stanton.
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*Mark Twain.
This New Gilded Age 0
Sam and the crew follow the money to understand why the right-wing wants to get rid of what it–the right–refers to as “the administrative state,” that is, federal regulatory and research agencies established to protect the well-being of the country and its inhabitants. (Disregard the caption in the video below; it misses the gist of the clip.)
This New Gilded Age 0
Farron follows the money.
Twits Own Twitter X Offenders
0
SFgate’s Drew Magary explains why he deleted his account at Twitter X.
The Crypto Con in This New Gilded Age 0
Here’s the lede, via Truthout. Follow the link for the details
Not that those pushing crypto might have any ulterior motives . . . .
Broligarchy, Reprise 0
At AL.com, Kyle Whitmire sees a precedent–and it ain’t a pretty one.
