anti-trust

A few weeks ago Digby and I went to dinner with Ted Lieu and Ro Khanna, two of Congress' most dedicated legislators-- guys actually looking for ways to make people's lives better. We asked David Dayen to come as well so he could explain the intense research he has been engrossed in involving pharmacy benefit managers. His piece, "The Hidden Monopolies That Raise Drug Prices," is running in the new issue of the American Prospect and it's worth reading in its entirety.

Congressman Wright Patman (D-TX), chairman of the House Banking Committee, 1963-74, led the fight in Congress to stop the manipulators of the Federal Reserve System from 1937 to his death in 1976It flipped me out earlier in the cycle when Obama sent out numerous communications-- including radio ads-- to Democratic base voters in Florida, particularly African-Americans, that reactionary New Dem Patrick Murphy is a progressive.

When criminal types aren't prosecuted for their criminal behavior-- when they get away with it without paying a price-- it effectively gives them permission to keep it up and even go further down the road of criminality. We've been writing about Rahm Emanuel's criminal behavior-- behavior rewarded with immense sums of money, prestige and power... and more money-- and how he always gets away with it.

I've been a big Clinton detractor and I don't plan to vote for her in November. That said, it's important to recognize the difference between her approach to the runaway prices of pharmaceuticals and Trump's approach. Trump doesn't seem intellectually capable of understanding the problem beyond a single incident and his "team" is ideologically bogged down to the extent of incapacity to recognize the systemic problem of monopoly.

Rotten Apple tax, FriendFace fraud and a CGI Snowden + this day in history w/Ruby Ridge surrender and our song of the day by Guided By Voices on your Morning Monarchy for August 30, 2016.

Antitrust accountability, 'Project Discus' and the 'Golden Key' + this day in history w/Sacco & Vanzetti's execution and our song of the day by Russian Circles on your Morning Monarchy for August 23, 2016.

Elizabeth Warren, like FDR who saved capitalism from its own excesses, isn't much liked by banksters and capitalists. The banksters have spent more money trying to defeat her than they have on any other Senate candidate in recent years-- although at the rate they're contributing against Alan Grayson's campaign in Florida-- he could soon catch up with her. "Strong healthy markets," Warren explained in a keynote address last week at the New America think tank in DC, "are the key to a strong, healthy America." That doesn't sound anti-capitalist to me.

Greg Sargent raised the warning signals, based on a new poll released yesterday by Stan Greenberg, that core Democratic voters-- particularly millennials (but also unmarried women and minorities-- are not as energized by the 2016 elections yet as core Republican voters.

We've been talking about the eye-popping corruption of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo-- and Democratic Party version of shady Republican governors Christie, McDonnell, Walker, and Deal, all of whom, like Cuomo, are under federal investigation.