Carrier Stunt and Trump as Con Man

This is a little out of context. It's part of a response I wrote to a friend who had some specific thoughts about Trump's Carrier stunt and cabinet picks. 

Trump's Carrier coup was just a stunt. It's not a policy. It's a PR stunt. And a pretty effective one. They aren't going to systematically use public funds to try to save American jobs. It's only a small amount of money, and Carrier went along with it (for now) in order to curry favor, and for no other reason. The realcause of this kind of thing is the change in SEC rules in 1982 that permitted unregulated stock buybacks. Owners, and CEOs are owners, of large corporations are incentivized to maximize their short term gains at the expense of the company's long term health, and even moreso at the expense of their American employees. Before 1982 this kind of conflict of interest/market manipulation was (sensibly) illegal, as it had been since such destructive anti-democratic and anti-free market policies had been seen to have contributed to the crash the first time. In 1929. The gradual unraveling of financial regulations that prevented a recurrence, or relapses, in the 1930s, started under Reagan, and has continued under all presidents since, including Democrats. Obama, notwithstanding Dodd Frank (now facing evisceration anyway), did very little to change it. (BTW Chubb did a lot of stock buybacks, enriching Finnegan and other top execs, prior to the ACE buyout, which we should have seen coming when it became clear what they were up to. This kind of stuff, which should be as illegal as insider trading, is so common nowadays it hardly even gets any notice at all). 

As far as Il Donaldo's choices for the cabinet go, I look upon his entire campaign as a grift. A con. He sold one thing, and now that the bait has been taken, it's switcheroo. Kleptocracy full on. Use of public assets to enrich himself and his cronies. Mnuchin is a perfect example. I strongly recommend you listen to THIS segment from Ian Masters's program 11/30 to get the picture of Mnuchin, an odious kleptocrat who would not be out of place in Putin's sphere. 

This is Trumpworld, and we're going to have to somehow survive it. I hope the Democrats wise up and organize soon, because this guy is a very effective con artist, and he just might pull off a long stint at the helm, to the great detriment of the United States of America. 

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
«The people united will never be defeated!»