Why are the billionaires always laughing?

Because they know the corporate media will never call bullshit on their bullshit.

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Why are the billionaires laughing?

It’s easy to laugh when the corporate press treats you as a glorious success instead of the epitome of a broken social order. They laugh because they know the corporate media prefers to fawn over them rather than hold them to account. We are not laughing. We are hard at work digging out the truth. Please support our independent journalism today by donating to our critical Fall Campaign.

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Why are the billionaires laughing?

It’s easy to laugh when the corporate press treats you as a glorious success instead of the epitome of a broken social order. They laugh because they know the corporate media prefers to fawn over them rather than hold them to account.

Today, we ask you to support our nonprofit journalism because we are not impressed by billionaires flying into space, their corporations despoiling our health and planet, or their vast fortunes safely concealed in tax havens across the globe. We are not laughing.

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President Donald Trump and Neil Gorsuch smile as Trump nominated Gorsuch to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court at the White House in Washington, Jan. 31, 2017.  (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Don’t Focus on Gorsuch, Focus on Trump

Robert Reich

 by RobertReich.org

Don’t get caught up in the predictable brawl over Neil Gorsuch’s credentials or his ideology. That normalizes the Trump presidency.

Instead, there should be no vote on Gorsuch’s nomination until Trump’s legitimacy as a president is established. 

Which means the Senate intelligence committee and F.B.I. must first conclude that Russian operatives were not responsible for Trump’s electoral victory, Trump must reveal his taxes, and he must put his assets into a blind trust.

Mitch McConnell wouldn’t even permit a vote on Obama’s pick, Merrick Garland, on the ground that Obama’s term would end in 10 months. Here, we have a president whose term itself may not be legitimate. 

A Supreme Court pick is the most important nomination a president can make, affecting how the Constitution and laws are interpreted, and potentially affecting generations to come. There should be no cloud over the legitimacy of the president who makes such a pick.

Democrats and courageous Republicans must not produce the 60 vote quorum needed to overcome a filibuster. When and if this strategy no longer works, it is imperative that senators continue to vote against consent orders to proceed with the nomination – until and unless Trump’s legitimacy is established.

Trump is the issue here, as well as the integrity of our democracy.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Robert Reich

Robert Reich

Robert Reich, is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. His book include:  "Aftershock" (2011), "The Work of Nations" (1992), "Beyond Outrage" (2012) and, "Saving Capitalism" (2016). He is also a founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, former chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." Reich's newest book is "The Common Good" (2019). He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.

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