Do they not understand that this administration is not interested in public policy?
Once all the consumer programs are shut down and all the federal employees fired, it will be a generation before anything can be retooled, and untold damage will be done by then.
Beyond erasing DEI, we're now on to erasing critical speech.
From erasing speech to coercing and forcing speech. How far can we be from neighbor turning in neighbor to be disappeared?
Good, but what will happen when it gets to the Supreme Court?Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday that the U.S. Justice Department is suing the state of Georgia over its new voting law, saying that the controversial measure is intended to restrict ballot access to Black voters.
"Our complaint alleges that recent changes to Georgia's election laws were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act," Garland said at a news conference.
NPR
I'm truly surprised that Thomas didn't vote with the other conservatives.The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday sided with the TransUnion credit reporting company, ruling that thousands of consumers whose names were improperly flagged as potential terrorists cannot sue the company for damages.
By a 5-to-4 vote, the court ruled that Congress does not have the power under the Constitution to establish statutory rights and the power to enforce those rights with private lawsuits.
[...]
The court said that much of the alleged harm was "too speculative" and that only a fraction of the individuals whose names had been matched and flagged could sue--only those who could prove an actual, concrete injury. In this case, that amounted to only about one-fifth of the class that sued. The court threw out the claims of the rest of the class, those who claimed a risk of injury. The court said that Congress had no right to grant that group standing to sue.
[...]
In dissent was the court's most conservative justice, Clarence Thomas, and the court's three liberals. Thomas said that the court had rendered unto itself and itself alone the power to define which claims have merit.
[...]
Lawyers on both sides of the case see Friday's decision as a big victory for the large corporations.
NPR
They can't do both? Can they walk and chew gum?The consumer bureau – conceived during the financial crisis by Elizabeth Warren to help individuals fight back against abuse by companies -- has long been detested by many Republicans, who complained that it repeatedly overstepped its bounds with aggressive enforcement during the Obama years. As a result, the Trump administration has continually sought to slash its budget and scale back its ability to go after wrongdoers.
[...]
The bureau, for its part, has not brought a single enforcement case related to the crisis, and its enforcement actions fell by 80 percent from 2015 to 2018, according to an analysis by the Consumer Federation of America. Its staff has been reduced by more than 14 percent under President Donald Trump, and the agency is filled with political appointees to keep an eye on the career employees.
The bureau, which was formed in the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis, has instead repeatedly highlighted the “flexibility” it is giving the industries it regulates during the crisis, saying that benefits consumers.
In March, the agency announced that it would relax or postpone various reporting requirements for mortgage lenders, credit card companies and other financial institutions. Kraninger said the move would allow financial companies "to focus their resources on assisting consumers” rather than on complying with CFPB rules.
Politico
When Hell freezes over.A record number of consumer complaints have already been filed with the bureau — more than 42,000 in April alone, greater than in any other month since it opened in July 2011. The Justice Department recently brought its first fraud charges related to a small business lending program. More will follow.
Last month, the bureau issued guidance signaling that it would not enforce a requirement that credit reporting companies review consumer disputes within 30 days and would instead consider the companies' “good faith efforts to investigate disputes as quickly as possible.”
[Senator Warren] warned that “Congress will be watching — and I will use every tool available to me to hold the agency accountable to its mission.”
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.On Thursday, Britain elected the most right-wing government in decades. The Conservative Party won 365 out of 650 seats, giving Boris Johnson the strongest Tory majority since 1987 and, in his words, “a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done.” While the American public digests what to make of the Labour Party’s crushing loss (what might it mean for 2020), U.S. business interests are surely celebrating. Johnson has promised a withdrawal by January 31, 2020 — and U.S. industry groups, from pork to pharma, are eyeing the negotiations as a Trojan horse for corporations to seize more power and gut consumer protections.
British voters think Brexit will simply restore national sovereignty, limit migration, and restore local control, writes Lee Fang. In fact, corporate lobbyists now see a “historic opportunity” to use Johnson’s proposed swift exit from the European Union to forge bilateral trade deals. One of the greatest risks of Tory leadership is to the U.K.’s National Health Service. The NHS is already outsourcing an unprecedented level of patient care to private health care firms, many of which are owned by U.S. corporations. As Brexit moves forward, health care executives hope to “capture” more and more of the British market.
