What’s that smell?

That’s the smell of the raw, stinking power of oligarchy — a government controlled by the billionaire class.

Everyday Americans are tired of getting screwed over while the richest of the rich dominate our politics and siphon off the economy’s gains. Millions of people have hit the streets in protest. This is absolutely essential.

But we also need to demonstrate not just against Trump and the oligarchy he serves —  but also for the America we want.

We simply can’t return to the status quo where a majority of the country struggles to get by while billionaires and corporations dominate our economy and democracy. 

Many Republicans, and even some corporate Democrats, are fine with this system. Too many of our elected officials have been eating from the oligarchy’s Big Money buffet to finance their elections and dare not criticize the hands that feed them.

We need to replace those politicians. 

We need to push people-powered Democrats (and even some independents) towards a bold, progressive populism that strengthens democracy and shares the wealth.

Now, it may seem an odd time in our history to suggest such reforms, but this is actually the best time. We need to take on the oligarchy directly by

Busting up big corporations that are price-gouging us to death. 

Getting Big Money out of politics.

Raising the minimum wage while strengthening unions and worker protections on the job.

And we must fairly tax the ultra-rich — like we used to do. This could finance Medicare for all, paid family leave, free childcare, debt-free college, better public schools, and many other programs that the richest nation in the history of the world should be able to provide to its people. 

If we organize, we can achieve these goals, both at the national level and at the state level. 

And these ideas can serve as our basis for evaluating politicians in future elections, to make sure we select true public servants at all levels of government who actually represent us.

One of the unacknowledged advantages of this awful era is that it's revealing the putrid connections between great wealth and great power. The intentions of the oligarchs are fully exposed and more blatant than ever. 

The oligarchs will keep trying to divide and distract us. They don’t want us to focus on how they are picking our pockets. They’ll decry these reforms as “far left” or “radical” or “socialist.” 

But this agenda is neither “right” nor “left” and certainly not “radical.” 

It’s what our nation requires: putting power over our democracy and economy where it belongs — in the hands of the many, not the few.

Why is Trump trying to fire you [Elmo]?

But trying to cancel Sesame Street, which has helped children learn to read and count for over half a century, is part of a larger plan.

Trump is waging a war on the American mind. 

Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated public. Slaveholders prohibited enslaved people from learning to read. The Third Reich burned books. The Khmer Rouge banned music. Stalin and Pinochet censored the media.

And Trump, like past authoritarians, wants to control not just what we do, but also how we think. He has embraced one of the mottos from George Orwell’s 1984: “Ignorance is strength.”  He knows that an uninformed public is easier to divide and conquer.

There are five facets to the authoritarian attack on our minds.

#1 Rewrite history

The protagonist of 1984 works in the so-called Ministry of Truth, where he’s made to literally rewrite history because Big Brother knows that he “who controls the past controls the future.” 

That’s chilling in a dystopian novel. It’s even scarier in real life, where Trump and his MAGA cronies are making schools whitewash slavery and segregation, cover up the genocide of Native Americans, and erase the LGBTQ rights movement. 

Authoritarians know that if they can convince us our country has never been wrong, they can make us believe our ruler is always right. If they can make us forget how brave activists fought for change in the past, they can stop us from seeking change in the future. 

Rewriting history goes hand in hand with the next facet of the attack on our minds…

#2 Gut education

As Trump tries to abolish the Department of Education, he’s also proposing to cut funding for K-12 public schools and to force universities to give him influence over student admissions, faculty hiring, and what is taught.  

As a professor, I know firsthand how education empowers young people’s minds. We can’t have a functioning democracy if people cannot deliberate critically about it. That’s why authoritarians replace education with indoctrination. 

Instead of teaching students to think for themselves, authoritarians seek to instill blind allegiance and suppress dissent. That’s why the Italian and German fascists of the 20th Century immediately turned their countries’ educational systems into instruments of the Party.

Placing a chokehold on universities also relates to the next facet of the attack.

#3 Dismantle science

By freezing university research grants and attacking the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and USAID Trump is stifling medical and scientific research. And his cuts to the Centers For Disease Control and The Food and Drug Administration put all of us at risk.

He’s also abducting and deporting international scientists who disagree with his administration. Can you imagine a crueler way to rob America of the global intellectual capital that has helped us become the world leader in scientific research? 

All of this moves us further from cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and HIV. This could seem baffling if you don’t recognize it as part of a larger strategy. We all get sick, so how can medical research and disease prevention be political?

Because science acknowledges objective facts. Authoritarians insist that the ruler is more powerful than the facts. As Orwell wrote, “it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this.”

Another way to attack facts?

#4 Suppress the media

From suing ABC and CBS over their news coverage to threatening to strip network broadcast licenses to defunding PBS and NPR, Trump is trying to silence major news sources. He wants control over what information Americans can (or cannot) get.

A free press exists to question authority and help the public question it as well. But authoritarians insist that they must never be questioned.

Authoritarians want to consolidate state power over what the public can know.

The final facet of the authoritarian attack on our minds also attacks our spirit. Which brings us to…

#5 Attack the arts

The arts exist to provoke us, challenge our thinking, and help us see beyond ourselves. They’re an important and independent aspect of an educated society, which is why authoritarians have historically attacked the arts.

So it’s no surprise that Trump is canceling grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, dictating what’s displayed at the Smithsonian, and has installed himself as the chair of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

To limit art is to limit free speech and expression. It’s a crucial step that authoritarians use to silence anyone who dissents through creativity.

Added up, these five facets of Trump’s attack on the American mind render us less informed, less inspired, and easier to control. 

They empower him to divide us with hatred and fear. And they prevent us from discovering that we have more in common with one another than with the authoritarians who try to rule us. 

This attack on our minds reduces our capacity for self-government, because ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.

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Deregulation masks another kind of trickle-down economics — where the financial gains go to the top, and nothing trickles down except risks and losses.

Those in favor of deregulation claim that getting rid of “burdensome” rules frees up the economy to be more productive. 

MUSK: “Regulations, basically, should be default gone. Not default there, default gone.

BOB: Sorry, did I hear that right?

MUSK: [...] we’ve just got to do a wholesale, spring cleaning of regulation and get the government off the backs of everyday Americans so people can get things done."

But regulations haven’t stopped corporations from “getting things done,” they’ve been raking in record profits.

The truth is, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their minions don't really care about getting the government off YOUR back. They want to get the government off THEIR backs — and the backs of their corporate donors. 

They want the government to look the other way so big corporations can make more money, even if they hurt you.

Regulations protect you and me — from being harmed, fleeced, shafted, injured, or sickened by corporate products and services.

Take the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the government agency that protects you from financial scams. Trump and DOGE gutted the agency, halted its regulatory work, and dropped major lawsuits against predatory banks and lenders.

Republican lawmakers are also working with Trump to overturn regulations protecting you from excessive banking overdraft fees. Who the hell wants more overdraft fees? Certainly not consumers [show poll - Q6 - 70% support].

These moves will leave you more vulnerable to financial fraud and abuse, while fattening the profits of corporate oligarchs. That includes Musk, whose corporations are regulated by the CFPB.

On climate, Trump’s deregulation spree has been a gift to the fossil fuel industry that bankrolled his 2024 campaign. His executive order on energy has set in motion dirty energy projects, including on public lands and waters. 

Trump’s EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, a Big Oil insider, is overriding years of the agency's research and work to limit harmful greenhouse gases. Zeldin also announced that the EPA will roll back over 30 pollution regulations that were established to save lives and protect the planet — calling it …

ZELDIN: …the largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history. 

Trump claims this agenda will “unleash American energy” and lower prices. But American energy has already been unleashed in the form of wind and solar power. These are the sources that will lower costs for you — but Trump is discouraging their production.

By relying more on dirty energy sources, Big Oil will profit — while the rest of us will end up paying the price in the form of more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and an even faster path towards climate destruction.

Trump’s deregulation has been a disaster for workers, too. Trump reversed Biden’s executive order guaranteeing a $15 minimum wage for federal contractors, and even reversed a 1965 civil rights order against workplace discrimination. 

Trump also undermined the National Labor Relations Board, which defends workers’ right to unionize, by firing its pro-worker general counsel and replacing her with an anti-union corporate lawyer. All while Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezo’s Amazon are suing to have the entire board declared unconstitutional.

Trump’s mass firings at federal agencies — at Elon’s behest — have upended the lives of thousands of federal workers. These are the people who oversee air safety, food and drug safety, disaster response, public health, and so much more. Again, less oversight for corporations, more cost and risk for the rest of us.

Now, this is just the beginning of the deregulatory agenda taking shape in Trump’s second term. 

And thanks to Trump’s directives, this agenda could be rammed through with almost no opportunity for public input. Normally, proposed changes to regulations must be posted for public comment. Instead, Trump wants regulators to immediately just cancel rules or stop enforcing them altogether.

Trump and his pack of industry lapdogs — who are busy overseeing the same industries they once represented — will do well thanks to all of this.

But the rest of us won’t. We may not know for years the extent we are unprotected — until the next financial collapse, next public health crisis, next upsurge in fraud, or next natural disaster.

So when you hear Trump or anyone from his administration say that gutting regulations is good for America — know the truth. 

Deregulation is just another form of trickle-down economics — where the gains go to the top, and nothing trickles down except the risks and losses. Be warned.

BOB: Powerful corporations are taking away your freedom — and you probably don’t even know it! To explain, here’s one of the great anti-monopoly champions, former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.

LINA: How “free” we feel is often tied to how we experience the economy — and whether big businesses can get away with depriving us of choice, access, or affordable prices.

Are you really free if your groceries are so expensive that you can’t afford them? Or if your boss can change your work schedule on a whim or block you from getting a new job? Are you really free if you have to ration your medicines because they’re too expensive – or if they’re not available at all?

For too long, government stopped vigorously enforcing laws that protect our basic economic freedoms by keeping Corporate America in check. These laws were created to promote fair competition–which prevents companies from getting so dominant that they become “too big to care,” where they can get away with harming their customers, their workers, and making us less safe.

So what does it mean when just a handful of corporations have concentrated control of markets across our economy?

First, extreme concentration results in you paying more and having less choice.

Take the grocery store. When you scan the cereal aisle, it may seem like there are dozens of different brands to choose from. But in reality over 70% of the cereal consumed by Americans is made by just three corporations. 

Want to buy a bottle of soda? You could buy Pepsi. Or Mountain Dew. Or even Starry. It seems like you have plenty of options. In reality, these brands are all owned by PepsiCo, which is one of three soda makers that control over 90% of the soft drink market. 

How about a roast for dinner? Well, it would likely come from one of three meat packers that dominate roughly 70% of the beef market. 

In fact, each part of America’s food supply chain — from agricultural markets to the grocery store — is dominated by just a handful of powerful corporations.

The lack of competition gives dominant players across our food supply the ability to bully and coerce small farms and manufacturers. It also gives them the power to overcharge you simply because you have fewer options of where to buy from. 

This isn’t just a problem in the food industry. It’s a problem throughout the entire American economy. In 75 percent of U.S. industries, fewer companies now control more of their markets than they did twenty years ago. And less competition means more power for corporations to rip you off.

Second, extreme consolidation can result in less power for you as a worker. 

That’s because when corporations dominate their markets, workers have less freedom to take their skills and find a better job at a competitor — simply because there aren’t that many competitors.

A 2022 Treasury Department study found that wages were roughly 20% lower in heavily concentrated markets compared to markets with more competitors.

And we saw this dynamic play out when Kroger and Albertsons tried to consolidate in what would have been the biggest grocery merger in US history. 

When investigating the deal, the Federal Trade Commission found that because Kroger and Albertsons had to compete for their workers, they had to offer their workers better pay and benefits. And that eliminating this competition would mean that workers would have fewer options and less bargaining power – including over their pay, their working conditions, and their ability to organize on the job. That’s why we sued to block the Kroger/Albertsons merger–and won.

It’s not just mergers. Tens of millions of workers across America — ranging from security guards to fast food workers to doctors — are stuck with a noncompete clause. This is a contract that bosses make workers sign that limits an employee's ability to take a job with a competitor or start their own business. Noncompete clauses trap workers in abusive workplaces and stifle innovation, resulting in workers losing out on hundreds of billions dollars in earnings per year. 

Many workers in heavily concentrated industries already have fewer employment opportunities, and noncompetes suppress their economic freedom even more. That’s why the FTC passed a rule banning these noncompete clauses—though big business groups are now fighting back.

Third, extreme market consolidation can endanger your life.

When industries are dominated by just a few corporations, a single disaster can lead to major shortages. That’s because concentrated markets also concentrate risk. Take the production of something as simple, yet vital, as medical IV bags.

Just two corporations — Baxter and B. Braun — supply 85% of IV bags and solution to our nation’s hospitals. The manufacturing facilities of these companies were hit by hurricanes in 2024, leading to widespread shortages. 

That meant that if you got sick or into an accident, you might not be able to get the lifesaving treatment you need because of supply shortages. 

It’s not just IV bags. In recent years America has seen major shortages of key medicines, affecting everything from cancer treatments to antibiotics. And as consolidation and abusive business practices let big pharma companies and middlemen jack up prices, millions of Americans are left rationing the medicines they need — or even skipping them entirely.

Consolidation is literally a matter of life or death. 

We hear a lot about how corporations growing more powerful and dominant in their industries is just a natural byproduct of the so-called “free market.” But having fewer and fewer corporations control more and more of their markets is not some inevitability –it’s a result of policy decisions that our enforcers and regulators make.

That’s why, during my time as chair of the FTC, we sued to block mergers that would have undermined competition, and we cracked down on unchecked corporate power and abusive practices that for too long resulted in you paying more for everyday essentials — while earning less.

These were important strides, but there’s much more work to be done. And that’s why we need to keep demanding that our leaders vigorously enforce anti-monopoly laws to tackle unchecked corporate power — and to make sure all Americans can enjoy real freedom… 

Freedom for consumers. Freedom for workers. And the freedom for all of us to live safe, healthy lives. 

Should America be "run like a business?"

Let me make it clear: 

Government should NOT be run like a business!

Now, of course no one wants their tax dollars wasted. Cutting government waste is a good thing, but you must be careful and methodical. You must make precise cuts with a scalpel, not a...[CHAINSAW!!]

There’s a big difference between cutting waste and “running America like a business.” 

First and foremost, the goal of business is to make the most profit possible.

Corporations like McDonald’s and Walmart don’t exist for the public good. They exist to maximize their shareholder returns. This often means paying their workers as little as possible.

That’s why you end up subsidizing Walmart and McDonalds with your tax dollars. Many Walmart and McDonald’s employees rely on government programs like food stamps and Medicaid to make ends meet. When McDonald’s says “I’m loving it,” the “it” they are referring to is profits. 

The aim of the government should be to make life better for its people — to provide services that help our nation achieve the common good. It’s in the very first sentence of the Constitution. See, look? “promote the general welfare”.

But, making peoples’ lives better costs money and it doesn’t return a profit. Wait, hold on a second…

Making a profit is not the point of government. 

Should we gut healthcare services for our veterans because it’s not profitable? What about inspecting our food? Should we cut Social Security and let seniors starve?

And think about schools. Highways. Libraries. National Parks. Mail delivered by the postal service. 

These are public goods that are paid for by the public and are available to everyone. That’s the beauty of them. 

What politicians really mean when they say they want to “run the government like a business” is they want to privatize services for their corporate backers. Wall Street would love to have its hands in YOUR Social Security. The Trump Organization would love to turn Yellowstone National Park into a private resort for only the wealthiest to enjoy. 

It’s not about “efficiency” or because these public goods “cost too much.” That’s rubbish. Private corporations want to profit at your expense. 

But we are citizens, not customers. We are voters, not shareholders. Trump and his Cabinet are not our CEO and Board of Directors. They are supposed to be public servants. They’re supposed to work for us. 

And let’s not forget: Trump sucks at running businesses anyway! I could make a whole video about Trump’s many, many business failures. And I have. You can watch that next… [Show footage]

Businesses take risks in pursuit of money. That’s perfectly fine. And if you run a company into the ground, you can go bankrupt like Donald Trump, and start a new one.

But when you take risks with the U.S. government, you’re gambling with people’s lives, their constitutional rights, and their pursuit of happiness. You can’t just shrug it off and start another country.

Again, the purpose of government is not to show a profit.

It is to achieve the common good.

PROF. REICH: Corporations have a shady new way to charge you more for something than anyone else is paying. 

It’s a tactic called “surveillance pricing.” To explain it, here’s one of the top experts on the subject, former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. 

LINA: Imagine you’re at your local electronics store buying a new TV for $500.

You think you’re getting a good deal, but as the cashier rings you up, you notice someone else buying the exact same TV —  for $400.

And the customer next to them? They’re only paying $350.

As far as you can tell, there was no special discount available — no loyalty card that could explain this. So what gives?

You’d be outraged. You’d demand to know why you were being charged more than someone else for the exact same TV on the exact same day.

Well, what if I told you that corporations may already be doing this when you shop online? 

You see, every day our phones and devices collect massive amounts of our personal data. And now, businesses may be using this trove of personal information to charge each of us a different price for the exact same product or service.

When I was Chair of the FTC, we launched an investigation into this shadowy world of surveillance pricing. 

Our initial findings revealed that retailers across many industries can use third-party data brokers to build a comprehensive profile of you. They can track your location, your race, your income level, your past online purchases, your browser history — even your mouse movements on a webpage featuring a video like this one.

They can then use your own personal data against you to predict your “pain point” — the highest amount of money you’re willing to spend on a good or service. 

And unlike being in a physical store where you see the same price tag as everyone else, online shopping is an individualized experience. You probably wouldn’t even realize that you’re being charged more than someone else for the exact same product.

Now, it’s true that some businesses have historically charged different prices for different customers based on characteristics like age. Think senior citizens getting discounts at restaurants. 

PROF. REICH: Boomers get everything, don’t we?

LINA: And you might have heard of “dynamic pricing” — when businesses charge you more for a product or service during peak times, when demand may outstrip supply. Like taxis charging more during rush hour.

But “surveillance pricing” is different. It’s when businesses use your personal data, including about whatever is happening in your life on any given day, to set whatever price they think they can get away with charging.

Imagine you’re a new parent and your baby is sick. A corporation could charge you a higher price for a thermometer or medicine, because they know a new parent will be more desperate.

Or maybe a loved one dies and you need to travel on short-notice. You could be charged more for a plane ticket if you received an email about funeral arrangements.

These surveillance practices are opaque — so we don’t know the full extent of how our personal information is being used against us.

But consumer watchdogs and researchers have identified just some of the ways businesses are already doing this.

The Princeton Review reportedly charged more for test prep services to online customers from zip codes that contained higher Asian populations.

Evidence shows that ridesharing apps are charging different prices for the same exact rides. Why? It’s not entirely clear, but researchers ran tests and found that riders with lower battery life on their phone were charged more. 

Travelers booking tickets on travel websites with IP addresses in the San Francisco Bay Area were charged up to $500 more per night for the exact same hotel rooms than travelers from less affluent cities — regardless of whether or not the buyer was actually wealthy.

And some internet service providers in the U.S. have reportedly been charging higher prices for lower internet speeds in poor, less white neighborhoods. 

It’s already clear that businesses have the incentive and ability to unleash surveillance pricing. So what can we do to stop corporations from using our personal data to rip us off?

As we recommended in our report, the FTC should continue to investigate surveillance pricing practices because Americans deserve to know how their private data is being used.

And with that research, lawmakers should consider passing more stringent consumer protection and privacy laws that protect us from this type of price discrimination. Some states have already introduced bills that would ban surveillance pricing altogether. 

You can also take steps to limit how much data firms can collect on you — including by regularly clearing your search history and cookies, or using a private browser or VPN. 

People have a right to know how their personal data is being used. And businesses shouldn’t be able to weaponize our own data against us — charging each of us a different price just because they can.