America

We've said it over and over again. 

The "protest" vote - as exemplified by the American electorate's support for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders - reflects a backlash against the deeply entrenched political aristocracy and a revolt against business as usual inside the Beltway. 

But it's not just politics as usual that voters are protesting with their support for Trump and Sanders. Their strong poll numbers also reflect a rebellion against a system that "everyday" Americans feel like has utterly failed them. 

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“What are the odds that people will make smart decisions about money if they don’t need to make smart decisions–if they can get rich making dumb decisions? The incentives on Wall Street were all wrong; they’re still all wrong.” ? Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Last week, Larry Summers took on the $100 bill.

Now, he’s taking aim at the man who, if it were up to him, would be on that banknote. In a new Op-Ed for The Washington Post, Summers calls Donald Trump “the greatest present threat to the prosperity and security of the United States.”

Whether or not Donald Trump ultimately succeeds in winning the White House, historians are likely to rank him as the most consequential presidential candidate of at least the past half-century. He has already transformed the tone and temper of American political life. If he becomes the Republican nominee, he will demolish its structural underpinnings as well. Should he prevail in November, his election will alter its very fabric in ways likely to prove irreversible.

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The possibility that Trump would step on favored political toes and act pragmatically to rein in Imperial over-reach terrifies the bloated Imperial city of Washington D.C.