–Do you trust the government, completely? Apparently, you do.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
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Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
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Do you trust the government, completely? Apparently, you do .

Recently, one of my friends said, “I hope they hang that traitor, Snowden” (the former NSA “leaker” who is being sought by a desperate and angry U.S. government.)

I responded, “You want him hung for being a traitor? Exactly what secret has this traitor revealed to our enemies.?”

After a long pause, my friend allowed that he didn’t know exactly what secret has been revealed, other than our government has been spying on all of us.

Is the fact of our government’s spying a vital national secret? Is this something our enemies didn’t already know? Or is this just an embarrassment for an overzealous, out-of-control federal agency, bolstered by an extreme, right-wing, secret court?

And right there is the message of this entire blog: Given the full resources of the three branches of government – the President, the Congress and the courts – plus the media — the American public can be made to believe anything.

Just as my friend, and the American public trust the federal government, when it says the federal deficit and debt should be reduced, my friend and the public also trust the government when it says Snowden is traitor for revealing “vital, national security, secrets.”

The vital, national secret is: In violation of the clear wording of the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, our trustworthy government is spying on every American, innocent or not.

And lest you believe government deception is rare, limited or accidental, read these excerpts from an article in the New York Times:

In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU, Published: July 6, 2013

WASHINGTON — In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation’s surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans.

You always had heard that “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” but did you know ignorance of the law is premeditated. It’s what the government wants. But don’t dare break those laws the government intentionally has hidden from you.

The court has assessed broad constitutional questions and established important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny.

Not only have they reinterpreted the Constitution, but no one knows what those reinterpretations are.

The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court, delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come.

In one of the court’s most important decisions, the judges have carved out an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of a warrant for searches and seizures.

Who gave this secret court the right to make exceptions to the Constitution? No one knows. It’s a secret. This court acts illegally, in violation of the Constitution.

The FISA judges have ruled that the N.S.A.’s collection and examination of Americans’ communications data to track possible terrorists does not run afoul of the Fourth Amendment.

That legal interpretation uses a relatively narrow area of the law — used to justify airport screenings, for instance, or drunken-driving checkpoints — and applies it to the wholesale collection of communications in pursuit of terrorism suspects.

When a government agency works in secret, there is no limit to the convenient interpretations of secret law they can make. Working in secret, they could just as well determine that anyone a government official merely suspects of a crime, can be killed, legally.

Why not? Who would stop them? It’s all for “national security.” We just have to trust them.

A whistle blower might tell on them, but you know what happens to whistle blowers in America. They are chased down like dogs, while the American public is told they are traitors. When caught, they will be given a secret trial and denied access to evidence that may exonerate them.

That is what happens to a nation that has been brainwashed into paranoia.

In one recent case, intelligence officials were able to get access to an e-mail attachment sent within the United States because they said they were worried that the e-mail contained a schematic diagram possibly connected to Iran’s nuclear program.

In the past, that probably would have required a court warrant because the suspicious e-mail involved American communications. In this case, however, a little-noticed provision in a 2008 law, expanding the definition of “foreign intelligence” to include “weapons of mass destruction,” was used to justify access to the message.

The judge gave permission based not on facts, but merely on someone’s worry. I’m kind of worried one of my neighbors might possibly be a terrorist, so please search their house — and try not to make too much of a mess.

Since virtually all these legal provisions are “little-noticed” or outright secret, what’s to prevent unseen ex post facto changes in the law, to justify previously illegal acts?

“The definition of ‘foreign intelligence’ is very broad,” another former intelligence official said. “An espionage target, a nuclear proliferation target, that all falls within FISA, and the court has signed off on that.”

The official discussed the court’s rulings on the condition of anonymity because they are classified.

Not only are the decisions secret, but no one even is allowed to discuss them. These are absolute decisions, with no higher court review nor public knowledge.

Unlike the Supreme Court, the FISA court hears from only one side in the case — the government — and its findings are almost never made public. A Court of Review is empaneled to hear appeals, but that is known to have happened only a handful of times in the court’s history.

That is the very definition of absolute power, and as has been so aptly stated, “Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.” In short, the FISA court is corrupted. Absolutely.

All of the current 11 judges, who serve seven-year terms, were appointed to the special court by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and 10 of them were nominated to the bench by Republican presidents.

So we have 11 judges with absolute power, and therefore absolutely corrupted, appointed by the right wing, which is notorious for its anti-poor, anti-women, anti-children (out of the womb), anti-elderly, anti-education, anti-minority leanings, all making decisions in secret, some of which change the Constitution of the United States.

Does it get any worse than that? Yes, this is worse::

None of the requests from the intelligence agencies was denied, according to the court.

The judges have concluded that the mere collection of facts like the time of phone calls and the numbers dialed, does not violate the Fourth Amendment, as long as the government establishes a valid reason under national security regulations before taking the next step of actually examining the contents of an American’s communications.

NSA: “Judge, I want to read everyone’s mail, and put cameras in everyone’s bedroom.”
Judge: “Why?”
NSA: “For national security purposes.”
Judge: “O.K., enjoy yourself. You know we always agree. Just do it in secret.”

The court has indicated that while individual pieces of data may not appear “relevant” to a terrorism investigation, the total picture that the bits of data create may in fact be relevant.

Get it? In essence, the court is saying, “We have no idea why you want all that information, but we suppose maybe some of what you learn might possibly be relevant to something sort of related to protecting America in some way. So go ahead and collect it.”

Reggie B. Walton, the FISA court’s presiding judge, wrote in March that he recognized the “potential benefit of better informing the public” about the court’s decisions. But, he said, there are “serious obstacles” to doing so because of the potential for misunderstanding caused by omitting classified details.

He knows he should say he wants to tell us what he’s doing. But he would omit so much information, we wouldn’t understand it anyway. So the best thing simply is not to inform us, and for us to trust him.

Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the N.S.A. director, was noncommital when he was pressed at a Senate hearing in June to put out some version of the court’s decisions. “I don’t want to jeopardize the security of Americans by making a mistake in saying, ‘Yes, we’re going to do all that.’ ”

Translation: “I’m not going to tell you a damn thing. I know what’s good for America. I’m from the government. You’ll just have to trust me.”

Apparently you America, and my friend, do.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY