–Do you know a “war on” moron?

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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,
and the motive is the gap.
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Alcohol is a recreational drug. The U.S. officially began the “war on alcohol” with prohibition and the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Imagine using an Amendment to the Constitution as a device for restricting the sale of one drug. Talk about using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito.

Of course, the “war on” this drug was an abysmal failure:

Following the 18th Amendment’s adoption, prohibition effectively resulted in a public demand for illegal alcohol, making criminals of producers and distributors.

The criminal justice system was swamped although police forces and courts had expanded in recent years.

Prisons were jam-packed and court dockets were behind in trying to deal with the rapid surge in crimes.

Organized crime expanded to deal with the lucrative business, and there was widespread corruption among those charged with enforcing unpopular laws.

Sound familiar?

Then, in 1933, prohibition was repealed by the 21st Amendment, which showed that America had learned its lesson about trying to prohibit drugs that people enjoyed using. Right?

Wrong. America has learned nothing.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt publicly supported the adoption of the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act. The New York Times used the headline “Roosevelt Asks Narcotic War Aid”.

In 1937, the Marijuana Transfer Tax Act was passed. On October 27, 1970, Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Administration was created to replace the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

In 1982, Vice President George H. W. Bush began pushing for the involvement of the CIA and U.S. military in drug interdiction efforts.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy, which mandated a national anti-drug media campaign for youth, which would later become the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

The director of ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) is commonly known as the Drug czar, and it was first implemented in 1989 under President George H. W. Bush, and raised to cabinet-level status by Bill Clinton in 1993.

Predictably, the “War on Drugs” not only failed, but had enormous adverse effects — a net loser, not only for America, but world-wide:

The Global Commission on Drug Policy released a report on June 2, 2011 alleging that “The War On Drugs Has Failed”.

According to Human Rights Watch, the War on Drugs caused soaring arrest rates which deliberately disproportionately targeted African Americans. In the 1980s, while the number of arrests for all crimes had risen by 28%, the number of arrests for drug offenses rose 126%.

In 2008, the Washington Post reported that of 1.5 million Americans arrested each year for drug offenses, half a million would be incarcerated. In addition, one in five black Americans would spend time behind bars due to drug laws.

Federal and state policies also impose collateral consequences on those convicted of drug offenses, such as denial of public benefits or licenses, that are not applicable to those convicted of other types of crime.

KEY WEST, Fla. — A federal judge on Tuesday struck down as unconstitutional a Florida law that required welfare applicants to undergo mandatory drug testing, setting the stage for a legal battle that could affect similar efforts nationwide.

Judge Mary S. Scriven of the United States District Court in Orlando held that the testing requirement, the signature legislation of Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who campaigned on the issue, violated the protection against unreasonable searches.

“The court finds there is no set of circumstances under which the warrantless, suspicionless drug testing at issue in this case could be constitutionally applied,” she wrote.

This, of course, was the typical anti-poor, anti-black legislation one has come to expect from the ultra-right wing, as always, doing far more harm than any possible good.

What’s Missing in the Current Immigration ‘Crisis’ Debate
Ron Paul

Much of the (immigration) problem can be directly traced to the US drug war, which creates unlivable conditions in countries that produce narcotics for export to the US.

Many of those interviewed over the past several weeks have cited violent drug gangs back home as a main motivation for their departure.

Because some Americans want to use drugs here in the US, governments to the south are bribed and bullied to crack down on local producers. The resulting violence has destroyed economies and lives from Mexico to Nicaragua and beyond. Addressing the failed war on drugs would go a long way to solving the immigration crisis.

The right-wing approach to any problem is prohibition followed by punishment for violating that prohibition. It is a quasi-religious, quasi-moralistic approach that always singles out the non-rich.

Thus a rich man receiving special federal tax breaks, is not asked to take a drug test, but people receiving welfare program benefits are, under the theory of savings.

Bottom line: If people are going to harm themselves by drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes or huffing spray cans, they will do it. Outlawing these things will cause crime, fill our jails and remove otherwise valuable people from our economy.

The idiocy of prohibition can further be seen with our treatment of guns, which specifically are made to hurt people other than the owner. Guns legally are sold and carried in the streets. Recreational drugs, which are not made to hurt other people, are not legally sold or carried in the streets. It makes no sense whatsoever.

All those right wingers who scream “freedom” and “liberty” every time they think someone might take away their guns, should scream even louder about the taking away of recreational drugs.

My suggestion: Legalize all recreational drugs, but regulate them, the way we regulate cigarettes, prescription drugs and alcohol. Set standards, and require licensing and labeling. Place them all under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration — and provide plenty of money for supervision.

History shows: Usage will decline. Our jail population will drop. Desperate immigration will decline. America will be a better place.

Is your political representative a “War on” moron? Contact him with this message:

Freedom! Liberty! Common sense!

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)

10. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)

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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

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

8 thoughts on “–Do you know a “war on” moron?

  1. The “drug war” is a class war. It is just another way that the rich use their puppet politicians to make the peasants kill each other, rather than band together against the rich. The “drug war” also provides job security for prison guards and police forces at the federal, state, county, and municipal levels. Furthermore it is a crucial source of revenue for the banks that launder drug money.

    Believe it or not, Mexican drug lords of the past were often socialists. That is, they used their drug money to build local schools, clinics, and roads, since politicians at all levels were corrupt, and stole all the money for themselves. This especially became true after NAFTA destroyed the Mexican economy. In most cases the local people revered and depended on the drug lords, who became so powerful, and so widely respected, that they threatened to overthrow the corrupt politicians, and bring in a socialist revolution.

    It all ended when the USA helped Felipe Calderón gain the Mexican presidency. In January 2007, Calderón radically expanded the “war on drugs” in Mexico, successfully turning the drug lords against each other, and causing a massive (and ever-growing) death toll among the peasants.

    Triumph complete. The 1% win again.

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  2. Shortly after his election Richard Nixon said that something needed to be done about the “Negro question”. His answer was the War on Drugs. And it has achieved its goals as shown in the arrest and incarceration statistics for black and brown citizens.

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  3. Who do you believe is supporting and facilitating the major drug organizations’ smuggling and production? Why has the production of opium poppies, refining of the product and the distribution of heroin increased exponentially, after being almost eradicated, within Afghanistan by the Taliban? Especially since the US military supposedly drove back the Taliban. Why is production there greatest in areas where the US military was or has been most in control? Why have certain too big to fail banks been involved in money laundering for the largest drug operations? Some have suggested the influx of this tainted money was used to prop up certain financially unsound banks and their survival in 07-08? I can say with relative certainty those who are do not reside within the poorest areas; from which the vast majority of those incarcerated for drug offenses once resided. What do you think, Rodger?

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      1. What put Capone out of business was his conviction on income tax charges. His empire continues to thrive, despite the legalization of alcohol, and will continue if controlled substances become easily and legally available. Joe Kennedy didn’t go to jail, and his empire also continued and thrived without prohibition.

        The way such people operate illegal activities with impunity is by corrupting the law enforcement authorities. The Taliban was, for this purpose, incorruptible. They and Elliott Ness were anomalies in that regard.

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        1. Darn, I keep promising myself not to us analogies, because every time I do, someone tells me why my analogy was not perfect.

          The end of prohibition put bootlegging out of business. But yes, I know, Capone had many other illegal activities. And yes, I know, there still are illegal activities, today.

          I even know that some men are islands unto themselves, and that all clams are not happy, and that fog really isn’t pea soup.

          Thanks for the reminder to avoid analogies — and for the comparison of Elliott Ness and the Taliban (!).

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