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, and the motive is the gap.
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History always teaches.
Sometimes we listen.
The rest is ignorance,
or cruel intent.
VOYAGE OF THE ST. LOUIS
On May 13, 1939, the German liner St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Cuba, with 938 passengers. Almost all were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich.
The passengers, who held landing certificates and transit visas, did not know that entry to Cuba now was denied to all those without written authorization from the Cuban Secretaries of State and Labor and a $500 bond.
Right-wing Cuban newspapers deplored its impending arrival and demanded that the Cuban government cease admitting Jewish refugees.
Like the United States, Cuba struggled with the Great Depression. Many Cubans resented the refugees, because they appeared to be competitors for scarce jobs.
Hostility toward immigrants fueled both antisemitism and xenophobia. Both agents of Nazi Germany and indigenous right-wing movements hyped the immigrant issue in their publications and demonstrations, claiming that incoming Jews were Communists.
Reports about the impending voyage fueled the largest antisemitic demonstration in Cuban history. Grau San Martin, a former Cuban president, urged Cubans to “fight the Jews until the last one is driven out.” The demonstration drew 40,000 spectators. Thousands more listened on the radio.
When the St. Louis arrived in Havana, the Cuban government refused to admit its 908 passengers.
Though US newspapers generally portrayed the plight of the passengers with great sympathy, only a few journalists and editors suggested that the refugees be admitted into the United States.
Leaving Cuba, the St. Louis sailed to America. Coming so close to Florida that they could see the lights of Miami, some passengers on the St. Louis cabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for refuge. Roosevelt never responded.
A State Department telegram sent to a passenger stated that the passengers must “await their turns on the waiting list and qualify for and obtain immigration visas before they may be admissible into the United States.”
US quotas strictly limited the annual combined German-Austrian immigration quota to 27,370, which was filled. In fact, there was a waiting list of at least several years.
Public opinion in the United States continued to favor immigration restrictions. The Great Depression had left millions of people in the United States unemployed and fearful of competition for the scarce few jobs available. It also fueled antisemitism, xenophobia, nativism, and isolationism.
President Roosevelt could have issued an executive order to admit the St. Louis refugees, but general hostility to immigrants and the gains of isolationist Republicans in the Congressional elections of 1938, militated against taking this step in an unpopular cause.
Three months before the St. Louis sailed, Congressional leaders in both US houses allowed to die in committee a bill sponsored by Senator Robert Wagner (D-N.Y.) and Representative Edith Rogers (R-Mass.). This bill would have admitted 20,000 Jewish children from Germany above the existing quota.
Following the US government’s refusal to permit the passengers to disembark, the St. Louis sailed back to Europe. Jewish organizations negotiated with four European governments to secure entry visas for the passengers.
Although numbers vary widely, it has been estimated that about half the Jews were killed and half survived the war.
History taught us, but did we listen?
Republican congressman: Immigrant children might carry Ebola
The unaccompanied minors crossing into the United States from Mexico could be imperiling Americans by exposing them to Ebola, Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind warned. Also, “ultimately your property taxes are going to go up” because they’ll be able to enroll in school.
Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., warned about the possibility of heightened “swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis.”
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. wants a fully lit and well-staffed fence to span the entire border between the United States and Mexico, and to combat this “war against the American people,” up taxes on 100 percent of undocumented immigrants.
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala. pivoted from his defensive against a Democratic “war on whites” to indicate that even immigrants who’ve lived in the United States their entire lives would lack the necessary patriotism.
“These individuals (are) gonna have access to all sorts of military weaponry, even to the point of having access to weapons of mass destruction like our nuclear arsenal. And I’m gonna have much greater faith in the loyalty of an American citizen than someone who is a citizen of a foreign nation.”
And then there is:
House Republicans unveil bill to speed deportations of border children
An Associated Press survey indicated two-thirds of Americans say the law should be changed to send the children home quickly.
And as always:
Discrimination Against Latin Americans
In 2002, 47 percent of people classified discrimination against Latinos as a major problem, compared with 61 percent in 2010. Seven out of 10 immigrant Latinos indicated that discrimination is a significant barrier that keeps Latinos from succeeding in the United States.
But not everyone:
Democratic leaders labeled the Republican proposal inhumane, given the poverty and gang violence that many of the children are fleeing. “We must have a heart and look into our souls to guide us in our treatment of these desperate children,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Groups that advocate for immigrants condemned (various) House bills as appeasing the GOP’s large tea-party contingent. “How pathetic,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, which advocates for immigrant rights. “They have approved a package that would send Central American children who are fleeing murder and rape back to the violence they escaped.”
History has taught us. But in America today, are we witnessing ignorance or cruel intent?
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. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (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
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
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Obama Is Preparing To Make One Of The Boldest Moves Of His Presidency — And It Could Stretch The Scope Of Executive Power
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Welcoming the Stranger: Refuge for the Refugees
These are the children the right-wing fears so much.
Quote from the article: These are the kind of people who would add strength to this country, as did previous generations of immigrants.
“She has a very strong will to live,” Fernandez said of the 17-year-old. “A very strong sense of self. She said ‘I want to go to college. I want to be a doctor.’ ”
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Tunisian fisherman save immigrants
“Today I have the means to bring back 107 people, but I’ll lose 3,000 Tunisian dinars ($1,750),” Bourassine says. “Tomorrow I might not be able to. I have people who work with me. If I interrupt work once, twice, three times, it becomes a heavy burden on my shoulders.” He estimates he has saved more than 1,000 migrants on four separate occasions while out in his fishing boat.
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[1] No one squawks when the US President single-handedly starts a new war (in violation of the US Constitution) that “costs” the federal government trillions of dollars. And few people squawk when the US President assassinates US citizens.
But everyone screams when they hear that the US President might expand the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields some migrants from deportation back to their nightmares.
“We can’t afford it!” “Obama is a commie dictator!” “It’s unconstitutional!” “Migrants are terrorists!”
Would anyone scream if Obama “solved” the migrant issue by single-handedly ordering the annihilation of Central America, as he did Libya?
After all, such annihilation would not be a war.
Instead, as with Libya, it would be a “kinetic action.”
[2] I have read a number of accounts from Central America that explain what life is like there. It’s bad. REALLY bad. As in hell-on-earth bad. Kill or be killed. It’s everyone for himself, and rich people against all.
And above the nightmare, pulling the strings and delighting in the horror, is Washington.
The young migrants do not come seeking the promise of a “better life.”
Instead, they are forced out of their homes, and have nowhere else to go. They are refugees from a nightmare.
[3] Right-wingers love to show photos of child migrants who are temporarily held in cages while being processed for release into US society.
They say it would be more humane to stuff the kids into the cargo holds of ships and deport them all back to the nightmares they escaped from. (After all, it’s only a nightmare because the kids, including infants, are “lazy”).
Kick them all out! Throw them all overboard! Drop them back into the meat grinders they slithered out of!
It’s the “humanitarian” thing to do!
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President Obama, seize the opportunity.
An opportunity for “Greatness, an opportunity for the betterment of mankind:
SAVE MORE THEN 5 MILLION CHILDREN with a simple stroke of your pen!
Then simply say, “God Bless America”.
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May I segue into a related topic? Here is another way that anti-migrant mania hurts everyone.
We know that the sole purpose of austerity is to widen the gap between the rich and the rest.
Austerity includes “unfunded mandates,” in which the federal government orders local governments to do things (state, county, and municipal), without providing any money to do those things. Instead, local taxpayers must foot the bill. In this way, more money is sucked out of average people’s pockets, so that the gap between them and the rich is further widened.
An example is the Border Patrol’s vast network of highway checkpoints in several states.
Federal highway checkpoints are located 25-to-75 miles from the Mexican border, and 100+ miles from the Canadian border. They are ostensibly to catch illegal aliens, which is a good thing. Right? We don’t want our desperate brothers and sisters coming here to escape death. Right? And we don’t want hoards of terrorists infiltrating us from Canada. Right? Hooray for the Border Patrol checkpoints!
Right?
Except that 80% of all people arrested at Border Patrol checkpoints are ordinary US citizens. And the percentage keeps rising. The Border Patrol busts US citizens on petty drug charges (usually for trivial amounts of marijuana) and hands over their prey to local sheriff’s departments.
The video below features a single Border Patrol checkpoint in Hudspeth County, Texas. (There are 15 checkpoints in Texas.) When the local sheriff first took office, his caseload from that checkpoint was about 300 cases per year (i.e. 300 people arrested by the Border Patrol, and then given to the sheriff).
Today that sheriff’s caseload is almost 3,000 cases a year, or an average of 58 new cases per day, all of them U.S. citizens, and all of them from a single federal checkpoint. (There are now 71 of checkpoints in the USA, and their number keeps expanding. In addition there are mobile “tactical” checkpoints. And to repeat, 80% of their prey are US citizens.)
It is very expensive to hold the exploding number of US citizens in jail, but originally the feds promised to reimburse the counties for their costs, dollar-for-dollar. Therefore county officials reasoned that the federal checkpoints would create local jobs in law enforcement.
The feds kept their promise… at first. The Bureau of Justice Assistance, which is part of the Dept. of Justice (sic) reimbursed counties for the cost of jailing and legally processing drug offenders caught at the federal checkpoints.
But then rich people unleashed austerity mania in order to widen the gap between themselves and the rest. Ground zero for the austerity bomb was a G-20 summit at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Canada. The date of the blast was 27 June 2010. The person who detonated the blast was Britain’s newly elected Prime Minister David Cameron.
From Toronto, austerity mania roared across the planet like a devastating shockwave. Suddenly and mysteriously, most of the world’s governments were “broke.” The world economy fell into a permanent depression. However the gap became wider than ever between the rich and the rest, which of course was the whole point.
As a result, each year the feds cut the amount of money they reimbursed counties to jail US citizens arrested at federal checkpoints. Local denizens must make up the difference by paying higher taxes for fewer services.
By FY 2013 (which began on 1 Oct 2012) the feds stopped paying counties any money at all to house the growing number of US citizens arrested at federal checkpoints. County taxpayers must foot all the bills. Hence the federal checkpoints are a severe money-drain on counties.
The budget cuts keep coming, partly because of austerity, and partly because of corruption in federal agencies, whose senior officers keep the allocated money for their own offices in Washington, and disperse as little money to the field as possible.
Counties could try to offset the ever-rising costs by increasing the amount of bale they impose on inmates for their release, but this would simply increase the costly jail population even more.
Therefore more and more counties will be forced to stop jailing US citizens arrested by the Border Patrol. Counties will collect whatever bail moneys they can, and let people go.
Why?
Austerity.
The US government is “broke” (even though it can create limitless money from thin air).
But at least we have an exploding number of checkpoints to catch those evil migrants.
BY THE WAY: if you get caught with marijuana in food (e.g. cookies or brownies), the cops will charge you based on the overall weight of the food, plus its container. Therefore you can be charged with carrying, say, ten pounds of weed (a major felony) even though your food contains less than one ounce of weed.
Welcome to the “war on drugs.”
The average American doesn’t realize this until he gets caught. He is like a fish who never imagines that the little piece of food dangling before him is attached to a hook that will brutally haul him up so that he can be sliced, gutted, and chopped to pieces.
Welcome to “fiscal responsibility.”
My source for the above information is an 18-minute YouTube video…
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THANK YOU. Facebooked. Hope that helps.
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There is a great deal of mythology about the St Louis, even now, and unjust criticism.
President Roosevelt could have issued an executive order to admit the St. Louis refugees, but general hostility to immigrants and the gains of isolationist Republicans in the Congressional elections of 1938, militated against taking this step in an unpopular cause.
No, he could not have. He did not have that power. This overstates presidential power – greatly grown since FDR, because of FDR, and understates the stringency of the immigration laws and the strength of support for them back then. When FDR set up the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, NY as late as 1944, during the war, when the Nazi destruction of European Jewry was well known, an impeachment resolution was introduced in the House because of it.
Roosevelt’s State Department, led by Cordell Hull, whose wife was Jewish, and the Jewish organizations of the time worked hard to get refuges for these refugees. They might have gotten them all refuge in Cuba, but for the ineptness of the emissary they sent to the Cubans. They did “succeed” though. Every passenger got a temporarily safe refuge. The problem was that some of the safe countries the St Louis refugees were sent to became unsafe once Hitler invaded – but nobody could have known that at the time.
Although numbers vary widely, it has been estimated that about half the Jews were killed and half survived the war.
No, they don’t vary widely among good sources. See MS St. Louis for some. In fact, the fate of every single passenger is known. 255 of the 937 Jewish passengers were killed by the Nazis, about 40% of those resettled on the continent, unknowingly before Hitler conquered their refuges. The rest survived the war or died of natural causes in the interim. The good sources are Thomas & Morgan-Witts 1974 book and Ogilvie & Miller’s 2006 book, which with some strained doubt about the fate of one person (he was obviously killed, but no records), traced everybody on the ship. Rosen’s book listed at wikipedia is a lawyer’s brief for FDR – but his arguments and facts are hard to dispute. Another important book on those lines is William Rubinstein’s The Myth of Rescue.
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Thanks for the details. The point of the post was: America didn’t allow the Jews to enter, and as a result, many were killed.
Today, America doesn’t want to allow children to enter, and as a result, many will be killed.
It was a disgrace then, and it’s a disgrace now, and the right wing has its dirty fingerprints on both situations.
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