Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders..
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Welcome to #Trumpayola, the new presidential normal.
The fact that he refuses to put his assets into a blind trust as previous Presidents have done, should be a gigantic clue for even the most thick-headed of his admirers.
And, the fact that he promised to release his tax returns, and now refuses to do so, should be yet another clue to his “law-and-order” GOP followers.
After all, the man incessantly boasts about his accomplishments, even things that clearly aren’t true (like the size of his inauguration crowd and his almost non-existent philanthropy).
Everything he does is the “greatest,” the “best,” the most “incredible.” So, when he boasts about his great wealth, as he often has, wouldn’t you think he’d show his tax returns to support those boasts?
He loves to sign papers and hold them up for all to see. So wouldn’t he want to sign his tax return and hold it up for all to see?
Unless . . .
Unless . . . the tax returns prove once again, he is an unethical, uncharitable liar.
For instance:
THE WEEK
Shell companies are gobbling up Trump propertiesAn investigation by USA Today has documented more than 400 previously undisclosed properties across the U.S. owned by President Trump’s business trust and companies.
The properties present “an extraordinary and unprecedented potential for people, corporations, or foreign interests to try to influence the president,” USA Today wrote.
Just to be sure we are clear, the word “influence” is a gentle way of saying “bribe.”
Because the properties in question are owned directly by Trump’s companies and not licensed through a separate development company, any sales would directly augment Trump’s wealth.
Of the 14 luxury condos and home-building lots sold since Election Day, “half were sold to limited liability companies” and “no names were listed in deeds, obscuring buyers’ identities.”
Get it? You can bribe Trump by buying his properties, and no one will know.
(Trump) is constitutionally prohibited from accepting gifts from foreign officials. But laws allow shell companies to be set up so that a person can make a purchase without revealing his or her identity.
It’s not the way people normally buy their home . . . by setting up a limited liability shell company in which the buyer’s name is secret. It’s not the way you bought your home, is it? So why are Trump’s properties bought that way?
But this is barely the tip of the iceberg in #Trumpayola land:
Trump and the Parasitic Presidency— New York Times
Trump appears to view the Treasury as a personal piggy bank and the presidency as a part-time job.
In February, Trump was spend on travel in a month nearly as much as what the Obamas spent in a year. This doesn’t even include the travel and security costs of Trump’s children or the cost of Trump’s wife and son remaining in Trump Tower in New York.
Trump had been a chief critic of the amount of money the Obamas spent on vacations. Trump tweeted in 2012: “President @BarackObama’s vacation is costing taxpayers millions of dollars — Unbelievable!”
No, what is unbelievable is the staggering nature of the hypocrisy of Trump and his current spending and the near silence of Obama’s conservative critics.
Does the lust for Trumpayola extend throughout the Trump family?
Typically, first ladies do not grub for dollars while in the White House. Usually, they find a charity to back. But because Donald has been rather stingy with his charity-giving, when it’s his own money, we wonder about Melania. Is she as “frugal.”
To date, she has done nothing other than crib a previous first lady’s speech, so we can’t tell whether she will follow the Trump family “me-first, me-only” charity tradition.
But we do have a clue with first daughter Ivanka.
Mercury News
Ivanka Trump’s using White House power to promote fashion brandIvanka Trump announced her role as presidential advisor. (Meanwhile), a clothing retailer (Modern Appealing Clothing) filed a class-action lawsuit accusing (her) of improperly using the power of the White House for private profit.
The lawsuit cited President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of Nordstrom and other retailers that dropped or downplayed Ivanka Trump’s clothing, shoes and jewelry products.
The lawsuit also referred to Kellyanne Conway’s televised endorsement of Ivanka Trump products on Fox News.
Ivanka will be her father’s “eyes and ears” on a broad range of issues. She will also get a security clearance. The concerns are that Ivanka will use this informal advisor role to promote her brand, including when she sits in on meetings with business and political leaders.
Ivanka absolutely will leverage the White House for her own profit. Not even a question. She’s a Trump.
It also will be interesting to see how much Trump’s much-anticipated tax revision plan will benefit him personally though, on second thought, we’ll have no way to determine this, what with his own taxes being hidden.
The Trumps and the Kushners are as greedy and immoral as they are incompetent at governing. They focus solely on one thing: Self-inrichment.
It is the only thing they know how to do.
Welcome to the new normal in #Trumpayola land.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.
Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Guaranteed Income)) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012
Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and business taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.
The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 