If you repeat a word often enough, it will lose its meaning. The same with lies.
There was a time when being caught in a lie was death for a politician. No more. What happens now when he is caught in a lie? 100 lies? 1,000 lies? 10,000 lies?
Sheer volume numbs. The senses numb. The world numbs. Does it matter any more? Do his followers care? Does anyone care? Anymore?
It all blends into an endless stream of jumbled lies indistinguishable from truths, too many to investigate, too many to refute, so you don’t even bother, because no will listen.
As his lies wash over you your energy leaves. You have no strength. It has become too much. And the lies have become the liar and the liar has become the lies, one and the same.
So encouraged, he lies more and ever more, succeeds more and ever more. Soon the endless drip of his lies erodes through even the hardest stone, and your great sheltering nation that was welcoming and compassionate and beautiful simply turns to dust.
Then, like smoke through his fingers, you, your children, and his lies quietly blow away.
The future will not remember, Oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain for purple mountain majesties abovethefruitedplainAmericaAmerliarliar
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Perhaps you were one of those children who feared the night monster hiding under your bed or in your closet. Perhaps you thought you could hear the night monster sneaking around you while you pulled the covers over your head.
Typical anti-socialism cartoon, misrepresenting the facts
Today, as an adult, perhaps you now fear the Green New Deal (GND) socialism monster. The GND socialism monster and the night monster have much in common.
Both scare you. Both are commonly believed in by the unknowing. And both are imaginary.
SOCIALISM: “A theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.”
The words ownership and control are bolded because they are key. When the government owns and controls something, for instance, a Veterans Administration hospital, that is an element of socialism.
But when the government merely provides funds, as when Medicare pays your hospital and doctor bills, that may be progressivism, but it is not socialism.
The abject failures of Russia’s and Venezuela’s socialist and criminal governments often are given as examples of why socialism “doesn’t work.” But do we give the examples of Greece and Brazil to demonstrate why capitalism “doesn’t work.”
It isn’t socialism that has injured Russia and Venezuela; it’s criminal dictatorships — closer to Donald Trump’s administration of criminals than to real socialism.
We Americans wisely accept some elements of socialism, i.e. government ownership and control, in our capitalistic nation. For example:
The GOP wants you to believe that government spending is socialism.
The list goes on and on. In fact, a capitalistic government could not survive without many socialist elements.
So when pundits complain that this benefit or that program is “socialist,” they merely are using a word that has become a pejorative to the ears of Americans — and that’s why they use it: For psychological impact when facts don’t matter.
Socialism, in of itself, is not a bad thing. Unless you wish to get rid of the military, the national highway system, et al, we always will, always must, have some socialism to protect us.
In fact, when Trump derides “Medicare for All” as “socialism,” he conveniently forgets that his demand for $6 billion dollars to extend the border wall, also is socialism.
The GND monster is not socialism. It is not even a law. It is a set of goals and directions toward preventing the collapse of our ecology and our economy, due to global warming.
If, like Trump, you claim global warming is a Chinese hoax (and that Trump University was a real university, and that Trump never would cheat on his wives, his taxes, or his employees), you are fact-averse, and you now have permission to return to the cult.
Otherwise, you understand that human-caused global warming is a real threat to our grandchildren, a threat we are causing, a threat we cannot ignore as it gets worse and worse.
This is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s, and Sen. Ed Markey’s, framework defining what they call a “Green New Deal”:
upgrading all existing buildings in the country for energy efficiency;
working with farmers “to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions … as much as is technologically feasible” (while supporting family farms and promoting “universal access to healthy food”);
Overhauling transportation systems to reduce emissions — including expanding electric car manufacturing, building charging stations everywhere, and expanding high-speed rail to a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary;
A guaranteed job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations and retirement security for every American;
High-quality health care for all Americans.
For those with no imagination, all goals are unrealistic.
Contrary to what Trump’s pundits want you to believe, Ocasio-Cortez and Markey are not stupid. They do not propose killing cows to prevent cow-farts. They do not propose taking away your cars and tractors.
(An otherwise intelligent friend of mine confided in me that he was worried about the Democrats taking away airplane travel.) Such is the power of rumor and conspiracy-mongering.
Trump’s conservatives, predictably, denounced the GND. After all, conservatism wishes to “preserve or restore what is established and traditional and to limit change.”
Conservatives tend especially to embrace strict interpretations of religion because religion does not easily change. Religion does not create any new thing. Religion did not create modern medicine, or electronics, today’s machinery. Though most religions preach kindness to the poor, a left-wing notion, religion itself is conservative. The “Word” does not change and those who try to change it are derided as “blasphemous.”
Conservatives tend to be anti-science, because science creates change. So when the vast majority of professional climatologists say that the world is warming, humans are contributing to it, and this will be to our detriment, conservatives try to dig up nay-sayers, who say, in essence, “Do nothing and all will be well.”
(That also is why the anti-vaccination movement is fundamentally conservative. If those folks had their way, smallpox still would be killing millions.)
And just as anti-science conservatives do not want us to understand the science of climatology, they also misrepresent the science of economics by threatening us with the “Green New Deal” socialism monster.
It’s so easy to claim that the government is incompetent, wasteful, and less able to accomplish good things than the private sector, and in many cases that is true.
But there are some things the federal government is able to do better than the private sector, the most prominent of which is: Create and spend dollars.
This is especially true of big projects or projects that have no profit motive, like free national highways, armies, space exploration, free libraries, free public schools, et al. Left to the private sector, these things would not exist in America.
The federal government has the unlimited ability to pay for anything. It can pay to upgrade existing buildings, though upgrading “all” existing buildings within a short time period would be functionally impossible.
It could pay farmers to “eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions … as much as is technologically feasible”
It could pay for “expanding electric car manufacturing, building ‘charging stations everywhere,'” and expanding high-speed rail, reducing the use of air travel. It also could pay for research to make air travel less carbon intensive.
And those government dollars will stimulate economic growth for more than have Trump’s tax cuts for the rich.
The federal government has the ability to pay for all the things the GND proposes. And while accomplishing these things in the goal of ten years may not be feasible, as Laozi said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”
That journey also begins with a goal. The Green New Deal provides us with the goal — a goal of saving the world for our children. If we allow the conservatives to do nothing, our children will suffer, and they will know it was we who did this.
They will look upon us in the same way as we look upon the religious fanatics who tortured and murdered those who claimed the sun circled the earth — as ignorant savages who refused the truth.
Now, we must convince the Democrats to have courage, and not to fear the Green New Deal (GND) socialism monster. It is a friendly monster that can save the world.
The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the richer and the poorer.
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:
Imagine that everyone in America — you, your family, your friends and neighbors — everyone, could receive health care from doctors, hospitals, rehab facilities, extended care facilities, and all pharmaceuticals and equipment, and never have to worry about cost.
A choice?
Imagine you being forced to choose between your financial devastation vs. sickness or death for your loved ones.
Then, imagine the federal government paying all your health-related bills, leaving you free from worry.
The rich in America already live in such a glorious world, but for most of us, current and future health affordability is an ongoing concern.
Yet, many non-rich Americans oppose even the concept of Medicare for All. Why?
1. It’s unsustainable. Debt fear mongers have been promulgating that myth for at least 80 years.In 1940, when the federal debt was $40 Billion, the fear-mongers were calling it a “ticking time bomb.
“Every year afterward, they have pounded the same lies into our brains: “The federal government will go broke. It’s “unsustainable.” Your children’s taxes will have to go up.”
Today, the debt is $20 Trillion, and the government has not gone broke, and indeed cannot go broke, and taxes have not risen.
2. It’s socialism. Actually it isn’t. It’s progressivism. Socialism is government ownership and control, not merely government support.
The federal government supports many things: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, poverty aids, education, etc. Shall we eliminate them?
Additionally, we do allow many forms of real socialism: The military, roads, bridges and dams, public libraries, NASA, the VA, etc. Shall we eliminate those, too?
3. It will cause inflation or hyperinflation. Although in the past 80 years, federal debt has risen an astounding 50,000%, inflation has averaged close to the Fed’s 2.5% target.
The reason is that the Fed has tools it needs to prevent and cure inflations, among which is: Control over interest rates.
Raising rates increases demand for the dollar, making it more valuable, so fewer dollars are needed to buy goods and services.
While federal “debt” (blue, i.e. deposits into T-security accounts) increased massively, inflation (red) increased modestly.
4. We don’t have enough resources. What this really means is: “If the poor start using doctors, hospitals, et al, then there won’t be enough doctors and hospitals for me.”
These objectors believe that a viable health-care system relies on the poor not being able to afford health-care — that “limited” resources should be reserved for the wealthier among us. This is America?
A nation’s resources grow with the money available to pay for them. Funded by a government’s unlimited ability to pay, resources are unlimited.
5. It will take money and jobs from the health insurance industry. Right, just as public transportation takes money and jobs from taxi drivers.
Some jobs will be added in the federal sector. But in any event, the notion that the poor should do without healthcare so that the insurance industry can keep its jobs is ridiculous. It’s an example of misplaced priorities.
The above are fake reasons, used to conceal the real reason, which is described in the following, brief, “THE WEEK Magazine” (2/22/19) article:
Despite all the attention tech gets, the biggest five insurance and health benefits companies have greater revenues than the FAANGS – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google.
The top five health insurers and benefit managers expect &787 billion in revenue for 2019, compared with $784 billion for the FAANGS.
Pharmacy benefit manager CVS, the biggest of the health-care group, expects revenues of $246 billion.
In short, the insurance companies, that massively bribe politicians with campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later, don’t want the federal government to offer you better, more comprehensive, no deductible insurance at no cost.
One-third of Senate Democrats have cosponsored the Medicare for All Act, which Sanders introduced in September.
Democrats who haven’t cosponsored the bill received 146 percent more money on average from health insurance companies between 2011 and 2016 than those who have ($147,186 to $59,789)
If you’ve been told lies #1 thru #5, there is a good chance the source either is ignorant of economic reality or has been bribed by the health insurance industry.
The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the richer and the poorer.
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:
While federal “debt” (blue, i.e. deposits into T-security accounts) increased massively, inflation (red) increased modestly.
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 