The history is overwhelming. Trump repeatedly has demeaned members of the military and their families. That he himself is a lying draft-dodger is but a tiny example of his character and mindset.
His groveling before our enemy Putin is another example.
Everyone who touches Trump is ruined. They forever will be remembered as liars and bootlickers — defenders of a criminal and a traitor.
And Trump will be remembered only as a bad example.
When people have said, “He’s another Hitler,” that was considered the worst possible insult for any leader.
That now has been superseded by, “He’s another Trump.”
Listen to the above link and ask yourself, how many examples does it take before even the most hypnotized Trumpers finally say, “This man is no good. I don’t believe him”?
At long last, enough is too much.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Facts vs. Trump’s hate-mongering:
=======================================================================================================================================================================================================
After insulting our fallen soldiers, Trump now insults their leaders:
Question: Why would our generals want to please the “companies that make the bombs and make the planes”? It makes no sense at all. (P.S., It’s Trump’s Congress that is in bed with the military suppliers, not the generals.)
========================================================================================================================================================================================================
Like Hitler in his bunker, Trump is devolving into total insanity:
LikeLike
Mr. Mitchell, can you please explain the “petro dollar?” A couple of my cold blooded right wing friends at the cigar lounge insist that “the U.S. dollar would collapse if the trading of oil on the international market did not have to be traded in U.S. dollars.” Any truth to this?
LikeLike
Ah, another right-wing myth. They do love their myths.
Your right-wing friends have it backward. The dollar is not widely accepted because it is used for trading oil. The dollar is used for trading oil because it is widely accepted.
The U.S. has the world’s largest economy. For convenience’s sake, the international community uses the currency of the largest economy for most trading.
That is why the dollar is the most popular “reserve” currency. Banks keep it in reserve to facilitate trading.
Ask your right-wing friends this. “All international senior aircrew must know at least a few hundred words of English. So if that weren’t the case, would English disappear?”
LikeLike
The U.S. dollar was established as the world reserve currency as a result of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944 and was based on a fixed gold exchange rate of $35/oz with all other currencies pegged to the U.S. dollar. After the collapse of the Bretton Woods gold standard system in 1971, US struck a deal with Saudi Arabia to have oil priced in U.S. dollars to help maintain its status as a world reserve currency, since oil was the most widely traded global commodity. Basically oil replaced gold in establishing the U.S. dollar as the dominant global reserve currency.
Contrary to popular belief, the benefit of having the U.S.”petro” dollar as a reserve currency is not to prop up the value of the U.S. dollar, but rather to enable U.S. military spending and interventions (i.e. wars) around the world. A large portion of the deficits in U.S. balance of payments is driven by overseas military spending. Lessons learned in the aftermath of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.
Saudi Arabia wanting access to U.S. military technology was more than happy to accept U.S. dollars in exchange for oil, and other countries needing oil and protection from the USSR were more than happy to accept U.S. military investment on their sovereign soil. Recycling of petrodollars back into the U.S. economy from foreign investment also help drives up real estate values and other fixed assets increasing the gap between the rich and not rich.
If you follow MMT and MS, the fact the the U.S. is a reserve currency is irrelevant to the ability of the U.S. government to spend its own currency to mobilize its own resources. A monetarily sovereign nation can always deficit spend to maximize employment and leverage its real resources for productive purpose. The wealth of a nation is tied to real resources, not to it’s reserve currency status. Australian dollar is not a reserve currency but since Australia is monetarily sovereign it has been able to run deficits for 90% of existence and enjoy high standards of living with modest inflation.
Notwithstanding short term financial impacts, the real long term impact of loss of reserve status would be increased domestic employment and investment, and reduced ability of the U.S. to project its military power globally, not necessarily bad things.
LikeLike
Good analysis.
The euro, the British pound, and the Chinese Renminbi also are among the various currencies banks hold in reserve. It’s just a matter of exchange convenience; it does not bestow any special value on the currency.
LikeLike
Correct, because the U.S. economy is so large and diverse and so many countries want access to our markets and technology, there will always be demand for U.S. dollars as a reserve currency irrespective of the petrodollar status.
The whole reasoning behind the establishment of the petrodollar was entirely military in its origin and is an interesting history.
The reason the U.S. went off the gold standard 1971 was the large deficits in balance of payments driven predominantly by anti-communist proxy wars in Korea and then Vietnam, and the lack of U.S. gold reserves to back those dollars up. European countries led by Charles De Gaulle of France, called Nixon out on that and began demanding gold in exchange for their US dollar holdings, thus forcing Nixon to abandon the gold standard.
After the gold standard was abandoned, the U.S. was worried about how to project its military power in order to fight Russia and the spread of communism. The US government believed that the only way to fight communism and wage overseas wars was to vastly increase the demand for a U.S. currency that was no longer backed by gold. The result was the petrodollar. Given the current interdependence of world economies and the diminishing long term prospects for oil as an energy source, the petrodollar is of much less relevance today than it was in the 1970’s.
LikeLike
Jim Sciutto had a terrific interview with General Wesley Clark (ret.) yesterday on CNN about Trump’s comments accusing U.S. generals of being beholden to defense contractors. Clark stated that top military commanders, unlike the current President, have to file financial disclosures every year, and anyone in procurement is prohibited from owning interest in defense contractors, and then called on Trump to release his own tax and financial information.
Clark said Trump probably made that statement because that is the way he thinks. If Trump were a general, he would likely figure out a way to make money off of war, so he just assumes that most or all generals think that way.
Trump just can’t imagine any calling that rises above naked self-interest. Clark was also pretty adamant about how damaging these comments are to the chain of command and the credibility of the U.S. Military to both our global allies and rivals.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/09/08/trump-attack-military-leadership-wesley-clark-intv-nr-sciutto-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/
LikeLike
And Trump’s followers don’t care. Trump is a hate-monger whose primary appeal is to haters — haters of blacks, browns, yellows, Jews, gays, the educated, all foreigners, and/or anyone whose religion is different from theirs. They wrap themselves in Jesus and the American flag, but they are the least religious, least patriotic of any of us.
Trump, being a psychopath, hates everyone and everything not named “Trump,” unless they express love for him.
Sadly, America is not, and never has been, the welcoming, tolerant country we want to believe it is. Despite the words on the Statue of Liberty, haters like Trump always have had a big following. It’s just that he’s exceptionally hate-filled and so has attracted an exceptionally large group of haters.
Let us pray they are not in the voting majority.
LikeLike