Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh — they tell markedly different stories. One is telling the truth, or what they believe to be the truth; the other is lying.
You probably have formed an opinion about them, an opinion that may be based on their appearance and general demeanor, or your political leanings, or your gender.
(Or perhaps you are one of the three people in America who doesn’t know and doesn’t care.)
For the majority, you not only have an opinion, but you probably have a strong opinion, despite the relative dearth of evidence. That is a symptom.
Generally, the fewer facts available to support a conclusion, the stronger the emotions that support the opinion. Consider, for instance, religion, where facts being almost completely absent leads to passionate belief.
Though in the Ford/Kavanaugh debate facts are scarce, there are two ways in which you reliably can determine who is lying and who is telling the truth.
You just need to answer two questions:
Question 1. Motive: Who has the most to gain from lying?
Dr. Ford has nothing to gain. She does not have a book deal pending, nor is she being paid for her testimony. She is not a fame-seeker.
On the contrary, her life has been ripped asunder by hateful criticisms, even death threats, from the right-wing crazies.
She knew this would happen — all women know and fear this — which is why so many women do not report sexual abuse.
Yet she went ahead, out of a feeling of moral obligation and/or patriotism. In her opinion, having a drunk and a rapist on the highest court of the land would be intolerable.
By contrast, Judge Kavanaugh has much to gain. He is grasping for one of the best jobs in the world, a lifetime sinecure and no bosses:
Associate justices on the Supreme Court make $255,300. These salaries usually increase by $2,000-$3,000 each year.
A seat on the court comes with some desirable benefits. Federal judges have the option to enroll in insurance plans through the Federal Employee Health Benefits system, whose website claims it offers “the widest selection of health plans in the country.“
And justices can look forward to a generous retirement package. If they retire at 70 after serving 10 years, or at 65 after serving 15 years, they qualify for an annual pension equal to their highest full salary.
There is also a summer break between July and October. It’s when justices do most of their traveling, much ofwhich is subsidized, and when they lecture and teach for extra pay.
Former justice Antonin Scalia reported going on 28 separate trips to lecture and teach in 2013, and Clarence Thomas earned more than $27,000 in 2015 for lectures at Brigham Young University, Creighton University and George Washington University.
Stephen Breyer reported $45,000 in royaltiesin 2016 from his book, “The Court and the World,” while Sonia Sotomayor has earned millions for her 2013 memoir, “My Beloved World.”
By contrast, Kavanaugh claimed to have only $65,000 in assets, which doesn’t necessarily include items such as cars or mortgages.
Plenty of motive for lying.
Question 2. Desire: Who has demonstrated the eagerness to seek the truth?
Ford took, and passed, a polygraph test. Though these tests do not provide reliable measures, her mere volunteering for the test indicates her desire for the truth.
More important is her stated wish to have her claims investigated by the FBI. A liar would not ask for an FBI investigation.
Ford also wants her witnesses to be questioned, under oath, and their claims investigated by the FBI. That too, says much about her veracity. Amazingly, the committee has refused to investigate the testimony of the one witness to the claimed rape attempt.
Contrast Ford’s actions with Kavanaugh’s, he who has refused to answer a simple “yes/no” question: “Will you ask the committee to have the FBI conduct an independent investigation of Dr. Ford’s claims?”
He was asked this question repeatedly, and repeatedly evaded, avoided and refused to answer. Clearly, he does not want the FBI verifying the claims against him.
His defenders responded to the question with spitting anger, that such a question even should be asked, and they have blocked every request for an inquiry.
Liars often act insulted by being questioned.
No truthful person would find that question offensive. If Ford were lying, one would expect it to be her defenders who would object to the question.
Kavanaugh even claimed that the concern about his fitness, and Dr. Ford’s testimony, was motivated by “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.” Paranoia or desperation?
Bottom line, two simple determinants, involving motive to lie and desire for the truth, lead one to the easy conclusion about who is lying and who is telling the truth.
So, for those who feel that youthful drunkness, plus attempted rape, plus the desire to hide the truth, plus repeated lying and evasiveness before a Senate committee, should not disqualify one for the best job in the world, they are about to be pleased.
The party in power, and the President, presumably agree with them.
But if you disagree, show your displeasure in November. Or stay home and just let the liars own you.
Contrary to popular myth, the U.S. government, being Monetarily Sovereign cannot run short of U.S. dollars to pay its bills.
Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.” Alan Greenspan:“A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
The Department of Health and Human Services is divertingmillions of dollars in funding from a number of programs, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, to pay for housing for the growing population of detained immigrant children.
Federal financing doesn’t work that way. The federal government does not “divert dollars” to pay for anything. It creates new dollars, to pay for everything.
The federal government “has” infinite money, or more accurately, can create infinite money. Though the federal government assigns budgets to each of its agencies, this is for the purpose of spending control, not because there is a real limit on available dollars.
If the government wanted to “pay for housing for the growing population of detained immigrant children,” it would do so without diverting even one penny from other programs.
The so-called “diversion” is a charade, a lie to convince you to accept cuts to social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and poverty aids.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar outlined his plan to reallocate up to $266 million in funding for the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
Nearly $80 million of that money will come fromother refugee support programs within ORR. The rest is being taken from other programs, including $16.7 million from Head Start, $5.7 million from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program and $13.3 million from the National Cancer Institute.
Money is also being diverted from programs dedicated to mental and maternal health, women’s shelters and substance abuse.
There is zero need to take money from Head Start, HIV/AIDS, and the National Cancer Institute unless these programs are less important than previously thought (doubtful).
The question is: Why does ORR need more money?
While the family separation policy has contributed to the demand for additional beds, the main reason is that children are spending more time in custody before they are released to a sponsor or returned home.
So far this month, discharges from custody have been running at a rate less than half the percent shown in reports obtained by Yahoo News from early April and from late July.
Meanwhile the intake of unaccompanied immigrant children into ORR facilities has remained relatively steady, with average daily referrals from Customs and Border Protection in the range of 100 to 200.
“This is not a story about a historically large surge in arrivals,” said Mark Greenberg, a former official with HHS’s Administration for Children and Families.
“The story is fundamentally about a significant slowdown in children being released from care.”
The people Donald Trump described as “rapists,” are being held longer — an increase in cruel laws being applied to children:
The majority of children housed in such facilities come to the U.S. on their own from the northern triangle countries of Central America — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — often fleeing gang violence.
Months before the family separation crisis came to a head, unaccompanied minors were already spending extended periods of time in ORR facilities, which are intended to house children temporarily until a parent or suitable adult sponsor can be identified.
(Further) a new policy requiring ORR Director Scott Lloyd to personally approve the release of certain children resulted in many remaining in custody longer, even after a proper sponsor had been approved.
A New York federal judge in June determined that Lloyd had violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act by enacting the policy almost immediately upon being sworn in as director, “with no record demonstrating the need for change,” and ordered him to halt it.
A government’s cruelty is adopted by the populace, as the following excerpts from comments about the above article show:
Dog: “Imagine how much funding would be available for US CITIZENS if we cleared up these individuals status once and for all? Bring them either out of the shadows on the path to being upstanding, tax paying, Citizens or deported permanently.
“It’s just economics 101, increase revenue, reduce overhead. I am not talking blanket amnesty either. Those wanting to stay will pay to be vetted, pay back taxes, and be on “probation” until they become citizens.
“After the program begins, swift and harsh penalties for being outside the terms of the “new visa” program will be grounds for immediate deportation.
“If criminal charges are involved, they pay ALL fines and court costs. (US States and Federal Government NOT to provide legal council, either they pay for it themselves, though their country of origin Diplomatic servi e, then direct permanent deportation. Save your schoolyard insults, thought out comments/debate always welcome.”
The writer who calls himself “Dog” want’s these impoverished children — children who come here owning only the clothes on their backs — somehow to pay ALL costs, not receive legal counsel or be jailed, and serve their FULL sentence, then deported.
Thus, do the mean-spirited find false financial justification for their natural callous inclinations.
As you continue to read the excerpts from the comments, keep in mind that the federal government can pay for anything, and that federal taxpayers do not fund federal spending.
sweetexas19472
“Well, US seniors are being made to pay their own medicare premiums, copays, deductibles and congressional Sequestration $1250.00 a years out of pocket costs.
“Millions of US Seniors can not afford to use their Medicare and are not going to the doctor nor filling their unaffordable meds nor getting their cancer treatments nor dialysis treatments.
“It has become difficult to seniors to find a doctor who will take Medicare.
“Congress borrowed $2.8 Trillion from Seniors self funded social security trust fund in IOU’s. When a senior’s spouse dies, the senior who is a live, has the SS money cut in half.
“Leaving the widow or widower with the bills of two, while only getting one of the couples SS money.
“So I feel sorry for these children. Our own citizens should not have to suffer!”
Federal spending for immigrants does not take one dime from “our own children.” In fact, it adds stimulus dollars to the U.S. economy.
What takes dollars from “our own children”? An inhumane government, pretending it is running short of its own sovereign currency.
Genevieve
“The cost to the US taxpayer of feeding, housing educating, and providing medical care is being paid for out of whatever funds can be made available because Congress doesn’t have a budget for taking care of them.”
“Of course that means services and programs for US citizens will have less funding, and the situation will continue indefinitely if nothing is done about it.”
No. Federal “feeding, housing educating, and providing medical care” adds dollars that provide “services and programs for U.S. citizens.”
VERGIL
“Since it’s right on the border, SET THEM ON THE OTHER SIDE PLEASE. I’d prefer to use those funds for OUR senior citizens, OUR homeless, OUR needy, educational needs of OUR children, pretty much anything OUR CITIZENS need.”
invisible hand
“Quite the difference from today when immigrants are desired by some because they will clean toilets, do landscaping and work in construction and once an “anchor baby” is dropped bring the rest of the family to experience the bounty that is available courtesy of American taxpayers.”
Unlike state and local government taxes, which do pay for state and local government spending, federal taxes pay for nothing. The federal government creates new dollars, each time it pays for something.
Belia
“This makes no sense to me. We have hungry children and adults in this country too, who need help. Why does this continue to go on? They need to be sent back. We are not the world’s keeper.”
Reha
“It shows some of the costs of illegal immigration. Medical and educational costs to US taxpayers is significant.”
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
American Woman
“Just think of all the veterans, the homeless, our poor children or elderly that money could make all the difference in the world to.
No one forced those illegals to enter our country, they made a choice to break our immigration laws. Why are we rewarding them at the expense of our own?”
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
John B
“Escort them and their parents back to the border, rather than “housing them”.. It is not our responsibility to house them at the expense of our own citizens!”
debra
“I am doing without a lot of things because I am a senior citizen, it’s nice that my own country will throw me and other seniors under the bus for the sake of illegals, and just for older they raised my insurance rates, medicine prices, I am now looking for a job. but, as long as the illegals are okay. that’s my big concern. thanks!!!!”
JAMES
“The estimated cost of operating such emergency facilities is $750 per child per day…where does that leave OUR kids? Even on a good day I didn’t spend 750 dollars on mine.”
The above constitute only a tiny percentage of the numerous comments from one article, but they display a disturbing commonality:
The writers are devoid of human compassion.
The writers spread the false belief that federal spending for immigrants takes money from other programs and from taxpayers. (Federal spending for immigrants adds dollars to the economy and grows the economy, benefiting all Americans.)
What you can’t see from the above samples is that a great many of them use identical language indicating the comments are rife with bots funded by anti-immigrant, anti-American, anti-poor groups, hoping to sway public opinion.
In summary, immigrants and their immigrant children, do not take dollars from American taxpayers or from American children.
For all of America’s history, this nation has been built on the backs of impoverished immigrants, coming here to build a better life.
The most ambitious, hard-working, bravest, most intelligent people are the ones who risk the perilous journey from their former lands.
As such, they are an asset to America, not a liability. These are who America need to keep us growing.
Immigrants are what have made America great, and nothing has happened in the past few decades to change that.
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:
Have you ever been outraged by the work of a bad plumber, a bad carpenter, a bad barber, or a bad surgeon?
Have you ever been outraged when your favorite sports team hired bad players, and your team performed poorly?
Under the “birds-of-a-feather” philosophy, President Donald Trump routinelyhires the worst man (or woman) — incompetents and/or criminals — for the job.
Do you remember Michael Flynn, Anthony Scaramucci, Omarosa Newman, Scott Pruitt, John McEntee, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, et al?
Trump’s hires seldom benefit America. Their main talent is telling Trump how great he is.
Larry Kudlow, Trump’s Social Security killer.
Which brings us to Larry Kudlow, Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council.
We have written about Kudlow in the past, here. He is a perfect Trump appointment, an economist who denies science for the sake of Trump’s politics.
Example:
Washington Post: June, 2018: President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said Friday that the federal deficit is “coming down rapidly,” contradicting estimates by nonpartisan analysts, Congress’s official scorekeeper and a branch of the White House.
Asked Monday if the Trump administration would address “entitlement reform,” White House chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow said it will “probably” look at “larger entitlements” next year.
Entitlement reform generally refers to changes or cuts to large government social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or food stamps.
“I don’t want to be specific, I don’t want to get ahead of our own budgeting, but we’ll get there,” Kudlow said at the Economic Club of New York. “But I agree, we have to be tougher on spending.”
Let’s analyze the above “Kudlowisms”:
First, Kudlow was lying about the deficit coming down. Trump doesn’t like deficits, so obediently, Kudlow denied the facts (a favorite Trump tactic), and made a ridiculous declaration based on the lie (another favorite Trump tactic).
Second, deficit reduction would be harmful to America (yet another favorite Trump tactic). The federal government is uniquie. It is Monetarily Sovereign.
The U.S. federal government never can run short of its own sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. Thus, there is no financial reason to cut federal deficits.
Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”
Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
St. Louis Federal Reserve: “As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can never become insolvent, i.e., unable to pay its bills.
By contrast, the U.S. economy requires an influx of dollars in order to grow. So when the federal government runs a deficit it sends some of its infinite supply of growth dollars into the economy.
Without deficit spending, the economy falls into depressions or recessions:
1804-1812: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 48%. Depression began in 1807.
1817-1821: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 29%. Depression began in 1819.
1823-1836: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 99%. Depression began in 1837.
1852-1857: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 59%. Depression began in 1857.
1867-1873: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 27%. Depression began in 1873.
1880-1893: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 57%. Depression began in 1893.
1920-1930: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 36%. Depression began in 1929.
1997-2001: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 15%. Recession began in 2001.
Deficit dollars are not tax dollars. The federal government, unlike state and local governments, does not spend tax dollars. The federal government spends dollars created, ad hoc, each time the federal government pays a bill.
These growth dollars are absolutely necessary to prevent recessions and depressions.
Third, entitlement “reform” is a euphemism for slashing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and anything else that benefits the lower- and middle-income groups (still another favorite Trump tactic).
It’s not reform; it’s deform. Cutting deficit spending deforms the economy. There is no financial or economic benefit that comes from being “tougher on spending.”
Your taxes do not fund federal spending, which is why the so-called “debt” is now above $15 trillion. In fact, our Monetarily Sovereign federal government has the power to double federal spending, while cutting taxes in half.
And no, deficits do not cause inflation. There is no relationship between federal deficit spending and inflation:
Federal deficits: Blue line. Inflation: Red line. Deficit reductions lead to recessions, which are cured by deficit increases.
(If deficits don’t cause inflation, what does? Shortages, most often of food and/or of energy. Because federal deficit spending tends to reduce shortages, there actually is an inverse relationship between deficits and inflation.)
Shielding Social Security and Medicare has always been a winning message for political candidates.
But now, numerous Democrats have sounded alarms about Republicans trimming spending on those programs in order to make up for the estimated $1 trillion or more last year’s GOP tax cuts are projected to add to budget deficits.
Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator from Oregon and potential 2020 presidential candidate, tweeted that “Social Security and Medicare are on the line” in November’s midterms.
Fourth, there is one reason, and one reason only, to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or food stamps: To widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.
The rich, who run America, always want to be richer. One way for the rich to be richer is for the rest of us to be poorer, in short, for the Gap to be wider.
And Trump’s willing lackey, Larry Kudlow, is just the man for the job.
An election is coming. There are only two reasons for you to vote for a Republican:
You are in the upper 1% income/wealth group, and
You don’t care what happens to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social benefits.
Trump, Kudlow and the rest of the GOP wish to kill your benefits, not for any financial purpose, but rather to please the rich.
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:
Not only does he himself offer a litany of ignorance and immorality, but he has surrounded himself with the most unintelligent and/or immoral allies. Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos all have pleaded guilty to various crimes.
And let’s not forget the notorious Scott Pruitt, another Trump pal who was supposed to drain the swamp.
Trump has corrupted Congress, corrupted federal agencies, corrupted those around him, and attempted to corrupt the FBI, CIA, the courts, the Justice Department and many of the nations most important agencies.
One day, the nation will recover from Trump’s ignorance and perfidy regarding climate change (“a Chinese hoax”), and air pollution (“beautiful clean coal”), and immigrants (“These aren’t people. These are animals”) and trade wars (“Trade wars are good and easy to win.”) and the Affordable Care Act ( “We’re going to repeal and replace it.“) and women (“Grab her by the pussy“), and immigrants (“They’re rapists”), and the Wall (“Mexico will pay for it“) — the list is endless.
It’s no accident that Trump admires most, the likes of Putin, Kim, Duterte, and Erdogan. All but Kim rule over what once was an attempt at democracy that they destroyed.
So, you might wonder how something good could evolve from Trump’s evil Presidency. The answer is that he provides us with the perfect example of what could happen, even in America, when a shameless, lying, egomaniac gains power.
We now know. Trump’s name will become a description of democratically-elected leadership gone awry.
Many years ago, the name “Benedict Arnold” meant “traitor.” After World War II, the name “Quisling” similarly meant a special kind of traitor, a visible collaborator with the enemy.
Still today, if you use the phrase, “He’s another Hitler,” everyone understands what you mean.
And tomorrow, if anyone uses the phrase, “He’s another Donald Trump,” the world will recognize the reference to a stupid, lazy, boastful, bigoted, greedy, egomaniacal, womanizing, felonious, lying politician.
Trump has destroyed many of the previous norms that made America a great and admired nation. One day, after a long struggle, we will return to that time of admiration.
Meanwhile, the next time someone attempts to follow in his footsteps, you will have a reference — “He’s another Donald Trump” — to call attention to, and to draw a picture of, the danger.
Warning an American that a politician is another Hitler, or another Quisling, may not strike a chord, but “another Trump” will resonate. He’s one of ours. And that will be a blessing.
We were lucky this time.We mostly escaped the horrors that could have befallen us, though we will suffer for years.
Trump is a stupid man. If he were intelligent, like Hitler, Putin et al, he would not have made his obvious mistakes, and so been able to solidify his rule.
But he is so transparently unfit, he will lose power rather than gain it. Even the most obtuse among us, slowly are leaving him.
It could have happened here: Russia, Turkey, The Philippines, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Argentina, China, — all ruled by strongmen.
Thankfully, Trump’s stupidity will prevent that outcome. He fooled some of the people, but fewer every day.
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 