Compassionate Republicans speak

Background: We all (except for American Indians) are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, who came to America seeking a better life.

A few of us were rich; most of us were poor, but back in the day, the Americans already living here were compassionate.

So we were accepted. And together, citizen and illegal immigrant, we built America and made it truly great.

Today, the right wing has forgotten our history, forgotten Nazi history, and forgotten compassion. We follow a leader who cares for nothing and for no one but himself, just as the Germans did during WWII.

And just as the Germans did, we follow a leader who excuses, even encourages, the torture of the unfortunate men, women, and children – those unfortunate people who only wish to do what our ancestors did: To find peace and to contribute to our nation’s greatness.

The problem is that legal immigration to America is stunningly difficult. It takes many years for all but the wealthiest, who legally are allowed to bribe their way in.

And while waiting, the men, women, and children suffer.

Our mean-spirited, exclusionary laws force these desperate people to cross illegally, and for that, some of us label them criminals (though once here, they are more honest, on average, than are our citizens).

Today, Breitbart, a right-wing source of information, published an article titled, “University of Florida Encourages Students to ‘Come Out’ as Illegal Aliens”

Here are word-for-word responses to the Breitbart article, from compassionate Republicans, demonstrating how the right wing would “make America great again.

vwjack DiogenesDespairs • 7 hours ago
It’s time for American citizens to force their government to deal with the following question: What law do I get to break with no repercussions? By not enforcing the immigration laws the federal government has created a special class of people who are not subject to the law…………..why are American citizens not afforded the same consideration? Perhaps tens of millions of Americans not filing a tax return would get their attention.
Tumbleweed7 vwjack • 4 hours ago
What responsible parent would send their son or daughter
(and pay tuition) to attend a “college” that encourages illegal aliens to use it as a sanctuary.
bobj • 9 hours ago
Don’t want illegal aliens in our country. Go home and apply for legal immigration.
To trespass and illegally enter, they are nothing more than third world criminals.
Why bother having laws if no one to respect or obey?
Without laws we have anarchy and chaos. That’s not the United States.
Either follow the law or get the hell out! You offer nothing of value.
Mike Smith bobj • 4 hours ago
Build the Wall! Deport them All!!
ElGee • 8 hours ago
Ashley said it perfectly! I’d like to also add that these illegals are STEALING from the legal citizens whenever they receive any type of handout.
R A Reed • 8 hours ago
As a taxpayer I want this University sued for mis-appropriation of tax dollars. Sued for falsifying federal documents. Sued for harboring criminals. Sued for diverting federal money from educational studies for political animus. Also, for discrimination against legal American citizens.
I want them Incarcerated in a Federal Penitentiary after their Felony Convictions under CRM 1907 Title 8 U.S.C. 1324 (a)(1)(a)(i,ii,iii,iv,v) thats 10 years and a $250K fine per count!
mcss207 • 8 hours ago
Ashley appears to be the only voice of reason. She’s right. Illegal aliens have no business receiving financial assistance of any kind for any reason.
SWAMP DRAINER • 8 hours ago
They’re just becoming more and more blatant about it because the laws aren’t being enforced
L C Smith • 5 hours ago
Illegals deserve nothing but contempt. They have no respect for the country they allegedly want to live in, no respect for immigrants doing the job the right way, and certainly they have none for the people of America from whom they demand endless freebies and special coddling.
Tumbleweed7 • 4 hours ago
Great idea. Talk the gullible ones into “coming out”, march around carrying signs and banners. It’ll make it much easier for ICE or other law enforcement officers to spot them. While they’re at it, I hope ICE will arrest any one of that college’s administration or staff who have knowingly aided and abetted these fugitives and used taxpayer’s dollars to pay for their education.
Roger White • 7 hours ago
I think that if a American citizen tells an ICE agent that they are an illegal then ICE should say fine we believe you and put them on the first flight to central America.
Ultracon • 3 hours ago
As soon as they come out, round them up and deport them
Jeff Kingston • 5 hours ago
Has anyone noticed that the “sanctuary for all” crowd seems to be composed of those who pay no taxes. Likely no jobs either. Should I mention no brains.
Divegoddess • 5 hours ago
Please do. It will make it easy rounding them up. Get them OUT!
Progs Are Mentally Incompetent • 8 hours ago
I almost wish I was back in college again. I wouldn’t be papering the campus with posters or crap like that…. I’d be quietly calling ICE after going a good ways off campus to turn in these criminals.
2Bills • 8 hours ago
How many of these illegal alien students received tax payer funded grants? Even better question is how many of them are racking up student loans that they want the tax payers to pay off?
Frosty Fish Farmer • 8 hours ago
Yes – please do! And let ICE know so they can arrange a safe ride home for your illegal alien a$$.
ttmm7 • 8 hours ago
What is the point of having a country or laws if borders and entry laws are not enforced? The University people see foreigners as a revenue stream. That’s why they are open borders. The more foreigners, the more student tuition money. They have zero appreciation for the nationhood of the U.S.
Les Landers • 4 hours ago
Look at that sad picture this is the garbage we have raised in America and to think they think they are the future leaders. GOD HELP AMERICA
Jd • 4 hours ago
Then round ‘em up and deport them
Loogie7 • 5 hours ago • edited
With the big ICE raids going on today and lasting through the weekend, the university is probably just trying to get an accurate head count to figure out how many classes it will have to cancel. In my opinion, every illegal alien on an American campus right now is a potential future Barack Obama, and that is a cost a future America cannot bear…
Nami Bazine • 5 hours ago
Yes yes by all means come out!
And then you students whose parents broke their butts to pay for your school and out of state tuition here’s some information for you to turn in these interlopers.
pete • 6 hours ago • edited
Desantis needs to remove everyone of them…so sick of the “they are here through no fault of their own”excuse as if no one is at fault. Or they cant go back to a country they know nothing about…funny how it didnt stop them from coming to a country they knew nothing about
Zatoichi • 5 hours ago
Please come out as illegal aliens… It makes it so much easier to deport you…
Jackilyn Brown • an hour ago
This Is How Our Military Sleeps, So I REALLY DONT CARE About Illegals Being Overcrowded In Detention Centers!!!

Ironically, many of the writers undoubtedly are Christians, some even deeply religious Christians.

And one wonders what Jesus Christ would say to those “religious Christians” about these responses.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

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:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts a, b & d, plus long-term care — for everyone
3. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to social security for all)
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
5. Salary for attending school
6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually.
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
9. Federal ownership of all banks
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9%

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

How Forbes Magazine misleads the public

Forbes is a highly respected financial magazine. Like too many other highly respected financial magazines, it often publishes articles espousing utter nonsense.

Here are excerpts from one such article.

Trump’s Big “Win”: The Largest Budget Deficit With A Strong Economy
Chuck Jones, Senior Contributor

Federal deficits are one way to measure how well a President manages the economy.

However, for a number of reasons a President can’t control the deficit; Congress is the governing body that decides the budgets (but the President does have to approve them), entitlement programs will grow unless they are changed and the economy goes through expansions and contractions (sometimes violently).

A President can propose and get policies implemented that impact the budget and therefore deficits, but to a large degree, economic forces can overwhelm the best policies and intentions.

It is true that “federal deficits are one way to measure how well a President manages the economy” but, as you will see, not in the one way author Chuck Jones claims.

While most people tend to look at the amount of the deficit in billions (or even $1 trillion plus) of dollars, a better way to gauge it is to look at the deficit as a percentage of the nation’s GDP.

This removes the impact of inflation on the government’s revenue and spending and makes for a better comparison.

Here is an example of Jones’s graph showing the deficit as a percentage of the nation’s GDP:

Deficit/GDP. Vertical lines are recessions

Please note that recessions almost always begin when the Deficit/GDP ratio goes down, and recessions almost always are cured when the Deficit/GDP ratio goes up.

The above graph diametrically contradicts the point Jones tries to make: The deficits are negative for the economy.

As seen in President Trump’s tax bill, there has been a fairly sizable reduction in corporate tax receipts, which negatively impacted the deficit in fiscal 2018 and the first three months of fiscal 2019.

Correct Translation: ” . . .there has been a fairly sizable {reduction in the amount of money corporations are forced to send to the federal government], which [increased the amount of money left in the economy] in fiscal 2018 and the first three months of fiscal 2019.”

A simple picture of what happens to the economy (left) when the federal government (right) runs a deficit.

I never have spoken to anyone — professional economist or layperson — who doesn’t understand that putting dollars into the economy helps the economy grow, and taking dollars out shrinks the economy.

Yet that is exactly what Jones implies.

Federal deficits add dollars to the economy, helping the economy grow, yet Jones wants smaller deficits. It makes no sense at all.

President Trump’s budget deficits as a percentage of GDP will exceed any other President’s during a time of economic expansion.

From the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget or CFRB, at the projected 4.6% for fiscal 2019 it will the be largest in a non-recession year and is expected to stay above this level in the future.

It will only be worse if the 2017 tax cuts that are scheduled to expire for individuals and the increased 2018 discretionary spending caps are extended.

This is a good thing for the economy. Unfortunately, Trump doesn’t know it’s a good thing, otherwise he would boast about it.

We have written about the CFRB many times. It is a group supported by the very rich, whose sole mission seems to be to make you believe that the more federal taxes you pay, and the fewer federal benefits you receive, the better off you will be.

Multiple organizations ranging from the Congressional Budget Office to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget are projecting that the Federal deficit will increase even as the economy grows.

Their projections are for it to increase less in 2019 than 2018, but still have many years of growth even though the current economic expansion is about to hit a decade.

Correct Translation: ” . . . the Federal deficit will increase [which will help the economy grow].” Their projections are for it to increase less in 2019 than 2018, but still [cause] many years of growth even though the current economic expansion is about to hit a decade.

The scary thing is if the economy stumbles and growth slows more than expected or enters a recession, the deficit will increase even more than what the chart shows.

Yes, if the economy stumbles, the deficit must increase to add dollars to the economy and to resume economic growth. Otherwise we will have a recession or a depression.

Tariffs will have a positive impact on the government’s receipts but these are really a hidden tax on consumers and corporations.

Here Jones seemed to tangle in his own beliefs. He says tariffs have a “positive impact.”

Then he says, they really are taxes, which have a negative impact on the economy (unless Jones thinks taxes have a positive impact on the economy.)

So, why does he describe tariffs as “positive”? They are not “positive” in any way.

Trump seems to believe (or at least that is what he says and his advisors have told him) that reducing taxes and cutting regulations will grow the economy enough to solve the debt problem.

The above paragraph is so mixed up, it almost is impossible to disentangle.

“Reducing taxes” does grow the economy by leaving more dollars in the private sector (the “economy.”)

“Cutting regulations,” especially regulations that protect the middle-classes and the poor, most likely will hurt the economy over the long haul, but greatly widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

And then, Jones switches from “deficits” (which are the annual difference between federal income and federal spending), to “debt,” which is the historical total of deposits into T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank).

The two are unrelated except for regulations requiring them to be equal. Other than that, we could have federal deficits without federal debt, and we could have federal debt without federal deficits.

Federal debt, being nothing more than interest-paying savings accounts, easily are paid off by returning the dollars in these accounts.

Unfortunately, in the first year of the tax cuts, the deficit increased from $666 billion in fiscal 2017 to $779 billion in fiscal 2018, an increase of $113 billion or 17%.

It looks like they are on a path to $1 trillion or more as far as the eye can see.

Translation to the facts: [Fortunately,] in the first year of the tax cuts, the deficit increased from $666 billion in fiscal 2017 to $779 billion in fiscal 2018, an increase of $113 billion or 17%.

It looks like they are on a path to $1 trillion or more as far as the eye can see.

While it will take a few years to play out it appears that the tax cuts gave the economy an initial boost in the June quarter but that it may have fallen off in the September and December quarters.

In the end, Jones admits that “the tax cuts gave the economy an initial boost.” Why did that happen?

Because tax cuts allow more growth dollars to remain in the private sector (aka “the economy”).

Similarly, spending increase put more dollars into the private sector.

Since federal deficits result from federal tax cuts and spending increases, federal deficits grow the U.S. economy.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the richer and the poorer.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA

2. Federally funded Medicare — parts a, b & d, plus long-term care — for everyone

3. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to social security for all)

4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone

5. Salary for attending school

6. Eliminate federal taxes on business

7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually.

8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.

9. Federal ownership of all banks

10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9%

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Why it’s OK that Trump is an ignorant, bigoted, mean, immoral, lying, pompous adulterer.

I have friends who are Trump backers. They mystify and frustrate me.

Many times in the past three years I have thought, “Finally he has gone too far. Finally, you will have to admit that he has no business being in the White House,” only to be shocked that they still love him.

Trump: “Continental Army ‘took over airports’ in 1775.”

How can you continue to back someone who is of such low character, intelligence, and competence?

How can you keep inventing excuses for this clown’s abhorrent behavior?

What do you love? Is it his tax cut for the rich? His backing of Israel? His position on abortion? His appointing of conservative judges? His bigotry?

Yes, to all of those “assets” perhaps, though in my humble opinion they are far outweighed by his massive flaws.

I now have found an article in the Economist that explains the illogic roaming far beyond rational thought.

Excerpts shed a bit of light on the mysteries of Trump’s appeal.

Hate thy neighbour
When American evangelicals fall out
A twitter-spat over Donald Trump’s immigration policy reveals a deep cleavage in America’s religious right. Erasmus, Jul 5th 2019

(There is a) widening ideological and personal schism within the very group of citizens who should be a conservative president’s most natural supporters.

That group is the white evangelical Christians, of whom 80% are thought to have voted for Mr. Trump.

Evangelicals argue perpetually about many things: for example over whether the fate of a human soul is predetermined, or how exactly a believer can be redeemed from the “total depravity” which is, in the view of John Calvin, the natural state of humanity.

When people energetically argue about things that cannot be determined you know that reason has lost the battle and departed.

According to a new book, “Believe Me”, by John Fea, a history professor at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, all these theological disagreements are being transcended by a more salient issue: whether or not to support Mr. Trump wholeheartedly and therefore overlook his character flaws.

These days, by far the most important distinction is between what Mr. Fea calls “court evangelicals”, who stridently support the president and are rewarded with access to him, and every other kind of evangelical.

And now we come to the part that really gets weird, at least in the eyes of someone who is not an evangelical:

Among those who inhabit the court, Mr Fea discerns three main groups: first, a section of the mainstream religious right whose origins go back to the 1980s; second, a cohort of independent “charismatics” who claim the gifts of the Pentecostal tradition (visions, miracles and direct revelations from God) but do not belong to any established Pentecostal group; and third, advocates of the “prosperity gospel” who resemble the second category but put emphasis on the material rewards which following their particular version of Christianity will bring.

What defines all these “courtiers” is an insistence that loyalty to Mr. Trump must be unconditional.

In their world, the president is presented not just as the least-worst political option whose merits outweigh his flaws, but as a man assigned by God to restore America to its divinely set course, and therefore almost above human criticism.

In short, there are groups of evangelicals who have elevated Trump to a god-like status.

If Trump is above criticism, all conversation is closed. You must march like little robots. Do and believe whatever Trump tells you. He has been anointed by God.

To get around the problems posed by Mr. Trump’s ruthless business career, messy personal life, and scatological language, they use several arguments, of which one is a comparison with Persia’s King Cyrus, who liberated the Jews from captivity in Babylon and allowed them to return to Israel.

From the Jewish or Christian point of view, Cyrus was a pagan, not a worshipper of the one God, but he was still an instrument of God’s purpose.

Likewise, Mr. Trump can be regarded as a divinely ordained ruler, regardless of any personal flaws.

In essence, Trump and God are interchangeable. Think: Jesus.

But amazingly (If anything wholly illogical can further amaze), it goes even beyond that.

Another popular view holds that Mr Trump’s rude and rumbustious character is really a merit in a time of great geopolitical and spiritual danger.

As Robert Jefress, a megachurch builder and Trump favourite, told a newspaper in his native Texas: “When I’m looking for a leader who’s gonna sit across the table from a nuclear Iran, or who’s gonna be intent on destroying [the jihadists of] ISIS, I couldn’t care less about that leader’s temperament or his tone or his vocabulary. I want the meanest, toughest son of a gun I can find.”

At its purest, Mr Fea adds, pro-Trump sentiment among evangelicals exudes a kind of fascination with political power as an end in itself.

Thus, the worse, meaner, less intelligent, less moral, more bigoted Trump is, the more he is to be loved.

Even torturing children at the border is seen as a sign of toughness — an admirable thing. His bigotry against browns, blacks, gays, Muslims, et al is welcomed by bigots, who hate those same people.

Trump is loved by bigots because he hates the same people they do.

If you ever foolishly have attempted to argue religion, then you understand the impossibility of arguing Trump. He is God or appointed by God.

Trump is perfect in every way. To the “courtier” evangelicals, Trump is above the law and above criticism. He is Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Kim, and Pharoah, all rolled into one.

You also understand why nothing seems to affect his followers. Trump caught cheating with porn stars? Who cares?

He lies compulsively? So what?

Takes from the poor and gives to the rich? Why worry?

As he himself said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”

Now you know why despite his repeated demonstrations of unfitness (claimed the Continental Army “took over the airports” from the British during the American Revolutionary War in the 1770s) his followers never will leave him.

Note to Democrats: Demonstrating that Trump is unfit to hold office, will not change his followers’ minds. An unfit god is exactly what they want blindly to follow.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the richer and the poorer.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA

2. Federally funded Medicare — parts a, b & d, plus long-term care — for everyone

3. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to social security for all)

4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone

5. Salary for attending school

6. Eliminate federal taxes on business

7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually.

8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.

9. Federal ownership of all banks

10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9%

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

The latest dumb, political idea

It’s that time of the election process, when politicians, desperate to be remembered by the voters, come up with silly ideas.

Today’s SI (silly idea) award goes to a guy whom I believe to be one of the more intelligent of the candidates, Pete Buttigieg.

This only goes to show that even smart people can be silly when under pressure.

Pete Buttigieg wants Americans to expect a year of ‘national service’ after college, 10:44 a.m., Politico, Kathryn Krawczyk

Pete Buttigieg is serving up a brand new plan.

The South Bend, Indiana mayor and 2020 Democrat has proposed “A New Call to Service” that would push the number of people participating in national service to 1 million by 2026.

He’d like to expand the ranks of 7,300 Peace Corp volunteers and trainees and 75,000 AmeriCorps members to a total of 250,000, (then) grow that total to 1 million by 2026, with an estimated cost of $20 billion over the next decade.

Buttigieg hopes to fill all these programs by promising a credit toward workers’ student debts under the already existent Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

That looks similar to debt forgiveness service programs mentioned by fellow candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and former Rep. John Delaney.

I can almost visualize Pete and his handlers, crouched together in a locked room, sweating and mumbling:

“Bernie has Medicare, and Liz has corporate fraud. We need something. Something!
“How about student debt?
“It’s being done. We need something else. Something really unique and patriotic.
“Like military service?
“You mean college kids tramping around in the infantry?
“No. OK, wait. I’ve got it: Student debt combined with the Peace Corps. That’s unique, liberal and patriotic, all rolled into one.”

What a wonderful idea.

To compete economically and scientifically, America needs educated people — not just high school graduates, but college grads and advanced degree people: Medical doctors, engineers, scientists — all those people that really advance our nation.

So here’s what we do. First, we already have discouraged kids from going to college, and punished them if they do go to college, by putting them deeply into debt.

Now, rather than simply relieving them of this debt, we have them to waste a couple of the most productive years in their lives by forcing them to take a low pay job they don’t want — a job that has nothing to do with their college education and expertise.

I can see it now. All those PhDs planting crops in Batswana, building huts in Burkina Faso, carrying water jugs in Eswatini.

Our indebted college grads and future leaders will flock to the idea, and it will greatly benefit American competitiveness, especially in Comoros and Lesotho (where I’m told the volunteers learn to speak Sesotho).

Of course, the alternative would be to encourage advanced education by making college free, for the same reason we already make grade school and high school free.

But then we wouldn’t be able to send our best and brightest young people to Benin (where “volunteers learn to speak local languages, including Bariba, Ditamari, Dendi, Fon, French, Mahi, and Nagot.”)

O.K., seriously, I admire the young people who volunteer to go to 3rd world countries and help. But the key word is “volunteer.”

The notion of basing the payoffs of those outrageous college loans, on a couple years of forced labor in Myanmar not only is repugnant but is counter to the best interests of America.

Pete, we should do everything possible to encourage advanced education, instead of discouraging it.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the richer and the poorer.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA

2. Federally funded Medicare — parts a, b & d, plus long-term care — for everyone

3. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to social security for all)

4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone

5. Salary for attending school

6. Eliminate federal taxes on business

7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually.

8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.

9. Federal ownership of all banks

10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9%

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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