They were supposed to protect our democratic republic. Instead, they created a monarchy, and they excuse the damage by calling it a “unitary presidency.” May they live in infamy as a lesson to future generations.
What happens when you recruit a bunch of thugs, give them masks, guns, clubs, and tear gas, and tell them, “Do whatever you want. If you get in trouble, I’ll pardon you. Meanwhile, you have complete immunity.”
America, today. Masked, poorly trained Gestapo thugs patrol America’s streets with complete immunity. Brutal home invasions without warrants. Arrests based solely on skin color. Trump and his MAGA right-wing stand by, cheering them on.
This is what happens:
The Five Minute Fix, By Amber PhillipsIt’s not just Minneapolis. In cities across America, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested hundreds of thousands of immigrants and clashed with protesters in what is on its way to becoming one of the largest deportation efforts in U.S. history.
The White House says it’s deporting both criminals and people who are working in the country illegally. But ICE is increasingly unpopular, and it’s getting more headlines for its sometimes-violent tactics than it is for getting supposed bad guys off the streets.
“They’re going to make a mistake sometimes, too rough with somebody,” President Donald Trump said of ICE. “You know they are rough people.” ICE’s reach is only expected to spread.
Armed masked men bang at your door, CLAIMING to be ICE agents. They have no badges. They have no warrants. Some are in plain clothes. Others are in military uniforms. Must you let them in? If they break in, will they be punished? If they drag you out, will anyone care? This is Trump’s America.
It has been infused with billions more from the Republicans’ tax bill, and the Brennan Center for Justice estimates it will become one of America’s largest police forces. It is spending $100 million to try to hire gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts.
When Trump speaks of “the worst of the worst,”he well might be speaking of the bullies, haters, and sadists who enjoy the freedom to kill, torture, and arrest that comes with being in ICE
“By the end of this, almost everyone is going to know someone who had a friend or family member or colleague affected, or who witnessed an arrest happening,” said David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.
“I think it’s unnerving to see people targeted who don’t seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary, just going to work or doing their jobs.
”Here’s more about what’s happening.
What ICE is doing on the streets. There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. ICE can’t be everywhere all at once, so the agency typically works with local authorities to help arrest people in the country illegally.
But now agents are on a mission to deport as many people as possible. What was once a job largely out of the public eye is now taking place on city streets, parking lots of big-box stores, deep in local neighborhoods, and at churches and workplaces as agents mine federal data and go door-to-door to create what the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute says is an unprecedented show of force in cities.
Immigration agents have surged into Chicago, Los Angeles, D.C., Minneapolis and Charlotte, rushing into upscale neighborhoods and shops, country clubs and near schools. Sometimes they are in plain clothes; many times they are masked.
U.S. citizen accuses Trump’s ICE agents of detaining him in freezing conditions with no warrant. Even citizens aren’t safe. And the supposed “agents” can’t be punished, or even prosecuted. Trump says ICE only goes after the “worst of the worst.”
They’ve been recently empowered by the Supreme Court to stop people based on factors such as race, ethnicity, language or job.
The majority of the Supreme Court is politically corrupt. They have deemed Trump as emperor, and without their support, he couldn’t act so lawlessly with impunity.
Some agents are using chokeholds to arrest people; others have been filmed smashing car windows to get at someone.
Do you carry citizenship paperwork everywhere you go?
Trump and his administration say they are targeting “the worst of the worst.”
But there’s no evidence migrants commit crimes at a higher rate than Americans, and most migrants arrested don’t have a criminal record, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
A record number of children are being detained, and data suggests families are being separated,
ProPublica finds. The New York Times reported on a Cuban migrant arriving for a check-in with ICE and being immediately separated from her 17-month-old daughter she was breastfeeding and deported.
Don’t ever expect American compassion from the Trump administration. Those people are not true Americans.
If you’re a white U.S. citizen, you might think you’re safe. Think again. Trump’s ICE agents can do whatever they want and there is nothing you can do about it.“It feels like a member of my family is under attack,” one Charlotte woman told The Washington Post after telling her children’s caregiver to stay at home.Trump is cracking down hard on protesters Communities of activists have sprung up to try to slow or stop arrests and film what’s happening.“I’ve been in touch with friends and former students in Minneapolis as well as Chicago, Los Angeles and now, Maine,” Robert Reich, a former labor secretary and prominent Trump critic, wrote this week.
“Some have been extraordinarily brave. A few tell me they’ve tailed ICE agents and whistled loudly to warn others of ICE’s whereabouts. Some have sought to block agents from entering schools, courthouses, and clinics. Others have been taking videos to give to the media or use in court.
”Trump has responded with force. His administration has tried to label protesters as “domestic terrorists” (which legal experts say isn’t an actual designation) and has sought to deploy the National Guard where there are protests.
He’s also threatened to send in the military to arrest protesters in Minneapolis. Vice President JD Vance said the ICE agent who killed protester Renée Good has “absolute immunity.”
Yet for all the conflict, Bier is tracking federal charges of protesters and finds it’s rare, suggesting many of their actions are protected by the First Amendment.
If Trump’s ICE grabs you off the street or breaks into your home, this is where they might take you. No warrant. No judge. No trial. No evidence. No Amendment rights. Instant punishments. This is Trump’s America, today.
ICE detentions are also controversial. Trump is building some of largest deportation centers in history, including makeshift facilities and plans by ICE to hold up to 80,000 immigrants in seven large-scale warehouses.
The Post reported. Conditions can be tough. Some ICE facilities have been described as “inhumane,” with reports of spoiled food, undrinkable water or lights on 24 hours a day.
The pro-immigration American Immigration Council writes that ICE is “trapping hundreds of thousands of noncitizens in an increasingly opaque world of remote jails and private prisons.”An ICE detainee died in January; witnesses say he was choked, and his death may be classified as a homicide. (The government disputes that account of events.) He is one of dozens who have died in ICE custody since Trump took office a year ago.
No, this isn’t Trump’s ICE in America. It’s Hitler’s Gestapo in Germany. Hard to tell the difference.
ICE may be getting harder to defend politically Polls show that Trump’s ICE raids have strong support from Republicans.“Letting millions of illegal immigrants come to work in the U.S. will depress wages, and we can’t allow that to happen,” says Nick Iacovella with the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a conservative, pro-tariff group that also supports Trump’s mass deportations.
But a new Economist/YouGov poll finds 47 percent of Americans think ICE is making America less safe, compared with 34 percent who said more safe.
And for months now, a majority of Americans have disapproved of how Trump is handling immigration overall, on what used to be his strongest issue.
Republicans are particularly concerned mass deportations are hurting them with Latino voters, who helped Trump win the presidency again.
“For the first time,” Republican former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory told Politico this fall, “immigration is maybe having a negative impact on my party.”
Notice that McCrory isn’t concerned about the horrors being inflicted and the human toll. He’s only concerned about politics and the “impact” on his Republican Party.
And this is America, today.
How those much-discussed taxes/tariffs, interest rates, debt and deficits affect the U.S. economy:
I. The Effects of Taxes: If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that while state/local taxes fund state/local government spending, federaltaxes — income taxes, FICA, and luxury taxes– do not pay for anything.
The U.S. federal government, uniquely being Monetarily Sovereign, has no need for, nor use of, any income. It creates all its spending dollars through Congressional voting, Presidential approval, and computer-based additions to federal accounts.
Though not funding federal spending, the three purposes of federal taxes are:
To control the economy by taxing what the government wishes to limit and by giving tax breaks to what the government wishes to encourage.
To support the demand for the U.S. dollar by requiring that dollars be used to pay taxes.
To convince those below the “wealthy” threshold that federal spending is constrained by tax collections and borrowing.
The latter purpose allows the wealthy to preserve their financial advantage over those who are less fortunate. This is known as the “Gap.”
Gap Psychologydescribes the desire to distance oneself from those lower in any scale and to come closer to those above. That process is how people become richer.
Fake “trust funds” like the Social Security “trust fund” and the Medicare “trust fund,” supposedly funded by FICA, serve no real purpose and are, in fact, not trust funds at all.
Misleading claims about their impending insolvency prevent you from accessing a comprehensive, no-deductible Medicare plan for all ages, as well as a more generous Social Security plan available to everyone, regardless of age.
“A federal trust fund is an accounting mechanism used by the federal government to track earmarked receipts (money designated for a specific purpose or program) and corresponding expenditures.
“The largest and best-known trust funds finance Social Security, portions of Medicare, highways and mass transit, and pensions for government employees.
“Federal trust funds bear little resemblance to their private-sector counterparts, and therefore the name can be misleading.
“A ‘trust fund’ implies a secure source of funding. However, a federal trust fund is simply an accounting mechanism used to track inflows and outflows for specific programs.
“In private-sector trust funds, receipts are deposited and assets are held and invested by trustees on behalf of the stated beneficiaries.
“In federal trust funds, the federal government does not set aside the receipts or invest them in private assets.
“Rather, the receipts are recorded as accounting credits in the trust funds, and then combined with other receipts that the Treasury collects and spends.
“Further, the federal government owns the accounts and can, by changing the law, unilaterally alter the purposes of the accounts and raise or lower collections and expenditures.”
In short, the federal government can do anything it wants with the so-called trust funds, and the claims of impending insolvency of any federal trust fund are a lie.
Federal debt is fundamentally different from personal or business debt. It represents the total amount held in Treasury security accounts owned by depositors.
While increased federal debt is often viewed negatively, it is, in fact, necessary for economic growth.
Federal deficits lead to federal debt and are the result of the federal government spending more dollars into the economy than it takes out in taxes.
Federal GDP growth parallels federal debt growth.
Federal taxes take dollars from the private sector (aka “the economy”). Economic growth, as measured by Gross Domestic Product, requires an increasing supply of dollars. (GDP=Federal Spending+Nonfederal Spending+Net Exports).
Taking dollars from the economy reduces Nonfederal spending, which leads to recessions, and those recessions are cured by federal deficit spending.
Declines in deficits lead to recessions (vertical gray bars). Those recessions are cured by increased deficit spending.
In summary, federal spending increases GDP, federal taxes reduce GDP and are recessionary. The federal government does not spend federal taxes.
II. The effects of tariffs.
Tariffs are sales taxes on imports. Like all sales taxes, tariffs increase the cost of sales, and ultimately, this cost is paid by buyers. In short, tariffs are inflationary and recessionary.
The Monetarily Sovereign U.S. government does not rely on any form of income, meaning that the tariffs it collects do not benefit U.S. taxpayers. Although Donald Trump may boast about the revenue from tariffs, that money ultimately comes from U.S. consumers through inflation.
It does not lead to lower taxes or fund any government expenses.
Tariffs can be used to penalize competitors of U.S. businesses by increasing the prices of imported goods. However, if the goal is to support American companies, a more effective approach would be to subsidize the American companies directly.
This method would not lead to inflation and would instead promote economic growth.
In summary, the tariffs Trump likes to boast about hurt American consumers. Imagine a billionaire father boasting to his son about taking pennies from his son’s piggy bank.
III. The effects of interest rates
It widely is believed that raising interest rates mitigates against inflation. The logic is:
Higher rates increase the demand for federal Treasury Securities
These securities must be purchased with dollars.
This increases the demand for dollars, making dollars more valuable.
A more valuable (aka “stronger”) dollar is deflationary.
The Fed claims that higher rates “cool” the economy, meaning higher rates reduce demand. But the inflation problem is not a “hot” economy or too much demand. The problem is too little supply. See Supply.
To address inflation, shortages of crucial goods and services must be addressed. The federal government must provide aid to the energy, farm, transportation, etc., sectors wherever shortages occur.
IV. The effects of deficits and debt
Reflexively, we all hate “being in debt,” and then we take out a mortgage. But somehow that mortgage seems OK as compared to a loan from a Mafia loanshark,
When someone frets about the federal debt being too high, they actually are complaining about interest-paying deposits into T-security accounts. These are the safest (in terms of loss of principal) known.
The federal government holds those deposits until maturity, never touching them because they belong to the depositor, then sends them back (i.e., “pays them off”). This is not a burden on the federal government and does not involve taxpayers in any way.
So, why do people worry about the size of the federal “debt”? Because of that nasty (and wrong) word “debt.” The public mistakenly equates it with personal debt.
Unlike a traditional debtor, the federal government never borrows dollars. Why would it, given the infinite ability to create dollars? If you owned a legal money-printing machine, would you ever borrow dollars? Of course not. You simply would print all you need.
In a previous post, I gave the example of the board game Monopoly®. By rule, the Bank cannot run short of dollars. So, when we once opened the box to discover that the Monopoly money was missing, we simply played without physical dollars. We used a table like this:
We began by giving eveyone $4,000, that is we wrote $4,000 in their column, which
is the same thing.
Then, when people bought and sold property, we added or subtracted from their column, exactly the same way U.S. dollars are handled.
The Bank had no column because there was no need.
And just as the Bank couldn’t run short of dollars, so too can the U.S. federal government never run short of dollars.
And just as there was no need to levy taxes in Monopoly (though for playing variety, the rules do provide for taxes) nether the Monopoly Bank nor the federal government had any use for tax dollars.
That said, in the real world, taxes serve several functions, though none of them provide the government with spending money. (We describe this in paragraph I. above.)
We mention the Monopoly game to demonstrate the ridiculousness of worrying about federal “debt.” The debt could be 50 trillion or a trillion trillion, and neither would threaten the solvency of the U.S. government.
The best thing that can happen to the economy is for the federal government to run deficits. They grow the federal debt, and that is how a healthy economy grows.
Summary:
The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, has the unlimited ability to create dollars. It never can run short. Federal taxes and taxpayers do not fund federal spending. They slow economic growth.
The three purposes of federal taxes are: Control of the economy, assure demand for the dollar, and fool the public into believing benefits are unaffordable for the federal government.
Tariffs are recessionary taxes ultimately paid by consumers. Protection of domestic business can be better accomplished by direct government support for those businesses. Such support would facilitate economic growth.
Raising interest rates increases costs, and thus does not fight inflation. High interest rates discourage borrowing but add growth dollars to the economy.
The federal debt is neither federal nor debt, and is not a burden on the federal government or on taxpayers. It is deposits into T-security accounts, the contents of which remain the property of the depositors.
“Paying off” the federal debt easily is accomplished by simply returning the dollars in those accounts. Reducing the debt creates depressions and recessions. The federal defict merely refers to the number of growth dollars the federal government creates.
You didn’t give ME my Nobel Peace Prize, so I’m going to kick and cry and tax you.
Trump ties failure to win Nobel Peace Prize to efforts to acquire Greenland
Story by Ivana Kottasová, Christian Edwards, CNN
US President Donald Trump told Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre that he no longer feels bound “to think purely of Peace” because the Norwegian Nobel Committee did not award him the Nobel Peace Prize.
In an extraordinary text message to Støre, first reported by PBS and confirmed by an official in the Norwegian prime minister’s office, Trump linked his repeated threats to seize control of Greenland to the fact that he has not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which he has long coveted.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote.
Støre said he received the message in reply to a text he and Finnish President Alexander Stubb sent Trump, in which the Nordic leaders “conveyed our opposition to his announced tariff increases against Norway, Finland and select other countries.”
He said in a statement that he has “clearly explained, including Trump what is well known, the (Nobel Peace) prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee and not the Norwegian Government.”
Trump’s missive came after he threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on goods from several European countries over their opposition to his plan to acquire Greenland, an autonomous part of Denmark, a fellow NATO member, from February 1. Trump’s threats have rattled NATO as the alliance based on collective defense confronts the prospect that one member might use force against another.
“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also,” Trump said in his message.
Greenland, a vast Arctic island, was incorporated into Denmark in 1953 as part of global decolonization movements in the wake of World War II. It is self-governing, but its defense, security and monetary policy are still controlled by Denmark.
“I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” Trump said in his note to Støre.
See, it’s like this: Before he demanded, but didn’t receive or earn the medalion, Trump was “thinking purely of peace.” But now, he will begin to think of America, not of peace
Donald Trump gives himself the coveted DUMMAGA AWARD, given each year to the person or otherwise who has achieved the most egomaniacal stupidity and thoughtless cruelty on the job.
If you understand Trump’s lies and logic, you qualify for the DUMBMAGA award, the first of which will go to Trump himself, who loves to receive awards and who deserves it the most.
Although the US has been the bedrock of Euro-Atlantic security for decades, and spent far more on defense in that period than any other NATO member, many NATO allies participated in recent US wars. Forty-three Danes died fighting in Afghanistan following the 2001 invasion.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado holds a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, a day after the award ceremony, in Oslo, Norway, on December 11. – Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
She offered to give Trump her medal.
Trademark by Rodger M. Mitchell of the nonexistent DUMBMAGA SOCIETY
At a news conference in London, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stressed that Denmark is a “close ally” of the United Kingdom and the US, and “a proud NATO member that has stood shoulder to shoulder with us, including at real human cost.”
If you know anyone else who has earned the Dumbmaga award, please feel free to copy this on a plain sheet of paper and give it to them.
They will be thrilled, and may even send a letter of thanks to Norway.
is the same thing.
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 