The insurance mystery solved

I often listen to the public radio show, “Freakonomics Radio” by Stephen J. Dubner. Today, the story was about insurance and how intractable it is, both from the insurance providers’ and the buyers’ perspectives. We all have some forms of insurance: Life, health, accident, liability, home, personal property, unemployment, retirement, and many others. Lloyds of London has a reputation for creating individualized policies to insure anything: An actress’s legs, a quarterback’s arm, a pianist’s fingers. Among the several insurance problems, the fundamental problem is adverse selection. The insurance company wants to cover people who will not have an immediate claim. The buyer wants to get his money’s worth in claims. A life insurance seller wants young, healthy customers who will not make claims for many years while paying premiums all those years. All insurers want the insured to buy as soon as possible, then wait a long time before making a claim (for instance, a health policy) or never make a claim (an auto liability policy), But the insured ideally would like to purchase his insurance as late as possible — just before making a claim — or never. To minimize adverse selection, insurers hire actuaries. These people use research and probability formulas to determine the likelihood of a person making a claim and how significant that claim is might be. This leads to another problem: Adverse denial. Suppose those who will make the fewest and most minor claims are the only people accepted, and all others are denied. In that case, many people will be denied insurance, and the basic premise of insurance — to protect against misfortune — would be lost. For example, on average, black people get sick and die sooner than white people. If the law allowed, insurance companies would charge blacks higher premiums than whites or refuse insurance to blacks altogether. However, the law does not allow this, so the premiums charged to white people must be higher than they ordinarily would be to make up the difference. Any time an insurer accepts something other than the lowest possible risk, the lowest risk people must pay more. Some, but not all, of this can be baked into the premiums. For example, most life insurance policies consider age and prior illness when determining premiums. But no insurer can consider every possible risk category and remain competitive. So, in general, the lowest-risk people do, in part, fund higher-risk people for all sorts of insurance. That said, a substantial portion of our population is not financially protected by insurance, either because no company will insure them or because the premium is higher than what people wish to pay. In short, the risk is too high for any potential insurer, and the premium is too high for potential insureds. The fact that the problem is considered intractable puzzles me because we already have solved it, not just once, but many times. Medicare, for instance, solves it for the worst health risks: Older people who already are sick with terminal illnesses cannot be refused when they reach the qualifying age.

More than 18 percent of Americans depend on Medicare for their health coverage, and in 2019 Medicare the enrollment reached over 60 million.

You can start receiving Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) benefits with no premium once you are 65 or older if you or your spouse worked and paid Medicare taxes for a certain period. You can know you are eligible for premium-free Medicare A if one of the following applies to you:

You currently receive or are eligible for Social Security. You currently receive or are eligible for Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) benefits. You or your spouse served in a Medicare-covered government job.

You can purchase Medicare Part B benefits if you are eligible for Medicare Part A. It is a voluntary program that requires you to pay monthly premiums. For 2022, the standard premium is $170.10 (or higher, depending on income).

No matter how sick you are, even on death’s doorstep, you can receive insurance if you meet the above requirements. How does the government avoid adverse selection? Mostly, it doesn’t. Yes, there are qualifications; adverse selection is not the consideration. Why can the government afford Medicare when private insurance companies must worry about adverse selection? Contrary to popular belief, people with FICA deducted from their salaries do not fund Medicare. The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, has the infinite ability to create U.S. dollars. It neither needs nor uses tax dollars to pay for anything. Even if total FICA collections equaled $0, the federal government still has the infinite power to fund something better than our current Medicare. The government could fund a comprehensive, no-deductible Medicare for every man, woman, and child in America.

Alan Greenspan: “There is nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody.” Quote from former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke when he was on 60 Minutes: Scott Pelley: Is that tax money that the Fed is spending? Ben Bernanke: It’s not tax money… We simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account.

And that is the solution to the healthcare insurance problem. The federal government should “use the computer to mark up the size of the account” and fund a form of Medicare far better than current Medicare. I have Medicare, but I also pay for a concierge primary care doctor. I pay her an annual fee in addition to what she receives from Medicare. My previous primary care doctor, who received Medicare reimbursement, had about 2,500 patients. My concierge doctor self-limits to about 600 patients. This allows her more time to do precisely what she studied for years to do: Treat patients. She spends time studying my particular needs and discussing my health with me. If I go into the hospital, she has admittance privileges and can oversee my treatment there while discussing my case with all the doctors and nurses. The federal government has sufficient resources to pay every primary care doctor to be a concierge doctor who can spend the time each patient deserves.

(The federal government also has the resources to provide free medical schooling for all prospective doctors, so there would be plenty of people available to be the abovementioned concierge doctors.)

All drivers need auto liability insurance. The federal government should provide it free. All homeowners and renters need insurance. The federal government should provide it. There is no logical reason why more affluent people can afford insurance while poorer people cannot. Ironically, it is the poorer who need insurance more than, the richer. The Freakonomics radio show ignored the fundamental truths about the American economy:
    1. Our government is Monetarily Sovereign. It has infinite dollars.
    2. Our people have needs that can be purchased with those infinite dollars
    3. The federal government should use #1 to fund #2.
The solution to many of life’s problems stares us in the face, yet disinformation from the top prevents it. No, federal financing is not the dreaded “socialism” (which is government ownership and direction, not just government funding.) And no, federal spending does not cause inflation. On the contrary, federal spending can reduce inflation by acquiring goods and services, the scarcity of which is the real cause of inflation. There is a solution. We need only to recognize it. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

The Reason.com fountain of disinformation

The difference between misinformation and disinformation is that the former can be accidental and unintentional, while the latter is intentional. While the Libertarian website, Reason.com, always has spewed wrong ideas, I have come to believe they now are well into the disinformation stage. In short, they have transitioned from loud-mouth, bar-stool buffoons to louder-mouth Tucker Carlson.
Trump's Indictment Start of a 'Political Purge,' Says Tucker Carlson – Rolling Stone
I admitted that even I don’t believe what I say. Why should you?
Here is the latest headline:

Reason.com – Free Minds and Free Markets Nobel Prize–Winning Economist: Democrats Are Committed ‘To Spending Other People’s Money’ Vernon Smith weighs in on Biden’s budget, how government causes inflation, and why bailing out Silicon Valley Bank was a bad idea. NICK GILLESPIE AND JUSTIN ZUCKERMAN | 3.29.2023 2:45 P

I caught up with the 96-year-old recently in Southern California and conducted a long interview about his life and work that will appear as a Reason podcast.

Here’s part of our conversation about President Joe Biden’s massive $6.8 trillion budget plan, the role of government spending and Federal Reserve policy in causing inflation, the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank, and why Smith believes “it’s very hard to keep Democrats [from] wanting to make the world better by spending other people’s money.“

I must admit that the headline and the introductory paragraphs told me I would not be able to stomach listening to the entire drivel. Here are my comments based on just the above:
Alan Greenspan says US recession is likely | CNN Business
Greenspan: A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.
Starting with the simplest, there is no Nobel Prize in economics, nor should there be. It’s called The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It’s like me injuring myself and awarding me the Rodger Mitchell medal in memory of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. Or, having taking some pictures at my family Thanksgiving dinner, I award myself the Mitchell Award for Best Picture in memory of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Awards for Best Pictures. Also, there should be no real Nobel Prize in economics because economics has not yet graduated to science levels. It is a philosophy that lacks proof, but exists on intuition and belief. Sciences make verifiable predictions. Economics makes predictions that can’t be verified. They are little more than hunches. Economists are like stock market chartists with their “head and shoulders” graphs, histograms, and MACDs, all of which sound scientific but in reality are balderdash. “GOVERNMENT SPENDING CAUSING INFLATION” Next, there is no evidence that federal spending causes inflation. It is a common belief in economics circles, but it is based on the logical intuition that if you have more of something its value declines. Sadly, Facts don’t agree with intuition. Money is unlike other commodities. It always is in demand. If we have plenty of oil, we don’t use more. There becomes a surfeit that needs to be stored at a significant cost. The price goes down. When there is too much, production can’t be shut down in and instant; when there is a shortage, production can’t be started instantly. If we have plenty of food, we don’t begin to eat more. The extra must expensively be stored or allowed to rot. The the price goes down. When there is too much or too little, production can’t respond quickly. By contrast, the federal government quickly can produce more dollars when needed, simply by giving them away or spending them. In the unlikely event there ever are too many dollars, the government could tax them away. Another major reason why money is unique: If you have plenty of money, you still want more. Storage not only is free, but receives interest. The usual rules of supply and demand don’t operate. Having plenty of money does not reduce the price of money. It actually can increase the value of money, because investing opens new areas for more investing. That is why we see graphs like this:
There is no relationship between federal debt (red line) and inflation (blue line).
The peaks and valleys in the above graph do not match. There is no cause/effect relationship.
There is a strong relationship between inflation and oil supplies (green, as evidenced by oil prices).
The peaks and valleys match. There is a cause/effect relationship. “BAILOUT OF SILICON VALLEY BANK” The bailout of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVP) was necessary to prevent massive losses to the economy and to individual depositors.
Bernanke: Fed's slow response to inflation was 'mistake' | The Hill
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.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of the economy by being a measure of spending (GDP = Federal and Nonfederal Spending + Net Exports). Adding dollars to the economy increases GDP; taking dollars from the economy reduces GDP. Dollars held by banks are dollars in the economy as part of the M2 money supply measure. Allowing SVP depositors to lose money would reduce GDP, which would be recessionary. Gillespie and Zuckerman advocate punishing the bank and those responsible by allowing them to fail, the classic “cut one’s nose to spite one’s face” situation. Because banks operate under a profit motive, their leaders face the ongoing temptation to engage in higher-risk activities. When these activities fail, the banks, not having infinite funds with which to pay off depositors, fail. The prevention and cure is to have all banks owned by the federal government, an entity that is not motivated to take higher risks and has the infinite ability to pay depositors. There is no public purpose for banks to be privately owned. Bank depositors already are insured (up to $250,000) by the federal government. Federal ownership would expand that protection while decreasing risk. “SPENDING OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY” This pejorative trope, though often expressed, is based on the false notion that the federal government spends federal tax dollars. While state and local governments, being monetarily non-sovereign, do spend taxpayer dollars, the federal government operates differently.
Alan Greenspan says US recession is likely | CNN Business
Greenspan: There is nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody.
Being Monetarily Sovereign, the federal government has the infinite ability to create dollars.

Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.” 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: “There is nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody.” Alan Greenspan: “The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print the money to do that.”

The federal government neither needs nor uses tax dollars. Even if it stopped collecting taxes, the federal government could continue spending forever. The primary purpose of federal taxes is to control the economy by taxing what the government wishes to discourage and by giving tax breaks to what the government wishes to encourage. A secondary purpose is to insure acceptance of US dollars by requiring them to be used for taxes and other payments. Reason.com, that Libertarian, anarchist organization, has become more far right-wing of late, and following in the Fox News / Tucker Carlson tradition, has resorted to exaggeration  and outright lies — i.e misinformation and disinformation — to push its anti-government agenda. The federal government is very good at one thing: Creating dollars. Thus it has no profit motive. Its motives revolve around its voter constituency. The more it can do to please its voters, the more votes it can acquire. The Republican constituency is the rich, and the Republicans know it. The Democrats’ constituency is the not-rich, but the Democrats don’t understand economics. So, despite creating such social programs as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and poverty-fighting plans, the Democrats repeatedly fall into the trap of not recognizing Monetary Sovereignty. Thus, they go along with the “can’t afford it” excuses for not implementing Medicare for All, Social Security for All, free college for all and other social programs that would benefit America. Meanwhile, the Libertarians join hands with the Republicans to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest. Disgraceful. The next time you read any Libertarian or Republican wish list, ask yourself, does this help the not-rich or does it widen the Gap between the rich and the rest? Then vote accordingly. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Are Americans a moral people, today?

Evil cannot be prevented by those who claim evil does not exist.

Are Americans a moral people, today? Many years ago, my wife and I visited the Dachau camp, the first of the more than forty thousand (!) concentration camps and other incarceration sites run by Hitler’s Nazis. For my wife and me, it was an amazing experience.Dachau | Holocaust Encyclopedia Every nation has dark chapters in its history, some darker than others. Russia’s Stalin, China’s Mao, Germany’s Hitler, Italy’s Mussolini, all killed millions of innocents. They are examples, but not exceptions. We, humans, have a unique proclivity for killing our own. Did you ever hear of China’s Qin Shi Huang? Anyone who disagreed with him was sentenced to death. Books that criticized him were burned. (Sound familiar?). He castrated prisoners of war and enslaved those who survived. Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Uganda’s Idi Amin, Cambodia’s Pol Pot, the genocides of Rwanda — the list truly is endless. While we were in Dachau, we saw a movie about the horrors that took place there — the murders, tortures, medical experiments. The movie, which was created by the Allies, made no excuses for the Germans. It said that the German people cannot claim ignorance; they knew exactly what was being done, but did nothing to interfere. The amazing part of our experience was the busloads of German schoolchildren being brought there, day after day, to see what their ancestors had inflicted on innocents. Today’s Germany is determined to prevent a repeat. Germans know prevention only can be accomplished by revealing, not by hiding, the truth. It especially is important that the children could see and understand the horrors of Germany’s dark chapters, the horrors that bigotry creates, lest new generations of bigots fill the information vacuum.
Unite the Right rally - Wikipedia
Just a few crazies, or do they represent today’s white-supremacist political party?
Thus, there are no statues of Hitler in Germany. America too has had our dark chapters. Slavery was among the darkest. Like the Holocaust, slavery is an extermination, but slavery is an extermination of the mind, spirit and soul, leaving only the body to labor. For years, many (especially in the South) refused to recognize that slavery even was a dark chapter. It was termed a “proud Southern heritage,” and statues were erected to the “heroes” who fought to continue it. Most of the statues have come down now, but the bigotry remains. The confederate flags still fly from right-wing hands, to remind slavery’s children of yesterday’s bondage. The Republican party, which has been captured by the white supremacist, religious right, is enacting laws to deny history. Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis proudly claims his state is where “woke” comes to die.Adorable Experiment Shows Even Blindfolded Kids Always Know Their Mom – Love What Matters But what is “woke” that so frightens and antagonizes DeSantis and the religious right? To be “woke” means to be informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and racial inequality. Those German children, who saw the movie describing the terrors of Dachau, were being “informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and racial inequality.” They were “woke” and thus, far less likely to repeat Hitler’s abomination. DeSantis and the GOP do not want America’s children to have such knowledge. They want to deny America’s slavery past, and in denial, assure perpetuation of the underlying bigotry.

Woke is defined by the DeSantis administration as “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them,” according to DeSantis’ own general counsel.

“We reject woke ideology,” DeSantis said in his election night speech. “We will never ever surrender to the woke agenda. People have come here because of our policies.”

The pressure against “woke”-ness in Florida has already led to the apparent erasure of race-related content in education, including the rejection of an AP African American history course in state high schools and vows from college presidents against including some race-related content.

Do the great masses of Republicans truly believe there are not “systematic injustices in American society and the need to address them”? Do they truly believe that blacks are not disproportionately mistreated by police? Or, that women are not paid less than men for doing the same jobs? Or that indigenous Americans are cheated out of their land, again and again by lying American politicians and broken treaties? Or that Americans of Japanese heritage were cheated out of their freedoms during the internments of World War II? Or that Jews, blacks, gays, Muslims, and Orientals are not discriminated against by juries, judges, police, insurance companies, banks, law firms, realtors? Do they truly believe the way to combat prejudice is to hide its existence from our children and to punish anyone who reveals it? Or is combating prejudice not the goal? Republican racial denial seems part of a greater pattern, in which everything that does not comport with the official line is denied. The Republicans are the party of denial. They deny global warming. They deny the benefits of wind and solar energy. They denied the seriousness of COVID. They deny the benefits of vaccination. They deny the January 6th coup even took place, and instead claim it was a normal tourist day. They deny the benefits of Obamacare. They deny they gave a tax break that primarily aided the rich. They currently deny they wish to cut the benefits from Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare and other social programs. They deny every Trump negative, from his cheating on three wives to his Trump University cheating, to his Trump Foundation lies, to his bribing of his whores to lie. They deny the importance of Trump’s multi-thousand lies, his many bankruptcies, his incompetence, his physical attacks on women and bragging about it, his many attempts to overturn the election, his stealing and hiding of classified documents, They deny he was a draft dodger who insulted those who gave their lives for America. They deny he lost the election. And now, they deny that America has had, and still experiences, “systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” The title question was, “Are Americans a moral people, today?” One measure of morality is a willingness to admit ones misdeeds as a first step toward preventing future misdeeds. All religions involve confessing one’s sins. The Catholics have a formalized process involving a priest. Other religions do it directly to their Gods. Some merely recommend or reference some form of confession as an integral process toward morality. But all intelligent, reasonable people understand that the cure for bad behavior requires first a recognition and an admission that bad behavior has taken place. Evil cannot be prevented by those who claim evil does not exist. Denial leads to the acceptance of evil. The first step to morality is enlightenment, and that is a step the Republican party does not wish to take. DeSantis gives revelations of our past villainy the pejorative, “indoctrination.” He does not want our children to be “indoctrinated” with the facts. He denies history, to make us forget the bad our ancestors may have done. Right wingers are all too willing to have the evil continue simply by denying it exists. Ignore, deny, forget. Ignore, deny, forget. It is the proven pattern of the bigot. It is how bigotry lasts through centuries. There is neither logic, nor reason, nor thought. It is how those who never have known or interacted with a Jew can, through the centuries, despise all Jews, yet claim to love Jesus, who was not only a Jew but a rabbi. None are responsible for what their forebears have done. Neither blame nor credit should be passed through generations. But that does not include ignorance. We all are responsible for our ignorance. That a proportionately large number of Jews has won Nobel prices is a source of pride to all Jews. But it does not mean every Jew can take credit. Similarly, every Italian cannot be blamed for the Mafia. All Japanese cannot be held responsible for Pearl Harbor. But should the Mafia and Pearl Harbor not be mentioned to schoolchildren lest some be embarrassed by the facts? The learning of factual history does not require any one’s personal shame. It is a necessary rite of passage into teens and adulthood. As George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” and Winston Churchill said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. First you must know the past. Then you must learn from it, and finally you must remember it as a foundation for your future actions. The past is happening right now. Denial of the past is a danger to America and to our democracy. Our children must know the past and the denials; they must learn from them, and remember them when the past again returns in its ugliness. Else we are condemned. Are Americans a moral people, today? Like all people, we are good and we are bad, and in some years we are better than in others. The next few months and years may help answer the question. They will demonstrate whether childhood ignorance condemns us to repeat our evils Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Religious Power: The certain endgame

In the history of the world, there never has been a government ruled by the religious right that has not devolved into a dictatorship. That is the certain endgame of religious power. The first clause in the Bill of Rights states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”   Thomas Jefferson and James Madison said that state support for a particular religion or for any religion was improper. They argued that compelling citizens to support through taxation a faith they did not follow violated their natural right to religious liberty.  Today’s, Catholic-dominated Supreme Court disagrees, and demonstrated their distaste for judicial precedent by allowing abortion restrictions, contrary to other religions’ beliefs. Thus does the law, in violation of the Constitution, establish the beliefs of one religion over other religions’ beliefs. Thomas Paine quote: Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion... The problem with religious power is that everything it does, from the most heinous, brutal, unthinkably cruel, to the banal and even beneficial — everything — is done in the name of God. So nothing can be questioned and everything is excused. I have heard the religious right phonies in America speak of their “God-given” right to own guns. Guns? God-given right? Really? Did God speak to them and say, “Thou shall own guns and shoot them at whomever you wish”? Whose God said that? For the religious right, everything is “God-given” so do not argue with them. God, is all the reason the right needs for atrocity and abomination. Their God always is right, though not all other Gods are right. Their God says abortion is a sin. Never mind that your God may not agree. All that counts is their God. And their God tells them which books to burn, which speech can get you fired, with which sex you are required to identify. Their God approves of slavery, and male domination, even what you can and cannot wear, and which young boys you are allowed to bugger. That last was in reference to the world’s largest religious right-wing government, the Catholic Church and its absolute dictator, the Pope. Dare I speak a criticism of him without being subject to a stream of vile hatred. Perhaps not, for his power is “God-given,” so cannot be questioned, though the history of Popes is not one to be admired. Truth: Once established in any nation, a religious right-wing dictatorship cannot become a democracy without massive protest and bloodshed. Israel, once the most democratic of all the mid-east nations (a low bar to hurdle), now is learning the certainty of that Truth, because to gain freedom one must overthrow God (theirs), and He (She, It) is a stubborn tyrant. So long as Israel’s religious right has the leverage to control the engines of power, that nation will become ever more intolerant of anyone or anything not part of the clique. With the relatively young, possibly criminal, Netanyahu in power, things look dim for that tiny nation. But at least they have some semblance of an excuse for their drift into totalitarianism. They are surrounded by large, brutal nations that would stomp Israel into the ground, the moment they feel they could do it. People living under that threat tend to gravitate toward the authoritarian who projects a feeling of power, and who promises to protect them. In reality, he will enslave them, but they only will learn the lesson too late to save themselves. That is the people of Israel’s excuse. What is our American excuse? We are the most powerful nation on earth in military and economic wealth. We are capable of dealing with any foreign threat. Additionally, we are buffered east and west by mighty oceans, one of which is guarded by our own islands. North and south we are blessed by the relatively benign nations of Canada and Mexico, As a nation, we are a safe from outsiders as has been any nation in history. So why are we drifting into religious right-wing protectionism? Are we Americans so weak minded that we are terrorized by the poor, weak immigrant families that, falling exhausted on our shores, ask only to be allowed to work toward the American dream? Do we Americans really fear those who, confused and embarrassed by their own sexuality, ask only to be allowed to exist as fellow human beings? Are we so insecure about our Gods that we must set out to destroy all those who worship other Gods? Are we Americans so ignorant about our resources that we must establish a garrison state to exclude those who have proved they can help us build America? Are we Americans so stupidly craven that we must arm our persons beyond any rational need, and in doing so, arm every fuming, foaming-at-the-mouth nut, against whom all the guns in the world are no defense? Israel is in the final stages of its demise. The religious right, with their claims of “God’s will,” are obliterating civil law and replacing it with religious law, and finally to one of religious despotism. America has replaced its secular Supreme Court with a religious right Supreme Court. Additonally, we now have a docile, amoral political party that agrees cheating and lying are clever, greed is good, and the attempted coup was just a “normal visitor’s day.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis after signing HB7, dubbed the “stop woke” bill, during a news conference in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., last April.
Naive children used as props. “We don’t know what “woke” is, but we are against it.”
For all this, we will pay a price. Those beyond our shores are not the real enemy. As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Russia and China will not enslave us and take away our freedoms. No, that will be done by our own religious right in the name of anti “Woke” laws. “Woke,” has become a devil in name, though the masses don’t know what it is. It now can cost you your job, what you learn in school, who your leaders are, what you can read, where you can be. Every law against it is a vague law against free speech. The right wing, which proudly “freed” people from the hardship of vaccination now wishes to take away the right to discuss the fact of bigotry in America.

Woke is defined by the DeSantis administration as “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them,” Really? That’s a bad thing to discuss?

Ther ar no systemic injustices in America? Courts and employers treat blacks and whites, Jews, Muslims, and Christians, males and females, old and young, gay and straight all the same?

Are there people who truly believe this?

Religions, by their nature tend to be among the more bigoted groups in America, and to deny it is to accept the bigotry. The bigoted crusade against “Woke” is the latest barrage against democracy, but it won’t be the last. The religious right never is satisfied. Success at enslavement begets further enslavement. In religion, facts mean nothing. Proof means nothing. All that matters is who believes it  and who claims it, not what it is. Lies are not challenged; rather they are defended blindly, vigorously and with acrimony. It begins with the thoroughly dishonest and incompetent Donald Trump and continues through such unprincipled creatures as Paul Gosar, Kevin McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, Josh Hawley, Lindsey Graham, Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz, John Kennedy, Tucker Carlson, the rest of the Fox News bigotry disseminators, and others too many others to name. American democracy almost was lost once. Fortunately for America, the Civil War defeated slavery. Now the battle against tyranny rages, again. The rich are exalted. The poor are oppressed. The New Colossus teeters. The RINOs (in this case, Religious In Name Only) pretend America needs to cut spending for Medicare, Social Security, ACA, and every anti-poverty, pro-poor measure one can imagine, while spending must increase for the military and tax loopholes for the rich. If the right wing succeeds, the King and his court will prosper. The Pope and his SCOTUS priests will thrive. Israel’s democracy will fade. The rich and their minions will grow more powerful. The religious right will enslave the left, because far too many of those most affected — the blacks, browns, yellows, reds, gays, Jews, Muslims, immigrants and pregnant women — will have voted for their own subjection or not voted at all. They then will wonder. “What happened to us.” They will need only to read history for that answer. There is an endgame. It is terrible and it is certain. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY