Tag: big lie

Chicago Tribune: Propagandizer for the rich.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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We often have told you that most of your sources of information have been bribed by the rich:

—Politicians are bribed by campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later
—Economists are bribed by contributions to universities and “think tank” employment
—The media are bribed by rich ownership.

The Chicago Tribune’s ownership is big — and rich. How rich?

Wikipedia: Tribune Publishing Company is an American newspaper and print media publishing company based in Chicago, Illinois.

Among other publications, the company’s portfolio includes the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, Sun-Sentinel [South Florida], The Baltimore Sun, The Morning Call [Allentown, Pennsylvania], Hartford Courant, and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

It also publishes several local newspapers in these metropolitan regions, which are organized in subsidiary groups.

It is the nation’s third-largest newspaper publisher (behind Gannett, and The McClatchy Company), with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids located throughout the United States.

That’s rich.

If you read the Tribune, you know it is solid red, from its front page to its back. More importantly, it disseminates “The Big Lie” with a gusto even Fox News must admire.

Today, they went all in and doubled down on the false narrative of right wing’s “The Big Lie”:

Marco Rubio for the GOP, but no endorsement for either Democrat
The Editorial Board

Of the hundred explanations for what now motivates the electorate, the best we’ve seen comes from political scientist Charles Murray writing in The Wall Street Journal:

The Republicans

The central truth of Trumpism as a phenomenon is that the entire American working class has legitimate reasons to be angry at the ruling class.

During the past half-century of economic growth, virtually none of the rewards have gone to the working class.

The real family income of people in the bottom half of the income distribution hasn’t increased since the late 1960s.

During the same half-century, American corporations exported millions of manufacturing jobs (and) the federal government allowed the immigration, legal and illegal, of tens of millions of competitors for the remaining working-class jobs.”

Part of the right wing’s “Big Lie” is to claim that immigrants are competitors for jobs but amazingly, immigrants supposedly are not consumers who create jobs.

It is utter nonsense, of course, but the beat-down 99%ers want scapegoats for their misery, and who is better suited than powerless, brown-skinned people?

(The right doesn’t object to white immigrants any more, though Jews, Italians, Germans, Japanese, Irish and Catholics have in the past, felt the sting of xenophobic bigotry.)

Many of the voters rallying to Sanders helped put Barack Obama in the White House, but doing so didn’t bring them much hope, much change.

Many Trump and Cruz supporters voted Republicans into control of Congress on promises of smaller, cheaper and less intrusive government, only to watch the national debt top $19 trillion-with-a-T.

Note the deceptive language: “Many of the voters rallying to Sanders helped put Barack Obama in the White House, but doing so didn’t bring them much hope, much change.”

You’re supposed to believe Sanders is the same as Obama.

The phrase “many of the voters” is a slick liar’s device. Hey, many of the Obama voters drive fast, take drugs, eat carrots and voted Republican in their states and cities, and that didn’t bring them much hope, much change, either.

Were eating carrots or voting Republican in local elections the cause?

And no right wing screed is allowed to make print without the fake concern about the U.S. debt — a debt that has increased 9,000% in the past 75 years, with no ill effects.

In fact, the ill effects have come when the debt has been reduced.

By the way, note how it was Trump and Cruz supporters, but not Rubio supporters, who voted Republicans into office. The Tribune Editorial Board can’t even lie consistently.

•The party of Abraham Lincoln finds itself with a front-runner (Trump)who has gone out of his way to anger world leaders, giant swaths of the American public and people of other lands who aspire to immigrate here legally. And to what end, other than self-aggrandizement?

•The best argument mainstream Republicans make for Cruz is that he might be able to sideline Trump. Cruz cannot process shades of gray. The same inability to compromise that has gridlocked Washington has left Cruz all but friendless in the U.S. Senate. What’s more, the multiple ethical offenses of his staff have fed pre-existing suspicion that Cruz would do or say anything to win this nomination.

•John Kasich’s expansion of Ohio’s Medicaid program earned him cred as a compassionate conservative. And we appreciate how he erased an Illinois-scale budget deficit and inflated Ohio’s rainy-day fund from 89 cents (true) to $2 billion. But Kasich hasn’t been able to put together the national campaign we expected.

We get it and we agree. Trump is a liar, a carnival barker and as qualified to be President of the United States as jailed TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau.

Cruz is a narrow-minded, rigid bigot, who would have no business running a multi-belief mixing bowl like the U.S.

And Kasich is a good “compassionate conservative,” — but only when he acts like a liberal.

•Many Republicans seem not to have noticed Rubio’s fundamental GOP message of opportunity and uplift.

Is that like Obama’s message of “hope and change” — which you hate?

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation calculated that the tax plan Rubio floated with Sen. Mike Lee would raise after-tax incomes for the bottom 10 percent of earners by 44 percent, chiefly viTV pitchman Kevin Trudeau a expanded credits.

Spending limits, line-item veto, a balanced-budget amendment — all Rubio policy pillars.

Crucially, his foreign affairs expertise vastly exceeds that of his rivals.

We like his youth, his bilingual fluency and the fact that he isn’t one more Republican who’s been standing in line, awaiting his turn to run.

What Republicans did notice is that he was paid to be in the Senate and never showed up, and neither invented nor even voted for the tax plan that was created by Sen. Lee.

An two of those three policy pillars — spending limits, a balanced-budget amendment — would starve the country of money at a time when it is short of money.

The third — line-item veto — would so switch the balance of power to the President, that we might as well do away with Congress. (Yes, yes, I know. But, joking aside, it’s a bad idea.)

We have no idea where the absent Marco Rubio received his “foreign affairs expertise,” but yes, he hasn’t been standing in line awaiting his turn to run.

In fact, he hasn’t been standing anywhere. Surely not in the Senate, a job for which he received six figures and did virtually nothing.

And, he’s young. So is Justin Bieber. Hasn’t the Tribune learned: Never send a boy to do a man’s job?

The Democrats

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are welcome to pander however feverishly they wish, promising vast new expenditures by a federal government already committed to wildly more spending than its taxpayers and its low-growth economy can afford.

Except that federal taxpayers don’t pay for federal spending.

Earlier, the Tribune observed: “During the past half-century virtually none of the rewards have gone to the working class. The real family income of people in the bottom half of the income distribution hasn’t increased since the late 1960s.”

Now, when Democrats offer to provide the working class with their well-deserved rewards, and to increase the bottom half’s income distribution, the Tribune describes this as “pandering.”

Hey boys, get your story straight. Either you want to help the working class or you don’t. Or do you want to help only if the Republicans find a way to do it — which they never do.

And now “The Big Lie” makes its full-blown entrance:

Sanders first amused Americans who know their fiscal math with proposals for free college tuition, expanded Social Security, $1 trillion in infrastructure spending, “Medicare for all”

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget calculates that his economic plans would push the top federal tax rate to about 77 percent.

And, “When state and local taxes are included, the top rate rises to an average of about 85 percent (nationwide) ….”

To term the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (Maya MacGuineas, President; Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson board members) “nonpartisan,” is akin to claiming David Duke is black.

I won’t belabor the truth that unlike state and local taxes, which pay for state and local spending, federal taxes do not pay for federal spending.

The federal government uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign and never, never unintentionally can run short of dollars. Never.

In fact, even if all federal taxation fell to $0, the federal government could continue spending forever.

The rich owners of the Chicago Tribune don’t want you and the rest of the 99% to know this, because then you’ll realize the government can and should provide universal healthcare insurance, free college and other benefits to our poorer Americans.

That would narrow the Gap between you and the rich — the very last thing the rich want.

So benefits to you, me and the rest of the 99% are called “pandering” by the rich, who already have the “stuff,” the right wing likes to denigrate.

If you like window-shopping at the Lamborghini dealership on Sundays, when no salespeople are around to check your credit, then you’ll enjoy the bounty of Free Stuff that Clinton and Sanders promise to provide.

Get it? For you to receive good health care is like shopping for a Lanborghini. How dare you?

And here is a bit more of “The Big Lie.”

Clinton’s serial diminishment during the Iowa caucuses campaign of the crisis menacing Social Security — “depletion of total trust fund reserves” in 2034, the system’s trustees warn — edges her toward the Cruz zone of doing or saying anything to win this nomination.

Now repeat after me: There is no Social Security trust fund. Never has been. The federal government neither needs nor uses trust funds.

In fact, I’ll tell you a little secret: The federal government has no funds at all.

Don’t believe me? Then try to find out how much money the federal government has. Ask your Senators; ask your Representative; look it up on Wikipedia; search all government web sites.

Ask them all the simple question: “How much money does the federal government have?”

You and I need a source of money in order to pay our bills. By contrast, the federal government creates money by paying bills.

I works like this: To pay a creditor, the federal government agencies send instructions (not dollars) to the creditor’s bank, instructing the bank to credit the creditor’s checking account.

At the instant the bank obeys those instructions, and not before, dollars are created.

Given the distance from economic reality that Clinton and Sanders have catapulted in their exhortations, we cannot endorse either of them in the Illinois primary election.

Believe it or not, the right wing newspapers have been spreading this same BS for . . . more than 75 years! Way back in 1940, the NY Times ran an article in which Robert M. Hanes, president of the American Bankers Association referred to the federal debt as a “ticking time-bomb which can eventually destroy the American system.” /em>

(Look at the link to see the progress of that “time bomb.” Hey, would a banker lie to you?)

For 75 years, every time anyone suggests any program that can benefit the 99%, the rich-owned media howl that the debt will rise to unsustainable levels.

They do not want you to have what the rich take for granted. They do not want the Gap to be narrowed.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, for the funniest comment of this entire post — perhaps the entire election season

Marco Rubio . . .offers Illinois voters the framework of a presidency that realistically could exist. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have not met this fundamental economic test.

(OK, here it comes:)

We’re keeping an open mind, hoping that whichever of them prevails will meet that test in the general election campaign.

The owned-by-the-rich editors of the Chicago Tribune are “keeping an open mind.” Does it get any more wildly hilarious than that?

Because promises, pledges and policies mean nothing to a gravely indebted American government that can afford only to window-shop.

According to the Tribune, the American government has run out of its own sovereign currency, the dollar. So the most powerful government on earth actually is standing impoverished, with its nose pressed against the window, unable to buy anything.

And if you believe that Tribune lie, please contact me. I have the British Crown jewels I want to sell you — at a yu-u-uge discount.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

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

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..
•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.
•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
•Deficit spending grows the supply of money
•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
•The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

How the Rich Use the Big Lie to Cheat You: Chapter I: The Dollar

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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Chapter I: The Dollar

For billions of years in the history of the universe and for thousands of years in the history of the human species, there was no United States and there were no US dollars.

Native Americans first arrived on this continent about 15,000 years ago, but still there was no United States and no US dollars.

By the year 1770, mostly European immigrants had established 13 colonies, and in 1776, delegates from these colonies met in a Continental Congress to create the United States of America.

The nation they created is not a physical entity; it is a legal entity, created from thin air.

Yes, the USA has those spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties, and fruited plains, but that is not what was created in 1776. Being only a legal entity, and not a physical entity, the “USA” created in 1776, cannot be seen, tasted, smelled, touched or heard.

The sovereign United States of America, like all nations, was created from thin air — by an arbitrary collection of laws — written by men.

Like all nations, the newly created US needed some form of money, so the founders decided to create their own sovereign currency rather than using some other nation’s money (unlike the cities, counties, states and euro nations, which do not use their own sovereign currency). The founders decided to pass laws that made the USA Monetarily Sovereign.

From 1775 to 1779, the Continental Congress created from thin air, and issued, $241,552,780 worth of Continental Currency.

Why $241,552,780? It was just the total of eleven different printings. The Congress had the power to create, from thin air, more Continental dollars or fewer, as it chose, merely by interpreting existing laws and by passing new laws. The Congress was sovereign over its currency.

Because there is no limit to what laws can dictate, there was no limit to the number of Continental dollars the Congress could create.

Congress appointed Robert Morris to be Superintendent of Finance of the United States in 1782. Morris advocated the creation of the first financial institution chartered by the United States, The Bank of North America.

Like the United States itself, the Bank of North America was created from thin air, by the passage of arbitrary laws. It was a legal, not a physical, creation.

On August 8, 1785, the Continental Congress of the United States authorized the issuance of a new currency, the US dollar. The Coinage Act of 1792 established the dollar as the basic unit of account for the United States.

Thus, the US dollar exists, not in any physical form, but only as an accounting term.

The US itself, the Bank of North America, and the US dollar, are not physical entities. They are legal entities, created from thin air by arbitrary laws. While the amount and form of a physical entity are limited by many physical factors — production, supplies, shipping, etc. — a legal entity is limited only by laws.

Like the US, the US dollar cannot be seen, tasted, smelled, touched or heard.

The dollar bill in your wallet is not a dollar. That piece of paper is just the title — evidence of ownership — to a dollar. Just as a car title is not a car and a house title is not a house, a dollar bill is only evidence you own a dollar.

Tear that paper in half, and you do not own two half dollars. Change the appearance — the size, color or words — of that piece of paper and it may continue to represent the same dollar, so long as the laws say so. A dollar bill, a check for one dollar, a wire transfer of a dollar, a savings account passbook showing a balance of one dollar, all are legal representations of that same US dollar.

Not only did arbitrary laws create the dollar, but arbitrary laws created the value of the dollar.

Not understood by the public is the fact that every form of money is a form of debt. And the value of any debt is based on its collateral, so every form of debt/money is backed by collateral.

The collateral for today’s dollar is the full faith and credit of the US government.

“Full faith and credit” may sound nebulous to some, but it actually involves certain, specific and valuable guarantees, among which are:

A. –The government will accept only U.S. currency in payment of debts to the government
B. –It unfailingly will pay all it’s dollar debts with U.S. dollars and will not default
C. –It will force all your domestic creditors to accept U.S. dollars, if you offer them, to satisfy your debt.
D. –It will not require domestic creditors to accept any other money
E. –It will take action to protect the value of the dollar.
F. –It will maintain a market for U.S. currency
G. –It will continue to use U.S. currency and will not change to another currency.
H. –All forms of U.S. currency will be reciprocal, that is five $1 bills always will equal one $5 bill.

The full faith and credit of the fledgling US was insufficient to give the early dollar enough value, so additionally the dollar was collateralized by gold and silver:

In the early 19th century, gold rose in relation to silver, resulting in the removal from commerce of nearly all gold coins, and their subsequent melting. Therefore, in the Coinage Act of 1834, the 15:1 ratio of silver to gold was changed to a 16:1 ratio by reducing the weight of the nation’s gold coinage.

This created a new U.S. dollar that was backed by 1.50 g (23.22 grains) of gold. However, the previous dollar had been represented by 1.60 g (24.75 grains) of gold. The result of this revaluation, which was the first devaluation of the U.S. dollar, was that the value in gold of the dollar was reduced by 6%.

More recently, (in the Bretton Woods Agreement negotiated after World War II) the dollar was arbitrarily collateralized by 0.888671 grams of gold (plus the full faith and credit of the US government).

Then, on August 15, 1971, the laws were changed yet again, and the value of the debt known as “the US dollar,” no longer was partly collateralized by gold, but only by the US government’s faith and credit.

In summary: We repeatedly have used the phrase, “from thin air,” to emphasize the non-physical status of the US dollar. Being non-physical, and existing only because of non-physical laws, the US dollar is under the total control of the US government.

The existence of the US, and the existence of the dollar, and the total of outstanding dollars, and the value of each individual US dollar was and is controlled by our laws, which the federal government arbitrarily can change at any time, without limit.

So long as the federal government does not run short of laws, it cannot unintentionally run short of US dollars, nor have its dollar forced into an unintentional loss of value (aka “inflation”).

Next, Chapter II will discuss why America’s absolute sovereignty over the US dollar (Monetary Sovereignty) is important to you.

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

 

Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

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

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip below zero in 2015. Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Well, this didn’t take long

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Well, this didn’t take long:

Donald Trump on Paris Attacks: “If Our People Had Guns … It Would Have Been a Much Different Situation”

“When you look at Paris, you know the toughest gun laws in the world in Paris, nobody had guns but the bad guys. Nobody. Nobody had guns. They were just shooting them one by one and then they broke in and had a big shootout and ultimately killed the terrorists.

“I’ll tell you what: you can say what you want, but if they had guns — if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry, it would have been a much, much different situation.”

I hate to ask this question, because the Donald whines that all questions he can’t answer are “gotcha” questions, but here goes: Mr. Trump, How would you differentiate between the “bad guys” and “our people”?

Are the “bad guys” wearing beards and turbans, yelling “allahu akbar” and carrying assault weapons? And are “our people” clean shaven, reading the bible — and carrying assault weapons?

I mean, if you’re going to allow guns to “our people,” you must have a system for identifying “our people.” What is that system?

“I hear it all the time. You look at certain cities that have the highest violence, the highest problem with guns and shootings and killings. Chicago is an example. Toughest gun laws in the United States.”

Well, not exactly, but so long as you’re quoting your usual non-existent facts how about this fact: Chicago is a big place, with many neighborhoods. The neighborhoods having the most shootings also happen to be the neighborhoods with the most people carrying guns.

Hmmm . . . there goes the theory that gun-carry prevents shootings.

Following the Jan. 7, 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, Trump tweeted: “Isn’t it interesting that the tragedy in Paris took place in one of the toughest gun control countries in the world?”

Not sure why that’s so interesting, but what is interesting is how two guys armed with assault weapons were able to mow down a bunch of artists sitting at their desks, drawing pictures.

Now, instead of these artists having pencils in their hands, and looking down at their drawing pads, if they had been holding assault weapons while watching the door, surely they could have overcome the bad guys’ advantage of surprise attack — if only Trump had a plan for identifying the bad guys.

Right, Donald?

And what is even more interesting is how every murder of every kind, under all circumstances, brings out the gun nuts who claim more people carrying guns is the way to prevent gun murders.

And most interesting of all, is how a guy whose only qualification for being President of the United States is having been fired from his own television show and sending four companies into bankruptcy, now is a leading Republican contender.

If only we could have another few mass shootings in America, just before the election, Trump would be assured of the Presidency.

Pray, Donald, pray.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions. Recessions come after the blue line drops below zero and when deficit growth declines.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recessions, each of which has been cured only when the growth lines rose.

Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–Lord, save us from our friends. The left’s plans for Social Security

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

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The Republicans

The Republicans endlessly wish to privatize Social Security, for one reason and one reason only.

No, it’s not because private investments yield more than Social Security does. That’s the excuse given. The problem with that excuse is it merely restates a simple fact: With greater reward comes greater risk.

If you invest in stocks, you most likely will come out ahead in the long run — the long, long run. Or you could lose. In January 2008, the S&P stock average was above $1,400. By April of 2009, just 16 months later, it had fallen below $800, a drop of 40%.

Is that the kind of risk you think is appropriate for a retirement fund?

Further, if the Republicans were to privatize Social Security, the massive flow of dollars — billions upon billions of dollars — would cause a stock bubble the likes of which we never have experienced, to be followed by a bubble burst of epic proportions.

The Republicans know all this. So why do they keep suggesting privatization? To reward their dear friends, the rich bankers and investment brokers. Imagine the commissions!

The brokers salivate at the thought, and when they finish salivating, they give big campaign contributions.

The Democrats

The Democrats also understand the fallacy of privatization, so they offer other plans, not as ridiculous as the Republicans’ plan, but bad nevertheless.

O’Malley’s plan to expand Social Security draws fire from a Wall Street front

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, one of the more overlooked candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, emerged Friday with an encouraging endorsement of expanding Social Security to make it even more relevant to the lives of working Americans than it is today.

“The economic pressures on millions of families — from stagnant wages and high housing costs, to a lack of affordable childcare and skyrocketing college tuition — have resulted in meager, if any, retirement savings for tomorrow’s retirees.”

He’s right about that, and right that Social Security is the one pillar of retirement security that has remained strong, while employer pensions and retirees’ personal nest eggs wither.

He calls for expanding benefits and requiring wealthier Americans to shoulder their fair share of the program’s cost.

Expanding benefits is good, even necessary if SS is to have much meaning. But no one, neither the rich, nor the poor, nor the benefit recipients, needs to “shoulder any share of SS costs.

People can run short of dollars. The federal government cannot. It is Monetarily Sovereign. It creates its sovereign currency, the dollar, at will.

So why ask people to shoulder the burden, when paying for SS would be no burden at all for the federal government?

O’Malley joins Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who also are pushing to expand the program.

O’Malley’s move may increase pressure on Hillary Rodham Clinton to endorse Social Security expansion. She’s been silent on the issue.

O’Malley would impose the payroll tax on all earned income over $250,000. Because the higher figure wouldn’t be indexed to inflation, that window would narrow over time.

Sanders would impose the tax on all income, including unearned income such as capital gains, over $250,000.

Aside from guaranteeing massive pushback from those who would have to pay the new tax (i.e. those who are the big contributors to politicians), these plans are based on, and would fortify, the myth that taxes are needed to pay for Social Security.

Rather than simply telling the truth, that the federal government can spend whatever it wishes to spend, on anything it wishes to buy, the Democrats follow the same fact- twisted notion as the Republicans.

Both parties agree that SS payments are too low, and both pretend that the problem is a lack of income. The only difference is that the Republicans want stock market investors to pay for that income, and the Democrats want the people to pay it.

In short, the people pay everything and the government, which can afford anything, pays nothing. That’s every politicians’ plan.

Remember, neither the people at large, nor the people who invest in stocks, actually create any dollars.

Rising stock prices don’t create dollars. In its essence, the stock market is a gigantic Ponzi scheme, in which the same dollars simply move from hand to hand. The same is true of FICA, which also creates no dollars, but rather takes dollars from one hand, while giving dollars to another hand.

The only time dollars are created is via federal deficit spending, in which the government creates more dollars than are destroyed via taxing.

More than half of all married couples in retirement and about three-quarters of singles get 50% of their income or more from Social Security. For a fifth of married seniors and half of the unmarried, the program accounts for 90% of income.

It is sad for our wealthy nation, when half to three-quarters of retired people must credit 50% of their survival to the pittance provided by SS.

O’Malley explicitly states that he wants to give minimum-wage and lower-income workers an especially enhanced benefit and raise the special minimum Social Security benefit to 125% of the federal poverty level.

That benefit, which applies to workers with long histories of very low wages, is currently $804 a month, which is about 82% of the poverty level; O’Malley would raise it to about $1,226 a month.

Ten years ago, we recommended eliminating FICA and exactly six years ago, we published Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA

The 10 Reasons remain relevant today, but there is an eleventh reason: The existence of FICA lends false credibility to the Big Lie — the lie that federal spending requires funding from federal taxes.

It is the Big Lie that punishes the poor and widens the Gap between the rich and the rest.

At long last, will the Democrats please stop supporting the Big Lie?

Lord, save us from our friends.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
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10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY