Tag: big lie

–Is being stupid a requirement for being elected President?

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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.

=========================================================================================================================================================================================================================

If you search through all the comments made by the dozen (or is it 20?) Republican Presidential wannabe’s, you might begin to think being stupid is a requirement for being elected the most powerful man on earth, the President of the United States in America.

And then, if you look at the likes of Presidents Carter (“I only have to talk to one person and that’s the dictator, because he speaks for all the people.”)

And Reagan (“Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?”)

And Clinton (I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”)

And Bush I (“Read my lips. No new taxes.”)

And Bush II (“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”)

. . . You might believe stupidity really is a requirement.

And then we come to President Obama, who affirms the need for stupidity.

First a bit of background:

Islamic State Attacks Israel: ISIS Supporters Threaten Hamas, Take Credit For Launching Rocket From Gaza

Islamic State group supporters in Gaza have given ruling Hamas leaders a 48-hour deadline to stop a crackdown on them.

The militants also claimed responsibility for a rocket fired at Israel from Gaza last week.

Let’s see. Islamic state is a terrorist organization. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Both recently have fired rockets into Israel.

And then there’s Syria:

State Sponsor: Syria

Syria continues to be categorized as a state sponsor of terrorism, since its first designation in 1979. According to the State Department, Syria’s government supports U.S.-listed terrorist groups and allows some of these organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to maintain headquarters in Damascus.

And:

Israel strike kills militants on Golan Heights frontier

An Israeli air strike has killed four militants armed with a bomb along the Israeli-Syrian frontier in the Golan Heights, the Israeli military has said.

And, the terrorist organization, Hezbollah:

Experts fear ‘accidental’ war between Israel, Hezbollah

Hezbollah has long threatened Israel, but sources in the Jewish state fear that if an all-out war happens near the Lebanon border, it will happen not by design, but by accident.

Fighting on so many fronts, especially in chaotic Syria, where Iran has dispatched Hezbollah to help President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, could increase the chances of a rogue element firing rockets into Israel simply to draw the Jewish State into a war, say experts.

And Egypt:

Maged Farag: For 70 years, Palestinian cause has brought Egyptians nothing but harm.

Asked by the interviewer if he was serious about Egypt dropping the Palestinian cause, Farag replied, “Churchill once said that he was ready to cooperate with the Devil in the interest of his country. As a man who knows a little bit about history and about international relations, I believe that it is in our interest to maintain normal relations with Israel,” he said.

So in summary, tiny Israel is surrounded by current and former enemies and terrorist organizations, most of whom have attacked recently and are making plans for more attacks.

But even former enemy Egypt is having a change of heart about supporting the “Palestinian cause.”

And now comes the President of the United States, a putative ally of Israel:

Obama: Netanyahu’s Palestine stance erodes Israel’s credibility

U.S. President Barack Obama said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s terms for diplomacy that might lead to a Palestinian state meant Israel had lost international credibility as a potential peacemaker.

Obama also suggested that continued U.S. diplomatic defense for Israel at the United Nations over the Palestine dispute may be reviewed, while reaffirming U.S. support for Israeli security in a conflict-riven Middle East.

“The question is how do we create some building blocks of trust and progress.”

Atta way, President Obama. Thanks for creating those building blocks of trust and progress.

Too bad Israel has failed to make peace with terrorists actually attacking it, while you, Mr. President, have “succeeded” making peace with Iran, Russia, Syria, Iraq, al Quada and the dozens of other groups listed as terrorist.

“If in fact there is no prospect of an actual peace process, if nobody believes there is a peace process, then it becomes more difficult to argue with those who are concerned about settlement construction.”

Get it? If there is no peace, it’s the fault of our ally and sole Mideast democracy, Israel, not the fault of all those terrorist organizations.

One wonders who Obama would blame if Mexico, Canada, China and North Korea fired rockets into the U.S.

Anyway, the long tradition of stupidity by our Presidents continues. So don’t blame the Republican contenders for past stupidity and stupidity sure to come. It seems to be a requirement.

But wait: In the immortal words of Republican Lindsey Graham, “I’m thinking about running for president. You get a house and a car and a plane. It’s a pretty good gig.””

Hey, maybe not so stupid, after all.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially 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

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
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

Oh, no! ICE has not destroyed enough families. Send in the “leviathan.”

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.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

The Washington Times, that ever-reliable mouthpiece for the rich, the radical, the ruthless and the right, laments:

Deportations of illegal immigrants plummet on Obama’s watch
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times – Monday, April 13, 2015

The federal government’s chief deportation agency has seen its success plummet under President Obama, and its chief, Sarah R. Saldana, will tell Congress on Tuesday that they’ve had trouble adapting to the changing face of illegal immigration and a lack of cooperation from both American cities and from foreign countries.

To the Washington Times, “Obama” is a curse word, that must be included in every politically negative headline. And to right-wing minds, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a “deportation” agency.

Not exactly, but it says much about right-wing minds. Here’s what ICE says its mission is:

Immigration Enforcement: . . . priorities to find and remove illegal aliens who are criminals, fugitives or recent arrivals . . . cracking down on those who produce fraudulent documents to enable unlawful activity.

Investigating Illegal Movement of People and Goods: Illegal trade predominately involve guns, money and drugs, but ICE’s responsibilities extend much further into all kinds of illegal and counterfeit merchandise . . .include the repatriation of cultural treasures out of the country to original owners abroad, and combating the trade of child pornography.

Preventing Terrorism: . . . identifying dangerous persons before they enter the U.S. or finding them as they violate immigration or customs laws. ICE also works to prevent the illegal export of U.S. technology.

Rating ICE by the number of people it deports would be like rating a police department by the number of parking tickets it writes. ICE’s purpose is to help prevent criminality, not cruelly to destroy families by deporting otherwise innocent men, women and children.

Back to the Washington Times article:

Ms. Saldana, said she had to pull agents off their regular duties during last summer’s illegal immigrant surge at the border, which meant fewer people focusing on deporting the longtime illegal immigrants living in the interior of the U.S..

The Washington Times never refers to “undocumented” immigrants; it prefers the harsher term “illegal” immigrants, so to create in your mind, an equation with murderers and terrorists — the usual brainwashing stunt.

If they are longtime residents, these are exactly the people we want here. Odds are, they, their children and their grandchildren are law-abiding, productive residents of America, as important to America’s growth as you and me.

Why would we want to rip these people out of the lives they have built here, just to satisfy right-wing meanness?

And she said the lack of cooperation from states, counties and cities when agents ask them to hold an illegal immigrant for pickup has also hindered efforts.

Here an irony for you. The Tea/Republicans always talk about states rights, and reducing that bad old, big old federal government “leviathan.” But now, when the states, counties and cities decide not to throw people out of the country, the right wing wants the “leviathan” to take over.

As long as it’s mean spirited and anti-poor, the right wing favors it, even when the “leviathan” does it.

“Over the past six years, President Obama has steadily dismantled the interior enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte.

“Under the Obama administration’s watch, the apprehension, detention, and removal of unlawful and criminal aliens has dramatically declined. Altogether, the actions taken by this administration undermine the rule of law, make our communities less safe, and place ICE officers in harm’s way.”

Ah, yet another irony. The Tea/Republicans have been the “cut-federal-spending party,” but now they complain when there aren’t enough agents to do the dirty work of deporting human beings.

And note how they combine “unlawful” (meaning “undocumented”) with “criminal,” and somehow this all makes our communities “less safe.”

How are our communities “less safe”? No one knows. The Tea/Republicans want you to visualize crazed Mexicans rampaging through your neighborhood, pillaging and raping.

Actually, undocumented immigrants are the least likely to be criminals, simply because they are hyper-sensitive about being caught. (The sad comment in our neighborhood is that no landscaper’s truck ever exceeds the speed limit.)

Some localities say that holding illegal immigrants for pickup by federal authorities after they’ve completed their sentences or processing for their local crimes is unconstitutional.

Though the Constitution was written to protect the weak from the strong, the Tea/Republicans use it to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and weak — and to legalize guns, which are much more dangerous, and make our communities much less safe, than do immigrants.

Away from immigration, ICE did notch successes in customs investigations, going after several cartels involved in black market peso exchanges and targeting human smuggling operations.

Operation Coyote, designed to combat the smugglers who helped spark last summer’s immigration surge, has resulted in nearly 1,300 criminal arrests.

Now that’s what this agency should be doing, not running after longtime, innocent residents, people with children and grandchildren — the very foundation of America.

Do we really want the “leviathan” to stomp on these people?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially 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

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

–Megan, Ramesh and Bloomberg, oh my! Keep your hand on your wallet at all times.

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.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

“Megan McArdle is a Bloomberg View columnist who writes on economics, business and public policy.”

This says very little about Megan McArdle and even less about Bloomberg.

It’s sad, frustrating and angering that an organization like Bloomberg can have Megan McArdle as their economics writer. Here is her latest Bloomberg exercise in ignorance.

RETIREMENT
The Left Gets It Wrong About Social Security
APR 7, 2015, By Megan McArdle

Americans are underprepared for retirement. And given this sad fact, there’s a growing movement on the left saying we need a government solution, stat: specifically, an expansion of Social Security benefits.

Instead of reluctantly agreeing to a compromise where Republicans let some taxes rise and Democrats agree to entitlement cuts, (progressives are) demanding bigger tax hikes to fund bigger entitlements.

Get it? Americans don’t have enough money to retire in dignity, so Megan’s compromise “solution” is to increase FICA and reduce Social Security benefits. Huh?

Does it get any sillier than that? How in the name of common sense, will a FICA increase and a Social Security benefit decrease help Americans save more and have more for retirement?

(I should mention that since FICA does not fund Social Security benefits, the Democrats “solution” would be silly too, but at least it involves raising benefits.)

At the core of their argument is a good point: Americans really do need more money for retirement. Missing, however, is a realistic discussion of where that money might come from.

The (Social Security trust fund) trustees’ report predicts that by 2023, the gap between taxes collected and benefits paid will be almost $170 billion. The only reason that the system isn’t in the red already is the net interest the government is paying itself on the bonds in the trust fund.

Now, this should make any rational person stop and think: “Hmmm . . The government pays itself interest, and that interest has kept Social Security out of the red.

“Hmmm . . . again. If the government can do that, why can’t the government simply pay for Social Security and keep the whole program solvent?”

But, of course, that requires a rational person’s thinking.

If we want to pay Social Security beneficiaries more money than we are collecting in payroll taxes, the money has to come from somewhere, and ultimately, that “somewhere” is the United States taxpayer.

And there is where Megan McArdle, demonstrates her abject ignorance about federal financing. She simply refuses to understand or admit the fundamental differences between a Monetarily Sovereign government and a monetarily non-sovereign entity.

The former creates its sovereign currency, in this case dollars, ad hoc, simply by the very act of paying bills. The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither uses nor needs FICA. It does not need income because it creates dollars.

The latter is like you and me (and the states, counties and cities), which have no sovereign currency and do indeed rely on income or tax dollars to pay their bills.

State and local taxpayers do pay for state and local spending. Federal taxpayers do not pay for federal spending. It’s that simple.

How can an economics writer for a significant publication not understand the difference? How can the publishers of that significant publication not know the difference?

Beyond belief. And in fact, I don’t believe it. I do believe they know exactly what they are doing: Widening the Gap between the rich and the rest..

Then Megan goes on and on about where to get the tax dollars to pay increased Social Security benefits, and that it certainly should not come from rich people (like her employers)

She continually and conveniently ignores the fact that TAX DOLLARS DO NOT PAY FOR FEDERAL SPENDING. TAX DOLLARS DO NOT PAY FOR SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS.

Period.

And just when you thought Bloomberg couldn’t be more misleading, we come to the the following article:

SOCIAL SECURITY
Elizabeth Warren Is Delusional About Social Security
11 APR 8, 2015 By Ramesh Ponnuru, a Bloomberg View columnist, (and) a senior editor for National Review, where he covers national politics.

Social Security has a long-term funding gap that just keeps growing. Neither political party has a plan to pay for the promises we’ve already made to people contributing to the system. But Democrats are bringing a new idea to the table: make even more promises.

Liberals are exulting that (Massachusetts’s Elizabeth) Warren has shifted the politics of Social Security to the left: Where once we were debating cutbacks to the program, now we’re debating benefit increases.

Too bad that also means the debate is shifting further away from fiscal reality.

Yes, too bad indeed, for the fiscal reality is that the U.S. federal government has the unlimited ability to pay any debt denominated in its own sovereign currency, the dollar.

Sadly, Ponnuru either is intentionally or unintentionally ignorant about that basic fact in economics.

To them it is horrible that we’re not talking about cutting Social Security benefits, but rather we’re talking about (gasp) increasing benefits to our elderly. How awful!

Social Security is becoming a worse deal for each generation. Those now joining the workforce are expected to pay more into the system than they get out of it.

Of course, the U.S. federal government never needs to ask anyone for its own sovereign currency, so those above-mentioned expectations are on the part of those who don’t understand federal financing.

Warren’s plan is to shower more money on the current generation of retirees, but without increasing the deficit over the next 10 years.

If her real plan is not to increase the deficit, one must ask, “Why?” The midleadingly termed deficit” is, in actuality, a surplus to the economy. Because the economy, as a whole, is monetarily non-sovereign, and the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, the economy needs continual inputs of money (aka “deficit spending”) from the federal government.

It may be that Sen. Warren, realizing that the public neither understands, nor would believe, the facts of Monetary Sovereignty, has decided not to tilt windmills, but just go along with popular myth — so long as she can accomplish the Social Security benefits.

Sad, but possibly true.

Social Security has always been a combination of forced savings and redistribution.

Wrong. FICA is not savings, and Social Security benefits are not redistribution. FICA is taking and SS benefits are giving. There is no connection between the two.

FICA could be collected without providing benefits (as with a person who dies too young), and benefits could be paid without FICA.

And now comes the pitch for the rich:

People joining the workforce now should be promised a flat universal retirement benefit set at a level that keeps all seniors out of poverty.

At the same time, they should be auto-enrolled in retirement savings accounts that would include an option to invest in index funds, with the mix of investments shifting from stocks to bonds as workers approached retirement.

And there you have it: The stock and commodity brokers’ and bankers’ college tuition and retirement fund.

All those delicious dollars just waiting to be handed over to your greedy banker or broker, so he can invest for you (with commissions, of course).

This has been the mantra of the rich for years, now. Bush II tried it, but things got a bit dicey when the stock market went south. And now, here we are again, with the same old story:

Just give us rich your retirement money, and after we deduct our fees and commissions, we’ll give some of your money back to you. Maybe.

(My relative of mine tried that with the Illinois college savings plan. When the recession came, she lost half her money.)

Megan, Ramesh and Bloomberg, oh my! Keep your hand on your wallet at all times.

By the way, if you sense that all this makes me angry, you’re right. I’m angry that the multi-billionaire owner of Bloomberg hires sycophants like McArdle, Ponnuru et al to brainwash the populace into supporting programs that will do nothing but widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

My god, man, don’t you have enough money? Can’t you, at long last, help narrow that Gap?

Is greed all you have?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially 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

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

–Immigration scare tactics revealed

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.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

Yesterday, a reader, golfer1john, expressed concern about the amount of immigration to America. You can read my response in the comment section of the previous post.

To put today’s post into context, on average, about 884,000 foreigners have migrated to the U.S. per year, since 2001.

America has 320 million people. So each year, less than 3 tenths of 1% of our population came here as immigrants.

Here’s an example of scare tactics for xenophobes, from the right-wing Washington Times:

Illegal immigrant children surge across border at highest rate since last summer’s peak
By Stephen Dinan

The second wave of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children has begun, with more than 3,000 of them surging across the Mexican border into the U.S. last month — the highest rate since the peak of last summer’s crisis and a warning that another rough season could be ahead.

Immigration officials warned that they expected another surge as the weather improved. Although the numbers are down some 40 percent compared with last year’s frenetic pace that sparked a political crisis for the Obama administration, fiscal year 2015 is shaping up to mark the second-biggest surge on record.

Let’s parse these two short paragraphs. Including the title, the word “surge” repeatedly was used. (Three thousand, down from 5,000 is a “surge”?)

Three thousand a month comes to 36,000 a year, which is just 4% of the average immigration rate. Wow, a 4% “surge”!

Further, the paragraphs manage to include such words as “frenetic pace,” “wave,” “crisis,” “rough season,” “warning,” and of course, the inevitable, “illegal,” all designed to scare you.

And all this scary rhetoric for just 3,000 children, down from 5,000.

In reading those two paragraphs, one might think (as you are supposed to think), that we are being swarmed with brown-skinned children, smothering us like locusts.

In reality, a relative handful (compared with the size of America) of frightened children are begging for sanctuary here, to avoid being enslaved or raped or killed, or simply to find a decent life.

And the right-wing Washington Times wants us to send them back to misery because . . . because what?

Will these children take our jobs? Obviously not. They are children.

Will they take our tax money? No, not in a Monetarily Sovereign country, where federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

Are we so crowded that we don’t have room for the children? No, America still is mostly empty land.

So what is the reason?

Bigotry and xenophobia. The children have brown skins. There is no outrage about Canadian or European immigration.

Authorities report having captured 15,647 children traveling without parents who tried to jump the border in the first six months of the fiscal year. Through this point in 2014, they had apprehended 28,579.

Oh, thank goodness we compassionate Americans were able to capture these vile children and send them back to the horrors they bravely tried to escape, because they represent such a danger to us and to our pure American way of life.

Yes, they are illegal, and why are they illegal? Because we created their illegality.

We created an unnecessarily harsh system whereby children must wait many years to achieve legality.

We created the classic “gotcha” system, a kind of “speed-trap,” in which a hick town sets up a 25MPH speed limit on a 70MPH highway, and arrests anyone who “breaks the law” by going too fast.

The U.S. has created an immigration speed trap and now we are horrified that anyone should break our terrible law.

Just as worrisome is the rate of whole families — usually mothers with young children — who are crossing. So far this fiscal year, authorities have captured 13,911 “family units,” down 30 percent from last year.

Isn’t that wonderful? Doesn’t that make you proud? Our authorities have arrested 13,911 family units — you know, those 13,911 evil mothers and children who are overwhelming America.

Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies said the Obama administration and Congress have not taken steps to end the “pull factors.”

Who? The Center for Immigration Studies? Who are they?

Here’s how they describe themselves:

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization.

The data collected by the Center during the past quarter-century has led many of our researchers to conclude that current, high levels of immigration are making it harder to achieve such important national objectives as better public schools, a cleaner environment, homeland security, and a living wage for every native-born and immigrant worker.

Many of us at the Center are animated by a “low-immigration, pro-immigrant” vision of an America that admits fewer immigrants but affords a warmer welcome for those who are admitted.

Isn’t that sweet? “Independent, non-partisan,” but also “low-immigration,” while being “pro-immigration.” (Huh?)

And of course, they want to give immigrants a “warmer welcome.” (By sending them back south to a warmer climate.)

And are we really to believe that supposedly “high” levels of immigration make it hard for us to have better schools, a cleaner environment, homeland security and a living wage?

I’ll tell you what makes these things hard, and it’s not immigration.

It’s the cut-federal-spending, austerity policy of the Tea Republicans that have destroyed our schools.

It’s the anti-environment policies of the Tea Republicans that have created the pollution that dirties our environment.

It’s the anti-worker, pro-corporation policies of the Tea Republicans that have prevented a living wage.

And as for homeland security, do you really believe that these 3,000 children a month represent a threat to America’s security?

In short, this self-proclaimed “independent, non-partisan, research organization” has an agenda. It is nothing but a mouthpiece for the austerity-inducing, Tea Republican, anti-brown-skin xenophobes.

Legitimate, unbiased research indicates that immigrants, on balance, benefit America.

Further, the whole notion of sending innocent children back to the horrors they bravely try to escape, is repugnant to me as an American and as a human being. It should be repugnant to you, too.

But that is what the xenophobes do to us. They destroy our moral code. They blind us with scare tactics. They make us cruel to innocent children and innocent mothers.

It’s simply disgusting. Especially for Americans.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially 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