Lest you believe the MAGA movement is unique, it’s happening in Venezuela, too.
Is there hope for Venezuela as Maduro clings to power?From the 08/15/24 Sun SentinelWill Freeman, Los Angeles Times
MADURO
The Latin American left has a decision to make about Venezuela: Oppose Nicolás Maduro’s totalitarian bid to remain in power indefinitely or enable it.
Efforts to constrain Maduro may not succeed.
According to an Associated Press review of about 80% of Venezuelan voting machines’ paper tallies provided by the opposition, Maduro lost the July 28 election to opposition coalition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
Rather than acknowledge it, however, Maduro simply announced that he had won and blamed an unsubstantiated cyberattack by Elon Musk for his inability to prove it.
Maduro’s blatant steal marks a dark new chapter in Venezuela. Until July 28, the country was authoritarian with a patina of democracy, holding periodic unfree, unfair elections.
Now that Maduro knows he lacks the popular support to win even on a tilted playing field, he is scrapping the facade and going full totalitarian, exceeding even his previous crackdowns.
Trump lost the popular vote by a vast 7 million-vote margin.
He also lost the electoral vote despite it being slanted to favor the smaller red states.
The right-wing Supreme Court he installed didn’t save him, and his own Vice President didn’t save him.
His attack on Congress didn’t save him, even when he waited 3 hours before calling it off, hoping that somehow the mob would succeed.
His attempts to cheat by installing fake electors didn’t save him.
He lost all 60+ lawsuits in the states he had lost electorally when he falsely claimed he had been cheated.
And when none of that worked, he simply declared he had won. He tried every dirty trick he could think of.
His followers are still being prosecuted for their role in his illegal coup attempt. Now, he wants to be President again, and when he loses again, he will claim he won.
Maduro’s government has arrested more than 2,000 people without trial since election day; deployed Russian Wagner group mercenaries, Cuban secret police and other forces; and promised to send critics to “reeducation camps.” At least 24 people have been killed since election day.
TRUMP
Venezuela’s descent into authoritarianism and a coinciding economic collapse in the 2010s pushed about 8 million Venezuelans into exile abroad, more than half a million of whom came to the United States.
The lurch toward full-fledged totalitarianism could prove even more destabilizing. Preelection polls suggested about 3.7 million additional people planned to migrate if Maduro remained entrenched.
Can anything hold Maduro back? Barring an improbable uprising within his security forces, further mass protests seem unlikely to rein him in. The United States could tighten its sanctions, but Maduro and his inner circle already know how to live under them, having forged ties with other pariah states.
Fortunately, Trump does not control America’s security forces.
That all could change should he become President.
Trump promised that, as President, he would deport 15-20 million undocumented immigrants.
He falsely claims they are causing increased crime in America. As usual, the facts say otherwise.
The research does not support the view that immigrants commit crime or are incarcerated at higher rates than native-born Americans.
In fact, immigrants might have less law enforcement contact compared to nonimmigrants.
Focusing on the facts is imperative, especially given that immigration has become a top issue for voters ahead of the election.Substantial research hasassessedthe relationship between immigration and crime.
Numerous studies show that immigration is not linked to higher levels of crime, but rather the opposite.
Studies have alsoexaminedthe impact of the concentration of immigrants in a community on crime patterns, finding that immigration is associated with lower crime ratesand an increase in structural factors — such as social connectionandeconomic opportunity— that are linked to neighborhood safety.
When looking specifically at the relationship between undocumented immigrants and crime, researchers come to similar conclusions.
Numerous studies show that undocumented immigration does not increase violent crime; research examining crime rates in so-called sanctuary cities also found no discernable difference when compared to similarly situated cities without sanctuary policies.
One study found that undocumented immigrants are33 percent less likelyto be incarcerated than people born in the United States. Indications of a negative relationship between immigration and crime also emerge when looking at conviction rates.
In recent years immigrants were 60 percent less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born citizens.
Thus, disappear Trump’s excuses for destroying the lives of millions of hard-working, tax-paying people, as well as destroying the U.S. economy that relies on those people.
“It would,” Trump said, adding, he would “have no problem using the military, per se,” although he thinks the National Guard would suffice.
He does not think that laws meant to prevent the use of the military against civilians inside the US without congressional approval would apply to his effort.
“These aren’t civilians,” Trump said of migrants. “These are people that aren’t legally in our country. This is an invasion of our country.”
Fear-mongering Trump invents his new definition of a “civilian.” The normal definition is: “a person not in the armed services or the police force.”
Because Trump does not even consider undocumented foreigners to be people, no wonder he claims they are not civilians.
He also repeated the conspiracy theory, for which there is no evidence, that “fighting age” males from China are somehow embedding themselves in the US.
He continues to invent idiocy to justify his craziness.
What about massive migrant camps?Trump tried to downplay the idea that there would be massive camps of detained migrants like those described to The New York Times by his immigration policy mastermind Stephen Miller, since, according to Trump, he would be deporting people so fast.
“We’re not leaving them in the country. We’re bringing them out,” he said. When asked under what authority he would make all of this happen, Trump suggested he would use federal money to pressure local police.
To where would these 15-20 million men, women and children be deported and how would he get them there? That hasn’t exactly been figured out. Presumably he would use the Nazi final solution of boxcars. Even Trump’s cruel advisors bear an uncanny resemblance to Hitler’s.
Finally, when Trump’s favorite lickspittle, flatterer, sycophant suckup softballed him with the easiest possible question, “Will you be a dictator,” Trump could simply have answered, “No.”
Instead, he answered, “Only for a day.” Would he do it. Would he violate the U.S. Constitution?
America is in trouble. We have way too much poverty, crime, and murder.
There is far too large a Gap between the rich and the rest. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Our schools, grades K-12 are shameful. Our healthcare system is inadequate.
We no longer lead the world in most measures except perhaps in the number of nuclear weapons we can fire.
We are a long, long way from being “the greatest country in the world,” as we love to boast.
We face treason on a national scale.
And the single biggest reason for our numerous failures is exemplified by the following article:
Manchin draws red line in infrastructure talksJordain CarneySen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) warned on Tuesday that he wants both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a separate Democratic-only bill to be fully paid for.
“I think everything should be paid for. We’ve put enough free money out,” Manchin told reporters.
Actually, the U.S. federal government always has “paid for” everything it buys. Unlike Donald Trump’s creditors, no federal government creditors ever are cheated.
But, of course, that is not what Manchin means. He means that the government should collect as many dollars in taxes as it spends — i.e. a balanced budget — which for the U.S. government, a spectacularly damaging requirement.
Either Manchin is just pandering to his right-wing, West Virginia voters, who are clueless about federal finance, or he himself is clueless about federal finance. Or both.
The federal government is unlike you, me, and all state/local governments. It uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign, meaning it has the unlimited ability to create its sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. It cannot run short of dollars.
Every time the federal government runs a surplus, or a balanced budget, we have recessions and depressions:
U.S. depressions tend to come on the heels of federal surpluses.
1804-1812: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 48%. Depression began 1807.
1817-1821: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 29%. Depression began 1819.
1823-1836: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 99%. Depression began 1837.
1852-1857: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 59%. Depression began 1857.
1867-1873: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 27%. Depression began 1873.
1880-1893: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 57%. Depression began 1893.
1920-1930: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 36%. Depression began 1929.
1997-2001: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 15%. Recession began 2001.
We have recessions, even when we run deficits that are not large enough:Recessions (vertical gray bars) tend to occur when federal deficit growth (blue line) declines and are cured when deficit growth increases.
Manchin’s demand, if he sticks to it, could create real problems in Democratic negotiations.The party in a matter of weeks is seeking to exercise a complicated legislative goal of winning Senate approval of both a bipartisan infrastructure measure opposed by many progressives and a budget resolution that will tee up a larger Democratic bill filled with spending priorities. The latter bill will not win any GOP support and will need to pass with just Democratic votes, including Manchin’s.
The GOP will not support any bill that will benefit America, because such bills would make President Biden and the Democrats look good. The GOP’s greatest fear is that America will like what Biden does.
They hope for a recession or a depression they can point to. These are “patriots”?
A group of 22 senators, including Manchin, agreed to a framework for a bipartisan infrastructure deal that would spend $1.2 trillion over eight years. But there are concerns among Republicans that the bill isn’t fully paid for, threatening GOP support for it.
It’s a fake concern, for political purposes. Having already spent $25 trillion that “isn’t paid for” (i.e. via taxing) the federal government easily can pay for this bill, too. The 22 senators know this.
Republican negotiators in the group have warned that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) could lowball the amount of revenue the proposal will raise.“I know there are some things that we’re relying on as pay-fors that will probably not receive a CBO score but nonetheless are real,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters.Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to agree to a price tag for their larger bill.
The two parties are arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It’s all political theater for you, a gigantic lie to keep you from receiving federal benefits. The GOP’s purpose is to widen the Gapbetween you and the very rich, who run the GOP.
Democrats have yet to agree on a top-line figure. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee on Monday night but didn’t get an agreement. They’ll meet again on Tuesday night.Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has thrown out $6 trillion, paying for roughly half, as where he would like to go on the Democratic-only bill.Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a member of the panel, has suggested he’s closer to roughly $4 trillion.
All federal spending always is fully “paid for.”
The liars would like you to forget that last year alone, the government spent more than $4 trillion in stimulus money that supposedly wasn’t “paid for.” And the GOP specifically would like you to forget their Trump tax cut for the rich, that wasn’t “paid for.”
Manchin has acknowledged that a Democratic-only bill is “inevitable” but hasn’t committed to a specific top-line figure. He’s warned, though, that he doesn’t want to go as high as Sanders.“I want to make sure we pay for it. I do not want to add more debt on. So if that’s $1 trillion or $1.5 trillion or $2 trillion, whatever that comes out to be over a 10 year period, that’s what I would be voting for,” Manchin told ABC News last month.
Sadly, Manchin either is lying or doesn’t know what he is talking about. That horrible thing called “debt” isn’t debt at all. It’s deposits in T-security accounts.
How can an entity having the unlimited ability to create money, also have a worrying “debt”? It mathematically and logically is impossible.
If you owned a legal, money-printing press, would you ever be concerned about your “debt”?
It’s all a giant charade to keep you from receiving federal benefits. Next, we’ll hear the lie that Social Security has run out of money, so you’ll receive less in benefits or pay more in FICA taxes. Then will come the lie that Medicare is broke, so it will have to reduce your benefits by increasing the deductible.
Traitor: A person who betrays a friend, country, principle, etc.Treason: The crime of betraying one’s country
I suggest that no traitor in American history has done more damage to America than the current Republican Party, led by Donald Trump. These people care nothing about America and are concerned only with pleasing the rich, collecting bribes, and winning elections.
The GOP has abided gangs to attack the Capital, conspiracy theorists like Qanon, and endless liars like Donald Trump, all to gain power for themselves.
The GOP has denied global warming, the seriousness of COVID-19, and the need for vaccination and face masks. As a direct result, Americans have died and continue to die.
The GOP’s current efforts to restrict voting rights under the subterfuge of eliminating (non-existent) fraud, is yet another step in the GOP’s treason.
Think of how the dictatorships around the world began, and you will think of today’s Republicans.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary SovereigntyTwitter: @rodgermitchellSearch #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity:
We may not have been the first to call attention to the massive similarities between Trump and Hitler. Over the months, we were not the only ones. And surely we won’t be the last.
Trump is following the Hitlerian playbook and unfortunately, many of us Americans are following the German people’s playbook.
Hitler preyed on discontent. He told the German people they were being treated unfairly, and he alone could save them. They believed what they desperately wanted to believe. Some still do.
Trump is capitalizing on a longing for charismatic leadership, to which even highly developed Western democracies seem very susceptible when democratic structures fail to deliver all the desired outcomes.
There is a very real sense amongst a large part of the population that they have not been on the “winning side” for a long time.
Trump promised: “We’re gonna win so much you may even get tired of winning and you’ll say please, please Mr. President, It’s too much winning! We can’t take it anymore!”
The gap between rich and poor is getting wider, and in the process, the classical attributes of political leadership—education, expertise, eloquent speeches—have come to be seen not as problem-solving strategies, but as the identity markers of a social elite who are looking after their own interests only.
Even where new policies on healthcare, education, or job creation achieve their goals, they are not popular, because they are tinged with that smell of elitism that makes many ordinary people not feel valued by the political classes.
Trump has not been the first demagogue to capitalize on such sentiments.
Thus, when Senator Bernie Sanders proposed Medicare for All, he was ridiculed. It was “too good to be true.” The populace opted for Trump’s empty lies rather than accept Sanders’s substantive proposals.
If Trump is known for anything, it is his repeated use of the words, “Fake news.” Hitler used the term, “Lügenpresse” (lying press).
All dictators hate a free press.In “Trumpworld,” free speech is only for the Nazis, the white supremacists, and the KKK, and of course, for Donald Trump — not for newspaper reporters.
Trump wants news media to fawn over him as Breitbart and FOX do, and like the many, right-wing conspiracy blogs that still excuse Trump’s faults by focusing on Hillary’s Emails, Barack’s birth certificate, and Bill’s affairs. (They never mention Trump’s wife-cheating, his groping, his Trump University con, his compulsive lying, his incompetence, his notorious laziness, etc.)
If Trump had his way, he would bankrupt the mainstream media with lawsuits, or with military action, Putin style, Putin being one of Trump’s heroes.
A cowardly draft dodger, Trump longs for war. Perhaps North Korea will provide him with one. He seems to hope so.
How did we get here? How did the United States arrive at the same place as Nazi Germany?
Perhaps we should ask, why did the Republican party trade its soul for a political victory, knowing full well that Trump was evil for democracy, evil for America, and evil for the middle- and lower-income people?
The lust for power replaced the GOP’ moral center. It led to health care plans that would have cost millions of Americans their lives and tax plans that widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.
I understand and sympathize with Trump’s voters. They were desperate, unappreciated and so, they were consumed with hatred.Trump made many promises everyone knew he wouldn’t keep, but for desperate people, the heart needs to feel hope, even when the mind knows it is all a lie.
And of course, they need someone to blame, and Trump gave them that, too. Just as Hitler offered up for hatred, the Jews, and the Gypsies, Trump offers up the Mexicans, the undocumented, the Muslims, the immigrants, and the poor.
All are to be despised, as a balm to American self-pity.
Predictably, the man who promised to “drain the swamp” filled his government with swamp creatures — billionaires who care nothing for the people, as they try to undo the laws that protect the people — supposedly to provide jobs, but in reality to provide profits for rich investors.
And now, the GOP urgently tries to pass a tax bill that will benefit those swamp creatures most.
Today, 1/3 of America still hopes and prays that Trump’s lies were real, and that Trump’s GOP (Yes, it’s his now), really intends to help them, though that’s an obvious lie.
They gave away two of their most valuable possessions, their votes and their souls, and in return what did they get? The vague hope that poor pregnant women and undocumented immigrants will be punished. That is their sad reward.
In the end, these Trump backers, having closed their eyes to the obvious, will find themselves more desperate, less appreciated, and more consumed with hatred.
Their real reward: Their pockets will be emptier, and their mouths will be filled with ashes.
Here we are, like the people of Nazi Germany, like the people of other nations who traded freedom for a dictatorship, making that same mistake, again.
The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.
Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity: 1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA ) Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons: *FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and *The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare. 2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All ) This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Economic Bonus)) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:
Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and business taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap. 8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.
The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
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THE RECESSION CLOCK
Federal Deficit — 1955 – Present. Vertical Bars are recessions
Federal Deficit — 2004 – Present
As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 