Hate = Fear and why you are a raincoat

Hate = Fear

Hate = Fear

It is impossible to hate someone or something without feeling fear. Fear is the baseline emotion, the protective emotion, and hate is the response. Hate/fear is the evolutionary reaction to threat.

The “witches” of Salem were hated because they were feared. We have evolved to hate as a way to attack our fears. 

Evolution has one goal: Survival.

But that goal is not the survival of you, an individual creature. It is not even the survival of your, the creature’s, family or species. It is survival of the life code — the DNA or RNA. 

We merely are vessels for our life code, which is our real ruler. We are the fur-lined, armor-plated raincoat our DNA wears to protect it from the universe. It is not we who adapt to the life-threatening changes the universe throws at us; it is our DNA that creates the new, improved raincoat.

The universe is antithetical to life. What with the universe’s cold and heat, and its radiation-filled, explosive tendencies, the existence of life is rare and amazing. Yet, here we are.

And while life may lurk in other places than eath, we’ve yet to find it, despite all our efforts.

We have not even agreed on the definition of “life.” I suspect that if a definition is possible it will involve some sort of creation code, like the aforementioned DNA or RNA.

Fear is the essence of survival, but we hold it in low esteem. No one is admired for being a coward, though the fearful merely follow nature’s survival instructions. The dead hero has less chance to pass along his genetic code than does the live coward.

Seemingly then, one might think evolution points us toward being cowards. But the brave have one evolutionary advantage. They have the courage to experiment.

Evolution is a trial and error process, with trillions of trials, trillions of errors, and only a few successes. But those successes are the ones that survive against difficult and changing environments to sire the next generations of adaptations.

And if anything is admired less than the fearful it is the hater, though they are the same. A hater is a sheep in wolf’s clothing.

We do not fear the fearful — “disgust” comes closer — but we do fear the hater, thus returning his hatred.

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It can be said that the most fearful, indeed most cowardly, people on earth are the hate-mongers: The Nazis, the “Proud Boys,” the white supremacists, QAnon, the boogaloo bois, et al.

Their mien is designed to intimidate, with tattoos, flags of hatred, fierce beards, military garb, guns, helmets — these are the shields behind which the cowards hide. And they never allow themselves to be alone.

They feel less fearful hiding in crowds of like-minded cowards. 

As cowards always do, their leader cozies up to bullies: Putin, Kim, Duterte, and of course, the very rich. He wishes to be one of them, though they laugh at his efforts.

Their leader, so cowardly he invented “bone spurs” to stay out of the military, has been, of late, America’s leading hate/fear monger. He promulgates hate/fear everywhere: Immigrants, Mexicans, Muslims, gays, the Chinese, blacks, the “deep state,” left-wingers, the “swamp,” and all those who reveal the truths about him.

He specializes in hating the poor and powerless. He wasted the influence of his office trying to take the ACA healthcare program from the poor, and had to settle instead for a tax program that widens the income/wealth/power Gap between the very rich and the rest.

His politicians reliably oppose aid to the poor, falsely characterizing them as lazy takers who, if given even a pittance, will not wish to work or to improve themselves, but instead will loll about or commit crimes.

And that leads us to excerpts from the following article.

Poorer children “failed by system”

Research Findings:

  1. Poorer children struggled to access higher levels of education, even when their primary school results were high
  2. Wealthier children with low test scores, conversely, were able to catch up to the rest of their classmates

The research incorporates information about education levels attained by the poorest 25% and the wealthiest 25% of participants at ages 8, 12, 15, 19 and 23.

The attainment gap between “high-promise” children from the top and bottom wealth quartiles widened during school, even with similar early test scores.

Wealthier children were far more likely to embark on all forms of tertiary studies, including university, technical colleges, and teacher training. 

Even among students who finished secondary school with comparable levels of learning, the attainment gap between the rich and poor students remained significant, with wealthier students more likely to progress to higher education.

“What is clear is that these inequalities in higher education access have nothing to do with ability: This is about systems which are consistently failing poorer children,” says Dr Sonia Ilie, lead author and senior researcher at the Faculty of Education at Cambridge.

The reasons for poorer learning outcomes among poorer children include limited educational resources, limited support at home, and practical difficulties with school attendance.

The fear/hate mongers spread the lie that there are basic human differences between the poor and the rich. They falsely characterize the poor as lazy and lacking ambition.

The mantra is, “If you give them unemployment compensation or food or anything else characterized as ‘welfare,’ they won’t work.”

But your daily experience shows that the poor generally are forced to labor harder, at more difficult jobs than do the rich. And compared to the rich, for whom all doors open, the poor face constant barriers to improvement.

It’s not lack of character or ability that stymies the poor; it’s lack of opportunity.

In addition to spreading the BIG LIE that federal taxpayers pay for federal spending, the haters of the poor promulogate the notion that money is wasted on the poor.

The BIG LIE is the quasi-logical support for the fear/hatred that keeps the poor down.

And that is the connection between our two stories.

A lie cannot long survive without willing believers.

Fear-created hatred provides nourishment for the Big Lie that federal taxpayers pay for benefits to the poor.

Fear/hatred supports the belief that the poor deserve their poverty, and that belief provides justification to deny them support. It destroys our compassion. It justifies our cruelty. It is the basis for Gap Psychology, the desire to distance oneself from those below, and to near those above.

Fear/hatred is how, through the centuries, no much evil has been done in the name of Jesus Christ, who did not fear and did not hate, but preached only love. His most ardent followers have been, and remain, his most ardent deniers. 

Your DNA does not care about your hate, fear, love, compassion, morals or beliefs. In the universe, there is no “care.” Your DNA is coldly and chemically practical. It creates your fear/hatred. You have no choice. 

You are a dispensible fur-lined, armor-plated raincoat, to be tossed away when the weather changes. 

How does that feel?

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Rodger Malcolm Mitchell 

[ Monetary Sovereignty, Twitter: @rodgermitchell, Search: #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell ]

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE. The most important problems in economics involve:

  • Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
  • 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:

  1. Eliminate FICA
  2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
  3. Social Security for all
  4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
  5. Salary for attending school
  6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
  7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually.
  8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
  9. Federal ownership of all banks
  10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

 

 

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

 

The fake fight over your Social Security benefits

Kiplinger’s is supposed to know what they are writing about.

Hah!

Here is an article that appeared in today’s Chicago Tribune. You decide whether Kiplinger’s Managing Editor knows what she is writing about.

Biden’s plan to strengthen Social Security
By Catherine Siskos, managing editor at Kiplinger’s Retirement Report

In 2021, Social Security is expected to begin drawing down its trust fund to cover benefits instead of tapping only the interest.

Right away, we are greeted with the Big Lie that federal taxes fund federal spending.

While, state and local government taxes fund state and local government spending, federal taxes do not fund federal spending. That is a major difference most people do not understand.

Because the U.S. federal government uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign, it has the unlimited ability to create its own sovereign currency. The U.S. government never can run short of U.S. dollars.

Even if payroll tax collections fell to $0, the federal government could continue to fund Social Security, forever.

550 Blank Cheque Photos - Free & Royalty-Free Stock Photos from Dreamstime
An example of instructions: “Pay to the order of . . . “

Why can the U.S. government never run short of dollars? Because it pays creditors with instructions, not with dollars.

It never can run short of instructions, which it creates from thin air, simply by voting.

To pay for its spending, the federal government creates new dollars, ad hoc, by creating and sending instructions to each creditor’s bank, instructing the bank to increase the balance in the creditor’s checking account.

The instructions are in the form of a paper check or more commonly a wire, both of which begin with the instructions, “Pay to the order of __________.”

When the creditor’s bank does as instructed (by pressing a computer key), new dollars instantly are created and are added to the M1 money supply. It is the bank that does the actual money creation.

The creditor’s bank then balances its books by getting approval from (i.e. “clearing” the government’s instructions through) the Federal Reserve Bank, and the money-creation cycle is complete.

What then becomes of the tax dollars sent to the U.S. Treasury? They are destroyed. They cease to exist in any money supply measure.The Destruction of Money: Who Does It, Why, When, and How? - The Atlantic

That is why no one on earth can answer the question, “How much money does the U.S. federal government have?”

Depending on your perspective, the answer either is “$0” or “infinite.”

Personally, I prefer “infinite,” because the Treasury does carry a comparatively small account with the Federal Reserve Bank.

And by the way, remember that bolded phrase above, “instead of tapping only the interest?” Guess where the interest comes from.

It comes from the fake “trust fund’s” investment in Treasury Securities.

The U.S. Treasury creates dollars from thin air to pay interest to a non-existent U.S. federal “trust fund.” The U.S. Treasury instead simply could create dollars to fund Social Security, and do away with the bookkeeping mumbo-jumbo.

Unless Congress acts, benefits will be cut at least 20% when the trust fund runs out of money in 2033 — two years sooner than previously projected, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

At that point, the program will rely entirely on payroll taxes, which currently aren’t enough to fully fund Social Security.

Unless Congress acts, your benefits will be cut, but not because the fake “trust fund” runs out of money. Benefits will be cut because Congress created the fake “trust fund” as a device to limit your benefits.

Medicare Part A has a similar fake “trust fund,” which also is running short of money, while Medicare Part B has no trust fund that can run short of money.

Why? Because by law, the federal government will add dollars to this mythical “trust fund” as needed. Thus, in reality, the federal government pays for Medicare Part B, without the flim-flam tax pretense of Part A.

Hmmm . . . Does that give you any ideas? How about using the Medicare Part B system for Medicare Part A and for Social Security?

That way, we never would have to hear false warnings about running short of money, and we could dispense with deceptive articles like this one from Kiplingers.

President Joe Biden wants to expand Social Security in two ways. He would raise benefits for the people most in need: low-wage workers, surviving spouses of dual-earner couples, caregivers, government workers and those who have been collecting Social Security the longest. (The rationale for that last group? Seniors have higher medical and long-term care expenses later in life.)

Everyone else’s benefits would remain the same, but their Social Security cost-of-living adjustments would increase because Biden supports switching to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly.

The CPI-E is considered a better measure of inflation for older adults because it weights senior citizens’ biggest expenses, such as health care and housing, more heavily.

The Social Security Administration estimates that switching to the CPI-E from the current wage earners index will raise annual COLAs 0.2 percentage points, on average.

To pay for these changes, Biden wants to increase Social Security payroll taxes on people earning more than $400,000 a year, a short-term fix that would also shore up the program for only another five years, Melissa M. Favreault predicts in an analysis for the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

She is a senior fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

Does the “senior fellow in the Tax Policy Center at the Urban-Brookings Institute really believe that Social Security taxes fund Social Security benefits?

Or is she merely parroting the Big Lie for political reasons?

Proposed legislation from Rep. John Larson, a Democrat, would secure the program’s funding for 75 years.

Along with the increase on those earning more than $400,000 that Biden has proposed, the bill calls for raising the payroll tax for everyone, with employees and employers each contributing an additional 1.2%, or roughly 50 cents more per week, estimates Social Security in an independent analysis of the bill. The increase would be phased in between now and 2043.

In a divided Congress, Democrats and Republicans could find common ground with smaller bills, such as one to reinflate Social Security benefits for people born in 1960 or 1961, says Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

Their benefits will be cut unintentionally by a formula glitch and the 2020 recession.

Isn’t it pitiful that even the president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare is, or pretends to be, so clueless about how federal finances really are handled?

Do you wonder why there has to be a “National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare” when there is no such committee to “preserve” the military, or to “preserve” the Congress, or to “preserve” the Supreme Court?

They all are federal agencies, but somehow, they don’t need fake “trust funds” or financial “preservation.”

The federal government just pays the bills, as it does for every other agency of the federal government.

Do you know why Social Security and Medicare (Part A only) have fake trust funds?

The reason is “Gap Psychology.” You can Google it or click the link for a description, but the short meaning is the human desire to widen the income/wealth/power Gaps below you on any economic or social measure, and to narrow the Gaps above you.

If there were no Gaps, no one would be rich or powerful. We all would be the same. And the wider the Gaps, the richer and more powerful some people would be.

Widening the Gaps makes the rich richer and the powerful more powerful. A good way to widen the Gaps is to cut benefits for the non-rich.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

  1. Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
  2. 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:

  1. Eliminate FICA
  2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
  3. Social Security for all or a reverse income tax
  4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
  5. Salary for attending school
  6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
  7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 
  8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
  9. Federal ownership of all banks
  10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

THE BIG LIE OF ECONOMICS EXPRESSED IN ONE CARTOON

The science of economics is burdened with many lies and myths, most of which are designed to convince you, the public, you should not ask the federal government for benefits.

The Big Lie of Economics is: Federal taxes fund federal spending. It simply is not true. The truth: Federal taxes fund nothing.
Even if the federal government collected $0 taxes, it could continue spending, forever.

The very rich, who control the political establishment, want to widen the Gap between them and you. So they do everything possible to make you agree to have less than you really should. (It’s called “Gap Psychology,” the desire to distance oneself from those below, in any social/economic measure.)

Because “rich” is a comparative measure, the less the poorer have, the richer the rich are. That is why you are told federal deficits and federal debt are too high, and “unsustainable” — to provide you with a seemingly logical rationale for denying you the things they already have: The availability of:

–Significant income
–Safe and comfortable housing
–Comprehensive health care
–A happy, safe, well-fed, well-clothed lifestyle
–University education for your children
–Pleasant, remunerative working conditions
–A comfortable retirement

They tell you, falsely, that you must pay for federal spending, either via taxing or inflation, and that your federal benefits are the dreaded “socialism,”

Not one word of that is true.

Federal taxing is not necessary for federal spending. Federal spending never causes inflation. And federal spending is not “socialism.”

And that is why the rich publish misleading cartoons like this:

Dana Summers
The federal government does not spend your money. Your federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

The truth:

1. The federal government does not spend your money. In fact, your federal taxes are destroyed upon receipt
2. You could have free, comprehensive Medicare covering you and everyone in your family, and not need to pay even one penny in FICA (which, by the way, is the most regressive tax in America.)
3. Your children could be educated, grades 13  and above, without any cost to you
4. You could be provided with sufficient income to afford good food, safe housing, good clothing, and the other benefits of being an American (car, TV, vacations, good working conditions, etc.)

Yes, the rich tell you the economy will falter without your hard labor and deprivation (though they themselves are excluded), and that only the rich are entitled to a good life, and that labor is moral (again, the rich are excepted).

And it is all a lie to keep you down.

Consider, for instance, the battle revolving around the $600 stimulus check vs. a $2,000 stimulus check.

Congress finally settled on $600, though there is not a single, economic reason for that limitation. Not one.

I challenge anyone to provide one good excuse for the lower number other than that the rich, and the party of the rich, don’t want you to have it.

The rich expect you not to understand the differences between our Monetarily Sovereign federal government and our monetarily non-sovereign state and local governments.

So, the politicians falsely claim that state and local governments struggle financially because they are inefficient, incompetent, and crooked.

Indeed, some are, but the real reason for the state/local government financial struggles is that they are monetarily non-sovereign.

They simply cannot afford to provide you with good streets, good water, good sewage systems, good elementary and high schools, good police and fire protection, and all the other benefits the federal government could pay for at the touch of a computer key.

The rich have managed to brainwash you into believing you deserve financial hardship and denial of benefits because you don’t labor hard enough or are not smart enough, and that the rich are the ones who deserve the lifestyles you admire.

This can change. The rich are not superior, more deserving Americans. Fate has just been kind to them.

You deserve to have all the benefits the rich have. But first, you must be willing to accept the truth. You must be willing to accept the fact that you have been lied to.

Yes, it is hard to admit you have been suckered all these years. But swallow your pride, understand the truth, and demand that the federal government, which has unlimited money, should even the score, and pay to give you the kind of life rich Americans enjoy.

You deserve it as much as the rich do.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

  1. Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
  2. 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:

  1. Eliminate FICA
  2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
  3. Social Security for all or a reverse income tax
  4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
  5. Salary for attending school
  6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
  7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 
  8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
  9. Federal ownership of all banks
  10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

STRIFE, FEAR, GREATNESS, AND THE MYSTERY OF TRUMP

STRIFE, FEAR, GREATNESS, AND THE MYSTERY OF TRUMP

STRIFE:

The universe is not favorable for life. Unimaginable cold, unfathomable heat, deadly radiation, crushing gravity, poisonous elements — they all abound.

Even mother earth tries to kill her children. She sends us ice ages, volcanos, earthquakes, windstorms, floods, droughts, and meteors, while her “red of tooth and claw” children try to kill each other.New study estimates the odds of life and intelligence emerging beyond our planet

Every living creature, from viruses (living?), through plants, through animals, all have enemies, living and inert, that threaten the delicate, interconnected web we call “life.”

Survival has required a constant struggle, life vs. anti-life. To survive, fragile life must defeat vigorous anti-life in a battle that continually is lost, or rather, continually almost is lost, every second of every day. We stand on the point of a needle.

Yet, here we are, we humans who have struggled best, survive.

We survive partly because we have the best brains, joined to marvelous hands, and voice boxes for the best communication, and among animals, we are large. We survive partly because good fortune has spared us the worst the universe has to offer.

But mostly we survive because nature has given us the tools to become the greatest killers this planet ever has known.

We are social animals, but we use our sociability to facilitate our killing. We kill them all, from viruses to bacteria, to whales, to fellow sapiens. Even our pleasures, our games, involve a ritualized form of killing called “winning.”

Evolution is based on strife, the survival of the fittest. We are programmed for strife. Throughout history, humans never have been without war.

The vast majority of our games are selfish, competitive, killing games. We win and the other side loses. In essence, we survive and they die. Only the genes that compete best are allowed to fight another day.

Our species is so enamored with strife, we not only wage war, we enjoy watching it. From Roman gladiators to today’s boxers, to all spectator sports, we become emotionally involved in the battles and the victories and defeats.

Watch the passionate fans at an American football game, and you will see bloodlust in action. Even flag football or touch football are not enough. It has to have crushing tackles and broken bodies to titillate the hoi polloi.

Some of us do exhibit compassion and charity, but scientists will tell you the ultimate purpose of charity is to effect species victory. Helping even the weak, the aged, or the ill assures their knowledge will not be lost — beneficial for a society’s survival.

And this is the important point. Though as individuals, we are efficient killers, and killing eliminates competitors for resources, as a society, we do not spend our lives killing. We need our family, friends, and neighbors to find and create resources, and for defense.

Those who show no compassion, and solely are ego-driven, seemingly would have a personal survival advantage, but because they do not contribute to species survival, they often are punished by the species, directly via physical attacks or indirectly via various forms of shunning.

TRUMP

Millions voted for Donald Trump. Why does he appeal to so many people?

Before he became president, he had failed in businesses where failure is nearly impossible: Gambling casinos and real estate. A casino is a guaranteed money-printing device, and real estate generally had increased in value for more than 60 years.

Repeatedly, Trump had been bailed out of his foolish predicaments by his father, only to fall into bankruptcy, yet again.

He was a Democrat who decided to switch parties to one that would accept is morals, a thrice-married womanizer, who never stopped cheating, a notorious liar and con man, whose reputation was so bad he still today is unable to obtain loans from any American bank.

His money kept him from Trump University and Trump Foundation prison.

He has cheated everyone, not only lenders and investors, but also swindled his workers out of their salaries.

Yet he was elected by the self-proclaimed “party of law and order.” During his four-year term, his prime accomplishments included giving tax breaks to the rich, attempting to destroy health-care insurance that protected millions of people, eliminating consumer protection laws, and hiring incompetent agency heads whose main efforts were to sabotage the primary missions of their agencies.

History will find him wanting.

He was impeached by the House of Representatives, and narrowly saved by the Senate, and was voted out of office. But, still he received more than 70 million votes.

Why?

Trump is a pure warrior. Lacking all compassion and human kindness, he is a psychopath, totally devoted to personal victory. He lives for strife.

He deems anyone, who exhibits even an ounce of kindness and mercy, a “loser,” the single worst epithet he can imagine. For a soldier who dies or is captured or wounded fighting for his country, Trump has only one question, “What was in it for him?”

He cannot imagine doing any unrequited kindness; everything must accrue to him, personally.

Seeing acclaim go to someone else is anathema. Trump has fired people whom he thought received more credit than him. His favorites are those sycophants who give him glory for everything good. (See: Mike Pence)

Trump preaches strength and patriotism, while he himself is a weak anti-patriot, who fearfully avoided the risks of battle by claiming heel spurs.

He admires dictators, the more brutal and unforgiving the better. Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Rodrigo Duterte, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud — murderers all — are Trump favorites.

In rising to power, he has followed Hitler’s playbook.

FEAR

The most powerful human emotions are fear and hatred. They are so closely related that the former breeds the latter.  It is almost impossible to hate someone of whom you have no fear.

Tyrants understand this, thus we see the use of scapegoats, which generates fear and loathing among the populace.

Trump’s scapegoats are Mexican “rapists,” Muslim “terrorists,” the “fake” media, black “thugs,” “extreme” leftists, socialists, whistleblowers, Barack Obama — all the people Trump fears and thus hates — and these are the people he has taught his followers to fear and hate.

When people suffer fear, they seek protection. They are more likely to buy guns. They are more likely to join cults like the white supremacists, that are based on fearing people of color.

When people are in fear, they look to a strong leader who will protect them. Trump feigns strength. He promises to protect his followers from the people he himself fears and hates.Mahatma Gandhi quote: It is weakness which breeds fear, and fear breeds distrust.

We live in fearful times. Many people are impoverished or fear poverty. Many people are jobless or fear joblessness.

Many people fear the “Godless” left, who “kill babies.”

Bigotry is a representation of fear. Trump’s appeal is to bigotry, hatred, and fear.

Trump’s most ardent followers are America’s most fearful people.

Compassion and generosity require the courage to give of oneself — the courage to overcome the Gap psychology that urges us to distance ourselves from those “below” us on any social or economic scale.

And so, despite all his flaws, Trump has retained much of his base. And he will retain them until a principled leader arrives to assuage the fears we all suffer to some degree and teaches us we can be both compassionate and safe.

GREATNESS

Trump promised to make America great, again, then proceeded to make America small.

He promised we could cower safely behind his Wall, though a great people does not cower or need a wall. His promised wall only told the world and us that we are weak.

America was great when we followed Franklin Roosevelt and gave our lives and fortunes against the Axis oppressors.

America was great when, under Harry Truman, we instituted the European Recovery Program (Marshall plan), that gave billions of our dollars to war-devastated European nations.

America was great when under Harry Truman we didn’t wreak vengeance on Japan, a nation that had attacked us. Instead, we made Japan an ally and helped its people recover.

America was great when we followed John Kennedy and courageously flew the dangerous path to the moon.

America was great when we instituted Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society.” to unselfishly help the poor and the weak.

Those were unselfish times. Those were compassionate times. Those were great times.

Those were NOT “America first” times.

Had Trump encouraged the wearing of masks, he could have saved well more than 100,000 Americans. Despite all his other failings, he could have been great, for that alone.

Instead, his personal insecurities caused him to fear looking weak. So he discouraged mask-wearing to prove his strength, and our families, friends, and neighbors died.

Trump poisoned the GOP and drained its strength. Today, it is an assemblage of toadies, fearing to say anything that will crack the ego of the bully.

The bully is not strong. Continual strife is not strength. The weak are those who most fear looking weak.

Trump is a weak man, supposedly diminished by his tyrant father. When Americans begin to understand Trump’s weakness, we will not fear to welcome a wise and compassionate leader, and the age of Trump and fear will end.

Only then will America become great, again.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

  1. Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
  2. 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:

  1. Eliminate FICA
  2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
  3. Social Security for all or a reverse income tax
  4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
  5. Salary for attending school
  6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
  7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 
  8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
  9. Federal ownership of all banks
  10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY