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

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●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.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
=====================================================================

Here is how the Freedom of Information act is handled in the land of the free:

TPM
Bin Laden Raid Records Shielded From Public In Secret Move
RICHARD LARDNER JULY 8, 2013

Adm. William McRaven, the nation’s top special operations commander ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they could be more easily shielded from ever being made public.

CIA agency spokesman Preston Golson said it is “absolutely false” that records were moved to the CIA to avoid the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

I believe Golson. He is government. Government is truthful. Government is truthful. Government is truthful.

Secretly moving the records allowed the Pentagon to tell The Associated Press that it couldn’t find any documents inside the Defense Department that AP had requested more than two years ago, and could represent a new strategy for the U.S. government to shield even its most sensitive activities from public scrutiny.

Another secrecy strategy? How many strategies to keep us in the dark, does this government need? (I’d give you the answer, but it’s a secret.)

The records transfer was part of an effort by McRaven to protect the names of the personnel involved in the raid.

Someone please send a black marker to the government, so they could redact the names. Apparently sequester has cut their black marker supply.

Under federal rules, transferring government records from one executive agency to another must be approved in writing by the National Archives and Records Administration. The Archives was not aware of any request from the U.S. Special Operations Command to transfer its records to the CIA, spokeswoman Miriam Kleiman said.

Hey, rules are for fools. We don’t follow rules. We are the government. Trust us.

The Federal Records Act would not permit agencies “to purge records just on a whim,” said Dan Metcalfe, who oversaw the U.S. government’s compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. “I don’t think there’s an exception allowing an agency to say, ‘Well, we didn’t destroy it. We just deleted it here after transmitting it over there.’ High-level officials ought to know better.”

See, they didn’t intentionally hide this stuff from the public. It was sort of an accident, and those naughty boys “ought to know better.”

In the days after bin Laden’s death, the White House falsely said bin Laden was armed and even firing at the SEALs, misidentified which of bin Laden’s sons was killed and incorrectly said bin Laden’s wife died in the shootout.

The Defense Department told the AP in March 2012 it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing bin Laden’s body, could not find any images of bin Laden’s body on the USS Carl Vinson, could not find any death certificate, autopsy report or results of DNA identification tests for bin Laden, or any pre-raid materials discussing how the government planned to dispose of bin Laden’s body if he were killed.

Other than that, the government has been completely open and honest with us — oh, with maybe a couple little white lies, for our own good.

President Obama has pledged to make his administration the most transparent in U.S. history.

Actually, it is becoming transparent. We all are beginning to see right through Obama and his pledges.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●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.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
=====================================================================
Do you trust the government, completely? Apparently, you do .

Recently, one of my friends said, “I hope they hang that traitor, Snowden” (the former NSA “leaker” who is being sought by a desperate and angry U.S. government.)

I responded, “You want him hung for being a traitor? Exactly what secret has this traitor revealed to our enemies.?”

After a long pause, my friend allowed that he didn’t know exactly what secret has been revealed, other than our government has been spying on all of us.

Is the fact of our government’s spying a vital national secret? Is this something our enemies didn’t already know? Or is this just an embarrassment for an overzealous, out-of-control federal agency, bolstered by an extreme, right-wing, secret court?

And right there is the message of this entire blog: Given the full resources of the three branches of government – the President, the Congress and the courts – plus the media — the American public can be made to believe anything.

Just as my friend, and the American public trust the federal government, when it says the federal deficit and debt should be reduced, my friend and the public also trust the government when it says Snowden is traitor for revealing “vital, national security, secrets.”

The vital, national secret is: In violation of the clear wording of the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, our trustworthy government is spying on every American, innocent or not.

And lest you believe government deception is rare, limited or accidental, read these excerpts from an article in the New York Times:

In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU, Published: July 6, 2013

WASHINGTON — In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation’s surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans.

You always had heard that “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” but did you know ignorance of the law is premeditated. It’s what the government wants. But don’t dare break those laws the government intentionally has hidden from you.

The court has assessed broad constitutional questions and established important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny.

Not only have they reinterpreted the Constitution, but no one knows what those reinterpretations are.

The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court, delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come.

In one of the court’s most important decisions, the judges have carved out an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of a warrant for searches and seizures.

Who gave this secret court the right to make exceptions to the Constitution? No one knows. It’s a secret. This court acts illegally, in violation of the Constitution.

The FISA judges have ruled that the N.S.A.’s collection and examination of Americans’ communications data to track possible terrorists does not run afoul of the Fourth Amendment.

That legal interpretation uses a relatively narrow area of the law — used to justify airport screenings, for instance, or drunken-driving checkpoints — and applies it to the wholesale collection of communications in pursuit of terrorism suspects.

When a government agency works in secret, there is no limit to the convenient interpretations of secret law they can make. Working in secret, they could just as well determine that anyone a government official merely suspects of a crime, can be killed, legally.

Why not? Who would stop them? It’s all for “national security.” We just have to trust them.

A whistle blower might tell on them, but you know what happens to whistle blowers in America. They are chased down like dogs, while the American public is told they are traitors. When caught, they will be given a secret trial and denied access to evidence that may exonerate them.

That is what happens to a nation that has been brainwashed into paranoia.

In one recent case, intelligence officials were able to get access to an e-mail attachment sent within the United States because they said they were worried that the e-mail contained a schematic diagram possibly connected to Iran’s nuclear program.

In the past, that probably would have required a court warrant because the suspicious e-mail involved American communications. In this case, however, a little-noticed provision in a 2008 law, expanding the definition of “foreign intelligence” to include “weapons of mass destruction,” was used to justify access to the message.

The judge gave permission based not on facts, but merely on someone’s worry. I’m kind of worried one of my neighbors might possibly be a terrorist, so please search their house — and try not to make too much of a mess.

Since virtually all these legal provisions are “little-noticed” or outright secret, what’s to prevent unseen ex post facto changes in the law, to justify previously illegal acts?

“The definition of ‘foreign intelligence’ is very broad,” another former intelligence official said. “An espionage target, a nuclear proliferation target, that all falls within FISA, and the court has signed off on that.”

The official discussed the court’s rulings on the condition of anonymity because they are classified.

Not only are the decisions secret, but no one even is allowed to discuss them. These are absolute decisions, with no higher court review nor public knowledge.

Unlike the Supreme Court, the FISA court hears from only one side in the case — the government — and its findings are almost never made public. A Court of Review is empaneled to hear appeals, but that is known to have happened only a handful of times in the court’s history.

That is the very definition of absolute power, and as has been so aptly stated, “Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.” In short, the FISA court is corrupted. Absolutely.

All of the current 11 judges, who serve seven-year terms, were appointed to the special court by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and 10 of them were nominated to the bench by Republican presidents.

So we have 11 judges with absolute power, and therefore absolutely corrupted, appointed by the right wing, which is notorious for its anti-poor, anti-women, anti-children (out of the womb), anti-elderly, anti-education, anti-minority leanings, all making decisions in secret, some of which change the Constitution of the United States.

Does it get any worse than that? Yes, this is worse::

None of the requests from the intelligence agencies was denied, according to the court.

The judges have concluded that the mere collection of facts like the time of phone calls and the numbers dialed, does not violate the Fourth Amendment, as long as the government establishes a valid reason under national security regulations before taking the next step of actually examining the contents of an American’s communications.

NSA: “Judge, I want to read everyone’s mail, and put cameras in everyone’s bedroom.”
Judge: “Why?”
NSA: “For national security purposes.”
Judge: “O.K., enjoy yourself. You know we always agree. Just do it in secret.”

The court has indicated that while individual pieces of data may not appear “relevant” to a terrorism investigation, the total picture that the bits of data create may in fact be relevant.

Get it? In essence, the court is saying, “We have no idea why you want all that information, but we suppose maybe some of what you learn might possibly be relevant to something sort of related to protecting America in some way. So go ahead and collect it.”

Reggie B. Walton, the FISA court’s presiding judge, wrote in March that he recognized the “potential benefit of better informing the public” about the court’s decisions. But, he said, there are “serious obstacles” to doing so because of the potential for misunderstanding caused by omitting classified details.

He knows he should say he wants to tell us what he’s doing. But he would omit so much information, we wouldn’t understand it anyway. So the best thing simply is not to inform us, and for us to trust him.

Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the N.S.A. director, was noncommital when he was pressed at a Senate hearing in June to put out some version of the court’s decisions. “I don’t want to jeopardize the security of Americans by making a mistake in saying, ‘Yes, we’re going to do all that.’ ”

Translation: “I’m not going to tell you a damn thing. I know what’s good for America. I’m from the government. You’ll just have to trust me.”

Apparently you America, and my friend, do.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●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.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
=====================================================================

If ever there needed to be even more proof the “religious” right wing is the morally wrong wing, here it is.

New York Times
Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act
By ADAM LIPTAK, Published: June 25, 2013

The Supreme Court on Tuesday effectively struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 5-to-4 vote, freeing nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval.

At the core of the disagreement was whether racial minorities continued to face barriers to voting in states with a history of discrimination.

“Our country has changed,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.”

The current system, Roberts wrote, is “based on 40-year-old facts having no logical relationship to the present day.. Congress — if it is to divide the states — must identify those jurisdictions to be singled out on a basis that makes sense in light of current conditions.” It cannot simply rely on the past.”

Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined the majority opinion.

[Remember, these are the same right wing “justices” (What a misuse of that word!) who gave rich corporations virtually unlimited power to bribe politicians, and said there is no evidence this would increase the risk of corruption or the appearance of corruption. (Try not to laugh, Koch Brothers and Pete Peterson.]

Justice Roberts also included in his opinion, these prophetic words: “Had prior Courts never gone against stare decisis, for example . . . “ the Government could wiretap ordinary criminal suspects without first obtaining warrants”.

Once again Roberts is extremely right! Instead, the Government wiretaps ordinary non-criminal, non-suspects, without first obtaining warrants.

New York Times
After Ruling, States Rush to Enact Voting Laws
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: July 5, 2013

State officials across the South are aggressively moving ahead with new laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls after the Supreme Court decision striking down a portion of the Voting Rights Act.

Within hours, Texas officials said that they would begin enforcing a strict photo identification requirement for voters. In Mississippi and Alabama, state officials said that they were moving to begin enforcing the laws.

Some North Carolina Republican lawmakers said that they would move as soon as next week to pass a bill requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls. And some Republicans there are considering cutting back on the number of early voting days in the state, which were especially popular among Democrats and black voters during the 2012 presidential election.

See, those laws have “no logical relationship to the present day.” The South has changed.

Once again, Chief Justice Roberts simultaneously is extremely right and extremely wrong.

And his legacy will be written in shame.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●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.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
=====================================================================

Here’s yet another writer, or group of writers, who equate a Monetarily Sovereign nation with a monetarily non-sovereign business, thereby coming to the same diametrically wrong conclusions as the rest of the austerity buffs.

The Daily Bell
Now They Tell Us: China Debt Levels ‘Unknown’
By Staff Report

A senior Chinese official said on Friday that the government did not know precisely know how much debt local governments had built up and warned that it could be more than previous estimates.

Fitch downgraded China’s sovereign debt rating in April.

Oh woe, a credit downgrading. We all know how accurate the credit reporting industry is. It gave AAA ratings to worthless securities and downgraded the U.S. debt, presumably because, as John Boehner lied, “We are broke.”

We didn’t understand how any economy could generate 10 percent growth per year for literally decades, but others seemed to feel that there were so many Chinese that normal economic rules did not apply.

No, that wasn’t the reason. Some of us “others” believed China understood Monetary Sovereignty, and was willing to keep pumping money into their economy. So long as inflation was controlled, the economy would grow.

Why? Basic algebra:
GDP = Government Spending + Non-government spending + Net Exports

In a modern central banking economy, the primary factor is monetary policy.

Actually, monetary and even more importantly, fiscal policy. But why quibble over semantics?

Earnings don’t matter; management doesn’t matter. In other words, you can have the best run company in the world with the number one product, but the real determinant of success at any given time will be the economy’s performance – subject to monetary policy.

We don’t mind the sarcasm. We do mind the ignorance that equates China with a company. The former is Monetarily Sovereign; the later is monetarily non-sovereign. Not understanding the difference equals not understanding economics.

China’s miracle was a central banking one, and monetary stimulation can cover up a host of sins.

True. Let the economy without “sin” (i.e. inefficiency) throw the first stone. All economies “sin.” All economies grow by so-called “covering up” — i.e. by increasing the percapita money supply. “All” meaning every growing economy in the history of the world.

The Chinese were printing money – lots and lots of it – and this was causing “all boats to float.” It was a kind of Potemkin Economy … Asian style. Now it seems the boats are sinking along with misconceptions about the realities of Chinese finance.

Ah, the old “printing money” epithet. Writers need only to utter the magic words “printing money,” and those who don’t understand economics will exclaim, “Ooooh,” and shake their heads in disgust.

But “printing money” is what Monetarily Sovereign governments do, must do, always do — unless they want recessions and depressions.

Whenever the U.S. has stopped, or even slowed, its so-called “printing” of money, we have had recessions and depressions, virtually all of which were cured by — yep, you guessed it — “printing” money.

(Never mind that money never is “printed.” It is created electronically by spending. Contrary to popular wisdom, a printed dollar bill is not a dollar.)

China’s localities have borrowed trillions. Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said Chinese banks have reported 9.54 trillion yuan in loans to local financing platforms.

Concerns have grown that the debts incurred could sour as many infrastructure projects in China are for public use and not profitable. Many local governments have also borrowed from companies in private arrangements at high cost, with the money often used in speculative real estate projects.

More fear-mongering out of ignorance. The Chinese central government could, if it wished, pay off all that local debt in one electronic instant. It simply could credit all debtors’ accounts by the amounts of their debts. Bingo! No local debt.

But wouldn’t all this so-called money “printing” cause inflation? Nope. Borrowing creates money and paying off loans destroys money.

If all the local borrowers somehow paid off their loans (say, by selling assets), the Chinese economy instantly would lose the above-mentioned 9.54 trillion yuan — a disaster.

However, if the central government “printed” the 9.54 trillion yuan to pay the loans, there would be no net increase in money supply, and no reason for inflation.

(And anyway, inflation can be controlled by increasing interest rates, which increases the value of money.)

The cycle hasn’t turned for China, or not fully. But it will. And so we say to Zhu … Just wait.

Waiting isn’t a bad idea. Learning is a better idea.

What is a bad idea? IMHO, taking economics advice from the Daily Bell staff.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY