–Why you should not vote

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more 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 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.
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People follow strong leaders – leaders who have a clearly defined goal, and who articulate that goal in forceful terms. No one follows a compromiser. You never know what a compromiser will do or how much he will give away, when he’s compromising.

Compromisers don’t inflame the emotions, don’t create a shining path to glory. Their creations are dull, dark and dreary, their successes minimal. They will do anything for approval from the other side. A compromiser has but one goal: To compromise. We didn’t realize it – we should have realized it – Barack Obama is a compromiser.

He should be winning this election in a walk. The Republican party has been taken over by mean-spirited crazies, jesters, nutballs and fools. Has there ever been a dopier group than Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain? Talk about a rogues gallery of misfits – and they all wanted to be President of our great United States? And some people actually voted for them. Yikes!

Add to that the Tea Party and the religious right wing extremists, and it’s no wonder a vacillating, take-both-sides-of-every-issue phony like Mitt Romney was selected as the least bad of a very bad group.

But Barack Obama, weakness personified, believes if he is nice to the other guy, the other guy will be nice to us. So while the Democrats in Congress worked to put through what ironically is called “Obamacare,” the President’s support was tepid at best, and counterproductive in reality. He came along for the ride, always looking for a compromise.

And while we’re talking real, Obama did not “get Osama bin Laden.” For a dozen years our defense agencies have been trying to get the guy, and Obama happened to be President when our boys finally accomplished the job. His primary role was to sit in a room and look worried at the T.V.

This professorial bent toward compromise is why Obama is not way ahead of a guy who hides his earlier tax returns, publishes phony tax returns in which mysteriously, he temporarily doesn’t take deductions for millions in charity (to be revised after the election), and just before the east coast is devastated by a hurricane, announces he would get rid of FEMA, and let the states carry the burden.

(Could anything be funnier than watching Chris Christie, Republican governor of New Jersey, waddling behind Obama, and praising the president for FEMA efforts?)

Although Obama compromised his way to failure with Syria, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lybia and the Palestinians, Romney was across the ocean making a fool of himself.

So, it’s no wonder Romney gets away with lying about his position on virtually every major issue facing this nation, and even is allowed to say he will get rid of Obamacare (aka Romneycare), and replace it with a cockamamie voucher system – a system so wonderful, Romney is forced to promise the 55-and-olders they won’t have to join it. (Hey, who cares about the young people, anyway?)

Romney gets away with it, because Obama is a compromiser, and no one follows or trusts a compromiser.

Now Obama vows to forge a “grand bargain” (aka abject surrender) with the Republicans in which he will end up giving them what they (the 1%) want – deficit reduction – in return for this tragedy:

“I am absolutely confident that we can get what is the equivalent of the grand bargain that essentially I’ve been offering to the Republicans for a very long time, which is $2.50 worth of cuts for every dollar in spending, and work to reduce the costs of our health care programs,” Obama said. (The White House quickly clarified that he meant $2.50 of spending cuts for every dollar in new tax revenue.) Yahoo News

Money is the lifeblood of an economy. To cure your anemic economy, Obama’s “grand bargain” will drain $1 worth of your blood for every $2.50 worth of blood not pumped into you. (Visualize you’re bleeding. Your doctor says, “To cure you, we’ll drain out some of your blood and we won’t give you a transfusion.”)

Why it’s better that most of your blood reduction be from lack of transfusion and “only” 30% be drained out of you, is unclear to me, but if the Tea/Republicans (aka the 1%) agree to it, Obama will declare a great victory for compromise – and you will die broke, sick and early.

The 1% must be dancing in the streets. Not only with they get their massive increase in the income gap, so ardently craved and paid for, but the blame will go on the Democrats. I can’t imagine why any 1%er would vote Republican, when the Democrats are willing to carry the 1%’s water.

And I can’t imagine why any Democrat would vote at all – at least not for a President – because when the choice is between a liar and a weakling. . . well, there isn’t really a choice, is there?

O.K, actually there is, and I can give you a reason in two words: Antonin Scalia. Wait, make that four words: Clarence Thomas. Today, these two justices from the dark ages, who believe in originalism-when-convenient, only are part of a bare majority, and Chief Justice Roberts showed that at least on rare occasion, it is possible to vote for human rights, human decency and the Bill of Rights – when one cares about one’s legacy.

But, in the next four years, there will be several vacancies, and God help America, if these vacancies are replaced with the likes of Scalia and Thomas. Minorities, immigrants, the poor, the sick and the uneducated all will fall to a 16th century bludgeon.

So yes, if you have nothing better to do, like file your toe nails or take a nap, vote Democratic for your salvation from a cruel, uncaring Supreme Court, but hold your nose while you do.

Then march in the streets to protest the “grand bargain” of evil.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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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
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%

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:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Scientific American magazine not so scientific.

Perhaps it is too much to expect a magazine titled, “Scientific American” actually to understand the principles of science, like demanding at least a modicum of evidence before promulgating wrong hypotheses. After all, they just are writers, not scientists. So the following post may be a bit unfair.

Anyway, SA has published numerous articles correctly decrying the failure of the U.S. government to support various science projects and education. But all their articles are hampered by one significant, wrong assumption.

Here is only the most recent:

Future Jobs Depend on a Science-Based Economy
The next administration must prime the true growth engine

The 2012 presidential election will be won by the candidate who can convince voters that he has the vision to lift the nation out of the economic doldrums.

The economy is the right topic, but the discussion neglects the true driver of the country’s prosperity: scientific and technological enterprise. Half of the U.S. economic growth since World War II has come from advances in science and technology. To neglect that power—and the government’s role in priming the pump—would be foolish.

President Barack Obama makes much out of having rescued Detroit’s carmakers from bankruptcy. This achievement won’t hold up, however, unless the thousands of small auto-parts manufacturers down the supply chain stay globally competitive.

One way to help them would be to foster initiatives like the National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium, which is providing independent manufacturers potent information technology at Purdue University and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.

Is providing manufacturers with “potent information” important to America’s growth. Of course it is. So why is there even a hint of concern about this obvious need? Read on.

The German government encourages a close partnership between technical universities and industrial manufacturers; it supports centers where scientists and engineers pursue fundamental research in close proximity to industrial colleagues investigating more applied technologies.

German battery makers, for instance, work with technical universities on nanotechnology, while textile makers contribute to research in carbon fibers for composite fabrics. Could there be a grander vision for harnessing U.S. research talent in this way? On this, both candidates have been silent.

Not exactly silent, but rather more concerned about reducing the budget than about having an insufficient budget.

The U.S. Department of Energy funded and helped to develop the shale-cracking techniques that have released the country’s current surplus of natural gas. And no nuclear reactor has ever been built in this country without financial and scientific support from all levels of government.

While Obama touts the $90 billion in federal investments in clean energy research made on his watch, Romney repudiates this “green energy agenda.”

His thinking is shortsighted. The bankruptcy of solar panel maker Solyndra in 2011, which critics have used to argue against government support of energy research, instead shows why such investment is so important: experimental projects always carry a high risk of failure, which is why commercial firms are reluctant to undertake them. Yet without them, innovation will slow.

The DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy funds ideas that may sound like science fiction to some—genetically modifying microbes to produce fuel, for example. History shows that such bold efforts will yield the beginnings of new industries.

In 1962, for example, a researcher envisioned a fanciful “Galactic Network” that would connect distant computers, inspiring the Pentagon project that eventually became the Internet.

O.K., already. We’re sold. Government funding for science benefits America in myriad ways we cannot anticipate. So what’s the problem?

A high-tech economy needs the best scientists and engineers, yet in science and math, U.S. students are middling. The Obama administration has had some success by tying grants for K–12 schools to Common Core math standards, but neither candidate has come out in support of the Next Generation Science Standards recommended by the National Research Council.

Right. Scientific research, development and education is underfunded, much to the disadvantage of America. Why?

With looming unemployment and debt, such concerns may not seem urgent. Yet unless we invest in an economy built on scientific and technological skills, we will only be papering over our economic troubles.

And there it is. Scientific American magazine agrees with the popular notion that (federal) debt is “looming.” What does use of that word, “looming,” say about SA?

To me, it says SA buys into the myth that federal debt is an actual problem, is “looming” over the economy, like some giant vulture, waiting to peck our livers, rather than the benign and boring total of T-security deposits in the Federal Reserve Bank.

As a long time subscriber to SA, never have I seen an article discussing the reality (or rather, the mythology) of this silly belief. SA may opt for science everywhere – except in economics.

So long as the upper 1% income group is able to maintain the Big Lie that the federal deficit and debt are too big, no amount of whining, begging and pleading will produce adequate federal support for scientific research, development and education. The game is lost before the opening whistle.

It’s like asking your rich daddy to give you money for a round-the-world trip, but prefacing your plea with the statement, “Daddy, I agree the world is flat, but . . . “

My hope is to live long enough to see a science magazine publish an informed article about Monetary Sovereignty. (As you can see, I’m wishing myself a long life.)

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–How your lords (Yes, you have lords) use myths to rule you.

All living things are created with some indifference to the plight of other living things. It is “nature, red in tooth and claw.” It is a fundamental of evolution, in which the stronger survive at the expense of the weaker.

Cat owners, who have seen their cute, fluffy, lovable pets cruelly toy with an already maimed mouse, have seen it. Our innocent children are known for cruelty and indifference. Bullying is the common example. Street gangs take it to extremes with shootings, stabbings and other sadistic acts. Adults do it too – the crime syndicates, the drug cartels — they specialize in cruelty and indifference as intimidation techniques or just for pleasure.

But they are exceptions, right? If you could push a button that would bring you a hundred million dollars, but cause a dozen unknown Asians to die prematurely, would you push that button? Think before you answer. Being honest, would you?

The executives of the tobacco companies, push that button every day, and have done so for years. As do executives of pharmaceutical companies. Wall Street executives too, push that button, except their victims die of poverty, not disease. The upper 1% push that button with seldom a thought.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” said Lord Acton. The murderer and torturer have power over their victims. The rich have power over the poor. The knowing have power over the ignorant. The murderer, the torturer, the rich and the knowing are corrupted by their power.

It benefits the abuser that the abused not know how to end the injustice, or even to recognize it. Ignorance is the ally of the powerful. Why did a German soldier murder his Jewish neighbor, a neighbor with whom he previously had friendly relations? The soldier was taught by his leaders, the ignorance that the Jews are evil.

Why today, do Syrian soldiers, themselves part of the poor and middle “99%,” kill their Syrian “99%” neighbors? The soldiers have been taught the ignorance that their neighbors are evil. The 99% are both the abused and the abusers, and all do the bidding of the 1%, via ignorance of the truth.

And so it is in America (and elsewhere), that the minority in power keeps the underclass ignorant. Here, it is done with the Big Lie, that the federal government cannot afford to provide benefits to those who need them, but instead must extract taxes from those who ill can afford them:

— the federal government cannot afford Medicare for all
— the federal government cannot afford more generous Social Security
— the federal government cannot afford to operate without taxation

And if a member of an underclass protests correctly that the government indeed can afford these things – and without extracting taxes — he then is told:

–the federal government is just like him, and must remain within strict financial budgets
–and it must balance its budget against tax income.
–and he is a fool to believe otherwise.

And with these myths, the upper 1% income group rules.

Think of religion. A group is taught certain myths: There is one God or there are many gods, and these gods demand obedience. High priests or shamans dictate what God says the followers must do, and inevitably these rules involve sacrifices – human, animal, financial, time or effort.

Enduring these sacrifices provides the psychological benefit of knowing one has done the “right thing” as defined by the religious leaders. Attending church services, reciting pre-written prayers, donating money, keeping kosher, building cathedrals, circumcision, abstinence, sexual practices, prescribed garments, travel to Mecca – all are sacrifices dictated by religions. Fail to sacrifice, and you will be punished, with hell and ostracism, even torture and murder.

It is sacrifice that gives religion its power. Forcing people to do what they would not otherwise do, and depriving them of what they otherwise would desire, is what builds dominance and obedience. Power comes from teaching that those, who do not share these believes and sacrifices, are evil.

Once the populace has been brainwashed, only minimum further effort by the high priests, is necessary to enforce compliance. After Germans were brainwashed into believing Jews and others were evil, Hitler and his acolytes didn’t have to do the killing. The people did it themselves, willingly and with relish.

Similarly, convincing people that to pay taxes, to suffer insufficient health-care insurance, to live on minimal retirement funds, go hungry and homeless – all build the dominance of the 1% over the 99%. The victims come to believe that yes, they must sacrifice, and however much they sacrifice, it never will be enough.

Today, the American people, and indeed people throughout the world, have been taught by the 1% that sacrifice, not only is necessary, not only is beneficial, but is morally good – and always insufficient.

Every culture has a version of “the ant and the grasshopper,” in which hard work and struggle are virtues unto themselves, while ease and comfort are immoral. By combining that belief with the cynicism of “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” the 1% has created a perfect scenario in which the 99% are made to believe Monetary Sovereignty not only is too easy and too obvious, but morally wrong.

Tell someone that he should not have to pay federal taxes, should not have to pay for health care and should not suffer from minimal retirement benefits, that person likely will respond to this good news with anger and sarcasm. “Life cannot be that easy (except of course, for the 1%). There must be good reasons why we have been sacrificing our wealth and our health. There cannot be a free lunch.”

The 1% are accustomed to life being easy. The 99% are uncomfortable with that notion.

And just as religious piety often is strongest among the least educated, so too is the belief among the least economically knowledgeable that it is normal and right for the 1% to have life handed to them, while the 99% must strive and suffer for their meager reward. Thus, the populace accepts the austerity that punishes them for the sin of not being wealthy, and rejects the facts of Monetary Sovereignty.

It’s a religious thing – belief triumphs over fact, ignorance over knowledge. Myths can be far more powerful than rationality. That is how your lords rule you.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Congratulations Yahoo Finance on publishing the dopiest poll of the year.

There is ignorant. There is stupid. And then there is Yahoo Finance and Chris Nichols. I didn’t see Part I, but I assume it was as silly as Part II is:

Here’s Your Chance: You Fix the Economy, Part II
By Chris Nichols | The Exchange – Fri, Oct 26, 2012

The best way for the federal government to balance the budget is through a combination of spending cuts and increased taxes, more than half of the voters in an informal Yahoo! Finance poll said Thursday.

With 10,283 total responses to the question, 52% said some combination of those two actions would be preferred to the other choices provided. However, 41% of respondents wanted to only cut spending in order to balance the budget, making for a very strong second-place showing.

With those two options making up 93% of the total vote, you can see quickly how readers feel about raising taxes alone as the preferred course of action. Our poll ran the same day that a group of corporate CEOs called on Congress to implement tax hikes and lower spending to tackle the nation’s budget deficit.

The question was one of seven we asked readers in a bid to get a sense of what they believe the government should do to improve its financial standing.

Notice that the poll directs voters to determine the best way to balance the budget, not the best way to grow the economy.

Now, if you really want to know the best way to grow the economy, the answer definitely is NOT to balance the budget, but rather to grow the deficit. But, by assuming the answer is to balance the budget, Yahoo Finance and Chris Nichols perpetuate the ignorance of the American voters.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), when Americans vote for candidates who promise to reduce the deficit, thereby assuring another recession, these poor, ignorant souls will be hung by their own petards. They either will pay higher taxes (aka eliminating “loopholes” or “broadening the tax base”) or they will receive lower Social Security and Medicare benefits. Talk about pulling the switch on your own electric chair . . .

Anyway, if it weren’t for the fact that my own children and grandchildren will be injured, I might take a perverse delight in seeing the 99% cause their own suffering — especially when these are the folks who get angry at me when I tell them that reducing the dollar supply hurts the economy.

So, Chris Nichols, for your next survey, I suggest this question: What is the best way to effect world starvation: Destroy all the crops or poison all the water?

World starvation is as good a goal as balancing the budget.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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