Mitchell’s laws: Reduced money growth never stimulates economic growth. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity breeds austerity and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
==========================================================================================================================================

Most of my posts begin with “Mitchell’s laws,” one of which is: Austerity breeds austerity and leads to civil disorder. The term “civil disorder” is a euphemism for police brutality, including torture and even killings. And it’s happening right here in innocent America.

In the post “How the 1% turns the 99% against itself and makes us into dogs,” I described how the media and politicians brainwash you into believing #Occupy Wall Street (#OWS) is a gang of childish, ignorant rowdies, who deserve neither attention nor respect.

The fact that #OWS is fighting on behalf of the 99% is not completely understood by the very people who would benefit most – including the police themselves. Also, not understood, is the power being unleashed by the 1%, not just against the protesters, but against all of you.

The truly great blog, “naked capitalism” posted the following account. See if it reminds you of what happens in nations run by vicious dictators:

While people are now beginning to learn that the police attack on Occupy LA was much more violent than previously reported, few actually realize that much—if not most—of the abuse happened while the protesters were in police custody, completely outside the range of the press and news media. And the disgraceful truth is that a lot of the abuse was police sadism, pure and simple:
* I heard from two different sources that at least one busload of protesters (around 40 people) was forced to spend seven excruciating hours locked in tiny cages on a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. prison bus, denied food, water and access to bathroom facilities. Both men and women were forced to urinate in their seats. Meanwhile, the cops in charge of the bus took an extended Starbucks coffee break.
• The bus that I was shoved into didn’t move for at least an hour. The whole time we listened to the screams and crying from a young woman whom the cops locked into a tiny cage at the front of the bus. She was in agony, begging and pleading for one of the policemen to loosen her plastic handcuffs. A police officer sat a couple of feet away the entire time that she screamed–but wouldn’t lift a finger.
• Everyone on my bus felt her pain–literally felt it. That’s because the zip-tie handcuffs they use—like the ones you see on Iraq prisoners in Abu Ghraib—cut off your circulation and wedge deep through your skin, where they can do some serious nerve damage, if that’s the point. And it did seem to be the point. A couple of guys around me were writhing in agony in their hard plastic seats, hands handcuffed behind their back.
• The 100 protesters in my detainee group were kept handcuffed with their hands behind their backs for 7 hours, denied food and water and forced to sit/sleep on a concrete floor. Some were so tired they passed out face down on the cold and dirty concrete, hands tied behind their back. As a result of the tight cuffs, I wound up losing sensation in my left palm/thumb and still haven’t recovered it now, a day and a half after they finally took them off.
• One seriously injured protester, who had been shot with a shotgun beanbag round and had an oozing bloody welt the size of a grapefruit just above his elbow, was denied medical attention for five hours. Another young guy, who complained that he thought his arm had been broken, was not given medical attention for at least as long. Instead, he spent the entire pre-booking procedure handcuffed to a wall, completely spaced out and staring blankly into space like he was in shock.
• An Occupy LA demonstrator in his 50s who was in my cell block in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center told us all about when a police officer forced him to take a shit with his hands handcuffed behind his back, which made pulling down his pants and sitting down on the toilet extremely difficult and awkward. And he had to do this in sight of female police officers, all of which made him feel extremely ashamed, to say the least.
• There were two vegetarians and one vegan in my cell. When I left jail around 1:30 pm, they still had not been given food, despite the fact that they were constantly being promised that it would come.
• There were 292 people arrested at Occupy LA. About 75 of them have been released or have gotten out on bail, according the National Lawyers Guild. Most are still inside, slapped with $5,000 to $10,000 bail. According to a bail bondsman I know, this is unprecedented. Misdemeanors are almost always released on their own recognizance, which means that they don’t pay any bail at all. Or at most it’s a $100.
• That means the harsh, long detentions are meant to be are a purely punitive measure against Occupy LA protesters–an order that had to come from the very top.

Is this the America you know and love? Is this the America you want?

The battle exists because the phony “debt crisis” is forcing austerity on you, and you are buying into the myth. No, Social Security should not be reduced; it should be increased. Same for Medicare, Medicaid, R&D, support for education, housing, the infrastructure and the other programs that support the neediest of us.

The need for austerity is a lie. Those who glibly tell you the government “is broke,” and “can’t afford” to pay for these services, or that spending cuts are “prudent” or that spending will cause inflation, are lying to you, and doing the dirty work of the 1%. (Disclosure: I am part of the 1%.)

Comparisons with the Weimar Republic are bogus. Federal financing comparisons with personal, kitchen-table financing are fraudulent. The federal government is nothing like you and me. It’s not even anything like your state, county or city, though exactly the same incorrect words are used to describe federal financing as your financing.

The “super committee” was a charade to give credence to a false idea, namely that the federal deficit and debt are too high. The deficit is too low and the debt could be eliminated, tomorrow.

You are being sucked into acceptance of a police state, where your every act can be controlled. The ironically named “Patriot Act” is but one example. And now you calmly witness the brutality against your fellow Americans, whose sole crime is protesting. Until you begin to understand the facts of Monetary Sovereignty, and demand that the lower- and middle-classes be supported, things will get worse and worse and worse.

What can you do? First, learn the facts of Monetary Sovereignty, so the media and the politicians won’t be able to deceive you with their lies.

You’ve seen the “Arab spring.” Don’t think it can’t happen here. It already has begun.
One night, there may be a knock on your door, and you will wonder how America could have fallen so far.

I award three “traitor images” to the Los Angeles Police Department, whose history of violence against American citizens is historically established. Unfortunately, they are not alone, as many police around the nation are being urged to violence by your leaders.

(Perhaps a nice $100 million lawsuit against these thugs might open a few eyes.)

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

==========================================================================================================================================
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
b>Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment + Private Consumption + Net exports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws: Reduced money growth never stimulates economic growth. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity breeds austerity and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
==========================================================================================================================================

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: 12/2/11:
“I did not make very much money in 2010, but I still feel I should pay at least something to offset some of the benefits I receive as a citizen”

Atanacio Garcia, 84, a retired postal worker from San Antonio, who donates $50 a month from his pension to the federal Bureau of the Public Debt, which accepts donations to pay down the nation’s debt.

Poor Mr. Garcia has been brainwashed by the debt-hawks into thinking he is helping America, when in fact he is hurting the economy by destroying $50 every month. Bit by bit, the media and the politicians, controlled by the 1%, deceive the 99% and encourage them steal their own futures and the futures of their children.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

==========================================================================================================================================
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
b>Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment + Private Consumption + Net exports

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws: Reduced money growth never stimulates economic growth. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity breeds austerity and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
==========================================================================================================================================

Once again, Congressional ignorance of Monetary Sovereignty rears its ugly head. This is what happens when people, who have zero understanding of economics, vote on our futures.

Payroll tax break: Extension proposals from both parties fail in Senate

WASHINGTON POST: By Lori Montgomery and Felicia Sonmez, Published: December 1

The Senate late Thursday rejected competing partisan visions for extending a temporary tax break that benefits virtually every American worker, clearing the way for more serious negotiations over how to cover the cost of the tax cut.

All but a handful of Democrats voted in favor of their party’s proposal, but in a surprising turn, more Republicans voted against the GOP plan than in favor of it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted this week that a majority of his conference would vote for the party’s plan to extend the payroll tax cut.
[…]
Congressional leaders in both parties agree that the tax break should be extended to avoid harming the fragile economic recovery, but they are arguing over how to replace the lost revenue and avoid increasing the federal budget deficit.

Note that phrase “replace lost revenue”? Those who do not wish to understand Monetary Sovereignty tell us the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to create dollars, should instead take dollars out of the economy, i.e. “replace lost revenue.” (Attention, debt hawks: This is where you display your ignorance by warning about a Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe hyper-inflation.)

Democrats proposed a 3.25 percent tax on income over $1 million, which would raise sufficient cash to increase the tax cut to 3.1 percent and expand it to cover employers, as Obama has proposed. But that idea failed late Thursday to muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster threat, with 51 senators supporting it and 49 opposed.

It should have failed, as it is a stupid idea – something like trying to fill a bath tub by pouring water into the north end with water taken from the south end.

Some Democrats voted against the measure, in part because the tax cut eats into the dedicated financing stream for Social Security, forcing the program to rely on congressional appropriations to cover the cost of benefits.

They wrongly believe FICA pays for Social Security. But if FICA pays for Social Security, what pays for Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, the military and all other 1000+ agencies and departments in the government, none of which are “supported” by a dedicated tax? Answer that, Congress.

Republicans, for their part, offered a simple extension of the existing tax break paired with a proposal to freeze pay for federal employees through 2015, trim 10 percent from the federal workforce . . . Those provisions would generate enough savings to pay for the tax cut and reduce deficits over the next decade by more than $110 billion.

What a great idea to cure the recession: Increase unemployment while cutting the pay of those who still have jobs. You have to give Congress credit for creativity.

“This extension is yet another example of Washington’s benefit now, pay later mentality, and it moves us further away from solving our long-term spending and deficit problems,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said in a statement.

He prefers, “Cut benefits now, not only for us but for our children and our grandchildren, then pay later with yet another recession or depression.”

I can’t end this without including a quote from by own Senator, Dick Durbin:

“If they’re nameless and faceless federal employees it’s one thing. But if it happens to be the FBI agent who’s in the midst of a very important investigation to keep this country safe, it’s another,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said. “Those are the people whose jobs they would do away with for the payroll tax cut because they can’t bring themselves to raise taxes on the wealthiest people in America by one penny.”

“Nameless and faceless federal employees.” This perfectly demonstrates the revulsion with which Congress views Americans. We are nothing more than votes, “nameless and faceless,” not actual living human beings. He doesn’t want to fire people only because one might be an FBI agent.

Once again, Congressional and Presidential ignorance of Monetary Sovereignty is not just a theoretical problem. It is a real problem that affects the lives of real people and our descendants. God save us from the ignorant.

If only #OWS understood Monetary Sovereignty. But, like Congress, they too don’t seem to wish to learn.

I award Congress and the President three, very unfunny, clowns.

(This bring us, to a total of 1356 clowns awarded. Tell Sen. Corker I have plenty clowns left for him — exactly as the federal government has plenty dollars left for Social Security.)

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

==========================================================================================================================================
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
b>Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment + Private Consumption + Net exports

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws: Reduced money growth never stimulates economic growth. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity breeds austerity and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
==========================================================================================================================================

One of my Senators, Dick Durbin, sent me a letter filled with economic ignorance, but the whole problem is expressed in one sentence.

Here is the letter. See if you can find the key sentence:

Dear Mr. Mitchell:

Thank you for contacting me about negotiations to raise our debt limit and to put us on a sustainable fiscal path. These are issues of utmost importance, and I appreciate hearing from you.

On August 2, 2011, I voted for and the Senate passed the Budget Control Act (S. 365). The President signed the bill into law later that day. S. 365 prevents a default on our nation’s debt and gives our economy the certainty it needs as it continues to recover from a historic recession. This deal is not perfect, nor is it the deal many of us would have made ourselves, but in the end and after weeks of partisan differences, both sides have come together and compromised to avoid an economic catastrophe. This agreement will begin the process of reducing our deficits and ensuring our long term recovery. Over the next weeks and months, we must do all that we can to make certain that a balanced and fair process that protects the most vulnerable in our society follows this first step.

We know how our enormous deficits began. In 2000, we had the largest budget surplus in history: $236 billion. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was projecting surpluses of $5 trillion from 2001 through 2010. President Bush rejected President Clinton’s policies and set us on a new path paved with large deficits financed by foreign debt. Two huge tax cuts, two wars, and the Medicare prescription drug program – none of which was paid for – produced an enormous fiscal hole. This was compounded by the economic mismanagement in the financial sector which caused the recession.

To address this issue, President Obama created the Bipartisan Fiscal Commission, on which I was honored to serve. I spent much of that time listening to experts explain the risk that our growing debt poses to our national well-being. The results are alarming. The debt now exceeds $14 trillion and will explode to even more unsustainable levels in the future unless we act to reduce it now. If we do nothing to tackle our debt obligation, interest payments alone could exceed $1 trillion dollars in 2020.

In recent months, I have worked with a bipartisan group of my colleagues to craft a balanced plan for controlling our federal deficits. Throughout my service in Congress, I have supported a range of proposals to cut spending. Just as American families have had to cut back on spending, Congress, too, must make tough choices. There are only two honest ways to reduce our debt: cut spending and raise revenues. I am committed to pursuing proposals that do both. This is going to require sacrifice from both sides of the aisle. The debt is not a partisan problem, it is an American problem. The Budget Control Act will decrease our deficit by over $2 trillion in the next decade. It is a first step, not the final one.

I will continue to work to find commonsense solutions to rein in our ballooning debt without risking the economic recovery or breaking promises to senior citizens, working families, and future generations.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me. I will keep your comments in mind as this debate continues.
Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

In my opinion, the key statement of economic ignorance is this: “Just as American families have had to cut back on spending, Congress, too, must make tough choices.“ He does not understand the difference between Monetarily Sovereign federal financing and personal, kitchen-table financing.

For over forty years, the U.S. has been Monetarily Sovereign, and Congress still doesn’t understand it.

Just one little clown — the 1353rd –for Senator Durbin. He already has one from a previous post, so while pile them on.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

==========================================================================================================================================
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
b>Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment + Private Consumption + Net exports

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY