Unemployment down? Now a depression is assured.

There was a time recently, when even a recession was unthinkable. The latest Republican budget had indicated more than a trillion dollars in new deficit spending — more than a trillion new growth dollars added to the economy.

Then came COVID-19.

How Far Will The Market Fall? — **Coming to you, courtesy of the GOP.**

The economy was crushed and continues to be crushed, by many trillions of dollars. How many? No one knows.

Months ago, I wrote that at least $7 trillion in new deficit spending would be needed to save the economy.

Now, it could take at least ten trillion dollars, probably much more.

Whatever the actual number, it definitely is far more than the three trillion the government already has voted in, and even that came from great pressure by the Democrats.

Yes, to prevent a recession, or even a depression, many more trillions are needed.

And then we read this:

Will Republicans doom Trump by declaring premature economic victory?
Ryan Cooper, THEWEEK

For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic struck, we now have a pretty decent jobs report.

There were 2.5 million new jobs in May, the biggest number recorded since statistics started being recorded in 1939.

The unemployment rate fell somewhat to 13.3 percent. Republicans were jubilant. “It’s a stupendous number. It’s joyous, let’s call it like it is. The Market was right. It’s stunning!” President Trump posted during his usual morning cable news live-tweet.

White House economic adviser Stephen Moore told the Washington Post‘s Jeff Stein that no more rescue was needed: “There’s no reason to have a major spending bill. The sense of urgent crisis is very greatly dissipated by the report.”

A Senate Republican aide added: “This definitively kills any chance of trillions of new spending.”

At the May rate, we will not reach the pre-crisis employment level for about eight months — or January of 2021.

But there is little reason to suspect even that will happen. The economic rescue payment has long passed, applications to the small business grant program will end at the end of June, and super-unemployment is set to expire at the end of July.

The gigantic austerity and layoffs from state and local governments will be a further ongoing drag on recovery.

And there it is, folks. The suicide pact between Donald Trump and the Republican party now is signed, sealed, and delivered.

The Republicans — Moscow Mitch McConnell, Bill Barr, Lindsey Graham, et al — eventually will disavow their allegiance to Trump, i.e. claim they never were his puppets. But it will be too late.

Belatedly, all but the most mindless of Trump’s followers will accept what they already know, but have not yet allowed themselves to see: Trump concentrates into one hideous body, all of the bad qualities possessed by the entire human race.

He single-handedly is destroying America.

Ironically, it is the Democrats who are calling for more growth trillions to be added to our economy. Seemingly, they are the sole party that actually cares about the futures of the planet, the nation, the states, and the people.

The Republicans care about the rich and votes, but will lose both by the time November rolls around.

Just as Donald Trump and the GOP are crowing about the current rebound from the deep depths to the shallower depths — a rebound which federal deficit spending made possible — the right-wing will try to distance themselves from the coming crash.

And if by some miracle, the GOP-led Senate adopts enough Democrat recommendations to cause even a tiny growth bump in our shattered economy, Trump and the GOP will crow about that, too.

But it will be too late. Too late for the economy, too late for Trump, too late for the GOP, and too late for suffering Americans.

Destroying is much easier than building. Trump and the trumpers will have destroyed what was America, and only an heroic effort by people of wisdom and vision could have any chance to rebuild us.

The irony of Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again,” will not be lost.

Later, in an amazing display cluelessness, the rich will demand tax increases — on the poor, of course — to “pay for” the deficits.

Blackrock, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Finkwarned clients on a call last week that the U.S. will have to raise taxes to pay for the emergency economic rescue.

Ray Dalio, founder of the investment management firm Bridgewater Associates LP told JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s private-banking clients to expect higher tax rates no matter who wins November’s race for the White House.

The above are examples of the rich “grooming the public” for tax increases (together with new tax avoidance mechanisms available only to the rich).

The truth is: Our Monetarily Sovereign federal government has no need for taxes. Even if all federal tax collections totaled $0, the federal government could continue deficit spending forever.

Federal tax collects fall most heavily on the not-rich. Even corporate taxes batter the employees and the customers, far more than any effect on rich corporate executives.

In summary:

The current administration will cause a depression by telling the Big Lie, that federal deficits are “unsustainable.
Trump will take no blame, but will boast about any slight uptick in the long fall.
During the depression, the Gap between the rich and the rest will widen.
Poverty will increase dramatically.
Desperate workers will be forced to accept the worst jobs at the worst pay under the worst conditions.
The very rich will grow richer.

And the public will wonder how this could have happened.

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 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

Should there be workers’ unions in government?

Lest there be any doubt, I am pro-union. My father was in a union; I was in two unions, , and I feel that we and our employers benefited by the existence of those unions.

Unquestionably, in the absence of a union, most employers hold a much stronger hand than do most individual employees.

Yes, there are exceptions. Some employees are so valuable that the employer would lose more than the employee would lose, if the employee were to be fired. But these truly are exceptions.

How the Chicago Teachers' Strike Extends Beyond Schools | Time — **Unions make many different executive demands.**

How unions benefit employees is clear — better pay, benefits, and working conditions — but less obvious is how unions benefit employers.

One surprising example is professional sports. While unions help athletes make enormous salaries, they also put a lid on total team salaries.

Without that lid, salaries would explode to the point of bankrupting teams, thereby killing the golden-egg goose.

Unions often train workers and insist on certain levels of personnel and production quality. Unions often fight bigotry (though the reverse sometimes has been true).

On balance, unions are good for labor and for management (though management sometimes fights them).

But are unions appropriate for government agencies?

Management has several weapons at hand: Salaries, working conditions, benefits, etc. Workers have one big weapon: Quitting. Unions use strikes and the threat of strikes, as their ultimate bargaining tool.

Using that ultimate tool, unions have the power to demand many changes in business operations, often to the point of functioning as a quasi-management.

The title question then resolves around another question: Should a government union ever be allowed to strike?

The question is especially relevant now, as expressed by the following article:

Labor activists want to reform police unions. Union leaders don’t want to talk about it.

The killing of George Floyd has launched calls for reforming police forces nationwide, as well as reforming the unionsthat may have allowed the officers involved in Floyd’s death to keep working even after prior complaints.

But the leaders of major unions that represent those police unions have been reluctant to talk about reform — and are “tiptoeing” around police brutality altogether.

After the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, “the AFL-CIO began to talk more openly about racism in the police force,” Alexia Fernández Campbell writes.

Yet both then and today, Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO labor federation, has avoided placing any blame on individual officers.

“Police unions have written labor contracts that bar law enforcement agencies across the country from immediately interrogating or firing officers after egregious acts of misconduct,” Fernández Campbell notes.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin “had at least 17 complaints filed against him but never got more than a written reprimand,” leading advocates to call for reforming police unions or abolishing them altogether, Fernández Campbell continues.

Imagine: A police officer theoretically could throw hand grenades into a filled, 20,000 seat arena, and because of unions, no enforcement official could even question him, much less fire him.

Or imagine this: Because the police are the civilian version of the military, similar rules logically would apply. Would you vote to unionize the military? Would you want a union to dictate military strategy?

Government institutions are not like businesses. Generally they are vital institutions having a profound effect on the public.

If elementary school teachers go on strike, who suffers? Should a union have the power to dictate curriculum, teaching methods, staffing, class size?

If firefighters would exercise the power to go on strike, who suffers? What should a union be able to direct?

If postal workers would go on strike, who would suffer? What should a union be able to direct?

If the police were to go on strike, who would suffer?

Should unions have executive power over these vital institutions?

We already have seen far too many examples of police unions defending the most horrendous crimes by police officers.

The irony is that police unions actually can weaken police officers by reducing public trust. Much of the public has come to believe that the police do not defend them, but rather care only for their own little blue clique.

When the public doesn’t trust the police, the public won’t cooperate with the police. The police then find themselves not only battling criminals, but battling the public at large.

When a police officer believe that he is unloved by the public, this is one emotional result:

Record number of US police officers died by suicide in 2019

A record number of current or former police officers died by suicide last year, according to Blue H.E.L.P., a nonprofit that works to reduce stigmas tied to mental health issues for those in law enforcement.

When a government worker — any government worker — whose job generally is to help the public, feels that the public is his/her primary enemy, the job-stress can interfere with job performance.

You should have empathy for the often underpaid, overworked government employees, but you also should have concern for the overall public. A teacher strike hits at the heart of our nation, as would a firefighter strike, a postal strike, a police strike, a soldier strike, etc. . . .

I submit that no government workers should be allowed to unionize. Their work is too vital for the nation, to allow for union executive control.

Government unions are bad for the public and bad for the workers.

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.”

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

Here’s a great idea Mr. President

Here’s a great idea Mr. President:

You know the people whose ancestors come from “sh*thole countries”? Well, for some reason, they are protesting against the police repeatedly singling them out for brutal treatment, often ending in death.

So here is what you can do to get their vote:

Trump taken to underground bunker amid protests, calls for Antifa ...

First, we’ll gas all those peaceful protesters standing in front of the White House, so you can come out of hiding in your bunker and look tough.

You’ll be able to criticize the governors who don’t hide in bunkers for not being tough, while you refuse to support them financially, even at no cost to anyone.

Police officers wearing riot gear push back demonstrators near the White House in Washington on June 1.

Then, we can clear a path for you to stride dramatically in front of all your bootlickers. You won’t wear a mask, and so neither will your bootlickers, while every truthful non-bootlicker advises Americans to wear masks..

(“Hey, who is that one tall woman back there wearing a mask?”)

Don’t worry, Mr. President, you can fire her this afternoon.

Trump walking out of white house

Then, you can stand in front of a church you’ve never attended, holding a book you’ve never read, and give a speech you didn’t write and barely can read, telling how much you support the protesters you just gassed.

Trump holding bible — **O.K., I held up the bible like you told me. Now can I go back and tweet?**

And, here’s the good part.

You can end your speech by blasting Democrats, Obama, Hillary, governors, mayors, Mexicans, blacks, the gays, the media, the one or two Fox newscasters who tell the truth, peaceful protesters, “the radical left,” antifa (being careful not to mention the radical right, white supremacists and boogaloo), and you can finish it off by telling the camera we all should work together and how you have been making America great, again.

Then back to the safety of your bunker for more tweeting.

That should make you popular among the “religious” right.

Does that work for you, Mr. President?

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.”

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

Is Trump a bigot? The surprising answer.

President Donald J. Trump acts like a bigot.

With regard to Mexicans and Mexican immigrants, he has said:

Image result for trump — **“These aren’t people. These are animals.**“

“When Mexico sends it people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,”

“The Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning. They send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them. They don’t want to take care of them,”

To Mexican-American journalist Jorge Ramos, “Sit down. Sit down … Go back to Univision.”

Regarding U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. “We’re building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings — rulings that people can’t even believe.” “I’m building a wall,” Trump said. “It’s an inherent conflict of interest.”

“Jeb Bush has to like the Mexican illegals because of his (Mexican-born) wife.”

With regard to gays:

Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed a federal policy that said transgender workers were protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Trump’s Justice Department made an unexpected move last July when it argued in a major federal lawsuit that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn’t protect gay workers from discrimination.

Trump’s The Bureau of Prisons eliminated rules that had allowed transgender inmates to use facilities, including cellblocks and bathrooms, that match their gender identity, increasing the likelihood of rape for transgender women.

The Trump administration supported a Christian bakery owner in Colorado who refused to make a cake for a gay couple’s wedding.

The Trump administration claimed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 does not ban anti-transgender discrimination in federally funded schools.

Trump announced he would ban transgender people from serving in the military. Trump spoke at an event where guests were warned of the “Hazards of Homosexuality.”

With regard to Muslims:

Called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

Trump lied: “There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations. . . They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down.”

“When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don’t know if they’re ISIS, we don’t know if it’s a Trojan horse. And I definitely want a database and other checks and balances. We want to go with watchlists. We want to go with databases. And we have no choice.”

Trump said, “I think Islam hates us.”

With regard to blacks:

A former employee of Trump’s Castle, in Atlantic City, said “When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor.”

“You know, you don’t want to live with them (blacks) either.”

The Central Park Five, were five youths of color, wrongly convicted of raping a white woman. Trump took out full page ads saying the youths should be executed. Even after they later were proved innocent, Trump said it was a disgrace that they were released.

When discussing immigration from Africa, Trump asked why America would want immigrants from “all these shithole countries” and that the U.S. should have more people coming in from places like Norway.

With regard to blind people:

In the Trump Tower elevator were dots next to the floor numbers. Trump asked what the dots were, and the architect said, “It’s braille.” Trump said, “Get rid of them. No blind people are going to live in this building.”

The above examples would seem to prove without any doubt that Donald Trump is a bigot. But, I suggest he is not a bigot.

A bigot is a person who hate classes of people, not individuals. A bigot hates people because of their color, religions, sexual orientation, country of origin, etc.

Donald Trump does not hate people. He doesn’t care about people.

I suggest that Donald Trump is a psychopath supporting anyone or any group that supports him, and assailing anyone who doesn’t.

In his view he, not you or anyone else, is the center of the universe, really the entire universe. No one person matters but him.

The Robert Hare Checklist of Psychopathy Symptoms

The Robert Hare Checklist of Psychopathy Symptoms consists of 20 symptoms which are rated 0 to 2. Zero means “does not apply,” one ‘applies somewhat’ and two ‘applies fully’. Subjects score between 0 and 40.

Normal individuals typically score less than five and many non-psychopathic criminals (who do actually have symptoms of antisocial personality disorder) may score 20 to 22.

A score over 30 on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised is used to diagnose the presence of psychopathy.

Trump scored a 39 out of a possible 40.

You can see the entire checklist and Trump’s scores here, but the criteria most relevant to this discussion are:

“I am a very stable genius.”

2. GRANDIOSE SELF-WORTH — a grossly inflated view of one’s abilities and self-worth, self-assured, opinionated, cocky, a braggart.

Psychopaths are arrogant people who believe they are superior human beings.

(Donald Trump called himself the “smartest person” in America in a Tweet goading Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO.) He repeatedly refers to himself as a “stable genius.”