Tag: Recession Clock

The real rea$on gun$ are not well controlled

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

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest.r.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

There were 12,282 gun deaths this year according to Gun Violence Archive.

And according to Mass Shooting Tracker there have been at least 353 mass shootings in America so far this year, with still almost a month to go. (A mass shooting is defined as “four or more people shot in an event, or related series of events, likely without a cooling off period.”.)

You don’t hear much about mass knifings, mass baseball battings, mass stranglings, mass throwing-off-of-cliffings, etc. for the simple reason that guns are uniquely designed to commit mass violence. They are the tool of choice when one wishes to commit large-scale mayhem.

There are more guns in America than people. And control over gun sales is minimal. Anyone can go to a gun show and buy the most lethal weapons there, and no one will ask questions.

You can tattoo the words, “I’m a mass murderer” on your forehead, and still buy guns from your next-door neighbor or from a stranger in the street, — and no test, no registration required. It’s all legal.

You need a license and skill-testing to drive a car, and an official title to buy one. Not so with guns.

And you need not belong to a “well-regulated” militia or a well-regulated anything.

Why?

Because in its most recent interpretation of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, the right wing of the Supreme Court decided that of all the phrases in the U.S. Constitution, the following uniquely has no meaning whatsoever: “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state. . . “

They are “throw-away” words, to be ignored — the only meaningless phrase in the Constitution.

Little did the Amendment’s authors know.

Normally courts, and especially the Supreme Court, parse every sentence, every phrase, every word in the law when making a judgment. Guns are unique in the right wing world.

It was not always thus. In its earlier manifestations, the words “well-regulated militia” were taken quite seriously.

Conflict and compromise in Congress produce the Bill of Rights

James Madison’s initial proposal for a bill of rights was brought to the floor of the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789, during the first session of Congress. The initial proposed passage relating to arms was:

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well-regulated militia being the best security of a free country but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.

On July 21, Madison again raised the issue of his bill and proposed a select committee be created to report on it. The House voted in favor of Madison’s motion, and the Bill of Rights entered committee for review. The committee returned to the House a reworded version of the Second Amendment on July 28.

On August 17, that version was read into the Journal:

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; but no person religiously scrupulous shall be compelled to bear arms.

In late August 1789, the House debated and modified the Second Amendment. These debates revolved primarily around risk of “mal-administration of the government” using the “religiously scrupulous” clause to destroy the militia as Great Britain had attempted to destroy the militia at the commencement of the American Revolution.

These concerns were addressed by modifying the final clause, and on August 24, the House sent the following version to the Senate:

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; but no one religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.

The next day, August 25, the Senate received the amendment from the House and entered it into the Senate Journal.

However, the Senate scribe added a comma before “shall not be infringed” and changed the semicolon separating that phrase from the religious exemption portion to a comma:

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, but no one religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.

By this time, the proposed right to keep and bear arms was in a separate amendment, instead of being in a single amendment together with other proposed rights such as the due process right. As a Representative explained, this change allowed each amendment to “be passed upon distinctly by the States.”

On September 4, the Senate voted to change the language of the Second Amendment by removing the definition of militia, and striking the conscientious objector clause:

A well regulated militia, being the best security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The Senate returned to this amendment for a final time on September 9. A proposal to insert the words “for the common defence” next to the words “bear arms” was defeated. An extraneous comma added on August 25 was also removed.

The Senate then slightly modified the language and voted to return the Bill of Rights to the House. The final version passed by the Senate was:

A well regulated militia being the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

The House voted on September 21, 1789 to accept the changes made by the Senate, but the amendment as finally entered into the House journal contained the additional words “necessary to”:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution) was adopted, having been ratified by three-fourths of the states.

In United States v. Miller (1939), the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government and the states could limit any weapon types not having a “reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia”.

It is clear that the drafters of the 2nd Amendment wanted the existence of a “well-regulated militia” to be the basis for the public keeping and bearing arms.

After all, what fool would want everyone to carry highly lethal weapons with no supervision, no education and no licensing, whatsoever. The authors of the Constitution were smarter than that.

However:

In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), and McDonald v. Chicago (2010). In Heller, the Supreme Court resolved any remaining circuit splits by ruling that the Second Amendment protects an individual right.

Justice Scalia, writing for the Court in Heller:  The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, not such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free State.

If you believe this was an example of turning and twisting words to come to an illogical conclusion, I agree with you.

Why then, after 200+ years of judicial thought in one direction, did the right wing of the Supreme Court do an about-face, and change the meaning of the 2nd Amendment?

It has to do with the right wing’s traditional appeasement of business.

Gun industry execs admit business booms following mass shootings, as sales ‘just went crazy’ after Sandy Hook massacre

The dirty little secret behind mass shootings across the country is that the gun industry is cashing in on them.

And the executives admit it.

“The gun business was very much accelerated based on what happened after the (2012) election and then the tragedy that happened at Sandy Hook,” Ed Stack, the chief executive of Dick’s Sporting Goods, said in September 2014.

“You can see after a tragedy, there’s also a lot of buying,” Jeff Buchanan, the chief financial officer of Smith & Wesson, said two years ago.

The seemingly callous comments were made not to the public, but behind closed doors at various industry events, according to The Intercept website.

The key element is money:

James Debney, Smith & Wesson’s chief executive, told investors in 2013 that “the tragedy in Newtown and the legislative landscape” resulted in sales that were “significantly up.”

“Fear and uncertainty that there might be increased gun control drove many new people to buy firearms for the first time.”

 

Fear and uncertainty. Fear and uncertainty. Those are the keys to gun sales.

The armament manufacturers and their paid stooges at the NRA absolutely love a mass murder. It’s money in their pockets.  It’s the next best thing to an all-out war.

And what has been the mantra of the Republican party? Fear and uncertainty. Fear of immigrants: Central, South American and Mexican. Fear of Syrian immigrants. Fear of Muslims. Fear of ISIS. Fear of gays. Fear of blacks. Fear of Jews. Fear of Catholics. Fear of gangs. Fear of the government.

Fear of THEM!

Republican fear mongering, on behalf of weapons manufacturers, has terrorized those who feel threatened by various elements in their lives. So terrorized are Americans, that whenever someone speaks of any type of sensible gun control, the reaction is rage and hatred.

Cleverly, the weapons makers, in cahoots with the Republican party (the notorious “military / industrial complex”), have created a highly profitable arms race, not only internationally, but right here in America.

Guns kill. The more guns, the more killing. So because more people have guns, you need guns to protect yourself. And when you buy guns, other people need to buy guns to protect themselves against you.

And then you need to buy even more guns, to protect yourself against them. It’s a self-replicating, tit-for-tat, endless system.

Fear and uncertainty — and money. That has replaced the “well-regulated militia” in our Constitution.

Wars are profitable, even domestic wars. And by pitting Americans against Americans and immigrants, the right has created a very profitable war, indeed.

Money is why guns are not more controlled.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions. Recessions come after the blue line drops below zero and when deficit growth declines.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recessions, each of which has been cured only when the growth lines rose.

Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions. Recessions come after the blue line drops below zero and when deficit growth declines.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recessions, each of which has been cured only when the growth lines rose.

Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

Rubio’s indentured servant plan for college students

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

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest.r.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

The Gap is the difference between the rich/powerful and the rest of us.

Without the Gap, no one would be rich (we all would be the same), and the wider the Gap, the richer the rich are. That is one result of the Gap: To separate the rich from the rest.

But, the Gap has another purpose: To give the rich control over the rest of us, and here is where Marco Rubio’s plan comes in:

Rubio’s College-Cost Plan Deserves a Chance
15 DEC 2, 2015, By Paula Dwyer (Paula Dwyer writes editorials on economics, finance and politics. She was previously London bureau chief for Businessweek and Washington economics editor for the New York Times.)

Marco Rubio has taken a lot of heat for endorsing what some have derided as indentured servitude for college students.

Intriguingly, the plan the Republican presidential candidate is backing is indentured servitude, though strictly voluntary, as he keeps pointing out.

It’s also one of the more promising solutions to the U.S. student-debt predicament.

Never mind that indentured servitude during the 17th and 18th century also was largely voluntary. It was oppressive and intolerable then; it would be oppressive and intolerable now.

[Indentured servitude was a labor system where people paid for their passage to the New World by working for an employer for a certain number of years. It was widely employed in the 18th century in the British colonies in North America and elsewhere.

It was especially used as a way for the poor in Britain and the German states to get passage to the American colonies.

They would work for a fixed number of years, then be free to work on their own. The employer purchased the indenture from the sea captain who brought the people over; he did so because he needed labor.

About half of the white immigrants to the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries were indentured.]

When people are desperate, they often will “volunteer” to do desperate things.

The rich count on that. Workers in the infamous garment industry sweatshops were largely “voluntary.”

The new method, called income sharing, typically involves a “loan” from investors to students.

Instead of paying the money back with interest, students contract to pay their investors a set percentage of income for a fixed number of years after graduation.

The concept dates to 1955, when economist Milton Friedman concluded it made no sense to require new graduates to make fixed loan payments when earnings are so low.

Instead, he suggested, why not make equity investments in human beings?

Investors could finance college students by buying a share in their earnings prospects.

Successful graduates, some of whom would pay back more than the initial investment, would compensate for the unsuccessful ones.

It all sounds so neat and cozy. Poor kids would take out these loans. (Rich kids won’t need Rubio’s loans)

Those poor kids, who need every penny they earn would, for years and years, give some percentage of their earnings to rich people.

What a concept!

But it gets even better:

Investors are more likely to offer generous repayment terms to students who choose fields in great demand, and who select colleges with a high rate of return on their degrees.

Said another way, “Investors are more likely to offer onerous repayment terms to students who choose fields or colleges the investors don’t like.”

The rich investors would gain control over:
1. The subjects students study.
2. The colleges the students attend.
3. The subjects those colleges offer.
4. The percentage of salary the students must pay.
5. The number of years the students must pay.

If you prove to be a good, little indentured slave er, ah, servant, you might even get a break on those terms — or not. That would depend on what your rich master wants.

Forget about studying in less remunerative areas like teaching, agriculture, physics, mathematics, geology and other sciences (How much do those guys make, anyway?) And for sure, don’t work for charities or other “do-gooder” enterprizes. We’d have to make you work for us, for the rest of your life.

We rich want you poor people to study banking, investing and other business courses, so  you can work for our companies. That’s where the real dollars are and that is where we’ll make the most money.

The college-debt problem is worse than we thought, recent data show. Outstanding balances now exceed $1.2 trillion, four times the amount of 12 years ago.

One in six borrowers is delinquent or in default.

Low-income borrowers, especially those attending historically black institutions, two-year community colleges and for-profit universities, hold much of the outstanding debt — and are behind 70 percent of the defaults.

The poorer you are, the more difficult it is for you to pay off your loan. Knowing that, what will an investor do?

Right. He will not make the loan or he will demand a high percentage from poorer people’s salaries, i.e those “repayment terms” mentioned earlier.

Bottom line: Rich investors want to own the rest of us. They want to get in on the thievery, while restoring the indentured servant system that traps the poor into never-ending servitude.

So they came up with this corollary to Bush’s attempt to privatize Social Security — a program to enrich Wall Street and create debt servants.

Of course, the whole thing is a gigantic, right-wing scam — completely unnecessary and economically damaging.

Think:

If elementary school students don’t pay for school. And high school students don’t pay for school. Why should college students pay for school?

And if monetarily non-sovereign cities can pay for elementary school, and monetarily non-sovereign counties and states can pay for high school, why can’t the Monetarily Sovereign federal government pay for college?

We could eliminate the disgraceful trillion dollar weight on the poor and middle classes with one simple law — a law similar to the one that makes elementary and high school free:

See: Federal payment for college.

Suggest that, and listen to the rich squeal.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions. Recessions come after the blue line drops below zero and when deficit growth declines.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recessions, each of which has been cured only when the growth lines rose.

Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

I don’t blame Trump

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

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

I don’t blame Trump.

He is what he is: A bigot, a megalomaniac, a tyrant and the would-be fuehrer of the United States of America. (“Fuehrer” means “leader,” but in Trump’s case “fuehrer” is more appropriate.)

All Hail Der Donald!
By Roger Simon

Do not say you were not warned. Der Donald has warned you.

Security is going to rule in America. And unthinkable things will be done.  Don’t believe me? Ask him.

“We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule. … So we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.”

On Saturday, a black man began shouting at a Trump speech in Birmingham, Alabama. People shout at Trump speeches all the time. But there are things you are allowed to shout, such as “We love you, Donald!”

And there are certain things you are not allowed to shout, such as “Trump is a racist!”

The black man was kicked and punched. Trump looked down upon him with lofty disdain. “Get him the hell out of here!” Trump said. “Throw him out.” The man was led away.

Trump would protect us from such people as president.

But I don’t blame Trump.  He is what he is:   A bigot, a megalomaniac, a tyrant and the would-be fuehrer of the United States of America.

I blame the people who support him.  I blame the good Republicans who are too cowardly to call him out.  I blame the “religious” (irony) right wing.

The price we would pay would be tiny. We would give up a civil liberty here, a freedom there.

Certain people would be registered. Their houses of worship would be spied upon. Names would be taken down.

But as long as these people are not Christians, do you really care? Trump is betting you do not.

We didn’t care when blacks were turned into slaves then hung from trees. We didn’t care when Jews were thrown into ovens and mass graves.  We didn’t care when native-born Americans lost their homes, because  their grandparents came from Japan or when native Americans were sent to reservations.

We don’t care when unarmed black men are murdered by police.

And now we don’t care again.

“I want surveillance of these people,” Trump has said. “I want surveillance if we have to, and I don’t care. … I want surveillance of certain mosques, OK?”

Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor who first supported and then opposed Adolf Hitler, was imprisoned in concentration camps,  but felt he never did enough to speak out against fascism, especially when Hitler still could have been stopped.

Today he might have written:

“First they came for the black people, and I did not speak out — because I was not black.

“Then they came for the Muslims, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Muslim.

“When they come for you and me, who will be left to speak out?”

“Too many people have suffered and too many people have died for us to continue to hear racist words coming from major political leaders,” Bernie Sanders says.

“Turning away orphans, applying a religious test, discriminating against Muslims, slamming the door on every Syrian refugee — that is just not who we are. We are better than that,” Hillary Clinton says.

And what of Trump’s opponents for the Republican nomination? Most grovel and fawn.

They really don’t care that Trump wants to register Muslims, just as long as he doesn’t want to register guns.

I don’t blame Trump.  He is what he is:   A bigot, a megalomaniac, a tyrant and the would-be fuehrer of the United States of America.

I blame the good people who are only too glad to see other people’s lives destroyed, so long as their own lives are safe — safe temporarily, until he comes for them.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions. Recessions come after the blue line drops below zero and when deficit growth declines.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recessions, each of which has been cured only when the growth lines rose.

Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–When did the priests make the Constitution obsolete?

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

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
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The article, France’s Tragic Irony, By Michael Galli, was written in response to the recent terrorist actions.

The article makes reference to France’s contributions to our Constitution.

The great American experiment owes much to our brothers and sisters in France. Long before the emergence of the U.S. Empire, the works of Descartes (gift of reason), Voltaire (separation of church and state), and Rousseau (power derives from the people), helped underpin the framing of our Declaration of Independence and subsequent Constitution.

In fact, another French philosopher, Montesquieu (separation of powers), was cited more often by America’s Founding Fathers than any other historical figure save for St. Paul of the bible.

Yet when the government of France applied the reasoning of these same enlightened philosophers to oppose America’s 2003 preemptive war in Iraq, many in our nation heaped scorn upon the French.

The American press called them “wimps and weasels,” state rep Stephan Bararr sponsored a bill to ban the sale of French wine in Pennsylvania, and Congressmen Walter Jones and Bob Ney were responsible for changing the name of “french fries” to “freedom fries” in three D.C. congressional restaurants.

It is hard to escape the tragic irony visited upon France considering that the rise of ISIS is a direct result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq that her government opposed.

Yes, it is an irony that France now suffers the effects of President Bush’s misguided invasion of Iraq. But this irony has nothing to do with our Constitution, for our Constitution was obsolete before the ink dried.

Although the Constitution masquerades as a set of laws, by which the nation must abide, it is nothing of the sort.

The Constitution is a statement of desires, — an “I-hope-the-country-will-be-like this” list — written by powerful men who lived more than two centuries ago, well before antibiotics, computers, atomic bombs, airplanes, automobiles and the Internet.

The Constitution doesn’t speak of abortion or gay marriage, though the Supreme Court pretends it does. The Constitution was written and interpreted to allow for slavery, but not for women voting.

The Constitution, like the bible, says whatever the priests want it to say. In the case of the Constitution, the “priests” are the Supreme Court.

Thus suddenly, after more than 200 years, the priests tell us the Constitution now “says” everyone has the right to carry a gun down the street, and rich people can spend as much as they wish, to swing elections, and money is free speech and corporations, being people, are capable of having sincere religious beliefs.

References to the Constitution, as a means to prove a point, usually demonstrate intellectual dishonesty. One might as well reference the bible, to justify stoning a woman to death for not being a virgin — or for being gay.

Yes, the Constitution is obsolete. All that matters are the Supreme Court and the desires of the rich. They bend the Constitution as they see fit.

To quote one of the commenters on the above-mentioned post, Dale Ruff:

The Constitution did not embody the core democratic values of the Declaration of Independence (equality and consent of the governed); the Constitution was written by a totally different group of men 95% slaveowners, who feared democracy and created a strong central government controlled by rich white males (literally the 1% who were allowed to vote and run for office) in the earliest elections.

It’s time to abandon the myth/lie that the Declaration and the Constitution share the same democratic values. They do not. The Constitution was a counter-revolution, and until we understand that fact and deal with it, we will continue to be a plutocracy ruled by the 1%, pretending to be a democracy.

Until we come to terms with the anti-democratic character of our Constitution, we will fail to understand our own history and continue to make false comparisons with other nations, including France.

And therein lies the greatest danger of the widening Gap between the rich and the rest — not just the impoverishment of the middle classes and the poor, but the excessive, corrupted power of the rich.

The Constitution neither is democratic nor anti-democratic, as Mr. Ruff claims. Rather it is a general wish list, to be interpreted by whomever is in power.

It was obsolete from the very beginning, being nothing more than an all-purpose crutch to support any conceivable argument.

Because power corrupts, the only solution is to reduce the comparative power, i.e to reduce the Gap, and this would require some measure of economic understanding by the populace.

The rich don’t riot or commit personal acts of terror. They send the poor, and justify it all with corrupted interpretations of an obsolete Constitution or bible.

Muslim leaders stoke anger at non-Muslims and Christian leaders stoke anger at non-Christians. So they lash out at one another. But the anger is misdirected.

It should be aimed at the leaders who interpret our sacred documents: Our Constitution, our bible, our koran.

They shouldn’t be angry at the documents or the followers of the documents.

They should be angry at the priests.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
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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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions. Recessions come after the blue line drops below zero and when deficit growth declines.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recessions, each of which has been cured only when the growth lines rose.

Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY