–Anyone heard from #Occupy lately? Does anyone care?

Mitchell’s laws: The more budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. Until the 99% understand the need for deficits, the 1% will rule. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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It began with “Occupy Wall Street” and it had such great promise. It was going to be the antidote to the nutty and damaging Tea Party. It was going to lift the 99% from the slavery imposed by the 1%.

But something happened on the way to freedom.

I wrote about the Occupy movement several times. There was:

Nine steps to prosperity; a short message to #Occupy Wall Street,
Oct 7 2011
Do not devolve to class warfare. Punishing billionaires, banks and businesses does nothing for the underclasses or for the overall economy. In fact it would hurt the economy.

Far better to focus on helping the “little” people:

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
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)

Shortly thereafter, I wrote:

An open letter to #OWS — or in my geographical case, #Occupy Chicago
Oct 19 2011
Today, you are seen as leading an amorphous mob, a group threatening to bring down civilization. That’s why the politicians have been slow to back you. They don’t know what you want. You need to focus, focus, focus, so the world can visualize where you want to go, understand why you want to go there and how you will achieve it, and in that way, join you.

You need to understand, then teach, Monetary Sovereignty, first to your followers, then to the rest of the world. Those are your next steps. And there are plenty of us who can teach you. You have but to ask.

And again:

“Two views of the #Occupy movement,” or “These guys are a riot.”
May 3 2012
If they had read and understood Monetary Sovereignty, they would have proposed specific solutions to the growing gap — solutions such as: Eliminate FICA, provide Medicare to everyone, increase Social Security payments, annually increase the standard income tax deduction, etc. And they would be able to answer the typical, debt-hawk “inflation” concerns about social spending.

But no. #Occupy prefers protest-and-party to learn-and-propose. So “#Occupy” will fail the legitimacy test, the gap will grow, and Mr. Greenwald will continue to blame the class warfare on the victims.

And most recently:

#Occupy, to get ahead, get a head, and stay the hell away from Chicago during the NATO summit.
May 15 2012
If #Occupy wishes to make a statement, first it should have a statement to make — a sharp, clear, focused statement. And then it should make that statement, not in the maelstrom of a thousand screaming children, but on a calm, clear day, when their voices are the only ones to be heard.

In short, #Occupy, to get ahead you need to get a head, preferably one with enough good sense not to try painting a picture while standing under a waterfall. Sure, come to Chicago, but not at a time when you’ll be blamed for every misdeed, and accomplish nothing, except to have your message drowned out. Come when yours is the one voice, so the media can support your ideas.

So I decided to look in on them again, and this is what I found on the Occupy Wall Street web site:

The Silent March to End Stop and Frisk
On Father’s Day, let’s stand together to show that New Yorkers refuse to let our children be victimized by racial profiling.

Learning from Wisconsin
The massive uprising last winter in Madison, Wisconsin, that was spurred by Walker’s plans to balance the state deficit by slashing public workers’ benefits and wages. . .

Infinite Solidarité with Infinite Strike!
Last night, thousands of people across hundreds of cities once again rallied in solidarity with the Québec student strike.

Occupy Lakeview Elementary School – Closed by Oakland School District
At the end of this school year, the Oakland Unified School District plans to close five public elementary schools. . .

At Senate Hearing, Jamie Dimon confronted by Occupy Our Homes DC
Deborah Harris, a disabled former paramedic who lost the title to her home due to J.P. Morgan’s unethical business practices. . .

Ocupa Rio+20: Occupy the Earth Summit
Occupy the coming Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (the Earth Summit) on June 20-22.

Call for Solidarity from Mexico
. . . nonpartisan marches against political and media corruption in Mexico.

It goes on and on, protest after protest. Anti-racial profiling. Anti-union busting. Anti-tuition increases. Anti-school closings. Anti-mortgage fraud. Anti-unsustainable development. Anti-corruption. Anti-this, anti-that, anti-the other thing.

For reasons unknown, the Occupy movement seems to take a perverse pride in being leaderless and directionless, preferring to run hither and yon, protesting whatever strikes their fancy. No focus. No plan. No idea. Just protest.

The Tea Party has a simple, easily understood focus: Lower taxes. What is Occupy’s simple, easily understood focus?

The business and political leaders, against whom Occupy protests, have learned one thing: Do nothing. Occupy will protest and then they will be gone, and we can resume business as usual.

The public grows weary of ineffectual, random, aimless protests, and Occupy, which began with such great promise, becomes last week’s newspaper. A lost opportunity is a step backward, as people become discouraged and slide into lethargy.

Somewhere, in board rooms around the world, the 1% is laughing.

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

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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 exports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–When inmates run the asylum and porters steer the ship. This time, it’s Medicare.

This tiny article was buried on the lower half of page 9 in today’s Chicago Tribune:

Washington–A congressional agency Friday recommended makng traditional Medicare beneficiaries pay more money upfront for medical services.

A report by the non-partisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended a new 20% charge for the 90% of Medicare beneficiaries who buy supplemental insurance to cooovere medical cosgts that Medicarfe part A and Part B do not cover.

Now see if you can understand this. It affects all of you who unnecessarily pay Medicare taxes (the government doesn’t need or use your money), and who, because Medicare doesn’t pay enough to doctors, are forced to pay for supplementary insurance.

You will be punished for having to pay for your supplementary insurance, by having your benefits reduced 20%. Got it? You pay once (unnecessary taxes). Then you pay again (unnecessary supplementary insurance). And then you pay a third time (that unnecessary 20% benefit cut.)

You say you never heard of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission? Here’s a press release from the Government Accounting Office.

WASHINGTON, DC (May 24, 2012) – Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced the appointment of five new members and the reappointment of one existing member to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

Here is a list of the geniuses who made the recommendation to steal more money from your pocket — unnecessarily. See if you can point out the common denominator among them:

–Alice Coombs, MD, Critical Care Specialist and Anesthesiologist, South Shore Hospital, Weymouth, MA;
–Jack Hoadley, Ph.D., Research Professor, Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University, Washington, DC;
–David Nerenz, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI;
–Rita Redberg, MD, Professor, Clinical Medicine, University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, CA;
–Craig Samitt, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dean Health System, Inc., Madison, WI. Their terms will expire in April 2015.
–Glenn M. Hackbarth, JD (Chair)
–Peter W. Butler, MHSA, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Rush University Medical Center;
Michael Chernew, PhD, (Vice Chair) Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School;
–Willis D. Gradison, Jr., MBA, a Scholar in Residence in the Health Sector Management Program at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business;
–William J. Hall, MD, Director of the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Rochester School of Medicine;
–George N. Miller, Jr., MHSA, Chief Executive Officer, Okmulgee Memorial Hospital, Okmulgee, OK.
–Scott Armstrong, President and Chief Executive Officer of Group Health Cooperative;
–Katherine Baicker, PhD, Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health;
–Thomas M. Dean, MD, practicing physician, Horizon Health Care;
–Herb B. Kuhn, President and CEO, Missouri Hospital Association;
–Mary Naylor, PhD, RN, Marian S.Ware Professor in Gerontology and Director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing;
–Cori Uccello, FSA, Senior Health Fellow of the American Academy of Actuaries.

See the similarity? Medicare fees are a question of economics. But here we have sixteen commissioners and not one is an economist! They understand medicine, but none understands the realities of today’s economy.

They all believe our Monetarily Sovereign government is running short of the dollars it has the unlimited ability to create. So, they have decided to take more dollars from your pocket (because obviously you are not running short of dollars).

Congress established MedPAC in 1997 to analyze access to care, cost and quality of care, and other key issues affecting Medicare. MedPAC advises Congress on payments to health plans participating in the Medicare Advantage program and providers in Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service programs.

In short, they are a bunch of medical folks, who wouldn’t know a Monetarily Sovereign government, if they were in it. Oops, they are, but they don’t.

They know medicine, but have no clue about federal financing — so naturally, the Comptroller General thinks they are perfect for the job.

Note: This bit of expensive ignorance brought to you by the same folks who decided to tax your Social Security benefits after taxing you with FICA.

And who does all this hurt the most? Surprise! It’s the lower 99% income group; the upper 1% couldn’t care less. They don’t need Medicare. Their corporations pay for their insurance.

And the beat goes on.

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

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Times are bad, so let’s toss out the aliens. Protectionism always has worked for us in the past.

Here are a few excerpts from an article that is sure to precede months of controversy.

Washington Post
Young illegal immigrants’ amnesty could tighten competition for jobs, college
By Pamela Constable, Published: June 15

President Obama has just opened a floodgate of opportunity for young illegal immigrants in the United States, but could it squeeze the aspirations of legal Americans in the process?

A “floodgate” of opportunity? You mean like millions of aliens will be flooding into the United States? Let’s get real:

1. The population of the United States is about 315 million.

2. According to the article, “An estimated 1.4 million children and young adults live in the United States illegally.” So we will be giving temporary, legal status to what amounts to four tenths of 1% of our population. Some “flood.”

3. The “young illegal immigrants” already live here. They won’t be “flooding” anything. All this will do is allow them to do legally, what they have been doing illegally.

Across the nation Friday, immigrant advocates and Hispanic youth groups hailed Obama’s decision to offer legal status to some undocumented immigrants under 30 as a watershed in U.S. immigration history and a long-sought victory for ambitious youths denied a chance to realize the American dream.

“I thank God for this day. It has changed my whole life,” Jorge Acuna, 19, a college student in Silver Spring who came to the United States with his family as a child. . . Now, under the amnesty, he will be able to pursue his degree in engineering.

Will the U.S. benefit or suffer from young Mr. Acuna’s degree in engineering?

But opponents of illegal immigration warned that the policy could create significant new competition for jobs and university slots at a time of nationwide recession and numerous states’ efforts to curb public spending.

“I see a tidal wave coming,” said Brad Botwin, president of Help Save Maryland, a group that opposes legalization for undocumented immigrants. “Half of our college graduates today can’t find jobs, and the unemployment rate for high-school-aged Americans is extremely high. This is unfair to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who are out there struggling to get ahead.”

From a “flood,” we now have moved to a “tidal wave.” What next, a tsunami? He says, “Half of our college graduates today can’t find jobs.” Really? I’d love to see the statistics on that one. And why can’t people find jobs? Because that four tenths of one precent is taking all of them? Gimme a break.

This is typical of the xenophobic, protectionist, scare tactics we always see during difficult times. Yes, the economy is recovering too slowly, and yes, unemployment is too high, but is that really because of undocumented aliens?

Every time this nation suffers, the panic mongers turn us into fortress America. During the Great Depression, we tried to “keep jobs from going overseas,” by increasing import duties. You know how well that worked.

Under the new policy, as many as 1.4 million undocumented immigrants under age 30 will be able to apply for the amnesty, allowing them to work and attend college legally. To be eligible, they must have been in the United States for five years, have no criminal record, and attend high school or college or be a military veteran.

The panic mongers would like to toss out young people who attend high school or college or served our nation in the armed forces, and who have no criminal record. Are these the people who are a danger to America?

The policy does not provide permanent legal residency, but it protects those who qualify from being deported and gives them a chance to renew their new status every two years. It also does not grant any public benefits, such as Medicare and Medicaid. Federal law already grants all undocumented immigrants the right to a public-school education and emergency hospital care.

Why no Medicare or Medicaid? There are two other choices: Sick children could go to those expensive hospital emergency rooms. Alternatively, we could let those children get sick and die. As an American, I opt for giving them Medicare or Medicaid. The federal government could pay, and there need be no additional taxes. So, why not?

“Texas and California will definitely benefit from this,” said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles, adding that the two states have large populations of Hispanic immigrants who will now be able to open businesses, hire people and earn more.

You won’t hear that from any of the panic mongers. All they will tell you is negative myths about lost jobs.

California, Texas and eight other states have laws giving in-state tuition benefits to illegal immigrants. Maryland passed such a law, but it has been stalled by legal challenges. The new federal policy does not address this issue, however. At the other end of the spectrum, Arizona and Alabama have passed tough laws barring illegal immigrants from a range of activities and allowed police to check their legal status.

Which states are acting more like real Americans — California, Texas and the eight other states, or Arizona and Alabama, which seem to have forgotten what it means to be American?

The new federal policy is a strange compromise between compassionate, logical Americans vs the panic mongers. The whole process of becoming a citizen is so crazy, it needs to be fixed. Why does it take 5-10 years? What’s the problem? Do we really have too many consumers in America? Do we really have too many people being educated, too many people starting small businesses, too many people hiring other people, too many people who are not criminals?

Immigration advocates as well as critics said the new policy is far from an adequate substitute for an overhaul of the entire federal immigration system. “Due to congressional inaction, we have seen a lot of laws passed at the state level that in many cases only add chaos,” said Clarissa Martinez, an official of the National Council of La Raza in Washington. “Where the administration is justified and able, they should intervene, as they have done in this case. But it only intensifies the need for Congress to act.”

Congress will do the right thing, when every possible wrong thing has been tried and failed. There is no reason why becoming a citizen should take longer than a year. Someone applies, his/her background is checked, and if he’s O.K., he gets his papers. That’s all it should be. America is a long, long way from having too many people.

The most significant and contentious aspect of the new policy is that it automatically grants hundreds of thousands of people in their teens and 20s — most of them from Mexico and Central America — the right to work in the United States. Many may have already been working, but as undocumented laborers they often had to accept low wages and poor conditions.

So those people won’t be taking someone’s job; they merely will receive better pay and working conditions. And this is a bad thing??

When times are difficult, the protectionists always come crawling out of the woodwork, looking to scare you with scapegoats. In 1930’s Germany, it was the Jews, who were taking over the world. After WWII, it was the Japanese, who were producing low, cost stuff, and using their profits to buy Hawaii. More recently yet, it has been the Chinese, who are “stealing our jobs.” (Never mind that their low cost goods help prevent inflation, here.)

Today, the panic-mongers tell us to fear the undocumented Mexican immigrants. (Strangely, no concern is expressed about undocumented Canadian, British, French, or Australian immigrants. It’s the Mexican border states that are all atwitter.)

The bottom line: Rather than stealing jobs, the undocumented aliens are consumers, who through their consuming, create jobs. When they go to college, the increase in America’s brain power helps this nation grow and compete.

Bottom line: Do we really want evict all those young people, who have lived here five years, never have committed a crime and either are going to school or serving in our military? They’re here, so what do we want to do about them?

Young people, whether their skin is black, tan, yellow or white, are America’s future. We need more, not fewer, young people, to give us the energy and drive that has made America great. We should not allow the panic mongers to make xenophobes of us all.

It’s cruel and it’s bad economics.

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

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Or, we could have moved inland, to higher ground . . .

This lovely structure is what can happen when man decides to fight nature.

New York Times

Vast Defenses Now Shielding New Orleans
By John Schwartz
Published: June 14, 2012

NEW ORLEANS — Finally, there is a wall around this city.

Nearly seven years after flood waters from Hurricane Katrina gushed over New Orleans, $14.5 billion worth of civil works designed to block such surges is now in place — a 133-mile chain of levees, flood walls, gates and pumps too vast to take in at once, except perhaps from space.

Two “lift gates,” 50 feet across, can be lowered to block the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. A navigation gate 95 feet wide, whose curved sides weigh 220 tons apiece, can be swung gently but mightily into place.

Yet all that seems puny in comparison to the two-mile “Great Wall” that can seal off the channel from Lake Borgne to the east, or the billion-dollar west closure complex, which features the biggest pumping station on the planet.

Whatever storms might approach New Orleans this year or in the future, they will encounter a vastly upgraded ring of protection. The question is whether it will be enough.

Or, we could have moved inland to higher ground.

(It is) a vast civil works project that gives every appearance of strength and permanence. “This is the best system the greater New Orleans area has ever had,” said Col. Edward R. Fleming, the commander of the New Orleans district of the corps.

Marc Walraven, a district head in the Dutch ministry of transport, public works and water management, recently toured the defenses. While 100 percent safety is impossible, he said, and challenges in operations and maintenance can be expected, “the constructions that have been built are in my opinion adequate to defend New Orleans.”

Or, we could have moved inland to higher ground.

Tim Doody, the president of the levee board that oversees Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes, disagrees. While the construction appears to be strong, he said, the level of protection authorized by Congress for the corps to build is “woefully inadequate.”

The new system was designed and constructed to provide what is informally known as 100-year protection, which means it was built to prevent the kind of flooding that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year.

But New Orleans has seen storms far more damaging than the 100-year standard. Katrina is generally considered to have been a 400-year storm, and rising seas and more numerous hurricanes predicted in many climate-change models suggest harsher conditions to come.

“It’s what the country will pay for; it’s what FEMA insures for,” Mr. Doody said. “But our thought and belief is that we all need to be behind protection that’s greater than that.”

Or, we could have moved inland, to higher ground . . .

While a major storm could lead to street flooding — something New Orleans, much of which is below sea level, sees even with heavy rainfall — the kind of catastrophic, explosive wall of water resulting from the failure of sections of flood wall and the dissolution of poorly-built levees that devastated so much of the city after Katrina should not occur again, (corps officials) say.

Overall construction started in 2006, and while some work is still going on, the projects are substantially complete and functional for this hurricane season.

Even many in the corps seem astonished by the speed of the work; projects of this magnitude would normally take decades to construct, said Kevin G. Wagner, a senior project manager with the agency. Looking out toward the billion-dollar pumping station and gates at the west closure complex, he said, “It’s truly amazing, starting in 2009, to be where we are today.”

Or, we could have moved inland, to higher ground . . .

Building greater than 100-year protection might not be simply a matter of building walls ever higher. It will also come from restoring the coastal environment that slows and buffers storms and their surge. It means restoring wetlands that have been rapidly disappearing, and perhaps creating barrier islands to act as speed bumps for storms.

When asked whether he thought the new hurricane structures would be effective, Jasen Seymour, a 19-year-old who was bowfishing with a friend near the 17th Street Canal, said “If the Army Corps of Engineers has anything to do with it, it’s not going to be strong.”

Still, some residents demonstrate their faith in the future simply by not leaving. Artie Folse, who rebuilt his home after Katrina and lives just a few blocks from the site of the breach of the 17th Street Canal that inundated his Lakeview neighborhood, said: “The fact of the matter is, I still live here. That pretty much says it all.”

Or, you could have moved inland, to higher ground . . .

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

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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