The Republican and Democratic March to NeoFeudalism

Here we go again--- the Trickle-Down Theory from the Repubs.  Too bad the Theory doesn't work.  The billions given to the Rich with the proposed Tax Cut will not be spent on generating jobs.  Instead, here's where the money will go:

1.  Corporations will buy back their own stock, thus falsely inflating the value of it.  The Stock Market Bubble continues.

2.  The Rich will invest in foreign currencies and bonds.

3.  They'll invest in real money...silver & gold...the way JP Morgan Chase Bank has done.

4.  They'll invest in other no-job-producing, hard assets... or in Financial Derivatives (the bizarre kind that resulted in the 2008 Crash).

5.  They'll sock it away in offshore tax havens.

6.  They'll spend it merging, downsizing, and moving businesses South or overseas.  The current Tax Bill rewards them for doing that.

Let's wake up to the fact that in this Age of Financialization, Mega Corporations don't need many American workers in order to be successful anymore.  Until the next Crash, they can make a bundle via Asset Bubbles...or loaning "money" to consumers.  [General Motors is more of a GMAC Bank than a vehicle manufacturer.]

Any cuts in Middle Class taxes are temporary, but those for the Rich are permanent.  This is an old story; it's nothing new.

While the Dems at least often do work for a safety net for the People, nevertheless, they (like the Repubs) essentially are supporting a move toward NeoFeudalism...two classes:  the very Rich and the relatively poor.  The advantage the Dems have is that they TALK a good game.  Like the Repubs, they make people think they're on the side of the Middle Class...but they have a better spiel than the Repubs.  Keep in mind, they won the popular vote in the last election... not by 100,000...by 3,000,000.  [Some Repubs, including our Liar-in-Chief, believe that was due to 3,000,000 "illegals" voting.  That's hilarious.  Many American citizens were kept from voting, so the likelihood of such a huge number of non-citizens being able to vote is pretty much ZERO.  Many of Trump's pronouncements remind me of the old Nazi theory on Propaganda---the bigger the Lie, the more people will believe it.]

Unfortunately, no one in the Upper Crust of DC politics is on the side of the hollowed out Middle.  Both Clinton & Obama each were in power for 8 yrs...both became multi-millionaires.  Middle Class wages remained basically flat.  The Rich got richer.  Two major Crashes happened.  The National Security & Surveillance State grew.  Wars did not not abate.  Obama launched a 10-yr program to update our nuclear arsenal.  The National Debt ballooned.  The Rich got richer...& the Middle Class continued to shrink...just like it did during 8 yrs of Dubya.  People like Schumer & Pelosi being touted as "Liberals" is laughable.  People such as McConnell & Ryan being touted as "Conservatives" also is laughable.  As for Trump, he's nothing but an ego-centric, mentally unbalanced opportunist.  They all are Corporatists of the highest order, and in general, none of them are working for us.  The fact that any of them even are in political office is a testament to the power of Edward Bernays style Propaganda. 

Presently, the Middle Class comprises less than 50% (just barely) of our population; the Corporate Media make it appear as though it's 80% or more.  For the last 30 years or so, the greatest transfer of wealth in Human history has continually increased...whether Dems or Repubs were in power in DC.  It didn't matter which Party held the reins... and still doesn't.

Too many Main Street Progressives (just like Main Street Right-Wingers) are stuck in the Repub v. Dem political paradigm.  As long as that continues, the Oligarchs' march toward NeoFeudalism will be the only thing that progresses.  Divide and conquer...they're Masters at it.  Most Americans at the level of Main Street appear to no longer even consider a Middle Way...even though 41-42% of registered voters are Independents.  Only 25% are Repubs, and only 31% are Dems.  It's blatantly obvious that no matter which major Party is in power in DC, the Oligarchs make the Rules.  

Voting won't change that...because 99.99% of national political candidates are selected, groomed, financed by, and beholden to the Oligarchy.  Not only that, but almost all national elections of late turn out to be rigged in some way or another...or in several different ways.  Only peaceful protests/activism, boycotts, and shunning from the outside ever will make a difference.  Forget "working within the Political System" to change it.  That System is totally controlled and/or corrupt.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Another Reason People Are Pissed Off

Yesterday I drove to town to RENEW my Driver's License.  I hand the lady my license, & she says she also needs my BIRTH CERTIFICATE, SS CARD, & TWO PROOFS OF RESIDENCE.  And something else...I've already forgotten what.  I drive back home, get my portfolio of docs that I keep handy, & drive back to her office...for the 2nd time.  She looks at an official County doc titled "Proof of Residence" which I had to get when I moved here (almost 5 years ago) and says, "This is no good."  And I say, "Why not?"  She replies, "I need two proofs of residence that are no more than 60 days old.".

It used to be that getting a Driver's License meant you already had established your ID and place of residence, so when license renewal time came up, you simply were asked if there were any changes.  According to the lady I dealt with, the "Real ID Act" changed all that.

[Thank you so much, DC Repubs & Dems:]

The County Office guy who issues the County-required "9-1-1 Emergency Proof of Residence" official document wasn't available when I was at the County Courthouse yesterday.  [The County Courthouse is a few double-wide mobile homes strung together.]  So, the MVD lady (in New Mexico, it's MVD, not DMV:) sent me to the local phone company & also to the place where I buy propane for my home.  I was told to give them my "this-is-no-good" County Proof of Residence, & then they would print out a copy of my last receipt...with my physical address on it, not just the mailing address.  Though by now I was somewhat exhausted, frustrated, & pissed off from all this running around, like a good member of the Herd, I did all that.  Then I drove back to the MVD Office for the 3rd time.

I don't blame the local bureaucrats here; they don't pass the Laws or make policy.  But this whole scenario is only one tiny reason why the Fake Populist wound up in the White House.  [Hillary, too, is a Fake Populist; way back when, she wasn't, but has been since becoming a multi-millionaire.]  Too many people in this country are frustrated with, & angry about, public institutions.  Never mind how bad it is with private institutions.  They wanted a massive change.  Unfortunately, they're not going to get one...at least, not the kind they want.

I could write a whole piece on why the "Real ID Act" is an abomination, but very few folks seem to care, so I won't bother...or bore you.    Just keep in mind, it was passed into Law by both Repubs AND Dems.

There is a wrinkle to my story.  When "Real ID" was passed (in 2008, I think), many States basically said, "This is hogwash...we're not doing it."...New Mexico has been one of the very last to finally comply.  This State is right in the middle of complying; that may be why I had this License Renewal nightmare, & someone in a different State hasn't recently experienced the same thing.

The MVD Branch Office is 10-15 minutes from my home.  The 3 times I was there yesterday, there were only 1 or 2 people ahead of me in line.  It took me 3 hours to get my license renewed.  In the not-so-distant past, it took about 20 minutes.  The people at the phone company and propane business told me that they print out receipts like the ones I got at least 5 times per day...all year.

This is no way to run a railroad.  

Today, a friend in CA told me that Commercial Driver's Licenses there soon, as part of SMART ID, will have a yellow/gold star on them.  Really, a yellow star?...what a lack of historical perspective.  Good grief.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

We Deserve Corporatism, and Notes on Fed Income Taxes, & on Banking

Most Americans today appear to know very little History, Geography, American Government, & Logic, and pretty much zero about the Constitution.  Never mind knowledge of how Propaganda works, or anything at all about Corporatism, or the significance of gerrymandering, or how political candidates really are selected.  And worse, they don't see the relevance of any of it to their lives.  They don't care that they don't know.  But most of them know the really important stuff, such as when the new I-Phone will be coming out and whether or not it will be able to fry eggs, or perform some other mundane or silly function.  The whole situation is an utter disgrace...on all of us.

In this country, we deserve the Corporatist Clinton (both of them), the Corporatist Bush (any of them), the Corporatist Obama (the Fake Populist), and the Corporatist Trump (the doubly Fake Populist)... along with Global Private Rule.  We all deserve it all...because we all have let them (the Elites) get away with egregious, rampant Edward Bernays style Propaganda---the molding of the public mind---and with blatant violations of the U.S. Constitution.

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Notes on Fed Income Taxes & on Banking---

In 1946, the Chairman of the New York Fed Reserve, Beardsley Ruml, presented a paper to some auspicious group or another.  The thesis of his paper was this:  the idea of Fed Income Taxes for government revenue is obsolete.  I don't have the time or energy to explain his reasoning, so if you're interested, Google/Bing the topic.

I do have the time for this much.  A good deal of his reasoning was centered on the central planning of monetary issues by the Fed Reserve, and on the changing of the Gold Standard by FDR.  A fairly recent example of Ruml's thesis is as follows.  Between the times when Congress voted down the 2008 Bailout package for the Mega Banks and then fairly quickly afterward approved it (about $700 billion), the Fed Reserve felt it had to do something, so it made TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS available to the Big Boys in the form of loans at essentially zero percent interest.  Not one cent of those trillions was from taxes.  Nor was any of it from government "savings".  [There are no gov't savings; the National Debt is $20 trillion...an amount impossible to repay in full.]  The Fed simply added a bunch of digits to its balance sheet; it created the "money" out of thin air.  That's entirely possible with a fiat currency.

Banks do it every day.  For example, let's say you deposit $100 into your bank account.  Because of the obscenity known as fractional reserve banking, your bank is required to keep only $10 of that $100 on deposit.  It loans out the other $90 to someone else.  So now, you have $100 on your account and the other person has $90.  That's $190 from your $100..."money" created out of thin air.  This is all possible because only 3% of the "money" in circulation is actual paper or coin.  The rest of it is nothing but digits on a computer.  In a nutshell, that is our goofy "money" system.

The point of all this is:  Ruml was correct; Fed taxes (NOT State & Local taxes) are unnecessary for revenue.  That's especially true ever since Nixon took us completely off the Gold Standard in 1971.  The Fed Gov't never will "run out of money"; to get more, all it has to do is add digits to its balance sheet.  Some people counter this argument by saying that the Fed Reserve doesn't just add to its balance sheet; instead, it buys Bonds (T-Bills)...which means the Fed loans "money" to the Gov't.  Yes, it does that...but it doesn't hand over a wad of cash to the U.S. Treasury.  It simply adds digits to its balance sheet.

Without a Gold Standard to restrain spending, any Gov't with a fiat "money" system can "print" (97% of the currency never gets "printed") as much currency as it needs...and anytime it so desires.  Some people counter that argument by saying:  in such a scenario, people would lose confidence in the Dollar.  Hello!  All around the world, that's exactly what's happening right now.

Finally, during the Reagan Era, the Grace Commission did a two-year study and found that 100% of Fed Income Taxes goes toward paying the interest on our National Debt.  Not one cent goes for Gov't services.  And who gets those interest payments?  Primarily they go to Central Banks around the globe, other Mega Banks, and other Mega Corporations...the really Big Bond Holders.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

War is a Racket

"As I look back on my 33 years of service in the Marines---from Second Lieutenant to Major-General---I realize that I've been nothing but a thug for Bankers and Big Corporations."  ~ General Smedley Butler

See brainyquote.com for more quotes by General Butler.

Only people who don't know what's going on still believe that our brave & well-meaning military folks are fighting for freedom, democracy, etc.  In actual fact, they are the unwitting enforcement arm of our Fed Reserve Bank and other Western World Mega Banks, as well as other major Corporations whose leaders believe they are the real rulers of the world.  Butler clearly pointed that out in his book, "War is a Racket".

Now (& for some time) that both Repubs & Dems in DC pretty much ignore and/or violate key parts of the U.S. Constitution, the Corporatists are free to complete their establishment of Global Private Rule.  Public Governments still will exist, but only as window dressing.  By the way, none of this is a "grand conspiracy"; to the Powers-That-Be, it's simply "good business practice" and "the best thing for the world".  It's also important to grasp the fact that Corporatists are NOT Free Market Capitalists; instead, they are Fascists.  The very last thing they want is a Free Market.  They prefer a series of Monopolies supported by their puppet governments.

To those who believe Trump is fighting all this, and is the champion of the Common Man, you are sadly mistaken.  Trump is the quintessential elitist, Corporatist, Establishment, Crony Capitalist...the worst kind of capitalist.  He's a serial liar, a Super-Rich snob, a gaslighter, and doesn't care at all about the bottom 90-99% of the USA citizens.  He's just telling you what he thinks you want to hear.  His whole history proves all the above.  Study it, and then you'll see.  A good start is the documentary, "Meet the Trumps:  from Immigrant to President"; it's found on Netflix and elsewhere.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Forget Trump - Fascism Has Been in the USA For a Long Time

Preface---
A bipartisan legislative bill has been introduced in Congress that will stop warrantless domestic spying by the Fed Gov't.
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INCREDIBLE!  It's nice that Senators Paul, Wyden, Sanders, Warren and several others are proposing a legislative bill that closes a loophole in FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) which "allows" the Gov't to conduct domestic spying--- without a proper warrant --- in the USA.  What's both tragic and outrageous is that for decades the DC politicians apparently have believed the existing "loophole" somehow supercedes the U.S. Constitution.

This proves beyond any doubt that most/all national politicians here do not believe (or are pretending not to believe) that the Constitution is the SUPREME Law of the Land.  According to their actions, both past & current, some Laws passed by Congress somehow over-ride the Supreme Law.  That's obviously not true, but no Repub or Dem ever brings up that fact.  [The only thing that can over-ride the Constitution is an International Treaty.]

It would seem that most voters are unaware of all this, or they don't grasp the danger of allowing any Law to trump (no pun intended) the U.S. Constitution.  I simply cannot fathom how anyone could not see the dangers of warrantless searches/surveillance by the Gov't.  Perhaps they do understand the extreme danger, but think either there's nothing they can do about it OR it never will affect them.  Either way, that's tragic.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

The White House Has Become...

"It's unfortunate that the White House has become an adult day care center."  ~ Senator Bob Corker
Thank you, Senator Corker, for stating a truth that most of your Republican colleagues probably recognize, but are afraid to speak.  In my book, you are a genuine political hero...a rarity nowadays.

It's important to keep in mind, though, that Trump is not stupid.  His buffoonery coupled with his ignorance of important matters make his gaslighting all the more dangerous to the USA & the world.  The man is mentally unstable.  No, I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but as the old saying goes---
You don't have to be a Master Carpenter to recognize a shack.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Rifle Bump Stocks - A No-Brainer, Gun Rights, ISIS, & More

Any hesitation about ​banning ​"bump stocks" for rifles is ridiculous...they never should have been allowed in the 1st place.  Why not allow grenade launchers?  They are "firearms", after all.  [The Constitution says "Arms".]  How about what used to be called bazookas?...another "firearm".  I'm not for banning all firearms, but WEAPONS OF WAR never should be allowed in the hands of civilians.  That includes automatic weapons, or any device that makes any gun into one.

​[​I don't think even semi-automatic weapons should be allowed.]  I was a hunter back when, and enjoyed it greatly; but to allow civilians ​to have any semblance of an automatic weapon or other weapon of war is nuts.

The 2nd Amendment allows civilians to possess firearms in order to have a "well regulated Militia"...the Founders were averse to having a large standing army.  In fact, when the Treaty ending the Revolutionary War was signed in 1783, shortly thereafter the peacetime Army was reduced to about 700 men (from 17,000).  The Bill of Rights in the Constitution wasn't written until 1789, when it was approved by Congress...but wasn't ratified by all the States until 1791.  Point being:  it was almost 20 years after the 1st Continental Congress was formed in 1774 before the 2nd Amendment came into full force and being, and it's sole purpose was to guarantee a well regulated militia.  Again, "well regulated"...a direct quote.

People who believe civilians (because of the 2nd Amendment) are allowed to have any kind of gun in the world with virtually no regulations should keep the above history in mind.  The 2nd Amendment says no such thing.  It never did.

To those who still believe that "gun rights" protect us from an errant gov't, consider the following.  If some sort of brutal dictatorship were to engineer a coup here, and it had the backing of our Armed Forces, you'd best forget about trying to resist with your collection of firearms in your gun cabinet.  In this day & age---with satellite surveillance, weaponized drones, other advanced weaponry, intelligence capability, psyops, communications monitoring, etc., etc.---any such resistance would be totally squashed...probably in less than a month.  Instead of getting into gun battles with you, the Powers would offer ten million dollars (or whatever) to anyone who would rat out your location, and then bomb you into the next dimension.  The days of Fidel Castro type revolutions or Red Dawn movie scenarios no longer are possible.  Look at the ISIS-types---they've been trying for almost 1400 years to become rulers by force; they've failed***.  Nutjobs always are capable of causing chaos, but they won't ever permanently take over anything by force anymore...especially in this modern era.  The Powers-That-Be won't allow it.

***I don't consider the Ottoman Empire to have been "ISIS-types".  In the areas where they ruled, they were tolerant of other religions.  Eventually, they came to adopt Western world ways.  Islamophobes usually ignore this part of History.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well