If you cannot explain this chart, you do not understand the magnitude of what happened last night and why this disaster might be irreparable.I would argue that irreparable damage was already done by the Iraq war, which cost $1.06 trillion officially, though the true cost may be $6 trillion. Many forget -- and many younger people never learned -- that one key question during the 2000 presidential debates was: "What do we do with the surplus?"
Bill Clinton got this country out of the red and started us down a path which, if followed, would have completely eradicated the national debt by 2015. This outcome would have erased the red part of the chart above. No debt = no need to pay interest payments. Yes, there would have been a period of moderately higher taxes, paid only by those best able to pay. That period would have ended years ago (if Clinton's plan had been followed to the letter); by now, everyone's tax bill would have been lowered -- safely, painlessly and permanently. Moreover, the eradication of debt would have given us greater freedom to borrow in times of true emergency.
This forgotten history helps to explain the relentless effort to smear the Clintons. If the younger generation understood what he really did (as opposed to what the Redpillers, the conspira-freaks and the BernieBros say he did), we would be carving Bill's face on Mount Rushmore right now.
The current tax bill will cause our debt to skyrocket. For the Ayn Randroids, that's a feature, not a bug. Very soon, the propagandists will swarm all over teevee and the internet, telling us that we have no choice but to slash Social Security and Medicare. I have no doubt that, even now, they are already testing the most insidious ways to word that message.
Will people fall for this ploy? Of course they will. Should any congressperson do an effective job of reminding the country that Trump and Dubya caused the debt to skyrocket, you know damned well what will happen next. If the congressperson is male, some woman will shriek: "That bad, bad man touched my rear end in 1997, so don't listen to anything he says about the national debt!" If the congressperson is female, other tactics will be employed. Perhaps this: "That bad, bad woman said something back in 1991 that might be construed as racist, so don't listen to anything she says about the national debt!"
Yes, your fellow citizens really are dumb enough to fall for these tactics. One-quarter of Americans don't know that the earth revolves around the sun.
Democracy cannot work in an ignorant nation. I've been saying it for years: Disenfranchise everyone too stupid to understand the meaning of the word "disenfranchise" in this sentence.
Elsewhere: To a large degree, Roy Moore has transformed the Alabama election into a debate over Gloria Allred. In effect, Allred -- deeply unpopular in that state -- is now Doug Jones' unwanted running mate.
Told you so. I knew this would happen.
From the very first day, Beverly Young Nelson (Allred's client) has showed all the signs of being a ringer. I'm not talking about any other accuser; I'm talking only about Nelson. She has served only to help Moore get elected. And frankly, I think that it is telling that the Republicans are dying to test the yearbook supposedly signed by Moore. It is also telling that Allred won't hand over this piece of evidence. I'm increasingly persuaded that the signature is fake and that Allred may now suspect that she was scammed.
On several previous occasions, I've quoted these words of Lord Alistair McAlpine, Margaret Thatcher's good friend. (Although he spoke about corporations, the same strategy is used in the political realm.)
First, create a situation where you are wrongly accused. Then, at a convenient moment, arrange for the false accusation to be shown to be false beyond all doubt. Those who have made accusations against both the company and its management become discredited. Further accusations will then be treated with great suspicion.The trick works every goddamned time.
5 comments:
You can't disenfranchise stupid people because it would have to be enforced, hence it's back to Jim Crow.
Also, I don't understand that graph. It seems to be measuring growth, in that it says "Growth", but the figures for defence spending and income tax seem to be as a proportion of the total budget. So is it measuring the proportion of the budget occupied by things which are growing? No, because some things are below 0%. But income tax receipts aren't going to grow by over 7%, so it's measuring two different things in a needlessly confusing manner. So maybe I do understand it, but it would be unreasonable to disenfranchise people on the grounds that they don't understand an incompetently compiled graph.
If Ken Starr thought any of Bill Clinton's accusers credible he would have hammered him with it.
As it was Sttarr knew them to be groupies who became rape victims when offered Arkansas Project lucre.
Your post below on pro life vs choice. Ask the lifers to explain the difference between a fetus removed in a clinic and blown out of the womb in the Middle East by a U.S. drone.
Under most circumstances, balancing the Federal budget withdraws money from the economy and can contract the economy. Money is injected into the economy by either private credit expansion or deficit spending. Money is created by government spending and destroyed by taxation. The role of private credit expansion and contraction exacerbating boom and bust economic cycles is a hot topic among heterodox economists such as Steve Keen who is well worth reading. The government debt is unlike private debt--it is entirely in dollar-denominated securities that act like savings accounts and are very liquid. These securities have the full backing of the government just like a dollar bill. They are functionally close to being money. you read the modern monetary theory literature carefully, it will change the way you think about money.
Lord McAlpine's comments also apply when yo have been rightly accused of something, as was the case with George W's National Guard desertion. Notice how quickly te republicans were able to sot an apparent forgery? obviously knew about the typewriter issue beforehand, as they were involved in producing the faked letter.
The writing looks the same to me in this image in this article: https://www.thecut.com/2017/12/woman-shares-new-evidence-of-her-relationship-with-roy-moore.html
Allred & Nelson have requested a Senate investigation with the yearbook (as evidence), but it is all about who said what..and what really happened. Think it was Megyn Kelly that interviewed Allred and Nelson -where they made the claim.
I wouldn't be surprised if at least one more person comes forward. We will see. It really is up to the GOTV though... oh and there is a Republican right in candidate, so who knows. Anything could happen-more people need to know about the right in candidate.
On a bright note-their rush to pass legislation has actually decreased Corporate deductions, and many are furious (it will actually raise corporate taxes for some now), so who knows on that...we may all be saved for now.
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