drawn by c j stegman

The Donald often declares directly and/or indirectly the stupidity of "experts".  For example, he has often claimed that he knows more than our Generals about ISIS insisting upon the tactical stupidity of giving up the element of surprise in attaching Mosul.  He is so very WRONG.

1. An attach on Mosul is not against a military base but a city with more than a million civilians.  Revealing the imminence of an attack allows civilians to potentially find shelter for themselves and their family, may encourage resistance/sabotage aiding the invasion, and may psychologically impair the enemy.
2. Enemy military leaders and enemy combatants may attempt to flee making them easier targets in the open desert around Mosul. 

Trump, your assertions are tactless and your military knowledge tactic-less!

Statement by a supporter at a Pence rally:

​​"My name is Rhonda.   …I will tell you for me personally if Hillary Clinton gets in, I myself, I'm ready for a revolution because we can't have her in"
 
Pence, “Don’t say that.”  And subsequently, Pence stated that there will be a revolution in November, implying that he and Trump would win the election?
 
Pence did NOT condemn her statement in the strongest of terms.
 

1. Pence did not say that her statement was unreasonable.
2. He did not say that our country has, for nearly 250 years, had peaceful transfers of power.
3. He did not say that one civil war in our history is one too many.  He did not say that revolution would unleash “unregulated militias” that “keep and bear arms” bringing anarchy to our previously stable political system and infringing on the due process of law.  Civil war in the United States turning us into another Syria, another Iraq…terrorists would be celebrating as we destroy ourselves.
4. He did not say consider all the morbidity and mortality, all the destruction that a violent revolution would cause.
5. He did not say that we are not a third world country using brutality as a tool of political change.

 
In this important circumstance, Pence is demonstrated to be an irresponsible, injudicious man running for Vice-President of the United States.

Government is NOT a business!  Although there is some utility of business principles in managing government, administration of government is not the same as running a business!

If a business fails, goes bankrupt, people are hurt...employees without work, business contracts broken, invoices unpaid.  But the extent of damage is limited, usually proportional to the size of the failed corporation.  If the Federal government fails the extent of harm to our society would be ...uugh!

More importantly, public debt is not the same as commercial or personal debt.. From statements made, it is apparent that Trump and many of his minions do not understand this fact.  Trump has stated that if he were to become President that he might renegotiate US foreign debt.  This would be a "shot heard around the world", a cataclysm for world financial markets leading to a global financial crisis.  No longer would foreign investors trust that American debt is backed by "the full faith and credit"* of the United States government.  *(An unconditional commitment to pay interest and principal on debt issued or guaranteed by the US Treasury or other government entity.)  So U.S. public debt needs to be understood related to global finances, international socioeconomics and geopolitics.

Public vs. Private Debt
 
Incurring debt, private or public, can be beneficial and/or detrimental.  Taking on debt is a financial tool.  Tools such as a hammer can be used to build but it can also demolish.  How does this apply to our national debt?
Creditors-Domestic vs. Foreign:

• Our current federal debt is of concern because foreign nationals hold approximately 50% of that debt.  If American citizens held a much greater proportion of the debt by saving and then investing in Federal bonds our concerns would be considerably reduced.

 
Public vs. Private economy and debt:
External debt is owed to outsiders; internal debt is owed to those who, at least in part, are obligated to pay the debt.

• Citizens investing in public, government, debt gain benefits from both the interest received as well as the services and investments that the government can provide by the use of their lending.  Citizens investing in their own country are both creditor and debtor.  Additionally they have some control over how money loaned is spent through their congressional representatives.  Types of investment affect current services and determine future purchasing power.
• Investors in the private sector do not usually directly receive benefits from the entity to which they are creditors except for interest paid on their loan.

• Public debt is much more transparent than private debt particularly debt “hidden” and “gambled” with by investment banks, commercial banks, mortgage companies, financial institutions.  Private financial manipulation using debt packaged into special investments vehicles as well as speculative interbank lending have created huge international economic/monetary risks estimated to be in the many tens of trillions of dollars having the potential to do considerably greater harm to the US and the world economy than the US national debt.  Consider the failure of Lehman Brothers and the financial tsunami it caused.

• Individuals, corporations and businesses that cannot service their debt go into bankruptcy or out of business.
• If the US government could not service its debt obligations, it would NOT go into bankruptcy or out of business.  Governments cannot become bankrupt if they barrow in the same currency as they issue.  The Fed and Treasury by their ability to increase the base money reserve have the means to cover the national indebtedness.  They have been able to do so while controlling inflation.

 

• The United States threatening to or NOT meeting its debt obligation undermines/demolishes confidence in the “full faith and credit of the US”.   The world economy would be devastated.  The possibility of the dollar no longer being the world reserve currency would potentially occur severely crippling/ending the US economic leadership worldwide. 

 
 
Employment, Economy and Debt
                  Debt and credit are the gas driving the engine of the economy.   When driving uphill, one must keep the foot to the petal increasing fuel usage.  Even as the upward slope begins to diminish, one’s foot must continue to press the accelerator or momentum will be lost perhaps resulting in going backwards down hill.  But once comfortably over the peak, the driver can safely let up on the fuel pedal reducing the need for gas.  As it is in driving up and down hill to reach your destination, so it is with the ups and downs of the economy.
                  The absolute national debt and national debt relative to the GDP will rise, going “uphill”, in response to government spending in a recessionary economy since the growth in the GDP is slowed. Public investment in the US economy leading to job creation in stagnant economies has lead to recoveries resulting in significant decrease in the debt to GDP ratio.  There are many historical and contemporaneous examples.
Mitt Romney who rails against federal deficit spending and the national debt has made his fortune by using leveraged debt.   His business experience is primarily in vulture capitalism-the business of putting large sums of money in his hands and his wealthy investors while letting employees and taxpayers suffer the consequences in many “investments”.  A Bain Capital prospectus claims an annualized return of 88% for over a decade.  This unbelievable rate of return was significantly “funded” indirectly from the public coffers and workers pocket books.   For instances, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a government created corporation insuring private-sector employee defined benefits, has provided tens of millions of dollars to employees of a company which Bain Capital bankrupted while still making tens of millions of dollars.  Debt is good for Romney, bad for many others who were never involved in his speculations.    As a venture capitalist, Romney helped fund Staples, a corporation whose CEO made $15.2 million in 2011 while the lowest paid employees including computer repair technicians and copy center specialists starting at $8/hr to a maximum of approximately $13/hr, nearly a 1000:1 ratio in pay scale.  Gross disparities in income with the middle and lower socioeconomic classes suffering loses in earnings reduces demand resulting in reduced business and tax revenues.

Public-sector jobs 

• “Government does NOT create jobs.”=Romney---BS!
• Public sector workers are overcompensated compared to private sector workers increasing federal and state debt…Many Republicans.  Adjusted for educational and skill levels not true.
• Public sector jobs provide Cadillac pension plans compared to private sector…Republicans.  Decreasing private sector pensions have over time resulted in a relative increase in value of public worker retirement plans.
• CCC, WPA created millions of jobs stimulating economy.  To this day we benefit from the projects built by these programs.
• Interstate Highway Bill has been engine of economy for 50 years. Was opposed because it would increase in debt.
• Public sector job growth/creation is stimulus in recessions.  Keynes

 

An unprecedented drag on the recovery
By Josh Bivens | April 5, 2012

Since the recovery from the Great Recession officially began in June 2009, private-sector jobs are up by 2.8 million, but public-sector jobs (the combined employment in federal, state, and local governments) are down by 584,000. The figure below compares trends in public-sector employment in the last four recoveries. The current recovery is the only one that has seen public-sector losses over its first 31 months.
If public-sector employment had grown since June 2009 by the average amount it grew in the three previous recoveries (2.8 percent) instead of shrinking by 2.5 percent, there would be 1.2 million more public-sector jobs in the U.S. economy today. In addition, these extra public-sector jobs would have helped preserve about 500,000 private-sector jobs.
There is reason to be optimistic, though, as public-sector losses have moderated recently. If the sector begins to actually add jobs in the coming months, the economy could benefit significantly in the future.

 
NATIONAL DEBT INCREASED BY WEALTHY
 
 
Quotes from Adam Smith

• Our merchants and master-manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.   Book I, Chapter IX, pg.117

• No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, cloath and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, cloathed and lodged.

• No fixed capital can yield any revenue but by means of a circulating capital.  Book II, Chapter I, pg.311

• People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment or diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

 
REVENUE AND SPENDING CUTS

Who Pays No Federal Income Tax:
·       50 percent are in this category because their incomes are so low that they are less than the sum of the standard deduction and personal and dependent exemptions for which the household qualifies.  As TPC Senior Fellow Roberton Williams has noted, “the basic structure of the income tax simply exempts subsistence levels of income from tax.”** Some 62 percent of the households who will owe no federal income tax in 2011 have incomes under $20,000.
·       Another 22 percent do not owe federal income tax because they are elderly people who benefit from tax provisions to aid senior citizens, such as the exemption of Social Security benefits from income tax for beneficiaries who have incomes below $25,000 for single filers and $32,000 for joint filers and the higher standard deduction for the elderly.
·       Another 15 percent (of the households who don’t owe federal income tax) don’t owe the tax because they are low-income working families with children who qualify for the child tax credit, the child and dependent care tax credit, and/or the earned income tax credit, and the credit(s) eliminate their income tax liability.
 
 
REPUBLICAN VS. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS
                 
Who wins the economy ball game?  Growth in GDP...
 
 
1948-1952 (Harry S. Truman, Democrat), +4.82%
1953-1960 (Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican), +3%
1961-1964 (John F. Kennedy / Lyndon B. Johnson, Democrat), +4.65%
1965-1968 (Lyndon B. Johnson, Democrat), +5.05%
1969-1972 (Richard Nixon, Republican), +3%
1973-1976 (Richard Nixon / Gerald Ford, Republican), +2.6%
1977-1980 (Jimmy Carter, Democrat), +3.25%
1981-1988 (Ronald Reagan, Republican), 3.4%
1989-1992 (George H. W. Bush, Republican), 2.17%
1993-2000 (Bill Clinton, Democrat), 3.88%
2001-2008 (George W. Bush, Republican), +2.09%

In this Presidential campaign, we are looking through Alice's Looking Glass which has confounded reality so that a provable lie is NOT a lie and an alleged lie is considered a proven lie.

“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
Adolph Hitler

Howard Dean, MD, speculated that Donald Trump's recurrent snorting during the First Presidential Debate might be secondary to cocaine use.  Potentially correct speculation without real evidence.  President Obama not being a citizen of the USA as cultivated by the Donald for years was potentially correct without real evidence.  So Donald, as President Obama responded, it is your obligation as a Presidential candidate to provide the nation with documented lab results from drug screening of your blood and urine.  Don't need to test your crap...we already know it is BS!

A-Tisket A-Tasket
A bunch of deplorables
In a red red basket
50%, No! 100%
Will never ever have my consent
On my campaign I dropped it
I dropped it, I dropped it
Yes on my campaign I dropped it!
 
But Hillary, should you have dropped it?
 
Trump has espoused and doubled down on, so many disgusting incredulous declarations...declarations without any merit…and still retains his followers.
 
Hillary, what you were declaring had important merit…not just 50% merit but 100% value.  Alt-right Trump supporters are DEPLORABLE!  And since it is well known that Trump has the support and advocacy of these hate-mongers, those who continue to support Trump are, I believe, also deplorable.
 
 
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
 
Pastor Martin Niemöller
​

OK Hillary, why didn't you make public your episode with pneumonia?  By publicizing your illness, you could have made an important public health narrative while defusing the oppositions negative publicity?  Why were you not open about your illness?  In doing so, you could have educated the public about the importance of having the pneumonia vaccination shot.  You could have informed our citizens about how common pneumonia is and how immunizations can be preventative or reduce its risks.  If you had received the pneumonia immunization, you could have stated that it likely reduced the severity of your illness.  If you had not had the immunization, you could have informed the public of the importance of being immunized and encouraged them to be immunized.  You could have had a significant public health impact by acknowledging your own vulnerability .   

​I recently spent a day at our county superior court going through the process of being selected for jury duty.  The process was interesting.  Once in the court room, observing fellow potential jurors, their attitudes and reactions, was intriguing, sometimes amusing, sometimes disturbing.  The primary concern in the court room process was to determine that each and every juror selected would be impartial…impartial to the defendant, to the prosecutor and to all the individuals giving testimony particularly police officers.  Our verdict was to be rational, based on evidence…NOT on emotion or prejudices.  To reach this goal several hours of questions were asked which might indicate our biases.  Out of 50 people questioned, all said or implied that they felt they would be fair-minded.  But the elephant in the room was not recognized.  Several individuals raised personal concerns about their objectivity but all said upon discussion that they “felt” they could overcome whatever issues troubled them…that they could be impartial.  Really?
 
We have many historical examples of that lack of understanding of influences which color are decision making.  Scientists paid by tobacco companies finding no link between smoking and cancer.  Scientists doing research paid for by the petroleum industry finding no evidence for climate change.  A supreme court justice who stated that because of his religious belief that death was no “big deal”, twice support capital punishment for persons under the age of majority.  The primary argument in these cases was: Is capital punishment for minors “cruel and unusual punishment.”  This Supreme Court Justice had the temerity, the lack of insight, to state that his decision was NOT influence by his religious belief that death is “no big deal”, therefore not cruel.  Many great scientific discoveries throughout history were initially scoffed at, scorned, because dogmatic beliefs resulted in intolerance to new ideas.  Spherical earth, heliocentricism, germ theory, expanding universe…
 
Determining whether consciously prejudicial, which was the intention of the questioning in the court room, or subconsciously so, we all are encumbered by biases color our decision making which if not understood by the individual, by the juror, may be detrimental to the justice sought in our court rooms.  Many people cannot shed their deeply held, particularly subconscious, beliefs and prejudices when making judgements “requiring” objectivity…we are who we are!  It is really hard to know who we really are…so that we may have the ability to be more than we are.

We the bigoted, fearful, unstable people of the United States of America in order to form a less perfect union, establish injustice, insure domestic incivility, provide for de,,,fence on our southern border, promote the general discontent and secure the blessings of disenfranchisement of a police state do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America,

Trump stated about his new Preamble, "It's great, really great...believe me1  It's U-U-GE!"

Similarities?  Frauds...liars...deceivers of their acolytes...  One kind and compassionate after his racket is unveiled...the other, always mean-spirited....

I'm tired of self-righteous American citizens who disparage illegal immigrants because they have broken the law. Many have done so because their lives were threatened by gangs, drug dealers, corrupt police...their lives a living hell of destitution, of hunger, of illness, of inadequate healthcare.  The vast majority of illegal immigrants risk crossing into the US to work hard, frequently to do work that Americans will not do.  Their reasons for breaking immigration law are most of the time substantial...the need to survive and flourish...the need for economic and physical sanctuary/security.  These are honorable motivations.  They are motivations that have driven people to migrate throughout the span of history.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

On the other hand, Americans break our laws regularly for self-indulgent selfish reasons.  Driving under the influence being highway "terrorists", cheating on their taxes, speeding on our roads without the slightest consideration of the speed limits, not obeying traffic control devices and many more ways.

So I believe that individuals who risk breaking immigration laws to better their lives, the lives of their children and the lives of their families are of greater moral character then those who claim to respect the rule of law but egotistically, self-servingly break it.

The American Eagle is sick!   

Mitch McConnell stated shortly after the death of Antonin Scalia, “The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this (Supreme Court) vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President."

The American people have SPOKEN!!! President Obama has been elected by the American people, not by leprechauns, not by martians He has been elected TWICE!

And if we were to ask most any Republican--a candidate for President, member of Congress, etc: "If a Democrat is elected to be our next President would you support a liberal nominee for the Supreme Court bench since the people have spoken?" I am quite certain the answer would be....NO!

And what if a Democrat is elected President and Democrats also win a Senate majority, the Republicans run the risk of a liberal rather than moderate nominee being confirmed,

​​Also, the hypocrisy of Republicans, who claim to be strict constitutionalists, "Scalian" originalists and textualists, demanding the President ignore his Constitutional responsibility, duty, by not putting forth an individual for consideration is indefensible and is a detestable, purely political action.

UPDATE:  The Electoral College has spoken giving us President-elect Trump.  The American people have voted giving Hillary the majority in the popular vote.  So again the American people have spoken...therefore any Supreme Court nominees must be chosen based on how the people have voted...as the Republicans demanded!

It is estimated that in the 1970's Donald Trump inherited a minimum of approximately 35 million dollars to a potential maximum of 200 million dollars.  $35,000,000 invested with a rate of return of 8.0% would yield in 40 years approximately 800 million dollars.  200 million dollars also invested at the same rate would yield several billion dollars.  Thus The Donald's "net worth" has little to do with his business "acumen" and a lot to do with the amount of money he inherited.

"I just went to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay. Because somebody doesn't think the way I do, doesn't mean that I can't care about them or can't love them.  So if one of my daughters happened to be that, of course I would love them and I would accept them. Because you know what?   That's what we're taught when we have strong faith."


"Because somebody doesn't think the way I do..."   Homosexuality is not a way of thinking.  It's NOT:  I think I want to be...therefore I am.  Its cause is unknown but is likely biologic. Biological theories of causation suggest a complex interaction of genetic, endocrinological and social factors.  To assert that a homosexual person thinks themselves into a "state" of homosexuality is absurd leading to inappropriate therapies such as behavior modification and intolerance based on the debunked belief that sexual orientation is a personal choice.  Does Kasich think himself into heterosexuality? Does he actively choose to be heterosexual rather than homosexual?


"That's what we're taught when we have strong faith."  Why then are the most virulent homophobes overwhelmingly bible thumpers.  

Were over 3 thousand people kept safe on 9/11?

Your brother was proud of his close relationship to the Saudi royal family.   Was he unaware of their funding of Osama bin Ladin?  Did he confront the Saudi royal family when it became known that the majority of the perpetrators of the attack were Saudi citizens.

Did your brother pay attention to the PDB suggesting an attack on the US by Osama bin Ladin was imminent.  What actions did he take to protect us?

Your brother only had an inane response in the elementary school classroom when informed of the terrorist attack--his vacant stare suggesting he no idea what to do, no knowledge of a protocol to be used, no anticipation of such an attack.

No!  He did not keep us safe and his unwarranted attack of Iraq proves to this day his gross failure.  His bellicose call for revenge does not require great courage or intellect or demonstrate great contemplative leadership but a mere visceral reaction.

I think it is SAFE to say that your brother DID NOT KEEP US SAFE!   

Was just watching a cable TV discussion of football concussion injuries.  Two things I found striking.  One was a comment by a sportscaster who stated that playing pro football is entirely volitional.  Not quite right!
​
Many who play pro football come from socioeconomic backgrounds which markedly constrain their opportunities to improve the quality of their lives.  This is the very same circumstance that provides human resources for undesirable, often high risk, jobs, for example the military.  Additionally, there was no mention of boxing,, a sport in which the objective is to injure your opponent's brain--to knock 'em out.  If you review the population of boxers, you will find that many come from poor families or disadvantaged childhoods.  Boxing is their way out of the "hood."  Why is boxing not a significant part of the discussion of sports-related brain injury?

"The ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by experts!"   Ben Carson

If you believe the biblical story, do you not assume that Noah needed help to build an ark that could hold God's commanded cargo (two of each and every animal including, according to some, dinosaurs). to collect that cargo and maintain "seaworthiness?"  Who would be the most likely to assist Noah?  Would it not have to be God--either by direct intervention or by expansive divine inspiration--God an amateur ark builder?  Really?

Each and every one of us faces the potential of a devastating physical and/or cognitive illness that may rob us of any reasonable quality of life.  Most of us would hope to avoid the prolonged suffering and the indignities of incurable illnesses.  The alternatives to end one’s life are limited by the constraints of public policy and legal statutes.  Self-inflicted suicide bears social stigma. The not infrequent failure of suicide attempts often results in compounding the suffering of the survivor and the survivor’s loved ones.  At present, there is no legal right, no statutory civil right, to permit bedside medical intervention for individuals to take control of ending their lives.  Currently there is no reasonable alternative, no legal choice, to avoid spending one’s last years in constant physical and/or mental pain, to die comfortably with physician assistance at home, when desired, easing the emotional and economic burdens for patients, their friends and families.

 
Therefore, we believe that the right to choose bedside life-ending medical intervention must be legalized.


Is not one of our most precious civil rights—a ”blessing of liberty”-- the right to control how we die?  Do we not own our own lives?

 
In so doing, one can look to the future with less anxiety, knowing we are not limited in how we will meet our death.  Having this CIVIL RIGHT, would be comforting to many individuals and their loved ones by knowing that one has the ability to alleviate the emotional and monetary burden for themselves, their loved ones and our society. 

 
We all will die—after all being alive is a terminal illness--let individuals have the option to meet death on their own terms.  Death too late, as well as too early, is a tragedy.  Death planned and assisted by medical bed-side facilitation is sad but comforting.  To go quietly and gently into that “good night” at home or in other comforting surroundings, assisted by a trained physician at bedside, with loved ones at your side would provide a peaceful, compassionate and loving end to life.



WHY BEDSIDE PHYSICIAN LIFE-ENDING INTERVENTION SHOULD BE A LEGAL OPTION:

 
·      Prevent unsuccessful end of life intervention.

·      Assure comfortable competent ending of life.

·      Support patient and patient’s loved ones prior to and during intervention.

·      Provide intravenous life ending medications when necessary particularly when swallowing is impaired.

·      Voluntary PHYSICIAN provider.

                o   Impartial witness acting as barrier against abuse.

                o   Confirmation of death.

                o   Provide data for death certificate.

                o   Documentation of end of life intervention.

                o   NO PROFIT/COSTS ONLY

Suicides committed by gunshot, carbon monoxide, jumping, drowning, cop and numerous other means might be converted to physician-assisted intervention eliminating the associated negative collateral consequences.  Perhaps, suicide by the aforementioned means might be reduced by the knowledge of available physician life ending intervention.

Take action!  Download file by link below.

 "Civil liberties don't matter much if you're dead"   Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)  Statement supporting the Patriot Act

If our founding fathers had not been willing to take the risk of being hung to death for treason (fighting for civil rights), the United States would not exist.