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On Wealth Inequality, the Left Has a Point

Posted by M. C. on June 17, 2024

by Thomas Eddlem

Of course, the demagogic, corporate-owned left will tell us that the solution to the oppression of the poor working man is to oppress the rich man as well. “Tax the rich” is the slogan of the corporate-owned left. It’s like observing that the abusive boyfriend of a woman living on the right side of the street gives his girlfriend a black eye every week from abuse, and the single mom on the left side of the street is free from that abuse, and concluding that the only “fair” solution is to get that abusive boyfriend to blacken the eye of the woman across the street every week as well.

“…when they get the money they can and will loan it directly to the stock gamblers, to be used to exploit the people.”

The author doesn’t state the mechanism of inflation clearly enough. Printing of “fiat” (not backed by a valuable commodity such as gold) money by the federal reserve.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/on-wealth-inequality-the-left-has-a-point/

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The federal government has been waging a war against the middle class and working poor since at least 1970. Wealth inequality has steadily increased since the early 1970s, and it’s not a coincidence. It’s a result of a series of policies. The government wants the masses of American working people broke, propertyless, and dependent upon elected officials for the crumbs they give back as handouts from taxes taken.

The most insidious attack on working people has been inflation, which really took off when the federal government decoupled the dollar from gold in 1971.

The inflation tax is the most regressive tax that currently exists in federal policy.

Inflation always taxes wages twice, once when the labor is performed and the worker is awaiting payment, and again when the wages are deposited into the worker’s checking account. But inflation leaves the rich man’s yacht untaxed.

No level of inflation, no matter how high, can ever take one cent of value away from a yacht. A yacht is always going to be a yacht, no matter what the value of money is.

Inflation taxes the poor man’s rent he advances to his landlord, but leaves private jets and vacation homes untaxed.

Want to know where this inflation tax goes? The stolen value of the inflation tax doesn’t just vanish out of thin air.

Some of it goes to the government; economists even have a name for the benefit government draws from the inflation tax. It’s called “seigniorage.”

Rich people generally don’t pay the inflation tax, and many of them benefit from it. Let’s say you’re a billionaire real estate mogul, not unlike Donald Trump, with a net-worth of $1 billion. You buy houses and real estate, and when you get your 20% equity, you pull that equity out and invest it into another real estate holding. So you have properties worth $5 billion, net assets of $1 billion, and (with only 20% equity in your properties) you also have $4 billion in mortgage debt.

4% inflation lowers the value of the mortgage debt you owe, since with CPI inflation you’re just going to raise the rent 4% next year. Inflation created by the Federal Reserve Bank becomes a gift of $160 million annually to your net worth ($4 billion x 0.04).

Every year.

And it enriches them more if inflation exceeds 4%, as it has in recent years.

If the CPI is 10% (as it nearly was in 2022), inflation alone adds 40% ($400 million) to this real estate mogul’s net worth. That doesn’t count the decrease in the nominal debt paid off by the real estate mogul’s tenants.

And this assumes the value of his property holdings is only increasing at the rate of CPI inflation, which it’s vastly exceeding, thanks to Federal Reserve Bank interest rate manipulation and federal housing subsidies and incentives.

Inflation enriches the real estate mogul with a boatload of mortgages that are now easier to pay off. It also benefits the hedge fund speculator and the banker, who are in the very businesses of being in debt.

In other words, the inflation tax makes the value of money flow directly from the wallets of wage-earners to the vaults of rich people who work with debt.

As long as the working man holds money in his possession, whether in the form of credit to his employer for his labor, in his pocket, or in his checking account, inflation taxes him. Only when the money is finally no longer due to him does the inflation tax end.

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Thomas Sowell: This is why the left only focuses on race

Posted by M. C. on June 17, 2024

Fox News

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We’ve Seen This “Antisemitism Crisis On The Left” Script Before

Posted by M. C. on June 17, 2024

People get into left-wing politics exactly because they oppose racism and injustice. Nobody who actually understands the pro-Palestine movement sincerely believes all these peaceniks and commies have suddenly morphed into Jew-hating Nazis in contradiction of their entire worldview. They might pretend to believe this is a real thing that is actually happening in order to advance a political agenda, but they won’t actually believe it.

Caitlin Johnstone

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/weve-seen-this-antisemitism-crisis

It sure is a crazy coincidence how western politicians and media always start urgently telling us about an invisible epidemic of left wing antisemitism every time western military ties to Israel are subjected to widespread public scrutiny.

It’s getting bad, and it will likely get worse.

The mass media are filling up with op-eds and cable news segments about how antisemitic leftist anti-genocide protesters are becoming. 

Instagram progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently hosted two virulent Zionists in a livestream where the three spent their time concern trolling about the rise of antisemitism in left-wing activist circles.

Whoever runs Joe Biden’s presidential Twitter account for him is tweeting about “horrific acts of Antisemitism” by demonstrators, citing four incidents which were demonstrably not in the least bit antisemitic.

These same false claims about antisemitic activity by protesters are being used by US officials like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to push through the “Countering Antisemitism Act”, a bill which would give the White House new powers to “counter the spread of antisemitism online” (read: government internet censorship to promote US and Israeli information interests).

And it’s so important that people who are new to this understand we’ve already seen this “crisis of antisemitism on the left” song and dance before; they ran the exact same script a few years ago in the UK to kill the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, who supports Palestinian rights. It’s the exact same bad faith concern trolling op where the whole political-media class suddenly starts pretending to believe something that is transparently ridiculous in order to protect an agenda of the empire.

It’s also important that everyone understand that every part of this is 100 percent cynical manipulation. The people pushing this narrative are fully aware that it is false. Everyone knew Jeremy Corbyn was a lifelong anti-racist who didn’t have an antisemitic bone in his body. Everyone knew there was no crisis of antisemitism in the Labour Party. But they pretended to believe otherwise because they didn’t want to see socialism and anti-imperialism gain a political foothold in the UK. The same thing is happening in the US and throughout the west right now regarding protests against the genocide in Gaza.

So when you see people aggressively rejecting the concern trolls on this issue, that’s why. They’ve seen this schtick before, and they know how politically devastating it can be. They’ve seen how it can be used to suck all the oxygen away from real discourse about real things and funnel it all into this insanely vapid, idiotic conversation about a problem that exists nowhere outside the imaginations of the people talking about it. It’s a deeply evil, disgusting thing to do, especially now in 2024 when it’s being done to facilitate an active genocide.

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What’s Next for Battlefield America?

Posted by M. C. on June 17, 2024

If you want a glimpse of the next stage of America’s transformation into a police state, look no further than how Israel—a long-time recipient of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid from the U.S.—uses its high-tech military tactics, surveillance and weaponry to advance its authoritarian agenda.

by John W. Whitehead

“I did not know Israel was capturing or recording my face. [But Israel has] been watching us for years from the sky with their drones. They have been watching us gardening and going to schools and kissing our wives. I feel like I have been watched for so long.”—Mosab Abu Toha, Palestinian poetWe may not be an occupied territory, but that does not make the electronic concentration camp being erected around us any less of a prison.
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If you want a glimpse of the next stage of America’s transformation into a police state, look no further than how Israel—a long-time recipient of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid from the U.S.—uses its high-tech military tactics, surveillance and weaponry to advance its authoritarian agenda.

Military checkpoints. Wall-to-wall mass surveillance. Predictive policing. Aerial surveillance that tracks your movements wherever you go and whatever you do. AI-powered facial recognition and biometric programs carried out with the knowledge or consent of those targeted by it. Cyber-intelligence. Detention centers. Brutal interrogation tactics. Weaponized drones. Combat robots.

We’ve already seen many of these military tactics and technologies deployed on American soil and used against the populace, especially along the border regions, a testament to the heavy influence Israel’s military-industrial complex has had on U.S. policing.

Indeed, Israel has become one of the largest developers and exporters of military weapons and technologies of oppression worldwide.

Journalist Antony Loewenstein has warned that Pegasus, one of Israel’s most invasive pieces of spyware, which allows any government or military intelligence or police department to spy on someone’s phone and get all the information from that phone, has become a favorite tool of oppressive regimes around the world. The FBI and NYPD have also been recipients of the surveillance technology which promises to turn any “target’s smartphone into an intelligence gold mine.”

Yet it’s not just military weapons that Israel is exporting. They’re also helping to transform local police agencies into extensions of the military.

According to The Intercept, thousands of American law enforcement officers frequently travel for training to Israel, “one of the few countries where policing and militarism are even more deeply intertwined than they are here,” as part of an ongoing exchange program that largely flies under the radar of public scrutiny.

A 2018 investigative report concluded that imported military techniques by way of these exchange programs that allow police to study in Israel have changed American policing for the worse. “Upon their return, U.S. law enforcement delegates implement practices learned from Israel’s use of invasive surveillance, blatant racial profiling, and repressive force against dissent,” the report states. “Rather than promoting security for all, these programs facilitate an exchange of methods in state violence and control that endanger us all.”

“At the very least,” notes journalist Matthew Petti, “visits to Israel have helped American police justify more snooping on citizens and stricter secrecy. Critics also assert that Israeli training encourages excessive force.”

Petti documents how the NYPD set up a permanent liaison office in Israel in the wake of 9/11, eventually implementing “one of the first post-9/11 counterterrorism programs that explicitly followed the Israeli model. In 2002, the NYPD tasked a secret ‘Demographics Unit’ with spying on Muslim-American communities. Dedicated ‘mosque crawlers’ infiltrated local Muslim congregations and attempted to bait worshippers with talk of violent revolution.”

That was merely the start of American police forces being trained in martial law by foreign nations under the guise of national security theater. It has all been downhill from there.

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Thomas Sowell: Where Is The Government Spending Our Money?

Posted by M. C. on June 14, 2024

Power and Control

Thomas

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LAWYER: 5 Tips Whenever Cops Want to See Your Guns

Posted by M. C. on June 13, 2024

Hampton Law

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What Books Have Influenced My Life? Here is my Answer | Thomas Sowell

Posted by M. C. on June 12, 2024

Thomas Sowell

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LAWYER: 5 Tips When Cops DEMAND Your ID

Posted by M. C. on June 12, 2024

Hampton Law

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Gaza – The Next Fort Lauderdale?

Posted by M. C. on June 11, 2024

By Eric S. Margolis

Meanwhile, supporters of Israel’s far right are having a field day cracking the whip on scared politicians.  The new House, speaker, Mike Johnson, has already invited Israel’s prime minister Bibi Netanyahu, to address the US Congress.  Netanyahu is being denounced around the globe as a mass murderer and tyrant, but his wealthy US supporters – who largely fund the Democratic Party- are making sure that the US continues to see the Israeli dog wag of the US tail. 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/06/eric-margolis/gaza-the-next-fort-lauderdale/

Watching the US Navy build a temporary pier in Gaza was a pathetic display of ineptitude and helplessness.  It was a crass attempt by the Biden administration to deflect the storm of worldwide criticism over its encouragement of Israel’s far right government to crush Gaza to rubble.  The pier fell apart due to poor construction and rough seas. I was reminded of America’s gallant fighting Seabees who build harbors and airports almost overnight during World War II.

To date, some 400,000 Gaza Palestinians have been killed by Israel using many US-supplied arms.  Over half were women and children.  A proud moment for the USA.  Biden claims he was not involved in this mass killing.

Of course not.  He just authorized delivery to Israel’s powerful air forces of building-busting 2,000 lb bombs that flatten entire blocks of apartments housing Palestinian refugees.  This is not self-defence but mass murder.  The World Court has demanded Israel cease its savaging of Gaza. The Biden administration has used its UN veto to block all attempts to curb Israel’s mass murder which Israel’s supporters say must be done to free scores of Jewish/Israeli hostages.

Meanwhile, other Palestinians on the Israeli-occupied West Bank are being gunned down or evicted from their homes by heavily armed Jewish settlers who see occupying Palestine as their God-given right.  I have interviewed many of these militant settlers and found their views and actions beyond the pale.  Many hale from Brooklyn or Queens.  I was surrounded by these extreme nationalists – or Jewish fascists as the late great Israeli columnist Uri Avnery called them – last week in New York. They were showing their electoral and financial muscle.

Meanwhile, supporters of Israel’s far right are having a field day cracking the whip on scared politicians.  The new House, speaker, Mike Johnson, has already invited Israel’s prime minister Bibi Netanyahu, to address the US Congress.  Netanyahu is being denounced around the globe as a mass murderer and tyrant, but his wealthy US supporters – who largely fund the Democratic Party- are making sure that the US continues to see the Israeli dog wag of the US tail. 

Candidate Trump has also lavished attention on Israel’s far right.  Like some ancient Roman deity, Trump has told Israel it may have all of Galilee (Judea and Samara in Israeli speak), the old city of Jerusalem, Gaza, Golan and most of the West Bank.  The biggest slice of donations to Trump’s campaign comes from the pro-Israel Adelson family that made its fortune in the sleazy gambling business.  We are also told that Trump son-in-law plans a Vegas-style seaside resort in Gaza – minus its Arabs, of course.

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Ukraine Is a ‘Gold Mine’ – US Senator

Posted by M. C. on June 11, 2024

Allowing a Russian victory in the conflict would deprive America of access to vast mineral resources, Lindsey Graham says

Follow The Money

RT News

Washington “cannot afford” to allow Russia to achieve victory in the Ukraine conflict as this would mean losing direct access to vast mineral assets, US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) has said.

In an interview with ‘Face the Nation’ on CBS on Sunday, Graham accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being a “megalomaniac” who is attempting to “re-create the Russian Empire by force of arms,” starting with Ukraine. He further claimed that if Moscow wins the current conflict, it will then take over Ukraine’s wealth and share it with China. Graham described that prospect as “ridiculous,” suggesting it would be better if this “gold mine” were available to the US instead.

“They’re sitting on 10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals in Ukraine. They could be the richest country in all of Europe… If we help Ukraine now, they can become the best business partner we ever dreamed of, that $10 to $12 trillion of critical mineral assets could be used by Ukraine and the West, not given to Putin and China,” Graham stated.

This is a very big deal how Ukraine ends. Let’s help them win a war we can’t afford to lose… They’re sitting on a gold mine. To give Putin $10 or $12 trillion for critical minerals that he will share with China is ridiculous.

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