USA Politics (redux)

[Karl Henning]

I found this article to be quite interesting.  It's about attempts to remove some 4,000+ voters from being eligible to vote in Georgia (due to possible incorrect addresses).

"A federal judge halts a voter purge in two Georgia counties before the runoff."

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/29/us/joe-biden-trump#a-federal-judge-halts-a-voter-purge-in-two-georgia-counties-before-the-runoff

PD

p.s.  Today is the last date for early voting in the Georgia senators two runoff races.

At this stage, the GOP openly concedes that they are all about voter suppression.

[71 dB]

At this stage, the GOP openly concedes that they are all about voter suppression.

Not just voter suppression. They don't believe in the USA, it's constitution and democracy. They just want to be in power and have their Christian theocracy.

[Karl Henning]

There is all that as well.

[Fëanor]

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/27/50-year-study-of-tax-cuts-on-wealthy-shows-they-always-fail-to-trickle-down/
50-year study of tax cuts on wealthy shows they always fail to "trickle down"
The left busies itself on fringe issues. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of people are losing out?

This has been known for a long time. At least I knew. Whenever a right-winger says "Sosialism has never worked", left-wingers can say back "So hasn't trickle-down economics." A person genuinely interested in evidence based empirical economics concludes what works is something other than these and in fact it is: Social democracy which is kind of trickle-UP economics and it works, because those who don't have much money have to spend most of it fast to live instead of hoarding it into places where money doesn't circulate in the economic system.

Sorry about this quick intervention. I just couldn't pass this "I told you so" moment.  0:)

I've heard plenty of right-wing American conservatives rant over the years about "redistribution".  Of course they mean taking their money and giving it to the poor.  But huge tax reductions is redistribution of precisely the opposite effect.

"Trickle-down", (a.k.a. supply-side -- or as I call it, Bribe the Rich), doesn't work because it doesn't necessarily, or even very often, result in the new, productive investment that creates jobs.  There are too many other things rich folks can do with their money, principally speculation, that is, buying up existing assets in the hope of further appreciation.  A current example of this is the record-breaking stock market.  The market isn't reflecting the Covid-10 crisis because huge amounts of free cash are available, not to mention low interest rates, that result in non-productive so-called investment rather than real investment.

If governments want to stimulate the economy, i.e. create Demand, they need to give money to poor folk who will immediately spend it, or alternatively, directly spend on things like infrastructure.

[Fëanor]

Not just voter suppression. They don't believe in the USA, it's constitution and democracy. They just want to be in power and have their Christian theocracy.

You are speaking of the Christian Right in the USA.  It's true:  very many of these people want, in effect, a theocracy.

Worthwhile books on the subject are Chris Hedges' American Fascists: Christian Right and the War on America.  Also Michelle Goldberg's The Rise of Christian Nationalism; Kingdom Coming.

For a fictional take, there's Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

You are speaking of the Christian Right in the USA.  It's true:  very many of these people want, in effect, a theocracy.

Worthwhile books on the subject are Chris Hedges' American Fascists: Christian Right and the War on America.  Also Michelle Goldberg's The Rise of Christian Nationalism; Kingdom Coming.

For a fictional take, there's Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

Great book!  I read that years ago....still applicable (sadly).  I need to read the 'follow-up' novel by her.

[JBS]

This has been known for a long time. At least I knew. Whenever a right-winger says "Sosialism has never worked", left-wingers can say back "So hasn't trickle-down economics." A person genuinely interested in evidence based empirical economics concludes what works is something other than these and in fact it is: Social democracy which is kind of trickle-UP economics and it works, because those who don't have much money have to spend most of it fast to live instead of hoarding it into places where money doesn't circulate in the economic system.

Sorry about this quick intervention. I just couldn't pass this "I told you so" moment.  0:)


I've heard plenty of right-wing American conservatives rant over the years about "redistribution".  Of course they mean taking their money and giving it to the poor.  But huge tax reductions is redistribution of precisely the opposite effect.

"Trickle-down", (a.k.a. supply-side -- or as I call it, Bribe the Rich), doesn't work because it doesn't necessarily, or even very often, result in the new, productive investment that creates jobs.  There are too many other things rich folks can do with their money, principally speculation, that is, buying up existing assets in the hope of further appreciation.  A current example of this is the record-breaking stock market.  The market isn't reflecting the Covid-10 crisis because huge amounts of free cash are available, not to mention low interest rates, that result in non-productive so-called investment rather than real investment.

If governments want to stimulate the economy, i.e. create Demand, they need to give money to poor folk who will immediately spend it, or alternatively, directly spend on things like infrastructure.

Buying up existing assets merely transfers the money: the seller then has to decide what to do with the money.

The flaw in trickle down is that no one is required to invest the money domestically.  If I use my tax cut to invest in a Ruritanian factory, I may be helping Ruritania, but I certainly not helping other Americans.

[drogulus]

This has been known for a long time. At least I knew. Whenever a right-winger says "Sosialism has never worked", left-wingers can say back "So hasn't trickle-down economics." A person genuinely interested in evidence based empirical economics concludes what works is something other than these and in fact it is: Social democracy which is kind of trickle-UP economics and it works, because those who don't have much money have to spend most of it fast to live instead of hoarding it into places where money doesn't circulate in the economic system.

Sorry about this quick intervention. I just couldn't pass this "I told you so" moment.  0:)


I've heard plenty of right-wing American conservatives rant over the years about "redistribution".  Of course they mean taking their money and giving it to the poor.  But huge tax reductions is redistribution of precisely the opposite effect.

     Uh oh, here I go again.

     I once thought distribution was "re" in the way people do, as though so-called tax dollars, having been taken, were turned over to other parties. It appears to be a myth in the service of what some wiseguy termed "folk economics". In this belief there are dollars that go round and round in a kind of traffic circle with no entrance or exit. The government only exchanges these dollars with others on a zero sum basis. If it should ever appear that there are more dollars than there used to be, it's an outrage, probably due to government interference in its money.

     In a proper money circle new money never gets in or leaves. How the initial number of dollars was established is unknown, but probably a crime was committed.

     An alternative view says dollars are created by the sovereign authority and then are taxed back to control their value. Extinguished dollars cannot be resurrected, and all US dollars are newly spent. Spending is what creates them and taxing puts an end to them. No rich person ever commits the moral hazard of feeding a poor child via a tax.

[Karl Henning]

He's scarcely raised a fat finger to save 340K Americans' lives, but he has ample steam to try to undermine Democracy

Trump makes 2nd request to Supreme Court over Wisconsin loss

[Fëanor]

     Uh oh, here I go again.

     I once thought distribution was "re" in the way people do, as though so-called tax dollars, having been taken, were turned over to other parties. It appears to be a myth in the service of what some wiseguy termed "folk economics". In this belief there are dollars that go round and round in a kind of traffic circle with no entrance or exit. The government only exchanges these dollars with others on a zero sum basis. If it should ever appear that there are more dollars than there used to be, it's an outrage, probably due to government interference in its money.

     In a proper money circle new money never gets in or leaves. How the initial number of dollars was established is unknown, but probably a crime was committed.

     An alternative view says dollars are created by the sovereign authority and then are taxed back to control their value. Extinguished dollars cannot be resurrected, and all US dollars are newly spent. Spending is what creates them and taxing puts an end to them. No rich person ever commits the moral hazard of feeding a poor child via a tax.

Economics isn't a zero sum game.  Economies expand, normally, on account of "Demand" (in the economic sense), rarely on account of "Supply".  That's the problem with "Supply-side" polices:  they presume that if people have a lot of money, they will invest it resulting in jobs and thus "trickle-down".  Unfortunately this is true to any great extent.  As I explained, the rich don't have to invest, they can simple salt away their money, (again as I explained, most often by buying existing assets which drives up their prices but doesn't added to productive capacity.

[Karl Henning]

Knowing that I am a White House reporter who has raised these issues—and been routinely ignored, lied to, or insulted for doing so—friends and acquaintances often ask me if the members of Trump's team are "viciously evil" or "morally bankrupt."

My reply now usually mentions Hannah Arendt's description of Adolf Eichmann. Arendt, who wrote in the New Yorker and in her 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem about the trial of the infamous Nazi bureaucrat, said he was "terribly and terrifyingly normal."

In trying to understand how Eichmann could seem so ordinary in contrast to the horrendous crimes he committed, Arendt argued that his actions weren't driven by hate or malice but a "blind dedication" to the Nazi regime and a need to belong. This need, she said, overcame Eichmann's ability to think for himself. His desire to be able to say "we" and find a meaningful role for himself as an individual in a group dynamic clouded his thoughts and made the most horrific actions possible.

"The lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us," Arendt famously wrote, was "the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil."

Crimes, Crises, and Coup

[Fëanor]

Buying up existing assets merely transfers the money: the seller then has to decide what to do with the money.

The flaw in trickle down is that no one is required to invest the money domestically.  If I use my tax cut to invest in a Ruritanian factory, I may be helping Ruritania, but I certainly not helping other Americans.

Good point, of course, about investing in foreign countries.

As for your first point, if the seller also buys and existing asset then no money goes of investment.  Keynes made the point decades ago that economies can wind down due to lack of Demand:  monies can be sequestered.

[Fëanor]

Knowing that I am a White House reporter who has raised these issues—and been routinely ignored, lied to, or insulted for doing so—friends and acquaintances often ask me if the members of Trump's team are "viciously evil" or "morally bankrupt."

My reply now usually mentions Hannah Arendt's description of Adolf Eichmann. Arendt, who wrote in the New Yorker and in her 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem about the trial of the infamous Nazi bureaucrat, said he was "terribly and terrifyingly normal."

In trying to understand how Eichmann could seem so ordinary in contrast to the horrendous crimes he committed, Arendt argued that his actions weren't driven by hate or malice but a "blind dedication" to the Nazi regime and a need to belong. This need, she said, overcame Eichmann's ability to think for himself. His desire to be able to say "we" and find a meaningful role for himself as an individual in a group dynamic clouded his thoughts and made the most horrific actions possible.

"The lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us," Arendt famously wrote, was "the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil."

Crimes, Crises, and Coup

"Careerism", as least as much as ideology, propelled many Nazis to high positions and evil doing.  We needn't suppose the Trump hangers-on believe in Trump's vision, (of which he clearly has none).

[Karl Henning]

"Careerism", as least as much as ideology, propelled many Nazis to high positions and evil doing.  We needn't suppose the Trump hangers-on believe in Trump's vision, (of which he clearly has none).

Indeed.

[Karl Henning]

Congress overrides a Trump veto for the first time with Senate vote on defense bill.

[drogulus]

The flaw in trickle down is that no one is required to invest the money domestically. 

     It's more than that. If I'm a business owner I look at a change in the tax code like this. I invest if my customers get a tax cut (or an equivalent spending increase). If the cut goes directly to me or my business I will buy back shares or sit on cash. I may not "believe in" demand side economics but I'm not dumb. When money is at stake you go with what works.

[T. D.]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-02/cruz-set-to-lead-group-of-gop-senators-in-opposing-certification

A group of 11 Republican senators is pledging to oppose certification of President Donald Trump's election loss, rejecting leadership who warned against attempts to undermine the election or risk splintering the party.

Congress on Jan. 6 is required by the U.S. Constitution to meet and accept the results of the Electoral College, which affirmed Democrat Joe Biden as president-elect, a gathering that is typically a formality.

Instead, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas led a group on Saturday in calling for a delay of full certification, and a 10-day investigation into accusations of wrongdoing. Those accusations have been stoked by Trump but repeatedly dismissed in court.

The investigation is seen as a condition that's all but certain to not be met, people familiar with the matter said. Without it, "we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not 'regularly given' and 'lawfully certified,'" the senators said in a written statement issued Saturday.

The group includes Senators Cruz, Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Steve Daines, John Kennedy, Marsha Blackburn and Mike Braun, as well as Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis, Bill Hagerty, Tommy Tuberville and Roger Marshall.

"Whether or not our elected officials or journalists believe it, that deep distrust of our democratic processes will not magically disappear. It should concern us all. And it poses an ongoing threat to the legitimacy of any subsequent administrations," the group said in a joint statement.

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-georgia-senate-runoffs-illegal-invalid-042554943.html

President Donald Trump declared the Senate runoff elections in Georgia both "illegal and invalid" in a tweet on Friday, which could dissuade his followers from heading to the polls.

The results of the Jan. 5 vote will determine which party controls the Senate. More than 3 million Georgians have already voted during the state's early voting period.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-02/judge-tosses-out-gohmert-suit-against-pence-over-electoral-votes

Representative Louie Gohmert suggested street violence as the next recourse after a federal judge in Texas threw out his lawsuit filed in an effort to overturn President Donald Trump's election loss.

The Texas lawmaker appeared on the conservative Newsmax network Friday night after U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle dismissed Gohmert's suit, in which he argued that Vice President Mike Pence has the authority to unilaterally reverse the election result during a joint session of Congress Wednesday.

[Karl Henning]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-02/cruz-set-to-lead-group-of-gop-senators-in-opposing-certification

A group of 11 Republican senators is pledging to oppose certification of President Donald Trump's election loss, rejecting leadership who warned against attempts to undermine the election or risk splintering the party.

Congress on Jan. 6 is required by the U.S. Constitution to meet and accept the results of the Electoral College, which affirmed Democrat Joe Biden as president-elect, a gathering that is typically a formality.

Instead, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas led a group on Saturday in calling for a delay of full certification, and a 10-day investigation into accusations of wrongdoing. Those accusations have been stoked by Trump but repeatedly dismissed in court.

The investigation is seen as a condition that's all but certain to not be met, people familiar with the matter said. Without it, "we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not 'regularly given' and 'lawfully certified,'" the senators said in a written statement issued Saturday.

The group includes Senators Cruz, Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Steve Daines, John Kennedy, Marsha Blackburn and Mike Braun, as well as Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis, Bill Hagerty, Tommy Tuberville and Roger Marshall.

"Whether or not our elected officials or journalists believe it, that deep distrust of our democratic processes will not magically disappear. It should concern us all. And it poses an ongoing threat to the legitimacy of any subsequent administrations," the group said in a joint statement.

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-georgia-senate-runoffs-illegal-invalid-042554943.html

President Donald Trump declared the Senate runoff elections in Georgia both "illegal and invalid" in a tweet on Friday, which could dissuade his followers from heading to the polls.

The results of the Jan. 5 vote will determine which party controls the Senate. More than 3 million Georgians have already voted during the state's early voting period.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-02/judge-tosses-out-gohmert-suit-against-pence-over-electoral-votes

Representative Louie Gohmert suggested street violence as the next recourse after a federal judge in Texas threw out his lawsuit filed in an effort to overturn President Donald Trump's election loss.

The Texas lawmaker appeared on the conservative Newsmax network Friday night after U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle dismissed Gohmert's suit, in which he argued that Vice President Mike Pence has the authority to unilaterally reverse the election result during a joint session of Congress Wednesday.

It isn't as if McConnell couldn't speak louder, if he wished.  This will allow the Quislings to set their disgraceful names down in the Cingressional record.

[Daverz]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-02/cruz-set-to-lead-group-of-gop-senators-in-opposing-certification

A group of 11 Republican senators is pledging to oppose certification of President Donald Trump's election loss, rejecting leadership who warned against attempts to undermine the election or risk splintering the party.

It won't matter this cycle, but Republicans will probably take back the House in 2022.  Then they'd have a real chance of overriding the Electoral College in 2024.

[T. D.]

It won't matter this cycle, but Republicans will probably take back the House in 2022.  Then they'd have a real chance of overriding the Electoral College in 2024.

Yup. Scary (to me, at least).