While hate has always been a part of the American landscape, the entrance of Trump onto the American political scene has led to an explosion of hate crimes against racial and religious minorities...
I have a lovely 1919 poster printed by the U.S. government to raise funds for the Liberty Loan at the end of World War I. It shows a modern woman as Liberty stretching out her arm and holding a wreath over a long list of names from various immigrant groups while proclaiming, "Americans All!" Why do we as a people seem to have forgotten that spirit?
What too many Trump supporters seem to have forgotten--if they ever knew--was the warning by Pastor Niemöller that hate doesn't stop with one group. If Trump's wannabee Brown Shirts ever gain power (and the "official" ones already have far too much, as in that horrible mistake called the DHS) there is no reason why the pogroms will stop with just one religious or ethnic minority. After all, America's problems won't go away just because of more persecution. It is quite the opposite as countries which have driven out their productive minorities discovered. (Think Spain in 1492 with its Jews or France in 1685 with the Huguenots.)
Trump's has already indirectly attacked Chinese-Americans over a virus they had nothing to do with, and his record on African-Americans is horrid. Pandering for the votes of that population, or of Latinos is really disgusting, but when you have no morals it is easy. Those who vote for this man, no matter what groups they may belong to, should remember that his one consistency is betraying every single person who ever supported him.
Don’t forget what he thinks of women, he is a world class misogynist. He’s taken away our rights to our own bodies, and if he has a chance, will even take away our right to vote.
Doc I agree with you but what flummoxes me is that way too many blacks, especially males, have sided with Trump or at least are going to sit out the election and Hispanics have seemed to go over to Trump. Perhaps it is because of the LGBT issue, Blacks and Hispanics are more religious and conservative (culturally) than whites, also tend to misogyny, not that they hate women, but have a need to control them, more so than whites.
Maybe I'm stereotyping or something, but I have notice that cultures where the female coddles the male when young, the male grows up to be a <Mamma's boy, but otherwise disrespects the female. I've noticed it cross cultural.
Yes, so true. I was raised by a single mother, who played the role of father and mother, and I grew up respecting women.
I joined the service at 17, wrote home from Basic Training that Basic was a breeze, because I was raised by the toughest top sergeant there ever was. She certainly didn't coddle me.
And what judge would hesitate for one minute from enforcing a gag order on Trump to keep his nasty mouth shut from instigating hate in the uninformed, angry, vulnerable enabling MAGA followers. Should Germany have prohibited Hitler and the Nazi party from instigating hatred of Jews, Gypsies, gays, and others which led to the Holocaust? Is free speech, especially regarding a countries influential, powerful, and their leaders an anything goes, no matter the consequences? The MAGA movement, which has co-opted the Republican party has been infected. I also believe most of them had this relatively dormant virus before, and Trump provided the environment for its activation. Its been passed on down for generations. This 30% are like the 30% of the country that made up the Confederacy that led to the Civil War. We do not need, nor should we want another Civil War to address this. But the rational, critical thinking, morally mature population has its limits before compromise, cooperation, and compassion start to become more than defending the Constitution in the courts. We do not need to become like those MAGA types who are infected with hate in order to protect our rule of law. But, like I said, the discipline to stay non-violent has its limits in most everyone. The psychologically disordered minority cannot rule the country.
The effort to paint Trump's support around economic anxiety over racial backlash made it so that the remedy to the illness was a misdiagnosis. However, mainstream media must believe that in order to continue chasing an audience that is long gone. The effort to gaslight around the issue of race remains a weakness for this nation and a true component of America as Fantasyland.
Where is the Church? I do not see the preachers calling out all this hate. Some of them actually participating and their congregations happy to spread it. Where is the political and religious leadership wailing at the top of their voices at the actors of hate. Why do we see no action against the values of Jesus the prince of Peace? Do they actually believe or not?
Take a look at https://faithfulamerica.org/. Faithful America’s goal is to point out the message of love and acceptance that christofascists have co-opted. Their current focus is fighting Christian nationalism, like Justice Alito has espoused.
Hate has plagued mankind since the beginning of people. It also has been employed through-out history to manipulate political advantage. Here in USA, pockets of lingeringly hate have smoduldered in open defiance without any meaningful condemnation. The Klan in the slouching South, the virulent denizens surrounding the native Americans in the central upper US have existed and still exist with very weak response from the Federal government. Fact is, governmental agencies, predominately the FBI, have looked the other way, going through the motions, and in many cases secretly supported these racist elements. Had these agencies met the racial hate wars head on, acting true to the reasons of their assignments, meaningful checks would have occured. Total legal backing would work. The Klan could have been and could be eliminated, as well as the hate-filled anti-American organized elements against Native Americans,with sufficient legal and law enforcement follow thru. Instead, massive numbers of minorities suffer today due to the lack of a sound governmental remedial addressment. Racism has infected our institutions, continues to, and the hubris overwhelms. Just ask the victims, who seem to be the only credible voices to be heard.
The hatred, bigotry, prejudice and anti-semitism has always been a part of America - a hidden part of our national fabric - until the 🟠💩 legitimized it and welcomed it into society. He is a figure-head for the fascist agenda put forth in Project2025, financed and led by the likes of Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.
They will do all they can to win the election. But, there are more of US than of THEM. We can beat them by NOT voting for a third party candidate and turning out the vote for Dems up and down the ballot like this country has never seen in any previous election.
The man, if one can call it a man, has undermined everything he has touched (ETTD). In the same way him saying 'Russia, if you're listening...' he is inviting every felon & wannabe felon to enter the US illegally when he calls them murderers & rapists. It was an open invitation to make his truth the actually occurring truth that then gets blown up by RW media. He is calling for the destruction of values & it's terrifying that so many find his message to be good.
In tfg and his cultists, I see a harsh truth about our species, one that Christ in his life and message sought to reverse. It is that we embrace hate far more readily than we do love. It may be that love takes more work than hate. Though considering the expenses, in every way, of wars, the consummate manifestations of hate, one would not think so. Hate is the natural product of fear. Love embodies hope in many ways. In his novel “The Ninth Wave”, author Eugene Burdick depicted a political character who lived by the formula “Fear + Hate = Power”. That has been true throughout human history. Hate has proven more powerful than love. In the end, and to me justifiably so, that will be the reason we exterminate ourselves. Tfg and his cultists are simply expose the cancer lying dormant within far too many of us. Our prognosis is dismal indeed.
Hate, which is disguised fear, is much more deeply ingrained in our reptilian brains (the brain stem, most primitive part of the brain). Love and acceptance are housed in the front part of the brain, the cerebral cortex, which is a much more recent innovation in human evolution.
The religious hatred and racial hatred has always been there. What has changed in my opinion is the distribution of wealth. The people on the bottom cannot afford to live in houses without government assistance.
Is this the German Nazi revenge for World war 2 ? The Nazis (right-wing fascists) seem fully in control of the axis of evil and they've almost rested control of our democracy. What better way to get revenge then to bring in a lot of cheap labor and then the blame it on the humanitarians, who supported birth control.
Since the JFK assassination, we have been going down this road for about 60 years! Since the ultra wealthy figured out how to exchange tax revenue for deficit spending. Being good capitalists they knew they could buy the government. With free trade, citizens united, trickle down theory, union busting immigrants, corporate welfare, unfunded wars, offshore banking... The rich proceeded to obstruct and destroy the American government. All they had to do is lower the standard of living far enough and the masses will turn on each other.
If the magas think it is bad now, wait till the real Nazis gain control if they haven't already.
Bob, without deficit spending (i.e. debts, private,corporate, public) there is no money, no money means no consumers, means no demand, means no jobs, means depression.
How does sound.?
The alternatives are barter, what do you have to barter for food, clothing, housing, transportation.
Scarce resources, gold, silver jewels, we had that,the world had those gold and silver inflation brought down the Spanish Empire, i bet hey don't teach you that. The silver mines of Potosi, Bolvia, caused such an inflation that the Spanish real was virtually worthless, at first the conquest of the Americas spurred the renaissance then as more and more silver came to the continent it became next to worthless.
The early United States when through some ghastly depressions for the lack of silver, then they discovered the Comstock load, and that created speculation and the robber barons, then so much silver entered the economy that inflation mad it worthless, so the government demonitized silver, and we went into a depression in 1893 that lasted seven years, and from it's ashes we got the Federal Reserve System, formed to manage the credit of the nation.
We could go the route of many south American countries and the Germans in 1922, and start printing money, and we know where that ends up don't we. In 1922, Germans were rushing out of their factories to buy a loaf of bread for 1 million marks. on the other hand a lucky few were paying off mortgages with one days or one hours work.
America has never had printing press money, except for the Revolutionary Continental, but that was inflated into oblivion by the Bank of England, but they never tell us that in history or economics.
Washington's troops intercepted a British supply train, and a wagon full of forged continentals,just one of my shipments that rendered the Continental worthless.
William, we functioned for about 200 years without running up much of a national debt. It was under a trillion dollars or so when Reagan came into office. Paying interest on the national debt causes inflation. Just because it is fiat currency or paper money doesn't mean we should spend more than we bring in when it's not necessary. I can't believe you would defend neoliberalism?
I agree but lets talk about the word fiat,in relation to money.
Fiat is faith, Fiat money is faith money. Any medium of exchange, any transaction is an act of faith.
Fiat money in the common parlance, as used by the financiers, the money powers, the oligarchs is what they refer to debt money or fractional reserve money.
In classical terms Fiat money is printing press money, and that is the concept most Americans hold in their heads, it is wrong, at least regards the U.S.dollar and the Euro.
The dollar is not fiat money, it is debt money, and it has value because it is commonly accepted, and the value fluctuates, fluctuation is called inflation and deflation. We see mostly inflation, but when prices go down that is deflation, even if it is only gas.
Gold and sliver are also fiat money, because the basis for accepting gold and silver is faith, faith that the minerals have value, but the value of gold and silver also fluctuates.
Have you heard of gold or silver inflation, or depression caused by the shortage of either or both. You probably haven't but silver inflation brought down the Spanish Empire, and they caused it by working natives to death in the silver mines of Potosi,Bolivia.
When they discovered the Comstock lode in Nevada, there was a spur of economic activity and well being, that resulted in inflation, and as a result the mines in Virginia city were shut down, as they were not producing a profit anymore, Virginia City became a ghost town, and the gpvermment,de monetized silver, bringing in a 7 year depression from 1893 to 1900, which led to the campaign where William Jennings Byrant gave his Cross of Gold Speech, because the country was on the gold standrard, and there wasn't enough gold to back the dollar, and each state, even local banks printed their own money i.e. Banknotes, some without any gold in their vault to redeem outstanding notes, and the result was a run on the bank, and people losing their life savings and homes.
The Jimmy Stewart movie "It is a Wonderful Life", was about a run on a bank, because the local bank did not have enough gold in it's vaults to redeem all it's outstanding bank notes.
If you look at the money in your wallet, you will see it says Federal reserve Note. A Note is a legal liability, the issuer has the obligation to redeem it in specie, but there is no specie by which to redeem federal reserve notes. The same is true for Treasury Notes. The old Silver Certificates were also not backed with Silver., and bank notes at the turn of the Century were not backed with gold either.
Anyway gold and sliver are as much fiat money as printing press money or debt money.
There is not enough gold to redeem all of the money in existence, nor money and silver and I am not talking about the U.S. I am talking about the world.
The USSR defined a ruble as .9871 grams fine gold, and printed only enough rubles as there was gold on hand, and thus a perpetual depression, which the cold war gave them an excuse, claiming that they didn't have consumer goods and food because of the American threat.
Hatred is a long established defence emotion triggered by a threat to our survival, at the unconscious limbic "survival" brain level, it's the "fight-flight" emotional/behavioral reflex triggered by attack/fear. We have created (allowed to be created) a world filled with threat signals (memes) poured into our psyches daily, hourly by the MSM to attract clicks/eyeballs and fill the corporate media's coffers. So, the only way to "fight" hate is with assurances that we are safe, protected, and cared for, unless you'd prefer, like Our Mad King (wannabe) Donald, to stoke the flames of fear and hatred in order to control the masses and rally them to your particular scary, hateful memes. Check out "Meme Wars", by Donovan, et. al. Thanks for another great post, Thom!
I agree with you Doc Greeley, what you say makes sense, rings true. The problem as I see it then is how to calm down those who have succumbed.
They are Skinners rats, the get their reward, reinforcement, from chosen sources and I know of no way to get to them. Getting to us, those who think like us, is not a solution, we need to calm the afflicted and I do not know how to go about it, do you?
Now, that's the right question, William! I just always remember the old Indian advice: "Don't judge me until you've walked a mile in my moccasins". After a working life as a psychiatrist, God knows I've been a listener, but also a self-revealer. We all have much more in common than distinguishes us one from the other. However, it was not an unfamiliar experience for me to have a patient ask me to be quiet, so he/she could get a word in edgewise. ( :)) My Buddhist teachers have always told me to stay focused on compassionate regard for others, no matter how wrong headed I might think they were. I can only change the world one person at a time, but that's just me. The rest is up to God. Have a blessed evening and day tomorrow!
We need Trump to somehow become silent and invisible to the public (for its own safety and security,) which should have been the function of our so-called department of justice ...but our federal judges (and the SC) have not seen it that way.
Your comments on Trump's Hate Virus provides us with a powerful insight, as to why Vladimir Putin was so keen on doing all he could to ensure Trump was installed as our 45th president. Between catch & kill, cooking the books to cover it up; Cambridge Analytica's-Trump orchestrated-to-Russia data dumping focusing on swing state electors; obstruction of Mueller's counterintel investigation; his beseaching of Russia's help publicly; Trump's loss of the 2016 [popular] vote and finally his 2020 coup d'état attempts & theft of sensitive TS info, leaves us with little question that the Trump presidency was illegitimate, and that he was working in support of foreign adversaries. Unfortunately, the fascist foothold that he & an easily disinformation corrupted, power hungry, Republican party represent, has since, vastly escalated. Now the insatiable greed of the morbidly wealthy has also gotten into the act in a much greater way, and they now own 2/3 of the Supreme Court. All of the hatred & disruption this has created has been a tremendous success story for Vladimir Putin and other wannabe tyrants & terrorists, that goes far beyond Vlad's wildest dreams, when he took a chance that western democracies would not retaliate against his cyber bullying, exploitation of free speech and his use of clandestine, assymetric warfare to disrupt their goverments' operations. Deterrence demands that our foreign adversaries and their domestic corroborators pay a heavy price for their attempts to sew chaos and bring down the US government and Western democracy.
I blame Garland the most. If garland would have immediately started prosecuting Trump and 147 + Co-conspirators, the Democrats would have won the Congress and we could have started straightening things out! I don't believe that this was accidental! I think there is more planned BS in the future. Biden needs to ask Trump during the debate what the next October surprise is going to be! After Nixon, Reagan, Bush Jr. , Trump. I also suspect LBJ and Bush Senior, P
Every nation, like a person, has a negative fully developed side that Carl Jung called its shadow. It is often controlled by what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. However, that negative side came to dominate in Germany under the influence of Hitler. This side has great illusory power and was suppressed in Germany only by great suffering.
Trump is now infusing America’s shadow side with power.
My first question is why didn't the mother jump in the pool to rescue her kids. It is a biologically evolved instinct for mothers to stand between danger and her children. Want to be killed by a bear, go hear her cubs. Same with any creature, elephants charge lions without cause because the know lions threaten their young.
I don't think that hate is contagious, I think it is learned (and unlearned) what is contagious is the notion that one is free to express their hate and bigotry, and to that we can "thank" Trump.
Trump has loosed the kranken so to speak, before Trump it the hate was mostly sub rosa, occasionally manifesting by cops killing and beating blacks, gay bashings, tying Matthew Shephard to a fence in Nebraska, occasional swastika painted on a synagogue, here and there a shooting of a Jew, queer or black. hundreds of trans girls slaughtered and dumped in dumpsters.
But nothing like the scale we have now. Trump has given them license to come out of the closet, and now we can see with our own eyes, hear with our own ears what has been going on under the surface for since the founding.
Political correctness has tamped down the expression, but not the emotion, it has been boiling, until the pressure valve had to pop, and Trump was the final degree of temperature.
You can suppress something but that is not the same as killing it, just continues to build steam until it explodes.
Trump is not a disease he is a symptom, a cancerous growth on the American body. Removing him will not be a cure but it's a start.
I have a lovely 1919 poster printed by the U.S. government to raise funds for the Liberty Loan at the end of World War I. It shows a modern woman as Liberty stretching out her arm and holding a wreath over a long list of names from various immigrant groups while proclaiming, "Americans All!" Why do we as a people seem to have forgotten that spirit?
What too many Trump supporters seem to have forgotten--if they ever knew--was the warning by Pastor Niemöller that hate doesn't stop with one group. If Trump's wannabee Brown Shirts ever gain power (and the "official" ones already have far too much, as in that horrible mistake called the DHS) there is no reason why the pogroms will stop with just one religious or ethnic minority. After all, America's problems won't go away just because of more persecution. It is quite the opposite as countries which have driven out their productive minorities discovered. (Think Spain in 1492 with its Jews or France in 1685 with the Huguenots.)
Trump's has already indirectly attacked Chinese-Americans over a virus they had nothing to do with, and his record on African-Americans is horrid. Pandering for the votes of that population, or of Latinos is really disgusting, but when you have no morals it is easy. Those who vote for this man, no matter what groups they may belong to, should remember that his one consistency is betraying every single person who ever supported him.
Trump scapegoats immigrants just like Hitler scapegoated Jews.
Don’t forget what he thinks of women, he is a world class misogynist. He’s taken away our rights to our own bodies, and if he has a chance, will even take away our right to vote.
Doc I agree with you but what flummoxes me is that way too many blacks, especially males, have sided with Trump or at least are going to sit out the election and Hispanics have seemed to go over to Trump. Perhaps it is because of the LGBT issue, Blacks and Hispanics are more religious and conservative (culturally) than whites, also tend to misogyny, not that they hate women, but have a need to control them, more so than whites.
Maybe I'm stereotyping or something, but I have notice that cultures where the female coddles the male when young, the male grows up to be a <Mamma's boy, but otherwise disrespects the female. I've noticed it cross cultural.
When the father disrespects the mother, the male children will disrespect their wives and girlfriends later in life.
Yes, so true. I was raised by a single mother, who played the role of father and mother, and I grew up respecting women.
I joined the service at 17, wrote home from Basic Training that Basic was a breeze, because I was raised by the toughest top sergeant there ever was. She certainly didn't coddle me.
And what judge would hesitate for one minute from enforcing a gag order on Trump to keep his nasty mouth shut from instigating hate in the uninformed, angry, vulnerable enabling MAGA followers. Should Germany have prohibited Hitler and the Nazi party from instigating hatred of Jews, Gypsies, gays, and others which led to the Holocaust? Is free speech, especially regarding a countries influential, powerful, and their leaders an anything goes, no matter the consequences? The MAGA movement, which has co-opted the Republican party has been infected. I also believe most of them had this relatively dormant virus before, and Trump provided the environment for its activation. Its been passed on down for generations. This 30% are like the 30% of the country that made up the Confederacy that led to the Civil War. We do not need, nor should we want another Civil War to address this. But the rational, critical thinking, morally mature population has its limits before compromise, cooperation, and compassion start to become more than defending the Constitution in the courts. We do not need to become like those MAGA types who are infected with hate in order to protect our rule of law. But, like I said, the discipline to stay non-violent has its limits in most everyone. The psychologically disordered minority cannot rule the country.
The effort to paint Trump's support around economic anxiety over racial backlash made it so that the remedy to the illness was a misdiagnosis. However, mainstream media must believe that in order to continue chasing an audience that is long gone. The effort to gaslight around the issue of race remains a weakness for this nation and a true component of America as Fantasyland.
I keep sayin' that it's visceral. Cultural. May be endemic. Consider C.G. Jung's collective racial subconscious.
Every time you see a pet ad, a pet or animal charity on Facebook or other social media, say the magic words, "Trump hates dogs."
On military and history sites "Not suckers or losers."
On charity sites: "Trump stole from kids with cancer."
Proof: https://rvat.org/
Where is the Church? I do not see the preachers calling out all this hate. Some of them actually participating and their congregations happy to spread it. Where is the political and religious leadership wailing at the top of their voices at the actors of hate. Why do we see no action against the values of Jesus the prince of Peace? Do they actually believe or not?
Take a look at https://faithfulamerica.org/. Faithful America’s goal is to point out the message of love and acceptance that christofascists have co-opted. Their current focus is fighting Christian nationalism, like Justice Alito has espoused.
Hate has plagued mankind since the beginning of people. It also has been employed through-out history to manipulate political advantage. Here in USA, pockets of lingeringly hate have smoduldered in open defiance without any meaningful condemnation. The Klan in the slouching South, the virulent denizens surrounding the native Americans in the central upper US have existed and still exist with very weak response from the Federal government. Fact is, governmental agencies, predominately the FBI, have looked the other way, going through the motions, and in many cases secretly supported these racist elements. Had these agencies met the racial hate wars head on, acting true to the reasons of their assignments, meaningful checks would have occured. Total legal backing would work. The Klan could have been and could be eliminated, as well as the hate-filled anti-American organized elements against Native Americans,with sufficient legal and law enforcement follow thru. Instead, massive numbers of minorities suffer today due to the lack of a sound governmental remedial addressment. Racism has infected our institutions, continues to, and the hubris overwhelms. Just ask the victims, who seem to be the only credible voices to be heard.
The hatred, bigotry, prejudice and anti-semitism has always been a part of America - a hidden part of our national fabric - until the 🟠💩 legitimized it and welcomed it into society. He is a figure-head for the fascist agenda put forth in Project2025, financed and led by the likes of Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.
They will do all they can to win the election. But, there are more of US than of THEM. We can beat them by NOT voting for a third party candidate and turning out the vote for Dems up and down the ballot like this country has never seen in any previous election.
Hard work, for sure. But doable....YES!
Excellent commentary
The man, if one can call it a man, has undermined everything he has touched (ETTD). In the same way him saying 'Russia, if you're listening...' he is inviting every felon & wannabe felon to enter the US illegally when he calls them murderers & rapists. It was an open invitation to make his truth the actually occurring truth that then gets blown up by RW media. He is calling for the destruction of values & it's terrifying that so many find his message to be good.
In tfg and his cultists, I see a harsh truth about our species, one that Christ in his life and message sought to reverse. It is that we embrace hate far more readily than we do love. It may be that love takes more work than hate. Though considering the expenses, in every way, of wars, the consummate manifestations of hate, one would not think so. Hate is the natural product of fear. Love embodies hope in many ways. In his novel “The Ninth Wave”, author Eugene Burdick depicted a political character who lived by the formula “Fear + Hate = Power”. That has been true throughout human history. Hate has proven more powerful than love. In the end, and to me justifiably so, that will be the reason we exterminate ourselves. Tfg and his cultists are simply expose the cancer lying dormant within far too many of us. Our prognosis is dismal indeed.
Hate, which is disguised fear, is much more deeply ingrained in our reptilian brains (the brain stem, most primitive part of the brain). Love and acceptance are housed in the front part of the brain, the cerebral cortex, which is a much more recent innovation in human evolution.
The religious hatred and racial hatred has always been there. What has changed in my opinion is the distribution of wealth. The people on the bottom cannot afford to live in houses without government assistance.
Is this the German Nazi revenge for World war 2 ? The Nazis (right-wing fascists) seem fully in control of the axis of evil and they've almost rested control of our democracy. What better way to get revenge then to bring in a lot of cheap labor and then the blame it on the humanitarians, who supported birth control.
Since the JFK assassination, we have been going down this road for about 60 years! Since the ultra wealthy figured out how to exchange tax revenue for deficit spending. Being good capitalists they knew they could buy the government. With free trade, citizens united, trickle down theory, union busting immigrants, corporate welfare, unfunded wars, offshore banking... The rich proceeded to obstruct and destroy the American government. All they had to do is lower the standard of living far enough and the masses will turn on each other.
If the magas think it is bad now, wait till the real Nazis gain control if they haven't already.
Bob, without deficit spending (i.e. debts, private,corporate, public) there is no money, no money means no consumers, means no demand, means no jobs, means depression.
How does sound.?
The alternatives are barter, what do you have to barter for food, clothing, housing, transportation.
Scarce resources, gold, silver jewels, we had that,the world had those gold and silver inflation brought down the Spanish Empire, i bet hey don't teach you that. The silver mines of Potosi, Bolvia, caused such an inflation that the Spanish real was virtually worthless, at first the conquest of the Americas spurred the renaissance then as more and more silver came to the continent it became next to worthless.
The early United States when through some ghastly depressions for the lack of silver, then they discovered the Comstock load, and that created speculation and the robber barons, then so much silver entered the economy that inflation mad it worthless, so the government demonitized silver, and we went into a depression in 1893 that lasted seven years, and from it's ashes we got the Federal Reserve System, formed to manage the credit of the nation.
We could go the route of many south American countries and the Germans in 1922, and start printing money, and we know where that ends up don't we. In 1922, Germans were rushing out of their factories to buy a loaf of bread for 1 million marks. on the other hand a lucky few were paying off mortgages with one days or one hours work.
America has never had printing press money, except for the Revolutionary Continental, but that was inflated into oblivion by the Bank of England, but they never tell us that in history or economics.
Washington's troops intercepted a British supply train, and a wagon full of forged continentals,just one of my shipments that rendered the Continental worthless.
William, we functioned for about 200 years without running up much of a national debt. It was under a trillion dollars or so when Reagan came into office. Paying interest on the national debt causes inflation. Just because it is fiat currency or paper money doesn't mean we should spend more than we bring in when it's not necessary. I can't believe you would defend neoliberalism?
I agree but lets talk about the word fiat,in relation to money.
Fiat is faith, Fiat money is faith money. Any medium of exchange, any transaction is an act of faith.
Fiat money in the common parlance, as used by the financiers, the money powers, the oligarchs is what they refer to debt money or fractional reserve money.
In classical terms Fiat money is printing press money, and that is the concept most Americans hold in their heads, it is wrong, at least regards the U.S.dollar and the Euro.
The dollar is not fiat money, it is debt money, and it has value because it is commonly accepted, and the value fluctuates, fluctuation is called inflation and deflation. We see mostly inflation, but when prices go down that is deflation, even if it is only gas.
Gold and sliver are also fiat money, because the basis for accepting gold and silver is faith, faith that the minerals have value, but the value of gold and silver also fluctuates.
Have you heard of gold or silver inflation, or depression caused by the shortage of either or both. You probably haven't but silver inflation brought down the Spanish Empire, and they caused it by working natives to death in the silver mines of Potosi,Bolivia.
When they discovered the Comstock lode in Nevada, there was a spur of economic activity and well being, that resulted in inflation, and as a result the mines in Virginia city were shut down, as they were not producing a profit anymore, Virginia City became a ghost town, and the gpvermment,de monetized silver, bringing in a 7 year depression from 1893 to 1900, which led to the campaign where William Jennings Byrant gave his Cross of Gold Speech, because the country was on the gold standrard, and there wasn't enough gold to back the dollar, and each state, even local banks printed their own money i.e. Banknotes, some without any gold in their vault to redeem outstanding notes, and the result was a run on the bank, and people losing their life savings and homes.
The Jimmy Stewart movie "It is a Wonderful Life", was about a run on a bank, because the local bank did not have enough gold in it's vaults to redeem all it's outstanding bank notes.
If you look at the money in your wallet, you will see it says Federal reserve Note. A Note is a legal liability, the issuer has the obligation to redeem it in specie, but there is no specie by which to redeem federal reserve notes. The same is true for Treasury Notes. The old Silver Certificates were also not backed with Silver., and bank notes at the turn of the Century were not backed with gold either.
Anyway gold and sliver are as much fiat money as printing press money or debt money.
There is not enough gold to redeem all of the money in existence, nor money and silver and I am not talking about the U.S. I am talking about the world.
The USSR defined a ruble as .9871 grams fine gold, and printed only enough rubles as there was gold on hand, and thus a perpetual depression, which the cold war gave them an excuse, claiming that they didn't have consumer goods and food because of the American threat.
Yet a Russian could not redeem a ruble for gold.
Hatred is a long established defence emotion triggered by a threat to our survival, at the unconscious limbic "survival" brain level, it's the "fight-flight" emotional/behavioral reflex triggered by attack/fear. We have created (allowed to be created) a world filled with threat signals (memes) poured into our psyches daily, hourly by the MSM to attract clicks/eyeballs and fill the corporate media's coffers. So, the only way to "fight" hate is with assurances that we are safe, protected, and cared for, unless you'd prefer, like Our Mad King (wannabe) Donald, to stoke the flames of fear and hatred in order to control the masses and rally them to your particular scary, hateful memes. Check out "Meme Wars", by Donovan, et. al. Thanks for another great post, Thom!
I agree with you Doc Greeley, what you say makes sense, rings true. The problem as I see it then is how to calm down those who have succumbed.
They are Skinners rats, the get their reward, reinforcement, from chosen sources and I know of no way to get to them. Getting to us, those who think like us, is not a solution, we need to calm the afflicted and I do not know how to go about it, do you?
Let's hope psilocybin mushrooms work! Leaving a GOP state in charge is a bad idea! Arizona my state!
Now, that's the right question, William! I just always remember the old Indian advice: "Don't judge me until you've walked a mile in my moccasins". After a working life as a psychiatrist, God knows I've been a listener, but also a self-revealer. We all have much more in common than distinguishes us one from the other. However, it was not an unfamiliar experience for me to have a patient ask me to be quiet, so he/she could get a word in edgewise. ( :)) My Buddhist teachers have always told me to stay focused on compassionate regard for others, no matter how wrong headed I might think they were. I can only change the world one person at a time, but that's just me. The rest is up to God. Have a blessed evening and day tomorrow!
I cannot even begin to
Imagine the absolute Trauma that that little three year old girl will live with the rest of her life.
I hope that woman that did this absolutely heinous crime goes to jail
For a damn long time .
People have come to see Trump as a hater , but do not consider the horrific damage he is doing to the people in this country.
He must be stopped or no one will be safe any more.
The damn fear that Trump pedals sets the stage for this kind of hate .
My heart breaks for this child and her family .
And for this Country .
If Trump gets into office we will all be in serious danger . And more children will suffer tragically .
We need Trump to somehow become silent and invisible to the public (for its own safety and security,) which should have been the function of our so-called department of justice ...but our federal judges (and the SC) have not seen it that way.
Trump has 2 things which connect him to his cultists.
1. Despisement of women, non-Whites, non-Christians, and dogs
2. Unalloyed Hatred of all of the above
Your comments on Trump's Hate Virus provides us with a powerful insight, as to why Vladimir Putin was so keen on doing all he could to ensure Trump was installed as our 45th president. Between catch & kill, cooking the books to cover it up; Cambridge Analytica's-Trump orchestrated-to-Russia data dumping focusing on swing state electors; obstruction of Mueller's counterintel investigation; his beseaching of Russia's help publicly; Trump's loss of the 2016 [popular] vote and finally his 2020 coup d'état attempts & theft of sensitive TS info, leaves us with little question that the Trump presidency was illegitimate, and that he was working in support of foreign adversaries. Unfortunately, the fascist foothold that he & an easily disinformation corrupted, power hungry, Republican party represent, has since, vastly escalated. Now the insatiable greed of the morbidly wealthy has also gotten into the act in a much greater way, and they now own 2/3 of the Supreme Court. All of the hatred & disruption this has created has been a tremendous success story for Vladimir Putin and other wannabe tyrants & terrorists, that goes far beyond Vlad's wildest dreams, when he took a chance that western democracies would not retaliate against his cyber bullying, exploitation of free speech and his use of clandestine, assymetric warfare to disrupt their goverments' operations. Deterrence demands that our foreign adversaries and their domestic corroborators pay a heavy price for their attempts to sew chaos and bring down the US government and Western democracy.
I blame Garland the most. If garland would have immediately started prosecuting Trump and 147 + Co-conspirators, the Democrats would have won the Congress and we could have started straightening things out! I don't believe that this was accidental! I think there is more planned BS in the future. Biden needs to ask Trump during the debate what the next October surprise is going to be! After Nixon, Reagan, Bush Jr. , Trump. I also suspect LBJ and Bush Senior, P
all had October surprises.
Every nation, like a person, has a negative fully developed side that Carl Jung called its shadow. It is often controlled by what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. However, that negative side came to dominate in Germany under the influence of Hitler. This side has great illusory power and was suppressed in Germany only by great suffering.
Trump is now infusing America’s shadow side with power.
My first question is why didn't the mother jump in the pool to rescue her kids. It is a biologically evolved instinct for mothers to stand between danger and her children. Want to be killed by a bear, go hear her cubs. Same with any creature, elephants charge lions without cause because the know lions threaten their young.
I don't think that hate is contagious, I think it is learned (and unlearned) what is contagious is the notion that one is free to express their hate and bigotry, and to that we can "thank" Trump.
Trump has loosed the kranken so to speak, before Trump it the hate was mostly sub rosa, occasionally manifesting by cops killing and beating blacks, gay bashings, tying Matthew Shephard to a fence in Nebraska, occasional swastika painted on a synagogue, here and there a shooting of a Jew, queer or black. hundreds of trans girls slaughtered and dumped in dumpsters.
But nothing like the scale we have now. Trump has given them license to come out of the closet, and now we can see with our own eyes, hear with our own ears what has been going on under the surface for since the founding.
Political correctness has tamped down the expression, but not the emotion, it has been boiling, until the pressure valve had to pop, and Trump was the final degree of temperature.
You can suppress something but that is not the same as killing it, just continues to build steam until it explodes.