Economics, Political Scheming and Sheer Ignorance
Bear in mind that the state of Florida already has election laws and election security is a significant part of that. However, what De Santis proposes almost conveys the message that there's rampant election fraud in the state of Florida and these guys, on the state’s dime and under his authority, are needed to protect our election security. Bear in mind that, even without such a commission, other states, especially in the South, have created laws or made decisions that do things such as prohibit giving water to people standing in long lines waiting to vote. While the premise for such legislation has not been explained, it seems fairly obvious. Additionally, we have heard the rationales, in places like Georgia, for closing some polling places because they're “too far out in the country” or they're “unnecessary” all of which applies predominantly to persons of color and/or low income, many of whom cannot simply take off work to vote early or take off to vote at all.
There have been very few valid claims of
any attempted election fraud in the state of Florida. In recent (last several
years) charges of election fraud, or I should say illegal voting, county
officials have brought such charges, not state officials. Ironically, in The Villages,
where I reside, all five people charged with illegal voting were Caucasian Republicans.
This looks a lot less like the solution to a problem then an attempted power
grab by the governor of the state of Florida who has higher aspirations. As I
have said many times before, we deserve so much better than this person.
Sometimes it is
unnecessary to unmask a racist by your own efforts because they do it
themselves out of their own ignorance. An example of such a lapse of judgment
comes from none other than the Senate Minority Leader himself, Mitch McConnell,
the senior Senator from Kentucky. Rarely does the Klan sheet slip as far as
this. Before a vote to move the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to the
Senate floor failed last session, McConnell was asked by a reporter about
concerns among voters of color. Believe it or not, he then said:
"Well, the
concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African American
voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.” As Americans? Who the hell is he referring
to? The last time I looked the United States Constitution, the 15th
Amendment erases any racial differentiation for voting. Apparently, in Mr.
McConnell’s opinion, African Americans are not only children of a lesser God, but
children of different citizenship status as well.
In other news which
makes one shake their head, Eric Trump, who I would characterize as the stupid
one but it's a dead heat with his older brother, actually said, “When will
someone fight for my dad? Apparently, Eric was out of the country on January
6th when armed supporters of his father invaded the US Capital on his behalf.
In the context of the original question, the answer posed was that maybe his
supporters have bone spurs and just can't manage the fight.
Of course, Don Junior, never one to be “out-stupided” by younger bro, in the wake of the current Silicon Valley Bank
debacle said: “I don’t remember banks collapsing under Trump… but don’t
worry guys it’s only a matter of time till Biden/media blames him for that too.
It has nothing to do with high interest rates / fed rate hikes necessitated by
record inflation caused by his out-of-control spending.”
So, what’s wrong with that? Start with this: According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC), there were actually 15 bank failures during Trump's presidency: four in 2020, four in 2019 and seven in 2017. Additionally, Harvest Community Bank, which was located in New Jersey, closed on Jan. 13, 2017, a week before Trump took office. I guess Don Jr. just has his dad’s faulty memory for unpleasant facts, huh?
Sadly, his
father’s gutting of Dodd-Frank was a harbinger of present events. A key part of
attempting to prevent investment bankers from playing fast and loose with other
people’s money was the Volker rule, passed in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank
package of regulatory attempts to avoid another recession inducing event like
the 2008 housing bubble collapse, triggered by some of America’s largest
investment banks simply lying to investors about the reliability (as in their
investment grade ratings) of bundled mortgages. (Read or watch “The Big
Short”). In brief, the Volker rule prohibited banks from putting their
own capital in high-risk investments, particularly since the government is
guaranteeing all of their deposits. What Trump Jr., aka Doofus Don, is
apparently unaware of are the following facts:
1. His father ran higher deficits than Biden’s which Trump
Jr bitches about. The data? In FY 2022
total government spending was $6.27 trillion and total revenue was $4.90
trillion, resulting in a deficit of $1.38 trillion, a decrease of
$1.40 trillion from the previous fiscal year.
The 2021 budget was Trump’s and contained a record $2.8 trillion dollar
deficit.
2. On June 25, 2020, the Volcker Regulators relaxed
part of the rules involving banks investing in venture capital and for
derivative trading. Who was then President?
3. SVB - Venture capital provider to many. Bad low interest
investments. We know the result.
Sometimes, even
those few people of the Republican persuasion that we think may actually have a
conscience and may actually have rational thought processes, disappoint us as
well. A case in point is Mitt Romney who, although I disagree with his sense of
economics, I have always felt was an honorable man. A recent statement of his with
which I take issue is not a case of moral integrity but of skewing the facts to
fit his own narrative. In statement to reporters, Mr. Romney stated that, “Americans
are 7% poorer now because of Biden inflation.” So, what's wrong
with that? Well, in much the same way that blaming any president for the price
of gasoline, which is a market product and subject to shortages and other
market pressures, is a fool’s mission, blaming the president for the inflation
which is the natural result of such shortages leading to price increases in the
market economy so praised by conservatives and John Stossel who is simply a
moron, indicates a very poor grasp of economic realities.
When
commodities are in short supply, those that have them charge more for them. Why?
Because they can. It is a simple fact of life and an economic reality described
by Adam Smith, in 1776, in his classic work on economics, the Wealth of Nations.
Inflation and, for that matter, the economy as a whole is not, and never has
been, (since Andrew Jackson) in the control of the President. If it were that
simple, Mitt, there would be no recessions. In fact, this concept is a cornerstone
of high school economics classes.
What makes this
statement even more misleading than just simply blaming President Biden is the
fact that during the same period of time average wages in the United States
have increased by 4.7% which means that income is increased and while not as
greatly as inflation rates, inflation will taper off as supply chains level out,
but wages will not be decreased accordingly.
Economics, like Sociology and others, is a “soft” science. One plus one doesn’t always yield the desired and expected “two.” In reality, starting with an eight-month slump in 1945, the U.S. economy has weathered 13 different recessions since World War II.
If “fixing” these events was as
simple as the GOP wishes us to believe, then we could and we would. It isn’t and
we can’t, and a significant part of that is human greed. This is exacerbated by
people who actually know little or nothing about economics listening to, and
parroting, drivel and outright prevarication from people like the Trump brothers
and their father, apparently economic dunces and happy to lie about it.
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