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Debt Ceiling Hype
by Stephen Lendman
The so-called deadline to raise it isn't one at all. Lots of ways can resolve it. Prioritized spending can keep government operating. It can prevent default.
From October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014, an estimated $3 trillion in revenue will be collected. The Treasury can mint trillion dollar coins if needed.
The Fed monetizes debt by buying Treasuries. It's purchasing about $1 trillion annually. It can double the amount if it wishes.
Doing so, of course, is madness. What can't go on forever, won't. Massive monetization debases dollar value. Doing so is back door defaulting. Short-term, nothing prevents it from continuing.
Technically the debt ceiling is unconstitutional. The 14th Amendment Section 4 mandates paying public debt obligations. It states:
"The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."
"But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void."
Defaulting violates the Constitution's "general welfare" clause. Article I, Section 8 states:
"The Congress shall have power to¦provide for (the) general welfare of the United States."
Having power means using it when most needed. It means doing so for the good of the country and everyone. It requires keeping government operating. It requires funding its obligations.
The so-called debt problem is an accounting one. The Treasury can issue any amount it wishes. The Fed can buy it all if needed.
It can cancel debt it owns. It can simply forgive it. It's a bookkeeping entry. It's money Washington owes itself.
Doing it creates lots of wiggle room. It would end the current standoff. It would prevent default.
It won't happen whether or not the so-called deadline is passed. Bet on it.
Here's where things now stand. An hour from now they may change. According to Defense News.com:
Senate Democrat and Republican leaders "are close to finalizing a debt-ceiling deal
It buys time. It gives Congress and Obama three more months to resolve differences. It averts new defense sequestration cuts.
Senate majority and minority leaders Harry Reid (D. NV) and Mitch McConnell (R. KY) respectively agreed on 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) funding levels.
Washington Brinksmanship Masks Class War
by Stephen Lendman
So-called budget/debt ceiling squabbles mask Washington's longstanding class war. It's been ongoing for decades.
Post-9/11 it intensified. Neoliberal harshness explains it. Bipartisan complicity force feeds it.
Doing so transfers unprecedented amounts of wealth from ordinary Americans to bankers, other corporate favorites, rich investors, and high net worth households.
People Power Alone Can Save Us!
by Stephen Lendman
Daily events should scare everyone. Peace in our time no longer exists. Today is the most perilous time in world history.
Administration policies bear full responsibility. Washington is an out-of-control monster. It reflects rogue governance writ large. It targets humanity. It does so at home and abroad. It threatens world peace.
Today's upside down reality endangers everyone. Crimes in high places are rewarded. Warmakers win peace prizes. Police are licensed to kill.
Anti-war, human and civil rights champions, whistleblowers, journalists doing their job responsibly, and other activists are ruthlessly targeted.
Ordinary people are increasingly on their own sink or swim. International, constitutional and US statute laws don't matter. Rules are what Washington says they are.
Hegemons operate that way. Ruthless raw power explains. So does war on humanity. It rages out-of-control.
Democratic values don't exist. Peace, equity and justice are four-letter words. Freedom is dying in plain sight.
Ghost Village Beitin
by Stephen Lendman
Beitin's status is testimony to Israeli ruthlessness. It reflects racist hate. It's vicious. It's lawless. It's out-of-control. It demands long denied real change.
Beitin is a Palestinian village. It's in al-Bireh Governorate. It's three miles northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank. It's population once numbered about 2,300.
Israel's Beit El settlement is northwest. In January 2012, Haaretz contributor Amira Hass headlined "In West Bank, buying land isn't always what it seems."
The Milibands, The BBC And The Proletariat
By Gilad Atzmon
Last week, The Daily Mail’s expose of Ralph Militant’s political views provoked strong reactions from the Miliband family, the Labour Party, The Guardian and the BBC.
The Mail article included a few quotes by Ralph Miliband, showing Miliband to be a radical cosmopolitan Marxist. So what else is new? Throughout his entire adult life Ralph had indeed been a radical cosmopolitan devoted to ‘progressive’ international working class politics and naturally opposed to any nationalism and local patriotism. However The Daily Mail was soon to learn, at its cost, that elaborating on the non-patriotic nature intrinsic to cosmopolitanism is practically forbidden in 2013 ‘free’ Britain.
At our expense
Michael Collins
The drama of the government shutdown and threatened default on government obligations is entirely unnecessary. It is also harmful to the people of the United States. Government workers and contractors are idle and without income. Their communities feel the economic impact. The threat of a default is stalling investment and hiring across the country. And, the world watches and judges as Congress engages in its dangerous games.
The overarching threat is an incremental shutdown of all government services beginning on October 17. Either the debt ceiling is raised, something that's been done 78 times since 1960, or the Treasury department begins paying debts from government funds on hand until that money runs out. It's not that we lack the money. This is a tantrum, pure and simple.
Haitian Cholera Victims Sue for Redress
by Stephen Lendman
Long-suffering Haitians know adversity and anguish as well as anyone.
Except briefly after their 1804 revolution and under Jean-Bertrand Aristide, they've been denied legitimate governance, freedom, equity and justice. For over 500 years, they've suffered hugely.
They experienced enslavement, colonization, reparations, despotism, persecution, serfdom, exploitation, resource theft, embargoes, extreme poverty, starvation, disease, early death, immiseration, and dismissiveness of world leaders able to help.
Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. It has the highest infant mortality rate. It has the lowest life expectancy.
Obama's War on Press Freedom
by Stephen Lendman
Free and open expression is our most fundamental right. Without it all others are endangered.
Candidate Obama promised transparency, accountability, and reform. He called sunlight "the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse."
He said whistleblowing reflects "acts of courage and patriotism."
"Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out.""We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance."
Tea Party Terrorists
Joel S. Hirschhorn
By now all conscious people have seen how American Tea Party Republicans, especially those in the House of Representatives and Senate, are widely seen as radical, unreasonable, mad, stupid, extreme, anarchists, delusional and worse. My view is that the best and most useful way to see these people is this: They are political terrorists.
They have developed their own form of violence. They are filled with hatred. Sure, they see themselves as the only genuine US patriots, but that should not fool anyone. They can and do twist, undermine and distort provisions in the US Constitution. The power they now wield has been developed over many years by the actions of more mainstream Republicans, especially manipulating House districts through gerrymandering.
François Hollande’s Missteps put France on Levant sidelines
Franklin Lamb
Beirut
In modern times, France has done far better diplomatically when it has advocated against impetuous military involvement in the internal affairs of other countries. French standing in international politics has been highest when its government was cautious about its military involvement, when it adopted the wise posture of Old World Europe, counseling the impetuous upstarts of the New World. When Charles de Gaulle told Kennedy, then Johnson, to stay out of Vietnam, his international standing skyrocketed. When Chirac told Bush not to go into Iraq, the same thing happened as history repeated. It was the threat of a UN Security Council veto by then-President Jacques Chirac, and French doubts about America’s evidence of weapons of mass destruction, that forced the Bush administration to seek a “coalition of the willing” outside the UN.
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