On the wisdom of hiring Swamp Creatures to drain The Swamp

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The Republicans are the religious, moral, “family values” party, who told us they wished to “Drain The Swamp.”  We believed them. But, on their very first day, they thumbed their Swamp Creature noses at us.

NBC News
Republicans move to gut congressional ethics office

In the 2004 elections, voters handed Republicans control over the White House, Senate, House, and gubernatorial offices. With Democrats lacking any levers of power, Republicans were in a truly dominant position for the first time in a generation.

Almost immediately, GOP officials got to work … weakening ethics rules. Led by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), congressional Republicans moved swiftly – behind closed doors, with no Democratic input – to ease the ethics burdens on members of Congress.

As longtime readers may recall, a young congressman by the name of Mike Pence was especially fond of weaker ethics rules.

Hmmm . . . sound familiar?

In the ensuing Congress, an astonishing number of members, nearly all of whom were Republicans, were caught up in a series of damaging scandals – remember the Abramoff affair? – some of which put members of Congress behind bars. Democrats ran against “the culture of corruption” two years later and won both chambers.

In the 2016 elections, voters once again put Republicans in a dominant position. And just like 12 years ago, GOP lawmakers, before tackling any other priority, met behind closed doors to weaken their own ethics rules.

At least they demonstrated consistency. We hired Swamp Creatures in 2004; they remain Swamp Creatures today.

But wait . . .

House Republicans reverse course following ethics fiasco 

House Republicans met behind closed doors and agreed to gut their own ethics rules. The vote, for which there was no roll call, was 119 to 74.

The blowback was as quick as it was intense. Of the 119 members who voted for the ethics overhaul, only a few were willing to publicly defend the change – or even acknowledge having voted for it.

Coverage was brutal, members’ phones were reportedly ringing quite a bit this morning, and even Donald Trump, the ethically challenged president-elect, suggested his party’s timing was unwise.

Apparently, Trump didn’t feel the act was wrong; he just didn’t like the timing. Here’s what Trump tweeted:

And with this in mind, just a half-day after adopting their own plan, House Republicans reversed course.

The agreement to drop the plan was reportedly reached by unanimous consent – which means the 119 House Republicans who voted for this last night, in effect, declared, “Never mind.”

Think of it. Unanimous consent. Every single one of them was so “proud” of what he had done that not one wanted his name associated with that travesty. Not one.

Last night, 119 criminals had voted to handcuff the police. Today, every single one of them changed his mind, originally demonstrating a unanimous lack of morals, and later demonstrating a unanimous lack of courage.

We’ve elected a bunch of lying, sneaky Swamp Creatures to guard our children, and they do and will continue to do what lying, sneaky Swamp Creatures always do: Steal everything they can steal, and hope not to get caught. But, when caught, they will deny, shift course, make excuses, and point fingers.

(Is it still O.K. to shout “Hillary,” every time you’re caught in a lie? Just askin’.)

We have hired an exceptionally dishonest, incompetent group, even by Congressional standards, emboldened by the election of an exceptionally dishonest, incompetent President.

(They must have been outraged when the Criminal in Chief didn’t go along with their nefarious plan. I’d love to have been in the room to hear them whining about him being a traitor to the right.)

My suggestion for my fellow voters: Next time, think more carefully before trashing your valuable vote. Your choices do make a difference for your future, the future of your family and the future of America.

For now, hold our noses and complain, complain, complain. We must demand some modicum of ethical behavior from The Swamp Creatures.

Because Swamp Creatures are born without a spine, they will kneel down and obey if we complain loudly enough.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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THE LAWS

•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.

•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.

•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.

•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.

•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.

•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)

•Deficit spending grows the supply of money

•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•Progressives think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY