For All the Moonbats Here at Kos

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Thursday July 14, 2011 · 10:14 PM PDT

2011/07/14 · 22:14

This is a civics lesson for you. Ya-see, moonbats, the Senate is there to prevent the "popular branch of the government" from overrunning the rich. That is the way OUR government is designed. And it was quite intentional:

http://www.greatervoice.org/...

During the convention there was much debate and rationale offered on the subject of whether only land owners would be allowed to vote in elections for one or both branches of the legislature, or whether other free persons (meaning men of course) would be allowed suffrage. There was a lot of concern for the time when land in America would no longer be free, and when the land owners (mostly by inheritance) would become the minority of the citizenry as it is today. Of interest here is much of the text of the second note which addresses the effects of constituency size on the likely outcome of elections.

More under the fold

TruthMerchant

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Monday July 11, 2011 · 5:26 PM PDT

2011/07/11 · 17:26

On Sunday there were at least two front page articles here at Daily Kos that continue the wail and moan concerning the lack of magic power of Obama. But the seat of power in this nation is the House of Representatives and not the presidency. That is true even when Democrats control the House. But when Democrats control the House, they allow the Republican president to act unconstitutionally and to seize more power. It is also that it is very difficult to INCREASE the role of government in regard to the promoting the general welfare when such increase is blocked by current Senate rules. While filibuster and cloture are not part of the design of our government , basic senatorial blockage of popular will is as much a part of the design of the United States Government as spending and progressiveness is the province of the House; the "popular branch of the government". By dramatically limiting the representation of the people in the senate, the landowners and merchantilists of the day were able to prevent the will of the people from being pronounced too quickly. A Senet without the current filibustyer and cloture rules would serve well enough.

But when the the powerful few are able to seize control of the government by taking over the peoples House then we are in dire straits. And no president can prevent the deterioration of government and our society when this happens. In achieving a semblance of health care "reform" Obama set himself up for this backlash and this damage to our nation.

Poll

11 votes Show Results

Should Obama use executive order to prevent default?

11 votes Vote Now!

Should Obama use executive order to prevent default?

He should capitulate to the Republicans

2 votes

He should observe the limits anf default

1 vote

He should declare debt limit unconstitutional

1 vote

He should ask the Treasury to shred some T-Bills

2 votes

He should insist on a HUGE increase in the limit

5 votes

He should allow a small increase and continue the fight

0 votes

Hostage Taking Republicans Will Not Stop

TruthMerchant

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Thursday July 07, 2011 · 11:38 AM PDT

2011/07/07 · 11:38

The "debt limit" law is nothing but kabuki theater. It can be safely ignored and hopefully will be ignored. The real problem is that the government will run out of operating funds at the end of this fiscal year and the Republicans will block any new budget that does not accede to their plans to destroy the union. The proper and perhaps the only politically positive move is to draw a line right here and now on the "debt limit" law while the position is constitutionally, ethically, and legally defensible.

We cannot allow the Republican party to take total control over the nation AND its finances based on their House majority. That would be like surrendering to terrorists. There can be NO capitulation on the "debt limit". NONE. And the president should veto any legislation that attempts to assert a NEW debt limit. Such a law is unconstitutional and always has been. It is not only unconstitutional regarding the 14th amendment but also because if it is honored it is a legislative entrenchment. Each legislature has the authority to alter, repeal, or extend any laws created by a previous legislature and the "debt limit" law passed by the previous legislature prohibits the the current "budget law" that was signed in April. Either the current budget is illegal (not even possible in that the legislature is the sovereign) or the current "debt limit" law has been implicitly repealed. And we don't need a new one, thank you very much.

TruthMerchant

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Wednesday July 06, 2011 · 10:07 PM PDT

2011/07/06 · 22:07

This diary is an extended comment on "E-Verify: Lamar Smith's fact-free defense" supposedly written by Markos Moulitsas. Markos may be a very good progressive and a caring and nurturing person. But his AND Lamar Smith's economics are well of the mark. I wanted to correct the actual economics of the issue for all to see and to debate.

TruthMerchant

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Friday July 01, 2011 · 3:22 PM PDT

2011/07/01 · 15:22

On April 15th, 2011, The President signed a new law called the 2011 budget. That law implicitly repealed the "debt limit" law passed by the PREVIOUS LEGISLATURE. The previous legislature cannot restrict the law making of the current legislature. Such a constraint is know as "legislative entrenchment". The "debt limit" law is unconstitutional for that reason. You can see that the congress passed a budget that was in violation of the "debt limit". That simply means that the "debt limit" has been superseded by the new legislation.

This SHOULD BE the position that the president takes. As it is not possible to "faithfully execute" the two laws then the president must choose the latter law as opposed to the former. As such, the president is OBLIGATED to issue an executive order to ignore the superseded "debt limit" law. If congress wants to pass a NEW "debt limit law" then congress is at liberty to do so, and Barack Obama MAY BE at liberty to veto it. Last year's "debt limit" law has been implicitly repealed by the 2011 budget law.

TruthMerchant

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Monday June 20, 2011 · 11:55 AM PDT

2011/06/20 · 11:55

This diary is an extended comment on "Think big: Make public higher education accessible to everyone". The truth is that instead of making higher education "free" to all, we need to extend lower education in ways that serve the individual members of the society. If that means adding years to the current K12 system to include what is called "higher education" then so be it. I would ask that the "professional left" actually think about the symbolism and discrimination inherent in a 4 year degree from an "elite" university and consider the ramifications thereof.

The "business community" along with the wealthy and the powerful members of the society will have (and have) invaded the universities and funded the tenured positions selecting those individuals who will look with favor upon "American Capitalism" (an actual "rent seeking culture"). It does not seem to phase the "professional left" as they notice that the business community wants to hire people from these incubators of "rentier" respect. The "professional left" is hard at work attempting to tax the actual producers of the society (workers and entrepreneurs alike), in order to subsidize this "school of indoctrination into pseudo capitalistic group think".

TruthMerchant

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Saturday June 18, 2011 · 2:22 PM PDT

2011/06/18 · 14:22

This diary is an extended comment on "The Neverdamnending Story". That particular article covers a lot of ground and needs to be digested slowly. It is interesting that the article is about "netroots" and yet isn't. IMHO the article rises above the normal "professional left" list of grievances and begins to open the can of rational analysis concerning why we are trapped in this never ending spin machine controlled by the wealthy and the powerful. The "professional left", as they seem to be named, are still trying to use specifics and anecdotal "evidence" to battle the tide. It is all "indignation" and "righteousness" on the left, just as it is on the "right".

But the article to which I am responding does transcend the "examples of unfairness" to focus on the overall conditions of the society as opposed to "nitting" everything to death. The article raises the bar and makes reference to the sort of conversations we need to be having.

TruthMerchant

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Sunday June 05, 2011 · 8:52 PM PDT

2011/06/05 · 20:52

Most people understand that the $14.x trillion debt is the sum of "debt owed to the public" (includes all entities other then branches of the federal government that hold treasury securities), and all the treasury securities held by government accounts like the Social Security Trust Fund. At present, the amount owed to the private sector (yes... that's "debt owed to the public" including the Chinese). Is approximately ten trillion dollars. So we can see that 4.x trillion is "trust funds" money. What Geithner at treasury is currently doing is using money contributed by government workers for their retirement to pay much of the government's expenses and as such "borrowing" from the government workers trust fund. If treasury did not do this then the bonds added to the trust fund would increase the total debt. So Treasury is doing a sort of "double dip" by taking the cash from the worker pay checks and not putting any bonds in the kitty. And this is supposedly LEGAL in that "as soon as the debt limit is increased" then the debts to th trust funds will be paid up in nice new treasury notes.

TruthMerchant

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Wednesday June 01, 2011 · 11:45 AM PDT

2011/06/01 · 11:45

Here we have it on Kos: Another Stolen News Cycle. Yet another showering of media attention on Paul Ryan and the "bold" Republicans. And what I find in the article and in the comments is indignation over the FACT that the news media calls the Ryan plan "bold". That and of course, a lot of "left wing" whining about the news media not reporting "our side" of the debate. After all, we are the intelligent people and they are the Bubbas.

The news media is not at fault. The Republicans have presented a plan that is "bold". The fact that this "bold" plan is not being well received by the people is also being reported. But there is no falsehood in the overall reporting and no "right wing conspiracy" from the newsies here.

TruthMerchant

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Monday May 30, 2011 · 4:33 PM PDT

2011/05/30 · 16:33

The "debt limit" discussion continues. In this diary I am going to do something that I have not yet done. I am going to assume that the law is really on the side of the Republicans. Whether it is or not has been and will be the object of other diaries and other articles. Here I want to deal with the ramifications of the chief executive taking the law into his own hands in the interest of preserving the nation. Is this Obama's Lincolnesque moment? The question really exceeds any comparison to the Roosevelt situation in its importance and consequence. Americans should be asking themselves if they really want the banks to be able to purchase all the assets of the United States at fire sale prices. This is what it comes to. Is the government of the people to be stripped of all assets and forced to kiss the ass of the banks and the multinationals even more than is the case with the current uncontrolled lobby and corporate media propaganda?

TruthMerchant

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Saturday May 28, 2011 · 9:28 AM PDT

2011/05/28 · 09:28

This is another in a series of diaries about the problems imposed by the "debt limit" law and the Republicans. In my last diary on this subject I concluded prematurely that it would be impossible for the executive branch to enforce the contradicting laws passed by the congress concerning the debt limit and the budget and the "borrowing law" (this latter law is the one that says the Treasury MUST sell treasury debt instruments to finance any and all deficits).

I have now come to the realization that it MAY be possible to LEGALLY stay under the debt limit while continuing to deficit spend; while continuing to grow and pay debt service on the current "debt owed to the public".

TruthMerchant

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Friday May 27, 2011 · 10:31 AM PDT

2011/05/27 · 10:31

I suffered a short spate of depression yesterday after being advised by Norman Goldman that the courts frown upon "implied repeal". "Implied Repeal" is what the Republicans did when they created the 2011 budget. My position was that the budget they created implied the repeal of the "debt limit" law; that the 2011 budget signed into law in this legislative session trumps the debt limit law signed into law in the previous session.

Norm Goldman is an x attorney turned talk show host. I sent him an e-mail which he answered and I called in and he took the call. But after thinking about what he said I came to the conclusion that, while he is certainly correct in his espoused answer, he is missing one of the facts. That fact is that there is a third law that says that the treasury MUST offer treasury notes to cover any deficits.

Norm said that the courts will insist that if there is any way to comply with the two laws (the debt limit and the budget) then there is no repeal. But read on:

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For All the Moonbats Here at Kos

Dealing With Reality

Hostage Taking Republicans Will Not Stop

Real economics and E-Verify

Debt Limit Reality

Think Bigger: Think More Rationally

It's the Stupidity, Stupid

Manipulating the National Debt

Another Ryan News Feature

Battle Lines

Continuing Discussion of Debt Limit

Implied Repeal (new law trumps old)