Sunday, August 07, 2016

The Philadelphia Public Bank Solution

Forget Clinton’s and Trump’s Plans for the Economy: It’s Time to Erase Debt and Create Jobs

Posted on Aug 5, 2016
By Mike Krauss TRUTHDIG
So far, neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton has offered a credible plan to restart the long-stalled U.S. economy.

Trump favors lowering taxes to spur demand, a reduction in the supply of illegal foreign labor to boost wages, and modifying trade policy to encourage investment in U.S. manufacturing and create better-paying jobs. He also touts an unspecified infrastructure investment. Some argue that this approach will not provide jobs in the magnitude required, and will likely increase the federal deficit.

Clinton favors higher taxes on the wealthy and more spending for infrastructure. To keep the debt off the federal government balance sheet, she has specifically proposed so-called public-private partnerships. This is the Wall Street solution. Public guarantees will be used to attract private investors, who will finance, own and rent back to the people the entire public infrastructure of the United States.
Neither program gets at the real problems: Americans—families, students, businesses, state and local governments, school districts, etc.—are drowning in debt, and there is not enough money in circulation for productive, job-creating purposes. Instead, it is eaten up paying off debt.

There is an alternative. The U.S. Treasury has the power to extinguish debt, rebuild publicly owned infrastructure and propel the economy forward like a rocket. It is the power to create the nation’s supply of money, which Congress surrendered to the private banks that own the Federal Reserve upon the Fed’s creation in 1913. It’s time to take that power back.

First, the Treasury can extend about $3 trillion (roughly the total of all U.S. state and municipal debt) in almost zero-interest loans to state and local governments and school districts to pay off debt. This would immediately reduce the debt service taxpayers pay and dramatically redirect local taxes away from Wall Street to Main Street.

Second, the Treasury can extend another $3 trillion on the same terms to state and local governments for infrastructure projects. Millions can be put to work on the job site and in the supply chain of goods and services.

Third, the Treasury can partner with state-chartered public banks, community banks and credit unions to buy up and refinance at far lower interest the estimated $1 trillion of student debt. Then, going forward, it can offer truly affordable credit for higher education for every American, taking care to prevent colleges and universities from eating up that money in higher tuition costs.
This proposal is similar to—but more far-reaching than—the action taken by President Lincoln during the Civil War, when to bypass that era’s banisters and the usurious interest they extracted to finance the war, he had the Treasury issue $450 million of greenbacks.

That $450 million in 1864 is equal to roughly $6.4 trillion in today’s dollars.
In 1999, then-Republican Congressman and later U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposed something similar in the State and Local Government Economic Empowerment Act: $360 billion, interest-free, for infrastructure. But that sum was too little then and is hopelessly inadequate now. And it would have done nothing to ease the debt burden that keeps Americans in virtual servitude to the world’s financial cartel.

The terms of the Treasury credit I propose might be 1.5 percent, simple and not compound interest (the latter includes interest on interest), over 20 years [LaHood proposed no interest over five years]. The Treasury can be repaid easily by an elimination of debt-service costs, an explosion of wealth-generating productivity, the growth of tax receipts at all levels of government and the future employment of well-educated young people.

The Treasury can create this new money directly, bypassing the Federal Reserve and cutting out the bankster middlemen and their usurious interest charges.
This is what Japan is now proposing to do, with an initial infusion of $100 billion, and it is what the Fed could have done when Wall Street crashed in 2008. Instead, officials pumped an estimated $17 trillion to $20 trillion in quantitative easing into Wall Street, in which the new money was swapped for assets in the reserve accounts of banks, leaving liquidity trapped in bank balance sheets and doing nothing for Main Street.

Debt relief for the American people and millions of new jobs funded from the Treasury they own—not the bank-owned Fed—would drive an explosion of growth in the private sector—the “multiplier effect” that Congress and the Fed promised when they bailed out Wall Street but which never materialized.

New money for productive purposes—debt-free for Main Street rather than more debt to Wall Street—is the way out of the Wall Street web of debt in which America is ensnared and back toward financial health and prosperity. But Americans must force Congress to act.

Mike Krauss is a founder of the Public Banking Institute and chair of the Pennsylvania Project, which supports government finance reform and the creation of public banks.

82 comments:

  1. All will be solved through the printing press eh?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, it could be done with coins.
      Already authorized by Congress.

      If Obama really was the tyrant and anti-US demon our "Draft Dodger" and the radicals in the GOP make the President out to be ...

      He could have minted those coins, already, without any 'Plan" or shovel ready projects for those coins to fund

      Delete
  2. The U.S. Treasury has the power to extinguish debt

    Fuck it, so does Rufus.

    He owes me $100 American but he seems to have 'extinguished' the debt he owes me.

    If the solution of our Nation's financial woes resembles the daily behavior of Rufus the Thief I must be against such a solution.

    Id' be open to some iron-clad enforceable renegotiation for Rufus to pay the debt over time but that's about it.

    I don't like this idea. It seems to me to make the financial ethics of the Casino seem virtuous by comparison.

    I have to face it. The only way I'm getting MY money from Rufus is by getting Quart involved by having him hire me some Mafia enforcement muscle through his connections there at The Mafia Barber Shop.

    And you just know I'll take a beating when it gets around to discussing what cut the Mafia thugs will be demanding.

    I'd just write it off on my taxes but I don't think you can do that with gambling debts owed but uncollectable....

    Sometimes I find myself dreaming these days of Short Circuit, BillyGoat and Redneck Rufus all choking to death on their own drool one fine night.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Quart will be wanting his damned cut too.....honestly sometimes it seems to be broke and on welfare is the better way to go.....

      Delete
    2. It is damn hypocritical of you to be moaning about an unpaid debt. I'm still waiting for you to honor your promise to get me to Gaza.

      Delete
    3. You want to go to Gaza ?

      You never said that, at least that I picked up.....

      If you were serious, which you aren't, I would begin typing up the protocols, terms and applicable conditions immediately.....

      You MUST try to think seriously about this, Ash.

      It is a ONE WAY TICKET - behavioral conditions apply, etc.

      It is my duty to tell you that you will not be coming back alive, perhaps your remainders won't be coming back at all....

      Do you have a lawyer ? Have you, can you make a Last Will and Testament ?

      Are you certain you are up for martyrdom, torture, death ?

      Think carefully, and get back to me....

      Delete
    4. You get me there and I'll find my own way back. You ran off once already to make the arrangements and failed. I look forward to your successful completion of your promise this time.

      Delete
    5. Bob Thu May 27, 12:52:00 AM EDT

      But I did rip off the bank for $7500 hundred dollars, when I was on my knees, and fighting for my economic life, on my aunt's credit card. But that wasn't really stealing, just payback.


      You were wrong, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, it REALLY WAS stealing.

      Delete
  3. Wall Street is printing digits and zeros on computer screens. The presses would run at the same rate. The transfer of wealth would not. It should be used for infrastructure. Not used for pension, wages, current expenses or interest on debt. It will work brilliantly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. and your overpriced projects?

      LOL

      the 1/10th of 1% always has a "plan"

      Delete
  4. By the way I got the inside scoop from one of the tellers on how to win the Hawaii Trip drawing next Tuesday.....can't publish it here of course but will give a report on whether it worked or not.

    Can't be any worse than trying to get my money from Rufus....

    Rufus is 'beyond shame'....the new avant garde ethical theory these days...basically it means one is unmoved, doesn't give a shit about what other people think of one....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Short Circuit doesn't fit this bill as she is always lying and trying to cover up her misdeeds.....

      Delete
  5. In Cambodia, to solve their economic problems they declared a Return to Day One, started a new calendar, abolished all money, and a third of the population was worked or starved to death in the space of about three years.

    We could try that. It would be hell on the folks in Philly and Detroit, but out here the hard working farmers would do just fine, and the cursed tourist traffic from 'back east' would drop off considerably, a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Another solution is simply to go into the armed robbery business.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri executed for treason

    http://www.bbc.com/news/36998747

    An Iranian scientist who provided the US with information about the country's nuclear programme has been hanged for treason, the government has confirmed.
    Shahram Amiri was executed for giving "vital information to the enemy", a judiciary spokesman said.
    Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the US, where he claimed to have been abducted and interrogated by the CIA.
    He subsequently returned to Iran and was given a long prison sentence.
    News of his execution emerged on Saturday, when Amiri's mother said the body had been handed over with rope marks around his neck.



    Hmmm.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. executed for giving "vital information to the enemy"

      If only the same penalty could apply to Short Circuit....

      Delete

    2. The name to remember ... that of a whistleblower, in Israel.

      Mordechai Vanunu

      Delete
  8. Hey, take a look at Fox. Quart is out there playing Knockerball with the best of them....

    ReplyDelete
  9. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/islamic-state-militants-claim-capture-u-weapons-afghanistan-102609536.html

    Islamic State militants claim capture of U.S. weapons in Afghanistan

    KABUL (Reuters) - Militants linked to Islamic State have released photos that purport to show weapons and equipment that belonged to American soldiers and were captured by the group in eastern Afghanistan.

    The photos, which came to light on Saturday, show an American portable rocket launcher, radio, grenades and other gear not commonly used by Afghan troops, as well as close up views of identification cards for a U.S. Army soldier, Specialist Ryan Larson.

    Hey rufus this sucks doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  10. This report is from 2009

    The U.S. program of assistance to Afghanistan is intended to stabilize and strengthen the Afghan economic, social, political, and security environment so as to blunt popular support for extremist forces in the region. Since 2001, nearly $38 billion has been appropriated toward this effort.


    http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/126837.pdf


    Wow....

    I guess the aid we give to Israel, spent in the USA is a much better return on investment.

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, spent a whole lot more, with the Zionists, and the over all costs have been incalculably high.

      Israel has received $121 billion in aid from the U.S. since the end of World War II, making it the largest recipient of assistance in the world, according to an April 2014 Congressional report. Almost all of it is now military, although Israel has in the past gotten significant amount of economic assistance, it added.

      http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/analysis-will-netanyahu-speech-congress-fracture-u-s-israel-ties-n313936

      Delete
    2. Actually that aid has provided America with hundreds of thousands of jobs. As well as having their products IMPROVED by Israeli innovation.

      But it comes back to definitions.

      "aid"

      America spends trillions on things not classified as AID but it is in fact aid.

      Israel, no matter, is an EXCELLENT investment for America.

      Unlike your friends in Hamas or the PLO.

      But thanks for pointing out that Bibi was the Prime Minister that ended ALL ECONOMIC AID to israel. The only nation in history to request the end of generous gifts from America.

      "During these years of austerity, the United States provided Israel moderate amounts of economic aid, mostly as loans for basic foodstuffs; a far greater share of state income derived from German war reparations, which were used for domestic development."

      Facts matter, something you really don't like...

      Tell tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth...

      LOL

      Jack, you distort, lie and misrepresent.

      Nothing new...

      Delete
  11. .

    It will work brilliantly.

    IMO, it won't.

    WRT the plan there are many things, pros and cons, we can only speculate on, the effects on the dollar, exports, investment, jobs, social issues, 'infrastructure', etc. in both the short and long term.

    There are a couple things we can be certain of...

    1. It will never happen.

    2. If in some alternate reality it were to happen, the effects wouldn't be as predicted, not unless in that same reality Washington were miraculously transformed into a utopian city on a hill where our elected officials and their minions and masters suddenly gave a hoot for the public welfare.

    Washington is the new KKK, a Kleptocratic, Kakistotic, Killing machine designed to milk the many for the benefit of the few while spreading those same values to the rest of the world whether it wants them or not under the rubric of 'democracy'.

    It's hard to conceive of the greed and corruption this plan would engender in our nation's capital. The pallet loads of cash heading for offshore havens would be amazing. With that much money involved, the dipping of beaks would be a wonder to behold.

    It's why I oppose even the infinitely more modest proposals such as an increase in net tax rates knowing that any new revenues will continue to be misallocated by the people in D.C.

    Infrastructure?

    Federal annual revenues are $3.25 trillion. There is plenty of money for infrastructure. But not if we continue spending a third of all our revenue on the MIC and manufactured wars. And that is just one of the biggest misallocations of resources. Waste and fraud already amount to $125 billion a year. Can you imagine what it would be like under this plan?

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quirk manages to appear in the Number 2 and 3 spots on Google!

      https://www.google.com/search?q=Kakistotic&rlz=1C1AVSU_enUS357&oq=Kakistotic&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

      Delete
  12. U.S. citizens Are Not Drowning in Debt. Credit Quality is Very High, and Interest Rates are Very Low.

    Americans are suffering from Low Wages. Full Stop.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What the US is suffering from ...

      Winning the "Cold War"

      The expansion of market economies around the globe.

      A Supply Side Nightmare

      Today, the world has a market labor force of roughly 3 billion people, many of whom are in a position to compete directly for a wide range of jobs held by workers in the developed world, thanks to the wonders of multinational corporations, the Internet and other features of a flat world.

      Of these 3 billion workers, nearly half live in China, India and the former Soviet Union. Which is to say that the fall of the Bamboo and Iron curtains, along with economic liberalization, has quite literally brought the other half of the world on line, doubling the global labor supply in the free market in the past two decades.

      Only after the collapse of the Internet bubble, and after China had joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and become fully integrated into the global economy, was the developed world fully exposed to the onslaught of several billion new people who, by that point, were fully prepared to be directly competitive.



      http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/a-supply-side-nightmare-scenar/

      Delete
    2. Americans are suffering from the fact nobody pays their debts any longer.

      This bad habit they picked up from the Democrats, and The Federal Government, and the 'welfare society'.

      This contagion has seeped even into the inner reaches of Swampland, USA....Mississippi.....where men used to be pledged to the now outdated notion of 'honor', and the term 'honorable swampbilly' still had currency and real meaning.

      No longer. Now 'The Law of the Swamp' prevails, the 'Law of the Croc'.

      I know. I've had direct experience with people like this....



      Delete
    3. ... I've had direct experience with people like this.

      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson has told us, HE is one of people like this"

      Bob Thu May 27, 12:52:00 AM EDT

      But I did rip off the bank for $7500 hundred dollars, when I was on my knees, and fighting for my economic life, on my aunt's credit card. But that wasn't really stealing, just payback. After all, I had paid them nearly 20% interest for about three years. ...


      He acknowledges he owed the money, when he admits paying the bill for three years, and paying some 60% back, in interest one assumes, not principle.

      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, he is the deadbeat he is warning us about.

      Delete
  13. Washington is the new KKK, a Kleptocratic, Kakistotic, Killing machine designed to milk the many for the benefit of the few while spreading those same values to the rest of the world whether it wants them or not under the rubric of 'democracy'.

    WOW, just WOW WOW WOW

    Quirk is experiencing a burst of creativity and truth and good humor too.


    You Go, Quirk !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kleptocratic, Kakistotic, Killing machine.....

      Ain't that great ?

      YES, it IS !

      It's the occasional flashes of brilliance like this that keep me from totally despairing over Quirk.

      And the link to the KKK.....wonderful !

      Delete
    2. See above: He's a star on GOOGLE!

      Delete
  14. The ABC/Wash. Post Poll, regarded by many, including myself, as the most accurate of all the pollsters, has it:

    Hillary Clinton 50

    Donald Trump 42

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're full of shit.

      ABC/Washington Compost Poll is one of the worst of the worst.

      Fried Circuit got a dead cat bounce, is all.

      Give it another 10 days.....you'll see....

      Delete
    2. Get out of the quicksand....try Reuters/Ipsos instead.


      http://hotair.com/archives/2016/08/06/more-on-the-reutersipsos-poll-showing-hillarys-lead-slipping/

      Delete
    3. SHOCK POLL: TRUMP BACK IN STRIKING DISTANCE!
      LATIMES/USC: CLINTON +1....DRUDGE

      Delete

    4. RCP Average - 7/29 - 8/6 Clinton - 47.5 / Trump - 40.5 / Clinton +7.0


      http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html

      A single poll, inconsequential, while a series of polls, informative.



      Delete
    5. In a futile effort to raise Ruf's eyes above swamp water level--


      August 7, 2016

      The Press and Pollsters Are Putting Too Much Cornstarch in the Cherry Pie

      By Clarice Feldman


      That’s the short take of my friend Thomas Lipscomb and I have to agree with him.

      Contrary to most of the media-sponsored polls (The LA Times stands alone now calling the race a tie at last view), I agree with this one: Trump will draw in millions of voters who didn’t show up to the polls before and he will beat Hillary Clinton.

      I don’t pretend to be a polling expert but note others who claim to be have said much the same thing using different statistical methodologies, including Yale Professor Ray Fair (economic models) and Emory University President Alan Abramowitz (presidential approval ratings), Politik.com predicts a landslide, noting in recent years the number of people voting for Democrats has dipped while the number of those voting for Republicans has risen.

      Conservative Treehouse has argued along the same lines and notes that the NYT buried its own key finding that American voters are whiter than “historic leftist presentations”.

      It projects that 73,272,595 Republicans will vote this fall in the general election.


      That jaw-dropping number, 7.2 million more potential votes than Barack Obama carried in 2008 and almost 13 million more than Mitt Romney carried in 2012, is the least result achievable when you turn out THE MONSTER VOTE.....


      http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/08/the_press_and_pollsters_are_putting_too_much_cornstarch_in_the_cherry_pie.html#ixzz4GfQ3pRe3

      Delete

    6. Is that not, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, the same publication you posted from when you told of the FBI resigning in protest, if Mrs Clinton was not indicted?

      Mrs Clinton was not indicted, there was not a single resignation at the FBI.

      American Thinker, the are stinkers

      Delete
  15. "Q"Nitters Stymied in USA recently -

    31 Suspected ISIS Terrorists Captured In USA Past Year....DRUDGE

    http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/06/31-suspected-isis-terrorists-have-been-arrested-in-the-u-s-in-the-past-year/

    Tip of the iceberg....

    ReplyDelete
  16. It is funny that in the course of just 30 minutes Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson has shifted from telling us that Mr Trump was within "striking distance" of Mrs Clinton, to telling us that Mr Trump will win with a "MONSTER VOTE'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I seem to remember a similar meme in 2012. :)

      Delete
    2. The quote is from the article, and it refers to a part of the vote, known as the monstrous big coming white vote, I believe.

      The reference has nothing to do with what I wrote.

      Dead Beat Dad, let us all admit it, was born with one distinct dis-advantage in life-

      He was born without any circuits to short.

      Not even Plato could help crapper rat, the stalker and Dead Beat Dad, as Plato assumes we are all born with circuits, which are deranged at birth, and it is our job in becoming adults, to rearrange our circuits so that they conform to and are reflective of the true nature of things.

      In the case of rat jack ass, whom the large majority here have declared, and very seriously too, to have 'mental problems', this normal option does not exist, as one cannot rearrange circuits that do not nor ever will exist.

      Delete
  17. IT LOOKS LIKE CLINTON’S AMATEUR HANDLING OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION GOT THE IRANIAN SCIENTIST HANGED

    This story appeared on CNN September 2, 2015:

    (CNN)New Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department appear to lift the curtain on the bizarre circumstances surrounding Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist who claims to have been abducted by the CIA.

    The just-released emails, which were sent to Clinton back in 2010, seem to support what State Department sources have long maintained: that Amiri was not abducted, but a defector and paid informant who changed his mind about helping the U.S.

    The emails also appear to offer insight into the department’s plans to get Amiri back to Iran safely...

    Neither Clinton nor State Department spokespeople would confirm the emails referred to Amiri, but dates of emails correspond exactly with news reports about him.
    ...
    While not marked classified, the emails could provide more evidence that Clinton’s aides were using veiled references to keep her apprised of sensitive matters on her private email account. Use of the non-government email and re-classification of emails as classified has become a main point of criticism against Clinton by Republicans. Two of Clinton’s top aides at the State Department, Sullivan and Cheryl Mills are set to be privately interviewed this week about their emails by a special congressional committee set up to probe reaction to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now, read this carefully. Not only was Clinton using an illegal method of transmitting classified information, her employees did not have enough sense to originally classify this document. As I stated previously an E-3 Diddy Bopper would have more sense and if he didn’t he would be in a whole world of hurt.

      Hillary Clinton is unfit for the office of POTUS and she should face federal charges. The most honest thing she has said lately is that she had a short-circuit in her brain. It was obviously not a spurious emission in her admission.

      Delete
    2. WHAT DIFFERENCE, AT THIS POINT, DOES IT MAKE?

      Delete
  18. What is starting to show up in all major polls, now, is that the only real difference between this year, and 2012, is:

    White - College Educated

    Obama lost them by 14, and Clinton is winning them by approx. 6.

    ABC Poll - results by demographic

    ReplyDelete
  19. Did Hillary's e-mails lead to an Iranian death ?...DRUDGE

    Did 'Short Circuit' short circuit an Iranian ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Short Circuit deserves Ol' Smokey, aka the electric chair.

      Delete
    2. The closer you get to Hillary, you see a privileged psycho who has contempt for the truth, the law and boundaries of national security. She should never get a security clearance again. After his defection, Shahram Amiri was a CIA asset and under the protection of the CIA.

      How could something so sensitive as a turned Iranian nuclear scientist be handled by someone with a short-circuit in the basic handling and recognition of extremely classified information?

      Unbelievable.

      Delete
    3. And Obama, is he on roofies?

      Delete
    4. Don't forget Bill:

      The Bonnie and Clyde of American Politics.

      Delete
    5. This information was a “Need to Know”.

      Delete
  20. Team Trump already has some wonderful ads up showing Short Circuit's brain short circuiting....zap, zip, zap...smoke rises...funny stuff....we will be hearing a lot more of this....

    Do you want a Short Circuiter with her shaky hands on the nuclear button.....at 3 a.m. ?

    Both Jack Ass and Rufus non-payer certainly short circuited on their predictions of the early demise of ISIS, did they not ?

    ha ha ha

    And they both told us what wonderful military thinkers they were!!!.....I call 'em the Short Circuit Twins, Tactical and Strategic by name....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not funny to make fun of Stroke Victims.

      Delete

  21. What everyone with a Top Secret security clearance knows – or should know
    By Peter Van Buren August 3, 2015

    (I held a Top Secret Clearance with Crypto Access, but don’t take my word for it)

    In the world of handling America’s secrets, words – classified, secure, retroactive – have special meanings. I held a Top Secret clearance at the State Department for 24 years and was regularly trained in protecting information as part of that privilege. Here is what some of those words mean in the context of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails.

    The Inspectors General for the State Department and the intelligence community issued a statement saying Clinton’s personal email system contained classified information. This information, they said, “should never have been transmitted via an unclassified personal system.” The same statement voiced concern that a thumb drive held by Clinton’s lawyer also contains this same secret data. Another report claims the U.S. intelligence community is bracing for the possibility that Clinton’s private email account contains multiple instances of classified information, with some data originating at the CIA and NSA.

    A Clinton spokesperson responded that “Any released emails deemed classified by the administration have been done so after the fact, and not at the time they were transmitted.” Clinton claims unequivocally her email contained no classified information, and that no message carried any security marking, such as Confidential or Top Secret.

    The key issue in play with Clinton is that it is a violation of national security to maintain classified information on an unclassified system.

    Classified, secure, computer systems use a variety of electronic (often generically called TEMPESTed) measures coupled with physical security (special locks, shielded conduits for cabling, armed guards) that differentiate them from an unclassified system. Some of the protections are themselves classified, and unavailable in the private sector. Such standards of protection are highly unlikely to be fulfilled outside a specially designed government facility.

    Yet even if retroactive classification was applied only after Clinton hit “send” (and State’s own Inspector General says it wasn’t), she is not off the hook.

    What matters in the world of secrets is the information itself, which may or may not be marked “classified.” Employees at the highest levels of access are expected to apply the highest levels of judgment, based on the standards in Executive Order 13526. The government’s basic nondisclosure agreement makes clear the rule is “marked or unmarked classified information.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My instructions were that all classified information sent and reviewed had to go over secure voice lines that only went through US military voice systems. Anything in writing and sent over encrypted TTY where the codes were changed at every sift. That was in 1968. Anyone that breeched those instructions would never have a second chance to do it again.

      Delete
  22. https://www.google.com/search?q=kakistos&rlz=1C1AVSU_enUS357&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7mr7Ij7DOAhUHyWMKHeozDwsQ7AkIMw&biw=960&bih=515

    ReplyDelete
  23. Communist Party, USA goes all in for Hillary....DRUDGE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our General Memorial Day Short Circuit Rufus, Strategic, is all in favor of this.

      He's never been against a tax increase as long as somebody else does the paying.

      It's like his attitude to gambling. Nothing wrong in gambling, he feels, as long as Rufus may short circuit on paying the debt when he loses....

      Delete
  24. Deuce, you're getting yourself all het up for another losing cause. The odds that Trump can beat Hillary are somewhere between Zero, and Zero point Zero.

    In short, the nutjob is "shotless." :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WARNING: Don't bet with Rufus on that....if he loses he won't pay

      Delete
    2. Isn't it interesting that not a single former head of our National Security apparatus (Democrat or Republican) has come out against Clinton, and in favor of Herr Drumpf?

      Even Mike Morell's denunciation of Donald Trump as an unwitting recruit of Vladimir Putin goes unanswered.

      Delete
    3. Mike Morrell held high position in the CIA for much of his 33 years with the organization. He actually led the organization or was its number 2 man for a good part of the time including years when huge geopolitical events occurred.

      In Morrell's 33 years the CIA threat analysis failed to predict or suggest or even theorize the complete collapse of the Soviet Union. Mike Morrell defended the intelligence information provided to Bush indicating the alleged presence of WMDs in Saddam's Iraq. It was Mike Morrell who lied, misled, or was just woefully ignorant when he said the attack in Benghazi was a spontaneous protest resulting from the video. It was Mike Morrell that admitted changing the talking points memo on Benghazi, this after the State Department (read Hillary and her bros) protested about wording in the original. It was Mike Morell who set the moral standard that no matter what you do its not torture as long as bought and paid for White House lawyers say its not. It was under Mike Morrell that the CIA hacked and messed with the Senate Intelligence Committee report investigating the CIA role in torture. It was Mike Morrell who lied to Congress about the hack before finally having to admit to it. This is the type of guy with the intelligence and moral standards we expect and apparently approve in our politicos and bureaucrats.

      The main question regarding Mike Morrell is why isn't he in prison instead of endorsing Hillary Clinton. And yet the answer is simple. He is a liar and a consummate politician who has been in the system almost as long as Hillary and he is endorsing someone he can relate to. Same ol same ol.

      - Quirk

      Delete
  25. All Trump has to do now is make this all about Hillary and let the revolutions continue. I am sure there are more to come.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Commie Party, USA is all in for Short Circuit.

      Commie Party, USA backed Stalin for decades.

      Wake Up, America !

      Delete
  26. London Daily Mail

    Clinton’s private server held emails about Iranian nuclear ‘spy’ who was executed today: Hillary’s aides discussed their scientist ‘friend’ and his ‘problematic’ decision to return home

    * Shahram Amiri was in the U.S. while Hillary was Secretary of State

    * Believed to have handed over secret’s about Tehran's nuclear program

    * He was hanged for ‘revealing secrets to the enemy' on Sunday

    * Hillary stressed he was here at his ‘own free will' at the time

    * But he maintained he’d been kidnapped by American intelligence agents

    * A diplomat and one of Clinton’s top advisers then sent emails about him

    * One stated it was ‘diplomatic, psychological issue', but not a legal one


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3728222/Hillary-Clinton-discussed-executed-Iranian-nuclear-scientist-advisers-private-server-referring-friend.html#ixzz4GgFpw4YP
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    ReplyDelete
  27. Oh well, Never mind. This settles it then:

    On Tuesday, Obama told the crowd in North Carolina that he saw during the 2008 primary race that Clinton was smart and prepared, and he said she had been involved in difficult decisions as secretary of state.

    “There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office than Hillary Clinton,” Obama said.

    ReplyDelete
  28. WASHINGTON ― Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Sunday said that Donald Trump risks losing Arizona, a longstanding Republican stronghold, over his inflammatory comments about immigrants and immigration.

    When asked whether Hillary Clinton could win there, Flake responded, “Bill Clinton won Arizona. So yes, it’s possible.”

    No Democrat has won the state in the 20 years since Bill Clinton’s victory in 1996. Mitt Romney won Arizona by 9 points in 2012.

    “The statements he made out of the gate about those crossing the border being rapists and whatnot ― that doesn’t sit well,” Flake said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” referring to Trump. “And then to refer to a judge born in Indiana as a Mexican in a pejorative way ― you can’t expect to win Arizona when you make statements like that, and you offend a large and growing demographic needlessly.”

    Flake also said that Trump should apologize to the family of Humayun Khan, an American soldier who was killed in 2004 during the Iraq War. Trump belittled the family after they gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention opposing his candidacy. Trump suggested that Khan’s mother, Ghazala, was not “allowed” to speak at the convention because of her religion. Ghazala Khan and her husband, Khizr, fired back afterward.

    Flake has refused to endorse Trump for months over his anti-immigrant comments, but stopped short of saying he could never endorse the billionaire. On Sunday, he maintained this mantra, saying Trump could still win his support if he changed his policy platform and his “tone and tenor.”

    Polls suggest that Flake is right about Trump’s vulnerability in Arizona. Several recent polls have Clinton close to Trump in the state, and some even show her ahead. HuffPost Pollster’s average of recent polling data shows Trump ahead by just one-tenth of a point ― 44.4 percent to 44.3 percent.

    A Clinton victory in Arizona would signal a landslide for Democrats. Trump has to flip several states that Barack Obama won in 2012 to secure the presidency.

    Huffington Post

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Flake should apologize to the families of all those who were raped, robbed, and killed on the road by illegals.

      Delete
    2. Got the inside scoop on how to win the Hawaiian Vacation Package from a teller at the Casino, Doug.

      Try for Tuesday's drawing.....4 pt. day....get there early.....build points.....Tuesday is usually a slow day.....stuff the box with 'Bob' tickets...first drawing is early in the day......going to give it the old college try.....

      Delete
  29. The Communist Party USA is for Clinton.

    Let it sink in.....

    (actually I thought they'd gone out of business but must still have an office somewhere, maybe in inner Detroit. Quirk and the Mafia will keep them under control there...)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (Quirk may be a 'commune' type at times, a 'flower child', very self referential, but he's no commie.....he once called them all 'dicks'.....besides not liking the underlying philosophy, he simply lacks anything resembling commie discipline....)

      Delete
    2. .

      And the Nazis like Trump. Sounds like WWII a redux.

      .

      Delete
  30. Hillary Conquers The Stairs....DRUDGE

    See Drudge, and the associated article, showing Short Circuit just making it up a set of stairs, with massive help --- article at link below -

    http://theamericanmirror.com/shock-photo-grandma-hillary-helped-stairs/


    Man, she's death warmed over.....the sins of a lifetime catching up with the old bitch at last.....


    Trump ? Picture of springtime health in comparison....a walking advertisement for 'no drink, no drugs, no smokes'....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The two, decrepit Short Circuit, and Mr Energy, are almost exactly the same age.....

      Delete
    2. Maybe The Donald should be insisting that an Independent Medical Review Board Report on Fried Circuit's health, physical and mental, be conducted and published...

      Delete
  31. Prudential Macro Policy

    A few years ago, it was easy to say what U.S. monetary and fiscal policy should be doing. The economy was still obviously depressed, so the indicated demand policy was pedal to the metal all the way – no need to worry about inflation, no reason to believe that deficit spending would cause any crowding out (in fact it would almost surely crowd in private investment, because such investment depends on demand.)

    It’s true that the right kept warning about a debased dollar, while the Very Serious People were obsessed with debt and deficits, so that in practice we didn’t do the obvious. But it was obvious.

    Now, however, we’re arguably not too far from full employment. No inflation problem is visible yet, but it’s not crazy to suggest that inflation might go above the Fed’s target in the not-too-distant future. So has the macro case for strongly stimulative policy gone away?

    We’ve had an extensive discussion of this question when it comes to monetary policy, in which uncertainty plays the central role. Maybe we’re at or close to full employment, and will continue in that direction; but maybe not, either because there’s more slack than we think or because adverse shocks will send the economy down again. This means that there’s a risk of getting it wrong in either direction – not raising rates soon enough to head off some rise in inflation, on one side, versus raising them too soon on the other.

    And the decisive argument, it seems to me and others – although not, alas, to the Fed – is that these risks are asymmetric. Waiting too long risks embarrassment and some cost of wringing out the extra inflation, but moving too soon risks long-term stagnation. Wait until you see the whites of inflation’s eyes! (I coined that phrase, by the way.)

    But what about fiscal policy? I found myself trying to clarify my thoughts here in aid of tomorrow’s column. And while I’m sure I’m not the first to say this, a similar argument applies. Think in particular about infrastructure investment, which takes a long time to get going.

    Suppose we were to launch a program of deficit-financed public investment now, which would play out over the next few years. The truth is that we don’t know what the macro environment would be when the spending took place. We might be more or less at full employment, which means that the spending would cause higher interest rates and crowd out some private investment. But we also might be in a depressed state, either because of a slump in some part of domestic demand or because we’re importing secular stagnation from abroad, in which case fiscal stimulus would be just what the doctor ordered.

    The point is that these are, again, asymmetric risks. A little crowding out wouldn’t kill us, given how badly we need infrastructure investment. On the other hand, if we do slide back into a liquidity trap we would be badly hurt by not having the public investment we could have had, helping to prop up demand as well as serving other purposes.

    Or to put it another way, given where we are in the macro situation public investment, in addition to its usual benefits, would provide valuable insurance against the all too possible return of the zero lower bound. It’s not quite as slam-dunk a case as it was in, say, 2013, but it’s still very strong. It’s still time to borrow and spend.

    P. Krugman - NYTimes

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