“They sold the righteous for silver, hoax Sadly, and destructively, all indications are that just as they did in 2008 and 2009, America’s ruling class intend to abandon the working people of America. They intend to sell them out by providing welfare to the higher bidding corporate interests—interests that scream bloody murder and holy hell when individual America’s are given a pittance in welfare assistance. Unfortunately, the immoral selling out of American workers is not a strictly GOP affair. Schumer, Pelosi, and their merry band of Democrat pick-pockets, having joined the GOP raiding party, have demonstrated once more that there is no “left” left in America—and certainly no “radical left.” Oh, if only there were a radical left! If there were, the Democratic controlled house would pass a real relief bill. They would write and pass a leftist bill, rather than trying to go to the center. When the house passes centrists bills, Mitch and his GOP highway bandits push it right during the following negotiations in the Senate until it is far, far too conservative. Wake up, Dems. Pass leftists bills. Then, when you are finished negotiating with Mitch and his gangsters, the bill has a shot at ending up somewhere in the center, not right of center. If there were a “left” left in this country, working Americans would have received more than the pittance that they were given in the stimulus bills passed by congress and signed by Caligula. What pretense! What a sham. What a con job. The fact that this president, the almighty and unholy Caligula, so readily signed the bill is all the evidence one needs to confirm it as a hoax, to use a vocabulary item very much in vogue these days. The thousand or so bucks and modest increases to unemployment are mere crumbs; a slap in the face of working Americans from sea to shining sea. Tokenism of the worst sort. These measures are wholly inadequate to the challenges that working Americans will face over the coming weeks and months. The little checks that Congress cut aren’t going to cut it. To add insult to injury, Americans who are attempting to apply for assistance are finding that the government, having been purposefully and meticulously spoiled and pillaged by the GOP over the past 40 years, is too inept to get the promised money out in a timely fashion. People are worried. Bills are coming due. Caligula and his band of robbers have already taken “life” out of the “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” equation as thousands die needlessly due to the butcher’s corruption and ineptitude in the early stages of the pandemic, including a murderous shortage of tests. Now, with its pitifully inadequate aid package, congress has removed “the pursuit of happiness” from the equation. One might wonder when the next shoe, “liberty,” will drop, but Wisconsin’s forced election in the midst of a pandemic—an election ordered by a supreme court safely adjudicating through video conferencing—suggests that that part of the equation is already under attack Much, much more is needed to fulfil the promise of America: “the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This, rather than the level of corporate profit or CEO salaries, should have been in the past and must become in the future the measure by which the health of “the economy” is judged. What should the “left,” radical or not, have done? What would a government with even a sliver of moral authority have done? What would a country that prides itself on being “a Christian nation” do, immediately and happily? It’s a no brainer. The Bible has already provided the principles to lighten the way, we only need apply them through policy. first—moratorium on mortgage/rent Here, then, is the principle. “At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’s release. Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release; save when there shall be no poor among you; for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land…”[1] Furthermore, “If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand;” and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, ‘Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.’”[2] Here is one application. The application of the principles found in these passages will certainly look different today than they might have then. nevertheless, our political leaders must follow the injunction that “Thou shalt open thine hand wide.” In order to follow this divine injunction and live up to the hype of being “a Christian nation,” we should immediately pass legislation to put a halt to all rent and mortgage payment collections. This isn’t anything as “radical” as a Biblical “debt cancelation.” But the “leftist” Biblical principle of debt cancelation does serve as the inspiration for the debt/rent moratorium that will be so desperately needed—needed not just for long-term financial security, but for short-term emotional well-being. Does not, should not the definition of “a good economy” include its contribution to the emotional health of its participants’? Or has the definition fallen so low and become so polluted that unholy mammon is the only consideration and concern. What about the promised “pursuit of happiness”? The application of such Biblical practices could go a long way in confirming our nation as a “Christian,” maybe even a “blessed” nation. Postpone all rent and mortgage payments for the next three months. At the end of three months, reassess, extending the moratorium if needed.[3] Mortgages will eventually be paid in full, their completion only extending a few months beyond that initially contracted. Individuals will not lose their homes by the millions after the crisis has passed, putting more money into the hands of investors who come along and swoop them up for pennies on the dollar. At the same time, rents will be paid in full, in this case, through government vouchers. This will serve to protect some of the most vulnerable citizens in our country. Second--wages A principle, again, from Deuteronomy. And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him…. therefore I command thee this thing to day…. It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee…”[4] The principle? Again, generosity. Not so sure that this generosity thing is legit; that it applies to a survival-of-the-fittest capitalistic system? Well, you are by no means the first to question the legitimacy of generosity “A man… went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 2And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them; ‘Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you.’ And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, ‘Why stand ye here all the day idle?’ “They say unto him, ‘Because no man hath hired us.’ “He saith unto them, ‘Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.’ “So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, ‘Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.’ And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, ‘These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.’ “But he answered one of them, and said, ‘Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 15Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?’” Jesus shows us what it looks like to be “good.” He makes clear what it means to be a disciple of Christ; what it looks like to be a “Christian nation.” The current system of unemployment benefit and small business loan applications is a disaster. It is too complex. There are too many people waiting in the same line at the same time. Even a hotdog vender knows to avoid this marketing blunder. Individuals and small businesses are not receiving the promised assistance due to such inefficiencies. The solution is as simple as it is logical: reduce the length of the lines. How? Provide all furloughed employees a full income check through their employers. Rather than 15, or 250, or 2,500, or 12,000 individual company employees applying for unemployment benefits, provide individual employers the funds necessary to meet payroll obligations and pay their employees their full paycheck. This shortens the length of the line from millions to thousands, number one, thus assuring more efficiency. Second, it provides workers with the resources needed to live financially and emotionally secure over the course of the pandemic.[5] True, companies will not make the huge profits that they have come to expect. But they will not go in the hole either (Oh, did I mention that legislation should be passed that puts a moratorium on debt collection from businesses as well? No need for business bail outs. The government can assist to keep them solvent, but should not be in the business of maintaining corporate profits or perverted CEO salaries as bills passed to this point have done). watchdogs Just as an international arms control deal requires verification, so too would a bill such as this. Verify. Verify. Verify. In all of this, government agencies will almost certainly utilize banks—though I would prefer to leave them out the loop entirely. In the current crisis, banks are already showing themselves, as they did before, after, and have since the 2008 financial crisis, to be unscrupulous and corrupt. They are uninterested in being public servants, and care not one wit about the welfare of their fellow citizens—I know I talk about them as if they were people, but, remember, the Supreme court in all its wisdom pronounced corporations to be people; a kind of Frankenstein, to my way of thinking. So, if banks must be used, watchdogs, regulators must be put in place in sufficient numbers and with sufficient bite to keep the banks from giving in to their evil and greedy impulses. I could even agree to modest bonus for those companies most compliant and effective at getting money into the hands of those for whom it was dedicated. Given Caligula’s corruption, even if government agencies rather than banks were utilized to dispense funds, serious oversight would be necessary with regulators, watchdogs, and whistleblowers protected from this most unscrupulous of men. In addition, to looking over the shoulder of banks and/or government agencies, regulators need to be looking over the shoulder of every employer to be sure they are dispensing the proper amount of funds in a timely and appropriate manner. Regulators should work in pairs, one regulator with auditing expertise and one auditor that is a worker. The auditor can add up the figures, the worker can assure that his fellow workers are receiving their fare wages. Talk about job creation! And all for a good purpose: to protect the American worker. it isn’t ‘the economy,’ stupid? I have already alluded several times to Thomas Jefferson’s famous line from the “Declaration of Independence.” “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” American culture is obsessed with “the economy,” especially that which can be called “good.” We want a “good economy.” But what does a “good economy” look like? It has come to mean that stock market profits are soaring and unemployment is low, with the second being a distant second in importance. But these are false standards. They are not standards that produce “independence” or that gravitate toward either “life,” or “liberty,” or “the pursuit of happiness.” Individuals can be employed but not make enough to meet their financial obligations. This is not independence, or liberty, or happiness. It is captivity and anxious worry. When millions of Americans live under this cloud of captivity and anxiousness, we do not possess a “good economy” no matter how well the stock market is doing or how low the unemployment numbers are. In such circumstances, the right of the “pursuit of happiness” has been stolen from the worker. Such wages are little more than “slave-wages.” That we have imagined otherwise is an indictment against America’s perverted value system. A good economy is one in which financial worries of honest, hard-working workers are rare. A good economy is one in which workers earn enough to live without captivity and the worry of being able to provide the basic necessities of life (I will not start on the true “good”—the redistribution of wealth). How many times have we heard, how many studies have demonstrated that wealthy people are not happier for their wealth. Once one has enough to cover basic life needs, happiness does not go up with each additional dollar earned or spent. The “pursuit of happiness” has nothing to do with stock portfolios or buy backs. If more money does not mean more happiness, then our definition of a “good economy” is and has been for generations, a false definition. We need representatives in government who understand what a “good economy” actually is. First, it is an economy in which every citizen has access to health care for the betterment of life. It is an economy in which every citizen is free of the economic bondage that comes with wondering and worrying whether they will have enough food to eat, shelter over their head, and other necessities of life. It is an economy in which every citizen can pursue true happiness. This is what a “good economy” means. Once this standard has been met, then have at it. Go gamble in the stock market if you must. But don’t expect us to bail you out of trouble when your bets go bad and the money many comes to collect his pound of flesh. And know this, no how much you may win at the blackjack table won’t make you happy. And it won’t make you free. And it won’t assure you of life. conclusion Texans like to say, “Remember the Alamo.” I say, “Remember the French Chateau.” If the ruling class—economic and political—do not repent, then it will be time for the working poor to rise up and burn their houses down. If politicians do not cease and desist from practicing socialism with American business while they withhold the same benefit from working Americans, then the people must start sharpening the guillotine. These American aristocrats can begin by passing bills that benefit all Americans. If this pandemic has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that it is the working class that keep American running… the nurses, the bus drivers, the store clerks, the trash collectors, etc., etc. It is they, in fact, who are dying of the pandemic while their wealthy fellow citizens hide out in their multimillion dollar mansions on America’s sunny beaches. Working Americans do deserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They deserve a better government and better representation than the current horde of GOP and Democrat felons are providing. It’s time these felons straighten up. Otherwise, it will be time to hear another famous saying: “Off with their heads.” [1] Deuteronomy 15.1-4 [2] Deuteronomy 15.7-11 [3] By the way, this is not “self-interest.” I do not have a rent or mortgage payment. [4] Deuteronomy 15.12-15 [5] Again, there is nothing in this for me personally as I have no employer and thus no wage. "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees,
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