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Enough is Enough! Stop the War in Ukraine

Posted on by dsmarth

Pope Francis delivered a New Year’s message to diplomats accredited to the Vatican. He stated that indiscriminate destruction and killing of civilians in Ukraine is “a crime against God and Humanity.” He also appealed for a total ban on nuclear weapons, saying that just the mere possession for deterrence is “immoral.”

The US through its illustrious, war-mongering congressional members – with rare exception – appropriated billions of dollars to former actor, now Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. They idolize this fellow and demonize Putin. What Putin did is wrong! But there are plenty of issues on this whole Russia-Ukraine affair that are not percolating in news reports due to a corporate run news media which has its own pre-ordained agenda. Now, news reports indicate the Biden administration will provide Ukraine with a Patriot air defense system.

Instead of NATO allies and the US sending billions of dollars and providing defense contractors’ war killing equipment to Ukraine, both sides should be forced to the negotiating table. Hold Zelenskyy hostage on receiving any more funding or assistance to perpetuate this war. It’s that simple. Instead of entering a proxy war over the past year, the US should be leading discussions on stopping the war and catalyzing the best possible deal for peace. The US has plenty of its own problems and the billions of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine should have been given back in tax cuts to the American middle class and poor.

Return Monies to Americans, Not More Government Spending

Posted on by dsmarth

The country’s national debt stands at $22 trillion and it continues to surge. The upcoming presidential election requires essential focus on this national debt crisis. Americans listen to the corporate media and establishment’s pronouncements that the economy is doing fine. But, the gap in wealth and income distribution becomes wider as each year passes. The rich get richer. The poor get poorer. The middle class is shrinking.

Some of the Democratic presidential candidates propose raising the tax rate on the rich. But, with those additional revenues – if this tax policy were to be adopted – the Democratic candidates are pushing for targeted tax credits and/or more government spending for purposes they deem important. Enough is enough! Any new additional revenues realized from such a tax on the wealthy should go back to the people, not to government to spend more. The people (middle class and poor) should receive a tax cut so they can decide how much to save and how much to spend and for what purposes; not the government saying they are giving free college, tax credits for day care, etc.

If we would stop the unending wars, regional overseas conflicts, and foreign interventionism which have cost America trillions of dollars, and we would stop interfering in other nations’ affairs, replacing with friendly trading and commerce relationships, we can begin to start dealing with this overwhelming debt that will eventually make our country go bankrupt. If we are a nation that values liberty, freedom, prosperity and peace, our national public policies need to be reversed as the book “9/11 How America Changed” pontificates. In the closing chapter, the book states, “Americans must play a role in ending the wars, the tax thievery, the devaluation of the dollar by the Federal Reserve, other liberty-busting actions by the American government, and demonizing whistleblowers as ‘traitors.” As the book states, unless Americans become involved with their government at every level, further hardships, more military and foreign policy adventurism and blowback will occur to the point of “eventual disappearance of liberty, peace, and prosperity.”

The call-to-action is for every American to be a civic participant or else the two party system and the fourth estate will continue to misrepresent information that is vital for informed judgements that help restore an exceptional nation, based on a moral sphere of actions.

— Deborah K. Smarth, Manalapan

PUBLISHED IN: https://www.trentonian.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor-return-monies-to-americans-not-more/article_4c462224-406a-11e9-88ee-43e03bae2dee.html

Sorry, but the American economy isn’t just Fine: Letter

Posted on by dsmarth

Some congressional candidates’ campaign literature states that the economy is fine. They praise the corporate tax cuts under Trump’s enacted tax reform proposal and reference “how the stock market is at an all-time high,” making it sound like everyone is benefiting. Let’s come back to reality. Here are some important facts that show the opposite. So, voters don’t be fooled by the campaign propaganda!

►The World Economic Forum cites that minimum wages are higher in 10 advanced industrial countries as compared to the U.S. (after taxes are deducted from an individual’s wage payment);

►The average CEO of S&P 500 companies made 347 times more money than an average production and non-production supervisory worker at $37,600; the median pay for CEOs of such major companies is $11.5 million;

►Just under half of the population is living paycheck to paycheck; a May 2016 poll indicated. “Two thirds of Americans would have difficulty coming up with money to cover a $1,000 emergency.”

►The gap between the richest Americans and the rest of the population widened after the Great Recession, deepening inequality;

►A recent, past Oxfam Report indicates that the wealthiest 1 percent of the world’s population “will own more wealth than the other 99 percent.”

►47% of 55- to 62-year-old Americans would run out of funds necessary to pay for basic retirement expenditures if they retire at age 65.

►New jobs (in general) pay less than pre-2008 recession jobs; wages are rising at a snail’s pace.

►A 2017 Gallup poll indicates that in the post-recession, the percentage of Americans investing in the stock market declined to 54 percent. In addition there has been a surge of individual investors who entirely exited the stock market. Only 37 percent of younger Americans under 35 invest in the stock market post-recession.

►Some large corporations pay no federal taxes. Amazon, a perfect example, had profits of $5.6 billion, but paid no federal income taxes for 2017; however, it will receive a $137 million federal tax refund. The law allows this?

So, how do candidates for Congress or any public office suggest that our American economy is just fine as a result of Trump’s tax reforms? That takes gall!

Deborah K. Smarth

Manalapan

PUBLISHED IN APP.COM https://www.app.com/story/opinion/readers/2018/05/06/tax-reforms-not-working-tax-cuts-u-s-economy/584611002/

 

Trump repeating same mistakes as Bush, Obama

Posted on by dsmarth

Imagine choosing an individual like John Bolton, a former George W. Bush administration official, who saw no wrong in the Iraq War or the no-find WMD (weapons of mass destruction). Bolton continues to demonize Iran and any countries not fully aligned with the priorities of Saudi Arabia and Israel.

President Trump pledged to bring the troops home. He criticized our involvement in the Middle East. And, now, he does the exact opposite, recruiting neoconservative war hawks like John Bolton to be his national security adviser.  Mike Pompeo, who replaced Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, sees no problem with executing “whistleblowers” or engaging in the same foreign policies that caused blowback to our homeland in the first place.

Knowing about Bolton’s history, either Donald Trump is delirious, has absolutely no real understanding of what neoconservatives want, or was a closet neocon. Neocons want more wars and foreign/military entanglements everywhere. For what reason?

Haven’t the past 17 years been enough? The suffering of millions of people in foreign countries, and troops dying, or with serious physical and mental injury. The government-launched War on Terror as a response to 9/11 got us into the Iraq War, the Afghanistan surge in troops, and funding and training of rebels in Syria, who later helped strengthen ISIS.

The U.S. is supporting Saudi Arabia’s dirty war of aggression against the poorest Arab nation, Yemen. The U.S. under Trump has created more instability by relocating America’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem, a city that was jointly held through past parties’ agreements. He has increased drone strikes and expanded the Pentagon’s discretion in matters of military bombing, and drone use, killing civilians and even rescue workers in targeting terrorists, on suspicion only.

There isn’t one campaign pledge made in foreign affairs that Trump hasn’t violated. He cleverly weaved in conservative-libertarian positions and political messaging to win the votes of libertarians who thought he would be a “peace” president. Unfortunately, he has done nothing but create more havoc on the world scene, empowering the war-mongering neoconservatives who started all these wars with their propaganda in the first place.

A Bolton and Pompeo takeover of these two cabinet-level governmental bodies is nothing more than the virulent continuation of the same old Bush/Obama policies that got us in this mess to begin with! Unfortunately, these reckless and irrational American policies have resulted in too many deaths of American troops and innocent civilians including children in foreign lands.

Isn’t it time that all Americans stand up and call it for what it is? It’s immoral! Until Trump reverses these decisions, “Make America Great Again” is nothing more than an empty campaign marketing slogan. Unless Americans oppose these unending wars, America will succumb to the worst vices one can imagine. Imagine a president that is friendly with Saudi Arabia, known for its beheadings of dissenters, and on the next leg of his 2017 overseas trip, presents Pope Francis with a tome of books by Martin Luther King, a great moral leader who promoted non-violence like Mahatma Gandhi.

What a disservice to the American people and our nation to continue down the same path, which will lead to the same outcomes: more destruction, more killing and deaths, less national security, greater government surveillance, and eventually the further reduction of individual liberties and freedom. The silence must stop!

Deborah K. Smarth

PUBLISHED IN APP.COM https://www.app.com/story/opinion/readers/2018/03/23/donald-trump-foreign-policy-john-bolton-george-w-bush-barack-obama/452954002/

A close up image of stacks of dollar bills

LETTER: Middle class gets little from government

Posted on by dsmarth

Have you noticed lately how the political establishment and economic elite throw the middle class crumbs? Whether it’s the national or state political parties’ platforms, the policies promoted usually slight the middle class. According to three past studies’ definitions, “middle class” includes income ranges from $32,000 to $122,000.

The latest federal tax reduction proposal gives most of the tax benefits to the very, very wealthy, not the vast majority of people. They throw crumbs our way. So, how does the Trump administration expect to have a revived economy when the income of most average Americans has not grown since the Great Recession. In fact, the disparity in income distribution has increased dramatically over the past few decades.

In the recent New Jersey gubernatorial race, Kim Guadagno said that the average family would save $800 annually with her circuit-breaker property tax reduction plan. The Governor-elect said he would increase taxes for the wealthiest top bracket, hedge funds, and do away with corporate subsidies. Murphy indicated that the added proceeds from these tax increases would be spent for diverse spending items including infrastructure projects; but, wouldn’t that inevitably be channeled to big contractors and corporate businesses? Why not shift those additional revenues from tax increases on the top 1 percent and the hedge funds, for an income tax cut to the middle class?

Giving back income to the middle class would do more for the economy than investing solely in infrastructure projects or other spending projects. Tax cuts would give middle class families the ability to spend more and save more. It belongs in their pockets to begin with since their income is the fruits of their labor.

The only way property tax hikes across New Jersey can be halted is to initiate “binding” budget referendums on school budgets and local government budgets. Would the Legislature or the incoming administration be willing to give the people the ultimate power of vetoing increases in municipal and school budget spending, with no strings attached? That would be a first, great start to controlling property taxes and the bloated bureaucracy of the institutional educational complex. With a binding budget referendum, the people would ultimately control spending and taxation, increasing accountability to the people.

The middle class is the segment that produces a strong economy. Without income growth and real strong tax cuts for middle America at every level of government, the American economy will stagnate further, despite the false messaging of those who hold power.

Deborah K. Smarth, Manalapan