Unravelling the Immigration Psyop, Reagan History Review, Trumpomics
This is going to be a tough one, mainly because its not an issue I have followed closely and the news is so biased, not to mention the layers of misinformation and disinformation.
However, Trump and JD Vance crossed the line with the Haiti nonsense. These are immigrants who are here lawfully and paid for their own tickets. US law entitles them to temporary protection and many apply for asylum. They are allowed to work and went to Springfield of their own volition enticed by jobs created in a booming local economy and low rents caused by a dying rust belt city, and now increasing due to population pressure. Contrary to popular opinion, most in Springfield are not on any housing subsidies
Then JD spreads these ridiculous stories about them eating Pets , which he has since backtracked on with Trump parroting him during his debate
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame.
DAVID MUIR: I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community --
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I've seen people on television
DAVID MUIR: Let me just say here this ...
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The people on television say my dog was taken and used for food. So maybe he said that and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager.
DAVID MUIR: I'm not taking this from television. I'm taking it from the city manager.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But the people on television say their dog was eaten by the people that went there.
DAVID MUIR: Again, the Springfield city manager says there's no evidence of that.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We'll find out
Pathetic. Thats where we are as a Nation. Rock Bottom.
However, immigration has been a very effective issue for Trump and his followers. American Workers are hurting, living standards have noticeably declined over 50 years since Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission had their big meeting in 1975 and declared we had a Crisis in Democracy. The Crisis was we had too much of it. The solution, or one of them was a Controlled Demolition of the Economy and the Deindustrialization.
Partnering with this Project Democracy was the Business Round Table, now led by Jamie Dimon which was formed the same year as the Trilateral Commission in the wake of the Powell Memo. Lewis Powell then became a Supreme Court Justice and enlisted SCOTUS in facilitating the Democratic Middle Class Americas Destruction
From Peter Dale Scott, who popularized the term Deep State although some called it The Enterprise
https://pete843.substack.com/p/bruce-hemmings-and-the-enterprise
This was the time when future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, in a 1971 memorandum, warned that survival of the free enterprise system depended on “careful long-range planning and implementation” of a well-financed response to threats from the left. This warning was answered by a sustained right-wing offensive, coordinated by think tanks and funded lavishly by a small group of family foundations.
Immigration was one of the tools used for the demolition. By the end of the 70’s we had about 3 million illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico. Reagan gave most of them a path to citizenship and by the end of the 80’s it was still 3 million, but there was actually just 3 million new faces.
By 2007 it was up to 12 million and despite the continued inflow by January 2021 it was 11 million, and still 11 million by January 2022
God knows what it is now. Some estimates say we let in 3 million under Biden. Others have it at 6 million, and Trumps people have it at 10-20 million. Of course, people leave as well, or they die, and they have babies who get to be Americans by birth
Because of Title 42 I didn’t think it was much of an issue despite the panic of increased Border Encounter Numbers. Thats because most of them were turned away. But the exaggerated claims of Open Borders and Government Benefits encouraged many immigrants to try their luck, again and again (getting counted multiple times). Biden continued Title 42 (except for unaccompanied children which created a different problem).
Just as a side note, before March 2020 Border Encounter Statistics did not include expulsions and others turned away. This did not result in a big increase in numbers because many immigrant did not try to enter Locked Down America due to COVID in 2020. But after the Hysteria wound down and things opened up they came back, and were counted even though they were turned away
Beginning in March FY2020, USBP and OFO Encounter statistics include both Title 8 Apprehensions, Title 8 Inadmissibles, and Title 42 Expulsions. To learn more, visit Title 8 and Title 42 Statistics.
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters
So in May 2023 Biden eliminated Title 42 and the flood began
“…federal judge, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in in November 2022 and blocked federal government from continuing to use Title 42.
The Arizona-led coalition attempted to intervene in the Washington lawsuit, which brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court scheduled arguments in the case then canceled them in February without an explanation.
The high court’s move came after the Biden administration filed a brief saying the case would be moot because the federal government planned to end the national public health order that allowed it to invoke Title 42.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/29/immigration-title-42-biden/
Some of you might be wondering about that. Just block them all. The problem is by Treaty and US Law the Government is legally compelled to grant those with reasonable fear who show up at the border a chance to apply for Asylum. Title 42 was an Emergency Measure. There was no longer an Emergency.
The biggest problem, one that has been around for a long time is it takes a long time to process claims. Most are rejected. Due to the length of time it takes most are released and given work authorization 6 months after they apply. Unless from designated countries they are not eligible for Federal Benefits (unless they have children) although some states make benefits available.
By the time their case is heard and rejected and processed for removal (5+ years) they are already assimilated, married perhaps to a citizen and with children born on US soil (citizens). Hard to get rid of them, if you can find them.
Somehow nobody thought to hire more Judges. We could keep the Asylum applicants in a nice sanitary and safe camps for 6 months after which the case is judged and they are removed or admitted.
Ok, thats just a brief overview but the real point of all this is our Big Corporations who run both parties want immigration, legal and illegal. Regardless of the rhetoric, it will continue
The Fake War against Immigration leads to opportunities for other industries. One of which is something Whitney Webb has written about, which is building a Virtual Border Wall (Smart Wall) and nationwide biometric digital surveillance which will be coupled with a digital biometric ID, perhaps preceded by a National Voter ID, and then followed by a requirement to have one for banking (digital currency transactions) and online activity
You see how all this is connected? Hyping Election Fraud and Illegal Immigration leading to a Solution nobody on the right would want (Problem>Reaction>Solution)
So we see the Motives. Economic War on the Middle Class which is almost over (we are losing badly). Now they have to build a Digital Gulag to control the New Serfs
Of course, they have a long way to go and its not getting done without their man Trump to get the right to go along with the Solutions
I was going to do a longer post with lots of links and numbers but I know nobody will read it and its more work than I am up to. I must be getting Old
But I still have something left, so I want to turn to the Economy. Illegal Immigration is a problem and its costly, but now that we know the economic motives, it helps us see the Big Picture
We need to go back to the Reagan Years. Many of you remember them as the Golden Years. Yes, from the outside those days they looked pretty Good. Rome was not built in a day, and neither was it Demolished overnight. Reagan planted the Seeds of Destruction
America was an Economic Beast up until 1975. Sure, we had many warts, racial problems, Vietnam, Oil Shocks (also 1973, man, bad year) but economically, it was a beast
We still made most of our shit, lots of good paying union jobs, minimum wage was double what it is now in real terms, people got OT (even those earning the equivalent of $85k today, double what it is now) , a single wage earner could support 6 kids and a wife, own a home, send the kids to college (which was affordable), with reasonable health care costs. We had wealthy people despite high taxes but wealth and income inequality were not as significant as today.
Sure we had a Cold War, and Team B (Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bush Rumsfeld) tried to scare us with that to keep feeding the MIC, but while it made for some good movies and novels not many of us got too excited about it. MAD let us sleep easily
Then the real War kicked off, the War against the Middle Class. The Trilateral Commission’s First Presidency, Jimmy Carter the Peanut Farmer, himself a TLC member. He brought in Volcker, a fellow TLC member to run the Fed. Oh my.
There was a bit of inflation still, mostly due to wage growth and OPEC. While this hurt those on fixed income, it wasn’t that bad. Back then the Fed did not control all banks. We had S & L’s which competed for business and provided decent interest rates on savings to off set inflation
Volcker in 1978 gave a lecture at Warwick University in England on November 9 and said :
“A controlled disintegration in the world economy is a legitimate object for the 1980s.”
A year later, after being appointed Fed Chairman he raised key US interest rates in 1979 (at the same time as the Bank of England) by 300% to near 20% levels where he triggered the worst US recession since the 1930’s.
Volcker blamed the extremely high inflation of 1979-82 on worker wage demands. Partly true but conveniently ignored the other cause of global inflation then, soaring prices of oil and grains through to the 1980’s as a result of geopolitical actions of Volcker’s patron, David Rockefeller, in creating the oil shocks of the 1970’s.
So then comes Reagan to save the day, backed by Trumps mentor Roy Cohn , Reagan beats the Peanut Farmer thanks to the October Surprise and promising to be TLC free (he kept Volcker and his VP Bush was also TLC member). I voted for him as Republican.
So much happened in the Reagan Years that I was mostly unaware of at the time. Below is a Timeline
1981-Reagan massively cut taxes on rich people. He cut the top tax bracket for billionaires and multimillionaires from 74% to 25%. (There were only 13 billionaires in America then)
When it became apparent the tax cuts were too large and economic growth would not replace the revenues he raised taxes on working-class people 11 times.
For example, he put a tax on Social Security income and unemployment income, and put in a mechanism to track and tax tips income all of which had previously been tax-free (tips were rarely monitored)
He ended the deductibility of credit-card, car-loan and student-debt interest
At the same time,
1981-He crushed PATCO (the air traffic controllers’ union) and over the next decade the result of his war on labor was that union membership went from about a third of the American workforce when he came into office to around 13% at the end of the Reagan/Bush presidencies.
1981-In June , less than six months after Reagans inauguration, the United States approved a new offshore possibility, the international banking facility. The United States was another step closer to becoming a tax haven for money launderers
1982-Stock buybacks used to be illegal following the 1929 crash. They were considered stock manipulation, because mechanically it does support the share price. But President Regan rescinded the law
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, which eliminated loan-to-value ratios and interest rate caps for S&Ls, and also allowed them to hold 30% of their assets in consumer loans and 40% in commercial loans. Setting the stage for the Savings & Loan crisis that peaked by 1989
With reward uncoupled from risk, zombie thrifts began paying higher and higher rates to attract funds. S&Ls also began investing in riskier commercial real estate and even riskier junk bonds.
It would be taxpayers [through the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC)]—not the banks or S&Ls officials—who would be left holding the bag.
1982, President Reagan would sign NSDD 77 which would launch the Special Planning Group led by Bush. Later investigations showed that federally coordinated "off the books" Iran-Contra smuggling operations began
Beginning in 1982, as part of the highly classified Continuity of Government (COG) program, North used the PROMIS software to develop a secretive database known as Main Core to track millions of dissidents (ie those opposed to government policies)
1982-The Reagan administration signs in August 1982 a third joint communiqué with the People’s Republic of China to normalize relations. It reaffirms the U.S. commitment to its One-China policy.
1983, President Ronald Reagan issued a memorandum expanding Bayh-Dole to include corporations of all sizes.
The original bill passed in 1979 was a default policy of transferring titles on government-supported inventions to small businesses and nonprofit contractors, including universities.
Horace M. Gray, associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Illinois it was “quite unthinkable that the Federal Government should tax the citizens of this country to secure funds for scientific research, on the grounds that such research promotes the general good, and then turn the results of such research over to some private corporation on an exclusive, monopoly basis. This amounts to public taxation for private privilege and violates one of the basic tenets of our democratic faith.”
1983 April 20, , The Social Security Amendments laid the foundation for 30-years of federal embezzlement of Social Security money in order to use the money to pay for wars, tax cuts and other government programs.
The payroll tax hike of 1983 generated over 3 trillion in surplus Social Security revenue over 30 years
It allowed the government to transfer $ 3 trillion from the Social Security fund to the general fund
1983, among other changes BLS inflation calculation was switched from tracking mortgages and other housing costs to tracking “owners’ equivalent rent,” making the measurement less volatile and allowing manipulation to reduce CPI and thus COLA’s used to calculate Social Security and Wage increases
1983. Congress passed the NED Act . The structure of the NED essentially functions as a private CIA political operations arm of an invisible, secret government beyond accountability and beyond the reach of the law.
1983-The bugged version of PROMIS was a result of collusion between Earl Brian, Reagans envoy to Iran, and Rafi Eitan, director of the Israeli intelligence agency Lekem and was distributed around the world by Robert Maxwell, father of Jeffrey Epsteins girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
BCCI was a Mossad/CIA affiliated bank that was involved in numerous scandals of the 1980s, including financing the Reagan administration's Iran-Contra secret arms deals and serving as a CIA drug trafficking and money laundering conduit for Pakistani state
Maxwell sold China PROMIS and access to Israel's secret backdoor. Eitan arranged for Robert Maxwell to sell the software to Los Alamos. FBI documents obtained under the FOIA show evidence linking the nuclear technology thefts from Los Alamos to a joint operation by Mossad and China.
1984-CIA Director and Cohn friend William Casey began an extensive PR campaign aimed at shoring up public support for Reagans Latin American policies, including support of the Contra paramilitaries. This domestic propaganda effort was technically illegal so they outsourced the job to the private sector
Cohn brought his close friend, the media mogul Rupert Murdoch, to the White House to help out. Murdoch, benefited greatly from his friendship with the administration, which allowed Murdoch to increase his U.S. media holdings and to create the Fox Broadcasting Corporation in 1987.
1984, the United States would bypass the Antilles irritant entirely and waive the 30 percent withholding tax under a new loophole. Foreign investors unlike citizens would pay no tax on their bond income in US. The worlds hot money would roll in to what was now the world’s largest tax haven
In February 1983, in a program called Project Democracy, the administration proposed the program be funneled through federal agencies. Congress, seeking a program that was independent and bipartisan, refused to approve the plan.
1984, a newly created, private, nongovernmental organization, or NGO, called the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) opened its doors in Washington.. Its mission was to doctor systemic US propaganda as a weapon to unseat regimes around the world who were not willing to cooperate with Washingtons overall agenda
NED was implicated in the Iran-Contra affair. Oliver L. North called the operation Project Democracy in his computer messages. Norths operation was the endowments secret arm.
Further stories appeared when an organization administering four endowment grants was linked to the Iran-Contra controversy.
1984-Reagan visits China in April and in June, the U.S. government permits Beijing to make purchases of U.S. military equipment.
1985-After Sen Tower arranged for Maxwell to meet with leadership of Sandia National Laboratories (formerly Los Alamos Z division),. Maxwell sold Sandia a copy of PROMIS software . Shortly after retirement Sen Tower relayed to Reagan Maxwells request for help in arming Iran as a means to trade for American hostages and received a a positive response."
By 1985, S&L assets had shot up by over 50%—far faster growth than banks. S&L growth was especially robust in Texas. Some state legislators allowed S&Ls to double down by allowing them to invest in speculative real estate. Still, more than a third of S&Ls were not profitable as of 1983.
1986-The National Vaccine Act eliminated vaccine makers liability, recognizing that drug companies no longer had any incentive to make vaccines safe”an order for HHS to study vaccine injuries, work to improve vaccine safety, and report to Congress on its progress every two years. It has not sent one safety report to Congress in over 30 years.
1986-The Immigration Reform and Control Act altered U.S. immigration law by making it illegal to knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and establishing financial and other penalties for companies that employed illegal immigrants. The act also legalized most illegal immigrants who had arrived in the country prior to January 1, 1984.
1986, Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), which forbade hospitals from denying emergency care services based on immigration status.
1986- passage of Reagan's Anti-Drug Abuse Act , after which incarceration for non-violent offenses dramatically increased as did the privatization of the Prison Industrial Complex
Failing S&Ls were allowed to keep lending. By 1987 the FSLIC had become insolvent. Rather than allowing it and S&Ls to fail as they were destined to do, the federal government recapitalized the FSLIC. For a while longer, the S&Ls were allowed to continue to pile on risk.
1987 Fauci appointed head of NIAID in 1984 and in charge of Federal AIDS funding promoted the use of AZT based on the published Fischl study which observed patients for only 4 months. It was financed by AZT manufacturer Wellcome (today GSK), and allegedly placed sicker patients in the placebo group. Despite its toxicity Fauci recommended it for asymptomatic patients
1987- Fairness Doctrine repealed by Ronald Reagans pro-broadcaster FCC, the doctrine can be traced back to the early days of broadcast regulation. Coincidentally his buddy Murdoch started up Fox this year
1987-Stock markets raced upward during the first half. By late August, the DJIA had gained 44 percent in a matter of seven months, stoking concerns of an asset bubble. The federal government disclosed a larger-than-expected trade deficit and the dollar fell in value. On Friday October 16, the DJIA had lost 4.6 percent.
On Monday 10/19 the DJIA crashed at the opening bell and eventually finished down 508 points (22%). The Fed led by newly appointed chairman Alan Greenspan encouraged banks to continue to lend on their usual terms. Stock markets quickly recovered a majority of their Black Monday losses.
Following the crash Reagan created the Presidents Plunge Protection Team by Executive Order which has been propping up markets ever since and creating larger and larger bubbled
Officially named the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.
1988 , 3 July ,USS Vincennes guided missile cruiser launched a surface-to-air missile and shot down an Iranian Airbus A300B2-203 which was completing a passenger flight. All 290 people aboard died: 274 passengers (including 65 children)
It should be noted that when the missile was launched the USS Vincennes was located in Iranian waters. The Pentagon stated that the Iran Air airliner was mistakenly identified as an Iranian Air Force F-14 fighter. Lol
1989-The S&L crisis was arguably the most catastrophic collapse of the banking industry since the Great Depression. Across the United States, more than 1,000 S&Ls had failed by 1989, essentially ending what had been one of the most secure sources of home mortgages.
The Cold War Ended. Yay, but this paved the way for the many Wars since then as we no longer had anyone to keep us honest (Iraq, Yugoslavia, Iraq again, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and proxy Wars against Russia, Yemen etc) and Disasters like 9/11, Anthrax, Great Finance Collapse and COVID to accelerate the destruction of the US Middle Class and accelerate Wealth Transfer to the Rich (that 36 trillion in debt is someones wealth) . Of course when it comes to pay the debt you owe the same share as Elon Musk and Donald Trump
But Trumps going to save us all, right?
What exactly has he proposed?
Tax Cuts for the Rich and a few crumbs for the Poor who pay little tax. Social Security Recipients, Tip Workers and workers who get OT (you are able to be exempt from receiving OT if you make less than $45,000 )
Guys, we have been trying that for 40+ years. It ain’t working
How is he going to pay for those tax cuts?. $36 trillion in debt and rising rapidly. Tax increases (aka Tarrifs) . Kamala calls it a Sales Tax. Trump calls it a tax on other countries. Kamala is right.
To call it a tax on other countries is a blatant distortion if not a lie. Neither the country nor the manufacturer in that country pays a dime. The entity that pays is the importer of record, usually an American Company based in US, and they pass it on to the Consumer.
Obviously the importer will try to minimize paying Tarrifs. We know this because we had Tarrifs before Trump. Trump raised them on China goods. Biden added more. But this was chump change compared to the scale Trump is calling for
Importers and Chinese Mfr will have assembly moved to non-Tarrif countries like SE Asia and Mexico, but if we have tarrifs on everyone that wont work
Chinese firms such as Shein and Temu made use of the so-called de minimis exception, which allows packages worth less than $800 to enter the United States tariff free. Since the de minimis shipments aren’t counted in the U.S. trade data, the formal count of imports is clearly too low.
Solar panels made in Vietnam with Chinese wafers avoid the tariffs, but their key component still comes from China. IPhones produced in India using Chinese-made displays and circuit boards still have a lot of Chinese content.
The same goes for critical medicines made with active pharmaceutical ingredients from China.
China’s own data shows that it is selling more to the United States than the U.S. reports importing.
Chinese exports of electric vehicles and “green” goods are absolutely skyrocketing. China’s exports have increased by about $1 trillion globally, with exports now accounting for a higher share of China’s gross domestic product (GDP) than before the tariffs.
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/why-us-imports-mexico-surpassed-those-china
The one thing that doesn’t seem to happen much is Manufacturers coming back to US. For US companies the profit tax is half what it would be if it would be if it makes it in US. Plus costs are much higher. Foreign companies like Chinese have to worry about assets being seized, and why do they care as they don’t pay the Tarrifs and US has nobody else to get what they sell
Also, it takes time and money to do so. And the costs of doing so will result in higher prices
Much of what people buy in Wal-Mart is from China, so you will pay more than 3% if Trump taxes everything at 20%, much more if tariffs hit 60%
Some will say tougher negotiation will get the manufacturer to absorb these costs. Sadly, thats unlikely.
Here is how this really works. Companies like Wal-Mart are great negotiators already. Manufacturing in China is very competitive, at least it was when I was there. So Wal-Mart with its big orders always got the lowest price. Margins were pretty thin for the mfr but they sold a lot so they did well.
What follows is hypothetical as an example
A company like Wal-Mart buys a Widget for $10 per widget from factory through its buying office. It gets shipped to US where the price is declared as $25 per widget, so after expenses $10 gets locked up as profit overseas . They pay US 11% tax for overseas profits less any local tax so in HK its 15% ,so usually they pay nothing in US which taxes US profits at 21%.
They sell the widget in US store at $50, so they make $25 in US before expenses. After expenses their taxable profit might be $2 (expenses $23). Lot of expenses in US, CEO’s make millions, rent, distribution costs, etc. They end up paying US 42 cents federal tax per widget
So now they need to pay a 60% tariff on declared value of widget ($25) which comes out to $15. They mark up the price they sell at as $65 instead of $50. You pay 30% more
What else. Invest in Bitcoin 😂
With what? Borrow the money to invest?
So what is Trump going to cut to reduce the deficit? The Military and Intelligence Agencies? I doubt it.
Bring on Musk to eliminate Waste?
We spend over 6 trillion a year and only a quarter of that is discretionary spending, and over half discretionary spending goes to the Military
One thing that will help is lower interest rates as we are now spending $1 trillion a year on interest
What about lowering prices? Drill baby drill? We import the heavy crude we need to refund oil for gasoline because we only produce a lighter crude. Refineries are at capacity due to closures starting during Trumps administration and nobody wants to build more with the push to develop EV Infrastructure.
Eliminate all regulations for house building? Seems this just fatten profits for the few being built. Builders know if they build more prices drop
I don’t hear any solutions from either side
Ok, I am done (echo)