Nothing is as sure as U.S. debt payments

This was originally written by Dean Sayers of The Thin Red Line and published on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website as a letter to the editor.

For all the hype about fiscal deficits, the numbers don't add up to any significant threat to the U.S. economy: The U.S. is highly unlikely to default on its debts, and debts are mostly held by private and public U.S. firms and individuals.

As Ludwig von Mises famously argued, if you print money (or create loans) you'll get inflation, and whoever gets the money first benefits from it most. But whom does inflation hurt? In a global economy, it is the relative debt/capital holdings that matter. These are called "net account balance" and "capital account balance." The U.S. far supersedes other nations in terms of net debt and net capital. What will expanded government purchases do to this dynamic? It depends on where those purchases go. If we look at the current data from the U.S. Treasury, we see that U.S. debt goes primarily to U.S. interests: 70.7 percent of U.S. debt is owed to U.S. firms or individuals.

If we decide to take Rep. Paul Ryan's advice, we will be reducing government purchases that expand net capital in the U.S. and net debt to entities in the U.S. If we follow these plans, the U.S.'s place in the global economy will contract: Capital will leave the nation.

In a nation with fiat currency, the government can simply create money. The trend in government borrowing is a testament to this fact; as Binyamin Appelbaum noted on "NewsHour": "Nothing is as sure in financial markets than that the United States government will repay its debts. And so the government gets the cheapest rates available."

Spaniards Protest, Clash with Police

The people of Spain, taking a page from the Tunisian and Egyptian playbooks, have been protesting around the clock and occupying the streets of major Spanish cities since May 15. Angered by austerity measures, a 21.3 percent unemployment rate, and a corrupt two-party government, the Spanish people are demanding "real democracy."

The country-wide protest began in Madrid, in the plaza of Puerta del Sol, a week before the country's elections. The protests then spread to other cities, including Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, and Seville. The government attempted to stop the protests by banning demonstrations and giving orders to disband, but the youth of Spain have defiantly persisted with their protests.

Riot police clashed with the protesters in Barcelona today in an attempt to remove camps from the protest site. 84 protesters and 37 police were injured in the clash. Clashes also took place in the city of Lleida.

Faced with youth unemployment at over 40 percent, a lack of jobs for college-educated people, pay freezes for workers and the raising of the retirement age by the Spanish government, the Spanish people are fed up. While the rest of the world faced the Great Depression of the 20th Century, the Soviet Union saw industrial growth and everyone had a job. In Cuba, the unemployment rate was, until late last year, only around 2 percent. Communism is the answer to the problems of Spain. Time for a people's revolution!

Minnesota Activists Win $50,000 from Local Police, FBI

Sarah Coffey, Erin Stalnaker and Kris Hermes, three activists from Saint Paul, Minnesota, won a $50,000 settlement in their lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Saint Paul Police Department on Thursday. The lawsuit was filed in August 2009 and stated that the FBI and police violated the plaintiffs' First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The homes of the three activists were raided on the eve of the massive demonstrations against the 2008 Republican National Convention. The police carried out several other operations to repress other left-wing activists in the days leading up to the Convention. This is the largest settlement related to the RNC protests.

"The City of Saint Paul and the federal government were forced to pay for their politically-motivated attack on organizers," said Sarah Coffey. "Rather than spend years in court fighting the government over its political surveillance program, we decided to use settlement money to invest in projects that oppose such repressive tactics."

The trio of plaintiffs is donating most of the $50,000 to the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, the Institute for Anarchist Studies, the Impact Fund, and to create a national legal defense fund for political activists.

The raid drew national attention when the police tried to enter the living quarters of the 10 activists and residents without a search warrant. They were refused entry, leading to a several-hours-long standoff. After getting a verbal go-ahead from a judge, the police forcefully entered one of the homes and detained everyone inside including the owner, tenants and the activists. Nobody was arrested, no illegal items were found, and nothing was seized, but computers and cameras were searched.

The police accused the owner of a nearby home of receiving weapons in the mail and illegally searched that home as well. They attempted to tie that home owner to the now defunct Symbionese Liberation Front (an "urban guerrilla" group from the 1970s). No weapons were found.

"We hope this sends a message to law enforcement officials who would enter homes illegally or suppress political dissent," said Coffey, "there is a cost to their actions."

The police and FBI are still continuing their work to stifle political dissent in all its various forms across the political spectrum. Although this is a significant victory, there is still much work to be done.

Brazil demonstration in support of Indian Maoists

On May Day of this year, the Brazilian Liga dos camponeses pobres (League of poor peoples)held a demonstration in Sao Paulo, Brazil to show solidarity with the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the oppressed Adivasi peasants of India. The Maoists have a deep support base among the Adivasis, the poor tribal people, and are currently waging a guerrilla war against the Indian government.

Mahdi Resistance Rally Against Occupation in Baghdad

Supporters of the Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad today. Members of al-Sadr's Mahdi army gathered in northeastern Baghdad early in the morning, leading up to a peaceful protest, rally, and march.

The Mahdi resistance soldiers marched through the capital without weapons, but still intended the march to be a display of force and a warning. Their message was simple, they want the United States and its allied forces to leave Iraq by December 31 (the deadline set by the SOFA agreement). If the occupation forces remain, the Mahdi resistance will resume its combat operations against the US military.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has expressed his hope that the Iraqi puppet regime will request that Western armed forces remain in the country beyond the year-end deadline. There are around 45,000 US soldiers remaining in Iraq. Some of them are still being killed while on patrol, despite the false claims of the Obama administration that the Iraq War is winding down.

The only way to minimize, and hopefully prevent, further death and destruction in Iraq is for the United States and its allies to leave Iraq entirely.

Americans Protest Against AIPAC, One Woman Injured

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside of the recent American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference on Sunday. The protest was mainly organized by the women's peace group Code Pink, but other anti-war groups attended the protest as well, including the ANSWER Coalition and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. These activists were protesting Israeli war crimes against Palestinians and the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is illegal according to international law and is the cause of a humanitarian crisis. The anti-AIPAC activities were part of the week-long Move Over AIPAC protests.

Some of the activists managed to sneak into the AIPAC conference and interrupt it. Rae Abileah (pictured here), a 28 year-old Jewish American and Code Pink member, was among them. Shouting, “No more occupation, stop Israeli war crimes, equal rights for Palestinians, occupation is indefensible,” Abileah interrupted the speech of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at the House Gallery. She was then tackled and beaten by AIPAC members. The police then dragged her out of the building, further injuring her neck and shoulders.

She was taken to the George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC for treatment. While in the hospital police payed Abileah a visit to let her know she was under arrest. She is currently not being allowed any visitors at the hospital.

“I am in great pain, but this is nothing compared to the pain and suffering that Palestinians go through on a regular basis,” Abileah said from the hospital. “I have been to Gaza and the West Bank, I have seen Palestinians homes bombed and bulldozed, I have talked to mothers whose children have been killed during the invasion of Gaza, I have seen the Jewish-only roads leading to ever-expanding settlements in the West Bank. This kind of colonial occupation cannot continue. As a Jew and a U.S. citizen, I feel obligated to rise up and speak out against these crimes being committed in my name and with my tax dollars.”

This clearly shows the true goal of AIPAC, to commit savage acts of thuggery against all those who disagree with the foreign policy of Israel and the United States. This is not what democracy looks like.