<div dir="ltr"><div><div><font size="2"><font size="2"><div><span><span><span><span><span>Vision2020 Post: <span class="gmail-m_9157878130511836851m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-m_-279399555980630466gmail-il">Ted</span> <span class="gmail-m_9157878130511836851m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-m_-279399555980630466gmail-il">Moffett</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span><span><div>***** Original material contained herein is <span class="gmail-m_9157878130511836851m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-il">Copyright</span> 2000 through life plus 70 years, <span class="gmail-m_9157878130511836851m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-m_-279399555980630466gmail-il">Ted</span> <span class="gmail-m_9157878130511836851m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-m_-279399555980630466gmail-il">Moffett</span>. Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the <a href="http://vision2020.moscow.com/" target="_blank">Vision2020.Moscow.com</a> forum without the express written permission of the author.*****</div><div>----------------------------</div></span></span></font></font></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">Interesting that you were posted to Courtney's <a href="http://right-mind.us">right-mind.us</a>, while Gier says he could not.</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">Note the photo of Gier with a turban. I recall this photo or one that looked very similar <br></div><div class="gmail_extra">on <a href="http://right-mind.us">right-mind.us</a> years ago. The intent, I suspect, is to make Gier look ridiculous or <br></div><div class="gmail_extra">worse to those who would view someone with a turban in a negative manner, which likely <br></div><div class="gmail_extra">includes the majority of Americans.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 6:21 PM, Tom Hansen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com" target="_blank">thansen@moscow.com</a>></span> wrote:</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">I posted Nick’s response as a comment . . .</span></div><div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><br></span></div><div><font color="#000000"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><a href="http://right-mind.us/letter-national-debt-gymnastics/" target="_blank">http://right-mind.us/letter-<wbr>national-debt-gymnastics/</a><br><br></span></font><span class="gmail-"><div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)" target="_blank"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div></div></span></div></div><div><div class="gmail-h5"><div><br>On Dec 14, 2017, at 6:12 PM, Ted Moffett <<a href="mailto:starbliss@gmail.com" target="_blank">starbliss@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><font size="2"><div><span><span><span><span><span>Vision2020 Post: <span class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-m_-279399555980630466gmail-il">Ted</span> <span class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-m_-279399555980630466gmail-il">Moffett</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span><span><div>***** Original material contained herein is <span class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-il">Copyright</span> 2000 through life plus 70 years, <span class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-m_-279399555980630466gmail-il">Ted</span> <span class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_6840726993538917462gmail-m_2303765594966729603gmail-m_5185407423560277491gmail-m_-7339551805261331343gmail-m_6608179617401443927gmail-m_1851098523129406012gmail-m_-3667973666522737725gmail-m_7150806634314455654gmail-m_7272584660306685438gmail-m_-279399555980630466gmail-il">Moffett</span>. Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the <a href="http://vision2020.moscow.com/" target="_blank">Vision2020.Moscow.com</a> forum without the express written permission of the author.*****</div><div>----------------------------</div></span></span></font></font></div></div><div><br></div><div>The Moscow/Pullman Daily News would print a letter or maybe a His View op-ed you wrote in response.</div><div>I looked for a response from you to Courtney's Dec. 11 letter on the Daily News website, but did not see one. <br></div><div>Sometimes it seems the comments section on the Dnews website does not work correctly.<br></div><div><br></div><div>I don't think it is likely he forgot your previous response to a Lewiston Tribune letter. He may not have read <br></div><div>it, or a confirmation bias filter may have simply blocked-out your arguments.</div><div><br></div>I have attempted to comment on <a href="http://right-mind.us" target="_blank">right-mind.us</a> with no response. I no longer bother to try.</div><div><br></div><div>I suspect this website receives very limited traffic recently, given the limited comments from the public. <br></div><div>Or perhaps most comments are simply not posted?<br><br></div>I responded twice to Mr. Courtney's negative public responses to my statements in the past 4 months: <br></div><div>on Vision2020 to one of my Vision2020 posts that he quoted on his <a href="http://right-mind.us" target="_blank">right-mind.us</a>, and on the Moscow/Pullman <br></div><div>Daily News website comments section, responding to my recent His View column Why Global Warming is a <br></div><div>Nightmare for Libertarians that Courtney slammed, oddly without making a single specific reference to the <br></div><div>arguments in my column.<br></div><div><br></div><div>In neither case did Courtney respond to these two recent replies, anywhere that I know of.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Below is the Dec. 11, 2017 letter to the Daily News from Courtney that mentions Gier:</div><div><h1 class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-headline">
<span>
Letter: National debt gymnastics
</span>
</h1>
<span>
<ul class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-list-inline"><li><time datetime="2017-12-11T00:00:00-08:00" class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-asset-date gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-text-muted">
Dec 11, 2017
</time><span class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-text-muted">Updated </span><time datetime="2017-12-11T08:51:39-08:00" class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-asset-date gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-text-muted">Dec 11, 2017</time>
</li></ul></span></div><div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-preview"><p>As a political independent who did
not vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, I find the
intellectual gymnastics partisans use hilarious and disgusting. Daily
News columnist Nick Gier trumpets the wonderful job Democrats did
lowering the deficit under President Barack Obama (His View, Dec. 7).
The retired logician masterfully performs a sleight of hand, shifting
the conversation from the national debt to the deficit.</p></div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-preview"><p>The
U.S. debt doubled in eight years under the Democrats. On Jan. 20, 2009,
when Obama was sworn in, the debt was $10.626 trillion. On Jan. 20,
2017, when he left, it was $19.947 trillion. We added over $9 trillion
to the debt, more than any other administration in history.</p></div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-preview"><p>The numbers are astronomical. But remove eight zeroes and pretend it's a household budget (source: <a href="http://usdebtclock.org" target="_blank">usdebtclock.org</a>):</p><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-only"><ul><li>Annual family income: $33,561</li><li>Money the family spent: $40,244</li><li>New debt on the credit card: $6,683</li><li>Outstanding balance on the credit card: $205,961</li><li>Family budget cuts last year: $441</li></ul></div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-only"><p>Democrats
made family budget cuts of $441 while running the credit card up from
$100,000 to $200,000, and bought new toys with payments starting in
2017.</p></div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-only"><p>I understand this is macroeconomics versus microeconomics, but these numbers are unsustainable regardless.</p></div>
<div><div id="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-tncms-region-ads-fixed-big-ad-middle-asset" class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-tncms-region-ads">
<div id="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-blox-ad-position-fixed-big-ad-middle-asset1" class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-tncms-iq-ad">
</div>
</div>
</div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-only"><p>And
now a Republican is in office, Gier and the Democrats suddenly get
religion about the debt? And simultaneously the Republicans do not care
about the debt? A pox on both their houses.</p></div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-only"><p>These
bills will come due on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren.
The national debt per taxpayer is currently $170,000, and the U.S.
total debt per family is $820,000. I do not know who we think is going
to pay this off. If you confiscated 100 percent of the wealth from
everyone in the U.S., it still wouldn't cover the debt.</p><p>Dale Courtney</p><p>Moscow<br></p></div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-only">On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 10:17 AM, Nicholas Gier <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ngier006@gmail.com" target="_blank">ngier006@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:</div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-subscriber-only"><br></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="georgia,serif">Good Morning Visionaries:</font></div><div><font face="georgia,serif"></font><br></div><div><font face="georgia,serif">Dale Courtney, moderator of the site <a href="http://right-mind.us" target="_blank">right-mind.us</a>, has refused to publish this reply to his recent letter to the Daily News.</font></div><div><font face="georgia,serif"></font><br></div><div><font face="georgia,serif"><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span>Hi Dale:</span><br><br><span>You seemed to have forgotten that I responded to you on this question earlier on a letter you wrote to the Lewiston Tribune on exactly the same topic. You posted the letter on your site and I responded with what I've posted below.</span></span></font></div><div><font face="georgia,serif"><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span><br></span></span></font></div><div><font face="georgia,serif"><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span>If you did not forget about this exchange, then you are just being intellectually dishonest. Doug Wilson did this after our abortion debate in 1993, and that is when I began to lose respect for him. When anyone refuses to respond to points already made and pretends that they have not been made, then he has not only lost the debate but also his virtue.</span><br><br><span>Now to the point: Obama inherited on-going debt from Bush, namely, huge amounts due to his tax cuts and unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is in stark contrast to the relatively small debt that Obama incurred beca</span></span><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span><span>use of the ACA and the stimulus, which nearly all economists say was a success.</span></span></span></font></div><div><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span><span><font face="georgia,serif"><br></font></span></span></span></div><div><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span><span></span></span></span><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span><span style="margin:0px;color:black"><font face="georgia,serif">Using figures from
the Congressional Budget Office, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
has calculated the long-term effects of various elements of the national debt,
assuming that the Bush tax cuts are still in place.<span style="margin:0px"> (This was before the current tax bill.) </span>By 2019 those cuts will amount to $600
billion of the debt burden as opposed to $75 billion for Obama’s programs. We
will still be paying $320 billion for the Great Recession (due to a drop in tax
revenues) and $150 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.</font></span></span></span></div><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span><div>
</div><div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><font face="georgia,serif"></font><br></div></span></span><div><font face="georgia,serif"><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent">And once again, since you don't understand the connection, when a government runs deficits, it adds to its debt. Clinton reduced the annual deficit until there was a surplus. That, dear sir, reduced the national debt. Bush turned around and added to it. When Obama reduced the annual deficit from 10% to 3.2%, he was reducing the national debt.</span><br style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><br style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent">After nearly a year of Trump it is back up to 3.5% and it will go much higher with the new tax bill. The result will be an increase in the national debt. This is what happened with the Reagan tax cuts, and he then had to raise taxes seven times, but that did not, primarily because of excessive defense spending, prevent the tripling of the national debt.</span><br style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><br style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent">By the way, the deficit for the Eurozone is now 1.3%, and their debt is now easing because of this. Greece is almost running a surplus with a deficit of only .8%. Socialist Sweden is running a 1% surplus.</span><br style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><br style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent">Yours for honest debate (hopefully one that does not needed to be repeated),</span></font></div><div><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><font face="georgia,serif"></font><br></span></div><div><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(29,33,41);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:transparent"><font face="georgia,serif">Nick</font></span></div><span class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div><font face="georgia,serif"><br>-- </font><br></div><div class="gmail-m_-7657269346149279483gmail-m_5569428120777667568gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div> <div style="width:auto;height:auto"> <div> <div><div><font face="georgia,serif"></font><br></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font face="georgia,serif">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. <br><br>-Greek proverb</font></div><div><font face="georgia,serif"><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
<br></font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
</font></span></div>
<br></blockquote></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div>