THE BUSINESS OF WAR

Military conflict (war) transfers huge sums of money through taxes from the populace into the hands of war profiteers, the banks, the weapons makers, and other parasites.

If you consider the cost and accrued debt resulting from war over the last century, weighed against any conceivable benefit to the average citizen, it simply doesn't make sense. The war machine has taken control of both the minds and resources of our nation. Although this process is tremendously harmful to the U.S., it literally destroys nations around the globe. The Military and Intelligence Industrial Complex is run by homicidal maniacs we not only allow into all of our homes by allowing them to surveil us, we pay them for the privilege. War isn't saving us from destruction, it is racing us headlong toward it.

I wonder if anyone has crunched the numbers on all the energy and cash wasted by fighting in the Middle East because of its oil reserves, compared to the savings and availability of that resource if we simply bought it from those countries. I believe the facts would show that we would have been far better off doing it the peaceful way, but the U.S. would contain a lot less billionaires.

A century of hostile activity against foes that never invaded or even threatened us has only resulted in unimaginable death and destruction, and a cauldron of global animosity. The insanity of decades of leadership bent on paranoid or self-serving war has truly fucked us all royally. 

Militarism is just another religion I can't stand.

Why America Needs War
(GlobalResearch.ca)

The Military Industrial Complex Is
Undermining US National Security
(GlobalResearch.ca)

Tomgram: William Hartung,
The Trillion-Dollar National Security Budget

(TomDispatch.com)

Open Burning at U.S. Military Sites
Inflames Activists in Nearby Towns
(Fairwarning.org)

64 Years After the Korean War,
the North Is Still Digging Up Bombs

(TruthDig.com)

KABOOM TOWN
"The U.S. military burns millions of pounds of munitions in a tiny, African-American corner of Louisiana. The town’s residents say they’re forgotten in the plume."
(ProPunlica.org)

ALEC STILL SUCKS!

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a well-funded very influencial cabal intent on manipulating all levels of government in the U.S., from local counsels to the halls of the Capitol in D.C. 

ALEC pushes corporate agendas and serves the interests of the very wealthy, at the expense of the vast majority. They write boiler plate legislation that is distributed throughout the country and presented as original law by bought politicians, and this legislation is uniformly insidious. If they didn't wield such power they would be investigated as a criminal enterprise.

The government representatives ALEC controls should be investigated for taking bribes and violating oaths of office. Organizations like ALEC and the efforts of Koch Industries, and the dark monied political action committees (PACS) are among the greatest threats to what's left of our democracy and the well-being of common folk here and everywhere.

Our news media sheds little light on this toxic organization.

ALEC's Scary Plan For Electing Your Senators

The radical right is intent on destroying
democracy as we know it.

(AlterNet.org)
__________________________________

Learn more about the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

ALEC EXPOSED

Honest Bankers

Please Step Forward

New Rules for Banks: 'Honest Bankers Please Step Forward'

"Former financial regulator Bill Black offers bankers a challenge: Step forward if you support the new rule issued by The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau allowing consumers to bring about class-action litigation against banks who defraud them."

(The Real News.com)

Bill Black:

"The problem in consumer finance, lending, is that it is so easy for unscrupulous lenders to cheat, as we've just seen with Wells Fargo and we saw all through the crisis. Well if they cheat, economic theory tells us this creates a Gresham's dynamic, in which bad ethics drives good ethics out of the marketplace. In other words, you gain a competitive advantage by cheating, then market forces will cause the cheaters to dominate the industry, which is why finance is so corrupt. So when you stop them from cheating, and the rule that the bureau adopted is one way of reducing the incentives to cheat, then you actually help not just the consumers who directly deal with the lenders, but also all the honest bankers who would like to do the right thing and can't unless we restore the rule of law."

MAX KEISER

The Keiser Report

Every week Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert look at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines.

Few topics are as critical to our every day lives as business and economics, and just as few are so boring and buried in bullshit. Max is among a few that are able to add humor, like a sweetener, to ease the swallowing of bitter financial pills.

Episode 1091

(The Keiser Report)

"In this episode of the Keiser Report from Mexico City, Max and Stacy discuss the emergence of ‘oligarchic America’ as Amazon eats Whole Foods. In the second half, Max interviews economist and columnist Alejandro Nadal about Trump’s wall and exiting from the NAFTA trade deal."

Here's another interesting discussion about our unfolding economic nightmare:

Thanks to Wall Street, Average Joe can now bet against America

(The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann)

"On tonight’s Big Picture, Thom talks with Richard Wolff about the Fed's plan to begin unwinding a stimulus within months. Then, he talks with Bryan Pruitt and Doug Christian about a recent poll that found the majority of GOPers think colleges are bad for America, and that somehow we can afford military jets, but not universal healthcare. Plus, a planned day of action for net-neutrality."

I usually enjoy Thom's interviews, especially with Richard Wolff, but his panel discussions always showcase a conservative pinhead, who is invariably annoying. I wonder if Thom gives them a platform simply to showcase how empty and inept their rhetoric tends to be.

BATTLE FOR THE NET . COM

"The FCC wants to destroy net neutrality and give big cable companies control over what we see and do online. If they get their way, they’ll allow widespread throttling, blocking, censorship, and extra fees.

On July 12th, the Internet will come together to stop them."

**************

This is important stuff.

**************

Battle For the Net: Mass Day of Action Aims to Stop Trump's FCC from Destroying Free & Open Internet

(DemocracyNow.org)

"MICHAEL COPPS: Well, first of all, the network is so vital to economic opportunity and innovation, and especially to democracy. I think Evan said it well. This is a tool of unparalleled power that can help us to build democracy. When you look at what has happened to mainstream media—radio, television and cable—how it has been corporatized and commercialized and consolidated, how much journalism we have lost, you really get down to the essential question: Is media providing the news and information that citizens need in order to make intelligent decisions for the future? There’s a lot of evidence that that’s really not happening right now.

Net neutrality, however, is a free speech issue. And at its center is the ability of Americans to go where they want on the internet, to access the content that they want and to be treated like everybody else is treated, so you don’t have Comcast and AT&T and Verizon acting as gatekeepers and having the power to slow down sites that they don’t like or to block or to throttle, or to give fast lanes to a few while the rest of us struggle along on slow lanes. To be a fully participating citizen in 21st century America, you have to have access to high-speed, affordable broadband. And that’s what’s at issue now."

Net Neutrality II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

(Youtube video)

DR. DAVID SUZUKI

"The problem today is that we're constantly left with saying, "Well, you environmentalists, you want to do this. What about the jobs? You're going to destroy the economy." We had a prime minister for 9-1/2 years who said we can't do anything about climate change, it'll destroy the economy. I don't think he believed that climate change was real, but Stephen Harper elevated ... the very air that keeps us alive, he elevated the economy above that. If that isn't suicidal, I don't know what is."

Has the Environmental Movement Failed? A Conversation with Dr. David Suzuki

Dr. David Suzuki discusses the environmental movement's failure to sustain its victories and the vision that will be needed to ensure public support for environmental protection

(The Real News.com)

HENRY A. GIROUX, TRUTHOUT | OP-ED

An argument for thinking, facilitated by low or no cost higher education. A tough sell for a culture that conflates wealth with virtue and wisdom with employment potential.

Henry A. Giroux | Thinking Dangerously: The Role of Higher Education in Authoritarian Times
(Truth-out.org)