Congress Passes NDAA 2017
The House has passed, 375-34 in the Republican controlled Congress, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of
2017, the annual military spending bill and associated directives. The bill to taxpayers is a bargain at $611 billion. But never fear, Trump has promised to drastically increase military spending to upgrade the military after 15 straight years of war, so they aren't done with 2017 yet.
"The bill includes bans on any closure of any military bases by the Pentagon, once again rejecting calls by the military leadership to get rid of costly, unwanted bases, and also forbids the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. It also forbids the Pentagon from going through with a plan to reduce the number of active duty soldiers."
http://news.antiwar.com/2016/12/02/house-passes-massive-611-billion-new-...
What is total U.S. defense spending?
"In FY 2017, total US government spending for defense (including military defense, veterans affairs, and foreign policy) is budgeted to be $853.6 billion. Military spending is budgeted at $617.0 billion, Veterans spending is budgeted at $180.8 billion, and foreign policy and foreign aid spending is budgeted at $55.8 billion."
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/defense_spending
If you look at defense spending after G..W. Bush and the Neocons took over with their mandate to "Rebuild America's Defenses" because they got their "New Pearl Harbor", you see a significant trajectory for a decade, exactly what the Project for a New American Century neocons called for in their seminal traitorese., "Project for a New American Century, Rebuilding America's Defenses".
If Trump and the republican controlled Congress and Senate (not that it matters regarding imperialism spending) try to replicate the PNAC plan of increased military spending for five to ten years, we could approach one trillion in defense spending per year. For that, they'll need to turn up the war propaganda and perhaps hope for another "new Pearl Harbor". Hey China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, get ready. The Military Industrial Complex is insatiable.
Even at that, when you include the budgets of the CIA, NSA, DHS, Dept of Energy programs, all defense, intelligence, and security type programs, the total spent out of the discretionary budget easily tops one trillion per year now.
We're going to see spending cuts in other areas, attempts at reducing costs of Medicare and Social Security, reduced spending on social programs, tax cuts for the rich and corporations, while our government, the government of the United States of America, continues to build a killing machine for global supremacy.
This is insane.
Comments
Looks like the Screwfly Solution is working :-(
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Has that anything to do with the
Screwtape Letters?
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
No, it's a scary short SF story by Alice Sheldon
I think she was writing as "Raccoona Sheldon" at the time - she is better known as "James Tiptree, Jr."
Anyway, it draws on research done on screwflies to make them mate wrong-way-around, thus ineffectively - and some aliens apply similar research to warp the human sex drive into a drive to kill each other. (They succeed.)
Ms. Sheldon was an extreme pessimist regarding, well, practically everything, and most of her stories are real downers. But they're brilliantly written.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
It's the Democrats
This party needs to die the death. More and better Democrats? A sick joke. We are the deplorable idiots. Only 34 had the spine to vote against this? So now we place hope in the Senate. Just how stupid are we? Oh, right. This is the party that nominated the Clintons...
That was my first thought.
Currently there are 188 reps of the misnamed Democratic Party in the House.
Hmmm, there is a total of 435 reps: 257 R ans 188 D
The vote was 375-34 = 409 votes. Who were the 26 reps hiding or abstaining? Wonder if any of those 34 nays were actually Republicans.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
And voted for Pelosi
You can't make this stuff up.
Maybe she watched the movie too many times: "What we have here is a failure to communicate."
https://news.grabien.com/story-pelosi-i-dont-think-people-want-new-direc...
We're doomed.
Pelosi's 6,686 = Profit! Embrace the Suck.
Number of homeless the last some charity cared to count anyway, can only "afford" the volunteers every two years. Cake! Because experts agree, everything is fine.
https://www.stanthonysf.org/san-franciscos-2015-homeless-count-survey/
http://static.latimes.com/how-much-are-they-worth/ California Representin'
Top 5 Millionaires in Congress
Thank the Real Estate lobby.
Yup, in many ways.
Yup, in many ways.
From the OP:
I've forgotten who on C-9 posted the following, as I failed to make a note of it at the time, but the same sort of criminals do keep somehow 'just turning up' in government positions where they can 'legalize' or cover up crimes:
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=143491
I've read one other mention of Giuliani as being considered for heading up Homeland Security and have no idea as to whether he will, or whether some other unscrupulous industry/political parasite will be appointed, but I'm rather expecting something in that category to fill such positions.
Since so many possible/documented Black Flag events have been pretty much left to stand as a done deal and 9/11 itself protected against any real investigation, I am deeply concerned about what I'd view as more of a probability than a possibility about another occurring, something far worse than even 9/11, in order to 'justify' using the nukes being set up now for attacks on Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and/or any other other likely targets likely able to fend off conventional attack/invasion, which seems to be the criteria for the self-appointed US War-Lords Of Suicidally Murderous Stupidity Heartlessly Set On Global Corporate/Military Supremacy And Absolute Control.
(We need smilies, particularly one of somebody blowing a raspberry.)
But I'm not - by a long shot - the only one who will generally assume that any such further 'Pearl Harbour' attack(s) on American - or Canadian/Mexican, come to that - soil forming an excuse for attacking other people's countries was very likely planned for that purpose, and who will not automatically believe proven liars claiming differently.
Edit: and practically right below mine is this comment, (bolding mine) further mirroring previous (9/11) circumstances:
Mon, 12/05/2016 - 2:09am — snoopydawg
They do keep repeating what worked for them the last time... even when it signally fails to continue to fool enough of the people enough of the time...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Al, those pigs up there have huge noses,
I hope they smell their own shit and faint to collapse.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Why won't they close the bases that the pentagon
and military leaders want closed, and why do countries continue to allow our bases in their countries?
I know that Japan tried to fight both the current one and the new one that they are building, but as usual the US strong armed them to keep it open.
The gwot is costing us $15 billion a month ot $20 million per hour.
The bill is only a part of what the military actually spends because some of it is off book.
I'll try to find the article I recently read that said that over $6.5 trillion has gone missing.
So why isn't congress upset that the money is unaccounted for? Maybe because they do know where it went and don't want us to know?
Remember on 9/10/2001 Rumsfeld told us that $2.3 trillion has gone missing and then the next day a
missleplane hit the area where the computers had the information on the money. I don't believe that it wasn't backed up elsewhere.Here's a site that shows the cost for everything our military spends. Look at how fast the counter goes. In less than 8 seconds they spend $100.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
And of course we are going to be told that there isn't enough money for our social programs
And of course congress can't make the corporations pay their taxes or stop giving them subsidies.
BTW, can't our government print as much money as they want to?
If ICE were hunting down Trump’s critics, that would be bad but would make sense.
But ICE is hunting down Israel’s critics.
I wouldn't mind becoming a millionaire, how about you?
This drug lord’s cache was estimated at $220 million, meaning the Defense Department can’t account for more than 29,000 stacks like this
The quantitative easing was $85 billion a month and that was on top of the $700 billion bank bailout, so that number was $7 trillion (I think)
It's a good thing that Obama has been the best president since FDR, right?
After all he ended two wars and hasn't started any new ones, right?
I mean if Obama didn't use the whole military to destroy Libya and Syria and just used drones to bomb 8 countries (he just started bombing Somalia for some ungodly reason) then that doesn't count as starting new wars, right?
If ICE were hunting down Trump’s critics, that would be bad but would make sense.
But ICE is hunting down Israel’s critics.
You realize of course that
these trillions of $$ aren't real money (greenbacks) but merely an accounting exercise?
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
Economics is the way our betters 'bring us to heel' not only by
shifting the burden of this nation's debt, both governmental and corporate, to the backs of the 99% while shifting any economic benefits to be had to the the 1%. Money is the way TPTB keep score.
"Follow the money."
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Greenbacks also aren't real money
They're just paper IOUs. That's why they can readily be replaced with a simple accounting procedure.
The art of the con.
I am continually astounded by the lack of understanding in the general population. The fraction of a percent at the top understand the mechanics of our monetary system, that's how they stay in the fraction of a percent. Those that don't understand, like Donald John Trump, lose their family's fortune. Hey, aren't we happy he has finally found some good financial advisors ‽
Redundant Suggestion Time: RE: Modern Monetary Theory, see for example Stephanie Kelton.
I read someting last night from tha Atlantic Council that
was astounding in what it said about the wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. It was a study led by Madeleine Albright and Stephen Hadley for a new "approach" in the Middle East. The hubris involved is off the charts, they talk about spreading democracy, etc. and completely and totally omitted any indication that the United States has been involved in creating the problems. It appears to be meant for the Trump administration and since it's from the Atlantic Council, it is coming from the ruling elite establishment, so it's a good chance it's going to be part of the Trump admin's agenda.
I'll try to put something together on it today.
Good use of the image of
Good use of the image of Warpigs Al, because that is what is killing us with the money spent towards them at the tax trough. they will strip funding for the people in order to squeeze more to the war funds. Where oh where could they possibly get more money from as the poor and middle class that is shrinking in this nation to pay for it if they destroy the social safety nets and education, infrastructure, EPA, and other programs???
Maybe less subsidies and actual tax enforcement on the Fat-cat corporations and the upper 10% might bring back that funding, and that people need to demand safety nets get put back to normal or else no votes for the sicko politicians who support the stupid that runs decision making in this country?
Close the bases that can and need to be closed?
Of course they don't want to do any of that while they have a population easily manipulated into thinking it is for their own good when it all serves the corporate CEO and Wealthy classes while screwing the rest
So long, and thanks for all the fish
So, among other things, it's a 'jobs' bill.
Well, at least there's that. I mean they COULD do all kinda of horrible things with mercenaries. Sigh.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
Yup MIC Jobs. Here's the rollcall
Nays : 30 Dems, 4 Repubs
Democrats in italic in the table at link.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2016/roll600.xml
The MIC is strong with these Shitass Dems.
In my blue state (CT) there a lots of big MIC companies keeping the state economy afloat. All four reps voted Yea.
The state has a big budget shortfall this year. I'm quite serious that big defense cuts would throw the state into fiscal panic. I'm sure there are lots of states in the same situation.
I really don't see how this cycle ends. Congress critters are not going to vote to destroy their own states economy. A very sickening state of affairs.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
The Dem "nays" should constitute
the leadership of a new Third Party - the People's Progressive Party, if Bernie ever gets off his ass and jettisons the Pelosi-Clinton-Schumer wing he's so enamored with. From the ashes of thirty years in the wilderness, the pheonix rises.
At least my rep Peter Welch VT was one of the 30 [THIRTY]
democrats to vote against this shit [145 "Dems" voted for it]
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/114-2016/h600
imagine the good we could do...
for people of the world and our nation with that kind of money... instead of the harm we will do with it.
Clean water, food for all, global clean energy,....
What if anything can we do to stop this nonsense?
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Ya, imagine. It would literally turn things
completely around.
What can we do? The age old question. I think we have to demand an end to U.S. imperialism. Still to this day you rarely hear any discussions, especially in the corporate media, about U.S. imperialism. I rarely see it discussed in the alternative media. It is not admitted to, it is disguised as "defense" or "global police" work, etc., but it's hardly ever challenged as to what it is, imperialism.
The radical left needs to lead an effort but there is no one to organize it.
Well, goody fucking gumdrops.
Any additional crap in there about how they can imprison and torture and kill us at will?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I'm so furious today I can barely speak
This warmongering country needs to be brought down.
No more imperialist "adventures," close all the bases, defund all of it. And if that means the empire crumbles, so be it.
I'm fed up with the lawless, immoral, sadistic bullies who run this place, the ones in uniform, the ones in suits, all of them.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
Say it loud, amen and right on. I am too.
That what drives me, it doesn't consume me. I can't let it do that, but we absolutely need justice, this criminal mafia we call our political system and government has got to be challenged.
I'm writing a rant now about this, relative to the Native Americans and others protesting DAPL, the solidarity created. We have to build on this. Somehow.
you and others here give me hope, Al
Although I have people IRL who share my politics, it's helpful to have a place online where I can talk and listen to folks in agreement with my analysis.
Thx for this essay and the other one too.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka