There is a growing cancer consuming this country bit by bit and which will soon spread its malignancy throughout to the point that all the foundations of true domestic security will be devoured in its metastasizing wake. It is also a cancer we were warned about 50 years ago, by then departing President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his 'Farewell Address in January, 1961. He said:
"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States cooperations -- corporations.
Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Eisenhower knew what he was talking about. Now, as insane pols and Tea Baggers rage against "entitlements" they are blind to the real cancer of the military-industrial complex sucking every last vestige of marrow from the bones of the country - leaving only dessicated detritus in its wake and a vastly impoverished citizenry. And even as efforts are made to cut back this cancer eating away at us, an array of miscreants are trying to fight back to refuse any small real cuts to their profligate ways, e.g.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/8946-the-military-industrial-complexs-war-on-defense-cuts
What fuels this Beast that's laying waste to the land and exacerbating political polarization - even as the wealthy get to keep on getting their tax cuts, while the military-Pentagon can continue to avoid pay-go in any manner, shape or form? The short answer is MONEY. Follow the toxic money trail and you will find who is benefitting from this cancerous malignancy Ike warned us about, and who are the agents for spreading the malignancy.
At the very source of this toxic and malignant sewer of influence one finds lobbyists, more than one thousand one hundred of them representing 375 clients - mostly profiteering defense contractors. This is according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Last year alone, these vermin spent $145.9 million to influence our politics - skewed as it already is toward legalized bribery. In fact, nearly $24 million was contributed in 2008 to the campaigns of political candidates.
Nor must one accept here the canard that it was the Republicans who profited most, as the pro-war, pro-military "daddy" party. (The Dems depicted as the "mommy" party, e.g. for sustaining social insurance benefits etc.) According to the CPR's statistics, the Democrats actually received 54% of all the lobbying largesse, the Repubs, 46%. No wonder, looking at this in retrospect, we see people like Leon Panetta fighting like junkyard dogs to try to protect the Pentagon's spoils from taxpayers. (Recall Panetta last month - in the wake of the debt ceiling increase - calling proposed cuts to the military "totally unacceptable")
NO, Mr. Panetta and fellow slaves of the MIC, what is unacceptable is being responsible for nearly one HALF of the planet's military spending, including five times more than China- and gobbling up 4.8% of GDP annually while 1 in 6 of our citizens (including 22% of all children under 12) lives in poverty and most workers now earn less than their forbears in 1964. THIS IS WHAT'S FUCKING UNACCEPTABLE!!
At the same time, we're being told a "super-committee" may cut military spending if no agreement or consensus emerges. Actually, this is a lie, a bold-faced lie! Most of the "cuts" are not in absolute terms, but rather in the rate of expected Pentagon spending increases. Even a 15% cut in military spending will therefore return the bloated Pentagon budget to what it was in 2007 and still consume 40 percent of all military spending on Earth! This, despite the fact the Pentagon's budget has more than doubled in the past decade and will add on another additional $6 trillion of deficits by 2021. When will Americans wake up to this and start fighting for their nation? That must begin with demading their own representatives cease propping up this bloated empire and turning us into a 3rd world Banana Republic.
And for no better example, go to a certain dickhead named Joe Liebermann (purported to caucus with the Dems) who openly said last month:
"We can't protect entitlements and also have the national defense we need to protect us in a dangerous world"
Translation:
'We can't be expected to deny our lobbyists for the defense industry who contribute to our campaign funds, or our good friends, the defense contractors who keep them and us in business. Let the seniors and others go suck salt. They can afford to die!"
And so this little prick endorsed that we cut Medicare and Social Security, and to punctuate that, immediately proceeded to co-author a bill (with another asshole, Tom Coburn of OK) to raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67, thereby tossing 11 million more people into poverty. But these pricks don't care! All they care about is getting their precious campaign contributions from the vipers who control most of the nation's purse strings - along with Big PhRMA.
Sadly, Ike's warning went too long unheeded and now it seems we're in the maw of a runaway empire and financial den of thieves that will hurl us all over the precipice before it offers one ounce of solid change for the better.
"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States cooperations -- corporations.
Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Eisenhower knew what he was talking about. Now, as insane pols and Tea Baggers rage against "entitlements" they are blind to the real cancer of the military-industrial complex sucking every last vestige of marrow from the bones of the country - leaving only dessicated detritus in its wake and a vastly impoverished citizenry. And even as efforts are made to cut back this cancer eating away at us, an array of miscreants are trying to fight back to refuse any small real cuts to their profligate ways, e.g.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/8946-the-military-industrial-complexs-war-on-defense-cuts
What fuels this Beast that's laying waste to the land and exacerbating political polarization - even as the wealthy get to keep on getting their tax cuts, while the military-Pentagon can continue to avoid pay-go in any manner, shape or form? The short answer is MONEY. Follow the toxic money trail and you will find who is benefitting from this cancerous malignancy Ike warned us about, and who are the agents for spreading the malignancy.
At the very source of this toxic and malignant sewer of influence one finds lobbyists, more than one thousand one hundred of them representing 375 clients - mostly profiteering defense contractors. This is according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Last year alone, these vermin spent $145.9 million to influence our politics - skewed as it already is toward legalized bribery. In fact, nearly $24 million was contributed in 2008 to the campaigns of political candidates.
Nor must one accept here the canard that it was the Republicans who profited most, as the pro-war, pro-military "daddy" party. (The Dems depicted as the "mommy" party, e.g. for sustaining social insurance benefits etc.) According to the CPR's statistics, the Democrats actually received 54% of all the lobbying largesse, the Repubs, 46%. No wonder, looking at this in retrospect, we see people like Leon Panetta fighting like junkyard dogs to try to protect the Pentagon's spoils from taxpayers. (Recall Panetta last month - in the wake of the debt ceiling increase - calling proposed cuts to the military "totally unacceptable")
NO, Mr. Panetta and fellow slaves of the MIC, what is unacceptable is being responsible for nearly one HALF of the planet's military spending, including five times more than China- and gobbling up 4.8% of GDP annually while 1 in 6 of our citizens (including 22% of all children under 12) lives in poverty and most workers now earn less than their forbears in 1964. THIS IS WHAT'S FUCKING UNACCEPTABLE!!
At the same time, we're being told a "super-committee" may cut military spending if no agreement or consensus emerges. Actually, this is a lie, a bold-faced lie! Most of the "cuts" are not in absolute terms, but rather in the rate of expected Pentagon spending increases. Even a 15% cut in military spending will therefore return the bloated Pentagon budget to what it was in 2007 and still consume 40 percent of all military spending on Earth! This, despite the fact the Pentagon's budget has more than doubled in the past decade and will add on another additional $6 trillion of deficits by 2021. When will Americans wake up to this and start fighting for their nation? That must begin with demading their own representatives cease propping up this bloated empire and turning us into a 3rd world Banana Republic.
And for no better example, go to a certain dickhead named Joe Liebermann (purported to caucus with the Dems) who openly said last month:
"We can't protect entitlements and also have the national defense we need to protect us in a dangerous world"
Translation:
'We can't be expected to deny our lobbyists for the defense industry who contribute to our campaign funds, or our good friends, the defense contractors who keep them and us in business. Let the seniors and others go suck salt. They can afford to die!"
And so this little prick endorsed that we cut Medicare and Social Security, and to punctuate that, immediately proceeded to co-author a bill (with another asshole, Tom Coburn of OK) to raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67, thereby tossing 11 million more people into poverty. But these pricks don't care! All they care about is getting their precious campaign contributions from the vipers who control most of the nation's purse strings - along with Big PhRMA.
Sadly, Ike's warning went too long unheeded and now it seems we're in the maw of a runaway empire and financial den of thieves that will hurl us all over the precipice before it offers one ounce of solid change for the better.
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