"If we put more funds into education, we'll probably see kids and families better off. If we put more into Pentagon contracts, we'll see their CEOs and shareholders better off.
I read my first novel in about 1963 when I was 13. The protagonist was a Norwegian boy who was trying to escape the Nazi’s in order to help his family. I remember being impressed by his courage. The concentration camps were mentioned in the story. At 13 I had not heard of them yet but I remember being scared by them. About that same time I befriended a fellow student named Michael. One day we were at his house and Mike brought out a notebook of pictures. His dad was an army photographer in the war and was there when Auschwitz and other camps were located. The notebook was filled with black and white photos of the camps … and stacks of bodies and and and and. And I didn’t know about this. Over the years I learned the German people claimed to not ‘know about this’. How could they not know? And now … as an old man I am angry and anxious and horrified that I spent my life ‘not knowing.’ Not knowing how evil my country was. How evil my Catholic priests were. Not knowing that the government killed my ex-father in law by having him hold a little stone … that turned out to be uranium that filled his brains with tumors. I hate that my tax money has been used to create weapons that kill and maim people, animals and The mother. I feel like a spouse that was abused and betrayed. I hate the mother fucking Congress and pentagon and all the shit lies. I feel ashamed. I’m complicit because I remained ignorant. My ignorance is on me but goddamn it we are owed better by the government and the press. Fuck them all.
We are in a true "mask-off" moment in this western culture. The accumulated effects of hundreds of years of lies and hypocrisies are being exposed. The sense of shock and betrayal is deep. I just saw a video of Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin giving testimony in congress and every word was an open, obvious lie said with staged solemnity. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic. We're all like kids learning our favorite Uncle Sammy is actually Jeffrey Dahmer.
"The average U.S. taxpayer was forced to contribute more to militarized programs than to Medicare and Medicaid combined in 2023, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by the National Priorities Project."
This is the travesty. We're wasting so many resources on killing people than we are on taking care of people's health... Truly evil. (Like your cartoon--that face of the oligarch is SCARY!)
Isn't it something, RC. Today I was thinking of all the good and healing that could be done with that money and all the money combined spent on wars. I just finished Annie Jacobson's new book "Nuclear War: A Scenario". It is EXCELLENT. The amount of money, trillions and trillions spent on nuclear weapons systems and it is absolutely clear, there is no deterrence. There is no meaningful survivability. None. It's all bullshit. Once the first missile flies it will all be over in an hour. And that's where our money and resources go.
Interesting article, Mark. But there is another, more accurate ~ and disconcerting ~ way to look at, analyze, and understand the whole situation.
For Fiscal Year 2023, the US federal Government had a Budget DEFICIT of just under $1.7 TRILLION [$1,700,000,000].
Which means that the just over 162,000,000 US Taxpayers that year got an average of just under $10,500 in Government “goods, products, and services” for “free,” at no charge to them, Almost double what article states they “paid” for the “national security and defense” of this Nation.
In other words, American Taxpayers didn’t pay a dime for anything related “national security and defense,” and just put it on Uncle Sam’s NATION, SOVEREIGN DEBT Credit Card. That DEBT passed the $34 TRILLION mark on 4 Jan 23; and now stands at $34.6 TRILLION [$34,600,000,000; or $266,951 per Taxpayer].
[Note: According to the Congressional Budget Office, unless something changes, that National Sovereign Debt will rise to $40.3 TRILLION by 2028; and, if current Spending and Taxing trends are continued, to as high as $46.7 TRILLION.]
So the Bottom Line is that no Taxpayer is paying for any National Security/Defense at the present time. And given the Deficits since FY 2000, no Taxpayer has paid a dime for America’s 20-year “Forever War” after 9/11 in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and so forth. Again, it’s all gone on Uncle Sam’s tab.
And given the performance of the American Military in that “Forever War,” it appears that the American Peoples got ~ and are still getting ~ exactly what they paid nothing for: Nothing.
But while no Taxpayer today is actually paying for any of this now, Future Taxpayers will definitely have to pay for it when Sam’s Credit Limit is reached, and he has to start paying down his DEBT or else… .
And that explains exactly Why there has been no Anti-War Movement in the Nation since 9/11: Americans are not paying anything for it in Treasure with Taxes, and the only Americans paying for it in Blood are those folks in that “All-Volunteer Military” America has had since the end of the Draft after Vietnam.
So with neither Blood nor Treasure in play and at risk, is it any surprise that there is no Anti-War Movement in America? Despite 22 and a half years of Perpetual War?
ps: And then there’s America’s UNFUNDED LIABILITES ~ Social Security, Medicare Parts A, B, and D, Federal Debt held by the Public [and Interest], and Government Employee and Veterans Benefits ~ which stands today at $214.5 TRILLION [which works out to $637,146 per Citizen]. But that's a separate rant.
Good and interesting points! Scary as hell. It's not a matter of whistling past Dixie, we're whistling ourselves through the gates of Hell. I think your points about there not being an anti-war movement because of this is spot on; everything is abstract and happening somewhere "over there" is a country few could locate on a map or pronounce.
It's all part of the disconnection from reality, others, consequences, values and reality we see across the country and perpetuated by the ruling class, media and every one of our tottering institutions. Rather than deal with the reality you lay out were squabble over pronouns and which psychopath should be elected to perpetuate the whole show.
A friend urged me to watch the series "Peaky Blinders" on Netflix. I watched the first episode last night and the portrayal of brutal life in the post-WW I slums of London is an image of the future I fear we will eventually find ourselves in.
Jim, that is so divisive. I mean such successful, brilliant guys, capable of profiting off dead kids and destroyed countries deserve the very best! Well, if not deserve, know how to steal the very best.
It really is so despicable. Truly, end-of-Roman-empire-level despicable.
I read my first novel in about 1963 when I was 13. The protagonist was a Norwegian boy who was trying to escape the Nazi’s in order to help his family. I remember being impressed by his courage. The concentration camps were mentioned in the story. At 13 I had not heard of them yet but I remember being scared by them. About that same time I befriended a fellow student named Michael. One day we were at his house and Mike brought out a notebook of pictures. His dad was an army photographer in the war and was there when Auschwitz and other camps were located. The notebook was filled with black and white photos of the camps … and stacks of bodies and and and and. And I didn’t know about this. Over the years I learned the German people claimed to not ‘know about this’. How could they not know? And now … as an old man I am angry and anxious and horrified that I spent my life ‘not knowing.’ Not knowing how evil my country was. How evil my Catholic priests were. Not knowing that the government killed my ex-father in law by having him hold a little stone … that turned out to be uranium that filled his brains with tumors. I hate that my tax money has been used to create weapons that kill and maim people, animals and The mother. I feel like a spouse that was abused and betrayed. I hate the mother fucking Congress and pentagon and all the shit lies. I feel ashamed. I’m complicit because I remained ignorant. My ignorance is on me but goddamn it we are owed better by the government and the press. Fuck them all.
We are in a true "mask-off" moment in this western culture. The accumulated effects of hundreds of years of lies and hypocrisies are being exposed. The sense of shock and betrayal is deep. I just saw a video of Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin giving testimony in congress and every word was an open, obvious lie said with staged solemnity. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic. We're all like kids learning our favorite Uncle Sammy is actually Jeffrey Dahmer.
"The average U.S. taxpayer was forced to contribute more to militarized programs than to Medicare and Medicaid combined in 2023, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by the National Priorities Project."
This is the travesty. We're wasting so many resources on killing people than we are on taking care of people's health... Truly evil. (Like your cartoon--that face of the oligarch is SCARY!)
Isn't it something, RC. Today I was thinking of all the good and healing that could be done with that money and all the money combined spent on wars. I just finished Annie Jacobson's new book "Nuclear War: A Scenario". It is EXCELLENT. The amount of money, trillions and trillions spent on nuclear weapons systems and it is absolutely clear, there is no deterrence. There is no meaningful survivability. None. It's all bullshit. Once the first missile flies it will all be over in an hour. And that's where our money and resources go.
Madness.
Interesting article, Mark. But there is another, more accurate ~ and disconcerting ~ way to look at, analyze, and understand the whole situation.
For Fiscal Year 2023, the US federal Government had a Budget DEFICIT of just under $1.7 TRILLION [$1,700,000,000].
Which means that the just over 162,000,000 US Taxpayers that year got an average of just under $10,500 in Government “goods, products, and services” for “free,” at no charge to them, Almost double what article states they “paid” for the “national security and defense” of this Nation.
In other words, American Taxpayers didn’t pay a dime for anything related “national security and defense,” and just put it on Uncle Sam’s NATION, SOVEREIGN DEBT Credit Card. That DEBT passed the $34 TRILLION mark on 4 Jan 23; and now stands at $34.6 TRILLION [$34,600,000,000; or $266,951 per Taxpayer].
[Note: According to the Congressional Budget Office, unless something changes, that National Sovereign Debt will rise to $40.3 TRILLION by 2028; and, if current Spending and Taxing trends are continued, to as high as $46.7 TRILLION.]
So the Bottom Line is that no Taxpayer is paying for any National Security/Defense at the present time. And given the Deficits since FY 2000, no Taxpayer has paid a dime for America’s 20-year “Forever War” after 9/11 in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and so forth. Again, it’s all gone on Uncle Sam’s tab.
And given the performance of the American Military in that “Forever War,” it appears that the American Peoples got ~ and are still getting ~ exactly what they paid nothing for: Nothing.
But while no Taxpayer today is actually paying for any of this now, Future Taxpayers will definitely have to pay for it when Sam’s Credit Limit is reached, and he has to start paying down his DEBT or else… .
And that explains exactly Why there has been no Anti-War Movement in the Nation since 9/11: Americans are not paying anything for it in Treasure with Taxes, and the only Americans paying for it in Blood are those folks in that “All-Volunteer Military” America has had since the end of the Draft after Vietnam.
So with neither Blood nor Treasure in play and at risk, is it any surprise that there is no Anti-War Movement in America? Despite 22 and a half years of Perpetual War?
ps: And then there’s America’s UNFUNDED LIABILITES ~ Social Security, Medicare Parts A, B, and D, Federal Debt held by the Public [and Interest], and Government Employee and Veterans Benefits ~ which stands today at $214.5 TRILLION [which works out to $637,146 per Citizen]. But that's a separate rant.
See https://www.usdebtclock.org/ for details.
Good and interesting points! Scary as hell. It's not a matter of whistling past Dixie, we're whistling ourselves through the gates of Hell. I think your points about there not being an anti-war movement because of this is spot on; everything is abstract and happening somewhere "over there" is a country few could locate on a map or pronounce.
It's all part of the disconnection from reality, others, consequences, values and reality we see across the country and perpetuated by the ruling class, media and every one of our tottering institutions. Rather than deal with the reality you lay out were squabble over pronouns and which psychopath should be elected to perpetuate the whole show.
A friend urged me to watch the series "Peaky Blinders" on Netflix. I watched the first episode last night and the portrayal of brutal life in the post-WW I slums of London is an image of the future I fear we will eventually find ourselves in.
Thanks.
Jim, that is so divisive. I mean such successful, brilliant guys, capable of profiting off dead kids and destroyed countries deserve the very best! Well, if not deserve, know how to steal the very best.
It really is so despicable. Truly, end-of-Roman-empire-level despicable.