Freezing it is nowhere near sufficient. We need to cut it by at least 50% to start.
There is no reason why the U.S. defense budget should be 3 times more than China's or 7 times more than Russia. If we cut our budget by 50% we would still be spending 1.5 times more than China and 3.5 times more than Russia.
Yes, 50% would be a good start. Maybe it would enforce some spending discipline and proper assessment of military priorities. Look at the candidate litmus test . . .
Yes, but "The Blob"--the movie--ends with a question mark! What if the Arctic ice should melt some day? Oh, that could never happen, right?? Ha! BTW, "The Blob" was filmed in and around Phoenixville, PA, near Valley Forge General (US Army) Hospital--long demolished, I hear--where I received my training as an advanced Army Medic. Oh, the nostalgia!
Thanks for pointing out how institutions actually work. My husband was stationed at Fort Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas during the Vietnam War. Every year, just before the Army budget was due to be allocated, the fort opened its warehouse of supplies to everyone on base to help themselves to all the extra inventory that had gone unused since the last budget year. My husband brought home reams of typing paper, a typewriter, camera film, scotch tape, staples, you name it. I was shocked by the profligacy of the Army, just so it could justify a larger budget for the next fiscal year. It wasn’t the same as wanting more weaponry, but it sure didn’t justify confidence in the military.
Wow, that's the first I've heard of that phenomenon! But check this out: according to my old Army Medic buddy who did go to Viet Nam (I refused twice), officers in his company took the unit's supply of .45 caliber pistols to Sai Gon and sold them on the black market! Wow, how's that for patriotism??
Thanks, Bill, for making this clear. Most civilians really have no idea of how having more than the other services is a huge driver of military spending.
Bill, absolutely true. I would add one thing. Given the size of the firepower industry and its lobbyists, Congress will fund military spending that even the Pentagon doesn't want - as it creates campaign contributions - under the guise of defense and job creation.
When I worked at Walter Reed they definitely used the "use it or lose it" mindset. One time, the lab chief bought a second $250,000 gene array analyzer because he had to use the money or lose it. We only used the first one occasionally, and absolutely did not need a second one, nor could we use it. And the medical research procurement in the military is less than peanuts compared to what the armed forces procurement is like. Such a waste to keep a corrupt system running.
I've seen the use-it-or-lose-it mindset at work elsewhere, as in infrastructure spending. Years ago, our city had an enormous new bridge put in across a valley. The new span was twice the size of the old bridge, an increase that was not at all justified by the volume of traffic. The state department of transportation had been allocated federal funds, so it had offered to build the new bridge for the city. Suffice it to say that the entire project was a boondoggle, pushed through by the then-major under dubious circumstances. When a public meeting was held after a prolonged citizen protest, the city planner finally admitted that the DOT was using up all the money so it could get the same budget the next year.
Yup, that is the formula that permeates government. It might save a lot of money if you could hold on to funds without instantly spending it, and not threaten your future funding. Then the money might get used at least a bit more practically.
More, more, more ... This made me think of a musing I wrote several years ago entitled, "Snippet."
Riding in the cab at dark-thirty. Headed to the airport—heading home. While most of the world around me and the quiet cabby remains dark and asleep, sucking kilowatts, the billboards light the desecrated way of 24/7 commercialism. I notice only one. In huge letters it reads, “The land of more.”
What it certainly lacks in grace it does, I decide, afford in honesty about whatever it was that I was supposed to be wanting in this land of more.
It doesn’t really matter that I missed the product. The subliminal programming code has been uploaded. One viral snippet of code—the land of more.
So many things in life I want less of in this land of more. Billboards, for one.
"Service parochialism ensures a military that is wasteful, overly conservative, and dysfunctional. Too much bleeding of Army green or Air Force blue has led to too much real bleeding of red."
Constitutionally, it shouldn't "ensure" anything. Who's in charge? The military establishment or the Congress? (Rhetorical question, obviously.) The demands for more, more, more are only effective because there's a leadership vacuum at the real center of power.
It's not just the military. I spoke to a state legislator who had just been head of the budgeting committee. He said all 25 of the directors of the various bureaus assured the legislators that it was impossible to do their jobs on the measly funds provided and they all needed more funding. All 25 of them.
This is an e-mail that I just sent to President Biden that I hope every BVer and American will read and then send one of their own. It is a request that he issue a full and unconditional pardon for Julian Assange before he leaves the White House:
Dear President of The United States of America Joseph Biden,
I respectfully request the granting of a full and unconditional pardon to Mr. Julian Assange, the Australian publisher and founder of WikiLeaks. His recent conviction under the Espionage Act for acts of gathering and disseminating information—activities integral to journalism—represents a troubling milestone in the history of press freedom.
I urge you to pardon Mr. Assange for the following reasons:
1. The conviction of Mr. Assange has created a dangerous precedent criminalizing journalistic activities globally. This case not only endangers journalists worldwide exposing them to transnational repression but also undermines the United States' and its allies longstanding commitment to press freedom.
2. Mr. Assange’s conviction represents a direct conflict with the protections guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which safeguards the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of the press. By convicting Mr. Assange for engaging in standard reporting practices, this case undermines the very principles that are essential to a functioning democracy and the public's right to be informed about the actions of their government.
3. The Espionage Act should not be used as a politically motivated tool to punish publishers, journalists or sources for disclosing information in the public interest.
4. As President you have vowed to defend democracy and freedom of the press. The conviction of Mr. Assange would cast a dark cloud over these commitments, suggesting that journalistic activity is now a criminal act. Pardoning Mr. Assange would reaffirm the United States' role as a global leader in press freedom and human rights.
5. By reversing this conviction, your administration would send a strong message to governments who use transnational repression to silence journalists and critiques both at home and abroad. Reaffirming the United States' commitment to protecting those who expose wrongdoing, no matter where they are.
6. In granting this pardon, you would not only rectify a grave injustice, but also reinforce the founding values of the American Republic.
For these reasons, I urge you to use your presidential power to protect press freedom by granting Mr. Assange a full and unconditional pardon.
The Problem is not the different branches of the military competing to get more than their fair share of all that budget money coming from Congress.
Nor is The Problem the overwhelmingly ultimate recipients of all that money: the workers, supervisors, managers, and executives ~ civilian and military~ of the Military Industrial Congressional Complex.
The Problem is America’s system of Government and Governance:
A system whereby Vested Special Interests ~ in this case, the MICC ~ can gain ready and easy, but expensive access to the legal power, the administrative authority, and, above all, the spending capacity and capability of that government as governed by its elected politicians, entrenched bureaucrats, and anointed appointees. And use that access to advance the agendas, profits, and returns-on-investment of those individual, group, organizational, and institutional MICC VSIs.
THAT is what needs to be changed: The fact that those VSIs can and do have access to that Government’s power, authority, and ability to control and distribute money. And until that Is changed, NOTHING is going to change, except to get worse.
And this is nothing new.
There were Vested Special Interests very much at work crafting what became America’s system of Governance as established by the Constitution in 1788. And successive generations of VSIs ~ thru their owned, operated, commanded, and controlled politicians, bureaucrats, and judges ~ have manipulated and modified that Constitution and its system of Governance so that that power and authority of ~ and, particularly, that control and distribution of Wealth by ~ the Government, has grown and grown to what it is today.
Again: The REAL PROBLEM is the fact that that Government has all that legal power and administrative authority, and, above all, that ability to create and spend or give away money.
That is what really needs to be changed. And again: Unless and until it is changed, things are only going to get much worse than they are becoming now.
And they can and will only get worse as long as America is controlled by an autocratic, oligarchic. plutocratic, patriarchal Ruling Political Caste and its Deep State: the military-industrial-congressional complex, the banking finance-printing press web, the techno-infotainment matrix, the petro-food-guns-n-drugs cartels, the pharmo-medico-insurance-legal cabals, and the surveillance-secrecy-security-censorship-propaganda-proto police state panopticon that owns and operates, and commands and controls the politicians, bureaucrats, and political appointees at center stage in America's Reality TV Soap Opera Extravaganza; and America's $ 1 = I Vote system of Government and Governance that gets, puts, and keeps them there.
What we should do is build a 1/4 scale model of the B-21 give it to Hollywood and have them make a movie with the current actor favorites, in which a fleet of B-21s save the world from destruction. If handled right we may even make money on the deal from the film, enough to pay for the model. My other suggestion is to include Tom Cruise in the lineup as his films always seem to make money.
the war machine is a hungry beast needing slaying. Remember The Blob. it devoured and devoured getting bigger and bigger till it final got frozen o
in its tracks. we need to freeze this beast. Freeze this money grabbing blob of shit..
Freezing it is nowhere near sufficient. We need to cut it by at least 50% to start.
There is no reason why the U.S. defense budget should be 3 times more than China's or 7 times more than Russia. If we cut our budget by 50% we would still be spending 1.5 times more than China and 3.5 times more than Russia.
Yes, 50% would be a good start. Maybe it would enforce some spending discipline and proper assessment of military priorities. Look at the candidate litmus test . . .
https://warismakinguspoor.com/a-nation-at-peace/
Yes, but "The Blob"--the movie--ends with a question mark! What if the Arctic ice should melt some day? Oh, that could never happen, right?? Ha! BTW, "The Blob" was filmed in and around Phoenixville, PA, near Valley Forge General (US Army) Hospital--long demolished, I hear--where I received my training as an advanced Army Medic. Oh, the nostalgia!
Thanks for pointing out how institutions actually work. My husband was stationed at Fort Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas during the Vietnam War. Every year, just before the Army budget was due to be allocated, the fort opened its warehouse of supplies to everyone on base to help themselves to all the extra inventory that had gone unused since the last budget year. My husband brought home reams of typing paper, a typewriter, camera film, scotch tape, staples, you name it. I was shocked by the profligacy of the Army, just so it could justify a larger budget for the next fiscal year. It wasn’t the same as wanting more weaponry, but it sure didn’t justify confidence in the military.
Wow, that's the first I've heard of that phenomenon! But check this out: according to my old Army Medic buddy who did go to Viet Nam (I refused twice), officers in his company took the unit's supply of .45 caliber pistols to Sai Gon and sold them on the black market! Wow, how's that for patriotism??
What could be more American than making a buck? And by selling guns!
Thanks, Bill, for making this clear. Most civilians really have no idea of how having more than the other services is a huge driver of military spending.
Bill, absolutely true. I would add one thing. Given the size of the firepower industry and its lobbyists, Congress will fund military spending that even the Pentagon doesn't want - as it creates campaign contributions - under the guise of defense and job creation.
True!
When I worked at Walter Reed they definitely used the "use it or lose it" mindset. One time, the lab chief bought a second $250,000 gene array analyzer because he had to use the money or lose it. We only used the first one occasionally, and absolutely did not need a second one, nor could we use it. And the medical research procurement in the military is less than peanuts compared to what the armed forces procurement is like. Such a waste to keep a corrupt system running.
One good, two better! :-)
I've seen the use-it-or-lose-it mindset at work elsewhere, as in infrastructure spending. Years ago, our city had an enormous new bridge put in across a valley. The new span was twice the size of the old bridge, an increase that was not at all justified by the volume of traffic. The state department of transportation had been allocated federal funds, so it had offered to build the new bridge for the city. Suffice it to say that the entire project was a boondoggle, pushed through by the then-major under dubious circumstances. When a public meeting was held after a prolonged citizen protest, the city planner finally admitted that the DOT was using up all the money so it could get the same budget the next year.
Yup, that is the formula that permeates government. It might save a lot of money if you could hold on to funds without instantly spending it, and not threaten your future funding. Then the money might get used at least a bit more practically.
More, more, more ... This made me think of a musing I wrote several years ago entitled, "Snippet."
Riding in the cab at dark-thirty. Headed to the airport—heading home. While most of the world around me and the quiet cabby remains dark and asleep, sucking kilowatts, the billboards light the desecrated way of 24/7 commercialism. I notice only one. In huge letters it reads, “The land of more.”
What it certainly lacks in grace it does, I decide, afford in honesty about whatever it was that I was supposed to be wanting in this land of more.
It doesn’t really matter that I missed the product. The subliminal programming code has been uploaded. One viral snippet of code—the land of more.
So many things in life I want less of in this land of more. Billboards, for one.
"Service parochialism ensures a military that is wasteful, overly conservative, and dysfunctional. Too much bleeding of Army green or Air Force blue has led to too much real bleeding of red."
Constitutionally, it shouldn't "ensure" anything. Who's in charge? The military establishment or the Congress? (Rhetorical question, obviously.) The demands for more, more, more are only effective because there's a leadership vacuum at the real center of power.
It's not just the military. I spoke to a state legislator who had just been head of the budgeting committee. He said all 25 of the directors of the various bureaus assured the legislators that it was impossible to do their jobs on the measly funds provided and they all needed more funding. All 25 of them.
Rare indeed is the bureaucrat who asks for a smaller budget!
This is an e-mail that I just sent to President Biden that I hope every BVer and American will read and then send one of their own. It is a request that he issue a full and unconditional pardon for Julian Assange before he leaves the White House:
Dear President of The United States of America Joseph Biden,
I respectfully request the granting of a full and unconditional pardon to Mr. Julian Assange, the Australian publisher and founder of WikiLeaks. His recent conviction under the Espionage Act for acts of gathering and disseminating information—activities integral to journalism—represents a troubling milestone in the history of press freedom.
I urge you to pardon Mr. Assange for the following reasons:
1. The conviction of Mr. Assange has created a dangerous precedent criminalizing journalistic activities globally. This case not only endangers journalists worldwide exposing them to transnational repression but also undermines the United States' and its allies longstanding commitment to press freedom.
2. Mr. Assange’s conviction represents a direct conflict with the protections guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which safeguards the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of the press. By convicting Mr. Assange for engaging in standard reporting practices, this case undermines the very principles that are essential to a functioning democracy and the public's right to be informed about the actions of their government.
3. The Espionage Act should not be used as a politically motivated tool to punish publishers, journalists or sources for disclosing information in the public interest.
4. As President you have vowed to defend democracy and freedom of the press. The conviction of Mr. Assange would cast a dark cloud over these commitments, suggesting that journalistic activity is now a criminal act. Pardoning Mr. Assange would reaffirm the United States' role as a global leader in press freedom and human rights.
5. By reversing this conviction, your administration would send a strong message to governments who use transnational repression to silence journalists and critiques both at home and abroad. Reaffirming the United States' commitment to protecting those who expose wrongdoing, no matter where they are.
6. In granting this pardon, you would not only rectify a grave injustice, but also reinforce the founding values of the American Republic.
For these reasons, I urge you to use your presidential power to protect press freedom by granting Mr. Assange a full and unconditional pardon.
Thank you for your time.
Yours sincerely,
Jeffrey G Moebus
Master Sergeant, US Army [Retired]
Sitka, Alaska
Note: To send the same e-mail of Your own, go to https://assangedefense.org/action/tell-biden-to-pardon-assange-now/ . Thank You.
Great idea, Jeff. As you know, Biden isn't likely to do this, especially since his "leaks" greatly embarrassed Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
Still, it's a good initiative.
The Problem is not the different branches of the military competing to get more than their fair share of all that budget money coming from Congress.
Nor is The Problem the overwhelmingly ultimate recipients of all that money: the workers, supervisors, managers, and executives ~ civilian and military~ of the Military Industrial Congressional Complex.
The Problem is America’s system of Government and Governance:
A system whereby Vested Special Interests ~ in this case, the MICC ~ can gain ready and easy, but expensive access to the legal power, the administrative authority, and, above all, the spending capacity and capability of that government as governed by its elected politicians, entrenched bureaucrats, and anointed appointees. And use that access to advance the agendas, profits, and returns-on-investment of those individual, group, organizational, and institutional MICC VSIs.
THAT is what needs to be changed: The fact that those VSIs can and do have access to that Government’s power, authority, and ability to control and distribute money. And until that Is changed, NOTHING is going to change, except to get worse.
And this is nothing new.
There were Vested Special Interests very much at work crafting what became America’s system of Governance as established by the Constitution in 1788. And successive generations of VSIs ~ thru their owned, operated, commanded, and controlled politicians, bureaucrats, and judges ~ have manipulated and modified that Constitution and its system of Governance so that that power and authority of ~ and, particularly, that control and distribution of Wealth by ~ the Government, has grown and grown to what it is today.
Again: The REAL PROBLEM is the fact that that Government has all that legal power and administrative authority, and, above all, that ability to create and spend or give away money.
That is what really needs to be changed. And again: Unless and until it is changed, things are only going to get much worse than they are becoming now.
And they can and will only get worse as long as America is controlled by an autocratic, oligarchic. plutocratic, patriarchal Ruling Political Caste and its Deep State: the military-industrial-congressional complex, the banking finance-printing press web, the techno-infotainment matrix, the petro-food-guns-n-drugs cartels, the pharmo-medico-insurance-legal cabals, and the surveillance-secrecy-security-censorship-propaganda-proto police state panopticon that owns and operates, and commands and controls the politicians, bureaucrats, and political appointees at center stage in America's Reality TV Soap Opera Extravaganza; and America's $ 1 = I Vote system of Government and Governance that gets, puts, and keeps them there.
"Everyone always wants MORE."
A universal mindset and problem. As in, corporations always wanting MORE profits (by percentage), damn the cost to consumers.
Thank you for the citation, most kind.
What we should do is build a 1/4 scale model of the B-21 give it to Hollywood and have them make a movie with the current actor favorites, in which a fleet of B-21s save the world from destruction. If handled right we may even make money on the deal from the film, enough to pay for the model. My other suggestion is to include Tom Cruise in the lineup as his films always seem to make money.