And You can't keep the profits and returns on investment of the Military Industrial Congressional Complex at current and recent levels WITHOUT the risk, threat, and promise of War.
You are right. In order to maintain profits, you have to keep producing more weapons and munitions which means you have draw down the current inventory; and to do that, you need a war.
I used to marvel at the vast collection of military aircraft at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson. Row upon row of worthless planes, you name the model and it is there in great number, useless and baking motionless forever in the Arizona sun and almost all of them after having spent their working lives never taking on the tasks for which they were built.
And how many have been donated to public parks where they are mounted on pedestals for show? They might be old and obsolete but just the same, they are otherwise useless hunks of scrap metal that never served any useful purpose after they were purchased (for millions of dollars each) at public expense.
If Musk truly wants to cut government inefficiency, he should be looking at the elephant in the room. At 60% of the discretionary budget, everything else is budget dust.
I heard that China has now been told that if they keep on keeping on we will not reduce our military budget. That doesn't mention that we spend a big multiple of what they do on the military.
'State Department's Potential $400M Tesla Vehicle Purchase Raises Ethical Concerns'
The Trump administration plans to award Elon Musk a $400 million contract for armored Teslas.
The announcement has raised ethical concerns due to Musk's connections with Trump, and critics are questioning potential conflicts of interest.
The State Department removed specific mentions of Tesla from procurement documents amid growing scrutiny of this contract.
No government contract for armored electric vehicles has been awarded yet, and the State Department stated that the solicitation is currently on hold.
The Optics of Trump's Cabinet of Billionaires and the richest of them all cutting of food and Medical assistance to the poorest of the poor and hardly a peep from his devoted Sect of Christians in name only
Like you, I live in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. So many of the residents here cannot hold an honest conversation about Trump. They are capable of merely repeating something Liz Warren said as a bumper sticker.
If I were to say I find Tulsi a breath of fresh air, I'd have to duck.
I voted for the libertarian for president if only because my vote is meaningless in this state.
I've also gotten tired of seeing Heather Cox Richardson's articles. There are people out here in the Pac NW that seem to hang on every word she writes.
Colonel Douglas Macgregor with his Politically astute analysis and interpretation of the US being the shit-disturber-in-Chief in this world 4 Days ago: https://www.youtube.com/live/aRN0pis0OjQ
Chris Hedges has an interesting article Today: 'The Mafia State'
First we got a mafia economy. Then we got a mafia state. We must rid ourselves of the ruling criminal class or become its victims.
Kiss the ring. Grovel before the Godfather. Give him tribute, a cut of the spoils. If he and his family get rich you get rich. Enter his inner circle, his “made” men and women, and you do not have to follow rules or obey the law. You can disembowel the machinery of government. You can turn us and the natural world into commodities to exploit until exhaustion or collapse. You can commit crimes with impunity. You can make a mockery of democratic norms and social responsibility. Perfidy is very profitable at first. In the long term it is collective suicide.
America is a full blown kleptocracy. The demolition of the social and political structure, begun long before Trump, makes a few very, very rich and immiserates everyone else. Mafia capitalism always leads to a mafia state. The two ruling parties gave us the first. Now we get the second. It is not only our wealth that is being taken from us, but our liberty.
Since the election of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, currently worth $394 billion, saw his wealth increase by $170 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, worth $254 billion, saw his net worth increase by nearly $41 billion.
Tidy sums for kneeling before Moloch.
At least 11 federal agencies that have been affected by the slash and burn campaign of the Trump administration have more than 32 continuing investigations, pending complaints or enforcement actions, into Musk’s six companies, according to a review by The New York Times..................
One paragraph: The mafia state cannot be reformed. We must organize to break our chains, one-by-one, to use the power of the strike to cripple the state machinery.
We must embrace a radical militancy, one that offers a new vision and a new social structure. We must hold fast to moral imperatives.
We must forgive mortgage and student debt, institute universal health care and break up monopolies.
We must raise the minimum wage and end the squandering of resources and funds to sustain the empire and the war industry.
We must establish a nationwide jobs program to rebuild the country’s collapsing infrastructure.
We must nationalize the banks, pharmaceutical corporations, military contractors and transportation and embrace environmentally sustainable energy sources.
Peripheral to Bill posting this article on the 13th, I also posted an article on the 13th. One newspaper said I have a trademark on the #13.
The SIGNS OF THE TIMES article I originally posted on September 1, 2013, is too long and convoluted. To refine and improve it, I turned to one of the growing number of AI platforms for assistance. The result is a significant improvement over my original writing and organization, making the narrative clearer and more engaging. For those interested in comparing the two versions, SIGNS OF THE TIMES is a live link to the original article.
If reading this article is still too long, you can scroll down to see after all the back and forth input between AI and I, AI wrote a good synopsis.
Liberty Memorial Mall in Kansas City with the Museum of WAR on the left and the Museum of PEACE on the right of the obelisk.
Video clip from the 1983 movie 'THE DAY AFTER,' which depicts Kansas City—of all the major US cities—incinerated in a nuclear holocaust, including the iconic Liberty Memorial Mall. Directly below the video is the Kansas City Times follow-up to their September 13 record, featuring a picture of me standing at the base of the obelisk. Remarkably, this image mirrors the very same end scene from the movie, echoing the Newspaper record from seven years to the month earlier on ALL SOULS DAY 1976.
Trump "respects" Gabbard?? He likes underlings who kiss his large butt on a daily basis, of that we can be certain. Gabbard as another "disruptor"? Listen, put me in the Fed. Gov't and I'll disrupt stuff for 25% of whatever her position's salary is!! (How's that for patriotism?) Mr. Zelensky and his backers are wringing their hands right now, and I dig that!! Trump appears to oppose The Ukraine being in NATO. This certainly rankles the D.C. Establishment. Again, that's good, but as some folks asked us anti-Viet Nam War protesters back in the day: "Okay, we know what you're AGAINST, but what are you really FOR?" (An obnoxious rhetorical query of course, 'cuz we were for an end to the unjustified aggression against a small nation seeking only its independence.) But getting back up to date: WHAT, other than bigger corporate profits and fewer (preferably no) taxes on the filthy rich, does this POTUS really "stand for"?? A "Christian Nationalist Theocracy"? Hmm. Who on this thread wishes to publicly endorse that position? And now the anti-Science Crusader Useful Idiot RFK Jr. has won confirmation, and next up Linda McMahon doubtless will win confirmation. Of all the grossly unqualified idiots Trump has put in his Cabinet, these particular two stand at the very top (a compliment? Not really!).
Let's hope for something good. Trump obviously values Palestinian lives, all of them, at zero, and has said "It's not our war" but shows no sign of unease with a renewal of slaughter.
The only reason Trump "likes" Gabbard and "respects" her is because she ~ at least for the moment ~ is on his side. How much did he "like" and "respect" her before she signed on as a devout Trumpatista?
Or before she changed her tune on FISA Section 702, and the mass, warrantless surveillance of American Citizens?
As the DNI, she will do exactly as she is instructed to do; just like Trump is doing exactly what he is directed and scripted to do. Either that, or she will be history. Just like him, if he doesn't follow his orders and script.
Jeff, the only area in which I think Trump is directed concerns Israel and that because he is in awe of financial power, craving it himself and what really moves him. His real estate speculator's plan for Gaza shows how removed he is from valuing human lives and the effect of his grandiose ideas on real people. Miriam Adelson's effortless $100 million campaign funding gift (with a quid pro quo) means far more to him than would 100 million people giving a dollar each with no ask.
i think Trump is directed in virtually everything he does as POTUS Maxximmuss XLVII, Clif; be it foreign or domestic economic or political affairs. Just like Biden, Trump 1.0, Obama, Cheney/Bush II, Clinton, Bush I/Reagan, Carter, and Beyond were before Trump 2.0.
And what he is directed by as regards Israel is the fact that, since its inception, Israel has been a Strategic Forward Operating Base for American military, economic, and political affairs in the Middle East and all its Natural Resources.
And now, Israel is the Tactical Forward Operating Base for the American War on Iran, and total military, economic, and political domination of that Middle East. With a so-called "Greater Israel" as its foundation.
Let's hope that she can do some good, but considering what she is up against, and how she has morphed over the last couple of years, I am a bit skeptical. Still, she is the best person to rise to that position in my lifetime, so I can't complain.
As far as i can tell, the answer to Your second question, Karl, is NEVER.
And the answer to Your first question is:
The people who own, operate, command, and control America's system of Government and Governance whereby Vested Special Interests 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-investments of those individual, group, organizational, and institutional VSIs.
Let's hope!
But I worry that his foreign policies will not lead to peace. You can't antagonize the rest of the world forever without risking war.
And You can't keep the profits and returns on investment of the Military Industrial Congressional Complex at current and recent levels WITHOUT the risk, threat, and promise of War.
You are right. In order to maintain profits, you have to keep producing more weapons and munitions which means you have draw down the current inventory; and to do that, you need a war.
I used to marvel at the vast collection of military aircraft at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson. Row upon row of worthless planes, you name the model and it is there in great number, useless and baking motionless forever in the Arizona sun and almost all of them after having spent their working lives never taking on the tasks for which they were built.
And how many have been donated to public parks where they are mounted on pedestals for show? They might be old and obsolete but just the same, they are otherwise useless hunks of scrap metal that never served any useful purpose after they were purchased (for millions of dollars each) at public expense.
If Musk truly wants to cut government inefficiency, he should be looking at the elephant in the room. At 60% of the discretionary budget, everything else is budget dust.
I heard that China has now been told that if they keep on keeping on we will not reduce our military budget. That doesn't mention that we spend a big multiple of what they do on the military.
Maybe this demands a Peaceful US Domestic WAR?
'State Department's Potential $400M Tesla Vehicle Purchase Raises Ethical Concerns'
The Trump administration plans to award Elon Musk a $400 million contract for armored Teslas.
The announcement has raised ethical concerns due to Musk's connections with Trump, and critics are questioning potential conflicts of interest.
The State Department removed specific mentions of Tesla from procurement documents amid growing scrutiny of this contract.
No government contract for armored electric vehicles has been awarded yet, and the State Department stated that the solicitation is currently on hold.
The Optics of Trump's Cabinet of Billionaires and the richest of them all cutting of food and Medical assistance to the poorest of the poor and hardly a peep from his devoted Sect of Christians in name only
Like you, I live in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. So many of the residents here cannot hold an honest conversation about Trump. They are capable of merely repeating something Liz Warren said as a bumper sticker.
If I were to say I find Tulsi a breath of fresh air, I'd have to duck.
I voted for the libertarian for president if only because my vote is meaningless in this state.
Warren was terrible on Tulsi, accusing her of being a Putin stooge. The little respect I had for Warren went out the window ...
But her creation of the CFPA was a good thing for we the people. It's now either incapacitated or gone.
She is where she is because truth was always optional for her.
I admit she has more indigenous dna than I do.
I've also gotten tired of seeing Heather Cox Richardson's articles. There are people out here in the Pac NW that seem to hang on every word she writes.
Rather than read her, one could by a standard textbook on American history and government.
People I know. I'm perplexed why.
Colonel Douglas Macgregor with his Politically astute analysis and interpretation of the US being the shit-disturber-in-Chief in this world 4 Days ago: https://www.youtube.com/live/aRN0pis0OjQ
Chris Hedges has an interesting article Today: 'The Mafia State'
First we got a mafia economy. Then we got a mafia state. We must rid ourselves of the ruling criminal class or become its victims.
Kiss the ring. Grovel before the Godfather. Give him tribute, a cut of the spoils. If he and his family get rich you get rich. Enter his inner circle, his “made” men and women, and you do not have to follow rules or obey the law. You can disembowel the machinery of government. You can turn us and the natural world into commodities to exploit until exhaustion or collapse. You can commit crimes with impunity. You can make a mockery of democratic norms and social responsibility. Perfidy is very profitable at first. In the long term it is collective suicide.
America is a full blown kleptocracy. The demolition of the social and political structure, begun long before Trump, makes a few very, very rich and immiserates everyone else. Mafia capitalism always leads to a mafia state. The two ruling parties gave us the first. Now we get the second. It is not only our wealth that is being taken from us, but our liberty.
Since the election of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, currently worth $394 billion, saw his wealth increase by $170 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, worth $254 billion, saw his net worth increase by nearly $41 billion.
Tidy sums for kneeling before Moloch.
At least 11 federal agencies that have been affected by the slash and burn campaign of the Trump administration have more than 32 continuing investigations, pending complaints or enforcement actions, into Musk’s six companies, according to a review by The New York Times..................
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-mafia-state
One paragraph: The mafia state cannot be reformed. We must organize to break our chains, one-by-one, to use the power of the strike to cripple the state machinery.
We must embrace a radical militancy, one that offers a new vision and a new social structure. We must hold fast to moral imperatives.
We must forgive mortgage and student debt, institute universal health care and break up monopolies.
We must raise the minimum wage and end the squandering of resources and funds to sustain the empire and the war industry.
We must establish a nationwide jobs program to rebuild the country’s collapsing infrastructure.
We must nationalize the banks, pharmaceutical corporations, military contractors and transportation and embrace environmentally sustainable energy sources.
None of this will happen until we resist.
Peripheral to Bill posting this article on the 13th, I also posted an article on the 13th. One newspaper said I have a trademark on the #13.
The SIGNS OF THE TIMES article I originally posted on September 1, 2013, is too long and convoluted. To refine and improve it, I turned to one of the growing number of AI platforms for assistance. The result is a significant improvement over my original writing and organization, making the narrative clearer and more engaging. For those interested in comparing the two versions, SIGNS OF THE TIMES is a live link to the original article.
If reading this article is still too long, you can scroll down to see after all the back and forth input between AI and I, AI wrote a good synopsis.
Liberty Memorial Mall in Kansas City with the Museum of WAR on the left and the Museum of PEACE on the right of the obelisk.
Video clip from the 1983 movie 'THE DAY AFTER,' which depicts Kansas City—of all the major US cities—incinerated in a nuclear holocaust, including the iconic Liberty Memorial Mall. Directly below the video is the Kansas City Times follow-up to their September 13 record, featuring a picture of me standing at the base of the obelisk. Remarkably, this image mirrors the very same end scene from the movie, echoing the Newspaper record from seven years to the month earlier on ALL SOULS DAY 1976.
https://rayjc.com/2025/02/13/chronicle-and-signpost-ray-joseph-cormier-signs-of-the-times/
Trump "respects" Gabbard?? He likes underlings who kiss his large butt on a daily basis, of that we can be certain. Gabbard as another "disruptor"? Listen, put me in the Fed. Gov't and I'll disrupt stuff for 25% of whatever her position's salary is!! (How's that for patriotism?) Mr. Zelensky and his backers are wringing their hands right now, and I dig that!! Trump appears to oppose The Ukraine being in NATO. This certainly rankles the D.C. Establishment. Again, that's good, but as some folks asked us anti-Viet Nam War protesters back in the day: "Okay, we know what you're AGAINST, but what are you really FOR?" (An obnoxious rhetorical query of course, 'cuz we were for an end to the unjustified aggression against a small nation seeking only its independence.) But getting back up to date: WHAT, other than bigger corporate profits and fewer (preferably no) taxes on the filthy rich, does this POTUS really "stand for"?? A "Christian Nationalist Theocracy"? Hmm. Who on this thread wishes to publicly endorse that position? And now the anti-Science Crusader Useful Idiot RFK Jr. has won confirmation, and next up Linda McMahon doubtless will win confirmation. Of all the grossly unqualified idiots Trump has put in his Cabinet, these particular two stand at the very top (a compliment? Not really!).
Let's hope for something good. Trump obviously values Palestinian lives, all of them, at zero, and has said "It's not our war" but shows no sign of unease with a renewal of slaughter.
The only reason Trump "likes" Gabbard and "respects" her is because she ~ at least for the moment ~ is on his side. How much did he "like" and "respect" her before she signed on as a devout Trumpatista?
Or before she changed her tune on FISA Section 702, and the mass, warrantless surveillance of American Citizens?
As the DNI, she will do exactly as she is instructed to do; just like Trump is doing exactly what he is directed and scripted to do. Either that, or she will be history. Just like him, if he doesn't follow his orders and script.
Jeff, the only area in which I think Trump is directed concerns Israel and that because he is in awe of financial power, craving it himself and what really moves him. His real estate speculator's plan for Gaza shows how removed he is from valuing human lives and the effect of his grandiose ideas on real people. Miriam Adelson's effortless $100 million campaign funding gift (with a quid pro quo) means far more to him than would 100 million people giving a dollar each with no ask.
i think Trump is directed in virtually everything he does as POTUS Maxximmuss XLVII, Clif; be it foreign or domestic economic or political affairs. Just like Biden, Trump 1.0, Obama, Cheney/Bush II, Clinton, Bush I/Reagan, Carter, and Beyond were before Trump 2.0.
And what he is directed by as regards Israel is the fact that, since its inception, Israel has been a Strategic Forward Operating Base for American military, economic, and political affairs in the Middle East and all its Natural Resources.
And now, Israel is the Tactical Forward Operating Base for the American War on Iran, and total military, economic, and political domination of that Middle East. With a so-called "Greater Israel" as its foundation.
Let's hope that she can do some good, but considering what she is up against, and how she has morphed over the last couple of years, I am a bit skeptical. Still, she is the best person to rise to that position in my lifetime, so I can't complain.
Musk and wunderkinder have the idea to use block chain to make the pentagon supply chain linked to the specs the contracts order.
Maybe a step toward making the audits appear. Likely, show a lot more waste
I am glad Gabbard has a job.
As far as i can tell, the answer to Your second question, Karl, is NEVER.
And the answer to Your first question is:
The people who own, operate, command, and control America's system of Government and Governance whereby Vested Special Interests 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-investments of those individual, group, organizational, and institutional VSIs.
Before they can say it, Karl, they need to know, understand, acknowledge, and accept that as a Fact Of Life.
And then they have to decide What, if anything, they are going to DO about that.