Wars Make Money

The military–industrial complex describes the relationship between a nation’s military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy.

Dwight Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States

President Eisenhower’s farewell speech to the nation the retiring president warned of the dangers of allowing a Military-Industrial Complex to take control of the United States. The Military-Industrial Complex is a term that denotes a symbiotic relationship between a nation’s military, economy, and politics.

The U.S. sent to Afghanistan nearly 600,000 small arms, 76,000 vehicles and 208 airplanes to Afghanistan’s military and police from 2003 to 2016, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report, one of the few such compilations. The U.S.-led military coalition documented deliveries of 174 Humvees, nearly three million rounds of ammunition, and nearly 100,000 2.75-inch rockets during the period, night-vision goggles and even small drones for intelligence gathering.

The Department of Defense has a handful of arms manufacturers. You may recognize some or the names: Colt, Daniel Defense, Remington Arms Company, and FN America. FN is also working to help develop new guns featuring revolutionary technology. Lockheed Martin Corp. is the largest arms manufacturer in the world. Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and Raytheon rely on the U.S. military for anywhere from 44% of their revenue (Boeing) to 89% of their revenue (Lockeheed).

“FN America was recently down-selected and contracted to produce two prototypes for the U.S. Army’s Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle program,” says Greg Livermore, FN’s vice president for product management.

All of those arms manufacturers are now trying to negotiate a situation that will result in fewer arms sales. Don’t you know they will be promoting another war? They don’t care where it is and how many lives are lost or how many injuries are sustained?

It was WWII followed by the Cold War that created jobs for Americans in those arms manufacturing companies. Many have said that wars are what keeps America out of depressions.

Are they correct?

The Buck Stops Where?

President Biden blamed the chaotic fall of Kabul on the failure of the Afghans to fight back, in a defiant defense of his decision to withdraw troops. That does not excuse his administration’s failure to recognize the possibility that the country could be taken over by the Taliban in days, not months.

No doubt there will be hearings in Congress but they will be political in nature and will accomplish nothing. The president is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and he alone has the power to move and remove the military as he sees fit once the Congress authorizes military actions. Congress has also given the president the authority to act militarily in emergencies.

It was President Harry Truman who authorized the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended WWII. The first bomb, dropped on the city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, resulted in a total death toll of around 140,000. The second, which hit Nagasaki on 9 August, killed around 50,000 people. Truman offered no apologies.

While Biden said the words “The Buck Stops Here” he gave an 18 minute speech on Wednesday August 17 placing blame for the chaos at Kabul’s airport on everyone but his administration.

Job Openings Exist – No one Wants those Jobs

The Labor Department’s Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) shows that by May, the economy had more than 9 million unfilled job openings, the highest number since the survey began in 2000, and double the number available as recently as 2014. The unemployment rate in July was 5.4 percent and presumably would have been lower if job seekers had taken some of the many available positions. Explain what is the reason for a rental eviction moratorium?

I feel badly for those who lack the skills to obtain nothing more than a minimum wage job but life isn’t fair. I cannot be a lawyer or doctor because I lack the ability to pass the bar or meet the standards to be a doctor. That is simply a fact.

Many people are receiving more unemployment benefit aid than the money they would earn in their previous job. Millions will lose pandemic unemployment in September—many have already been cut off. … The programs, which support people who’d normally fall through the cracks of the unemployment system, were established in the March 2020 CARES Act and extended until Labor Day 2021 through the American Rescue Plan.

Roughly 7.5 million workers who’ve relied on pandemic-era unemployment benefits will be cut off from jobless aid altogether when they are set to expire on September 6, according to estimates from The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank. Rising Covid cases due to the contagious delta variant make finding a job difficult but how difficult when retail and hospitality businesses are clamoring for workers?

A consequence of low paying jobs means a lack of affordable housing. This is not a Covid-19 issue. The poor have been confronted with this issue all of their lives. It begs the question: Is it the government’s responsibility to provide housing for everyone? I believe the answer is yes. Many cities do provide public housing. Most Democrats say the answer is YES and most Republicans say NO. But it’s not that simple. There are unfilled jobs available now. I won’t be surprised if many of those unwanted openings are filled after September 6.

Police Testimony at January 6 Hearing

Capitol officer at Jan. 6 hearing: ‘I could have lost my life that day … many times,’ Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell.

President Joe Biden offers defense of democracy

This is a sad day when the president of the United States must defend democracy. That is precisely what he did in a speech today at Arlington National Cemetery, saying “democracy is more than a form of government — it is a way of being.”

“Democracy itself is in peril,” the president said.

“Democracy must be defended at all costs,” Biden said. “Democracy, that’s the soul of America. And I believe it’s a soul worth fighting for. And so do you. A soul worth dying for.”

It was obvious that he was standing up against those who would deny voting rights and the acceptance of free and fair elections.

Why did Biden make this speech? Because of people like Michael Flynn. Flynn is former President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser, who said that a Myanmar-like military coup “should” happen in the United States at a QAnon event in in a Dallas hotel. Sadly thousands, and perhaps millions, of Americans really believe Trump’s claim that the election was stolen.

Dictators like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are delighted with politics in the United States. They are telling their populations that democracy doesn’t work. They point to our political system in fighting as proof.

Republicans rediscover their concern for the national debt

Republicans who voted to grow the national debt under former president Donald Trump are trumpeting fiscal conservatism again during a Democratic presidency.

The national debt under former president Donald Trump grew from $19.9 trillion in January 2017 to a new high of $27 trillion In October 2020. That’s an increase of almost 36% in less than four years.

Today the debt is over $28 trillion.

Joe Biden’s spending plans will obviously increase the national debt to an even higher number.

The problem is that the political party that is out of power invariably voicing concerns of the growing debt.

Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times pointed out in his latest column that more than $600 billion in taxes on 2020 income will go uncollected because the IRS lacks the manpower to audit the most tax returns. Unreported income of the wealthy is the issue. “The total shortfall over the coming decade could reach $7.5 trillion — more than enough to pay for all of President Biden’s ambitious spending plans.”

“Collecting the taxes people are required to pay isn’t soaking the rich; it’s stopping the deadbeats and freeloaders from shirking a burden the rest of us are carrying.”

President Joe Biden is a Man in a Hurry

The president knows that his best opportunity to see laws passed that are on his agenda have to be completed during his first two years in office. Why? Because control of congress usually is won by the opposition party in the second two years.

Biden has stuffed everything he dreams of accomplishing into his $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan. He calls it the American Jobs Plan. The ‘Imminent’ Collapse of Wastewater Reservoir in Florida Forces Evacuations definitely sends the message that America’s infrastructure is in very bad shape. America’s infrastructure received an overall grade of C- from the American Society of Civil Engineers, according to the group’s 2021 Report Card.

The control of the House of Representatives during Trump’s second two years went to the Democrats. That very thing happened during Barack Obama presidency. In fact both houses were controlled by the GOP during the last two years of his presidency. It’s not a given since George W. Bush managed to have a GOP congress for four years but Eisenhower, who was president for two terms, saw both houses in Democratic control for six of his eight years in office. The Democratic Party has a very narrow control of both houses. Just the loss of one seat in the Senate and the GOP will again be in control. Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times reports that most prognosticators predict the GOP will gain control of the House of Representatives in the 2022 election.

Incidentally, I started writing this piece before the McManus column.

A reservoir in Florida that holds nearly 400 million gallons of wastewater from a former phosphate mine was leaking on Saturday, prompting hundreds of evacuations, the authorities said.

Ending the Filibuster in the U.S. Senate

What happened to majority rules? You take a vote on any subject and the majority wins. That is not the way it works in he U.S. Senate.

The U. S. Senate is on its way to ending the filibuster. Rather than doing so in one step they are eating away at the idea of 60 votes to end debate. The intent of this process was to bring about compromise. The rule as created by the senate and is not in the Constitution. This nightmare rule denies the majority the power to pass legislation.

While Senate rules still require just a simple majority to actually pass a bill, several procedural steps along the way require a supermajority of 60 votes to end debate on bills.

The filibuster is an Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions.

The most common form of filibuster occurs when one or more senators attempt to delay or block a vote on a bill by extending debate on the measure. Changes in 2013 and 2017 now require only a simple majority to invoke cloture (The cloture rule–Rule 22–is the only formal procedure that Senate rules provide for breaking a filibuster) on nominations, although most legislation still requires 60 votes.

The Senate has a number of options for curtailing the use of the filibuster, including by setting a new precedent, changing the rule itself, or placing restrictions on its use.

For many matters in the Senate, debate can only be cut off if at least 60 senators support doing so.

In 2013 the rules were changed under the leadership of Democratic Senator Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) eliminated the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster against all executive branch nominees and judicial nominees other than to the Supreme Court.

In 2017 the rules were again changed under the leadership of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) eliminated the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster for approval of nominations to the Supreme Court formally by lowering the threshold for ending debate on a nomination to 51 votes from 60, paving the way for Neil Gorsuch to win confirmation to the Supreme Court.

It is time to end minority control.