"A GIANT SOCIALIST BUREAUCRACY OF OUR OWN: THE PENTAGON"
David Evans - CHICAGO TRIBUNE 8 July 1988
[Many folks like David Evans knew where the constant increases in defense spending was taking us LONG AGO! The cabal of "security minded" rich people in the defense industry are happy and so is DoD with a new, state of the art set of weapons very few years. The Generals never saw a modern weapon they didn't LOVE, and I know this from 44 years in defense contracting!]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-07-08-8801130558-story,amp.html
"By golly, one has to give the Soviets credit. At the just-concluded Communist Party conference, they so much as admitted that running the country out of one headquarters, the Kremlin, has been a colossal flop. They were seriously discussing dismantling many of the most entrenched features of centrally controlled state socialism.
We shouldn`t be too smug about their agonies. Right here, within our own borders, is one of the world`s biggest socialist bureaucracies. It`s called the Defense Department.
It has all the trappings of a country. Hundreds of military bases nationwide make up a clearly defined territory totaling some 42,000 square miles, an area larger than Ohio or, for that matter, East Germany. The Defense Department has its own industrial operation, owning dozens of huge factories. It has its own foreign policy establishment, headed by an assistant defense secretary for International Security Policy. The Pentagon operates an import- export department (the undersecretary for Trade Security Policy) and a foreign trade department (Foreign Military Sales).
This ''country within a country'' operates its own legal system, capped by the Court of Military Appeals, a medical system (the country`s largest)"
We need to defend ourselves, but when we stop meddling in every nation's government, we certainly will have fewer enemies and will not need such a huge cache of weapons. Keep in mind as we strip our State Department of qualified people, and cut foreign aid, we are hurtling ourselves and that means we need more weapons' because we are failing to control the hate for Western culture and the good old USA!
"Clearly, some funds must be spent on the common defense, but there's a teensy [GIGANTIC LOSS OF PERSPECTIVE BY 2020!] loss of perspective here.
And the ardent practitioners of state-controlled capitalism in the Pentagon now are busily concocting a new five-year plan that figures on defense budgets approaching $400 billion before the end of the next presidential term-at which point, for sure, America will have the biggest socialist economy outside the Soviet Union."
Socialism scares Americans. But we are blind to and overlooking the socialism of the Department of Defense (DoD), and as DoD claims an ever larger proportion of the US government budget it consumes an ever larger proportion of the US economy and making America a socialist country.
The DoD plans to control the internet too.
The DoD is wasting TRILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS TOO! TRILLIONS!
The military-industrial complex has been building power since Dwight Eisenhower warned us of it in 1952 or so. 68 years later there is substantial collaboration and interdependency between DoD and defense contractors. DoD and defense contractors are cherished for jobs and money.
Trillions of tax dollars are burned up and we aren't stopping it because if we criticize it, we are "traitors." Trump wants to call out anyone he doesn't like as a "traitor," and he harkens back to the "old days" when we executed "traitors!"
"The US Military Is a Socialist Organization"
Affordable housing and food, tuition assistance, and universal health care are hallmarks of a social welfare system—and life in the armed forces.
By Liesel Kershul - November 4, 2019
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/socialism-united-states-military/
"Pentagon socialism: The Pentagon's plan to dominate the economy"
Militarizing the economy in the name of defense
William D. Hartung - Nov 12, 2018 - originally appeared on TomDispatch.
https://www.salon.com/2018/11/12/pentagon-socialism_partner/
"Given his erratic behavior, from daily Twitter eruptions to upping his tally of lies by the hour, it’s hard to think of Donald Trump as a man with a plan. But in at least one area — reshaping the economy to serve the needs of the military-industrial complex — he's (gasp!) a socialist in the making.
His plan is now visibly taking shape — one we can see and assess thanks to a Pentagon-led study with a distinctly tongue-twisting title: “Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States.” The analysis is the brainchild of Trump’s adviser for trade and manufacturing policy, Peter Navarro, who happens to also be the key architect of the president’s trade wars."
See DARPA proposal below. Control of the internet is what China does to control its people. Guess what DARPA is doing. If DoD uses this "back door" control to keep us "SAFE," they will control free speech and thoughts in America.
'DARPA requests proposals for “Semantic Forensics” system"
US Defense Department prepares for mass internet censorship
By Kevin Reed - 6 September 2019
"The US military has issued a call for research proposals from technology partners for the development of an automated system capable of scanning the entire internet and locating and censoring content deemed as “false media assets” and “disinformation.” According to government documents, the requested solution would provide “innovative semantic technologies for analyzing media” that will help “identify, deter, and understand adversary disinformation campaigns.”"
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/06/cens-s06.html
It would come as no surprise to me that the judgement of what is false and fake gets perverted by government.
The list that follows is perhaps tangential, but addressing the point of government control of our freedoms. We start with DoD control our lives thru the socialism this organization brings to the economy by the influence of trillions of dollars, recognizing money determines how we are governed, then CONNECT THE DOTS on several more items listed here.
Trump and Barr can use their own tools, but also the very powerful work of the DoD to control free speech on the internet, and MUCH, MUCH more.
1. Look at the first "case" of enforcing Trump/Barr adding Civil Rights Act of 1964 protection for Jews. Google it yourself. A college professor (in California of course - the state Tweety loves to hate) criticized Israel's treatment of Palestinians. This professor is being investigated by the US Justice Department for saying what everyone knows.
2. Trump and Barr will require DoD internet searches to do their dirty work finding free speech they don't like; the new "freedom" from the sort of "persecution" this professor spoke will be for those who will only speak the controlled, allowed speech, "Trump Speech."
3. The TV news media will be whittled to one network if Tweety and Barr have their way, Fox News.
4. The written media outlets will be whittled to only those who do not criticize Tweety.
5. Trump and Barr want cell phone companies to hep them break encrypted phones. Guess what they will do with such a capability if they get it.
6. Trump and Barr want sole power to call people traitors and lock them up or worse.
7. Trump is now freed by the GOP to seek help from any foreign power to get help for re-election in 2020. How many more elections will Trump Sr. run for? Trump Sr. can continue to be re-elected by proxy as Trump Jr. runs for the Presidency.
8. Can Trump also recruit foreign powers to tap phones as it is possible, feasible, even likely the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hacked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo's phone recently.
9 . The Oct 1, 2020 Transportation Security Administration "REAL ID" requirement is a tool to be used by government to limit travel and freedom if it chooses to do so. I can imagine a list from our government limiting immigrants or "enemies" from travelling.
All these ways to invading America's privacy are NOT for security, they are for CONTROL!
"Is the US Military a Socialist Institution?"
[Duh! Yes. It's easy to see everything in DoD fits the socialist model.]
Cenk Uygur, Contributor - Host, 'The Young Turks' - 09/05/2009 05:12 AM ET
|Updated May 25, 2011
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/252526/amp
Does a bear shit in the woods? Yes, our DoD guarantees employment as long as you don't break the law, total health care, adequate housing, good pay (more every year), private gyms, food for enlisted, and more. It is socialist.
The DoD can do better managing money, but no one is working on the many, many, many process problems in DoD Acquisition while the annual budget they get is far too big to manage AND GET SBIGGER EVERY YEAR!
We are going to be told the 4% of GDP DoD controls is small potatoes, but that ignore the leverage defense contractors get once a contract is awarded for multiple years downstream. The control by DoD is that they have committed to a weapons' system, and the control of the defense contractor is that DoD is committed to THEIR PARTICULAR weapon system AND ALL THE MAINTENANCE AND SERVICE CONTRACTS THAT WILL FOLLOW.
America needs to own our reality that there are benevolent elements, socialistic elements, welfare elements in how we wish to govern our nation. Our problem is American's "Big Stick" mentality, love of guns, big weapons, enhanced by a belligerent, bellicose, bullying nature that intervenes and often defeats our "Christian" (real of not) desire to help others.
I left the Air Force in 1992 after 22 years writing purchase orders and contracts. I worked 22 more years as a civilian contractor doing the same thing from the other side of the table. I believe DoD budgets can NEVER be better managed until there is a better set of processes and the budget is cut by 40%. In fact, a few years of maintenance only would be fine.
"Reforming a Defense Industry Rife with Socialism, Industrial Policy, and Excessive Regulation"
By Ivan Eland - December 20, 2001 • Policy Analysis No. 421
"The U.S. defense industry is hardly a bastion of freeâ€market competition. Even Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has compared the way the Department of Defense does business, including the way the Pentagon buys weapons, to Soviet central planning. The industry has a socialist component: government laboratories, shipyards, depots, and arsenals that, in many cases, compete with private companies. Even the part of the industry that is in private hands is subjected to DoD’s industrial policy and excessive regulation. Congress, to win votes in states and districts that are home to such industrial concerns, keeps unneeded government and private facilities open through phony “competitions,” creating much excess capacity in an industry that was insufficiently downsized after the Cold War."
I wasn't overwhelmed by regulations in my 44 years of defense contracting, but I agree some fixes could be in order. My opinion and experience is DoD needs to work on PROCESSES, more than regulations. Better processes for smaller budgets will reduce fraud, waste and abuse.
DoD budgets are massive and DoD cannot maage these gigantic budgets.
U.S. House of Representatives
Categories: CommentaryElectionsFeatured NewsIssuesRepublican PartyU.S. House of Representatives
"GOP’s Favorite Socialist Program Lost $8.5 Trillion And Will Bankrupt America"
"Trump Budget to Propose 'Savage' Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security While Hiking Pentagon and Wall Funds"
"This budget is Trump's pledge that as long as he stays in office, slashing Social Security, Medicaid, and whatever's left of SNAP will remain a White House priority."
by Jake Johnson, staff writer on Monday, February 10, 2020
Out of respect, not because it factors into DoD socialism and Trump / Barr conspiracy to create a dictatorship, but here's the argument against "Socialism," but be aware Socialism has no chance of taking hold in the United States of the Rich, Life Long GOP Politicians, and Powerful.
"A Plea for Liberty: An Argument Against Socialism and Socialistic Legislation"
By Thomas Mackay
https://www.econlib.org/library/LFBooks/MckyT/mckyPL.html
"America’s Best Defense Against Socialism"
By Matthew Continetti - May 25, 2019 5:30 AM
https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-federal-budget-breakdown-3305789
"It’s our Constitution and our culture."
" . . . socialists have recognized the difficulty they face in the United States for over a century. In 1906 the German sociologist Werner Sombart devoted a monograph to answering the question, Why Is There No Socialism in the United States? Sombart noted the comparatively high and rising standard of living of American workers. “On the reefs of roast beef and apple pie,” he said, “socialistic Utopias of every sort are sent to their doom.”
American workers had won political rights earlier than their European counterparts, making them less likely to conflate civil rights with economic benefits. America’s liberal culture emphasized social mobility. The staggering racial, ethnic, and religious diversity of America made class-consciousness almost impossible. As Max Beer, an Australian socialist of the early twentieth century, wrote,
Even when the time is ripe for a Socialist movement, it can only produce one when the working people form a certain cultural unity, that is, when they have a common language, a common history, a common mode of life. This is the case in Europe, but not in the United States. Its factories, mines, farms, and the organizations based on them are composite bodies, containing the most heterogeneous elements, and lacking stability and the sentiment of solidarity.
When it comes to preventing socialism, diversity really is our strength."
