We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Does the Pentagon Really Need Another $20 Billion?

Click here to access article by William D. Hartung from CounterPunch.

It was no surprise that the liberal writer introduced his topic with an expression of relief that the government shutdowns were apparently over due to the recent budget deal worked out between the great political adversaries (sarcasm) in our government--Republicans and Democrats. The government shutdowns, of course, were planned precisely to harass us sufficiently so that we would tolerate the draconian cuts to our welfare. 

On the other hand, I seriously would like to thank him for pointing out the increase (!) in military spending that all other reports till now have omitted. And unlike many critics, he has discovered how military spending shows up not only in the Department of Defense, but in the budgets of other departments...well, according to him, in at least one other department.

He seems thoroughly puzzled by this increase, and like a young boy baffled by seeing his parents wrestling in bed in the middle of the night, looks for explanations when it's obvious what is going on.

This morning I noticed another bizarre bit of bad news related to the budget bill in an article entitled "Budget Deal Opens up Parts of Gulf of Mexico for Drilling" from OilPrice.com. I wonder how many other bad deals were stuck onto this bill--we'll probably slowly learn about them over the coming weeks as they leak out.