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

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Newsbud Exclusive Report- A Distillation [of] DOD Spending Spree for November 2016

Click here to access article by Christian Sorensen from Newsbud (a non-commercial viewer supported website).
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) spent at least $33,413,000,000 on 186 individual contracts during November 2016. This amount does not include nineteen Foreign Military Sales transactions worth $1,869,924,000.
This report gives one an understanding of the importance of the military-industrial complex to the functioning of the US war economy. Unfortunately, most of the spending will not improve our infrastructure or have any other benefits to the economic well-being of the vast majority of Americans with the exception of people employed by these companies. In addition there is one tiny segment of the population that will derive major "benefits" by these largely no-bid contracts: they will supply the drugs of power and profits that our masters in the capitalist ruling class are addicted to. 

I wonder how these expenditures compare with those that supposedly promote "human rights" which our masters pretend to vigorously support in the world. What is certain is that while our masters are getting high on their drugs, many in the world will experience more misery from the loss of their loved-ones, the destruction of their countries, and becoming war refugees in foreign lands.