This writer has made it my main purpose, for 15 years now, to focus on the single most important issue destroying our nation’s economy. Yes, for those who read me frequently, it is this obscene military spending coupled with extreme militarism!
Unbeknown to most Americans, over half of our federal taxes goes directly or indirectly for military spending. To keep one soldier in Afghanistan, for example, for one year, costs us over one million dollars! The soldier gets less than $ 75k a year, depending on rank. When the government farms out, which it does quite excessively to private mercenaries, oh I mean military contractors, their guys get around $ 200k a year each. Of course their employers, the private companies hired by Uncle Sam, like Eric Prince’s (formerly called Blackwater), get tens ofmillions of our tax dollars. Then we have the nearly 1,000 military bases in over 100 countries, with powerful WMD at their disposal, that cost we taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to operate. And they actually have the audacity to ask the question of those citizens of these countries: “Why do you hate us?”
Listening to the local Orlando NPR station Sunday morning in my car (which I renamed National Propaganda Radio, serving the empire so well) they had a segment about some poor working stiff. It seems that public transit in the area where he lives does not go to the nearby town where he works. The gist of the story was that the guy is a low level worker, earning about $10 an hour. He has to take an UBER to and from work each day which costs him $30 a day. After taxes he is lucky to earn enough to barely survive. The reporter interviewed the official from the LINK public transportation authority about the lack of viable public transport. He gave the usual and most honest answer that there was NOT enough funding for this. Of course, the reporter and the official never dared mention why there is not enough funding for things like that. Remember the emergency management official during the Flint, Michigan, safe drinking water crisis, and what he answered during the congressional hearing? They asked him why nothing was done to get the citizens of Flint better drinking water and lead free water pipes, and he said, “We didn’t have the funds.” Not ONE of the two party congress people conducting the hearing EVER mentioned how we could have plenty of funding to address this problem: Cutting the obscene military spending and getting the hell out of the Middle East! Not one!
We have a scam perpetrated countless years ago by the super-rich who run things. They made sure that there would always be this Two Party/One Party system in place, making sure, by any means necessary, of keeping third party movements OUT of the process. So, they, the super-rich, separated into groups (and sometimes not even doing that) of their super rich compatriots, with one funding the Republicans and the other funding, the more ‘kinder and gentler’ Democrats. Since they have always owned and controlled the mainstream media, they made sure that we working stiffs were mesmerized into believing those fairy tales. It actually became a sense of pride for many working stiffs to boldly announce what affiliation they individually had, Republican or Democrat. Look at all the recent rancor that good and decent hard working Americans take part in over this con job. Sad. Meanwhile, the real empire of the super-rich continues with such draconian means of control . . . worldwide and domestically!
The ‘Trump Phenomena’ is another aspect of what many in the confidence game refer to as ‘The Long Con.’ The use of phony populism and misdirected national pride convinced so many working stiffs to get on board. In reality, and this is key, the only real reason why this man ever won was due to the disgraceful choice of the other party to run Mrs. Clinton. I joke with many friends by saying that if the Democrats ran Donald Duck they would have defeated Donald Trump! Still, the underling sad fact is that, once again, regardless of which of the two parties runs things, the obscene military spending and imperialist mindset still rules! When the cookie crumbles and we march into a new economic depression, even worse than the 2008 upheaval, we may face a terrible fascist revival here at home, echoing to a lesser extent what transpired in 1932 Germany. The only hope for we working stiffs is to realize that the same super rich who have always controlled us will welcome such a thing. Americans need to stop supporting political movements that are against their own interests.
Philip A Farruggio is a semi-retired baby boomer born and bred in blue collar Brooklyn, NY. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn longshoremen, and educated at ‘free tuition’ Brooklyn College, class of ’74. Philip has written over 300 columns since 2001 and his work is found on many fine progressive sites like World News Trust, Nation of Change, Information Clearinghouse, Intrepid Report, Sleuth Journal, Dandelion Salad, Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. He can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.
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The elephant is always in the room
Posted on June 27, 2017 by Philip A Farruggio
This writer has made it my main purpose, for 15 years now, to focus on the single most important issue destroying our nation’s economy. Yes, for those who read me frequently, it is this obscene military spending coupled with extreme militarism!
Unbeknown to most Americans, over half of our federal taxes goes directly or indirectly for military spending. To keep one soldier in Afghanistan, for example, for one year, costs us over one million dollars! The soldier gets less than $ 75k a year, depending on rank. When the government farms out, which it does quite excessively to private mercenaries, oh I mean military contractors, their guys get around $ 200k a year each. Of course their employers, the private companies hired by Uncle Sam, like Eric Prince’s (formerly called Blackwater), get tens of millions of our tax dollars. Then we have the nearly 1,000 military bases in over 100 countries, with powerful WMD at their disposal, that cost we taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to operate. And they actually have the audacity to ask the question of those citizens of these countries: “Why do you hate us?”
Listening to the local Orlando NPR station Sunday morning in my car (which I renamed National Propaganda Radio, serving the empire so well) they had a segment about some poor working stiff. It seems that public transit in the area where he lives does not go to the nearby town where he works. The gist of the story was that the guy is a low level worker, earning about $10 an hour. He has to take an UBER to and from work each day which costs him $30 a day. After taxes he is lucky to earn enough to barely survive. The reporter interviewed the official from the LINK public transportation authority about the lack of viable public transport. He gave the usual and most honest answer that there was NOT enough funding for this. Of course, the reporter and the official never dared mention why there is not enough funding for things like that. Remember the emergency management official during the Flint, Michigan, safe drinking water crisis, and what he answered during the congressional hearing? They asked him why nothing was done to get the citizens of Flint better drinking water and lead free water pipes, and he said, “We didn’t have the funds.” Not ONE of the two party congress people conducting the hearing EVER mentioned how we could have plenty of funding to address this problem: Cutting the obscene military spending and getting the hell out of the Middle East! Not one!
We have a scam perpetrated countless years ago by the super-rich who run things. They made sure that there would always be this Two Party/One Party system in place, making sure, by any means necessary, of keeping third party movements OUT of the process. So, they, the super-rich, separated into groups (and sometimes not even doing that) of their super rich compatriots, with one funding the Republicans and the other funding, the more ‘kinder and gentler’ Democrats. Since they have always owned and controlled the mainstream media, they made sure that we working stiffs were mesmerized into believing those fairy tales. It actually became a sense of pride for many working stiffs to boldly announce what affiliation they individually had, Republican or Democrat. Look at all the recent rancor that good and decent hard working Americans take part in over this con job. Sad. Meanwhile, the real empire of the super-rich continues with such draconian means of control . . . worldwide and domestically!
The ‘Trump Phenomena’ is another aspect of what many in the confidence game refer to as ‘The Long Con.’ The use of phony populism and misdirected national pride convinced so many working stiffs to get on board. In reality, and this is key, the only real reason why this man ever won was due to the disgraceful choice of the other party to run Mrs. Clinton. I joke with many friends by saying that if the Democrats ran Donald Duck they would have defeated Donald Trump! Still, the underling sad fact is that, once again, regardless of which of the two parties runs things, the obscene military spending and imperialist mindset still rules! When the cookie crumbles and we march into a new economic depression, even worse than the 2008 upheaval, we may face a terrible fascist revival here at home, echoing to a lesser extent what transpired in 1932 Germany. The only hope for we working stiffs is to realize that the same super rich who have always controlled us will welcome such a thing. Americans need to stop supporting political movements that are against their own interests.
Philip A Farruggio is a semi-retired baby boomer born and bred in blue collar Brooklyn, NY. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn longshoremen, and educated at ‘free tuition’ Brooklyn College, class of ’74. Philip has written over 300 columns since 2001 and his work is found on many fine progressive sites like World News Trust, Nation of Change, Information Clearinghouse, Intrepid Report, Sleuth Journal, Dandelion Salad, Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. He can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.