Humor of recklessly pointing a gun at one's own skull — and pulling its trigger — the House of Representatives passed the $778 billion National Defense Authorization Act

09 December 2021

I have addressed this subject before . . .

. . . but Stephen Miles' articulate summary caught my eye, today:

In bipartisan fashion, the US House of Representatives late Tuesday passed a sprawling military policy bill that contains nearly twice as much funding on an annual basis as Democrats’ flagship social spending and climate bill.

That reality led Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, to slam the $778 billion National Defense Authorization Act as “a reckless misuse of resources, a windfall for war profiteers, and proof positive that most in Congress have little concern for the actual security of people in the United States or around the world.”

“Little could be more revealing of our nation’s broken budget priorities . . . than the fact that this rubberstamp of three-quarters of a trillion dollars for warmaking was prioritized and will soon pass with bipartisan support, while the Build Back Better Act—which would invest in meeting real human needs—has been watered down and pushed to the back burner.”

The House passed the NDAA Tuesday night by a vote of 363-70, with the measure ultimately receiving more votes from Republicans than Democrats even though the latter control the chamber and led negotiations over the bill.

In a tweet explaining his vote against the NDAA, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) wrote that[:]

“[I]t is astounding how quickly Congress moves weapons but we can’t ensure housing, care, and justice for our veterans, nor invest in robust jobs programs for districts like mine.”

On this topic, you may recall . . .

. . . former Air Force Lt. Colonel William Astore's recent conclusion about the status of American 'religion':

Who is America’s god?

America’s true god is a deity of wrath, whose keenest followers profit mightily from war and see such gains as virtuous, while its most militant disciples, a crew of losing generals and failed Washington officials, routinely employ murderous violence across the globe.

Yes, the Pentagon is America’s true god.

How else, if not religious belief, to explain this, despite the Pentagod’s prodigal $8 trillion wars over the last two decades that ended so disastrously?

How else to account for future budget projections showing that all-American deity getting another $8 trillion or so over the next decade, even as the political parties fight like rabid dogs over roughly 15% of that figure for much-needed domestic improvements?

Prefabricated war is how the Pentagod has ruled for so endlessly long. There is, as a start, the fabrication of false causes for war.

War is prefabricated on 750 military bases scattered across the globe on every continent except Antarctica, in America’s giant arms corporations like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon, and by Special Operations forces that act much like the Jesuits of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, spreading the one true faith to 150 countries.

Repetitive — cold, dead and slimy — fish-blows to the head

I find myself unable to avoid the practice of reminding folks what a toxically malevolent bunch of idiots 'we' are consorting with. The magnitude of our national psychosis is — as anyone, who has eyes connected to a functioning mind, can see — staggering.

Especially considering that this amount — which actually escalates itself to at least one trillion dollars annually — when concealed defense amounts are included — is presumably necessary to:

counter Russia — an economically almost-negligible nation that is preeminently focused on preventing more the same existential attacks that it has experienced in the past

combat China — a nation that is almost exclusively focused on economic self-improvement and widened economic influence internationally

frighten Iran — a nation trying to offset expansionist (and America-puppeteering) Israel with Iran's army of only very mild regional worth

as well as

tussle with essentially tribal bands of Muslim patriots — who are almost entirely armed with AK-47s, home-made bombs and crude (very short-range) missiles.

Sun Tzu would laugh . . .

. . . at the United States' wildly deluded, insanely disproportionate response to the above-listed non-threats.

Indeed, Mr. Tzu would point out that investing domestically is the only way to successfully counter China's economic competition. Instead, we have sent what was once quality American manufacturing almost completely broad. And resorted to an artificially fed Military Industrial Complex to prop up our increasingly hollow husk.

Out-sourcing and self-blood-draining is not a sound plan for strength-preservation. Not even, if America had no adversaries at all.

The moral? — We are, apparently, 'gonna' warmonger for corporate profit . . .

. . . until America's Fat Cats have completely drained the American Carcass.

Achieving such a pathetic end state is not a historically mandated accompaniment to national aging. Instead, it is an indication of exceptional levels of national Greed and Lunacy.

Of course, none of the above criticisms will change anything — given the fact that virtually the entirety of the American public has given itself over to fear and being parasitized. That, after all, is what Corporatist Establishment Propaganda is for.

When we eventually do wink over into History's Great Beyond — let us remind our collected carcasses about why our 'trips' there (a hallucinogenic pun) were so short.

Stupidity has its price.

Rationality will not blame Russians, Chinese folk, Iranians and Muslim 'insurgents' for the self-destruction problems that we created for ourselves.

National suicide is internal.

PeteFree.com

Humor of recklessly pointing a gun at one's own skull — and pulling its trigger — the House of Representatives passed the $778 billion National Defense Authorization Act