tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post771683514547341922..comments2024-03-28T16:08:29.578-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: Trump Admits Military Runs the Place, Deep State Panic EnsuesKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-14306346961505767652017-02-25T03:32:02.694-05:002017-02-25T03:32:02.694-05:00Required reading about Trump's history:
https...Required reading about Trump's history:<br /><br />https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n04/sidney-blumenthal/a-short-history-of-the-trump-family?utm_source=LRB+online+email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20170214+online&utm_content=usca_subsact<br /><br />The brains and muscle around The Donald in an earlier day were Roy Cohen and the mob{s} along the east coast. Cohen has gone to his reward, but the mobsters are still around. That wasn't so bad as long as The Donald's Empire was held more or less in check by serial bankruptcies, high society's disdain and occasional settlements with federal prosecutors.<br /><br />What's so different today is that the big brash baby described in Blumenthal's piece is now in charge of another empire, which includes the Justice Department, the Pentagon and the nuclear codes, among other toys. No wonder a few people in the know, both in the Dark State and broad daylight, are so busy undermining him by whatever means available.<br />Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-66821696035046943582017-02-24T18:52:04.186-05:002017-02-24T18:52:04.186-05:00Way off topic, but this news alert just came in: ...Way off topic, but this news alert just came in: CNN, the NYTimes and Politico were barred from the West Wing today when Press Secretary Sean Spicer was giving a scheduled press briefing.<br /><br />Forgive my laughter. Of course, such disrespect of the top media by the Trump Administration is utterly indefensible, but it's another reason why I find some of Trump's moves so winning. Sure to be front page in the Times Saturday morning. Trump plays them like a violin.Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-18955561166781549582017-02-24T17:34:57.220-05:002017-02-24T17:34:57.220-05:00Btw, the Federal Government has had no problem exp...Btw, the Federal Government has had no problem exploiting those who enter illegally - they offer some citizenship in exchange for military service (infantry probably). <br /><br />As I mentioned in my previous comment, the new National Security Advisor, General McMaster, had some things to say about the MIC in 2015. Here are some excerpts. <br /><br />Tampa Bay Times<br />TBO.com: Tampa Bay Online.<br />Military News<br /><br />'General Dissects U.S. Approach to War in Speech at USF'<br /><br />By Howard Altman | Times Staff Writer <br />Published: April 8, 2015<br />Updated: April 9, 2015 at 07:27 AM<br /><br />TAMPA — Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who spends his days trying to figure out the future of conflict and has gained wide respect for speaking his mind, told an audience at the University of South Florida on Wednesday that the United States needs to do a better job of learning lessons and adapting because of its “narcissistic approach to war.”<br />...<br /><br />And, echoing outgoing President Dwight David Eisenhower’s farewell to the nation in 1961, McMaster urged renewed caution about the military-industrial complex and its influence on how America wages war.<br />...<br /><br />McMaster is no stranger to asking tough questions about U.S. military involvement. In 1997 he published “Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam.”<br />...<br /><br />Among other concerns, McMaster conjured up Eisenhower by saying “the military-industrial complex may represent a greater threat to us than at any time in history.”<br /><br />The reason, said McMaster, is the jockeying for defense dollars, which mean money for communities and thus gain political support from politicians in those communities.<br /><br />“And so where are these investments going in defense right now?” he asked. “They are going into areas that involve really big ticket items, that preserves the large capital transfer to defense industries and continue to bolster employment.”<br /><br />McMaster, who said he is “not criticizing any element of this,” added another element to think about.<br /><br />The military-industrial complex, he said, “involves increasingly as well think tanks, and when you see studies that are produced about the future of war or studies that are produced about certain aspects of defense strategy, you ought to look to see who is funding it.”<br /><br />Without naming names, McMaster ticked off a few case studies of why he believes the funding of think tanks matters.<br /><br />“There is a think tank now, for example, that’s about to publish a report on the future of the Army, and it’s bankrolled by a defense firm whose business model is the integration of high technology capabilities and selling them to the Department of Defense,” said McMaster. “What do you think that answer is going to be?”<br />...<br /><br />http://www.tbo.com/list/military-news/general-dissects-us-approach-to-war-in-speech-at-usf-20150408/?page=1annenigmanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-59482836615703327622017-02-24T17:15:39.056-05:002017-02-24T17:15:39.056-05:00Beware the Prison-Industrial Complex - the PIC. Th...Beware the Prison-Industrial Complex - the PIC. They and their Congressional partners-in-crime could become involved in a power struggle with Trump. He wants a military approach to the border, sealing it and removing those who come in illegally, while Congress and the PIC want a capitalist approach to the border - leave it porous so as to extract and exploit the human resources it provides. There are many benefits for them to maintaining an porous border providing an endless stream of detainees. It could become a real bonanza if they play their cards right. The Beast just keeps getting bigger and hungrier and it seems to always get fed by Congress. <br /><br />Trump's military strategy for a closed border just isn't the cash cow that can be milked for profits endlessly. IF/when a wall is actually built, that construction expense ends and so do the profits. But if it remains porous, it provides a steady stream of people who, even if they choose to appeal their removal, need to be housed/detained for years as their case is adjudicated. There's money to be spread far and wide by letting them 'sneak' through those steel pilings deliberately spaced so only that the able-bodied can get over or through them. Let them in! Ka-ching! <br /> <br />The Military faction of the MIC, on the other hand, is relatively principled - it serves to protect and defend the nation. War profiteering Capitalists have managed to subvert many of the higher ranks in the Military, but even so, they're still more likely to stand with Trump to prioritize sealing the border to prevent entry. Btw, the new National Security Advisor, Gen'l McMaster, has some interesting things to say about the MIC and names it as such. I may add them to another comment. <br /><br />Customs and Border Patrol is being beefed up to handle those who are already here, but if the border stays porous, they will become an army of hunters for the private prison industry where detainees may end up leased to corporations for slave labor as prisoners are now - see link below. <br /><br />Consider two recent developments: Jeff Sessions' recent suspension of the Obama (belated) directive to curb DOJ use of private prisons, and Trump's tariff pressure to bring jobs back home from slave wage countries American industry has relied on. Given that we've waged war to open markets to exploit slave wage rates, what's a Capitalist country to do? Welcome the slaves here! Better yet, make a place for them within the prison industrial complex. <br /><br />Here an article from 10 years ago I stumbled upon. The PIC is even bigger and more influential now. Money talks and Congress listens and acts. <br /><br />'The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?' <br /><br />"For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells."<br /><br />"At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more." <br /><br />http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289annenigmanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-20049228582429468832017-02-24T14:05:38.956-05:002017-02-24T14:05:38.956-05:00I have to admit as a Marxist I am against mass imm...I have to admit as a Marxist I am against mass immigration. It only exists because the ruling class wants it to. With a mass influx of slave labor, corporations can increase profits and depress wages in this country. Caesar Chavez also saw this scam and was opposed to illegal immigration.<br /><br />Wages in the computer science industry have also been flat for 30 years do to the influx of legal H1-B workers, there only to suppress wages and create a larger pool of the mass unemployed.<br /><br />That said, we need to lock up the capitalists that hire these workers and not persecute their already exploited workers.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12380051671633994366noreply@blogger.com