James Fallows: Chickenhawk Nation

Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Officers Call
James Fallows
James Fallows

The Tragedy of the American Military

The American public and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which careless spending and strategic folly combine to lure America into endless wars it can’t win.

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SchwartzReport: 66 Out of 17,000 Lawyers Own the Supreme Court of the USA

Corruption, Government
Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

One of the trends that concerns me the most is the corruption of the American judiciary. As empires decay, whether Roman, Burmese, or American one of the processes the failing empire goes through is that their permanent civil service structure becomes increasingly a shop closed to all but a few with special access. This article is lengthy but it spells out as I have seen it no where else what is happening to the American Supreme Court. It is not a reassuring picture.

At America’s court of last resort, a handful of lawyers now dominates the docket

SchwartzReport: US Fossil Fuel Industry: $721M to Bribe Congress; $4.8B in Subsidies (ROI), $271B in Profit

05 Energy, Commerce, Corruption, Government
Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

This is how you buy the government of the United States. You say, “$721 million is a lot of money.” I respond it is a cost of business item. Fossil fuel companies operating in the U.S. and Canada made $271 billion dollars in profit in 2012, while continuing to receive billions in subsidies. As of April 14, 2014 , according to Mother Jones, “Taxpayers currently subsidize the oil industry by as much as $4.8 billion a year, with about half of that going to the big five oil companies—ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, and ConocoPhillips.” So let me see. They spent $721 million to buy the government; they got $4.8 billion in subsidies. And the conclusion is: You and I paid the fossil fuel companies through subsidies, money which they metaphorically in turn used to buy the government so that it operates responsive to their interests, rather than the interests of the citizens who paid the taxes. What a deal.

The Fossil Fuel Industry Spent More Than $721 Million During 2014’s Midterm Elections

Pierre Cloutier: Inside ISIS – What CIA Does Not Know and the West Refuses to Understand + Legitimate Grievances

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call
Pierre Cloutier
Pierre Cloutier

Et tu, Brute?

Inside Isis: The first Western journalist ever given access to the ‘Islamic State' has just returned – and this is what he discovered

EXTRACT

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Reflections on Killing Cops – The Canary Dies Too

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, All Reflections & Story Boards, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement, Officers Call
Robert David STEELE Vivas
Robert David STEELE Vivas

Killing Cops – The Canary Dies Too

http://tinyurl.com/dead-cop-dead-canary

I am troubled by the platitudes and ignorance surrounding the murder of two New York police officers. I am a son of New York and my uncle was a member of the Nassau County police force back in the day when non-judicial punishment kept people out of jail and got them back on track with tough love.

The death of these two officers is the equivalent of the canary in the coal mine dying. They have died because the USA is on the verge of a revolution. Apart from concentrated wealth, loss of faith in government, and tens of millions of unemployed college graduates, we have an unemployment rate closer to 22.4% (see ShadowStats), with 22 veterans committing suicide every single day.

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SchwartzReport: Will Marijuana Challenge Destroy the GOP and the Supreme Court in One Go?

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Law Enforcement
Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

It is driving the rightist prohibitionists crazy that none of the dire predictions they made about ending Marijuana prohibition have come to pass. In fact the outcomes have been the exact opposite to what they said would happen. So now they are trying to get the conservative majority on the Supreme Court to reverse what the people themselves voted for. It is not clear how this will play out but it has the potential to create a massive crisis of governance.

GOP attorneys general ask Supreme Court to strike down legal marijuana in Colorado

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