- CJ Hopkins: Trumpenstein Must Be Destroyed!
CJ Hopkins: Trumpenstein Must Be Destroyed!
Authored (satirically) by CJ Hopkins via The Unz Review,
So here we go. Like a 1960s straight-to-drive-in Hammer Film Production, the 2020 campaign season has begun. Dig into your bucket of popcorn, pop the flap on your box of Good & Plenty, turn off your mind, and enjoy the show. From the looks of the trailer, it’s going to be a doozy.
That’s right, folks, it’s the final installment of the popular Trumpenstein horror movie series, TRUMPENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED! It will be playing, more or less around the clock, on more or less every screen in existence, until November 3, 2020 … or until Trump takes that lonely walk across the White House lawn to the Marine One chopper and flies off to Mar-a-Lago in disgrace.
Here’s a quick recap of the series so far, for those who may be joining us late.
When we last saw Trumpenstein he was out on the balcony of the White House South Portico in his Brioni boxers, ripped to the gills on Diet Coke and bellowing like a bull elephant seal. Having narrowly survived the Resistance’s attempts to expose him as a Russian intelligence asset (and the reanimated corpse of Adolf Hitler), he was pounding his chest and hollering angry gibberish at the liberal media like the Humongous in the second Mad Max movie.
The liberal mob was standing around with their torches and pitchforks in a state of shock. Doctor Mueller, the “monster hunter,” had let Trumpenstein slip through his fingers. The supposedly ironclad case against him had turned out to be a bunch of lies made up by the Intelligence Community, the Democratic Party, and the corporate media.
Russiagate was officially dead. The President of the United States was not a Russian secret agent. No one was blackmailing anyone with a videotape of Romanian prostitutes peeing on a bed where Obama once slept. All that had happened was, millions of liberals had been subjected to the most elaborate psyop in the history of elaborate deep state psyops … which, ironically, had only further strengthened Trumpenstein, who was out there on the Portico balcony, shotgunning Diet Cokes with one hand and shaking his junk at the mob with the other.
It wasn’t looking so good for “democracy.”
Fortunately, even though Russiagate had blown up in the Resistance’s faces and Trumpenstein could no longer be painted as a traitorous Russian intelligence asset (or as Vladimir Putin’s homosexual lover), he was still the reanimated corpse of Hitler, so they went balls out on the fascism hysteria, which kept the Resistance alive through the summer.
Which was all they really needed to do. Because these last three years were basically just a warm-up for the main event, which was always scheduled to begin this autumn. Russiagate, Hitlergate, and all the rest of it … it was all just a prelude to these impeachment hearings, and to the mass hysteria surrounding same, which the global capitalist ruling classes, the Intelligence Community, and the corporate media will be barraging us with until November 2020.
The details don’t really matter that much. They were always going to impeach him for something, and they were always going to do it now, and throughout the 2020 campaign season.
You do not honestly believe they are going to let him serve a second term, do you? He took them by surprise in 2016. That isn’t going to happen again.
Seriously, take a moment and reflect on everything we’ve been subjected to since Hillary Clinton lost the election… the unmitigated insanity of it all.
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The Russiagate hysteria.
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The Russian hacker hysteria.
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The Russian Facebook mind-control hysteria.
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The Hitler hysteria.
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The mass fascism hysteria.
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The anti-Semitism hysteria.
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The concentration camp hysteria.
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The white supremacist terrorism hysteria.
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Russian spy whales.
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Perfume assassins.
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The endless stream of fabricated “news” stories pumped out by the corporate media.
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Best-selling books, based on nothing.
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Comedians singing hymns to former FBI directors on national television.
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Celebrities demanding CIA coups.
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Papers of record like The New York Times coordinating blatant propaganda campaigns.
The list goes on, and on, and on.
All of this because one billionaire ass clown won an election without their permission?
No, this was never just about Donald Trump, repulsive and corrupt as the man may be. The stakes have always been much higher than that. What we’ve witnessed over the the last three years (and what is about to reach its apogee) is a global capitalist counter-insurgency, the goal of which is:
(a) to put down the ongoing populist rebellion throughout the West,
and (b) to crush any hope of resistance to the hegemony of global capitalism … in other words, a War on Populism.
Not that Donald Trump is a populist hero. Far from it. Trump is a narcissistic clown. He has always been a narcissistic clown. All he really cares about is seeing his face on television and plastering his name on everything in sight, preferably in huge gold letters. He got himself elected president by being cunning enough to recognize and ride the tsunami of populist anger that was building up in 2016, and that has continued to build throughout his presidency. It is not going away, that anger. The Western masses are no more thrilled about the global capitalist future today than they were when voted for Brexit, and Trump, and various other “populist” and reactionary figures.
Which is precisely why Trumpenstein must be destroyed, and why Brexit must not be allowed to happen … or, if it does, why the people of the United Kingdom must be mercilessly punished. It is also why the Gilets Jaunes are being brutally repressed by the French police, and disappeared by the corporate media (while the Hong Kong protesters garner daily headlines), and why Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party must be smeared as a hive of anti-Semites, and Tulsi Gabbard as an Assad-apologist, and why Julian Assange must be smeared and destroyed, and why Bernie Sanders must also be destroyed, and why anyone of any ilk (left, right, it doesn’t matter) riding that wave of populist anger or challenging the hegemony of global capitalism and its psychotic, smiley-face ideology in any other way must be destroyed.
2020 is for all the marbles.
The global capitalist ruling classes either crush this ongoing populist insurgency or… God knows where we go from here. Try to see it through their eyes for a moment. Picture four more years of Trump … second-term Trump … Trump unleashed. Do you really believe they’re going to let that happen, that they are going to permit this populist insurgency to continue for another four years?
They are not.
What they are going to do is use all their power to destroy the monster … not Trump the man, but Trump the symbol. They are going to drown us in impeachment minutiae, drip, drip, drip, for the next twelve months. The liberal corporate media are going to go full-Goebbels. They are going to whip up so much mass hysteria that people won’t be able to think. They are going to pit us one against the other, and force us onto one or the other side of a simulated conflict (Democracy versus the Putin-Nazis) to keep us from perceiving the actual conflict (Global Capitalism versus Populism). They are going to bring us to the brink of civil war in order to prevent civil war. And, if that doesn’t work, and Trump gets reelected (or if it looks like he’s going to get reelected), they’ll probably have to just go ahead and kill him.
One way or another, this is it. This is the part where the global capitalist ruling classes teach us all a lesson. The lesson they intend to teach us is the same old lesson that masters have been teaching slaves since the dawn of slavery.
The lesson is, “abandon hope.”
The lesson is, “resistance is futile.”
The lesson is, “shut up, eat your tofu, get back to work at your three gig jobs, service your school loans and your credit card debt, vote for who and what we tell you, and be grateful we don’t fucking kill you. Oh, yeah … and if you want to rebel against something, feel free to take up identity politics, or to march around town with posters of Saint Greta demanding that we stop destroying the planet. We’ll get right on that, don’t you worry.”
What? You thought this had a happy ending, that Trumpenstein and the Bride of Trumpenstein were going to ride off into the orange sunrise at Mar-a-Lago in a Trump-branded golf cart, having made America great again … or that Bernie was going to storm the castle, vanquish Trumpenstein, and set up something resembling basic social democracy?
I told you it was a horror film, didn’t I?
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C. J. Hopkins is an award-winning American playwright, novelist and political satirist based in Berlin. His plays are published by Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) and Broadway Play Publishing (USA). His debut novel, ZONE 23, is published by Snoggsworthy, Swaine & Cormorant Paperbacks. He can be reached at cjhopkins.com or consentfactory.org.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/04/2019 – 23:45 -
- Democrats Supoena White House For Ukraine Documents
Democrats Supoena White House For Ukraine Documents
Just one day after President Trump dared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold an impeachment inquiry vote – a move which would open Democrats up to Republican subpoenas, House Democrats slapped the White House with a subpoena first.
Addressed to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, the subpoena demands documents and communications related to the case being constructed against Trump – namely that his request that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son for corruption constitutes election interference and endangered national security. Of note, the Justice Department concluded that Trump’s phone call with Zelensky did not violate campaign finance law.
How the White House, which has routinely rejected congressional requests for information, responds to the demands for documents could significantly shape the impeachment investigation going forward. Under normal circumstances, the White House could claim materials referred to in both requests were privileged, using that as a defense in court. –New York Times
What Democrats aren’t pursuing, by the by, is anything resembling due diligence on Biden – the (still) leading Democratic candidate trying to fend off accusations of nepotism in Ukraine and China while abusing his office as Vice President.
BREAKING: House Democrats subpoena the White House for Ukraine-related documents amid rapidly intensifying impeachment inquiry. https://t.co/zIJgKuNUbO pic.twitter.com/moEaVzSGlB
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) October 4, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
As we noted earlier Friday, Vice President Mike Pence was hit with a subpoena as well over, demanding information on “any role you may have played” in helping with the Ukraine effort against Biden.
Pence press secretary Katie Waldman said “given the scope, it does not appear to be a serious request but just another attempt by the ‘Do Nothing Democrats’ to call attention to their partisan impeachment.”
Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) have warned that failure to comply with subpoenas will be viewed as obstruction of Congress – which the Times says is “itself a potentially impeachable offense.”
“he White House has refused to engage with — or even respond to — multiple requests for documents from our Committees on a voluntary basis,” reads the subpoena, demanding information by October 15. “After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the president has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up.”
The actions came at the end of another day of fast-moving developments in the House impeachment investigation, which is centered on allegations that Mr. Trump and his administration worked to bend America’s diplomatic apparatus for his own political benefit.
Mr. Trump himself appeared resigned to the prospect that he would be impeached, and was gearing up for an epic political battle to defend himself, predicting the Democrat-led House would approve articles of impeachment against him and the Republican-controlled Senate would acquit him. –New York Times
“They’ll just get their people,” Trump said of the Democratic-controlled House. “They’re all in line. Because even though many of them don’t want to vote, they have no choice. They have to follow their leadership. And then we’ll get it to the Senate, and we’re going to win.”
Trump also huddled with House Republicans on a Friday conference call, defending his efforts in Ukraine and gathering support for the upcoming battle.
On Friday, the House Intelligence Committee questioned Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who first analyzed the whistleblower complaint by a CIA employee, on a recently altered form which allowed said whistleblower to provide second-hand information.
Congressional Democrats are also trying to use a trove of texts between American diplomats and a top Zelensky aid, which came from former US envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, following his Thursday closed-door testimony.
The ‘gotcha’ is a text from US diplomat to Ukraine William Taylor, who said in a Sept. 9 text message to US ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland: “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.“
To which Sondland replies “Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind,” adding “I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.”
The moral of the story; it’s OK for Joe Biden to have allegedly steered millions, if not billions of dollars towards his son Hunter and his associates by abusing his office as Vice President. It’s not ok to question it – and shouldn’t be investigated if it means exposing said (alleged) wrongdoing and ruining Biden’s chances in 2020.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/04/2019 – 23:19 - Western Zero-Sum Geopolitics Is A Dead-End
Western Zero-Sum Geopolitics Is A Dead-End
Via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
The US and its Western allies are creating more international tensions and instability in a futile bid to carve the globe into “spheres of interest” and “exclusivity”. That’s the way Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov views it, and few objective observers of international relations could disagree with his admonishment.
Russia’s top diplomat says the only way forward is for multilateralism to prevail and for all states to abide by the principles of the United Nations’ Charter, to which they are signatories.
A prime example of the destructive US-led Western policy is seen in the Persian Gulf where tensions have reached an explosive pitch which could trigger an all-out war across the Middle East, possibly embroiling the entire world.
There can be little doubt that the precarious situation in the Gulf is extant because of Washington’s irresponsible provocations towards Iran. The unilateral abrogation of the landmark 2015 nuclear accord by the Trump administration and the militarization of an already dominant US presence in the Gulf over recent months is a brazen case of Washington going it alone in contravention of international law and norms. (Alas, has the US ever been different?, one might demur.)
In its unilateral initiative, the US has cobbled together a clique of nations to support its presumed military right to act as a policeman in the Persian Gulf: Britain, Australia and Saudi Arabia have indicated they are willing to join a US “coalition” to purportedly safeguard “freedom of navigation” through the vital chokepoint in global oil trade.
Declared intentions aside, the problem is Washington’s attempt to demarcate a “sphere of influence” in the strategically important Middle East. No matter, it seems, that this action is seriously aggravating tensions and instability in the region. Iran has every right to protest what it sees as a US-led campaign of aggression, piled on top of Washington’s bad faith regarding the UN-endorsed nuclear accord.
However, by contrast, a viable way out of the dead-end that Washington’s policy of unilateralism has created is the formation of a multilateral naval security system, which involves all nations in the Persian Gulf, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and others. Extra-regional nations can also be involved, including China, India, Japan, the European Union, as well as Russia and the US.
Such a proposal has been submitted to the UN by Russia earlier this year. This week during a meeting with Sergei Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif gave his full support for such a multilateral security mechanism. The initiative is consistent with UN principles of respecting national sovereignties and non-aggression. It obviates the notion of nations presuming to have “spheres of influence”. The latter concept is a relic of colonialism and imperialism, and should be obsolete in today’s world.
Another contemporary example of destructive unilateralism is the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The country has been trapped in a nearly five-year war in which civilians in the eastern Donbass region have suffered greatly. Western governments and media accuse Russia of meddling in Ukraine. But the reality is that it was Washington and European states that interfered by illegally overthrowing an elected government in Kiev with a violent CIA-backed coup in February 2014.
Ukraine has been turned into a failed state because Washington and its Western allies wanted to impose a “sphere of influence” on Russia’s border.
It is patently obvious that such unilateral policy is a violation of international law and democratic principles. It is a criminal assertion of geopolitical “interests” and “objectives”. Moreover, such misconduct inevitably leads to a morass of conflict, destruction and immense human suffering.
The disgraceful irony is that while Russia is constantly accused, without evidence, of interfering in other countries, the abundant, irrefutable proof is the opposite: Washington and its Western allies have an incessant habit of violating and destabilizing nations and regions in presumed zero-sum geopolitical games.
For the sake of world peace and progressive development, all nations must adhere to the concept of multilateralism, mutual respect and genuine cooperation, free of stereotyping and demonizing others for propaganda gains.
The question is though:
can US corporate capitalism and its militarist machine abide by that reasonable, minimal demand for international cooperation?
If not, then the American political system and its coterie of Western minions are driving the world into an abysmal dead-end.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/04/2019 – 23:05 - How Vulnerable Are America's Power Grids?
How Vulnerable Are America’s Power Grids?
America’s electricity grid powers our lives, but, as The Epoch Times’ Chris Chappell points out, because it was never built with attacks in mind, it has plenty of vulnerabilities.
Everything from malware cyber-attacks, to geomagnetic storms, to nuclear detonations in the atmosphere above the US, even sophisticated electronic weapons from Russia and China – all these threaten to shut down our grid and sow chaos.
So what, if anything, is being done to counter this threat?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/04/2019 – 22:45 - Military Keynesianism Marches On
Military Keynesianism Marches On
Authored by Joan Roelofs via Counterpunch.org,
Our elected representatives do not have to be bribed with campaign contributions from weapons makers to support the Department of Defense budget. They may, shockingly, be representing our nation. Australian political scientist David T. Smith states: “The National Security State maintains democratic legitimacy because of the way it disperses public and private benefits while shielding ordinary Americans from the true costs of high-tech warfare.”
Some support for our military’s activities and its budget can be attributed to propaganda, or veteran nostalgia, or the glorification of violence in our history books, schools, and patriotic parades. In addition, a multitude of interests sustains the military and its budget, and encourages silence about its activities.
The “free enterprise” economy, although always government supported, has been increasingly weakened by foreign competition, outsourcing, automation, consumer satiation, rustbelting, poverty, and demographic changes. A “mixed economy” then fills the breach. Public-private entities in the form of local economic development councils have been created because the “free enterprise dynamic system” can do “everything better,” (so its advocates claim), except keep the economy going. Capitalism must be saved by massive national, state, and local government investment and intervention in education, research, health care, highways and other infrastructure, transportation, agriculture, urban planning, environmental remediation, social services, recreation, business incubators, prisons, and much else.
“Military Keynesianism” is a major part of our “Blood Red” New Deal; some of its practices recall the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s. (Not coincidently, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Bonneville Power project served munitions production, and later, at Oak Ridge and Hanford, supported the enormous energy that nuclear fuel required.)
Unfortunately, the mission of the US military, according to its Defense Strategy Review is to “build a more lethal force” and “With our allies and partners, we will challenge competitors by maneuvering them into unfavorable positions, frustrating their efforts, precluding their options while expanding our own, and forcing them to confront conflict under adverse conditions.”
Our military is not particularly concerned with the welfare of persons or the environment, nationally or internationally. Its strategy does not propose using cooperation, diplomacy, or international law to reduce the threat to human civilization. Do not think that I come to praise this state of affairs; I come to bury it. But first we must see what sustains our Romanesque empire.
Certainly DoD contracts with weapons makers and their subcontracts provide a sharp economic stimulus. (Lobbying and excessive weapons acquisition is a gigantic part of the problem, but as the subject has been well covered in CounterPunch, Center for Defense Information, Center for International Policy, TomDispatch, and other sources, that aspect will have only a brief mention here.)
The NH Business Review reported that: “In New Hampshire, the F-35 program supports 55 suppliers – 35 of which are small businesses – and over 900 direct jobs, much of them located at BAE Systems in Nashua. The F-35 program generates over $481 million in economic impact in the state” (9-21-17). In contrast to the widespread urban decay in the US, “Nashua is the best place to live in New Hampshire, according to a new survey. Money Magazine said it selected the ‘charming’ Gate City for the top spot due to its ‘up-and-coming’ downtown, recreation options and proximity to Boston” (1-17-18). The city of Nashua’s website informs us that BAE is the largest employer in the city, and in addition: “A total of 130 defense contractors were awarded contracts between 2000 and 2012, which is indicative of how robust the defense industry has become in Nashua.”
The New York Times reported that unlike many rustbelt cities, St. Cloud, MN “sustained its prosperity through a mix of the right investments, favorable geography and sheer serendipity.” It did not mention the bevy of military contracts in the area; a filtered search by zip code + Department of Defense in usaspending.gov explained the anomaly.
Rebecca Thorpe’s book, The American Warfare State: The Domestic Politics of Military Spending, relates that after WW II many rural and semirural areas became economically dependent on defense spending; their representatives filled the bill regardless of an absent or negative national security impact.
The juicy profits create oases of civilized existence in terms of social services, education, and the arts. Their lucrative investment returns enrich many museums, charitable institutions, churches, and public workers’ pension funds. Contractor philanthropy supports the arts, education, and environmental and social justice efforts.
Weapons are just one part of the picture; construction, technology, cybersecurity, and intelligence firms also secure huge contracts. Logistics represent a large chunk of the budget: food, transport, janitorial, guarding, and others. For example, DoD contracts for janitorial services, clothing, and furniture with Goodwill Industries, Lighthouse for the Blind, and other nonprofit corporations employing disabled people, veterans, and people with chronic difficulty finding work. These form a significant part of the lowest income working class, and are similar to jobs programs of the depression-era Works Progress Administration. As Nancy Rose explains in Put to Work, our government back then also used contractors, including for-profit businesses, as administrators.
The DoD’s landscaping and environmental remediation needs provide work for businesses such as Environmental Alternatives, Inc. in Swanzey, NH, which provides nuclear decontamination. In addition, enormous contracts and grants are awarded to The Nature Conservancy and other nonprofit environmental organizations for services that include preventing encroachment near bombing ranges. Trout Unlimited also gets hooked into the picture.
Support or silence for militarism is purchased by every kind of thing the military establishment needs: daycare, velcro, textbooks, conference hotels, safer cribs for family housing, microwave ovens, et al. In 2018 The New York Times noted that Granite Industries of Vermont in Barre “makes 3,500 to 4,000 headstones a year for Arlington [National Cemetery]—a steady line of business in a town that has seen its stonework fortunes decline over time.” Nick Turse’s fine book, The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, includes many more examples.
Research funds go to industry, think tanks, hospitals, medical institutes, and universities. All types of science and technology research is DoD supported; Silicon Valley is an outgrowth of this command economy. Social scientists are not neglected; for example, anthropologists were used to create the controversial Human Terrain System. The Minerva Research Initiative funds political scientists; a recent study asks: “How do citizens within countries hosting U.S. military personnel view that presence?” and concludes: “We find that contact with U.S. military personnel or the receipt of economic benefits from the U.S. presence increases support for the U.S. presence, people, and government.” That may very well be the case, but one wishes for an investigation funded by a neutral sponsor.
There has been fine reporting on problems and protests at overseas and US colony bases: books such as Gerson and Birchard, The Sun Never Sets; Lutz, The Bases of Empire; Vine, Base Nation; Turse’s article, “Bases, Bases, Everywhere… Except in the Pentagon’s Report;” and the video, Standing Army. However, a comprehensive and objective study of the political, cultural, and economic impact of occupation entities would require funding that is rarely available to those without ties to the national security state.
In addition to the bases, military contracts, including weapon parts, bioweapons research, and intelligence, have been outsourced throughout the world; thus we also export military Keynesianism. Construction firms employing US personnel, locals, and third country workers provide economic stimulus both over here and over there. The new NATO headquarters in Brussels, costing over a billion dollars, is a symbol of the capitalist democracies “command economies,” now with satellites under the “Uranium Curtain.”
In the US, the national security state apparatus goes far beyond the DoD. The Departments of Energy, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security are obviously involved; Agriculture, Commerce, State, Interior, and others also get into the act. The Department of State coordinates overseas military training, which is required for all purchasers of weapons. Its most recent report indicates that in “Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, approximately 78,700 students from 155 countries participated in training.” In addition to direct aid and warfare “fairs,” the generous financing of foreign sales boosts contractor profits. Offshoring of supposedly obsolete weapons enables Congress to fund the next best lethal thing.
To insure a steady priming of the pump, there are organizations of contractor lobbyists, such as the National Defense Industrial Association, with chapters in most states.
One of the most militant is the Washington [state] Military Alliance; its membership includes industries and most of the state’s local economic development councils. It is supported both by the state and funds from the DoD (give those who lobby you a leg up). Washington state government also has a Military Department. The state is heavily militarized already, including the notorious Hanford site, but it wants these benefits to keep coming.
Economic stimulation, with its silencing effect, does not radiate solely from contractor locales. There is the military establishment itself. Estimated current personnel is 1.4 million active duty, 800,000 reserve and national guard, and 750,000 civilian employees. Veterans, numbering about 18 million, are prominent in businesses, nonprofits, and elected and appointed government positions. There is a large array of patriotic and veterans organizations, most of which, but not all (for example, Veterans for Peace) banging the drum for militarism. In addition to the traditional membership groups such as the American Legion, there are now many created by foundations and the DoD itself to assist in transition to civilian life. Some urge retired officers to seek leadership of nonprofit organizations; others convert “Troops to Teachers,” or with the Student Conservation Association, to careers in conservation. There is also one, the Armed Services Arts Partnership, for training as a stand-up comedian.
Educational institutes of the military exist far beyond the service academies. The National Defense University system has more than 150 components, including the Naval War College, the University of Health Sciences, and the Defense Acquisition University. Many of these, as well as the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation (formerly known as School of the Americas at Fort Benning, GA) and the US Army JFK Special Warfare Center and School in Ft. Bragg, NC, also train foreign military and civilians.
Much training occurs overseas, through the State Department’s International Military Education and Training (IMET) program or in institutes such as the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany or the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
The land-grant universities were always intended to include military research and training. Private institutions, such as Norwich University in Vermont, are also major military training centers. A ranking of the 100 most militarized universities in the US includes many of our distinguished institutions as well as some that are mostly distance learning and primarily feeders for national security agencies. In addition to research contracts, universities with ROTC (reserve officer training corps) programs receive DoD funding.
More than 3,000 U.S. high schools (and some junior high schools) have Junior ROTC programs. DoD funding can make a significant difference in these districts and permit clean and sharp facilities that contrast with poorly funded local schools. Chicago has 6 public high schools that are military academies; all students must be in JROTC. Often parents who are not particularly interested in the military aspect may nevertheless enroll their children in the newer and more disciplined academies. Not too many of these children end up as military officers, but all JROTC instruction has a military perspective.
The Army Corps of Engineers, also part of the DoD budget, entail vast expenditures for recreational sites, water projects, and military related construction. Throughout the nation there are ACE created and maintained places like the one near me:
Otter Brook Lake offers many recreational opportunities that everyone can enjoy. It offers a picnic area with 90 tables and 55 fireplace grills; swimming on a 400-foot-long beach; a boat ramp; boating for canoes, rowboats, sailboats, and motorboats (no wake); and sanitary facilities. During the winter, visitors enjoy cross-country skiing, ice fishing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling.
Military bases in the United States and “territories” are significant hubs of economic stimulation. The most recent Base Structure Report lists 4,150 sites within the US, and 111 in territories, but not all are substantial bases. Of the 368 sites listed for California (which has the most bases), about 47 are considered major bases.
The US mainland has the largest military bases in the world, some like small or medium size cities. The largest of all is Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, which has been excellently portrayed by anthropologist Catherine Lutz in Homefront. Other giants are Fort Hood, TX; Fort Benning, GA; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA; and Fort Campbell, KY. Some bases are villages with bombing ranges or seaside training areas. Among the 4,000+ DoD sites are listening posts, drone bases, armories, medical centers, educational institutes, recruiting stations, etc., but there are probably more than 400 bases with substantial acreage and personnel.
One way that communities near bases have increased prosperity is through DoD contracts for operating elementary and high schools for base children; administrative costs are included. This is especially welcome to poor school districts, but the 1% is not neglected. The Town of Lincoln, Massachusetts, has a 2 year $32 million contract to run Hanscom Air Force Base schools. Hanscom, despite its location near a superwealthy part of the country, is a superfund site. The military is an equal opportunity polluter.
Many personnel live off base, and that benefits real estate sales and rentals, and hotel-motel chains, which offer housekeeping suites specifically for military families. Military personnel and civilian employees are customers for car rentals, supermarkets, restaurants, entertainment, Walmarts—the whole suburban mall scene. These businesses along with museums and recreational and historical sites, have ads on the bases’ websites.
Base expansion and construction is itself a boon to local real estate interests. Frequent improvements to buildings, technical capacity, and measures against encroachments to bombing ranges also require expenditures, often massive, that benefit local as well as multinational corporations. For example, upgrades for cyber warfare at the Buckley AFB in Aurora, Colorado, part of the Air Force Space Command, have entailed many billions worth of contracts for weapons, technology, and construction companies.
Team Buckley strives to be bold information technology investors who shape operations in, through and from cyberspace. Our emphasis is toward functioning and fighting as cyber warriors, defending our networks and core missions from attacks and preparing for offensive operations to execute when appropriate authorities direct.
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, another city-sized base in North Carolina, has “11 miles of amphibious operations beachfront.” The Student Conservation Association has recently been awarded a $13 million DoD grant for conservation assistance, with a special concern for the protection of endangered sea turtles.
Closed and shrunk bases, often superfund sites, are still economic hubs. For one thing, the cleanup crews will be there for decades, and they also require local goods and services. Although billions have already been spent on base cleanup, the Government Accountability Office warns that much more must be spent to deal with “emerging contaminants.”
New Boston Air Force Station, N.H, near my home, is a former bombing range and a superfund site. Now it is a more compact remote tracking station. The Air Force has determined that it has been cleaned up and currently offers much of its 2,600 acres for camping and recreational activities (for those with a military connection). It has 50 campsites, four ponds, and equipment rental including skis, snowboards, poles, boots, snowmobiles, popup trailers, kayaks, canoes and boats. Pease Air Force Base, another NH superfund site, was officially closed in 1991. Part of it is now an Air National Guard Base, while some of the area designated clean is a civilian commercial center.
Upgraded, downgraded, or degraded, military sites have economic significance. The most unlikely tourist attraction is Hanford Nuclear Site, a decommissioned nuclear fuel production facility operated by the Department of Energy. Currently, the DOE
“offers a variety of tours of the Hanford Site focusing on Hanford’s environmental cleanup mission. Hanford Site tours provide visitors the opportunity for a firsthand look at the progress of our environmental cleanup efforts, projects and facility operations.”
If you are hotfooting it to Richland, WA for one of these tours, you are required to wear closed-toe shoes.
Elected and appointed government officials, at all levels, and local economic development councils, are aware of the vital impact of the military budget, which often clouds their thoughts on the lethal activities that it supports. Even citizens with no direct connection to contracts, bases, contractor philanthropy, veterans’ benefits, et al, understand that without these their area might be a notch away from rustbelt status. Young people in many normal US towns see a military career as an alternative to a dead-end job. Retirees living a quiet life note the job opportunities for their children in military-related work, whether they are disabled, mechanics, environmentalists, scientists, or perhaps entertainers or artists in a charming city of weapons contractors.
Yet this military economic salvation promotes Scarred Lands, Wounded Lives, as in the film of that name. The National Priorities Project and others have determined that government funding supporting the well-being of humans and the environment would have greater economic benefit, without the destruction of whole countries as well as our own land and people.
How to make the change is the question; the problem is gigantic. It may be that our Romanesque empire is also a Greek tragedy. The ancient Athenian (semi)democracy was likewise influenced by propaganda and economic benefits. It voted for war, a likely destroyer of the Athenian experiment. Perhaps democracy—even the best of them are now increasingly militarized—is too much shaped by propaganda and majorities with benefits.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/04/2019 – 22:25 - This Is How Self-Driving Cars "See" The World
This Is How Self-Driving Cars “See” The World
Modern cars bear little resemblance to their early ancestors, but the basic action of steering a vehicle has always remained the same. Whether you’re behind the wheel of a Tesla or a vintage Model T, turning the wheel dictates the direction of movement. However, as Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley details below, this simple premise, which places humans at the center of control, may be ripe for disruption as tech giants and car companies race toward a future that would render human-controlled vehicles obsolete.
How does this next generation of self-driving cars “see” the road? Today’s video from TED-Ed explains one of the mind-bending innovations making autonomous vehicles a reality.
Eye of the Laser
Safely getting a vehicle and its passengers from point A to B is no simple matter.
First, weather and time of day can create a wide variety of challenging situations, affecting things like visibility, braking distances, or speed. Next, other vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians are constantly moving through the transportation network, sometimes in unpredictable ways. To further complicate matters, the road network is rarely in optimum form. Road lines fade and construction can throw ambiguous detours into the mix.
Sensing and analyzing the world at a granular level is crucial in making self-driving cars a viable transportation option. To solve this problem, new generations of autonomous vehicles are using photonic integrated circuits, as well as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to generate an extremely nuanced picture of the road ahead.
How self-driving cars see the world. (Source: Hesai)
LiDAR – which is related to RADAR – uses short laser pulses to sense the depth and shape of objects. Essentially, scattered bursts reflect off objects around the vehicle, painting a detailed 3D picture of its surroundings. LiDAR’s depth resolution is so accurate that it could eventually see details at the millimeter scale.
A Dissenting Opinion
While most companies in the autonomous vehicle space have fully embraced LiDAR, Tesla has a divergent point of view. The company employs a combination of GPS, cameras, and other sensors to help its cars visualize the world.
LiDAR is a fool’s errand. Anyone relying on LiDAR is doomed.
– Elon Musk
Society and Self-Driving Cars
While companies like Uber and Waymo determine the functional mechanics of self-driving cars, the rest of society is left to ponder how this new technology will affect employment, privacy, and personal autonomy.
In the U.S., more than 70% of goods are moved by truck, and over 80% of commuters take a private vehicle to work on any given day. Even partial automation of the nation’s transportation network will have wide-sweeping impacts on the economy.
As AI-powered cars and trucks hit the streets at scale, how cars see the road will be a detail most of us will overlook. The bigger question will be whether we are ready for a society where we’re no longer in the driver’s seat.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/04/2019 – 22:05 - Elizabeth Warren Fires National Organizing Director Over "Inappropriate Behavior"
Elizabeth Warren Fires National Organizing Director Over “Inappropriate Behavior”
The Elizabeth Warren campaign has fired its national organizing director, Rich McDaniel, over allegations of “inappropriate behavior,” according to Politico.
“Over the past two weeks, senior campaign leadership received multiple complaints regarding inappropriate behavior by Rich McDaniel,” said Warren spokesperson Kristen Orthman.
“Over the same time period, the campaign retained outside counsel to conduct an investigation. Based on the results of the investigation, the campaign determined that his reported conduct was inconsistent with its values and that he could not be a part of the campaign moving forward.”
A person familiar with the investigation said that there were no reports of sexual assault, but could not comment further due to confidentiality. The investigation was conducted by attorney Kate Kimpel and her firm KK Advising, according to the person. –Politico
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/04/2019 – 21:48 - Salesforce CEO: "I Strongly Believe That Capitalism As We Know It Is Dead"
Salesforce CEO: “I Strongly Believe That Capitalism As We Know It Is Dead”
During a ‘fireside chat’ in front of a packed audience at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, Salesforce founder and Time Magazine owner Marc Benioff shared his thoughts on a range of issues, including the important role public markets play in “cleansing” companies of “all of the bad stuff that they have” (for those who followed the WeWork imbroglio, this ought to make sense), and, more broadly, the future of American capitalism.
The TechCrunch event, which, after being immortalized by the Show “Silicon Valley”, has become an annual must-attend summit for all of the power players and wannabes in the Bay Area tech scene, typically hosts big-name speakers. And Benioff was no exception. Speakers are encouraged to be candid, and the Salesforce impresario didn’t hold back, it appears.
Speaking about the importance of public markets, Benioff said the “great reckoning” that public markets provide is a critical step for young companies.
“What public markets do is indeed the great reckoning. But it cleanses [a] company of all of the bad stuff that they have.”
Benioff cited WeWork and Uber as examples of companies that could have benefited from an earlier public offering.
“I can’t believe this is the way they were running internally in all of these cases,” Benioff said. “They are staying private way too long.”
Benioff added that “trust” is the most important value for an entrepreneur.
“If the highest value [you anchor your company around] isn’t trust, then every key stakeholder – your employees, your customers and your investors – will walk out,” Benioff said.
Soon, Benioff moved on to an even weightier subject: The destiny of American capitalism. To which Benioff insisted that capitalism in the US is “under siege”, and that corporate stakeholders are beginning to wake up and realize that corporations should be responsible for more than simply generating profits for their shareholders.
Benioff’s comments come as several high-profile business leaders and financiers have assailed American capitalism and discussed the need for combating economic inequality.
We can now add Benioff’s inflammatory comment about capitalism to the growing list of soundbites.
“I really strongly believe that capitalism as we know it is dead… that we’re going to see a new kind of capitalism and that new kind of capitalism that’s going to emerge is not the Milton Friedman capitalism that’s just about making money,” said Benioff. “And if your orientation is just about making money, I don’t think you’re going to hang out very long as a CEO or a founder of a company.”
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, one of the wealthiest men in the country, has made similar remarks in the past. But in a LinkedIn post published this week, Dalio warned that the dynamics driving markets today are similar to what drove markets during the last great downturn in the 1930s – a theory that Dalio hasn’t shied away from sharing over the past couple of years.
Watch a clip from Benioff’s talk below:
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/04/2019 – 21:39 - Bernie Sanders Released From Hospital After Suffering Heart Attack
Bernie Sanders Released From Hospital After Suffering Heart Attack
On Wednesday, Bernie Sanders’ presidential nomination odds tumbled after what appeared to be an unfortunate event: his campaign said he was undergoing artery blockage surgery after Bernie suffered “chest discomfort” on Tuesday night and was found to have a blockage in one artery, after which he had two stents inserted. His campaign also said events are canceled “until further notice.”
It is also unfortunate that his campaign appears to have embellished the 78-year-old Bernie’s health just a little, and according to a statement released late on Friday, the Vermont senator left a Las Vegas hospital days after the Democratic presidential candidate suffered what his physicians later confirmed was a heart attack.
Sanders’s campaign released a statement from two physicians who said he had been diagnosed with a “myocardial infarction,” more commonly known as a heart attack.
“After presenting to an outside facility with chest pain, Sen. Sanders was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction. He was immediately transferred to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center,” treating physicians Arturo E. Marchand Jr. and Arjun Gururaj said in the statement Friday.
“His hospital course was uneventful with good expected progress. He was discharged with instructions to follow up with his personal physician,” they added.
As previously reported, Sanders had two stents placed in a blocked coronary artery. He was spotted waving at cameras when leaving the Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center, with his campaign releasing a statement from the Vermont senator thanking doctors and staff for treating him.
“I want to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff at the Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center for the excellent care that they provided. After two and a half days in the hospital, I feel great, and after taking a short time off, I look forward to getting back to work,” he said.
In a video posted later on Twitter, Sanders talked about leaving the hospital, saying, “I’m feeling so much better.”
“I just want to thank all of you for the love and warm wishes that you sent me. See you soon on the camping trail,” he said.
Hello everybody! We’re in Las Vegas. I’m feeling so much better.
Thank you for all of the love and warm wishes that you sent me.
See you soon on the campaign trail. pic.twitter.com/nk3wWIAuE7
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 5, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Sanders’s wife, Jane Sanders, said the Democratic presidential candidate was expected to return home to Burlington, Vt., by the end of the weekend after undergoing the heart procedure. The campaign said Wednesday that Sanders’s campaign events and appearances would be canceled until further notice but confirmed to The Hill on Thursday that he will participate in the next Democratic debate on Oct. 15.
News of Sanders’s hospitalization put a new spotlight on the issue of age in the presidential race. Sanders has regularly polled among the top three contenders in the Democratic primary, with all of the candidates in their 70s. Former Vice President Joe Biden is 76 and Sen. Elizabeth Warren is 70. All of the Democrats are seeking the opportunity to go head-to-head next year against President Trump, who is 73.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/04/2019 – 21:35
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