War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
From long ago, and not-so-surprisingly far, far away: Defense Secretary McElroy said after a conference with President Eisenhower Friday that the Pentagon would have “a pretty rough time” trying to avoid a military spending increase staring July 1. McElroy ruled out any increase totaling as much as two billion dollars in excess of the estimated…
(Illustration found here via Google Images). The current US political scene sucks through an extremely-thin straw, making it hard to swallow a possible federal government shut-down this Friday (tomorrow!). In my humble estimation, there’s never been a more nasty, chaotic mess than DC right now, and the real losers are the ordinary, rank-and-file US peoples…
An example of the fiscal foolishness of war. From Stars and Stripes: The Air Force secretary says the service has been spending about $4 million a day to keep 50 fighter jets and nearly 40 support aircraft in the Libya conflict, including the cost of munitions. Secretary Michael Donley tells reporters that the Air Force…
An interesting post from Australian writer on peak oil, Cameron Leckie, on the most-interesting concept of catabolic collapse, and how this view of the inevitable failure of complex systems affects/effects our current world — a most intricate, interconnected, and near-fragile-to-the-touch world. Leckie examines employment and how the world’s work force will shift from techno to…
As these modern times gets more complicated, the ability of government to stare way-down into your bowels to catch a terrorist turd has come a long way, baby, and the future of freedom doesn’t appear too inconspicuous, either. In fact, any private aspect of our daily lives is open to be scrutinized, filmed, recorded and…
Unlike many other countries on the planet, at least the ones who claim some form of freedom, a great obstacle facing US peoples is not the economy (though, it is terrible), nature or even some horrific wars, but the heartless, self-centered shitheads to the right of the political center. Yeah, that’s right, Republicans, Tea Baggers,…
Surrealism is alive and well in Japan. Early Wednesday, according to CNN, Japanese authorities found traces of radiation in tap water in Fukushima city, 50 miles from the nuclear plant at Daiichi — odd, however, a check of tap water later in the day found nothing. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Astronomy and Space Science Institute reported…
“When you stretch the truth, watch out for the snapback.“ – Bill Copeland (Illustration found here). In an interview Tuesday in the New York Times, David Petraeus blew smoke up the ass of history, a procedure that the good general is most good: “The momentum of the Taliban has been halted in much of the country…
Don’t we all like surprises: In a move unexpected — after a visit just two weeks ago with the same crowd — US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will pop over to Germany today and then back to DC again for a quick few hours in way-deep discussions on “the global economic outlook and progress on…
What the shit is the US doing, thinking? Even after nearly a decade on the ground in Afghanistan, the war there has gone beyond insane. (Illustration found here). Warfare should have at least some semblance of sense, though, the horror of it stretches one’s mind, but the main objective, one would think, would be to…