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The Steady Rise in Living Standards

by | Dec 18, 2024 | ,

“The history of capitalism as it has operated in the last two hundred years in the realm of Western civilization is the record of a steady rise in the wage earners’ standard of living. The inherent mark of capitalism is that it is mass production for mass consumption directed by the most energetic and far-sighted individuals, unflaggingly aiming at improvement. Its driving force is the profit-motive the instrumentality of which forces the businessman constantly to provide the consumers with more, better, and cheaper amenities. An excess of profits over losses can appear only in a progressing economy and only to the extent to which the masses’ standard of living improves. Thus capitalism is the system under which the keenest and most agile minds are driven to promote to the best of their abilities the welfare of the laggard many.”

—Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Pentagon Acquisition: Rotten From Head to Toe

by | Dec 18, 2024 |

pentagon1

The pattern is a revolving door of deliberate insider trading and influence by hiring retiring flag officers with active Rolodexes to be exploited in bent bidding and shadowy acquisition practices in an already sclerotic and gummed-up acquisition system that can’t create working weapons systems at scale.

The flag officer cadre in America is a very exclusive club where you are a made man for life who can peddle your influence and your cache forever unless you screw up like the gentleman described below or slamming your man-rod in the cash register like GEN Petraeus at the CIA. On November 9, 2012, President Obama accepted Petraeus’ resignation as Director of the CIA, after Petraeus admitted having a sexual relationship with his biographer. On April 23, 2015, Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified materials in a sweetheart deal.

The indictment of four-star Navy Admiral Robert Burke on bribery charges late last month raised eyebrows about the extent of corruption in the Navy and beyond. The scheme was simple. Burke allegedly steered a $355,000 Pentagon contract to a small workforce training firm — described unhelpfully in the Justice Department’s description as “Company A.” Less than a year later he took a job at Company A in exchange for a $500,000 annual salary and 100,000 stock options.

***

In fact, this is, by far, the most common path for retired senior military officers. As a Quincy Institute analysis found, over 80% of four-star generals and admirals that have retired in the last five years (26 of 32) went on to work in the arms sector. In short, most retiring four-stars, like Burke, go on to lucrative positions in the arms industry. Unlike Burke, they follow the rules, so this is all perfectly legal corruption.

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Last, but certainly not least, there are the lobbyists. Last year alone, Pentagon contractors spent nearly $138 million on lobbying and had 905 lobbyists working on their behalf, according to OpenSecrets. That’s almost two lobbyists for every member of Congress, and more than 600 of them had gone through the revolving door —previously working at the Pentagon, Congress, or the Executive branch.

Read the whole thing:

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/navy-bribery-charges/

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The Business of America: War, War, War!

by | Dec 17, 2024 |

1024px fars photo of destruction in gaza strip during 2023 war 18

Sachs mentions Timber Sycamore which was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the CIA and supported by the United Kingdom and some Arab intelligence services, including Saudi intelligence. The aim of the program was to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power. CIA director David Petraeus first proposed a covert program of arming and training rebels in the summer of 2012. Initially, President Obama rejected the proposal, but later agreed, partially due to lobbying by foreign leaders, including from King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is the same “peace” President who expanded the anti-Shia crusade in both Syria and Yemen.

The conversation neglects one component to this puzzle: the long term Saudi Wahabbist Sunni objective (Wahhabism originated in the 18th century and is based on the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, a Hanbali cleric) has always been to maul and destroy the Shia Crescent in the Middle East. It is no mean coincidence that the areas in the Shia Crescent are Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, Yemen, and western Afghanistan. You will find that all of those countries are in civil conflict or significantly rubbled with the exception of Bahrain and Azerbaijan. I suspect that Azerbaijan is being spared because of the convenient distraction they provide against Russia in the continuing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. I suspect Bahrain will come into the cross-hairs of the axis once the remainder of the Shia Crescent is destroyed to the satisfaction of the American/Israeli foreign policy apparatus.

Until the American intelligence community and warfare state is brought to heel, the chaos avalanches of constant war will continue to decimate the globe. Again, the classification regime in the US is protecting a war-making capacity in the US that has been wreaking havoc on the globe since 1945.

The Israeli lobby is no doubt complicit in all of this loosely allied with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Keystone Kops root cause of all of this nonsense in the Middle East.

The US and the West have created these massive jihadist entropic ecosystems that over time will weaponize the disorder into strikes abroad in concert with internally in the countries themselves (or by extension, breathing oxygen on the regional conflict complex embers that idled for decades or centuries).

Israel and the US have no idea what they are stoking the flames for in future conflicts. A hint came in the ISIS crisis in Iraq in 2013 when the IS insurgency had escalated into a full-scale war as the group launched its 12-month campaign ‘Soldiers’ Harvest’ .

I frankly don’t think anyone in power in the US or Israel extrapolates the second and third order effects of fomenting civil war and domestic color revolutions in the Middle East.

Newton’s Third Law is a stone cold motherfucker and will emerge in a rage that will leave the world agog. Fragile systems will be shattered and so will nations.

I recommend this splendid interview, Sachs crafts a great explanatory framework that fills the gaps of what you won’t learn from the Coprophile Media.

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Mises on Wages under Capitalism

by | Dec 17, 2024 | ,

“While daily experience taught impressively that under capitalism real wage rates and the wage earners’ standard of living were steadily rising, while it became from day to day more obvious that the traditional walls separating the various strata of the population could no longer be preserved because the social improvement in the conditions of the industrial workers demolished the vested ideas of social rank and dignity, … doctrinaires announced that old customs and social convention determine the height of wage rates. Only people blinded by preconceived prejudices and party bias could resort to such an explanation in an age in which industry supplies the consumption of the masses again and again with new commodities hitherto unknown and makes accessible to the average worker satisfactions of which no king could dream in the past.”

—Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Anti-War Blog – Do They Really Know It’s Christmas?

Anti-War Blog – Do They Really Know It’s Christmas?

by | Dec 17, 2024 |

Every year as the end of December crawls near, the spirit of Christmas grips those sometimes Christians, even atheists join in and celebrate it as a cultural habit and the true believers further confirm their faith. The spirit of celebration is one of joy, community, family, love, a time to rejoice the birth of a God or son of one, or the one true King, the birth of Christ.

War has waged over this period, fought by those who call him their prince of peace, they chose the State and the profession of killing above their faith in God. In every other day of the year, such a faith is at peace with such killing and destruction, whether in his name or for whatever cause requires the slaughter of strangers. At Christmas, we are reminded about the importance of peace.

It’s around this time when we recall those moments in World War One when men of faith, far from home, exhausted, celebrated Christmas in it’s first year. On the Western Front most famously though in pockets in the East, men came together and shared moments where language was no barrier between brothers in different uniforms. In the years after, the wars beyond that 1914 Christmas such joy and commonality between man dissipated. But for that moment, those men chose peace and defied their orders, dismissed the State and celebrated their faith and love.

In the nations which claim to be secular, while also on occasion celebrating their Christian tendencies this time of year has politicians spitting out messages of joy and promises of welfare. Meanwhile arms will be sent to killers, those nations may also be active in the killing too. Killing and destroying, the reasons not even explained. It’s just war without reason or a need to address the public with any respect.

The public, media and even layers of government just accept that in some form a permanent war shall remain. Those nations will talk of Western values, some of their conservatives will even claim them to be a Christian nation but to those on the outside, in the frontiers where modern technology takes life in the ancient act of war, they have come to know such values and faith in a different light. It’s death, starvation, occupation, war, war and war. Not unique to such nations but the exceptionalism allows them to do it without end, nothing can stop them not their laws, conscience, or even claimed faith in a peaceful God.

As social media plays a moral tug of war over Lilly Phillips’ choice, where no victims are found those who proclaim faith and values are riled up with digital indignation. Judging, hating and shaming. That is what the God of their intuition would do. The soldiers who fought in the decades of war, are embraced as broken heroes, understood to have sinned and who deserve a salvation. Forgiven. Loved. Those doing the killing are suddenly non-moral actors, obediently helpless servants it seems. The leaders we are meant to blame. It’s as though for many the killing of any and all, is tolerable or at the very least a far less slight than an actress performing in sex acts.

A little boy Mohammad Saeed, unlikely to be a Christian, though in Gaza he suffers alongside many who are, used a roller blade to crawl across the ground to makeshift tents. Having had both of his legs taken by the killers in their war, the six-year old only knows the misery and the suffering that warfare brings with it. In Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Palestine others die, suffer and experience the wars that are inflicted on them.

I have seen accounts hiding behind traditional or orthodox imagery of faith, those claiming to uphold culture and proclaim whatever mythic virtues a redditor shared in meme form dismiss the suffering of such children. The Christ or God in their mind is hateful, angry, a deity of vengeance and genocide. As biblical as a compassionate and loving Christ is.

It’s unlikely that little Mohammad knows much about theology, or foreign policy for that matter in fact I suspect many of those who are killing and starving him and his community really do either. The killers follow orders, do so because they are paid or act out of hatred, full of chauvinistic pride that fuels a collective hate of the other, that’s biblical as well. For little Mohammad he adapts, lives and tries to live. With what little he has, he can only breathe in the dirt while his hand and the roller blade pull him further along so that he may find shelter in a tent that in time could be targeted by the professional killers of the IDF. The weapons sent by those in the USA who will celebrate Christmas with their families, bonus included.

I am sure we will all hear ‘Merry Christmas’ and maybe ‘Peace be with you.’ How many mean it, how sincere any of it is. How much love and care really is inside the hearts of those who only love a loving God every holiday season. Their true God is the State or at least money. Whatever they worship we only ever see through deed, actions and inaction the true belief.

As one who would be tarred with the label, ‘atheist’ the sentimentality of the season is a mixture of nostalgic and off putting. It is a beautiful time and one of sadness but as I get older, a little wariness of the insincerity. Is it loving to hate a child like Mohammad so much? Is it noble to endorse those and the very entities that would contribute to children like him losing life and limb? How much eggnog can wash away the guilt if any actually exists?

It should not take the festive season to reflect and contemplate peace. It should not take this time of year to make amends or to promise to be better, to do better. It should not take the voice of Bing Crosby to remind you not to be abusive to your or any family, the fabricated sounds of the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad singing Silent Night to think of the lonely soldiers far from home or the voices of carolling children to think of those ravaged by war.

Merry Christmas and may the God of your belief help you find peace with yourself and your neighbour. Set the example, inspire, be the good you want to see. There has to be a better world than the status quo, it’s hard to imagine that any deity who resides in the hearts of so many good people would want their followers to keep worshipping the killers like they do. God speed and peace to you all.

Winter Reading

by | Dec 16, 2024 |

Libertarian Institute Director Scott Horton’s new book is shaking things up and making a stir all at once. Provoked: How Washington Started The New Cold War With Russia And The Catastrophe In Ukraine is a read it and weep. Or, for the War Party hacks, don’t read it; just weep.

Provoked has been endorsed by former CIA officer and bestselling novelist Barry Eisler. You can read all about it in my latest Institute article.

Eisler, buy his own account, has published a novel that is very Horton-adjacent. The God’s Eye View is some kick-ass thriller fiction underpinned by Eisler’s real-world knowledge of “national security” shenanigans.

And like Horton, Eisler reads his own audio version of the book. So here’s what you do. Snag yourself a copy of Provoked, a copy of The God’s Eye View, and some Moon Does Artisan Coffee (the official coffee of the Scott Horton Show). Brew some coffee, pour yourself a mug, and enjoy the incredible pairing of Horton’s non-fiction and Eisler’s fiction. 

A Warhead That Could: The Extinction Event for Exquisite Military Platforms

by | Dec 16, 2024 |

oreshnik

Chalk up another crafty Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) to the Russian military.

I am hoping the West has noticed the game changer that a conventional warhead on hyper-sonic IRBMs and ICBMs has changed the balance of power in near peer and peer combat for the remainder of this century as exemplified by the Oreshnik attacks by the Russians.

This is a strategic decapitation weapons system that makes exquisite platforms like aircraft carriers and static land bases eminently targetable with no hope of defending against the incoming warheads.

Germany is too far gone to catch up and they have traditionally been the bleeding edge of any military innovations in the EU.

Unless an uncharacteristic miracle takes place in the US procurement and acquisition system, the US and the West is years behind. There is a slight chance a crash program to convert half of the current Minuteman III armory to conventional warheads which could fast-track the game changer but the arthritic and sclerotic history of American arms in the last half century turning on a dime to fight a future war instead of the last war is slim.

Germany’s inability to increase innovation and production is emblematic of the entire West.

Take a listen to my latest WarNotes Episode 005 where I discuss nuclear weapons in the 21st century published this morning.

Kiel Institute Report:

War is back in Europe and as it becomes long-lasting, the question of armament gains central importance. This report finds that Russian military industrial capacities have been rising strongly in the last two years, well beyond the levels of Russian material losses in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the build-up of German capacities is progressing slowly. We document Germany’s military procurement in a new Kiel Military Procurement Tracker and find that Germany did not meaningfully increase procurement in the one and a half years after February 2022, and only accelerated it in late 2023. Given Germany’s massive disarmament in the last decades and the current procurement speed, we find that for some key weapon systems, Germany will not attain 2004 levels of armament for about 100 years. When taking into account arms commitments to Ukraine, some German capacities are even falling. The new Tracker provides detailed information on quantities, value of the orders, predicted delivery dates, as well as the companies from which Germany procures. The situation of slow and insufficient procurement can and needs to be remedied. Failing on deterrence would mean a higher likelihood of a costly war. Instead of Germany pursuing a “war economy”, as some have argued, Germany’s defence budget needs to durably and credibly increase. Higher and credible long-term demand will lead to increasing supply capacities. A long-term European armament strategy is needed. Germany and Europe need to focus on speed in procurement, on cost effectiveness through economies of scale in an integrated European market, on innovation, and on technological superiority. Tracking military rearmament is essential to the security of the continent.

Fit for war in decades: Europe’s and Germany’s slow rearmament vis-a-vis Russia

You are living in historic times.

I urge you to watch the short video below.

HT to Millinneum 7:

Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me

Economics Is about Individual Choice

by | Dec 16, 2024 | ,

“The light which the economic theorist can throw on an economic process, or on the outcome of such a process, is viewed as deriving from his ability to relate back the process to the individual acts of choice of which the process is made up. Through the theorist’s understanding of the decisions made by individuals, and of the way in which these decisions have mutual impact upon one another, and become mutually adjusted to one another, he is able to ‘explain’ the course of economic events, and to understand the probable results that will follow from given exogenous changes operating on the system.” (Emphasis added.)

Israel M. Kirzner, An Essay on Capital, 1966

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