#Defense Budget

[plasmalink]

Proposal for military spending

any time budget is spent on stuff that happens outside your country, that's called offense budget instead of defense budget

[davidzoltan]

Governor Tim Walz, I am proud of you for raising such a clearly loving and passionate son. He has done proud by you, but I am sorry that his disability has been used as a weapon against others, especially by those that aren't as interested in charting an equitable future for him and all his disabled colleagues, myself included, around the country.

Vice President Kamala Harris, your campaign and those in the party you now, by default, lead, have put a young man with at least one disability central to your attacks on our mutual enemies, and yet the policies in your speech last week do not reflect disability justice.

For starters, the only explicit policy you mentioned that touches on the needs of disabled people are "protecting Social Security and Medicare". We don't need it protected. We need it expanded. We need to be making explicit that equity for disabled people means lifting the tax cap on Social Security completely and instituting a progressive Social Security tax. That expansion of income must then be used to ensure a Living Wage For Social Security rather than keeping us in abject poverty. Also, ending policies that result in well over four in five applications for SSDI to need to go through a lengthy and draining appeal process.

It also means backing Improved Medicare For All. If you aren't willing to extend that far, then at the very least, it is time to introduce a public option to ensure that we are able to expand benefits through a larger insurance pool including more benefits for disabled folks, control prescription and other medical prices for more people, and bring us another step closer to universal coverage.

Next, it should go without saying that any policy that needlessly increases the likelihood of creating disabilities for people is ableist from the start. That means a more hawkish war footing is counter to disability justice. We already have the most lethal fighting force in the world many times over. If the military were a tenth of its size, it would still be the most lethal even then while also greatly expanding available funding for programs that help every American, disabled folks included.

And in the specific, you must impose an arms embargo on Israel to stop the genocide in Gaza. I'd go a step further and demand that you also impose a funding embargo as funding a genocide is hardly any better than enabling one with weaponry. We have all seen the reports and the tragic media that show the Palestinians disabled by Israeli forces using American weapons. And as a Jew as well as a disabled American, I say not in my name.

And that's just to speak to top level of items in your speech. There needs to be an entire disability justice analysis of the platform you're still writing and a disability justice plank as part of that platform.

I hope you will listen. I am forced to vote for you right now as the alternative would literally either kill me or force me to flee the country. But I currently have none of the joy that your campaign seeks to create. I volunteer my labor often (because I can't be hired by any campaign lest I put the very federal and state benefits that keep me alive in danger), and I would be willing to discuss with your team further so that hopefully we can seek a better path forward together.

But for now, the least you owe Tim's son and every disabled person that has seen themselves in the mouths of Democrats everywhere without supporting our needs is to show solidarity with us in the days to November 5th.

[acnewsworld]

The United States is embarking on a $1.7 trillion, three-decade-long plan to modernize and expand its nuclear arsenal, after a long post-Cold War halt on new nuclear arms development, according to a New York Times report by W.J. Hennigan.

This costly program, already over budget and behind schedule, is largely a response to rising nuclear activity by Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. However.....

Read More

[demontruth]

I was this many days old when I figured out why the US spends 13.3% of our federal budget on defense or, in easier terms, $820 billion.

It's simple we're the world's police force and military. It's true we all know it. We may not acknowledge it or like it, but we know it. The UN is famous for sending the US to conflicts all over the world. I remember clearly as kid asking my mom why they did that. There was no answer forthcoming, and that was in the 80s. But the Smurfs love calling us in because of weapon strength. Have US aircraft carrier just roll into neutral water that just happens to be off whatever small country shores that UN is having issues with. Well that usually enough of warning to get that country to knock their shit off. There was always a convenient excuse as to why the US aircraft carrier just happened to be here.

It's the same with the US getting involved in conflicts in Vietnam, Korea, Cambodia, Laos and rest of that area. They did exactly the same thing in South America in the 80s, and before the 80s. In South America alone the US interfering started decades before.

Question becomes do we still need to spend that much on defense? Would we be better if the US stayed out of other countries' conflicts? What if the US had stayed out of other countries' conflicts of the past, would the world be a safer place now? How would some of those conflicts turned out? What if the US refused the UN to basically be the world's police and military from get go? What do think the world would be like now because of that decision?

[rivage-seulm]

Regime Change in the U.S.: A Taste of Our Own Medicine

 I’ve given up on the United States. It’s irreformable. It’s a failed state. Think about it.  As things stand, the U.S. can do nothing but fight wars, close borders, impose sanctions, and fight meaningless culture wars. And even at that, despite the more than $2 billion it spends on “defense” each day, our country can’t win its forever wars. It lost in Vietnam, in Iraq, and Afghanistan. It’s in…

[anarchyroll]

The Defense #Budget is Morally Offensive

“They got money for war, but can’t feed the poor” Tupac Shakur Anytime I mention the >$845 billion annual budget for the Military Industrial Complex I am always greeted by either confusion, deflection or anger. Anger is the one that gives me that kind of self mutilating joy. Such sadness and disappointment at my fellow human that they feel the need to take up verbal defense of an entity that…

[falseandrealultravival]

PHILIPMORRIS PURPLE

I recently left the company I worked for seven years. Because I was treated unreasonably, I didn't hand over an important job. Naturally.

While I was at this company, I mostly smoked Indonesian cigarettes "FORTE" (460 yen). It was hard but short, and even so, I divided it into two times and smoked it using a pipe.

As expected, Japan's stupid prime minister: Fumio Kishida raises the price of cigarettes in order to increase the defense budget from the people. Then "FORTE" becomes 500 yen per box. That's double what it was at the beginning of sales.

When I was considering other cigarettes, I left the company. Currently, I decided on "PHILIPMORRIS PURPLE" for 430 yen. It seems to be sold only in Japan. It smells good.From USA.

It would be a reward for leaving the company.

私は、最近、７年間務めてきた会社を辞めた。理不尽な扱いをされたからだ、重要な仕事の引継ぎなんかしてやらなかった。当然である。

この会社にいた間、私はだいたいインドネシアタバコの「FORTE」（４６０円）を吸っていた。硬いが短くて、それでも２回に分けてキセルも使って吸っていた。

さすがに、日本のバカ首相：岸田文雄が、防衛費を国民からふんだくるため、タバコを値上げする。すると「FORTE」はひと箱５００円になる。販売開始当初の倍だ。

これでは堪らぬ、と、私が他のタバコを検討していたところ、会社を御出た。現在は４３０円の「PHILIPMORRIS PURPLE」に決めた。日本だけで売っているそうである。香りが良い。アメリカ産。

会社を辞めた褒美だろう。

(2023.06.13)

[pumpacti0n]

Renegade Cut - Don't Join The Military

[bitcoinversus]

'Put it on The Ledger': Pentagon Fails 7th Annual Financial Audit

Pentagon Audit Results 📟 7 Accurate: Unmodified opinions confirm reliability. 1 Qualified Opinion: Minor exceptions noted. 21 Unverified: Disclaimers issued for lack of evidence.

The United States Department of Defense has failed its annual financial audit for the seventh consecutive year, unable to fully account for its $824 billion budget. The audit, conducted by independent auditors, revealed that the Pentagon could not provide sufficient financial data to support a clean opinion, highlighting ongoing challenges in financial management and accountability. Comptroller…

[trendynewsnow]

Advice for the Next President: Navigating a Divided Nation

Dear President-elect __________, This column must be published before the results of Tuesday’s election are known, so I’ll have to fill in your name later. My apologies for that — but there’s no need to worry. Whether it’s President-elect Harris or President-elect Trump, the advice I offer will serve either of you equally well. First and foremost, you owe your victory as much, if not more, to…

[smalltofedsblog]

The Road To A $1 Trillion U.S. Defense Budget

A trillion here and a trillion there. Pretty soon, you are talking about…a big problem in the projected defense budget cost in the coming year and even more.

[theweeklyshowwithjonstewart]

Military Force or Diplomacy?

If you only invest in buying a hammer, does everything start looking like a nail? Jon Stewart questions America's militarized approach to diplomacy.

The Military Industrial Complexity

On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, we reflect on how the US military saved democracy from fascism. This week, as the Senate marks up next year’s defense spending bill, Jon Stewart sits down with Bill Hartung of the Quincy Institute and Roxana Tiron of Bloomberg to investigate whether our arsenal is still bolstering democracy, both abroad and at home. From the active conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza to our rivalry with China, we explore the efficacy of US strategy. Plus, we dive deep into the ballooning defense budget and discuss Jon’s attempts to shine a light on it all.

[govtshutdown]

Here's your FY2025 Defense Appropriations Act

[ivygorgon]

Please cut wasteful Pentagon spending now!

AN OPEN LETTER to THE PRESIDENT & U.S. CONGRESS

887 so far! Help us get to 1,000 signers!

I am a constituent who believes the failure to control wasteful Pentagon spending makes it harder to meet our country’s needs. The U.S. spends more on the military than any other country in the world, yet we repeatedly fail to spend the required amount of funds on food, housing, health care, and education that our communities need.

Recently, the DoD failed its audit for the sixth time in a row when it failed to account for $1.9 trillion―half its $3.8 trillion budget.

The Department of Defense is the only federal agency that has never passed a full audit and they didn’t even complete audits until 2018.

As your constituent, I am asking you to cut wasteful Defense spending in FY 2025 government funding bills.

Federal dollars that go to wasteful Department of Defense contracts are funds that do not go to meet human needs. One-third to one-half of the Pentagon budget goes to corporate military contractors that drastically price gouge the DoD by as much as 40%.

Trillions of dollars spent―and unaccounted for―undermine our security by preventing us from investing in the shared prosperity that comes from more housing, climate and public health protections, ending hunger, and more education.

Please cut wasteful Pentagon spending and invest that money in vulnerable communities.

▶ Created on April 22 by Jess Craven · 886 signers in the past 7 days

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