I have been following America’s economics concerning what Eisenhower accurately described as the military-industrial complex. As Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in World War II, he saw the birth of this trend and the creation of the beast that is consuming our culture. Can you imagine what could have been done to upgrade every aspect of America, if some of that money consumed by the war corporations had been made available elsewhere?
Have you noticed any other country in the world that is so constantly at war somewhere in the world as the United States? Do you know that we spend more on this complex than the next seven nations combined? And please do not misunderstand me, I support what we are doing in the Ukraine, and only wish we had done it all sooner. It would have made a difference. And please note that unlike a dozen other struggles we are not fighting in the Ukraine, we are supplying.
The current Pentagon budget is the biggest arms expenditure in world history. Credit: Adobe
On June 3rd, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that lifted the government’s debt ceiling and capped some categories of government spending. The big winner was — surprise, surprise! — the Pentagon.
Congress spared military-related programs any cuts while freezing all other categories of discretionary spending at the fiscal year 2023 level (except support for veterans). Indeed, lawmakers set the budget for the Pentagon and for other national security programs like nuclear-related work developing nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy at the level requested in the administration’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal — a 3.3% increase in military spending to a whopping total of $886 billion. Consider that preferential treatment of the first order and, mind you, for the only government agency that’s failed to pass a single financial audit!
Even so, that $886 billion hike in Pentagon and related spending is likely to prove just a floor, […]
Most of the concern has been focused on coastal cities like San Francisco and Seattle, which have seen the usual stream of commuters shrink to a trickle due to remote work’s hold on the white-collar workforce. But Midwestern cities are also facing a crisis of their own — struggling to attract workers, residents, and visitors to their downtowns. And while many coastal metros experienced a “golden age” in the decade before the pandemic, cities in America’s heartland have been struggling since well before COVID came around.
In order to pull out of their tailspin, economists and urban planners say many Midwestern cities need to get serious about improving amenities and boosting quality of life in their downtowns. Instead of being places where […]
David Badash, Staff Writer - AlterNet / The New Civil Rights Movement
Stephan:
A new story about more corruption involving the Rightwing justices on the Supreme Court. I think it is very important that you note that all of this amazing corruption involves only the MAGAt justices, who clearly see themselves in a special category above the law. And what is happening about this? Nothing. The MAGAts, with the help of Leonard Leo and The Federalist society have completely corrupted the Supreme Court.
Associate Justice MAGAt Samuel Alito Credit: via marketplace.org.
Another U.S. Supreme Court scandal is brewing in the wake of alleged corruption involving nearly every conservative member of the current Roberts Court, or their spouse.
The wife of Justice Samuel Alito leased a 160-acre Oklahoma property to an oil and gas firm while her husband wrote the recent majority opinion greatly restricting the work the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is allowed to do. Should that land produce oil and gas, Martha Ann Bomgardner Alito would earn just under a quarter of all revenue from that property, The Intercept reports.
“Last year, before the lease was activated, a line in Alito’s financial disclosures labeled ‘mineral interests’ was valued between $100,001 and $250,000. If extraction on the plot proves fruitful, the lease dictates that Citizen Energy will pay Alito’s wife 3/16ths of all the money it makes from oil and gas sales,” according to The Intercept. “Because Citizen Energy III isn’t implicated in any cases before the Supreme Court, Alito’s holding in […]
Jesse Eisinger and Stephen Engelberg, Senior Editor | Editor-in-Chief - ProPublica
Stephan:
Associate Justice Samuel Alito has always struck me as a sanctimonious, smug self-righteous man more interested in advancing his ideological views rather serving justice. I hadn’t realized how corrupt he was. But like Chief Justice Roberts, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, it has now been proven they all lack appropriate ethical standards. And I ask again, what is to be done. I think that will only be determined by the outcome of the 2024 election.
Photo illustration by ProPublica
Around midday on Friday, June 16, ProPublica reporters Justin Elliott and Josh Kaplan sent an email to Patricia McCabe, the Supreme Court’s spokesperson, with questions for Justice Samuel Alito about a forthcoming story on his fishing trip to Alaska with a hedge fund billionaire.
Fifteen minutes later, McCabe called the reporters. It was an unusual moment in our dealings with the high court’s press office, the first time any of its public information officers had spoken directly with the ProPublica journalists in the many months we have spent looking into the justices’ ethics and conduct. When we sent detailed questions to the court for our stories on Justice Clarence Thomas, McCabe responded with an email that said they had been passed on to the justice. There was no further word from her before those stories appeared, not even a statement that Thomas would have no comment.
The conversation about Alito was brisk and professional. McCabe said she had noticed a formatting issue with an email, and the reporters agreed to resend the 18 questions in a […]
I told you this was coming, and now it is here. If you are a pregnant woman in the United States, you are well-advised to be careful as to which states you travel in. Welcome to America.
A pregnant woman in distress Credit: Shutterstock
Planned Parenthood officials in Tennessee issued a severe warning for pregnant people not to travel to the state.
The warning came one year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights. Tennessee passed a near-total abortion ban, with scant exceptions for ectopic and molar pregnancies. An abortion can also be performed to save the mother’s life in some cases.
Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and Northern Mississippi, told the Tennessee Lookout that Tennessee is now ‘more dangerous and more deadly’ for pregnant people.
“One year ago, Tennessee faced an instant health emergency for pregnant people when we became a forced birth state,” Coffield said. “It is more dangerous and more deadly to be pregnant in Tennessee… If you’re pregnant, you shouldn’t travel here. If you live here, you might have to travel out of state for life-saving care.”
She predicted a battle for other rights in Tennessee.
“The government seizure of bodily autonomy is bigger than abortion,” she said, pointing out that state lawmakers are already […]
