The Post-Partisan Emporium

William Hartung, Mission (Im)possible -- and You're Paying for It POSTED ON  FEBRUARY 3, 2022 (image by VOZ. Not a "waste"... just an investment without a positive return!) 2021 was another banner year for the military-industrial complex, as Congress signed off on a near-record  $778 billion  in spending for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy. That was  $25 billion  more than the Pentagon had even asked for. It can’t be emphasized enough just how many taxpayer dollars are now being  showered  on the Pentagon. That department’s astronomical budget adds up, for instance, to more than four times the  cost  of the most recent version of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which sparked such horrified opposition from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and other alleged fiscal conservatives. Naturally, they didn’t blink when it came to lavishing ever more taxpayer dollars on the military-industrial complex. Opposing Build Back Better whi

Sanity Beyond the Sloth Omar Khan Western democracies have beckoned many of us, both its citizens, and those who looked across the way at their shining, seemingly self-evident example of relatively “enlightened” governance. Successful Asian powerhouses like Japan and Singapore, and of course Hong Kong (both Asia and Britain in many ways for so long), drew inspiration on how they should be structured, governed and led. Those in developing countries, or countries where authoritarianism held sway, pined for the rule of law, hoping their leadership might take a cue from Western role models, yearning for the tonic of good leadership and sound social structures, rather than continuing to suffer under corrupt, incompetent, misrule. And then these countries, unlike Western counterparts, had virtually no social safety nets. Progress, education, prosperity, safety and security, these were the enchantments portrayed across the world. How Superficial Was It All? Post COVID, and the fact-free, hyst