Military Industrial Congressional Complex
  Flows of money and patronage within a closed-loop,
  stable system independent of outside forces:

  Derived from the work of Chuck Spinney, Chet Richards, Seymour Melman, Ismael Hossein-Zadeh and others.

Self-Licking

Ice Cream Cone

The voting patterns of politicians in Congress may be predicted by a Venn diagram with two circles. The issues where republicans and democrats align against each other are generally lesser issues. On the issue of the global military empire, they always vote together.

For example, since the early 1800s, the US government has cooperated with leading bankers and financial companies to maintain a monopoly over the creation of money and credit, and operation of the banking system, without which it is impossible for people to conduct transactions in the economy itself.

The two parties in Congress have never failed to unite in maintaining the flow of material resources to the Pentagon.  Military funding has never been defeated since the imperial impulse became ingrained in US politics in the 1890s.  Imperialism has been discredited for a few years after the Philippines, Cuba, WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam but the public quickly forgets.  Imperialism has generally re-emerged after each episode. 

Like a wild horse being tamed, like a 200 pound marlin, at the end of a 12 pound fishing line...  Time and persistence.  They defeat us.  We are too stupid.

Control over the information commons took hold during the 1920s and 30s with the privatization of radio spectrum.  They took over the telephone as well.  The goals of rent-seekers coincided with the goals of those seeking political and economic dominance, to control what is said over telecommunications networks and mass media.  The obvious goal in the maintenance of state propaganda is transfer of wealth to its architects and operators.  Chomsky has illustrated this, brilliantly in films such as Manufacturing Consent. Listen also to TUCradio.org

So, whenever Congress considers legislation about the banking system, the media, or radio spectrum or media licensing are considered, the debate is in closed session or off campus.  It consists of "educating" straying lawmakers into compliance with the empire.  There is never a public question or debate, since the very act of discussing them might result in more people understanding that empire-by-force is not in our best interests.  even by the best of the politicians, the occasional Byrd or the McDermott, can't seem to resist the drug.

There is stunning, paralyzing groupthink in our community as well as the NY-WashDC crowd.  It's natural that people continue accepting beliefs, even when provably wrong, when it appears almost everybody else believes them.

There really are only a few issues that matter: cutting the funding for the pentagon is above all other issues in Congress. And enforcing the laws that *already exist* 

All issues other than the global military empire are by definition, lesser issues, since those who control the empire will of course, exert that power for some things. Which things? Whose things? The things of greater importance to them, which is, adverse to our interests.

The question is, whose Maslows' hierarchy of needs will be maximized by US Policy? 

Whose Maslows' hierarchy is being maximized?  The answer
is self-evident by the continual concentration of wealth in 
the U.S.    The rich have become much richer, since the 1960s.

A word about class war.  The class of all wealthy is defined as those with annual incomes over $1 million.  The class of "us" is defined as those with annual incomes below average.  The core of "us" is those with incomes below the poverty level.  That would be me.

The apparatus of them, the money power, controls when where and how the military and police systems are used. The apparatus is outside the government and nominally regulated and subordinated to government power. However, it is also true that the "economic system" governs the government, thru the "democratic process". Obviously you have vast corruption and influence over elections thru campaign finance, media, and financial collaborations and patronage. 

Once you've created a military and police state as extensive as the US, you don't have a democratic process for how it is used. And once it destroys all of its rivals and opponents in the world, once you have a global monopoly on power, there are no limits on its behavior at all. . So, this beast keeps the people happy, puts sports arenas, megachurches and NASCAR tracks in every town, and a chicken in every pot-- so easily -- with our own labor -- and keeps the excess for itself. 

Todd