Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Securitism and Stealing

Last week, WNYC's Leonard Lopate interviewed James Risen on scams and fraudsters making millions off of "homeland security". The good folks at Crooks and Liars are covering the same territory. Simply put, there were a shitton of grifters, many of them well-connected, but some of them just Walter Mitty types who could spout a line of bullshit that impressed the dunderheads in the Bush Maladministration. Besides being a creepily Orwellian bureaucracy, the "Department of Homeland Security" (can we dissolve it already) was a West-West wonderland for yahoos with power-trip fantasies and for straight-up crooks, and for a third class of creep that were a combination of the two. The DHS hires seem to be even worse than the horse-fancying horse's ass who was tapped to lead FEMA (and who CNN saw fit to bring on to comment on the current Ebola situation). WTF, CNN?

The most damaging legacy of the Reagan administration was the complete denigration of government competence. Somehow, in the past forty-odd years, the American public was sold the notion that the private sector was better able to deliver goods and services than the public sector. Throughout the course of these past few decades, the American people have been transformed from citizens to consumers... now, with the advent of the Sociopathocracy, we have made the final transition, from consumers to consumed, prey to cheats and frauds. The amount of taxpayer dollars that was funneled to lunatics, losers, and liars to keep up an ineffectual security-industrial complex is utterly appalling. In the absence of competent defense and security protocols, we are left with securitism, a self-perpetuating farrago of fear-mongering and empty gestures meant to overawe the true enemy of the DHS, which is the American taxpayer. Meanwhile, real safety falls by the wayside as dangerous industries are allowed to operate without regulation, infrastructure crumbles, and the day-to-day operations of well-meaning, competent public servants are underfunded.

Hopefully, the voting public will come to its senses in time to realize that "small government" advocacy really means "big heist" advocacy in time for the upcoming midterm elections. If we ever want to be able to afford nice things again, we need to stop shoveling millions into the coffers of thieves.

6 comments:

mikey said...

You're going to have to win the argument over revenue increases. With the current US economic policies (tax policy along with deficit spending, with the sequester sitting on top) you just don't have the resources.

Sure, even at these revenue levels there's plenty of money - rational military and - as you discuss - homeland security policies would free up more than half a trillion dollars without changing any revenue or other discretionary spending formula.

Good luck with all that in America. We like bombing, we like killing, and we've turned out to be huge fans of an out of control authoritarian deep state.

If you can come up with any solution other than revolution, I'm all ears...

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

To put an even sharper point on the point of mikey's comment, "Our" President is trying to put James Risen in prison.
~

Smut Clyde said...

The amount of taxpayer dollars that was funneled to lunatics, losers, and liars to keep up an ineffectual security-industrial complex is utterly appalling.

See, the Republicans are right, the taxes you hard-working people pay are just being wasted!

Weird Dave said...

Overall I see it as the end of the commonwealth, the privatization of everything that was once public.
The expansion of the security state just allows 'them' to better control the rest of us.

Oh, and this.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

You're going to have to win the argument over revenue increases. With the current US economic policies (tax policy along with deficit spending, with the sequester sitting on top) you just don't have the resources.

I think the problem isn't necessarily revenue increases, but oversight increases. The amount of (to use the cliche) waste, fraud, and abuse has been appalling.

To put an even sharper point on the point of mikey's comment, "Our" President is trying to put James Risen in prison.

He's been the best Republican president since Clinton, who was the best Republican president since Ike.

See, the Republicans are right, the taxes you hard-working people pay are just being wasted!

Funny how they've been allowed to make that point so often and so emphatically.

Overall I see it as the end of the commonwealth, the privatization of everything that was once public.
The expansion of the security state just allows 'them' to better control the rest of us.


Yeah, steal the commons and crack down on anyone who says "boo" about it.

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