Headed to the beach? Heads up for an invasion force – CNN.com

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/06/17/marine.corps.exercise/index.html

FTP: “The exercise is designed to test the capability of every type of Marine Corps aircraft, including MV-22 Ospreys and F/A 18 Hornets, as well as some Navy ships and Air Force planes.

The drill will stretch from Quantico Marine Base in northern Virginia to the Navy’s Pinecastle Bombing Range in Florida.

With thousands of Marines and other service members involved, it’s the biggest such drill ever on the U.S. East Coast.

“Exercise Mailed Fist is the first exercise of its specific kind and the largest 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing exercise conducted in recent history,” said Staff Sgt. Roman J. Yurek, Marine Corps spokesman. “In the past, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing units had to deploy to the West Coast to conduct this type of training.” “

Picked a fine time to venture outside the homestead….

Happy stumbling everyone. May God guide & protect us all, and may He still bless America.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2011/03/Canadian%20Military%20Spending%202010.pdf

About this Publication

This study examines Canada’s military spending and finds it is higher now than at any time since the end of the Second World War, thanks to twelve years of budget increases. The study argues that Canada could make a much greater contribution to global security and humanitarian action by shifting resources to non-military security efforts and peacekeeping operations.

Canadian military spending higher than any time since WWII: study | Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/canadian-military-spending-higher-any-time-wwii-study

From the page: OTTAWA-Twelve years of budget increases have left Canadian military spending higher than at any time since the end of the Second World War, says a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

According to the study, by Bill Robinson, Senior Advisor with the Rideau Institute, Canada will spend at least $22.3 billion on its military forces in 2010-11-an increase of 54% since 9/11.

Canadas military spending highest since World War II | Sympatico.ca News

http://news.sympatico.ca/oped/coffee-talk/canadas_military_spending_highest_since_world_war_ii/115dc9d1

FTP: ” Does Canada really need to increase its military spending over the next few years? As far as I know, the credible threats to the country’s sovereignty and security are small; justification for an increased defence budget is difficult to find in light of the other competing priorities that face our nation and the world around us. Our troops deserve new and adequate equipment and preparation, but this should be done by re-evaluating military priorities and using the current budget wisely. “

The Next Global Credit Crisis: Why U.S. Banks and Greek Debt Will be the Toxic Trigger – Money Morning

http://moneymorning.com/2011/06/17/next-global-credit-crisis-why-us-banks-greek-debt-will-toxic-trigger/

From the page: ” But the largely untold “rest of the story” is this: If the European banking sector implodes, the U.S. financial system could take an unqualified beating.

Big U.S. banks have been lending generously to banks across Europe. Close to 29% of their lending books during the past two years have gone to their heavyweight European counterparts. While they have pulled back considerably as a result of recent turmoil, U.S. banks are widely believed to have $41 billion of direct exposure to Greece.

The amount of exposure to the rest of Europe is not easily quantifiable. And this U.S. financial system link doesn’t end there: U.S. money-market funds have a hefty European exposure, too.

A recent report in The Wall Street Journal said that the three large banks Moody’s is threatening to downgrade – BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole SA, and Societe Generale SA (PINK ADR: SCGLY) – get a significant amount of their short-term funding from America’s money markets.

According to The Journal, about 12% of the loans made by our biggest money-market funds were made to those three banks.

The interconnectedness of U.S. banks and money-market funds to global banks, many of whom are now at risk from a Greek default, is a sobering revelation.

Even the European Central Bank won’t be immune. “

Our Corporate Military

http://c4ss.org/content/7558

From the page: ” Corporate America’s prevailing management accounting system, invented almost a century ago by Donaldson Brown of DuPont and GM, equates consumption of inputs to creation of value. You know, like the Soviet centrally planned economy. Administrative costs like management salaries, along with wasteful capital expenditures, are incorporated – through the practice known as “overhead absorption” – into the transfer price of goods “sold” to inventory. And in an oligopoly market, the corporation is able to pass those costs – plus a profit markup – on to the customer through administered pricing. The military shares that pricing system, with its incentives to maximize costs (Paul Goodman called “the great kingdom of cost-plus”). Ever hear of those $600 toilet seats? But in the case of the military, the administered pricing is called “taxation.”

In short the military, like the large corporation, is a giant, bureaucratic, irrational, and authoritarian institution which can only survive through parasitism -enabled by the state – on the working class. “

Our Lefty Military – NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/opinion/16kristof.html

Actually, I’m not so sure about what this op-ed says. I understand the reasoning, but for a counter-point please see this other article by “an avowed libertarian socialist as well as a market anarchist” who instead calls it Our Corporate Military

Both are good, you read ’em and compare.

Link: http://c4ss.org/content/7558

VIDEO: Minister Farrakhan: Thats a Murderer in the White House

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/video-minister-farrakhanthats-murderer-white-house

From the page: ” Farrakhan is visibly angry at Obama’s leadership of America’s intervention in the crisis in Libya, particularly his focus on bringing down Muammar Qaddafi. He says that people do not know Qaddafi like he does, and he’s a decent man.

We find it interesting that this video from May is surfacing just as Farrakhan is set to address the United Nations. Nonetheless, the words used to describe the president are brutal. He raises important points, like questioning why we’re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan if the intelligence proved false, and how a peacemaking mission to Libya turned into a bombing mission.

We’ve examined how black leaders romanticize dictators like Qaddafi, and this is a major example of it. Perhaps Farrakhan should consider that he’s offering support to his brothers in the Middle East and North Africa while tearing down his brother in the White House. If there’s a murderer in the White House, then what do you call Qaddafi? “