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Military investments reduce the resources available for civilian investments. so NATO Secretary General Rutte is either ignorant and has no idea about military economics. Or he is deliberately deceiving the public.

In the largest veterans’ protest since the Vietnam era, 500 veterans, active-duty service members and military families gathered in Philadelphia on the Fourth of July and marched against ICE, the occupation of American cities by the National Guard, the war on Iran, and threats to deploy troops at polling sites in November.

PHILADELPHIA — On the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, a coalition of more than 500 veterans, active-duty military members and military families gathered in the birthplace of the nation to reject what they called the “Trump administration’s fascist vision for the country’s future.”

Undeterred by 101-degree …

Protests against the government in Tirana on June 13, 2026 – Albinfo, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

When one has witnessed not only a colour revolution in her own country (Macedonia, 2015–2016) but also sensed its arrival during Ukraine’s Euromaidan in 2014, every new outburst of supposedly spontaneous revolt provokes scepticism. Regrettably, this scepticism is usually justified. Nearly two years ago, I wrote similarly about student protests in Serbia and later about Nepal. The point is this: …

As the country and this administration launched its America 250 and Freedom 250  “Celebrations”, what we experienced in the nation’s capitol and a city of 700,000 residents replicated what the United States does to other parts of the world. The streets were invaded by the military, public spaces barricaded with multiple levels of security checkpoints, and the sky full of military flyovers, including a seven-hour schedule of flyovers on July 4th.

Military flyovers come at a devastating cost–economically, psychologically and environmentally. The most recent ones came in the middle of a heatwave where even Trump’s American State …

Yet again, FIFA, and its chief, Gianni Infantino, have distinguished the game of football by showing what it is all about. Not glorious athletes representing code and country across the globe. Not the sense of wellbeing that comes with exercise. No: it’s all about corrupt manoeuvrings, opaque decisions, and scandalous meddling. And who better to be at the centre of it than one of America’s most corrupt, self-enriching figures, one President Donald J. Trump?

On July 5, the one-game suspension for American striker Folarin Balogun was vacated in exchange for a one-year probation. Balogun had received a contentious red card in …

A decorated US Air Force serviceman with no history of violence suddenly abducted, raped and murdered a three-year-old girl.

When a search party found Jimmy Shaver wandering near San Antonio, Texas, he appeared to be in a trance, unable to explain where he was or how he had gotten there. After his arrest, he reportedly failed to recognize his own wife when she visited him in jail. Until the moment he was executed four years later, Shaver insisted he had no memory of committing the crime for which he had been sentenced to death.

More than seventy years later, some researchers …

Mitch McConnell

The fact that one of the leading senators in Congress might be dead — and has been brain dead for months, if not years — doesn’t matter at all. And the fact that it doesn’t matter actually clarifies just how lost the US “experiment” is.

Everything in Congress stays the same whether the members are dead or alive.

That should be shocking. It should be front page news. Instead, corporate media will ignore it like they do every deeper truth about the US empire.

Literally no one has heard from Mitch McConnell …

In the annals of policy, strategy and budgeting, the AUKUS pact comprising Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States will be seen as one of the most mindless, absurd projects of tiny, poorly furnished minds. Not for those in the UK and US, with both receiving Croesus-rich dollops of Australian cash for stuttering submarine programs. Not for flabby think tankers who repeatedly run out bills on the advisory circuit lauding the importance of costly boats and the China threat. It will be down to Australian government officials, elected and appointed, who seek the imaginary assurance of nuclear-powered submarines that …

Orientation
The rise and fall of Promethean Europe
From the 15th through the 19th century the various countries in Europe were both loved and feared around the world. Scholars like Patricia Crone, Jared Diamond, John A. Hall, C.R Hallpike and William McNeill wrote books about what made Europe different from other parts of the world. Eric Jones wrote a great book called The European Miracle. I’ve written two books on the subject, Forging Promethean Psychology in 2017 and Lucifer’s Labyrinth in 2019. But the 20th century told a very sad story about …

AI-generated illustration from Magnific

In Part 1 it was demonstrated that military spending delivers lower economic returns than civilian investment, that modern central‑bank and IMF analyses confirm this, that military capital is negative capital, and that opportunity costs drain talent and innovation from civilian sectors.

Part 2 now turns to the structural political economy behind Europe’s militarisation — and the absence of any serious economic analysis of its consequences.
5. The monopsony problem: weapons are produced for one buyer…

Walden Pond

In the Middle East and beyond, we are witnessing a strategic defeat of the US empire at the hands of Iran. This must be distinguished from a military defeat. A major power shift is underway in that region. The US had no intention of honoring the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and it is moving more military hardware and additional manpower into the region, most likely toward the Strait of Hormuz. The MoU was nothing more than a ruse to buy time for rearmament.

The strait, currently under the joint control of …

AI-generated illustration from Magnific
No study has ever shown that military spending outperforms civilian investment.
 
What Europe’s leaders say about rearmament and the economy

“Europe must build a strong defence industrial base — it will create jobs and drive innovation.”
— Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission (2024)

“Investing in defence is investing in Europe’s economic future.”
— Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for Internal Market (2023)

“Rearmament is an opportunity for European industry and for growth.”
— Emmanuel Macron, President of France (2022)

“The €100 billion special fund will strengthen Germany’s economy and technological base.”
— …

(Full article …)

After watching a recent House debate on HR 108 attempting to adopt a War Powers Resolution on behalf of Lebanon, it might not be difficult to comprehend how relatively inexperienced ‘socialist’ candidates continue to defeat incumbent House Members including the most recent ‘upset’ in Colorado.

Even before the recent election, the House of Representatives, once referred to by the country’s founders as the “People’s House” because its frequent two year election cycle ostensibly brings elected officials closer to their constituents, has been largely transformed into an apathetic, Constitutionally anemic identity as if a ‘for sale’ piece of real …

Is it still Nineteen Eighty Four?

A message for humans about redundancies.