NATO is marching inevitably toward Eastern Europe and it seems it won’t stop until it is at the border to Russia. Missiles called anti-missiles are about to be stationed in some of those countries. Russia is outraged, first because they were not admitted into NATO and second and more importantly they feel their national sovereignty is being threatened and they have said they are being forced to act to protect themselves. I believe what they are saying is they will develop new missiles to counteract our missiles and as crazy as this sounds they may be anti-anti-missile missiles. Do we need to put missiles in these countries? Let me answer that question, OF COURSE NOT! We do it to keep the flames fanned and the military industrial complex happy and chugging along draining us of huge amounts of money to protect us from “OUR ENEMIES.” What a joke this is. We create enemies to protect ourselves from. These moves have become so obvious I am amazed they haven’t gotten us into a war with Russia or China yet. Russia would probably be an ally if we would give it a chance. China I don’t know about, it would be harder for us to get them on our side, especially since they have aspirations in the seas and islands around their country. This however is a bigger problem for the other countries in the area.

Some of the candidates running for president who were eliminated were pushing for less involvement in world affairs and they were accused of being closed minded and isolationists. Some were saying this is what got us into wars in the past. What was ignored was the fact they were not calling for isolationism, what they were saying is we shouldn’t be getting involved in every other country’s business. Look where this has led us so far. We are fighting never ending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are those who say we are no longer fighting in Iraq, but a Pentagon spokesman told reporters in October 2014, “We’re in combat.” We may not have the huge numbers of combat troops fighting there, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t American boots on the ground and Special Forces taking part in operations over there. What we think is incompetence on our part could be actions carried out to assure a desired result. Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.

Are we so incompetent that we are allowing Iran to be able to develop nuclear weapons right under our noses by agreeing to terrible terms for inspections and such and in turn lifting embargoes? Maybe not. It could be we have our eyes on Iran and want it to get more powerful so we can declare it as a powerful enemy and buy even more weapons. The Gillette Razor Company has a business model for its sales. Every couple of years it changes its razors slightly to make them better. The idea is to get the users of Gillette razors to buy the newest technology and thus the most expensive blades. The military industrial complex is also thinking ahead and they also have a business model. This model is to create new hotspots and enemies. If we were to let them continue this model, eventually half the world would be declared our enemies and our country would certainly become bankrupt. The money men behind the military industrial complex will not suffer, they will simply move on to more lucrative areas or to more powerful countries. The sufferers will be us.

So many things have been forced upon us in the name of greed. I guess one of the worst things about our system is the lobbying. Future historians may look back on the last 100 years or so of American history and come to the determination that lobbyists ruined this country. Think about it, if the military industrial complex didn’t have lobbyists to spread their money around to the politicians in Washington and even the state politicians, would the military industrial complex be anywhere as powerful as it is now? When politicians make decisions about new military projects are they really based on need or do they do it to enrich themselves? I remember one instance when we were choosing a fighter plane years ago. One plane was far superior to the others, but the politicians didn’t choose it. Instead the most powerful politician at the time chose an aerospace company in his home state to get the contract. He clearly put his needs far ahead of those of the country he was sworn to defend. One has to wonder what he got out of this beside votes from his constituents.

Have you ever wondered why a country with such a huge debit still increases its budgets every year and still funds military projects and health care programs and even foreign countries which could cost trillions of dollars? It is as if they just don’t care we are being driven into poverty and the biggest default on our securities the world has ever seen. People talked about Greece defaulting, but compared to us it would be like a match compared to a nuclear weapon. All big corporations have lobbyists which allow them to get whatever they want passed. Sometimes and this is not unusual, lobbyists write the laws they want passed and they are introduced by politicians without ever reading them. You just can’t make this stuff up. Many former staffers to the House and Senate have talked about this.

What is the answer to this problem? That is the million dollar question. Lobbying has to be done away with and any politician caught accepting money has to go to jail. One of the reasons Trump and Sanders have become so popular is they are seen as outside the system, although Sanders being a senator really isn’t, but he has proposed some changes which we have not been able to get so far. Trump is more of an outsider, but has had many dealings with those in power. I don’t believe either one will ever touch the lobbying system, but one can only hope.