Show #1145, May 4, 2023, Guest: Jacob Hornberger interviewed by Len Osanic, Black Op Radio, duration of audio 1:17:29, MP3 of interview at < https://www.blackopradio.com/
Original airdate: May 4, 2023, and click on the white triangle in the podcast icon.
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: This is a pretty good description of the power, reach and historical activities of the National Security State (defined by Jacob Hornberger to consist of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA). Hornberger falls down in his analysis with his reliance on the standard position of Libertarians that the Government is some sort of all-powerful force. He never really discusses the interaction between the rich and the government. For instance Hornberger claims that the government is flush with money created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve Bank. It is true that, as Hornberger says, that they (relatively) easily found $100 billion to fund the proxy war against Russia, being waged in Ukraine. Of course there were some major political struggles and machinations in the House of Representatives during which the farthest right factions of the Republican Party worked to achieve parts of their agenda by using opposition to the money for Ukraine and even for Israel.
Hornberger also posits that the nearly $32 Trillion National Debt was caused entirely by printing money. This misses the point that, not coincidentally, the U.S. rich were given just about that same amount of tax cuts since the first Reagan tax-cuts in 1981. As Richard Wolff likes to point out, the rich managed to avoid taxation and then lent the money to the Federal (and other levels) Government to point out, the rich managed to avoid taxation and then lent the money to the Federal (and other levels) Government to finance the deficits their tax avoidance caused. The fact is that the rich want the government to be hobbled and unable to do anything for the working and middle classes, all while funding war and a massive armaments industry. This is reaching unsustainable levels, even by the standard economic analyses, when outlays to pay interest have now passed the nominal amount spent on The Pentagon. That amount is around $850 Billion. Of course the real amount spent on the military is about $1.5 Trillion, or nearly double the amount actually entered into the National Budget figures. The congress accomplishes this by hiding expenditures, that should be included in the Pentagon's outlays, all over the budget.
Hornberger is very effective in his discussions of why the National Security State decided to kill John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. He credits books that influenced his thinking and that he recommends. The author he thinks did the most to illuminate the actual facts of the JFK killing is Doug Horne who published a 5 volume set of extremely dense but very authoritative books. He also recommends JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters by James W. Douglass. I am posting the links to this audio now because Black Op Radio will, at some point in the not too distant future, remove the 2023 podcasts and MP3 links and post only the show notes. Regardless of the flaws (or at least the points where I disagree with Hornsberger) this is a fine discussion that bears listening to. Do it soon before it disappears.
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