Still valid after all those years....

#Militarism #Economy #Money #Politics #Cartoon

"Karp and Zamiska’s basic historical claim that Silicon Valley owes its modern origins to Cold War defense spending is broadly true, even if the ethical mandate they derive from it—making the U.S. armed forces more lethal in order to uphold American global supremacy—is question-begging. Still, at times, their critique of the post–Cold War commercialization of Silicon Valley is surprisingly lacerating: “Far too much capital, intellectual and otherwise, has been dedicated to sating the often capricious and passing needs of late capitalism’s hordes,” they write, decrying a generation of software engineers for applying its prodigious talents to building the next food delivery or social media app.

But their critique of tech-enabled consumerism only goes so far. In one of the book’s many unintentionally funny moments, they single out the early retail website eToys, a darling of pre-dot-com-bubble Silicon Valley, and castigate it for the “shallowness” of its ambition and “abdication of everything beyond the light hedonism of the moment.” But they’re quick to clarify: “To desire, even a toy, is to be human.” The point of refashioning the government in the image of a Silicon Valley start-up, they write elsewhere, is to ensure it delivers “the goods and services that are essential to our lives.” How did we get from “late capitalism’s hordes” to “goods and services”? It helps to remember that Palantir also runs a commercial business accounting for nearly half of its revenue.
(...)
This tonal seesawing—for every Karpian truth-bomb, a lawyerly qualification; for each saber rattled, a pitch-deck cliché—is symptomatic of this book’s generic incoherence. [I]t reads as though you asked an AI chatbot to write a set of Gladwellian think pieces in defense of American techno-militarism, with as many smart-sounding yet ultimately vacuous quotes as possible."

https://newrepublic.com/article/191786/alex-karps-war-west-palantir

#USA #Militarism #SiliconValley #Pentagon #TechnoMilitarism #BigTech

Charles Lister: "In December, Syria's opposition dealt #Iran its most strategically significant defeat -- overthrowing #Assad, the jewel in Iran's #MiddleEast agenda. Israel's response? #Israel labeled #Syria a threat, and invaded and occupied territory, continuing Israeli military aggression."

Israeli aggression in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and now Syria looks like part of Israel's World War against the Arab World. #racism #militarism

Callout for anti-militarist agitation
We are being made afraid of war. Politicians are talking about reintroducing the draft. In the meantime, the #Netherlands and related countries are supplying the bombs that are being used to bombard #Gaza.

Weapons' fairs are being organised as if they're a day trip. Universities claim that their contribution to the machine of war and colonialism is merely for the purpose of science. And in 2025 the #NATO summit will take place in the Netherlands for the first time.

Let's resist the wars that will still come. Every action can be a beginning for more actions, for a countermovement, for a #struggle against the elite.

Taking this in mind, we encourage everyone to act against #militarism, #nationalism and #war between 1st and 8th of February
We call out to a week of agitation:

Spreading propaganda, pamphlets, and other material

Organising events and info evenings

Doing above ground and underground actions

Against the militarisation around us!

https://acties.todon.nl/event/callout-for-anti-militarist-agitation

As billions of dollars are funneled into police and military funding, we face the grim reality of a hyper-militarized society where dissent is met with force rather than dialogue. #police #weapons #militarism

https://progressive.org/op-eds/when-city-streets-become-battlefields-20250123/

Poland’s EU Council presidency: Rearmament, police-state measures and a war economy https://www.byteseu.com/658729/ #austerity #DemocraticRights #Europe #Gaza #Holocaust #imperialism #militarism #Ukraine

"while so many Americans are struggling to get by, the United States is spending record-breaking amounts of money on the military. In the coming days, with relatively little debate, Congress will overwhelmingly pass the National Defense Authorization Act, approving close to $900bn for the Department of Defense (DoD).
The Department of Defense is the only government agency that has been unable to pass an independent audit. It recently failed its seventh attempt in a row and could not fully account for huge portions of its $4.126tn in assets.
Defense contractors routinely overcharge the Pentagon by 40% – and sometimes more than 4,000%.
since 2022, these four contractors have brought in $609bn in revenues, including $353bn in US taxpayer funds, and recorded $57bn in profits.
These companies – like the drug companies, insurance companies, Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry – spend millions on campaign contributions and lobbying. In the recent election cycle, defense contractors spent nearly $251m on lobbying and contributed almost $37m to political candidates.
TX increased prices for Stinger missiles from $25,000 in the 1990s to $400,000 in 2023"....
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/08/why-im-voting-against-the-military-budget
#Uspol #warmongers #USA #militarism

Interview with Israeli dissidents taking action for #Palestine
#PalestineAction #PalestineSolidarity #Elbit #ShutElbitDown #UKpol #militarism #IsraelWarCrimes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Ga4DiV7eM

https://www.europesays.com/1620549/ Germany’s Greens hold a war conference #Gaza #genocide #germany #militarism #Ukraine #war

TrumpPick For Defense Sec Pete Hegseth Spent College Years Crusading Against ‘Glorification of Diversity’ & ‘Homosexual Lifestyle’
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trumps-pick-for-defense-sec-spent-his-college-years-crusading-against-glorification-of-diversity-and-the-homosexual-lifestyle

#PeteHegseth #DefenseSec #ManhattanInstitute #USpol #Trump2 #GOP #militarism
#fascism #authoritarianism #extremism #disinformation
#Christofasciam #antiLGBT #homophobia #antiDEI

Trump to nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/12/g-s1-33970/trump-pete-hegseth-fox-news-defense-department-military

* past CEO, Concerned Veterans for America, veteran advocacy organization
* Fox News contributor 2014+
* 1 House Republican Committee chair shocked at nomination
* Hegseth was not on known list of names under consideration
* no sense of his background/vision

#PeteHegseth #FoxNews #DefenseSec #ManhattanInstitute #USpol #Trump2 #GOP #militarism
#fascism #authoritarianism #extremism #disinformation

[thread] Pete Hegseth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Hegseth

* Fox News political commentator, author, U.S. Army National Guard officer
* Nov 2024 Trump intends to nominated as U.S. Secretary of Defense, Trump2 cabinet
* conservative Republican
* briefly worked at Manhattan Institute for Policy Research

#PeteHegseth #DefenseSec #ManhattanInstitute #USpol #Trump2 #GOP #militarism
#fascism #authoritarianism #extremism #disinformation
#Christofasciam #antiLGBT #homophobia #antiDEI

According to russian media, Mosfilm (the oldest film studio in russian empire) passed 36 tanks to russian army in 2023.

Russian state is mobilizing tanks that were used for dozens of years to make war movies...

#Russia #Militarism #War

#WestBank, occupied #Palestine:
'The neighbourhood has now become completely isolated from the town, without services, medical centres, or even access to schools'
- Amjad Atatreh, mayor of Yabad

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-israel-cages-palestinian-towns-west-bank-iron-gates @palestine @idf

#occupation #israel #israelPalestine #israelApartheid #JewishState #JewishSupremacy #supremacy #IDF #StateRacism #militarism #segregation #zionism #OPT #colonization #stateViolence #coloniality #entitlement #genocide #OneState #OngoingNakba #revenge #retribution

#politics #nato #militarism #USA #european #vassalage #germany #france #europe #eu #japan #USSR #Russia #WWII #WW2 #coldwar #history #colonialism #nazism #fascism is an instrument of #capitalism #imperialism #anticommunism #Africa #ukraine