There’s something sick about US Military spending. It’s certainly not keeping anyone safe. This week, why we the public spend billions on bad technology and what happens to service people who speak up about it. Then, a peace economy – what might it look like? I’ll talk to Jodie Evans of Code Pink.
Guests
- Phyllis Bennis, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
- Pam Campos-Palma,Ex-Intelligence Analyst, US Air Force
- Andrew Cockburn, Washington Editor, Harper’s Magazine
- Jodie Evans, Co-founder, CODEPINK.
Check out Andrew’s essay in Harper’s Magazine and Phyllis’ article in Jacobin.
“A big question we’re asking is, which one of these presidential candidates is taking contributions from defense contractors and security corporations?” – Pam Campos-Palma
“What we’re seeing now is there’s a whole new crop of people in Congress led by the extraordinary, mostly young, mostly women of color of about six who are taking the lead to challenge some of this military assumption that has been so unchallengeable for so long, and that’s what gives us some hope.” – Phyllis Bennis
“What we have is a system that doesn’t care about people, and that’s true across the board.” – Andrew Cockburn
“Our schools, our churches, our cities, our states, our pension funds, and our Congress are all making a killing on killing.” – Jodie Evans
From Laura:
Three decades ago, revelations that the US Military was paying $640 for an aircraft toilet seat ignited wild media coverage and public outrage, but to no avail. Last year, the Air Force paid $10,000 for a toilet seat cover. Just the cover! Our spiraling military budgets don’t necessarily make for better defense, but they do keep growing. Meanwhile, the system is putting service people’s lives at risk more often than not.
