Today (and Every Day) Only! The arms that taxpayers already paid for when the Pentagon bought them in the first place are up for resale! Bring your checkbooks, folks, because taxpayers get to pay for them a second time around when federal and local law enforcement pick them up at bargain prices. Whoopie! This is better than Black Friday.
But wait! As an added bonus, for the low, low price of just
$263 million, taxpayers also get to pay for training! So federal and local law enforcement can better quell a peaceful protest or better yet, incite an all-out riot and turn those weapons, tanks and tactical gadgets on you!
I feel like Flounder from Animal House: Oh boy, this is great!
Continue reading to cash in on the fire sale...
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), charged with dispensing Pentagon leftovers to federal and local law enforcement, describes the 1033 program’s history thusly on an FAQ page at its website:
In the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991, Congress authorized the transfer of excess DOD personal property to federal and state agencies for use in counter-drug activities.
Excuse me, but what is freaking DoD personal property? PERSONAL property??? Cool!
These fun FAQs continue:
Congress later passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997; this act allows all law enforcement agencies to acquire property for bona fide law enforcement purposes that assist in their arrest and apprehension mission. Preference is given to counter-drug and counter-terrorism requests.
And if there is no actual “bona fide” mission, no worries. There is a never ending imaginary preemptive probable cause to pull the “toys” out just in case. Probable terrorists are always holding some so-called "peaceful" protest or other somewhere.
But if you think these “business relationships” with the DLA are just for countering those probable terrorist protesters of the Deep South, think again. Over 8,000 federal and state law enforcement agencies from all 50 states participate in the program. And it doesn't stop with the ridiculously rock bottom double payment price plus cost of training - using your tax dollars, law enforcement agencies that receive approval for property must also cover all transportation and/or shipping costs for their sweet new toys. The savings just keep adding up!
Of course, you'll be getting the best of the best arms turned against you from the greatest arms dealers in the world, right here in the good old USA at Five Points a.k.a. the Pentagon. In fact, if your check book is fat enough, our friends at Five Points can help you tap in to their friends over at the UN Security Council; those folks we like to call the "Big Five."
According to Richard F. Grimmett’s Congressional Research Service Report to Congress, “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations” The top five countries profiting from the arms trade are the five permanent members (the “Big Five”) of the United Nations Security Council. From 2004 to 2011, the arms sales volume breaks down as follows: USA (44%); Russia (17%); France (8%); UK (5%); China (4%); with Germany supplying 4% as a Big Five ally.
Ganz geil? Na klar!
With the president's new $263 million training program, you can be sure your local militarized police force will be top quality at smashing democracy everywhere:
[The] “War on Terror” has seen the U.S. selling weapons or training to almost 90% of the countries it has identified as harboring terrorists. Yet, for decades, a lot of the arms that the West has sold has gone into the hands of military dictatorships or corrupt governments. This can have the additional intention or effect of hampering any form of democracy in those countries.
It really doesn't matter who ends up with these arms, so long as you've got Benjamin with you when you line up for the fire sale.
As reported by Democracy Now:
A 2005 report from the World Policy Institute found that the U.S. is routinely funneling military aid and arms to undemocratic nations. For example, In 2003 more than half of the top 25 recipients of U.S. arms transfers in the developing world were defined as undemocratic by the State Department.
Wait - 2003? Holy grail! That means they've had 11 years since then to refine their game and streamline arms sales straight to Main Street. Well done!
Of course, they couldn't have done it without a big serving of good ol' Corporate Welfare:
Arms industry executives sit on federal advisory commissions at the Commerce, Defense and State Departments dealing with arms export policy issues, ensuring that their preferences are well known to administration policymakers. In addition, the industry provides hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to Congressional campaigns, ensuring that their lobbyists have access to Members of the House and Senate. They also pump cash into Presidential campaigns (usually to both sides, just to be safe), ensuring access at the very highest levels.
Using this clout, arms exporters have arranged it so that the American public pays $6-7 billion annually to market and finance sales of their product. On top of that, the public bears the costs of researching and developing the weapons in the first place.
So let's review one more time the full benefits package of what your tax dollars are buying for you: Pentagon-padded surplus; militarization in your home town; transport and shipping costs; plus some very exceptional American R&D. Now that's deluxe.
Truly, there's nothing better than buying American-made. If you're a patriot, you know as well as I, it's all in the name of national security:
Industry has (effectively, thus far) sought to paint these subsidies as a matter of national security: If taxpayers don't subsidize arms sales, the industry might lose a deal to a foreign competitor; this would lead to the shutdown of a production line, thereby endangering America's very security. Never explained is why America needs to maintain surplus arms production lines in the first place. (ibid)
Are you kidding me? You need an explanation of
why? Who else is going to keep funnelling in all that dark money to keep America's citizens united?
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