Open Secrets: Which US Politicians Receive the Most from the Defense Industry?
In my previous post, we explored the shady trade in international arms and how politicians act as high priced escorts for the industry brokering deals and receiving 'commissions' in the process. While doing research for this post I decided to do some basic searches to try and find out which members of the US political machine receive the most funding from the 'Defense' industry.
One of the most obvious ways politicians in the US are bribed is through campaign contributions. It’s possible to track and tie a congressional member's or a senator’s voting history directly to their campaign contributions. This can easily be done using resources such as OpenSecrets.org.
Here’s a breakdown of ‘Defense’ sector spending on both Demo-craps and Repugnicans.
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On average, whether Dem or Rep, members of the House receive about $24,000 each from the industry in campaign contributions while Senators fair a little better garnering $36,500 per member. While Republicans enjoy a slight edge members of both major parties are taken care of.
Of special note, from the total of $216,633,034 the lion’s share of contributions are made to Incumbent candidates who receive 90% of all donations totaling $195,437,753.
To keep the flow of bombs, bullets and profits flowing smoothly it seems reasonable, and cost-effective, to have your favorite political pawns lined up to receive their stipend. Incumbents know the deal, they know they're place and they don't need to have the finer points of DC deal making spelled out for them.
Who are the Top 20 Beltway Prostitutes turning Arms Industry Tricks?
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It comes as little surprise that empirical and military intervention cheerleaders John McCain and Hillary Clinton rank high on the list, but it’s perhaps more surprising to some that 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Barrack Obama ranks second with over $2 million in contributions from the weapons industry.
Cashing in on the Nobel Peace Prize = Cha'Ching!!!
Well done CIA-Barry, it's no small feat beating out McBane and Killary.
2016 Senators and Presidential Candidates
From all cycles on record, the busiest prostitutes on Capitol Hill may or may not surprise you.
Now let's have a closer look at the 2016 election year and the group of Senators who were campaigning for the 2016 presidential nominations who figure prominently.
The results here are striking and provide some food for thought in regards to how the US empire functions in reality.
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Feel the Bern!
Who would have thought that “progressive” Senator Bernie Sanders would rank higher than the Mr. Intervention“Maverick” John McCain and Ted “Carpet Bomb” Cruz for the 2016 fiscal year?
This may come as a shock to many of you and I have to say I was also a little surprised to see this. Obviously, there's a spike in 'Defense' related donations during the presidential campaigns but it's still an eye opening statistic.
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Chris Hedges had some harsh criticism of Sanders during the 2016 campaign here's what he had to say about the Vermont Senator:
“Bernie has also not confronted the military industrial complex at all,” Hedges said. “On a personal level, having spent seven years in the Middle East, I’m just not willing to forgive him for abandoning the Palestinians and giving carte blanche to Israel. He was one of 100 Senators who stood up like AIPAC wind up dolls and approved Israel’s 51-day slaughter last summer of Palestinians in Gaza — the Palestinians who have no army, no navy, artillery, mechanized units, command and control.”
Counterpunch.org
The Sanders campaign resonated strongly with a large number of Americans especially in regards to domestic policy, yet on the issue of US foreign policy Senator Sanders' views differed little from the entire spectrum of candidates in 2016. This fact should not be overlooked as it sheds light on how any candidate who stands against the defense industry will never be permitted to be nominated as a candidate for president by the establishment two party system.
Although a growing number of Americans voters now know that the DNC and Hillary Clinton rigged the primaries against the Sanders campaign, Sanders himself is in denial about this fact. Emails released by Wikileaks prove that there was a conspiracy within the DNC to steal the nomination from Bernie.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wikileaks-dnc-bernie-sanders_us_579381fbe4b02d5d5ed1d157
In this increasingly perplexing political climate, it's hard to comprehend how Sanders is now towing the Democratic party line about how the Russians interfered in the US elections.
This piece by @caitlinjohnstone, illustrates the Russia, Russia, Russia pivot taken by Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Keeps Promoting the New Cold War, And Yes We Need To Talk About It
As Sanders looks ahead to a 2020 run for president, it's important that Sanders addresses his support for the status quo and business as usual relationship between politicians and the military industrial complex.
I'll end this post here with a quote from Arms Dealer, Riccardo Privitera,
in the doc Shadow World.
The politics is dictated by the whims of the arms industry.
Politicians are nothings more than sales reps my dear friend.
They have as much power as a middle ranking executive in Lockheed Martin.
At the end of the day they do what they’re told.
- Riccardo Privitera
They're all exactly the same mate.
Once you've heard of them they've already been corrupted by one if mot all of the big industries. Oil, Weapons, Pharma, etc.
The US system of politics is perhaps worse that anywhere with the amount of money being thrown around but here in the UK our system is just as bad.
They're all whores for the cash, it's sickening and people are dying in this never ending cycle of war for profit because of a few greedy scumbags.
Nice work V.
This is the first time I've heard of that Murtha guy, buy I'm genuinely astonished that McCain isn't at the top of that list.
And what a hypocrite-douchebag Bernie is. That guy deserved to get scammed by the DNC. LOL!!
Here in Canada, there is ex-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney who's name was linked by the press to arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber, but for the Airbus affair.
At the end of 2017, Mr. Mulroney was again mentioned by the media as being friend with another arms dealer, Mr. Wafic Saïd.
Now (and as some kind of unrelated note), Mulroney's daughter, Caroline has just declared her candidacy for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. According to Wikipedia, her husband is the grandson of Lewis A. Lapham who was a member of Skull and Bones.
Also, smarmy Ben Mulroney makes me want to vomit.
Haha, I had totally forgotten about him. Always thought he could end up going back to live at 24 Sussex Drive, but it seems like his twin, Justin, has beaten him to the punch.
wow, good info here, thanx @heroic15397!
Thx! Thought it was complementary to the amazing info you provided yourself.
Here is how learned about the Paradise Papers related info (20 min. vid in French):
Enquête : Paradise Papers, des amis haut placés
(a 5 min. English version on the same topic)
Man named in Paradise Papers linked to Brian Mulroney
Bernie Saunders is just another example of someone playing good cop, yet dancing with the devil at the same time. The proverbial 'nice old man' who when takes the mask off is just another psychopath. This is a good correlation of data for people with a more scientific mind. Some people you can tell people this stuff until the cows come home but presenting the figures like this is a useful way through the hard wiring. Resteemed.
Yeah, I myself supported Bernie but the reality of the US empire is that candidates must support the industry or have no chance of being elected. I was surprised and a little disappointed when I first came across the data. It's just more evidence that the system is completely corrupted and broken.
thanks for the great comments :)
You're welcome, these are very good articles Ive shared to my Facebook. We don't see these stats but it lays it out the reality of the situation we face. In the Uk we have a version of Bernie, a nice old man on the surface, apparently against War, yet when Cameron went into Syria he backed it to the hilt!
Plz follow me
Plz follow me
Just goes to show how completely corrupt the U.S. political system is.
In truth ALL politicians are supposed to be servants to the public. But in truth they are servants to corporate interests. Every. Single. One.
Unless we can somehow get rid of these corporate contributions (ideally there should be NO contributions - a servant serves selflessly) nothing will change in Washington.
All politicians are corrupt - some just have better ethics than others. This is why I advocate Resource Based Economy as proposed by Jacque Fresco. As long as there is money and politics there will be corruption, war and poverty. We need systems designed and engineered for us not talking heads.
Agreed, I remember watching a documentary about the Venus project. It's definitely a way of re-organizing society that more people should learn about. :)
Actually politics have the upper hand because we tend to blindly listen everything what they want to convey, actually politicians are servants of people but they are behaving like owners of servant.
Stay Blessed. 🙂
I need help raising awareness if you manage to see this @v4vapid
https://steemit.com/news/@clarityofsignal/florida-school-shooting-censored-on-steemit-blatant-censorship-by-sneak-on-one-of-the-most-revealing-posts-ever-on-steemit-post
Wow. That fact about Sanders really brings into perspective his questionable foreign policy stances. We definitely need to keep heavy scrutiny on his foreign policy rhetoric, should he decide to run again in 2020. Excellent expose @v4vapid!
Bernie Sanders really does surprise me considering that he at least slightly anti-war and anti-interventionist. McCain, Clinton, Obama all should stand in front of a jury in The Hague.
I don't know about a swamp, I'd say U.S politics is more akin to a festering sewer .. a sewer that's rapidly flooding the states and leaving the whole country smelling of shit! I wonder when people will awaken to the fact that the politics of this world are little more than theater.
It's a shocking testament to this times in which we live that Obama managed to walk away with a fucking peace prize! What a sick joke!!
I became so annoyed with friends crowing over Obama that I decided to list his acheivements and post them everytime they made a comment. They soon shut up! But I guess he gives a great rendition of "My Way" and is brilliant at high fiving, so fuck it eh?
The Obama administration has been at war longer than any other administration in the history of the United States, last year alone the administration dropped over 26,000 peace bombs, Obama signed the NDAA into law - making it legal to assassinate Americans w/o charge or trial, his drone bombing campaigns expanded into seven countries and have killed thousands of innocent men, women and children,
his administration was responsible for ten times more drone bombings than Bush, he dramatically expanded the power of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), off the top of my head (so this is approximate) he took the national debt from 6 trillion to 20 trillion – i.e he is not the financial saviour of the world and is simply kicking the can down the road, under Obama corporate profits rose by 116% whilst wages rose by 3.4%, Over 90% of all new jobs are temporary jobs, he has persecuted more whistleblowers and journalists than any other President before him, repealed the propaganda ban - making it legal to spread government propaganda via news outlets,
he personally oversaw a secret kill list, pushed TTP & TTIP (which is a ruse by big business to strangle the world with red tape), Used uranium warheads in Libya, Carpet bombed Libyian cities, despite lecturing to the contrary he has deported more immigrants than every other president in history, his administration included more bankers and wall street executives than any before it, sold 30 billion dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, Covert boots on the ground in Syria (despite promises to the contrary), 20,000 air strikes in his first term, covert drone war in Yemen, invaded Libya without congressional approval, Guantanamo Bay was never closed and approximately 10,000 troops are still operating in Afghanistan.
I focused on Obama as after reading your post and seeing how highhe is placed on the list, it just makes my blood boil to think he's sitting at home with a peace prize! It's beyond Orwellian ... Great work as always my friend @v4vapid
Have to admit I am surprised that Bernie Sanders ranked higher than McCain. But the rest of this information is definitely to be expected. And when military action is even discussed, many stocks of defense contractors go up.