While the news and most of the people trying to keep up with it were consumed with discussion of Presidential tweets and NFL protests the NDAA 2018 passed very quietly. Starting a war without congressional authorization has never been too insurmountable a trick to attempt. It was the middle of last week that the war powers that have allowed us to begin <a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/351201-one-congressional-war-authorization-shouldnt-last-for-decades">wars in 14 countries</a> were expanded through the latest NDAA authorization.
The National Defense Authorization Act, of course, is the draconian and unconstitutional replacement for the Patriot Act that not only stripped rights from citizens but expanded the abilities of our security state to commit drone murder and surveil foreign citizens extrajudicially without warrant or cause. <a href="https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/Section411.html">The Patriot Act itself weakened Habeas Corpus.</a> "Bring me the body" meaning the accused is endowed with the right to see the body of evidence and of what crime one is being held. This has been de riguer for all Western nations for years, originating as far back as the Magna Carta.
With no fanfare, despite murmurings of worry for months regarding the President's current access to war powers, NDAA passed. Rand Paul is already arguing for a repeal. He has my best wishes for the best of luck and any help I could avail him of. For what it's worth. And that's the sad thing really…
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Press Sec. Sanders: "We've not declared war on North Korea. Frankly, the suggestion of that is absurd." <a href="https://t.co/tgItG8k9xu">https://t.co/tgItG8k9xu</a> <a href="https://t.co/DouTKPtZQU">pic.twitter.com/DouTKPtZQU</a></p>— ABC News (@ABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/912519123434909697">September 26, 2017</a></blockquote>
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That's why <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.814210">today's events</a> stuck out to me though. We have <i>not</i> declared war on North Korea. And tweets do <i>not</i> equal declaration of war. Are they flaunting the knowledge or testing who is keeping up? I really want to know. Technically at this point with the expanded war powers the President could basically start a war from his smartphone without the aid of any other elected representatives.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Side note, only $2 billion more for VA. Active duty will only receive 2.1% pay raise, despite $700 billion NDAA budget for 2018.</p>— No1Complainer (@No1Complainer) <a href="https://twitter.com/No1Complainer/status/912008936177283072">September 24, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Meanwhile, $700 Billion dollars will go to Northrop-Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon and the other big defense firms. I don't know where our government plans to find that money. It seems the sofa cushions have already been fully ransacked since the housing and bad debt busts of recent years. Oh wait, I know what they're thinking. "China will cover it." But yeah, how about those tweets and cleats.
Commies bout to get purged good.