60 years and when it counts..................................

The United States has had a standing presence in the skies around the world since the Cold War began. The division of the Air Force that has that responsibility was Strategic Air Command that was the case until the Berlin Wall went down. Since that time it is unclear who is in charge of this vast nuclear fleet of global bombers that always kept a full third of their forces in the air, around the world, at all times prior to the end of the Cold War. (1)

Those B-52's were armed with nuclear weapons, because they were part of our forward defense shield to deter the communist regime of the USSR from a pre-emptive attack upon the USA or on any of our military bases scattered all over the planet. We also had Trident submarines that also encircled the seas and they too carried nuclear weapons, theirs were in the form of ICBM's. What remains unclear today is who now controls our nuclear bomber fleet and what will happen to them on September 14, when the US Air Force grounds all its planes because of this "incident."

Today there are 190 nations in the world and we have 130 military bases on this planet in other nations: If we do not have a WAR department, why do we need so many bases? We call the military-the Department of Defense-yet how can this be considered a Defensive department - when so many of our bases are still located in 130 other countries?

During the Cold War we needed these satellite bases to rearm and refuel the bombers and the submarines but after the collapse of the USSR that 'continuing treat' was largely neutralized-until of course we conveniently acquired the "new" War on Terra.(EARTH)

All of this has cost the taxpayers one hell of a lot of money-just to maintain those bases; never-mind what it costs to provide armaments for the planes, the ships and the troops that are stationed there. All of this is in addition to what we're currently spending in Iraq and Afghanistan ($3 billion a week).

This does explain why this government has chosen to fail to fund so many social programs here at home. They need the money to feed the US Military's world-wide budget: a fixture that is strangling every other need that Americans might encounter, from Hurricanes to Health-care the needs of the American Military obviously trump all other concerns.

The Congress is the branch of government that has absolute control over the power of the purse-and yet this colossal waste has only continued to expand: apparently with no oversight at all.

"Anyone who spends 10 minutes to Google and read Articles 1 and 2 of the U.S. Constitution cannot mistake where the real power lies in the federal government. In the system the Founders designed for us, Congress not the President is the real power. Congress makes all laws, raises and designs all taxes, funds or refuses to fund all and any actions of government, and their decision to fund anything that government does, or not, is final.
Congress declares war, not the President; and they can undeclare it or terminate it or limit its scope at will by declaration. The President has no say in the matter. He is the Commander in Chief only of our operational military, not of the entire country, and he commands operational military forces only within the sphere allowed to him by Congress and the Constitution.

With respect to the rest of the government, the President merely presides, i.e.
he is a figurehead with some but not much influence over the process of day to day governance; and he labors even then under the Constitutional mandate to "Take care that" the laws are complied with.

With respect to the public, The President has of course a good deal of persuasive power--what Teddy Roosevelt once described as the "Bully Pulpit". And our modern timid Congresses generally fear this power of persuasion; but Congress through its leaders could no doubt match or exceed him even in public persuasiveness if they chose to do so.

All modern Congresses have been bought and kept, however, by various corporate, foreign and financial entities; and so they choose to represent those entities rather than us. They refuse to exercise OUR power on OUR behalf, choosing instead to encourage the President to Act in support of these other entities, while Congress pretends to be involved and pretends sometimes to object."