Last week, in the post JP Morgan Hires Recently Retired U.S. General, Raymond T. Odierno, I made the following observation:
How can you ensure that the interests of TBTF Wall Street mega banks and the military-intelligence-industrial complex remain aligned? Create a revolving door of course.
Of course it’s much, much bigger than this. The genius of the current status quo system is that it has created a complicated and opaque interlocking system of crony partnerships and interdependencies between the government, mega corporations and academia so massive, wealthy and powerful it has become exceedingly difficult to challenge. This is precisely because almost everyone now depends on it for their paychecks.
Creating such corrupt networks often happens in the shadows, and in recent years has taken the form of “public-private partnerships” and secret trade deals such as the TTP, TTIP and TISA. This is how modern America operates in a nutshell, and it’s continued metastasis is rapidly destroying what’s left of freedom, common sense and free markets in this nation.
Moving along to today’s post, how free does it make you feel that the Department of Defense is partnering with 162 companies, universities and other groups to develop wearable technology? How independent can these companies and universities actually be when they are engaged in such schemes with the U.S. government. The answer is obvious: Not independent at all.
From NBC News:
The Pentagon is teaming up with Apple, Boeing, Harvard and others to develop high-tech sensory gear flexible enough to be worn by people or molded onto the outside of a jet.
The rapid development of new technologies is forcing the Pentagon to seek partnerships with the private sector rather than developing its technology itself, defense officials say.
“I’ve been pushing the Pentagon to think outside our five-sided box and invest in innovation here in Silicon Valley and in tech communities across the country,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in prepared remarks on Friday.
Carter said the FlexTech Alliance comprised 162 companies, universities and other groups, from Boeing, Apple and Harvard, to Advantest Akron Polymer Systems and Kalamazoo Valley Community College.
How quaint.
For related articles, see:
Video of the Day – Chris Hedges on Overthrowing the Corporate Fascist State
Wall Street Teams Up with U.S. Intelligence Cronies in Bid to Form Fascist “Cyber War Council”
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Mike, once again you’ve nailed it.
I know this behavior goes back quite a few years. When I was still an engineering undergrad, I had the good fortune to work with a number of tech startups between 1998 and 2000. Many of these people were seeking funding through DARPA and the SBIR programs. Long story short, it was a quick way to get six figures in seed round funding so long as you didn’t mind giving the government a royalty free license to any patent you created with that money.
This was not just information technology; it included much of the medical and industrial R&D done by cash strapped micro businesses. Let me stress that these were grants, not loans. Very cheap seed funding indeed.
I also remember the day in my senior engineering project class where the professor spent an entire session showing our class how to apply for a National Science Foundation grant. He said that was key to all our future research. That was a depressing thought then as well as now.