A second time this year, Matt Taibbi is our Hero of the Week for taking up the topic, once again, of Congress’s magical spending abilities and budget creations for expenditures the government did not even seek.

Drowned by the January 6 Committee “shriek-o-meter” and hence totally underreported even in alternative news media, Taibbi, in a recent brilliant piece of financial and political journalism, reports on the bipartisan passing of a record-breaking defense bill that includes unusual “additions” of at least $58 billion for, among other things, weapons and warships that the military did not request. With historical precision, Mr. Taibbi tracks and unfolds the twisted logic of “things related and not” by which these ever-increasing budgets are justified:

“From a horrific war in Ukraine, to the rolling back of constitutional rights here in the United States, we are witnessing a global assault on democracy and freedom, the cause of Mandela’s life!” ~ Prince Harry to the UN General Assembly on July 19th, 2022

Taibbi, as Solari subscribers will remember, was the only journalist of renown to write—in early 2019—about the “Missing Trillions” that Catherine and Dr. Mark Skidmore uncovered. Last week, he also took on the New York Times as peddling “pravdaesque” propaganda and signaling to the public what it is now allowed to talk about.

“…[T]he Times has become a place where the public often learns about key facts, pressing international controversies, or trends in American thought only once these have been deemed suitable for public consumption by an unseen higher audience.”

Matt Taibbi on Substack:

The Great American Military Rebrand

The New Kremlinology: Reading the New York Times

Interview with Matt Taibbi: The NY Times as the American Pravda

Has the Government Legalized Secret Defense Spending?

Related:

Hero of the Week: April 4, 2022: Matt Taibbi