The US military industrial complex at the ground level.
In her recent book, The Trillion Dollar Silencer, Joan Roelofs attempts to explain the silence about US military activities at home and abroad. There has been so little anti-war protest by progressives, libertarians, environmentalists, civil rights advocates, academics, clergy, community volunteers, artists, and others, although recent demonstrations indicate concern awakening. While fear, propaganda, and distractions account for some of the silence, and even consent, interests have not been sufficiently examined so that is what I research. She examines the many ways our economy and culture have been integrated with military projects and share in the vast funds of the Department of Defense.
This mostly forgotten war led to Mexico losing over half its territory and the United States expanding to the Pacific. The lecture examines the political and economic background of the conflict, what led to it, and the roles of such factors as Texas annexation in 1845, slavery, racism, the Democratic and Whig parties, and Manifest... Read more