It is depressing to observe how the United States of America has become the evil empire. Having served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and in the Central Intelligence Agency for the second half of the Cold War, I had an insider’s viewpoint of how an essentially pragmatic national security policy was being transformed bit by bit into a bipartisan doctrine that featured as a sine qua non global dominance for Washington. Unfortunately, when the Soviet Union collapsed the opportunity to end once and for all the bipolar nuclear confrontation that threatened global annihilation was squandered as President Bill Clinton chose instead to humiliate and use NATO to contain an already demoralized and effectively leaderless Russia.

In some of the many Duty to Warn columns that I have written over the years about the domination that for-profit corporations have acquired over healthcare delivery in America, I have especially tried to warn readers (especially parents of vulnerable infants and children) about the many hidden dangers from the thousands of drugs and vaccines that are mass-produced by the hundreds of multinational drug and vaccine manufacturers across the world. Every single one of those corporations has unethically hidden those dangers via their ever-present propaganda efforts.

For profit corporations don’t pledge the Hippocratic Oath like physicians and nurses used to do. And the only “ethical” duty of corporations is a fiduciary one. Their only “ethical” responsibility is to their shareholders; and that means “to make as large a profit as possible” so that those shareholders will benefit from dividend distribution or share price escalation.

The current political brawl over next year’s budget is highly significant. With Democrats in a House majority for the first time in eight years, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and most other party leaders continue to support even more largesse for the Pentagon. But many progressive congressmembers are challenging the wisdom of deference to the military-industrial complex -- and, so far, they’ve been able to stall the leadership’s bill that includes a $17 billion hike in military spending for 2020.

An ostensible solution is on the horizon. More funds for domestic programs could be a quid pro quo for the military increases. In other words: more guns and more butter.

“Guns and butter” is a phrase that gained wide currency during escalation of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s. Then, as now, many Democrats made political peace with vast increases in military spending on the theory that social programs at home could also gain strength.

On 11 April 2019, WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange was dragged from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London by UK police and arrested for breaching a bail condition. See ‘Arrest update – SW1’. Upon arrival at a London police station, Julian was ‘further arrested’ on behalf of the United States government to satisfy an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the UK Extradition Act. See ‘UPDATE: Arrest of Julian Assange’.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 6:30 – 8:30 PM.
Edith's case is on the move! We currently have several projects getting started to help Edith's case move forward. But we need your help – Edith's ability to stay depends on our ability to grow our currently small organizing team. Please join us on Tuesday as we get hands-on with our current projects. You'll learn organizing skills in a supportive, team-based environment and help move the needle on immigration.  Location:  Columbus Mennonite Church, 35 Oakland Park Ave., 3rd floor.  Facebook.