Trump Wants Greenland? Funny? No. Dictator Perfect.

By Roger Armbrust 

August 29, 2019

Aerial view of U.S. Thule Air Base in Greenland

Do you laugh when you hear that Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland?

Don’t.

Remember this: Trump thinks like a dictator, and acts like a dictator. He prefers getting along with dictators like Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un while fighting with Canada’s and the European-Union countries’ leaders. And appears proud of it.

So why would a dictator want Greenland?

Three main reasons: (1) taking Washington’s Endless War Doctrine into Space; (2) creating a New Siberia for imprisoning immigrants, journalists, and political enemies; and (3) attempting to control the rising conflict over the Arctic and its resources.

Taking Endless War into Space

First, Greenland already houses Washington’s northern-most military base: Thule Air Base.  As the website Airforce Technology tells us: “Today, the base is used for monitoring space for defense purposes.”

Space defense purposes. Got it?

Now connect that to the recent announcement that Washington will initiate today (Aug. 29) its new Space Command…a combatant operation. That’s COMBATANT. As in now moving the neocon Endless War aggression into space.

As The Hill reported:

Vice President Pence and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford announced at Tuesday’s National Space Council meeting in Virginia that U.S. Space Command will officially be up and running Aug. 29.

Space Command, which will be responsible for planning and executing space operations, will have 87 units at launch next week, Dunford said.

Their capabilities will include missile warning, satellite operations, space control and space support, Dunford said.

Dunford described Space as “this critical warfighting domain. The direction is clear, we understand it and we’re moving out.”

The Unthinkable is now looming.

Now connect this with Trump’s recent exiting America from its nuclear weapons treaties, accelerating the Cold War and, with today’s technologies, increasing the threat of global devastation.

Add to that the U.S. upping the ante by beginning this month to test medium-range cruise missiles, which Russia called “escalating military tensions”.

Dunford said nothing, as you would expect, about Space Command being equipped with nuclear missiles in space. But Pence has not negated its possibility. He refused to eliminate the idea of nuclear weapons in space in October 2018. According to a report in Investor’s Business Daily:

Pence acknowledged that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits nuclear weapons from being stationed in earth's orbit. But he didn't give a clear "no" when he was asked at a Washington Post-sponsored forum if that should always be the case.

Instead he responded: "I think that what we need to do is make sure that we provide for the common defense of the people of the United States of America," he replied. "And that's the president's determination here."

What do you think about this? And what do you think the Russians and Chinese will think? And how would you respond if you were them? Trump is proving he’s prepared to wipe out all nuclear-weapons treaties. How do you expect the Chinese and Russians to respond to that?

In 2012, seeing Barack Obama begin implementing Washington’s trillion-dollar rebirthing of its nuclear weapons program, and China’s and Russia’s responses to that, I wrote a column headlined “NukeBuild: This Will Not End Well”.

The new Space Command and its potential nuclear threat to China, Russia, and the world is the continuum of this.

And Thule Air Base in Greenland, no doubt, will be integral to the Space Command plan.

That includes involvement with non-nuclear space weapons. Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, said today by email that the current concern involves kinetic or laser weapons in space that can destroy both space and ground objects – a worry for both Russia and China. Also, Washington is wary of ground weapons, like accurate intermediate-range ballistic missiles, that with kinetic force can destroy space objects.

But if Trump imagines nuclear bombs dropped into the middle of hurricanes, as several news outlets reported (he later denied saying it, as he often does), then one can bet he foresees dropping nukes from space to earth.

A New Siberia

Also, following Trump’s election, I wrote a November 2016 column headlined “Prepare to Fight Fascism: 2017 and Beyond”. Unfortunately, my predictions have proved true, including Trump’s attacks on the U.S. Constitution, the press, Congress, and anyone else who he sees as a threat to his dictatorship.

And he has continued to implement what I called his Cohn Core Principles, the way he has operated for decades: (1) Never admit to anything negative; (2) lie and use propaganda to turn every negative to a positive; (3) whenever sued (threatened), countersue. He learned these hawkish tactics from Roy Cohn, his attorney for years. They’re the perfect actions for a dictator.

Siberian inmates, 1945

What does this have to do with Greenland? A dictator can make it the New Siberia, but for America:  a desolate, forbidding landscape far from civilization, where a dictator can build prisons, labor camps, and incarcerate immigrants, journalists, and political enemies.

As described by Wikipedia:

Worldwide, Siberia is well known primarily for its long, harsh winters, with a January average of −25 °C (−13 °F),  as well as its extensive history of use by Russian and Soviet governments as a place for prisons, labor camps, and internal exile.

The location made the camps extremely remote, important for dictators to make suppression invisible. And the grueling weather conditions added to the suffering.

Now consider Greenland and Thule Air Base. As Wikipedia tells of the geography:

Thule's arctic environment includes icebergs in North Star Bay, two islands (Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island), a polar ice sheet, and Wolstenholme Fjord – the only place on Earth where four active glaciers join together.

Now recall that Trump’s long desire for immigrants has been to imprison them on military bases. As The Daily Beast explained in June 2018:

The Trump administration’s plan for immigrant families on the southern border involves holding them together on military bases for a prolonged, uncertain period of time.

He’s also made clear his assault on the Constitution and the press as the “enemy of the people”, when actually the press is the enemy of government lying and corruption. That’s why the Constitution guarantees press freedom. But we all know dictators love to imprison editors and journalists to hide the truth from the public.

So Thule Air Base’s remote location and vast harsh surroundings would be perfect for a dictator’s political prisons.

Controlling the Arctic

On Dec. 25, 2013, I published the column “The Coming Conflict Over Santa’s Home”. The headline is light, but the topic is serious. I predicted then that Arctic inhabitants “are about to be joined by major nations’ military forces, in what could lead to conflict over possession of the North Pole’s oil, gas, and fresh-water reserves.”

The Arctic is deep in natural resources, including not only oil, gas, and fresh water, but also fish and, in the subarctic, forestlands -- all considered economic boons to the major nations. A number of those countries claim property rights to sections of the area.

  

Those sovereignties include Canada, Russia, the United States (Alaska), Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. They are limited to a 200-nautical-mile economic zone around their border coasts which lie within the Arctic region.

My 2013 column will give you a quick overview of the situation, which continues to develop as climate change causes the Arctic to lose ice and become more open to pillage.

National Geographic will provide you an up-to-date visual view with its highly detailed map here.

Since dictators seem to always lust for dominating the entire world, no doubt ruling the Arctic is high on Trump’s list.

Where does that leave Trump with Greenland? He offered to buy the world’s largest island, but Denmark, the owner, refused to sell. That led to a brief row between the two countries.

But now, after decades of closure, Trump is re-opening Greenland’s U.S. consulate. Says the PBS Newshour:

The State Department says in a letter to Congress that reestablishing a consulate in Greenland is part of a broader plan to increase the U.S. presence in the Arctic.

So, look for Greenland to play more in Trump’s plans as we move to and through 2020.

The Green New Deal: Join the “National Conversation”

14 February 2019 / Valentine’s Day

  

By Bill Asti

Economist /Architect /Author

A “National Conversation” has arisen over the past few weeks due to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) “Green New Deal”. It has once again brought to our minds this realization:

We as humans have a vital obligation to leave our progeny a world that will support them now and long into the future.

Seeing that today is Valentine’s Day . . . Rep. Ocasio-Cortez . . . Be my Valentine!

I learned in Elementary School to ask that of everyone with whom I wanted to be friends, and to whom I wanted to talk. Let’s see if I get a response.

Over 42 years ago I created the first private foundation in the United States (maybe in the world) to educate about our then-coming post-industrial economy, and how to assure and sustain our transition to the “new economy”. A few years later, when Alvin and Heidi Toffler brilliantly articulated the concept of the Third Wave (Post Industrial Economy), I designed the first in history third-wave city of the future. All this was codified by accolades both then and in my book nearly a decade ago. My book’s title: The Chicken Came First: A Primer for Renewing and Sustaining Our Communities.

I discuss in my book the global trends that help us understand our collective futures, and the direction we should take to alter the trajectory of our civil society: A trajectory to sustain ourselves and assure our species’ survival.

I emphasize at my book’s very beginning why we should work together to solve problems. And throughout the body of my book I give examples of how to work together.

My book is not a simple dozen-page manifesto based on well-intentioned ambition, but a 300+ page manuscript that helps to guide outcomes. It is a more robust democratic capitalistic version of what Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has postulated and proposed. I discuss the “New World Order” as it has emerged; much different than what AOC hopes for and suggests. My book is a discussion based on education, experience and reality.

One example in my book -- relevant to the current dialogue about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez in the media -- is the use of airplanes and the claims that the "Green New Deal" would eliminate air travel. This claim epitomizes the media’s single-mindedness in dealing with issues. I show how at times an airplane can use less fossil fuel transiting the country than does a car. This type of example can act as a springboard for additional, far-reaching, and substantive discussions … if we can get past the polarization of all discussions in America today.

In my book I show how this polarization process -- this “Crossfire Syndrome” -- stifles debate and how politicians and the press (media) use this process to manipulate us. I would hope that we, the populace, could temporarily take advantage of this polarization process by injecting more of our reality and our ideas into this National Conversation.

The Senate will be bringing this “Green New Deal” to the Senate floor for a vote: a way to get lawmakers to take sides, go to their respective corners, and polarize this very serious debate. The good part of this impending Senate vote -- this political polarization process -- will be to exacerbate the debate’s intensity in the public square for the next month or two. After that, the debate will likely weaken in intensity but will stay in the public arena through 2020 -- a way for the political parties to further define their campaign issues. During this time period I hope that we, the people, can bring a different, more robust perspective to the sustainability debate; one that will prolong the discussion and hopefully bring some sanity to the table.

The “Green New Deal” has sparked a huge reaction; a reaction of conflicting views. If we keep these views in proper perspective, the creative differences represented by AOC’s manifesto on the one hand and my book on the other can offer a vital and powerful debate -- one which can help educate the tens of millions of people who have joined the debate. I would surmise that there has never been a time in recent history where these ideas -- including my book -- could play a pivotal role in a life-sustaining national dialogue.

Because this discussion affects you, your family, friends, and community, I hope that many of you take the time to read my book and express your opinion to every media outlet and politician. I also hope each of you demand of your elected officials to read AOC’s manifesto and contrast it to my book.

Our civilization’s future depends on sustaining our economy along with our built and natural environment. The many voices demanding clarity and guidance within this debate will determine the future of our nation, and the future of all nations.

Information on W.H. Asti’s Book

The Chicken Came First on Amazon

Information on The Chicken Came First

Video on The Chicken Came First

Saudis Wage Violent/Economic Global Wars

BY ROGER ARMBRUST · FEBRUARY 18, 2016

We’ve written often of our frustration with the United States pursuing endless war and creating chaos in the Middle East. Meanwhile, recent years have shown Saudi Arabia‘s kingdom advancing with global aggressive war — either violent or economic — detrimentally affecting every continent. Its vicious effort has even led now to negatively harm the kingdom’s economy, leading to efforts at austerity. To deflect Saudis’ attention from their internal problems, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud  ramped up the war effort this week, threatening to send U.S.-supplied air power and troops into Syria, further complicating the complex, globally dangerous conflict there.

Yemen aftermath of Saudi bomb.

The Saudis’ violent aggression has occurred on three main fronts: (1) the inhumane, bloody assault on Yemen; (2) both funding and fighting the murderous Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and (3) the Sunni-led government’s beheading of a popular Shia cleric, inciting volatile response in the Middle East and raising international alarm.

Meanwhile, the Saud royalty has created a global economic malaise by manipulating the price of oil, forcing it lower and lower through glutting the market with continued high production to protect market share. This has caused fiscal woes worldwide, especially among nations monetarily dependent on selling oil, ranging from the United States and Canada to Russia and Venezuela.

The Saudis’ effort, actually with schizoid cooperation from Washington, can only catapult the growing trudge toward world war.

Violent Aggression in Yemen

Yemen, a poor Middle East country (income per capital of $2,500) and a Saudi neighbor, has been caught up in a war between the government and rebel Houthis for over a year. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition – with arms, planes and logistic support supplied by Washington – have conducted airstrikes, allegedly on Houthi positions, but also killing civilians, and destroying infrastructure including water supplies and ports. Riyadh believes the Houthis are backed by Iran, and considers Iran an enemy.

A month after the bombing began, the United Nationscondemned the attacks and requested they cease so the UN could send aid and humanitarian personnel. Last month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon publicly chastised the Saudis for bombing a Yemeni hospital operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF).

On Sunday The New York Times reported Human Rights Watch was accusing the Saudis of firing “American-made cluster munitions, banned by international treaty, in civilian areas of Yemen, and said their use may also violate United States law.”

An Associated Press report Tuesday night revealed:

The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Tuesday that a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ is unfolding in Yemen, exacerbated by increasing restrictions on efforts to respond to the staggering needs of millions of people including the diversion of a U.N. aid ship by Saudi-led coalition forces.

Stephen O’Brien painted a grim picture of the war-ravaged country: more than 35,000 casualties since March 2015 including over 6,000 deaths; at least 7.6 million people ‘severely food insecure;’ more than 3.4 million children now out of school; and nearly 600 health facilities and over 1,170 schools unfit for use because of the conflict.

O’Brien’s briefing to the U.N. Security Council, requested by Russia, was the first focusing on the humanitarian crisis sparked by the country’s civil war.

Funding and Fighting ISIS

Like Riyadh and Washington’s schizoid relationship with the murderous assault on Yemen, Saudi Arabia appears to have its own internal violent contradictions regarding ISIS. On the one hand, the Riyadh government has joined with the U.S. since September 2014 in fighting ISIS. On the other hand, Riyadh has publicly discouraged but allowed Saudis to privately funnel support to the radical Muslims who, like the Saud family, are Wahabbis, i.e. ultra-conservative followers of Sunni Islam. Sunni Islam is the world’s largest religious faith. Wahabbism denounces the Shia faith, the second largest sect of Islam.

President Obama and Saudi king.

The Saudis are foes of Shia governments in Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Iran and Iraq are members with Riyadh in the Organization of PetroleumExporting Countries (OPEC) and three of the world’s top 10 oil producers. While OPEC members, they also compete for global market share, thus placing them at both religious and economic odds.

Washington, more in love with Arabian oil and weapons sales than logical foreign policy, has looked away from Riyadh’s bloody contradiction, allowing it to help continue Middle East chaos. Besides, it allows the Saudis to be U.S. allies in opposing Syria’s Shia-led government ofBashar al-Assad. But it also led Washington to basically ignore Riyadh’s helping ISIS in Iraq.

A Religious/Political Beheading

On January 1, Riyadh greatly upped the ante in the Wahabbi vs Shia confrontation by beheading — along with 46 others —  Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr for “terrorism”. Riyadh obviously considered him an enemy of the state. But his death set off a regional firestorm. As UK’s The Guardian reported:

The Iranian government and religious leaders across the Middle East have condemned Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric and warned of repercussions that could bring down the country’s royal family.

In a serious escalation of religious and diplomatic tensions in the region, councils and clerics in Iran, Yemen and Lebanon said the killing of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr would prompt widespread anger.

Oil and Global Economic War

Riyadh’s refusal to curb oil production, at first, was largely seen as an effort to destroy the oil-fracking industry in the UnitedStates, and Washington has appeared limp in opposing that. The American fracking industry took on deep debt, and has needed oil prices to maintain at $50-$60 a barrel to survive. But, with the Sauds glutting the market, prices have fallen to currently $20-$30, threatening the shale industry in the U.S.

But the Saudi effort has also greatly harmed major oil producers like Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria and Mexico, along with others. Indeed, the world’s economy has now been gouged.

This week, in a public relations ploy at seeking a solution, Russia and Saudi Arabia met in Qatar along with Venezuela. They agreed to freeze production at January levels if other oil producers would agree. They may not.

That goes particularly for Iran, who has just seen decades of sanctions lifting, allowing it again to sell oil worldwide, threatening Riyadh’s and others’ share of the take. It also means, while oil prices are killer low for everyone else, Iran can now make money on oil at quantities it couldn’t produce and sell for years, meaning an extra 500,000 barrels added to its 2.9 million barrels a day.

Will this end with Riyadh getting serious about curbing production and raising prices, easing others’ plight? Or will it mean the king getting serious about invading Syria, bringing that regional conflict, already resembling 1914, even closer to world war? While Russia and the U.S. actually seem to be seeking a stalemate in Syria…for the moment, at least…Riyadh and Turkey appear intent on confusing the issue and increasing the bloodshed. And Russia’s prime minister has warned of world war should foreign ground troops invade Syria.

Is there a solution? Perhaps China, who wants to peacefully trade with everybody, is powerful enough to step in and bring reason. It seems to have been trying. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as a trip to Egypt, in late January in efforts at good will and trade.

But, for now, the whole sad Middle East affair looks bleak indeed, and leads us to quote the words of the late John Lennon:

Nobody told me there’d be days like these…Strange days indeed…

(Originally published in reality: a world of views)

Our Lost Soldiers Wandering America’s Streets

BY ROGER ARMBRUST · NOVEMBER 11, 2014

Finding Homes for the Brave who are Far from Free

(The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that 49,933 veterans are homeless on any given night. That’s a dramatic drop in number since my column below was published on Yahoo! on Nov. 19, 2011. I hadn’t written a column for Yahoo! in two years, deciding to publish elsewhere. I recently discovered that Yahoo! had erased all my columns, making them no longer available on the Internet. Here’s the column on homeless military veterans. I wanted to share it with you today: Veteran’s Day. For the record, I’m leaving my original figures in the column. For updated figures, you can check the links following the column. Thank you for your service, all Veterans, both those with and tragically without homes.)

How can we help our more than 100,000 military veterans who have served our nation yet stumble homelessly through it? The reality is this: If Americans can find an answer to safely sheltering them, and then help them return as active members of society, we may find the solution to our country’s overall pervasive and tragic homeless problem—3.5 million people in any given year (1.35 million of them children).

Homeless Veteran

Can helping the homeless veteran help all the homeless?

A group calling itself “The 100,000 Homes Campaign” is one service organization looking for a solution. Its goal is to house 100,000 homeless Americans by July 2013. It reports having currently housed 11, 271 through its nationwide, community-based program.

This month, it also issued a data report: “National Survey of Homeless Veterans in 100,000 Homes Campaign Communities.” Its trained volunteers set out in 47 towns, and interviewed 23,000 homeless individuals. They used a questionnaire “based on leading medical research by Drs. Jim O’Connell of Harvard University and Stephen Hwang of the University of Toronto,” the study notes. The scientific survey “screens for health and social conditions linked to an increased risk of death among homeless individuals. It also asks for data on age, health status, institutional history (military, hospital, jail, prison), length of homelessness, patterns of shelter use, and previous housing situations.”

Of the 23,000 homeless individuals surveyed, 3,493 were American veterans. To put that in perspective, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, using estimates from the federal Veterans Affairs Department, says, “107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness. Only eight percent of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly one-fifth of the homeless population are veterans.”

Who are these homeless veterans? Hear first from their National Coalition:

America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, the Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq (OEF/OIF), and the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Nearly half of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era. Two-thirds served our country for at least three years, and one-third were stationed in a war zone.

Roughly 56 percent of all homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 12.8 percent and 15.4 percent of the U.S. population respectively.

About 1.5 million other veterans, meanwhile, are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.

The 100,000 Homes Campaign’s survey released this month notes:

While the percentage of surveyed veterans who reported having fought in America’s most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was small (1.5%), this group displayed a number of striking qualities. As a group, Iraq/Afghanistan vets often suffer brain injury.

Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer brain injury.

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were considerably more likely to report suffering from a traumatic brain injury than veterans of other wars. They were also more likely to report having received some form of mental health treatment, though significantly less likely to report having health insurance.

The study supposed that was due to the federal government’s increased “attentiveness to brain injuries and combat-related mental health symptoms.”

The study also compared percentages in illnesses suffered by surveyed veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those involved in earlier conflicts: Twenty-seven percent of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans reported brain injuries, compared to 19% from earlier engagements. Having received mental health treatment: Iraq/Afghanistan 46%, earlier wars 41%. Serious health condition: 42% to 56%. Substance abuse 57% to 61%. Those having health insurance: 44% to 59%.

The report showed that military veterans experienced homelessness longer than non-veterans: 5.77 years, compared to 3.92 years for homeless non-veterans. “Similarly, 62% of veterans reported having been homeless for two years or more, while 50% of non-veterans said the same. Among those who had been homeless for more than two years, total length of homelessness jumped to 9 years for homeless veterans and 7.3 for homeless non-veterans.”

The 100,000 Homeless campaign sees a connection between getting veterans a home and a subsequent return to better health:

In the last several years, VA has embraced permanent housing as a central plank in its efforts to address homelessness among veterans. There is good reason to suspect that the increasingly broad implementation of this strategy in communities across the country will result in the emergence of a clear correlation between a veteran’s connection to VA benefits and both improved health and reduced length of homelessness.

Still, the survey shows that about half the surveyed homeless veterans haven’t received mental health treatment, and don’t have health insurance. It would seem logical that this nation–that can spend millions designing and operating pilotless drones–could find a positive way to house, treat and insure our soldiers who have served and are suffering.

Meanwhile, the 100,000 Homeless campaign keeps taking its efforts into local communities, believing that’s where substantive solutions abide. The campaign is overseen by Common Solutions, a national spin-off of the New York City-based not-for-profit Common Ground. Becky Kanis leads the 100,000 Homeless effort. Following years at West Point, she eventually got involved in Times Square and the Street to Home Initiative. The 100,000 Homeless drive lists among its “sponsors, partners and allies” the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Bank of America, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

For more information about the 100,000 Homes Campaign, visit its website: http://100khomes.org/.

To find out more about the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans: http://www.nchv.org/about.cfm.

U.S. Sen. Cotton, on AETN, Supports Aggressive War

  BY ROGER ARMBRUST · JANUARY 3, 2016

Tom Cotton, Arkansas’s freshman U.S. senator, made clear this weekend his support for

ramping up aggressive war on ISIS and America’s enemies in the Middle East — calling Iran a

“mortal enemy” and pushing the need to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He also said

Americans “have plenty to be afraid and frustrated about” due to terrorism and the $17 trillion

national debt.

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton

In a half-hour interview taped nearly a month ago but just aired Friday on AETN, Arkansas’s PBS

affiliate, Cotton kept the half-hour interview centered on the Middle East.

He allowed a couple of minutes specifying he believes federal highway funds should be limited

to building and maintaining the nation’s interstate system, and not spent on state or local

projects, such as funding a Los Angeles or New York subway system.

He spent one sentence expressing concern that Americans haven’t seen wage increases in a

couple of decades.

What he did NOT discuss, nor seem interested in bringing up, were the following issues which

are torturing Americans, and which we’ve discussed in past columns:

1) While spending most of his interview promoting aggressive war in the Middle East, Cotton —

who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, receiving a Bronze Star — didn’t even mention the

750,000 active military and veterans suffering from TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and PTSD (Post-

Traumatic Stress Disorder), the tragic brain injuries caused by military conflict and leading to a

continuing plague of suicides.

2) The over $1 trillion college loan debt which is frustrating our young, and even abusing our

elderly.

3) The $1 trillion credit card debt, which is increasing as banks turn more to subprime lending, not

only for credit cards, but auto loans, and, yes, mortgages.

4) The $2.3 trillion estimated need for U.S. infrastructure.

5) The gluttonous growth of the nontransparent (as in secret) derivatives investment industry,

considered the chief cause for the economic meltdown of 2007-08. International banking

analysts are expressing consistent concern that the derivatives racket, at a then-high of over

$600 trillion in 2007, was also that high in 2014, and expected to “boom” through 2019.

Analysts are also extremely wary of the growing private debt worldwide.

6) The skewed employment figures from government, ignoring the fact that 50 million Americans

are on food stamps, 7 million Americans want full-time jobs but can’t find them. And while

part-time jobs are being created, the country’s seeing no increase in incomes (except for top

execs) and no benefits for part-time workers (many working two jobs or more) and their

families.

7) A bubble stock market, fed not by executives investing in their corporations to create real jobs

with rising employee incomes and benefits, but buying back their companies’ stocks to enrich

their own and stockholders’ incomes.

8) The conservative assault on state and local levels against women and minority rights, primarily

coming from Cotton’s Republican Party.

9) The now-turned America from a democracy to an oligarchy.

10) America’s nuclear-weapons buildup leading to Russia and China’s adding to their nuclear

arsenals.

The Neo-Con Line

Cotton’s position of concentrating dialogue on aggressive war in the Middle East is essentially

Washington’s neoconservative, exceptionalist obsession – basically in line with the Millionaire

Congress, Millionaire president, military-industrial complex, Wall Street and corporate media

conglomerates endlessly pushing the racket of endless war. It’s sucking the budget of any

chance to fund solutions to America’s true needs, but instead sends taxpayers’ money to the

weapons industry and the bankers who back it.

“Arkansas Week” veteran newsman Steve Barnes

Cotton stressed Iran as a “mortal enemy” that’s supporting global terrorism. But he didn’t seem

particularly concerned about leaders in Saudi Arabia who support terrorism, or the Egyptian

military dictator who toppled a democratically elected government and is stifling dissent – even

though veteran newsman Steve Barnes called him on that in the interview — since Cotton

considers them U.S. allies.

Barnes also suggested to him twice that the Middle East quagmire has no easy solution. Cotton,

a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Special Committee on Intelligence,

would respond by dropping names of foreign leaders and statistics, emphasizing that the U.S.

must work with allies to defeat radical Muslims.

At one point he said if radical Muslims make up one percent of the 1 billion Muslim world, that

means their numbers are “in the millions”. He then later summarized his view by saying if the

U.S. increases its military effort against those millions, it means “we win and they lose”. He

wasn’t clear about how the U.S. would work with allies to do that, nor did he mention

anywhere in his interview dealing with Russia and China.

Through the half-hour interview, he did mention a couple of times the $17 trillion national

debt, yet offered no detailed explanation of how to cut or eliminate it.

But most of all — in offering his neocon view — Cotton obviously wants you to be afraid of

being blown up by terrorists in the United States, and not concern yourself with making enough

money to support a family, pay drug and hospital bills, work your way out of being mired in

credit debt, nor think about the young swamped with student loan and credit debt that’s

keeping them from buying homes and starting families.

AETN’s interview with Cotton, on the program “Arkansas Week”, is not yet posted online.

(This column first ran in reality: a world of views.)