The habit of the US military-industrial complex and its business adjuncts (Chiquita Banana, United fruit, Apple, MicroSoft, Dow Chemical, Coke, McDonalds, etc; you know, the usual suspects) of trampling on the lives and rights of people in general but especially in ‘Latin’ America, Africa and the Middle East, must end for the US to regain any of the global influence lost under Trump.
The New York stock market stands revealed as merely a barometer of said military-industrial complex rather than the real economy, and this must be rectified, at a bare minimum by separating the arms industry from the rest of the corporate marketplace. Only then might investors begin to face the reality of what they have been doing.
Troops must be brought home or the term “defense spending” continues to be a lie. Self-determination needs to return to Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Venezuela, Cuba, and Palestine. No more bombing or embargoes. Otherwise the US remains a bully like Donald Trump, and an embarrassment to itself.
The rights of people of color, especially at home, to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, must be ensured, if the US is to be taken seriously as anything but a hypocrite. The rich must again pay their share – after all, government and its agencies mostly serve them. As the poorer sections of society have been so unfairly blamed by media, anti-trust legislation must break up monopolistic media, and public media be reinvigorated.
It hardly matters how difficult these things might be – covid is difficult, as is environmental change. We NEED real education, a revival of small business, environmental protections and justice. We NEED impartial, independent and accountable courts.
We NEED responsibility, not pretention, entertainment and comfort food. We have nothing to lose by attempting to accomplish these things, and EVERYTHING to lose if we don’t.
And no more littering!