We Should All be 'One-Trick Ponies' | Philip A. Farruggio

Philip A. FarruggioPhilip A. Farruggio -- World News Trust

Oct. 5, 2017

Those who read my columns know that I have been concentrating on one vital issue for years: The terribly obscene military spending by this empire... which means US!

When over half of our tax revenues goes down the toilet of phony wars and occupations, nearly 1,000 bases overseas (and growing), billions to military contractor corporations, and an arsenal of "overkill" weapons systems, something needs to register with our populace. Apparently it is not... yet!

The suckers, saps and lollipops continue to vote and support the heinous "Two Party/One Party scam" that has mesmerized most of them for generations. Recently, with the influx of killer hurricanes and wildfires, it becomes easy to deduce that FEMA and our federal, state and local governments simply do NOT have the funds to take proper care of us.

The once-cherished safety net is broken! Need I go on to state the facts as to why millions of us do not have comprehensive health care, our infrastructure is failing rapidly, public schools are decaying with it, the once sacred library system is being shortchanged, and our system of first-providers needs help... just to name a few of many more "holes in the dyke of America?"

A dear lifelong friend of mine who shares my concerns always critiques my writing as being a "One-Trick Pony." He is partially correct.

Of course, this "One-Trick Pony" on our bloated military spending is directly connected to the fact that we are a Military Industrial Empire. This empire, in perhaps its latter stages, has actually become more desperate.

What keeps this empire funded is the fact that our U.S. dollar is the main means of transaction internationally for generations. Any nation that sold its natural resources of oil and gas did so using our "petrodollars." When Hussein of Iraq and Khadafy of Libya chose to NOT use it... look what happened to them and their nations. Check it out folks.

Now, we have the Chinese, along with the Russians and other BRIC nations, planning to trade in the gold-backed Yuan and Ruble... thus the saber rattling by our empire. Sad, but true.

A new Cold War is brewing, but not because of threats of Communism (old hat) or even terrorism. No, this is the onion peeled away to reveal the bitter truth of it all.

Isn't it time for this $700 billion gorilla to be put back in its cage? Isn't it time to cut that ridiculous spending in half, for argument sake, and use the $350 billion to deal with those aforementioned needs we have?

Imagine if we get our own economic house in order, get the hell OUT of the rest of the world with our jackboot and its WMD threats, and join in fair and balanced trade deals. Our greatness as a nation of innovation, with a new example of how to really run an economy may just put us back in the good graces with other nations.

Yes, we need to do lots of apologizing with lots of reparations to the countries we ravished, but.... Hope does spring eternal.

PA Farruggio

October 2017

Philip A Farruggio is a son and grandson of Brooklyn, New York, longshoremen. He has been a freelance columnist since 2001, with more than 300 of his essays posted on sites like Consortium News, Information Clearing House, Nation of Change, World News Trust, Op-Ed News, Dissident Voice, Counterpunch, Activist Post, Sleuth Journal, Truthout and many others. His blog can be read in full on World News Trust., whereupon he writes a great deal about the need to cut military spending drastically and send the savings back to save our cities. Philip has an internet interview show, "It's the Empire... Stupid" with producer Chuck Gregory, and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.