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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6/20 EW</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 18px; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/us-environmental-performance-ranking-2646152826.html" aria-label="U.S. Ranks 24th in New Environmental Performance Index, Near Bottom of Developed Countries" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); text-decoration-line: none; font-family: inherit; word-break: break-word; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-size: 14px;">U.S. Ranks 24th in New Environmental Performance Index, Near Bottom of Developed Countries</a></h1><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/the-history-of-the-united-states-is-the-history-of-empire/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/the-history-of-the-united-states-is-the-history-of-empire/</font></a></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although most Americans are familiar with the “logo map” of 48 contiguous states, the story of empire and America’s possessions beyond the North American continent has been largely overlooked.</font></p><div class="p1_56" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his groundbreaking new book, <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How to Hide an Empire: The History of the Greater United States </em>(Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Professor Daniel Immerwahr offers a corrective that fills in the history of American empire from the perspective of those who live in US territories and other possessions. His lively book is based on extensive archival research, interviews, and other previously overlooked resources.</font></p><div class="p2_56" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5155643920455169" data-ad-slot="8080761699" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true" data-adsbygoogle-status="done" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: block; height: 60px;"><ins id="aswift_0_expand" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-table; border: none; height: 60px; position: relative; visibility: visible; width: 630px; background-color: transparent;"><ins id="aswift_0_anchor" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: block; border: none; height: 60px; position: relative; visibility: visible; width: 630px; background-color: transparent;" /></ins></ins></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Professor Immerwahr writes, the founders were ambivalent about rapid expansion, but within a few decades of the birth of the nation, the inexorable and often brutal movement west had captured a continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, a place for 48 contiguous states. Then the country looked beyond the mainland, and <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How to Hide and Empire </em>offers a fresh point of view that casts our national past in a new light.</font></p><div class="p3_56" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Professor Immerwahr vividly recounts, the offshore history begins when the U.S. took possession of dozens of uninhabited islands in the mid-nineteenth century for coveted guano—bird dung—to fill a need for natural fertilizer on the mainland. By the turn of the century, the U.S. expanded farther with the possession of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Hawai‘i, and more. Today, many former American colonies have been replaced by a “pointillist empire” of more than 800 American military bases and facilities around the globe.</font></p><div class="p4_56" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From the Guano Islands to America’s widespread empire now, Professor Immerwahr shares neglected stories from the past showing how inhabitants of America’s possessions have been relegated “to the shadows,” and, at various times, have been “shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed, tortured, and experimented on.”...</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EXCEPTIONAL AN 3.19</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I was born and raised in an America far more Orwellian than many now remember. Matters have gone so far off the rails since 9/11 that few seem to recall the madness of the 1980s. The U.S. had a celebrity actor for president, who <a href="https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/reagan-evil-empire-speech-text/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">railed about America’s ostensibly existential adversary</a>—the Soviet “evil empire.” Back then, Ronald Reagan nearly <a href="https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/nuclear-close-calls-able-archer-83" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">started a nuclear war</a> during the all-too-real Able Archer war game. He also secretly <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/reagan-iran/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">sold missiles to Iran</a>, and then laundered the windfall to the Contras’ Central American hit squads, resulting in some 100,000 dead.</font></p><div class="p1_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Looking back from 2019, at least as the contemporary media tell it, those were the good old days. Heck, even Barack Obama—faux liberal that he was—proudly and publicly <a href="https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2044712,00.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">admired Reagan</a>. Oh, and one of Reagan’s favorite campaign slogans: “Make America Great Again.”</font></p><div class="p2_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, matters seem to be coming farcically full circle, what with Elliott Abrams—<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/26/elliott-abrams-venezuela-us-special-envoy" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">convicted in the aforementioned Iran-Contra scandal</a>—being appointed special envoy to Venezuela, and Uncle Sam again <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-will-threaten-venezuelan-military-with-losing-assets-abroad-white-house-says/2019/02/18/4d6866c2-338f-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.a1ac2a3fc623" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">bullying a Latin American country</a>. Welcome to America’s own grisly ’80s foreign affairs theme party! Which all got me thinking, again, about the whole notion of American exceptionalism. Only a country that truly, deeply believes in its own special mission could repeat the hideous policies of the 1980s and hardly notice.</font></p><div class="p3_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps one expects this absurd messianism from the likes of The Donald, but the real proof is that America’s supposed progressives—like Obama—also obediently pray at the temple of exceptionalism. “Orwellian” is the only word for a nation whose leaders and commentariat were absolutely aghast when candidate Obama was seen without (gasp!) an <a href="https://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1779544,00.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">American flag pin on his lapel</a>. Even more disturbing was how quickly <a href="https://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1779544,00.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">he folded</a> and dutifully adorned his mandatory flair. This sort of nonsense is dangerous, folks: It’s hypernationalism—the very philosophy that brought us World War I.</font></p><div class="p4_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So it was this week, while sitting on a plane reading my oh-so-bourgeois Economist, and getting infuriated about seeing Elliott Abrams’ war-criminal face, that my thoughts again turned to good old American exceptionalism. My opinions on the topic have waxed and waned over the course of a career spent waging illegal war. First, as a young cadet at West Point, I bought it hook, line and sinker; then, as an Iraq War vet and dissenter, I rejected the entire notion. Only now, observing the world as it is, have I begun to think that America really is exceptional after all—only in all the wrong ways.</font></p><div class="p5_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Humor me, please, while I run through a<b> brief laundry list of the ways the US of A is wildly and disconcertingly different from all the other “big-boy countries” in the developed world. Let’s start with domestic policy:</b></font></p><div class="p6_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The U.S. has been the site of exponentially more </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/americas/us-gun-statistics/index.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">mass shootings</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> than any other nation. And unlike in New Zealand—where officials </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">took immediate steps</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> to tighten gun control in the wake of its recent tragedy—American politicians won’t do a thing about it.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> We also <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/americas/us-gun-statistics/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">own more guns per capita</a> than any other country in the world. In second place is Yemen.</span></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. is essentially alone in the Western world in not <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-spending/u-s-health-spending-twice-other-countries-with-worse-results-idUSKCN1GP2YN" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">guaranteeing health care</a>as a basic human right. It spends <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-spending/u-s-health-spending-twice-other-countries-with-worse-results-idUSKCN1GP2YN" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">much more cash</a>, yet achieves worse health outcomes than its near-peer countries.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>America is home to some of the <a href="https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">starkest income inequality on the globe</a>—right up there with Turkey and South Africa.</b></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44518942" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">keeps migrant kids in cages at the border</a>, or did until recently. Even more exceptional is that Washington is largely responsible for the very unrest in Central America that generates the refugees, all while American conservatives proudly wear their “Christianity” as badge of honor—but wasn’t Jesus a refugee child? Maybe I read the wrong Bible.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America is <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/26/u-s-lacks-mandated-paid-parental-leave/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">alone among 41 Western nations</a> in not guaranteeing paid family leave. How’s that for “family values?”</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As for representative democracy, only the U.S. has an Electoral College. This fun 18<sup style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">th</sup>-century gimmick ensures that here in America—in 40 percent of its elections since 2000—the presidential candidate with fewer votes actually won. Furthermore, our peculiar system ensures that a rural Wyoming resident has—proportionally—several times more representative power in Washington than someone who lives in California.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Similarly, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">America counts several non-state “territories”—think Guam, Samoa, Puerto Rico—that don’t even get to vote for the president that it can legally send to war. But hey, why should we grant them statehood? It’s not as though some of them have <a href="https://www.equalrightsnow.org/u_s_citizens_defend_democracy_can_t_vote_for_president" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">higher military enlistment rates</a> than any U.S. state … oh, wait.</span></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. is essentially solo in defining corporations as “people,” and thanks to the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, has lifted limits on money in politics. Buying elections is officially as American as apple pie.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <b>USA <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">locks up</a> its own people at the highest rate in the world and is nearly <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6731" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">alone among developed nations</a> in maintaining the death penalty.</b> Last year, the U.S. was the only country in the Americas to conduct executions and the only Western democracy to do so. But our friends the Saudis still execute folks, so it’s got to be OK. Dostoyevsky famously claimed that “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” How are we doing there?</font></li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Then there’s the foreign policy of the great American empire:</b></font></p><div class="p7_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. <a href="https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">spends exponentially more on military defense</a> than anyone else, and more than the next seven competitors (most of which are allies) combined.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America’s bloated military is all by itself in <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-united-states-probably-has-more-foreign-military-bases-than-any-other-people-nation-or-empire-in-history/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">dotting the globe</a> with hundreds of foreign military bases—by some estimates more than any country or empire in world history. As for our two biggest rivals, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/russias-military-compared-us-which-country-has-more-military-bases-across-954328" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Russia has 21</a> (mostly close to home); China has <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-us-has-military-bases-in-172-countries-all-of-them-must-close/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">maybe three.</a></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Benevolent, peaceful, freedom-loving America is also the world’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-43873518" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">top arms dealer</a>—even selling death-dealing weapons to famous human rights abusers.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Syria signed on, the U.S. became the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/climate/syria-joins-paris-agreement.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">last nation</a> on earth not party to the Paris Climate Accord. Heck, the occupant of the Oval Office doesn’t even <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46351940" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">believe in man-made climate change</a>.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then there’s the discomfiting fact that the U.S.—along with Russia—won’t even make a <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2018-10/focus/case-us-first-use-policy" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">“no-first-use” pledge</a> regarding nuclear weapons. And that’s reality, not “Dr. Strangelove.”</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. was first and, until recently, alone in flying its drone fleet through sovereign national airspace and executing “terrorists” from the sky at will. I wonder how Washington will respond when other countries cite that American precedent and do the same?</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Only the U.S. Navy patrols all the world’s oceans in force and expects to maintain superiority everywhere. And only the U.S. boasts near total control of the goings-on in two whole continents—unflinchingly asserting that North and South America fall in its “sphere of influence.” Crimea abuts Russia and the people speak Russian—still, the U.S. denies Moscow any sphere of influence there or anywhere else. Ah, consistency.</font></li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course there is so, so much more, but let’s end our tour of American “exceptionalism” there in the interest of time.</font></p><div class="p8_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">What’s so staggeringly unique about the United States is ultimately this: It stands alone among historical hegemons in denying the very existence of its empire. This, truly, is something new. Kids in 19<sup style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">th</sup>-century Great Britain <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">knew </em>they had an empire—they even colored their colonies red on school maps. Not so here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. No, Washington seems to believe its own lie—and has its people convinced—that the U.S. is no empire at all, but rather a benevolent “democratic” gentle giant.</font></p><div class="p9_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American colonies were founded from the outset as mini-empires wrested from the natives. Next, the nascent U.S. grew up enough to take what was left of the continent from the Mexicans. Since then, Washington has been trolling the world’s oceans and spreading the gospel of its own hyper-late-stage capitalism and bullying others in order to get its way. Sure, there are countries where worse human-rights abusers and worse authoritarian regimes are in power. But do we really want to be competing for last place? Especially if we’re supposedly so exceptional and indispensable?</font></p><div class="p10_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Me, I’m sick of patriotism, of exceptionalism, of nationalism. I’ve seen where all those ideologies inevitably lead: to aggressive war, military occupations and, ultimately, dead children. So count me as over hegemony—it’s so 20th-century, anyway—and bring on the inevitable decline of U.S. pretense and power. Britain had to give up most of an empire to gain a social safety net. That was the humane thing to do.</font></p><div class="p11_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Major Danny Sjursen, a </span><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/author/dsjursen/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Truthdig</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> regular, is a retired U.S. Army officer and <b>former history instructor at West Point</b>. He served tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has written a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1611687810/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge</a>.<span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> He lives in Lawrence, Kansas. Follow him on Twitter at </span><a href="https://twitter.com/SkepticalVet" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">@SkepticalVet</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> and check out his podcast </span><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fortress-on-a-hill-podcast/id1330015680?mt=2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">“Fortress on a Hill,”</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> co-hosted with fellow vet Chris ‘</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Henri</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’ Henrikson.</span></font></p><div class="p12_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Note:</strong> The views expressed in this article are those of the author, expressed in an unofficial capacity, and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.]</font></p></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/mike-pompeo-lashes-out-at-the-international-criminal-court-to-shield-the-us-from-war-crimes-prosecutions/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/mike-pompeo-lashes-out-at-the-international-criminal-court-to-shield-the-us-from-war-crimes-prosecutions/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Human rights defenders expressed outrage on Friday after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2019/03/290394.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">revealed</a> that the Trump administration is revoking or denying visas for any International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel who try to investigate or prosecute U.S. officials or key allies for potential war crimes.</font></div><div class="p1_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The move, Pompeo confirmed to reporters Friday morning, is a direct response to <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/11/03/seminal-moment-icc-chief-prosecutor-seeks-probe-us-war-crimes-afghanistan" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">ongoing efforts </a>by the ICC to probe allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity tied to the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/25/us-dropping-more-and-more-bombs-afghan-civilian-deaths-hit-record-high-2018" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">seemingly endless</a> war in Afghanistan.</font></p><div class="p2_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU’s Human Rights Program, was among those who <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-comment-us-barring-entry-icc-investigators" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">spoke out </a>against the decision. The ACLU currently represents Khaled El Masri, Suleiman Salim, and Mohamed Ben Soud, who were all detained and tortured in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2008.</font></p><div class="p3_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is an unprecedented attempt to skirt international accountability for well-documented war crimes that haunt our clients to this day,” Dakwar said. “It reeks of the very totalitarian practices that are characteristic of the worst human rights abusers, and is a blatant effort to intimidate and retaliate against judges, prosecutors, and advocates seeking justice for victims of serious human rights abuses.”</font></p><div class="p4_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/15/us-threatens-international-criminal-court" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">called</a> it “an outrageous effort to bully the court and deter scrutiny of U.S. conduct.” He encouraged ICC member countries to “publicly make clear that they will remain undaunted in their support for the ICC and will not tolerate U.S. obstruction.”</font></p><div class="p5_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daniel Balson, advocacy director at Amnesty International USA, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/03/15/trump-administration-attempts-thwart-international-criminal-court-investigators" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">noted</a> that this is just “the latest attack on international justice and international institutions by an administration hellbent on rolling back human rights protections.”</font></p><div class="p6_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Visa bans, as Balson pointed out, are “powerful tools typically reserved for the most serious of human rights abusers.”</font></p><div class="p7_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But rather than targeting global criminals, the Trump administration has set its sights on the ICC—an impartial judicial body that<a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/how-the-court-works" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"> aims to promote accountability </a>under international law by probing and prosecuting crimes of aggression, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.</font></p><div class="p8_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The move is “is highly indicative of [the administration’s] culture of disregard for rights abuses,” said Balson. “Throwing roadblocks in front of the ICC’s investigation undermines justice not only for abuses committed in Afghanistan, but also for the millions of victims and survivors throughout the world who have experienced the most serious crimes under international law.”</font></p><div class="p9_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pompeo’s announcement came after John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser and a longtime critic of the ICC, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/10/reinforcing-us-status-bully-and-hegemon-bolton-threaten-icc-over-probes-americas-war" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">threatened</a> to impose sanctions on court officials in September if they continued to pursue an investigation of potential crimes by U.S. civilians or military personnel in Afghanistan.</font></p><div class="p10_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Echoing Bolton’s broader denunciations of the ICC last year, Pompeo on Friday highlighted that the United States—under both Democratic and Republican presidents—has refused to join the court for more than two decades “because of its broad, unaccountable prosecutorial powers and the threat it poses to American national sovereignty.”</font></p><div class="p11_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Warning that “the court could eventually pursue politically motivated prosecutions of Americans,” the secretary of state told reporters that the Trump administration is “determined to protect the American and allied military and civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecution for actions taken to defend our great nation.”</font></p><div class="p12_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“These visa restrictions may also be used to deter ICC efforts to pursue allied personnel, including Israelis, without allies’ consent,” Pompeo added. “Implementation of this policy has already begun.”</font></p><div class="p13_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch Pompeo’s full remarks to the media on Friday:</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?450846-1/these-truths">https://www.c-span.org/video/?450846-1/these-truths</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="time" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-transform: uppercase; display: block; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><time style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SEPTEMBER 24, 2018</font></time></span></p><h1 class="video-page-title" itemprop="name" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These Truths</font></span></h1><div class="initial" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.3; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><u><span style="font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">New Yorker</span> </u><span style="font-style: inherit;">staff writer </span><a href="https://www.c-span.org/person/?jilllepore" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0.35s ease 0s; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Jill Lepore </a><span style="font-style: inherit;">talked about her one-volume history of the </span><a href="https://www.c-span.org/organization/?1240/United-States" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0.35s ease 0s; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">United States</a><span style="font-style: inherit;">.</span></font></p></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2/17</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...For instance, the United States ranked 16th in the 2014 <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/04/09/global_rankings_study_america_in_warp_speed_decline_partner/" target="blank" title="Social Progress Index" style="text-decoration: none;">Social Progress Index</a> developed by Michael Porter at the Harvard Business School. Two years later, the United States <a href="http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/countries/usa/#performance/components/spi/" target="blank" title="slipped to 19th place" style="text-decoration: none;">slipped to 19th place</a>, with particularly mediocre scores in environmental quality (#36), nutrition and basic medical care (#37), and access to basic knowledge (#40).</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let’s compare that to Canada, which sat near the top of the rankings at <a href="http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/countries/can/#performance/components/spi/" target="blank" title="number two in the SPI" style="text-decoration: none;">number two in the SPI</a>. Canada was a little better on environmental quality (#32), quite a bit better on basic medical care (#26), and a whole lot better on access to basic knowledge (#2).</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even though Trump can’t be blamed for these mediocre social indicators, his party’s steadfast opposition to spending on social welfare and the environment certainly contributed to the problem. And Trump’s promise to “replace” Obamacare, cut social spending even further, and roll back regulatory oversight — all while boosting the Pentagon budget by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/trump-to-propose-10-percent-spike-in-defense-spending-massive-cuts-to-other-agencies/2017/02/27/867f9690-fcf2-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html" target="blank" title="an extraordinary 10 percent" style="text-decoration: none;">an extraordinary 10 percent</a> — will send the United States into free fall. The violent crime rate, which <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-26/us-crime-rate-rises-slightly-remains-near-20-year-low" target="blank" title="dropped nearly in half" style="text-decoration: none;">dropped nearly in half</a> over the last 20 years despite what Trump claims, may well start to edge up as our pro-gun president makes firearms <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/politics/guns-mental-health-rule/" target="blank" title="even more widely available" style="text-decoration: none;">even more widely available</a> and the economy takes a turn for the worse.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the U.S. enjoys the second highest per capita GDP of $45,336, it ranks in an underperforming 16th place overall. It gets worse. The U.S. ranks 70th in health, 69th in ecosystem sustainability, 39th in basic education, 34th in access to water and sanitation and 31st in personal safety.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More surprising is the fact that despite being the home country of global tech heavyweights Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Oracle, and so on, the U.S. ranks a disappointing 23rd in access to the Internet. “It’s astonishing that for a country that has Silicon Valley, lack of access to information is a red flag,” notes Michael Green, executive director of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/" style="text-decoration: none;">the Social Progress Imperative</a>, which oversees the index.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">alternet 4/14</font>
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