"Selling Drones, The World Over"

The Obama administration is amending its regulations for weapons sales to allow the export of armed military drones to responsible, “friendly nations and allies.”  Truth is: we will always sell any weapon to any nation that has the money.  We are in the arms business.  Olin Industries (Winchester) sold cartridges to the Italian army when we were at war with them in the 40s.  We sold and supplied arms to a terrorist rebel force in Afghanistan, who were attacking Russian troops.  We cared not how they treated women or that they believed in Sharia Law.  Bin Laden was a hero then.  Today that “friend” is called the Taliban or al-Qaeda.  My point is, “friendly nations and allies” change with time.  Japan and Germany are another good example of the principle of enemies in time.  Iraq was a friendly nation, until they frightened the Saudis.  Our government takes orders from oil rich Saudi Arabia. Please try not to mix moral values or the common good with the business of arms sales or our oil industry’s needs.

How does our nation responsibly use drones?  We bomb in nations that we aren’t actually at war with, such as Pakistan.  We bomb the homes of “suspected” terrorists.  To hell with collateral damage.  Criminal justice and international law are not really an issue.  We will sell these military drones to other nations along with a set of rules for their usage.  Rules that we ourselves do not adhere to.  When another country has purchased drones from us, as the rightful owner, they will determine how and when the drones are used.

Drones are not a bad thing.  When I was growing up in the 40s and 50s, they were called RC (radio controlled) model airplanes.  The nerd next door had one and I would go to watch him fly it.  The nerds of today have cell phones, as do the rest of the humanoids.  The German Luftwaffe had a different use for RC airplanes at the time; they used them as winged bombs, for targeting Allied ships.  Radio Control has been with us for some time.  Nikola “Tesla” (a brand name on some rich folk’s cars) demonstrated a remote control boat in 1898.   In a better day, during the 1930’s, the Good brothers, Bill and Walt, pioneered RC models for hobby use.  I guess you could conclude that Good intentions are often put to destructive use.  Drones will be used for killing in future wars, by all nations, whether we export them today or not.  We will simply make a buck and save our present friends some R&D expenditure.  So, “Let the Good times roll.”

Comments are welcome, Old Buz 

"SNL Feed: AZ Gov. Doug Ducey"

For many years now, the Arizona Governor and the Arizona Legislature that he or she leads, has been a great potential source of material for Saturday Night Live.  The humorous buffoonery supplied by George Bush, Jr. has been nicely replaced by the antics of the Arizona Ultra-Right, which controls Arizona government.  Governor Doug Ducey has started his term in office with the same type of hilarity as his recent predecessors.  Recently, he has done away with his office’s visitor log.  Our newspaper quoted him as saying, at a recent news conference, “Our review said that those logs were incomplete and inaccurate.  So we didn’t want to present something that was incomplete and inaccurate.”  The Governor’s response to the problem was not to improve the accuracy of the log, but to get rid of it.  A Ducey spokesman said, “No logs mean a savings on paperwork and better efficiency for the office.”  A better punch line could not be written.  You Arizona folks can kiss your transparency in government goodbye.  Doug’s corporate sponsors’ visits to the governor’s office will go unnoticed by you.  Probably the simple majority of Arizonans will like it that way.

   

When I go for an annual wellness visit at my doctor’s office, I have to sign in on the log.  The secretary greets me at the desk, marks me in on her computer calendar.  The doctor’s assistant calls me in and takes my blood pressure, my pulse and my height, each of which she records in my file.  The doctor then sees me and asks a myriad of questions, which he duly records in my file.  Each visit involves a HICFA form to be sent to my health insurance carrier.  You don’t see the doctor, without signing in on the visitor’s log.  “So what?” you might say.  Well, all that I am saying here is that something as unimportant as my annual check-up is pretty well documented, including my signed admission that I was there, but if the CEO of a coal fired power supplier or their lobbyist visits our Governor, “it is very expensive and exhausting” to record those visits.  The governors who preceded Doug Ducey were able to do it, with much less technology at their fingertips.  In the interest of transparency, I believe that our governor should walk the extra mile.  I don’t mean to limit his freewheeling capitalist spirit.

Our Arizona public schools normally fall in about the 48^th position in the state ratings for educational excellence.  The Governor might see the system as “incomplete and inaccurate”.   I would hope that Gov. Ducey would not see the solution to the state’s education problems solved by ending public schools.  Doug Ducey has served as a board member of the Arizona State Charter School Board.  Hopefully, as an ultra-conservative, he doesn’t see excellent education only for the children of the wealthy as a “savings on paperwork and better efficiency” for the state, versus a better education for all.   Doug Ducey, in the private sector, has been a bright and effective manager.  Let us hope that he is able to come out of the conservative fog and stop the State of Arizona from supplying material to Saturday Night Live. 

  

  Comments are welcome, Old Buz