The Advocate

  “ Each year, Congress advocates hundreds of billions of dollars for the US defense budget- but the real number exceeds $1 trillion” as stated by Hartung & Smithberg.   In recent days with the current Democratic Primary, voters are headed to the polls to determine who is fit to run the race to defeat the current President, Donald J. Trump. And with healthcare being one of the top priorities to citizens, it seems as if every week Medicare 4 All proponents like Bernie Sanders come up against the same question: “How are you going to pay for it?” . Why don’t we ask the same question in matters of War? Why don’t we ask the same of our elected Congressional officials? As stated in the article: “The Trump administration is asking for a near-record $750 billion for the Pentagon and related defense activities—an astonishing figure by any measure."  Congress went on to award the Department of Defense $738 billion in regards to the Trump Administration request , despite th...

Referring to article in Jacobin Magazine : “Police Know Guerrilla Ware-fare.” By Kyle Burke Militarization of police refers to the use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement officers. As stated in the article: “When Americans encounter cops, they also encounter armored personnel carriers, M4 rifles, noise-based crowd control devices, rubber-coated metal pellets, and tear gas.” These are military grade weapons & equipment, so why do cops have to approach civilians in such a combative way? Why should taxpayer money fund the militarization of police? Does it make us safer as Americans? The answer is no. Statistics show that by a listing creating by Global Peace Ranking that the United States didn’t even make it into the Top 10 safest countries: The United States currently ranks 128th in the Global Peace Ranking. So, to say the least we are not safer. Yet our congress writes checks for Billions in Military Defense spending. Why are we wasting tax payer dollars? This...