Can the United States export democracy to another country, the way it exports Coca Cola? Apparently the government, particularly, USAID, and the mass media—think so. But, some tricky issues emerge because the USA—the ‘city on the hill” represent “exceptionalism.”

Since we will not learn in school the lessons about the 1% we ought to know, many of us rely on movies and TV, so that through images and sound we can form ideas of who the men were who screwed up our economy. In Arbitrage, we see how how Hollywood conceives of a cinematic grammar into which we can analyze the nature of the people who sparked the the financial crisis.

Violence, more American than apple pie and baseball, has become a major social issue and a serious public health problem. But the media does not analyze or look for underlying themes in Aurora or similar horrifying acts. Instead, they use them to sell news shows, newspapers, and get advertisers.

Syria has become dangerous. Syrians get killed and wounded almost daily. Their neighbours have also felt the impacts of violence: refugees in Turkey and outbreaks of fighting in Tripoli’s streets in Lebanon where peace depends on a nuanced arrangement between Christians and Sunni and Shia Muslims.

In 1991, The Soviet Union disappeared. Washington changed its anti-Cuba rhetoric from Cold War to human rights. But one issue remains: a U.S. economic colony that broke loose in 1959 still refuses to surrender.

I sit on a gray plastic chair waiting for Gerardo Hernández in the visiting room of the maximum-security federal pen in Victorville, California. The government charged Gerardo with conspiring to commit murder because he allegedly passed the flight information to Cuban authorities knowing they would shoot the planes down.

The Syrian Accountability Act of 2003 began the formal U.S. attempt to bring down Assad, but Clinton, the imperial princess, now demands Syrian President Assad resign in favor of the Syrian National Council (SNC). This hastily formed group composed of exiled Syrian Muslim Brotherhood members, and other groupings, many in exile, would, magically transform Syria via fair elections into a good democracy – and sheep will fly.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans who have lost their families and homes to U.S. bullets, bombs and missiles also suffer from PTSD. Why don’t they go on more rampages?

The political core issue who gets what from the budget­ has devolved into social issues. Republicans stress the biblical virtues of owning endless amounts of guns; saying no to climate change; making abortion a capital crime; erasing affirmative action, and eliminating activist (liberal) judges.

Republican candidates encourage low-income supporters to focus on the peripheral, not on their own core interests. Try to imagine adults living on less than $2 per person per day­ almost 1.5 million, and 2.8 million children­ and listening to Republicans debate!

In 2012, the White House will focus on the most important of international and national issues: the re-election of the President. U.S.-Cuba policy will fall into “Next Year’s” box—or the year after that. The National Security staff reverts to its familiar positions on relations with that troublesome island: ignorance and arrogance.