There's a word for that
And it's "demonym". On first glance it looks slightly diabolical, but it's really just the word for when we
label people by their town or state. Thus I'm a New Mexican Texan, by birth and residence. Some demonyms are pejorative, like Okie or, at least around here, yankee.
So now ya know.
But I need suggestions for a demonym for Tool, TX. Some possibilities: Toolite, Toolian, Tool-American, and the sublime "tool". Ha, yer a tool.
So, the US signed a new deal with Israel to provide $30 billion over the next ten years in military aid. Interesting catch: $20 billion of that has to be bought from US defense suppliers. Other countries getting deals are Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies, mostly weapons deals.
Making our allies stronger is a good deal so long as they stay allies. It would be nice if each gadget were equipped with a remote "kill" switch to prevent blowback, but we're gonna take our chances.
In any event, what I really see here is some big time corporate welfare, and I hope it gets reported as such. Let's say you're a US company, Consolidated Army Gizmos. CAG is having a down year, somehow cut out of the Iraq deal. But CAG has a long history of dealing with Israel, on a limited basis. Suddenly, Israel has a bucket of money, and most of that bucket has to be poured into the US.
This is how it looks:
US policy destabilizes a region. Destability boosts military hardware purchases. US government can't pay CAG et al to simply deliver military hardware. US pays other countries to buy it. Middleman Israel gets $10 billion for funneling the $20 billion to US companies. CAG pays dividends and exec bonuses!!
Meanwhile, the
math and science money for education stays stuck in "authorization" mode, not "appropriation". That's the difference between a goverment promise and a government check.
