Why Not Shoot the Coronavirus

USA’s Reckless Arms Selling Sets Model for Domestic Mass Shootings

“Violence is mainly, but not only, men’s money maker and problem solver”

USA Masters their Key Salesman U.S. President Forty-Five

Lockheed Martin

Boeing

Northrop Grumman

Raytheon

General Dynamics

“…accounted for $148 billion and 35 percent of total ‘Top 100’ arms sales in 2018,” according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s  latest (December 2019) report.

U

.S. companies’ “total arms sales in the ranking amounted to $246 billion, equivalent to 59 percent of all ‘Top 100’ arms sales; compared with 2017, the figures reflect a “7.2 percent increase.”

SIPRI’s Top 100 findings (2018) showed “arms sales of the world’s 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies” totaling “$420 billion; compared with 2017, the 2018 totals reflect a “4.6 percent increase.”

Top arms companies 2009-2014

Lockheed Martin held fast to topmost position in Top 100 arms sellers

Sales: $37.5 billion

Boeing second place

Sales: $28.3 billion

Projection by Aude Fleurant, SIPRI’s Director of Arms and Military Expenditure Program: with Lockheed Martin’s “acquisition of helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation,” this company is expected to further widen the gap in 2015 between itself and other companies ranked in the Top 10

Recklessly Arming

F

ueling Flames in World’s most war torn, conflict rife region

U. S. arms sales and boasts of arms sales (2019)

• $25.5 billion in (arms) deals agreed with nine countries around the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) so far this year— a 118 percent year-on-year rise over 2018
• U.S. arms sales globally “increased by 42 percent: total of $69.7 billion— the highest level since 2010.
• U.S. sales to the Middle East “are outpacing the overall trend… and accounted for more than a third of the worldwide total”
• The United States arms companies’ biggest MENA region customer Kingdom of Morocco (Sunni Islam, Monarchy): deal to sell $3.8 billion worth of (Lockheed) F-16 aircraft and associated equipment to Rabat (Moroccan capital); later firmed up plans to upgrade its F‑16 fighter jets ($985 million); and filed new orders estimated at $4.25 billion for AH-64E Apache attack helicopters;
• Total 2019 deals agreements “worth some $10.3 billion, almost all going on the Royal Moroccan Air Force”

USA weapons sales deals to Gulf States (2019): $14.2 billion

• UAE ($2.7 billion in Patriot missiles)
• Bahrain ($2.5 billion Patriot missile system),
• Qatar ($3 billion in 24 Apache attack helicopters),
• Saudi Arabia (22 percent of all U.S. military industry exports)

U

. S. and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sunni Islam Sunni (Wahhabism), Absolute Monarchy, capital Riyadh— arms

2017

• U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on May 20, 2017, signed a series of letters of intent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to purchase arms from the United States totaling US$110 billion; immediately; and $350 billion over 10 years. The intended purchases include tanks, combat ships, missile defense systems, as well as radar, communications and cybersecurity technology.

2018

• U.S. President Donald Trump “has vetoed three joint resolutions prohibiting arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.” The president rejected attempts “by congressional lawmakers to halt the controversial weapons transfers.”

2019

• On the same day as an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a busy market in Yemen that killed several civilians including children, the U.S. Senate sustained the president’s vetoes, and gave its stamp of approval to U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

2020

• In late February the U.S. President was speaking in India, the poorest country on earth:

“Earlier today we expanded our defense cooperation with agreements for India to purchase more than $3 billion of advanced American military equipment, including Apache & MH-60 Romeo Helicopters — finest in the world.”

U.S. Investor Money-making and Mass Shooting

Copying above Pattern of Recklessness 

Though the United States population consists of only 5 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. estimated percentage of mass shootings is more than six times that amount: 31 percent.

W

ork Site

• Two+ Centuries’ Making, Merging, Sales, Name changes, Takeovers, Restructuring: Miller Brewing was founded in 1855 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by German immigrant Frederick Miller; Molson Brewery is Canadian enterprise  founded in 1786 by British immigrant John Molson; Coors Brewing Company was founded in 1873 by German immigrant Adolph Coors.

• 2002: South African Breweries buys the United States “Miller Brewing Company” to create “SABMiller” (South African Brewery-Miller).

• 2005: after gyrating through several name changes, the (U.S.) Coors Brewing Company merges with (the Canadian) Molson Brewery and becomes “Molson Coors Brewing Company.”

• 2008: (the South African) SABMiller and Molson Coors create MillerCoors as a joint venture for their U.S. operations.

• 2016 (October): after MillerCoors is acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev, (South African) SABMiller sells its stake in MillerCoors (est. price $12 billion) “making Molson Coors the 100 percent owner of MillerCoors.”

• 2020 (January 1): as part of a “corporate restructuring” that also combines U.S. and Canadian business units, MillerCoors again undergoes a name change this time to “Molson Coors Beverage Company”—  Chicago, Illinois headquarters; total equity $7.0 billion (2015); revenue $4.8 billion (2016); number of employees 17,200 (2017); subsidiaries: Molson Brewery, Coors Brewing Company, Miller Brewing Company; products : beers, lagers, malt beverages, energy drinks, spirits and wines; beer store percentage: 49 percent

N

ews from the Brewery February 2020

Milwaukee Sentinel February 27, 2020 reporting from Beer Town Wisconsin on the latest American domestic (mass) shooting (suicide): In the early afternoon or late morning of Wednesday, February 26, 2020, a 20-year veteran worker at a Molson Coors brewery complex who had been in “a long-running dispute,” opened fire on coworkers. Six people died.

Sources

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

SIPRI, Signalistgatan 9, SE-169 72 Solna, Sweden

SIPRI for the media “Global arms industry rankings: Sales up 4.6 per cent worldwide and US companies dominate the Top 5” December 9, 2019 https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2019/global-arms-industry-rankings-sales-46-cent-worldwide-and-us-companies-dominate-top-5

“US companies dominate the Top 100, with large mergers becoming a visible trend: The SIPRI Top 100 Arms-producing and Military Services Companies, 2018”

https://www.sipri.org/publications/2019/sipri-fact-sheets/sipri-top-100-arms-producing-and-military-services-companies-2018

Arms sales of the world’s 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies (the SIPRI Top 100) were $420 billion in 2018. This was an increase of 4.6 per cent compared with total Top 100 arms sales for 2017.

SIPRI “Global arms industry: West still dominant despite decline; sales surge in rest of the world” December 14, 2015

https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2015/global-arms-industry-west-still-dominant-despite-decline-sales-surge-rest-world-says-sipri

Arms, Military Expenditure https://www.sipri.org/research/armament-and-disarmament/arms-and-military-expenditure/military-expenditure

SIPRI “Saudi Arabia, armaments and conflict in the Middle East” Pieter D. Wezeman https://www.sipri.org/commentary/topical-backgrounder/2018/saudi-arabia-armaments-and-conflict-middle-east

SIPRI “The United States leads upward trend in arms exports, Asian and Gulf States arms imports up” March 16, 2015 https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2015/united-states-leads-upward-trend-arms-exports-asian-and-gulf-states-arms-imports-says-sipri

Wikipedia

Mass shooting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_shooting

Molson Coors Beverage Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molson_Coors_Beverage_Company

MillerCoors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MillerCoors

Reuters “Trump signs $110 billion Saudi arms deal” posted May 20, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/id128967927

Wikipedia “2017 United States–Saudi Arabia arms deal” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_United_States%E2%80%93Saudi_Arabia_arms_deal

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sunni Islam Sunni (Wahhabism), Absolute MOnarchy, capital Riyadh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia

The Hill “Trump defends $110B US arms sale to Saudi Arabia” by Alexander Bolton October 13, 2018 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/411271-trump-defends-110-billion-us-arms-sale-to-saudi-arabia

Defense News “US Senate allows arms sales to Saudi Arabia, sustaining Trump vetoes” Joe Gould July 29, 2019 https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/07/29/us-senate-allows-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-sustaining-trump-vetoes/

Forbes “U.S. Arms Sales to the Middle East Have Soared In Value This Year” Dominic Dudley December 16, 2019 https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2019/12/16/arms-sales-middle-east-soar/#2f10767ffea8

Press TV news reporting February 25, 2020: “US, India agree on military deal worth $3 billion: Trump”   https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/02/25/619477/US-President-Trump-India-PM-Modi-defense-deal

Milwaukee Miller Brewery Shooting: What We Know” Joe Taschler and Lainey Seyler Milwaukee Journal Sentinel February 27, 2020

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2020/02/27/milwaukee-miller-brewery-shooting-what-we-know-and-dont-know/4891005002/

Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB - © All Rights Reserved