USA: A GREAT NATION ON ROAD TO DECLINE – THIRD RATE POLITICIANS AND ASCENDANCY OF MEDIOCRITY PRIMARY CAUSES (PART-II)

Mediocrity in general amongst America’s two main parities – Democrats and Republicans – is also turning out to be a major undoing of the stature United States had. The Republicans want to wrest the White House in 2016 and the Senate in Nov 2014. There are number of Republicans who can be seen in the news jostling for prominence and, therefore, trying to be front runners for 2016 elections.

However, two types of Republicans seem to be trying to court their mass base:

-      One by trying to be ultra-conservative (the ‘tea party’ brand)

-      Others just by way of opposing Democrats – the level of vehemence in their opposition differentiating one from the other (within this bunch)

If one looks at the prominent Republicans and their public pronouncements, sadly, one does not find anyone who is really outstanding. On foreign policy, they are being presented on a platter host of issues to criticize Obama, but no one seems to be coming out on those issues in real statesmanlike manner. Most of them do not seem to have thought through the lines of action they are proposing – their strategies, lines of action sound so over-simplified, brash, jingoistic, gung-ho type.

On domestic topics, again, the public stand of these Republican politicians seem amateurish, some of them even childish, and, in general, lacking deep thought and depth. The pronouncements are just anti of anything Obama is trying to do, for example, on the immigration reform (and dealing with the illegal immigrant children issue/crisis).

To be honest, Obama has created such situations at the moment that if there was any one top class Republican politician at the present time, that person would very likely hit the ball out of the political park, could become a towering figure under whose leadership the Republicans could hand the Democrats a decisive defeat in 2014 congressional elections and set the scene for a repeat performance in 2016.

Sadly for the US, all this is due to debilitating mediocrity in the top political layer that is currently seen to people at large.

Over to the Democrats’, the situation is no better. Hillary Clinton is approaching the 2016 presidential bid very cautiously. She has the advantage of advice and guidance of a very wily political figure, namely, her husband, Bill. Hillary is maintaining a carefully calibrated distance from the 2014 congressional elections – only her husband is pitching in 2014 campaign, wherever he thinks expedient.

Other than Hillary, the rest of the Democrats’ field is also full of mediocre political practitioners – same old names, nothing noteworthy or outstanding about them.

With so much mediocrity pervading American politics, it is not surprising that the leadership, the dynamism, the vision, the statesmanship – the necessary ingredients for a nation’s all round development – are all missing and United States is finding itself floundering miserably on various fronts. Others are exploiting it – whether it is Putin in Ukraine, or, the radical Islamic insurgents in Middle East, or, the Chinese in the South China Sea, or, the illegals surging to enter US and so on. 

The industrial base also does not seem fired up. The corporates seem concentrating far more on how to avoid taxation. The technological edge that US at one time possessed so uniquely is all but gone – there does not seem any burning desire within the spectrum of industrial polity to come up with cutting edge discoveries. If at all there is anything discernible, it is all in the notional world of software related products, services.

If today, UK appears to be taking lead on ISIS (though Cameron’s timing is suspiciously close to Scotland’s independence referendum), Germany is taking the lead in arming the Kurds in Iraq, the Canadians are willing to provide troops for a stronger NATO deterrent force, it is all because there is vacuum at the international stage caused by apoplectic dithering on the part of the United States – and the genesis of all of this is mediocrity (and incompetence).

On the domestic front, the virtual paralysis at the Capitol Hill, the canine-like fighting between the two parties on almost all issues and inability to come to consensus is costing US directly and indirectly both. These continual recriminations can be said to be a major reason for creation/prevalence of an atmosphere which is not at all conducive for harmony, hope, optimism, development and prosperity.

It is sad to see that a super-power which could bring about higher levels of prosperity, strength, technological and military superiority domestically and at the same time ‘lead’ the world toward a safer and better place to be in, is potentially slipping in to a vortex of decline – sadly, due to overwhelming mediocrity pervading amongst the current political practitioners straddling the political scene of the United States.

KEYSTONE XL DELAY – A LESSON LEARNED FOR CANADA TO OVERHAUL ITS THINKING, POLICIES AND TO BE SELF-DEPENDENT

On 18 April the US Administration displayed yet again how pusillanimous and spineless it is on Keystone XL pipeline approval issue by punting it further down the road – any final decision is not expected before the congressional elections this year in November.

The media reports suggest following commentary from both Democrats and Republicans:

New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp blasted the delay, calling it "absolutely ridiculous," while Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., called the delay "irresponsible, unnecessary and unacceptable".

From the other side of the aisle, Republican House Speaker John Boehner said “this delay is shameful"; Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called the delay "a stunning act of political cowardice".

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed frustration over the snail like pace of the administration’s decision-making. Harper's office was "disappointed that politics continue to delay a decision," his spokesman said. Canadian ambassador Gary Doer reportedly said the State Department should focus on the international crossing between Alberta and Montana and leave it to the state of Nebraska to figure out the precise route there. Incidentally, the U.S. State Department said Friday it needs to assess the impact of a court battle in Nebraska that could force a change in the pipeline’s route.

Notwithstanding whichever way the political circus pans out on Keystone, there is one most important lesson for Canada – it’s federal and provincial politicians, the top corporate executives, the First Nations and the general public: Canada and the Canadians got to diversify, and also be self-dependent. Canada’s policy of putting all eggs in one basket (i.e. depending on US) is past its expiration date. So, what actions should follow from this lessons learned?

·       The pipeline companies in Canada must find alternative pipeline route within Canada to get the bitumen to refineries within Canada and outside;

·       In regard to alternative pipeline routes, conclude negotiations with stakeholders, namely, First Nations, the Provincial Governments ASAP;

·       The Federal and the Provincial governments got to shove aside all politics and come together to make decisions based on win-win formula – a solution that ensures the stakeholders, like, the First Nations, the Province(s) get a reasonably fair deal out of the pipeline projects;

·       The companies in Canada must think about setting up an upgrader within Canada as a complimentary/ supplementary solution, to process the bitumen from Alberta (and potentially from Saskatchewan) and selling the synthetic crude oil (light crude) to US, refineries within Canada (if they have spare capacity to process) and refineries outside Canada;

·       The refinery companies in Canada should think about expanding and/or retro-fitting their refineries in Canada in alignment with production of additional amount of bitumen and/or synthetic crude oil;

·       Align increased gas production from gas fields in BC for use in oil sands production and the refineries and LNG production;

·       Think about putting up petrochemicals complex downstream of Canadian refineries; and

·       Put in place ASAP policy frameworks, tax regimes that are required for decision making on LNG projects and oil sands industry.

Canada may be justified in being utterly frustrated with US on Keystone, but it cannot absolve itself of the pathetically slow progress on pipeline projects within Canada, LNG project in BC and so on. It’s time Canada found solutions toward harnessing its massive natural resources within Canada itself rather than depending on US.

The political parties of Canada – Federal and Provincial both – must understand the basics of Canadian economy (GDP) – the components of the GDP – and must realize the importance of natural resources like oil sands and oil and gas in Canada’s GDP and the service sectors they support. Only then they would realize the futility of having divergent opinion on oil sands and LNG development and squabbling amongst themselves. Only then some political parties would not make irresponsible, ludicrous statements about environmental record of Canada and thereby cause damage to Canadian interests.

The political parties and their leaders must understand clearly that the first world like standard of living and wellbeing of Canada, which Canada is proud of, will be in absolutely serious jeopardy if Canada fails to appreciate the nature’s blessings and harness the nature’s bounty given to it. The delay in Keystone pipeline is nature’s way of warning and providing a wake up call to all Canadians to change its old ways of thinking, policies and working. Now, it is up to the Canadians whether they pay heed to nature’s warning!

HEALTHCARE REFORM IN USA – WHY DO THE DEMOCRATS FIND THEMSELVES FIGHTING AN UPHILL BATTLE?

Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t! That is the kind of situation the Democrats are finding themselves in at the moment on the issue of health care reform in US.

First of all, what the heck is this so-called healthcare reform? Did the message not go out to masses in US as to what this reform is all about? Did the message not go out loud and CLEAR why this reform is needed by US economy?

Well, as expected the opposition, i.e., Republicans did their best in attacking the reform and along with it the Democrats. The Republicans succeeded in confusing the issue – they got the so-called tea parties organized, they used the stream of media, which supports them, to fullest advantage. And in their efforts, it is also alleged (and it seems this may be true) that they were strongly supported with all the resources by the vested interests, namely, Insurance lobby.

Result: The anti-Democrats are dead against the reform; and the Democrat vote base is hugely confused about efficacy of this reform, if any.

Things that helped the Republicans: Essentially poor dissemination of information about the urgency of this reform, and why the reform is important for US. There was hardly any coherent and sustained dissemination as to the need for reform in order to save the American economy in the long run.

If this reform is/was so darn important from the economic standpoint for the average American and US as a whole, then why was this friggin' message not spread by the dint of the loudest of the drums?

· There was hopelessly feeble rebuttal of dis-information/mis-information spread regarding ‘Death Panels’, applicability of the reform to illegal immigrants, public option and so on.
· There was no proactive planning to anticipate Republican negative campaign and counter it – the town hall meetings were hardly arranged in numbers by Democrats that could effectively dispel and rebut the dis-information/mis-information spread by the vested interests.
· Democrats (including President Obama) and the supportive media tended to use long winded professorial verbiage to explain the purported advantages of health care reform and/or rebut Republican sponsored dis-information/mis-information.

So, the net result is that the upcoming elections (and to be held in Nov 2010) are making Democrats jittery – the once safe Senate seat of Massachusetts is going to the wire now. If the Republicans win that seat, life for the Democrats in the Senate will become lot more difficult in terms of getting new legislative measures put in place.

Did Obama bite more than he could chew? Not if this was the only issue to be dealt with. Did he underestimate the bog-down potential of the various issues that were on his plate in the first year of his presidency? The turn of events seem to suggest so.

Can anything be done by the Democrats to salvage the situation? Yes! Arrange a nation-wide barn storming campaign to clarify the confusion/questions the average American has with regard to health reform; and to explain how s/he stands to benefit (individually immediately and as society as a whole in the long run), how USA stands to benefit, the perils to US economy if health care aspect is not handled properly NOW.

Also, the campaign needs to stress that health care is not a Democrat or Republican issue – it is a human being issue, a national issue for the future of USA. Is it a bit too late in the day? May be, but no harm in trying.

And, for God’s sakes simple short sentences have to be used to explain the various aspects of the reform. Long sentences with journalistic verbosity are never helpful in communication with masses– this simple cardinal rule of mass communication needs to be drilled in the heads of the Democrat speech writers and the so-called liberal media practitioners.

President Obama is said to have lots of tenacity – he needs to bring all of that now to get over this major hump in his current political journey. He seems to be sincere, working for and on behalf of the people of US for the greater good of the society. If this is true, the power that be from the Heavens above will turn the course in favour of the good-doer.

AFTER DELTA FLIGHT 253 INCIDENT – IT IS TIME TO PULL UP SOCKS RATHER THAN REPUBLICANS’ DISGUSTING GAME OF POLITICAL NAME CALLING!!

Alas this world is imperfect, this grim reminder one gets from the stupid recriminations one can see or hear taking place between the Republicans and the Democrats over the failed bombing attempt aboard Delta/Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit from Amsterdam.

Instead of making useful contributions towards what needs to be done to protect the world from the radicals, like the Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who tried to blow up the Delta flight, the Republicans have launched in to nonsensical tirades to make some political capital out of this incident. They are trying desperately and, albeit, clumsily to malign President Obama (and his administration).

However, much to the chagrin of the said intellectually stunted Republicans they are getting egg back on their faces as some American TV channels are immediately pointing out the appalling inaction/gaffes of Bush and folks of his administration which has brought US to this pass. But the increasingly frustrated moron Republicans suffer from selective amnesia when they try to throw dirt on their political opponents.

But then that’s one of the downsides of democracy in that the party out of power tries to cut its nose to spite its face without realizing how much harm it may be causing to the country in the process.

Adding to this nonsense these days are the oftentimes stupid/off-the-point discussions of some half informed anchors (of American TV channels) who seem to be steering the discussion according to their personal political inclinations (and their agendas). These schmuck anchors are indeed utterly disgusting!

Anyway, more important than the schmuck American politicians and/or TV anchors is path forward for the international community in the light of what happened on Flight 253. Following points seem to need urgent attention:

· As the Foreign Minister of Yemen mentioned, his country needs international help in fighting Al-Qaeda. US, EU need to provide Yemen the necessary wherewithal in this respect as early as possible.
· Al-Qaeda’s central planning cell most probably still operates from Af-Pak border and this cell may be coordinating its actions with its cells in other countries, e.g., Yemen. Therefore, pressure must be continued to disrupt the central cell, including kicking the Pakistani asses to continue their operations in Waziristan and other areas bordering Afghanistan.
· The wily double-faced Pakistanis must not be allowed to get distracted by the so-called request from the Taliban to get former cricketer Imran Khan to mediate. These are red herrings across the trail.
· The Saudis need to act on the sleeper cells in their country and in this regard they need to coordinate their actions with their western allies, especially, US and Yemen (if the Saudis don’t consider this below their dignity).
· Stricter check of people of certain religious/ethnic backgrounds got to be put in place without drum beating about it to the world. Flight manifests need to be scanned for such people before the flight leaves and anybody appearing suspicious should be subjected to secondary/tertiary checks.
· Former top calibre counter-terrorism personnel from countries, like, India, Israel, UK should be brought in to train the US, Canadian, western countries immigration personnel in scanning and screening techniques – both visual and otherwise. The western immigration personnel, especially, the Caucasian personnel have little knowledge about names, characteristics of these ethnic groups.
· The aforementioned experts will scrutinise and look for potential radical elements before he/she boards a flight.
· Of course, full body scanners, specially trained sniffer dogs (dogs who can sniff certain chemical substances, i.e., PETN) need to be brought in use at various airports ASAP.
· Last but not the least the intelligence agencies need to pull up their socks. In the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab the American and western intelligence agencies - in particular, the British - surely dropped the ball.

Flight 253 was definitely a wake up call to people who may be getting a bit complacent. Political bickering and crude attempts to make political capital (like the Republicans are trying to do) will not help. On the other hand, coordinated, concerted actions on the part of the international community can certainly help in fighting the scourge of religious radicalism. Let saner elements join hand in this ongoing battle of attrition!

DUMB SCHMUCK REPUBLICANS AND RIGHT WING MEDIA WANT UNITED STATES AND OBAMA TO SCREW UP IRAN POLICY

Iran is at the threshold of a momentous change. Presently a tussle is going on in that country which could turn out to be decisive in the modern history of Iran. In this tussle on one side are psychopathic Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and his master Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and on the other side are defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and his supporters.

The intellectually challenged Republicans, who neither had any idea of what art of diplomacy is nor have any idea now, want President Obama to jump in the Iranian fray. The saying ‘a fool’s bolt is soon shot’ couldn’t be more true in case of these numb-skull Republicans who think that the whole world is their fiefdom and the US can be a gun-toting policeman who can walk in to any country and meddle in its internal affairs.

But the right wing media who may be deeply intellectually impoverished are not so impoverished or idiot not to know the consequences of blatant interference in any other country’s internal affairs. Still they would like President Obama to commit a gaffe and make a mess of Iran issue.

There is another saying ‘to cut one’s nose to spite one’s face’ – this saying seems applicable to the attempts the scheming schmuck right wing media is making to build a hype on their channels that US should overtly step in to Iranian affair right away. They know that it would be a folly to do so, but then who cares of national interest when personal grudges reign supreme.

One could see the above mentioned nefarious strategy on a well known global news channel the other day. The anchor, who has clearly not yet been able to stomach Democrats ascendancy at Capitol Hill and White House, tried his best to put words in the mouth of an expert on Iran to extract some statement, like, US should overtly interfere in Iran’s affairs. The said anchor looked clearly disappointed when the expert didn’t fall for the bait.

President Obama knows the dirty tricks of these people who place personal defeats – political or idealogical – above the interest of the country. Obama has handled the Iran issue very astutely so far. However, he needs to be on guard against any knee-jerk action to counter the Republican pressure which is being purveyed by the likes of the television anchor mentioned in the foregoing.

A sidebar comment: No wonder Obama made the aforesaid tv anchor butt of his joke at RTCA gathering held in June. This anchor, who seems to have come up to this level in life more by stroke of luck and literally sucking up to right benefactors rather than his genius, probably thinks he can sustain at that level by licking the boots of his patrons, never mind even if they are downright rogues and/or stupid in regard to their approach to what is basically good for US and what is not.

Anyway, it is heartening to see that the current president of US has treaded on the Iran affairs very appropriately. Overt meddling may not be called for at this stage; in fact, the western world, supported by Israel, could provide all the help and succour the Mousavi supporters need in disseminating the information from Iran to the outside world – be it pictures, recordings, written material, whatever.

The world needs to provide all and every help to the Iranians who want freedom from repression of the clerics who are insanely living in the medieval ages and are given to savage like behaviour and temperament. Every modern gadgetry and means that can provide some assistance towards realizing the aspirations of those Iranians must be made available by the western world.

Right now concerted covert operations duly supported by measured overt diplomatic game must be the order of the day. That being said, there also needs to be a readiness in terms of gun boat diplomacy, just in case. The US military is stretched in terms of ground forces, but the naval and air force wherewithal should be adequate to put the irrational savage clerics on the defensive. US must rally its allies to support the cause of the democracy loving citizens of Iran.

The Iranian society is now polarized between saner and fanatical elements. Now is the time to drive the wedge harder to let the saner elements win. But in the process of accomplishing this, the US and its allies should avoid falling in the trap being attempted to be set by the disgraced, vanquished and self-seeking political opponents (and their lackeys) of Obama and the Democrats.

If the western world can play its cards properly, surely the Iranian society could be freed from the tyrannical and repressive elements of that country. Quite often a cool and methodical approach works better than shoot-from-the hip approach. The modern world is not the Wild West of 19th century United States – it is now an internet and satellite driven world of the mentally sharp and balanced!!