Politics and Press

The Media’s Election Narrative

There is one year to go before the 2012 presidential election and the American press continues to focus on the political process over the substance of issues. Early on the press determined that while Mitt Romney held a slight – and decidedly soft – lead in most national polls, a changing series of candidates must be anointed by the press to the role of “anyone but Romney” challenger for the Republican nomination. This has happened with little or no substantive exploration of issues, but has maintained a horserace kind of press coverage..

Initially former Governor Tim Pawlenty was promoted by much of the press for his “seriousness” which the voters then determined was a kind of insipid, tediousness. The press then jumped to Michelle Bachmann who presented a feminine face backed by a religious nuttiness that always seems to show up in Republican primary races in Iowa. She tanked early after voters began to actually listen to the strange things coming out of her mouth.

The press then decided that Governor Rick Perry was the one to take on Flipper Romney, not out of any particular policy differences but rather because he was from Texas, had a lot of campaign funds and talked a big – or at least loud – game. Perry lasted about two weeks as he fumbled in debates for words that might be translated into actual thoughts. The press then ignited his downfall because of a slip in a debate when he lost track of his thoughts – some would argue, not all that unusual an occurrence. Then the press moved to pizza company CEO Herman Cain as a new frontrunner with the innovative campaign strategy of joking about how little he knows about the world while defending himself against numerous (5 and counting) accusations of sexual harassment.

Now the press has identified Newt Gingrich as the next likely antidote to Romney. This, some months after the press dumped him as a tired old hack who couldn’t manage his campaign staff or his wife’s Tiffany account. Meanwhile Ron Paul maintains credible numbers, has an identifiable set of policies and is mostly ignored by the press. Jon Huntsman makes the most sense – especially on foreign affairs – and is mostly ignored by the press as irrelevant. Romney continues to waffle his way toward some weird kind of consistency – that is, the consistency of having no apparent core beliefs that he would not jettison for a few more votes, and the search for an alternative continues, but not based on any particular policy issues.

We have another year of this and perhaps as the process moves along the press will begin to focus on actual issues but for now, the focus remains on the way the game is played rather than on the probable consequences of candidates’ actual policy differences.

Iceland, Greece, Whatever

The economic crisis send out its ripples, knocks down its first dominoes, and the rich fat cats who thought they were too far away to be threatened, are starting to raise their heads and start smelling something rotten heading their way. First it was Iceland, now it’s Greece, and soon it may be bigger fish in much bigger lakes like Italy and Spain. The problem is always the same: whole countries live beyond their means, run up big debts on credit and fall apart when the sleazy chaps who convinced them to take out cheap loans, ask for a payback.   Iceland lived in a fantasy world of fake wealth in this bizarre ritual and the streets of Reykjavik rumbled with the weight of oversized  cars bought on non-existent money. The average Reykjavik household had 3 cars, and more than 20,000 cars were imported in the year before the banking system collapsed in 3 days only 4 years ago. This year 2,000 cars are coming in. But Icelanders have learned to live with catastrophes: hunger winters, volcanic eruptions, whatever. When asked how he was doing in the midst of the debacle, my brother Doug’s Icelandic pal had a quick reply: “Don’t worry about us, we know how to fish and raise potatoes”. And lo and behold it is the Icelandic fishery that has actually prospered in terrible economic times, as the fishing fleet never stopped going out into dangerous waters, still under Icelandic control after the cod war of the 1970s after the fleet turned away invading British warships, and provided a solid economic base for an economic recovery, even for the gamblers who had  lost in the economic games of the mid-2000s.

Now it is Greece’s turn to pay the price of spending too liberally on the basis of phoney money. Just as in Iceland (and in all the countries that will be hit next) it is the fat cats who will be able to find an escape hatch and the poor suckers who have tried to make an honest hard-earned wage who will find that their savings have disappeared along with their jobs. Like Iceland Greece has tremendous resources in its saplendid setting and matchless history. Come on guys, get it together, start planting those potatoes or whatever grows best, send out the fleet, and get those workers who are ready to roll up their sleeves back on the job.

The Wild Ones make a comeback

In a period of seemingly unending bad news about the state of the environment, it is time for some surprisingly upbeat developments: Some of the big guys in the animal kingdom are coming back to areas they had abandoned under constant human pressure scores of years ago, in some cases even centuries ago. It is true that almost all these cases are happening in the still somewhat wide-open spaces of northern North America and Euroasia, but still they are happening and there is quite suddenly some startling evidence that the often apparently hopeless attempt by some humans to undo the damage done by most humans is actually having some success. It seems that protected national parks actually work as something other than a tourist goal.

In southern British Columbia grizzly bears are definitely extending their range southward and even westward as the first sightings in a century of the giant carnivores within an hour of Vancouver lead to predictions that within twenty years a grizzly will be standing on the ski slopes of Vancouver looking at his encaged brethren at the top of Grouse Mountain. Four young male grizzlys are now being tracked on the west coast of Vancouver Island where the languages of the natives have no word for them, as there is no record of them having been there before. It can only be assumed they have made the almost unimaginable swim from the mainland by moving from island to island and are now considering whether they want to stay in a new land where they would be king of the wilderness. If the resident black bears run into them, they may regret getting to know this branch of th e family.

They would almost certainly also be meeting an ever-expanding cougar population, once seen only rarely and at a distance – my brother Doug claims to have almost hit one on the road to Zeballos – and now making thei presence felt in many places where they may be less than welcome. This summer a cougar jumped out of the bush and on to a little kid at popular Kennedy Lake in Pacific Rim National Park, only to be driven away by an irate mother. Cougars have also now been positively identified as roaming the woods of Quebec and will surely soon be back in th he Adirondacks.  Wolf packs are spreading rapidly eastwards in Germany where they have been absent for a century.   Tigers have been brought back from the brink of extinction in southeastern Russia through a decision in Moscow that a great country like Russia deserves a great wild animal.  China may be thinking that one over at the moment, since they wiped out all their own tigers, but still get the occasional wanderer from north of the Amur River. In 2009 in British Columbia federal officials estimated that the salmon returning to the greatest free-flowinng salmon river on earth, the Fraser, which reaches the sea in Vancouver, would be reduced to a rump 1 million fish and might well be considered on the way to extinction.  And then 30 million showed up from nowhere, the highest number in a century, and all bets of extinction were off. So take heart, you may yet run into a grizzly or a pack of wolves on your afternoon constitutional and never be the same again.

In Praise of rugby

There is a world championship going on in New Zealand that can recall the golden days of sport when amateurs could play against professionals in team sports and have a chance, when small countries could field teams that could beat meganapoleanic big sports factory countries and where the best national teams in the world would nonetheless end up vying for a cup that promises honour more than money as a reward.

And look at the favourites: New Zealand, the all Blacks who seem likely to win it all at home; Australia, their bitter rivals who lost bitterly to Ireland in the first round games; South Africa, the Springbocks, who could be the All Blacks spoilers but were lucky to beat Wales; England, and France, which had its hands full for most of the match against mainly amateur Canada, also Wales, punching above its weight, Argentina, the Latino outsider, and any one of three small Polynesian islands, where very big men push and push and push. Russia and the US are also there, and try just as hard or harder to hold on to their middle-of-the-pack role than do the professional sports teams running for the cash. As is the case with the world’s second most popular sport, cricket, following soccer, it is mostly a Commonwealth gathering but profits greatly from the fact that it isn’t only that, as is the cricket world championships, but also a gathering of very tough guys, playing a very hard game without protection and doing it mainly for the glory. You won’t be seeing these lads at the Olympics.

Partisanship in America: A Commitment to National Failure?

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
–Leonard Cohen

Having (barely) survived the nonsense of the Republican-generated debt ceiling fiasco we are now looking at two new opportunities for partisanship to screw the majority of Americans: the deficit reduction Congressional Committee and the attempt to produce more jobs in America. And right out of the chute we are seeing the lines drawn and the vapid sarcasm of the likes of Eric Cantor leading us again toward the edge of the cliff.

None of this should surprise anyone. From day one President Obama faced a lunatic fringe questioning his birthplace, his religion, comparing him to Hitler etc. This fringe was aided and abetted by so-called national political leaders in the Republican party while so-called “moderate” Republicans like Senators Scott Brown, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snow forced a reduction in the stimulus bill and refused to consider a single payer health care approach. Obama and the Democratic Senate rolled over and accepted tepid progress when radical approaches were needed.

But that was then and now is even worse as the Republicans begin their final assault on the Obama presidency regardless of its effect on the country they say they serve. We are in a leaderless world with Europe breaking down over its inability to manage the Euro zone and the US looking for rational policy development from people who are unable to agree on the simplest things, never mind the tough ones. This is looking like a very painful yearlong run for the presidency with an increasingly likely chance that the people who ruined the economy in the first place and then refused to help fix it will get the reins once again.

For a discussion of President Obama’s job plan by Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman in today’s NY Times, click here.

Upset in British Journalism Twit of the Year Race

In a race completely dominated for almost its entire length by Rupert Murdoch’s journalism cohort, a sudden tremendous sprint by an unexpected rival led to the most exciting finish in the traditional British twit of the year race since John Cleese edged out Michael Palin with a crazy walk stumble over the finish line to take the legendary 1977 championship. As the Murdoch crew staggered along virtually unchallenged for 364 of the 365 days of the marathon challenge, a stunning spurt by the cleverly disguised Economist crew resulted in an unprecedented  upset as the economists surged in front of the twisting and turning creatures wearing the Murdoch colours, just before the finish line .
And what an impeccable strategy the splendid British scribes employed, using their highly dubious annual ranking of the livability of cities to demonstrate the thorough research behind their performance during the year. Vancouver, rated number one for many years in a row, was deemed too have lost .07 points because of an accident on the Malahat Highway that closed the thoroughfare down for a day, thus displaying the formerly most livable city’s inability to deal with modern traffic problems, and pushing Melbourne and Vienna in front of it on the livability front. The researchers of the economist thus tumbled first over the finish  line in the 2011 twit of the year race when it was pointed out that the Malahat Highway is on Vancouver Island, not in Vancouver city, and is 4 hours away from Vancouver, including a 2-hour ferry ride. Similar logic would have led to the conclusion that a traffic jam in Budapest brought down the livability of poor Vienna. Man on the street interviews by Vancouver Sun reporters quickly found that 77.7 per cent of Vancouver residents had never been on that highway and 55.5 per cent had never heard of it. Leading the pack over the finish line, Economist editor of current affairs and such things claimed that the mistake of confusing Vancouver Island with Vancouver, not unheard of in bewildered tourists, had not been the cause of the magazine’s bizarre conclusion, but rather that it was meant to be a subtle reference to the need for better highways in Vancouver. The Murdoch crew breathed a loud sigh of relief as their bitter rival stole a win from the jaws of defeat in the annual Monty Python look-alike derby as well.

Grand Old Party, R.I.P.

Mark Hatfield died last week. He served six terms in the U.S. Senate as a Republican from Oregon and added considerable class, intelligence and courage to that semi-August group. Mac Mathias, former Republican Senator from Maryland died early last year and left a similar legacy. Both were committed to developing policies for the good of the country regardless of narrow party ideologies.

Today we have Mitch McConnell as (Republican) minority leader in the Senate and John Boehner as Republican Speaker of the House, committed to destroy the presidency of a Democrat president regardless of the damage to the country. It is no longer amazing – it is the common thread that connects the likes of John Birch to the Tea Party zealots to the religious zealots like Rick Perry and the Ayn Rand kooks like Senator Paul and his son, Congressman Paul.

It should not be necessary to review the craziness of last week’s rush to the edge of disaster when the Tea Party loonies emasculated Boehner and put America in a position of just another banana republic. That they are blaming it on the black president no surprise; that it will work is perhaps not so obvious. But it is absolutely clear that we have a relatively small group of dangerous, fundamentalist clowns forcing gutless politicians to damage their country rather than govern responsibly.

The American press has been complicit in this disaster by providing coverage of a small group of rabid political fundamentalists without calling them out for their foolishness and their lack of understanding of even the basics of the economic and governmental challenges facing the country. It is apparent that the issue for them is to destroy a presidency and if the country goes down with him so be it.

So we search in vain for the Mark Hatfileds and Mac Mathiases in the Republican Party. The only serious candidate for their legacy remains Richard Lugar who will face a primary challenge from the Tea party. Mere pretenders to their legacy are the likes of Senators Snow and Collins of Maine, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Leslie of Graham of South Carolina. Each of them has taken stands based on the rigid demands of their base, either out of political cowardice or an inability to comprehend the reality of the country’s needs. Their attempts at moderation have left the country with an inadequate stimulus plan, an inadequate tax revenue stream, and an economy foundering on a level of debt made worse by their actions.

The Republican Party has become a party of ideological fanaticism that if left unfettered could lead America into the abyss that their Christian fundamentalist supporters seek: a kind of Rapture unlike anything described in any bible.
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The Financial Crisis for Dummies

Okay, here is the scoop. Please pick it up and move on to serious matters, like how to end the wars that are obviously part of the financial crisis. The European Union, founded on the idea of a common border and common currency, is falling apart. There is something rotten in the state of Denmark, as it has reinstated border controls on both its German and Swedish borders. Though nowhere near as draconic as the heavily-armed US outposts along the Canadian frontier, where all those dangerous outlaws are trying to press south, they nevertheless irritate their neighbours mightily. Hungary currently contributes the presiding president to the EU council and also unnerves its fellow members by acting contrary to EU rules on the question of ethnic minorities. Greece is living so far beyond its means that Sugar Daddy Germany has made clear it has run out of patience with request for further bank transfers. Ditto Portugal and Ireland, and more menacingly Spain and Italy. Who’s next? Well, even France has noticed that its bellicose response to poor Libya’s problems is costing way more money than it thought it would (which war doesn’t?) while gaining it no new friends on its former colonial continent since military success is not on the horizon while civilian deaths mount. The UK staggers along with a new scandal (welcome aboard Rupert) each week. Can you name the Prime Minister? There are some economic successes that should be mentioned: Germany, cruising along because of the quality of its expensive products and its unwillingness to get into wars, Switzerland, cruising along because of it secret bank system, Poland, the country that has gained the most from EU membership, and, amazingly, Estonia, which has the best financial report of them all.
And then there is the United States, the most powerful one of them all still – pace China – whose elected representatives seem incapable of dealing with elementary money matters such as overwhelming debt, war expenses and looming bankruptcy. The last will presumably not be allowed to happen, but I’m afraid the analysis of that possibility goes beyond the scope of the title of this rare foray of my brother Doug into higher economics.

Canada – King of Asbestos

Virtually every one knows that asbestos is a very dangerous product that has to be handled with extreme care. At the very least, it has to be labelled as dangerous and in need of special handling – if not simply banned – because it will kill you if you breathe it in any kind of quantities. There was a time when this was not so clear, and mining communities around the world – especially in Quebec – made a decent if hard living mining it, until the workers began dying of lung congestion. Now, decades later, billions are being spent removing asbestos from buildings in Canada. It can only be done safely with great caution by workers dressed in protective clothing, and it must be done if any building with asbestos in it is torn down, renovated or if the asbestos has been stirred up in some way. It’s the law.
And now even the lumbering the United Nations bureaucracy has concluded that at the very least asbestos must be labelled as a dangerous material needing special handling, in particular when it is exported. But that decree did not pass, since the vote required unanimity, and, despite the fact that even a rising economic power like India unexpectedly decided to vote in favour and take the economic hit, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Canada turned it down. Yes, shamefully, Canada, which knows all too well how dangerous this material is, decided it would rather protect the jobs of the 500 asbestos miners still working in Quebec rather than act with any decency. It is a good question of what the newly elected conservative majority would not do for money, or votes. The leader of the opposition socialist party called this vote the height of hypocrisy. He was being too generous

Canada and the USA: Two Countries, Two Elections

Canada recently completed a national election campaign that lasted all of 6 weeks. While the results were disappointing to many and the campaign was as nasty as some of the U.S.’s, at least the pain was short-lived. Canada’s winner, incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper sat in the driver’s seat as Canadians tried to determine if Michael Ignatieff was “Canadian enough” (he wasn’t) and not an American in sealskin clothing (apparently he was – and lost very badly).

The U.S. faces a similar campaign in tone but not in length. Is Obama a real American? Is he a Muslim in Christian clothing? The campaign will focus in subtle ways on those issues but the real issues may well be his lackluster handling of the economy and his seeming willingness to give away the ranch to the Republicans without a fight. We shall see.

But the real point of all of this is to wonder why we need 20 months of increasingly idiotic campaigning for the American people to make a semi-informed judgment. At the end of the day many – perhaps most – people will vote based on minimal understanding of how we got to where we are and what is in the best interest of the country. Why not do it in six weeks rather than drive a portion of the country insane with a campaign based on moronic slogans, outright lies and subtle racism.

Canada did it in 6 weeks and retained a Prime Minister as mediocre as what we are likely to end up with after 20 months and literally billions of wasted dollars.