FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Dec 30

What Are My Top Ten Biggest Events of 2015

by bcurry

Well, another year is coming to an end. Like a lot of bloggers, I’m thinking back to what I see as the top ten biggest events of 2015.  Some are earth shattering, some are not.  There is no particular order of precedence, much the choice depending on one’s politics or interests.

  1. The first event for Canadians was the election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to form the next federal government, and the defeat of Steven Harper’s Conservatives. Apparently, according to Conservative attack ads, young Mr. Trudeau was mainly elected because of his nice hair and good looks.
  2. The U.S. presidential primaries began for both the Democrats and Republicans. Far more interesting is the Republican circus, clowns and all, hosted primarily by one Mr. Donald Trump. May Allah help America if this is the best that they can put forward as presidential candidates, including the likes of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
  3. A shooting in Ottawa, Canada, shootings in San Bernardino, California, and attacks in Paris, France raise once again the specter of home-grown terrorism. The expression ‘radicalization’ has now entered our vernacular. There is now a struggle between maintaining our civil rights and defending national security. Beware, Big Brother is watching.
  4. Saving our planet, and in turn ourselves once again emerged as a major issue. The accord on climate change arrived at in Paris took center stage. Like many well intentioned hand shakes and marriages, there were a lot of promises made. Time will tell whether they can be kept.
  5. Technology kept moving forward, with the likes of self-driving vehicles, smart wearable pieces, Uber, multiple uses for drones, virtual reality devices, etc., etc. However, questions still remain about their social impact. Like all technologies, they can be used or abused.  The real question is whether they are really needed.
  6. Civil war in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East resulted in ‘Coalition’ air strikes in Iraq and Syria. The situation became even more convoluted and complex, with so many different groups and foreign states involved. Far be it for me to even attempt to explain its complexities, including what the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ is all about.
  7. The re-emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan in taking over several regions, such that the United Nations now believes that control of around a quarter of all Afghan districts is now being “contested” between state forces and Taliban militants. It sure looks like the U.S. will have to keep some forces on the ground in order to support the Afghan security forces.
  8. Oil prices on world markets plummetted. This has had a particular serious impact on oil producing countries such as Canada, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and others. Some experts have even forcast that crude prices could stay low for the next 15 years in a world awash with oil. However, even lower gas prices at the pumps in North America have done little to help with any economic recovery.  The drop in oil prices hurt Russia a whole lot more than economic sanctions applied by the European Union and the U.S. in response to Russia’s aggression in the Ukraine.
  9. Syrian and other Middle Eastern/African refugees fled by the hundreds of thousands into Europe. Since the Second World War, there has never been such a major and tragic human influx. Even Canada has agreed to help accept some of the refugees (possibly some 50,000), while the U.S. is still debating how many it might be willing to accept in the light of national security and immigration concerns.
  10. Rounding off the selected highlights was the impact of extreme weather events around the world. These included devestating droughts, floods, fires, mud slides, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc., etc. Some parts of the world saw the warmest temperatures in our short human history.  Debates continued over whether these events were related to ‘climate change’?  Each evening, it was rare that some weather event didn’t make the news, national or local.

I hope that my list is fairly comprehensive, but I’m certain that you all can add to or change some of the events. Happy New Year.  May the force be with you.

Uncategorized

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Dec 16

Sure, Let’s Put American Troops on the Canadian Border?

by bcurry

Well, listen up you weak-kneed socialist-loving Canadians. Republican candidate for President, Ben Carson, now says he wants soldiers and the national guard stationed not only along the Mexican border — but also at certain unspecified spots along the Canadian border.  Remember that last fall, former presidential candidate Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker had expressed interest in building a wall along the U.S.-Canada border. The Republicans appear to be implying that Canada is some sort of terrorist haven — with certain Americans expressing concern about Islamic State radicals crossing into the U.S. through Canada.

However, history has shown that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and most recent Boston Marathon bombings and San Bernardino shootings were carried out by home grown American terrorists. So far, there has been little evidence of any large or small scale threat from Canada in terms of potential Islamic State radicals. If anything, Americans have more concerns about their own citizens who have travelled to the Middle East to join ISIS. Just as Canada is concerned about the few Canadian nationals who have done the same thing.

Let’s face it, both the U.S. Homeland Security and Canada’s Canadian Security Intelligence Service share their terrorist-watch lists. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Royal Canadian Mounted Police are keeping an eye on potentially radicalized individuals in their respective countries.  Never-the-less, the most recent polls indicate that national security is now the No. 1 concern of American voters. I’m confident that this concern is right up there among key issues for Canadians.  However, additional security measures adopted more than a decade ago after the 9-11 attacks continue to impact trade and cross-border traffic.  Both countries have been looking at ways to ease the border backlog, partly by screening people at checkpoints away from the actual frontier.  After all, the U.S. is still Canada’s largest trade partner, and there is a lot at stake for the economies of both countries.

If dispatching American troops to the border with Canada makes Americans feel safer, so be it.  I doubt it very much if Canada would react in kind, particularly given that our armed forces have better things to do with their limited resources. Indeed, American troops may help to keep some gun smugglers from entering into Canada, given that the vast majority of illegal weapons have their origin in the States. Stopping access to guns by Canadian criminal elements is by far a much bigger issue for Canada.

Terrorism U.S. Canada Border US Politics

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Dec 4

Help Me To Understand Mass Killings in the U.S.

by bcurry

Let me understand this.  The latest mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, which killed 14 people and injured 21 others, represented the 355th such mass shooting in 2015.  Mass shootings are usually defined as incidents in which four or more people, including the gunman, are killed or injured by gunfire.  According to the Reddit tracker, the number of mass shootings so far this year in the U.S. has already surpassed the total number of mass shootings in 2014.  At this pace, the total will be well above 2013’s pace, when a total of 363 mass shootings were recorded.

What is really difficult to understand is why Congress would block an attempt to ban the sale of weapons to persons on the American potential terrorist watch list.  According to the Government Accountability Office and The Washington Post’s Wonkblog, more than 2,000 terrorism suspects purchased guns in the U.S. between 2004 and 2014.  Democrats have repeatedly proposed closing that loophole, but the National Rifle Association and its Republican allies have apparently blocked those efforts, so it’s still legal.

In addition, just hours before this latest mass shooting, more than 2,000 physicians from around the country petitioned federal lawmakers to lift a restriction on research.  For nearly two decades, the restriction essentially blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from conducting research on gun violence.  The doctors spoke about the need to view gun violence as a public health epidemic and research ways to solve it – as the country would with any disease causing thousands of American deaths each year.  The removal of the restriction would have in no way infringed on the rights of gun owners.

As in the case of other mass killers, the authorities discovered that the assailants had large caches of lethal arms and ammunition in their possession.  Police found more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition on or near the California couple, suggesting that they were prepared for a long siege.  Police recovered two assault rifles and two 9mm pistols, all legally purchased, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Kind of makes you wonder why such large quantities of munitions and the purchase of assault rifles wouldn’t have raised some eyebrows!

When one person dies in America every 16 minutes from a gun, people discuss an urgent need to talk about remedies.  Democrats, including President Obama, want to address America’s problems with guns.  Republicans talk about the need to address mental health. Both are right.  Society routinely constructs policies that reduce the toll of deadly products and activities all around us.  That’s what we do with cars (driver’s licenses, seatbelts, guardrails).  It’s what we do with swimming pools (fences, childproof gates, pool covers).  We often pre-examine and licence people (police officers, military personnel, drivers, pilots) so as to prevent persons with mental or other health issues from potentially endangering public safety.  Indeed, when it comes to improving universal background checks, recent polls have shown that a majority of gun owners would approve such an initiative.  So one can only ask why Americans aren’t ready to really deal with this issue?  I don’t have an answer or logical explanation.  Maybe you do.

Gun Control US

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