FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Sep 10

U.S. President Finally Getting More Serious About Combating COVID-19

by bcurry

Let’s set the stage.  So far, the COVID pandemic has claimed more than 650,000 lives in the U.S.  The U.S. recorded 176,000 new cases on September 8, far above the roughly 10,000 a day seen in June when the pandemic was at its ebb.  A quarter of eligible Americans — some 80 million people — have so far not been vaccinated for the coronavirus.  Just as millions of American families navigate sending their children back to school, the number of children admitted to hospital with Covid-19 has risen to the highest levels reported to date.  States with the lowest vaccine coverage have child hospital admissions that are around four times higher than states with the highest vaccination rates.  According to the American Academy of Paediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, nearly 252,000 American children tested positive for COVID-19 last week, marking the single highest week on record for paediatric infections.  Nearly 30,000 of them entered hospitals in August alone.  Hospital resources and their staffs in several states are being strained under rising hospital admissions due to COVID.

Now, President Biden has declared that he will order all executive branch employees, federal contractors and millions of health-care workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, and that his administration would issue rules requiring large private employers to mandate shots or testing.  New federal safety regulations that call for businesses with more than 100 workers to require vaccinations against the coronavirus will affirm mandates already in place at many companies.  The requirements will be imposed by the Department of Labor and its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is drafting an emergency temporary standard to carry out the mandate.  Some 80 million American workers will be affected.  President Biden will also require vaccinations for more than 17 million health-care workers at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals and in other health-care settings, a significant expansion of an existing requirement aimed at nursing homes.

There is little doubt that the President’s order will face political pushback, particularly from some Republican state governors and legislatures, and will result in some litigation.  However, some of the largest employer organizations, such as the Business Roundtable, and largest unions, such as the Teamsters, the AFL-CIO, and the United Food and Commercial Workers, have endorsed the President’s move as the only possible way to achieve a full recovery.  They especially agree with the proposed requirement that companies offer paid time off for workers to get vaccinated.  However, concerns have been expressed over how to deal with unvaccinated workers, particularly those who are vaccine hesitant.  Of course, under the OSHA requirements, accommodation will also have to be made for those employees who can’t be vaccinated due to medical reasons.  Unions want to ensure that workplace COVID-19 health and safety plans include mitigation measures like ventilation, removing infected individuals, masking and training workers.

The U.S. cannot continue to take the fourth COVID wave involving the Delta variant lightly!  It is now affecting more children, particularly those under twelve who can’t get vaccinated at this time.  Unlike in some states, Canadian schools are requiring pre-screening protocols, rapid COVID testing, masking and other precautionary measures to minimize the impact of the variant on children.  As of the end of August, Canada reached a milestone with over 83.5 percent of the eligible population (12 yrs and up) receiving at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.  There is a fairly clear recognition that the more adults and parents who are vaccinated, the less likely children will become infected.  Many Canadian employers, notably in the health care and education sectors, have now mandated full vaccination of their employees, again as a health and safety measure.  In several provinces, vaccine passports are being introduced as proof of full vaccination in order to access non-essential establishments (restaurants, bars, sporting events, etc.).  Like the U.S., Canada has entered a fourth wave and the federal and provincial governments are doing everything in their power to limit its impact, both human and economic.  There is little doubt that President Biden is moving in the right direction given the nature of the COVID crisis.

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Jun 28

June Was a Bad Month for the Catholic Church in North America

by bcurry

Here in Canada, the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves containing Indigenous children’s remains on former Indian residential school grounds raised the anger of many Canadians, and in particular those of the Catholic faith.  Many of the residential schools were run by the Catholic Church.  Indigenous leaders in Canada have been pressing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to secure an apology, on Canadian soil, from Pope Francis himself for the role the Catholic Church played in operating residential schools. Those demands — which Trudeau repeated again Friday, June 25th — have so far gone unheeded.  However, a number of Church leaders in Canada have taken upon themselves to apologize for the Churches role in running the schools and for the associated unmarked graves.

In the U.S., as only the second Catholic president, an issue was raised by some of the country’s Catholic bishops with respect to President Joe Biden.  A question was asked as to whether the Catholic Church should not allow the president to receive Holy Communion because of his political support for abortion rights.  The president, who attends church regularly, rightly replied that this is a personal and private matter.  As one observer noted, denying Communion to Biden or other public figures as a means of correcting their errors would be claiming the right to overrule their conscience.   Subsequently, several American Catholic bishops suggested that any such ban on the president was not in the cards.  They are likely mistaken, however, if they think a Communion crackdown will bring him or other so-called wayward Catholics back in line.  Furthermore, declaring abortion the “pre-eminent” issue for Catholics has created another crisis of authority for the bishops — remember the handling of recent cases of alleged abuses by American priests.

In both instances, the results have been criticism and outrage from many Catholics and non-Catholics of the Churches position on these matters.  In the American situation, it is clearly a matter of the separation of state and church which form an important part of a democracy.  One’s religious beliefs should not form part of the government’s policy making process which is designed to defend the interests of all its citizens, regardless of faith.  In the Canadian context, the inability of the Catholic leadership to recognize the role of the church in the tragic operation of residential schools and the horrific impact on Indigenous peoples needs to be addressed.

The number of followers of the Catholic Church in both countries is on the decline, particularly among younger people.   Reportedly, between 2000 and 2017 the number of its churches in the U.S. declined by nearly 11 percent, and by 2019 the number of Catholics decreased by 2 million people.  During the last decade, Catholics have been steadily shrinking as a share of the U.S. population. Situations like the above two examples do not help the Churches image and have led once again to parishioners having to assess their continued participation within the Church.  Perhaps it’s time for the Catholic Church to enter the twenty-first century and to hone up to its role in and openly admit its past mistakes, instead of trying to cover them up or simply ignore them.

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May 28

What’s a Billion Dollars? President Biden’s Proposed $6 Trillion Budget for 2022 Fiscal Year

by bcurry

During the Second World War, Canada’s newly appointed Minister of Munitions and Supply, the Honourable C.D. Howe, had allegedly said “What’s a million?” in response to his war spending estimates in 1945 (which totalled $1.365 billion).  This was in response to opposition queries about cutting a million dollars from that budget.  Howe responded that a million dollars from the War Appropriations Bill would not be a very important matter, which of course in those days represented a lot of money.  Howe eventually went on in 1944 to become Minister of Reconstruction in the post-war government’s successful overhaul of the Canadian economy. 

Now one has President Biden’s apparent proposal for a $6 trillion budget for the 2022 fiscal year.  Wow, this is a lot of money!  The budget proposal would call for the most sustained spending in more than a half-century, which forecasts deficits at more than $1 trillion for at least the next decade.  As in the case of WWII funding, the President sees the proposed expenditures as necessary to turn the economy around after the pandemic is over.  Most of the planned new funding would go to building up America’s infrastructure: everything from roads, bridges, public transit systems, passenger and freight rail, airports, water infrastructure, broadband infrastructure, etc., etc.  Already, in addition to the American Jobs Plan, the President has put forward a $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, a massive package that would invest in education, childcare and paid family leave.  To pay for all this, the President plans to increase taxes on the wealthy and to raise the current corporate tax rate.

Of course, the Republicans have raised their objections, especially to any increases in personal or corporate tax rates.  A group of Senate Republicans apparently have announced a $928 billion counteroffer on infrastructure.  After all, what’s a few billion dollars less?  Needless-to-say, many Democrats dismissed the Republican counteroffers as being too small.  Sounds familiar.  Another group of Republicans reportedly has suggested using unspent funds from previous coronavirus relief plans to pay for the infrastructure bill.

As in the case of the American and Canadian extensive efforts and massive spending for their economies to fund the war and recover from WWII, it would make sense that similar efforts are required of governments to do the same in order to recover from the damages incurred as a result of the global pandemic.  One way is for a massive investment in the much needed upgrading of our infrastructures, many of which have suffered from past neglect.  Yes, a billion or more dollars is a lot of money, but not when you’re talking about trillions.

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Apr 18

The Scourge of Gun Violence in America is Here to Stay

by bcurry

I recently read that during the first six years of President Obama’s administration, tragically over sixteen thousand children were shot and killed.  In Chicago alone, Obama’s home town, the number of shootings added up to more than one a day.  On April 15th, a gunman killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis.  It is the latest in a harrowing string of mass shootings in the U.S.  Last month alone, eight people were fatally shot at massage businesses across the Atlanta area, and 10 died in gunfire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.  President Biden, who has had the flag lowered to half mast three times in his first hundred days in office, has called the situation a “national embarrassment”.  I would add that it is an embarrassment that will not go away for a long time, if ever.

Just take 2020’s final statistics for gun violence.  Gun violence killed nearly 20,000 Americans, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, more than any other year in at least two decades.  An additional 24,000 people died by suicide with a gun.  Gunshot injuries also rose dramatically, to nearly 40,000, over 8,000 more than in 2017.   According to Archive data, nearly 300 children were shot and killed in 2020, a 50% increase over the previous year.  More than 5,100 kids and teens 17 and younger were killed or injured last year — over 1,000 more than any other year since 2014.  However, these are simply statistics.  Unfortunately, each and every one represents a human being who was or is someone’s father, mother, son, daughter, etc., etc.

The U.S. is the only country where there are more guns than people.  Recent surveys find that about 40% of adult Americans own a gun or live with someone who does.  According to 2018 estimates from the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey, American civilians own 393 million guns, ranking the U.S. number one in firearms per capita.  We’re not just talking about single-shot weapons, but also automatic and semi-automatic handguns and military-style rifles capable of horrendously killing many people in a very short time.   In 2020, people purchased about 23 million guns, a 64% increase over 2019 sales.  Surveys continue to find that a majority of gun owners believe they are safer with a gun in their homes.  And many gun rights activists, supported by a long-standing narrative from the National Rifle Association (NRA), continue to argue that “a good guy with a gun” can save people from gun violence.  But numerous studies have found that self-defensive gun use to prevent or combat violence is rare.  For example, a 2015 Harvard study found that people defended themselves with a gun in less than 1% of 14,000 crimes from 2007 to 2011.

How often have we heard the NRA declare that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  However, it would seem to most rational persons that the ready and widespread availability of guns greatly contributes to these tragedies.  There is no way in getting around the evidence!  The easy access to guns, even by persons with mental health conditions or with a history of violence, contributes to the above outcomes.  Ratified in 1791, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been deemed by American courts to protect the right to keep and bear arms.  Aimed to facilitate the formation of militias to defend a young country at the time, this antiquated and perverse notion continues to plague the country.  Recent events and the unquestionable statistics prove it.  Sadly, despite all the prayers, the scourge of gun violence in America is here to stay.

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Apr 15

U.S. Should Take Lead In Global COVID Vaccination For Vulnerable Countries

by bcurry

Having just read a recent report by the American Centre for Strategic and International Affairs, it became clearly evident that the U.S. helping to secure the future of lower- and middle-income countries is simply the right thing to do, on humanitarian, economic, and security grounds.  This means taking a clear lead on helping to provide supplies of COVID vaccines to vulnerable poorer countries in Africa and the Americas.  The facts are that the U.S. has already purchased 1.3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines from six companies, enough to vaccinate 650 million people — nearly twice the U.S. population.  Meanwhile, recent reports say 300 million vaccine doses could be in the U.S. by July of this year, sparking hoarding worries.

The Biden administration is apparently leaning toward keeping the doses it has ordered, and then at some point directing the excess to other nations in either bilateral deals or giving it to Covax.  Covax is an international nonprofit organization backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) that is trying to coordinate equitable distribution of vaccine among vulnerable countries.  The Biden administration has already donated $3.5 billion for the Global Fund in support of the international effort.  The recent passed American Rescue Plan also included a further $11 billion to support the global Covid-19 response, $3 billion for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), $650 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) global Covid-19 response, and $300 million for the Center for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI).  An excellent start to help combat the global pandemic.

However, the Centre for Strategic and International Affairs strongly suggests that the U.S. bring considerable leverage to any global strategy on vaccines.  It is after all the biggest vaccine market and the largest investor in vaccines, with the deepest impact on research and development of new products.  In addition, the Centre’s report suggests that the U.S. should work with multilateral efforts to create fiscal space in lower- and middle-income countries to invest in their health infrastructure, which will be essential for responding to the current crisis as well as making investments in future pandemic preparedness.  It’s one thing to supply vaccines, it’s another to actually deliver and immunize a population affected by difficult regional transportation and few local health care capacities.  These multilateral investments must continue into the future if vulnerable countries are to control future outbreaks and protect the health of their citizens.

We have already seen the foreign policy moves by China and Russia to supply vaccines strategically to vulnerable countries as an additional means of exerting their political and economic influence in the Americas, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.  Western countries, led by the U.S., cannot afford to ignore such vaccine supply initiatives underway in these strategic regions.  Furthermore, millions of lives are at stake given the current increasing spread of COVID variants in these regions.  The global response to this pandemic must be met through an international approach to be successful.  Who else is in a better position to lead this response than the United States?

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Jan 4

Americans in 2021 will be even more divided than ever

by bcurry

While one may welcome in the New Year, there is little doubt that Americans will be even more divided than ever.  Even a pandemic could not bring Americans together after the recent presidential election.  Spurred on by outgoing President Trump, numerous Republicans and conspirators such as QAnon, many Americans believe that his re-election was stolen by a corrupt voting system.  They have managed to put the very essence of democracy under a microscope for all the wrong reasons.

Many Americans look at Democrats and see a party made up primarily of radical lefties, blacks, LGBtQ+, and belonging to an apparatus run by political elites, business leaders and Hollywood celebrities who are also pedophiles and actively working against Trump.  Democrats see Republicans as white, right-wing, evangelical and gun-toting folk.  While these perceptions are far from the truth, polls nevertheless have shown that they are basically how both sides like politically to characterize the other party’s membership.  Even concerted efforts to deal with the pandemic have not brought the two sides any closer together.

Following the U.S. election outcome, several Republicans in Congress and elsewhere have unfortunately continued to cater to Trump’s base by promoting false and misleading accusations about the voting process.  With so much anger in the air and a President who refuses to concede his loss, the political and social atmosphere is more toxic than ever.  The right-wing extremist Proud Boys will march on Washington as Senator Ted Cruz leads 12 GOP senators who are still trying futilely to overturn the results of the presidential election only to appease Trump’s base.

What all this means is that President-elect Joe Biden’s first major challenge will be to convince many Americans that his administration is legitimate, something rarely heard of in U.S. history.  Protests will follow with both pro-Biden and pro-Trump supporters attempting to out shout the other side in front of far from neutral media.   Depending on what happens in the two Georgia runoffs for the U.S. Senate, Congress may or may not become a continuing stalemate of ideological differences.  President-elect Biden’s administration will have their work cut out for them to get anything significant accomplished in the next four years.  With the divisions running so deep and Donald Trump screaming in the Twitter background, one cannot envy the challenges that his administration will face in the coming months.

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Dec 26

Will Vulnerable Countries Have Adequate Access to COVID Vaccines?

by bcurry

Many are celebrating the fact that the end of 2020 has seen the arrival of COVID vaccines from pharmaceutical manufacturers, and rightly so.  Indeed, the U.S. has already secured claims on as many as 1.5 billion doses of approved and potential vaccines, while the European Union has locked up nearly two billion doses — enough to vaccinate all of their citizens and then some. Canada is in line to receive millions of vaccine doses early in the new year.  However, reports indicate that many poor countries could be left waiting until 2024 to fully vaccinate their populations, if they’re lucky.  In addition, access to vaccines is not based on need.  It’s based on the ability to pay and the need for pharmaceutical companies (primarily located in the advanced economies) to waive traditional protections on intellectual property, thereby allowing poor countries to make affordable versions of the vaccines.  Unfortunately, the work of the World Trade Organization (W.T.O.) and the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) to provide needed aid to poor countries has been blocked by the Trump administration.  On top of which, the Trump administration has also withdrawn financial and moral support for the vital work of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.).

This has left the masses of people in poor countries with no short-term access to vaccines, in economic chaos and with rising public debt.  This global pandemic will result in existing economic inequalities between the have and have-not countries becoming even greater.  Some will even argue that the ravages of the pandemic in poor countries, largely unchecked by vaccines, could limit economic fortunes globally.  Governments in the wealthy countries must at some point shore up the assistance necessary to support health care systems and vulnerable populations in poor countries.  The Canadian government recently announced that it is part of a global movement to ensure that available surplus COVID vaccines will be offered to vulnerable countries as soon as possible.  When and by how much are two questions that immediately come to mind!

One can only hope that the incoming Biden administration will quickly proceed to address this important issue and lend the full support of the American nation to such organizations as the W.T.O., I.M.F. and W.H.O. in combating this global pandemic.  Without the full American participation, the ability to ensure that sufficient COVID vaccines are available to vulnerable countries becomes a mute issue.  Just as the pandemic created a health crisis in wealthy countries, it has created an even bigger one in the poorer countries.  Unless the current situation changes, it is predicted that many poor countries will no doubt be left waiting until 2024 to fully vaccinate their populations.  If true, this could become the worst international tragedy of this century.

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Nov 21

Americans Must Overcome the Collective Narcissism Promoted by Donald Trump

by bcurry

Back in February 2016, I blogged about Donald Trump displaying behavioural traits associated with an extreme narcissist (https://froliticks.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/donald-trump-and-extreme-narcissism/).  I recently read a very interesting article in the UK’s Independent on “collective narcissism” written by Alan D. Blotcky, a clinical psychologist in Birmingham, Alabama.  Dr. Blotcky noted that collective narcissism refers to the feelings of greatness or supremacy of a group of people organized by race, ethnicity, religion, or some other distinction.  He also noted that the narcissistic connection between Trump and his supporters is a bond that is irrational and incredibly strong.  In this post-election period, it has now become evident that Trump and his supporters are mutually invested in maintaining their collective narcissism at any cost.

The failure of Trump to concede his defeat is a reflection of the narcissistic behaviour prevalent during his entire administration.  Unfortunately, the mass media loved to cover his every uttering, often on Twitter, whether or not they made any sense or had an ounce of truth.  Trump’s supporters followed his every word as if it was gospel and as if he were an occult leader.  There is little doubt, as reflected in the election’s results, that many of his supporters have numerous legitimate grievances and concerns around sociocultural and economic issues.  Unfortunately, as Dr. Blotcky notes, the resulting collective narcissism led some of them to support several unfounded conspiracy theories and various extreme groups whose ideologies include racism, xenophobia, terrorism, or fascism.  The President simply manipulated these grievances to encourage support for his views and the need for gratification as a way to prop up his own narcissism and image.

Dr. Blotcky goes on to give several suggestions as to how to deal with such collective narcissism among Americans in order to reduce the evident divisiveness left behind by President Trump.  One important suggestion is to cut off Trump’s media lifeline that unfortunately had been used effectively to stoke the fears of white Americans and to reinforce their growing collective narcissism.  An extreme narcissist loves the attention, so don’t give him any when he is no longer president.  Instead, concentrate on the words and actions of President Elect Joe Biden, hoping that he can begin the healing process.  Dr. Blotcky advocates: “Unity, inclusiveness and honesty must be our mantra going forward.”  No one should have been surprised that Donald Trump refuses to concede in light of Joe Biden’s victory and that the majority of America voters rejected his policies.  No one should be surprised that his administration is acting vindictively and refuses to assist the incoming administration towards a smooth transition to govern.  These are the continuing actions of an extreme narcissist.  For the sake of the country and democracy, the sooner Donald Trump leaves office, the better off we’ll all be!

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Nov 12

President Trump Is Playing The Victim Role Once Again

by bcurry

All through his presidency, Donald Trump has appealed to his supporters that, like them, he is the victim of a corrupt system, whether it be the courts, the media or congress.  He blamed mainstream media for putting out “fake news” about the daily events.  He blamed the House of Representatives and the Special Prosecutor for the impeachment hearings.  He blamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation for failing to investigate the actions of his “political enemies” and Hunter Biden’s business activities in the Ukraine.  He accused top public health officials of overstating the crisis surrounding the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., including the use of testing so as to inflate the numbers of cases.  Now, he is blaming the electoral system for the outcome of the presidential election, without presenting any proof of voting fraud or mishandling of votes by the states.  There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a victim, but a victim of his own arrogance, hypocrisy and self-importance.

Unfortunately, Trump’s refusal to concede to Joe Biden is designed to promote one more conspiracy theory among his supporters that the election was stolen and he did not “loose”.  Simply launching dozens of lawsuits without any legal grounds is a waste of precious time and resources.  The hypocrisy of it is highlighted by his daughter Ivanka Trump.  In recent statements, Ms. Trump celebrated the fact that the Associated Press projected the state of Alaska for the Republicans and for her father.  At the same time she rejected the same organisation declaring Joe Biden the president-elect, despite Mr. Biden clearly winning the 270 electoral college votes he needs for the White House.

On top of which, you now have key Republicans and administration officials encouraging the President should keep fighting until every “legal” vote is counted.  They include Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr, and Senators David Perdue, Susan Collins, Kelly Loeffler, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to name a few.  On the other hand, one has Republicans who have congratulated Joe Biden on his victory such as former President George W. Bush, Senator Mitt Romney and Governors Charlie Baker, Larry Hogan and Phil Scott.

Meanwhile, to date, GOP operatives have filed a string of lawsuits over alleged ballot tampering in battleground states but have had zero legal victories or produced any substantive evidence for their claims.  Sorry, Mr. President, you’re no victim in all of this!  While the nation waits to proceed with the normal political transition and there are record numbers of Americans who continue to die or become hospitalized because of COVID-19, you obliviously keep on playing golf.  This nonsensical situation will only add to what is already a terrible legacy, and is just another symptom of Trumpism.

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Nov 8

President Elect Joe Biden Has Four Tumultuous Years Ahead

by bcurry

There was really no sense blogging during the final week of the presidential campaign and during the past week of vote counting in battlefront states.  Canadians were closely watching these important events unfold just as much as most Americans.  Now that it’s all over, thank God, we can begin to look forward to the arrival of the new administration in January 2021.  However, the issues obviously will be incredibly difficult to deal with following Donald Trump’s four years in office. 

The first and foremost one is the current increasing daily rates of COVID-19 cases in the U.S.  As it stands, with only four percent of the world’s population, the U.S. has accounted for 20 percent of global deaths due to the pandemic.  The U.S. has to date suffered over 235,000 deaths.  As the U.S. moves into the cold months of winter, modelling apparently is forecasting that 100,000 or more Americans will die in the next three months, many in the heartlands of America.  Unfortunately, surveys indicate that a significant number of Americans, as many as two out of five, still believe that the pandemic has been overblown.  As in Canada, people may be becoming complacent after nine months since the virus appeared in North America — a big problem for public health and government officials.

In the States, Trump’s constant attack on the science, his lack of national strategy and his denial of the seriousness of COVID-19 are a major hurtles for the Biden administration to overcome.  Americans are hurting health-wise and economically because of this pandemic and will need more monetary and moral support over the coming months.  Without getting COVID-19 outbreaks under control, hospitals will become overwhelmed and more deaths will surely occur.  Additional economic restrictions will have to be put in place and further economic consequences will occur.  The next administration will have to launch war-like efforts to successfully deal with the pandemic in the short term until an effective and safe vaccine can be developed, manufactured and distributed down the road.  However, there are no guarantees.

While Joe Biden may be looking at other issues, these will most likely have to be put on the back burner for some time.  He will need the support of Republicans across the board: in Congress, the states and even down to the community level.  Hopefully, he will be able to reduce the incredible divisiveness left behind by the Trump administration.  For this reason, Americans will have to be patient and understand that each and every citizen has a role to play in combating this pandemic.  As in Canada, everyone will have to sacrifice in order to manage the situation in the coming months.  As the saying goes: “We’re all in this together.”

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