FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Mar 16

Why Are So Many People In North America On Antidepressants?

by bcurry

At no time in our history have so many Americans and Canadians been prescribed antidepressants.  Firstly, one should remember that patients who take the drugs often get them from their regular doctor rather than a so-called mental health professional.  Feeling down or unhappy with your life, go see your doctor and get prescribed some form of antidepressant.

According to a 2011 analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, antidepressants were the third-most common drug used by Americans of all ages between 2005 and 2008.  They were the most common drug among people aged 18 to 44.  According to the same survey, U.S. women are 2-1/2 times more likely than men to take antidepressants, and whites are more likely than blacks to take the drugs. Also, fewer than a third of Americans taking one antidepressant drug and fewer than half of those taking more than one have seen a mental health professional in the past year.

Canadians now rank among the highest users of antidepressants in the world.  In 2011, Canadians consumed 86 daily doses of antidepressants for every 1,000 people per day. One of Canada’s top psychiatrists stated that too many Canadians are treating life’s normal spells of misery the way they would handle something they dislike about their bodies: by asking a doctor to make their lives better.  Canadians take twice as many antidepressants as Italians do, and more than Germans or French.  In 2011, Canada reported the third highest level of consumption of antidepressants among 23 member nations surveyed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

What’s even more alarming showed up in a large 2015 American study containing data about the state of children’s mental health in the U.S.  The study found that depression in many children appears to start as early as age 11.  By the time they hit age 17, the analysis found 13.6 percent of boys and a staggering 36.1 percent of girls have been or are considered depressed.  These numbers are significantly higher than previous estimates.  As recently as the 1980s, adolescents were considered too developmentally immature to be able to experience such a grown-up affliction. Today, most scientists recognize that children as young as 4 or 5 years of age can be depressed.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Diagnosed clinical depression is a very serious mental illness.  Many of us are familiar with persons with such a diagnosis, and who are undergoing treatment which includes antidepressants.  In such cases, antidepressants are essential in treating severe, debilitating and life-threatening depression.  However, the pills including Prozac and its cousins that were held out to be miraculous when they hit the market in the late 1980s, are increasingly being swallowed by millions of Americans and Canadians every day.  However, recent studies suggest that, in cases of mild depression where one is still working and functioning, the drugs often don’t work, or they produce a temporary placebo effect which doesn’t last.

One observer declared that “drugging unhappiness” has far too often become the easy solution, especially one taken by family physicians.  Remember the 1960s and 1970s when someone complaining of some form of anxiety was prescribed Valium.  With its launch in 1963, diazepam, which was patented in 1959 by Hoffmann-La Roche, became one of the most frequently prescribed medications in the world.  In the U.S. it was the best-selling medication between 1968 and 1982, selling more than 2 billion tablets in 1978 alone, prescribed particularly to women.  For some its continuing use became addictive.  In addition, besides dependence, long-term use can result in tolerance and withdrawal symptoms on dose reduction.  Abrupt stopping after long-term use can be potentially dangerous.  For these reasons, the drugs became less prescribed in later years.

Today, our societies must begin to question why people believe that they require medication to deal with their everyday lives and a state of so-called unhappiness.  What’s even more worrisome is the fact that more and more children are being diagnosed with some form of depression at an ever younger age!  Given these facts, one cannot but conclude that something is terribly wrong with our general state of mental health and with our health care systems.

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Mar 11

Why are Affirmative Action Initiatives Under Attack in the U.S.?

by bcurry

It all started in June 2023 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious college admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional, causing colleges and universities to shift to race-neutral policies.  This decision upended decades of legal precedent when it came to affirmative action policies among post-secondary institutions.  Since then, several lawsuits have been launched representing the latest front in a conservative campaign to roll back affirmative action programs in government and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the corporate world.  Affirmative action programs are ripe targets, legal experts say, in part because nearly every state and locality has one or more that benefit women, minorities and other underrepresented groups.  Conservative activists have filed dozens of complaints against Fortune 500 companies alleging discrimination against White people.  Long-standing federal programs created to benefit minority-owned businesses now find themselves on shaky ground.  In the past, courts typically have upheld government affirmative action programs on the grounds that society has an interest in remedying past and ongoing discrimination.  All that is starting to change, largely because of recent court decisions.

One of the programs under attack is the federal Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program for minority government contractors.  The SBA had to overhaul its application process last year after a court ruled that the SBA could not automatically assume that Black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American business owners qualify as socially disadvantaged – a prior key requirement.  The Minority Business Development Agency was similarly blocked from using racial categories to determine applicant eligibility.

The Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest law firm representing many of the plaintiffs, noted that the vast majority of race-based government programs are operated by states and cities.  Fifteen states have race- and sex-based mandates that apply to most public boards, according to a survey released in 2023 by the Foundation.  In 14 states, the survey found similar requirements for 63 professional licensing boards responsible for social work, dentistry, pharmacy and medical examination.  All told, the Foundation reported that at least 25 states have such requirements in some form.  Generally, it is argued that preference for minority applicants allegedly violates the 14th Amendment right to receive equal treatment under the law.

Historically, African Americans were largely locked out of the skilled workforce.  A 1960 report by the Department of Labor found that Black workers make 60 percent less on average than Whites.  Meanwhile, the modern civil rights movement began challenging segregation in the South, and the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case led to the desegregation of public schools.  Responding to growing demands for racial equality, President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order in 1961 requiring federal contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.”  This was the birth of affirmative action initiatives in the U.S.

Many American businesses were confused about how to comply with the subsequent new laws, including President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964, which encouraged businesses to diversify their workforces while prohibiting discrimination.  Critics argued that they would result in preferential treatment of Black Americans, claims that have persisted for decades.  Affirmative programs appear to have had a positive effect.  According to one 1973 study, the average income in 1969 of “non-White” young, college-educated men was 98 percent of the average of U.S. workers, up from just 80 percent a decade earlier.  Such programs are seen as attributing to helping to reduce traditional discriminatory patterns in the labor market.  In addition, the wage gains coincide with an explosion in the number of Black people enrolling in colleges, particularly in elite colleges — 417,000 in 1970, up 83 percent from a decade earlier. 

There is little doubt that affirmative action programs, no matter how effective they are, will continue to be under attack by conservative groups, whether in the courts and in local and state governments.

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Mar 6

The Kingmakers: How Corporate Elites Work to Re-elect President Trump

by bcurry

Now that Donald Trump has garnered the Republican candidacy for the Presidential election next November, you can be sure that a number of the corporate elite will be lining up to support him and help fund his campaign.  After all, Trump believes that he is one of them.  Remember, that both Hitler and Mussolini garnered the support of the corporate elite respectively in Germany and Italy to help overthrow their existing democratic regimes in order to push forward their agenda and solidify their places among the wealthiest in each nation.  Both average Germans and Italians, like many Americans today, were upset with the current economic state.   Once in charge, those same elites worked with each dictator to build up the military-industrial complexes, much like what Putin has been doing and continues to do in Russia today.

Trump’s efforts to garner corporate support is already underway as witnessed by the recent reported meetings whereby he is urgently seeking a cash infusion to aid his presidential campaign.  These took place with the likes of Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, and a number of wealthy Republican donors.  Furthermore, now that Nikki Haley has withdrawn from the presidential campaign, it will be interesting to see whether the conservative billionaire Koch brothers will back Trump during his campaign.  The Koch brothers founded and fund the Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP), a libertarian conservative political policy body.  Initially, the AFP, which fuels the most powerful donor network in conservative politics, had declared itself as part of the NeverTrump effort for 2024, aiming to deny former President Donald Trump a third nomination for the White House.  Therefore, it will be interesting to see whether the Koch brothers will continue to take this position.

In addition, Nikki Haley was probably not the corporate elites’ most preferable candidate. Instead, like Musk, they would have preferred Florida Governor Ron Desantis as their candidate given his similar extreme right-wing political positions to those of Trump.  However, Desantis had a weak campaign and did not live up to the expectations of many of the corporate elite and those in the Republican Party.  The tide swung quickly in favour of Nikki Haley as a possible alternative to Trump, although unfortunately somewhat weak at the outset.

The corporate elite know that despite all the current indictments against Trump and his continuing denial of the results of the last presidential election, his hard-core MAGA base will continue to support him regardless.  Noteworthy, “The Daily Show” correspondent Jordan Klepper couldn’t recently hide his frustration with Nikki Haley supporters who fiercely condemned Trump but then, in the same interview, admitted they’ll still probably vote for the former president when he takes on President Joe Biden in November.

There appears to be too much at stake for corporate America not to support Trump.  After all he supports the fossil fuels sector, denying the impact of climate change; he believes in an “American First” policy at the expense of international trade agreements; he wants to build up America’s nuclear arsenal and speed up the military-based space race; he would never introduce new tax measures aimed at high-income earners or any new capital gains taxation; once again reduce the abilities of federal regulatory agencies such as the EPA and IRA; and he would increase further access to federal lands and waters for mineral exploration.

It was just a matter of time before we witnessed the “kingmakers” coming out of the woods, SuperPacs and all.  While a few corporate elites may support Biden, the majority like Elon Musk will most likely support and fund Trump.  It’s quite simple, the so-called “haves” want to keep what they have without paying their fair share.  After all, they are the kingmakers, and neither you nor anyone else can change that.  Just ask the German and Italian descendents of earlier insidious times!

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Feb 26

Future of Child Care Up in the Air in Both the U.S. and Canada

by bcurry

Providing adequate child care has been a major issue in both countries.  From an economic point of view and in terms of economic growth, the continued participation of women in the labour market is recognized as being extremely important.  A 2019 Washington Post article reported that in 1990, 74 percent of American women between the ages of 25 and 54 either had a job or were looking for one, the sixth-highest rate among 22 rich countries.  By 2017, though, that number had risen to 75 percent, by then the fourth-lowest share among the same group of wealthy nations.  In Canada, statistics have shown that the participation of women in the labour force has consistantly been well above 60 percent in recent decades.  There are more working couples than ever, especially now that more women have chosen professional careers and many are needed in numerous labour-intensive sectors such as in health care, education, retail and the services.  Interestingly, a Statistics Canada study in 2019, noted that approximately 60 percent of children aged 0 to 5 years were participating in a formal or informal type of child care arrangement.

In order to support women’s participation, numerous jurisdictions have taken measures to reduce the costs of child care.  In both countries, child care is a direct responsibility of the states and provinces, with support funding often provided by the federal governments.  In 2003, the Canadian federal government announced a $1-billion, multiyear investment proposal in child care, requiring negotiations with the provinces to eventually establish a national child care program.  Consequently, Canada recently introduced a program to subsidize universal child care, in due course providing an average fee of 10 dollar-a-day child care by 2025-26 to all Canadian families.  During the pandemic in the U.S., there was temporary relief to keep the industry afloat.  The federal government made $24 billion available to the states.  Many providers were given thousands of dollars a month, depending on their size, which they used to pay for expenses, the biggest of which was wages.

Running a child care business has long been a very challenging math problem.  Many providers can barely afford to operate, yet many parents cannot afford to pay more.  It has also become harder to recruit child-care workers, one of the lowest-paying jobs in both countries.  With the termination of pandemic federal funding, some states, including a few led by Republicans, have invested state funds to make up for the pursuant loss of federal funds.  For example, this year Vermont will start to spend $125 million a year for large expansions in eligibility for subsidies for low-income families, and Kentucky spent $50 million on grants after federal funds expired.  Reportedly, the Biden administration has asked Congress for $16 billion for one year of additional funding for child care.  Apparently, a group of Democratic senators support it.  However, it is unlikely that it would get the Republican approval needed to pass.

There are additional considerations that have a direct impact on the current use of child care.  During the pandemic, many women began working from home.  Known as remote work, this has permitted some parents to increasingly provide home-based child care, further reducing their family costs and reliance on outside services.  In addition, the current high inflation has had a direct impact on the costs of running a child care operation, hitting the bottom line of many businesses.  Expenses include payroll, utilities, mortgage payments, food and supplies.  Like everyone, low-paid child-care workers have been affected by high inflation, and the result is a greater turnover rate among such workers.

While there are always debates over whether home care or external child care are more effective regarding a child’s early development, the fact is that the provision of quality child care is considered an essential element of a modern economy and its growth.  Those providing child care services are facing very difficult circumstances, everything from increasing costs to a shortage of qualified child-care workers.  In particular, the pay and working conditions for such workers, many qualified in early learning, has to be improved.  It is inexcusable that a society doesn’t adequately support those responsible for caring for our children, be they parents or child-care workers.  This is certainly one of the most crucial issues of our decade.

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Feb 16

Russia’s Treatment of Wounded Soldiers in the Ukraine Conflict Mirrors American Treatment of Wounded Vietnam Veterans

by bcurry

Recently, more information is coming out of Russia with respect to the estimated numbers of wounded soldiers involved in the war with Ukraine.  Of course, the total number of actual Russian war wounded is not disclosed by the Russian authorities.  After the war’s first month, the Russian defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, reportedly announced 3,825 wounded, a figure Russia has never updated.  The Central Intelligence Agency, in an article published in January 2024 in Foreign Affairs, estimated that Russian dead and wounded soldiers numbered 315,000.  The actual number may lie somewhere in between.  Nevertheless, the fact is that such a large number of wounded veterans are returning home means that the Russians have a major political problem.

Now let’s go back to a very unpopular Vietnam War and similar reactions by the American government as to the number of returning wounded Viet veterans.  As in Russia, American participation in the war in Vietnam became less and less popular as the war went on.  Although there were protests initially against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the early months, Putin’s regime quickly imposed severe restrictions, including imprisonment, against its opponents.  While open demonstrations by anti-Vietnam war protesters were condemned by many in the U.S. administration, and by Presidents Johnson and Nixon in particular, they did represent a significant degree of opposition as the war went on.  The Pentagon underplayed the actual number of American deaths and injuries for some time, only to release more information towards the end of the war.

With the numbers of returning wounded, the U.S. military health care facilities became overwhelmed.  The same can be said for the Russian situation where accounts from doctors and the wounded suggest that Russia lacks essentials for treatment — everything from sufficient evacuation vehicles to hospital beds to drugs in military run medical facilities nationwide.  The walking wounded will increasingly be seen everywhere among the civilian population, creating a PR nightmare for both governments.  Both wars involved a type of warfare that resulted in horrendous physical injuries, including those involving amputations. 

Without providing actual numbers, the Russian administration recently disclosed that about 54 percent of wounded veterans classified as disabled have suffered amputations.  As for Vietnam, by 1969 more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam.  As of the current Census taken during August 2000, the surviving U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is a little over one million.  It is difficult to obtain the actual number of physically or mentally injured veterans, except to say that they are in the thousands, many still being treated in VA facilities.  U.S. Wings notes that 58,148 were killed in Vietnam, 75,000 severely disabled, 23,214 were 100% disabled, 5,283 lost limbs and 1,081 sustained multiple amputations.  This most likely doesn’t include those suffering from traumatic stress disorders (TSD).

After the American military left Vietnam, there were no ticker tape parades for the returning vets as most Americans believed the war had been a mistake and preferred simply to forget about it.  In Russia, many of the injured are not openly celebrated and Russians appear “not ready” to see amputees, which satisfies the chosen approach by the Russian propaganda regime.  However, as in the case of Vietnam, the increasing appearance of injured Russian vets within their communities cannot but affect their families and the population at large.  Moreover, they appear to be treated as heroes or not at all.  Efforts are being made to keep them out of the public eye, much like what happened in the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

The Kremlin, military analysts and some medical personnel say, wants to avoid a repeat of the antiwar movements that forced a halt to the Soviet Union’s earlier wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan.  What will happen to the injured Russian vets is anyone’s guess at this time, particularly as the Ukraine conflict is continuing with no end in sight.  If it is anything like what happened eventually to many American Vietnam injured vets, the future doesn’t look too good.

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Feb 9

Politicization of Health Issues in North America

by bcurry

The last few decades have seen a greater politicization of a number of issues related to health.  The clear division among pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine proponents during the COVID pandemic was a major indication of such politicization, with even public officials taking up one side or another.  The pandemic raised a number of health issues in both the U.S. and Canada, forcing governments and medical practitioners to support one side or the other.  However, the science was clear and supported the need for a vaccine and the various societal restrictions introduced to protect peoples’ lives.  The high number of COVID-related deaths, particularly in the first year of the pandemic, confirmed the urgency for action in order to minimize the terrible impact of the virus on the population at large.  Results indicated that where individuals were not immunized, the probability of serious health consequences and even death was that much higher.  Many ended up placing an extreme hardship on the health care system and communities.

In the U.S., the recent Supreme Court’s decision which overturned Roe vs. Wade — a 1973 landmark decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion — opened up the door to reviving the whole issue surrounding abortion, another primarily health issue.  Again, pro-life and pro-choice groups became more politically active in many states, with some state governments enacting laws introducing all kinds of restrictions on abortion, sometimes leading in practice to an outright ban.  This placed medical practitioners in a difficult situation, often putting a woman’s health in jeopardy as a result of the loss of the abortion option. 

More recently, governments in Canada and the U.S. have or plan to introduce legislation to support planned policy changes affecting transgender and non-binary youth and adults.  Often under the banner of “parental rights”, the laws aim to restrict health-care options for such youth and inform parents of any name and gender identity changes students request at school.  Age limits are being prescribed for the use by medical practitioners of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender affirmation.  As a result, medical experts and patients are weighing in on gender-affirming care and the potential impact of such laws on affected youth.  They believe that limiting their access to care will put some kids at risk of self-harm, especially with respect to their mental health.  Psychiatrists who see gender-diverse youth and adult patients believe that to outlaw access to puberty blockers ignores best practices, guidelines and international standards of care endorsed by major medical associations.  Such laws are an unnecessary and unconstitutional political intrusion into the personal health choices of children, their parents and their doctors.  What is difficult to understand is that it appears to be the policy equivalent to hitting a fly with a hammer, given that the issue affects a very tiny portion of the population, often depicted as representing well less than one percent of children and adolescents.

When it comes to personal health matters, I believe that the majority of people would prefer that the government stay out of the equation.  In Canada, we saw a similar political split during past debates on the issue of medical assistance in dying (referred to as MAiD).  There were those that opposed MAiD primarily on religious beliefs, compared to the medical profession and civil rights groups who argued in favour of assisting those with terminal diseases, living with pain, in anguish, and with no hope for a cure.  In the six years since assisted dying was decriminalized by the Canadian Parliament in 2016, more patients are seeking MAiD year over year as this option becomes more widely known and available.  Since the introduction of this practice into the Canadian healthcare system, over 40,000 Canadians have taken advantage of the option. Decisions for assisted dying are left to the individual, his or her family and their medical practitioners, using several prescribed guidelines developed under the program.

I don’t know about you, but I want to make decisions about my health with the least amount of government interference or that of politically motivated groups.  I want decisions to be based on the best science at the time and the experience and input of medical practitioners.  There has been far too much politicization of health issues, driven by motives that most likely have nothing to do with the freedom to determine what is right for each person.  Our beliefs are our own.  As long as one is not harming anyone else, our health-related choices are our business. 

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Feb 6

Addiction to Sports Gambling on the Increase in North America

by bcurry

A recent episode by 60 Minutes on CBS on February 4, 2024 touched on the issue of addiction to online sports betting in the U.S.  Interestingly, a study of people involved in online sports betting indicated that the majority of gamblers were between 25 and 34 years old.  What was most concerning is the fact that the operators in online gaming — including sports betting — are gathering immense of amounts of data about each individual’s gambling habits.  They then use this information to individualize their online marketing to each gambler in order to encourage more betting and to lure back former gamblers to their site.  As a result, there is a greater chance of some gamblers to overextend their betting, and to develop an addiction to online sports betting.

In addition, the marketing of sports betting sites appears to be directed mostly to young people.  All one has to do is watch any sports event and one will see several flashy ads for such sites.  Operators also now cover any sport anywhere at any time (24/7), whereby some gamblers may not even know much about or follow a particular sport on a regular basis.  Beyond football, you have everything including curling, soccer, basketball, hockey, motor sports, rugby, volleyball, and even tennis.  There appear to be no limits on what one can bet.  The sites do not really make an effort to provide such limits, even though they have all the necessary individual data.

In the U.S., a 2018 Supreme Court decision opened the door for states to legalize sports betting, whereby the majority of States have since seen it as a new source of revenue.  Since then, 60 Minutes reported that Americans have spent more than a quarter of a trillion dollars sports betting.  Canada made single-event sports betting legal in 2021.  The province of Ontario was first to move ahead with a regulated sports betting program — allowing multiple operators to provide legal online sports gambling services.  There are now more than two dozen companies to compete for this sports-related segment of the broader provincial online gaming market.  In-play betting also opens the door to people being able to make many bets within a given game.

What all this means is that the possibility of increasing the number of gambler addicts is definitely in the mix.  While governments claim that their gaming commissions are trying to educate people about the dangers of excessive gambling, very little funding is provided to deal with this issue when compared to revenues going into their coffers.  The ability to control online gambling has become even more difficult because of the nature of the technology itself.  It was one thing in the past where an individual had to go to a casino or offsite operation to make a bet in cash.  Making a physical bet in cash is certainly more evident than making a bet online where to amount of total bets become more elusive and less discernable.  Young people in particular are more comfortable with using new technologies and have become more reliant on them for their daily experiences.  In such an environment, how to deal with potential addictive behaviour has become that much more difficult.

60 Minutes interviewed Matt Zarb-Cousin, a leading gambling reformer in the U.K.  He is also a recovering gambling addict.  Mr. Zarb-Cousin successfully lobbied for stricter gambling regulations in Britain — limiting how betting companies advertise and how much gamblers can wager.  He says the U.K.— where gambling’s been legal for decades — offers a sobering glimpse into what he believes is a crisis headed straight toward the U.S.  He noted that online sports betting addiction has been intensified by how much more the gambling companies now know about each user.

All in all, more has to be done to deal with gambling addictions.  Governments can no longer be complicit in online gambling in particular.  I once read that about one in five persons will develop a gambling addiction.  This of course has a major impact on individuals’ lives, their families, their communities and the health care system.  The costs associated with such addictions can be enormous!

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Jan 4

Strange Situation In Republican Primaries For Their Presidential Nominee

by bcurry

As a Canadian political observer, there is little doubt that the current situation south of the border involving the Republican Party (GOP) and their selection of a presidential candidate to run in the election later this year is all very strange.  You have former President Donald Trump who is currently under indictment in four different civil and criminal cases.  Despite this, the majority of GOP supporters continue to back Trump, with the polls showing that he is still leading the other GOP candidates by a substantial margin.  Trump’s primaries’ platform to date has reflected his desire for “personal retribution” against those who opposed him following his failure to get re-elected in 2020, and to implement an “autocratic” regime.

In addition, one of the indictments pertains to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a violent mob and Trump’s alleged role in the conspiracy to keep himself in power by overturning the election results.  Recently, both Maine and Colorado had decisions to throw Trump off the ballot over 14th Amendment’s ban on “insurrectionists”.  Given this unprecedented situation, Trump is expected to appeal and both cases are likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.  On top of which, Trump’s main GOP primary rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, have declined to attack Trump with regards to any of the indictments for fear of upsetting Trump’s GOP base and thereby loosing their potential support.

Given his apparent continuing political support among the MAGA Republicans, Trump has declined to even participate in the recent candidate debates, something unheard of in Canadian politics.  When leadership conventions are held in Canada, current party leaders or aspiring party members to lead the party are required to present their platforms in front of party members as part of the voting at the party convention.  As well, open candidate debates are held prior to the leadership convention.  In the case of Trump, the other candidates are at a disadvantage since they cannot debate him in an open forum, subsequently being left to mainly attack each other in his absence.  Trump, on the other hand, has simply continued to carry out his usual style of campaigning in public and through media coverage, openly attacking his GOP rivals in his traditional style of vicious name calling and spiteful insinuations about their character.

What is even crazier, a new poll recently taken by the Washington Post with the University of Maryland indicated that MAGA has not only stuck with Trump on the questions of January 6th, but a few who even believed that he might have done something wrong at the time have now come back to his side.  Still, they apparently aren’t many.  However, Republicans loved Trump then and they appear to continue to love him now.  Nevertheless, there is little doubt that should Trump be convicted of a criminal indictment, the majority of American voters nationally, especially independents, would choose President Biden over Trump in the next presidential election.  On the other hand, polls indicate that Republicans don’t seem to care.  They’re even starting to warm to the idea of Trump serving from a jail cell, which legal experts believe is constitutionally possible.  This result would really be bewildering to say the least!

For this reason, NBC News reported in December 2023 that Trump’s campaign believes the January 6th trial was specifically timed to take him off the campaign trail at a crucial stage. They further believe that they can outsmart the prosecutors by wrapping up the primaries early.  At this time, much is up in the air when it comes to trial dates surrounding the indictments.  Observers also correctly believe that Trump doesn’t want the particular January 6th trial to happen anytime soon.  It’s pretty much self-evident that he really doesn’t want to be convicted, despite his lawyers’ assurances about an appeal.  Obviously, they further believe that should he win the election, Trump would simply pardon himself and be done with it.

Anyone, including myself, watching this “circus” from afar is left scratching their heads.  Democracy had taken a serious beating in light of Donald Trump’s ridiculous accusations that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by Joe Biden.  His continuing attacks on the judicial and democratic processes in public forum, culminating in the terrible attack on the Capitol, have resulted in major blows to the state of American democracy.  His disposition for autocratic leanings is of great concern to other democracies, including that in Canada.  In the coming months, Canadians need to more closely watch the strange situation flowing from the GOP primaries.  One way or another, the results will affect us all!

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Dec 19

Impact of Social Media on How We Perceive Foreign Wars

by bcurry

A very recent poll by the New York Times indicated that American youth are more inclined to oppose President Biden’s handling of the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.  For example, the poll noted that voters between 18 and 29 years old, traditionally a heavily Democratic demographic, jump out.  Nearly three quarters of them disapprove of the way Mr. Biden is handling the conflict in Gaza.  On the other hand, older voters were far more sympathetic to Biden’s efforts.  Fifty-two percent of registered voters 65 years and older approve of Biden’s actions on Israel, 12 percentage points more than those who disapprove.  Biden’s administration has refused to officially call for a cease fire, while pushing Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

In Canada, the governing Liberal Party under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has take a more moderate stance, now calling for a cease fire to allow more aid for Palestinians into the devastated region along with the release of the hostages held by Hamas.  In either case, there is no win-win scenario for President Biden or Prime Minister Trudeau.  Pro-Palestinian protests in both countries are continuing, with a good deal of growing support on university and college campuses.  One of the main factors influencing the youth in both countries is the daily rapid access to scenes in the war zone, especially violent imagery of civilian casualties and hospital bombings, often through social media such as TikTok and Instagram.  Young people who use social media primarily to get their news find such images as being horrific and merciless. 

The same result can be seen in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.  Besides mainstream media, social media is also being used by both sides to influence our opinions of the war.  In some cases, recorded events are most likely going to be used to support allegations of war crimes against the Russian forces.  News media tends to slip between both conflicts, reporting mainly on the most significant and often horrendous events involving loss of life and mass destruction.  Everyday, terrible scenes of innocent civilians fleeing the war zone are propelled across our television screens and onto our tablets and cellphones.  At no other time in history has so much instant coverage occurred, influencing viewers and policy makers alike.  The most affected of course are young people who did not live through 9/11 or the Iraq war.

As more time goes on, the initial causes behind conflicts are often forgotten and become less important than the most recent revelations of atrocities and humanitarian crisis.  The longer the conflicts continue, support for current foreign policy positions will take a hit.  We see this among European Union countries, most notably Hungary, where support for Ukraine may be waning and opposition growing.  The same can be said for the Israeli-Hamas conflict which increasingly is turning into a broader conflict with the Palestinian population, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank.  Israel still retains healthy allegiances in the U.S.  However, as the above noted poll indicated, the future of such sentiments is unclear.  Among young voters, 46 percent sympathize more with the Palestinians, against 27 percent who favour Israel.

There is little doubt that the opposing parties will continue to use social media in order to win over support their causes.  Especially by young people, it’s 24/7 and it’s readily accessible and most often not authenticate or corroborated.  Whether or not you think that it’s a form of propaganda, the use of social media will continue to play a very important role.

Foreign Policy Israel Justin Trudeau Media Social Media The Middle East The News Media US

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Dec 12

History Has Shown That Protests On Campuses Are All Part of Supporting Free Speech

by bcurry

Recent attacks by politicians and others against the heads of major American universities resulting from conflicts in the Middle East are examples of how we confuse the exercise of free speech with that of hate speech.  They have forgotten the history in both the U.S. and Canada of incidences where students in particular have protested against a government’s foreign policy and its subsequent actions abroad.  For example, I recall in particular the student-led protests against the American government’s military operations in Vietnam and Iraq.

For the most part, protests on campuses against the war in Vietnam were peaceful.  However, they were often met with violent actions by the police or national guard, as in the deadly case of Kent State, Ohio in 1970 where four unarmed college students were killed and nine protestors and bystanders were injured by gun fire.  In Canada, student protests also happened in major cities, led by an organized youth movement against the war in Vietnam.  Protesting the war did not suggest that these students were “anti-American” in general, but reflected on their legitimate opposition to the American government’s foreign policy at that time.  There is little doubt that the growing movement became one of the reasons why the U.S. finally decided to withdraw from Vietnam, unfortunately having suffered many Vietnamese and American casualties and injuries.

The same position can be taken in the student opposition to the American occupation of Iraq.  After 9/11, in a highly emotional context, there was no doubt any opposition to President Bush’s foreign policy was viewed by the average American as being “anti-American”.  However, the initial rationale for invading Iraq was the false assertion that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11, had ties with al-Qaeda and had “weapons of mass destruction”.  All of which were proven to be false.  Alone with a majority of students, I opposed Bush’s actions which ended up in devastating Iraq, destroying its infrastructure, promoting government corruption and severely punishing its people.  Also, the occupation upset the political balance among the Arab countries, allowing Iran to gain a greater foothold in Iraq through the Shi’a militia.  With the decision of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Canada fortunately did not participate with those U.S. allies who did so in the occupation.  This was not because we were anti-American, but because Canadians had varying concerns about the objectives of the U.S. government’s foreign policy at the time.  Canadian student movements and their protests reflected those concerns.

Today, it is concerns over the historical American support, both political and military, for the Israel government and its treatment of the Palestinian population of Gaza and the West Bank.  In recent years, the Israel administration has been moving more to a right-wing position, particularly under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  In July 2023, Netanyahu’s government enacted a major change in law to weaken the judiciary, in particular the role of the Supreme Court.  Throngs of protesters outside the Israeli Parliament and opposition lawmakers inside shouted that the change was a grievous blow to the rule of law, to the rights of citizens and to democracy itself.  The fight over the law prompted the most widespread demonstrations in the country’s history, reflecting a deeper split between those who want a more explicitly Jewish and religious Israel, and those who want to preserve a more secular, pluralist society.  In addition, the continuing growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and subsequent displacement of Palestinians in herding communities, often by aggressive methods, forced many to abandon their villages.  Condemned by the United Nations, the settlement issue has caused much controversy within Israel and the world community.  

While no one can support Hamas terrorism and its attacks on Israeli citizens, the fact is that for years debates have been ongoing in the U.S. and Canada over the status of the Palestinian territories.  Even the American and Canadian governments believe that there has to be a two-state solution — Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side in their own sovereign countries.  However, Netanyahu, who is in a coalition with right-wing partners, has openly disdained the idea of a Palestinian state.  Raising these issues on campuses and the current devastating state of Palestinian civilians as a result of the Israel-Hamas conflict is not being “anti-semitic” in itself. 

Protests related to the current conflict are directed more at the recent policies of the Israeli regime and not at the Jewish people in general. Young people, and particularly students, in both the U.S. and Canada need to have a means to express their points of view, as long as they are done peacefully and are avoiding elements of hate speech and violent actions.  Just as we survived protests on campuses in the past, we will survive them today.  Simply declaring protests as being “anti-American” or “anti-semitic” doesn’t reflect the fundamental principles on which our democracies are based.  Coercion to shut down free speech on our campuses doesn’t do anything to promote these principles and would actually damage them.

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