51st state

A while ago I predicted that under Raúl Castro, Cuba would suddenly see dramatic changes in the lifestyles of it peoples .... rather like ice dripping from a glacier it would be imperceptible, but the effects would accelerate and there would be a positive deluge of changes.

Well we are on the point where the tipping point will be passed. An American President has visited Cuba for the first time since Calvin Coolidge landed in Havana from a US battleship and declared in in 1928 that Cuba was "free and prosperous". Hardly a claim that Pres. Obama could make, and also hardly like Nixon going to China, but a hopeful sign nonetheless.

USA and Cuban Relations Are Always Difficult

Odd Man Out

Odd how attempts to address historical wrongs can result in the opposite occurring ....

Obama And Holder Had An Agenda -
Some Whites Believe It Is Not Racially Even Handed.

 
Eric Holder was the first black Attorney General in US history. He was put in place by the first black President in US history. Hand in hand they were going to right the lingering wrongs of US racial history, and lead the US into Martin Luther King's 'dreamland', where black and white could be brothers, and the colour of the mans skin had no bearing on a mans progress in life. 

US Political Schizophrenia

What a strange set of values the US politicians seem to hold ...

For the second time in months, the US House of Representatives has passed a controversial 'Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act' (Cispa) which is designed to help combat cyber threats from other countries and criminal hackers, by making it easier for law enforcers to get at web data.

"If you want to take a shot across China's bow, this is the answer," said the Republican politician who both co-wrote Cispa and chairs the House Intelligence Committee.

On the other side of the argument, the 'American Civil Liberties Union', along with prominent members of the US Senate have opposed Cispa, saying the bill was "fatally flawed", or too intrusive. President Obama has threatened to veto it if he's not satisfied it offers only the minimum amount of data for investigations.

In the same week in US Politics - President Barack Obama has forcefully criticised the US Senators who blocked a bipartisan plan to support expanded background checks on firearms. The proposal, put forward as an amendment to a broader gun bill, sought to widen the current checks to include on-line and unlicensed gun show dealers.

Newtown Protesters Ignored By US Senators and NRA

"This was a pretty shameful day for Washington", Mr Obama said at the White House.

So basically this political schizophrenia has meant the right to own and sell guns has been defended by US Senators, over the right to live in a little more safety (NB: it was a pretty tame proposal to control gun sales after all - it didn't even affect sales in 'families' and to 'friends' - so could be bypassed easily!).

While the right to freedom from intrusive law enforcement agencies has been threatened with erosion by US Representatives and defended by the President.

The 'Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave', can be very confusing at times, even to its friends.

Race Politics - US Presidential Election 2012

In the USA the forthcoming US presidential election is causing some angst amongst the black supporters of President Obama.  One prominent black supporter the Rev Tim McDonald says that "It's not just an election about Mitt Romney and President Obama - this is an election about what direction our nation is going to head in, whether we're going to move forward or whether we're going to step back into the past. The past that was filled with racism and hate and denial".

Which is kinda odd, because he seems to be suggesting that going forward, the US must always have a minority (presumably black?) President, and that voting for a white President is no longer acceptable .... but what about an Hispanic or a Jewish President?

Also this kinda says my colour right or wrong, because under Obama, black unemployment in the US has rocketed to 15% since he came to power, and a record high of 36% of the African American community live in poverty. In fact, many prominent supporters delude themselves that his much heralded health reforms, were really secretly just for the black constituency, by bringing another 30 million Americans under the health umbrella, with the sub story being that most of these were black .. they even have apologists who espouse the theory that as black's have lagged behind every immigrant group to the US in the last 100 yrs (which is one admission of their social failure if ever there was one), then its only natural that in a recession they would suffer most again (literally rattling those chains again).

Many Obama Supporters Fear Defeat In The Second Campaign

Apparently many of the black community fundamentally believe that most of the opposition that President Obama is receiving is not because of the policies, it's not because of the issues, it's because of race, purely because he's black. ... but of course by that reckoning no one can complain about his presidency. This same PC nonsense pervades the US press, who either avoid the 'Race' question like the plague, or skirt round it such an extent that its becomes clichéd, or a taboo subject.

In some quarters, the question is whether the country is changing from a place where all immigrants are welcome, as long as they adopted the ethics of the founding Protestant fathers, to one where other ethnic identities and ethics are now equally valid models .... in other words, like the PC ridden UK where all cultural values no matter how regressive or backward, are treated as being of equal worth. A dangerous ideology, because the Chinese don't suffer from anything, except an excess of the protestant work ethic - certainly not the something for nothing ethics of some groups in the US.

However there is no denying one fact, and that that he's probably the first real black male role model for that community in generations (if ever - Dr Martin Luther King allegedly led a suspect love life), simply by being a great family man, articulate, hard working and being very intelligent.

That in fact may be his lasting legacy ... who knows?

Creationist In White House

How long have we been on the earth?

Well  the Christian scholars in bible studies (Bishop Usher et al).....have always said about 6,000 years old (as do many 'intelligent design' proponents as they are largely one and the same groups) ... Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC to be precise (although other Bible  scholars have come up with date ranges of 3761 BC (Jose ben Halafta), 3952 BC (the venerable Bede), and 3949 BC (Usher's near-contemporary Scaliger), even scientists such as Johannes Kepler or Sir Isaac Newton  had a go (c 3992 BC and c. 4000 BC respectively).

Modern science on the other hand, puts the age of the Earth as billions of years, and modern humanity alone in the hundreds of thousands of years (that's ignoring the Neanderthals and earlier direct lineage human species). The latest reports on rock art in Spain and Portugal dates some of it at about 40,000 years ago.

40,000 yr Old Hand Rock Art - Spain

Now either the science is just completely and utterly wrong, and the world was created around 6,000 years ago, or the creationists are complete nut cases (I know what I think). What makes this interesting is that all US Presidents have to profess a belief in a God (usually Christian .... although many still believe that Obama is a secret Muslim), but can't actually say out loud whether they believe the Bible is right or wrong on the matter.

Creationist Noah and His Ark Full Of Dinosaurs

This belief in the creationist theory rises significantly the more Protestant the Christians get. So for example in the US only 8% of Jehovahs Witnesses believe in the theory of Evolution, and only 22% of Mormons .....  which means that about 20% of Americans claim that the Bible is the only correct explanation for the origin of the Earth and humans. ... we have plenty of these creationists here in the UK, but they only ever turn up on blogs and discussion websites.

But what makes this really interesting is that Mitt Romney, Republican Presidential nominee, is from a very high profile and important Mormon family (his great, great grandfather Miles was one of the earliest converts to Mormonism in England in 1837) ... maybe he will be the first to go public and declare himself a creationist?

Obama and the "Race Question"

President Obama has recently fallen into the race trap, when he remarked on the arrest of a black professor for verbally abusing the police after they asked for his ID, that there was a "long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately".

Ooops, from a man who has had a favoured background, including being a fully trained lawyer, this was dumb.

It's an indisputable fact that in the US (like most other countries), crime rates amongst Black and Latino communities is many times higher than amongst other ethnic groups in that country. It's also a fact that larger proportions of the males of both these groups have criminal records, therefore "disproportionately', can just mean 'correctly targeted' ....... A stupid mistake by the President, and one that could haunt him in years to come.

The story is running big time in the US, as it has forced Obama to have to call everyone in 'for a beer' to try and calm things down. The President has his critics, many of them very vocal, such as the strange outbursts from James DManning (ironically a convicted burglar), so to raise the spectre of racial politics coming from the White House (Black house?) is to risk confirming the predictions of his opponents.

The US electorate has spoken

Well the US electorate has spoken, and "democracy" has been duly exercised for another 4 yrs, with the result that Barack Obama is the 44th President of the USA, after a mere 4 years as a Senator.

So what does it mean? Hard to say because the US system means that Obama has never been in Government, never run anything, and only his 'voting record' to show what his Presidency might mean.

In the UK model, Obama would very likely have been a Minister before getting to the top job, although not necessarily as Tony Blair showed. But even then, they would have had a "Shadow Cabinet" job in which to show their mettle. This difference between a "Republican" or "Monarchical" democratic model reflects across the globe.

These are mostly based upon the "Westminster" or French "republican" models, and their imposition is where the two countries held sway or influence. So mainland and central Europe largely reflect French influence, as does its ex colonies (especially in Africa), with a Presidential system, whereas Northern Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as well as ex colonies such as India , and many African states, still have the monarchical systems.

The US was aided by the French during the rebellion and after briefly flirting with the idea of a king (they offered the crown to George Washington who had 'royal' connections), they ended up as a republican system.

A woman at work was discussing the US results with her friend and said "Yeah its all well and good but the Americans keep voting for the wrong people!" .... her friend asked her what she meant, "well she said there was a serial sex addict and adulterer, and an (ex) alcoholic for the last 16yrs, and now him...a gob shite" she said pointing at Obama's picture.

I laughed at this summary of US politics, but given what we know, she may prove to be right.