Gurgle, Gurgle

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Sometimes, late at night, when it is very quiet, I can hear a faint gurgling sound. I wondered what it was and finally realized that it comes in my south window. It turns out to be coming from across the 49th parallel only a hundred or so miles away. It’s the ominous and unfortunate sound of The Untied States going down the drain.

The evidence mounts every day when I read the news. Those Americans who say that the country has always weathered crises in the past and come back out on top again, deny the process, much like the late psychologist Stanley Milgram who had had four heart attacks and when he had his fifth, said that he had always survived them—except, not always. The Untied States are going down for the third time. It’s not a pretty sight/site. Here are just a few current observations.

Canada’s original sin, in my view, was giving the French legitimate presence after they were defeated in 1759. As a result we have an essentially divided country with two languages, two religions, two legal systems and two educational systems. Personally, I don’t care if the domination had gone instead with the French; at least we could have been a potentially unified nation. It’s possible that if the French had been completely and totally defeated, we could have a worse situation today with a minority agitating through the country instead of just one province claiming to be a separate country and all the divisiveness that has entailed.

The Untied States has two original sins; the first being slavery and the second its Constitution which not only implicitly endorsed slavery, but has become a magical myth which keeps many Americans psychologically in the 18th century, unable to advance into the 21st century. Slavery still haunts the whole society, still causing untold misery to millions of people; a Constitution, believed to be cast in stone, has distorted and warped American values up to the present. Take Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for example, who calls himself an originalist. From his viewpoint, any political progress since the adoption of the Constitution is illegitimate, or at least suspect.

Over the last fifteen years or so, advance voting, either in person or by mail, has become increasingly popular across the country. It accounted for a third of the vote in 2008, mostly by blacks in the South who supported Obama. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia now allow some form of early voting, a throwback from the days when everyone seemed to agree that more voters was better for democracy. Republicans now take the restricted viewpoint that only more Republican voters are good for democracy.

This is the fundamental reason why Republicans are trying to stop or curtail early Democrat voting. In two Southern states lawmakers have already passed laws reducing the advance voting period and other states are considering it. President. Obama won North Carolina, for example, by fewer than 15,000 votes. The state has had early voting since 2000, and in 2008, more ballots were cast before Election Day than on it. Obama won those early votes by a comfortable margin. So it is no surprise that the North Carolina House passed a bill—along party lines—to cut the early voting period by almost half--from two and a half weeks, to a week and a half.

Ohio, a perennial battleground state, is also about to restrict early voting. Under current law, early voting begins 35 days before an election, leaving open a window known as "Golden Week," in which people can register to vote and cast an absentee ballot at a board of elections on the same day. “Golden Week” will disappear. Republicans want to limit early voting by mail to 21 days before the election.

As for in-person absentee voting, doors would open 16 days before an election under the Ohio Senate's plan and 10 days before an election under the House's version. But there would be fewer actual days to vote in person before an election because boards of election would have to shut down at the close of business on the Friday before the election.

But electoral failings don’t stop there. In response to a non-existent problem, some states are introducing onerous laws to prevent alleged voter fraud by requiring state issued picture identification, which tends to reduce participation by blacks and young people. South Carolina recognizes that more than half the black votes were cast before election day, compared to 40% of the whites. In Georgia the Republican-dominated Legislature passed a bill in April that would cut back in-person early voting by more than half—from 45 days to 21 days. Florida has cut its early voting period to eight days, from 14 and also eliminated the Sunday before Election Day as an early-voting day which will eliminate the practice of many African-Americans of voting directly after church.

This summer marks forty years that Alberta has had the same right-wing government. This has occurred largely because of the disproportionate rural vote. The same distortion exists in the Untied States except that it is on a national scale.

Two economists, Brian Knight and Nathan Schiff, wondered how much impact Iowa, New Hampshire and other early-voting states had on presidential nominations. At the end of their study, they estimated that one Iowa or New Hampshire voter was equivalent to five Super Tuesday voters.

This is not only unfair to the voters in the other 48 states, but it tends to distort national economic policy. Most obviously, the federal government has heaped extravagant subsidies on ethanol, even though those subsidies drive up food prices and do little, if anything, to solve the climate problem because, in part, candidates pander to the Iowa corn industry. Going beyond ethanol, another study found that early-voting states received more federal dollars after a competitive election—so long as the state supported the winning candidate.

Iowa and New Hampshire further distort the national conversation because they are so unrepresentative. Their populations are growing more slowly than the rest of the country. Residents of Iowa and New Hampshire are more likely to have health insurance, are older than average and are more likely to work in manufacturing.

More importantly, both states lack a single big city, at a time when large metropolitan areas are crucial to expanding economic growth. The country’s 25 largest areas are responsible for 52 percent of the country’s economic output and are home to 42 percent of the population.

Metro areas are struggling with major problems—quality of schools, longer commutes and aging roads, bridges, tunnels and transit systems. These, however, are not significant topics of conversation in the first year of a presidential campaign because neither state, or the next two, Nevada and South Carolina do not have a single city that is among the nation’s 25 largest.

Edward Glaeser, a conservative-leaning Harvard economist, calls this an “anti-urban policy bias.” Suburbs and rural areas receive vastly more federal dollars per-person than cities. One big reason, of course, is the structure of the Senate: the 12 million residents of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina have eight United States senators among them, while the 81 million residents of California, New York and Texas have only six. The representation for Iowa, etc., is nine times greater than for California!

Aaron Carroll, writing on the blog, “The Incidental Economist” gives those who are not fact-averse some real debunking of the attacks on Canadian Medicare at The Incidental Economist.

In 1946, Harry Truman proposed a system very much like what we have in Canada, today. Americans could have led the world. Medicare was not established in Canada until twenty years later. The prospects for establishing a single payer system in the 1940s initially looked promising. Total spending on health care was only 4.1% of GDP compared with more than 16% today. The insurance industry was also a relatively benign force then and the pharmaceutical industry was decades away from the power it has now. Public opinion was also strongly in favour of a national health insurance plan.

But Truman was defeated by the American Medical Association who, in a blatant abuse of the doctor-patient relationship, had doctors warn their patients about the dangers of socialized medicine. (Doctors here in Canada were also opposed to Medicare, but their view did not prevail.) The AMA spent $5 million (about $200 million in today’s dollars) fighting the President’s plan. They also ostracized doctors who supported the plan, going so far as to try to deny them hospital privileges.

But the AMA didn’t do it all on their own. The southern Democrats were also against it for the basic reason that they would have had to integrate their hospitals. In the land of the free and home of the brave Southern politicians believed that keeping blacks out of hospitals was more important than providing poor whites with access to medical care.

And a reverse-anecdote to help some of you Americans get down off your high horse: You’ve almost certainly heard that the actor Michael Douglas was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer last year. Indications are that he has beat it, but no thanks to America’s superior medical system.

Douglas’s American doctors told him it was just an infection. He visited the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal (that’s in Canada for you Americans who don’t seem to be aware that there are other countries on the planet) for a second opinion, where Dr. Saul Frenkiel correctly diagnosed him with throat cancer. (See the whole story here The Calgary Sun.)

When a convicted felon is released from prison he has supposedly paid his debt to society. Except, in the Untied States.

We know that states rarely offer former prisoners the help they need to reorient their lives--such as drug treatment, job search help, stable housing or schooling. What’s less widely known is that all over the country, states give newly released prisoners something extra that immediately thwarts their chances of going straight—a bill for hundreds or thousands of dollars in court costs that they must pay or risk going back to prison.

In Massachusetts, the average offender sentenced for a crime owes around $1,000 by the time he completes probation. Some of these are court costs, but probation adds to the bill, as the offender has to pay $50 or $65 a month to cover the costs of being supervised. (I thought that the debtor’s prisons, like those of 19th century England, were long gone.)

Every state hands prisoners its own version of an invoice. States have become heavily dependent on these fees: prison and jail fees, postage fees, judgment fees, police drug fees, DNA detection fees, prison construction fees, fees for the cost of collecting the debt. Some states have dozens of different fees.

The end result, says Bobby Constantino a former prosecutor in Boston in alluding to the revolving door of the criminal justice system: “It pushes folks towards illicit sources of income. I would watch them come out the other side more in debt, less employable. It seemed like the system was taking a bad problem and making it worse.”

The Untied States belief in a winner-take-all, every-man-for-himself economic philosophy is an incredibly destructive, anti-human, pathological philosophy. Political scientist Frances Fox Piven in chronicling the welfare/relief system in her groundbreaking book Regulating the Poor said that “during 1968 in New York City approximately 150,000 families were eligible for wage subsidies (according to the welfare departments own estimates), but only about 15,000 families were claiming them”.

This is the American way—reject help, even if it kills you. The pension fund of Prichard, Alabama ran out of money in 2009. Then city council did something unprecedented—it stopped sending cheques out to its 150 or so municipal retirees. Since then

The most egregiously shameful event of all was that of the retired Fire Marshall who died last year. He was too young to collect social security. Said David Anders, 58, a retired district fire chief:

"When they found him, he had no electricity and no running water in his house. He was a proud enough man that he wouldn’t accept help."

The Untied States has more privately held firearms than any other nation in the world. I’ve often wondered what the point is of owning so many guns if they don’t do any good. Here’s a suggestion that fits right in with the American ethos.

Millions of people are unemployed through no fault of their own (although many have the twisted belief that it somehow is their own fault.) There are currently 4.6 applicants for every job opening. Instead of going through onerous and irrelevant recruiting and interviewing procedures, I wonder if it wouldn’t be more efficient and cost effective for each job opening going to the last man standing. Think about it. It’s the natural direction in which American society is heading to the other side of the drain.

Daniel Johnson was born near the midpoint of the twentieth century in Calgary, Alberta. In his teens he knew he was going to be a writer, which is why he was one of only a handful of boys in his high school typing class — a skill he knew was going to be necessary. He defines himself as a social reformer, not a left winger, the latter being an ideological label which, he says, is why he is not an ideologue. From 1975 to 1981 he was reporter, photographer, then editor of the weekly Airdrie Echo. For more than ten years after that he worked with Peter C. Newman, Canada’s top business writer (notably on a series of books, The Canadian Establishment). Through this period Daniel also did some national radio and TV broadcasting. He gave up journalism in the early 1980s because he had no interest in being a hack writer for the mainstream media and became a software developer and programmer. He retired from computers last year and is now back to doing what he loves — writing and trying to make the world a better place

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BG June 16, 2011 2:24 pm (Pacific time)

Daniel I think you are turning towards the light as per your statement "I know, I know. If it wasn't for the Untied States, planet earth wouldn't exist. Maybe no solar system either." If you continue on that arc, I will start considering updating you on "Intelligent Design" and how the Founding Fathers did in effect create the universe right after the Big Bang, which I do accept responsibility for, but it was to benefit future life, so that should be considered.

Were you born without a subtlety gene? Or, if you're trying to be sarcastic, you need some lessons.

BG June 16, 2011 7:09 am (Pacific time)

Daniel your interpretation of the current "new" reality: "Conservatives are winning battles, but they are losing the war."... is void ab initio. Ditto for what you say are existing energy reserves. You might want to look at the cost/benefit ratio, now and future projections, for developing and delivering energy for Canada, and other countries. That's the profit motive Daniel, and Canada's will be diminishing while ours will be increasing. You underestimate (maybe misread would be more accurate) America's innate abilities in making things much better for not only our citizens, but for the whole world. Just look around the inside of your residence, and your outside envirionment, and consider all those things that have enhanced the lives of Canadians. What has been the genesis of those enhancements(inventions)? Our system of government, when not being obstructed by the tyrants currently exercising power, allows the individual to create and resolve in an unlimited fashion.

I know, I know. If it wasn't for the Untied States, planet earth wouldn't exist. Maybe no solar system either.

ML June 15, 2011 9:53 am (Pacific time)

It's beyond doubt that our known reserves are beyond what your source asserts, regardless of their supposed credibility, for that data is clearly not undated accurately. If you're still kicking in 3 to 5 years Daniel you shall see how things are significantly different from your/their erroneous extrapolation. I would also say that conservatives in Canada will be much more entrenched which will result in a better economy in the immediate future. Liberals are fading quickly on a global level. Of course you must limit immigration, as you can see our illegals, have been our Achilles heel. When our E-verify system continues to expand (federal mandate for it by 2013) the self-deportation rate will have a very positive impact on our citizens and our overall national well-being. If more terrorists continue to cross our northern border, then Canadians who come here will find it to be a difficult process while crossing. In terms of China's economy, break it down per capita, big difference when you look at their wealth in those terms. Also in 2013 new tariff rates and other hardball policies to engender trade fairness will impact China in an appropriate way. Their economy is a house of cards on shifting sands with a big wind coming in. Have you ever been around Chinese graduate students? I'm sure not worried about their individual creativity, though they are good at reverse engineering, they have very little ability in the area of harnessing the creative forces needed to continue to prosper. They are quickly approaching an economic bust cycle, which happens to all economies, and they have no ability to overcome it, at this juncture. What percentage of the Canadian economy is based on trade with us? What percentage of trade is that for us? Takes a while to open new markets. Have you a background in this area?

Conservatives are winning battles, but they are losing the war. Our conservative parties, if relocated to the U.S. would get no votes because they would be vilified as communists within your national ideology. Labels don't always mean what you think they do.

ML June 14, 2011 7:14 pm (Pacific time)

Daniel new domestic energy discoveries are constantly being made. Since I'm a huge supporter of Canada (and love your city of Calgary, and surrounding area) the last thing I want is anything to harm the Canadian economy. Just the same your write off of my country is absurd. We are experienceing an economic turmoil based on hoorrendous political leadership, and we will resolve that problem. Maybe if you had more training/experience in energy production, tax law and the boom and bust economic cycles that happen naturally [it seems] then you would see that our economic downturn is an anomally that will be repaired when new leadership comes into power. Just the same we have several hundred years of fossil energy available domestically, and that does not include the new tech we will create to augment, or even replace fossil energy over time. When our corporate tax laws become similar to Canada's taxes, that will be a game changer and could hurt Canada in the export/import markets, but we are allies and good friends, so we will resolve those future problems quite easily. Except that we will always be in competition because of the poor hockey you all play:"America's combined energy resources are the largest on earth. They eclipse Saudi Arabia (3rd), China (4th) and Canada (6th) combined - and that's without including America's shale oil deposits. U.S. proven reserves of oil total 19.1 billion barrels, reserves of natural gas total 244.7 trillion cubic feet, and natural gas liquids reserves of 9.3 billion barrels. ... Undiscovered technically recoverable oil in the United States is 145.5 billion barrels, and undiscovered technically recoverable natural gas is 1,162.7 trillion cubic feet." • "The shale gas reserves of Appalachia are a game changer for the future of American energy security. The United States has 2,552 trillion cubic feet (TCf) of potential natural gas resources, enough to last 110 years at current usage rates. Almost one-third of these resources are from shale gas -- considered uneconomical to extract until just a few years ago. Newly recoverable shale reserves, both oil and gas, have revitalized the oil and gas industry in Appalachia and across the United States - from North Dakota to south Texas to California. The Marcellus Shale formation lies below many of the Appalachian states and extends up to New York. In 2002, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the Marcellus held 1.9 TCF of natural gas. In 2009, the Department of Energy estimated the Marcellus holds 262 TCF of recoverable natural gas."

• As for Alaska: "A National Energy Technology Laboratory study estimates that this region has the potential for the exploration and development of as much as 28 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil and 125 trillion cubic feet of economically recoverable gas through 2050."
http://www.sbecouncil.org/energy/display.cfm?ID=4386

U.S. Domestic Oil Reserves 3 Times that of Saudi Arabia. Oil shale resources in the Colorado, Wyoming and Utah Green River formation estimate 1.8 trillion barrels of oil are located beneath the surface. A RAND Corporation study estimates that while not all resources are recoverable, the upper limit is 1.1 trillion barrels with a lower limit of 500 trillion. The midpoint of this recovery, 800 trillion barrels of oil is 3 times LARGER than any known etimate of that of Saudi Arabia.

http://livingjersey.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/us-domestic-oil-reserves-3-times-that-of-saudi-arabia/

I'll put your partisan references up against the CIA Factbook of 2009: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves

It shows that Canada has 188 years of Reserve Life and the U.S. has 8 years of Reserve Life.

ML June 14, 2011 2:40 pm (Pacific time)

The United States Congress is in the beginning stage of creating a bill to lower our corporate tax rate to one point below the current Canadian rate. Obama will not veto, he wants to stay in power, but that's not gonna happen folks. For example those younger voters who put him over the top in 2008, have left him (hey they have no jobs!). Since it's a given that oil (and natural gas) pretty well lubes the world economy, Canada is using up their resources very quickly, while America has proven reserves of "energy" to reach far out into the distant future. So as we begin to offer our various products at a much lower (and competetive) rate because of lower corporate tax rates, coupled with a newly developed ample energy supply system, then our demise as opined by those who hate us (and generally have little experience in macro/micro economics), well they will once again be disappointed. I am happy to report that Canada is in good hands and we will be closer friends as time goes by, no doubt increasing the frustrations of those who are unhappy with capitalism and the free market system. Go Steve:
"Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper injected some swagger in a speech to party faithful Friday night, vowing his majority government would walk a ruggedly independent line in foreign policy while working at home to erase NDP electoral gains in Quebec.

Speaking to more than 2,200 Conservatives at a Ottawa convention, the Tory chief said his party is proud of its commitment to take principled stands abroad.

He didn’t mention Israel by name, but the Tories have shown extraordinary support for the Mid-East state even in the face of international pressure.

“We also have a purpose – and that purpose is no longer just to go along and get along with everyone else’s agenda,” Mr. Harper said in a keynote address.

“It is no longer to please every dictator with a vote at the United Nations.”

Mr. Harper reveled in his party’s majority victory – the first time a conservative party has had such power in more than 17 years.

He recalled the long journey that partisan faithful have followed since the Conservative Party was born in 2003 out of the merge of the right-wing Canadian Alliance and the Red Tory-dominated Progressive Conservative Party.

In a shot at the new Official Opposition, Mr. Harper warned Mr. Layton’s party that its historic victory, including 59 seats in Quebec, would quickly erode.

“Friends, the honeymoon with the NDP will pass. As many of us know well, no honeymoon passes as quickly and completely as one with the NDP.”

It’s brave talk for the Tories who lost ground in Quebec, seeing their seat count fall to five from 11 in the May 2 election.

Mr. Harper approaches his majority from a position of tremendous strength. He’s won three consecutive victories for the Conservatives and has achieved his long-sought goal of beggaring the Liberals, [...]

(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...

Pure fantasy on many points--particularly that of energy--Canada is not running out, the Untied States does not have a great surplus. As for Harper's majority, it's not as strong as it appears. If he does not govern from the centre, his majority will melt away fairly quickly.

Hank Ruark June 12, 2011 5:24 pm (Pacific time)

Friend Dan:
How ironic to hear "anon" ranting re hatred and rage...and, of all persons from past pages of history, citing one now still proposing more massive and monstrous world-level inanities...

Anonymous June 12, 2011 10:59 am (Pacific time)

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Sunday, "... you know, I think America is entering a world in which we are neither dominant nor can we withdraw, but we are still the most powerful country," he said. "So how to conduct ourselves in such a world -- it's a huge test for us. And China is the most closely approximate country in terms of power. And one with such a complex history. It's a big challenge." http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/12/kissinger.china/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

The U.S. needs to find its direction, but we still maintain over 50 trillion in personal net worth. I guess socialist Canadians will always find things to fault the U.S. over. For someone who hates the U.S. so much, why can't you find other issues to write about. You don't impress me much.

I don't hate the U.S., just much of what your politicians do in the name of the people. I don't think Kissinger was being candid in his comment. He has a long history, going back to Nixon, of saying what is politic and not necessary true. By this, I mean that he couldn't deny the coming dominance of China on the world stage, but in order to be palatable he is soft-pedaling the diminishing role of the U.S. in such a new geopolitical reality.

Your net worth figure might be accurate, but it is meaningless. Four hundred families (The Forbes 400) have a combined net worth of more than 1.3 trillion dollars right there. Michael Douglas in Wall Street (1987) said:

The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it.

That was before the real increase in wealth concentration of the 1990s. I'll give you another Gekko quote: "You're walking around blind without a cane, pal."

Anonymous June 12, 2011 10:54 am (Pacific time)

China's economy SHOULD be larger than the U.S. They have four times the population. You America haters have no right writing for a good news site like Salem-News. Go where the haters go. If you don't think that America will get its act together and once again be the great nation is was only 20 years ago, then you are deluding yourself. And I note that you omitted my last comment. Will you omit this one, too?

Not much logic in your comment. If China's economy should be larger, then why isn't it? Some argue, and I tend to agree with them, that the 21st Century will be dominated by China and the Untied States will become a second rate power. The American people, through their elected leaders, just blew the 20th century. There are no do-overs.

Hsnk Ruark June 12, 2011 9:32 am (Pacific time)

Friend Dan et al:
Perhaps some solace, saving or not-so yet to be determined, can be found in the increasing number of us "down here" who hear that same gurgle, now become a rushing flood of incident-information and egregiously demonstrated action by both public and private sectors and agencies --with purposeful distortion as its dedicated dollar-driven most-potent tool.

Hank: I don't write these things with feelings of joy or glee. As Michael Moore observed: “We're plagued with an every-man-for-himself attitude. That attitude may have been good in helping us build this country and helping us become the innovators that we are. But we won't make it through the 21st century intact as a great country if we don't adopt a different ethos that says we're all in the same boat. We sink or swim together. We have to help each other.”

Douglas Benson June 12, 2011 7:01 am (Pacific time)

OMG the sky is falling! NOT!

I know you're a patriot and you love your country but bad things are happening and will continue to happen. Projections are that by 2020 China's economy will be larger than that of the U.S. I don't make this stuff up, Doug. DJ

Natalie June 10, 2011 3:38 pm (Pacific time)

Before I die, I'll search S-N for a positive story from you, DJ about "the south". Have to know that I'm leaving it a better place.

Anonymous June 10, 2011 1:03 pm (Pacific time)

With all due respect..

No respect at all, Stephen. At least I'm publishing regularly. More than 160 stories at SN in the last two+ years, plus other things you've never heard of. You? You are at the mercy of people like me who just dismiss your insulting comments because I don't believe in your conspiracy theories.

Don't bother commenting on my stories again. You'll just be wasting your time.

jimmy June 10, 2011 9:55 am (Pacific time)

One thing I have learned to like about SNC's articles is that generally there a references to the claims made. I like what the author has to say but he seems to makes a lot of interesting yet unsupported claims...

Thanks for your comment Jimmy. If you would note any of my "claims" on which you would like further information, , just say so and I'll respond with expanded sources.

Colli June 10, 2011 9:49 am (Pacific time)

Dan:

I have to agree with 90% of everything you say . . . wish I didn't but I do!

I know I've said it before but I'll say it again: "Promoting the Democrat Party over the Republican party is a mistake. The whole thing is a well run farce Dan. Behind the scenes and in the back-rooms there is collusion. If you believe for one minute that either party is ethical, honest, or selfless, you are wrong. I am beginning to believe that there must be a draft (of sorts) where the heads of both parties get together and evaluate the most crooked, most underhanded, most corruptable, liars they can find and then take turns choosing who they want to run on their ticket . . . with the most rancid smelling of the vermin being the most desirable. The system itself has become corrupt and corruption has become the established norm. For this I thank both the Democrat and the Republican parties. Finding a truly 100% honest politician in the U.S. is less
likely than the U.S. Congress submitting and passing a bill without pork-barrel projects built-in.

Voting in our elections has become a matter of choosing "the lesser of two evils" and regardless of which you choose . . . you lose.

We have the power and the opportunity to change things but how you cure human inertia is a skill that most of us only wish we had.

Colli

I wish you didn't have to write such a comment.

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