The Downfall, Collapse and End of America

Catchy title for a blog post, isnt’ it?
I figure if CBC’s The Battle of Blades made the NY Times (see November 11th) then America's collapse must be imminent. Who ever knew Canadian fluff would be attracting American viewers, particularly at a time when they have minor issues like healthcare, two wars and a banking system trying to right itself.

The latter task isn’t so straightforward apparently. Senator Dodd who is leading the charge on creating bank regulations had a meeting with the ranking Republican on the banking committee who—is this a surprise?—opposed the creating of an agency designed to “protect consumers from abusive and deceptive mortgages and credit cards.” That’s right, why punish business by preventing them from offering deceptive mortgages or issuing abusive credit cards? This is America, Senator Dodd; how about you get with the program, sir?

Of course, one Republican Senator adverse to some regulations isn’t anything to get worried about. Worry only if this sort of foolishness has spread, and Paul Krugman is sure it hasn’t merely spread, it has morphed into a dangerous virus that has legs, maybe even wings. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/opinion/09krugman.html?scp=6&sq=Paul%20Krugman&st=Search Yes, this is serious shit. As Krugman puts it, “the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.”

Despite all this, America still takes care of its own. And this just in over the wires proves it:
A new study estimates four times as many US Army veterans died last year because they lacked health insurance [WAIT! Hold on a minute, this doesn’t sound like the right item] than the total number of US soldiers who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the same period. A research team at Harvard Medical School says 2,266 veterans under the age of sixty-five died in 2008 because they were uninsured.
Oops.

The vets might not have healthcare, but at least those currently serving have weapons like the U.S.S. New York to be proud of, a warship that has over seven tons of steel from the Twin Towers in its bow. Never mind that the ship wouldn’t have been able to stop those nutcases with box knives who flew planes into the Towers, or that the steel might have been used to make a peace sculpture or benches encircling a garden of forgiveness, what matters is that the ship looks damn f…ing scary! Yee-haw!

Not be outdone by Americans proclaiming the downfall of the States, TV Ontario’s flagship current affairs program, The Agenda, just had a panel discussing the erosion of American power. Tell that to the crew on the U.S.S. New York. Go here http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda and look at the program for November 11th. Though I’d like to have heard more focus on the challenges of American democracy, the U.S. received tremendous kudos for the depth of its demographics. The U.S. population is growing, and compared to the demographics of China, Russia and Europe, its demographics are sitting pretty. In the future, the U.S. will actually have citizens to do stuff, compared to Russia, for example, whose citizens die young and don't leave offspring.

So let’s see, when you put all this stuff together, what comes out? Well, apparently we’re going to have a southern neighbor with a whole lotta people, who are broke from deceptive credit cards, lacking healthcare, overrun with Republican ideology and chock full of military toys. Not to worry--at least they’ll be watching the CBC.