Disappointing Times

Conditions: Freezing

What The Hell Is Wrong With America?

For around 50 years the American government has been called to periodically raise their debt ceiling so that their government can continue to operate. A simple and stable solution to a complicated problem that requires complicated solutions in order to actually eliminate. Those solutions seemed to be working in the Clinton years, where suddenly the goal of paying off the deficit seemd to be on the horizon, only to be dashed by a financial crisis and the onset of President Bush the younger. And yet now, in this year, suddenly the motion of raising the debt ceiling has been stopped by the hard-core republicans, despite the economic catastrophe that is approaching if it is not raised.

Both sides say gridlock in Washington is nothing new. Passions were just as high, positions just as fixed in past struggles such as civil rights and desegregation in the 1950s. Indeed, some argue that limited government is a healthy by-product of legislative gridlock. Unlike a parliamentary structure, the US constitution created an elaborate system of checks and balances deliberately designed to cool tempers and force compromise.

Yet to many, reaching the edge of economic collapse reflects a much higher level of paralysis in the US capital that is fuelling talk of a decline in US might around the world. It is a point not lost on China, the biggest foreign holder of US Treasury paper. “The ugliest part of the saga is that the well-being of many other countries is also in the impact zone when the donkey and the elephant fight,” Xinhua, Beijing’s official news service, observed this week.
[...]

“It’s just really poisonous – it’s polarised and chaotic – and it’s happening at the same time as America’s status as an economic leader is starting to be questioned,” says Jim Kessler, a former Democratic aide in Congress who is now vice-president for policy at Third Way, a think-tank. “I’ve never seen it like this before.”

Even if the US escapes default, significant damage may already have resulted from the stand-off. Credit rating agencies have indicated that they could downgrade the US. Stripping the world’s largest economy of its triple A badge would be seen as emblematic of a power humbled.

Could it be down to the new Tea-party republicans who are fresh on the scene after the most recent house and senate elections?

The emergence of the populist Tea Party movement as an intransigent force is often singled out as driving the malfunction, with last year’s midterm congressional elections shifting the Republicans so far to the right that any agreement with the Democrats becomes virtually impossible. Recent opinion polls show the vast majority of Americans believe Congress and the White House should be adopting a “balanced” approach. According to a Pew Research Center poll released this week, 68 per cent say politicians who share their views should be willing to make concessions on the debt ceiling; just 23 per cent say they should hold the line, even if it leads to default.

“I think the American people wanted compromise and a middle-of-the-road approach but over-corrected and hired people who heard the message of 2010 to be not just slow down, not just stop, but reverse direction,” says Chris Coons, a Democratic senator from Delaware.

- ft.com/cms/

So here we are, staring down the barrel yet again, and all because of an willingness to compromise sensibly. It really makes you despair in whether the politicians can actually do anything right. And as usual, the ones who are pushing us towards disaster are also the ones least likely to be badly affected by the disaster. Funny how that always seems to be the case.





Film Review: Cars 2

A lot of people say that Cars was Pixars worst, or perhaps least best, film. A fairly simplistic tale of down home Americana with a fish out of water, it played like an animated version of Doc Hollywood, but with cars instead of people. Cars 2, I feel, may well now inherit the title of "least worse" Pixar movie. It is another fish out of water film, but this time trading in Doc Hollywood for ...Austin Powers?

The focus this time is on Mater the tow truck, invited along by Lightning McQueen to the World Grand Prix, a championship set up to promote the goodness of Organic fuel. Mater is treated to a series of culture shocks as he goes to Japan, France, and England. But under all this is a Legion of Evil who are plotting to sabotage the whole thing by blowing up the competitors. New character Finn McMissile, voiced by Michael Caine, is a British secret agent trying to uncover the evil plot. He believes Mater is an American secret agent and drags him in to figure out what's going on.

So the plot is basically a little bit of Grand Prix, and a bit more of James Bond. Which is an interesting idea I guess, but frankly I found the racing sequences much much more interesting than watching Finn and Mater try to uncover the secret plan and figure out who the bad guy is. But most worrying is that, unlike practically every other Pixar movie, at the end of this one the protagonist hasn't really changed. Mater's still an idiot, and hasn't changed or learned an important lesson, or really learned anything. This is quite the departure for Pixar, and I'm not sure if it's lazy writing, or just complacency in knowing that whatever they did with this film, the masses would flock to see it. I certainly hope it's just an anomaly, a random bump in the road, and that Pixar will remain committed to remarkably nuanced and detailed movies, and not simplistic good-looking crap like this. Two backfires out of Five.



- Peace out