Sunday musings

So it is early Sunday morning and no end in sight to the debt ceiling crisis in the United States. It now is 2 days away from default.

The damage is done already, regardless of resolution before the 2^nd of August. The international reputation of the country has suffered irreparable harm. Money markets are starting to look at alternatives to where to park their money. You have to look no further than that of the rise of the Canadian dollar and how it is projected to climb even more.

This was never supposed to happen to the worlds largest and strongest economy. Now the debt agency rating is possibly going from AAA+ to AAA-. Look for higher interest rates, higher unemployment, additional layoffs and associated trickle down effects of the economy and national psyche.  A response likely will be to raise barriers to imported trade goods and promote internal products. This will hit export driven countries like Canada hard.

America is Canada’s’ largest trade partner. 

The leader of the Canadian Federal Opposition is taking a leave of absence from his duties due to the discovery of yet another form of cancer. Viewers throughout the country were shocked at his pallid appearance and halting speech at the press conference to announce this. What effect this will have if he has to resign on the Party will be of great importance. He is the glue that holds the Party together in the Province of Quebec. It is hard to believe that all the newly elected Members from there will remain loyal to the party and may possibly defect and form a new possibly Separatist Party.

What a possibility indeed.

Remember how before the last election how all three Opposition Parties were frothing at the mouth and believing their own spin doctors on their chances of changing the Government?

Well the Bloc is no longer an Official Party – and no leader.

The Liberals are no longer Official Opposition – with no leader.

The NDP have become Official Opposition – but now their leader is gone, perhaps never to return.

And the Conservatives firmly entrenched with a majority!

As more details emerge from Norway, apparently it was the work of one person. You look at the photograph of the individual – I will not grant him the dignity of ever naming him – and you do not see a wild eyed fanatic, rather what appears to be an ordinary European type of face. As a result of the influx of people looking for a better way of life from the Middle East and Africa, tensions are starting to rise between these new communities and existing ones. It does not help the immigrants that they seek comfort and solace in creating enclaves where the dress and speech is the same as the countries that they either left or fled. Almost a new form of ghetto is emerging but one that does not exist on the fringes of society but is more aggressive and assertive which plays into the hands of those that see this as the thin edge of the Islamization of Europe. In effect the start of a new Holy War.

The war in Libya drags on with no end in sight. A prominent general of the rebel forces is murdered possibly showing a split within the ranks. If so this will give heart to the discredited Ghaddafi and that promises more misery for the war torn country.

In Iraq and Afghanistan the Taliban and Shiite forces are stepping up attacks at coalition forces as the day for final withdrawal nears.

So tell me, what was accomplished there?

How many lives were lost, and at what cost, and how much corruption both locally and in coalition supplier services?

Have you seen the last Harry Potter movie yet? I am hesitant to as seeing it means that the wondrous fantasy ride finally is complete and I am not sure if I am quite ready for that yet.

Did you know that the 26th of July was the date of the failed 1953 attack by Fidel Castro and others on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba? And was taken as the name of his movement. It is celebrated annually in Cuba.

Lovely island stuck in a timewarp and starving slowly to death as a result of the US embargo on good and services. It shows the power of the United States in that this embargo could be made irrelevant but is not by the rest of the trading world because they fear retaliation from the Americans if they do so.

Did you also know that Fidel Castro is 85?

One other country to watch in days and months to come is Venezuela and its populist leader Hugo Chavez and his fight with cancer and that impact on the politics there.

Anyway, that is it for another week,

Take care out there,

Flatlander52