Self-Correction

Updated – 23/4/2018 - Please refer to the bottom of the column for updated GAP analysis

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

All democracies of the world are managing their budgets in the red (many public corporations are on this list except a very few exceptions) meaning that they are run on a fiscal deficit.  This happens every year (year after year) for the USA government.  The gap between revenues and outlays continues get big/ger (governments keep expanding the limits), the old debt and cost of servicing the debt gets larger, the combination of new debt and debt servicing increasing burdensome on the nation/s.

For those who really care about gap analysis, the rem is self-explanatory.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_analysis.  For some reason the democracies are not managed as we expect publicly traded companies, which should not only be socially responsible but also create profits for shareholder equity.  Typically, democracies are being run to cater to vote banks and political ideology of the parties.

The obvious and politically much advertised revenue and spending GAP is discussed as every political party’s nemesis.  Once the election is over, the national debt and deficits are constantly expanded and with political consent.  USA, being the world’s largest economy, world’s largest national budget also has world’s largest national debt and most times on an annual basis a budget deficit.  In 2016, the USA budget was $3.54 Trillion with a GDP of $16.5 Trillion, and the debt burden was $20.1 Trillion.  All are stunning and extraordinary numbers which keep growing, and the debt number is the one that is growing faster than any other positive indicator in the USA economy.

Outside of the national debt/deficit the state and local level budget deficits are also a common feature in the USA.  If a common man adds national, state, local and village level budget deficits, cost of debt handling and the continued expansion of the needs of the citizens, no one can go to sleep.  You will worry, and will not have an uncomplicated way to balance the budgets.  The deficits are mind boggling (and politicians have no problem raising the ceiling every time they want to) to imagine how much money all levels of governments owe, and how they have no issues in raising the debt ceiling and how little effort is made to become balanced budgets.

Our governments keep spending money we don’t have, and they keep expanding the debt.  Irrespective of how you manage money, there must be a way to balance the budgets.  The individual families and the corporations are all required to not only balance their budgets, but also have savings.  Only the government doesn’t have this initiative or intention.  The national interest to be self-funding and self-sufficient is enforced on people who are represented by the government, but don’t want the government to be held to the same standard.  President Trump pronounced that he can not only balance the budget, but also eliminate the entire national deficit in 10 years.  Trump has the experience of complex real estate enterprise and bankruptcies and reassignment of balance sheet.  People have voted him to power, and the wish list should include a balanced budget.  We shall know very quickly when we see his first budget.

The country must spend on military and we must service the debt.  Both line items are the largest contributors to the spending.  The debt servicing is also the largest line item in most of the state and local government balance sheets.  While recognizing that the USA has the largest managed national debt, the country is not alone in the world.  There are less than a handful of nations which have zero budget deficit and zero national debt.  All most all the large democracies continue to rake up the debt.

Politics and debt are like siblings.  They try to foster each other’s growth.  A resolution to force a balanced budget and political populism don’t really work well together.  For generations, political will has never been in place to put the country’s interest first, always all the time political survival is paramount.  Spending borrowed money (a lot of it misspent) has been a powerful political tool for survival.

At some point of time there will be a breaking point.  If unchecked the alternatives can only result in in a default or bankruptcy.  Both these scenarios have been real in the recent past.  We must recognize that a large city like Detroit declared bankruptcy.  It was the last resort to a worst-case scenario in the largest economy on earth, and a major city with the USA.  While declaring bankruptcy wipes out the debts, it creates a long term and negative impact on building a positive future.  No one will want to provide you a credit facility to conduct normal business.  The temporary impact of resetting the balance sheet adversely impacts the normal functioning of the enterprise.  The bankruptcy also creates a massive financial burden on everyone who is involved with the enterprise, individuals and companies will be wiped out because of their losses that stem from the bankruptcy.  Eventually the public and tax payer is the one who gets to take the hit on every decision that forces a bankruptcy. One reset doesn’t reset any positive renewal, rather it gets spread around to everyone, it is simply redirected to many from a few.  Anyone, any government at any level can default and declare bankruptcy, and pass on the poor management to the public.  The overall cost of mismanagement is simply redistributed, rather than managed for efficiencies.

There is no self-correction of misappropriation.  It should be rather well directed and well managed budget.  Trump can make decision that will force a balanced budget and deficit reduction.  It will never satisfy everyone in the nation to force balanced budgets, but once there is a zero-deficit nation the public will simply see their cost of living become the best in the world, and future safe and secure.  It just needs a bit of political will.

Updated – 23/4/2018

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Growth Specialist | Creately

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Anger of Convenience

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy from Chicago

Today, it is easy to find anyone on the phone or online.  Mobiles, telephones and Internet is just about everywhere, and people (most of them) want to be found.  Once you sign up to something, most people don’t know how to turn off notifications or status updates.  Many of us simply signup and don’t try to limit the access to our information, and many times we simply forget that we have signed-up to something, and we might never need or use.

Although travel has become more accessible and probably affordable, it is still an expensive proposition for most of the world, comparing to access via a phone, mobile or the internet.  Many times, a mobile allows for both voice and video chat (outside of the obnoxious texting).  Today just about anyone can look at the person on the other side, just about the thing that is missing is touch and feel.  It is quite reassuring that we can find anyone, with a few clicks and check-in on their well- being.  This certainly doesn’t disregard the business and professional aspects of communications and the fantastic bridge built by telephone, mobile, computers and the internet, and certainly the massive data sharing and storage available thru Google and Microsoft and many of the IT pioneers.  The idea to help people be in touch, and allow for inexpensive communications is real today, and we must be thankful to the continued innovation in the communications industry.  Outside of the trillions in benefit to the industry and commerce, the billions who are connected have more personal connect today than it was just 30 years ago.  Life today has been envisaged in science fiction, and the advances in telecommunications are limitless and will continue to be only limited by human kinds imagination.  It is fantastic to find anyone, anywhere and anytime.  A personal notation is that for someone who lives in many places and have loved ones in many places, the advanced communications are always a blessing to reach out and find someone from a life that was far from now.

The dream of finding and getting in touch with a loved member of the family, a friend, a colleague, a relative or anyone, that is to reach out to, is a google and click away.  My personal experience has been quite good, as searching and finding someone who you have always remembered buy lost touch is wonderful.  If you are successful in really finding and then reaching out to him/her and connecting and catching-up and remembering the time from the past, and sharing today and hopefully be available and be together from now into the future.  If you are successful with this, it will be simply like you have never been out of touch as in just a few minutes, you no longer are the long-lost souls, but you are just like you never lost touch.  It is a normal phenomenon that ones you love and like, no matter the time, they will remain as such.

Our distance becomes near, although there we can’t touch and feel.  Familiar voices become common and no longer in the past.  What will become a normal and familiar part of life, sometimes will become a matter of convenience, and sometimes a matter of anger management.  If you will agree that it is difficult to say no or disagree with someone you care about.  A normal reaction to any request (even the most mundane ones) is to say yes, or agree.  There is seldom any thought in agreeing on the phone or on the internet, as you want to please everyone on your list, and when in a distance, it is simple to say yes (agree).  But follow-up might be difficult to engage in completion of the commitments for reasons that could be perfectly acceptable.  But what transpires is the difficulty of the distance and relationship, and a perfectly acceptable reason for saying yes and not being able to follow-up, and in the frame of the relationship and time.   Although a life time of investment in a relationship can simply get into a turbulence on a simple matter of convenience (specially thousands of miles away), it does become easy to display anger (specially towards someone you care about) as the distance and medium allow it.  Often being ignored might be the anger of convenience.  We often spend a life time to find someone and the often allow the anger of convenience to ignore the same person.  Irony of the ability to find and communicate.

Easier Tweet Than Done

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Seeing babies gassed to death is not for the faint hearted or hard hearted, it is heart wrenching to see them suffer.  Anyone who sees the little children being gassed should be offended and alarmed.  As always, the war claims the innocent as they are defenseless.  Human history is full of destruction of history and animosity to humanity.  The worst part of killing and destruction is always in the name of something, and that something is religion.  Religion although never preaches violence, the interpretation is always leading to human tragedy.

It is not just the last few years in Syria and Iraq, that had either displaced or killed millions, while erasing the human history and its past glory, but this genocide has been happening way too often.  Just that we have a better record of the atrocities today.  We are more and more behaving as if human life and our history has no value.  We are attack, gas, destroy, bomb, loot, cheat and whatever we should not be doing to each other, we are doing.  Most times we have no response to the atrocities, except sadness.

The USA and its 2016 elections irony is now the thing of the past.  We have a new president in power, along with his party’s congress and senate.  The bruhaha about what the last president did or did not is now history.  The comments and objections tweets by the current president about the last president is also in the archives.  Today and now, along with a new president are a matter of fact.  Syria’s Assad and Russia’s Putin are still doing what they do, and now it is Trump’s watch.  Obama and democrats are no longer in power, but there is no change in the battle field.  Now its Trump’s war and Trump’s Tweet.

The question often repeated throughout our history is “Why would anyone want to commit mass murder on their own people?”.  If we had rulers and subjects this has happened again and again.  In today’s world Syria and Iraq (several other nations) religious fundamentalism, foreign interference, dictatorship, cultural diversity, and constant internal conflict.  All of which adds to unstable societies and difficult common law.  The millions of innocents that have lost their life or being displaced are in the shooting ranges for murder, rape and atrocities in the name of war.  The killing fields are simply day to day activities, and there is no clear path to a stable nation, or there is any identifiable reason for mass murder.  In Syria’s case, it is for sure that Bashar would like to rule the nation the rest of his life (probably pass it on to his children), and the others would like their own Caliphate, with many factions their own independence.  So far all we are being left in Syria is dead people, displaced citizens and ruins of ghost towns.  Once can’t be sure what type of dead kingdom that someone really wants to rule, and what is all the killing going to achieve?

This last week American tax payers probably paid more than a billion dollars to send a few smart bombs, to cause some damage to an airport in Syria.  There was a global support for the Americans acting against atrocities.  The irony is spending a billion in a few hours did not achieve a whole lot of action against Bashar.  The airport runway is open already.

Syrians and their Russian partners deny the gas attack (they always do), while it is obvious to the world.  The incredible denials to obvious and well documents atrocities, and the Russian threats that followed are the SOP of these guys.  The difference between citizens and fundamentalists, has been long been forgotten by the Syrian regime and the Russians, they really don’t care who they kill and what they destroy.  The reality is that between themselves they have destroyed thousands of years of civilization, a full nations population, and no doubt created enough hatred around the world, engaging groups of people to attack their neighbors.

Trump just like his predecessors has inherited the hot seat.  He is the leader of the free world, and has the responsibility to the rule of law.  He can Tweet, but now he is the one who bears the headlines, Tweets.

No president before him, or will after him can just look at what the world is doing.  Yes, Trump’s America First is election worthy, but it is worthy of a nation to make sure that the World and America are tied together, and they will be one nation and one world, in peace and prosperity.  As with all Presidents before him in varying degrees of leading the free world, Trump will also raise to the occasion to the office, will promote democracy and a free world.  It comes with the office.

Russiagate

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Trump will continue to deny and tweet against anything that doesn’t suit him or unfavorable to him.  No one should be surprised as it the way he has been all his 70 years and being the US president should have no impact on his behavior.  We must remember that Trump has been what he is now, and there are no two faces to him.  He is now surrounded with people who are of similar disposition.  His spokesman makes it a daily habit of badgering anyone that has a question.  Trump and anyone remotely associated with him only will question anything that is factual and doesn’t suit them (Trump) and become offensive to anything that comes in their way.

Although Trump’s presidency is in its infancy, each day has been a revelation of something other than governing the nation.  Trump without hesitation carries a full family baggage, real estate baggage, personal baggage and twitter baggage; all of this or any of this would have sunk anyone running for president.  Trump constantly defied the conventional wisdom and is now our 45^th President.

CNN and all 24 hour new channels were interesting when they started to cover the world.  The wars and politics happened 24 hours and the they were there covering and commenting.  Most times the commentary was dual sided.  Since and before the 2016 US elections, not just the cable news channels, but also the regular news networks have been having a difficult time explaining to the audience, what they refer to as conventional politics.  After the election, all the channels have been dumbfounded.  The white house and the press (media) are 100% at odds with each other, and coining of the Trump term “alternative facts” has become common.

The scandal of Watergate and the resignation of President Nixon can’t be quickly forgotten.  After more than 40 years after Watergate, the presidential scandal continues to be a classic example of justice catching up to anyone one in the USA, and the American democracy withstanding even the might of the American president.  The USA constantly finds a way to demonstrate the rule of law (sometimes takes time) for all its citizens, including the president, and equally.

At the time of Watergate, there was limited (in today’s terms) communications and information gathering and tracking.  Still the nation got to the bottom of the scandal and fished out the facts, and truth prevailed.  Today we should be sure that there is everything we do under surveillance and being scanned and tracked.  When you are a high-profile politician and/or his followers, and you are dealing with the Russians, you can be assured that every word of your every action will be monitored.

The aggressive posturing and responses by Trump and his associates doesn’t really hamper any investigations.  The agencies will obtain what they need to find (its somewhere in some archives, they just must dig into the information), as in this case we already know that the Russians were involved.  The extent is what will come out in the investigation/s.  It is not just about Trump’s often aggressive and demeaning tweets, but also his associates with alternative facts.

Since Trump’s inauguration on January 20^th 2017, the continued acrimony between the press and white house is on full display, and daily continues to get more acrimonious.  Each passing day these actions; revelations and findings have continued to add to the Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential election.  Trump and his team bombarding everyone only adds to the intrigue and Trump team’s denial of the facts (mostly twisting words) continue to add to the political drama.

For the watching public, it is excruciating to watch the rudeness the rudeness that comes from the white house.  The blatant display of constant denials and inability to govern is obvious.  We so far don’t know all the facts of the coordination between Trumps and Russians.   One thing is for sure that we will know the facts, as they are out there.  It is for sure as history demonstrates, the facts might not be what we suspect, and lead the nation to something that is entirely unexpected.  It could be as we found in Watergate.  But the truth will come out, and the democracy will survive.  Once again.

Independent America

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Friday, March 24, 2017 was not a day for political surprises.  It was a day full of arm twisting and threats and offers to compromise, but still a day that demonstrated the political independence.  The republican controlled congress could not find enough votes in their own party to pass legislation to repeal and replace affordable care act, what they spitefully refer to as “Obama Care”.  All thru his campaign Trump made Obama Care as the focal point of the previous administration’s failed health care policy.  It has been going on for 7 years that the republicans have been trying with their might to repeal and replace the medical act, and now they have the senate, congress and president all in the republican party, and they don’t have the support of their own party legislators.  Trump kept repeating that he will repeal and replace “Obama Care” on day one, if elected as president.

Ryan had to pull the bill from even going to a floor vote, as he did not have the votes to pass it.  His republican legislators were not all behind what was being touted as the replacement to Obama Care.  After pulling the bill from the floor, he states to the media that there was not enough support within his own party to pass the bill.  He is leading the party that has been touting to repeal and replace for 7 years, and when the time comes there is no support from within.  Some leadership that is clearly lacking the so-called leadership.

As with many immigrant citizens I also lean to the democrats.  No question of deviation on philosophy, but I do support the basic principles of decency and equality.  For some reason the leadership in power seem to have a difficult time in saying something and keeping their policies behind the saying.

Since withdrawing the repeal and replace the medical bill, the republican party lead by Trump, Pence and Ryan have been giving the American public a variety of reasons including a threat to the public that they will let Obama Care blow up and wait for people to come to them to ask to fix it.

As usual Trump keeps his twitter active, and hurls threats and abuses and unsubstantiated allegations.  Ryan and Pence keep justifying Trump, and will find words to place the blame on their own colleagues and democrats.  These three guys have seemed to forgotten that their party won the election and control the congress and the presidency now.  They did not need the opposition, now their own party did not support them.

While Trump is a political novice, Ryan and Pence are career and veteran republican politicians.  Both only endorsed Trump only after he became their party’s chosen candidate for the presidency.  They are not by choice, but by their own choosing Trump’s most ardent supporters.  They keep a brave front when they deal with the policies (and promote) of Trump.  It is sad to see these guys support and keep backing something which is basically against their ideals.  For their entire life, thy supported a party and platform that is quite new to them, and now they continue to force themselves to support what they were fundamentally against all their life, and the greater difficulty is that they were vehemently against Trump and his positions until just a few weeks ago, now they are in the opposite.

There is no political intrigue with what Trump says and what people around him say.  In 5 weeks in office Trump and his team (and his supporters) have said and done what the mainstream calls “alternative facts.”  Calling every action “Unprecedented” and “Un-Presidential” has become a common phrase for the electronic media.

Conventional or unconventional, Trump is an uncommon politician.  Now people surrounding him are all in the hot seat because of what he says, he does, and probably what he has not shown to the world.  It must be in an alternate universe for them surrounding Trump.

The decision by the republicans not supporting the repeal and replace of Obama Care, demonstrates that not just the opposition, but Republicans also are (at least some of them) are independent and have a responsibility to the people who voted for them.  I am no expert of health care and political decision making, but I am sure politicians do realize that people who sent them to Washington will continue to have the power to weather they go back to Washington in two years.

Democracy and America will always be independent in its thinking and in its policies, and the representatives must listen to the people every two years.

Hindustan

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

After the BJP won a landslide win in Uttar Pradesh and appointed Yogi Adithyanath as the chief minister there were usual comments from the opposition.  As I continue to follow the politics of India (in fact the world) I was stunned when a veteran INC politician Veerappa Moily made a statement “Biggest Assault on Secularism”. “This is not Hinduism, Hinduism is not India.”.  Moily is a veteran politician and someone who is well versed (I hope and thought) on India, its politics and certainly its history at least from the 1947 Independence.  He after all is one of the veterans of the Congress party that drove the Indian Independence movement.  Moily could have simply googled the internet and get a hit on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustan.

My Saturday evening instinct was that even the old men of India, seem to ignore their roots and nation when they come in front of a microphone.  Even the little children of the country (in fact any country) will pay reverence to their nation.  Here was a man who has been a political leader in independent India all his life, but has forgotten that the land is what it is.

For a secular nation, India is by far the most inclusive and tolerant societies on earth.  Granted that it has been looted for centuries thru its eventual and so called independence in 1947, the country still suffers poverty and illiteracy.  More than any other societal evil, India suffers scam and cheating by those in power and in control of the nation’s democracy.  Moily has been a part of the party that spent most of the time being in control of the independent India.  Most importantly he also belongs to the party that worked hard for India’s independence from the British.  He should really know that this the ancestral land of Hindus and it is Hindustan for ages.  There should never have been ignorance as an excuse for Moily, but it was simply his reaction to the failure of his party to govern a nation with respect to its democracy.  India for all its difficulties and social discrepancies, survives as a democracy.  India does vote for its leaders and gives them an opportunity to govern and manage its vast population and resources.  When India sees the incompetence and looting, it certainly sends the culprits to political oblivion.  With each election, India is quite fluid in its definition of democracy and its demands on what the government should do, and the latest election once again demonstrates Indian electorate choosing a party that they believe will meet the needs of the population.

It has become a political fashion for democracies to keep slinging stupid comments once a party is thrown out of power.  Especially a party like INC in India has lost its relevance and its impetus for the nation.  It clings on to a few old men who will keep hurling insulting comments to any outlet they can find, and now starting to insult the nations existence.  They have nothing left to speak of, and the last resort is to raise the communal tensions by delegitimizing the nation and its secularism.

In a nation of 1.3 billion or so people, who by and large live peacefully and when given a chance will vote for the future.  They are all very smart and very wise.  The problems are amply driven by losing political parties in sighting the caste or regional issues, or by neighboring countries promoting terror.  Despite the internal and external meddling, Indians seem to move on and focus on what they need and what their families need.

One of the blessings for the nation is eradicating the incompetence and fighting the terror, although taking time, but eventuality is both bod politics and terror will be dealt with, without the nation losing its secularism.  Just the past 3 years are a great testament to India’s ability to be secular and democratic.  It is time for Moily and all his compatriots to move to a retirement location on the vast coastal area of India and enjoy the sun.

Optimism and Change

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy from Chicago

The just concluded state elections in India (primarily in north India) continue to show the belief in the nations optimism.  Modi is a leader who really represents the thinking and beliefs of the nation, and since Modi became the prime minister of India in 2014, he continues to show that the progressive and inclusive agenda for the nation and he will continue to be the change agent for the nation.

Over the last couple years as India’s leader, Modi has stuck to his core principals, that made him the PM of the largest democracy on earth.  I liked to believe what he was saying, and I really liked that this man has no incentive to steal and scam the Indians.  Politically he had no financial aspirations for himself and he doesn’t have anyone (family, children, friends or anyone else) hanging on to him and affiliated to his power to steal from the public coffers.

For everyone watching, Modi might be anything they want to believe, but everyone knows he is a man who doesn’t take money, doesn’t need to take money and doesn’t have anyone around him asking for money, and ultimately whatever he does is in the interest of people and his party.  I choose the party in my narrative as he represents a political party, now which is with perhaps the largest registered political membership on earth.  His ideals and agenda represent his party’s politics, and they are certainly in the best interest of India.

The just concluded election and the astonishing results that put BJP and Modi in political power in the largest state in India along with others, is an excellent grade sheet for Modi.  The practicality of daily life drives the voters to elect and reelect a politician and his party, and there is no better testament to Modi and his governance than the just concluded elections.  Caste, Creed, wealth, education, language, gender and anything that separates the voters all comes to what they see in a leader and how he fulfills to needs of the people.  Modi might not be perfect but he is certainly with the people’s agenda and keeps working towards fulfilling his stump promises.

The recent demonetization simply put almost all of India’s money back into circulation.  There were problems with implementation, but it did bring the black marketers, terrorists, tax cheaters, hoarders and all kinds of unwanted elements to declare or destroy their ill-gotten wealth.  Indians suddenly have an economy (even temporarily) that accounts all its currency.  If this was a suicidal tactic, Modi was more than willing to risk his politics, rather than keep the mismanaged currency in circulation.  The election results show that people agree with him and people don’t mind suffering a little to take the culprits out of the society.  The strategy of demonetization worked, and only voices you hear is politicians who are running against Modi.  Demonetization was a move that was much needed by the country and its people, and only Modi had the political acumen and personal commitment to the nation to do it.  I really think it worked beautifully.

The benefits of IT collections, all currency and accounts accounted and in public and the sudden infusion of cash into the banking system certainly helps the nations cause with nation building, and lowering interest rates.  The nation is already starting to see the benefits of demonetization and elimination of black money, and continued pressure on back markets and terror funding will help the nation with its fiscal management.

While it might still be in the minds of many that Modi could not deliver to everything he said in 2014, we also must be able to better evaluate his management and politics.  He does remain untainted and uninterested in personal benefit.  He does work hard to implement and promote his policies.  India first and Indians first is constant in his stump and actions.  Next three years will continue to see him work hard to deliver, and even if he doesn’t fulfill 100% he is more than compensating with his personal and political agenda to betterment of India and all Indians.  He will be remembered as a man with India first and nothing personal in his agenda.

Wag the Dog Again (and Again)

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

For movie buffs the political drama from 1997 “Wag the dog” is a familiar (popular) movie, which was a production that was made to protect the president from scandal  who was about to face reelection.  It was fantastic cinema which depicted the fabrication of news and how to keep the media from learning about the real scandal and reality.  I really enjoyed the movie (and watched it a couple times after) for the political manipulation and the drama of diversion from real scandal.

For history and political buffs, the early eighties and Nixon and Watergate will continue to be political and personal challenges at the highest level in the US presidency.  There is so much written an depicted about Watergate we will for generations to come will ponder about the mindset of someone who is already powerful and why would they think of anything illegal.  Before any pondering of the powerful mind, it might simply be the insecurities of human beings, and/or thinking that a person in power can be above the law.  Either case, as history recorded the before and aftermath of Watergate, the truth is always going to prevail.  Some twenty years after the movie Wag the Dog (1997) was released, we in 2017 are in Trump presidency.

In less than a few days of Trump in white house, the phrase “alternate facts” was coined by his team.  What else did the public expect than wagging the dog, daily?

Trump is 70 years old, and it is impossible to think that he will get religion at this age.  It is not possible.  He has never been gentle, polite or truthful.  Until he was elected president Trump made up stories on everything he could think of, and peddled them until he was forced to stop spreading them.  Whatever the reason enough of us in the USA voted for him to lead our nation, and thus the reality TV from Washington is now on 24/7/365.

On Friday March 3, 2017, my little girl got off the school bus at 1 41 PM.  It is my normal routine to walk over to the bus stop and walk back to together.  We live less than a block from her bus stop, but that little walk allows me to ask her about school and obviously about her grades, on a daily basis.  On Friday she said there were two kids fighting with each other on the bus and the bus got delayed by a couple of minutes.  As usual I ask her, why?  These kids are somewhere between 8 and 12, and why would they fight in such a short trip from school to home?

The next couple minutes framed my weekly column.  One kid was spreading rumors about another kid, and that’s why they got into a fight and the bus got delayed by a couple of minutes.  These are ten year olds, hardly travel a couple of miles from school, and what could they be rumoring about?  I wondered several times, and my little one said she did not know.  All she knew was that there was a rumor and then the fight.  Nothing about what the rumor was about.  By the time we got home we moved on with our regular stuff and nothing about the rumor and fight.

When I woke up Saturday morning the news was all over Trump tweeting about Obama wire tapping his tower in New York.  He tweets (multiple tweets) that in 2916 election Obama ordered the wire taps on his tower, and he accused Obama on everything under the sun.  What was a contentious election in 2016, which he won, was mainly by him accusing and berating everyone I the world.  Now he is the president and he doesn’t need any help with intelligence, as the USA has the best intelligence teams in the world.

Ii haven’t thought too much about what he is tweeting.  I stopped watching the news and avoid the political coverage, but this was almost comical.  The movie Wag the Dog, and my little girl’s bus story on one kid spreading rumor on the other.

Whatever that followed the tweets is really far from reality, it is reality television.  Just that the grown ups already have been seeing this on a daily basis and we might keep seeing it for another 4 more years.

INDIAN

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy from Chicago

The whole of North America was the native land of the Indians.  Centuries of migrants still continue to embark on a journey’s sometimes simple and sometimes arduous to migrate to the Americas, and now all of a sudden the land of the Indians has become someone else’s claim to be theirs.

Killing of a young Indian man in a public place this last week was really shameful and deplorable.  Any idiot with a gun and any idiot who is a bigot can shoot, but shooting someone who is as much an American as anyone else who claims to be American is only because the shooter is an idiot and who is really doesn't know what an American is.  He is and will use race as a way to attack anyone else who doesn't look like him.

I am sad and I am angry.  I am not confused.  I really think these idiots need to understand and appreciate what America is and who it belongs to.  It certainly doesn’t belong to any one color of people.

Let me ask as many questions as I can to see if anyone has a problem with being Indian?

• Your doctor, nurse, caregiver, and someone who watches your heart beat, health, children and elderly is Indian


• Your smiling pharmacist, who fills your prescription and wishes you good health is Indian


• Your real estate agent, looking to find you a home of your dreams, and also sell your home for you to find a new one, and trying to find you the best value if Indian


• Your insurance agent who is always trying to find you the lowest cost and highest value for you home, health, car, business, travel or any other coverage is Indian


• Your ever smiling investment banker, always finding you multiple options for your long term security, and the future of your children is Indian


• Your gas station attendant who is always offering to help you, and always wishing you luck with your lotto is Indian


• Your drive thru banker, ever smiling and being helpful and always asking you if need anything else is Indian


• Your software development team and their backbone support teams are Indian


• Your IT infrastructure and your Internet backbone is managed by Indian


• Your Google is run by Indian


• Your Microsoft is run by Indian


• Your Pepsi is run by Indian


• Your most affluent homes are Indian


• Your most giving community is Indian


• Your most respectful and quietest communities are Indian


• Your most peaceful and most revered temples are Indian


• Your brightest and best students are Indian


• Your best international relationships are honored by Indian


• Your best neighbor and your best friend is Indian


• Your everyday has some positive and progressive contribution by Indian

I can go on to type hundreds of lines of what Indian does and how Indian adds to your life.  Why shoot an innocent and humble Indian citizen?

If all this is Indian then why any Indian is not a native American?

Race

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

We are never sure of how the race as people refer to came into existence.  My experience is mainly with the two largest democracies, India my nation of birth and the USA the nation that adopted me.

Small Town India I still believe lives in relative peace and harmony.  Only when the politics become hot, the race relations get stirred up.  Men and women typically get race biased with politics and international interference.  Whenever Pakistan sends militants into India, the whole country gets its race and religion card up quickly, but otherwise they live in peace and quiet.  India with its huge population and wide open boarders, does get affected often with terror, but does live in religious harmony.  But internal to the country and in its politics race is a huge factor.  Politicians constantly whip-up the caste feelings, and people keep following the politics of caste.

The United States divides the race by color; Black, White, Hispanic, Asian and so on by mostly color of skin and where people are from.  The USA really is the most segregated society for a nation that is only a few hundred years with people who are not really native.  But here also the politics and race relations go hand in hand.

For centuries where there are societies race as a part of society has been a normal phenomenon.  The Indian race structure was typically based on type of work the groups of people did; Farmers, Teachers, Traders, Fighters, and so on and the nation is pretty much divided into the families involved in various parts of the economic and social structure of the nation.  Although we have evolved into manufacturing and information technology, the names and families continue to rely on the traditions of their names and what they did.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with family and its traditional history and its name.

The USA primarily is divided with color of people, and then their ancestry.  As India is divided with people’s race, USA is with its people’s color.  Both societies as democracies have allowed for a choice few to become all powerful in business and wealth.

Each of the democracies allow for free enterprise (hopefully) and thus allowing the enterprise also to create massive wealth with a few.

If we just focus on what is happening in the last few years in both USA and India, we certainly see the continued and forceful display of race as the primary factor in electing nations leaders.  It is the easiest card to play in election, is whip up the race factor.  No matter what we are and what we do, when it comes to elections we will vote with our kind; typically.  The national divide is fairly open and apparent.  There is no denying that race will always be bait for politics.

As the internet and television allows for immediate access to global news, we have exposure to the coverage from everywhere.  It is first and foremost, the news as presented and sometimes as seen.  We don’t even have to involve religion into race relations as simply race itself can divide us, in racial lines.  If you add religion to this already charged race relations, we will end up with what is happening in ME and parts of Asia.

We are given our names and appearance.  There is nothing we should be worrying about our race.  As the globe explodes with more and more people, and the distance becomes nominal, race probably should not be a factor in our choices.  Our choices should be based on our needs and our family needs.

In India it works for the politicians.  It also works in some industries to use the caste card.  The huge emphasis of caste in movie business in India, especially south India is obvious.  But the movie-goers primarily pay for entertainment, but the makers remain in the caste hole.  Politicians constantly use race and caste as vote banks, and people blindly accept it.  There is a pressure for development and positive change, but the sheer magnitude of people and their needs are greater than the resources and politicians and their ability is largely limited by resources, and internal strife.

The United States has greater challenges with internal issues of race and debt, and a huge external demand for resources and terror.  Perhaps a radical approach to America First might work in the short run, but will limit the global markets for American business.  Terror no longer has a face, and until the financial institutions join hands to eliminate terror funding, it is impractical.  The USA might be best served in a global financial shut down of terror, and cut off as much waste as it can to become debt free and perhaps terror free.

Race will continue to find a place in politics and society.  It is perhaps the simplest emotion, and combining with religion makes it a potent cocktail of emotions.  There is probably no immediate solution to solving race relations, rather stop race baiting.  Once again it works for politicians in democracies, so we probably will not see any change in using race as a potent political weapon.

Marginal Acceptance

Vasu Reddy from Chicago

vasureddy@aol.com

All you need is 50.01% of the electoral vote to be put in power.  Democratic societies typically need only a simple majority in most circumstances to put someone in power.  The simple majority is what puts one in power over 100% of the people.  Most democracies work thru varied structures of voting to elect the leader based on majorities in localized electoral process, where a majority as defined in each of these circumstances elects a leader.

In the large democracies such as the USA and India, the local leaders (typically representing a party that is contesting the elections) are elected and they in turn project a national leader of their party, who when his party obtains a majority in turn becomes the leader of the nation.

In the USA, the Electoral College elects the president, simply representing the states choosing their electoral college, which elects the national leader.  For each state there are a certain number of electoral votes, and majority of voters in each state determine the electoral votes.  The majority of the electoral votes choose the leader.  Sometimes the majority of the electorate doesn’t represent the majority of the national vote.  As it happened in the USA with 2016, and the election of Trump, although the national vote count was about 3.0 Million less than his opponent.  Something similar happened between Bush and Gore in 2000.

As of now the USA presidential elections are framed in such a way the Electoral College picks the president.  Trump in 2016 as was Bush in 2000 both elected as president in the frame of the constitutionally mandated process.  Bush went on to be elected again, and Trump is just a couple of weeks into his first term.  Marginal acceptance is irrelevant to the presidential election, number of real votes don’t count, only the Electoral College prevails.

A normal election focuses on majority of the votes.  The state and local elections are only on the basis of the majority of the vote, even if it is by a single vote.  Only the national election is based on the Electoral College.

Almost 3 million more people voted for Clinton than for Trump on 2016, but it really did not matter.  If we relegate 2000 and 2016 on learning about the democracy and it’s functioning, both Al Gore and Hillary Clinton will take their real voter majorities to their memoirs.

The power of the slimmest margin is still the most powerful position for politicians and democracies.  Weather we like it or not, that faction will determine the likes and dislikes, of the general population.  While we appreciate the process of democracies (when free and clear of any stress to the population) the process also pits likes and dislikes, and who you choose typically is representing only half of you (the whole population). So, marginal acceptance is not overrated, it really is very much underrated.

We will all not get what we voted for, and almost half of us get what we voted against, and in 2016, USA had more than a half plus and a great deal more of the voters, have to live for at least thru 2000 with this.

The Holy Grail for human beings is the process of democracy.  Choosing a path to live in a democracy is fluid, and people again with a simplest majority can decide on what their chosen options are.

Trump or anyone after him (or before him), are in the office because of the process itself.  The brouhaha about legitimacy of the election is really a matter of what the democracy created, and not an anomaly.  As long as we choose to be free in our thought process, democracies will function and also self-correct.  It is always better to be free and make a choice, it will allow us to vote for change, just as and when we need.

The Art of Imbalance

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

In his first couple of weeks as president, Trump has started to keep his election promises in the executive power category.  Weather you like it or not, he is acting on some of the most popular and eloquent issues which brought him to the white house.  Be it general public, the US congress, any other heads of state, or even the global audience, it doesn’t deter Trump from issuing executive orders on his signature political issues; Mexico Wall, Trade and immigration.

While I have turned my television off from watching any news and deliberately avoiding anyone that is representing Trump.  People promoting the policies that have become the rallying cry for Trump in the 2016 election have continued to do the same.  The nation is divided on what next with each of them, and Trump is simply acting on what he said he would.

Ignoring the trade imbalances for decades has put USA at a disadvantage in competing with a global market place.  Although we still have the best markets, best resources, best people, best of everything, the ever growing budget deficit continues to plague the nation, and has already began to threaten the nations ability to manage its finances.  Decades of negotiated and deliberated economic and political affiliations will be difficult to throw out of the window, unless you are Trump.  Trump can simply trash every trade and defense agreement out, and ask each nation to renegotiate, and ask for a fair share of the cost to the benefit that each nation receives from the USA.  While this certainly puts USA first, doesn’t necessarily mean that the trade and cost issues will go away.  We certainly don’t know what will happen if the USA becomes a closed economic, political and military market, and what if each nation would like to do the same.

USA could certainly become a closed society and block out all imports, or simply buy and sell on 100% reciprocity basis.  The USA certainly has the natural resources and geographic advantage for being a closed economy, but it is a nation of immigrants and disassociating with the rest of world is a matter of ignoring the combined value of people and processes, that make USA the great nation that it is.

Certainly we can be a closed economy that strictly do business on an equal import/export basis with every nation.  The nation will survive in the short run, and perhaps will thrive in the long run, by structuring within its limitations and resources.  These imitations will impede global attractiveness, growth and innovation.  The country perhaps needs a plan of negotiated trade practice as Trump suggests in eliminating the trade imbalances and eventually budget deficits.  The book building and budget balancing is certainly difficult if the USA continues to play the big bother to the world and even countries that can afford their own national security doesn’t pony up their fair share.

Trade imbalances in 2014, the five major trading partners account for almost all of the trade imbalances.

Country	Exports $B	Imports $B	Difference
Canada	$      241.00	$       331.00	$        (90.00)
Mexico	$      194.00	$       291.00	$        (97.00)
China	$      134.00	$       432.00	$      (298.00)
Japan	$        67.50	$       128.00	$        (60.50)
Germany	$        61.60	$       121.00	$        (59.40)
Total	$      698.10	$    1,303.00	$      (604.90)

In 2014 USA imported $2.19 trillion and exported $1.45 Trillion, with an overall trade deficit of $731.0 billion.  This doesn’t necessarily mean it adds to the US debt but, certainly an opportunity for revenue generation and additional employment derived from the imbalance.  Oil is a major part of the imports and machinery and transport related areas cover the second most imported products into the USA.

The USA generated approximately $3.0 Trillion revenues in 2014 and the country added additional $500 Billion in national debt.  So, assuming the country is adding 1/6 of the national revenue as additional national debt, there is a massive catch-up or reduction in expenditures is required to simply balance the budget.  Only god knows what has to be done to reduce the $20 plus trillion in already piled up debt.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats have had the guts to balance the budgets, nor take steps in the direction to reduce and eventually eliminate the debt.  Trump has said he will wipe the national debt in ten years, which is an ambitious statement to begin with.  His politics are now becoming policies of the USA, and if the last two weeks is any indication, Republicans have no intention of changing for the better.

Trump himself might want to question his own politics on why build a wall just with Mexico?  Why not with Canada also? It is very simple anyone can fly into or take a boat to Canada and simply walk over from there into the USA.  Border protection doesn’t mean you simply impose on the weaker economy than yours; it must cover every corner of the nation.

Why ban only a few nations from travel to the USA?  Why not every nation that has some sort of links to terror, and not just single out nations where Trump doesn’t have any personal business interest?  If the USA wants to take an attitude about trade or immigration, then why not with every nation on earth?  Why change statements on what the policies are, rather just make them a global issue on trade, politics, immigration, terror and fair sharing of costs.  If you just talk tough to a couple of soft targets, it will not achieve the intent of a nation first objective.  If USA wants to get tough, then globalize it.