IN THIS ISSUE:
-- SPACESHIP EARTH
-- RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT: READING THE TEA LEAVES FOR POTUS
--RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT: THE SIDESHOW)
-- GLOBAL POWER SHIFTS
-- CULTURAL SHIFTS IN EUROPE
-- CULTURE WARS: AFRO DIVISION
-- CULTURE WARS: ANGLO DIVISION
-- DODGER BLUES
Spaceship Earth
On the first anniversary of the catastrophic BP Gulf Oil Spill, the fragile vessel that we call home continued to show its vulnerability.
The returns were still not in on the ultimate damage from the Gulf spill....
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| Nothing Good Happened Here |
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| Our Animal Brethren Paid The Steepest Price |
Meanwhile, a tornado ripped through (as in tore the roof off of) one of the passenger terminals at St. Louis Airport....
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| That Is What You Call a "Bad Travel Day" |
And the fallout continued (literally and figuratively) from the Japanese
earthquake and tsunami.
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| Swept Away Forever |
Would man learn to live in harmony with his temperamental planet? A fascinating story in the Associated Press told how one Japanese fishing village had weathered the tsunami because centuries ago, ancestors who suffered through a tsunami of their own had erected stone tablets which said "remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point."
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| What Would Our Warning To Future Generations Be? |
Running For President: Reading The Tea Leaves for POTUS
Two polls came out last week that had ominous news for President Obama. "Nation's Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years," blared the headline in the New York Times.
"Americans are more pessimistic about the nation's economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama's first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the great Recession, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
Amid rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government's ability to meet its future obligations, the poll presents stark evidence that the slow, if unsteady, gains in public confidence earlier this year that a recovery was under way are now all but gone."
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that
"those (same forces) appear to be taking a toll on Mr. Obama's standing with the public. In a Marist College poll for McClatchy Newspapers published Wednesday, a plurality of respondents --- 44% --- said they definitely plan to vote against Mr. Obama in 2012, 37% said they will vote for him and 18% were unsure."
In a hypothetical election matchup against Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, currently seen as the GOP front runner, Mr. Obama now holds only a one-percentage-point lead, 46% to 45%, according to Marist. In January, that lead was 13 points.
Similarly, a Washington Post/ABC News poll this week showed a deterioration in Mr. Obama's job-approval rating. Of those polled, 47% approved of the job he is doing, while 50% disapproved. Just last month, 51% approved and 45% disapproved in the same poll."
Of course, the only poll that counts is in November 2012. But as long as a tank of gas costs $60, it will be difficult for most Americans to believe that better times are around the corner. With neither the housing market nor the jobs market doing any better, President Obama is going to have to search for a winning narrative. Unless the House Republicans make saying "I'm not John Boehner or Paul Ryan" the magic words in and of themselves...
Running For President: The Sideshow
Another "candidate" had been drawing attention to himself in recent weeks. E-mails from our loyal readership have been pouring in to TGG, imploring us to deal with the ramifications of Donald Trump and his recent media blitz.
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| Just Like 7-11: Always Open |
But unlike NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and all of the other major media outlets, The Global Game is not going to give Trump and his crackpot theories an airing or an audience. "Why?" you may ask....
The answer is simple:
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| 'Cos If We Wanted To Talk About Clowns.... |
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| ...We'd Go To The Effing Circus! |
Global Power Shifts
Whoever won the Presidential election in 2012, he or she would have to contend with a rapidly changing global power dynamic. Levers of influence are few and far between in the global game. Two contenders for superpower status --- Russia and China --- faced decisions with respect to some of their most important strategic assets.
In "Russia's Fading Army Fights Losing Battle to Reform Itself," the Wall Street Journal reported that the Russian army, once one of the most feared fighting forces on earth, was struggling to adapt to modern strategic realities and indeed to even retain enough volunteers to be considered an effective fighting force.
Needless to say, this was a dramatic departure from the days when the Red Army could project itself anywhere across the globe, and had strategists in the Pentagon working overtime to try and counter its every move.
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| A Glorious Past....A Troubled Future |
In fact, in an effort to bolster its recruiting efforts among the indifferent Russian male population, the Russian Army had taken in recent years (really, we are not making this up) to sponsoring an annual
"Miss Russian Army" beauty contest.
"Miss Russian Army" beauty contest.
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| The 2005 Contestants |
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| The Winner: Lt. Ksenya Argarkova, Engineer with Russia's Northern Fleet TGG's Choice for Runner-Up (Far Right, First Row): Miss Vladivostok Air Defenses |
Also last week, reports surfaced that China was taking steps to allow its currency, the yuan, to trade more freely, which many thought was China's first step towards establishing the yuan as an alternative reserve currency to the U.S. Dollar
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| Don't Leave Home Without It? |
Russia with a weakened army. China's currency challenging for world dominance. It was a brave new world, and as the U.S. fought three wars (without a clear strategy in any of them), it was not at all clear that American policymakers were prepared to deal with it.
Cultural Shifts In Europe
At the same time, tectonic shifts were taking place in the cultural fabric of America's traditional European allies.
Britain
In Britain, the Office for National Statiscts announced that the share of foreign-born in the general population had doubled in the past two decaddes, to more than 11 percent. That figure was approaching the U.S. level of 12.5 percent. As reported in The Week, Prime Minister David Cameron said in a major speech that mass immigration had led to "discomfort and disjointedness" in many communities where the newcomers allegedly fail to assimilate. An edtorialist in the Telegraph said that "the blame lies at the feet of our rulers for faiing to set clear boundaries by requiring (the immigrants) to learn English, respect British culture, and obey the house rules." Instead, for too long British leaders had told their subjects that they needed to "change the rules to accommodate the newcomers."
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| A New "Cool Britannia" --- Or a Multicutural Nightmare? |
Britain, much like America, was becoming a land of immigrants. What came next, nobody could say.
Germany
In Germany, which had its own issues with a largely Turkish immigrant population, Chancellor Angela Merkel had famously announced in a 2010 speech that
"Multiculturalism Is Dead."
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| And I Say "Good Riddance" |
The Global Game will allow each reader to supply his or her own historical context here....
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| Especially Since Germany Has Long Been Known As A Center of Multiculturalism... |
France
For its part, France chose to outlaw face coverings, which most understood to be directed at the veil....
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| Look Out Behind You |
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| Sometimes You Don't Need The Official Translation |
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| Can The Two of Them Co-exist in a Liberal Democracy? |
In short, the world was changing at an ever-accelerating pace. And it looked for now like the first and most dramatic cultural clashes were going to be in the Old World,
not the New.
Culture Wars: Afro Division
Across the Atlantic, cultural affairs of a different sort were preoccupying Black America.
Leading African-American directors Spike Lee and Tyler Perry are feuding over the direction of Black Cinema. Alison Samuels covered it all this week in the Daily Beast, chronicling Lee's disdain for Perry's more, shall we say, pop culture offerings, and Perry's caustic response.
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| Spike's Work Typically Had A Political Context |
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| Tyler's, Not So Much |
TGG is not taking sides (for now) in this one. But maybe all you have to do is look at each director's best-known alter ego, and the question will answer itself.
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| Mars Blackmon Was Funny... |
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| ... While Madea Really Is Not. |
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| Because While That Whole "Black Man In Drag" Thing May Have Been Amusing in 1969... C'Mon, Tyler --- In 2009? |
Culture Wars: Anglo Division
And if a British Royal Wedding was the Super Bowl of Anglo Culture, then surely cultural wars of a different sort were going to visit family rooms across America this week.
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| A Fairy Tale Come True? |
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| TGG's Press Credential Also Got Lost In The Mail.... |
With the ultimate women's reality show slated to appear on screens across the U.S. at
4:00 a.m., TGG only has two pieces of advice to its male readers:
The Refreshments: 5-Hour Energy Drink
The Escape Route: Your HDTV's
Picture-In-Picture Function
(Can Anyone Say, "5:00 a.m. Sportscenter"?)
Ordinarily, we would now turn to The Global Game sports report. So much to cover --- the NBA Playoffs off to one of their best starts in years, the continuing NFL lockout and upcoming draft.....
But there was really only one story in sports this week.
"Dodger Blues"
After continuing deterioration in the finances and operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig took over operations of one of the most storied franchise in sports, seizing operational control from the feuding owners, Frank and Jamie McCourt. The McCourts, locked in a bitter divorce, aired all of their dirty laundry in public, including reports of siphoning more than $100 million in team revenues to finance a luxurious lifestyle that included private jets, Malibu beach mansions, and shopping sprees to Europe. Meanwhile, on the field, the Dodgers were a shadow of their former selves.
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| Who Are These People? |
Even a Northern California hater of all of Los Angeles' professional sports teams --- the basketball Lakers, the football USC Trojans, and the baseball Dodgers --- would not have wished such an embarrassing fiasco on the Boys in Blue. After all, the Dodgers had been responsible for some of baseball's
(and indeed all of sports') most exciting moments over the years:
Kirk Gibson's Dramatic Home Run in the
Game 1 of the 1988 World Series......
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| One of the Greatest Clutch Plays --- Ever. |
The "Shot Heard 'Round The World" by Bobby Thomson of the Archrival Giants
in a special pennant race playoff
on October 3, 1951...
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| Why The Giants-Dodgers Rivalry Is Legendary |
Dodger Ace Sandy Koufax's Many Masterpieces
During the 1960s...
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| A Babyfaced Assassin |
The Infamous Brawl Between Giant Pitcher Juan Marichal and Doger Catcher John Roseboro in 1965....
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| Tempers Sometimes Got, Well, A Little Heated.... |
And Even The Over-Hyped but Dominant
Cey-Lopes-Russell-Garvey Infield of the 1970s.
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| They Ruled The West |
Perhaps there was only one thing that could save the Dodgers. Only one man who could ride in from the sunset, and bring order back to Dodge City. It was almost unthinkable for fans of any other franchise, who suffered going up against him for so long. But the more you thought about it, the more it made sense. Both Dodger fans and Dodger haters everywhere found themselves asking.......
Was It Time to Bring Back Tommy Lasorda?
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| Meet The New Boss...Same As The Old Boss |
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| Heaven Help Us.... Stay tuned next Weekend for Volume 1, Issue 13 of TGG, and be on the lookout for periodic updates "as events warrant" |
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