| by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author's program note. Friends and neighbors, are you perplexed, confused, baffled, and irked by the avalanche of bad news emanating from the capital of these United States? Well, join the club. We all need help sorting out this plethora of information that ranges from the usual garden variety nonsense to whole new ways to upset us and rend the body politic. In all seriousness we need a friend like "That Was the Week That Was", a satirical television comedy programme on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin and presented by (Sir) David Frost, whose usual impeccable timing for delicious scandal, gossip and tittle-tattle deserted him on this occasion. Understandable... You see, he died just the other day (August 31), thereby missing these imperial pratfalls and hi-jinx which he loved so well and which no one knew better how to present for maximum impact than he did. How he would have savored the bumper crop of idiocies of just the last few days and the melt-down of the Right Honorable Barrack, who has descended from the heady heights of "We Have Overcome" to taking cue and counsel from Marvin Gaye's grapevine where "a man ain't supposed to cry". TWTWTW (whose American counterpart ran on NBC from 1964 to 1965 and also featured Frost) had sharp-eyed, tone perfect fun with the best and the brightest, people we are supposed to venerate and admire but whose constant goofs and cosmic errors are just too good to pass by, no more so than in the last week, where the mistakes were hilarious, astonishing, truly awesome, slap your knee and LOL; that is until you stopped and considered who would have to pick up the pieces and carry on.... that would be you and me, the guys from the morning after the hysterical night before. With such an embarrass de richesses, where to start... there is so much to choose from, relish, and enjoy. Scapegoats wanted. Please apply to B. Obama, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for details. Unless you've been living in a cave (and maybe even then) you know that our erstwhile president has nailed his tattered colors to the mast that is universal health care. It was supposed to cover millions hitherto without insurance, with benefits (if you pay close attention) ranging from astonishing to miraculous, not least being the remedy needed to resuscitate and resurrect the careers of lame duck presidents, one in particular. Problem is, even if you want this coverage (and millions do), you can't get it at any price because the computer program that's supposed to handle the matter is screwed up to the max. See for yourself at HealthCare.gov. "Computers are so literal." This is my mother's take on computers and pretty well summarizes the Lant family's approach to the matter. You tell these often infuriating machines what to do... and they do just that... and nothing more. Apparently Barrack's mother didn't tell him this and so with his complete disinterest in the annoying and boring details of everything, including his marquee program, he now finds himself in a mess that absolutely 100% of fifth graders assigned to solve the matter could handle with elegance, speed and total accuracy, without sweat or muddle, and for just a few Devil Dogs. Big problems right from the start. Richard Nixon, of all people, told newly elected president Bill Clinton not to try to reform America's health care system (one seventh of the GNP) all at one go; instead to phase it in. Clinton, of course, being Clinton didn't listen and did exactly what the more experienced Nixon advised against. The result was a Republican landslide in the next congressional elections and plenty of egg on his excellency's fleshy jowls, not an edifying sight. Obama learned absolutely nothing from this disaster, more reminiscent of the suicidal charge of the Light Brigade (1854),"C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre" than practical (read do-able, win-able) politics. Thus, instead of creating a model program in a medium sized state (think West Virginia, Indiana or Oregon) he went for the whole hog, a huge mistake that is plaguing him right now. Except for arrogance and bragging rights, there was never a need to do all the uninsured in every state all at once. But there was (and still is) the need to create a system that's simple and easy to use, which is most assuredly not what we've got now, a Rube Goldberg machine that promises everything and delivers nothing but chaos, confusion and embarrassment. For make no mistake about it, the president and his disgraceful computer system has showcased America all right; as a nation of bumblers, inept, unprepared, a brigade of "can don't" nerds and programming "skills" no better than a joke. And this, mind, in the nation's strong suit, state-of-the-art technology. No wonder Obama's poll numbers are now in free fall. Hail to the Chief. What should he have done instead? Well, for openers, like any good business person he should have tried (and regularly, too) to order his own product, thereby helping to test and perfect the system on which he had staked so much. Of course, we now know he didn't do that or anything like it. And so he got on opening day October 1 not kudos but confusion, outrage and fully justified attacks on his competence which have only gotten worse as the problem has exacerbated. It was a bad day for ObamaCare and the people who so need it; another black eye for the Great Republic. What's more, when he was told that his system wasn't ready for an October 1 opening, he should have been sensible and postponed until he could get the desired results, KISS. Sure, there would have been gibes but they would have been as nothing when compared to what's being said right now about him, his presidency, and his health care "system", and not just by Tea Party nutters either. It ain't pretty... and it is accurate. As if this weren't enough... As if his woes were not abundant enough October 23 the German government announced that it had received confidential information that Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone was under surveillance by US intelligence services and that she had phoned President Obama to deliver the strongest possible disapproval. She also cited the great and long-lasting friendship between our nations, making it clear friends don't spy on friends. Barrack might give lip service to this point of view, but he's an information freak and cannot be trusted. Thus as expected he soothingly said no surveillance had been authorized or occurred, but Mrs. Merkel, who knows him well, was apparently neither persuaded nor placated; an indignant wet hen closely approximating her mood and demeanor. This was not surprising given the fact that her brush with the president's global party-line closely followed another jarring story in the Le Monde newspaper. It reported that US intelligence had collected data on 70 million communications by ordinary French people in a 30-day period late last year and into January. I suspect our spooks wanted to know what every Frenchie gave and got for Christmas. French President Francois Hollande expressed his "extreme reprobation" and marched down the Champ Elysees waving the Tricolour and listening to a recorded version of Marvin Gaye's greatest hit, "I heard it through the grapevine" (1968) on his cellphone, featuring this telling line, "You could have told me yourself." Indeed. And that was the week that was... with so many juicy details still to be revealed! TTFN. |
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