The US foreign policy conundrum

The North Korean conundrum & the current US foreign policy offers important lessons in management. One one side ,we have a dictator hell bent on keeping testing missiles subduing the population ignorant of the world.On the other side is a business tycoon turned politician finding the going tough in passing out legislation in politics.North Korea should not be under estimated on the level of damage that it can unleash.The United States on the other hand is involved in too many wars,too many places around the world -Afghanistan,Ukraine,Japan,South Korea,Syria,Iraq,Yemen to name the obvious.With Trump realizing that legislation is a different ball game compared to running a business,the temptation to war monger with the aim of diverting attention from domestic pressures is extremely alluring and Trump seems to have fallen prey.Throughout the campaign,Trump campaigned on the promise of withdrawing the United States from never ending wars with the goal on rebuilding the economy.Many analysts around that world believed in this Trump vision and was convinced that he had the wherewithal to go against the established norms of US foreign policy,the key being remaining closely interlocked with NATO & retaining Russia as the eternal enemy .However ground realities has shifted drastically in the last decade.China and not Russia has emerged as the biggest threat to US both in terms of trade and military prowess.The world has moved on,however the Atlanticist lobby of the US lefttist media would push and haunt anyone who comes in with a different world view.Trump's administration is filled with resources subscribing to the stale Atlanticist view.HR Mcmaster & Nikki Haley are charismatic individuals but they are still stuck in time on their world views.Democrats and CNN erupted in joy at the sight of the Tomahawk missiles flying into the airbase in Syria.Fareed Zakaria went to the extent of calling Donald Trump "Presidential". But what they fail to tell the American people is that there was not a shred of evidence presented to the American public that Bashar Al Assad had orchestrated the attack.After all,there is not a single logical reason on why Assad would orchestrate a chemical attack considering the fact that Rex Tillerson went on record to say that regime change in Syria was not a priority for the administration.This is not to defend Assad,but the trust the world and the American public has on the security apparatus has reached a dead low.After all,the same security agencies had convinced the world that Saddam had indeed possessed WMD.Tulsi Gabbard has emerged as among the lone sane voice on the political arena,calling for the US to stop supporting terrorist groups around the world and to have attacked Syria only after allowing Congress to view ,debate and pass approval to attack.Let's not forget that its unconstitutional to impose war on a nation without Congressional approval.The Constitution however allows the President some leverage which Bush and now Trump has used to attack other nations citing the threat to national security.Gabbard was attacked viciously and made out to be a villain by Jake Tapper &co on CNN.Following the attack on Syria,Trump dropped the Mother of All bombs on Afghanistan.These are decisions of National security and as civilians we can only trust that the authorities in charge are doing the best they can for the nation.

The fact is that there is no debate happening in the US on various dimensions of going to war.CNN and Fox carry on with their agendas.True journalism is supposed to shed light on both sides of the argument and at the moment Trump like every other US President has decided to continue to war monger without facing any challenging questions or even having to bother to explain the consequences of the actions.Is the plan of US to remain in perpetual warfare?It's been 15 years in Afghanistan and there is no end in sight.The Western fantasy of replacing a dictator who is opposed to the US ,in the garb of installing democracy has spelled disaster in Iraq,Libya and now threatens Syria.Kim Jong Ung would surely not make the mistake of going in for a peace deal having seen the fate of Qaddafi and Saddam.The Korean peninsula could turn out to be yet another misadventure of US foreign policy if not handled with tact.China could turn out to the dark horse as North Korea's primary trade is with that country.However Trump would be naive to think that China is going to help the US beyond a point.China wouldn't want North Korea to fail as that would mean hundreds of thousands of refugees on its border.At the same time,it would like to keep the US off balance by keeping the North Korea plate in perpetual boil just like how it uses Pakistan to keep India off balance.After all the anti China rant during the campaign ,Trump has sucked up to Xi Jin Ping.Chinese seem to have reversed the art of deal on Trump for now.

With the 180 that Trump has carried out in foreign policy,a coterie of his support base has deserted him.Trump claims that being flexible and unpredictable is a key weapon in his arsenal.However,flexibility without consistency can be a disaster.The days ahead promise a lot of action.

The media's all out attack on Trump

The US left wing media (CNN, NBC ,NY Times ,Vox , Slate and other's )have launched a vicious assault on the Trump administration from day one.The poorly drafted "refugee ban" by the government provided the fodder to set the house on fire.The 9th circuit of judges overruled the blanket ban from the seven countries.In its new found enthusiasm ,Trump & co committed a colossal blunder by not taking time to loop the DHS ( Dept of Homeland Security ) and other stake holders before issuing out the executive order.The initial version of the executive order did not exempt green card holders from the order.Trump also took it a step further by going on record to say that his administration would give priority to Christian refugees out of these predominantly Muslim countries.The US Constitution clearly debars discrimination on religion.It looked as if the Trump administration believed in the over arching power in Section 1182(f) of federal immigration law, which authorizes the president “by proclamation” to exclude classes of aliens.The 9th circuit clearly did not go with the argument that the government can issue blanket orders which can be exempted from judicial review.

By now the Trump administration has realized that its walking on a thin line with an aggressive unfriendly media conspiring to target every member of Trump's core team.The Left wing media twisted the "refugee ban" as a "Muslim ban".Clearly the leftist media believes that it has to be in bed with the Islamist's propagating this strategy to be idealism & liberalism.Bernie Sanders and Noam Chomsky has led the Left Wing on turning a blind eye to radical Islam with the left wingers happy to join in.

In between Trump had passed an executive order banning member of government from lobbying for at least 5 years after stepping out of Washington.This news found rare mention on the left wing media.Instead they targeted Michael Flynn,National Security Adviser of the Trump government leading him to him finally stepping down.The charge was that Flynn had failed to mention discussing sanctions with the Russian Ambassador.The bigger conspiracy in this case , who in the government had access to the transcripts and who released it to the media.Clearly ,there are pro-Democrat officials lying around in Washington who are willing to throw the government under the bus.The media has also been on a constant war path with Kelly Ann Conway and Steve Bannon. Flynn was the appetizer , the real target is Trump.

Trump has chosen to fight back hard with constantly tweeting labeling the left wing media as FAKE NEWS. In the last press conference,Trump went a step further and told a CNN reporter that they are "very fake news" which led to laughter.But the point was not missed.In the Florida rally , Trump reached out directly to the public and criticizing the media for setting their agenda.

This battle is going to turn ugly in the coming days.The very fact that Trump got elected despite the constant slander has proved that the vast majority of public care two hoots for the liberal media.The media is supposed to be a watchdog of society and government and throw light in a bipartisan manner.However , at the moment ,the media shows no sing of relenting.

Democrats have to INTROSPECT instead of sticking to CONSPIRACY theories

It's high time the Dem's realized that Hillary Clinton completely ignored the Rust Belt in the campaigning.She did not have a clean image unlike Obama who despite being criticized on several policy failures did not have a stain on personal integrity and corruption.The Dem's might also want to introspect if the results would have turned out differently if Bernie Sanders was the Dem nominee.

The well oiled Clinton machinery which included the so called "liberal & progressive" media was in for a rude shock on Election night.Russian hacks into the DNC is the latest excuse of the Dems.Even if the Russian's managed to hack into the DNC, the Russians did not install Trump in Washington.They DEM's and the liberal media keep saying that the Russians hacked the election.Read b/w the lines and you realize that the alleged hack was on the DNC and not on the actual outcome of the election.

After November 8th,the DEM reactions have varied from street protests to arguing on scrapping the Electoral College.Hillary went onto say that the FBI re-opening the investigation into her email prior to the election hurt her prospects badly.

The Russian obsession is a clear strategy of the Clinton machinery ,which wants to keep projecting Russia as the enemy.Its clear that Putin outsmarted Obama in Syria.Despite all the US efforts in keeping Assad out ,Russia prevailed with its clearly stated objective of keeping Assad in power.Trump has clearly taken a diabolical view to the Clinton machinery & has openly praised Putin on twitter.Trump considers China a bigger threat to the US rather than Russia.The drastic change in his views have again come out as a jolt to the Clinton News Network and other liberal(?) media network who have been chanting "Russia..Russia" over several weeks.Trump has decided to take to social media to vent out his thoughts thereby bypassing the media giants and their established views.

The DEMS would do well to introspect and look forward.There is no sign of that atleast for now...

Hypocrisy of the US media

Donald Trump swept the polls and the United States turned primarily red to the shock of the "liberals" .The margin of the Trump victory went onto prove on the level of disconnect that the mainstream media has with reality.CNN-IBN , NY Times,the Washington Post and all the other bigwigs got the polls wrong by a huge margin which begs the question on the accountability of the media.Should there be a penalty or a public admonition of the media if they repeatedly get their predictions incorrect.Even though this might sound like a far cry, media seemed to have taken a high moral ground against Trump.It's no big secret that Trump had made denigrating comments on Mexicans,passed inappropriate comments on women besides a host of other things which are not expected of a Presidential candidate.There should be no love lost for Trump.However the media by taking a high moral pedestal failed to have its ears to the ground and failed to understand the brewing anger in the country.They seemed to have forgotten that Flint,Michigan and Cleveland,Ohio are as much part of the nation as a New York or a San Francisco.

The frown and hypocrisy of the media got even worse on November 8th as it became clear that Trump emerged the clear winner and that too by a huge margin.Question's started emerging as to "What will I tell my 5 year old daughter " to "What has happened to our great nation " ?

The media focussed on Trump rather than understanding " What led to Trump " .Donald Trump was just a manifestation of the brewing discontent with the way politics has been carried on in Washington for many decades.Inspite of all his shortcomings,people voted in droves for Trump as they saw him as an outsider who could take on the status quo.Trump understood the pulse of the nation better than all the seasoned pros in the game.He called a spade a spade by talking about "radical Islam" which is clearly a threat to humanity.On the other hand,we had Hillary Clinton even refusing to talk about it.How would she , when 20% of her funding came from Saudi Arabia and her closest aide is Huma Abedin.Trump campaigned vigorously in the rust belt which Hillary ignored. Ofcourse ,Trump is treading on a dangerous path when he chooses to ignore climate change.There are a lot of other flaws in the Donald.But one thing he doesn't have is the hypocrisy of the Clinton camp.No matter how much she smiled,Hillary couldn't get over her emails.The Bernie supporters in hindsight feel cheated as Bernie would have emerged a sure shot winner against Trump.

Proferssor Alan Lichtman had correctly predicted using a 13 point system that Trump would emerge the winner.No one believed him then.

Professor Lichtman has gone onto predict that Trump would be impeached.Exciting days ahead.

What makes Donald Trump tick ?

The last 6 months has seen the rise and rise of Donald Trump from a political pariah to being the Republican party's nominee for the US presidential elections.You can hate him but time has proved that you surely cannot ignore him.So what makes him tick ?

1)Tap into the fears of people

Over the last 1 year,Trump has repeatedly trumpeted "fear" into the American consciousness.He stoked controversy by proposing a plan to ban "Muslim Immigrants" to US until they "figure out what's going on".Sounds easy to the ear but this is a complex problem which cannot be solved by one man or nation over a decade.

The liberals caught onto this and Trump had to face the heat on social media and from leaders world wide,especially the Arab world.However,Trump has stuck to his views and the primaries in the Southern states paid him rich dividents. Apart from Texas,Ted Cruz who was supposed to be the blue eyed boy of the evangelicals switched their allegiance to the Trump camp.

Was this his genuine view or a well thought out statement to get votes ?  Trump alone knows!

2)White supremacy & Utopia

The conservatives view Trump as having a lot of qualities that they would like to live with.Rich,white man with a beautiful wife running a successful business running around with a slogan of "Make America Great Again".

Trump constantly talks of China and Asia stealing the jobs away.Globalization is a reality and the sensible Americans have realized that globalization and offshoring is an irreversible phenomenon.The slogan of "Make American Great Again" has caught on with the conservatives whou would love to see their country retain the growth of the 70's and 80's.Again an impossible proposition.

Apart from criticizing of outsourcing and slogan monkering, Trump is yet to come out with solid bullet point steps that the US needs to take up to make his statement come true.

3)Being unpredictable and grab the media's attention

The media just loves Donald Trump because the man is unpredictable & can say anything anytime unlike the pre-determined responses of a Hillary Clinton or Obama.Watching CNN and Fox over the last year has been an incredibly boring affair with spotlights constantly on Trump's shenanigans.Trump has so far not outlined any specific steps on fixing the US debt or healthcare.Much of the earlier campaign was mud sliging at Rubio and Cruz.Trump has patted himself on the back repeatedly for his business acumen of knowing when to enter and exit a business.However it remains to be seen if business acumen can ever translate to good foreign policy.

It would be a fascinating election in November to see Trump take on the Democrats.It would be even more fascinating to see President Donald Trump in action.Meanwhile latest polls suggest that Bernie might do better against Trump rather than a Hillary.Hillary for all her experience certainly misses the charisma of an Obama.The email server and Bengazhi has been a thorn for her team throughout the campaign trail.

Interesting days ahead !!

Would taking acting lessons help make you a better executive ?

Taking acting lessons might be a good way for executives to be better at their job.The skill set requirements for an actor and executives find a lot of meeting points,some of which are discussed below.

1)Being in the moment 

One of the main qualities that a good actor needs to imbibe is to be constantly be in the present moment.Acting is a form of meditation where the actor has to leave his personal problems aside and get into the heart and mind of the character being portrayed.Executives often have trouble being present with distractions and stresses in the personal life to issues with multi-tasking.Research has proved time and again that the mind by nature functions best when it is focused on one particular activity.

Great actors like Robert Deniro,Al Pacino,Marlon Brando & Mohanlal have an uncanny ability to be completely immersed in their present and react to the ongoing situation in a calm and relaxed way.Being present in the moment also leads one into a zone where the mind can function from a higher intelligence.

2)Understanding different perspectives

A good actor is always aware of the emotion that is conveyed in every situation.A good actor also understands the script and story in whole and is not just bothered about his or her part in the plot.Likewise,an executive cannot function as an island without understanding the broader vision of the organization and needs to work in a selfless manner to get the respect of his team mates.

3)Being authentic

Actors have to portray broad range of emotions in a short span of time and have to be authentic throughout.Audience would be able to tell in a whisker between a genuine actor and a struggling actor who tries to be too hard.

4)Being a good listener

Good actors have to not only act but also react efficiently to other co-actors.Likewise,executives should not focus only on their side of the story or try to push their agenda on their reportees. The corporate world has a big share of managers and leaders who might achieve their targets but keep the employees disgruntled leading to higher attrition rates.To be a good listener,one would need to keep out their personal biases out and listen in a completely non judgmental way.

5)Timing 

Timing is a key factor which distinguishes a good actor from a mediocre one.Actors have to appear on the scene and move out at the right time.They also have to constantly react to the changes.Executives would need to imbibe the same qualities to stay afloat and shine in the constantly changing market place.They would need remain abreast of the latest innovations and technology.

7)Body language & Voice modulation

Good actors have to modulate their tone as per the scene.Similarly managers would need to wear different hats on any given day.There will be situations where one would need to be come affirmative in his/her actions ,words and others where an empathetic tone would do the work.

A person who has no self awareness would not be able to manage his thoughts and emotions.An executive just like a good actor would need to display heightened sense of sensitivity to situations and events around him/her.

All in all,taking acting classes and being part of dramas and films might provide a sense of direction and drive to executives who are looking to advance in their professional life's.

Minneapolis - A shining example for other metros to emulate

Having lived in Los Angeles,Dallas and Minneapolis,I can vouch for the fact that the Greater Metro Area of Minneapolis beats LA and Dallas hands down.

Minneapolis stands apart as a shining example for other metros in the US and even the world to emulate.

Key selling points of the Twin Cities(Minneapolis-StPaul) are :

1.Fiscal equalization:

Unlike other metros Minneapolis has religiously stuck to the fiscal equalization policy whereby the rich are taxed and the funds sprinkled to the lesser developed parts of the city.This has resulted in almost zero ghettos in the Greater Minneapolis-St Paul metro area & almost equal quality of life throughout the metro area.This phenomenon is in strange contrast to the picture in cities like Los Angeles,New York or Dallas where the economic divide is clearly visible geographically.Sticking to this policy has ensured that the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St Paul has plenty of well maintained parks,schools,biking trails,roads and other amenities.

The rich in places like San Francisco get into a shell and ensure that the middle income and lower sections of the society are pushed out of the metro limits thereby leading to a feeling of isolation and crime.If you earn 100 000$ in Minneapolis,you would need double that to maintain the same quality of lifestyle in a place like San Francisco.It remains to be seen on how long the real estate bubble in a city like San Fran can sustain where it has virtually impossible for a family earning 60 000$ per year to survive.

2.Blend of the urban and the rural

Minneapolis–St. Paul is the headquarters for 19 Fortune 500 companies—more than any other metro its size—spanning retail (Target), health care (UnitedHealth), and food (General Mills). In the past 60 years, 40 Minneapolis-based businesses have made it onto Fortune’s list.

If you drive an hour from the twin cities,soy and corn farmlands greet you with open arms.The twin cities offer a perfect blend of nature with its lakes,beautifully preserved parks,corporates and farms.

Minneapolis stands out as a shining example for the metros in the developing world on how to strike a balance between growing prosperity and respecting nature.To the credit of the legislators,the parks and lakes are preserved in all its natural elegance.It is no surprise that Minnesota has the 2nd highest lifespan in the US after Hawaii.Minnesotans' take advantage of the biking trails and parks to the hilt and keep themselves in shape.

3.Highest employment rate for the millennials in US

Most impressive of all, the Twin Cities have the highest employment rate for 18-to-34-year-olds in the country.If you are a student,a single bed room apartment is available starting from 800 $ to 1300 $.Student's find it easier to start with part time jobs as they work their way up the career.3 bed ,4 bath homes are available in the range of 250 000$ to 340 000 $ in plenty in great schooling districts all over the metro area.If you are ready to work hard,opportunities are plenty in the Twin cities.

4.Workforce 

The saying in the metro area is that it is very difficult to get someone to move to Minneapolis and it is even more difficult to get someone to leave Minneapolis.People fear the winter and refrain from moving but once they move in,they swear to never move out.Most of the corporate sector has managers in the 30's and 40's who were born in Minnesota and passed out of its colleges.They never care to move out of state.This ensures that the Twin cities has a rich talented workforce.

All in all, a great place to live and raise a family !!