Business At The Same Old Stand

A cursory review of Japan's history reaches a staggering conclusion.

Between 1659 and 1854 Japan was a closed society ruled by the Shogunate. Twenty years after the opening of Japan, the people in power replaced the Shogunate with a constitution and an emperor. Japan swiftly became the industrial powerhouse of Asia, while the Japanese people were schooled in the ritual obeisance of an agrarian empire.

In WW II the Japanese followed their leaders to a bitter end, still largely under the impression that they were defending "traditional values". To the credit of the Japanese people, the Americans became increasingly desperate to negotiate a surrender with the Emperor before a widespread revolution broke out and replaced feudalism, as happened in Germany and Russia at the end of WW I.

Today, in the US, we see the same jujitsu practiced on rightwingers. Believing that they are upholding "tradition", they support Republicans who doubled the national debt, call for an end to immigration, and would strike every clause from the Bill of Rights except for the Second.

Would these idiots follow their leaders to the total destruction of the US? They already are.

Move That Clock Towards Midnight

Yesterday the Democrats in Congress ran around in a frighteningly Chicken Little mode. What should they have done?

They should have withheld comment and met in a Congressional "huddle". They should have asked each other what problems they had and talked it out then and there- in private- before issuing any statements.

Hopefully, there were over 200 Representatives who did just that- which highlights the importance of being on-message in a Republican media environment. Barney Frank will have a hard time living this one down.

Obama In The Catbird's Seat

First, let us note that Obama sings sweeter than any bird- he is the 21st century William Jennings Bryan. In Oslo, he explains why he wages war, in an acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize- and they stay to applaud.

This guy could sell iceboxes to Eskimos.

Equally shrewdly, his "passive" presidential style splits the opposition. He will only lead on matters in which the Executive is expected and required to lead. Anyone attacking him is also attacking the powers of the next president.

Republicans are thus split. Those who want to preserve the powers of the presidency can't attack Obama, but an apparently larger number of Republicans derive more pleasure from whining about how they are mistreated, and would happily throw out the baby with the bathwater.

It's actually a pretty good position from which to drive forward a progressive agenda- if the rest of the team could start making the plays.

What Did You Expect?

Faced with great challenges, we're learning that the US Congress has no great talent for governing. Who knew?

After all, they looked like they were governing when they passed the laws industries wanted, paid for the roads people wanted, and kept the economy at, at least, a mild simmer with Keynesian war-spending and Social Security.

Oh, sure, there were some troubling signs, such as their failure to save us $2 trillion over the past 40 years by legalizing drugs, or the fact that they couldn't enact taxes to pay for all the war spending. But that was, in a sense, the beauty of the thing- the money just kept rolling in and 2% of us became immeasurably wealthy.

But here we are now with a situation nobody expected- there aren't any more continents where we can "discover" natural resources, and all of our pointless (or worse) expense is hanging heavily on our shoulders in a lean and mean world economic environment.

The good news for people is that universal social services actually strengthen the body politic, so many nations do better at providing health care or education than we do. Whether the Congress will discover this in time for it to be good news for Americans remains a big question

I Just Like This Picture...

Catnip!

From Chuck Wolfe's blog.