Prime minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and his wife, Yuko Kishida, are in Washington, D.C., tonight at a state dinner hosted by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
I have deja vu of Black Monday in 1977 when Youngstown Sheet and Tube, the fifth largest steel company in the world was closed by a Japanese takeover, to gain a monopoly in the seamless pipe industry. Youngstown went from one of the wealthiest regions to one of the poorest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Youngstown,_Ohio
The large corporations, which mostly support Republicans have sent millions of manufacturing jobs overseas.
The first time I went into a Walmart was in Springfield, MO in 1984. There were signs everywhere in red, white and blue saying, "Buy American". But slowly Sam Walton started buying cheap goods from China. My brother-in-law lost his garment factory in North Carolina and laid off over 50 workers because Sam Walton and others started buying from China and other 3rd world Asian countries sewn by women and children working 12 hour shifts 6 days a week.
It wasn't just the rust belt jobs that disappeared, it was a broad cross-section of manufacturing jobs. And in response the Republicans have kept wages low so that their large corporations can reap larger profits.
Unfortunately, it's a frog in water problem. The economy has slowly shifted over the past 50 years stagnating wages in the US. Finally, the Biden administration is turning things around with union contracts involving UPS, UAW, Teamsters and others.
Yeah but can Biden do something to lower prices on food, gas & rent? That's what many people judge the economy by and I hate to say it, but right now it doesn't look so good!
Inflation remains a concern, and housing is absurd at the moment. But it's a free market, so there is little that Biden can do to lower rents or the price of eggs (without being called a socialist.) He can continue to point out the income disparity between labor and corporate CEOs while repeating his support for unions and his record of wage growth under his administration. He can also continue to call out companies making record profits while prices rise.
and that is why Biden needs to speak to we the people weekly and tear down the argument of socialism which we have in this country i.e. military, police, firefighters, roads, bridges, highways, water to our homes along with sewer and electrification to our homes. The rest of the socialism is written for the billionaire class.
Only to the extent he can get Johnson to bring the Ukraine funding to a vote. No doubt it will pass unless he puts in poison pills like he tried to do with the budget.
The Democrats need to focus on how Johnson is doing Trump's bidding on preventing border security and abortion. 3.5% inflation is not a big deal especially since wages have increased over 4.2%.
What would help is to shut Fox News, Newsmax and other far right media, the fuck up.
Inflation is always a big deal politically, even if it is not a big effect on people’s ability to spend. That is, not for the people who aren’t already swimming upstream financially. Consumer spending is not down, overall.
Unfortunately many people do not understand where inflation comes from, or what any government or president can do about it.
Don't forget TFG and his conman son-in-law Kushy are working with the Saudis and others in the Mideast to not just wildly enrich themselves but will use those mideastern influences to shift gas prices upwards and do everything they can to help tank the economy as the election nears. There was a reason Saudi Arabia was the very first country they visited after stealing the election in 2016
I remain suspicious of price-and supply-fixing by the 1%'ers who are at the top of the corporations that control food, fuel and housing industries. They are the areas of the economic recovery that continue to lag behind. How do the Dem campaigns counter that, either by correcting it or with messaging about what is happening?
Me too. It looks like political maneuvering already. As prices rise, belief in the Democratic party wains, but the fault really lies with the monopolies and profiteering.
The President has almost no control over the economy. He cannot set prices. Do you want to cool inflation? Stop shopping for things you really don't need.
Controlling inflation will slow increase in prices, but getting someone to lower prices like rent, gas, food etc. is difficult once they have seen that people will pay it.
In the 80's citizens had a choice to buy American or buy Chinese. A shirt, for example, could not be created, shipped and retailed for $5 without enslaving someone, somewhere. Consumers didn't care; most of us wanted those $5 shirts, especially for children who would grow out of them in a year. When I was young, baby and children's clothing were shared, passed down in families and among friends. With the influx of cheap Chinese children's clothing, that was no longer necessary. Some of us held out, trying to buy as much American as we could, but that became more difficult over time. I remember trying to buy USA made shoes and not being able to find a pair that wasn't $150 at the time. I was a single mom; I could buy one pair of expensive shoes for myself, but shoes for the kids had to come from China. Our domestic shoe industry had cratered. That's the story on most of our textiles.
We can blame greedy capitalists for our situation, and they are a huge part of the problem. But they would not have prevailed had we not bought their goods.
Yes, and all that cheap stuff is now mountains of textile waste that has nowhere to go. We can blame greedy capitalism for the Climate Crisis, but we'd rather spend our rage complaining about the high prices of things we don't really need.
Gary Loft. You are absolutely right., Walton was a major factor in turning our small appliance and electronics mjg over to Japan. Our government choose to let our steel industry slip away in favor of profits to large corporations. Tire mfg and many other vital industries were lost. We lost our major sources of technological innovation such as G.E., Westinghouse, IBM due to their loss of funds to invest in research. There is a lesson for the free marketers., more so for us.
The Koch Brothers pipeline (Trans-XL) was going to be made from Indian steel. I think they even took delivery of much of it. That entire project was maddening. Both the Republicans and the Democrats were pissed off at the route through Nebraska. Nebraska has few natural resources but the major one is the Oglala aquifer, the largest in the world, and it went right through the eastern part of the aquifer. The pipeline design didn't even use the latest oil spill notification technology and Trans-XL had several previous pipeline spills.
The Republican governor approved the route for the pipeline, but the bureaucracy kept it from ever being started. The Obama administration also opposed the project and prevented construction to begin. Trump wanted to revive the project but Trans-XL finally caved and killed it.
I'm convinced low wages are at the root of today's politics. I've heard that 40% of Americans don't have access to $400.
All the talk about the great economy misses these millions of people. There is great stress resulting from insecurities around food, school, transportation, health, and work. A lot of Trump voters are in this group.
Most of these people are working if they can. But their wages don't cover their needs. Like Walmart workers on food stamps.
And that was when Ohio went from reliably Blue to horribly Red. All the yokels from Youngstown, and then down along the Ohio River, have always blamed Democrats for this, and will never forgive them.
The two books that I think reflect on what is going on in Ohio and the Midwest are Timothy Egan's book "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's. IMO, MAGA is the KKK, 21st century edition. And then Thomas Frank's book, "What's the Matter with Kansas," describing how wedge issues were and are being used to induce average Americans to vote against their own best social and economic interests. And then there is the study by two Univ. of Kansas professors entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920517740615
At its core are racism and white Protestant Christian nationalism.
Agree, Richard. As you know I grew up in Indiana, Elkhart, which was full of manufacturing of all kinds. Then during the Obama era it was the poster child for things gone wrong and Obama visited, I think more than once. I am on blog called I grew up in Elkhart, Indiana where people lament how wonderful downtown used to be and haven't figured out that they voted with their dollars running to Walmart and now ordering from Amazon which I consider to be a loathsome company. I hadn't been in a Walmart until I went to one in Arlington, Illinois, when we had a travel emergency. I felt like I was on a different planet. I am not a fan of any kind of other than local business, and that also applies to restaurants. We recently went to Bag O' Crab because a friend picked that for her birthday celebration. Surreal. The place was packed with people in bibs with plastic gloves slurping up crab and other things. They had robots that brought out the food and of course, sang happy birthday. We managed to eat no seafood. Never again.
It had a drastic effect in Pennsylvania, also. More than 15,000 steelworkers and another 35,000 in related industries lost jobs. The Ecumenical Coalition of the Mahoning Valley, a diverse group of religious leaders and unions, tried to buy S&T and reopen it as an employee-owned company. However when the government refused to guarantee their loans, the project failed.
See Staughton Lynd. THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA OF A COMMUNITY RIGHT TO INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY IN YOUNGSTOWN AND PITTSBURGH, 1977-1987.
Yeah, I have a lot of family in the Clearfield County area of western PA, and they blame Carter and the Demo-crats to this day. Just can't get it through to them that their lives are better now than 5 years ago, and that if they follow the ups and downs over the past 50 years, the ups are D's, and the downs are R's. Thanks for the link; I'll do some looking.
DuBois. Just a few miles to the south, the Johnstown flood and the demise of Bethlehem Steel in Altoona and Johnstown have turned it into Trump country.
Mostly visceral. "Trump hates dogs" and "Trump stole from kids with cancer" work as an antidote with some of them.
Democrats left the working class in the dust of globalization. Sending manufacturing overseas was inevitable. And one could make the case that improved living conditions in those countries forstalled conflicts.
But as those companies departed for other places for cheap labor and lax environmental controls, they should have been required, in partnership with the Federal government, to provide a pathway to new employment. And the closing of those factories should have given all the stake holders time to adjust.
The people who were deserted all over the US are now the MAGA maniacs. I would be angry, too.
While I agree with all of the comments here about the loss of manufacturing jobs, particularly in the "rust belt," don't forget that private investment in U.S.-based manufacturing facilities reached RECORD HIGHS in 2023 - in part due to Biden's actions. It's pretty astounding if you look at some of the projects being developed.
Will they restore the millions of manufacturing jobs that disappeared over the last few decades? No. But manufacturing in the U.S. is not dead. In fact, companies are having a hard time finding skilled workers as high school students have been pushed to get a four-year college degree. There are lots of well-paying job opportunities out there in the manufacturing sector (and the trades as well) that don't require bachelor's degrees.
I get on my high horse about this because I see too many people who haven't been paying attention... who continue to believe that "all the manufacturing jobs are gone," etc. I'm sure this includes many in the MAGA crowd.
I see lots of memes about the 4 year college/trade thing. We can and should do both as students need help to develop their talents whatever they are. We need both plumbers and doctors, for example. When I was in education, 70s through the 90s, the school had shop classes. It was sometime hard to find teachers because they could make more money elsewhere. I think part of the problem was needing expensive equipment to teach what was happening in some of the trades. Here in Salem, the district has two separate campuses devoted to trade education.
There seems little synopsis of whether it’s the R’s or the D’s who did the dirty down falls except towards the cleanup of disastrous decisions, what does stand supremely naked is the widened riff of rich vs poor and to whom and where they lay.
Are the problems not mostly revolving in the south ,mainly most the black/ethnic diverse , densely populated sectors owned by white landlords, and tax revenues diminished ? While consumer spending accounts for 2/3 of our GDP who contributes or carries the brunt of the load - are they where the profits are best returned to benefit.
Not so fast with your indictment of Democrats! Who owned the companies that moved overseas??? The Walton’s anti competition model destroyed the working class!! The bought cheap products used to under sell ‘Mom and Pop’ local hardware stores, clothes stores and local manufacturers!
Walton’s ‘ faux ‘free market’ policy is sell low, crush the competition and offer low, stagnating wages to the unemployed!
Not to mention Walmart's consistent corporate policy of underpaying their "associates" on the floor of their retail stores. For many years, Walmart retained sophisticated labor lawyers to resist to the hilt in federal courts any claims of wage theft or unfair labor practices. Probably still does. [Does anyone here have current information on the subject?]
See "Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry" (2024) by Austin Frerick. An excerpt was re-published by Salon last month.
The products may be cheap, but they don't last. I bought one garden product from a local company, but it was made in China and fell apart before I had used it even one year. My neighbor used to sew and one of the reasons she no longer does, is that she says it is difficult to get good material. We make an effort to buy US made and from local companies, restaurants, and farmers.
In part. But mostly racism -- fruit of Nixon's southern strategy. .
What happened is that capital gains policy made it more feasible to sell assets rather than plow profits into plant, equipment and research. Companies got tax deductions for shipping their equipment abroad. We sold the goose that laid the golden egg.
Meanwhile, starting in 1973, as the dollar was floated, our economy was undermined by price fixing by OPEC, which was like a tax on industry, and eventually led to control of our domestic companies in the energy sector.
Also, we no longer regulated monopolies and oligopolies.
Nixon's southern strategy pitted ethnic groups against each other and Reagan policy opposed labor. Clinton acquiesced to most of this.
If the cost of goods sold is the measure, given the digital revolution, increased productivity, the cost of labor is a minor factor. I.E. It costs more to ship many goods from China than it was to make them!
Thank you Daniel. All great points. So we add "divide and conquer" to the GOP Oligarch's tool box. How sad. How transparent. People of all colors, origins and persuasions are victims of the same cabal. Yet they have pitted us against each other. Brilliantly diabolical.
And now the GOP has Russian to help continue their destruction of what could have been a unity of kindred souls. Workers.
Bill, while the "dust of globalization" was Inevitable and prevented some both national and international conflicts, the responsibility lies with the companies, who simply chased the almighty $$ and left their people in the dust.
Daniel, whose post (should, maybe, perhaps) precede mine here, also lays the blame at the Southern strategy, and the lack of regulation for monopolies/oligopolies.
AND the companies & the corporate top dogs are doing that now - even more while the Dem administrations get the blame - as usual.
How about billboards (I'm big on them!) with a chart of Dem & REpub administrations showing right in big numbers the ups & downs of these economies - maybe in red letters!!!
Getting it thru people's heads what the truth is sure is a lot harder than it is for them to believe the big or little lies!
And we cannot let the American people off the hook in this. We LOVED the cheap stuff we could consume. And with the Fairness Doctrine dropped, we could content ourselves by sitting on the couch watching infotainment. We believed in the myth that someone will save us. We voted for very charismatic politicians, but that wasn’t the answer. WE needed to get off our asses. Many today are doing exactly that, and it’s making positive difference.
Yes. I certainly defer to Daniels greater experience and understanding of these issues. That's one reason why I love Substack. So much great information from learned souls.
Reagan convinced about two thirds if white Americans to adopt the trickle-down fantasies of Milton Friedman. We can attribute almost entirely to Reagan’s popularity with white Americans the brutal domination of the economy by large, unregulated corporations.
Historically, companies have moved jobs to areas where they can pay low wages. Textile and furniture making jobs moved from New England to the South. Then to countries like Pakistan, Guatemala, Vietnam, China, etc. Walmart has ALWAYS been about low prices. They would move into a community selling goods produced cheaply overseas, undercut local businesses and watch local merchants go out of business, which dramatically hurt those communities. Sam Walton exulted in driving his competitors out of business and having employees apply for government benefits, so his company didn't need to pay benefits.
Yup. My Dad worked for a carpet manufacturer in CT - for decades. He designed carpet making machines. Then in the early 70's he was approached with a new assignment if he wanted to retain his job. Lead the process of disassembling the machinery and reassembling it in Georgia and South Carolina. When that was complete, he was offered the chance to retain his job again by moving to SC. Somewhere along this process, the carpet company was bought by S&H Green Stamps (?) and then by Chris-Craft Boat (huh?). The age of conglomeration, I guess.
Eventually Dad retired from the carpet company. And guess what? In the several transactions of one takeover after another, his pension had disappeared. Gone. Fortunately there was a government program that restored a smaller portion of that retirement plan. But it was minimal. All that company loyalty, all those decades of commitment was pissed on by the stockholders. Welcome to an unregulated capitalism that benefits the rich and ignores the sacrifices of the worker.
The complaints about inflation: 1) that’s how jobs went South then out of the country—we pay more for better quality; 2) climate change, faced or not, brings higher prices for all food and water filtering products and wood. The next pandemic will require more subsidies for survival unless Biden’s policies allow the average American to have savings (for a rainy day was never truer) to get survival requirements. It’s time to grow your own vegetables, opt for public transportation to which you can walk (that’s not going backwards, it’s why Europe is ahead of US fighting climate change). Most of all, it’s time to quit yelling about inflation and recognize that all of US must learn what our forebears knew about health, which was more vegetables and fewer pills!
Bill, 201 years ago, in 1823, the Nashua (NH) Manufacturing Corp. was founded to build and operate textile mills using at first water power from the Nashua River and then steam to run the looms. Workers, including my grandmother, migrated to the small community to operate the machines. There was always tension between the NMC and its labor force over harsh conditions and long hours in the sprawling mill complex, but the city grew by leaps and bounds and it was a blue-collar community of immigrants from Canada, Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, etc.
Cut to the 1940s, when Textron, which succeeded NMC, closed all the mills to move jobs and machines to the Carolinas where costs were cheaper. (As you probably know, similar mill closures occurred all of New England.) Former employees and city officials were outraged but were powerless to reverse the catastrophic economic effects, and the mill buildings were largely dark and quiet (there were some non-textile factories that continued to operate.)
It took decades, but today these same remaining buildings provide upscale housing to thousands, and jobs for many more. High-tech R&D and manufacturing have replaced belt-driven machinery -- Dean Kamen's companies in Manchester along the Merrimack River are a prime example.
Hopefully Youngstown and other communities who lost their economic engines can find new ones.
Thankfully many of these 19th-century buildings weren't taken down, despite the fact that they were a visual blight in their communities. Having them be repurposed into housing etc. is a way to revitalize and rebuild the downtowns into liveable, walkable neighborhoods.
AS a steel-worker in the labor pool at J.&L. Steel in Pittsburgh during my college summers and watching 'my' Pittsburgh collapse in the late 1970s and 1980s, I can sympathize but noy empathize Why? Bec ause in the case of PGH, we did it to ourselves. From my days in the mill.
We lost the largest tin mill in the world in the 1930s. We had the benefit of a tariff. When it was removed (by the Republicans) tin crashed and took us with it.
We had a revival due to WWII, but soon industry left and we became a bedroom community. S&T was the clincher.
Before I left, in the 70s, I was on the board of the historical society. We learned nothing from history.
My dad used to recite verses from "The Deserted Village" a poem written by Oliver Goldsmith, 1770, which describes the decline of a village and the emigration of many of its residents to America. Goldsmith criticizes rural depopulation, the moral corruption found in towns, consumerism, enclosure, landscape gardening, avarice, and the pursuit of wealth from international trade.
We shudda known. To quote Bob Prince, "They had us all the way!"
Great comment. So many thanks. The only steel industry book I ever read was 'The Valley of Decision' by Marcia Davenport. Though a novelist and not an engineer, Ms Davenport obviously had spent a lot of time in steel mills.
I’ll comment briefly on growing up in Pittsburgh. Not the city, but close by suburbs. My father was an industrial engineer for USS. He worked in several mill offices, Irwin Works in Dravosburg, Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock then downtown in the U.S. Steel Building on Grant Street. My father-in-law, an immigrant from Poland after WWII, (also an engineer) became senior designer engineer and traveled the world designing steel mills. India, Japan, Germany were what I can recall. That was 1960’s through pre-Reagan 1980.
Both men were die hard republicans. Voted for Reagan both times. My father was the first to comment on the city starting to slip, he was becoming suspicious of something he couldn’t put his finger on. “We’re not hiring” or “Unions are destroying the industry” (although he never really bought that). He knew we were being sold out. One night after the nightly news, he told my mother ( very pro-union) “It’s all going to go away, someday soon”, and it all did.
P.S. so many places mentioned I remember from childhood. Lots of relatives in Cleveland. My in-laws transferred to Pittsburgh from Chicago.
My first experience is the closing of the Ellwood UUSteel mill in 1972. Edgar Speer, then president was from Ellwood City. My dad ran into him and asked whether he could do something for "his people." Speer told him that he always hated those people.
The article states US companies are investing in Japan, but Japan is also investing HERE, and it said mostly in manufacturing. So, does that means jobs coming back?
Important to note that the administration consists of a number of professional members who work behind the scenes to make American interests align with the interests of our allies. I noted this from today’s Heather letter: Kenneth Weinstein of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, suggested today that Japan “has quietly become America’s most important ally,”…..then this….. Weinstein also notes that Japan’s longstanding engagement in Southeast Asia means it has “forged relations of deep trust” there among countries that often eye the U.S. with deep distrust.
The Biden team has tremendous bench strength working on international relations. The US relies on those relationships to maintain a stable world order. Global security, founded in Bretton Woods, protects our country as well as our allies. It’s a shame that only one party in America understands that.
Yes, Gary, "a shame that only one party" works on, relies on international relations.
Trouble is, U.S. Republicans, and allied evangelical nationalists, all reduced themselves to be ever sucking up to either their billionaire paymasters, or their given cult abstractions, or both.
Clarence and his corrupt court, Marjorie Taylor Gazpacho and her illiteracy, and House Speaker Howdy Doody and his idol Putin all lack even a scintilla of the appreciation of history, the vital roles of individuals, the needs of working people, and the other workman-like details for public benefit programs which civilized people value and billionaires abhor.
OK, I understand white supremacy in Russia, in Hungary (though still quasi-Asiatic), in Meloni's Italy, in Bolsonaro's Brazil, and in too much of the current U.S.
But in Modi's India? In Arabic states importing powerless southeast Asian laborers and younger, service-minded young women? In China stiffing its Muslims? In Myanmar stiffing its Muslims? In Netanyahu-land stiffing its Muslims?
"Late stage," Tracy? You think we're nearly finished with decent life in a world ruled by social media billionaires, racist-baiting billionaires, standardized-testing-killing-the-schools billionaires, and the millions of biz school grads all-too-largely sucking up to the billionaires?
Points well taken. I was speaking specifically about America though. Republicans are rushing to force us to mirror those authoritarian countries before most Americans realize what's happening and start voting them out of power.
Last night PBS aired a segment on the Russian destruction of Evangelical & Protestant churches in Ukraine. Murder and exile of pastors. Maybe if more Evangelicals hear of this, a few minds might be swayed away from nationalism.
Naw, I don't think that will matter. They'll pervert their "beliefs" just as they have perverted the Bible. For them, the "Nationalism" is more important than the "Christian".
I don't hold much hope for that. The foundation of their faith is in the racism and sexism that is endemic in the Evangelical churches with which I am familiar.
Yes Diedra. "They"..! The "Evangelists"., have no clue what nationalism means. Fifty years from today, should things continue in the present direction it may be possible to look back and clearly see what went wrong and cite a reason why. In the present, "they" know not what they do..., and their ministers need that cash. Praise the Lord. - put some cash in that plate, y'all. Amen.
The Republican party is no longer a party loyal to the United States. It is an arm of Russia hell bent on destroying our democracy. We knew it with the Mueller report....it is mentioned by Republicans...it is mention here and there in House witness testimony. Why does no one say this in a way in which we stay focused on the destructive force it has become?
That's a tough pulpit to occupy. It requires charisma, character, and incredible balance. Balance being the all encompassing word here, together with 'Bullet-proof'. Timing is everything. This Administration is laying the groundwork. The past four years have been an unprecedented challenge for our country. We are un-raveling almost one hundred years of 'gerrymandering' by 'business' interests of which we have been a short-sighted accomplice - as Democrats and Republicans both. I'm anxiously awaiting that person to take the stage.
It's a tough pulpit to occupy.....? I understand balance. But ignoring the fact and slow walking solutions is not balance it's denial...it's a refusal to step out of our American exceptionalism that keeps us in denial that social media and Russian talking points in Congress could take us down. Like the environment.... everything has a tipping point. Let's not tiptoe ourselves into a full-blown fascist, Russian collaboration.
There is a thing that happens in social services to abused women and children. Many prefer to wait for proof rather than follow the evidence. Because well intentioned people don't want to make the mistake of erring on the side of the perpetrator. They don't want to call a domestic abuser an abuser because they may be wrong and start a chain of events that may go no where and reflect badly on the person who reported the abuse. It's easier just to say we don't really know what's going on we'll be balanced while we wait for more proof .. more evidence.
Here we are as a nation doing the same thing....clearly not funding Ukraine is in Russian favor, clearly DT invited a rebellion against our national government, clearly it is suspect that Congressmen visited Russia on July 4, clearly the Mueller report linked Manafort to Russian oligarchs.
I get not wanting to open a can of worms...but that's not balance. That's cowardice.
Decent people would react to abused women and children. They'd react to the right-in-your-face Russian barbarism and U.S. Republican complicity in that.
Too many have become anesthetized, Susan. But our billionaire classes, for the sake of their own predations, engineered that, first and most simply by killing humanities in schools, K-12 to higher.
Phil, I did take offense at using poor Howdy Doody in relations to that rag doll House Speaker. Keep our finer members of memory on the shelf of honor! Please .
Donald is Putins useful tool and everyone connected to him should be kicked out of the country. If Putin's plan is allowed to be carried out, he will consume Europe and then colonize the USA . What do we have to do to light a fire under Republclown asses and get them moving in a democratic direction???
This statesmanship that is brought by a highly professional and experienced team of professionals is in stark contrast to the type of political hacks we could look forward to if the GOP presidential candidate prevails. There is a cohort of dedicated, professional, and experienced diplomats behind the scenes in all our international relations. Without this steady hand of leadership , even more chaos would prevail. There is a “deep bench” not a deep state.
During the first impeachment hearings of the insipid clown, I was so impressed with the dedication of our diplomats who had come up through the ranks with years of service to our nation, I had never given a thought to service in the diplomatic corps. Listening to Marie (our former ambassador to Ukraine) speak impressed me with the dedication that is rampant in the corps, I found it similar to my experience serving with a Ranger Company in VN. There is a “deep bench” indeed George, populated by civil servants dedicated to serving our nation, if you watched the impeachment hearings like I did, you were exposed to their dedication to our country, what a great way to serve. 🙏
'The war in Ukraine has eaten up time and attention that might otherwise have been devoted to Asia, but it’s also heightened concerns about the threat China poses to Taiwan and its military ambitions in the region.' (WAPO, By Theodoric Meyer and Leigh Ann Caldwell)
Krishnamoorthi (D-Il) told us told us Ukraine came up all the time when he and Gallagher (R-Wis) traveled to Taiwan in February.'
“Every single conversation involved a discussion of Ukraine and what is Congress going to do with regard to Ukraine,” Krishnamoorthi said. “And the Taiwanese across the spectrum [were] urging us to support Ukraine as strongly as we possibly can and to pass the supplemental national security request. Why? Because they see their own future threatened by the CCP.”
'The Senate passed legislation in February to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza that also included nearly $5 billion for Indo-Pacific allies, including Taiwan. Johnson has pledged to take up the legislation in the House but hasn’t done so.'
'WHAT TO EXPECT TODAY'
'Christopher Johnstone, a former National Security Council official in the Obama and Biden administrations who’s the Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said he expected Kishida to discuss Ukraine when he addresses Congress this morning.'
“He’s going to emphasize the importance of U.S. support for Ukraine,” 'Johnstone said.' “That’s kind of a remarkable thing coming from an Indo-Pacific leader — and I think has a bigger impact than the same message coming from a European partner.”
'Biden’s meeting with Kishida and Marcos this afternoon, meanwhile, is remarkable for the speed with which the U.S. has repaired its relationship with the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos’s predecessor, said in 2020 that he would pull out of a long-standing military pact, known as the Visiting Forces Agreement, but later reversed himself.'
'Now the U.S. is building a' “latticework” of alliances — 'as Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, calls it — that includes the Philippines.'
“It’s not NATO, but we’re moving in the direction of significant minilateral cooperation among friends in response to China’s behavior,” 'Johnstone said.' (WAPO with research by Tobi Raji) Copied in full.
You’ve amplified the idea I was attempting to express that our strength as a nation, is intertwined with our ties to free nations globally. Borrowing a thought, no nation is an island, especially not ours.
It was a borrowed thought from the poet John Donne. All people are connected to and dependent on other people. That applies to nations as well. Cheers!
It takes a committed TEAM. This "I alone can fix it" bullshit is gaslighting to the core! Republicans want small government 🙄 because they don't want to do the committed task of governance! Just obstruct and go on right-wing shows😖💙💙💙
And there's more - the President is negotiating to connect the notorious AUKUS agreement, engineered by Boris Johnson (of unpleasant memory), with these moves for co-operation, which gives it some sense (although the UK doesn't have a stake in the Pacific). The emphasis on "co-operation" rather than "defense". My admiration for Biden grows.
'Keeping China close but Japan-Philippines closer' (Politico by Matt Berg and Eric Bazail-Eimil)
'The White House is celebrating tightening ties with Japan and the Philippines to counter China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific — days after toasting the stabilization of relations with Beijing.'
'Japanese Prime Minister FUMIO KISHIDA spoke alongside President JOE BIDEN at the White House this afternoon, a moment that underscored Tokyo’s major defense upgrades with Washington’s backing. On Thursday, they’ll hold the first-ever trilateral summit with Philippines President FERDINAND MARCOS JR., cementing one of the administration’s main priorities: Creating a regional alliance against China.'
'The timing is somewhat ironic. As loyal NatSec Daily readers know, U.S. officials spoke with their Chinese counterparts many times last week. In one instance, the Pentagon built on months of talks between top officials, culminating in the resumption of a meeting designed to prevent conflict in the Indo-Pacific. Even Xi said the U.S.-China relationship' “is beginning to stabilize.”
'This week, the Biden administration is aiming to' “make China isolated and the outlier in the neighborhood,” 'a senior administration official told reporters Wednesday evening, granted anonymity as a condition to preview the visit.'
'The summit aims to redefine the Japan-U.S. alliance from' “alliance protection to alliance projection” 'in areas including Europe and the Middle East, the official added, saying Japan will now be a' “full global partner” 'of the United States. That includes more integration of U.S., Japanese and regional forces in the Indo-Pacific, and the creation of a council to discuss co-production of defensive weapons.'
'If the White House pulls off this week without any major rebuke from Beijing, they would have good reason to pop champagne: The U.S. was able to improve communication channels with its adversary, the main goal in that fraught relationship, while demonstrating to China that Washington won’t stand idly by if conflict breaks out in the region.'
'But China could also view the Biden-Kishida-Marcos victory lap as the one of the strongest denunciations of Beijing’s actions in the Indo-Pacific yet and again limit communication on military matters with the U.S.'
'The Biden administration isn’t losing sleep over ruffling Xi’s feathers, who met with the former Taiwanese president today — an apparent message to the U.S. that China remains focused on reunification with the island nation despite the trilateral this week.'
'Asked if the White House believes the summit could backfire, a senior administration official told NatSec Daily,' “I don’t think we do, no.”
'This week’s summit' “speaks to the broader end goal of there being less surprises in the relationship,” 'said the official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal discussions.' “There’s not anything that’s gonna get telegraphed here that isn’t something that has already been communicated” 'to Beijing.' (Politico: With help from Phelim Kine, Connor O’Brien and Daniel Lippman) Copied in full.
Joe Biden is a ‘silent strong man’ unlike the loud mouth convicted con man who preceded him as POTUS! Concerned with ruffling feather? Worry about meeting backfire?
Such an attitude is defeatist! Joe pokes, prods and starts controlled brush fires to establish his policies which have United the democratic countries around the globe!
FERN, thank you for your outline of Indo-Pacific matters. My understanding is the Biden, Marcos & Kashida get-together includes team meetings at Camp David on the "unprecedented dredging & artificial island building" in the Spratlys off the Philippines creating "3,200 acres of new land" per the satellite imagery & data collection of AMTI, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.
AMTI has the latest satellite imagery of island construction at Pacific pinpoints such as "Fiery Cross Reef" & other fortified Chinese island developments. Biden's international policy work now hopefully will keep these "islands" out of the headlines of tomorrow..
GeorgeC, thank you for your comment. I am replying to you with history professor Timothy Snyder's statement to the US Congress on behalf of Ukraine's survival. This is also a story that I would like be seen by as many people as possible.
'Friends,'
'I just took part in a team effort to get a message across to Congress.'
'If we do not help Ukraine now, we lose all the things that Ukrainians have won for all of us these last two years. The world changes in a way that tips the balance to the tyrants and the aggressors. This is laid out in the appeal, published by CNN.' (click link below to see link the substack and then to link for the appeal carried by CNN)
'Just in the hours since the appeal was published, its message has become the more urgent. As Congress does nothing, Russia is carrying out comprehensive missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The idea is to make the entire country cease to function.'
'Imagine what your life would be like if you local power station had just been destroyed by a ballistic missile. Because we are denying Ukraine the systems it needs to defend itself, the missiles and too many drones are getting through. This is one of countless problems that American aid could solve.'
'Please read the appeal and please share it. Please call your own Congressional representatives. Here is a guide to making those calls. If you want to donate directly to Ukraine’s anti-drone defense, you can do so here.'
'People of various outlooks and backgrounds chose on their own behalf to join the appeal to Congress — musicians, actors, thinkers, historians, entrepreneurs, diplomats. They represent the broad and diverse spectrum of people, a clear majority, who support Ukraine. '
'I respect everyone who joined this appeal for choosing to take a clear stand. It's easy to do nothing. But we can all do our little something. And now is very much the time.'
Yes. If we don’t help Ukraine now, Russia will continue its expansion, and ithat will cost us a lot more.unless we want to adopt Trump’s “vision”: a world dominated autocrats in a handful of nations.
‘There are almost daily headlines now describing what Donald Trump would do if elected: the mass deportations, the pardons handed out to his friends and golf buddies, the Justice Department settling scores and waging personal vendettas. The former president has even promised violence if the election goes against him, warning that it could be a “blood bath.”(NYTimes: Guest Essay by Caroline Fredrickson, excerpts)
‘But as worrying as these prospects are, they are far from the biggest threats he poses. What we should fear most is Mr. Trump transforming our government into a modern-day Tammany Hall, installing a kleptocratic leadership that will be difficult if not impossible to dislodge.’
‘I do not discount the possibility of state-sponsored violence, and I worry deeply about the politicization of the civil service. But those are, for the most part, threats and theories, and while they need to be taken seriously, people should be paying more attention to a far more likely reality: that Mr. Trump would spend much of his time in office enriching himself. He failed spectacularly as an insurrectionist and as a disrupter of the civil service, and his clownish and chaotic style may well lead to failure again — but he has succeeded time and time again in the art of the steal. If his grift continues into a second term, it will not only contribute to the fraying trust Americans have in their institutions, but also impair our ability to lead the world through a series of escalating crises.’
‘Recall how Mr. Trump operated in his first term. Not only did he keep his stake in more than a hundred businesses, he made it a practice to visit his properties around the country, forcing taxpayers to pay for rooms and amenities at Trump hotels for the Secret Service and other staff members who accompanied him — money that went straight into his bank accounts and those of his business partners. Those interested in currying favor with the president, from foreign governments to would-be government contractors, knew to spend money at his hotels and golf clubs. According to internal Trump hotel documents, T-Mobile executives spent over $195,000 at the Trump Washington Hotel after announcing a planned merger with Sprint in April 2018. Two years later, the merger was approved.’
‘Government, like fish, rots from the head down. Mr. Trump’s example freed up cabinet members to award huge contracts to their friends, business associates and political allies, while others ran their departments like personal fiefs. After the State Department’s inspector general was fired, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s use of official trips for clandestine meetings with conservative donors and his family’s alleged misuse of staff members for tasks like walking his dog, picking up his wife from the airport and fetching his takeout came to light. And, in addition to being accused of improperly accepting gifts from those seeking influence, several other cabinet members were alleged to have used government funds for private travel. These may seem like banal infractions, but taken together, they are a reflection of who Mr. Trump is and how he governs.’
‘Throughout his life, through Trump-branded wine, chocolate bars, sneakers, NFTs, ties, MAGA paraphernalia, a $59.99 Bible (of all things) and, most recently, his Truth Social meme stock ploy, he has shown an unstoppable drive to enrich himself at all costs. He sees politics, like business, as a zero-sum game in which he wins only if someone else loses. These are the instincts that drive corruption, kleptocracy and grift. And, if past is prologue, we’re looking at a much more damaging sequel.’
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‘In a second term, Mr. Trump will have more freedom and power to undertake grift. He has already vowed to use pardons to protect supporters and possibly even himself from efforts to curb corruption (which may explain the nonchalance with which his son-in-law Jared Kushner has greeted criticism about the conflicts of interest raised by his recent real estate investments in Serbia and Albania, as well as the Saudi, Qatari and Emirati investments in his wealth fund). And he and his political advisers are building a deep bench of committed and loyal employees who could corrode and potentially destroy mechanisms of accountability in government, paving the way for kleptocratic leaders to entrench themselves in the bureaucracy where many would be able to remain past Mr. Trump’s term. And the mere presence of a phalanx of unquestioning lieutenants in the civil service will ensure that other civil servants fear retribution for objecting to the self-enrichment.’
‘In a kleptocracy, corruption is a feature, not a bug, where politicians apply the law inconsistently, favoring friends and punishing enemies. By controlling government assets and handing them out to friends and family — and dangling possibilities in front of would-be supporters — as well as using politically motivated prosecutions, kleptocrats cement their control of government and disempower opponents. We need only recall Russia’s erstwhile effort to create a democracy: It quickly drained away into the pockets of Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs, leading to the hopelessness and acquiescence of Russian citizens once they realized they could no longer change their situation through democratic means.’
‘Now we face that danger at home. If Mr. Trump wins, America will have a leader invested in his own personal power, both financial and punitive, and supported by a much more capable team. When lucrative contracts are handed out to Trumpist loyalists regardless of merit and dissident voices are targeted and silenced, America’s leadership on the global stage will dissolve when it’s needed most.’
‘The consequences will echo for generations if we lack the ability and the will to attack problems like climate change, mass migration, a new space race and multiple wars. Nothing of substance will be done, Mr. Trump’s cronies will continue to act with impunity, and millions of Americans — already worried that elites are held to a different standard than regular people are — will lose even more confidence in their government, convinced that everyone in Washington is out for himself.’
‘This combination of passivity on the one hand and impunity on the other could be fatal for our democracy. This is the true danger Mr. Trump poses.’ (NYTimes: ‘What Worries
Me Most About a Trump Presidency by Caroline Fredrickson) See gifted link below.
‘Ms. Fredrickson is an adviser at the Open Markets Institute, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University.’
Sickening to recall, Fern. On Tuesday I got into a cab to go to a dentist appointment in midtown New York City (costly these days, but I have a foot injury and couldn't walk further). The driver was listening to what I think of as hate radio—an endless stream of vitriol aimed at the "Biden crime family," finally interrupted by a diversion to the topic of the climate change hoax. It was a reminder of what we could easily revert to if Trump manages to return to the presidency. The unkempt driver, probably pushing seventy, would face a cut (or disappearance) of his Social Security check, but I guess he wouldn't have to worry about congestion pricing or other restraints on his freedom. Being faced with a root canal (not covered by Medicare), I didn't engage and gave him a tip and went to my appointment thoroughly depressed. If Biden is re-elected, I hope he restores the FCC so this stream of vitriol is held to account.
Not me. I have no reservations pointing out an asshole when it's warranted. With a reminder, "When you work for tips, don't assume you'll always get one. Earn it." Having said that, when someone earns it, I make sure to reward handsomely. Karma, you know?
I guess I'm a true New Yorker, and I figured the man was bitter enough. He delivered me to the entrance in a very skillful way, and I paid 15 percent. If I hadn't been so preoccupied about the upcoming root canal, I would have asked him to turn off the radio, though. You're already subjected to annoying real estate ads from a screen on back of the seat now.
OK, skillful driving in New York is worth acknowledging! Having never had a root canal, best I can relate might be to a proctological exam!! That usually caused major distraction for me!
Psychological warfare Dan. No tip would've served to comfirm his belief that his customer was a "libtard" and that he was successful in 'annoying her'...his unspoken goal, audibly listening to Squawk-radio. The "tip" (which probably wasn't that much) made him the loser in that little game. So.., Way to go, Progwoman! You won. That's how you beat these dildo's.
Fern, after listening to a discussion about Huey Long, one thing jumped out about his reign in Louisiana: he made sure, in addition to his graft and paramilitary, that he did a lot for the “common man”. Huey apparently counted on his making their lives better to get them to vote for him.
By contrast, the only lives that 45 seems interested in improving are his, his family’s and his wealthy donors’. Instead of outlining how he’ll improve the lives of his poorer supporters, he brags about taking away a right so that poor people are hurt disproportionately. He stays quiet while his allies roll back the protections that keep poor children from working in hazardous jobs at night when there are no adults to speak up about safety rules being flaunted (I’m talking about you, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Joni Ernst!). I hope that Biden continues in office with strong majorities in both houses so that the lives of all Americans can be bettered.
That's the part about Fascism that TFFG doesn't understand -- making the lives of your supporters better. Unfortunately, TFFG's supporters believe his BS and all he has to do is tell them how great he made things for him.
The Bangor Daily News did a poll last year asking the respondents if they believed the 2020 election was stolen. 20% of the respondents said they thought it was.
Hitler and Mussolini likely could have lied to their people about the great things they have done for them, but they chose to actually accomplish something before they did.
All Trump did was nominate far right judges that reversed Roe, cut taxes for the richest Americans, built a small fraction of the southern wall that has been breached over 5000 times, screwed up the Covid-19 response killing hundreds of thousands of Americans and had a record setting 22 million workers unemployed.
And millions of his followers thinks he is the chosen one.
Trump's cult supporters -- tens of millions of them -- totally got the shaft from our billionaire classes, who offshored their jobs. Like, goodbye, all their jobs.
In return the abandoned got minimum wage serfdom -- but with the algorithms social media billionaires used to rile up hate, divisiveness, and the same old anti-intellectualism that has always bounced around in American culture. Always.
Problem is, or was, that the billionaires were smarter than our naive who populated all our schools. Smarter. Nastier. More aggressive. And organized.
The billionaires knew back in 1971, when the Powell memo galvanized them, that first and most importantly they had to cripple the schools. Kill humanities. Drastically reduce tenure. Hire tens of thousands of adjunct, "contingent" labor to do the otherwise powerless but actual teaching in higher ed. And intimidate the hundreds of thousands of decent but innocent teachers in K-12 to roll over to the numbers-mad standardized testers.
The billionaires won. They've got their Clarence ruling his court. They've got their Howdy Doody Speaker of the House doing Putin's bidding. They've got the banks strangling all who enter college. They've even got Biden sucking up to Mohammed bin Salman who's murdering journalists and Netanyahu who's sucking up to the far-right settlers ever stealing land on the West Bank and murdering its Palestinians.
And Americans, most all coming from strangled, murdered, dehumanized schools?
I’ve read all of your responses this morning and am feeling attacked by elitism. We’re in our 80’s, living in a rather upscale, Orange County community. However, we are definitely middle of middle class, living on teacher retirement and Social Security (plus some investments.) I’m caregiver for my husband. I prepare three meals a day and shop for those meals using the grocery ads/specials/digital coupons. We are in easy driving distance to all the grocery chains, Costco, and a Walmart. I shop at all of them for the best deals. The local Walmart is the main store to buy staples as they are the cheapest overall. The long-employed personnel there greet me and go out of their way to assist. Horrors, we also have cable TV. None of that keeps me from being active in local Democratic club, marching in nearly every march here since trump arrived on scene, volunteering. I am proud to have been an American public school teacher for 49 years ( that includes subbing after retirement). I am very proud of the success of my former students and know you would awed by their lives too. I am still very active in an international organization of “key” women educators. We are still active in education, giving scholarships and grants to new teachers, volunteering in schools with our skills, heading literacy projects, etc. This group of women alone could probably shape up the House and send many to detention.
My main point is I’m annoyed with being put down for where I shop and what we watch. We all can do our part to preserve Democracy. We are.
You sound a lot like me, Sue! About to hit 70, part of what's left of the middle class, coupon clipper, suburb living, cable TV watcher, activist, thorn to Repubs in my Red area. Not a teacher, except with the grandkids, but once a State employee. Keep your smile and sense of humor, and we'll win this thing!
You’re right. A sense of humor is essentially important and keeps us going…that and two young great-grandchildren whose pictures we demand constantly to watch them grow. Thanks for your reply.
So much of the problem lies in the fact that small businesses have been eaten up by big corporations. While we would prefer to give our support to the local green grocer or the family run bakery, or the former student who has his own plumbing business, we can no longer find that source of supply. One cannot even buy a book at the family run bookstore because there isn’t one. So we are stuck. We shop where shopping is available and grit out teeth in the knowledge that we are supporting the system. Point being, I suppose, that it all returns to the fact that the real riches are in the hands of a few, who have us bound to their self serving economy, just like the slaves of former eras.
Mary FDR was delighted that’s Huey Long, in his pink suits, was assassinated over a personal matter. Huey, in 1935, was a troublesome challenger to FDR with his populism.
"When lucrative contracts are handed out to Trumpist loyalists regardless of merit and dissident voices are targeted and silenced, America’s leadership on the global stage will dissolve when it’s needed most."
And worse, having lost any other means of agency, we could primarily become a predatory, pariah state.
Thank you Fern. Meanwhile, the MSM uses describes the inflation numbers from yesterday as "hotter than expected" and "worrying" and "troubling for the Biden administration."
Over 50% of the increase in inflation was due to 2 items -- rents or rent equivalents which went up 4% and energy costs which were driven by Ukraine's bombing of Russian refineries, pipelines and storage facilities.
Would Ukraine have been forced to make these moves if Trump's little Johnson hadn't held up military aid for over 200 days? Maybe, but probably not.
The Ukrainians have made some of the most creative advances in drone warfare over the past two years putting to shame the R&D efforts of the rest of the world's defense industry.
And their reward? To be abandoned by the do nothing Republicans led by TFFG and his little Johnson.
'Meet the Ukrainian amputees returning to the front to resist Russian advance'
By Thomas Peter, Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey and Vitalii Hnidiy
April 11, 20246:35 AM EDTUpdated 18 min ago
'DONETSK REGION, Ukraine, April 11 (Reuters) - Ukrainian commander Odin's lower leg was blown off in a mine explosion last year. Now he's back in the trenches.'
"I had offers to go back to my local academy as a teacher or to work at a draft office in Odesa," the 32-year-old from the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade told Reuters from a cramped bunker on the front line in the eastern region of Donetsk.'
"I said I'm not interested in these positions."
'Mango, a 28-year-old tank gunner, saw his hand shredded by shrapnel two years ago during fighting in Mariupol before he was captured by the Russians. He too has returned to the front, as logistics chief for a battalion in the Azov Brigade, which held out for months in defence of the southern city.'
'Ukraine's drained and depleted army needs all the help it can get. It is being driven back by its far larger, more powerful enemy around the eastern city of Avdiivka while coming under increasing pressure at other sections of the front.'
"When I got back from captivity, I realised the war wasn't over," said Mango, who like Odin and most Ukrainian soldiers goes by his military call sign for security reasons.'
"Even though I can't sit inside a tank, I can still be useful. I can still fight a bit."
The two soldiers are among thousands of Ukrainian troops who have lost limbs since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in early 2022. While the Kyiv government declined to share data on casualties, which it deems sensitive, Pryncyp, a leading human rights organisation representing military personnel, put the number of amputees from the war at between 20,000 and 50,000.'
'Battlefields are littered with mines, while artillery and drone attacks are a constant menace, meaning the grim number is rising steadily.'
'Reuters interviewed 20 military amputees for this article, seven of whom had returned to the army or intended to do so. For many of those able to do so, the desire to support their beleaguered comrades on the battlefield remains strong.'
'Masi Nayyem, co-founder of Pryncyp, said it was fairly common to see soldiers with artificial limbs still serving, though he didn't know how many had returned to the military and how many had entered civilian life.'
'The nature of their role will often be decided by the extent of the injuries, said Nayyem, who lost an eye in combat in June 2022. Soldiers with amputations below the knee, for example, are often deemed fit for service in support units but not for highly mobile or specialized roles, according to Pryncyp.'
'Tony Bloomfield, operations director at the British military charity for limbless veterans Blesma, said it was generally extremely rare for soldiers who have lost a limb to return to the conflict, but that this was happening in Ukraine.'
"The nature of the conflict is leaving lots of limb loss," said Bloomfield, whose team has spent time with wounded Ukrainian soldiers to help them adapt to limb loss, adding that artillery barrages were a major cause of the injuries.'
"Some of the Ukrainians we met, yes absolutely they want to go back and fight if they're able to," he said. "The difference here again, for Ukraine, is that if you leave the military, your country is still at war. And you're still at risk of injury."
'MY HAND WASN'T THERE ANYMORE'
'Kyiv is desperate to replenish its ranks.'
'Soldiers say they are outnumbered and outgunned along the 1,000-km front line in the east and south of Ukraine. During Moscow's months-long assault on Avdiivka, some Ukrainian troops said they had been outnumbered by around seven to one.'
'President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a bill this month to lower the draft age from 27 to 25, while a mobilisation bill aimed at drafting potentially hundreds of thousands more troops has made its way only slowly through parliament.'
'Both Odin and Mango - career soldiers who were in the military before the Russian invasion - expressed a sense of responsibility for the soldiers they had left behind in the trenches and of guilt that they had survived their injuries and could live in relative safety away from the fighting.
Odin had little hesitation in asking superiors for permission to return to combat after he had undergone surgery and rehabilitation with a prosthetic limb.'
'At his mortar position in Donetsk, he moves freely up and down the trenches, speaking with members of his unit and giving orders. But he says he still has an intense fear of triggering a mine again as he fights Russian forces.'
"Despite some saying everything was bad and that continuing a normal life was impossible, I'm living a full life," 'he said later, perched on a bed in the bunker and lifting a trouser leg to reveal his prosthetic limb.'
"It's just different twice a day: in the morning when I put on the prosthesis and at night when I take it off," 'he added.'
'Mango was one of hundreds of Ukrainians defending the Azostal steel plant in an ultimately futile last stand to hold the city of Mariupol before it fell in May 2022.'
"I wanted to check my watch to see what time it was," he recalled of the day of the injury. "I raised my hand, saw my watch wasn't there any more. My hand was completely shredded, bones sticking out and all."
'Convincing top brass that he still had a military role to play was not easy. Mango said he had to ask his commander to submit a report to the authorities confirming that there was a suitable position for him in the unit.'
"At every medical check-up, there was always one surgeon who would ask if I had reconsidered my decision, and each time I said 'No'," 'said Mango, who's hoping to have a bionic hand fitted to allow him to use artificial fingers.'
'ADVANCED BIONIC PROSTHETICS'
'In some ways, said the amputees interviewed, those who don't return to the military find the transition to civilian life, opens new tab even harder to navigate.'
'Leaving the army means negotiating a new set of challenges, from getting around a town or apartment to finding a job, as well as dealing with civilians who don't always know how to act when they come into contact with amputees.'
'The government provides high-quality prosthetics to those who lose limbs in combat as well as rehabilitation treatment. War amputees also receive payouts that vary according to the severity of the injuries. There is money available for servicing artificial limbs and individuals can raise funds privately or through charities for advanced prosthetics such as bionic hands.'
'Nayyem, of soldiers rights group Pryncyp, said the government was not doing enough to support amputees as they seek employment and that those initiatives that did exist were focused on the big cities.'
"I mean, the state prioritised sending you to die, but didn't make it a priority to help you recover when you got injured," he said. "All the wounded feel this."
'He added that the number of people affected by amputations, either directly or indirectly, would only climb as the war ground on with no end in sight.'
'Ukraine's Veteran Affairs Ministry, which oversees amputees, didn't respond when asked about criticism that it was not doing enough to support amputees, particularly over the longer term.
Oleksandr Revtiukh lost his left arm and most of his left leg in multiple mine blasts while fighting Russian forces during last summer's counteroffensive in the south, making a return to combat virtually impossible.' See Wider Image photo essay: https://reut.rs/4aJWHEX, opens new tab
'While the traumas of the war remain, the 33-year-old is focusing on his future outside of the military. The former electronics technician, who enlisted to fight months after Russia's February 2022 invasion, wants to build a social media profile as a motivational boxing coach for fellow amputees.'
"Don't be afraid to make mistakes," he said. "Look for a way out, there is a path through the thorns to the stars. This is my motto." (Reuters) Copied in Full.
Thank you for posting that Fern. I have chills and tears from reading it. Their courage is beyond my comprehension as well as their dedication to their country.
How so many Republicans in the House can be so callous to the pain and suffering Putin and his allies have brought on not only the Ukrainians and his own people, but on the people he is starving especially in Africa.
You have expressed my feelings, Gary, and that of many Americans. As formidable their courage and commitment, the Ukrainian people are models for us. The more we know of their war to remain free -- the more Americans know to vote for Biden and the other Democratic Party candidates in the November elections!
Encouraging coverage. Thank you. My breathing becomes noticeably shallower whenever I read what is commonly discouraging news. It's unlikely that I'll return to satisfyingly deep breathing (and sleep) until Joe Biden is re-elected, along with a democratic Senate and House. Until then, your reality checks help diminish the political hum — and my anxiety about our country's future.
And no president can alter the course of human events alone. we the People must focus on staying upright, and upon where we would like to see the wave of the future to be taking us.
Thank you, Professor, for sharing this important information about our ties with Japan. Along with President Biden's and Prime Minister Kishida's confirmation of the strength of our relationship, the Prime Minister announced Japan will gift to the United States 250 new cherry trees in celebration of the U.S.'s 250th anniversary in 2026. Alas, no word was mentioned about Stumpy!
Yes; there's good news to note. A welcome gift from Japan to boot ! Many times I've been there for the cherry blossoms blooming - gorgeous sight; and sitting at Lincoln's feet.
D4N, you echo my oncologist! He’s “cautiously optimistic” that I can lead a normal life. I wish the same for you. I’m always so glad when I see you posting.
My Dad was buried in Arlington National Cemetery many years ago in late April. Between taps, the solemnity of a military funeral…the full bloom of the cherry trees on a beautiful sunny day continues to bring occasional tears and peace some forty years later. A truly remarkable sight that is filled with nature’s beauty and peace.
On another note, here's a quote I just happened upon from a member of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I think you, especially, will find it superb:
"The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony. All of Heavenly Father’s children are different in some degree, yet each has his own beautiful sound that adds depth and richness to the whole. (Wirthlin, Joseph B. (2008, April 2)."
The Washington Post had a photo essay yesterday of the cherry blossoms from Tokyo that was breathtaking, if you can find it, it’s worth a look 👀, I sent a copy of it to the women in my family. I have no idea how to share it here. I have never seen anything like it. 🙏
So good to see Heather's reminders of Vice President Kamala Harris's vital work for women.
Even better to see these notes on her good work in the context of the meetings Prime Minister Kishida is having with officials in Washington.
If Kamala Harris is working for women, and women's health care and privacy rights, this work comes in a tradition which Japan eminently shares with the U.S. -- the preeminence of arts for love of, respect for all the varieties of people's complicated, nuanced, and deep involvements in communities social and natural.
Hayao Miyazaki just won another Oscar at this year's Academy Awards ("The Boy and the Heron"). The anime series "Demon Slayer" has broken records for sales and popularity both in Japan and the U.S. (manga and movie versions).
The health and centrality of humanities in both countries is no accident. That condition prefigures the centrality of personal health choices Kamala Harris defends.
U.S. billionaires spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try to kill the role of personal choices across America, hundreds of millions of dollars to kill vital federal programs. They want robotic schools, orgies of onerous standardized testing, all life commodified.
American women may finally win -- and win decisively -- this November. But it won't be in isolation from our keys for greatest strength, decency, and love of our communities.
In honor of some of our great debts, greatest assets, thank you again not only to Kamala, but also to Hayao Miyazaki and to Gotōge Koyoharu, the young woman behind "Demon Slayer."
I do wish all the media would stop showing videos of T. He looks more and more to be unhealthy and unhinged. I did watch a good part of MSNBC’s coverage of Biden’s speech with the Japanese state visit. I’m very happy about the work Biden’s team has done on strengthening alliances both in Europe and the Pacific. Also happy to hear about how understaffed T’s campaign headquarters are.
I am so sick of hearing his name and seeing his face and hearing his voice. I long for the day when, like magic, it just disappears. But the more he’s out there now, the worse he looks and sounds, and maybe that’s a good thing leading up to the election.
I'm interested by the comments that he's resorted to (badly edited) videos rather than campaign rallies. Hey - his airplane! They took it away from him, didn't they?!!
Not yet they didn’t, it should be one of the first things seized by the state of NY. Wouldn’t that be sweet, for him to have to rent ie pay in advance to use a plane just like you or I would. Or even better have to fly commercial, again if you don’t pay you don’t fly. I loathe that bastard so much.
These draconian laws removing women’s rights are based on a suupposed “belief" that "life begins at conception”. This is patently false. Life begins long before that. In fact, the egg that eventually developed into you was alive and well in your mother’s ovary months before she was born!
Of course, conception was a crucial point in your long journey toward personhood. But I challenge anyone who claims to "believe" that a fertilized human egg is the moral equivalent of a baby to consider this: You are a mother of a newborn baby, and you are in the maternity ward. Your baby is in the newborn nursery down the corridor to the left. Down the corridor to the right is the IVF clinic where you have two frozen embryos. A fire breaks out, and you have time to save your newborn baby or your two frozen embryos. Which will you choose? Now ask yourself this: How many frozen embryos would you have to save to justify abandoning your newborn baby, as the “moral” choice?
Many “believers” have been, and continue to be, bamboozled by their religious leaders about this moral question. But the simple act of considering the above ethical “dilemma” reveals the truth: When asked to ACT on their supposed “belief,” no sane person ACTUALLY believes that a fertilized human egg is the moral equivalent of a baby (ie. a person).
Thank you, Justin, for that clear and helpful thought experiment pitting embryos against a newborn child. The question of life's beginnings is key in the abortion conflicts, and it is the one issue that points right at the absurdity of any particular religious conviction ruling over all women.
You are welcome. I hope it helps people clarify their thinking about an important issue that has been manipulated by religious and political extremists to the detriment of women.
I too thank you for your contribution herein, Justin. I have long been most uncomfortable with the concept of abortion. The moral complexity of the issue cries out for an exercise of our highest reasoning and discretion, and the avoidance of ready imposition of doctrines that may be noble in conception (pardon the pun), but less so in action. This is why Harry Blackmun spent so many hours in the bowels of the Mayo Clinic's library while thrashing out what would become his opinion in the Roe v. Wade decision.
Yes, simplifying this complex moral question to a false slogan; "Life begins at conception" is a major part of the religious and political extremists' attempt to bamboozle people. That's why I dispensed with that false narrative off the bat. Talking about personhood is more nuanced and less easily manipulated with sloganeering. But personhood IS what the debate is really about. It's clear, from my example above, that no sane person REALLY believes that a fertilized human egg is a person. Blackmun's choice, of viability as the line where personhood begins, makes a lot of sense.
President Biden is working daily for every day Americans. He is working with world leaders to insure peace around the globe. Yet when I read the daily news, from multiple sources, there are multiple stories about trump and now RFK, Jr. Is making headlines, too. There are rarely stories about Biden and when there is, they are usually negative. I laugh at republicans who think MSM goes left! Will MSM ever get on the Biden train? People don’t know about his accomplishments, they only hear stories about his age! This has to change!!
Hey, JP. I was struck by Heather's reminder from her chat on FB last week when she said democracy doesn't mean we always win; it means that we have a say.
Thank you once again Professor. These are important things to talk about. I wish mainstream media would start highlighting all the positives that are coming out from the Biden-Harris White House! They love to highlight the orange menace's continuing poison. It kind of reminds me of a line in an old Dire Straits song.
Very true Colette. Inflation was reported to be at 3.5% yesterday. Over 50% of that rate was due to rents and increases in energy costs. The MSM reported it like they did when we finally left Afghanistan. The market expected 3.4% and got 3.5%.
The MSM is fighting for their ever shrinking audience and advertising dollars. Thank goodness for HCR where she enjoys a faithful and growing audience.
Prime minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and his wife, Yuko Kishida, are in Washington, D.C...please take note; Japan is a society in which age and the wisdom of age has been and is revered.
Ray At 90 I experienced Stalin as our WW II ally [Churchill: ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ being taught to hate the Japanese, severely dislike the Nazis (but there were some good Germans,) and not take Italy seriously as an Axis power.
Japan and Germany swiftly were transformed from enemy to ally. With the SovietUnion Gorby was a transition from the Soviet Union to a reconstituted Russia—oophs, now a Putinisque Russia. As for China, post Mao a case study in rapid development, but now Xi’s Russia.
In the Middle East, Israel was an outpost of democracy until it wasn’t. Our relations with Egypt—where I wrote a book in the 1950s—have been volatile.
As for the oil-rich Arabian peninsula countries, once we and they were check and jowl. Now it’s mostly jowl.
I recall Mary Martin’s song from South Pacific: “You’ve got to be Carefully Taught.”
I’m glad the Biden-Harris team have learned from the Hillary Clinton team’s mistake of ignoring the fly-over section of the country. They’re not making assumptions.
Now, I wish they’d fight a bit dirtier. President Biden has always been known for reaching across the aisle. But this is definitely not the Republican Party, nor are these the Republicans voters, of the past. Take off the gloves and fight like hell.
I wish Biden would spend more time hamnering the reproductive rights issue. He cannot just leave this mostly to Harris. It is the only issue that can win the election for Democrats. Kavanaugh and his SCOTUS allies gave Democrats the keys to the kingdom, but they have to make sure to accept the gift.
As a young kid, during World War II, I was taught to hate the Japanese. That my cousin, exec officer on a sub sunk soon after Pearl Harbor, was a Japanese prisoner of war for over three years did not soften my image of Japanese.
Then this image began to change. General McArthur was our imperial representative in destroyed Japan immediately after the war. At the same time of the Japanese war tribunals, McArthur, on one occasion, telegraphed Washington ‘Either send more food or send more bullets.’
During the Korean War, Japan became an essential staging area for American troops and supplies.By the 1970s Japan was flourishing and was flooding the United States with little autos that were causing Detroit great pain.
In 1974-1975 I was the first person to undertake a public rating of the credit of Japan. After a prolonged and sensitive process, Japan was awarded a coveted Aaa. This was the same year that I informed the Bank of England that I wouldn’t permit England to issue sovereign bonds on the New York market.
During World War II China (Chiang kai-Shek) was our ally against Japan, which killed about 10 million Chinese. Today Japan is critical in an alliance, anchored by the United States, intended to counter XI’s China.
At times I find it puzzling to know who are my friends and enemies.
Good stories! And you, like many people who have really done things, display the thoughtful lack of certainty that is a hallmark of intellectual honesty. Thank you for sharing!
Beautiful In my early 20s I had the answers, but I didn’t know the questions. At 90 I am more confident that I know the questions, but find any answer certainty puzzling.
A generation ago, I prepared a 38-page annotated bibliography on books, articles, and videos for a professional presentation of Japanese World War II Atrocities (which Japanese government officials and academics did not appreciate). I wonder what prompted this major personal effort.
Oh, I too am a fan of more information! Nothing like a thorough and exhaustive bibliography to things in perspective! It helps everyone involved in contentious issues to keep awareness of actual events that occurred.
As revealed in the superb movie RASHOMON, there can be four persuasive eye witness accounts of the same incident of which at best only one is accurate and, perhaps, none are accurate. Also, memory can play tricks years later and autobiography often is fiction.
As I learned from a professor, it is extremely difficult to know, at the time, whether some event is decisive. And, of course, many historians have their own axe to grind (except, of course, me!).
Of your many contributions to our collective discourse on this wonderful site Keith, I must single out your tossing down an Akira Kurosawa reference as perhaps first among equals! Touche!
President Obama brought together 119 Pacific Rim countries to create an alliance to deal with China, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Trump dropped it early in his administration. He dropped it before he had time to read it, if he can read. Tell me how it is better to deal with any adversary individually than a like minded group. Please remember how he praised and fawned over China and Xi, until he needed a scapegoat for his own miserable handling of the COVID pandemic. This election is about democracy but our relationship with the world is at stake too.
On one side: MAGAs who will punish women and sending them back to the Stone Age to be stoned. MAGAs who will share national secrets with a sworn enemy. On the other side, Grandpa and Uncle Sam fighting for normalcy.
Thank you for highlighting the news about the meetings with Japan. Stories like these tend to get drowned out by the political ones these days.
So refreshing to have a bit of "normal political news" rather than solely the daily focus on "tffg antics."
No mention of the Nippon Steel takeover of US Steel. https://apnews.com/article/biden-steel-nippon-kishida-merger-purchase-201b3d5719bcf77067cb81d181442afb
I have deja vu of Black Monday in 1977 when Youngstown Sheet and Tube, the fifth largest steel company in the world was closed by a Japanese takeover, to gain a monopoly in the seamless pipe industry. Youngstown went from one of the wealthiest regions to one of the poorest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Youngstown,_Ohio
The large corporations, which mostly support Republicans have sent millions of manufacturing jobs overseas.
The first time I went into a Walmart was in Springfield, MO in 1984. There were signs everywhere in red, white and blue saying, "Buy American". But slowly Sam Walton started buying cheap goods from China. My brother-in-law lost his garment factory in North Carolina and laid off over 50 workers because Sam Walton and others started buying from China and other 3rd world Asian countries sewn by women and children working 12 hour shifts 6 days a week.
It wasn't just the rust belt jobs that disappeared, it was a broad cross-section of manufacturing jobs. And in response the Republicans have kept wages low so that their large corporations can reap larger profits.
Unfortunately, it's a frog in water problem. The economy has slowly shifted over the past 50 years stagnating wages in the US. Finally, the Biden administration is turning things around with union contracts involving UPS, UAW, Teamsters and others.
Aside from the news you report I am jealous of your capacity to remember the dates and details.
We've moved around a lot, so it's easier to remember dates depending on what I'm trying to remember.
Once we finally landed in Maine in 2004, everything becomes more difficult without as many specific highlighted events.
Plus, I have to cheat a lot. Thank goodness for Google.
Thank you for your comment Marj.
Yeah but can Biden do something to lower prices on food, gas & rent? That's what many people judge the economy by and I hate to say it, but right now it doesn't look so good!
Inflation remains a concern, and housing is absurd at the moment. But it's a free market, so there is little that Biden can do to lower rents or the price of eggs (without being called a socialist.) He can continue to point out the income disparity between labor and corporate CEOs while repeating his support for unions and his record of wage growth under his administration. He can also continue to call out companies making record profits while prices rise.
and that is why Biden needs to speak to we the people weekly and tear down the argument of socialism which we have in this country i.e. military, police, firefighters, roads, bridges, highways, water to our homes along with sewer and electrification to our homes. The rest of the socialism is written for the billionaire class.
Economist Robert Reich pretty much lays it all out there in this piece from yesterday:
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-are-we-still-suffering-inflation?publication_id=365422&post_id=143465567&isFreemail=true&r=73v0x&triedRedirect=true
Only to the extent he can get Johnson to bring the Ukraine funding to a vote. No doubt it will pass unless he puts in poison pills like he tried to do with the budget.
The Democrats need to focus on how Johnson is doing Trump's bidding on preventing border security and abortion. 3.5% inflation is not a big deal especially since wages have increased over 4.2%.
What would help is to shut Fox News, Newsmax and other far right media, the fuck up.
Inflation is always a big deal politically, even if it is not a big effect on people’s ability to spend. That is, not for the people who aren’t already swimming upstream financially. Consumer spending is not down, overall.
Unfortunately many people do not understand where inflation comes from, or what any government or president can do about it.
Don't forget TFG and his conman son-in-law Kushy are working with the Saudis and others in the Mideast to not just wildly enrich themselves but will use those mideastern influences to shift gas prices upwards and do everything they can to help tank the economy as the election nears. There was a reason Saudi Arabia was the very first country they visited after stealing the election in 2016
https://www.alternet.org/congress-jared-kushner/
I remain suspicious of price-and supply-fixing by the 1%'ers who are at the top of the corporations that control food, fuel and housing industries. They are the areas of the economic recovery that continue to lag behind. How do the Dem campaigns counter that, either by correcting it or with messaging about what is happening?
Me too. It looks like political maneuvering already. As prices rise, belief in the Democratic party wains, but the fault really lies with the monopolies and profiteering.
The President has almost no control over the economy. He cannot set prices. Do you want to cool inflation? Stop shopping for things you really don't need.
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/why-are-we-still-suffering-inflation?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7ygy0
Controlling inflation will slow increase in prices, but getting someone to lower prices like rent, gas, food etc. is difficult once they have seen that people will pay it.
Thank you, I agree. The emphasis on stock price oddly coincides with the policy change on paying executives with stock, doesn't it.
Funny how the market and real life don’t align….
I not sure what you mean. ARe you talking stock markets? Emotionally driven by insecure men who like to gamble with opm?
In the 80's citizens had a choice to buy American or buy Chinese. A shirt, for example, could not be created, shipped and retailed for $5 without enslaving someone, somewhere. Consumers didn't care; most of us wanted those $5 shirts, especially for children who would grow out of them in a year. When I was young, baby and children's clothing were shared, passed down in families and among friends. With the influx of cheap Chinese children's clothing, that was no longer necessary. Some of us held out, trying to buy as much American as we could, but that became more difficult over time. I remember trying to buy USA made shoes and not being able to find a pair that wasn't $150 at the time. I was a single mom; I could buy one pair of expensive shoes for myself, but shoes for the kids had to come from China. Our domestic shoe industry had cratered. That's the story on most of our textiles.
We can blame greedy capitalists for our situation, and they are a huge part of the problem. But they would not have prevailed had we not bought their goods.
Yes, and all that cheap stuff is now mountains of textile waste that has nowhere to go. We can blame greedy capitalism for the Climate Crisis, but we'd rather spend our rage complaining about the high prices of things we don't really need.
For those of us that read “Future Shock” in the 70’s, the future is now
Oh yeah. I remember that. I may even have a copy somewhere.
Gary Loft. You are absolutely right., Walton was a major factor in turning our small appliance and electronics mjg over to Japan. Our government choose to let our steel industry slip away in favor of profits to large corporations. Tire mfg and many other vital industries were lost. We lost our major sources of technological innovation such as G.E., Westinghouse, IBM due to their loss of funds to invest in research. There is a lesson for the free marketers., more so for us.
The Koch Brothers pipeline (Trans-XL) was going to be made from Indian steel. I think they even took delivery of much of it. That entire project was maddening. Both the Republicans and the Democrats were pissed off at the route through Nebraska. Nebraska has few natural resources but the major one is the Oglala aquifer, the largest in the world, and it went right through the eastern part of the aquifer. The pipeline design didn't even use the latest oil spill notification technology and Trans-XL had several previous pipeline spills.
The Republican governor approved the route for the pipeline, but the bureaucracy kept it from ever being started. The Obama administration also opposed the project and prevented construction to begin. Trump wanted to revive the project but Trans-XL finally caved and killed it.
"the Republicans have kept wages low"
I'm convinced low wages are at the root of today's politics. I've heard that 40% of Americans don't have access to $400.
All the talk about the great economy misses these millions of people. There is great stress resulting from insecurities around food, school, transportation, health, and work. A lot of Trump voters are in this group.
Most of these people are working if they can. But their wages don't cover their needs. Like Walmart workers on food stamps.
(https://fortune.com/2023/05/23/inflation-economy-consumer-finances-americans-cant-cover-emergency-expense-federal-reserve/)
Thank you for your input
And that was when Ohio went from reliably Blue to horribly Red. All the yokels from Youngstown, and then down along the Ohio River, have always blamed Democrats for this, and will never forgive them.
The two books that I think reflect on what is going on in Ohio and the Midwest are Timothy Egan's book "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's. IMO, MAGA is the KKK, 21st century edition. And then Thomas Frank's book, "What's the Matter with Kansas," describing how wedge issues were and are being used to induce average Americans to vote against their own best social and economic interests. And then there is the study by two Univ. of Kansas professors entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920517740615
At its core are racism and white Protestant Christian nationalism.
Agree, Richard. As you know I grew up in Indiana, Elkhart, which was full of manufacturing of all kinds. Then during the Obama era it was the poster child for things gone wrong and Obama visited, I think more than once. I am on blog called I grew up in Elkhart, Indiana where people lament how wonderful downtown used to be and haven't figured out that they voted with their dollars running to Walmart and now ordering from Amazon which I consider to be a loathsome company. I hadn't been in a Walmart until I went to one in Arlington, Illinois, when we had a travel emergency. I felt like I was on a different planet. I am not a fan of any kind of other than local business, and that also applies to restaurants. We recently went to Bag O' Crab because a friend picked that for her birthday celebration. Surreal. The place was packed with people in bibs with plastic gloves slurping up crab and other things. They had robots that brought out the food and of course, sang happy birthday. We managed to eat no seafood. Never again.
It had a drastic effect in Pennsylvania, also. More than 15,000 steelworkers and another 35,000 in related industries lost jobs. The Ecumenical Coalition of the Mahoning Valley, a diverse group of religious leaders and unions, tried to buy S&T and reopen it as an employee-owned company. However when the government refused to guarantee their loans, the project failed.
See Staughton Lynd. THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA OF A COMMUNITY RIGHT TO INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY IN YOUNGSTOWN AND PITTSBURGH, 1977-1987.
https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/the-idea-of-a-community-right-to-industrial-property-in-youngstown-and-pittsburgh/
Yeah, I have a lot of family in the Clearfield County area of western PA, and they blame Carter and the Demo-crats to this day. Just can't get it through to them that their lives are better now than 5 years ago, and that if they follow the ups and downs over the past 50 years, the ups are D's, and the downs are R's. Thanks for the link; I'll do some looking.
DuBois. Just a few miles to the south, the Johnstown flood and the demise of Bethlehem Steel in Altoona and Johnstown have turned it into Trump country.
Mostly visceral. "Trump hates dogs" and "Trump stole from kids with cancer" work as an antidote with some of them.
Democrats left the working class in the dust of globalization. Sending manufacturing overseas was inevitable. And one could make the case that improved living conditions in those countries forstalled conflicts.
But as those companies departed for other places for cheap labor and lax environmental controls, they should have been required, in partnership with the Federal government, to provide a pathway to new employment. And the closing of those factories should have given all the stake holders time to adjust.
The people who were deserted all over the US are now the MAGA maniacs. I would be angry, too.
While I agree with all of the comments here about the loss of manufacturing jobs, particularly in the "rust belt," don't forget that private investment in U.S.-based manufacturing facilities reached RECORD HIGHS in 2023 - in part due to Biden's actions. It's pretty astounding if you look at some of the projects being developed.
Will they restore the millions of manufacturing jobs that disappeared over the last few decades? No. But manufacturing in the U.S. is not dead. In fact, companies are having a hard time finding skilled workers as high school students have been pushed to get a four-year college degree. There are lots of well-paying job opportunities out there in the manufacturing sector (and the trades as well) that don't require bachelor's degrees.
I get on my high horse about this because I see too many people who haven't been paying attention... who continue to believe that "all the manufacturing jobs are gone," etc. I'm sure this includes many in the MAGA crowd.
I see lots of memes about the 4 year college/trade thing. We can and should do both as students need help to develop their talents whatever they are. We need both plumbers and doctors, for example. When I was in education, 70s through the 90s, the school had shop classes. It was sometime hard to find teachers because they could make more money elsewhere. I think part of the problem was needing expensive equipment to teach what was happening in some of the trades. Here in Salem, the district has two separate campuses devoted to trade education.
i am happy to see that in Helena, MT, as well.
There seems little synopsis of whether it’s the R’s or the D’s who did the dirty down falls except towards the cleanup of disastrous decisions, what does stand supremely naked is the widened riff of rich vs poor and to whom and where they lay.
Are the problems not mostly revolving in the south ,mainly most the black/ethnic diverse , densely populated sectors owned by white landlords, and tax revenues diminished ? While consumer spending accounts for 2/3 of our GDP who contributes or carries the brunt of the load - are they where the profits are best returned to benefit.
Me thinks not.
💙💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
Not so fast with your indictment of Democrats! Who owned the companies that moved overseas??? The Walton’s anti competition model destroyed the working class!! The bought cheap products used to under sell ‘Mom and Pop’ local hardware stores, clothes stores and local manufacturers!
Walton’s ‘ faux ‘free market’ policy is sell low, crush the competition and offer low, stagnating wages to the unemployed!
Louis:
Not to mention Walmart's consistent corporate policy of underpaying their "associates" on the floor of their retail stores. For many years, Walmart retained sophisticated labor lawyers to resist to the hilt in federal courts any claims of wage theft or unfair labor practices. Probably still does. [Does anyone here have current information on the subject?]
See "Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry" (2024) by Austin Frerick. An excerpt was re-published by Salon last month.
\Vince S
The products may be cheap, but they don't last. I bought one garden product from a local company, but it was made in China and fell apart before I had used it even one year. My neighbor used to sew and one of the reasons she no longer does, is that she says it is difficult to get good material. We make an effort to buy US made and from local companies, restaurants, and farmers.
In part. But mostly racism -- fruit of Nixon's southern strategy. .
What happened is that capital gains policy made it more feasible to sell assets rather than plow profits into plant, equipment and research. Companies got tax deductions for shipping their equipment abroad. We sold the goose that laid the golden egg.
Meanwhile, starting in 1973, as the dollar was floated, our economy was undermined by price fixing by OPEC, which was like a tax on industry, and eventually led to control of our domestic companies in the energy sector.
Also, we no longer regulated monopolies and oligopolies.
Nixon's southern strategy pitted ethnic groups against each other and Reagan policy opposed labor. Clinton acquiesced to most of this.
If the cost of goods sold is the measure, given the digital revolution, increased productivity, the cost of labor is a minor factor. I.E. It costs more to ship many goods from China than it was to make them!
Thank you Daniel. All great points. So we add "divide and conquer" to the GOP Oligarch's tool box. How sad. How transparent. People of all colors, origins and persuasions are victims of the same cabal. Yet they have pitted us against each other. Brilliantly diabolical.
And now the GOP has Russian to help continue their destruction of what could have been a unity of kindred souls. Workers.
Bill, while the "dust of globalization" was Inevitable and prevented some both national and international conflicts, the responsibility lies with the companies, who simply chased the almighty $$ and left their people in the dust.
Daniel, whose post (should, maybe, perhaps) precede mine here, also lays the blame at the Southern strategy, and the lack of regulation for monopolies/oligopolies.
AND the companies & the corporate top dogs are doing that now - even more while the Dem administrations get the blame - as usual.
How about billboards (I'm big on them!) with a chart of Dem & REpub administrations showing right in big numbers the ups & downs of these economies - maybe in red letters!!!
Getting it thru people's heads what the truth is sure is a lot harder than it is for them to believe the big or little lies!
And we cannot let the American people off the hook in this. We LOVED the cheap stuff we could consume. And with the Fairness Doctrine dropped, we could content ourselves by sitting on the couch watching infotainment. We believed in the myth that someone will save us. We voted for very charismatic politicians, but that wasn’t the answer. WE needed to get off our asses. Many today are doing exactly that, and it’s making positive difference.
Exactly so.
Yes. I certainly defer to Daniels greater experience and understanding of these issues. That's one reason why I love Substack. So much great information from learned souls.
Reagan convinced about two thirds if white Americans to adopt the trickle-down fantasies of Milton Friedman. We can attribute almost entirely to Reagan’s popularity with white Americans the brutal domination of the economy by large, unregulated corporations.
Historically, companies have moved jobs to areas where they can pay low wages. Textile and furniture making jobs moved from New England to the South. Then to countries like Pakistan, Guatemala, Vietnam, China, etc. Walmart has ALWAYS been about low prices. They would move into a community selling goods produced cheaply overseas, undercut local businesses and watch local merchants go out of business, which dramatically hurt those communities. Sam Walton exulted in driving his competitors out of business and having employees apply for government benefits, so his company didn't need to pay benefits.
Yup. My Dad worked for a carpet manufacturer in CT - for decades. He designed carpet making machines. Then in the early 70's he was approached with a new assignment if he wanted to retain his job. Lead the process of disassembling the machinery and reassembling it in Georgia and South Carolina. When that was complete, he was offered the chance to retain his job again by moving to SC. Somewhere along this process, the carpet company was bought by S&H Green Stamps (?) and then by Chris-Craft Boat (huh?). The age of conglomeration, I guess.
Eventually Dad retired from the carpet company. And guess what? In the several transactions of one takeover after another, his pension had disappeared. Gone. Fortunately there was a government program that restored a smaller portion of that retirement plan. But it was minimal. All that company loyalty, all those decades of commitment was pissed on by the stockholders. Welcome to an unregulated capitalism that benefits the rich and ignores the sacrifices of the worker.
The complaints about inflation: 1) that’s how jobs went South then out of the country—we pay more for better quality; 2) climate change, faced or not, brings higher prices for all food and water filtering products and wood. The next pandemic will require more subsidies for survival unless Biden’s policies allow the average American to have savings (for a rainy day was never truer) to get survival requirements. It’s time to grow your own vegetables, opt for public transportation to which you can walk (that’s not going backwards, it’s why Europe is ahead of US fighting climate change). Most of all, it’s time to quit yelling about inflation and recognize that all of US must learn what our forebears knew about health, which was more vegetables and fewer pills!
Bill, 201 years ago, in 1823, the Nashua (NH) Manufacturing Corp. was founded to build and operate textile mills using at first water power from the Nashua River and then steam to run the looms. Workers, including my grandmother, migrated to the small community to operate the machines. There was always tension between the NMC and its labor force over harsh conditions and long hours in the sprawling mill complex, but the city grew by leaps and bounds and it was a blue-collar community of immigrants from Canada, Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, etc.
Cut to the 1940s, when Textron, which succeeded NMC, closed all the mills to move jobs and machines to the Carolinas where costs were cheaper. (As you probably know, similar mill closures occurred all of New England.) Former employees and city officials were outraged but were powerless to reverse the catastrophic economic effects, and the mill buildings were largely dark and quiet (there were some non-textile factories that continued to operate.)
It took decades, but today these same remaining buildings provide upscale housing to thousands, and jobs for many more. High-tech R&D and manufacturing have replaced belt-driven machinery -- Dean Kamen's companies in Manchester along the Merrimack River are a prime example.
Hopefully Youngstown and other communities who lost their economic engines can find new ones.
Yes. In my neck of the woods, MetroWest of Boston, similar projects are taking hold. Lawrence and Lowell are slowly repurposing the old mills.
And yes, my Dad's old carpet factory has been converted to nice condos.
But all that has taken way, way too long.
Leaving buildings empty like that for a generation or more is destructive to the community in countless ways.
We will be a true democracy when workers and residents have as much power as the Oligarchs.
Thankfully many of these 19th-century buildings weren't taken down, despite the fact that they were a visual blight in their communities. Having them be repurposed into housing etc. is a way to revitalize and rebuild the downtowns into liveable, walkable neighborhoods.
AS a steel-worker in the labor pool at J.&L. Steel in Pittsburgh during my college summers and watching 'my' Pittsburgh collapse in the late 1970s and 1980s, I can sympathize but noy empathize Why? Bec ause in the case of PGH, we did it to ourselves. From my days in the mill.
https://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2021/02/letter-170-to-my-hero-for-black-history.html
I friend from my hometown wrote Steel: The Story of Pittsburgh's Iron & Steel Industry, 1852–1902: https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Story-Pittsburghs-Industry-1852-1902/dp/073850355X
We lost our steel mill after our city had a socialist government and we underwent numerous strikes. https://www.lawrencechs.com/museum/exhibits/lawrence-county-exhibit/1849-1899-era/industrial-history/
We lost the largest tin mill in the world in the 1930s. We had the benefit of a tariff. When it was removed (by the Republicans) tin crashed and took us with it.
We had a revival due to WWII, but soon industry left and we became a bedroom community. S&T was the clincher.
Before I left, in the 70s, I was on the board of the historical society. We learned nothing from history.
My dad used to recite verses from "The Deserted Village" a poem written by Oliver Goldsmith, 1770, which describes the decline of a village and the emigration of many of its residents to America. Goldsmith criticizes rural depopulation, the moral corruption found in towns, consumerism, enclosure, landscape gardening, avarice, and the pursuit of wealth from international trade.
We shudda known. To quote Bob Prince, "They had us all the way!"
Great comment. So many thanks. The only steel industry book I ever read was 'The Valley of Decision' by Marcia Davenport. Though a novelist and not an engineer, Ms Davenport obviously had spent a lot of time in steel mills.
I’ll comment briefly on growing up in Pittsburgh. Not the city, but close by suburbs. My father was an industrial engineer for USS. He worked in several mill offices, Irwin Works in Dravosburg, Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock then downtown in the U.S. Steel Building on Grant Street. My father-in-law, an immigrant from Poland after WWII, (also an engineer) became senior designer engineer and traveled the world designing steel mills. India, Japan, Germany were what I can recall. That was 1960’s through pre-Reagan 1980.
Both men were die hard republicans. Voted for Reagan both times. My father was the first to comment on the city starting to slip, he was becoming suspicious of something he couldn’t put his finger on. “We’re not hiring” or “Unions are destroying the industry” (although he never really bought that). He knew we were being sold out. One night after the nightly news, he told my mother ( very pro-union) “It’s all going to go away, someday soon”, and it all did.
P.S. so many places mentioned I remember from childhood. Lots of relatives in Cleveland. My in-laws transferred to Pittsburgh from Chicago.
My first experience is the closing of the Ellwood UUSteel mill in 1972. Edgar Speer, then president was from Ellwood City. My dad ran into him and asked whether he could do something for "his people." Speer told him that he always hated those people.
The article states US companies are investing in Japan, but Japan is also investing HERE, and it said mostly in manufacturing. So, does that means jobs coming back?
The profits won't.
I did not know this. I have always thought that it was during Reagan’s time that take overs became a thing
Important to note that the administration consists of a number of professional members who work behind the scenes to make American interests align with the interests of our allies. I noted this from today’s Heather letter: Kenneth Weinstein of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, suggested today that Japan “has quietly become America’s most important ally,”…..then this….. Weinstein also notes that Japan’s longstanding engagement in Southeast Asia means it has “forged relations of deep trust” there among countries that often eye the U.S. with deep distrust.
The Biden team has tremendous bench strength working on international relations. The US relies on those relationships to maintain a stable world order. Global security, founded in Bretton Woods, protects our country as well as our allies. It’s a shame that only one party in America understands that.
Yes, Gary, "a shame that only one party" works on, relies on international relations.
Trouble is, U.S. Republicans, and allied evangelical nationalists, all reduced themselves to be ever sucking up to either their billionaire paymasters, or their given cult abstractions, or both.
Clarence and his corrupt court, Marjorie Taylor Gazpacho and her illiteracy, and House Speaker Howdy Doody and his idol Putin all lack even a scintilla of the appreciation of history, the vital roles of individuals, the needs of working people, and the other workman-like details for public benefit programs which civilized people value and billionaires abhor.
Late stage white supremacy is just awful.
Driven by the greed of the morbidly rich.
A type of hoarder syndrome.
Where, Tracy?
OK, I understand white supremacy in Russia, in Hungary (though still quasi-Asiatic), in Meloni's Italy, in Bolsonaro's Brazil, and in too much of the current U.S.
But in Modi's India? In Arabic states importing powerless southeast Asian laborers and younger, service-minded young women? In China stiffing its Muslims? In Myanmar stiffing its Muslims? In Netanyahu-land stiffing its Muslims?
"Late stage," Tracy? You think we're nearly finished with decent life in a world ruled by social media billionaires, racist-baiting billionaires, standardized-testing-killing-the-schools billionaires, and the millions of biz school grads all-too-largely sucking up to the billionaires?
Points well taken. I was speaking specifically about America though. Republicans are rushing to force us to mirror those authoritarian countries before most Americans realize what's happening and start voting them out of power.
It's the cancer stage of capitalism, when it's eating its host. Yes, late stage.
Last night PBS aired a segment on the Russian destruction of Evangelical & Protestant churches in Ukraine. Murder and exile of pastors. Maybe if more Evangelicals hear of this, a few minds might be swayed away from nationalism.
Naw, I don't think that will matter. They'll pervert their "beliefs" just as they have perverted the Bible. For them, the "Nationalism" is more important than the "Christian".
Trouble is, few will learn of it. I hope you are wrong about this, though. For some I believe their faith might override their nationalism…
I don't hold much hope for that. The foundation of their faith is in the racism and sexism that is endemic in the Evangelical churches with which I am familiar.
Yes Diedra. "They"..! The "Evangelists"., have no clue what nationalism means. Fifty years from today, should things continue in the present direction it may be possible to look back and clearly see what went wrong and cite a reason why. In the present, "they" know not what they do..., and their ministers need that cash. Praise the Lord. - put some cash in that plate, y'all. Amen.
The Republican party is no longer a party loyal to the United States. It is an arm of Russia hell bent on destroying our democracy. We knew it with the Mueller report....it is mentioned by Republicans...it is mention here and there in House witness testimony. Why does no one say this in a way in which we stay focused on the destructive force it has become?
That's a tough pulpit to occupy. It requires charisma, character, and incredible balance. Balance being the all encompassing word here, together with 'Bullet-proof'. Timing is everything. This Administration is laying the groundwork. The past four years have been an unprecedented challenge for our country. We are un-raveling almost one hundred years of 'gerrymandering' by 'business' interests of which we have been a short-sighted accomplice - as Democrats and Republicans both. I'm anxiously awaiting that person to take the stage.
It's a tough pulpit to occupy.....? I understand balance. But ignoring the fact and slow walking solutions is not balance it's denial...it's a refusal to step out of our American exceptionalism that keeps us in denial that social media and Russian talking points in Congress could take us down. Like the environment.... everything has a tipping point. Let's not tiptoe ourselves into a full-blown fascist, Russian collaboration.
There is a thing that happens in social services to abused women and children. Many prefer to wait for proof rather than follow the evidence. Because well intentioned people don't want to make the mistake of erring on the side of the perpetrator. They don't want to call a domestic abuser an abuser because they may be wrong and start a chain of events that may go no where and reflect badly on the person who reported the abuse. It's easier just to say we don't really know what's going on we'll be balanced while we wait for more proof .. more evidence.
Here we are as a nation doing the same thing....clearly not funding Ukraine is in Russian favor, clearly DT invited a rebellion against our national government, clearly it is suspect that Congressmen visited Russia on July 4, clearly the Mueller report linked Manafort to Russian oligarchs.
I get not wanting to open a can of worms...but that's not balance. That's cowardice.
Yes, Susan, you're asking well about courage.
Decent people would react to abused women and children. They'd react to the right-in-your-face Russian barbarism and U.S. Republican complicity in that.
Too many have become anesthetized, Susan. But our billionaire classes, for the sake of their own predations, engineered that, first and most simply by killing humanities in schools, K-12 to higher.
Yes, that can of worms you dread is open.
Phil, I did take offense at using poor Howdy Doody in relations to that rag doll House Speaker. Keep our finer members of memory on the shelf of honor! Please .
Bravo Phil!
Donald is Putins useful tool and everyone connected to him should be kicked out of the country. If Putin's plan is allowed to be carried out, he will consume Europe and then colonize the USA . What do we have to do to light a fire under Republclown asses and get them moving in a democratic direction???
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzY1ODMwMTJlNzE1ZDUzMDAxNjlkY2RjYg/episode/NjYxODA4NTRiOTI4NWUwMDE2ZWE2Y2Yx?ep=14
Thank you, Susan, for your documentation link to the newest mass damages by Russia.
What barbarous, lawless, thuggish times in which we live.
This statesmanship that is brought by a highly professional and experienced team of professionals is in stark contrast to the type of political hacks we could look forward to if the GOP presidential candidate prevails. There is a cohort of dedicated, professional, and experienced diplomats behind the scenes in all our international relations. Without this steady hand of leadership , even more chaos would prevail. There is a “deep bench” not a deep state.
Excellent wordsmithing, George. "Deep bench" vs. "deep state". Well said!
Well said!
During the first impeachment hearings of the insipid clown, I was so impressed with the dedication of our diplomats who had come up through the ranks with years of service to our nation, I had never given a thought to service in the diplomatic corps. Listening to Marie (our former ambassador to Ukraine) speak impressed me with the dedication that is rampant in the corps, I found it similar to my experience serving with a Ranger Company in VN. There is a “deep bench” indeed George, populated by civil servants dedicated to serving our nation, if you watched the impeachment hearings like I did, you were exposed to their dedication to our country, what a great way to serve. 🙏
'THE UKRAINE CONNECTION'
'The war in Ukraine has eaten up time and attention that might otherwise have been devoted to Asia, but it’s also heightened concerns about the threat China poses to Taiwan and its military ambitions in the region.' (WAPO, By Theodoric Meyer and Leigh Ann Caldwell)
Krishnamoorthi (D-Il) told us told us Ukraine came up all the time when he and Gallagher (R-Wis) traveled to Taiwan in February.'
“Every single conversation involved a discussion of Ukraine and what is Congress going to do with regard to Ukraine,” Krishnamoorthi said. “And the Taiwanese across the spectrum [were] urging us to support Ukraine as strongly as we possibly can and to pass the supplemental national security request. Why? Because they see their own future threatened by the CCP.”
'The Senate passed legislation in February to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza that also included nearly $5 billion for Indo-Pacific allies, including Taiwan. Johnson has pledged to take up the legislation in the House but hasn’t done so.'
'WHAT TO EXPECT TODAY'
'Christopher Johnstone, a former National Security Council official in the Obama and Biden administrations who’s the Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said he expected Kishida to discuss Ukraine when he addresses Congress this morning.'
“He’s going to emphasize the importance of U.S. support for Ukraine,” 'Johnstone said.' “That’s kind of a remarkable thing coming from an Indo-Pacific leader — and I think has a bigger impact than the same message coming from a European partner.”
'Biden’s meeting with Kishida and Marcos this afternoon, meanwhile, is remarkable for the speed with which the U.S. has repaired its relationship with the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos’s predecessor, said in 2020 that he would pull out of a long-standing military pact, known as the Visiting Forces Agreement, but later reversed himself.'
'Now the U.S. is building a' “latticework” of alliances — 'as Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, calls it — that includes the Philippines.'
“It’s not NATO, but we’re moving in the direction of significant minilateral cooperation among friends in response to China’s behavior,” 'Johnstone said.' (WAPO with research by Tobi Raji) Copied in full.
You’ve amplified the idea I was attempting to express that our strength as a nation, is intertwined with our ties to free nations globally. Borrowing a thought, no nation is an island, especially not ours.
Taiwan is an island.
It was a borrowed thought from the poet John Donne. All people are connected to and dependent on other people. That applies to nations as well. Cheers!
Cliff Robertson flick before Hollywood blackballed him
We are connected by the ocean. We are not really isolated, e en though it looks that way.
Really?
It takes a committed TEAM. This "I alone can fix it" bullshit is gaslighting to the core! Republicans want small government 🙄 because they don't want to do the committed task of governance! Just obstruct and go on right-wing shows😖💙💙💙
And there's more - the President is negotiating to connect the notorious AUKUS agreement, engineered by Boris Johnson (of unpleasant memory), with these moves for co-operation, which gives it some sense (although the UK doesn't have a stake in the Pacific). The emphasis on "co-operation" rather than "defense". My admiration for Biden grows.
'Keeping China close but Japan-Philippines closer' (Politico by Matt Berg and Eric Bazail-Eimil)
'The White House is celebrating tightening ties with Japan and the Philippines to counter China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific — days after toasting the stabilization of relations with Beijing.'
'Japanese Prime Minister FUMIO KISHIDA spoke alongside President JOE BIDEN at the White House this afternoon, a moment that underscored Tokyo’s major defense upgrades with Washington’s backing. On Thursday, they’ll hold the first-ever trilateral summit with Philippines President FERDINAND MARCOS JR., cementing one of the administration’s main priorities: Creating a regional alliance against China.'
'The timing is somewhat ironic. As loyal NatSec Daily readers know, U.S. officials spoke with their Chinese counterparts many times last week. In one instance, the Pentagon built on months of talks between top officials, culminating in the resumption of a meeting designed to prevent conflict in the Indo-Pacific. Even Xi said the U.S.-China relationship' “is beginning to stabilize.”
'This week, the Biden administration is aiming to' “make China isolated and the outlier in the neighborhood,” 'a senior administration official told reporters Wednesday evening, granted anonymity as a condition to preview the visit.'
'The summit aims to redefine the Japan-U.S. alliance from' “alliance protection to alliance projection” 'in areas including Europe and the Middle East, the official added, saying Japan will now be a' “full global partner” 'of the United States. That includes more integration of U.S., Japanese and regional forces in the Indo-Pacific, and the creation of a council to discuss co-production of defensive weapons.'
'If the White House pulls off this week without any major rebuke from Beijing, they would have good reason to pop champagne: The U.S. was able to improve communication channels with its adversary, the main goal in that fraught relationship, while demonstrating to China that Washington won’t stand idly by if conflict breaks out in the region.'
'But China could also view the Biden-Kishida-Marcos victory lap as the one of the strongest denunciations of Beijing’s actions in the Indo-Pacific yet and again limit communication on military matters with the U.S.'
'The Biden administration isn’t losing sleep over ruffling Xi’s feathers, who met with the former Taiwanese president today — an apparent message to the U.S. that China remains focused on reunification with the island nation despite the trilateral this week.'
'Asked if the White House believes the summit could backfire, a senior administration official told NatSec Daily,' “I don’t think we do, no.”
'This week’s summit' “speaks to the broader end goal of there being less surprises in the relationship,” 'said the official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal discussions.' “There’s not anything that’s gonna get telegraphed here that isn’t something that has already been communicated” 'to Beijing.' (Politico: With help from Phelim Kine, Connor O’Brien and Daniel Lippman) Copied in full.
Joe Biden is a ‘silent strong man’ unlike the loud mouth convicted con man who preceded him as POTUS! Concerned with ruffling feather? Worry about meeting backfire?
Such an attitude is defeatist! Joe pokes, prods and starts controlled brush fires to establish his policies which have United the democratic countries around the globe!
FERN, thank you for your outline of Indo-Pacific matters. My understanding is the Biden, Marcos & Kashida get-together includes team meetings at Camp David on the "unprecedented dredging & artificial island building" in the Spratlys off the Philippines creating "3,200 acres of new land" per the satellite imagery & data collection of AMTI, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.
AMTI has the latest satellite imagery of island construction at Pacific pinpoints such as "Fiery Cross Reef" & other fortified Chinese island developments. Biden's international policy work now hopefully will keep these "islands" out of the headlines of tomorrow..
GeorgeC, thank you for your comment. I am replying to you with history professor Timothy Snyder's statement to the US Congress on behalf of Ukraine's survival. This is also a story that I would like be seen by as many people as possible.
'Friends,'
'I just took part in a team effort to get a message across to Congress.'
'If we do not help Ukraine now, we lose all the things that Ukrainians have won for all of us these last two years. The world changes in a way that tips the balance to the tyrants and the aggressors. This is laid out in the appeal, published by CNN.' (click link below to see link the substack and then to link for the appeal carried by CNN)
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/an-appeal-to-congress?r=dvi9g&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
'Just in the hours since the appeal was published, its message has become the more urgent. As Congress does nothing, Russia is carrying out comprehensive missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The idea is to make the entire country cease to function.'
'Imagine what your life would be like if you local power station had just been destroyed by a ballistic missile. Because we are denying Ukraine the systems it needs to defend itself, the missiles and too many drones are getting through. This is one of countless problems that American aid could solve.'
'Please read the appeal and please share it. Please call your own Congressional representatives. Here is a guide to making those calls. If you want to donate directly to Ukraine’s anti-drone defense, you can do so here.'
https://u24.gov.ua/
'People of various outlooks and backgrounds chose on their own behalf to join the appeal to Congress — musicians, actors, thinkers, historians, entrepreneurs, diplomats. They represent the broad and diverse spectrum of people, a clear majority, who support Ukraine. '
'I respect everyone who joined this appeal for choosing to take a clear stand. It's easy to do nothing. But we can all do our little something. And now is very much the time.'
'Thank you.'
TS 11 April (Timothy Snyder) See link below.
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/an-appeal-to-congress?r=dvi9g&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Yes. If we don’t help Ukraine now, Russia will continue its expansion, and ithat will cost us a lot more.unless we want to adopt Trump’s “vision”: a world dominated autocrats in a handful of nations.
Yes, Rex, a world dominated by Putin, Xi Jinping and Modi with Trump as Putin's golf ball.
Don’t foget Kim Jong Un, Trump says he is “in love” with Kim. Small country, but Kim can be in Trump’s club.
I'd prefer Kim as a golf-hole!
Or maybe “in a golf hole.”
‘There are almost daily headlines now describing what Donald Trump would do if elected: the mass deportations, the pardons handed out to his friends and golf buddies, the Justice Department settling scores and waging personal vendettas. The former president has even promised violence if the election goes against him, warning that it could be a “blood bath.”(NYTimes: Guest Essay by Caroline Fredrickson, excerpts)
‘But as worrying as these prospects are, they are far from the biggest threats he poses. What we should fear most is Mr. Trump transforming our government into a modern-day Tammany Hall, installing a kleptocratic leadership that will be difficult if not impossible to dislodge.’
‘I do not discount the possibility of state-sponsored violence, and I worry deeply about the politicization of the civil service. But those are, for the most part, threats and theories, and while they need to be taken seriously, people should be paying more attention to a far more likely reality: that Mr. Trump would spend much of his time in office enriching himself. He failed spectacularly as an insurrectionist and as a disrupter of the civil service, and his clownish and chaotic style may well lead to failure again — but he has succeeded time and time again in the art of the steal. If his grift continues into a second term, it will not only contribute to the fraying trust Americans have in their institutions, but also impair our ability to lead the world through a series of escalating crises.’
‘Recall how Mr. Trump operated in his first term. Not only did he keep his stake in more than a hundred businesses, he made it a practice to visit his properties around the country, forcing taxpayers to pay for rooms and amenities at Trump hotels for the Secret Service and other staff members who accompanied him — money that went straight into his bank accounts and those of his business partners. Those interested in currying favor with the president, from foreign governments to would-be government contractors, knew to spend money at his hotels and golf clubs. According to internal Trump hotel documents, T-Mobile executives spent over $195,000 at the Trump Washington Hotel after announcing a planned merger with Sprint in April 2018. Two years later, the merger was approved.’
‘Government, like fish, rots from the head down. Mr. Trump’s example freed up cabinet members to award huge contracts to their friends, business associates and political allies, while others ran their departments like personal fiefs. After the State Department’s inspector general was fired, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s use of official trips for clandestine meetings with conservative donors and his family’s alleged misuse of staff members for tasks like walking his dog, picking up his wife from the airport and fetching his takeout came to light. And, in addition to being accused of improperly accepting gifts from those seeking influence, several other cabinet members were alleged to have used government funds for private travel. These may seem like banal infractions, but taken together, they are a reflection of who Mr. Trump is and how he governs.’
‘Throughout his life, through Trump-branded wine, chocolate bars, sneakers, NFTs, ties, MAGA paraphernalia, a $59.99 Bible (of all things) and, most recently, his Truth Social meme stock ploy, he has shown an unstoppable drive to enrich himself at all costs. He sees politics, like business, as a zero-sum game in which he wins only if someone else loses. These are the instincts that drive corruption, kleptocracy and grift. And, if past is prologue, we’re looking at a much more damaging sequel.’
0
‘In a second term, Mr. Trump will have more freedom and power to undertake grift. He has already vowed to use pardons to protect supporters and possibly even himself from efforts to curb corruption (which may explain the nonchalance with which his son-in-law Jared Kushner has greeted criticism about the conflicts of interest raised by his recent real estate investments in Serbia and Albania, as well as the Saudi, Qatari and Emirati investments in his wealth fund). And he and his political advisers are building a deep bench of committed and loyal employees who could corrode and potentially destroy mechanisms of accountability in government, paving the way for kleptocratic leaders to entrench themselves in the bureaucracy where many would be able to remain past Mr. Trump’s term. And the mere presence of a phalanx of unquestioning lieutenants in the civil service will ensure that other civil servants fear retribution for objecting to the self-enrichment.’
‘In a kleptocracy, corruption is a feature, not a bug, where politicians apply the law inconsistently, favoring friends and punishing enemies. By controlling government assets and handing them out to friends and family — and dangling possibilities in front of would-be supporters — as well as using politically motivated prosecutions, kleptocrats cement their control of government and disempower opponents. We need only recall Russia’s erstwhile effort to create a democracy: It quickly drained away into the pockets of Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs, leading to the hopelessness and acquiescence of Russian citizens once they realized they could no longer change their situation through democratic means.’
‘Now we face that danger at home. If Mr. Trump wins, America will have a leader invested in his own personal power, both financial and punitive, and supported by a much more capable team. When lucrative contracts are handed out to Trumpist loyalists regardless of merit and dissident voices are targeted and silenced, America’s leadership on the global stage will dissolve when it’s needed most.’
‘The consequences will echo for generations if we lack the ability and the will to attack problems like climate change, mass migration, a new space race and multiple wars. Nothing of substance will be done, Mr. Trump’s cronies will continue to act with impunity, and millions of Americans — already worried that elites are held to a different standard than regular people are — will lose even more confidence in their government, convinced that everyone in Washington is out for himself.’
‘This combination of passivity on the one hand and impunity on the other could be fatal for our democracy. This is the true danger Mr. Trump poses.’ (NYTimes: ‘What Worries
Me Most About a Trump Presidency by Caroline Fredrickson) See gifted link below.
‘Ms. Fredrickson is an adviser at the Open Markets Institute, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/opinion/trump-presidency-corruption.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jk0.fEnC.ygEH70rRYUn1&smid=url-share
Sickening to recall, Fern. On Tuesday I got into a cab to go to a dentist appointment in midtown New York City (costly these days, but I have a foot injury and couldn't walk further). The driver was listening to what I think of as hate radio—an endless stream of vitriol aimed at the "Biden crime family," finally interrupted by a diversion to the topic of the climate change hoax. It was a reminder of what we could easily revert to if Trump manages to return to the presidency. The unkempt driver, probably pushing seventy, would face a cut (or disappearance) of his Social Security check, but I guess he wouldn't have to worry about congestion pricing or other restraints on his freedom. Being faced with a root canal (not covered by Medicare), I didn't engage and gave him a tip and went to my appointment thoroughly depressed. If Biden is re-elected, I hope he restores the FCC so this stream of vitriol is held to account.
Should have told him Trump hates dogs.
I can always tell when the mailman comes down the road in our rural area because he has hate radio on full blast.
Pining to lose his livelihood in service to trump.
Why would you give him a tip??
My wife and I visited NYC several years ago and we had a very surly driver who spoke very broken English.
When I paid him, I tipped 15% and he swore at me and called me a cheapskate. He also uttered something, that I assume were swear words.
Since then I've had many excellent cab drivers in NYC, but I always tip them well out of fear of confrontation.
Not me. I have no reservations pointing out an asshole when it's warranted. With a reminder, "When you work for tips, don't assume you'll always get one. Earn it." Having said that, when someone earns it, I make sure to reward handsomely. Karma, you know?
I guess I'm a true New Yorker, and I figured the man was bitter enough. He delivered me to the entrance in a very skillful way, and I paid 15 percent. If I hadn't been so preoccupied about the upcoming root canal, I would have asked him to turn off the radio, though. You're already subjected to annoying real estate ads from a screen on back of the seat now.
I would have had to ask him to turn off the noise.
And by the way who were the brilliant minds that decided dental care, like eye and ear care are not health related?
OK, skillful driving in New York is worth acknowledging! Having never had a root canal, best I can relate might be to a proctological exam!! That usually caused major distraction for me!
I would have taken back that tip on the spot.
Psychological warfare Dan. No tip would've served to comfirm his belief that his customer was a "libtard" and that he was successful in 'annoying her'...his unspoken goal, audibly listening to Squawk-radio. The "tip" (which probably wasn't that much) made him the loser in that little game. So.., Way to go, Progwoman! You won. That's how you beat these dildo's.
Witless have no means of comprehending the source of their rage so consume a constant diet of this crap.
And they have guns.
Fern, after listening to a discussion about Huey Long, one thing jumped out about his reign in Louisiana: he made sure, in addition to his graft and paramilitary, that he did a lot for the “common man”. Huey apparently counted on his making their lives better to get them to vote for him.
By contrast, the only lives that 45 seems interested in improving are his, his family’s and his wealthy donors’. Instead of outlining how he’ll improve the lives of his poorer supporters, he brags about taking away a right so that poor people are hurt disproportionately. He stays quiet while his allies roll back the protections that keep poor children from working in hazardous jobs at night when there are no adults to speak up about safety rules being flaunted (I’m talking about you, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Joni Ernst!). I hope that Biden continues in office with strong majorities in both houses so that the lives of all Americans can be bettered.
That's the part about Fascism that TFFG doesn't understand -- making the lives of your supporters better. Unfortunately, TFFG's supporters believe his BS and all he has to do is tell them how great he made things for him.
The Bangor Daily News did a poll last year asking the respondents if they believed the 2020 election was stolen. 20% of the respondents said they thought it was.
Hitler and Mussolini likely could have lied to their people about the great things they have done for them, but they chose to actually accomplish something before they did.
All Trump did was nominate far right judges that reversed Roe, cut taxes for the richest Americans, built a small fraction of the southern wall that has been breached over 5000 times, screwed up the Covid-19 response killing hundreds of thousands of Americans and had a record setting 22 million workers unemployed.
And millions of his followers thinks he is the chosen one.
You've fingered the most vital problem, Mary.
Trump's cult supporters -- tens of millions of them -- totally got the shaft from our billionaire classes, who offshored their jobs. Like, goodbye, all their jobs.
In return the abandoned got minimum wage serfdom -- but with the algorithms social media billionaires used to rile up hate, divisiveness, and the same old anti-intellectualism that has always bounced around in American culture. Always.
Problem is, or was, that the billionaires were smarter than our naive who populated all our schools. Smarter. Nastier. More aggressive. And organized.
The billionaires knew back in 1971, when the Powell memo galvanized them, that first and most importantly they had to cripple the schools. Kill humanities. Drastically reduce tenure. Hire tens of thousands of adjunct, "contingent" labor to do the otherwise powerless but actual teaching in higher ed. And intimidate the hundreds of thousands of decent but innocent teachers in K-12 to roll over to the numbers-mad standardized testers.
The billionaires won. They've got their Clarence ruling his court. They've got their Howdy Doody Speaker of the House doing Putin's bidding. They've got the banks strangling all who enter college. They've even got Biden sucking up to Mohammed bin Salman who's murdering journalists and Netanyahu who's sucking up to the far-right settlers ever stealing land on the West Bank and murdering its Palestinians.
And Americans, most all coming from strangled, murdered, dehumanized schools?
I’ve read all of your responses this morning and am feeling attacked by elitism. We’re in our 80’s, living in a rather upscale, Orange County community. However, we are definitely middle of middle class, living on teacher retirement and Social Security (plus some investments.) I’m caregiver for my husband. I prepare three meals a day and shop for those meals using the grocery ads/specials/digital coupons. We are in easy driving distance to all the grocery chains, Costco, and a Walmart. I shop at all of them for the best deals. The local Walmart is the main store to buy staples as they are the cheapest overall. The long-employed personnel there greet me and go out of their way to assist. Horrors, we also have cable TV. None of that keeps me from being active in local Democratic club, marching in nearly every march here since trump arrived on scene, volunteering. I am proud to have been an American public school teacher for 49 years ( that includes subbing after retirement). I am very proud of the success of my former students and know you would awed by their lives too. I am still very active in an international organization of “key” women educators. We are still active in education, giving scholarships and grants to new teachers, volunteering in schools with our skills, heading literacy projects, etc. This group of women alone could probably shape up the House and send many to detention.
My main point is I’m annoyed with being put down for where I shop and what we watch. We all can do our part to preserve Democracy. We are.
You sound a lot like me, Sue! About to hit 70, part of what's left of the middle class, coupon clipper, suburb living, cable TV watcher, activist, thorn to Repubs in my Red area. Not a teacher, except with the grandkids, but once a State employee. Keep your smile and sense of humor, and we'll win this thing!
You’re right. A sense of humor is essentially important and keeps us going…that and two young great-grandchildren whose pictures we demand constantly to watch them grow. Thanks for your reply.
Ah, great-grands!! Not yet, but my 2 oldest grands are in their early 20's, so could be soon!! Have fun!!
So much of the problem lies in the fact that small businesses have been eaten up by big corporations. While we would prefer to give our support to the local green grocer or the family run bakery, or the former student who has his own plumbing business, we can no longer find that source of supply. One cannot even buy a book at the family run bookstore because there isn’t one. So we are stuck. We shop where shopping is available and grit out teeth in the knowledge that we are supporting the system. Point being, I suppose, that it all returns to the fact that the real riches are in the hands of a few, who have us bound to their self serving economy, just like the slaves of former eras.
Sue, what about my post put you down? I’m confused.
Nothing, Mary. I wasn’t replying to anything you said. It was to someone else and an earlier posting. Sorry if you thought I had.
Sue, glad to hear that.
Mary FDR was delighted that’s Huey Long, in his pink suits, was assassinated over a personal matter. Huey, in 1935, was a troublesome challenger to FDR with his populism.
Are you sure he cares about his family and donors?
Not really, just as long as they have something to offer. “What have you done for me lately?”
"where politicians apply the law inconsistently, favoring friends and punishing enemies."
Classic corruption and classic tyranny. Classic organized crime.
"When lucrative contracts are handed out to Trumpist loyalists regardless of merit and dissident voices are targeted and silenced, America’s leadership on the global stage will dissolve when it’s needed most."
And worse, having lost any other means of agency, we could primarily become a predatory, pariah state.
Thank you Fern. Meanwhile, the MSM uses describes the inflation numbers from yesterday as "hotter than expected" and "worrying" and "troubling for the Biden administration."
Over 50% of the increase in inflation was due to 2 items -- rents or rent equivalents which went up 4% and energy costs which were driven by Ukraine's bombing of Russian refineries, pipelines and storage facilities.
Would Ukraine have been forced to make these moves if Trump's little Johnson hadn't held up military aid for over 200 days? Maybe, but probably not.
The Ukrainians have made some of the most creative advances in drone warfare over the past two years putting to shame the R&D efforts of the rest of the world's defense industry.
And their reward? To be abandoned by the do nothing Republicans led by TFFG and his little Johnson.
'Meet the Ukrainian amputees returning to the front to resist Russian advance'
By Thomas Peter, Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey and Vitalii Hnidiy
April 11, 20246:35 AM EDTUpdated 18 min ago
'DONETSK REGION, Ukraine, April 11 (Reuters) - Ukrainian commander Odin's lower leg was blown off in a mine explosion last year. Now he's back in the trenches.'
"I had offers to go back to my local academy as a teacher or to work at a draft office in Odesa," the 32-year-old from the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade told Reuters from a cramped bunker on the front line in the eastern region of Donetsk.'
"I said I'm not interested in these positions."
'Mango, a 28-year-old tank gunner, saw his hand shredded by shrapnel two years ago during fighting in Mariupol before he was captured by the Russians. He too has returned to the front, as logistics chief for a battalion in the Azov Brigade, which held out for months in defence of the southern city.'
'Ukraine's drained and depleted army needs all the help it can get. It is being driven back by its far larger, more powerful enemy around the eastern city of Avdiivka while coming under increasing pressure at other sections of the front.'
"When I got back from captivity, I realised the war wasn't over," said Mango, who like Odin and most Ukrainian soldiers goes by his military call sign for security reasons.'
"Even though I can't sit inside a tank, I can still be useful. I can still fight a bit."
The two soldiers are among thousands of Ukrainian troops who have lost limbs since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in early 2022. While the Kyiv government declined to share data on casualties, which it deems sensitive, Pryncyp, a leading human rights organisation representing military personnel, put the number of amputees from the war at between 20,000 and 50,000.'
'Battlefields are littered with mines, while artillery and drone attacks are a constant menace, meaning the grim number is rising steadily.'
'Reuters interviewed 20 military amputees for this article, seven of whom had returned to the army or intended to do so. For many of those able to do so, the desire to support their beleaguered comrades on the battlefield remains strong.'
'Masi Nayyem, co-founder of Pryncyp, said it was fairly common to see soldiers with artificial limbs still serving, though he didn't know how many had returned to the military and how many had entered civilian life.'
'The nature of their role will often be decided by the extent of the injuries, said Nayyem, who lost an eye in combat in June 2022. Soldiers with amputations below the knee, for example, are often deemed fit for service in support units but not for highly mobile or specialized roles, according to Pryncyp.'
'Tony Bloomfield, operations director at the British military charity for limbless veterans Blesma, said it was generally extremely rare for soldiers who have lost a limb to return to the conflict, but that this was happening in Ukraine.'
"The nature of the conflict is leaving lots of limb loss," said Bloomfield, whose team has spent time with wounded Ukrainian soldiers to help them adapt to limb loss, adding that artillery barrages were a major cause of the injuries.'
"Some of the Ukrainians we met, yes absolutely they want to go back and fight if they're able to," he said. "The difference here again, for Ukraine, is that if you leave the military, your country is still at war. And you're still at risk of injury."
'MY HAND WASN'T THERE ANYMORE'
'Kyiv is desperate to replenish its ranks.'
'Soldiers say they are outnumbered and outgunned along the 1,000-km front line in the east and south of Ukraine. During Moscow's months-long assault on Avdiivka, some Ukrainian troops said they had been outnumbered by around seven to one.'
'President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a bill this month to lower the draft age from 27 to 25, while a mobilisation bill aimed at drafting potentially hundreds of thousands more troops has made its way only slowly through parliament.'
'Both Odin and Mango - career soldiers who were in the military before the Russian invasion - expressed a sense of responsibility for the soldiers they had left behind in the trenches and of guilt that they had survived their injuries and could live in relative safety away from the fighting.
Odin had little hesitation in asking superiors for permission to return to combat after he had undergone surgery and rehabilitation with a prosthetic limb.'
'At his mortar position in Donetsk, he moves freely up and down the trenches, speaking with members of his unit and giving orders. But he says he still has an intense fear of triggering a mine again as he fights Russian forces.'
"Despite some saying everything was bad and that continuing a normal life was impossible, I'm living a full life," 'he said later, perched on a bed in the bunker and lifting a trouser leg to reveal his prosthetic limb.'
"It's just different twice a day: in the morning when I put on the prosthesis and at night when I take it off," 'he added.'
'Mango was one of hundreds of Ukrainians defending the Azostal steel plant in an ultimately futile last stand to hold the city of Mariupol before it fell in May 2022.'
"I wanted to check my watch to see what time it was," he recalled of the day of the injury. "I raised my hand, saw my watch wasn't there any more. My hand was completely shredded, bones sticking out and all."
'Convincing top brass that he still had a military role to play was not easy. Mango said he had to ask his commander to submit a report to the authorities confirming that there was a suitable position for him in the unit.'
"At every medical check-up, there was always one surgeon who would ask if I had reconsidered my decision, and each time I said 'No'," 'said Mango, who's hoping to have a bionic hand fitted to allow him to use artificial fingers.'
'ADVANCED BIONIC PROSTHETICS'
'In some ways, said the amputees interviewed, those who don't return to the military find the transition to civilian life, opens new tab even harder to navigate.'
'Leaving the army means negotiating a new set of challenges, from getting around a town or apartment to finding a job, as well as dealing with civilians who don't always know how to act when they come into contact with amputees.'
'The government provides high-quality prosthetics to those who lose limbs in combat as well as rehabilitation treatment. War amputees also receive payouts that vary according to the severity of the injuries. There is money available for servicing artificial limbs and individuals can raise funds privately or through charities for advanced prosthetics such as bionic hands.'
'Nayyem, of soldiers rights group Pryncyp, said the government was not doing enough to support amputees as they seek employment and that those initiatives that did exist were focused on the big cities.'
"I mean, the state prioritised sending you to die, but didn't make it a priority to help you recover when you got injured," he said. "All the wounded feel this."
'He added that the number of people affected by amputations, either directly or indirectly, would only climb as the war ground on with no end in sight.'
'Ukraine's Veteran Affairs Ministry, which oversees amputees, didn't respond when asked about criticism that it was not doing enough to support amputees, particularly over the longer term.
Oleksandr Revtiukh lost his left arm and most of his left leg in multiple mine blasts while fighting Russian forces during last summer's counteroffensive in the south, making a return to combat virtually impossible.' See Wider Image photo essay: https://reut.rs/4aJWHEX, opens new tab
'While the traumas of the war remain, the 33-year-old is focusing on his future outside of the military. The former electronics technician, who enlisted to fight months after Russia's February 2022 invasion, wants to build a social media profile as a motivational boxing coach for fellow amputees.'
"Don't be afraid to make mistakes," he said. "Look for a way out, there is a path through the thorns to the stars. This is my motto." (Reuters) Copied in Full.
Thank you for posting that Fern. I have chills and tears from reading it. Their courage is beyond my comprehension as well as their dedication to their country.
How so many Republicans in the House can be so callous to the pain and suffering Putin and his allies have brought on not only the Ukrainians and his own people, but on the people he is starving especially in Africa.
You have expressed my feelings, Gary, and that of many Americans. As formidable their courage and commitment, the Ukrainian people are models for us. The more we know of their war to remain free -- the more Americans know to vote for Biden and the other Democratic Party candidates in the November elections!
Encouraging coverage. Thank you. My breathing becomes noticeably shallower whenever I read what is commonly discouraging news. It's unlikely that I'll return to satisfyingly deep breathing (and sleep) until Joe Biden is re-elected, along with a democratic Senate and House. Until then, your reality checks help diminish the political hum — and my anxiety about our country's future.
And no president can alter the course of human events alone. we the People must focus on staying upright, and upon where we would like to see the wave of the future to be taking us.
Thank you, Professor, for sharing this important information about our ties with Japan. Along with President Biden's and Prime Minister Kishida's confirmation of the strength of our relationship, the Prime Minister announced Japan will gift to the United States 250 new cherry trees in celebration of the U.S.'s 250th anniversary in 2026. Alas, no word was mentioned about Stumpy!
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/japan-gifts-250-new-cherry-trees-dc-replacing-removed-repairs-rcna147295
Yes; there's good news to note. A welcome gift from Japan to boot ! Many times I've been there for the cherry blossoms blooming - gorgeous sight; and sitting at Lincoln's feet.
Morning, D4N! Hope you are doing well.
Hi Lynell; I'm cautiously optimistic. Thank you.
D4N, you echo my oncologist! He’s “cautiously optimistic” that I can lead a normal life. I wish the same for you. I’m always so glad when I see you posting.
D4N, so good to see you back—hope that your optimism is warranted.
Thx Mary - better seen than 'viewed' ? Lol... (weakly)
I am so happy about the cherry trees! What a unique and magnificent gift to the US from Japan.
Morning, Lynell! That's a gift; I've never seen them in bloom in person; it looks like a stunning sight in photographs.
My Dad was buried in Arlington National Cemetery many years ago in late April. Between taps, the solemnity of a military funeral…the full bloom of the cherry trees on a beautiful sunny day continues to bring occasional tears and peace some forty years later. A truly remarkable sight that is filled with nature’s beauty and peace.
Morning, Ally! Glad you liked seeing the photos.
On another note, here's a quote I just happened upon from a member of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I think you, especially, will find it superb:
"The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony. All of Heavenly Father’s children are different in some degree, yet each has his own beautiful sound that adds depth and richness to the whole. (Wirthlin, Joseph B. (2008, April 2)."
Isn't that just spectacular?
That is wonderful!!!
How lovely, Lynell! Thank you for sharing.
Glad you think so, Camilla. When I read it, I thought how could anyone disagree with this sentiment?
The Washington Post had a photo essay yesterday of the cherry blossoms from Tokyo that was breathtaking, if you can find it, it’s worth a look 👀, I sent a copy of it to the women in my family. I have no idea how to share it here. I have never seen anything like it. 🙏
I'll look for it; thanks, Dick!
There was a story about Stumpy on CBS Sunday Morning this past Sunday. Sadly, he will be ground into mulch to nourish the new trees.
Yes, indeed, Kathleen. We should take comfort from that!
So good to see Heather's reminders of Vice President Kamala Harris's vital work for women.
Even better to see these notes on her good work in the context of the meetings Prime Minister Kishida is having with officials in Washington.
If Kamala Harris is working for women, and women's health care and privacy rights, this work comes in a tradition which Japan eminently shares with the U.S. -- the preeminence of arts for love of, respect for all the varieties of people's complicated, nuanced, and deep involvements in communities social and natural.
Hayao Miyazaki just won another Oscar at this year's Academy Awards ("The Boy and the Heron"). The anime series "Demon Slayer" has broken records for sales and popularity both in Japan and the U.S. (manga and movie versions).
The health and centrality of humanities in both countries is no accident. That condition prefigures the centrality of personal health choices Kamala Harris defends.
U.S. billionaires spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try to kill the role of personal choices across America, hundreds of millions of dollars to kill vital federal programs. They want robotic schools, orgies of onerous standardized testing, all life commodified.
American women may finally win -- and win decisively -- this November. But it won't be in isolation from our keys for greatest strength, decency, and love of our communities.
In honor of some of our great debts, greatest assets, thank you again not only to Kamala, but also to Hayao Miyazaki and to Gotōge Koyoharu, the young woman behind "Demon Slayer."
I do wish all the media would stop showing videos of T. He looks more and more to be unhealthy and unhinged. I did watch a good part of MSNBC’s coverage of Biden’s speech with the Japanese state visit. I’m very happy about the work Biden’s team has done on strengthening alliances both in Europe and the Pacific. Also happy to hear about how understaffed T’s campaign headquarters are.
I am so sick of hearing his name and seeing his face and hearing his voice. I long for the day when, like magic, it just disappears. But the more he’s out there now, the worse he looks and sounds, and maybe that’s a good thing leading up to the election.
I'm interested by the comments that he's resorted to (badly edited) videos rather than campaign rallies. Hey - his airplane! They took it away from him, didn't they?!!
No, still flying him around. See, for example,
Donald Trump makes first trip to Georgia since clinching Republican nomi...
https://youtu.be/q7cyx2zZd4s?si=jSJotgY72nSNCjYn
Oh.
Not yet they didn’t, it should be one of the first things seized by the state of NY. Wouldn’t that be sweet, for him to have to rent ie pay in advance to use a plane just like you or I would. Or even better have to fly commercial, again if you don’t pay you don’t fly. I loathe that bastard so much.
Do you really? Gee, so do I!
These draconian laws removing women’s rights are based on a suupposed “belief" that "life begins at conception”. This is patently false. Life begins long before that. In fact, the egg that eventually developed into you was alive and well in your mother’s ovary months before she was born!
Of course, conception was a crucial point in your long journey toward personhood. But I challenge anyone who claims to "believe" that a fertilized human egg is the moral equivalent of a baby to consider this: You are a mother of a newborn baby, and you are in the maternity ward. Your baby is in the newborn nursery down the corridor to the left. Down the corridor to the right is the IVF clinic where you have two frozen embryos. A fire breaks out, and you have time to save your newborn baby or your two frozen embryos. Which will you choose? Now ask yourself this: How many frozen embryos would you have to save to justify abandoning your newborn baby, as the “moral” choice?
Many “believers” have been, and continue to be, bamboozled by their religious leaders about this moral question. But the simple act of considering the above ethical “dilemma” reveals the truth: When asked to ACT on their supposed “belief,” no sane person ACTUALLY believes that a fertilized human egg is the moral equivalent of a baby (ie. a person).
Justin StormoGipson, MD
Thank you, Justin, for that clear and helpful thought experiment pitting embryos against a newborn child. The question of life's beginnings is key in the abortion conflicts, and it is the one issue that points right at the absurdity of any particular religious conviction ruling over all women.
You are welcome. I hope it helps people clarify their thinking about an important issue that has been manipulated by religious and political extremists to the detriment of women.
I too thank you for your contribution herein, Justin. I have long been most uncomfortable with the concept of abortion. The moral complexity of the issue cries out for an exercise of our highest reasoning and discretion, and the avoidance of ready imposition of doctrines that may be noble in conception (pardon the pun), but less so in action. This is why Harry Blackmun spent so many hours in the bowels of the Mayo Clinic's library while thrashing out what would become his opinion in the Roe v. Wade decision.
Yes, simplifying this complex moral question to a false slogan; "Life begins at conception" is a major part of the religious and political extremists' attempt to bamboozle people. That's why I dispensed with that false narrative off the bat. Talking about personhood is more nuanced and less easily manipulated with sloganeering. But personhood IS what the debate is really about. It's clear, from my example above, that no sane person REALLY believes that a fertilized human egg is a person. Blackmun's choice, of viability as the line where personhood begins, makes a lot of sense.
President Biden is working daily for every day Americans. He is working with world leaders to insure peace around the globe. Yet when I read the daily news, from multiple sources, there are multiple stories about trump and now RFK, Jr. Is making headlines, too. There are rarely stories about Biden and when there is, they are usually negative. I laugh at republicans who think MSM goes left! Will MSM ever get on the Biden train? People don’t know about his accomplishments, they only hear stories about his age! This has to change!!
Thank you Heather.
Democracy = choice
Hey, JP. I was struck by Heather's reminder from her chat on FB last week when she said democracy doesn't mean we always win; it means that we have a say.
Cheating is a factor too
Yup.
Thank you once again Professor. These are important things to talk about. I wish mainstream media would start highlighting all the positives that are coming out from the Biden-Harris White House! They love to highlight the orange menace's continuing poison. It kind of reminds me of a line in an old Dire Straits song.
Very true Colette. Inflation was reported to be at 3.5% yesterday. Over 50% of that rate was due to rents and increases in energy costs. The MSM reported it like they did when we finally left Afghanistan. The market expected 3.4% and got 3.5%.
The MSM is fighting for their ever shrinking audience and advertising dollars. Thank goodness for HCR where she enjoys a faithful and growing audience.
Prime minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and his wife, Yuko Kishida, are in Washington, D.C...please take note; Japan is a society in which age and the wisdom of age has been and is revered.
Ray As a kid during World War II was not enchanted by the reverence of the wisdom of age in Japan. Nor were the Chinese.
Great contradictions in our world...
Ray At 90 I experienced Stalin as our WW II ally [Churchill: ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ being taught to hate the Japanese, severely dislike the Nazis (but there were some good Germans,) and not take Italy seriously as an Axis power.
Japan and Germany swiftly were transformed from enemy to ally. With the SovietUnion Gorby was a transition from the Soviet Union to a reconstituted Russia—oophs, now a Putinisque Russia. As for China, post Mao a case study in rapid development, but now Xi’s Russia.
In the Middle East, Israel was an outpost of democracy until it wasn’t. Our relations with Egypt—where I wrote a book in the 1950s—have been volatile.
As for the oil-rich Arabian peninsula countries, once we and they were check and jowl. Now it’s mostly jowl.
I recall Mary Martin’s song from South Pacific: “You’ve got to be Carefully Taught.”
I’m glad the Biden-Harris team have learned from the Hillary Clinton team’s mistake of ignoring the fly-over section of the country. They’re not making assumptions.
Now, I wish they’d fight a bit dirtier. President Biden has always been known for reaching across the aisle. But this is definitely not the Republican Party, nor are these the Republicans voters, of the past. Take off the gloves and fight like hell.
I wish Biden would spend more time hamnering the reproductive rights issue. He cannot just leave this mostly to Harris. It is the only issue that can win the election for Democrats. Kavanaugh and his SCOTUS allies gave Democrats the keys to the kingdom, but they have to make sure to accept the gift.
How times change.
As a young kid, during World War II, I was taught to hate the Japanese. That my cousin, exec officer on a sub sunk soon after Pearl Harbor, was a Japanese prisoner of war for over three years did not soften my image of Japanese.
Then this image began to change. General McArthur was our imperial representative in destroyed Japan immediately after the war. At the same time of the Japanese war tribunals, McArthur, on one occasion, telegraphed Washington ‘Either send more food or send more bullets.’
During the Korean War, Japan became an essential staging area for American troops and supplies.By the 1970s Japan was flourishing and was flooding the United States with little autos that were causing Detroit great pain.
In 1974-1975 I was the first person to undertake a public rating of the credit of Japan. After a prolonged and sensitive process, Japan was awarded a coveted Aaa. This was the same year that I informed the Bank of England that I wouldn’t permit England to issue sovereign bonds on the New York market.
During World War II China (Chiang kai-Shek) was our ally against Japan, which killed about 10 million Chinese. Today Japan is critical in an alliance, anchored by the United States, intended to counter XI’s China.
At times I find it puzzling to know who are my friends and enemies.
Good stories! And you, like many people who have really done things, display the thoughtful lack of certainty that is a hallmark of intellectual honesty. Thank you for sharing!
Beautiful In my early 20s I had the answers, but I didn’t know the questions. At 90 I am more confident that I know the questions, but find any answer certainty puzzling.
A generation ago, I prepared a 38-page annotated bibliography on books, articles, and videos for a professional presentation of Japanese World War II Atrocities (which Japanese government officials and academics did not appreciate). I wonder what prompted this major personal effort.
Oh, I too am a fan of more information! Nothing like a thorough and exhaustive bibliography to things in perspective! It helps everyone involved in contentious issues to keep awareness of actual events that occurred.
As revealed in the superb movie RASHOMON, there can be four persuasive eye witness accounts of the same incident of which at best only one is accurate and, perhaps, none are accurate. Also, memory can play tricks years later and autobiography often is fiction.
As I learned from a professor, it is extremely difficult to know, at the time, whether some event is decisive. And, of course, many historians have their own axe to grind (except, of course, me!).
Of your many contributions to our collective discourse on this wonderful site Keith, I must single out your tossing down an Akira Kurosawa reference as perhaps first among equals! Touche!
Daniel Kurosawa was one of my favorites. He was chosen to direct the Japanese portion of Tora Tora Tora, but then was summarily replaced early on.
RASHOMON is a marvelous caution about ‘eye witness’ accounts and autobiographies.
Thanks for your perspective, Keith. As always.
Biden shows us what a winner looks like while Trump, not so much. Democracy wins in November.
Michael:
You're right, of course!
Still . . . let's not allow ourselves to become complacent. Remember 2016.
\Vince S
President Obama brought together 119 Pacific Rim countries to create an alliance to deal with China, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Trump dropped it early in his administration. He dropped it before he had time to read it, if he can read. Tell me how it is better to deal with any adversary individually than a like minded group. Please remember how he praised and fawned over China and Xi, until he needed a scapegoat for his own miserable handling of the COVID pandemic. This election is about democracy but our relationship with the world is at stake too.
On one side: MAGAs who will punish women and sending them back to the Stone Age to be stoned. MAGAs who will share national secrets with a sworn enemy. On the other side, Grandpa and Uncle Sam fighting for normalcy.