JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
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taniwha
Palin's prompters were superb.
The way they fed her the incorrect name for the General in charge in Iraq was masterful. She wasn't aware of course and that was the point, she appeared to make the goof herself, as if she was not receiving prompts at all.
Biden's startled expression gave it away of course. It was written all over his face. "How could they have given her the wrong name? Did she really mishear them? It could be a trap, better not say anything."
Posted in: Biden, Palin spar over Iraq, economy in debate
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taniwha
Nippon5
You make many good points.
I believe you are one of the few here on JT who actually express a representative view of a very large group of the American population, at least a good few that I personally know (and who do not go to the www.wsws.org page for their political insight). I am certain many Americans are just as disturbed as you are by the alarming lack of difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates.
You might have heard of New Zealand. A small country, plays rugby well and famous for dairy cows and snow, and the haka. Just to show you this two party fraud is not suffered soley by America, let me refer you to what has been taking place in recent weeks in New Zealand. There, the two main political parties have made an agreement between themselves to shut out all other political parties in a public televised debate between the leaders.
The Labour party which has been in power for 9 years and mirrors your Democratic Party was apparently the one to initiate the plan. The National party, mirroring your Republic Party, is led by one of the wealthiest men in Australasia agreed to the plan and they agreed to the plan.
In the last decade in most of the developed world the divide between the richest and the poorest has become a gaping divide, and in the last few years the middle class rather than growing in size as the myth of the free market ideology had promised has actually shrunk. The poor have increased in number, their ranks swelled by those who would formally have ranked themselves middle class.
Which party speaks for the struggling Americans and their counterparts across the world, the working class? It most certainly is not the Democrats and the Labour party and their counterparts. The political alternative to the 'Tory' party is now revealed to be a lie. In desperate economic times we have seen the Democrats obscure their former posture as fighters for 'ordinary workers', their liberal garb is clearly nothing but a veneer, an attempt to cover their true class connection and their right-wing orientation.
In these last two debates it should have become crystal clear to all viewers that there is nothing but posture that separates the true interests of the Democrats from those of the Republicans.
Nippon5, it is really heartening to read your posts on this thread.
Moderator: Stay on topic please. The subject is the debate. References to other countries are not relevant.
Posted in: Biden, Palin spar over Iraq, economy in debate
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taniwha
Clinton, wasn't that the guy who was president when the banking deregulation bill was passed back in October 1999?
The banking deregulation bill lifted virtually all restraints on giant monopolies that dominated the financial system. That's right, many of those we saw bounce into the headlines a few days back when they went bust, or were bailed out.
It was because of an agreement between the Clinton administration and the congressional Republicans that set the passage for that bill to pass into legislation. How the heck can anyone use Clinton as an example of sound economic management?
Posted in: Biden, Palin spar over Iraq, economy in debate
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taniwha
Seem to be doing a lot of back to back posts today.
The first line of my reply above should read as follows.
Well in this case you'd be moving from one end of the sinking ship to the other. Better to take another boat.
And take a look at www.socialequality.com Know you are not going to be lied to there.
Posted in: Biden, Palin spar over Iraq, economy in debate
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taniwha
tkoind2
Well in this case you'd be moving from one of the sinking ship to the other. Better to take another boat.
If change is what you are looking for you won't be getting that with Obama, Biden, and the Democrats. But you would get that if you voted the Socialist Equality Party. http://www.socialequality.com/
Change and a real democracy.
Posted in: Biden, Palin spar over Iraq, economy in debate
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taniwha
You know, that no matter which of these two teams you end up with in the White house in November, you can can expect severe slashing of funding for social service, massive increase in unemployment, and the reinstatement of the draft. And on the foreign affairs front you can expect the possibility of armed engagement with a major foreign power or several, and the distinct possibility that the US will turn to nuclear weapons.
Obama and Biden in the White house will not change this course America and the world is on one whit. To see the same posters here deliriously pumping the air for team Obama, in spite of the content of his most recent speeches, his historical record in politics, and the INaction of the Democratic Party that has had so much control of the house during these last years of the Bush administration is nothing short of alarming. Its has the character of a psychosis.
I still expect McCain and Palin to take the election though.
Like I have said here already, the faction of the ruling elite the Republicans represent will not give up their grip on power to risk a shift on the course they have set that country. This faction of the thin layer of wealthy rich ruling America are now heavily influenced by the extreme right and religious fundamentalists, And they are now desperate.
Posted in: Biden, Palin spar over Iraq, economy in debate
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taniwha
Welcome to the most cynical game in the world right now.
The aim is to get the voters to believe they have a democracy, that the Democrats actually offer an alternative to the Republicans.
On more war, more assaults on the living standards of working class Americans (and likely very soon 25% of the middle class will count themselves in the ranks of the working class), and increased attacks on the environment, on just those three fundamental issues alone the policies of the Democrats and the Republicans cannot be separated.
In so far as putting the interests of corporate America first goes, the Democrats and the Republicans stand side by side.
Posted in: Biden, Palin spar over Iraq, economy in debate
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taniwha
The prompt feeding Palin the incorrect name for the General was a nice touch. Made her performance far more convincing. Even Biden's jaw dropped in surprise. You could see him thinking something like the following. "How the heck did they get the General's name wrong? Might be a trap. Better not go there."
And Palin carried on completely unaware. My guess is her prompter had a sneer on his face at that point.
Posted in: Biden, Palin spar over Iraq, economy in debate
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taniwha
Amazing how prompters can help. Palin's earpiece did not fall out. Neither did Biden's. Quite a professional performance all round.
Posted in: Biden, Palin spar over Iraq, economy in debate
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taniwha
Watch for the wires.
Maybe Palin's minature earpiece gets somehow dislodged. Otherwise I am sure you are going to see Palin speaking far more like a future Vice President this time around, that is, compared to her amazingly bad performance in the recent interviews. Its amazing how technology can cover incompetence, and you can be sure that her team will be employing the very best the high tech world of prompting can offer.
Oh, and you can be sure if Palin is employing a prompter who's feeding lines to her through digital wizardry that Biden will be doing the same.
I guess it really gets down to who can best deliver the lines.
Posted in: Palin gets chance to overcome doubts in VP debate
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taniwha
tkoind2
There you have it. The Taniwha message. The ruling elite are in charge and not the people. If the voters actually had a political party to choose that truely represented the public rather than the corporations you'd have a democracy. But just as in the US, Japan is really a plutocracy.
That means that you can expect that when the economy tanks (perhaps not quite to the degree the US or maybe even worse) the government will exact much the same policies on the Japanese population.
However, Japan is not the US nor the UK, and a number of other factors will enter into it. You should keep in mind one thing though, people need food and security, and if they don't have one or the other there is trouble. If they don't have both there is big trouble. The basic needs of human beings will in the end overwhelm whatever cultural niceties exist. The problem of yobbos in Japan as in the UK is just one symptom of social breakdown through a disintegrated economy and a government that does not care enough about the needs of its people.
Posted in: Jeering crowd goads suicidal jumper to his death in England
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taniwha
Yes, difficult alright, unless you happen to be one of them. But I think that's the whole point about being disaffected, in which case you don't relate to society, because it no longer relates to you. This happens when an underclass grows to the extent it exists within the country but outside of society, think the 1800's, Charles Dicken's era, the 1920's Weimer Germany...Japan and the USA and UK 2009, 2010, and onward.
Let's hope not, but if history teaches us anything it is that it repeats itself, that is, if the fundamental political and economic conditions that produced the events we want to forget remain unchanged.
Posted in: Jeering crowd goads suicidal jumper to his death in England
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taniwha
adaydream
This is a presidential debate. Quite different to an interview.
Saw the Curic interview. I don't think she has done anymore interviews since that one, has she?
Posted in: Palin gets chance to overcome doubts in VP debate
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taniwha
SmithinJapan
How is that? Remember George Bush jnr during the Presidential debate and the lump under his jacket? Turns out he had not overnight developed a physical mutation. More than likely he was wired and making use of prompts as he has appeared to have done (but mostly visual and without the wire) for most of his speeches since.
I doubt whether you'd even see any evidence of a radio device attached to Palin now, they'd have improved on them since that Bush/Kerry debate. Of course Palin will sound a lot less confused compared to her performance in the recent series of interviews.
Look, Palin is perfect for the job.
She is totally in keeping with the quality and type of candidate being pushed forward for the job of puppet in the oval room. Particularly so for the job of Vice President. If McCain suffers a heart attack during his presidency the very last thing the puppeteers would want is a replacement that thinks for themselves, is informed, and with the potential to not follow the script.
Posted in: Palin gets chance to overcome doubts in VP debate
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taniwha
Cleo
Your posts are increasingly reactionary. What's up?
Posted in: Jeering crowd goads suicidal jumper to his death in England
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taniwha
taiko666
It won't last. The Japanese are about to lose the benefits a huge middle class afforded them for so long, as the economy spins back into recession the ranks of the unemployed will shoot up, and the groups of disaffected youth will abound just as in the UK. Japan at this moment is going into recession.
The Japanese government over the past decade in particular has been increasingly driven by the extreme right wing. You can be sure that government funding into social services will accelerate in the coming months and years.
Jeering crowds are going to become common place in Japan, and outsiders will find themselves facing increasingly reactionary actions by both the institutions and those citizens who will readily accept that their troubles can be blamed on the presence of foreigners in Japan.
Posted in: Jeering crowd goads suicidal jumper to his death in England
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taniwha
Alphaape
Colonialism is not OWNED by England and Europe.
Today colonialism is associated with the US, and that is simply because in terms of scale alone it is the US imperialist adventures abroad that stands out. To find a colonialist enterprises that compares with that of the US undertaking in Iraq and Afghanistan (the two standouts at this time) and in Indo-China in the 1960's and early 1970's and in South America particularly during the 1960's, 70's and 80's you'd have to look at England at the height of its empire, or perhaps go back as far as to the Roman Empire.
So the US is the very last foreign power that African states need interfering in their affairs, almost at any level.
You have learnt nothing from the US invasion of Iraq. The numbers of insurgents in the Middle East have grown far far larger than before the US attacked Iraq. And lets be clear about another point, terrorism is not confined to the actions of individual rag tag self appointed militants. Terrorism is also a tactic of the state. And the greatest source of terror in this world at this time is unquestionably not hijackers on a plane, it is Washington! The policies to have emerged out of the Whitehouse in the decades since WW2 have killed more millions, and cowed entire populations of countries.
You really need to think a little bit deeper before you post on these topics.
Posted in: Controversial U.S. Africa command launches
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taniwha
Taxes, taxes, taxes...the very poor don't pay taxes... Not putting all that into quotes, but I am just summarizing a section of this thread and one of the central themes in it.
Let me tell you all, everyone pays taxes. Even the very very poor, well if they don't they soon will, if they are going to live.
Here's a few ways that most everyone is going to be taxed and taxed and taxed. 1. I don't think America has ever had anything like GST? or VAT? Could be wrong. Someone can correct me if you like. But these are all forms of tax added to things you buy, principally food, and beverages, and those luxury goods that even the very poor want to buy, and here I'm talking about tobacco. 2. I call this a tax but its really a negative tax, a way for the State to keep money it formerly had to spend on you. I've mentioned most of them here before, they are the remaining vestiges of Roosevelt's New Deal, social security itself (and here think Superannuation). Other funding types to be slashed include the following: Medicare. Medicaid, and funding usually given out to education, public transportation, the national parks/environment, etc. These will all be slashed to ribbons.
Yes, if that bailout goes through Americans are going to pay for it, and that means extracting money from where-ever it can be found out of the system - I mean the one you live within.
Barack Obama and the Democrats have supported the Republican concept of a bailout from the get go. You have to wonder why too, since its the Democrats who control both sides of the house! If they really were concerned at all about their support base amongst the RAPIDLY growing ranks of the working class you would think they would have backed an option that their supporters would support. And principles have nothing to do with it, because those who benefit directly from this bailout are the Goldman Sachs of Wall Street. But only for a limited time.
Posted in: U.S. lawmakers try to revise bailout plan
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taniwha
But isn't the War on Terror a treat? Eh? It is the all round ticket to be anywhere imperialism needs to be, to knock out any obstacles to being anywhere imperialism needs to be. That War on Terror legitimates just about any assault on the rights of entire countries and the individuals within them. Its a perfect reason to be in Africa. And maybe even, soon to be in a venue near you.
Then again there is the positive side to the War on Terror, paid work and in exotic locations. Join the cue to the draft office, soon to open at a venue near you. You too can be in Africa by next year, or Afghanistan.
Posted in: Controversial U.S. Africa command launches
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taniwha
Help them like how? Liberating them from their puppet leaders? Weren't a significant number installed into power with the aid of serious money and military aid from countries like the USA, France, and China, and then had their policies virtually written for them with the 'aid' of Capitalist institutions like the IMF, and the World Bank? Oh, wait up didn't that word 'military' pop up again. Yes, but that's military aid.
So anyway there's all those despot leaders trained by the foreign interests to serve the economic interests of rich and powerful foreign states. Because as you say, Africa is stonking rich in natural resources, and most particularly in the form of mineral wealth. But those despots, the Mugabe's etc, they are proving a bit embarrassing these days. We could either shore them up, militarily or else just replace them.
Because unless you are talking about China there isn't a lot of finance we are able to help them out with. Military aid, yeah, now there's something we can help out with. And here are our terms...
Posted in: Controversial U.S. Africa command launches