JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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taniwha
Zurcronium
Let's get history right here. The leading Democrats all lined up behind 'the Bush' Iraq war. I could run through the lot but who cares for all the names. We know them already; there's senator's Lieberman, Gephardt, Kerry (who let's not forget ran for president), Edward, Graham, both Clintons, Biden, Kennedy...
There were a few against, but they were very very few and only Dean from memory made anything close to a public stand against the overwhelming Democrat support for the warmongers lust for Iraqi blood and oil. Throughout the past decade the Democrats have impotently pleaded with the administration and outright collaborated with it, particularly over the war in Iraq, and military spending. But also in their refusal to have a confrontation with the Republican Party over the stacking of the Bush judicial nominations in favour of the extreme right wing and Christian fundamentalist forces that have been so influential in the Republican Party.
The Democratic Party have shown themselves to be the most spineless of oppositions and have also displayed an alarming lack of principle - and that's throughout the entire two terms of the Bush administration. They pose as representing their supporters but the majority of their supporters have shown through polls to be hostile to the Iraq war.
And from the Iraqi war to the Economy when we look at the involvement of the Democrats in political disasters they show themselves at least to be consistent. How can we all forget how in the early hours of October 22, 1999, an agreement made between the Clinton administration and the congressonal Republicans was settled that would allow the most sweeping banking deregulation in American history!
Yep, on president Bill Clinton's watch the stage was set for the passage of a bill that would enable virtually all restraints on the operation of the giant monopolies dominating the financial system to be lifted.
The rest, as they say, is history. McCain will be allowed to become president, the Democrats will see to that, and those that don't fall in line will be encouraged to. Or have you forgotten what happened the last two presidential elections?
Posted in: Obama, McCain argue over war, taxes in 1st debate
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taniwha
Text missing from above. The last paragraph should read.
'This is history. No good trying to change it. Democrats should be burying their heads in shame rather than trumpeting their stupidity by attempting to paint the blame for the disaster that US politics has brought upon America and the world solely on the Republicans.'
Posted in: Obama, McCain argue over war, taxes in 1st debate
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taniwha
And do you know what is even more amazing?
How the Republican led 'war on terror' was supported by the Democrats from the very beginning. Some might complain that the Democrats might have done it better but no one can argue in good faith that the Democrats were unaware of what was being debated in Congress.
The truth is that the Democrats have not been totally complicit throughout.
The financial meltdown itself although it was inevitable came to a head because of legislation inacted during a Democrat administration.
This is history. No good trying to change it. Democrats should be burying their heads in shame rather than trumpeting their stupidity by attempting to paint the blame for the disaster that US politics has brought upon America and the world.
Posted in: Obama, McCain argue over war, taxes in 1st debate
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taniwha
Sarge,
I am kind've familiar with the set up.
President or Primeminister the general idea is its a democracy. That means the elected leader has with a mandate to govern for the good of the people and not for the good of an unelected few.
Democracy requires a full discussion and debate in the course of an election campaign when it comes down to what to do with the federal treasury. What is happening is that the two presidential candidates have conspired together not to raise the topic in a public debate. That much is clear and that is the point I am making here. The 'rescue plan' as it has been presented to the public amounts to raiding the federal treasury and to mortgage future generations to guarantee the riches of the financial elite.
Don't you think that is a topic for these potential presidents to debate since at least one of the topics has been the economy?
Huh?
Posted in: Obama, McCain argue over war, taxes in 1st debate
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taniwha
And did they debate the plan to use US$700 billion of American taxpayers' money both Obama and McCain have supported?
Did they?
Isn't it interesting that the public gets no say at all in this decision?
Isn't it convenient that BOTH these candidates desire to see the bailout go ahead before the presidential election? Perhaps so that it plays no part in the voter's decision on which candidate to support? Not that it would matter a great deal in the end, since both Obama and McCain are fully behind the decision to reimburse Wall Street for its losses, even while the Senate has refused to pass into a law more funding for programs such as the extended unemployment benefits, tax credits for small businesses, food stamps, Medicaid programs and infrastructure projects.
There's money for the ruling class when times get hard but not for the working class - which is a very large proportion of the American population and growing in size daily.
I guess both candidates just don't want their audience out their in TV land to catch on to the real program at issue here.
Posted in: Obama, McCain argue over war, taxes in 1st debate
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taniwha
Flyingfish,
I did, I did watch the interviews.
I felt the same way I did when I watched George Bush Jnr being interviewed prior to his first election. It was horrible, Palin is a pawn, and that makes having her in the role of Vice President dangerous. More so when as others have pointed out already she is only a few heartbeats away from being the president.
McCain is quite old for the job, and on top of that he's not in the best of health. So if the Republicans retain the Whitehouse, Palin will find herself at some stage in the role of President of America.
Its true Palin may be pulled as Vice President.
To be honest I think just about anything could happen here. Those who are in charge of running the country now will decide how the next president comes into office. But don't look for rationality behind what is taking place. This lot are not looking further ahead than tomorrow and even then not at all past their own interests.
My guess is that many, maybe even you, will be watching the Vice Presidential debate next week. Its kind of that 'you know its going to be so painfully-gut-twistingly-embarassingly-baaaad that it's unmissable viewing', where we find ourselves watching it even though we know it's really a joke that is at our expense.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
So has been George Bush junior!
Even during Bush's first term in office abroad there was incredulity expressed at how such a man could be president. What Bush has been openly admired for by colleagues is his ability as a team manager. But that is only one of the character traits that was behind the reason he became president. As I have pointed out above Palin shares at least two of these characteristics.
You assume that democracy prevails, and that votes actually count in the making of a president. They do not. And that is precisely my point.
If the last two decades taught you one thing about the way US politics now works it should have been that presidents are not voted in by the American population.
I am certain that McCain and Palin will win this election for all of the reasons I have given on these threads.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
Hey, so who can't count on JT?
A number of posters seem to think the bailout is 7 billion US dollars. That would still be a huge amount of money, I know, but what you need to do is multiply 7 by 100 to get the figure the Senate is talking of pouring into Wall Street.
So that's US$700 billion NOT 7 billion, okay? Good. So now we can get back to the discussion. Thank you. Sheesh!
Posted in: No bailout deal after McCain, Obama, Bush meeting
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taniwha
Flyingfish,
How is this possible?
After two terms of the Bush junior/Cheney administration and you are surprised to see yet another naive and reactionary like Palin nominated for Vice President? I'm not.
For starters, the majority of Americans are not directly responsible for these kind of leaders. The George Bushes and the Sarah Palins are virtually placed into these position in a most undemocratic manner. George Bush junior after all, became president twice without winning the majority of votes either time.
The naive and reactionist character of both individuals makes them perfect for the job of looking after the interests of the thin layer of wealthy elite, the class that runs America, in what is a time of desperation - particularly for this lot. They have will not think twice about taking away the rights of citizens, or dropping bombs on civilians in a foreign country when the interests of the ruling elite are at stake.
What you have is not a democracy, it is a plutocracy.
We are all but certain to see a McCain and Palin administration. But the really shocking thing is that an Obama and Biden administration would follow an almost identical policy direction, both domestic and foreign. They would have to, because that is the nature of a plutocracy.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
Nessie,
If you want to say I write long and negative prose consider for a moment the themes I address. They are weighty issues that can't be addressed with simplistic homilies.
I do think though that there is always room for wit, so I'm quite happy to leave the one liners for you.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
We are watching the proverbial slow motion train wreck. There is nothing the Senate can do to prevent the total financial meltdown. The reason as I see it is two fold.
Firstly, and crucially it is a result of the onward degeneration of the Capitalist system which has been taking place for almost the entirety of the 20th Century. It isn't something new. So it makes little sense to blame it on any particular American administration. Although, okay, granted, it is satisfying for some to pin the blame on the Bush administration, since it has been the most extreme on record, and yes, there is no doubt the 'war on terror' along with the intensifying deregulation of the financial system bought this to a head in double quick time. To be the ones ensconced in arguably the most extreme government in American history is quite something for a political party that wore the label 'conservative' through much of its history.
But no, the collapse of the financial system was predicted a long time ago. I'm not talking about contemporary European economists either, and I am really referring to the collapse of Capitalism. That was predicted over 200 years earlier, by Karl Marx.
So no, Capitalism simply is no longer fixable, the financial system is shot. The best metaphor I can think of for the idea of a resuscitated Wall Street is an image of the resurrected dead, but I am referring to the George Romero concept rather than the Biblical.
The second reason the Senate will not be able to halt the financial meltdown is that they simply are incapable of doing the job. They are as I have always pointed out here representatives of the ruling elite. They ARE part of the same American ruling elite. I am referring to both sides of the Senate. It is in their interest to maintain their class, and to do that they need to retain their wealth. That means maintaining increasing profit. And yes, they are distraught, because they see their existence very much under threat.
This bunch are quickly realizing that even attempting to put up a facade of doing something to pull back from the abyss, will likely send them over the edge. 700 billion US$ is far too little too late. They are now dealing with a global financial crises, that had its roots in the US but is no longer confined to American soil. This is the real domino effect. There just is no way to reverse it.
Posted in: No bailout deal after McCain, Obama, Bush meeting
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taniwha
This is a fundamental mistake. You are talking then about tweaking the current system, i.e. the Capitalist system. That's been done. It doesn't work. It cannot. Socialism ( I use Socialism with a big 'S' to refer to the actual) replaces Capitalism, the two don't walk hand in hand. What has happened since 1914 is that in the West to Socialists once imprisoning them or killing them was no longer viable was for the system to attempt first to placate them then to absorb them. The promise that the ruling class and the Capitalist system could be changed from the inside has proven to be a lie. The political parties of the left, including the unions don't even bother anymore pretend to be working toward a shift to Socialism.
The only people who can change the system are the working class.
Jerry White is an International Socialist/ a Trotskiast. He aims firstly for a working class audience.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
SezWho2
I'm not sure what you mean.
Against socialism, yes. However, against "one-world-ism" apparently not. After all it would seem that a lot of Americans have no problem with the world being made in their image, with the notion of actually pushing American Capitalism onto other peoples in other countries. Many Americans seem not even to question the notion that there is something fundamentally wrong about invading sovereign powers to replace their leadership.
I do realise though, that neither notion is embraced by all or perhaps even a majority of Americans, but would argue and I think you would agree that most Americans would not even be aware of these realities as being issues - they wouldn't have thought about them hardly at all.
Absolutely I agree. That would also go for virtually the whole of the industrialised world up until this year.
The problem there is that no country in the world has a Socialist system in place. There was the 1917 October Revolution in Russia where the working class took a hold of the state. That didn't last too long. Stalin and his supporters turned the revolution into a dictatorship. Since then other dictators such as Mao and Pol Pot followed with their own regimes based on Stalin's appropriation of the Marxist notion of Communism. It enabled them the support of the majority, particularly the peasants who formed the majority of the populations, whose dislike of their traditional overlords was readily harnessed under the promise of a socialist utopia.
In essence, the promise of Socialism was not fulfilled because the real intention on the part of the dictators was to replace internationalism with nationalism. By definition then Castro's communist Cuba cannot survive.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
Sarge,
Oh come on. What do you mean we who don't live in America can't comment on your president of two terms? He's done so much for so many people. He would have just because he's the president of the US in any event.
For starters when the US votes in a president it tends to have a very real impact on the entire globe, because of the position America has held in the global economy. Now that it uses the worlds most powerful military to exert its foreign policy in anyone and anywhere it wants a US presidential election is of interest to people other than Americans.
The whole world should get to vote given US foreign policy (militarily exacted as it is) simply regards the rest of the globe as its own stomping field.
You are right about Bush. He wasn't the cause of the financial crises - he was a product, a symptom if you like, of the inevitable rapidly developing collapse of US Capitalism (and inextricably linked to the terminal condition of world Capitalism). And you are kind've correct re the state of the economy, this isn't another Great Depression - YET.
It's really difficult though, to argue that the US is not like a number of other countries currently in a recession.
Posted in: Bush warns of recession without rescue plan; invites Mccain, Obama to meeting
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taniwha
SezWho2
Good to see you on board, well, waving to the ship in recognition anyway.
That's the URL to go to for clarity on the issue. My feeling as I have already stated on JT is that McCain ultimately will win. I just don't think the faction of the ruling elite in control now will relinquish the Whitehouse when things are looking so bad for the Capitalist economy of the USA, never mind their profit margins.
The fact that the US dollar will likely be replaced by the Euro as the 'dominant' world currency (at least for the short term future) means they will be focused entirely on using American military force in an effort to maintain ensure US hegemony across the globe. Controlling the world's oil and gas resources is now the only game in town for them, and the means is by military force.
The situation now that the Capitalist economy is falling down (like a house of cards) across the world means that the elites of other major powers are looking in desperation at maintaining their own positions of control within their own economies. The US decision to replace diplomacy with military force as their tool to exert foreign policy has meant a rapid build up of militaries across the globe, and general turn to sabre rattling and jingo-chauvinist nationalism in many countries.
The hardline/neo-cons and including the fascist/ fundamental religious forces that have formed into the core of the Republican Party now, will simply not risk a member of the more moderate and the 'liberal' faction, as represented by the Democratic Party, take office. So I just can't see Obama being president, not in this environment and given those dynamics at play. John McCain has won the Republican nomination, and short of the US army taking control of the Whitehouse, I would bet on McCain sitting behind the desk in the oval office by January.
The best we can hope for is that under conditions that render the true nature of Capitalism naked to all - and of course the reality of the sham that is the two party politics - that people will realize that International Socialism provides the only logical and rational next step in bringing a peaceful and truely democratic world into being.
Yes, and Jerry White would be outstanding in a presidential debate. That would be a real debate.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
The Democrats and Barack Obama represent nothing so much as a lie.
If you want change then vote for the SEP (Socialist Equality Party). The Dems are there to soak up the working class and lost liberals. To obfuscate and turn people away from the real alternative to more of the same. The Dems posture as if they actually represent an alternative, but as US politics shows very clearly they are just an act.
If you want more of the same vote McCain.
If you want more of the same with a cherry on top vote Obama. But if its democracy you are after than take a good hard look at the reality of the fraud that is the two party system. The SEP is the only party offering democracy for real.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
Well, so is the UN. Could be relevant.
But in the case of the WSWS in what actual country the servers are located is irrelevant.
This is the Internet - news is disseminated to all points in cyberspace. A very large proportion of the contributing writers are based all around the globe. It is a news outlet. There is though a Socialist Equality Party associated with WSWS.org and they are all around the globe also, from Scri Lanka to New Zealand to Germany to USA and beyond - truely international indeed.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
I remain ever optimistic. To change from Capitalism would definitely be a very good thing, so long as it was embraced internationally.
Unicorns? Perhaps you watched the movie Blade Runner? Phillip K Dick the author of the book that movie lived in a state of paranoia and wrote about it a lot. You might want to move yourself back into the real world for a while.
Posted in: Obama, McCain react cautiously to financial rescue plan
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taniwha
Actually, amendment to my first line in reply to you in the above post. Cold hard cash staying in the USA or moving out of it is not the essence of the problem for the US (or the world) at all.
Point of fact, over the past few decades cash has been flowing like a river into the USA, from China, India, Korea, and Japan principally. It was mostly because of the possibility that China would react badly by pulling its investments that the Bush Administration decided to nationalize Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac. China had invested big time in both of them. A good part of Asia 'owns' a good part of the USA. If that part of the world panic and pull their investment America is feet up.
That is unlikely to happen because that in turn would mean curtains for say, China's export economy. The Japanese economy though dependent mostly on exports to China is also well and truely intertwined with the USA. The continuing relative good health of the Chinese economy is really the key to the entire world being able to stave off the next great depression.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times
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taniwha
Mad,
You are wrong about cash staying in the US, it hasn't been doing that, and that is part of the problem.
The nature of the problem being faced by the Fed is nothing much to do with the recent Administration, although clearly policies coming out of Washington over the past decades has really accelarated the process. The emergence of the Bush administration, just like the batch of failed corporations and banks on Wall Street are symptomatic of the disease that is the death of Capitalism. Its been a long drawn out process.
There's no room to deal with it here. Go to WSWS.org - do a search under any keyword you like and you will find that since 1998 they have expertly and faithfully described the real events at the time and predicted with almost unparalleled precision the course events would take. Shorn of the spin and the need to obfuscate the real guts of what has happened, is happening, and even will happen is all there.
Posted in: McCain campaign savages New York Times