"... It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings."....I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Saturday, July 12, 2014
STUDY FINDS READING ONLINE–SUCH AS SKIM READING LEAVES ZERO BENEFIT AND MAKING RETENSION A ZERO FACTOR FOR AN INDIVIDUAL - ZERO REMEMBRANCE AFTERWARDS
Countless hours spent online could be making us dumber, a new study has found. Victoria University researchers examined online reading habits, and have suggested changes may be needed in how the tech savvy generation is taught.
In general, online reading was found to have a negative impact on understanding. Skim reading and scanning was the most common online reading behaviour.
People were churning through more material, but they took a scattergun approach, and remembered little of what they had seen. "Multi-tasking when reading online was common, with activities such as reading emails, checking news . . . and viewing video clips providing distractions, which could have something to do with it," said Dr Val Hooper of the School of Information Management.
"People almost expect to be interrupted when they're on their computers."
The three main reasons people gave for reading online were information seeking, work or study and pleasure.
People still enjoyed reading books, magazines or e-readers, the study found.
Hooper and masters student Channa Herath said their research had implications for the way young people were taught: "I think it makes sense to look at getting messages across in ways in which readers expect to receive it now, rather than how it was given in the past. Long chunks of text aren't exactly going to appeal to today's students."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/60146334/getting-dumber-by-the-day-online.html
THE RISE AND FALL OF STROHS–THE ONCE THIRD BEER BRAND IN AMERICA BEHIND ANHEISUR BUSCH AND MILLER BEER–ONCE WORTH BILLIONS TO DUST IN THE WIND- AS INVESTMENT IN THE 90’S DESTROYS A ONCE SUCCESSFUL BRAND
THE powerful and rich Stroh family was once one of the richest families in America.
In 1988, the family was valued at $700 million by Forbes, which would be worth $9 billion in today’s terms if you matched the S&P 500.
According to Forbes, within a year, the steep decline of the Strohs’ fortunes would be set in motion with a series of bad business decisions that would see the once-illustrious clan almost penniless.
The Strohs’ prosperity, started with a German immigrant, Bernhard Stroh, in 1850 Detroit. He started with $150 and a family recipe for beer. For more than 100 years, the family business grew steadily in the Great Lakes region, taking advantage of the post-war boom years which saw it increase its sales from half a million barrels in 1950 to 2.7 million barrels in 1956.
The 1980s was the decade of real affluence, but also folly, for the family owned and run business. Peter Stroh took the reins in 1980 and had ambitious expansion plans. First, he bought the New York-based brewer F&M Schaefer. But it was the next purchase which set the path for the Stroh business.
In 1982 Peter Stroh borrowed $500 million against the company’s then-$100 million value to gobble up the Joseph Schlitz Brewing business in Milwaukee. It was all part of the grand plan of national reach. The acquisition made Stroh the third biggest brewers, with seven plants, in the US, behind Anheuser-Busch and Miller.
But it couldn’t match the ad spend of its bigger rivals and resorted to price to survive, which whittled away its margins. It also missed the defining trend of the times: light beer. The emergence of the Coors business (which has since merged with Miller to become MillerCoors) saw Stroh Brewery fall to fourth place in a market that could only really sustain three big breweries.
SEXUAL HARRASMENT IS NO LONGER LIMITED TO DIFFERENT SEX BUT SAME SEX HARRASSMENT–AS YAHOO EXECS GETS SUED AFTER FIRING AN EMPLOYEE FOR ENDING THE RELATIONSHIP DUE TO SEXUAL HARRASSMENT
Sexual harassment complaints aren't uncommon in the tech industry, but a new one at Yahoo is making headlines because of an unusual twist: A female executive is accused of coercing a female subordinate into sex.
The lawsuit filed by engineer Nan Shi says that her boss, mobile exec Maria Zhang, forced her into sex and then punished her with lousy performance reviews when Shi put a stop to it, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
When Shi reported it to Yahoo, the company put her on unpaid leave and eventually fired her, according to the lawsuit. It names Yahoo as a defendant, reports Reuters.
"Zhang told Plaintiff she would have a bright future at Yahoo if she had sex with her," says the complaint. "She also stated she could take away everything from her including her job, stocks, and future if she did not do what she wanted."
Both women joined Yahoo last year when it acquired a company founded by Zhang. Shi, a native of China, says Zhang ordered her to move into Yahoo housing in Sunnyvale, Calif., and soon moved in with her.
Yahoo is sticking by Zhang and says it will "fight vigorously to clear her name."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/12/newser-yahoo-sexual-harassment/12569447/
DON’T YOU DEAR CROSS HOLLYWOOD BY CREATING KOREAN CLOSE CAPTION SUBTITLES ON PIRATED TV SERIES–ITS JAIL TIME FOR YOU BECAUSE ME BIG HOLLYWOOD YOU LITTLE KOREA–SINCE WE HATE GIVING FREE PASSES TO ANYTHING TO DO WITH AMERICANISM WHEN THE LIBERALS IN HOLLYWOOD CAN’T GET THEIR PAY BACK FIRST
Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and other big TV producers in the U.S. are suing Koreans who have created subtitles for popular American TV series that were distributed illegally on the Internet.
Police here are investigating 15 people.
This is the first time that individuals here have been sued for merely making the subtitles for pirated TV series.
People who make subtitles without permission from the original authors or producers could face a jail sentence.
The suits allege that the subtitles created by the 15 Koreans enabled millions of viewers here to watch the shows even though they do not understand English.
The lawsuits have prompted illegal streaming websites here to shut down voluntarily.
American TV series have enjoyed a huge worldwide renaissance in the last decade that has not spared Korea, where the show "Prison Break" became subject to a near-cult in 2005.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/07/01/2014070101692.html
THE GRIM SIDE OF THE BACKWARDS THAT IS COMMUNIST NORTH KOREA–THE SAME SOCIALISM STANDARDS THE POTUS BHO WANTS HIS LEGACY TO BE - AS HE DRIVES TO WEAKEN THE MIDDLE CLASS IN AMERICA TO PAY FOR HIS HOME GROWN WEED OF SOCIALISM THE MASSES
Ordinary North Koreans are lucky to earn US$30 a month, but senior state officials easily make more than $100 a day from endemic corruption, a survey shows.
The Chosun Ilbo and Center for Cultural Unification Studies interviewed 100 North Koreans living in the Chinese border areas of Dandong and Yanji earlier this year.
Ninety-eight of them said there is a huge gap between the rich and poor in North Korea. The North Koreans said the collapse of the state rationing system and growth of the black economy have enabled those in power and successful traders to amass fortunes, while ordinary people who have been unable to adjust to these changes often barely have enough to eat.
◆ Income Gap
One woman from Pyongyang said "Ordinary people only make around $30 a month, while upper class people earn $100 a day. Ten percent of the public is rich, 10 percent are middle class and almost 80 percent are poor."
The majority said that the gap is most apparent when it comes to the bare necessities. "Poor people can barely afford to buy new shoes no matter how hard they work and don't have the money to buy pork, which costs W30,000 per kilogram," a woman from North Pyongan Province said.
But senior officials grow fat on bribes. One man from South Pyongan Province said, "Party officials only care about making money. If a person becomes a party official, his children can grow rich without having to work."
Food aid provided by the UN usually ends up in the hands of party and military officials. Forty-three of the North Koreans who took part in the survey said party officials wield the greatest power in the North, and 41 percent said party officials in charge of overseeing Pyongyang's overseas businesses are the most powerful. Sixteen pointed to military officers.
READ MORE: http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/07/12/2014071200365.html
THE LOIS LERNER IRS SAGA PLAYS OUT FROM DENIAL TO COVER UP TO MISSING EMAILS TO DELAYS AND NOW EMAILS FOUND INCRIMINATING AND NOW PROBABLY JAIL TIME–AS THE GOP RUN CONGRESS PRESS FOR LERNER ARREST AND THE POTUS BHO AND PREVIOUS IRS HEAD DOUGLAS GETS OFF SCOT FREE
The saga of Lois Lerner and the IRS scandal keeps getting better and better. It’s as if one of the Hollywood soap opera script writers is directing the chain of events. First the mystery of who did it, then the denials, then more evidence followed by more denials followed by a partial confession and early retirement. Then all of the emails from the time of the scandal mysteriously disappear and so the story moves on.
On Wednesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, grilled IRS Commissioner John Koskinen about the IRS targeting scandal. During the hearing, Issa released an email from Lois Lerner that warned others to be careful of what they say in their emails.
"I was cautioning folks about email and how we have several occasions where Congress has asked for emails. We need to be cautious about what we say in emails."
On March 29, 2013, Lerner read a draft copy of IRS Inspector General’s report on the IRS targeting of tea party and conservative groups. On April 9, 2013, Lerner sent the email warning to upper IRS officials to use instant messaging instead of emails.
The email was part of the documents that were finally turned over to the House committee last week. Those documents were subpoenaed over a year ago and were just now delivered.
Read more at http://godfatherpolitics.com/16243/lerner-incriminating-email-found-house-files-order-arrest/
THE DEMOCRAT SENATOR HARRY REID (D-NV) DOES WHAT DUMB ALWAYS DOES PLAY THE SIDE TRACK GAME OF SLIGHT OF THE SPEECH HAND WHEN EVERYTHING FALLS APART AROUND THEM–AS THE ILLEGAL CHAOS IN THE BORDER POINT RIGHT DOWN TO THE DEMOCRATS WHO HAVE ASKED FOR THIS AT EVERY TURN–AND TO TOP IT OFF THE STATE OF NEVADA THE HOME OF HARRY RIED (D-NV) LACKS WATER TO CLINCH THE THIRST OF ITS CITIZENS AFTER YEARS OF MIS-PLANNING AND MIS-MANAGEMENT–SO WHAT SOLUTION HAS THIS SENATOR EVER PRESENTED AFTER YEARS OF BEING A LAW MAKER AND A DEMOCRAT–NOTHING BUT RHETORIC WHICH IS ALL THEY HAVE BEEN GOOD AT–THE SLIGHT OF HAND SPEECH WHEN EVERYTHING IS IN CHAOS–AND NOW HE BRINGS OUT THE LIBERAL MANTRA DOUBLE TALK OF KILL THE INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AGAINST WOMEN AND BLAME THE ONLY BLACK CONSERVATIVE SCOTUS FOR EVERY WHOA IS ME
The largest newspaper in Nevada is taking the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to task, saying that the Democrat’s recent comments about Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas highlight a pattern of race card rhetoric.
“Harry Reid is the da Vinci of distraction,” reads the editorial from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which was posted online Friday.
“The moment any scandal, policy failure or political defeat crashes down on him — and there have been plenty the past few years — the Senate majority leader unleashes outrageous rhetoric,” the editorial continues, adding that Reid “has become especially fond of slinging race cards just to crank up the outrage.”
The trigger for the Review-Journal was a comment Reid made earlier this week after the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.
In a 5-4 decision, the Court sided with Hobby Lobby, allowing it and other “closely-held” corporations to skirt the Obamacare mandate that requires companies to provide health insurance plans to their employees that contain coverage for certain contraceptives. Companies like Hobby Lobby can now cite their religious principles in deciding to not provide coverage for those contraceptives.
An angry Reid criticized the decision, saying, “The one thing we are going to do during this work period, sooner rather than later, is to ensure that women’s lives are not determined by the virtues of five white men.”
The issue there is that only four of the justices that sided with Hobby Lobby are white. The fifth justice was Clarence Thomas, who is black.
Read more:http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/12/harry-reid-slammed-by-hometown-paper-for-race-baiting/
THE US INVASION BY ILLEGALS GETS THE TALK DIALOGUE WITH NONE ACTION ABOUT SECURING THE BORDER–THE WASTED TALKING POINTS SCHEME THAT DEMOCRATS DRIVE HOME (LIE) ABOUT THAT THE BORDER IS SECURED–WELL CONSIDER HOW THE HELL ARE THE ILLEGALS COMING IN–THE DEMOCRAT AGENDA OF ALLOWING THE US TO BE INVADED–CONSIDER IF NORTH KOREA SENT ALL ITS ARMY OVER TO SOUTH KOREA IN A MASSIVE INVASION AND SOUTH KOREA WOULD HELP BUS THEM TO SEOUL LAYING THE WHITE FLAG–THE SAME NOW BEING DONE BY THIS POTUS BHO WITH HIS ALMIGHTY PEN ASKING FOR $3.7 BILLION TO PROCESS THEM AKA SECURING THE BORDER–WE HAVE A LEGAL MEANS OF ALLOWING LEGAL IMMIGRATION BUT THEN THESE DEMOCRATS DON’T LIKE TO FOLLOW THE LAWS IN PLACE AS SURELY REVEALING
A key Republican said Friday that President Barack Obama’s multibillion-dollar emergency request for the border is too big to get through the House, as a growing number of Democrats rejected policy changes Republicans are demanding as their price for approving any money.
The developments indicated that Obama faces an uphill climb as he pushes Congress to approve $3.7 billion to deal with tens of thousands of unaccompanied kids who’ve been arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border from poor and increasingly violent Central American nations. And they suggested that even as the children keep coming, any final resolution is likely weeks away on Capitol Hill.
Officials reportedly told Congress on Thursday that the $3.7 billion would in-part pay for health care, schooling and lawyers for the illegal immigrant children who have been flooding across the border recently. The Obama administration is asking lawmakers to approve the funds quickly.
THE BREAK DOWN:
• The largest amount would go to the Department of Health and Human Services, for which the White House is requesting an additional $1.8 billion to care for the unaccompanied children. “With these funds, HHS will have the resources to be able to care for the children currently projected to come into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security while putting in place more stable, cost-effective arrangements for these children going forward,” the White House said.
• The Department of Homeland Security is seeking $1.1 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as an additional $433 million for Customs and Border Protection. A large chunk of that sum would go toward the detention and removal of apprehended undocumented adults traveling with children, additional prosecution capacity for those adults, and overtime and duty costs for existing and additional Border Patrol agents.
• A total of $64 million would go to the Department of Justice, most of which would go toward hiring 40 additional immigration judge teams to speed up deportation proceedings. The White House said this would help process an additional 55,000-75,000 cases each year.
• About $300 million would go to the State Department under the proposal, most of which would go toward “efforts to repatriate and reintegrate migrants to Central America.” About $5 million of the total would go toward media messaging, in which the administration would highlight the dangerous nature of migrating from Central America to the U.S. and emphasize those who do enter the U.S. will not be given permission to stay.
WHO SAYS THE BORDER IS PROTECTED BY THE FEDS–WHEN AT EVERY TURN THE LEFTIST IN CHARGE WITH AGENDA IN HAND FORCES AGENTS TO DUE PAPER WORK INSTEAD OF SECURING THE BORDER–THE POTUS BHO DRIVES FOR CHAOS LEAVES NOTHING TO WASTE–AS THE DEMOCRATS ARE IN THE WEEDS WITH THEM ILLEGALS
Saturday on the Fox News Channel, Border Patrol Agent Hector Garza said that up to 70 percent of the agents are being pulled off patrolling the border to handle the administrative paperwork needed to deal with the unfolding humanitarian crisis of ten thousands of unaccompanied minors flooding across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Garza said, "Approximately 70 percent of the border patrol agents have been reassigned for administrative duties including processing of aliens, transporting aliens, and, yeah, leaving a porous border in the country."
THE POTUS BHO FOREIGN POLICY IS NONE TO BE FOUND AS IRAN CONTINUES ITS ICBM DEVELOPMENT WITH NOTHING BUT A WHIMPER CRY FROM THE POTUS BHO AND THE DEMOCRATS WHO HAVE BACKED TALKING DIALOGUE OVER ANY FIRM RESOLUTION–IRAN TO TEST ITS ICBM IN 2015–MISSILE DEVELOPED WITH THE HELP OF NORTH KOREA–WHICH MEANS NUCLEAR CAPABILITY–AND THE DEMOCRATS WITH THE LIKE OF STATE SECRETARY JOHN KERRY AND THE POTUS BHO IGNORES IRAN AS A THREAT–TOO BUSY PLAYING GOLF AND YACHTING WITH THE SILVER FOOT IN MOUTH
Iran is continuing work on a long-range ballistic missile that could be flight-tested by next year despite the latest Pentagon report to Congress on Tehran’s military that omitted earlier references to the looming ICBM threat.
“The 2014 Iran Military Power report confirms that Iran could have an ICBM capability by 2015,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee.
“We have known this since well before the Obama administration,” Rogers said. “This unchanging fact is one of the reasons I have been and continue to be concerned about the administration’s efforts to dismantle our missile defenses.”
Rogers said that suggestions that somehow the danger of Iran’s developing long-range missile capabilities has diminished, or that the Pentagon report has altered U.S. intelligence assessments “is untrue.”
Greg Thielmann, a former State Department intelligence analyst, told Insidedefense.com that the omission represented a significant shift in assessments of the Iranian missile program.
Thielmann, now with the liberal Arms Control Association, said the language change means the U.S. intelligence community is “losing confidence” in its earlier prediction that the Iranians could test an ICBM by 2015. He accused advocates of missile defense of using the estimate to “pump up the Iranian threat.”
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-still-on-track-for-2015-icbm-flight-test/
FINALLY SANITY RETURNS IN THE MILITARY AS HISTORY HAS PROVEN IN WAR THAT A SINGLE KILL SHOT WINS EVERYTIME OVER FLESH WOUND SHOTS–THE ARMY TO SCRAP THE 9MM–POSSIBLY THE RETURN OF THE .45 OR .40 CALIBER PISTOLS–MAYBE THE M1911
The Army wants to retire its supply of 9mm handguns and replace it with a more accurate and user-friendly model that also will provide soldiers with more “knock-down” power.
Army officials say their inventory of more than 200,000 semi-automatic Beretta M9 and Sig Sauer M11 pistols has become outdated, worn out and needs to be replaced with an updated model that also offers more reliability and durability.
They also are considering new ammunition, which has sparked considerable debate among military and civilian weapon experts as well.
“Advancements in firearms have taken place since the M9 was adopted nearly 30 years ago, and it is our intent to take advantage of these advancements,” a military spokesperson told FoxNews.com on Friday. “The Army is seeking to replace the M9 and M11 pistols with a handgun that is more accurate, ergonomic, reliable and durable than the current pistol.”
Officials seem opposed to an update version of the Beretta M9, despite the company offering to make changes.
"We have submitted numerous changes or product improvements that really address a lot of the shortcomings that are either perceived or real," Beretta development manager Gabe Bailey recently told Military.com.
The Army has been considering a change for several years and on July 29 will hold a so-called “industry day” to brief gun manufacturers about the competition requirements for a winning proposal.
SINGAPORE TO BAN CHILDREN BOOK ABOUT MY TWO MALE PENGUIN PARENT–CITING BOOK GOES AGAINST FAMILY VALUES
A children's book inspired by a real-life story of two male penguins raising a baby chick in New York's zoo has been deemed inappropriate by state-run Singapore libraries, and the conservative city-state's information minister said he supports the decision to destroy all copies alongside two other titles.
The National Library Board, which runs 26 public libraries in Singapore, pulled from the shelves and said it would "pulp" the copies of three titles, citing complaints their content goes against Singapore's family values.
The books are "And Tango Makes Three," about a male-male penguin couple in the Central Park Zoo; "The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption," which involves a lesbian couple; and "Who's In My Family: All About Our Families."
http://news.yahoo.com/singapore-backs-call-destroy-gay-themed-books-095505053.html
CASE IN POINT OF HOW THE JUDICIAL COURT HAS RUN AMOK AGAINST THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE AND VOTERS–NO DIFFERENT FROM TYRANICAL RUN GOVERNMENT WITHOUT CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOR THE PEOPLE–SO WHY WOULD WE THE PEOPLE BE CALLED TO HAVE LIBERTY AND FREEDOM WHEN AT EVERY TURN THE LEFTIST LIBERALS IN POWER SUBVERT THE FREEDOM AND LIBERTY PROVIDED UPON THE REPUBLIC WITH INALIENABLE RIGHT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL–YET GETS OVER TURNED IF IT GOES AGAINST THE AGENDA OF THESE JUSTICES–CALIFORNIA AND THE SUPREMES IGNORES VOTER REFERENDUM ON MARIIAGE BETWEEN A MAN AND WOMAN–AND GOV JERR BROWN JUMPS ON THE BANDWAGON WITH HIS LEGISLATION- NEVERMIND THAT ALL OF CA HAS NO WATER TO BATH SINCE RESTRICTIONS DRIVES INSTEAD OF CREATION THEREOF
Following a Supreme Court ruling last year that effectively silenced the voice of California voters hoping to protect the institution of traditional marriage, Gov. Jerry Brown is taking steps to enshrine his state’s new ‘right’ to recognize same-sex unions.
Despite the fact that a majority of Californians voted – in 2000 and 2008 – to limit the definition of marriage to a bond between one man and one woman, state and federal judges overturned the people’s expressed wishes to enforce a social agenda. Brown announced this week that, in response to this win for the homosexual lobby, the terms ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ will no longer be included in California’s marriage law……
…..SB1306, the bill containing this new verbiage, officially scraps the existing law prohibiting same-sex marriage. The Washington Post noted that, although the nation’s highest court struck down the law as unconstitutional more than a year ago, the ordinance remained in print among the state’s laws until Brown’s action this week.
Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/getting-married-california-prepare-big-change-statute/
SINCE THE BATTLE FOR THE US SENATE WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY LATINO VOTERS THIS 2014 MIDTERM THE DEMOCRATS ARE HIDING IN THE WEEDS WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CROSSING THE BORDERS WITH THEIR LEADER POTUS BHO CONSENT DRIVEN BY THE OBAMASCARE–SHUT UP DON’T MENTION OF THE CHAOS BROUGHT BY THE IMMIGRATION CAMPAIGN ISSUE DRIVEN BY THE DEMOCRATS
Immigration reform has fizzled as an issue for Democrats, who are barely mentioning it on the campaign trail despite making the issue their top domestic priority in 2013 and 2014.
Latino voters, who are the most energized about overhauling the nation’s immigration laws, will have little impact on the battle for control of the Senate, with the possible exception of Sen. Mark Udall’s (D) race in Colorado.
White working-class voters will play a more important role in the midterm election compared to the 2012 presidential election. They are not energized by immigration reform. Instead, they are concerned about downward pressure on wages, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has linked to higher immigration levels.
Coincidently, President Obama’s support among white voters without college degrees has steadily eroded.
Democratic strategists admit their party’s record on immigration reform will do little to help candidates this year, although they predict it could be a potent weapon in the 2016 presidential election.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/212042-immigration-reform-hopes-dwindling
JAPAN HAD GOTTEN THE OK TO PROCESS SPENT NUCLEAR INTO PLOTONIUM ENOUGH TO MAKE 2000 NUCLEAR BOMBS A YEAR AS APPROVED BY THE US GOVERNMENT AND CONGRESS IT WOULD SEEM AS SUPPORTED BY THE DEMOCRAT POTUS BHO–AS SOUTH KOREA IS PREVENTED TO RE-PROCESS ITS OWN SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL FROM 23 NUCLEAR PLANTS BY THE US DUE TO A BILATERAL NUCLEAR AGREEMENT–CHINA ARGUES THE SANITY OF ALLOWING POST WAR JAPAN THIS CAPABILITY
Japan would be able to produce enough plutonium to make about 2,000 atomic bombs a year if a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the country's northeast goes into operation, a U.S. nuclear nonproliferation expert has warned.
Henry Sokolski, executive director at the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, made the remark during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Thursday, warning the opening of the Japanese reprocessing plant could prompt South Korea and China to take action in response.
Sokolski said it is "insulting to Seoul" and "reckless" for the U.S. government to allow Japan to reprocess nuclear fuel while banning South Korea from doing so through a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement. Sokolski urged Congress to demand that the U.S. government renegotiate its nuclear cooperation pact with Tokyo.
The Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Facility in the northeast prefecture of Aomori had originally been planned to begin operation in October last year, but its opening was delayed due to new safety regulations. Its operator said the plant would be ready for operation in October this year.
"If Japan ever decided to open its large reprocessing plant at Rokkasho, it would be producing roughly 2,000 bombs' worth of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium a year," Sokolski said. "This would almost certainly prompt South Korea to initiate nuclear enrichment or reprocessing of their own as a hedge or weapons option."
Sokolski said China could also take action in response, and whatever action it takes would "likely challenge not only Japan's and South Korea's security, but our own treaty commitment to defend our Asian allies."
THE POTUS BHO OF CHAOS BLOWS UP ABOUT BEING SUED BY THE GOP FOR LACK OF USING EXISTING LAWS BUT FOR WANTING THE USE OF HIS OWN MADE UP POWERS AS THE DEMOCRAT CONGRESS ALLOWS HIS MIDDLE FINGER REACH INTO EACH AND EVERY US CITIZEN–AS THIS SOCIALIST LIVES OFF THE HARD WORK OF THE COMMON AMERICANS FOR HIS SOCIALIST AGENDA–CONSIDER HIS EGOMANIAC CLAIM TO PASS EXECUTIVE POWERS WITH HIS ALMIGHTY PEN
President Obama on Saturday unloaded on House Republicans’ plan to sue him for executive overreach, calling the move ‘a political stunt’ and a waste of time and money
In his weekly address, the president tried to paint Republicans as detached from reality and attempted to pit average Americans against GOP leaders such as House Speaker John A. Boehner.
“The Republican plan right now is not to do some of this work with me — instead, it’s to sue me. That’s actually what they’re spending their time on,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s a political stunt that’s going to waste months of America’s time. And by the way, they’re going to pay for it using your hard-earned tax dollars.”
As evidenced by the president’s words Saturday, the White House has come out swinging against the Republican lawsuit, and the Democratic party has been using it as a key part of its fundraising pitch heading into the crucial midterm elections in November.
On Friday, House Republicans released a draft of a bill to authorize Mr. Boehner to sue the president for his decision to exempt businesses from the controversial employer
The GOP argues the lawsuit is necessary to rein in a president who increasingly brags about his tendency to work through executive action, rather than the traditional legislative process.
“The House has an obligation to stand up for the legislative branch, and the Constitution, and that is exactly what we will do,” Mr. Boehner said Friday.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/12/obama-calls-gop-lawsuit-over-executive-overreach-p/
Friday, July 11, 2014
MEXICO’S MONTEZUMA’S REVENGE–OPEN ITS SOUTHERN BORDER FOR CENTRAL AMERICA TO CROSS OVER INTO THE US BORDER SINCE OBAMA’S LEGACY OF CHAOS MUST REIGN OF SOCIALISM FOR ILLEGALS NEVERMIND THE POOR CITIZENS ALREADY IN THIS COUNTRY GETS THE BOOT FROM THE POTUS BHO–MEXICO AND GUATEMALA SIGNS A BORDER AGREEMENT TO TAKE A DUMP OF ITS PEOPLES SO THAT US CITIZENS CAN TAKE CARE OF THEM TOO FROM CRADLE TO CRAVE–THE MUSE THAT PLEASES ALL DEMOCRATS WITH GLEE JUST FINE
Mexico and Guatemala have reached an agreement that is intended to make it easier and safer for Central Americans, including unaccompanied minors, to enter the United States illegally.
Though largely unreported in the U.S. mainstream media, the two nations agreed on July 7, in a presidential-level meeting in Mexico, to make it legal and safe for Central American immigrants, including unaccompanied minors, to cross Mexico’s border with Guatemala and transit Mexico en route to the U.S. border at the Rio Grande.
The agreement apparently does not recognize that the result of such trips – entry into the United States – remains illegal.
But to facilitate the program, the Mexican government announced plans to issue a new “Regional Visitor Card” that will provide documentation for the Central Americans to remain in Mexico as long as it takes to get to the United States.
Under the auspices of a “Southern Border Program,” Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Guatemalan President Otto Pérez, in a meeting in Mexico, agreed to take five concrete steps designed to “protect and safeguard the human rights of migrants who enter and transit Mexico, so as to order international routes of passage [in and through Mexico] to increase and develop the security of the region.”
The five steps in Mexican “Southern Border Program” included the following action steps:
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/mexico-guatemala-fast-track-delivery-of-illegals-to-u-s/
A MUST WATCH KOREAN JUDICIAL RUN AMOK WITH POWER TO PROTECT ITS OWN JUDGE AGAINST A SIMPLE PROFESSOR ASKING FOR CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTICE–HOW IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT WITH OUR OWN US LAW MAKERS ABUSING THEIR POWER TO BENEFIT THEIR OWN AGENDA AGAINST EVERYTHING TO DO WITH CONSTITUTIONAL LAW THAT HOLDS OUR DEEP HELD VERY FREEDOM THAT PROTECTS THE INDIVIDUAL–WATCH ON AMAZON PRIME IF YOU CAN–AS THE POTUS BHO AND THE DEMOCRATS DOES THEIR OWN RUN AROUND AGAINST LAWS
Thursday, July 10, 2014
GLOBAL WARMING WTF–A POLAR VORTEX TO HIT THE MIDWEST IN JULY–TO DUMP TEMPERATURE IN THE 60F TO 70F DURING THE DAY AND–40F TO 50F AT NIGHT
THE HIGHLY ANOMALOUS AMPLIFICATION OF THE LARGE SCALE PATTERN IS A VIRTUAL LOCK BY THE END OF THE PERIOD AS INDICATED BY ALL MEDIUM RANGE GLOBAL NUMERICAL MODELS AND ENSEMBLE SYSTEMS. THIS WELL- ADVERTISED HIGH MERIDIONAL EVENT WILL FEATURE A FULL-LATITUDE RIDGE AND SEARING HEAT OUT WEST…NOT TO BE OUTDONE BY THE RETURN OF THE POLAR VORTEX IN THE EAST OVER QUE/ONT AND THE UPPER GREAT LAKES. CONSIDERING THE MAGNITUDE OF THE UPPER LEVEL TROUGH WITH 500MB STANDARDIZED ANOMALIES ON THE ORDER OF -3 TO -4SD IN BOTH THE DETERMINISTIC GLOBAL MODELS AND THEIR RESPECTIVE ENSEMBLE MEANS…CONFIDENCE IN A PERIOD OF BELOW AVG TEMPS /DURING WHAT IS CLIMATOLOGICALLY THE HOTTEST TIME OF THE YEAR/ IS VERY HIGH FROM TUE-THU OF NEXT WEEK.
ALL THESE DEMOCRATS IN POWER SHOULD BE KICKED OUT OF OFFICE JUST LIKE ERIC CANTOR FOR SUPPORTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO ADDS FURTHER STRAIN TO THE WIDENING UNEMPLOYMENT (90million now no longer looking) AND ADD BURDEN TO THE CITIZENS WHO MUST PAY FOR THE DEMOCRAT SOCIALIST DRIVE–THE CHAOS DRIVE TO SINK WHAT IS LEFT OF THE AMERICAN DREAM FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS
The effect on the congressional immigration debate after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s surprising primary loss should not be about whether to have reform, but whether that reform should be about increasing foreign labor or reducing it.
Cantor represented the unanimous views of the leadership of both parties, which have only differed in how and how much to increase lifetime immigrants, guest workers and legalizations of unlawful foreign visitors.
By stressing the opposite option — reductions in legal immigration — during his campaign against Cantor, victorious economics professor Dave Brat has suddenly given hope to the many members of Congress whose immigration policy vision for wage-earning Americans has been blocked by their parties’ leaders. Echoing themes articulated tirelessly by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Brat argues for dramatic cuts in future visas for immigrant and other foreign labor, The purpose is to allow the labor supply to tighten, raise wages and make it more likely that employers will recruit from the neglected American populations in today’s economy.
This is a prescription that has worked well in the past. Perhaps the most stunning example was 100 years ago, when the outbreak of World War I abruptly stopped a three-decades-old massive importation of immigrant labor into the United States.
Northern manufacturers responded by aggressively recruiting, training and employing the still-living freed slaves and their descendants. Since the 1880s, manufacturers had virtually ignored this source of workers, preferring to send ships to Europe to bring in immigrants to expand their factories. But 1914 began a domestic people movement from plantations to cities that has been celebrated in literature and art as “The Great Migration.” It was the start of a decades-long mass movement of black Americans into the non-agrarian economy of the nation and the building of a large black middle class. But it happened only after easy access to foreign labor was removed.
Brat’s campaign focused on the current three-decades-long surge in immigration. He views the country’s over-supply of working-age adults — constantly engorged by more than a million new immigrants each year — as offering employers little market-based reason to figure out how to hire from groups of Americans with low labor participation rates.
Monday, July 7, 2014
THE GOAL BY CHINA IS TO CONTROL ASIA–AND THE PATH IS THE INVASION OF TAIWAN AND JAPAN WITH SURFACE NAVAL BATTLE GROUPS AS CHINA MODERNIZED HER WAR MAKING CAPABILITY–THE ONLY DETERENT ARE US SUBMARINES AND TIME–TIME CHINA WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN ITS PRESENT MILITARY BUILD UP THROUGH ITS ECONOMIC ENGINE–BUT THEN IN THE USA WE HAVE OUR OWN SOCIALIST LIBERALS IN POWER AKA POTUS BHO AND THE DEMOCRATS WHO LIVES WITH CHAOS READY TO COLLAPSE INTERNALLY THE USA
The bad news first. The People's Republic of China now believes it can successfully prevent the United States from intervening in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan or some other military assault by Beijing.
Now the good news. China is wrong — and for one major reason. It apparently disregards the decisive power of America's nuclear-powered submarines.
Moreover, for economic and demographic reasons Beijing has a narrow historical window in which to use its military to alter the world's power structure. If China doesn't make a major military move in the next couple decades, it probably never will.
The U.S. Navy's submarines — the unsung main defenders of the current world order — must hold the line against China for another 20 years. After that, America can declare a sort of quiet victory in the increasingly chilly Cold War with China.
How China wins
The bad news came from Lee Fuell, from the U.S. Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center, during Fuell's testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 30.
For years, Chinese military planning assumed that any attack by the People's Liberation Army on Taiwan or a disputed island would have to begin with a Pearl Harbor-style preemptive missile strike by China against U.S. forces in Japan and Guam. The PLA was so afraid of overwhelming American intervention that it genuinely believed it could not win unless the Americans were removed from the battlefield before the main campaign even began.
A preemptive strike was, needless to say, a highly risky proposition. If it worked, the PLA just might secure enough space and time to defeat defending troops, seize territory, and position itself for a favorable post-war settlement.
But if China failed to disable American forces with a surprise attack, Beijing could find itself fighting a full-scale war on at least two fronts: against the country it was invading plus the full might of U.S. Pacific Command, fully mobilized and probably strongly backed by the rest of the world.
That was then. But after two decades of sustained military modernization, the Chinese military has fundamentally changed its strategy in just the last year or so. According to Fuell, recent writings by PLA officers indicate "a growing confidence within the PLA that they can more-readily withstand U.S. involvement."
The preemptive strike is off the table — and with it, the risk of a full-scale American counterattack. Instead, Beijing believes it can attack Taiwan or another neighbor while also bloodlessly deterring U.S. intervention. It would do so by deploying such overwhelmingly strong military forces — ballistic missiles, aircraft carriers, jet fighters, and the like — that Washington dare not get involved.
The knock-on effects of deterring America could be world-changing. "Backing away from our commitments to protect Taiwan, Japan, or the Philippines would be tantamount to ceding East Asia to China's domination," Roger Cliff, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, said at the same U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing on Jan. 30.
Worse, the world's liberal economic order — and indeed, the whole notion of democracy — could suffer irreparable harm. "The United States has both a moral and a material interest in a world in which democratic nations can survive and thrive," Cliff asserted.
Fortunately for that liberal order, America possesses by far the world's most powerful submarine force — one poised to quickly sink any Chinese invasion fleet. In announcing its readiness to hold off the U.S. military, the PLA seems to have ignored Washington's huge undersea advantage.
Read More http://theweek.com/article/index/264032/china-thinks-it-can-defeat-america-in-battle
THE JOKE THAT HAS BECOME THE IMMIGRATION CHAOS PERPETRATED BY THE LEFTIST POTUS BHO AND THE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS NOW OUT OF CONTROL–JUST LIKE HOW THE DEMOCRATS LIBERAL LIKE IT–THERE AT LEAST SEEMS TO BE NOW AN INFLUX OF CHINESE NATIONALS CROSSING THE BORDER
The influx of Central American illegal immigrants appears to have attracted the attention of Chinese nationals seeking to gain access to the United States. Border Patrol union officials in the Rio Grande Valley Sector tell National Review Online they’ve noticed a recent uptick in the number of Chinese border crossers. While the Obama administration has sought to attribute the spike in Central Americans coming to the U.S. to poverty and regional violence, no such explanation exists for the arrival of Chinese immigrants.
“[Traffic of Chinese-born persons] seemed to have dried up for awhile, but then maybe within the last month or so it seemed to have increased,” says Albert Spratte, the sergeant-at-arms of the National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 in the Rio Grande Valley. “You see them in threes or fours, and it’s always, ‘Oh, the one-child policy, the one-child policy, don’t want to go back.’ They’re always trying to claim some credible fear.”
China’s one-child policy was established by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 as a temporary measure, but it still exists a quarter century later. The policy uses financial incentives, sanctions, and forced abortions and sterilizations to enforce the law, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spratte says a few Chinese nationals crossed the river into Texas via jet skis near Anzalduas Park in Mission, Texas, last week. Chris Cabrera, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 in the Rio Grande Valley, says about five or six Chinese were processed at the McAllen Border Patrol Station in just one day last week. “We’re seeing more and more exotic OTMs [Other Than Mexicans] that are coming in,” Cabrera says. “They’ve gotten word of this and they’re taking advantage of it as well.”
Farther north in Brooks County, Border Patrol officials have placed “rescue beacons” that provide instructions for distressed trespassers in three languages: English, Spanish, and Chinese. Linda Vickers, the chief of staff of the Texas Border Volunteers — a group of people who assist law enforcement with securing the border — says she knows of approximately eight rescue beacons in Brooks County. Vickers says the beacons hold about five gallons of water for the illegal immigrants to drink while they wait for officials to respond to the request for help.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
SOUTH KOREA ORDERS OF 40 F35A PUT ON HOLD AFTER THE RECENT GROUNDING
The U.S. Department of Defense has grounded all F-35 jets again after a string of accidents, including the latest in which one of the radar-evading aircraft caught fire as it was preparing to take off on June 23.
The temporary grounding has triggered concerns in South Korea over a possible delay in the delivery of the warplanes. Seoul plans to purchase 40 F-35 jets for deployment from 2018-21.
Seoul has requested that the U.S. government provide an explanation on the latest accident.
“We have asked the U.S. to explain what exactly happened. For now, we are just waiting for the results of the investigation into the cause of the latest accident,” said Baek Youn-hyeong, spokesperson of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.
It’s the eighth time the entire F-35 fleet has been grounded. On June 13, an engine oil leak also led the U.S. military to inspect 104 F-35 jets that have been produced since 2006.
Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the F-35, said it is working closely with the ongoing investigation, arguing that safety is its top priority. The U.S. government’s F-35 Joint Program Office vowed to thoroughly look into the recent accident.
THE OBAMA RUN FEDS DON’T WANT TO SECURE THE BORDERS ONLY LAW ABIDING CITIZENS WHO WANT TO PROTECT THE NATION FROM LAW BREAKERS WHO ARE CROSSING ILLEGALLY ACROSS THE US BORDERS–THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO GO AFTER PROTESTORS OF ILLEGALS - SO ALL THOSE BULLETS PURCHASED BY THE FEDS WILL NOW BE PUT TO USE AGAINST ITS OWN CITIZENS IN CA–THUS THE POTUS BHO OF CHAOS REIGNS
As illegal immigrants continue to spill across the U.S.-Mexico border, federal authorities are attempting to relocate the migrants from South Texas to housing facilities in states across the nation. One such facility is located in Murrieta, California, where a large group of protesters recently blocked a bus full of migrants from arriving. The protesters remain there, adamant that illegal immigrants don't get dumped in their town. But soon the concerned citizens may be forced to step down--Breitbart Texas has learned that federal agents plan to arrive in Murrieta on Monday with riot gear to ensure that another busload makes it to the housing facility.
Jeremy Oliver, a resident of Temecula, California--a town that neighbors Murrieta--told Breitbart Texas that local police officers warned the protesters that "it's going to get ugly."
Oliver said, "The feds are pissed that they haven't been able to use this facility. Officers out there warned people that federal agents will be in Murrieta on Monday--they are going to get the next bus through no matter what. Riot gear and shields will be used to push the crowd back."
John Henry, a Murrieta resident since 1991, was told the same thing by local officers.
"We're being told that federal Marshals or ICE will be here in the next few days and that they are bringing riot gear," Henry said. "They're apparently going to be blocking off the street with concrete blockades so that no vehicles can get through. The River County Sheriff's Department showed up last night and brought a huge watch tower that shoots up into the air 35 feet."
THE EGOMANIAC POTUS BHO CLAIMS SO SUE ME AND HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER WILL JUST DO THAT WITH A HOUSE LEGISLATION TO FILE A SUET TO FULFILL THE OATH OF OFFICE
Every member of Congress swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So did President Barack Obama.
But too often over the past five years, the President has circumvented the American people and their elected representatives through executive action, changing and creating his own laws, and excusing himself from enforcing statutes he is sworn to uphold -- at times even boasting about his willingness to do it, as if daring the American people to stop him.
That's why, later this month, we will bring legislation to the House floor that would authorize the House of Representatives to file suit in an effort to compel President Obama to follow his oath of office and faithfully execute the laws of our country.
The President's response: "So sue me."
What's disappointing is the President's flippant dismissal of the Constitution we are both sworn to defend. It is utterly beneath the dignity of the office. I know the President is frustrated. I'm frustrated. The American people are frustrated, too.
After years of slow economic growth and high unemployment under President Obama, they are still asking, 'where are the jobs?' The House has passed more than 40 jobs bills that would help. But Washington Democrats, led by the President, just ignore them.
Even worse, the President's habit of ignoring the law as written hurts our economy and jobs even more. Washington taxes and regulations always make it harder for private sector employers to meet payrolls, invest in new initiatives and create jobs -- but how can those employers plan, invest and grow when the laws are changing on the President's whim at any moment?
I don't take the House legal action against the President lightly. We've passed legislation to address this problem (twice), but Senate Democrats, characteristically, have ignored it.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/06/opinion/boehner-obama-lawsuit/index.html
THE LIBERAL MANTRA IS BASED ON REJECTING THE INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY
……Liberals base their position on a rejection of individual liberty if it conflicts with societal -- read liberal -- norms. We see this when liberals reject the concept that the people have inalienable rights.
While liberals deny that they reject the concept of individual rights, from a phenomenological perspective, liberals demonstrate their true beliefs by their continual attacks on individual liberty -- unless the liberty, such as burning a flag, is congruent with liberal dogma -- as evidenced by their continual attacks on the First Amendment.
The HHS mandate in ObamaCare is a clear attack on the rights of people to not directly fund or support practices that contradict their religious beliefs in direct contradiction of the First Amendment.
Liberals in the Senate are trying to repeal the First Amendment by giving Congress the right to control all spending on informing the voters how candidates for office stand on the issues. Senate liberals want to silence all voices that disagree with them by using the power of government, thereby abrogating the inalienable right of free speech on political matters which all Americans currently enjoy based on the Constitution.
Liberals stood strong for the rights of anti-war protesters to demonstrate, and even blockade, Army recruitment centers, yet they also have eagerly imposed bubbles of silence around abortion mills where it is a crime to offer a pamphlet to a woman. These zones are not directed at pro-abortion speech, only at those who wish to end the barbaric practice of killing inconvenient children. Here liberals wish to make the First Amendment content specific; only liberal thought is protected while all others are silenced.
Liberals constantly support the “fairness” doctrine that violates the First Amendment by demanding that certain media outlets, only those who disagree with liberals, speak as much in support of liberal beliefs as they do in support of conservative beliefs no matter what the people who run the media sites believe.
Another way to see the tyrannical core of modern liberalism and their rejection of individual rights is to look at how liberals react to liberal politicians' rejection of the rule of law.
Whether it’s Jerry Brown refusing to defend Prop 8, thereby disenfranchising the majority of California voters, or Obama changing and creating laws with his magical pen, liberals who nearly died of anguish when Bush did something they thought was “imperial” are shouting out that liberal politicians who reject laws they don’t like are heroes.
In America today, we face a new imperial threat. While King George is long gone, a new set of oppressors that believe, as George did, in the top-down authority of the government and the lack of rights of individuals has grown so strong as to threaten the very basis of liberty in America……
http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/07/the_new_king_george.html
MIDDLE AGED MAN YAMASHIRO IGNITES HIMSELF ON FIRE TO PROTEST THE JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER ABE RUN AROUND OF THE ARTICLE 9 CONSTITUTION PACIFEST POST WAR DECLARATION–THE ABE ADMINISTRATION IS NOT AMENDING BUT RE-INTERPRETING FOR LACK OF VOTES TO PASS AN AMENDMENT–THE SEMANTIC CHANGE IS TO ALLOW THE JAPANESE MILITARY TO DEPLOY FORWARD TO INTERVENE IN THE AID OF ITS ALLIES–NO LONGER DEPLOYED FOR DEFENSE
Sunday shoppers in Tokyo could be forgiven for wondering if they had been transported to Tibet or Myanmar as a man climbed atop a pedestrian crosswalk, voiced his reason to the crowd via megaphone and set himself ablaze.
Self-immolation as political protest is almost unheard of in developed nations. The middle-aged man, identified only by the family name Yamashiro, said igniting himself was the only way to show Prime Minister Shinzo Abe his anger at a plan that some see as violating the spirit Japan’s pacifist constitution.
While extreme, Yamashiro’s fury isn’t uncommon. One day later, thousands demonstrated outside Abe’s residence against this “reinterpretation” of a constitution that he lacks the votes to amend. The public opposition didn’t stop Abe’s cabinet from rubber-stamping his semantic end run around the law, which raises a vital question: Will Japan’s democracy survive Abe?
For the third time since taking office in December 2012 Abe did exactly what all too many of his 126 million people oppose. Earlier, he rushed into law a controversial secrecy bill that could send reporters and whisteblowers to jail on varied and ambiguous grounds, and he pushed to restart reactors shut on safety grounds after the March 2011 Fukushima disaster. Given a mandate to end deflation, Abe’s biggest moves to date involve flexing geopolitical muscles, not building economic ones.
“He has ignored popular will and made a mockery of constitutional and democratic principles on all three fronts,” says Jeff Kingston, head of Asia studies at the Tokyo campus of Temple University. “The alleged success of Abenomics has stoked his popularity and given him an opportunity to overturn Japan’s postwar order.”
Banri Kaieda, head of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, bemoans Abe’s “authoritarian tendencies” that have nothing to do with raising living standards or restoring growth. In an April speech in Washington, Kaieda warned that the “Abe administration could move beyond the realm of healthy nationalism and become a destabilizing factor in East Asia.”
China would argue that Abe crossed that line with his December 2013 visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 class-A war criminals are interred. But this latest move to enable Japan to deploy troops overseas, ostensibly to defend its allies, is sending shockwaves through the region, particular victims of Tokyo’s World War II militarism, China and South Korea.
Japan has every right to defend itself. It’s been a good global citizen since 1945 and deserves a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. If its people support a change in the pacifist Article 9 of the postwar constitution, then so be it. But Abe should hold a national referendum on the issue, and lawmakers in his Liberal Democratic Party shouldn’t give him carte blanche to pretend Japanese law allows what it forbids.
“It’s an awful precedent, of course,” says Colin Jones, a legal scholar at Doshisha Law School in Kyoto. “If the cabinet can reinterpret this part of the constitution why not others?” Adds Kingston: “Abe is like a thief in the night sneaking in the backdoor to steal the heart and soul of Japan’s constitution and that’s why he has provoked such a strong backlash and anger ― because Article 9 is a touchstone of national identity.”
Japanese housewife Naomi Takusu even nominated Article 9 for a Nobel Peace Prize. It will be fascinating to see if the Nobel committee calls Abe’s bluff come October.
Turning Japan’s nuclear reactors back on also should be decided by referendum. Although the science tells us nuclear power is cheap, safe and clean, Fukushima demonstrates the risks of running almost 50 reactors in one of the world’s most seismically active regions. Also, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency both regulates an industry with immense political influence and promotes it. Nuclear-technology exports are an Abe priority. But Japan has far more to gain from inventing and commercializing alternatives to nuclear power than exporting the technology to developing nations such as Turkey and Indonesia, both of which are prone to earthquakes.
Where’s the outrage as Abe defies his people? Many Japanese are so happy to have a leader who’s acting boldly that they seem willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Also, much of the media are in the bag. Companies such as Tokyo Electric Power Co., whose incompetence gave us Fukushima, are huge advertisers. Japan’s press system covets access over all else, so docility reigns. Along with the secrecy law, Abe stacked the board of national broadcaster NHK with like-minded conservatives. NHK, it’s worth adding, barely covered Sunday’s suicide attempt in Shinjuku. Is it because it didn’t fit with the Abe narrative?
In an open society, epochal changes should involve the people. In the years ahead, the self-immolation that historians study may be Japan’s democracy.
By William Pesek
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