I've been rather busy this week. On travel and next week I will be working some unusual hours. So what that means is posting will continue to be light.
Plus, if the truth is to be told-I am viewing the upcoming election in the United States with increasing pessimism. Primarily because of what the argument says about the average American. If you think American electoral politics paints the country in a good light you are just kidding yourself in the extreme. The face we are presenting to the world is one of stupidity and selfishness in the extreme.
If Obama wins-it will be a good thing, but he will still not be able to govern the country because of the caliber of people in the Congress. If Romney wins-it will be a disaster, if he gets the Congress to approve his draconian proposals. I have no doubt that Romney will enact the Ryan budget, and as I have clearly stated before-his budget and his policy ideas are evil. I despise Ryan personally and politically-Charles Pierce's term "zombie eyed granny starver" is an apt description.
But fundamentally, the reason our politics is fundamentally screwed up has nothing to do with either man. They are simply reacting to the body politic. They speak to the level of education that is becoming apparent. If the US electorate was truly educated-the GOP would be on its way to oblivion, or it would have reformed itself and cast its tea bagger zealots out into the outer darkness. They haven't however-and that should speak volumes about what they REALLY value.
In the macro sense I view this election as one of the capstone events of America not recognizing the changes that have occurred in the world. The changes are going to go forward-the fundamental question is whether America can adapt to the changes. Increasingly it appears to me that we cannot-or will not adapt to those changes. So we will get passed by. We are already seeing evidence of it-it will get worse. Again, this will happen no matter who wins.
And that's depressing. America needs to fix itself. Don't like the caliber of our leaders? Look in the mirror-you created them. Through your own selfishness and stupidity. As a result you get the politics you deserve. Wake up and grow up.
Ah, the much derided American electorate…they are always "stupid" when they elect someone you don't agree with, which Jon Haidt has been talking about for the last year. I mean, cmon, someone who disagrees with ME has to be stupid..they can't possibly have a valid point of view.
We elected Obama and believed in his promises. Instead we have drone attacks that kill hundreds of innocents, the retention of the Patriot Act, Gitmo still open etc etc. Americans WANT to believe the best of their leaders and almost always are dissapointed.
http://www.american.com/archive/2012/june/are-americans-too-dumb-for-democracy
By definition-I am always right. Sorry about that.
When in doubt go back and see rule 1. I am always right.
I'm curious. Who's passing us by this time? It's not the Japs or the Germans or the Europeans or the Russians or the Chinese or the Venezualans or the Cubans or anybody at all in Africa or Southeast Asia. Perhaps Australia? Canada?
Let's see, Romney with a compliant House majority is going to ride roughshod over America and utterly destroy it and topple everything!!!!! boohoo. Funny how some people make excuses all the time for how Obama with overwhelming democrat and socialist majority in the Senate and House failed to enact pretty much anything except Obamacare and the economic stimulus. Those darned devious republicans will somehow outmaneuver those pure-at-heart socialists and wreak their will on the Republic. Perhaps you can join the rest and lay back, close your eyes for the next 4 years and think of England, or, in your case, Japan.
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Skippy,
LIke it or not, America still has the best system, even with boobs running it. The economy is trying to right itself, even with the Bozos in charge doing everything to slow it down to make it fit their wishes. You say Americans are stupid, or in today's language "Low Information Voters" and I tend to agree in some regards. Take CA, which has a Dem Gov, Dem legislature and look at how it is today. The place is a mess and is falling further and further behind. They're back to trying to find the "loose change" between the sofa cushions trying to find money to support the real leaders of CA the public employee unions, by trying to pass phoney ballot measures to support the schools, when it will not go to them but to the General Fund. Yet, the people of CA still vote the same people in, and I would bet you a nice cold Asahi that every incumbent will get reelected. Even the great Sen. Feinstein chose not to debate her opponent since she was reported that she has debated candidates in past elections, and no need to do so now, yet the very same people who complain the most about "not having" and the system is broke will put the same people in charge again, hoping that it will get done correctly this time.
But, at least with the Bozos running the country we are consistent. Unlike Japan, who changes cabinet leaders every 6 months it seems, we tend to stick with what we have until time to change. There was an article on Japan Today about that recently on how difficutl it is to do anything with Japan, since the persons you were working with one day may not be there the next. At least the US is able to live with a bad decision, and try to work through it, than just quit and run away like other countries.
The real issue is that America could be a lot better than it is. Even if your system is working ( and I don't believe it is) key things like infrastructure are decaying. We are well on our way to an oligarchy of the rich. And Curtis-I think you should look around more closely, nations are passing us by-both in terms of quality of life and potential. We wasted our potential on stupid wars for worthless Arabs.
"Dune" my primer for politics and religion says it best..that its not the LAW nor the RULES that matter but those who enforce those Laws etc.
Your love of Japan is understandable. given your point of reference, but we KNOW don't we, that if you are an Ainu or Japanese with Korean heritage or hide tanners or the wrong blood type of a "big nose".Gaijin, which you know is a VERY derogatory term, then MAYBE Japan is not paradise on earth.
The hype was for the BRICS and now I am starting to see the same type of crap written about Africa.
And we all know, because most folks that comment here read quite a bit, that China et al has a lot of problems…hell even labor costs have gone up. and so forth and so on…
Sandy is on her way to pay me a visit here at the Jersey shore and like a crack whore, it AIN'T gonna be a pleasant experience. ciao
Skippy,
I agree we need to work on the infrastructure of America, but what we get is partisan politics still. Look at New Orleans. Sure Katrina screwed things up, but those levees and other problems that were discovered were done by locals using Federal and some state dollars. Locals that normally lean Democratic in LA from years back. It is only recently (about 30 years) that LA started to shift to the GOP. But New Orleans has been Dem for the longest. And yet the city has been and still is in need of major repair. Same with CA. LA is basically a large 3rd world city. Same with SF. Roads are full of potholes, and other infrastructure problems. Yet Gov. Brown and the Dem legislature can push for a high speed rail in the middle of nowhere that will cost them up to $100 billion, but yet they don't fix the roads. I can go on and on with various examples. It's not like the money hasn't been given,it has just not been used properly by both Dems and GOP. People getting rich off the taxpayers dime.
As far as high speed rail is concerned, do you know when the first passage of High Speed Rail was in the US? 1965 with the the passage of the High Speed Ground Transportation Act. So why hasn't much been done outside of the Northeast corridor to promote this, and where did the money go? Yet, we keep getting money spent on it every so often and nothing happens, just like with the politicans we elect. The same ones keep getting elected, and they do the same thing: nothing.
Skippy the ones you see passing us by in the quality of life, that's Japan? Does it include the EU? All of it? How much longer do you think for that snake pit? I'll go along with Norway just as Brazil who both exploit the oil deposits off their coasts. Us? We don't. The one thing one can state with utter certainty is that socialized medicine here will be a huge fail for all those currently receiving adequate health care since one cannot add 35 million people to the existing system with no increase in facilities or doctors/nurses etc. Then you have CA adding their little bit and closing hospitals left and right because the poor things could not afford to retroactively fit in new earthquake building standards.
The Scandanavians that didn't join the EU also practice some draconian immigration laws and enforce them. We don't. It will be interesting.