Japan's March to War

Japanese Prime Minister Abe's government is enmeshed in a scandalous push to change national security laws, allowing far more overseas operations.

The legislation is 'supported' (link) by the USA, which still operates military bases throughout Japan.

In fact, it's clear Abe's a Yankee puppet. He's sometimes portrayed as right-wing, but Japan's true right wing wants to expel the Americans. There's never mention of such sovereign action by Abe's government.

Government deliberations are poorly attended by ruling LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) members. They need know nothing - they'll just vote as directed on the highly unpopular legislation.

Abe's first administration upgraded the Defense Agency to Ministry level. Now in Abe's second term, Japan's Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani might rightly be renamed "Minister of War"...

American Militarism Sucks

President Obama reportedly congratulated his "outstanding partner" British Prime Minister David Cameron. "Outstanding partner" means Cameron's a money-wasting butt-kissing lackey.

Obama congratulated Cameron for wasting achieving "the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defence." (link)  But Obama & Co. don't spend 2% ...

America would be much better-off  only spending  2%

US Military spending = $598.5 billion
US GDP = $17693.3 billion
US Militarist spending  =  3.38%
(American militarism is at least 3.38% of GDP, and does not include multiple long-term costs & obligations such as continuing treatment of disabled soldiers or other veteran's benefits)

If defense were 2% of US GDP...
...what could America do with our surplus?
41% of American defense spending ($244.6 billion) unnecessary

US$244.6 billion each year

 2% of $17693.3 billion GDP  = $353.9 billion
$598.5 billion now spent,  minus - $353.9 billion = overspending at least $244.6 billion

The Stink Ain't Only Texas

Official comments on the Sandra Bland death in police custody must be doubted.

Why after three days was this woman still jailed? The problem's much deeper than one aggressive & inexperienced cop, or a suddenly depressive woman.

We've all seen smirking cops in the dramas: "Yo' ass is Ours!" they grin, while the spectre of Guantanamo's never-ending-torture-without-charges colors each interaction.

How many days before anyone would feel abandoned, alone, and abused? The police squad seeks now to portray themselves as reasonable. Their first dashcam video, amateurishly edited, shows the cop declaring her under arrest while she's still in her car, with no arrest charge stated. She didn't kick him through a closed door. But shameless police jailed her 3+ days...

Why didn't one of the army of reasonable cops watch that dashcam video and release Sandy Bland? They forced her to stew, and "guilt" was inconsequential.

From one arbitrary "lawful order" to another -- Sandy Bland was maltreated & strung-up by the American police state. One of many many abused people.

84-yr old 'jaywalker' Kang Wong beaten in NYC  [more]

Understand Sandra Bland?

A lively young woman, rousted & jailed in Texas for not signalling a turn, is now dead.

Sandy Bland was a newly-hired administrator for the Prairie View A&M University alumni association. The 2009 graduate was to be an ambassador & liaison to students. But her return to town became a nightmare when she failed to quickly & wholly obey a demanding cop at a traffic stop. Brand was ultimately arrested, forced from her car, and locked up for "assaulting a law officer" -- though subsequent dashcam footage showed her arrest stemmed from police brutality (link)

Grovel to the badge & accept American police state bullying!?
Sandy expected justice & proper legal procedure.

Sandra Bland was soon mysteriously dead in a grubby Texas jail. RIP

Toxic Toshiba

Corporate governance took two major hits this week, as Samsung agreed an insider-friendly merger within Korea over substantial opposition, and Toshiba in Japan admitted six years of "overstating profits" (deliberate accounting fraud of at least 1500億円 = more than US$1.2 billion).

When convenient, both Japan & Korea still play as "weak little brother" -- unseemly & absurd if evaluating multinational public corporations with global ownership. Samsung group generated at least US$325 billion in 2013 sales. Japanese blue chip Toshiba now mirrors Olympus as incapable of basic arithmetic, sneaky & corrupt. 

A few Toshiba executives agreeing to resign is ridiculous; this should attract severe criminal punishment. The deception was systematic and long term, damaging Japan's credibility.

Go to any accounting department in Japan and watch them calculate every yen, multiple times, in a horrendous bureaucracy. Dozens of dirty Toshiba employees & corporate auditors should be liable for criminal charges. They should serve time in prison alongside TEPCO executives and government regulators responsible for Fukushima's nuclear pollution.

But Japan's corruption, like the US and it's dirty financial system, will likely ignore these crimes. Thousands of people are locked-up for minor crimes, but big criminals remain free. Major US war criminals continue to travel & talk shit. It's a fucked-up world.

Brazil again in 2020

Nobody yet officially says the 2020 Olympics scheduled for Tokyo are impossible.

But plans for the main stadium have been shredded -- to start again early next year as a "blank canvas"

Japan's antinuclear contingent is mostly marginalized & ignored, but the heavily damaged nuclear storage at Fukushima Daiichi remains unstable. Terrible reality could surely eclipse the dirtiest of nightmares in the next five years -- with another earthquake or tsunami inescapably poisoning a huge region of the world.

What's Hillary Done?

Hillary Rodham Clinton has been near the center of American power since 1992, that's twenty-three years. She talks fancy, but the bottom line = she ain't done much good.

She's been in the White House for eight years, a U.S. Senator, and America's Secretary of State. She gives a lot of speeches and she's worked hard to get rich. Hillary's been at the forefront of power throughout dozens of blunders and more than a generation of reform efforts. She's entrenched power elite -- uninterested in change.

Hillary whores for Israel.

As President, she'll soon commence open war on Syria & Iran.

Hillary Clinton is typical of many politicians: highly ambitious, but unmotivated to actually work in public service. In the early 1990s she tried laudable health care reforms but failed (though both House & Senate were controlled by Democrats). Since then, she's done damn little noteworthy. Don't expect if  President she'll do anything for you ...
Hillary Clinton's interests are elsewhere.

Bureaucracy, Spying & Data Security

Data breach (link) at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management releases detailed financial & personal information about 21.5 million American federal employees, their families, etc.

This should come as no surprise.

The key 'takeaway' on US federal spying from Ed Snowden's whistleblowing was that American bureaucracy has run amok - and cannot properly protect the vast information gathered.

Bureaucrats sadly once again do more harm than good.

Analysts failed to properly process numerous warnings and indicators leading up to the devastation of 9/11. Our ineffective National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice kept her job -- whining "nobody could've predicted...?" -- when she should've been fired in disgrace (along with Bush & Cheney).

Now its clear senseless bureaucrats have weakened the American nation, perhaps even critically crippling our staffing for decades. In the wrong hands, federal employee career information and private data is a time bomb.

Wherever possible, resist supplying more info about anything.
Assume all private data is now available to anyone who'll pay.
   TRAGIC + STUPID !