Looking for a fight (guest post)

The following was sent to me by my uncle Stan Virden.

Regrettably, the attached NYT account is pretty accurate. When the U.S. Navy won the battle of Manila Bay (1 May 1898), imagining that this had ended Spanish control of the Philippines, our leaders did not realize that the local hero, General Emilio Aguinaldo, had already achieved that end. He proclaimed Philippine independence from the window of his home in Cavite, across the bay from Manila, on 12 June. This Declaration of Independence was ratified by the Malolos Congress on 21 September 1898. Meanwhile, the U.S. had established a military government in August, which initiated a bit of a row that lasted for some years.



Members of my family have worked and lived in the Philippines off and on since 1905. As a boy I followed the Asiatic Fleet back and forth between the Philippines and China (1937-40), as a naval officer I was stationed there (1962-64) and subsequently visited a few times on board ships. The country and its circumstances have always held my interest. Currently, through PLAN USA, I still contribute to support of a rural Filipina school girl. The country is rich in history, scenery, and natural resources, occupied by cheerful and interesting folk speaking some 30 languages and governed by haphazard political administration that has made sensible development a very slow and awkward process. The domination of Chinese, then Spanish, then American, then Japanese occupiers has had a great deal to do with this cultural failing. With WWII freshly underway, my father and his naval friends of recent Asian experience felt certain that Filipinos would rally to the Rising Sun. They were astonished that the reverse was largely true, and that throughout the war these people were our fervent, brave, and able allies.



European colonization of non-European territory was well underway by the 16th Century. In the 18th Century the U.S. rose as a by-product of this activity. Initially we ourselves had no incentive to cross oceans for colonization. We had a broad continent, thinly inhabited by those who arrived here some 14 millennia past, and we assumed a natural right to take it over, whatever the objections of others. In reading the following it struck me that the rise of U.S. overseas land-grab initiatives in the early 20th Century must have been a postscript to the completion of this “Manifest Destiny.” Our momentum simply kept us going, spurred on by the high spirits of our brief war with Spain. That war, as we now know, was fought under a false vengeance over the explosion in Cuba of the U.S. battleship MAINE, thought to have been sabotaged by Spanish forces. Later forensics showed the explosion to have been caused by careless attention to safety in handling coal dust. But history turns on small pivots.



Whatever you think of Rep. Ron Paul (whom I am not necessarily endorsing), he may, in echoing George Washington, have it right about our continuing tendency to get involved overseas in other peoples’ squabbles. Perhaps we had little choice about WWI, WWII, and Korea. But I ponder the possibilities had we not gone to war with Spain and also become involved in China at that time. Perhaps there would have been less incentive for Japan, our ally in WWI, to come after us later on. We were indeed reluctant to get into WWI, but strategically adrift in accepting an indecisive armistice in place of a full-fledged victory, followed by stringent German reparations. Had we used the Marshall Plan philosophy in Germany post-WWI, would we have averted the conditions that gave rise to National Socialism and Hitler’s mad attempt to become the new Napoleon Plus? Might a healthy and friendly post-WWI Germany have lessened the incentive to form the WWII Axis? If so, how might the history of 1939-45, and 45-91 been different? And suppose, post WWII, we had not supported European attempts to regain and control their former colonies, often nations created by gluing together disparate tribes? Was it really our business to do this, and was our fearful “Domino Theory” really justified?



I have no wish to sound either like an isolationist or an inchoate 60s anti-war protester, and I have no personal regrets over my own career as a naval officer. I’m proud of the contributions my family has made over several centuries to the development and defense of our country. But is it not time for us to take lessons from the past 500 years, to relax a bit under a refurbished umbrella of a strong economy and an unbeatable national security structure (neither of which is currently in very good shape), and to mind our own business? After all, the legendarily neutral Swiss, who strictly train and arm all their citizens and who carry on trade with anyone, manage very well to do just that.



The inescapable conclusion apparent to me is that a strict focus on adherence to our own Declaration of Independence and Constitution (the why and the how of our republic), a firm adherence to non-interference by our government in the affairs of other countries (unless we are attacked), the energetic practice of open trade, and the consistent maintenance of a rock-hard national defense structure would give us leave to create lasting prosperity with few citizens so poor as to require public assistance. Perhaps this is dreaming, but are not dreams the wellspring of better things to come?

What is wrong with the repulicans

By David Frum, a GOP heavyweight thinker.

His thesis is that the party surrendered its leadership to the media.

Extremism and conflict make for bad politics but great TV. Over the past two decades, conservatism has evolved from a political philosophy into a market segment. An industry has grown up to serve that segment—and its stars have become the true thought leaders of the conservative world. The business model of the conservative media is built on two elements: provoking the audience into a fever of indignation (to keep them watching) and fomenting mistrust of all other information sources (so that they never change the channel). As a commercial proposition, this model has worked brilliantly. As journalism, not so much. As a tool of political mobilization, it [incites] followers to the point at which they force leaders into confrontations where everybody loses.

He also shows how this media creates a fantasy world of false information.

The role of politicians

Comment the other day that the role of a politician is to deliver his constituents to his funders.

revised: Politicians are not opinion leaders, but middlemen.

re: republicans, the party of fear

Hi, Glenn - Sounds interesting. You mentioned FDR's first inaugural (the only thing we have to fear is fear itself) You should check out the fuller context on line -- his words describing the prevailing economic distress sound remarkably apt for the situation today, which makes his words all the more salient. With each passing year the man's greatness strikes me more clearly -- he and Churchill.

We included the FDR paragraph in our readings of American sources that we did in place of the sermon at church on the 3rd of July, which had a 4th of July theme. Others were parts of the Dec. of Independence, some MLK jr. speeches, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost's "The Gift Outright" ("The land was ours before we were the land's . . . ") JFK's inaugural, etc. It was very moving, many tears in many eyes, a powerful & much-needed reminder of who we can be at our best, especially in the context of our present situation in the state which is pretty much showing us (or at least the Republicans among us) at our worst.

I am much concerned that the dynamics in the state are the same as at the national level, which means we are watching a dress rehearsal on the Minnesota level for what could become a major national economic & constitutional crisis nationally come August or so.

Love, Dad

re: re: Minnesota shutdown

Re-- student loans. The reason people should lend them thousands of money without collateral is that student loans are not covered by bankrupcy-- the only ways out (except paying them off, of course) are death or moving all of your assets out of US jurisdiction.

They figure they have on average a lifetimes worth of earnings they can garnish to get their money back, at 8.5% interest. Not bad, when inflation is running close to nil.

Did you know you can buy CDOs of student loans, just like the CDOs of house loans that caused some trouble a little while ago? But the thing with homeonwners is that they can default on the mortgage and your deathgrip becomes only a deathgrip on a house worth a fraction of the loan amount.

Now with a student loan, that deathgrip is a little more inclusive.

I am working on an essay titled "The Immorality of Debt", or rather I should be when not busy working on amphetamine (it is a hobby) [yes, that is a joke. I am working, as a hobby, on my second publication which demonstrates the harm that amphetamine usage causes to the brain and no, I am not one of the research subjects] or my zombie paper or my UW photo essay or my android apps which I should develop, oh, and did I forget that I am a father, husband, house-holder, and did someone mention that I also have a day job?

+glenn

re: Minnesota shutdown

Hi, Glenn- Sounds like you and Puppy are in the same camp with respect to human nature. Yes, I agree about the advantages of a shut down. From my experience with Bethel students, mostly heritage Republicans, very few realize how big a positive role government has had in their lives. E.G., most women didn't realize there would be no women's athletic programs without Title 9 of the Civil Rights Act; they just hold that women's athletics is natural and right, so of course it's there, but not particularly as a policy result. Or student loan guarantees: Why shouldn't someone lend them thousands of dollars at low interest without collateral -- they're good people, after all, don't intend to default, and are spending it for a good cause. When they think of "gummimint" it's usually the things they disagree with.

Minnesota shutdown

The good that I hope comes out of the MN situation is that people realize they actually enjoy government services. Unlikely, but still one can always hope.

My counterexampe comes from a news story a year or two ago covering a gathering of the tea-party faithful. 90% of the people in attendance relied to a greater or lesser extent DIRECTLY on government support (medicade-paid scooters, etc) not to mention indirect, as in they drove on public roads to get to the event which was held in a public building etc yet seemed blind to the fact that they were calling for an elimination of these benefits.

I'd like to have a happier opinion of humanity but people make it so damn difficult.

+glenn

re: re: re: the Greeks

Hi, Glenn- Best explanation I heard was that money was moving into dollars as long as the Greek situation was unresolved, but that now that a temporary patch is in place (good for six months), the flow might reverse out of dollars and into euro; i.e., New York looked good in comparison with Athens.

Meanwhile the state of Minnesota is shut down, with no immediate likelihood of resolution. Odd that the Republicans, who presumably favor jobs, jobs, jobs, have just unemployed something like 30,000 people; and who presumably are most concerned about the business climate of the state, have just given it a big national black eye in that respect as well, since various licenses & other such services are no longer available. I put it down more to incompetence than explicit malice/hypocrisy, but the results are much the same. People are getting really disgusted; and given how well governed the state was in the last half century, it all seems so gratuitous. Oh, and did I mention that the legislators have decided to keep on paying their own salaries, even though everyone else is fired, arguing that since they are the ones who have to work on a solution they need to continue to get paid so that they can resolve the mess. That's the sort of thing that will really rile Minnesotans up, I hope, and I don't think they even realize how self-serving it sounds.

re: the Greeks

Hi, Glenn- I also liked The Economist take: Greece can't pay its debts;
the US won't pay its debts. There's a big difference between the two. My
question: if you are the international bond market, which would you be more
wary of?

The greeks

Dear Tiger,

You asked my/Europe's opinion on the Greek crisis. Oh, for that glorious day when my opinion IS Europe's opinion!

The best comment I found on the bailout/austerity package is this:
“This is not a program to salvage the economy, it’s a program for pillage
before bankruptcy,” said Alexis Tsipras, head of the small opposition Left
Coalition.


He is right, of course. As anyone with sense can see, a Greek default is ineventible.

The crazyness of the war on drugs

Right, how is it that a country founded on the pursuit of happiness is so focused on a war on drugs?

apropos partisanship

A related email from my friend Lars which arrived at about the same time:

it fascinates me how Republicans think the US consitution is a libertarian policy document. It sets up a system, a procedure, for making laws, with elections and checks and balances etc., it doesn't prescribe economic policy. One of the arguments of Republicans is, so if the federal govt. can mandate health insurance, it can also mandate you to buy broccoli. Well, that's up the the people, try running on that platform! The point is, it's the American people who decide if they want certain policies or not. I agree, the ACA is messy and imperfect but that's because the Republicans refused to cooperate, putting party before country the decided to sabotage anything Obama did because they knew "if he's successful on this - and on the economy -, we've lost the WH for a couple of decades." The ACA is very close to Bob Dole's plan back in the early 90'ies, which was backed by the Heritage Foundation and several Rep. Senators as an alternative to "Hillary care," so it's not like this is something they're really against. It's just that if Obama is for it, it must be un-American. Personally, I think a single-payer system, with death panels, is the way to go.


http://www.slate.com/id/2283415/pagenum/all/#p2


One of the commenters argued my point exactly:

"One hugely important realization you have to make is just because it something is a bad idea, doesn't mean it is unconstitutional."

Partisanship is destroying the US

nteresting article in the Atlantic on what is wrong with US politics, by Mickey Edwards (represented Oklahoma in the House for 16 years). He says the problem boils down to partisanship, which is enforced by parts of the political structure. Now we all know this, and his solution isn't anything new, but it is nice to see it in one place.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/07/how-to-turn-republicans-and-democrats-into-americans/8521/

His solution is
Open primaries
Redistricting by independent nonpartisan commissions
Allow members of any party to offer amendments to any house bill
Change leadership structure of congressional committees to give the minority party a voice
Choose committee staff based on professional qualification, not party loyatly

My thoughts are that the first two points are the most important.

Happy weekend to you!

The focus of US law enforcement

Dear Tiger,

I shared a rant with Mike the other day, let's see if I can find it-- ah, yes,

Millions of Americans are without jobs and are having their homes foreclosed.  The U.S. is currently fighting three out-in-the-open wars (or, if you prefer, one war, one occupation, and one kinetic humanitarian intervention) and several other covert ones.  Financial and political elites are preparing to tell Americans (quite unpersuasively) that they have to sacrifice Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements because the U.S. debt is so large and unmanageable that it threatens to subvert America's superior creditworthiness.  And we're constantly told that civil liberties erosions are necessary to combat the Great Menace of Domestic Terrorism.  So what is our political class focused on, and to what are law enforcement resources being devoted? "

The answers: online pornography and online poker.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/04/19/priorities/index.html


There you go.

His reply was
"Six times a day I stop whatever I am doing, turn to face the capitol building and shake my fist in the air at congress. "

Maybe we could turn this into a movement?