Racism against Chinese Americans in Army, Marines

In a NYT story they say Chinese/Americans have a lot of questions about the death of Private Danny Chen. It seems he either killed himself or another soldier ended his life. This came after his superiors had repeatedly used ethnic slurs and dragged him across the floor. It seems he was repeatedly demeaned.

It's a paradox. In higher education in California you can't count Chinese Americans as a minority because many of them work much harder than the average Caucasian and get admitted to the prestigious University of California in large numbers. There have been quotas, and although they allegedly don't exist now, admissions people aren't exactly impressed by good grades if the person is Asian.

So are they just people who work harder: or as this Army incident shows, are they part of a minority in America. The Times points out that Marine Lance Cpl Harry Lew killed himself in April in Afghanistan. Before he died he'd been the subject of brutal hazing. The marines who did the hazing have been ordered court martialed.

I have language exchanges every week with three UCLA doctoral candidates from China. They work incredibly hard, denying themselves a lot of the fun I enjoyed in graduate school. They are achieving at a high level because of their extra efforts.

Our society can't have it both ways, making them non minorities for college admissions, while they're being treated like dirt as they voluntarily defend our country.

As for being bad soldiers, I guess the superiors of Danny Chen never heard of Korea.

The Promise of Thanksgiving

Halloween will soon disappear and we will look toward Thanksgiving, the ultimate family gathering. As a Mayflower descendent I am both proud to be connected to two different Pilgrims and embarrassed by what the second generation did to the Native Americans who celebrated the harvest and helped them survive

That's how it goes in American history. We are a great nation, yet we have to overlook the racism that was such a part of it in order to feel good about who we are. However, Thanksgiving celebrates our togetherness. Grown up children return to the nest and for once the core family is gathered around the table.

We can celebrate the fact that we're a free country that has a generous tradition of philanthropy for those wiped out by tsunamis and hurricanes. We can put aside our political differences for a day and reach out to others who don't share our views. We can also vow to be better Americans and deal honestly with our problems.  We were a nation that grew by sacrifice from the revolution to today as we are pulling out of Iraq. Sacrifice will save this country, once again, if we are all determined to share it. We became great, not through isolation from others, but by sharing a dream that can continue to be true if we all join hands.

My Student, My Hero

There are some occasions when a student remembers his professor as a guide on how to run his life. He cherishes that relationship and uses that professor's lectures as a standard for future decision making.

In my life, I’ve had such people guide me. But in a very real sense, one of my students has become my hero. Ronnie has the size and appearance of an NFL linebacker. He towers over me and I’ve always thought if I really got in trouble I’d want him walking into a situation with me. Not that he’s violent, but his imposing size would prevent others from going too far with impunity.

But, of course, that’s not why he’s my hero. He went to a tough inner city school and after school ended, he went to the library and stayed there until it closed. He tried very hard and because he had brains, people wanted to help him.

By the time I was teaching him in Feature Writing, he was working at Home Depot and Kmart at the same time. He wrote thoughtful pieces that showed great talent and I thought that he was as good as any student I ever taught at the Newhouse School. My dream was for him to write at the New York Times.

Of course, by the time he graduated newspapers were going out of business or hanging by a thread. So he has a good job in government, Right before he graduated he wrote an article in the school newspaper that asked: “If the school is 30 percent African American why should there be a separate Black graduation?” He didn’t care what other African Americans might say to him, because there was no party line on how African Americans had to feel or think.

He drove an hour and a half to have dinner with me the other night. I was really looking forward to seeing him, because I feel like he’s an American hero and he passes on his strength to me simply by being my friend. He’s the best kind of American, one who thinks deeply about things and isn’t afraid to say something when he sees an injustice. If my daughters weren’t already in college, I’d make him their guardian if I passed on. My life is better because I had the privilege of teaching him. My life continues to go well, because he’s my friend.

Originally published on 10/18/11

American Freedom vs. Chinese oppression

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of independence he provided a statement that justified personal freedom at a time in which governments were seen to grant freedom of speech to its citizens. His amazing document, in which he channeled John Locke, said freedom was an inherent right.

Democracy is a messy concept. Other governments seek to restrain the ability of people to communicate freely, but America and a few other countries believe it is a crucial right. At the moment, the speech of a certain group is undermining confidence in America. However, even though democracy has its downside, overall what Americans experience is enough freedom to say what  they think and determine how they should vote.

Our biggest competitor, China, does not value free speech. In the New York Times yesterday, the paper revealed the government is setting strict rules about micro-blogging, the  vehicle in which ordinary Chinese (lao bai xing) learned what really happened in a high-speed train wreck. Since China has invested a large amount of money in high-speed trains, it was something people needed to know.

They are also limiting entertainment programs on regional stations to  two 90 min. entertainment programs a week. I guess in China having too much fun is a threat to national stability. The new, tech savvy Chinese are going to live in a different world.

For many reasons, I have a strong positive feeling for Chinese all over the world. My trips to China have been life changing experiences. I have experienced wonderful hospitality (re qing) and been able to have close relationships with many fine people. These people have gotten used to a modicum of freedom that will now be taken away. I'm experiencing extreme sadness about the world they'll be living in.

Thank God I'm an American.

Netflix, Greed, and the canary in the coal mine.

Netflix has done what seemed impossible to do; destroy its stock price, public relations and employee morale. In that way it is an unusual American story. If it had had a legion of very connected lobbyists, like GE, it probably would have received governmental support and have stopped deterioration of its finances.

I say this is unusual because most Senators and Congressmen are owned by major corporations or the teachers union. In most cases conspicuous greed doesn't seem to be a problem. There may be a couple of bankers in jail but not many. Some of them, in fact, saved their fortunes by taking TARP money.

It seems you need to have a totally out of touch CEO in order to fall out of the elite. I know friends who dropped Netflix, even though they loved the movies. Most of us aren't smart enough, it seems, to stand up for ourselves and say we're not going to take it anymore.

If Americans understood what it's allegedly American companies were doing to destroy the lives of middle-class people by being driven by greed, they would be as active as they've been with Netflix. At this moment, American companies are doing anything to get into China, because they figure that they want to be the last company to make some money before the ball drops in China and people discover they have all our proprietary technology.

Greed hurt Netflix, but if the American people won't pay attention to what's happening to our country because of this rampant greed, the outcomes won't be clear to them until we've destroyed the middle class.

We need someone with the strength of Teddy Roosevelt to deal with the new Rockefellers.

How to destroy America

An article in the New York Times today reveals how the GOP field with its accusations has diminished our legal system in the eyes of conservatives and others. This is just one example of how the war between our political parties is changing the confidence Americans have in their government.

Winning, without the consideration of campaign rhetoric on the American people, is dangerous. We once had a country where leaders of both sides could retire to a room and figure out what was best for the American people over bourbon and branch water. That era is gone and the two-party system, which has been a cornerstone of support for our Constitution, has now become the enemy of our Constitution. In a court room, the defense attorney for a rapist tries to find out problems in the life of the rape victim. It is one of the most controversial outcomes of an antagonistic legal system because it can destroy the life of someone who had already been victimized.

Our country is in the same position. If the Republicans keep pointing out the deficiencies in our system of government the country will never have confidence in itself again. I'm not a Democrat, and I don't think they've made any attempt to cut back on spending. But the Republicans are out to destroy the country they say they're protecting.

The day that they realize that they are Americans first, and Republicans second, we can start building confidence in our government among the American people.

Chinese Americans are pissed off

Chinese Americans who live in Los Angeles are very angry. Their Chinatown (Zhongguocheng) is extremely large.  It stretches through the San Gabriel Valley for a long distance. Prices in this area for housing are beginning to go through the roof. Schumer's law, which would give a foreigner a visa if they bought American property will just make things worse for Chinese Americans. Chinese want to live near other Chinese, so they invest in those areas. Chinese Americans already have seen prices escalate because of home purchases by mainland Chinese. In one community there are housing developments just to hold the mistresses (er nai) of mainland Chinese who do business in America.

This is just another shortsighted mistake Americans have made about China in the last 20 years. If an American company goes to China it needs to take on a Chinese partner. Then if it wants to stay, it is forced to turn over proprietary technology to the government. General Electric has made a deal to help build a passenger plane which aims an arrow at the heart of Boeing. The dumbest thing I ever heard was a GE spokesman who said the military wouldn't get that technology for two years. This man knows nothing about China.

The Republicans in the house are not going to vote for tariffs on Chinese goods even though they're made by state owned industries and supported by subsidies from the government. It looks like the tea party wants to destroy America instead of turning back the clock.

Any company that goes into China should expect that their technology will end up in a Chinese company that will have an advantage in the marketplace.

We can't expect the Chinese to take care of us. They operate in their national interest. If we don't stand up and fight, our children will be their janitors.

Who says Bankers are Immune from Prosecution?

              If you're looking to buy a house in Los Angeles you'll be surprised at the paucity of homes on the market. Since LA home prices are 166% of prices in 2000, you'll wonder how this happened. Aren't many Americans out on the street because they couldn't make mortgage payments?

              It seems the banks are waiting to foreclose on property until they get a multistate settlement that essentially says we won't sue you for all the things that you did that were illegal. They want this guarantee, because the large number of mortgages that involved robo signing and the skirting of requirements required to sell their mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, could guarantee they'd be in court until after the Obama administration leaves town. (Your guess is as good as mine on that timetable)

              The bankers who made so much money selling these loans to investors in tranches(where you buy a piece of a collection of mortgages) now don't want to face the music. Bank of America, whose former boss made really laughable deals, is scared stiff.

              There are very few bankers who took the money and ran that have been  charged with any felonies. They would never say what Harry Truman said; "the buck stops here." Under significant pressure, Kamala Harris, Atty. Gen. of California, pulled out of the multi state agreement because people were pointing out that you could do illegal things and never have to pay for them. The banks wanted absolution.

              Obama wants something done immediately in order to move the economy along. I understand his desire to do that. But criminals shouldn't be able to walk away from destroying our financial system.

              

What Occupy Wall St. is and isn't

Many people are talking about Occupy Wall Street and what it is or is not. Fox news makes them sound like homeless psychotics or clueless philosophy majors. Others on the left see it as the beginning of a new movement that will galvanize the left wing of the Democratic Party.

In fact, it probably won't eventually fit in either one of these analyses. I view it as a simple wake-up call for everyone who is angered by the situation in which the rich get richer and many others are unemployed. Over the last few years it's been clear that Wall Street runs our government. The rich decide which way the country will go and tells the congressmen they've purchased how to vote.

To the extent that it is controlled by adbusters, I am for economic equality for shrinking middle class and poor, not for structural changes in American Government.

Like many I voted for Obama and found that he was incapable of picking subordinates. He put Summers and Geithner in charge of the economy and they protected the rich. Obama could have been leading Occupy Wall Street, but instead every move he made was helpful to the wealthiest Americans.

Many of us are independents and have no faith in either party. But we're angry as hell, and don't want to take it anymore. It's clear that Congress, on both sides of the aisle, are in office to make money for themselves or are strapped to an ideology that does not allow for compromise.

Now the question is what are the 99% of Americans who've lost purchasing power in the last 10 years, while the bankers and others on Wall Street tripled their net worth, going to do about it.

Are you listening?

Authors, Artists and the Zone

Those who run frequently have experienced the flow of endorphins which kick in after a couple of miles and makes you feel like you are being propelled forward. You are in the zone.

It's the same thing for authors, and I assume, artists. You don't know when your characters take over the story and tell you what they should be doing, but when it happens it's almost like your writing is being driven  by an exceptional source. You don't want to stop, because it seems so perfect.

I'm not saying that everything you write when you're in the zone will look great to you upon second reading, but while you were writing it, you were being pushed forward by unseen winds.

When I look at some of the art that's been produced by people who are on my Google plus, I'm astounded by the beauty. Maude McDonald  had the creativity to paint a modern horse against the back ground of the figurative horses in European cave paintings. It's clear she was in the zone when the idea struck her and she painted this work of art.

Unfortunately, at least for this writer, some days you sit in front of the computer, and until you try free writing you don't have a chance in the world of entering the zone. That's why it's such a special place, because the rest of the time you are struggling to create a word picture out of the ether.

A Yearning for Communication and Camaraderie

I was at a dinner the other night which involved a cross-section of Los Angeles. There were African-Americans, Asians, and white guys like me. In discussions with some I began to pick up a theme. It sounded like people were looking for camaraderie and deeper discussions on what was happening in America and of a  structure to perpetuate this kind of interaction.

Until the 60s, it was common for men to have places they could go to for these things. As a wire service reporter, I could see the fraying of communication and the inhibiting  of  the transfer of information from one generation to another. The situation has finally gotten to the point where more and more younger men want the reassurance that values still matter.

My assumption is that the same concerns are shared by women, although they've always had a readiness to be open with each other which men seem to fear and makes them close up. The farther technology goes, the more people yearn for a serious conversation over coffee.

Our nation needs to have a glue that holds us together. The feeling right after 9/11 was that Americans were reaching out to other Americans. But a few weeks later we were back in our anomic worlds. In societies in other countries there may be less distance between people because of extended families and adherence to tradition.

The yearning is there. I just hope more of us reach out to experience a re-communication.

General Electric Gives China Technology for Passenger Plane

The Chinese are throwing their weight around and demanding American companies share proprietary technology with Chinese companies. These companies ultimately will be forced to share this technology with the government. General Electric is moving their technology there as fast as they can.

I have many Chinese friends, both here and in China. Talking with them is a pleasure and I respect them very much. But this does not mean I’m a fan of strong arm tactics.

The idea that GE should give up their proprietary technology to help the Chinese build a large passenger plane is horrendous. Our balance of payments would really be much worse if we couldn't count Boeing sales
I guess GE really isn't an American company anymore. The CEO, Jeff Immelt, and his buddies don't care what happens to our country. If the Obama administration hasn't stopped this then it's another bad mark against the administration. Oh I forgot, Obama made  Immelt the chair of a commission to increase employment. But he sure won't increase employment in Washington state. This is an arrow pointed right at Boeing.


The Chinese would never let one of their companies do this. Immelt isn't a patriotic American.Capitalism is an excuse for betraying this country

 In an earlier blog I talked about Chinese history (Zhongguo lishi). This move is no surprise to those of us who read a book called To Change China: Western Advisors in China by Jonathan Spence. He described how the Jesuits in the Ming, then Qing, Dynasty shared their advanced knowledge of astronomy with the Emperor, then stood there waiting, hoping they could proselytize in China. (Back then predictions on where celestial objects would be was important to the Emperor's face). The Emperor then looked at the priest and said, "Why are you standing there?" The priest asked what was in it for the Jesuits. The Emperor said, “Thanks a lot."

This drama played out through Chinese history and culminated with the ouster of the Russian advisors when they were no longer essential to the communist revolution and the rebuilding of China

 (At this time, I'd like to point out to my friends who are Chinese that this commentary is not an attack on China, merely an observation. An earlier blog of mine talks about the importance of Chinese patriotism.)http://richwhitneyturner.blogspot.com/2010/09/role-of-face-in-chinese-patriotism_17.html

So the idea that technology would be taken over is a logical expectation given Chinese history. If companies don't want to sell products in China, they can go home. Since most Americans couldn't find China on a map, it is to be expected that these corporate barons wouldn't know anything about Chinese history. America is an insular land where the only other languages besides English are spoken by the children of immigrants.

More and more companies that used to be described as American moved their operations to China because the CEOs wanted bigger bonuses and the less they paid employees the more they got in their pay envelope. They didn't care whether a lot of Americans wouldn't have a job, they just wanted more money.

This is pretty close to crossing the Rubicon. Have American companies lost all that once made them American corporations? My answer is yes.

A few years ago, a spy for Israel gave secrets to them. Many Americans looked on him as a traitor.

So just as they moved American jobs overseas in the companies’ determination to make money at any cost, they now intend to share our national secrets. If our government lets this happen it’s because we have become the world’s biggest debtor. You can’t spit in the face of your banker.

Summers, Geithner and Iago

Like many disillusioned voters across the country, I voted for Obama. Looking back, I'm not sure what I expected of a man who had never managed a city, county or state. What I do know is that all my hopes were dashed when Obama ushered Larry Summers and Tim Geithner in to run his economic program.

In addition to saying that women can't do science, Summers had worked very hard to break up the wall Roosevelt had created between banks that take deposits and banks that are trading houses. With Geithner's help he was successful in eliminating one of the safeguards we had against abuse in our financial system.

It's clear now that Obama didn't understand economics. He was, in essence, a tabula rasa. But he had a high level  of  self-confidence and considered himself a quick study. He surrounded himself with a lot of academics who'd never had to face the real world.

Larry Summers wanted to take care of all his rich friends and bankers. Instead of helping Main Street the money went to Wall Street. He and Geithner saved a lot of fortunes created from running irresponsible banks. Some banks loaned out 30 times the amount of money they had in reserve. But none of them suffered. The guys who ran Citibank, Merrill Lynch, and others walked away with their golden parachutes, probably looking for a bank they could trust with their ill-gotten gains.

This was the time that Obama could have stood up for the powerless. He could have repeated what William Jennings Bryan said: "thou shalt not crucify mankind on a cross of gold." Instead he sat back and let Summers help his banker friends rape the American people. Othello believed everything that Iago said.

Why did you and I forget any analytical standards and vote in a man who didn't understand economics and clearly couldn't judge who is qualified to run any kind of populist economic program. Summers made sure that insightful people like Paul Volcker were not allowed in to share their opinions. The foxes were running the hen house

.

 I'm no longer looking for the great new thing. I want a president who's run something and understands what qualities you should look for in your subordinates. If I have to hold my nose and live in a country run by Rick Perry, it's all Obama's fault.

Congress, Corruption and Kidneys

A Congresswoman's husband ran a kidney transplant operation that the federal government wanted to shut down because a number of kidney transplants had failed. This seemed to be the federal government doing its job.

But Democratic representative Shirley Berkley forced the government to back down. The Nevada Congresswoman worked diligently to protect her husband's income.

This is not unusual. And it happens on both sides of the aisle. No matter which party the legislator belongs to their number one concern is increasing family wealth.

Given the sorry state of affairs, who would put their trust in this Congress to solve the nation's ills?

As an independent, my view my view is not to trust any of them. Sen. Harry Reid, also of Nevada, has enriched his family remarkably well through his position in the Senate. Both parties have numerous examples of pure unmitigated greed in their ranks.

Now we are expecting these self-serving greedy politicians to redress the balance in our society, between those who have and those who have not. We expect them to reduce the federal deficit and provide jobs for the unfortunate Americans who are out of work or underemployed.

Neither party cares about corruption within its ranks. Both parties do favors for the rich. If you think these self-centered people will put America first, I figure you still believe in the Easter Bunny.

America; Where only the Rich count

In the day since I first wrote this; Warren Buffet has bailed out Bank of America. Buffet, who says he should pay a larger percentage of his earnings and dividends to the government than his secretary does, makes money, but cares about America. We need more Warren Buffets, a man who is leaving his money to charity.

There is now talk about bailing out Bank of America again. If we do it this time (which we shouldn't) we have to claw back the money the last two CEOS have made for helping destroy out economy.

Perhaps if Larry Summers and Obama had never met we would have had a President who stood up to entrenched interests. Summers had helped take down the wall between regular, deposit accepting, banks and investment banks. This coddling of the rich was in full force during the Clinton Administration and intensified during the Bush Administration. Clinton gave Greenspan rapt attention.

So both parties are for the rich. The democrats just pretend more. The Tea Party is too dumb to hide that they work to protect rich people.

When I was young, CEOs made 40 times what the assembly line worker made. Now he/she makes 430 times what the assembly line worker makes. Of course, in America, we believe we could be that CEO some day. When it happens to you; drop me a note.

From Goldwater to Bachmann: A trip with Dante

When I was in high school I was asked by an older friend to accompany his mother on a bus trip from Syracuse to Ithaca where Barry Goldwater was going to speak. Because my family had been Republican since my great grandfather had returned from the Civil War I went willingly

On the bus I met members of the John Birch Society and the Minutemen. I had read enough to know these guy's ideas were crazy and was surprised that they didn’t have horns. But then I listened to what these guys believed and wondered if we lived in the same country.

Barry Goldwater was a decent guy with ethical principles and I very much doubt there would have been a lot of room for members of the John Birch Society in his government. But the Democratic Party had worked hard to make Goldwater sound crazy as a loon, which he didn’t deserve. Was Lyndon Johnson really the person we wanted to follow into war?

However, my point is then the Birchers and Minutemen were then outliers on the party. Later when I was a reporter, a woman I knew was a Rockefeller Republican who worked at a Log Cabin Republican store/meeting place in Cambridge.  She never talked to me again after I laughed at the chance the Log Cabin people would have influence on the party.

I’m not a Democrat, but I find the Republican Party filled with a bunch of out of touch, right wing people who don’t believe in evolution or in anything thought up since Hoover was President. Those Birch Society people seemed rational in person compared with the people who want to shut our government down and not raise the debt limit. They make me think we really don’t deserve the AAA rating if we have elected dopes like these guys. Is this like the end of the Roman Empire?  Have the the Goths  already changed our world?

Rupert Murdock and Morality

David Cameron, the British PM, has been shown to have ignored warnings sent to him about former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, whom he made his media advisor.

Rupert Murdoch, a media tycoon whose morality has never been his strong point, gave a lot of money to the Conservative party, of which Cameron is the leader.  Murdock was backed by Cameron until it became clear that the News of the World tabloid had participated in not only criminal endeavors, but crimes against basic decency.

They deleted items from the cell phone of a dead girl so the parents and others were lead to believe she was still alive.  The deletions were done so the relatives of the deceased could send more messages that could be published in the newspaper.

The Labor party is very upset about this and Cameron has had to come around to their point of view in order not to appear a heartless money-grabbing politician.

Murdock owns the always dubious New York Post, the Wall Street Journal and the “fair and balanced” Fox News. There was a story today that  one of his British newspapers had asked a  NY cop for the background information on the 9/11 victims.

Cameron had to come around and have a special judge investigate Murdock. The right wing in America loves Murdock. If some scandal breaks out here, will they go all the way down the road with him?

Before Murdock bought it I worked a couple of summer on the New York Post and returned to be a college professor when Fall approached. I worked with a great guy named William Slattery. When I was there he had cancer, but needed to work to have medical coverage. After Murdock bought the paper, Slattery was at a crime scene where his weakened condition allowed a perpetrator to sever both his biceps.

People tell me that later the Post got rid of his health insurance coverage. After all, if your employees can make it appear that a missing 12-year-old girl is still alive to get stories, why would you expect such a man to care about a disabled guy with cancer.

They chose their Ideology instead of their country

Today, we learned that John Boehner was unable to sell Obama’s offer of cutting four trillion dollars out of the federal budget. They didn’t like what should have thrilled them because it contained tax hikes.

I don’t belong to either party or trust most of the people we send to Washington, but here was a chance to save this country from a ghastly future. David Brooks, no liberal he, said this was a golden opportunity that should have been embraced.

But in the last election people were sent to Congress who captured the anger of Americans who want to go back to the 1940s. Since 45 percent of Americans don’t believe in evolution, this should have been expected.

So those people who had a chance to save America didn’t decide what’s best for America. They decided what fit their ideology.

My fervent hope is that the American people will figure out who caused the damage. Since only 29 percent of Americans are Republican, and 38 percent are independents, there is some hope.

But you can’t talk to a rock, or a member of the Tea Party.

Corporations sent jobs overseas, so Americans are unemployed

Under the Bush and Clinton administrations a lot of jobs were sent overseas to countries that paid 1/8^th of the wages Americans received.

Corporations made a lot of money.

Now there aren’t jobs for our unemployed because corporations don’t want to hire. They have fortunes tucked away so they can continue to be profitable.

No one wants to take a stand on this. Neither party represents the American people anymore. They represent the corporations.

Energy Vampires and Our Society

Recently I heard a psychiatrist lecture at UCLA Medical School on the problems of “energy vampires,” who suck the life out of you by pulling you into stressful situations or asking your advice and never following it.

Since UCLA is on the West Side of Los Angeles, where everyone wants to be told they are the only thing that matters, it was well received.

But I started thinking about those who search for this freedom. Think of who this applies to. When it comes to sucking energy;Your parents do it, your children seem to want to do it for the rest of their lives and, because everyone mentally healthy needs them, friends do this on occasion.

The psychiatrist advised people to avoid anyone who sucked the life out of you. Doctor Laura stopped talking to her mother, who was found a long time after she died in her apartment alone. People disregard filial obligations to the parents who worked two jobs to put them through college and can’t get home for Thanksgiving.

Eventually your friends get older, or have bad experiences, so you should dump them so you don’t have to experience their pain.

So you have your life dedicated to your own freedom from outside obligations. The only thing is you’ve become a narcissistic individual who will be mourned by no one. And the more people act like you have, the more the collective glue that holds America together will disappear.

Capitalism destroys Communism, then Democracy

Because my ancestors first saw Plymouth Harbor in 1620, I have always considered myself lucky to be an American. I accepted unquestionably that capitalism and democracy went together like a horse and carriage.

We’ve seen in China how capitalism destroyed communism without increasing democracy. They are stronger because they have command capitalism. They told all the sock manufacturers to move to Zhejiang so the wool and cotton could all be delivered to the same place, cutting costs. Did this bring on Democracy?  No, but it made a lot of American companies richer because they could send their labor costs overseas, where at one point Chinese workers made 1/8^th  of American workers. So, #1 Capitalism killed communism.

What about democracy? It seems at this point that capitalism is killing Democracy in America, despite what Boehner thinks as he cries himself to sleep.

McCain Feingold was struck down. Under the illusion of expanding rights to free speech, companies that spend as much as they want to influence an election can do so with impunity. Rich men can spend their private fortunes to push ideas and approaches that only help rich people like them.

(This doesn’t mean I’m hot for the teacher’s union or trial lawyers or want to spend the country I love into bankruptcy)

The number of independents has risen to 38 percent. There are a lot of people like me out there. When I was a kid the CEO made 40 times what an assembly line worker made. Now they make 430 times what the hard working American receives pushing items down a line.

So, from Supreme Court Decisions, to the purchasing of Congressmen and Senators, Capitalism is killing democracy. We once had people in Washington looking out for us; now they’re looking out for themselves.

Maybe you haven’t been around very long and haven’t seen the changes, but many of us have. How was I to know I lived in a country once where ordinary Americans had a voice? It had been that way for my Great Grandfather who returned from the Civil War a lifelong Republican. He painted carriages, which wasn’t exactly a way to riches. But his son became a college professor and believed that America was one country in which everyone counted (Of course, he was white and didn’t see what was going on in the poorer part of town.)

When I was whistling my way to elementary school, I thought our wonderful country would stay that way forever.

I just woke up.

All Hail the No Party system

                My wife, a Chinese born American, asked me why we have to have a two party system to run America. I’m an Independent, but I still said it makes America function well. I realized after saying this that I’d assumed there weren’t many people like me, who don’t feel comfortable spending until the cows come home or invading any country we choose.

                I was only in the wilderness for another hour when I looked in the WSJ at the Pew Foundation statistics on the makeup of the electorate.  Republicans are 29 percent, while 35 percent call themselves Democrats. But the shocker for me was the 38 percent of the people who identified themselves as independent.

                My mind started to imagine a different world. You could have former Republicans who believed in evolution. You could have former Democrats who realized the teachers unions were destroying America’s future. An individual could be for budget cuts and for abortion.

                I’m still a little lost on this issue and need to understand why we have a House of Representatives controlled by 29 percent of the electorate. I guess it was because a lot more people think evolution is a communist plot, than thought the country should be run by the trial lawyers.

The outside of a horse, the inside of a man

When I lived in Germany my daughter and I rode western saddles on warm blood horses across the fields of farms outside Frankfurt. Kathy, a civilian employee of the Army Corps of Engineers, owned the horses. Her favorite expression was “there is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.”

30 years after a back operation, I can no longer ride and my heart is strong. That means my plan to leave the earth in a long gallop on top of a quarter horse is but a dream. I’m probably going to live forever.

In Flintridge, California I owned a thoroughbred/warmblood  (Warmblut) that had been beaten by a prior owner.  I stayed on her when she did 360s so I could prove to my long-dead father that I could do it. Since he used to be a ringmaster at horse shows, I figured he was watching.

But if the saying is true about horses, it is even truer for dogs. The other day my daughter was having a bad day, but she said her puppy always gave her attention and picked up her spirits. You may never get the loyalty from a human being that comes close to that you feel from a dog. (I’ not anthropomorphising   a dog, just trying to describe how it feels from a human perspective)

So in animals we find a relationship that needs to be cultivated and can make our lives better.  When things get tough there is nothing like having a dog at your feel or jumping on a quarter horse to lessen the worries about problems that otherwise might be hard to bear.

The Heart of a Navy Seal

When I was working at UPI in Boston, one of my colleagues was named Frederick (Ted) Marks. We used to work out together and then have a steak and salad. He had been the goalie on the 1960 U. S. Hockey team that played the Russians.

On his wall there was a cartridge belt and a rifle. Ted had a big scar on his chest. He said he killed the guy who had shot him and carried his belt and rifle with him as he lay on the stretcher. He was a man you knew could handle any situation, a man with presence.
Then UPI sent him to cover the war in Southeast Asia. I was told he was killed  as the US went into either Laos or Cambodia.

I have questions about America’s right to police every country, but I know our country needs people like Ted Marks. Navy Seals are the men who finally killed Bin Laden, a heinous criminal who killed many Americans.

Every now and then I punch his name into Google, in case what I learned was wrong. His name never comes up in any search, and we are the lesser for it.

Chinese Bachelors and the Housing Bubble

Today, the New York Times wrote that Chinese bachelors can’t get a second date if they don’t own property. In a country where mei Mianzi (losing face) must be avoided, this is a crisis

Now let’s think about the many people who have predicted an end to the Chinese property bubble. Does this mean ambitious men want to spend their days  and nights alone.  I doubt it. They have to buy something, even if it means getting a second job.

In an earlier blog, I said;

One female PhD who lives in China told me what she was interested in from a man. Here they are in rank order:

1.       He has to have a good, secure job.

2.       He should have a house

3.       He should own a car

I asked her about love? She said that it would probably come in time, but it wasn’t a deal breaker. (Remember we aren’t talking about Chinese women who grew up in America, this is about people who grew up in Mainland China.)

All those people who predict this collapse clearly don’t understand Chinese women.

I know Chinese immigrants who bought houses in the U.S when they were at ridiculously high prices. In every case it was the woman driving the purchase.

In America, women can disregard a guy’s present situation if he looks like someone with a future.  In an ambitious country like China, where they have a superior K-12 system in places like Shanghai, it’s like rolling the dice. (BTW, in China the nerd with the granny glasses can get the pretty girl. They don’t necessarily care whether he was captain of the football team.)

So does an ambitious bachelor want to spend his life alone? What’s your guess? And what do you think about China’s housing bubble?

Hey White Girl: You don't own my country

It seems that there are still white people in America who think this country belongs to them.  Let me get the cards on the table right away.  My ancestors were on the Mayflower, fought in the Revolution, and then fought for the north in the Civil War.  I was born white, but I don’t believe that makes me any better than any other American.

A white girl at UCLA went on you tube to make fun of Asian American families and the fact that they give their offspring so much support.  The close family unit that is represented by many Asian families is something that is positive in a country where many parents have no influence on their children.

When I used to teach university students about different cultures and how they communicate, my students from Africa and Latino students quickly understood that the values of Asian families were something to be admired.  Another group looked on Asian values as ridiculous because everybody should be out for themselves.

No matter how you look at it our country no longer belongs to people of any color or of any religion.  We are a nation of immigrants made stronger by the new blood which arrives on our shores every year.

As Christians we grew up singing “Jesus loves the little children.”  The song makes the point that it doesn’t matter what color a child is, Jesus loves them all.  Buddhism is a religion that arose out of Hinduism because Hindus believed people are borne into castes. Buddhism doesn’t discriminate among its followers and doesn’t assume any racial group is more entitled to Buddha's blessing.

If this girl doesn’t get it, then she can keep on excusing her lower grades by blaming Asians. The Asians will just go on becoming doctors, scientists and artists.

 Hey, white girl, you don’t own my country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg3tIERI-D4

Wall Street Laughs And The Little People Lose

Goldman Sachs board member: “Our numbers are bad, you’d better unload.”

Hedge Fund Manager: “How come?”

Goldman Sachs board member: “I’ve got 73 more people to call. I don’t have time for an explanation.”

Goldman Sachs board member “I’ve got some info.”

New Hedge Fund Manager:  “Did you hear that documentary producer say at the Oscars that none of us had been put in jail?”

Goldman Sachs board member: “This guy is a jerk. He doesn’t understand we run America. We’re gonna throw a couple of Indians to the SEC, and Americans will think we cleaned house”

UCLA Basketball and Our Decreasing Standard of Living

John Wooden was a great coach who turned UCLA into a basketball dynasty. However, every coach who followed him was never given enough credit at UCLA.
There were two coaches named Larry who were treated as if their assistant coaches were Curly and Moe.

According to UCLA boosters there was no one acceptable to fill Wooden’s shoes. Now, even though they have a great athletic director who goes the extra mile, attendance in Pauley Pavilion has been dropping every year for the last three seasons.  This in a venue where disposition of four on the floor seats was once written into divorce agreements. 

The memories of Wooden’s tenure will soon no longer cripple a basketball program, because even UCLA boosters have to move on.

Soon our nation will have to smarten up and forget about the old days, because our standard of living will probably fall for the next seven years and people must face the concept of deleveraging. Everyone is still ignoring the fact that we thought there was twice as much money in our economy than there really was. When a bank loans out forty dollars for every dollar it keeps in reserve, asset prices go to ridiculous levels and a country’s assumptions get distorted.

Another indication that we have been ignoring the problem came yesterday from Robert J. Shiller whose book “Irrational Exuberance” warned us of the stock market crash to come, and told us house values would drop 30 percent, which they already have.

Shiller said Tuesday that there was a substantial risk of the housing market falling another 15, 20 or 25 percent.

Stock prices have climbed back to the level they were in 2008 and everyone seems to assume companies can keep laying off people to raise revenue without Americans returning to work.

Young Americans will find it tough to choose between Air Jordan’s and a new cell phone. They already are graduating from college with hopes of a job at McDonalds. Our standard of living is going to go down because we play with cheap money we already owe to countries that understood beans didn’t grow to the sky.

We are buying our own Treasury bonds on days when West Texas Crude sells for $100 a barrel and where most people were already using Brent as the standard. (Damn it, why couldn’t I find a Kroner fund?)

But the reckoning will come.

Bernanke uses the mistakes of the depression as the guide to how we must not respond to economic growth.

He has forgotten that the French built the ridiculous Maginot Line because they assumed that the Second World War would be fought like the first one. To that I say two words: “Belgium and Blitzkrieg”

And if I have to choose who to believe, Shiller will always beat out Geithner.  Let’s get ready and deal with the fact we’re not going to be as rich as we were. If you’re having trouble with this, buy yourself a Norman Rockwell calendar and drink the last of the Remy Martin.

It's not just the child who suffers

A friend of mine just emailed me from Beijing with details on his baby who was born a couple of hours ago.  Another friend of mine, also Chinese, has a son three weeks old.  Both of these guys have always been responsible so their lives aren’t going to change.

But mine did when my daughter arrived 22 years ago.  All of a sudden, I was really responsible for the life of another human being.  It changed the way I looked at everything.  I would drive around Los Angeles with her to get her to go to sleep. I had everything safety proofed.   She became the one person who I would always love unconditionally.  She made me a better person.

I taught at a university where many students were brought up by single mothers.  One 21 year old woman broke into tears one day in my office, saying “He left before I was born; what’s wrong with me.”

It wasn’t just her life that had been adversely affected; the man who could have been a stronger person evaded his responsibility and never grew up.

Of course, some people, grow up fine, and act responsibly throughout their lives.  But for those who consistently run from responsibility, taking on the rearing of a child can help him learn to face up to his own shortcomings.  But for so many that first step is too hard to take and a child suffers.

Two human beings have their lives diminished, with one always wondering “what is wrong with me?” 

What ADHD really feels like

There are a lot of people who think ADHD is made up. Some of us personally know better. Tommy Babcock is someone who has it and he describes what it feels like to him: 

All the new information I’d taken in since I arrived left me nervous about navigating the rocks and shoals of Ginny’s marriage and dealing with Jimmy’s plans. The train and the ship left me with a need to move about, so the next day I jumped into Ginny’s MG and drove to Ambleside.  This area of Cumberland was cold and bleak in the winter, but Lake Windermere had an attraction in any season. As I drove roads leading towards the coast, I thought about dinner last night and tried to clear my head of the Port, while absorbing Jimmy’s offer. It was an offer that hit me like bathtub gin in a Chicago speakeasy.  I knew it might be the right thing to do. It also might, for a while, turn off that ceaseless inner motor. There often was a runaway railroad train inside that threatened to tear me apart if I couldn’t keep moving. Sometimes all the pushups or miles I’d run couldn’t stop it and I wouldn’t know what to do next. Explorers are oftentimes described as heroes, but I believed men went in search of new lands because they couldn’t handle staying where they were. The men who remained in St. Louis were probably more comfortable in their own skins than Lewis, Clark, and the others who’d followed the Missouri to its source or crossed the Sierras in November. Meriwether Lewis was so haunted by those demons he stabbed himself to death. 

If Washington Was Filled with Daffy,Bugs and Goofy

The best way to look at Washington, D. C. is to view it as if it was an animated feature.  If we could use our favorite comic characters, it would be much easier to explain to people what’s going on in Washington.

There are the obvious choices.  Bugs Bunny would be perfect for Joe Biden because Biden never says anything more important than “that’s all folks.” John Boehner would be played by Goofy, except goofy would break into tears when you said anything about the flag, his career, or big business.

The president and his wife would, of course, be played by Mickey and Minnie mouse, the most stable of all our comic characters.

Then you have the man who just won’t go away, Dick Cheney.  He would be played by Yosemite Sam, except that he would have a big 666 tattooed in his armpit.  You’d see him trying to run down the street pursued by Colin Powell, who is still angry that Cheney’s people lied to him and made him look foolish in front of the United Nations.

Nancy Pelosi would be played by Cruella De Ville, except that Democrats would see Snow White on their screens.

The entire animated feature would focus around two different street barricades, one defended by Republicans and one defended by Democrats.  The entire movie would look like it was filmed from the vantage point of the Goodyear blimp, so we could watch every part of the street by street fighting.

That’s all folks.

What Happens to America When We Lose Our Financial Strength

Because I’ve been writing about our seemingly losing race with China in my blogs, I thought I’d write one on how other countries have handled their dethronement. Americans think we are different, but if the Democrats don’t cut spending and the Republicans won’t undo Bush tax cuts, there is no hope our debt won’t grow like a lion cub.    I study Chinese history, but I guess I understand British History the best, so I’ll try to talk about what happened there.

The 20^th Century was our century, but for the British it was tough. First they go into a stupid, unnecessary war in 1914 that leaves them in debt and diminished in power.  So many men had died in Flanders’s Field and at the Somme, that it was a country of churchyards and statues to the dead.  But the British, a hardy people, went on hoping that things hadn’t changed.

It was WWII that drove the nail in the coffin. Because Chamberlain and Baldwin didn’t stop Hitler when he took the Rhineland and then Austria and Czechoslovakia, the war left the country bankrupt. I once had some British tourists over and they marveled at the amount of food we served. England has a lot of great people, but their country has been weakened.

Since we won’t bite the bullet, American wages will fall in comparison to other nations. Clothes and food won’t be as cheap. The Wal-Mart-China partnership will raise prices, so American will be facing the choices other country’s citizens already make. Can I afford to have a cell phone and still put gas in my car for a trip? Can I pay for my daughter’s college and afford health insurance? People addicted to shopping will search 99 cent stores instead of Macys.

I love America and believe in the strength of its people. I don’t have the same feelings about our congressmen and women and about our Senators. Everyone is either owned by corporate America or the teachers’ union. They don’t care about our country, just about their wallets. When we can no longer afford to light the Washington Monument at night, they will be well invested in foreign stocks.

We won’t have the international responsibilities we have now. There will be less oil to waste and we too can have little cottages overrun by roses.

I

America's Debt Grows: Bernanke says"Great"

We seem to be the only country that keeps inflating our money supply when other nation's are paying down their debt.  This bothered me a lot, because Asian countries say that money from QE2(our attempt to inflate the economy by having the Fed buy treasuries) is causing inflation in their countries.

I dropped by to see Ben Bernanke the other day to talk to him about why he still wanted to buy treasuries when the world is facing runaway inflation.

“As you know, I’m an expert on the depression,” he said.

 “I heard that,” I said.  “But we are the only country that isn’t trying to bring down its deficit.  Other nation’s people don’t like it either, but it seems necessary that we do it too.”

“Have you read the material I’ve written on the depression?” Bernanke said.

“Some of it,” I said.

“Then I don’t understand why you’re asking me these questions,” he said.

“I don’t understand why we’re a debtor nation and aren’t doing anything about it?” I said.

“If I don’t keep buying Treasuries to inflate the money supply, the stock market might go down and we also might have a double dip,” he said.

“It sounds to me as if you don’t think the American people can put up with some pain now in order to avoid enormous pain later,” I said.

“Aren’t you an American?” he said.  “The bankers want to have larger paychecks.  Those on Wall Street want the market to keep going up.  People whose houses are underwater don’t want to pay back what they owe on their mortgages,” he said.  “The bankers and the people on Wall Street control this country and I’m not going to make them angry.”

“But one day, when we aren’t the world’s reserve currency, we’ll have to pay back all the people and countries we took money from.”

“Take a closer look at what I  wrote about the depression and you’ll understand,” he said, standing up and walking out of the room.

I realized as I walked around Washington that I'd read all about it, but this time I was in a depression of my own.  If only a country could take a Prozac.

The Great Gatsby and the Rich Today

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Those words end the best novel written in 20^th Century America, a novel that forever haunts you with all its implications.  The novel left obscure how Jay Gatz got to be Gatsby and where his money comes from. However, it introduces us to an emerging America and points out how the old, rich world of Tom and Daisy doesn't really value a symbol of the nouveau riche like Gatsby.

Things have changed a little in America. Upstarts get startup money and having an old family doesn’t mean anything. (When I was a child of a widow in America, living on social security checks, I would have traded being a Mayflower descendent for cash any day of the week) Now money and fame are all that matter.

We also no longer seem angry that laws passed under Clinton and little Bush (In China he’s called Xiao Bush) mean the people who live in the rich suburbs are going to be able to pass on all of their money to their offspring, while most Americans will die with nothing to pass on to their lower middle class children.

Now we know where these bankers and Wall Street Caesars come from. But they still go to the same rich place where Tom and Daisy lived.  When they help bring down the country they keep the money they arranged to be in their pay packets and option plans. The Republicans and New York’s senators still do their bidding. On Sutton Place, or in Beverly Hills, they use their money as a powerful tool to get what they want.

Our politicians (if this is possible) have become more corrupt and beholden to these rich people. I’m a capitalist American, whose ancestors fought in the Civil War and the Revolution, but I always expected my country to be a fair one and it no longer is. When the Supreme Court killed Mc Cain-Feingold I knew things were heading in the wrong way. (By the way I an Independent Voter, not tied to either party)

Under old inheritance laws the government took enough money so that others could, through pluck and luck, rise up the ladder through hard work and replace them. It’s not impossible now, but it’s harder every day.

Social mobility made this country great. For 28 years I taught at a University in the inner city, while living in a rich suburb in Los Angeles County. One day a society matron came up to me and said; “Rich, you talk to Black people…” Yes I did and do and suddenly I felt I was a link between two worlds. I also talk to electricians and plumbers when my toilet isn't clogged and my lights are on.. Are we being borne ceaselessly into the past? Did all the gains in social mobility from the 60s to the 90s mean nothing?

What will happen to the children of the 9.4 percent of our countrymen who are unemployed?

My mailman when I was a kid was in the first wave of Marines at Iwo Jima. He was a hero to me no matter what others might think about his social status.

I have faith in my country and in my countrymen. At some point  laws governing inheritance will seem so misguided  and be perceived as so unfair, that the people will demand a reinstatement of what I’ve always called “American values.” These values promote social mobility, reward hard, honest work, and allow our country to become a better place, generation after generation.

Bank of America Screwing Americans to Improve Profits

I have been waiting for a middle of the road president since Bill Clinton ended his second term.  No matter how much the Republicans hated him, in the second half of his term Clinton was a moderate who reached the independents among the electorate.  I believe George Herbert Walker Bush was also a moderate president.

Barack Obama has become a very pragmatic President. He seems to be no longer beholden to the left wing of his party.  His pro business attitude has endeared him to voters that had stopped approving of him.  Some thought he wasn’t doing enough to solve our unemployment problem. They also didn’t like the left wing of his party running the show.

That is all very well and good, because moderates should be running our country and I approve of his decision to be the President of all of us.  However, we still have to be careful that big business doesn’t continue to control the country.  I believe Obama will watch that inequity in power on behalf all of us. The left wing will, of course, dislike him for not being Big Bill Haywood.  It will be like watching Tony Blair and old labor at the beginning of his years as prime minister.

Joe Nocera in the New York Times today wrote an article about what had happened at Bank of America when the Times published the story about a retiree who was being foreclosed on by the bank. Bank of America had foolishly taken over Countrywide with its millions of bad sub-prime loans. It made mistakes it wants to rectify by getting every pound of flesh from the American people.  A strong judge, Duane Hart, immediately looked at the case and earned the bank’s ire. Bank of America is losing a lot of money because their former chairman bought more than one subprime lender after the financial crisis was apparent.  They want to get their positive quarterly financial reports in the black by sticking it to this woman, who is retired, and a good citizen  They want to steamroll over others in her category.

The judge didn’t let that happen and now the woman will be able to pay her mortgage out of her retirement checks just the way BofA promised her before they sought foreclosure.  The judge made sure that a cynical financial operation, which made many stupid decisions, was not going to reverse its terrible quarterly reports on the backs of retirees.

There are flippers and outright crooks that need to have their mortgages foreclosed on, but Bank of America doesn’t seem to know the difference between decent, honorable people who were taken advantage by sleazy subprime lenders and those who tried to game the system. I believe they don’t want to try.

 (A lot of Americans made bad decisions by themselves and they will have to live with the consequences).

It probably was only a symbolic victory for anyone except the retired woman. Bank of America will probably forget this experience and keep covering its mistakes on the backs of good, but poor, Americans.
At one point in history, Frank Capra would have made a movie about this, but Americans have short memories, and, except for the 9.4 percent that are unemployed, will forget their country was brought down by Wall Street and the banks. The CEO’s are beginning to give themselves large bonuses again, because they think we’ve forgotten what they did to our country. Have we?

By the way, shouldn’t a company called Bank of America be trying to help Americans, as well as try to make a lot of money off them?

Cross-hairs and the Crazies

In Chinese the word sha in the first tone means kill.  Sha in the third tone means idiot. I’d like to use those words in connection with political rhetoric and the actions of disturbed human beings.

A man who seems as crazy as a loon shot a Congresswoman.  Before this happened Sarah Palin had put crosshairs on the Congresswoman's district in a map.  Sarah Palin uses this phrase “don’t retreat, reload” in her missives to the American people. The tea party members love her rhetoric, but most people don’t classify them as crazy.

We live in a country today in which 24 hour news channels fill all this time with anything they can find.  Fox news is right wing. Keith Olberman screams from the left. We’ve come a long way from Walter Cronkite’s 30 minutes a night.

 More and more on our television we see absurd people are given coverage.  There was  a lot spoken about a pastor who wanted to burn the Koran, even though he had only about 10 members in his congregation. Sarah Palin, like Iago, only communicates through Facebook and Twitter, unless you count her puff reality show where she takes Kate and eight on a disastrous trip through Alaska. Just like Iago, she makes outrageous comments to her followers and doesn’t have news conferences.

If she says something that sounds like sha in the first tone, someone who is sha in the third tone will get ideas.  Since father Coughlin on the radio in the 30s, we haven’t had such a popular figure that dispenses vitriol.  (Okay, Okay, Rush Limbaugh is another) Oliver Wendell Holmes once said “you can’t cry fire in a crowded theater.” In the same way you can’t put crosshairs on a human being and expect there to be no consequences.

Some days America is scary.  For some of my former students just getting from the project to the bus was a rite of passage.  The possession of guns runs rampant in our inner cities.  There are gun nuts everywhere. Even though polls show a majority of the American people want gun control, our legislators are so frightened of being targeted (appropriate word) by the NRA that it will be impossible to ever have gun control legislation.

Knowing that there are a large number of guns out there in America, people who aspire to national leadership need to watch what they say and do. This is not the America I grew up in.  This is a country full of powder kegs waiting to be set off by someone who says the most outrageous things. As a country we are Othello, with Iago in Alaska.

Why Mainland Chinese distrust (hate?) the Japanese

I once taught English in Germany. Many of my students felt guilty about what their grandparents had done in the Second World War. Some of the grandfathers who were devout Christians carried the guilt every day of their lives. One good man, who’d done impressive things in his life despite having a metal plate in his head from the Russian Front ,was in agony in his 70’s because he wondered how he and other Christians could have done what they did in the 1930s and 1940s,.

On the other hand, students from Japan have told me the Rape of Nanjing is a myth, there were no comfort women, and China started the Mukden Incident. (Comfort women were Korean and Chinese girls who were enslaved by the Japanese so their men could have sex) Most of these students were fine human beings but the facts weren’t in their K-12 textbooks. It took until 2006 for a Japanese newspaper to break the news that Japanese, not the Chinese, had been behind the Mukden Incident (the Chinese call the debacle  September 18^th).

Why did this happen?  The Republican Party, which was against the war before it happened, had the slogan “Who lost China?” MacArthur, who administered Japan, was convinced the Communists were the enemy and he forgot about how vicious the Japanese had been during the war. We needed allies to fight the commies. In Korea we encouraged the rich Yang ban, who had been collaborators with the Japanese, to take over the government, because with all their loot they certainly wouldn’t turn communist.

We were right to fear the communists, but for 30 years being ant-communist was the only consideration in our attitudes toward other governments.

At UCLA, and in many places around America, people of Japanese and Chinese ancestry, who had nothing to do with this history, are best friends. In fact, you’ll mostly see Koreans, Chinese and Japanese walking together and doing things that don’t involve whites. Because of their shared attitudes towards education they have strong bonds of friendship   In this area America has been a true melting pot.

In Japan recently the Prime Minister went to the Yasukuni Shrine where the  seven most evil Japanese war criminals have their ashes. Can you imagine Germans visiting a temple to Hitler placed over his bunker?

American citizens whose ancestors once lived in Japan believe what they’ve been taught about World War Two from their textbooks and have no interest in preserving the face of their ancestors. But they were brought up knowing the truth and, anyway, it was a long time ago.

For the Chinese, whose ancestors had been raped, disemboweled and beheaded, it is not an old memory. Every year the Prime Minister returned to the Koa Kannon temple was a slap in their faces. I’ve talked about how important face (Mianzi) is to a country that was treated badly by the white man and the Japanese for a century.  It's a very important consideration. If the Japanese want to stay in denial, there will always be a gulf between them and Mainland Chinese.  It’s too bad they don’t understand how 25-year-old Chinese feel about them, while we’ve been buddies with Germans for at least 30 years. Denial is not the cornerstone of friendship, and for a country that is growing old, with no real army, it could prove to be disastrous.

Exciting News on the Economic Front

 Lloyd Blankfein, who is famous for saying he was “doing God’s work” in running Goldman Sachs, decided to take it further and announced today he is leaving Goldman to run a series of loan tranches for the Vatican Bank.

Also today, Charles Prince, who has admitted he didn’t know what was going on when he ran Citicorp, finally had subprime tranches explained to him. He has decided to give away all the money he walked away with from Citicorp toward the establishment of the “Too Big to Fail” chair at Middle Tennessee University.

In other news, both Bank of America and J. P. Morgan Chase have cut mortgage payments in half for anyone who can “fog up a mirror.”

Barney Frank has come out for shutting down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying “every boondoggle has to come to an end sometime.”

Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers again announced it wasn’t his fault the bank fell like a haystack in the wind and the government caused it.

Unfortunately  Fuld ruined a great dream. I awoke to a world filled with crooks who still haven't been prosecuted for destroying our financial system.

The Power of an Example

There is a success story in Barack Obama’s life that only tangentially involves the Presidency.

To describe this, I must tell the reader that I taught for 28 years at a university that was 1/3 African American and 1/3 Latino. In my life at the University, I had long discussions with students whose fathers had abandoned them. Since my father died when I was seven and we lived for years on social security payments there were some connections that came easily.  However it took awhile for them to believe I was supportive and non-judgmental because I was from another race. Eventually students passed on their positive assessments of me to new students.

The stories were almost uniformly sad. One woman used a lot of Kleenex when she said; “What’s wrong with me, he left before I was even born.” Many had never had a male figure in their lives. What that had done to their psyches had different effects on different students. Many intelligent students sabotaged themselves because they thought they were not worthy of success.  One expressed outright hatred of the absent biological father whom he said he would kill if he ever met him.

I also had students who had surmounted this and were my best students. They all had a will and an ability to transcend what cards they’d been originally dealt.

Barack Obama is really the poster child for all of my best students. He stands as a beacon for those who want to be something despite the obstacles that stand before them.

Obama’s father deserted him when he was very young; he had a stepfather who his mother divorced, which saw him returning to Hawaii without that male figure. But he had a grandmother and grandfather who showed him love and gave him support.

His drive and determination, along with what must be a very solid, physical brain structure, helped him achieve and he moved from success to success. Although I became Assistant to the President of Occidental College after he left for Columbia, everything I have ever heard  from those who taught him was laudatory.

His success or failure in the Presidency as evaluated by historians will not affect his importance as a symbol for young African-Americans.

By the way I have another blog called My Student, My Hero that discusses one of my former student’s successes.

Cuomo moves up while Wall Street rejoices

Soon, Andrew Cuomo will be Governor of New York, which means he will no longer be Attorney General. This could be a very bad thing for those of us in America who want the people who caused the financial crisis to stand up and face the music.

As long as Cuomo’s been Attorney General he’s pursued the shady people on Wall Street and their accountants. Today we learned Cuomo is close to filing civil fraud charges against Ernst and Young for staying silent while Lehman Brothers cooked its books and lied in its reports to stockholders and the American people.

The Justice Department has done virtually nothing and the SEC needs to have more enforcement agents that I can’t see it receiving from a Republican House.

Let's listen to how it might sound in the future:  “His campaign contributions can’t be ignored as we decide whether to prosecute. Let’s watch things awhile, after all he deserves to get some slack because of his loyalty to our party.”

“You know this operation looks a lot like what Madoff did, but what if we’re wrong and we upset him. Let’s hold off until we’re sure we can absolutely get a conviction.  We don’t want to be embarrassed by a big time loss in court.”

“I really want to pursue this but I don’t have enough enforcement people to get the data we need to prove this conclusively.”

So let’s remind ourselves who is not in jail:  Angelo Mozillo of Countrywide, whose fines were paid by Bank of America; and Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers.  There are a lot of people who brought this country to its knees who are walking around with a lot of money they earned by lying for years.

Without someone ambitious such as Cuomo, who was brought up by a former Governor lauded for his ethics, many of the miscreants are going to walk. And it will be the same as it was on Wall Street before he became Attorney General  in a world where greed tops ethics every time.

Start Christmas On Labor Day to get the country moving again

Labor Day, 2016, American Pie, Rhode Island

Rev. Roger Williams today decried using Labor Day as the beginning of the Christmas season. As the chairman of the “Put Christ Back in Christmas" movement, he has been adamant that Christmas no longer be used as an economic stimulus.

“I believe this all started in 2012 when retailers put up Christmas decorations two weeks before Thanksgiving Day," he said. “Bernanke couldn’t get the economy moving quickly enough even after using Fed employees to give out $20 dollar bills on street corners. He then suggested the so called ‘magic of Christmas’ could fix America's problems.” Democrats wanted rich people to only take ten dollars a day, but the Republicans said that “truth, justice and the American Way” demanded everyone get the same cash.

In 2013 the Christmas shopping season began in October when Christmas music began appearing on the radio, after Bernanke’s plan to flood the country with newly printed Benjamins failed to drop unemployment to six percent.

The next year was marked by the collision of a Walmart and Amazon drone attempting to deliver Christmas packages to the same home in early October.

Rev. Williams has a big sign on his church that says, “Wo ting Ye Su de” which translates in Chinese as “I listen to Jesus,” in the hopes that the Chinese company that owns the mortgage on his church will understand his position. He is awaiting foreclosure on the building.

From the Ming Dai to Today

A recent story in the Wall Street Jounal focused on China's potential directive that western companies must share their proprietary technology in electric car manufacturing if they want to sell cars in China. This is no surprise to those of us who read a book called To Change China: Western Advisors in China by Jonathan Spence. He described how the Jesuits in the Ming, then Qing Dynastys shared their advanced knowledge of astronomy with the Emperor, then stood there waiting, hoping they could proselytize in China. (Back then predictions on where celestial objects would be was important to the Emperor's face). The Emperor then looked at the priest and said, "Why are you standing there?" The priest asked what was in it for the Jesuits. The Emperor said,"Thanks a lot."

This drama played out through Chinese history and culminated with the ouster of the Russian advisors when they were no longer essential to the communist revolution and the rebuilding of China. (In fact, the book Odd Man Out draws a picture of how Stalin manipulated the Chinese Communist party and put them in a position where they had to fight in Korea. It wasn't always a good things to have Russians around)


So, a few years ago, when I watched this American bank buy a Chinese bank and build ATMS all over China I was amused. Beijing didn't allow them to take deposits from Chinese. Of course, the bank could have foreigners use the ATMs. American bankers never seem to know what's going on, only how big their paychecks will be.


More and more companies that used to be described as American moved their operations to China because the CEOs wanted bigger bonuses and the less they paid employees the more they got in their pay envelope. They didn't care whether a lot of Americans wouldn't have a job, they just wanted more money.


So the idea that technology would be taken over is a logical expectation given Chinese history. If companies don't want to sell cars in China, they can go home. Since most Americans couldn't find China on a map, it is to be expected that these corporate barons wouldn't know anything about Zhongguo li shi. America is an insular land where the only other languages besides English are spoken by the children of immigrants.


So this step was inevitable. A couple of  months ago, Boeing sales made our trade deficit less horrible than usual. Wait until the Chinese produce a plane.