Archives of “Government” tag

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With election over, US wants Abe to deliver on Iran and trade

  
Analysis, Politics
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Having scored a sound victory in the upper house election Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is back to confronting thorny diplomatic issues as Washington presses for tangible results on global security and trade.

U.S. President Donald Trump had signaled that he would wait until the Japanese election is over to push for a trade deal. Now Washington is certain to step up pressure to put together an agreement palatable to U.S. farmers ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Japan is increasingly alarmed by the U.S. bringing Trump style deal-making to diplomacy and trade.

John Bolton, the U.S. national security adviser, was in the Japanese capital Monday, seeking Tokyo’s support amid rising tensions with Iran. Bolton told Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya that their two countries “are at an extremely critical juncture to strengthen the bilateral alliance.” He likely called on Tokyo to participate in a coalition that would safeguard ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seized a British oil tanker in the strait on Friday. A Japanese-owned oil tanker also suffered an attack in the area in June.

Discussions about the future of the Japan-U.S. alliance will continue over the next several days and weeks, Bolton told reporters after his meeting with Iwaya, adding that he was very “optimistic” about the outcome.

Abe told reporters on Monday that he first wanted to focus on what Japan could do to ease tensions in the Middle East. “The peace and stability of the Middle East are critically important for Japan’s energy security,” Abe said. (more…)

Heads up – Trump – Abe meeting underway

  
Analysis, Politics
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A bilateral meeting between US president trump and Japan’s PM Abe Shinzo

  • At the G20
  • In Osaka
Its begun – expect some comments to follow.
Yesterday we heard there are no discussions taking place on the Japan-US defense agreement. Trump has had problems with the yen though, I wonder if that’ll come up?
A bilateral meeting between US president trump and Japan's PM Abe Shinzo

Look how isolated Russia is . . .

  
Analysis, Education
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The "NEWS" has only two sources

  
  Education
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1. press releases from the government and businesses and non-profit agencies and celebrities and academics who are announcing to the world what they are (or claim to be) doing

2. journalists’ own “investigations”

There are no incentives for either group to minimize the “visibility” of poverty, any more than there were any incentives for missionary groups to tell the congregations back home that “actually the heathen seem quite content to remain unconverted”.

The government gets its money because of “problems”. Businesses want always to seem “charitable”. Non-profit agencies are in the business of “charity” and “problems”; and, as Jason Reitman’s wonderful script puts it, every celebrity needs a “cause”. No explanation is needed for the academics.

Hitler's definition of democracy

  
  Education
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Hitler, February 1945

Hitler, in speeches in Nuremberg and Munich, has given us definitions of democracy, yet these definitions are nowhere near explicit or conclusive. “Democracy in our eyes is a regime that is supported by the will of the people.” (My New Order, 554) It is unclear as to whom Hitler means by “our eyes…”; one can assume he is talking of the German people. Furthermore, according to Webster, a regime is simply “a form of government or administration”. Hitler’s definition, in turn, becomes simple and obvious; the above definition taken literally does not waver from the consensus definition mentioned in the introduction; in fact it is broader, leading one to suggest that the word “regime” had negative connotations that were lost in the English translation.

Fortunately, Hitler has given us a more intricate definition of democracy, even likening it to an aqueduct or blood vessel: “Democracy is the canal through which bolshevism lets its poisons flow into the separate countries and lets work there long enough for these infections to lead to a crippling of intelligence and of the force of resistance.” (My New Order, 405)

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