Visible Minorities: It Can Only End in Violence
We have an American president who has declared himself king while the legislative branch abdicates its oversight powers, and the judiciary grants immunity.
Tag Archives: Communism
Tanzan Ishibashi and the Road Not Taken
In the winter of 1956-1957, the liberal figure of Tanzan Ishibashi assumed the premiership, aiming to normalize Japan’s relations with the Communist world and to depart from US Cold War policy. However, he was almost immediately felled by a stroke and resigned, leaving the government in the hands of the rightwing Nobusuke Kishi, who had the exact opposite vision for the country.
Shigeru Yoshida and the Conservative Client State
Shigeru Yoshida’s second premiership from 1948-1954 was one of the most transformative in Japanese history, taking the nation from its progressive, unstable early postwar era into a long period of entrenched conservative rule, ostensibly exercising independence but in reality functioning as a client state absorbed into the informal American empire.
Visible Minorities: MAGA’s Roots in Japan
How Japan treats its non-citizen residents and diverse communities is a bellwether for how future neofascist demagogues in other countries will treat their minority voices and views.
The Emergence of the Anti-Imperial Non-West
The notion that non-Western powers might band together to resist the depredations of Europe and the United States has been around since the late 19th century, but only now has the power balance shifted to a sufficient degree that the era of Western global dominance is actually coming to an end.
Abe Era Corruption Haunts Kishida Administration
The ghost of Shinzo Abe’s political and financial corruption has again risen up to haunt his successors, staggering the already weak administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“Moral Clarity” and Nikki Haley’s Neoconservative Militarism
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has adopted “moral clarity” as one of her leading slogans in her quest to gain the Republican nomination for president. This is a key intellectual concept behind the neoconservative movement which reached a peak under the presidency of George W. Bush; it is effectively a coded call to embrace a forever war in pursuit of US global primacy.
German Divisions Over New Eastern Politics
Germany, led by Social Democratic Party (SDP) Chancellor Olaf Scholz, considers China both an essential economic partner and a “systemic rival.” This seemingly contradictory stance has produced political fractures within the coalition government, but it is part of a pragmatic geopolitical strategy.
Warnings Against Provocative Pelosi Visit to Taiwan
As US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi departs for an Asian trip that may include a stop in Taiwan, anti-war voices are sounding the alarm over a visit they say would needlessly provoke China during a time of already heightened global tensions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Crime That Killed Shinzo Abe
When former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi formed a bond in the mid-1960s with Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon over their shared anti-communist views, little did he know that he was sowing the seeds that would eventually take the life of his beloved grandson, Shinzo Abe.
