Privatization of Social Security

OK, this is going to be a borderline rant. Grab on and hold on to something, it may be a wild ride.

I see that Calgary Ted Cruz has revived the old right-wing favorite of privatizing Social Security. Fellas and gals, this is the big one, the real agenda that drives right-wing politics and led the Koch brothers to underwrite the phony Tea Party. Wall Street sees all those funds going from working Americans to elderly and disabled Americans and wants a piece of that pie.  Its a HUGE pie. In 2012 the OASI (old age and survivors) and DI (disability) trust funds had an income of about $846 Billion. Wall Street eyes that with the an eye similar to the way a band of pirates eyes a large and slow moving merchant ship, and with the same intent.

The Wall Street gang isn't worried about whether the trust funds will be invested at a profit or a loss (see the housing bubble crash of 2008), as long as the money goes through their hands they can rake in a fortune.

The fact is that the Social Security system does it's job. When Social Security was established in 1935, old age and poverty were synonyms. Once an elderly worker, particularly an unskilled or low skilled worker, reached the age that their body began to wear down from decades of hard labor, they would be cast aside by corporate America and left to the care of their family or the mercy of the streets. Social Security has changed all that. Most elderly Americans have at least a basic income that enables them to survive. The last 30 years of decimation of labor unions (primarily with the goal of looting and pillaging pension funds) has taken a toll, but still, old age is not necessarily a grim time for most as it was 80 years ago.  There are income flow problems, but those can be resolved entirely by just doing away with the earnings cap. There is no crisis in Social Security, that many believe there is, is a tribute to a campaign of deliberate misinformation.

When these Wall Street buccaneers board the good ship Social Security they won't care who gets hurt. Look at what's happened in Detroit. 90 year old retired policemen and firefighters are seeing their pensions slashed so that Wall Street won't lose money. This band of thieves won't care if your elderly grandma is tossed out on the streets of Pittsburgh in January as long as they get their money.

What to do? First of all, don't vote Republican unless you're a suicidal idiot. Second, be aware of Democrats whose ties to Wall Street are too close (yes, Hillary, I'm talking about you).  Finally, educate yourself and make noise. If you're 20 or 30, read some real stuff on what's happening with Social Security (i.e., turn off Fox News) and study the issue. The fact is, if the system is managed properly your retirement in 35 or 40 years is going to be fine. Punish politicians who talk about privatization. Challenge them to come up with a solitary instance of privatization saving money or making a program run better (e.g., wars fought by mercenary armies in Iraq and Afghanistan, private prisons that push long prison sentences for non-violent crimes because those prisoners are easy to control and make decent slave labor). Scream bloody murder when they try to steal your money.

Finally, a vison of our present and our future, quoting Kurt Vonnegut in his wonderful science fiction novel, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater:

“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun.”

Corregidor, Fourth of July 2013

We took a Fourth of July trip to Corregidor Island. Corregidor is a fairly small island set in the middle of the entry to Manila Bay, about 26 miles from Manila and about 3 miles off the coast of the Bataan Peninsula. It was the scene of terrible fighting and a grim siege at the beginning of World War II. It seemed like an appropriate place to commemorate the Fourth of July.

We rode a walk-on ferry from Manila out to the island, it took about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It was, at least to begin with, a lovely day, although (of course) very hot. Once we arrived on Corregidor, we rode an open air bus/trolley around the island with a tour guide. The tour guide was quite knowledgeable about Philippine history and Corregidor in particular.

Our first stop was the Filipino Heroes Memorial. There was a museum there of mostly WW II artifacts and art commemorating the war, world-wide and in particular, of course, in the Philippines. Outside, there were bas-relief panels commemorating Filipino uprisings against colonial powers from Spain, through the USA to the Japanese.

The Filipino Guerrilla Fighter

Memorial to the US-Filipino Conflict that started in 1899

We then went to Japanese Garden built to commemorate the Japanese dead on the island. The remains were cremated by the Americans in 1945 and the ashes were repatriated to Japan in the 1980's. Our tour guide told us that Japanese tourists to Corregidor get a separate tour, not only so the tour guide is speaking Japanese, but also so they don't hear anything that offends them. Like about atrocities, death marches, comfort women, starting an aggressive war and so on. She said one group of tourists arrived on a day when their Japanese-speaking guide was not available, and so they got the same tour as Filipinos, Americans and the rest of world, and the head of the tour guide company apologized-a lot. I was going to wax all philosophical about this, but then I thought about drone strikes and non-existent weapons of mass destruction and I decided to shut up.

A Shinto shrine

The Goddess of Peace

No Japanese garden is complete without water

After the Japanese garden, we went to one of the tunnels, Malinta Tunnel. There was a light and sound show inside. The tunnel was amazing, deep into the side of a hill and as wide a two lane road, with side tunnels where people lived and worked during the siege. The show included some explosions that frightened Mexica and that let me know that those tunnels, although safe, would have been a terrible place to be during a Japanese air attack. The noise, the dust, the claustrophobic feeling would have worn a person's nerves away to nothing in no time. These must have been awful places and as the island's food and water disappeared, the soldiers and others must have been miserable. Corregidor has no source of fresh water, all their water comes from Bataan, so when Bataan fell to the Japanese, the fort was doomed.

Mexica's mom and dad along with Canada and a guard in the uniform of the Filipino Scouts

One of the side tunnels, part of the light and sound show

Another side tunnel.

One of the many side tunnels that were not improved.

After the tunnel, we had lunch, a buffet in the hotel and resort on the island. Right now, there are no permanent residents on the island. Employees and their families can stay for no more than 3 days at a time. There used to be a few villages and in the pre-war period there were bars and clubs on the island, along with an Olympic sized pool, baseball field, movie theater and 9 hole golf course, which is why Corregidor was considered a plum assignment by the US Army--until late 1941, anyway. The last movie shown in the theater was Gone with the Wind.

Then we went on to the upper part of the island. Here we found the ruins of the old barracks. They were amazing old concrete buildings, bombed to bits by the Japanese in 1941-2 and by the Americans retaking the island in 1945. They aren't much to look at now.

Dad and Canada in front of the old barracks

Then we saw gun emplacements. According to the guide, the US spent about $150 million building gun emplacements on Corregidor up through 1920 and then spent another $50 million upgrading with anti-aircraft guns in the 30's. These gun emplacements look a lot like Fort Casey and the other forts of that era on Whidbey Island and the other islands in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound. None of the big guns ever fired a shot against a naval vessel. By the time war came to Corregidor, the Japanese fleet stood off and the attack came via the air.

A Japanese anti-aircraft gun

A mortar that launched 750# shells, now a resting place for Canada

A 12-inch gun, the biggest on the island

One thing about these gun emplacements, again like the ones on Whidbey, because they fired by line-of-sight, they were placed in some amazing settings with some beautiful views. Here are a couple of vistas from Battery Hearn, the location of the big-12 inch gun above and Battery Grubb, where there had been a 10-inch disappearing gun.

This little island was a "floating battleship" with 14 inch guns

A storm coming in

This statue is by the dock from which General MacArthur departed the Philippines in 1942, promising (when he was safely in Australia) that he would return. The Philippine attitude towards MacArthur verges on worship, at least in the version we got from our tour guide. She did say, however, that there were rumors he insisted on starting the invasion of the Philippines in Leyte because he had a girlfriend there. I have no idea if that is true, but I pass it along.

I wonder if the sculptor thought about the upraised arm salute?

You've seen the American tunnels. Here is the entrance to one of the tunnels dug by the Japanese. They defended the island with their usual single-mindedness, and the last Japanese soldiers on Corregidor did not surrender until January 1946.

A Japanese tunnel

The flora and fauna of the island was so destroyed that trees had to be reseeded from the air and animals brought in from elsewhere in the Philippines. Now the island has no permanent inhabitants and the jungle is returning.

With the beach connected to the island's one hotel

This island was also fortified

On the highest point of the island was a lighthouse that has operated, more or less continuously, since the Spanish built a light here in the 16th Century.

In the background, you can see the modern radar tower.

Fourth of July 2013

Words have power, and sometimes they take on a power of their own beyond the intent of the author. Even an author as farsighted as Thomas Jefferson can see the meaning of their words grow beyond anything they could have conceived. And Jefferson could conceive a lot.

When Jefferson wrote "all men are created equal" in 1776  he didn't mean that ALL men were created EQUAL. He owned men and women and certainly did not see them as his equal. He meant that men like him, men like Washington and Lee (Harry Lee, that is), the large landowners of Virginia, were equal to the British aristocracy. He may have conceded equality to John Adams (he certainly liked and respected Adams at that time) and Benjamin Franklin and their ilk, but he would have recoiled at seeing working men who owned no property as his equal.

Time, however, had a way of taking Jefferson literally. Gradually the literal meaning of his words came to be their actual meaning. In fact, his words now mean more than even their literal meaning, since now most would agree that all people are created equal, to prevent any confusion about gender.

This change in meaning did not come easy. Another of Jefferson's sayings was that "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." It's interesting how many misquote that and only mention the blood of tyrants. It's important to remember the patriots. Slavery in America ended only with the shedding of an ocean of blood, some from patriots and much from tyrants. Oceans more have been and likely will continue to be shed to bring true racial equality to this country. More blood and suffering marked the Women's Suffrage movement and the struggle to make women equal. Still more blood has been shed in an effort to make those who labor equal to those who provide capital, and we have take many steps backwards in that battle in the last 30 years, since a tyrant started the destruction of the labor movement in 1981.

As we mark this Fourth of July, it is worth noting the Supreme Court's decision regarding the Defense of Marriage Act. A lot of blood has been shed for bringing equality to gay men and women, and Jefferson, I'm sure, never imagined it. It is as important that we water the tree of liberty with our sweat as well as with our blood, and the effort to make Jefferson's words true never ends.

Tomorrow, Mexica and I are going to Corregidor Island to mark the Fourth of July. We hope it isn't raining. Pictures and blog about Corregidor to follow.

Visiting Japan-Day Four-The Gardens

The Japanese pride themselves on their gardening skills, and based on this example, that pride is justified. This was an amazing garden near Nagoya. It was huge and beautiful. Only the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, exceed this garden for beauty among the places I have been. It was a very hot and sunny day when we visited. It was a lot of fun, but tiring. There was a ton of walking.

The Gardens

The umbrella was not for any rain!

The gardens were so well kept and beautifully organized, it was amazing, and the variety of flowers was just dizzying. 

A little glimpse of how they organize the gardens. You can see on the bare ground that there are chalk lines laid out, with a designated area for each kind or color of bloom. There were workers planting in this area as we strolled the grounds.

You can see the chalk outlines where the flowers are to be planted.

When I saw the pansies, I thought of my grandfather Shultis, who always planted pansies around his house. He was quite a gardener. As a young man he had worked on the Westinghouse estate in nearby Lenox as a gardener and he carried those skills with him all his life. He had roses and a super vegetable garden, too.

They only had this one variety of white pansy. My grandpa's were better!

Begonias

The stars of the show in this garden, as far as I was concerned, were the begonias. I have never seen, nor even imagined, such an array of colors and shapes and sizes. They were kept indoors (for a separate admission), and when I opened the door and saw the flowers, I emitted an involuntary "wow."

This picture has the feeling of an Impressionist painting

I don't know whether the flowers were more impressive one at a time or as a group. Either way, they were stunning.

The greenhouse had flowers besides begonias, too.

Ice Cream

After you got through the greenhouse, there was a snack bar that sold ice cream. Flower flavored ice cream. Hard to resist on a hot day. I had begonia and there was blueberry and I can't recall the other flavors. In my defense, the signs were in Japanese.

Reika eating begonia flavored ice cream. I tried some, too and it was good.

Visiting Japan-Day Three

Castle from the town

May 21, 2013-Day Three:

It's our third day (second full day) here, and now we have a car, a very nice Toyota van big enough to hold us all comfortably (there are 4 adults and 2 children). The roads are nice and traffic flows pretty well. The main roads are toll roads and the tolls are high--for example, the two and a half hour drive to Osaka on Friday cost us 4000 Yen (about $40).

Ninja Warriors

Today, though we drove about one hour out of Matsuzaka to a small town with an old castle in it. The really cool thing, however, is that there's a place in town that rents out ninja costumes (for kids,  believe me they don't stock ninja outfits in my size) and there is a ninja museum there. We expected the kids to have a good time and they did. Yuro was outfitted all in red and Reika all in pink and they really enjoyed playing their roles as ninja warriors while we toured the castle and surroundings.

Ninjas Yuro (red) and Reika (pink).

Pink ninja on the lookout

Red Ninja on the prowl

Ninja Museum

The place where they rented the costumes had a lot of cool-looking ninja stuff, including these wagons with their decorative tapestries and this procession. The procession reminded me of pictures I've seen processions in Spain, and it looks like they were chasing out demons or something. Nothing was interpreted in English and there was no guide or guide book so I was kinda on my own in interpreting what I was seeing.

After this part of the museum, and with the kids in their costumes, we crossed the street and went into a large park where the main museum and the castle were. The grounds of the castle area reminded me of a forest or a park in the eastern US, in that the trees were mostly deciduous and there was a lot of undergrowth. To me, it looked wonderful.

At the entrance to the museum.

Inside the main museum was a replica of a ninja hideout. The tour guide showed us trap doors, hidden passageways, secret weapons stashes, disguised observation posts, and stealthy escape hatches. She let the kids use those and they had a great time being sneaky, silent and dangerous ninjas.

Further on, there was a display of ninja weapons, including throwing stars of various sizes and shapes.

I was surprised to see that ninja weaponry included firearms, even primitive cannons. The wooden cannon, according to the sign, was loaded with rocks and wood chips and used as an anti-personnel weapon.

Ninja cannon!

A scary hand-to-hand fighting weapon.

Ninja guns

Ninja Castle

Next to the museum was an old castle. It sits on a hilltop and dominates the surrounding countryside. It was surrounded by a moat and formidable stone walls, and parts of the old moat still remain. It was a bit of a climb to the top, the path was paved with very rough stones that approximated stairs and was very steep, but reaching the top was very worthwhile. It was a wonderful and impressive location. I loved the park-like setting.

A portion of the old moat and wall.

The castle on its hilltop.

The grounds of the castle may have been a military fortress in the old days, but now it is a very pleasant and beautiful park. There were places to sit (which was good, it was quite a climb), and great places to walk. While there was a modest fee for the museum, the grounds of the castle were free. Mexica and I took a lot of pictures.

I know my picture turned out OK, but I'm not sure how Mexica's came out.

Mexica sharing a friendly greeting.

Delialah, Nok, Yuro, and Reika on the top of the castle wall.