The Night Fuji Glowed

(The Night Fuji Glowed)

Everybody knows that Fuji is a camera film. Not that people still have those old-fashioned shuttle shots, or a Polaroid for that matter. Anyhow Fuji film is named after the Fuji volcano that rises to its prominence behind Tokyo. On the night of March 9-10, the Japanese Capitol was burning. Some 334 B-29 bombers carpeted the city with incendiaries, and, as Tokyo was built mostly of wood and paper, the resulting conflagration was one of the most intense of the War, killing some 100,000 people. Only the subsequent atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki compared to this Tokyo mission, codenamed MEETINGPLACE. President Biden just released his budget today but it might as well have been one of those clusters of napalm that had been released over Tokyo.


In recent memory, no budget submitted by a President of one Party to a Congress of the other is never not declared "dead on arrival." Biden had the whole government for the first two years but now that Republicans are running the House, any idea of embracing Biden's tax and spend proclivities is absurd. In a word, tax the rich. Income taxes. Capitol gains taxes. A billionaire surtax and a corporate stock buy-back. Soak the rich but this is getting to be "eat the rich."


This budgetary blue-print puts to rest nay thought that the goals of the present have nothing to do with economic growth. These taxes will do nothing but force expenses onto an already fragile system. If one wants to grow the economy, to create jobs and enhance a standard of living. So, this budget monstrosity might be a non-issue now but a debt ceiling still needs to be negotiated. That will be interesting to watch.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Siege Of The Alamo

(Siege Of The Alamo) Any visitor to Downtown San Antonio will recognize the City's most famous landmark, the Alamo. An old Spanish mission that means "Cottonwood" in English was the site where the likes of Jim Bowie, William Barrett Travis and Davy Crockett and about another 185 Texians defended the Mission and its compound for thirteen days against the Army of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and his 5,000 troops. The garrison was finally reduced on March 6, 1836. However, the Texian defeat at the Alamo and another one at Goliad, bought time for General Sam Houston time to fall back and then face Santa Ana at San Jacinto. There, Houston's army surprised the Mexicans and yelling "Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad !" all but wiped out the Mexican force. Santa Ana was captured and was forced to recognize the Republic of Texas. Which is now the State of Texas and, like 1836 Texas War of Independence, there is a new invasion from Mexico. Not the armed body o
Read more

TEQUILA !

(TEQUILA !) Happy Cinco de Mayo or May 5th. One can hope that a lot of you out there are awash in inebriation, seeking to mainline tequila shots or enjoying a nice margarita on the patio. Or, in other words, relax. Take a breath. De-compress. May 5th as it happens is the anniversary of Mexico's victory over French "occupation" of Mexico by Emperor Maximillian, brother to Austrian monarch Maria Theresa in what has been called the Battle of Puebla. The reason France was in Mexico in the first place was that Mexico, after the Mexican-American War and a more civil conflict called the Reform War, had bankrupted Mexico City. Mexican President at the time was Benito Juarez, who repudiated all foreign debt, of which France, Spain, and the United Kingdom were all major holders. A naval expedition was dispatched to Veracruz and France's Napoleon III thought it would be a good idea to establish a French "empire" in Mexico. But, on May 5th, 1862, in the aforementioned B
Read more

Intended Consequences

(Intended Consequences) For those Readers who live in the Tri-State area, who had the earthquake this morning, just be still.  There is a postulate called the Law of Un-Intended Consequences. Basically, it says that even with the best intentions, negative results sometimes happen. However, there are also instances when a negative result is precisely the desired outcome. Like with the Israel- Hamas war where the Biden Administration continues to press for an all but unilateral ceasefire on the part of Israel. In California, the new $20/HR minimum wage is wreaking havoc on the fast food industry. And finally, after depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, oil has now become too expensive. How many times must the Biden Administration think it can influence Israeli affairs ? How many times must Israel ignore it. Threats from the President have become redundant at this point but is Biden really prepared to cut Israel loose ? In the middle of the greatest crisis Israel is facing since the
Read more