Obsidian Wings

Kamala's mom

by liberal japonicus

Folks who have been here awhile might now that I've written a few times about my parents, and how people are formed by their parents is something that I take a great interest in. Here's probably the post that is closest to this (with some links to other things I wrote in the post). So I find this deep dive article about Kamala's mom. Just a few pull grafs.

She arrived in the United States at the very vanguard of a profound shift — a shift, ongoing and unabated, that stokes many of the most contentious debates within this bitter political time. She is, yes, an avatar of a widely relatable struggle to make ends meet, but she also was much more than some minimal symbol. By making the choices she made, by raising her daughters the ways she did, she changed the country. It might sound like a stretch. She was, admittedly, just one woman. If, though, Kamala Harris is a sort of quintessential 21st-century American — multiracial, multiethnic, the next-generation progeny of a pioneer of an immigrant — it’s also not totally wrong. Shyamala Gopalan helped shape the mindset and makeup of modern America.

and

And yet last week in a speech her campaign billed as an immigration speech, in Douglas, Arizona, southeast of Tucson and down by the border with Mexico, she said “there are consequential issues at stake in this election, and one is the security of our border.” She said there are “rules.” She said as attorney general of California she “prosecuted transnational criminal organizations.” She said she “brought a bipartisan group of American attorneys general and led that group to travel to Mexico City to meet with Mexican attorneys general to address this issue.” She said immigrants “who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from reentering for five years.” She also said we “need clear, legal pathways for people seeking to coming into our country.” She said we are “a nation of immigrants.” And the woman about whom some not small portion of the population say they still need to know more said “the United States has been enriched by generations of people who have come from every corner of the world to contribute to our country and to become part of the American story.”

She did not mention her mother.

Some might take this as a fundamental urge to deceive. If she doesn't mention her mother, the question might go, was she really that important? Yet for me, I can understand that this is what she has to do. And I also understand why this is why I would never be a politician. As the article notes earlier

But short of the color of her skin and the country from which she came, I said the other day on the phone with Madrid, Shyamala Gopalan is precisely what those even way to the right on the spectrum of the most stringent immigration debate point to as the model. She was one of a small number of people coming in — low and slow. She was high-achieving. She started a family. She endeavored to assimilate. She contributed to this country — didn’t just “take” from it. “She,” I said to Madrid, “is what they say they want.”

“That’s easy to say when you’re 90-percent white. When you’re not, do we still say that? Well, no — half of us are saying, ‘Fuck no.’ It’s the primary political glue that’s holding one of our political parties together,” he said.

“My mother … came and changed America?” said Madrid. “That ain’t gonna play in Erie County.” (links from the article)

What precisely will play in Erie county is the question...

The Health of a Nation

by liberal japonicus

The last thread on the VP debate didn't take off, and I don't blame you, I threw up in my mouth a little to hear Vance lay out his plans for Lebensraum. But rather than talk about that, I wanted to talk a bit about another topic, health insurance. I read somewhere that in the UK, Labour wanted to follow in the footsteps of New Zealand in tobacco policy. An explainer is here, and it was subsequently taken off the books. One of the main drivers was said to be the reduction in medical costs. By having progressive legal age increases, along with requirements for reduced nicotine, as the population ages, you remove smokers from the mix. I'm not a smoker, so I could support this with little problem, but I could see how complaints about the heavy hand of government would be raised.

When I first came to Japan, smoking was really common. If you walked through a smoking car in the Shinkansen, it would be like walking into a solid fog, and riding on highway buses would often leave you smelling like an ashtray. But about 10 or 15 years ago, there was a big push, similar to other developed countries, to make facilities non-smoking, and force smokers into small areas. Japan would never, I imagine, try progressive legal age increases, the tax revenue is too much (which is the reason why New Zealand backtracked on their attempt). But because Japan excels in public shame, while you have smokeless electronic cigarettes, you don't have people vaping like I say the last time I was in the UK, where they seemed to be surrounded by huge clouds.

Anyway, the idea of dealing with the health of a nation in this way came to mind when I read this article about Tokyo Verdy Beleza, a Japanese womans' football team that has sent a huge number of players to overseas teams. The article tries to explain why this is, and one point is this:

Writing in an academic publication in 2019, the doctorate sociologist Osamu Takamine referred to the rapid increase in sports participation that occurs as children approach junior high school age, the years most commonly associated with the development of technical skills.

Which got me to thinking, one of the interesting features of secondary education here is that the majority of students participate in sports teams as part of their schooling. There are also ther options, 'brass band' (i.e school band), drama, speech etc. But I'd say that a lot of kids end up playing a sport.

I know that it is taking a long time to get to the point, but one of the interesting side effects is that I think happens is that this is another reason why the Japanese population is much healthier than the US or UK. The obesity rate in Japan is 4.2%, while in the US, it is 42.7%. Of course, it isn't just getting in some sports in JHS, it is diet, it is public transporation, walkable cities, and probably a bunch of other reasons. But it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that a government might want to set up regimes that target getting people in better shape, with the payoff being that people need less medical care. But I'm sure that would be a non-starter in the US.

Anyway, feel free to talk about any concepts of a plan that you might have.

a debate open thread

by liberal japonicus

I've heard that there was a debate happening somewhere, so this is a thread for it.

Where do these people come from?

by liberal japonicus

Another open thread, the other seems to be I/P and vaccinations, but I'm listening to some things and these two prompted the question above

This first one is an interview of/discussion with Emily Jashinsky by Ezra Klein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXTjqaTQpYg&t=2509s

One comment that sums up my take "This lady keeps saying things are 'rooted in something real' and the something keeps turning out to be racism". I have to assume that form of an interview rather than a written piece allows enough wiggle room, but unfortunately, some interviews have transcripts, like this one

Inez Stepman: ...But Emily, why don’t you tell us initially, since you wrote about this extensively at The Federalist, what are some of the things that people might not expect that are in this package [Bipartisan Infrastructure Law]? If they’re thinking infrastructure, what are some of the things that you think are the most pernicious elements of this?

Emily Jashinsky:

Universal basic income for illegal immigrants, which is a real thing that this bill does. It’s under the very false label of an expanded child tax credit, which no serious person in the media should use as a label for what the policy actually is. It is direct cash payments to parents with no means testing that, actually, illegal immigrants will qualify under the language that’s currently in the bill. Maybe that’ll change, but whether or not that applies to illegal immigrants, that is an incredibly radical policy that will really, really change our relationship fundamentally with the federal government if parents are relying on monthly direct deposits into their bank accounts from the federal government, all parents. It doesn’t matter. It’s all parents, and that’s a huge, huge change for us as a society and as a culture.

Wow, just wow. In the interview with Klein, she talks about how the DACA was the starting point for this new Right. It's telling to me that a stopgap program that kicked the question of people who entered the US as children, and for the large majority, have no experience living in the country they would have been sent back to, is cited as a flashpoint for every racist to crawl out from under his or her rock.

Our second example is Daniella Pletka sitting in for David Brooks. I get that they have to have the right leaning commentator but Pletka seemed off the rails, she first argued that Biden had all the tools to deal with the border so therefore, he's responsible for the current state of affairs, with nary a word about Trump sinking the immigration bill. And then she goes on a rant about Ukraine and Biden's lack of leadership and complaints that Zelensky's recent trip was turned into a campaign event.

To wrap this up, wj had a question in the comments, which was

Is there any sign that the Japanese are beginning to figure out that their national demographics are going to require them to accept immigrants if the nation is to survive? Or are the cultural barriers still too high to allow reality to intrude on that subject?

My answer was no, not really, but I wonder if that is better than having to deal with people like Jashinsky.

Yet another open thread

by liberal japonicus

Harris is sitting down for an interview with MSNBC (preview here) which seems like as good a reason as any for an open thread. I'm still waiting for Harris to go on Hot Wings though...