Chino, Nagano, Japan, May 3, 2019—Perhaps I’d been too naive: For decades, the United States, I was told and believed and respected when young, has championed itself s a nation of rules of law. That principle has served as the model of nation-states for many countries, including India, a former British colony that has become a rules-based democracy, and Japan, a former imperial, military country that adopted the present pacifist constitution after losing World War II.
Donald Trump is discarding that lofty American principle, replacing it with MAGA (make America great again), which amounts to enriching the trump empire in disguise of the white supremacy. Washington Post recently reported that since his inauguration, Trump lied more than 10,000 times and the lying pace was accelerating. Yet, he’s spared reprimand or other forms of penalties by Congress and judiciary and the public because the executive branch and even court are occupied by his cronies, Justice William Barr, for example.
That Trump is a man without care and love for others can be underscored by the fact that he is one of very few American presidents that do not keep a dog let lone a cat.
That the leader of a powerful country can cheat and lie reverberates across the world: Chinese leader Xi Jin-ping continues to expand in the South China Sea building what was a short airstrip, not into an airport-size runway. Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, ignoring public opinion, continues his military buildup and gears for raising the sales tax, now at 8 percent, to 10 percent in October despite the country’s anemic economic growth. Other leaders of countries big and small are likewise emulating Trump ad lying in pursuit of their aspirations.
This is serious for Planet Earth and climate change regimes because many countries seem to be thinking like Trump and mind their own business alone. Global trade also is exposed to MAGA-like me-ism.
–Toshio Aritake