BLAME IT ON THE OLD: IN JAPAN, AND IN THE U.S.?

"AS JAPAN STRAINS TO

CARE FOR ELDERLY,

SACRIFICES BEGIN"

-- Washington POST

ON THE GINZA, TOKYO, 1981

KIMONO-CLAD

ON THE GINZA 1981

CLOSE-UP

Forgive me for feeling a little jaundiced, but I have heard this before, the American version, when I sat or kneeled through the Washington, D.C., hearings on Social Security, which just had to be fixed. It was. This was back in the eighties.

(Photographers, or at least tall ones, had to sit or kneel on the floor to keep out of the line of sight of the hearings' participants.)

Since the Washington POST chose to illustrate its current story with an AP photograph of an elderly lady making her way down a street in Tokyo (see here), I thought I would head this posting with a photograph of someone who might have been that lady, three decades earlier (see above). Back in the eighties.

As I was reading the sad story in the POST, a variation on a Kris Kristofferson song, "Blame It on the [Rolling] Stones," played itself in my head. With a tip of the hat to Kristofferson, a fellow service brat -- you can listen to his version here, and hum the melody -- I give you BLAME IT ON THE OLD.

Blame it on the [Old]; blame it on the [Old]

You'll feel so much better, knowing you don't stand alone

Join the accusation; save the bleeding nation

Get it off your shoulders; blame it on the [Old]

And then get to work again.

JAMES A. BAKER, III, TURNS EIGHTY-TWO

JAMES ADDISON BAKER, III

b. April 28, 1930

Soviet Foreign Minister EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE (l)

& U.S. Secretary of State JAMES A. BAKER, III (r)

in the cabin of a hydrofoil on Lake Baikal, USSR, August 1991

James Baker, Chief of Staff and then Secretary of the Treasury for President Ronald Reagan, in his role (above) as Secretary of State for President George Bush, on the eve of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, with his Soviet counterpart Eduard Shevardnadze. More information here (including a photograph of Baker in the White House) and here (Baker as tough negotiator) and here (with Shevardnadze in Irkutsk) and here (more about Baker, and especially the connection to Gulf War I).

JOE MOAKLEY WOULD HAVE BEEN EIGHTY-FIVE TODAY

JOHN JOSEPH MOAKLEY, JR.

April 27, 1927-May 28, 2001

Representatives THOMAS P. ("TIP") O'NEILL, Jr. (l)

& JOHN JOSEPH ("JOE") MOAKLEY, Jr. (r)

(D-Massachusetts)

IN HONOR OF THOMAS & ELIZABETH SAVAGE

THE SAVAGES

OF MAINE

(& MONTANA)

THOMAS SAVAGE

April 25, 1915-July 25, 2003

ELIZABETH SAVAGE

February 15, 1918-July 15, 1989

&

THE MOON OVER MAINE

From an appreciation in the Boston Globe: "Elizabeth Savage is a wonderful novelist. Her books restore your faith in the form, for they lay before you vast stretches of truth -- like bolts of heavy, textured cloth. A fierce story-teller, she holds you with a narrative voice of triumphant common sense."

From an L.A. TIMES review of Thomas Savage's POWER OF THE DOG: "Savage writes like thunder and lightning. A flash will illuminate startling detail, a rumble will bring fierce revelation, a philosophy, a big picture."

"TRUST BUT VERIFY": RONALD REAGAN, MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, AND MAN, DOG, & VET

"TRUST BUT VERIFY"

MAN, DOG, AND VETERINARIAN

Ronald Reagan used to bedevil Mikhail Gorbachev by quoting what he called an old Russian proverb, "Trust but Verify." A similar attitude seems to be indicated here; the patient at Angell Memorial Animal Hospital is sitting quietly to be examined, but his legs are splayed and his ears are up.

One of a Series

"Pets & Their People"

"The Seventies"

LEE WALCZAK b. April 15, 1946

LEON (LEE) WALCZAK

"SAGE OF WASHINGTON POLITICS"

April 15, 1946-March 28, 2008

LEE WALCZAK

Featured in the Publisher's Memo

Business Week, September 8, 1980, p. 9

Lee Walczak was the White House Correspondent and then Washington Bureau Chief (1986-2006) for Business Week, for which he also wrote the magazine's weekly Washington Outlook. From 2006-March 2008, when he succumbed to cancer, he was White House enterprise editor at Bloomberg News.

The Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis was established by the National Press Club in his honor, with this tribute: Walczak "was known for being a brilliant political analyst and gifted writer who directed thoughtful, ahead-of-the-curve political coverage." Bloomberg News Washington Executive Editor Al Hunt spoke of Lee's inspiring "grace and presence," and added, "he made us better professionally; he was an even better person."

THOMAS SCHELLING IS NINETY-ONE

THOMAS C. SCHELLING

b. April 14, 1921

THOMAS SCHELLING

NOBEL PRIZE FOR ECONOMICS, 2005

On why he decided to study economics: "Well, you have to realize, I was brought up during the Great Depression and when I went to college I felt that the worst problem we had was the problem of depression and unemployment so I majored in economics." Known especially for his work on the strategy of conflict and on the tipping point.

NOW, THE SON: BO GUAGUA IS WHISKED AWAY

THE KENNEDY SCHOOL

&

THE STUDENT PRINCE(LING)

THE TAUBMAN BUILDING

KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Bo Guagua, the son and only child of Bo Xilai and Gu Kailai, was to be finishing up his second and final year studying for a Master's in Public Administration at the Kennedy School in May -- next month. His father, Bo Xilai, already had been very high in "public administration" in the the People's Republic of China (here). With his parents now suddenly in disgrace, his father dismissed from his posts, and his mother, at least, facing a murder charge, what future for the son, living in Cambridge, Massachusetts? "Now he is an orphan," was the message from "a source close to Bo's family."

Late last night, it is reported, Bo Guagua was picked up at his apartment near Harvard by unspecified "law-enforcement officers," and it was speculated that he might have been seeking protection from "American authorities." For "Throughout the day a group of Chinese men" had been "parked conspicuously in front of a fire hydrant outside" his apartment building.

THE CASE OF BO XILAI: CLOSING RANKS IN CHINA

RULING CHINA

THE PARTY CONGRESS

Once every five years

This one (above), the 17th

Beijing, October 2007

The 18th is due this autumn

The hammer and sickle is still the symbol of the Chinese Communist Party, which is now in the process of going hammer and tong after one of its own, the former Chongqing party secretary and Politburo member, Bo Xilai. A work in progress.

More on Bo Xilai here and here and here; on his father, Bo Yibo, one of the "Eight Immortals," here

THE STRANGE TALE OF BO XILAI AND A LEADERSHIP CONTEST "WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS"; ALSO, MURDER

THE SAGA OF

THE PRINCELING

WHO WOULD BE

A POPULIST, AND

ALSO, A PRINCE

BO XILAI

17th CCP Congress

Beijing, October 2007

Here is Bo as Minister of Commerce, just about to be named to the Politburo, and shortly to be given the mega-metropolis of Chongqing out west to run and perhaps to be swallowed up by. He is not about to make the leap into the inner-inner circle of power in Beijing, the Standing Committee of the Politburo. He is literally a back-bencher here, sitting in the last row of the dais of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

As it turns out, Bo does not go quietly into the sunset. He "strikes hard" against the "black" -- crime/corruption/the mafia, and talks "red" -- talks up singing the old red songs -- and acts red too -- promoting some steps toward greater social equality. It is widely assumed that he is campaigning for a seat on the nine-member Standing Committee, to be announced at the 18th Congress this fall.

But surely that is not done?

And then what? His wife murders someone? -- poisons a foreigner? Bo is out as head of Chongqing; suspended from the Politburo, "suspected of being involved in serious discipline violations." His wife, Gu Kailai, has been "transferred to judicial authorities on suspected crime of intentional homicide,” as the officialese has it. "Detained," both of them, it seems.

All out in public now.

GRIGORY YAVLINSKY IS SIXTY

GRIGORY YAVLINSKY

b. April 10, 1952

YAVLINSKY CONTEMPLATIVE

after his first run for the presidency

(Yeltsin won; more here and here)

When we last checked in with Grigory Alexeyevich Yavlinsky of "500 Days" and Yabloko fame, he had been counted out of the presidential race by the Central Election Commission.

He never was allowed into the March 4 contest; Vladimir Putin won "handily" in the first round. Now that Prime Minister-President-Prime Minister-President-to-be-again Putin has his six years' prize stretching out in front of him, promises of reform have been bruited. Maybe some openings for opposition leaders, like Yavlinsky. Protesters (not too many of them!) have even have been allowed to walk near the Kremlin.

The Inauguration is May 7.

Yavlinsky's website-cum-blog is here (in English, here).

MICHAEL SOMARE TURNS SEVENTY-SIX IN POLITICAL LIMBO

SIR MICHAEL THOMAS SOMARE

b. April 9, 1936

MICHAEL SOMARE

as Prime Minister of

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Sir Michael Somare and Peter O'Neill both claim to be the current Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, a post Sir Michael first held in 1975, until 1980; from 1982-1985; and from 2002 to 2011, when he did or did not resign for reasons of ill health.

Peter O'Neill seems to have the advantage of 'possession being nine-tenths of the law.' Sir Michael left the country for his medical treatment, and the parliament declared the prime ministership vacant and elected Mr. O'Neill. The civil service is reported also to be on Mr. O'Neill's side. There was an attempt at a military coup in January of this year; it failed. The Supreme Court had ruled in December 2011 that Sir Michael was to be reinstated; Mr./Prime Minister O'Neill "refused to step down." New elections were scheduled for this June, and the difficulty presumably to be resolved. Four days ago, April 5, the parliament voted to delay the elections. The Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, said that she was "disappointed and concerned," and was told that Australia "must not intrude."

BETTY FORD, WHO DIED LAST YEAR, WOULD HAVE BEEN NINETY-FOUR TODAY

ELIZABETH BOOMER FORD

April 8, 1918-July 8, 2011

MILLIE O'NEILL (l), BETTY FORD (c),

& ROSALYNN CARTER (r)

at the U.S. CAPITOL

INAUGURATION DAY, January 20, 1977

Betty Ford was the outgoing First Lady of the United States, chatting above with the incoming First Lady, Rosalynn Carter, whose husband, Jimmy Carter, had defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 election, and with Mildred (Millie) O'Neill. Millie O'Neill was the nearest thing to a First Lady of the U.S. House of Representatives; her husband, Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill, was the incoming Speaker of the House. Gerald Ford had been Minority Leader, Tip O'Neill's Republican counterpart, when President Richard M. Nixon picked him to replace Spiro Agnew as Vice-President.

When Betty Ford suddenly had the spotlight as First Lady, she became famous for her candor, and for her battles with cancer and addiction, out of which was founded the Betty Ford Center. Two particularly notable obituaries are to be found here and here.

Two points involving the Fords and the Carters: It is reported that Gerald Ford's voice "failed him the morning after he was defeated by Jimmy Carter," and that it was Betty Ford "who read the official concession statement with smiling grace." And in 1993, "feeling that they would have more impact together than as individuals, Mrs. Ford and her former campaign rival Rosalynn Carter joined forces to urge the White House and Congress to include in any health-care reform legislation being written coverage for mental health and substance abuse."