Residents of Okinawa will be voting in a referendum on Sunday on the future of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. The non-binding referendum is related to the base being relocated from the densely populated area to a coastal district.
Japanese Premier Abe Shinzo says that his government intends to ignore the result. Voters are expected to reject the base move, over which the Abe government has taken the prefectural government to court.
Which isn’t to say that the voters are happy with the base staying where it is, either. Indeed, the presence of the US base is highly unpopular, but Okinawans broadly reject the idea of moving it to the coast, and the damage that would be caused in doing so. They want the base off the island outright.
Okinawa is only 0.6 percent of Japan’s total area, but hosts 70% of US bases in Japan, and more than half of US personnel. Abe’s government wants the relocation to go ahead as planned, and intends to just ignore the vote.
If the Okinawans want the Yankees off their island, they need to invoke the “nuclear option.” All taverns, tattoo parlors and (especially) brothels must refuse to do business with the troops. The bases would be gone in a month!
Get the damn Red Sox off too
When were you there? Sounds like you know of all the off-duty places.
Isn’t western style democracy great. The voters vote & the leaders ignore the result!
It will be interestin to see if the “people” can out do being straightarmed by puppet Abe & make his governance an horror….
Switzerland is possibly the only true Western democracy. They have popular and binding referenda and people may propose or vote down laws as well.
The worse their government can do is keep people uninformed and spam them with unnecessary referenda.
All the other ‘democracies’ have some sort of check against popular accountability.
Pull those troops out and put them on the Southern border!!! Prez. Trump,,are you listening?????
Pull those troops out, discharge them (heck, disband ICE and Border Patrol while you’re at it), and cut the 90% or so of the “defense” budget that’s fraud, waste, and abuse.
Yes, Prez. Trump, I know you’re not listening.
Thomas, As to the border,,,,What World Are You Living In??
The real world, where immigration is not and never has been any kind of “emergency.”
Thomas, I respect you as a very smart Gent,,but on this subject you are off the rails. So you want open borders?, no borders?, no immigration laws enforced?, no security for U.S. citizens from dangerous people crossing the border?,,you want to drive wages down for the Middle Class and low wage workers?,you want to destroy the social safety net that is already under stress, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, health care,,….??
“So you want open borders?”
Yep. Just like the US had de jure until 1882, substantially until 1947, and in reality always has and always will.
“no immigration laws enforced?”
There are no immigration laws. Per Madison v. Marbury, a “law” repugnant to the Constitution is void, and the Constitution denies a power to regulate immigration to the federal government.
“no security for U.S. citizens from dangerous people crossing the border?”
Dangerous people cross every border all day long — your town border, your country border, your state border, etc.
Of COURSE I want security for US citizens from dangerous people. That’s why I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. What the US government offers is not security, it’s “protection” — in the same sense as the Mafia offers the same product. “Nice freedom ya got there, be a shame if anything happened to it.”
“you want to drive wages down for the Middle Class and low wage workers?”
Of course not. That’s why I support open immigration, which has historically driven prices down and wages up.
“you want to destroy the social safety net that is already under stress, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, health care,,….??”
Well, yes. But that’s beside the point insofar as e.g. immigrants paying in and not drawing out are the only thing slowing down the insolvency of Social Security at the moment. I’m willing to let those schemes drag on a little longer before collapsing in return for freedom.
Thomas, Thank for the reply, at least I know where you are coming from,,even if I strongly disagree on most of your points. 🙂
More democracy in action!!
John, Puck, George,,This is the exact reason to support the 2nd Amendment,,”Shall Not Be Infringed”. Maduro disarmed his people,,now he is shooting them in the streets and or beating them with no mercy!
You got some kind of evidence to back this up, or did you pull it out of you-know-where? Somewhere along the line I read a piece that said Maduro/Chavez bought a buttload of AKs from Russia. What happened to those weapons? Did the Chavez/Maduro govt organize militias among “his” people — the indigenous poor — and distribute those weapons? Did the Chavez/Maduro govt confiscate the guns of the opposition petro-oligarch class? Facts, please. If I want Neocon regime-change talking points I can just turn on the tv.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/14/venezuela-kalashnikov-drone-production-chavez
Hugo Chávez announces Kalashnikov and drone production
Quoting:
“General Julio Cesar Morales Prieto, president of Venezuela’s state-run arms producer, said 3,000 AK-103 assault rifles had been assembled since Venezuela and Russia signed the 2005 agreement for the construction of a Kalashnikov assembly factory.
The production has begun despite the factory not yet being completed, Morales Prieto said. It will have the capacity to produce 25,000 rifles a year.”
And that was more than six years ago.
6 x 25,000 = 150,000 AKs.
Plus, they make their own ammo.
It would be interesting to know the actual facts regarding Venezuela’s defensive capability.
yomama, So Maduro makes AK’s,,pays Russia for that right, and gives guns to his supporters and the Cuban’s etc. he has brought in to keep the people in line. How sweet! In the USA we have many PRIVATE firearm manufacturers and anyone who is not a felon can buy a gun,,HURAHH!
If America were only a little bit more like Israel – we would have never given Okinawa back to the Japanese – we could shoot any Okinawan citizens that protested our being there.
Definitely should have granted Okinawa independence, but, possible commies ya know. The tragic modern history of Okinawa plods on. Even if the US leaves, they leave piles of toxic wasteland. Those people never deserved this bs.
Ignoring popular will; the U.S. taught the Japanese democracy real good.