Chapter 538 The Star-Spangled Banner Protects Those Who Burn It

   There is an English proverb that says that nothing can disturb your heart more than if your friend or neighbor gets rich. It is most enviable and hateful to see people you know get rich.

  In the crazy whirlpool of "herd mentality", less than one in 100,000 people in the world can hold back.

  If you can go back to fifteen years ago, ask those Japanese people who spent money every night, ten people and ten people will tell you that Japan’s bubble economy is due to the Plaza Accord and the appreciation of the yen.

  But when you ask it again what happened after the appreciation of the yen, most people can't answer it.

  The real economy often affects jobs. Hanwa Kogyo was originally a very honest steel company. However, after the signing of the Plaza Agreement, the president began to play foreign exchange and became one of the six ghosts in Tokyo.

The   Plaza Agreement has been signed and the yen has risen. If that’s the case, why not go for foreign exchange?

  The massive inflow of foreign capital has made the U.S. dollar continue to appreciate, and the competitiveness of U.S. exports has declined, which has spread to the crisis of foreign trade deficit. Under the pressure of this economic crisis, the United States hopes that the depreciation of the U.S. dollar will strengthen the external competitiveness of U.S. products and reduce the trade deficit.

At that time, Caterpillar’s ​​biggest competitor was Komatsu. The then President Li Morgan used the trade surplus between Japan and the former Federal Germany as an excuse to intervene in the foreign exchange market, hoping to stimulate U.S. exports and reduce U.S. exports through depreciation of the U.S. dollar. Trade deficit.

   "As long as the dollar can depreciate by 20%, I can drive the excavator to the capital of Japan."

  His speech caused investors to sell the U.S. dollar frantically, and the U.S. dollar depreciated sharply against the currencies of major industrial countries.

  Japanese companies all have the idea of ​​speculating in the financial market, but they have no idea, and no one takes the lead. At this time, the success of "Hanwa" played a very, very bad role in speculation and hype across Japan.

   Japan's large and small companies, seeing the scenery of "Hanwa", have all embarked on the same path. What are they doing in the real economy, what steel is being made, what cars are being built, and what machine tools are being built. To speculate in foreign exchange, learn from "Hanwa", and the small goal of earning 100 million a day can be easily achieved.

  On May 29, 1987, under pressure from the United States on the one hand, and a wrong decision made by the Japanese government on the other, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone launched a "financial atomic bomb" on the Japanese archipelago.

  Nakasone Yasuhiro gave a televised speech to the people of Japan, and announced a major "Prosperity Countermeasures" of the Japanese government

  The main contents of the countermeasure are as follows: 1. Tax reduction for residents of no less than one trillion yen; 2. Government investment of no less than five trillion yen.

It would be okay if the company was still working diligently in the industry, but after the bombing of the financial atom bomb, many small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan have stopped doing business, because Japan has begun to enter the "deflationary spiral", and then the "industrial hollowness" has occurred. "Industrialization" has become more and more difficult to do. Then, the example of Hanwa has given other Japanese companies a huge stimulus, and has caused a wave of speculation in foreign exchange stocks in Japanese society.

  Under these two major backgrounds, the Japanese government’s bombing of six trillion yuan originally meant that I would cut taxes for you, and then give you money, hoping that residents would buy more domestic products to boost domestic demand, and that enterprises would invest more to activate the economy.

  As a result, all the money invested by the government was used for foreign exchange speculation.

  Under irrational behavior, any advice is useless. The fundamental reason for the formation of a bubble economy is the human herd mentality.

  Originally, you were a normal person, and saw your friend making a windfall, so you rushed in. Your "success" made your friend jealous, and then he rushed in, and so on, the bubble is getting bigger and bigger. Making money is as simple as snapping your fingers. Put money in the financial market and watch it appreciate.

  As a result, the Japanese economy collapsed, and the Plaza Accord was only a cause. The real cause was the wrong policy introduced at the wrong time by the Japanese government and the greedy desire of Japanese companies.

  What is the American Dream for most people?

  Is it a towering skyscraper? Or a drunkard who can shop at will with a credit card?

In some books and movies, this kind of plot often appears. A loser who once lived at the bottom of society has lived a "decent life" through his own efforts. These people include rugby players, well-known bodybuilders, and repeated failures. War politicians, as well as housewives, police officers, scholars, taxi drivers, etc., and even Wall Street traders.

  All kinds of people in the book have one thing in common. They are very inspirational and active people. They are not talking about the American dream, but constantly pursuing and practicing. The overall story is very inspiring and quite true.

  However, the fact is that if motivation is really useful, 80% of social wealth will not be controlled by 20% of people.

Those stories are very inspirational, the main theme, and they are also very touching, but it is very difficult for the people at the bottom to squeeze into the upper class. Even after graduating from an Ivy League school, the elite education in the United States has led the best talents to the financial and legal industries. Not a natural science.

  Mathematicians who used to work for physics transferred to Wall Street to work for stock exchanges and insurance companies, studying some pages full of formulas. Make sure you don’t understand what “products” he wrote.

There are more professional vocabularies in the financial industry. Customers have only two choices: "Paying by obedient" and "Missing the opportunity if you are not obedient". Only people with high IQ can operate hedge funds. What they think is simple is the same as ordinary people's ears. Like alien language, the American democratic political system is full of "golden power" influence that cannot be concealed. This determines that the most resounding right to speak in the upper echelons of the United States comes from the corporate and legal circles. Even well-known scientists in the U.S. political circle are also "tautical". light".

  The "Qian Xuesen case" more than half a century ago seemed to the Chinese to win glory for the country, but it is another matter in the United States. The core information will no longer be contacted by the Chinese.

  The strong competition in academic performance of children of Asians, especially Chinese immigrants, is well-known, causing strong psychological pressure on white students and their parents. Many people move and transfer to prevent their children from being overwhelmed by Chinese students at school.

  Americans with children choose housing, unless they are willing to pay to go to private schools, the primary consideration is the quality of education in the school district. From this perspective, most Americans move their houses with a strong "educational immigrant" component, and often bite their teeth to buy expensive housing in order to enter an excellent school district.

There are also many Americans with lower levels of education under the "quality education". Everyone has the desire to pursue a better life. However, the income level of these people cannot afford the increasing housing prices. These people who buy houses with loans are potential subordinates. The victims of the loan crisis, even the poor, can buy a comfortable house with a swimming pool and kitchen.

The rising but not falling housing prices also make profit-driven wealthy people continue to speculate, and finally form an extremely inflated bubble. Once the crisis breaks out and the bank loses their job with expensive loans, the bank can take back the mortgaged house and quit. The court is also useless, this is stipulated in the contract.

   is equivalent to saying that an ordinary income family who originally lived in a RV, sleeps in a house with a garden and a swimming pool for a period of time, dreams for a period of time, then is beaten back to the prototype, and continues to live in the RV.

During this period of time, the cost of dreaming in a house is expensive, more expensive than traveling and staying in a hotel. The garden with swimming pool is gone, but you can use plastic bottles to grow fruits and vegetables to supplement the household. Every month is very difficult. , When you have a house, you can also have outdoor BBQ and beer. After you lose your house, you can only eat cheap food. The hormones in the meat will make you very obese, and the risk of cardiovascular disease will increase. Sadly, you don’t have any medical treatment. Insurance, you can at least keep your figure slim and healthy without dreaming. After dreaming, you can only live the rest of your life like this over-expanded economy, fat and ugly with wine.

  Patriotism is an emotion shared by ordinary people, and it is found in all countries in the world, but it is expressed in different forms. Some countries use passionate slogans, some use massive rallies and parades, and some countries fly their national flags spontaneously. In the United States, every July 4th Independence Day or other major occasions, many families plant national flags at their doorsteps to show their celebration and unity. In the United States, no other symbol is more important and emotional than the national flag.

  The national flag symbolizes the splendor and glory of the American nation and represents the unity and greatness of the country. For this reason, 48 of the 50 states in the United States have passed laws to protect the flag from defilement. Because Americans regard the national flag as a sacred symbol, people in the world who oppose the United States often take the burning of the American flag as a pleasure to express their dissatisfaction and anger towards the US foreign policy and way of life.

  Only on the territory of the United States, there are also a group of Americans who are dissatisfied with their government. They use the burning of the national flag as a way of expressing their ideas to criticize and protest some of the actions of the US government. They know the law and violate the law, and their purpose is to maintain the "freedom of expression" they believe is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  In August 1984, the Republican Party held its National Convention in Dallas, Texas, and re-elected the conservative current President Reagon as the Republican presidential candidate for re-election. During his first term of office, Reagon implemented the fiscal and taxation policies of "killing the poor and helping the rich" internally, expanded its armaments abroad and prepared for war, and launched a new cold war with the Soviet Union. His domestic and foreign policies have been severely criticized by some leftists.

  For the leftists, the Republican Party Congress is also a great time for them to express their dissatisfaction and anger and attract the attention of the public and the media. Under the leadership of its leader Gregory Lee Johnson, a group of No. 10 members known as the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade ran through downtown Dallas noisily to protest the Republican Party’s policy of favoring large corporations.

  While chanting slogans against the Republican Party and Reagon, they used spray guns to graffiti the government buildings along the road, and from time to time they destroyed lawns and green trees to vent their anger. One of them pulled out the national flag in front of a bank and gave it to Johnson.

  Originally, this flag was hoisted to celebrate the Republican convention. When they demonstrated before the city hall, Johnson poured a bottle of kerosene on the flag, and his partner lit it with a lighter. While burning, these demonstrators happily cheered and sang: "America, red, white, and blue, we spit on you." There were many bystanders present at the time, but in the face of the fanatical and enthusiastic demonstrators, they dared not be angry. Words.

  A plainclothes policeman witnessed the whole process and reported it to the police headquarters using a walkie-talkie. The police then arrested Johnson and accused him of violating a state law in Texas. The law prohibits desecration of solemn things. They include not only the American flag, but also the Texas flag, public monuments, and cemeteries.

  The definition of the law is: the perpetrator knows that his sabotage will seriously offend those who see and discover what he has done, but still insists on doing it his own way.

  Therefore, the key to this case is that someone must come out to testify, stating that Johnson’s flag-burning behavior hurt them. The prosecutors easily found witnesses such as Walker as witnesses. They made it clear that the burning of the national flag was a serious offense to their emotions, and they were heartbroken for this. Johnson was immediately found guilty, sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of $2,000.

In court, Johnson was eloquent about what he did: "It was when I burned the flag that Reagon was nominated as the presidential candidate. Whether you agree or not, there was no other symbolic speech that could express our views more powerfully than the burning of the national flag. . This is totally a gesture. We have a new patriotism, not without patriotism."

Contrary to the expectations of the Dallas District Attorney, the Court of Appeals not only overturned the conviction, but also accepted the defendant’s defense lawyer’s view, and found that Johnson’s actions were symbolic remarks and therefore should be subject to the first amendment to the Constitution. Freedom clause protection. It is not Johnson’s burning of the national flag that violates the US Constitution. It is precisely this Texas law that prohibits and punishes damage to the national flag!

  The freedom of speech is absolute, and the burning of the national flag is not guilty. In the eyes of the district attorney and ordinary people, this verdict is simply a reversal of black and white, and it is a fool. But these judges were plausible and moved out the decision of another Supreme Court case 41 years ago. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that paying tribute to the flag is a form of expression and is protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Therefore, the government forcing public school students to pay tribute to the national flag is a violation of "freedom of speech." In the same way, burning the national flag is also an expression, and naturally should be protected by the Constitution.

  Historical lessons tell people that patriotism is often delusional. I think that the German *** and Japanese *** were born out of a strong passion for patriotism and nationalism; countless crimes and atrocities were also carried out in the frenzy of patriotism and national supremacy. Therefore, on the issue of the burning of the national flag, calmness and reason should obviously be higher than passion and fanaticism.

  The Supreme Court’s judgment means that the laws of the 48 states and the District of Columbia regarding the protection of the national flag have become invalid. The judge believes that punishing blasphemy does not make the flag sacred, because if it does, it dilutes the freedom expressed by this venerable symbol.

  But these words are simply not enough to quell the anger of American flag guard patriots. Since the position prayer case in the 1960s, no verdict has caused such strong anger among the people. Thousands of letters of criticism from the masses were published in the newspapers. Another World War II veteran of the newly-elected president suggested that the Supreme Court's decision should be overturned through a constitutional amendment. When the House of Representatives passed a motion condemning the Supreme Court's decision, no one voted against it; The Senate, regardless of party affiliation, passed a bipartisan bill condemning the decision of the Supreme Court. Only three people opposed it.

To pass a constitutional amendment in the United States, it not only requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress. The National Flag Protection Act is a contest between the people and the elite. Democracy and the rule of law are balanced. The most ordinary Americans are very serious. It is also very simple to divide the affairs into good and bad, right and wrong. Therefore, there is hardly a group of intellectuals and professionals in the list of the flag guards, and basically some traditional veterans, laborers, immigrants, and women's organizations.

  Among the surveyed population, 86% of those with a high school or lower education level support the revision of the constitution to protect the flag, while 60% of those with a university degree oppose this.

The opponents of the   Flag Protector are staunch supporters of freedom of speech. Although they do not believe that the burning of the flag is appropriate, they believe in the supremacy of the principle of freedom of expression and respect the enlightened judgment of the Supreme Court. These people are precisely the elites of American society, especially those intellectuals who create ideas, create culture, control public opinion, and lead trends.

  In order to protect their right to freedom of expression, they very rationally accept the reality that the national flag is trampled on and defaced, and bear the emotional price they have to pay.

  If a simple referendum is used to decide whether to amend the constitution and protect the flag, the flag protector will surely win a big victory. But the ingenuity of American constitutionalism is that it not only guarantees the authority of democracy in the system, but also restricts the arbitrariness of the majority and protects the rights and interests of the minority. The American constitutional system carefully designed by the constitutional patriarchs not only aims to prevent the dictatorship of individuals, but also to prevent the tyranny of the majority (the influence of the death of Socrates).

Take the constitutional amendment as an example. First, it must be passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress, and secondly, it must be approved by three-quarters of the states within a specified time. The masses win by "quantity", but the elites use "quantity" to win. "Quality" is good at. Although it is difficult for the elites to get the support of the three-quarter majority of the states; in the flag protection case, they can easily obtain a one-third of the minority and gain the upper hand. As long as the two houses of Congress do not pass, the three-quarters of the state will pass. Once again, Congress can still express its position through federal laws.

  After the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the burning of the national flag was legal, many people speculated that the American flag must have been unlucky now, and the shops selling the Stars and Stripes must be rich.

  However, after the verdict of this case, the national flag burning incident in the United States almost disappeared. If it is legal to burn the national flag, what's the point of burning it?

In the United States, there is no patriotism, only freedom without borders, especially those elites in American society, who can brainwash the vast majority of "fools" through "freedom of speech" and instill their distorted values ​​into the "fools". In mind.

These "smart guys" seem to be sure that ordinary people don't dare to raise their guns and make another Lexington gunshot. After all, the button of the nuclear bomb is pinched in their hands. They repaired the bunker and guaranteed that most people would die. Keep alive.

  Dreams have sweet dreams and nightmares. People who are selfish and care for their health tend to live a long life. They create a **** for the poor and a paradise for the rich every day.

  U.S. public education was once a model of the world's education system. Today's students rank the bottom in developed countries in terms of natural science or reading ability. The simple logic of teaching and educating people has been thoroughly politicized and complicated.

The Godfather’s first shot was a person in a Sicilian funeral home. He used American thinking to teach his daughter to obey the law and pursue freedom. After he was finally brutally killed, the American legal system he taught his daughter did not return him justice, and the wicked were at large. He In the end, he was forced to seek help from the underground forces he had been avoiding.

   "I believe in America."

Compared with some "people", the Mafia has more humanity. It is by no means a carefree paradise on earth. It has the democratic legal system and the great "American dream" that politicians call it, but it is an out-and-out intriguing adventure. Home's paradise. There are traps, open spears, and secret arrows everywhere here, and everyone is in danger. Strip away those hypocritical surfaces, there is no real freedom, equality and fraternity in the bones.

  The wizards in the United States don’t want to contact Muggles. Which country will accept refugees from their country?

  The ordinary civilians living on the streets reminded Pomona of the Muggle-like and half-blood wizards who were excluded from the rule of Voldemort.

  It was really a disaster, although it had nothing to do with natural disasters, it was entirely caused by man-made disasters.

  (End of this chapter)