A couple of major differences between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and George W. Bush is that, unlike W., Hideyoshi was born a peasant, thus a rare example of astonishing social mobility in world history, and that, unlike W., Hideyoshi accomplished major feats at home before embarking upon his doomed imperial ventures abroad: putting an end to the Sengoku Jidai (the period of civil wars), unifying much of Japan, and laying the administrative groundwork (such as the first national land survey) for subsequent economic development. In contrast, all W. did was tax cuts for the rich! -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>