A Realist comments

I am pessimistic. I am Canadian, now 84 years old and have seen many changes in my lifetime. Canada was always regarded as a democracy. with supposedly "free and fair elections," a Charter of Rights and Freedoms supposedly guaranteeing certain rights to every citizen and so on. However, it seems those "rights and freedoms" can easily be suspended in the interrests of an emergency, real or imagined. I understand in a democracy a government is supposed to work for the majority and perhaps at one time that was the case, but now it is not; now some "minorities" seem to get special rights and privileges that the majority does not. As for "free and fair elections" now we see all kinds of "advance voting" and mail-in voting," which are a recipe for fraud, not everybody is honest, especially in politics. Corruption in high paces is rampant, people have lost trust in institutions - police. the judicial system, organized religion, the media, big business, you name it. Every democratic country is more divided than ever before for various reasons and as was always the case, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,

At one time it was thought that the media should present the news "objectively, fairly and without bias." If that was ever the case it certainly is not now. Think about this for a minute - what is the first thing any authoritarian regime does in their lust for power? Whether they be the Nazis of Hitler's Germany, the Communist Party of China or North Korea or any other despotic regime that ever existed; they control the media.

"Refugee" is a world used very loosely. If you accept that anyone from any war-torn country is a refugee and is therefore welcome in your country, you could have millions of them. The vast majority of so-called refugees are people wanting a better life in a better country because their own country is a mess. I note that there have been no terrorist attacks by foreigners in Japan like there has been in other countries that have let in a lot of refugees.

If anybody imagines that something like this (a student assaulting a teacher) does not happen or has not happened many times in schools all over the world, they must be living in a very insulated world. Apparently it is rare in Japan or else it would have not made the national news. The usual way of dealing with an assault by a student against a teacher is criminal prosecution if the teacher was injured; if not the student would be expelled from school.

mtuffizi - You are absolutely correct. No number of apologies or financial compensation will make this issue end as far as many Koreans are concerned. Agreements can be made but they mean nothing; they will not be honored. Koreans would rather play the eternal victim and keep fighting a war that was won or lost a long time ago. As long as people prefer to live in the past and refuse to move forward, nothing will ever change.

No doubt China will find an ancient map that proves they have been China's sacred inherent minerals since ancient times.

Korea, the land of Comfort Women, continues to embarrass itself. Is this particular statue to commemorate the comfort women in the 'Comfort Stations' it set up for American troops during the Korean War?

If the US does not sell arms to Saudi Arabia some other country will; that is the world we live in. But I do have problems with the fake news that is so rampant in the media nowadays. This story says $110 billion, another said $230 billion, another said over $300 billion. Where do they get their info, or do they just make it up?

Censorship is always good news in the world of the left-wing.

I have never been able to understand the appeal of the Oscars or other "awards"; a group of people in the industry giving each other awards and telling each other how great they are doesn't mean much to me anyway. But when they start handing out awards based on quotas or political correctness it reaches a whole new level of stupidity.

BertieWoosterFEB. 20, 2017 - 08:16AM JST The American electorate chose Trump.

What does that say about the American electorate?"

What that says is the American electorate must be a lot smarter than you appear to be.

By the way, Trump was referring to a documentary aired on Fox the previous night, which showed some of the crimes committed by "refugees" in Sweden. Of course the Swedish government did not like that, because they like to pretend such things do not happen and prefer to cover them up. No politician will ever admit their polices might have been wrong (although I note they never denied that the incidents in the documentary happened). Then some "refugees", ingrates that they are, rioted the very next day to prove that Trump was right after all.

That is a common refrain always heard from CEO's - "not enough skilled workers." I heard the same thing from CEO's of big tech companies. Of course they neglected to mention that they fire skilled American technicians to replace them with ones from India, paying them a lot less and threatening to revoke their company-sponsored green cards if they ask for more money or want to change jobs and work for another company. Why pay Americans more than they can pay allegedly "skilled workers" from some third-world country? Might cut into their profits.

Russia illegally stole those islands and doesn't seem to want to return them; but when has Russia ever cared about International Law? As long as Japan is hamstringed by being the only country in the world with a "pacifist constitution" nothing much it can do about it. If Japan had a normal constitution like every other country in the world this issue might have been settled long ago and the islands would have been returned.

Of course all the Japan haters on this site will quite naturally side with Russia. If China demanded Japan hand over the Senkaku Islands and Okinawa to China, then all the Japan haters would agree with China too. I cannot fathom why so many people on this site, who presumably live and work in Japan hate it so much, but that's the way it is. Some people are just born to hate, its who they are and what they do.

nishikatFeb. 24, 2017 - 04:38AM JST Illegals who do receive public assistance Illegals can't receive welfare. Just like Trump can't get Mexicans to pay for the wall. to allow everyone to come And it will continue even after Trump builds the wall for 10s and 10s of billions- to be charged to the US tax payer. It won't decrease the millions coming in. But it will increase the sales in ladders."

Of course lots of illegals receive welfare and other social benefits. How hard do you think it is to make fake I.D.? Anybody with even intermediate Photoshop skills could make any kind of fake I.D. you might want.

I am not sure what you think a wall is. Do you think it would be like the Great Wall of China or Hadrian's Wall? This is the 21st century, have you heard of things like sensors, electronic alarms and drones? Do you know they have border guards and vehicles and helicopters and can get from one place to another quickly?

There are many ways to "get Mexico to pay for the wall." The easiest way would be to simply put a tariff on goods from Mexico coming over the border, or a tax on financial transactions to Mexico. The Mexican economy, such as it is, largely depends on trade with the USA.

KakukakushikajikaFEB. 20, 2017 - 10:48AM JST It is obvious (and he said on Twitter too) that he was discussing all the problems Sweden is having

No he was not: "“You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” Trump said."

Last night seems pretty specific to me, not a general situation."

I cannot understand why people who claim to be "educated" would not know that Trump was referring to a documentary on Fox the previous night that showed events in Sweden, riots and assaults by "refugees" or migrants or whatever they call themselves. Those people are Muslims. Nobody denied those things happened, but the Swedish government chooses to cover them up, ignore or minimize them, presumably they do not want to admit their policies may have been wrong. I have also heard denials that there are "no-go zones" in many European and British cities inhabited by Muslim refugees and migrants; I know for a fact that there are; they are not safe, especially for women. It must be wonderful to live in some kind of fantasy world where everyone is just wonderful, but if you live in such a world you are living in denial.

Citizen2012FEB. 20, 2017 - 09:40AM JST Actually he seems trying to leverage the famous "NO GO ZONE" syndrome, fear of muslim in Europe that FOX News has been reporting already in France and UK, of course, those are all lies and fake news :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gorU1WztIGw

I don't personally know about "no go zones" in Paris or other European cities, but I have friends in the UK who inform me that there really are "no go zones" in some cities with large Muslim populations in England. I don't think they are lying. If you frequent YouTube, there are all kinds of videos that allegedly show some no go zones in France and other places. But I suppose you, like most people, just believe what you choose to believe.

I suppose it doesn't take much to "baffle Sweden" or brainwashed sheep anywhere. In fact there are all kinds of crimes committed by immigrants, migrants and refugees last night and every night in Sweden and every other country where there are large numbers of "refugees." Of course politicians and the authorities do their best to pretend they don't happen because it might show that their policies are misguided. Why doesn't the media do some in-depth investigating and talk to the victims of those crimes and maybe to the police officers who investigate them instead of relying on BS from politicians for their information?

What startling news. China is upset? Never heard of China being upset about anything before.

More fake news. I watched the news conference and it was in no way "rambling;" any questions were answered very clearly. I guess the reporters at the event did not like being called dishonest because they are, the truth always hurts.

Santa Claus and Sherlock Holmes, without a doubt. Although whether Santa Claus is really a "fictional character" like the others on the list is debatable. As far as I know there have never been any books written about Santa except for children's books and he was not invented like the other characters, who come from fictional stories, novels, movies and comic books. Dracula is an enduring character, but I think only to fans of the horror genre, and comic book superheroes are well, a dime a dozen. I doubt if anyone will be reading Harry Potter books a hundred years from now, By the way, although Dracula is (very) loosely based on a real character, he was pretty much unknown until the 1897 novel of the same name and the movies, which appeared much later. Sherlock Holmes appeared 10 years earlier. There were many other fictional characters who were very popular for a time, but most of them are forgotten now.

In more recent years there have been some very popular fictional characters from Japan - Godzilla, Hello Kitty!, Pikachu, but they have not been around all that long. I know of no other Asian characters that enjoyed worldwide popularity. In fact except for Santa Clause all the choices on that list come from England or the USA.

Will somebody please explain why Japan should be obligated to "take in refugees"?

Globalization is a failure. All it does is lower everything to the lowest common denominator for ordinary people and make the rich richer.

Taxi fares are very reasonable in Japan compared to in Canada.

I didn't know there was anyone alive dumb enough to trust the media.

Not only is Streep an overrated Clinton flunky, but a self-important, arrogant, spiteful one at that, and a liar as well. Doesn't anybody remember her promise that she was going to "move to Canada" if Trump won the election? She never did and apparently has no intention of doing so. The arrogance of those overrated, overpaid celebrities is only exceeded by the foolishness of her "fans" who would pay attention to her hateful opinions.

There is no "nuclear debate" with Russia. This non-story is just something fabricated by the left-wing media; more fake news.

So Trump condemns the terrorist attack in Germany and all the left-wingers turn it into an attack on Trump and " white Christian upper class Republican males"? How sick and sad can they get?

When Merkel heard about this terrorist attack, her first words were that she "hoped it was not a refugee who did it;: when Obama heard about it he went out to play a round of golf. Makes me wonder whose side they are on.

Reading these comments, I notice that many people seem to blame everybody for these kinds of atrocities except the ones actually committing them and the one who shares a large part of the blame - Angela Merkel. I wonder how she sleeps at night knowing that she bears a large part of the responsibility for creating the conditions that enable these types of crimes? Does she have any conscience?

Everybody knows China. It steals technology, every kind of copyrighted material, trademarked designs, etc. China is a thief; it had a chance to steal an underwater drone so it did because that is what a thief does, steals stuff.

Maybe the US policy of kissing China's butt is over. It's about time.