Addfwyn comments

Posted in: G7 foreign ministers discuss Ukraine war, impact See in context

@Pukey2

Jesus Christ. These two alone could start WWIII. Nuland's got some nerve showing her face instead of sticking it under the sand after deciding who gets to rule Ukraine.

The attention span of the public seems far too short to be aware of the [extremely major] role she had in starting this entire conflict. Especially given the number of people I have seen who think Russia just decided to up and invade Ukraine one day for no reason whatsoever.

Without her we would never have been in this situation to begin with, and Ukraine would be a radically different country.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Posted in: Kim Jong Un lookalike disrupts Australian election campaign See in context

Yeah this about tracks for Pavlou. The man who was recently arrested for inciting racial violence and protesting in front of predominantly Chinese commnities with offensive signs.

One can only hope he remains a "long shot candidate". Probably one of the most disgusting politicians worldwide, ad that is a truly impressive feat.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Posted in: Global tourism recovering, but not back to pre-pandemic levels See in context

I work in hospitality and we don't expect things to reach previous tourism levels for 5 years at the bare minimum, and we have plans for longer.

Even if every government drops all travel restrictions tomorrow, it will be much longer before people are willing to travel. Whether that is because they don't have the disposable income right now, or simply that they don't feel safe enough to travel yet. Nevermind how many hotels and businesses reliant on tourism have already had to shutter. Some people probably will never feel as comfortable traveling as they did before.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Posted in: N Korea fires 3 ballistic missiles toward sea See in context

Yes, countries test their weapons so that they can be sure they work if they do actually need to use them. Just this March France did several weapons tests and it didn't make headlines, unless you like reading security journals.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Posted in: World's biggest YouTuber PewDiePie moves to Japan See in context

Not a particular fan, but unlike your Logan Pauls he has also never particularly bothered me either. He never struck me as someone trying to intentionally be offensive, just sometimes messing up while trying to be funny, a thin line for many public figures to walk.

If you don't have to do the office grind and have as much disposable income as he has, Japan is probably a pretty darn good place to be, all things considered. Good for him, I guess?

5 ( +12 / -7 )

Posted in: North Korea confirms 1st COVID outbreak; Kim orders lockdown See in context

Kim's partners and creators Russia and China have each developed vaccines, I wonder whether Kim has asked either for their help.

They were offered previously but declined the offer, saying more severely impacted countries should receive them first. A nice gesture, but hopefully the offer still stands now that they could use them too.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Wim Wenders making film about fancy public toilets in Japan See in context

First impression was that it sounds very silly, however there was one point I changed my mind.

And so his film's hero will be a sanitation worker who cleans the toilets, seeing his job as a craft and a service for the people. Details of the script are still being worked out.

You know what, sure, why not? Sanitation workers are often kind of ignored by society at best, so giving them some credit where its due.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Posted in: Woman indicted on cocaine smuggling charge See in context

Hitting the mules won't have a huge impact in the end, unless you get their sources too. Like any business, they expect a certain amount of product loss, it just so happens their product is quite illegal. Getting a couple kg of cocaine here or there makes for good publicity for law enforcement but probably isn't even a blip on the syndicates moving the product.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: How climate scientists keep hope alive as damage worsens See in context

That fall, Cobb made one last trip. It was during the elections. A big Hillary Clinton fan, Cobb was wearing a Madame President shirt when she heard the news that Donald Trump was elected. She said fell into a pit of despair that lasted maybe a couple months.

I would advise not hinging yourself so much on a politician that you are depressed for months when they don't win. Heck, most candidates don't wallow that long if they lose. If you reach that point, you probably need to take a major step back from politics.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: China loves lecturing the world about what is right and wrong in geopolitical affairs. One week it is preaching to the Philippines, the next day it advises Japan and on the third day it is lecturing all of the above. Last week, China's lecture was directed to Japan. Beijing was telling Tokyo that it shouldn't be a promoter of NATO's Asia-Pacific expansion. See in context

What in the world is he talking about? China is relatively hands off about global geopolitical affairs, unless they apply to themselves, and they almost never get directly involved.

This seems a much more apt description of the United States, maybe Dr. Mourdoukoutas is confused?

I would take some "lectures" over drone strikes any day of the week. Not to mention, like Ian said, he listed a grand total of...two countries.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Posted in: North Korea confirms 1st COVID outbreak; Kim orders lockdown See in context

@Sven

I agree that where there is one, there will probably be more, but everywhere had to start with the first reported case. I doubt they'd test one person and call it a day. Unfortunately we don't know much about their methodology but one would assume they are at least testing those the confirmed case had contact with.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Posted in: North Korea confirms 1st COVID outbreak; Kim orders lockdown See in context

I would take this news with a grain of salt, but why even announce their "first COVID-19 case" now when they could keep saying they have a spotless track record?

I think it isn't that crazy to assume that a country that has totally locked down outside contact could manage to stay spotless for so long. They aren't the only country, several other relatively isolated countries (mostly pacific islands) have managed the same, because there is so little contact.

Nor would they gain much from lying about it, unless they suddenly want to start allowing tourism again.

Plagues, wars, what else poses a greater threat to the human race than communism right now?

Capitalism.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

Posted in: North Korea confirms 1st COVID outbreak; Kim orders lockdown See in context

That's definitely unfortunate, but not too surprising either. Still pretty admirable that they kept things under control for so long; admittedly a lot easier when international travel is severely curtailed.

For the sake of the people there, hopefully this can be stopped before it spreads any further.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Posted in: Ukraine to hold first war crimes trial of captured Russian See in context

and criminalization of communism NOW. 

Russia isn't communist. They haven't been communist for quite some time, they aren't even leftist. While it is true that communists did the majority of the heavy lifting in fighting fascism, being anti-fascist is not the sole defining feature of communism. There is a communist party there, that I can only hope sees a resurgence as Putin's popularity drops.

There's five communist countries in the world right now, assuming we count Juche as communist, and Russia is not one of them.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Posted in: Ukraine to hold first war crimes trial of captured Russian See in context

As far as the headline goes, I am sure that will be a totally fair and just trial and not done for theatrics whatsoever. Seriously though, unless it is done by a neutral third party, there really is no point. A Ukrainian court overseen by a Ukrainian human rights coalition is going to have bias. People would say the same thing about a Russian trial of Ukrainian prisoners, justifiably so.

The article seems to mostly differ from the headline, seems to be focused on Kherson wanting to be annexed. Which is a whole different issue. I am not inherently opposed to the idea that such an action should be possible, but it does raise some questions about how much autonomy and self-determination regions should have.

-9 ( +2 / -11 )

Posted in: New Zealand to fully reopen to the world in August: Ardern See in context

I get it, NZ's tourism industry is huge for them and they have generally done extremely well with the virus for the most part.

Still, dropping testing too seems maybe premature? Let tourists in, but keep testing going for the forseeable future seems like a reasonable hedge. Especially given the recency of a lot of their cases.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Posted in: Crucial NATO decisions expected in Finland, Sweden this week See in context

Add - Cuban Missile Crisis was a while ago, and as for the Solomons, I am not opposed to what China is doing. Countries can ally with whomever they want. Otherwise, they aren't sovereign, are they?

Fair, appreciate the consistency then. There are a lot of folks who have a very different take than that solely because China is involved and they don't like them. I can't object to someone who is consistent across the board, even if I may disagree with them here or there.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Posted in: Shanghai reaffirms zero-COVID policy; WHO says it is not sustainable See in context

Given their track record thus far, way more inclined to trust them over WHO which has long since lost much credibility.

“Should we relax our vigilance, the epidemic may rebound, so it is necessary to persistently implement the prevention and control work without relaxing,” he said.

I only wish more places had this attitude from the start. Not only would we be past this whole pandemic already, but many millions more would be alive. The whole "Lockdown and then relax restrictions the second the lockdown starts working" dance has cost millions of lives.

@Monty

So China created a virus that they released on...themselves? Which cannot be verified because you said all proof is destroyed? So why would anybody believe that? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Posted in: Crucial NATO decisions expected in Finland, Sweden this week See in context

Why the double standard when it comes to Russia?

Not really a double standard, if you recall things like the Cuban Missile Crisis, or even the current fervor about the Solomon Islands. Russia is not some benevolent entity out to make the world a better place, they are acting in their self-interest, but there's precedent too.

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

Posted in: Banning Russian LNG imports tough without supply alternatives: trade minister See in context

"If all parties (of the G7) take simultaneous action (to ban Russian LNG imports) without securing alternative sources, the world economy, including the energy (sector), will be thrown into chaos.

Might be the smartest man in the Japanese government, he is totally correct. All sanctions up to this point have mostly backfired, the ruble is the strongest it has been in years while western nations are all struggling. Particularly the EU.

One of the reasons the sanctions against Russia over Crimea were much more effective was because the US managed to flood the market with cheap oil at the same time, a feat they were not able to repeat. It felt like American entreaties to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela were badly managed afterthoughts, not even considered beforehand.

Unless they have significant deals for alternatives lined up, they'd only be shooting themselves in the foot. Meanwhile the rest of the world gets beneficial trade terms.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Posted in: Crucial NATO decisions expected in Finland, Sweden this week See in context

The Finns are taking the safe route. 

Joining an anti-Russian alliance when you border Russia isn't the safe route, it is just inviting disaster. The safe route would be doing the exact thing that could have saved countless Ukranian lives: a pledge of neutrality. It's the lowest bar anyone could be asked. Nobody is asking them to be the next Belarus. This is exactly the type of thing that gets us into a world war.

After having been lied to constantly by NATO since its inception, I am not surprised Russia wants the barest minimum of assurances.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Posted in: Billions spent on overseas counterterrorism would be better spent by involving ex-terrorists See in context

A better, and cheaper, alternative to combating global terrorism would be to stop what is causing people to radicalize and become terrorists to begin with: American bombings. It's little wonder people want to fight against the empire destroying their home, I think Americans call them freedom fighters if they are white.

I suppose it ends up as a self-fulfilling scenario, the US feels compelled to defend itself by bombing countries only to make even more terrorists. It is a cycle that will only be ended by a massive policy shift in the states, that I don't see any major political party there willing to make.

I agree with the article that overseas spending isn't helping. It probably doesn't hurt either, but you don't throw money at a problem you cause and expect people to love you for it.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Posted in: Crucial NATO decisions expected in Finland, Sweden this week See in context

Good news for US hegemony, bad news for the rest of the world.

Hopefully cooler heads prevail, I would think that they both would prefer to keep positive relations with their neighbors as much as possible, but some people seem absolutely desperate for a world war. Definitely not too late for their leadership to take the safe route.

-12 ( +2 / -14 )

Posted in: Musk says he would reverse Twitter's ban of Donald Trump See in context

I am about as far left as you can possibly be, and I don't particularly like Elon Musk. I especially don't like Donald Trump. I also disagree that Twitter has a leftist bent, it has a liberal bent which is not remotely the same thing.

That said, I think this is ultimately a very fair position, just because I disagree with basically everything the man has said doesn't mean I think he should have been banned.

While we are at it, there has been a lot of leftist figures on twitter that have been banned that should probably have their bans revoked too, and other figures like George Galloway that have had those ridiculous Russia/Chinese Media badge wrongly affixed. They're probably not high profile enough to warrant it.

1 ( +8 / -7 )

Posted in: New ‘Doctor Who’ star is ‘Sex Education’ actor Ncuti Gatwa See in context

People always get upset when the Doctor changes, as they grow fairly attached. I quite like Gatwa, and I could see him being a pretty good Doctor. I think he has a pretty good charisma that lends itself to the role. Does that make him the youngest Doctor we've had?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Aichi police on lookout for whoever stole public toilet’s flushing handle See in context

20,000 yen for that? I gotta get in on the toilet handle business, apparently that is where the real money is.

What's the full toilet cost? 1,000,000?

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Posted in: S Korea’s new leader offers support if N Korea denuclearizes See in context

a vow to pursue a negotiated settlement of North Korea's threatening nuclear program and an offer of "an audacious plan" to improve Pyongyang's economy if it abandons its nuclear weapons.

Considering Yoon's agenda has aligned pretty closely with whatever America wants so far, I am not so sure how much I would trust this "audacious plan". I have a feeling that it would involve copious amounts of drone strikes.

NK leadership hasn't survived this long by being that naïve, they wouldn't give up a key element of their deterrence like that.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Posted in: Supreme Court leak shakes trust in one more American pillar See in context

Probably because, at least when it comes to the government, there isn't much to trust in the United States. You can only blatantly lie to your population so many times before they wise up. Apparently, you can lie a LOT before they reach that point though.

If anything, I would say the trust is way too high still. People still are likely to believe whatever US-media tells them, especially when it comes to foreign affairs. The American meritocracy seems to finally be failing. I look forward to the inevitable revolution, though it may not be in my lifetime as of yet.

Fact is that there is a constitutional right of a baby to life.

Where in the American Constitution is that explicitly outlined? I will admit I haven't read it for a while, but pretty sure that wasn't in there.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Posted in: Should you watch end credits at the movies? Japanese celebrity’s comments spark fierce debate See in context

Outside of some pressing time constraint (like last train approaching) I will generally stay through and watch the credits. Personally I just feel like giving the workers the acknowledgement for their work.

I don't begrudge anybody who doesn't stay, it isn't like the workers themselves will know if people did or not.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Posted in: As Putin marks Victory Day, his troops make little gains in Ukraine See in context

No it hasn't. Previous Warsaw Pact nations joining NATO has nothing to do with Russia and do not threaten Russia.

Remind us what nation NATO was founded to oppose, and the majority of that nation is now which nation?

It's a strange double-standard when the explicitly anti-Russian NATO expanding towards Russia is considered fine, but China having any presence on Solomon Islands is tantamount to a war declaration.

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

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