Aly Rustom comments

Thailand imprisons people who criticise or jest about it's Monarchy.

Many European countries imprison people who deny the holocaust or give the Nazi salute.

Agree with GuruMick

"I will take the lead in the party's political responsibilities and efforts to restore public trust."

Thanks JT. Needed a laugh this morning.

Quite a number of times I've asked some oldsters in Japan why they vote LDP. Their reply: "Because LDP always wins." They vote based on who they think will win, NOT based on who they think SHOULD win. It's a horserace to them. They are betting on a winner. They don't understand the purpose of elections. Democracy is still too new of a concept in Japan.

Nailed it!

The fertility rate everywhere with the exception of Africa, the Middle East, and some Southeast Asian countries are all below replacement levels. More and more people are having 1 or no kids whatsoever.

The images of multiple deaths and intense destruction in Gaza are so painful to see.

Oh man I hear you. This thing is going to go regional very soon.

Lock those 2 monsters both up and find a loving home for that poor child.

I’m happy to my foreign passport and my Japanese permanent residency. There is no point to have Japanese passport because there is no political party to vote for.

Exactly.

Presiding Judge Fumitaka Hayashi said the denial of multiple nationality is "rational" as the law ensures the freedom of changing one's nationality.

No. It's not. But again, neither are many of Japan's laws so oh well.

Guilty not guilty, one thing's for sure; he'll at least get a fair trial in France. Lucky he's not being tried in the Japanese "justice" system.

Agree with this statement,and for sure the French police and prison guards won’t racially abuse him.

Agree with the 2 of you

Tokyo Olympics sullied by bid-rigging, bribery trials more than 2 years after Games

Is anyone surprised?

This is Japan in a nutshell.

The corruption knows no bounds.

The elite escape punishment.

The man in the street has no say in the matter and is left to pick up the bill every single time.

It has been going on for years which might have been kind of acceptable when Japan was flush with cash, but now with many struggling to make ends meet and Japanese society snowballing faster down the hill something must be done. However,like always,nothing will change.

Nailed it bro !

In 2004, weekly magazine Shukan Post professed to expose the late Shinzo Abe, who at the time was serving as secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party and regarded as one of the nation's most promising young politicians. Abe would go on to become Japan's longest-serving prime minister.

According to an English-language web site profiling Abe's background (no longer online), "Following graduation from the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Law at Seikei University in 1977, Mr Abe studied politics at the Universtity [sic] of Southern California."

An acquaintance from Abe's days at Seikei University recalled that after a year of preparatory language study Abe entered USC from the spring of 1978. "He attended the summer session, but he didn't receive any degree. The following year he returned to Japan and took up employment in a company."

In other words, the statement that Abe spent two years "studying politics" at the University of Southern California is not quite factual. The magazine's investigation of the school's records confirmed that a "Shinzo Abe" spent the only the spring, summer and autumn terms of 1978 enrolled at USC, without specifying a major. Three of the six courses in which he matriculated were "English for Foreign Students."

"He did not take any courses in political science," said a USC spokesperson. "Each course earned four credits, so he received a total of 24; this would not have been sufficient for graduation."

Lol. Even in death, that old buzzard is STILL involved in scandals.

It’s very much is abused in Japan.

Not in the same way and degree,

I never said it was in the same way and degree. Again you’re putting words in my mouth. I only said that the system in Japan is also abused as it is in China nothing about it being abused the same way

you were unable to prove so and your own example contradicts your position.

No I pretty much was able to prove my position. The fact that you don’t want to accept it doesn’t make it so. You’re projecting. You’re the one who’s unable to prove your position and so you accuse others of being unable to prove them because you can’t refute them

You were putting words in my mouth

Again no, I never wrote that you said this, I just argued that this is what it means,

It’s the same thing.

which was easy to prove since you could not argue against it. 

Again I did argue against it and the fact that you can’t accept it means you’re the one who’s unable to argue against my points

and it seems that you just did not understand my explanation

What I did is to refute that explanation by exemplifying how it makes not sense

Actually was your argument didn’t make any sense at all. And most of it was because you couldn’t even understand what I was trying to get through to you in the first place.. 

Because I never spoke at all about his escape from Japan you mentioned that all by yourself

Yes, because that is the argument I am making that proves your argument do not make sense.

Honestly it’s your whole argument from the very beginning that doesn’t make sense at all. And you try to hide that by telling other people that their arguments don’t make sense. I get that.

According to your logic the escape would have been desirable from the Japanese position since the supposed political pressure already had the effect desired, this of course is false and proves the argument is not correct.

No the political pressure on France was for them to prove the point that Carlos was a bad guy and they’re prosecuting him was justified. They didn’t want him to escape because they wanted a guilty verdict keeping him in jail and preventing the merger. No matter how many times I explained to you I thought you understand but I’ll still keep explaining it

Wrong. No why would they? 

Because according to you the objective of the pressure was achieved,

No it wasn’t in here again you don’t understand what I’m saying. Although you think that you do or you pretend that you do. The pressure on France was there to make sure that he was guilty in the eyes of public opinion. They wanted to keep him in Japan so that they could actually prosecute him

the problem is that you are in a circular logic, because according to you the purpose of the pressure is the same as the method, which is illogical.

Again here you go projecting. You are the one making circular arguments. My whole argument from the very beginning was not whether or not the Chinese rest was political or not. It was that the Japanese politician didn’t have a ride to expect the Chinese to just release the Japanese into his custody

And obviously you did not understand what I was saying but whatever

It was very easy to prove that what you were saying was illogical, that is not the same as not understanding it, the result is all according to your logic.

You can say that all day. You didn’t understand any of my points but you just pretend that you have Somehow managed to refute them when in fact you’ve not really addressed any of my points

First of all my point is the same and I don’t care if it’s addressing the main point or not

What is not addressing is the point you were trying to refute, so if you recognize it is not even addressing it that means you are also recognizing you could not refute it. 

Fact of the matter is I have refused all your arguments and I’ve made my points over and over again. The fact that you are the one making circular arguments and accusing me of doing so is the proof that you cannot argue against my points

you just make the assumption that he is innocent

No, I did not, the argument is that the system used to arrest him is invalid and the arrest obviously political in nature,

And again you don’t know that unless you are privy to some secret Chinese communist party Intel which I’m pretty sure you’re not.

if he had a proper process there would be no problem even if he was guilty at the end.

You don’t know that for a fact. You don’t know that he hasn’t had proper process. You don’t know that they’re not going through the proper legal channels. You just keep making these assumptions.

I’m not gonna comment on why he was arrested only about the fact that when someone is arrested they have to go through the system

And since this is the only reply you could give against the argument that the arrest was invalid then you are recognizing you could not refute that point. Precisely because you are using an irrelevant argument against a point nobody made is why you are conceding not being able to refute the real point made.

If this is really the best you’ve got, when you’ve gotten nothing at all to refute my points with. But I’m happy to play this game with you all night if I have to

You began the comparison with Japan trying to refute the fact the arrest was made invalidly for political purposes,

I never said the rest was not meant for political purposes I said when you get arrested in any country you have to go to the political process that is what I said I never commented on whether his arrest was political or not. I don’t care whether his arrest was political or not. I don’t care. And the reason I don’t care is because neither you nor I know for a fact that his arrest was political. You don’t know for a fact that he wasn’t spying on China

if you recognize you are not addressing this point this means you are accepting it was correct after all and you were unable to refute it.

Sorry but you trying to come up with your own conclusions to win the argument isn’t gonna work.

As is Japan's.

You failed to defend this point, neither how your example was supposedly an attempt to put political pressure in another country nor how arrests are made systematically for this purpose.

Sorry I defended my points very well. The fact that you want to be stubborn and not accept my point doesn’t mean I didn’t defend it. You’re choosing not to accept what I’m saying to you in my explanations to you because you want to win this political argument with me doesn’t make you right. Sorry

And your point is still completely unrelated to the problem here, which is an invalid arrest made for political purposes without a justified reason because the whole system is rigged for this purpose.

First of all my point is the same and I don’t care if it’s addressing the main point or not. I am not going to comment on whether or not that individual was an actual spot or not because neither you nor I have all the details you just make the assumption that he is innocent. I don’t live on assumptions. I’m not gonna comment on why he was arrested only about the fact that when someone is arrested they have to go through the system now if you wanna argue about whether or not he’s actually innocent that’s a different arguments and I am not gonna have it with you. You can keep bringing it up but My point still remains. When you get arrested in a country most of the time you have to go through the legal system I hope you can finally understand that

And the problem is that in China the system is abused by design for political purposes, not the same as in Japan.

It’s very much is abused in Japan.

This is not putting words in your mouth, is making evident what it would mean if your explanation was true, by making the meaning obvious it is also clear it makes no sense.

You were putting words in my mouth and it seems that you just did not understand my explanation. Because I never spoke at all about his escape from Japan you mentioned that all by yourself

there was pressure put on the French gov to smear him further that's all.

And again, since according to you the purpose was to make France do it, then the Japanese government is perfectly fine with leaving Ghosn alone, right?

Wrong. No why would they? They want a different government to smear him to prove their point.

obviously this is not correct.

And obviously you did not understand what I was saying but whatever

Exactly. Please do not put words in my mouth nor make assumptions about what I'm saying.

Sorry but that is your argument, so saying it makes no sense is recognizing you can't defend this explanation.

It was not my argument and you saying that it is a new misunderstanding what I said does not make it so

The only point that matters is that the system in China is irreparably corrupt.

As is Japan's.

People often disappear without even the ability to find out what happened to them in that "system".

No argument there. I personally refuse to transit in China so you're preaching to the choir.

And still your point fails to address the actual problem that is present, which is a transparent attempt to pressure the Japanese government using a systematic misuse of the law.

I wasn't trying to address that issue. That's not the point. Point is, when you get arrested you go through the system- even if the charges are political

No, the assumption is that the Chinese would allow him to leave because the arrest is obviously political in nature and badly justified, not because it was Japanese.

Well, he has to go through the system- same as you or I would in Japan.

So you think Ghosn was purposefully let to escape because the "demands" of the Japanese government were met?

Please stop putting words in my mouth. I never said that. His escape was his own doing but there was pressure put on the French gov to smear him further that's all.

that makes no sense,

Exactly. Please do not put words in my mouth nor make assumptions about what I'm saying.

My point remains. When you get arrested in Japan, getting a consular visit will not get you out. And it won't in China either

Look the point I'm making is this: IF you are arrested in Japan for a crime you will not be released because of a consular visit and to think that China would cave in to Japanese demands is just foolish.

The problem is not letting arrested people leave, but that they are arresting people by obvious misuse of laws for purely political purposes.

I'm not arguing against that. BUT IF you are arrested in Japan, you will not be allowed to leave and so to assume that the Chinese would allow him to leave because he is japanese is foolish.

Ghosn case has been criticized even inside Japan and obviously no pressure to any government was exerted in his case.

There was pressure put on the French gov to investigate if there was any corruption for the Versailles party he threw and viola! the French gov issues an arrest warrant for him. So yeah, there was pressure by the Japanese gov.

In China it is clear that laws can be applied arbitrarily to exert political pressure without a rational justification, most countries can have specific cases that are problematic, but not may have the same situation where the problem is the systematic way the laws are abused.

Same as Japan. Look at the Ghosn case. He alongside Greg Kelly was arrested. Meanwhile Saikawa, who was accused of the exact same thing as Ghosn was only questioned VOLUNTARILY.

So yeah, Japan too does apply its laws arbitrarily

Are you arguing that in Japan possession of a smartphone is also enough to justify arrest for espionage?

No I am not. I am saying that Japan, like China, will not just allow foreigners who have been arrested for a crime to leave just because the foreigner got a consular visit, and it is stupid of the official to think that that would be sufficient to release the Japanese suspect from China.

Just looking at the news- it seems that there was a serious rocket attack in the north by Hezbollah. Don't know the extent of the damage yet.. but some reports are saying that it's the most serious attack since Oct 7.

You don't think people might end up being unjustly detained in a country with garbage laws and kangaroo courts?

You don't think the same happens in Japan???

Reports have shown that Israeli intelligence intercepted plans almost identical to those that were carried out on October 7th almost a years ago. It makes more sense that one of the most sophisticated intelligence operations in the world ignored the warnings, rather than they didnt know about them.

Egyptian intelligence (Mukabarat) warned Israel of the attack well in advance. That was reported on in Arabic in Al Wafd News as well as Al Arabeya

Chinese espionage laws can result in the arrest of anyone with a smartphone.

So what?

The only way for this ethnic cleansing to end is a regional conflict. Unfortunately when that happens, all hell will break loose and we might see a world war.

Julia Roberts wants cheeseburgers and booze at the apocalypse

Ok great. Why is this news?

yeah... if a foreigner is detained in Japan, are they automatically released?? Why do the Japanese think the rules don't apply to them?

Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida said Monday he is "not aware" of holding a reported meeting involving a senior member of a group affiliated with the controversial Unification Church in 2019, when he was serving as the ruling party's policy chief.

Was he drunk and doesn't remember??

Keep going with it, Kishida, your ratings have dropped below 30%..

That's about as relevant as Xi's approval ratings.

Man,Kishida is hanging on by the skin of his teeth.

Not at all. This is a one party dictatorship