Christopher Blackwell comments

China has been famous for over building for decades and creating ghost cities. I suspect that this will not be the only developer to go under. I wonder what will happen to Chinese banking?

I am amused by a person saying because the Olympics is on every channel, that they are sort of forced to watch it. I have not watched an Olympics for well over fifty years. In fact I find TV so bad that I do not even have a TV set. Where I live here in the USA, you get forty minutes of advertising for every twenty minutes of show. Why waste my time even having a TV set.

I had a friend who worked as a micro-biologist at the CDC. Years ago she pointed out that we are never more than four days away from the next pandemic, thanks to modern transportation. So even we are argue over COVID 19 the next pandemic is coming at any time.

So far, despite the accusation, no one has provided any factual information that COVID 19 is not a natural accuring virus, or that China had anything to do with manufacturing it.You should see how many such labs other countries have playing with dangerous illnesses, especially the United States. But as I said COVID 19 has no sign of being manufactured. Plus placing blame has never solved any problem yet. All of our energy would be better placed doing what know that can slow this down. Meanwhile vaccinated people while safer, are not completely protected from the virus. I myself have had it and having scaring of my right lung and I have had both shots, but still am not completely protected though less likely to get a serious case.

LGBTQ people have always been in sports, though having to hide the fact, sometimes to the fact of having opposite sex dates for the public consumption, or for hiding it from other players. It is a simple human rights issue and deserves to be seen and handled as such.

Sounds like much the same mess as we have in the United States, totally unprepaired. The moment I saw the mess developing in China, I knew to prepare as best as any one person could. I expected my government to be unprepared. I expected the shortages in medical gear, protective gear, virus test kits. I expected the lock down of business, with the economic chaos. My United States government did not care, after all it might upset the stock market. You see here in the United States the cost of the government being unprepared for disaster, even with several months of warning in advance. At this stage we can only ride out the disaster and see how we survive. Once again my country is number one, in number of infected people and in the number of deaths from COVID 19.

Remember it takes two weeks befoire you know that your are sick and have any symptoms. But you can spread this virus from day one. Then there also many other illnesses things that give you the similar symptoms early on. So there will be a certain amount of fear before this is over and we might have to wait until early summer before we have a vaccine. So our job as people is not to give in to panic and make it worse than need be. I say this as an old man who could be a likely victim of this virus due to age and health issues. Panic could be far more dangerous than the virus, for causing irrational acts by frightened people.

All war is disgusting, just the legal form of mass murder. We are seeing wars with no plan for winning, with no idea what winning would involve, that may in fact be unwinnable, but extremely profitable for as long as they can be kept going. I say this as a Marine Viet Nam War vet. Why do citizens not rise up and stop this stupidity? How many innocent people on all sides do we need to keep sacrificing to the blood thirsty gods of War and Profit. It never will end until all citizens, of all countries, rise up and demand that it stop.

One thing, when the United States meddles it does so in a big way. It might do the rest of the countries in the world better to disintangle themselves from the United States, and do things for your own good. Having the United States as a political, or economic partner is just as bad as having it for any enemy and America has gone completely rogue now. Cut off trade with the United States, and it will quickly discover that it cannot survive on its own. This maybe the last chance to break its strangle hold over you. I say this as an United States citizen who has long studied the history of the United States and how it treats all other countres.

Outside of just how they got the skulls, I fail to see the problem. My friend's entire skeleton is on display, as will mine when I die. It will be among a collection of over 300 skeletons donated by their former owners, for use in study by doctors.

Note the lack of interest about the Comfort women and any children that they bore during that time. Not much as actually changed in our modern me-too age. As for a statue to Slavery, why not as it never ended. After all the thirteenth amendment does not affect forced labor in our prisons that puts ordinary labor out of jobs. Consider our school to prison pipeline we have for Black students, and Hispanic students.

Or one could build the entire city with buildings two or three stories above ground, with the space below to create plentiful drainage. The sub-structure would be built solid enough to take the battering of such storms, even to let part of the water go under the city. The outer buildings could be built to take on both the wind and water pressure. Those barrier buildings could have walk ways for use during nicer weather. As to the extra cost, consider that building buildings that could surive the more powerful storms is a lot less expensive that tearing down the ruins and rebuilding from scratch. Buildings can be designed more rounded to encourage winds to flow around them rather than squared off and being battered by the wind. Same could be curving the walls up from the bottom as well for the same reason, to encourage the wind or the surf to go around them.

I am amused at Trump if that was his choice of words. I am a bit older than the President, and while I know of Pearl Harbor, having heard about it from my father and studied bout it is my school history, I certainly do not actually remember Pearl Harbor as I was born almost four years later. But never try to figure out whatever this President means by what he spits out of his mouth, as even he does not know what he means when he says something. Watch for him no to clam that he never said it, that to is common when he gets caught making embarrassing statements.

I suspect the drop in Births is much the same in Japan as it is in the United States. The cost of living continues to climb faster than wages, so fewer people can afford to raise a child any more.

The birth rate has dropped in the United States to below replacement level, and even those births are coming later in life such as the thirties and forties, when they used to be in the early twenties. But today fewer people can afford a place to live on the salaries available and even some working people are now homeless, and the number grows each day.

Meanwhile programs designed to help low income families are being cutaway. So how can the poor afford to have a family any more?

Perhaps Okinawa is tired of playing the Occuppied Country that it has played since the end of World War II. Having foreign troops for seventy years can get tiresome. I was there in 1966 as a Marine and I have no problem seeing why they might be rather tired of US troops. Why not let the rest of Japan share the wear and tear for a change. Okinawa suffered one of the worst single battles of the war, and they never wanted to be part of Japan either.

What is the law in Japan if you make your partner co-owner of everything property, vehicles, and assets. Here in the states co-ownership agreements make wills unnecessary according to my lawyer. Now some might want a will for other things, like the right to get the death certificate.

Actually, you don't need the tourists, just their money. So do a Go Fund Me for Okinawa. I remember Okinawa, but of course from fifty years ago. I understand the problems of being a place of a lot of young military, not to mention that they must feel like it is a Army of Occupation that has been there forever. Not too mention that every military base ends up as a Hazardous Waste site over the years.

The Trump Tower did not have a sprinkler system. Trump fought against the bill to require it, then claimed he would spend three million to install a system, then never did install one. This is the second fire there this year.

I have a different view, as once I got back from the Viet Nam War, I could no longer play the political games at work, though I had been able before to some extent. I am just not a social person, so that I rarely make friends, nor keep them for long. So finally I gota letter from afriend to work with him digging agates. Did not pay much, but it also did not cost much to work out of a VW bus. Most important was I had a lot of time on my own as my friend was mostly a solitary person as well. I now own my own property and my home is my shop so it pays its own costs. Still it lets me live on my own except for an occasional customer,so Istill havemy freedom, do nothaveto fit in and enjoy living mostly on my own out in the boonies. Not every one is designed to be social, and to conform. They simply can't do it and survive. Not all of them are lucky enough to figure mostly how to live on their own. My younger brother with similar problems, but stayed in the city failing at holding jobs finally committed suicide. Could have been me if my friend had not asked me to go mining with him. We need a place in society for outsiders to survive in. I am still not social and have no desire to be social. Meeting and greeting is fine, starting conversations with strangers is not a problem, but maintaining friendships is too much effort, and does not work for me.

By the way I will watch it when it gets on DVD. I have watched a fair number of basically Black based movies and have enjoyed the difference in point of view.

Peple seem to forget thatt he majority of people in Okanawa never wanted the American military bases there. So try to imagine what it is like to have a foreign military of occupation in you area for for 78 years and have no say so about what goes on. Then you might understand that most who do not make money off the bases are not liking it much, especially having young men looking at their daughters like whores.

Remember that closed American military bases always turn out to be toxic waste dumps. Ask the Fillippinos about the bases that we closed there are hear the full horror story

As a Marine Vietnam veteran, now nearly 72, I have no bad feelings about this man, any more than I have no bad feelings for the anti-war crowd. In a war there are no good guys,only bad and worse and the longer the war, the worse the soldiers on both sides get. The war taught me a lot as a conservative and trusting youth so that I will never trust any war we get into.

Remember 3,000,000 people died in Vietnam, most of them killed by use. Yes the other side also have blood on their hands. As I said there are no good guys in any war.

A very old saying is, That the first victim of war, is TRUTH." To get us to support a war, our government, like all governments, will lie to us about the reasons for the war, about our alleged goals, and about the alleged enemy. In fact lying is considereda ligitimate tactic of war by our Defense Department, including lying to us ordinary citizens as much as needed to maintain the war. Nothing has changed and it is still true in our present wars,whether it is wars we know abour orthat are fought in secret to hide from us. As I said all governments do this to get into war and to keep it going. This is equally true of terrorist groups and militias in various parts ofthe world.

Just a wild thought. We have had terrorism by jet airliner, terrorism by bomb, terrorism by truck. Could we be seeing terrorism by ship

Ah, reminds me of my childhood, Duck and Cover. It was totally uselessthen and even more so now. Why not be honest, and tell the kids the lucky ones will be those that die in the blast. It is those that survive that will be miserable and possibly wish they were dead. In high school they could read from medical studies that the US government did on the survivors and what it was like. And that was only two small bombs.

We are talking about possible world wide nuclear war and that will not be survivable for most of, if not all of, the worlds humans. Just let one idiot fire one missile, and it quickly gets out of control as the United States, Russia, and China quickly follow their defense treaties with their various allies.

Remember Russia and the United States have already had 8 close calls of nearly starting and nuclear war. As long as any nuclear bomb exists, as long as any delivery system exists, we will live under the threat of extinction.

As Japan is learning there are limits to how much radiation you can clean up. Any amount over long exposure is dangerous. Even radon gas, from our now well sealed homes, can kill you over time.

One question, was he good looking enough to make watching enjoyable for some people? [Grin]

I am left to wonder what is the value of evacuation drills, in case of nuclear strike, where you have a few minutes warning time at best, if you get any warning before it goes off. Reminds me of our old duck and cover exercises here in America back in the 50s. Looks like doing something, but accomplishing nothing of value at all in reality.

I have a variety of friends that permanently live in foreign countries. It works for them, much like our ancestors when they left their counties. That is my rule of thumb, if it works, it is probably right for the person. Same with changing citizenship, or having dual citizenship. Their business, none of mine.

I wonder how one makes a forsomethingneverdealth withbefore,that wehaveneitherthenecessary knowledgetodealwith,northetechnolog neede todoanythingabout. Remember that we have watched six years while they have made very little progress at clean up, or even slowing down the damage being done.

There is no way to ever clean up the area around Fukushima, just moving a bit of dirt around in the living areas, but not the surrounding countryside, which can wash and blow more radiation back into the living areas.

Anyone here that isw illing to move into the affected areas, knowing this, regardless of how cheap the prices might be.

Nor can most of the owners, who know that they can never sell that land and property that once they lived in, and could have sold fairly easy at one time.

This is the one case, on America being far from innocent in meddling with other countries, that I have to agree with Trump. This is a rare case of catching him telling the truth.