Japan Today

Desert Tortoise comments

Posted in: Top Chinese official tours Thai-Myanmar border to highlight crackdown on scam centers See in context

They are still a main supplier of the Tatmadaw.

No they are not. Myanmar makes most its mines, rockets and warships locally though their biggest amphibious ship is from South Korea. Small arms are a mixed bag of European, Russian, South African, American and Chinese weapons. Most aircraft are from Russia and a few are European, artillery is a mixed bag of European, South Korean, South African, Chinese and Russian, as well as legacy US and British field artillery. China is not a primary arms supplier.

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Posted in: Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash See in context

The FAA and the air traffic control system has never recovered from the 1981 PATCO strike and subsequent firing of over 11,000 air traffic controllers. The job is so stressful, the pay not that great and the six day work weeks such that the FAA cannot keep people and thus the number of controllers has never recovered from before that strike. Now this just makes the situation even worse. Good luck recruiting new hires. Oh wait, there is a hiring freeze too.

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Posted in: Senior Taliban officials make 1st known visit to Japan since takeover See in context

Disgusting to see Japan hosting such barbaric terrorists. Shame on Japan.

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Posted in: Judge expected to rule in 24 hours in case that aims to sharply curtail Musk's DOGE See in context

DT and team knows this will happen and must have planned on how to expose these corrupt judges, this time its coming.

Sad that defending the US Constitution and the laws as written is now considered to be "corrupt". The founders of the US, the people who wrote the US Constitution intended for the Judicial Branch to serve as a restraint on the excesses of the other two branches of government. That is fundamental to the separation of powers codified in the Constitution. To attack the Judicial Branch is to attack the very foundation of the US and its laws. It is shameful but there it is, for all to see, a full frontal attack on the the US Constitution.

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Posted in: Judge expected to rule in 24 hours in case that aims to sharply curtail Musk's DOGE See in context

Absent Congressional authorization DOGE is illegal. Absent Senate confirmation Elon Musk has no authority over anything. That is how the US Constitution works. Congress and only Congress has the authority to create or eliminate Executive Branch departments and the Senate must confirm by a majority vote all appointed officials with policy making authority which means the heads of Executive Branch departments. The whole of DOGE is completely illegal under existing law and the Constitution.

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Posted in: Mexico says it will sue Google if it insists on using 'Gulf of America' See in context

They can do that, but Google has some of the deepest pockets in the planet As of December 31, 2024, Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, reported total assets amounting to $450.26 billion. This represents an increase from $402.39 billion in 2023.

Mexico and other nations could simply ban Google Maps unless they restore the name Gulf of Mexic. No big loss. There are other similar websites such as ArcGIS available.

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Posted in: Delta plane flips on landing at Toronto airport, injuring 18 See in context

Someday airports will learn and start heating runways.

Sigh. Where is all the energy to do this coming from and how much does it add to your airline ticket? Snow melting cables adds $10 - $25 per square foot to the cost of the concrete or asphalt paving. After installation even something as small as a driveway cost around $120 - $250 month to heat. Scale all this up to the size of an international airport along with maintenance costs which are also going to be extensive and you start to see why airports are not heating runways.

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Posted in: Top Chinese official tours Thai-Myanmar border to highlight crackdown on scam centers See in context

Now can we get China to stop backing the disgusting Tatmadaw?

They are not friends or even allies. The Chinese back two of the opposition armies arrayed against the Tatmadaw. Take some time to learn what is going on in Myanmar. One of those opposition armies are from a tribe that is ethnic Chinese. China has backed them for a very long time because they guard mines run by the Chinese extracting rare earth minerals for China's industries. The Tatmadaw grew so frustrated with them that in 2009 the Myanmar Air Force conducted airstrikes inside China on sites operated by that opposition army. Many of the scam centers mentioned in the article were funding the Tatmadaw until rebel forces ran the Tatmadaw force out and closed the scam centers. That hurt the Tatmadaw financially. If you recall one of the stated reasons for the Tatmadaw's most recent coup was the accusation that the ruling party under Suu Kyi was too close to the Chinese.

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Posted in: Singapore court finds opposition party leader guilty of lying to parliament See in context

I only wish the US had a law that prevented liars in office. Democracy depends on transparency and truthful records.

There is a good reason the US Constitution has the "speech and debate clause" where legislators cannot be sued or prosecuted for anything they say in Congress. If it were otherwise law enforcement and the judiciary would be used, as they are in Singapore, to silence critics. Free speech demands otherwise. Singapore is a totalitarian state that puts on a smiley face to the world but deep down the PAP are as rotten and despicable as the CCP, and Singapore is what communist China aspires to be but larger. I personally want none of it. I too have been to Singapore but it didn't take more than a couple of days there to realize how heavily censored everything including maps are and how rigidly the place is ruled. No thanks.

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Posted in: Singapore court finds opposition party leader guilty of lying to parliament See in context

This is how the thugs who run Singapore have long silenced their critics. They don't "disappear" them or send them to re-education camps. They just sue them into abject poverty. It has been thus for decades in Singapore.

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Posted in: Delta plane flips on landing at Toronto airport, injuring 18 See in context

Delta: Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive

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Posted in: Trump keeps tariffs drumbeat going, with autos targeted next See in context

I'm no economist but the US has the most desirable bonds in the world still and I assume those purchases are heavily involved in the trade deficit. Also we allowed China to crater our manufacturing base causing the trade imbalance to really spike.

But as soon as those T-Bills start to look undesirable and buyers look for other investments the US will be in very deep doo-doo. That almost happened in early 2008 btw. Arabs were putting their money in sports and auto racing teams and ignoring the please of US diplomats to buy US T-bills. Then the Great Recession hit and made T-Bills look attractive again. But... a day could come when investors decide a US T-bill ain't such a good investment.

We didn't "allow" China. The policy was established during the Reagan administration and was targeted at Japan and the other "Asian Tigers". It was part of the battle for hearts and minds during the Cold War. The story was that elected government and a capitalist economy gave people a better standard of living than Communism. To make that true the US made a deliberate decision to promote trade with allies in order to develop their economies and bring them prosperity while spending like crazy to increase the size of the US military.

This made sense in the context of the Cold War but it is long past its sell by date. The threat by Japan way back in the late 1980s, made publicly by the Japanese PM on Japanese TV, to sell their holdings of US Treasuries got everyone's attention. We studied this in grad school pretty much in real time. The US modeled what would happen if Japan made good on the threat, decided it would do more damage to Japan than to the US and basically dared Japan to do it. The Japanese must have come to a similar conclusion and pulled back. It did however force the Clinton Administration and US Congress to confront their deficit spending and by 1999 the US ran a very small budget surplus. Same thing in the FY2000 budget.

But to blame the situation on China is just scapegoating them for the bad policies of the US. But the 2000s it had become established ideology among some on the right that the solution to every problem was a tax cut, and that is what happened in 2001, ballooning the national debt again. That had nothing to do with China. That was politicians on the right believing the lie Art Laffer was peddling that cutting tax rates increases tax revenues. All the econometric data for any country you want to study contradicts that claim but it became sort of a sacred received wisdom that motivates policy makers to this day as you see with the current ardor to cut taxes once again. If Congress was serious about reducing the deficit they would make some well thought out tax increases to go along with spending reductions. Eliminating the cap on the Social Security payroll tax for example would affect a very small proportion of US taxpayers but go a long way towards closing the Social Security Fund shortfall. Taxing capital gains as earned income is another thing Congress could do to reduce the deficit but instead they blabber about eliminating income taxes on tips and overtime. Don't blame China for that. The Chinese see the opportunities handed them by a stupid US Congress and predictably act in their own best interest. Eliminating annual deficits would eliminate those opportunities to game the system and it entirely up to the US to do this and entirely the US blame if they don't. Don't blame China for that.

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Posted in: Trump keeps tariffs drumbeat going, with autos targeted next See in context

Countries upset with A for imposing tariffs might find it in their interest to stop buying A's debt. When that happens A is in a world of hurt. The value of their bonds would crash spiking interest rates in the process and you have the makings of a big recession for A.

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Posted in: Trump keeps tariffs drumbeat going, with autos targeted next See in context

The US trade deficit is entirely self inflicted and can only be corrected by internal policy changes.

In a perfect free trade regime, if country A was running a trade deficit with countries B, C and D, the currency of country A would be piling up in B, C and D due to the fact that B, C and D were selling more to A than they were buying from A. By the same token the currencies of B, C and D would become increasingly scarce in A. Money is like any other commodity in that when it is in surplus it looses value while currencies in scarcity would increase in value. A's trade deficit with B, C and D should cause the value of A's currency to decline while the values of the currencies of B, C and D would increase relative to that of A. That would change prices to make the goods from B, C and D relatively more expensive while making the goods from A relatively less expensive. In this manner in a free trade regime with freely floating currency values trade imbalances should be self correcting over time. Long term trade deficits and surpluses should not persist.

But A has short circuited this feed back loop by running huge annual budget deficits and financing these by selling their debt to the world in the form of bonds. Trade partners B, C and D buy the bonds from A, and this soaks up all the excess of A's currency earned from their trade surpluses with A. A has been ok with this arrangement because they get relatively cheap consumer goods from B, C and D, so inflation stays low when persistent annual budget deficits should drive inflation ever higher. B, C and D love it because by buying those bonds they keep the value of As currency high while keeping their own currency values low making their goods attractive to buy while making As goods perennially expensive.

The one and only way A can ever climb out of its trade deficit with its trade partners B, C and D is to run budget surpluses, pay down its debt and buy back its bonds. That is the only way it will ever happen. Piling on tariffs is tantamount to urinating directly into a gale.

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Posted in: Rohingya woman helping community members to adapt to life in Japan See in context

The Rohingyas are originally from Bangladesh and speak the language.

The Rohingya are from Myanmar. There were their own kingdom until the British colonists crushed them. They had a degree of autonomy after Burma gained independence but in the past decade they have been subject to a genocide led by militant Buddhist monks and the Burmese Army seeking to exterminate Muslims. Many fled to Bangladesh to escape death at the hands of the Burmese Army but they are not originally from Bangladesh nor do they speak their language. The Rohingya have their own language.

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Posted in: Trump administration fires CDC 'disease detectives' as bird flu fears rise See in context

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-cancels-science-reviews-at-nih-worlds-largest-public-biomedical/

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2025/02/03/how-trumps-executive-orders-are-disrupting

https://apnews.com/article/trump-academic-research-funding-cuts-lawsuit-nih-fcdad42b9623305dd7ad8db4cff5fc1d

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Posted in: U.S. retail sales plunge along with temperatures in January after a bustling holiday season See in context

Sales always drop off after the Christmas and New Year's holiday. That is actually normal.

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Posted in: After scrapping Honda merger, Nissan may struggle to find new partner See in context

Executives at other auto firms don't want to get Ghosned. Merging with Nissan is bad juju.

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Posted in: Trump administration fires CDC 'disease detectives' as bird flu fears rise See in context

When this next pandemic arrives, and it will, the US will have only itself to blame.

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Posted in: Japan in contact with U.S. over tariffs; says it will respond appropriately See in context

I believe the US trade deficit in goods (big minus) and services (smaller plus) is about 1 trillion USD. This compares with global trade, which is 33 trillion.

Huh? No, not even close. For 2024 the US International Trade in Goods and Services was $266.5 Billion in exports, $364.9 Billion in imports yielding a $98.4 Billion trade deficit.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis; U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, February 5, 2025

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Posted in: Japan in contact with U.S. over tariffs; says it will respond appropriately See in context

Applying tariffs to imported products from Japan isn't going to have much effect on the trade balance. Over 70% of Japanese vehicles sold in the U.S. are made in the United States. 

The value of the cars made in the US by Japanese manufacturers are counted in the US GDP, not Japans and are US domestic products, not imports. Their value has never been part of the trade balance between the US and Japan. Some Toyota models have more domestic US content than the cars sold by any notionally "American" auto manufacturer.

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Posted in: Judges to consider barring Musk's DOGE team from several government agencies See in context

Isn’t it a legitimate question for let’s say the IRS to investigate?

a person whose only employer has ever been the US government at $170,000 per year, how can they have 30 million dollars in assets?

let’s see some tax returns.

Way ahead of you. Musk responded to a post on X claiming former USAID chief Samantha Power earned $23 million between 2020 and 2024. Power received a salary of $183,100 while working as administrator of USAID, according to federal records, and there’s no evidence suggesting she benefitted from her position to the tune of millions of dollars. In 2020, Power disclosed royalties and sales from her books, none of which exceeded $1,000, in addition to positions in several exchange-traded funds and mutual funds, including some holdings with Vanguard valued up to $1 million. In 2024, Power disclosed a retirement fund valued at up to $1 million and other assets held in ETFs and mutual funds. Over four years, some of Power’s assets rose in value, but many of them were mutual funds that track broad stock market indexes and there isn’t any evidence that growth had anything to do with her job at USAID.

A career civil servant ought to be able to save a lot more than $1 million in the Thrift Savings Plan, which works like a 401k. She probably, like me had a home and some money she inherited from her parents that she invested. I bought rental properties with my inheritance to supplement my retirement income. That doesn't make me corrupt. Elon Musk is just lying about things, as increasingly seems to be his habit.

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Posted in: Judges to consider barring Musk's DOGE team from several government agencies See in context

Only an act of Congress can legally create a department in the executive branch and The Appointments Clause of the Constitution provides that those principal “officers” not expressly mentioned in the Constitution (i.e., individuals who exercise significant authority and report directly to the President), but “established by law,” must be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.  Congress has not even proposed legislation to create a Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk has never been confirmed by the Senate as it's head. It would be very hard, almost laughable, to argue he does not exercise significant authority within the Executive Branch.

I recall what happened the last time Jupiter was Pres and he tried to circumvent the Senate with a recess appointment. The courts ruled that everything his recess appointee did was illegal and void. I don't remember the department involved but I do remember the outcome.

I suspect one or more judges are going to rule that DOGE as currently organized is not a legal entity since Congress did not create it as the Constitution requires and because their leading members were not vetted and confirmed by the Senate.

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Posted in: Trump wants denuclearization talks with Russia and China See in context

The Oreshnik streaks to its target at 10 times the speed of sound, or Mach 10, “like a meteorite,” and claimed it was immune to any missile defense system.

Many IRBMs achieve speeds of Mach 10. Nothing new there. Pershing II was there in the early 1980s but that system was removed from service by the INF (Intermediate Nuclear Forces) treaty.

Ukraine does not have the kinds of systems that can engage this missile but SM-3 Block 2 and Arrow III are specifically designed to defeat such weapons.

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Posted in: Japan to showcase MSDF frigate in Australia as it bids for contract See in context

Samit, the frigates will be built in Australia so it won't tie down Japanese yards.

The bill you refer to in the US Senate will die in committee. The US government is trying to increase domestic shipbuilding capacity, not move it abroad. Last December Hanwha closed a deal to buy the old US Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia.

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Posted in: Vance tells Europeans that heavy regulation could kill AI See in context

Don't know about you but I am all for strangling AI.

But there is no money to be made that way and maybe too much of the body politic in the US is more about finding ways to make ever more money for those who are already fabulously wealthy that worrying about the lives of the great majority of Americans.

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Posted in: What would happen if Japan is attacked? See in context

They have been allies to the US since the end of the 19th century.

Laughable. Japan entered WWI to gain control of Germay's colonial holdings in the Pacific, such as Rabaul, the northern third of what is now Papua New Guinea, the Bismark Archipelago and other island possessions the Germans held. From the end or WWI onward the US Navy considered Japan to be its greatest likely adversary and began in earnest to develop what at the time were advanced naval propulsion systems (high pressure superheated dry steam power plants) and underway replenishment in addition to developing tactics to employ aircraft carriers during their annual fleet "problems". Don't forget the sinking of USS Panay on the Yangtze River by Japanese forces in 1937 and the calls even then to declare war on Japan, though the US was in no way ready to do so at that time. That act did however spur urgent fleet construction authorized by Congress.

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Posted in: Trump says he is serious about Canada becoming 51st state See in context

Flooding the zone with all kinds of preposterous BS.

It's like there is a giant sprinkler on the White House law spraying sewage thousands of miles in every direction. You end up feeling dirty no matter how you try to hide from it.

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Posted in: Trump says he is committed to owning Gaza, but could let Middle East states help rebuild See in context

One has to wonder how long the various Arab regimes could remain in control if the US were to take over the Gaza Strip and the Arab governments went along with it? I have to think that if the US did do it, most Arab regimes would feel compelled by simple self preservation to reduce diplomatic relations with the US and tell the US to leave its bases in the region at the very least. Anything less would probably lead to revolutions at home.

I could also see ICC cases being filed against US officials including the President for ethnic cleansing. It is a crime against humanity by every standard. It is the sort of thing that would require nations to break with the US or get dragged down themselves into crimes against humanity.

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Posted in: Trump says he is serious about Canada becoming 51st state See in context

uh huh and then it became 1848 and something kinda important happened.

Yeah, the US invaded Mexico on a phony pretext and took half of Mexico for themselves. Your basic illegal land grab. Pretty detestable actually.

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