Destin Skye comments

Sven AsaiToday  01:30 pm JST

Laughable, they can't even defend borders from influx and city streets in their countries from all the crime and terror things that daily happen there. But now they want to meddle in Ukraine - Russia war? That's quite some numbers too big, isn't it.

That's the USA for you. They contradict themselves at every opportunity. I've read endlessly about how they cannot control their border, all of the politicians fighting over the border, and yet they think they can tell Russia what to do? I agree, it's laughable that they can do anything.

Orwell said it best in his tome, 'Homage to Catalonia' when he stated that democratic-socialism was the only sensible way to run a nation where everyone is equal and free and nobody owned any others as their master. Orwell was speaking from first-hand experience as a volunteer soldier during the Spanish Civil War. Many people also forget that there are different kinds of democracies so the question is rather hard to answer because a direct democracy of mob rule would be chaos and very bad.

I'm in the US for both holiday seasons and it really is shocking to see it up close rather than on the news we're all detached from. The USA has really degenerated into a third-world country! One of my friends here pointed out how they can't even get a job at a fast-food restaurant if they have a felony conviction, yet somehow someone can become president. It's crazy. Does the USA no longer respect laws, morals and decency? Every night here I've heard shootings. It's like a war zone between all the car alarms and gunfire every night. And this is in Austin, Texas!

With respect to social media like Meta, perhaps they should just block news from even being posted since they are a socializing network and not a journalism network. Meta's companies like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are simply virtual bars where everyone goes to get drunk off their personal bias. I am so glad that Asian social media companies are nothing like the American brands!

As a neutral, non-American observer, I have to say that I look forward to the party because I watched US politics for a year and noticed how his supporters all rallied around him calling him a "man of peace" and that they would be so glad to get rid of the "warmonger" Biden. But he will make it right with his NATO-hating supporters because attacking Greenland, a region of Denmark, will be an attack on NATO that will require a response via Article 5.

I agree with him. Ever since Benicio del Toro's masterpiece 'Che' was snubbed and ignored by both the Golden Globes and The Oscars, I find it exceedingly difficult to have any interest in the modern era of Hollywood being lorded over by American conservatism that sees nothing new or innovative, but simply just rehashing previously made movies and pretending it's something new. This is why Japan and Korea lead the way in entertainment in the 21st century!

The Tokyo German Village is a German-themed amusement park located in Sodegaura City. Germany and Japan have a shared history for much of the past two centuries and Germany is who we looked up to in basing the creation of a modern society on.

Similarly, the second-most consumed beer in the world is brewed in Qingdao, China by German immigrants during the period in which Germany had colonized a small part of the country. Germany never colonized Japan, but we both have a rich tradition of shared cultured.

North Korea will change its tune come January 2025 now that Trump said today that his first order of business will be meeting with North Korean leader Jim Jong-Un. This comes after weeks of forcefully rejecting meetings with US allies Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

It is refreshing to see America with a strong leader who doesn't bow down to despots like the previous guy did.

We already had SEATO until the USA's President Nixon sold us all so that he could schmooze up to China and use them as a lever against the USSR in the 1970s. Because of that, there's no longer any mutual defense pacts with Taiwan, let alone other Asian nations. At what point does America wake up and rectify its sins?

NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but it includes. the U.S., Turkey, etc., that are not North Atlantic countries. Will Ishiba's idea of the NATO-like alliance the same?

Umm, the USA is the depositary nation of NATO. What that means is, NATO is entrusted to America for which America cannot leave, nor can NATO exist without America. It was done so because of the events of WWII that I'm surprised that you have never heard about. All European nations were conquered, but one, the United Kingdom. Next time, they may not be so fortunate. As such, the Allied powers agreed to place NATO with the USA since an invasion of the USA by any nation is impossible.

As for Turkey, they control the strategic Bosphorus and Dardanelle Straits connecting the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas to the Black Sea controlled by Russia. No one can venture into or out of the other without Turkish permission. As such, NATO considers Turkey to be a strategic asset by which to hamper any war aspirations by Herr Putin.

I'm not even an American and I know this! Is school not taught anymore?

bass4funk, why the hapless futility? You know, like everyone here knows, that as soon as anyone sees your name, they downvote without even having to read your American Republican drivel.

You're not Japanese, you're not in Japan, you have shown you have absolutely no interest in anything Japan. And I am quite surprised the moderators at Japan Today have not simply banned you outright for being a brazen propagandist who takes money from the Kremlin as laid out in the Justice Department report.

Assange is not a journalist, he has never worked as a journalist, he's never even pretended to be a journalist, he never went to journalism school or even college. He is, however, a career criminal who was kicked out of his home country of Australia and is what caused him further trouble on the lam in Sweden where he committed a string of further crimes before committing the crime of the century in assisting Rupert Murdoch, his mentor, to get Vladimir Putin to overturn the 2016 election. That's a fact, and another undeniable fact is that I'm a better hacker than Assange and Snowden combined.

Legion of Doom

finally richToday  11:27 am JST

2017 to 2021.

The peaceful years when the "russian collusion" was everything we had to worry about.

That's exactly what broke America. Russians in the Oval Office tending to their Employee of the Year™ Donald Trump™. It seems that Mr. Trump never met a grift he wouldn't pursue.

I must say, I read this with the amusement of having read hundreds of articles about angry Americans claiming their government is spying on them while at the same time the private corporations in America steal everyone blind and store their data for infinity. I also have enjoyed reading about Edward Snowden who stole from the government and then turned everything over to private companies. He seems to be about as credible as Lucifer giving a sermon in an American church.

Speaking of Lucifer, then there's Trump who had the American legal system hand ever-increasing power to these private corporations while he himself said he distrusted his own appointees and his own military. As an outsider, I find all of this so fantastical that I have to wonder why Hollywood has not made a blockbuster movie about all of this farce. Is that the correct term in English?

"Some" being the operative word.

One such example would no doubt be the 1965 Ferrari 250 GTO. One of the most sought after and copied sports cars in the world.

Elon Musk despises free speech and all things Libertarian. What Elon Musk engages in is 'Me Speech'. He creates an echo chamber of like-minded individuals who play-up his drug-induced ideas. He stifles all dissent and will ban someone for any criticism of him.

It is duly noted that the Axis power of Russia still remains as the only nation to not recognize the end of WWII and still refuses to sign any treaties to that effect.

Perhaps the best Games ever! From the opening ceremony to the closing. Way, way better than the farce we were forced to watch in Sochi.

I have studied my share of western philosophers and theorists, and one whose words and warnings stand out is an English, enlightenment-era philosopher named John Locke. I'll begin with his simple quote and expand from there.

"As usurpation is the exercise of power which another has a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to."

I dislike the concept that one person can control so much of others' lives in this day and age, through everything from what the person can be shown with regard to news, or entertainment, or even mundane things like shopping.

I dislike only being shown things which only they want me to see, I aspire to be as well-read and well-informed as I possibly can be, whether it is discussing the topics of the day or simply planning a product purchase. I feel that when media companies of every kind have the power to attempt to influence my decision on something, that is when they have crossed the line into tyranny and are engaging in conduct that no one should have a right to, as John Locke stated in the quote above.

Thus, I waste none of my time on so-called 'influencers' that are all over the Internet by the millions. I prefer, instead, to do my own analysis, research and judgement as to what is best for me. That is my power of individual liberty.

This is why coffee prices have been through the roof over the last 2-3 years. Bean farms in South America have been getting ravaged by climate change so much that one of them, a 4th generation farm, is attempting an eco-solution by growing the coffee beans in shaded areas with forest canopies and even switching some fields to a more drought-resistant crop of coffee bean which is less desired but one which guarantees a larger harvest to offset the Arabica losses that are much more environmentally sensitive. Vietnam has also been suffering as well, and they are one of Asia's biggest coffee exporters.

If New Zealand thinks that relying on 1850s technology is going to save them then they've already entered another Dark Age.

Why would Israel be invited in the first place? They know nothing of nuclear strikes. Also, in 1944, Israelis led by Menachim Begin made a formal declaration of war against the Allies and continued to fight the Allies until 1948. The King David Hotel Massacre was part of that was against Britain and the Allies and remains controversial to this day with NATO nations barred from attending the victory ceremony Israels holds every year at the site of the massacre.

I think this is a double-standard. Remember when Facebook sold everyone's personal data to Cambridge Analytica that was working for Russia's intelligence services?

Why, then, was Facebook not forced to be sold due to national security reasons?

SeapigJuly 27  07:36 pm JST

I certainly don’t think that everything Japan does is super but I have to agree that your “madness” remark is either a “strange take”, jealousy, or that you think “everything Japan does is terrible” if you’re alluding to the number of world heritage sites in Japan. You do realize that the number of world heritage sites in Japan doesn’t even put Japan in the top 10 by number when compared to all other countries.

If you comment is the world heritage sites around the world are becoming a dime a dozen and is actually detracting from the value of the title then I agree, the world heritage foundation seems to have gone mad in designating everything as a world heritage site. There are now far too many around the world in my opinion.

The top 3 countries, Italy has 58, Russia will have 58 when it's remaining is approved, China has 56. But you single out Japan for criticism. Why? Why do you not criticize those other nations? Some of them have war memorials built in the modern era that are on the list and which have nothing to do with World Heritage. Another has their government offices on the listing, which again has nothing to do with World Heritage.

I'll agree that perhaps the World Heritage Centre designation of questionable sites has led to them becoming "a dime a dozen" as you stated, and I'll go further and state that some of the sites are even a mockery of World Heritage. But those are not being criticized, why only Japan's?

I was just reading about forced sterilization around the world and I have to say that I am shocked to read that in the United States, eugenics and forced sterilization are still legal. And that the last time Americans were forcibly sterilized was in 2020 when President Trump ordered the forced sterilization of all the women being held in detention in the American state of Georgia because they were Hispanic. It also says prior to that there are unknown thousands who were sterilized in other states after being separated from their children and their children forced to be adopted. How cruel America is!

rcchToday  10:32 am JST

Also, Piers Morgan was right when he said: “ Trump walked into the Republican National Convention like a UFC star. Biden meanwhile fumbles questions about his own incendiary rhetoric in the lead up to Saturday's shooting. “

The xenophobic, anti-Asian bigot Piers Morgan has never been correct about anything. He is a propagandist for the far right in both Britain and America.

bass4funkToday  07:53 am JST

X is the platform, has nothing to do with the individual posting nor does it have anything to do with the people in the video uttering these things, the only thing and what is fabulous about the platform is, liberals don’t have a monopoly anymore on Free speech unlike other platforms that will silence, ban or throttle you. So it’s reliable when it comes to allowing free speech.

Actually, Musk is against free speech. My account is suspended because I asked him why he didn't enforce free speech fairly between both sides in America. If Musk was for free speech, then he would have answered my question. Instead, he chose to prove his detractors right when they say he is using it as a vehicle for self-promotion and self-interest while snuffing out any opinions to the contrary.

JJEToday  07:33 am JST

Single most provable fact here is that the Kuril Islands are UN-recognized sovereign territory of the Russian Federation.

Being that Russia refused to fight Japan until less than a month before WWII ended, and having never fought a battle against the Japanese, they didn't have any rights to any land in Asia.

Furthermore, why weren't the islands given to the USA who fought both Germany and Japan while Russia was hiding for 4 years? The USA carried the Allies on their back and the Allies would not have won without the USA. Perhaps Putin should repay the USA's favor by ceding to the USA all land east of Moscow.

Anything less is an injustice.

Every power has a limited time..

Russia, which is more than twice the age of the United States, definitely has very limited time remaining. Putin will get his wish in being the last ruler of Russia before it ceases to exist. Then the world will be better off. Then Kamchatka can be returned to Japan, it's historical owner.

By chance, did you know that in 1920 Lenin sought to provoke a war between the United States and Japan by offering a 60-year lease of Kamchatka to American capitalists to exploit? Ultimately, the USA foolishly rejected the offer. When WWII happened, the USA would have been given permanent ownership of Japan through its saving of Russia from annihilation, as historically happened, but then the USA would have handed Kamchatka back to Japan because the USA has never been as greedy as Putin.

Unsurprising since Russia was then, and still is, an Axis power than has never atoned for nor repented for its many war crimes and atrocities it committed in WWII. Naturally, the Axis power of Russia still considers itself to be in a state of war with both Japan (Russia waited until August 8, 1945 to finally leave the Axis Tripartite treaty less than a month prior to Japan's surrender due to US and British action. Russia waiting till the last minute for easy land grabs. For example, the current Korean Question of hositlities between North and South is because Russia demanded half of the Korean Peninsula despite the fact not a single Russia soldier died defending the Korean peoples. It was an outrage then, it's still an outrage now. Whether the name is Stalin or Putin the results are the same, betrayal and oppression.

People are quick to rush out the excuse, "A gun by itself has never shot anyone."

And yet, an unarmed human by itself has never shot anyone either.

Maybe we should separate humans and guns so that one cannot use the other to shoot someone.