Kuribozu comments

The extreme Right has invented a fictitious fantasy of otherwise normal children being led towards changing their gender by some imaginary nefarious cabal of evil left wingers. This just isn't happening. What IS happening is that a very small number of children are born with intersex characteristics, and the parents of these innocent, vulnerable children, together with healthcare professionals and, yes, caring teachers and safe schools, need to take care of these children. This is not an issue for charlatan politicians or bomb-throwing, Qanon sociopaths to adjudicate. Leave the innocent children and their parents alone!

The radical right has latched on to yet another fake 'crisis' to stir up passions for its own benefit, regardless of who they hurt. Trans people are not a "problem" and they should be left alone, not scapegoated and traumatized by the government. Parents of innocent, vulnerable trans children and their doctors should be left alone to decide the best care, not forbidden certain treatments by fear-mongering, anti-science bigots. This whole issue has been created for and adopted by the QAnon crowd. Their stupidity and cruelty IS a problem. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, look up pizzagate.

"Emperor of what, exactly?"

The Emperor of Japan, of course.

I think the question really is, of what empire is he the emperor? The Empire of Japan ended almost 80 years ago.

There are quite a few 'new religions' in Japan that employ similar 'malicious practices' that could just as easily be dealt with in the same way as the Unification Church. Koufuku no Kagaku (Happy Science) is a prominent one with a truly bizarre cosmology. They've even spun off their own political party (Koufuku Jitsugen-to) that seems like it wants to be the Japan branch of MAGA.

Trying to scare everyone so they get more funding and line their pockets.

It's revealing that those who make this argument are actually themselves heavily influenced by big money industries like tobacco, oil and gas, who want to continue lining their own pockets. Those profit-driven interests have been unmasked over and over again for deliberately manipulating scientific data and public opinion to obscure real threats to human health, and the health of the planet and all our co-inhabitants.

North Korea has about 20 Romeo-class submarines, which are powered by diesel-electric engines and are obsolete by modern standards, with most other countries operating them only as training vessels.

Not sure where the writer gets his information from but diesel electric are still the standard for most countries.

The writer was referring to Romeo-class submarines, which are indeed obsolete, not diesel-electric powered submarines in general.

There are dozens of "new religions" in Japan, many of which appear to be as abusive as the Unification Church. For example, 幸福の科学 (Happy Science) has enriched its leaders through similar abusive methods. They startrf their own political party, 幸福実現党 (Happiness Realization Party), and actively promote both their cult leadership and MAGA-style political views all over Youtube.

Two weeks ago Ukraine was exposed using North Korean manufactured munitions - specifically GRAD rockets.

Ukraine has also been 'exposed' using Russian manufactured munitions, captured from the Russian invaders. That is very likely the same source of the NK Grad rockets - they were captured from the Russian invaders. In other words, NK is already selling Russia munitions.

It's curious why JT attracts such a large contingent of global warming deniers. Some undoubtedly derive a sense of their own worth by adopting a 'contrarian' position on most things in life, play at being 'intellectual' and have become adept at cherry picking data to obscure what's happening before their own eyes. Some seem motivated by their identification with political tribes, or antipathy to progressivism. Either way, it won't help them or us when the water in the pot all boils away.

"He envisages a Trump-style shake-up of politics, saying without it "we won't be able to transform politics or the country"."

Trump's "style" of shaking up politics in the US has been nothing but destructive. The damage he continues to inflict on the US and its democratic institutions should be a sobering warning to all wannabe Trumps around the world, especially in countries like Japan where a pluralistic, liberal democracy has delivered freedom, security and prosperity for many decades. I hope the Japanese people aren't fooled by Baba and his ilk.

Ron seems, by and large, a moderate who appears to let his actions speak louder than his words.

His actions include targeting vulnerable children and their families with despicable attacks for political gain, just because they were not born 100% male or female. These children already have the highest suicide rates in the US, partly because they experience so much bullying. And Ron is giving the green light to bully them MORE, under the cover of government authority. He is whitewashing the teaching of history, perversely turning the real problem of racism into an Orwellian formulation where it's supposedly Whites who suffer from unacceptable discrimination. He is banning books, forcing women to give birth against their will, and picking fights with private enterprises because he doesn't like their 'woke' politics. So much for freedom. So much for "moderation."

All that the US and NATO had to do was mind their own business. Russia didn't have to be a threat. They just want to be left alone and sell gas.

That is clearly not the case, as Russia was selling plenty of gas prior to invading Ukraine, including to NATO and EU. No other countries were bothering them. No, Russia didn't want to see Ukraine continue to modernize, liberalize and democratize, which would present Russia's own people with an example that would threaten the oligarchs and kleptocrats who run the whole gulag operation. The threat to Russia was the Ukrainian people's desire to govern themselves freely without being oppressed by Russia, not some vague notion of 'siding with the west.'

And all of this could've been avoided had NATO not pressured former Soviet-blocs into siding with the west.

This is your problem. You equate the desire to escape a brutal, oppressive, backwards, psychotic, murderous kleptocracy with 'siding with the west.' That's pure Kremlin propaganda, cover for Putin to expand his repressive dictatorship beyond his borders using his Orc army, killing and maiming as he goes.

If Russia had an anti-US alliance with Canada to host Russian missiles pointed at the US, the US would invade Canada immediately.

Another Kremlin line, intended to confuse and distract. Canada is a free democracy, where human and civil rights, rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, etc., are enshrined and strong. It's pure delusional fantasy to imagine Canadians would be attracted by the Russian model, let alone enter an alliance with the murderous psychopath Putin to oppose another liberal democracy. You and your minders can't stand the idea that liberal democracies are actually attractive examples to people around the world, and that societies on Russia's periphery might actually do as much as they can to avoid falling into Putin's loving embrace.

Her arrival comes more than halfway through President Joe Biden's term

Actually, her arrival comes about a third of the way through Joe Biden's term. It may be a small point, but why does a paid AFP journalist write a line like this without checking (or caring) if it's correct? And why does their editor let it remain?

There's an interesting historical parallel here. China is relentlessly pushing its authoritarian model across the Pacific, reaching further and further into the neighborhoods of the US, Australia and New Zealand. Now that they've established a 'base' in the Solomons, the west if finally starting to take notice and push back. Similar dynamic played out in 1942 when Imperial Japanese forces pushed as far as to set up a base on Guadalcanal in the Solomons, right where Honiara is today, causing the US to finally hit back.

I discovered this pretty little park when riding my bike up to the river one weekend. I'm sure there are hundreds of similarly surprising and rewarding spots all around Tokyo. They really help to offset the less pleasant parts of Tokyo -- crowds, traffic, noise, etc.

bass4funk: You praise Pompeo, a man who served as the most loyal cabinet officer of the most destructive president the US has had in over a century. Pompeo supported the trashing of our alliances and the weakening of NATO, undermined our diplomats and intel services, and silently acquiesced in Trump's despicable groveling and hero worshipping of dangerous dictators like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin. All this led to where we are today. Putin was getting everything he wanted out of Trump, including tacit support for his takeover of Ukraine. Pompeo supported Trump in this. Thank God the US has a 'normal' president again, who has managed to reunify its allies to oppose tyranny. No thanks to Mike Pompeo.

bass4funk: But he helped kill two of the greatest terrorists in recent memory, good enough for me and good enough for the families that these people killed and did so unapologetically., now That’s a warrior.

Since Obama took out Bin Laden you'll no doubt be consistent with your lavish praise for the man who gave the order vs Pompeo who was not in the chain of command and simply basked in the glow of his boss.

That would be, hIs boss who still cherishes the 'love letters' he received from your North Korean threat, and who took the side of your 'crazy madman in Russia' over the unanimous assessments of his own intel people. The same intel people who found Bin Laden. You're all over the map.

Pompeo caused great harm to the US and the world. He was on the call when Trump tried to extort Ukraine's president by withholding needed defense aid, lied about it afterwards, consistently supported Trump's lies about this corrupt fiasco, all of which undoubtedly delighted Putin and other tyrants around the world. He threw his own ambassador to Ukraine under the bus, thus besmirching his office and his oath, just to please his demented boss. Even in recent weeks he has praised Putin. None of this made the US or the world safer. Whatever benefits he is getting from the US taxpayer are too much.

Theres more ice now than ever. We're good. Theyr'e good. We're all going to be just fine.

Yeah, uh.. no. We're not, and your 'data' is the very definition of cherry-picked and disingenuous.

We can dispense with your first reference, a publication whose name (NoTricksZone) conveys a sense of its reliability. (One commenter in the paper you referenced described it thusly: ...a blog where authors and commenters call the greenhouse effect a hoax and can’t do proper math …)

And you really should read all the way to the end of the other paper you reference. Here, let me help:

Climate projections forecast the total disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic by 2040, with the exception of the Last Ice Area. The Last Ice Area might represent the last refuge for ice-dependent species as the world warms.

I would say, nice try, but what you're trying to do isn't... nice.

I've been on the fence about whether the world should boycott the Beijing winter Olympics, but this breaks the camel's back. Boycott!

This move is shortsighted in the extreme, just one more malicious, incompetent stunt by Trump and his right wing crazies to put a thumb in the eye of longstanding US allies. Chinese journalists have already been squeezed in the US by having to register as government entities, which Japanese journalists are not required to do. This move is pointless, unless you think there's suddenly a dire need to restrict international reporting on the US by all countries, including free, democratic ones.

If anyone has experience getting the PCR test in the States 72 hours before returning to Japan please post your experience. I have been unable to find such a provider in Florida yet. I guess these travelers will have that problem as well.

I'm using a company called The Covid Consultants. They send you a package by Fedex, you spit into a packet, return it to them overnight, they get the result in 24 hours and email to you. You print it out and take it to the airport.