Laguna comments

I got a credit card at 18 and immediately ran into trouble. When I asked my (extremely rich) mother for help, she said, "Work it off."

That was the only lesson I needed, and I'm 60 now.

I'm getting long in the tooth. Many things which were daily activities years ago are now impossible. Giving up what one loves is difficult, but a wise man knows his limits. And after a lifetime of political service, Biden is a wise man.

Gorge Washington began the US tradition of bowing out after two terns, It later became a law.

The man is a true patriot and a hero.

So much for the "too old" argument. Nice to see the torch passed to a new generation. Not only is Harris well-qualified, she represents America.

Inevitable, but I'd like to add a point: small businesses tend to be owned by families who have owned them for generations. When the owner of a friend of mine went bankrupt, he committed suicide. There is a large difference between running a small business and working in the corporate world. Support is required.

Used to work there as a "seasonal" employee - Disney would mail me a letter asking of my availability during the busy summer months when I was on vacation and the park was packed, and I had a guaranteed summer job without having to look for one. But I was just a dumb summer kid looking for pocket money. The careerists there are the ones who keep the place running - without them, the wheels would promptly fly off the cart. And my childhood pocket money does not translate to a living wage in sky-high Orange County.

Pay your people, Disney, or soon you'll have no people left.

First and foremost is to communicate with your kids. Ensure a portion of time each day which you can devote to simply listening and speaking of topics which interest them.

My wife spoke mostly Japanese and I English, unless it was a crucial topic (or I was angry), in which case I spoke Japanese to ensure my point was taken. And there was no corporal discipline in this house (a break from my wife's childhood): instead, I'd sit seza in the genkan with the offender, draw out precisely the offense and how it was handled, and how a repeat might be avoided or handled better. That worked wonderfully - English became the language of logic and persuasion.

And read to your kids - A LOT. They'll make the connection between books and enjoyment, and when they're old enough, you can get the entire Dr Seuss collection and begin with "Cat In The Hat" - teaching a child to read is time-consuming and often frustrating, but if they've been read to frequently, they've got the concept down, which facilitates things greatly.

He's not "advising." He's "lobbying."

Glad that he'd had second thoughts and averted his demise. I've had my ups and downs now, the downs so low that I once considered suicide (overwork), but now that I'm older, I've stabilized. Trust me: things do get better with age.

Don't trust any seeming mitigation in Trump's remarks. He has been and will always be a fascist. A second Trump term would spell disaster for the US and US-Asia relations. As has often been said, when the US sneezes, Japan catches pneumonia.

Damn. I "liked" bass4funk's comment.

The US economy is currently the wonder of the world (funny how Biden doesn't get any credit for that), but it won't last forever. Likely sooner than later, the FRB will lower rates and the dollar will fall - to where is anyone's guess.

I've been here long enough that I remember the yen at 80/$. It was timely as I was raising kids and earning much and could buy lotsa US goods which, 30 years later, I still use.

But in the immortal words of a stock broker when asked of his prognostication of the market, he said, "It will fluctuate."

It's been pretty good in Kumamoto so far: LOTS of rain (I'm worried about the farmers) and cloudy days. 1glenn, I gotcha. I grew up a short distance from the beach, and my mother didn't even have air conditioning.

Dan Quale, funny enough, had vastly more experience than JD Vance.

Ukraine is a subject of intense interest for Japan due to its similarity to a possible CCP invasion of Taiwan. Making the conflict international sets a precedent that could well benefit Japan in future - not to mention altruism.

There's politics and there's law. Each has their proper place in the US system. Whether Trump's removal of documents was legal is the question, and should be decided in a courtroom, not in a political forum where the answer comes down simply to partisan numbers.

What a bunch of clowns the current Supremes are. No wonder they're polling lower than any branch of government or political party in trustworthiness.

finally rich - LOL!

Man, I hate how some turn a showcase of sport into that of nationalism. Enjoy the athletics and the stories behind the athletes! I grew up in the US a stones-throw from Mexico, lived in China and Taiwan for several years, and have made my home in Japan. Which country am I supposed to support?

Google all the negative things Vance has said regarding Trump and you'll find a lot. That Trump chose him despite that is surprising - but Vance drank the Kool-Aid about a year ago and has since become quite slavish. And he's from a swing state. Should anything happen to a President Trump, he would be a horrendous replacement.

...and my drinking habits, unfortunately. "Oh, (name), you're buying beer again?!"

Alan Smithee, Ah, the looking-at-the-spouse gambit! How many times I'd gone through an entire conversation with some employee, my wife at my side, without ever making eye contact, questions directed at my wife and answers coming from me! Sadly for all parties involved, my wife has succumbed to cancer, so now they have to deal with me on my own. (But I seldom venture out of my neighborhood, where everyone knows me by name.)

Fully autonomous lethal weapons? Bite the hand....

I'm dealing with an issue now with City Hall. To my contact, I have explained multiple times that my children were born and raised in Japan and attended local schools K-12, though they went to college in the States (culture shock!). He can't seem to get that through his head and asks me repeatedly, "Can your children speak Japanese?"

I've learned not to get frustrated but amused. What a small world these people must live in!

The first Social Security Card number was issued in 1936. I'll bet most all American citizens have it memorized. There is no need to physically show a card - I lost mine decades ago - but the ability to produce the number on the spot is sufficient. https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/firstcard.html#:~:text=The%20best%20we%20can%20say,first%20day%20they%20became%20available.

"epoch-making"

It will be by default.

The first epoch was securing China against foreign encroachment. The second was Mao's insane Great Leap Forward, followed by a third trying to recover from that. The fourth was Mao's insane Cultural Revolution, which only ended with his death in 1976. The fifth was trying to recover from that, which resulted in the sixth, the dictatorship of Xi Jinping.

But Xi has made a devil's bargain: as long as the CCP showed results in improved living standards, the people would not involve themselves in the rule of the country. Clearly, the CCP is no longer able to fulfil its side of the bargain. That leaves the people free to do as they wish.

Desperate times in China, beset with so many challenges with no recourse. It is indeed "epoch-making."

I believe 99.9% of the people of American are more than capable to filter out the crazy bonkers conspiracy theories.

Itsonlyrocknroll, the frightening thing behind the majority of Trump's cohort is that the KNOW 90% of what he says is BS. It's that they find that a feature, not a bug. The same goes regarding online comments.

Whether it's "trying to get a rise out of the liberals," and anti-social attitude, or drawing clicks to monetize a page, the right wing creates their own vacuum chamber that they know is false but enjoy anyway. It's kinda like they're visiting Disneyland, day in and day out.

The problem with this is that what might have started as sheer rhetoric has a tendency to become reality. I hope we don't have to see how much of Project 25 becomes a reality.

”Honestly”? No. You want him to be a fascist to fit your preconceptions.

No. Trump says the quite part out loud. He said he'd be a dictator on day one. He conjures existential threats to America from non-White immigrants and an expanding cast of internal enemies. He calls the thugs who are in prison for assaulting the Capitol on Jan. 6 “political prisoners.” He praises autocrats such as Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin who depend on propaganda, corruption, and repression to stay in power, going so far as to vocally regret that the constraints on US presidential power do not allow him to act similarly (well, at least didn't until the recent Supreme Court ruling).

"Fascist" comes from the Italian "fasces," meaning "bundle (of rods)," referring to the slavish, violent gangs these people organized. Think Mussolini. Think MAGA. The only aspect of Trump I can find admirable is that he (sometimes) doesn't try to hide who he is.

The last thing we need - and the thing Trump and his handlers are seeking - is to use this unfortunate event as an excuse to mute legitimate criticism of Trump. A second term of who can honestly be called a fascist would be horrendous for America.

The gun - an AR-style 556 rifle - had been legally bought, the FBI officials said, adding that the FBI believed it had been purchased by the suspect's father. 

Violence never solves anything. Assassinating Trump simply would have made him a martyr in they eyes of his followers, and a carbon copy soon would have been vomited up. That said, he does share some blame due to his support for the "right" to own AR-style weapons. If the Supreme Court were as dedicated to originalism as they claim, they would restrict gun ownership to the types of weapons available at the time - non-rifled muskets.

'Challenges democracy'?! I'll tell you what 'challenges democracy': fascism. Let's be truthful: look up any definition of "fascism" and Trump will tick all the boxes. This shooting is a convenient way for Trump to avoid such conversation at a point where Biden was beginning to recover from his gaffes.

And it wouldn't be the first time that a would-be dictator utilized such an event, staged or not, to rally the gullible behind an autocratic banner. The 20th c. was full of 'em.