Nator comments

@Alfie Noakes.

For a clear yes/no answer, do you think the existence of the Azov Battalion is reasonable justification for Russia's invasion of Ukraine?

PS/ A number of Jewish organizations have condemned Putin's use of 'denazification' as a misleading excuse.

PPS/ At least part of the separatist forces in Donetsk are also extreme nationalists.

@Alfie Noakes.

You seem obsessed with the claim of Nazis in Ukraine, as if it would justify the invasion even if it were true. The only people peddling this rubbish seem to be the russian media, so I wonder where you're getting your soundbytes.

In the last Ukrainian elections, far right groups only got about 2% of the vote. A Russian speaking Jewish man was elected with over 70% of the vote, beating a non-Jewish Ukrainian candidate.

The percentage of extreme right-wing groups is higher in a number of European countries, and probably in the US as well. The number of extreme right wing nationalists in Russia is definitely higher.

What is the goal? Remove the Jewish president and replace him with someone more friendly to Russia? How is that denazification?

Daria said some people have spoken to relatives in Russia who are getting information about the invasion from the country's state-controlled media.

"They say - all of them watching the news - that Putin is saving us, rescuing us. From whom? From what? We can’t understand.

"We are happy in our country. We didn’t ask anybody to save us."

Its just got a little bit madder. Truss of UK supporting English people who want to go to Ukraine and fight. I am sure some will go but will soon regret it once the cold, hunger and danger of it dawns on them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApQzRP9DiKU

I would add it is not removal of swift from russia but from selective banks. The article above is too long and tedious to read so I had to re-scan it after reading the BJ statement.

Q. Which banks or how many of them in total?

Q. Will the swift ban be ever expanding?

Q. Will Germany still be able to purchase its gas supplies?

It is sad that people think this is a good idea. Mostly people who do not understand the impact. It wont work, there are alternatives and it is effectively a massive step towards brining NATO into the war which means all of us. A conflict between two countries has now become very close to being a world conflict.

I am sure the hope is that powerful rich people will be contacting putin and asking him to stop but that is wishful thinking.

I expect the next push will be for no-fly zones and if that happens then its war and war for a very long time which harms us all and it pointless.

Please people you have spent two years being dictated by democractic leaders and have followed but don't follow them into a pointless world war.

@lincolnman

Define mass. So far tony blair has a bigger cull than putin. What has happened can be blamed on both sides and nato and the un. Its a big mess that could have been avoided but it is quite clear the leaders of the world wanted it to happen. The blame and cause will be written in the future just like other wars.

Worth reading this: http://www.vlib.us/wwi/resources/archives/texts/t050824i/ponsonby.pdf

Us normal people will never know the truth because us normal people do not have a choice anyway. I very much hope that over the weekend what fighting is left to be done is done and the least amount of death happens on both sides. It is terrible how many suited and booted are sitting around insulting each other rather than finding a solution.

The solution will not be to put all the blame on putin because if you do that then he will continue to fight back. He is 69 and as a russian that gives him about 5 more years of life so I do not think he is worried about much more than causing upset. It is worth the people in power accepting that as a fact and trying to reduce the loss of life.

Yesterday in UK parliament the minister said the Russians did not get to do everything they had planned. This begs the question what was planned and how much did the UK know of the plan because it is not like they stopped the actual invasion.

Or maybe with tin-hat on they allowed the russians to get the russian part of Ukraine and focussed on keeping he the non-russian part defended. Kiev (spelt as it was up until a few days ago) is still holding but for how long and is the real winner the one who takes/keeps control of the capital.

As for Ukraine being part of NATO we are all very lucky it was not and hopefully never will be. An attack on NATO makes it a world war and I hope no silly mistakes will be escalated because it only took the death of an arch-duke of a tiny country to start an all-out mess.

I am most definitely not wanting a war starting for the sake of Sean Penn and his lolli-freindly advanced patrols.

It would be nice if they properly reported the numbers but each year they don't.

Please report the birth numbers by region rather than whole country. You will find it is Tokyo that fails.

2.Please report the divorce rates by nationalities. You will find that mix UK/US to JP marriages last longer than any other. JP to JP and JP to certain other countries are dismal and that makes the whole number a false flag.

As for number 1. It is worth noting that plenty of babies were made during the first shut-down and normally women like a couple of years between each kid. It may smooth out over time.

2020 H

Yes. However you may find out when the dust settles that shutting down a country has harmed more people than it helped. Very much dependant on the country and how it acted in the last few years. There is plenty of data out there that suggest life-years-lost far exceeds the life-years-saved.

Two years plus of a childs education lost is hardly a small price and has long term effects on the amount that person will earn in the future and the health of that person. Poverty is by far the largest factor on life expectency.

Nothing can change what has happened but we can learn from it and make sure the same mistakes are not repeated. Although it appears people in power are constantly failing to learn. Or maybe they just do not have the mental capacity to understand.

WTF says 'no they are dealing with a minority of law breaking rioters whose ideology isnt supporter by the vast majority on NZlanders '

Could that not be said about the protests in HK promoting democracy?

You either have freedoms and the right to protest (the western ideal) or you don't. The reality is this is just a game and the politicians knew from the start they would need to allow a little bit of protest after the shutting down of liberty. They expected it, they have prepared for it and they have sat back and allowed a few days of backlash just to give the people some feeling of importance.

We all know that in reailty democracy is worth nothing more than a worthless vote every few years and being ignored the rest of the time. This and the stuff in europe, canada, US .... is all just panto season stuff.

My wish is people move on and make sure that no government can ever shut-down its country again, can never force medical treatment or create a two/three tier society. Sadly I have a feeling that wont be the case.

Long-Covid does not actually exist. It is a condition known already for many other ailments and just given a new name by people who have not bothered to understand the narative of socialists. Japan does not need socialism in any form it is perfectly fine living as a capitalist society. Keep that stuff in NZ where it is clearly not working for normal people.

People may disagree but having a vaccine does not stop a person from getting or spreading covid. A pcr test does not show up covid very well (50% success if the person is newly infected). As such the restrictions only reduce the chances of people bringing it in with them.

However as people have said plenty of evidence that people who are vaccinated are less likely to get seriously ill. That is also the case of people who have had the illness whether or not that are vaccinated.

As we really do not know what the policy is trying to prevent it is hard to say if it is effective. If it is just to reduce overal numbers then it will work. It is however extremenly unfair and is basically making a commercial rather than medical evaluation of the problem.

If they really want to prevent the cost of covid on the Japanese health system I would suggest preventing anyone above the age of 60 from comming. Look at the data of any country and you will find that covid is mostly a problem of the elderly and it is them who should now be focussed on. That wont happen but it should because all data shows that to be the case. It is also the case the older you get the less effective any vaccine is on you immune system.

As it stands I will just wait until normalcy is back because travelling is already a pain and the various hoops just add to that. The industry can not function as it stands and eventually they will push because they want to make a profit.

PD^Bacon. How?

What kind of assessment can filter out these teachers?

It would be much better to safe guard all activities so any that do manage to get into schools never have the opportunity. Like how does a male or any teacher get to film in a changing room in the first place. Why have they got personal phones on them whilst working.

In my experience the children are rarely alone with one teacher and that is a good thing. If a school is allowing that then it is a system failure that can easily be changed.

It is worth noting that unless Boris decides to go it is unlikely he can be pushed. My gut makes me think he wants a contest so he can win. If he wins he gets 1 years grace before he can be challlenged again.

As of now he has the numbers and considering the amount of muck he rolls around in each day he seems to enoy the wallowing.

For a vague idea of the numbers you can use this link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dKQnAE3y-aQ--tgHvKEdKg9jyG-zwEsilRqgEFNbCt8/edit#gid=0

@Lindsay

I am healthy. However as a child I had a severe allergic reaction to the measles vaccine and as an adult I had a mild allergic reaction to the flu vaccine. As I am not in an at-risk category for covid I do not want to take the gamble.

I am careful with the people I mix with to not pass on the virus to people at risk and in the last two years I have not been ill and if I did get a fever I would lock myself away for at least five days.

I also have not even considered travelling as personally I think whether vaccinated or not that is what spreads a virus in a pandemic.

As for chicken pox it is not wiped out. Kids get it every year in many many countries.

@Joe Blow

Both my parents-in-law had a funeral cost of 1 million yen each. That included a body washing, the usual gong-ceremonies, a cremation with lunch provided and bone selection. It also included having the bodies removed from hospital within one hour of death. My mother-in-law was even taken to her home for one night to lay in state.

@Jimizo

I wonder if you could point to any actual quote of Borris that has been proved as a lie. Even the recent 'party' stuff has come up with nothing more than an online pub quiz where the left mistook a very expensive curtain as a bin liner.

However the point being Boris has out lasted his welcome and would have gone much sooner but for the pandemic. The reason the Tories are down in the polls is because so far they have done nothing they they said they would. Although they still have two years to sort that out.

If the tories started turning the boats back to France, if they defunded the BBC, if they put people who sit in roads in prison, if they cut taxes and spending then I think they would be back in next election. Even the removal of Cresida Dick would give them a boost.

No one knows what will happen today. I expect that the legislation around ID will not be tabled but the other two bits will. If it is tabled it will be Starmer and his mob that put it through and that will cause him more harm than the tories.

There could be letters to the 1922 committee but to get rid of Boris it would need a vote of more than 181 tory MP's wanting him gone. If that does not happen he can not be challenged for a year. I do not think they would risk the vote.

I do expect some resignations if the matter is tabled and that will be timed to cause the most fuss.

@WeiWei

I am a resident and never carry my card as ID. I thought that rule was long ago changed.

I have been stopped by police quite a few times but nearly always to check the bike I am riding is mine. They are polite, they do not keep me for long and they are checking other people as well.

When ID was part of that I would be handing it to the police even before they asked. It is a long time since I have been stopped though and during the past couple of years my adventures have been close to where I live and the police around my area know me by sight.

This article gives no details on which people are being stopped as foreigner is a very vague term. US embassy tweets are hardly a good source of information.

I can't help but think that introducing these measures now, while there might be some justification for things like masks, is mainly designed to distract from all the Christmas Party stuff.

Though it's kinda sad that a Xmas Party might be what it takes to bring them down, not, you know, undermining centuries of democracy by introducing laws that autocratic countries would be proud of.

It seems like all the rampant corruption and 'one-rule-for-us' attitude of the Johnson government might finally be coming back to bite them.

For some reason his charming incompetence seemed to endear him to voters even when doing things that other politicians would have been vilified for. But that seems to be finally running out.

Unfortunately in the meantime, they've managed to give billions to their unqualified mates, mismanage the coronavirus response, introduce a bill to criminalize protest, introduce a bill to privatize parts of the nhs, invalidate the ministerial code of conduct, allow ministers to override judicial-review, etc.. and no-one seemed to notice or care because either they were so distracted by Brexit or Covid, or because the press basically gave him a free pass.

I think it would very much depend on age as I expect (I have no proof) that very young babies respond to smell and if the baby is only used to their mothers smell they will be wary of others. Having worked with very young children they almost all cry when I first meet them but holding them over time seems to work.

Older children do stick to their mothers and it takes at least until they are two for that to change. My neighbours kid cried every time I said hello and has only just got over it.

My concern of todays culture is that many children have spent the first two years of their lives only seeing strangers masked and I can see that as being a very long term issue for the future.

As for men killing their children its a tiny tiny amount of loons and normal people, fathers do not need anything but more time with their kids and not just Sundays. Children need more males role models at nurseries/schools because how can any child grow up properly if they only experience a female dominated childhood.

You only have to sit in a classroom for 30 minutes to observe that.

For info:

There are 26 million refugees globally 

Half of the world’s refugees are children

85% of refugees are being hosted in developing countries

Top ranking:

Turkey

Colombia

Pakistan

Uganda

Germany

Germany being the only developed country in the top 10.

If you look at the number of refugees by 1000 inhabitants, no developed country is in the top 10.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/refugees-asylum-seekers-and-migrants/global-refugee-crisis-statistics-and-facts/

Yeah, foreigners love giving it this description.

I've literally never heard a Japanese person say it.

One said it to me this morning.

It's all cool, it's more of a question of being able to express themselves in English than anything. It's just something that tends to strike foreigners as weird as we'd never say it.

I'm a bit surprised you've never heard a Japanese person say it though. I'd say 3 times this week, and about 1000 times in the past 10 years.

"Japan has four distinct seasons" would be a lot more parse-able. Though given that they have rainy season, "Japan has five distinct seasons" would be more accurate and interesting.

I'm of the opinion that the way Japan could solve this would be to take out full page ads in a bunch of Korean (and maybe other) national newspapers with a decent apology.

If they do that, they can bypass all of the politics and just make a clear unequivocal apology to the people as a whole.

They might also need to set up some kind of charity fund for compensation, but the key point would be to make a widely public and honest sounding apology that would be on the record for everyone to see.

If they do that, and then politicians continue to bash them for not apologizing, they'd have much more of a defence.

All their apologies so far have been half-hearted at best, so it allows the issue to keep dragging on and on.

Plus, frankly, it's the right thing to do.

So, if i'm reading it right, the panel's recommendation is to allow royal women who marry commoners to stay in the royal family, but not allow their kids to be royal?

So they have picked the one option that doesn't solve the problem at all?! How does that help?

Given that this was by far the most popular tv show and movie for kindergarten and elementary school kids last year, I think that some worry about the graphic content isn't unwarranted.

When the movie came out and the tv shows were interviewing all the people waiting in line, with their cute 5 year olds dressed in Demon Slayer costumes, it was interesting that none of the interviewers seemed to even think to ask "don't you think your kind might be a bit too young?"

Anyone saying "if you don't like it don't watch" clearly has never had kids. When every single kid in your kids class has seen it, has products related to it, is talking about it, even if you do take a hard line and don't let your 5 year old watch it (which is what I did), they still find out more than you'd like and see more than you'd like from their friends.

We don't even have Netflix, and my elementary age kids know a scary amount about Squid Game already!

So his plan to fix a widening wealth gap is to ask companies to pay more to the well off employees? That seems counterproductive.

Not that it'll actually have any effect at all, as the government has been urging companies to raise wages for the past 10 years or more, and there's no sign of it ever happening.

How about:

Overhaul the tax system, the local tax system, the furusato tax system, the sales tax system, the pension system and the health insurance system, which seem to have all been designed to penalize those who don't have 'permanent' jobs at big companies.

Overhaul the education system which sees the government pay the least for public education of any G20 country, while parents pay the most for education of any G20 country... meaning that getting those cushy 'permanent' jobs is much more accessible to those whose parents can pay for all the cram schools needed.

Cut sales tax to 0% on essential items like groceries, kids clothes, etc.. If necessary, boost it on luxury items to compensate.

Make it so that low income families don't see 35% of their income gone on taxes, pensions, health insurance before they even have to start thinking about rent, food etc...

I'd like to invest money in stocks and in my kids futures, but every time I try and save enough money to do so, I get some threatening letter demanding the payment of hundreds of thousands of yen into various wasteful pension and health insurance systems. It's almost as if they are monitoring incase anyone tries to improve their situation, so they can quickly step in and put a stop to it.

The main income gap in japan is between those on salaryman 'permanent' contracts and those on 'part-time' / freelance conditions.

The tax, health insurance, pension and almost every other government system amplifies this disparity and gives perks to those who don't need them, while penalizing those who do.

Increasing the wealth of middle-class salarymen is merely going to exacerbate income disparity.

It's almost as if he doesn't know what he's talking about....

The main income gap in Japan seems to be between those who are permanent employees and the growing number of people who are employed on temporary contracts or who are freelancers.

If he wants to address that gap, a first step would be to reform all the pension, health insurance, etc.. systems which dramatically favor permanent employees, even though those people tend to be on better salaries to start with.

If you're a freelancer you end up paying twice as much for half the benefit!

@stormcrow

I wonder if you can list things that would make one person more/less deserving of hospital treatment than another.

For example does a salary person who drinks, smokes, sits down all day and does no exercise even on Sundays really need that pace maker just because he decides to have the vaccine and wear a mask?

Actually I would not want to go near an ICU and am actually very worried someone would want to put a tube down my throat to save my life. I have given strict instructions to my wife to refuse such treatment. She has been told I will accept an oxygen mask but nothing invasive.