GBR48 comments

US consumers don't get another vote until 2028. The extra costs can be a surprise gift for them. Everyone likes surprises.

Retaliatory tariffs would just harm Canadian consumers. Idiot policy - the machismo of self-harm. Let the Canadian people enjoy cheap American products and pivot Canadian exports away from the US (pop. 334 million) to the rest of the world (pop. 7,690 million).

If Trump wants to close the US/Canada land border unilaterally, he can. He controls one side of it. He can employ Americans and build a wall. The Chinese built one centuries ago. Surely America has caught up with them by now?

quote: Trudeau announced an increase in spending on border security.

Trump is a classic bully. Appeasement doesn't work. He can pay for his own wall.

I suspect, like Biden, Trudeau has clung on too long for his party to recover the ground he lost them.

The US is on hiatus from climate change mediation until the next regime and anything Biden prepared will be ditched by Trump. Accept it and move on. China can take the global lead for the next few years. So stop sanctioning and tariffing their green tech. It is just delaying the green transition in the West. Leave Trump to hike his tariffs to his heart's content. The American people will take the majority of the hit. The Rest of the World is a big enough marketplace to function without the US for a few years.

Maybe list some 'aspirational behaviours' that American millionaires can fund if they have some loose change, and don't want to be as widely reviled as Glorious Leader.

The future targets set at COPs are irrelevant as they are political fictions. Governments can only do what is politically viable. Push too hard and sitting regimes will be replaced by populist Neo-Nazis. Both France and Germany are now looking vulnerable. They really need to make life a little easier for their citizens and find some talent to benefit the environment in ways that are not politically suicidal. The problem is that there is very little talent and too much corruption in mainstream political regimes.

Each time 'Private Eye' notes a position in the UK government being filled by a donor or a friend or a lobbyist, you know that the sum total of talent, competence and trustworthiness goes down. This is undermining the survivability of regimes across Europe. Political skills matter, and they lack them.

Instead of grand plans and targets, none of which will be met, and jaunts around the world to conferences, perhaps pop up on the web an official list of things individuals, households, companies and local groups could do instead. Not just the big stuff, but small changes too, that everyone could make.

And connect wealthy people to on-the-ground projects in the Global South that would benefit the environment and local communities, excluding governments and third parties that will simply leech any donations into their own pockets.

The COPs are cop outs: political theatre to keep the eco activists busy. What are the emissions of 60,000 people going to the Amazon just to squabble? There is this thing called the internet that you can do this stuff on whilst WFH. It's not like Trump or Putin will do anything they do agree on. Other regimes are restricted by domestic politics. If they annoy their electorates, populist Neo-Nazis will just replace them.

The dredging for the cruise ships will allow larger ships to dock, which the loggers will fill.

quote: strangling his wife with both hands ... stomping on her head.

That's not assault, it is attempted murder. If you get your head stomped on, you are lucky to survive.

In a country where 'I was drunk and remember nothing' can get you off all sorts, I'm surprised there are vindictive attempts to punish the families of suicides, when they will already be suffering.

It's difficult for parents or anyone without professional training to distinguish between normal teenage behaviour (which is weird enough on a good day) and depressed teenage behaviour. So it is unfair to charge them for it. If parents or friends bullied him, by all means prosecute them, but not otherwise. You are guilty for what you do, not what others do. You should no more be held accountable for what you family members do, than for what your ancestors did - something that Japanese people may appreciate, given their ancestors' brutal occupation of their neighbours.

Those with such balconies may consider some form of overhang over the pavement below, offering protection from sun, rain and suicidal people. A soft top on it may prevent fatalities.

Japan has been lucky to have years without any real inflation. Now it is here, it will be brutal.

Convenience stores and supermarkets can undercut the ramen stores. That is tough competition when money is tight. All the tradition in the world can't buck the basics: Price = Costs + Profit. With inflation, prices go up or they go bust. Especially in catering, when prices are low, margins thin, and sales limited by seating capacity. If people won't pay, they will have to close.

When Sterling dived, products started to vanish from the shelves, and then companies started to vanish too. Your local shōtengai may have some empty shops soon. Japanese retail will become increasingly reliant on the tourists that so many on here don't seem to like very much. Inflation is toxic.

Your body needs regular access to relatively small amounts of vitamins and nutrients and needs to be properly hydrated to function. The jury is out on how well retail supplements (as distinct from injections) can be absorbed into the body. Your best bet is a healthy diet that covers all the bases, in what it includes and what it excludes, together with regular exercise. Before bothering with supplements, go to your doctor and get tested to see if you are low on anything. If you have a decent health service, you may get any supplements you need for free.

Fatigue can be a symptom associated with other medical problems, so if you do feel really below par, a medical check is an idea.

If it makes you feel happier, a general multi-vitamin supplement won't do you any harm. Your body will take anything in it needs from it, if anything. You can overdose on supplements but you have to consume crazy amounts - just read the label.

In general, regular exercise and good hydration may be all you need.

Women aged 18-44 are more likely to be dealing with work, household and family chores (child/elder care), so may be more stressed than most people anyway. And stress does run you down. In that case, supplements won't be much help other than plugging extant deficiencies.

You catch viruses if you come into contact with people who have them and get too close. Masks help reduce this. Whilst your general health matters when coping with all illness, and vaccines should limit your symptoms, no supplement will give you immunity from catching a virus or make much difference to how ill you feel. Other variables matter more.

Nobody is forcing anyone to eat insects, although if you eat farm animals and drink the breast milk of cows, I don't see why you should be worried about eating bugs. They are a cheap source of protein for anyone who wants or needs to eat them, and people in some countries do. If you are worried, read the label before you eat stuff, and reduce the amount of processed food you eat.

Cochineal, a scale insect, has been used for centuries as a carmine dye in food, clothes and lipsticks.

Lots of elected politicians become dictators. When they reach that point, their electoral mandate is invalidated.

Set fire to Yoon's compound. They will all then emerge and can all be arrested.

If Yoon is not taken out of power, South Korea loses its democracy and returns to being a dictatorship.

The South Korean people may wish to go on strike. Bring the country to a halt until he is in custody.

America presumably has seed banks. Even the UK has a decent one, at Kew, and economically we are third world now.

Worry less. Plants typically survive fires. There will be enough dormant seeds in the ground from previous generations for the plants to re-emerge. They have been surviving without human intervention for a very long time.

Extinctions, when they do happen, are an important part of evolution. Evolution involves constant change. As the climate changes, the natural world shuffles the pack appropriately.

What you get is the level of diversity that your environment can sustain.

The natural world has been doing this since life on Earth began. All human intervention is artificial. There are no prizes for having a more diverse environment, but it is good to keep species that vanish from the wild in cultivation. Gardeners have been doing this for generations.

Given climate change, for anyone who wants to intervene, funding should be targeted at sowing climate vulnerable species in new locations as regional climates change, and sourcing seed from outliers that are tougher. Although most species will move naturally, if they have time, geophysically trapped species (on islands, surrounded by mountains), slower growers (trees) and food crops may need assistance. Humanity has been hybridising and relocating plants for centuries. Recent examples include the spread of tea and other staples in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for imperial economic benefit, the increase in wheat yields in the 20th century, and the breeding of disease resistance into fruit species. If we are to prevent huge famines in the future, our food crops need to move. For wildlife and protection from increased heat, we need to research and plant more climate resilient tree crops to take over, should native species not survive.

Addiction to gambling will not stop if you ban any gambling option, legal or illegal. Addicts will just find something else to bet on. The problem lies with the individual who is addicted, and whose addiction of choice is gambling.

Concentrate on the addicts if you want to help them. Find the underlying reason why they embrace their addictions and give them the personal understanding, support and skills to turn away from it.

Blaming the thing a person is addicted to - gambling, drugs, cupcakes - is to misunderstand the problem.

quote: AI development worldwide.

We don't trust it, like it, want it or need it. We also don't want the AI PCs or Clippy AI in Windows 11, which is why they are not shooting off the shelves.

quote: substantial wage increases.

Yeah, course they will. 10%, 20%, perhaps 30%. You are all going to be rich. No, wait...

quote: Solid consumer spending.

I seem to recall numerous articles on here stating that people are tightening their belts. My memory must be glitching.

quote: The government expects Japan's nominal wage growth to outpace inflation.

That's the official 'nearly 2%' figure, not the much, much higher real levels of retail inflation that are hurting everyone and shrinking the chocolate bars.

quote: to put downward pressure on the dollar.

In their dreams. Nothing the BoJ does will put pressure on the dollar. That's not how it works.

quote: corporate executives should not be excessively concerned...

...because they are rich and will be fine whatever happens.

I'm sure we all sleep more peacefully knowing that the rich are getting richer at our expense.

quote: we ship 4.3 million barrels of crude oil into the U.S. ... Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminium and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for.

All the more reason to invade. And none of that '51st state' nonsense. Directly enslaving the people of Canada would solve many of America's financial issues and reduce to zero the cost of everything they currently buy from them.

Canada may want to start work on a DMZ.

They haven't got a choice. New King on the throne. Expect more of this. Don't blame Meta, blame anyone you know who was too lazy to vote, or voted for you know who.

User-based group moderation can work much better than top down censorship, if you design it well. Even if it is badly done, you'll be doing well if you can spot the hate amongst all the adverts.

And of course you can always just lock down your feed and create a community with your friends, which is what social media was all about in the first place. I've been on Facebook since it started and haven't seen any 'harmful misinformation' or hate yet. I guess you only see these things if you go looking for them. So there is an easy solution there.

And you can always ditch social media if you want. Nobody is forcing you to be on it.

Would renaming America the United States of Trump satisfy his ego? And how about the Orange House instead of the White House.

Orwell's telescreens.

Not interested in any of this. Sticking with the old stuff whilst it works and then doing without.

I guess DEI worked. America is about to be run by a person of colour (the colour being orange), and a migrant (from South Africa).

quote: What are self-defence laws in Japan?

They are fairly rubbish, doubly victimising victims of crime, as in most other countries. The law is not there to deliver justice or to protect you, but to divide society between those in uniform acting on behalf of the state (who are empowered to act) and the rest (who are not).

This is why so many women in Japan get abused. And why so many Japanese people scamper away from any aggro, rather than stepping in.

Emulate them. Do not be a 'have-a-go hero'. In most countries that will end badly. Definitely so in Japan. Your life in not a Hollywood movie or kdrama. In the real world, the perpetrator/abuser is more likely to come out on top. Particularly if they are connected.

So avoid conflict. It's not cowardice. You are up against both the threat of being hurt and the power of a mechanised legal process. You may defeat one, but you are unlikely to defeat both. The bad guys win. It's a bad world (and getting worse). Deal with it and survive.

Anyone funding extremism can be classed as a terrorist and blocked from entry. Appeasing Trump will work as well as appeasing Hitler did. European security services need to realise that the main threat they now face in internal and right wing, supported by Musk's money, not China, Russia, Jihadists or environmentalists. And this threat is existential. Musk has enough cash to buy power in most countries. So use the political tools at your disposal to prevent this. The legal ones and the covert ones. And get up to speed really quickly, because Musk is enjoying this and won't stop. Washington is no longer an ally of Western democracies, but their most dangerous enemy.

Trump and Musk are now the main threat to Western democracies and their economies.

Rich people buying expensive EVs. Yes, that will reduce climate change. In about two centuries.

Cheap Chinese EVs or no green transition. Like it or not, those are the options.

This is helping Starmer, who has had a rocky patch. Musk is just making himself more unpopular. He's also making America more unpopular across Europe. American tourists will all have to go to Japan this summer instead.

More solar and wind is in the pipeline. If we could make electricity from rain as well we'd be sorted. Plenty of that around lately. Maybe turbines in the drains.

More accurately, 2025 will be as good for the rich as every other year has been. For the rest of us, the decline will continue. War will spread and more countries will destabilise. The Year of the Snake is apt for the arrival of President Musk and his elderly orange PA. Endless annoying AI pushers will continue to promise magic whilst delivering nothing but amusing snafus and an excuse for money grubbing executives to throw some customer service staff into unemployment. When AI is rumbled, fades and goes the way of the Metaverse (remember that?), some new scam will crawl from the nether regions of GAFA and take its place.

As for cosmetics, every year brings a new pointless ingredient with a made up name that will better attract men (1970s), empower you, or improve your mental wellbeing (nowadays). Same product, different shill. A couple of years going Cold Turkey in lockdown wasn't enough it seems, to shake the addiction.

Going back to the 70s (no, not Brexit) offering Angel Delight with added protein, may be a way of preparing people for when ordinary healthy food runs scarce (cut supply chains, sanctions, bird flu, cow farts reduction, climate change, declining currency etc). But why eat good quality food when you can follow a trend and pay twice as much for over-processed, over-packaged fast food?

Ishiba is in a unique place to actually make some changes in Japan, but putting the words 'change' and 'Japan' in the same sentence will get you kicked out of the fortune tellers guild. Will things improve for women? Probably not by government edict. Sisters really need to be doin' for themselves. And helping each other. That does work, albeit slowly.

The Leisure Society may be the secular version of everlasting life or being reincarnated wealthy. Always promised to the multitude by the rich, if they buy their stuff, behave themselves and work harder. Luckily, none of us ever rumble that, so sleep peacefully, rich people.

For most of us, any real differences between 2024 and 2025 beyond the last digit, we will have to engineer for ourselves. So get cracking. Eat healthily, exercise, spend less, make more and remember to have a good time. Because we only get so many new years each.

I really enjoy reading Kuchikomi on here.

quote: Independent media claims...

There is no independent media in conflicts like this. Just propaganda.

Yes, we have had months of wintery weather in winter. Fog, rain, gales, rain, snow, rain, ice, rain and more rain.

Canadians must be wondering what all the fuss is about. They keep their transport networks operating with much more extreme winter weather.

Fascists will get back into power across Europe because the rest are incompetently fussing amongst themselves over budgets.

The British and German governments need to toughen up. Foreign regime members interfering in national politics and supporting extremism online or with financial donations should be banned, and deported on arrival if they still turn up.

Musk's comments have gone down very badly in the UK. It doesn't take much for anti-American sentiment to kick off in Europe. This stuff tends to snowball. Americans on holiday in Europe, Apple centres and Teslas may not be as popular as they used to be this year.

'an expansion in its defence budget the government believes is necessary to satisfy Trump.' FTFY.

Defence spending is a subscription. Most of the kit you buy, you will never use. But as technology develops, you have to buy the next generation to keep up, and it is hugely expensive stuff.

Buying from local producers at least keeps the money in the country, passing from taxpayers to local arms dealers, with a percentage taken back in taxing their profits. But Trump will expect Japan to arm up with American gear, or else, tariffs. Eventually Japan will have to do what other countries are doing and max out 'non-tax' taxes such as congestion charges.

An American ULEZ? The UK ones are not popular, cost people a fortune, and damage trade.

It's just another tax.

People are poorer now, and much less likely to buy a new car. Many properties in the UK will not easily accommodate charging. Flat fee charged battery swopping might have been a better default option.

Next gen designs may have standardised faster-charging batteries that swop out easily, and cost less. Particularly if they dump some of the tech/features or import cheaper models from China. That will boost uptake but render the first gen models expensive door stops.

Or they will block the cheaper imports and any transition will slow. There are capacity limits for the production of EVs in the UK and EU, limited charging infrastructures, and electricity prices are rising like everything else.

Second hand ICE vehicles - the staple for most people - will be more popular if new ones are phased out, and prices will rise.

Inflation was turbo-charged by the decline of Sterling at Brexit and prices are still going up, particularly for energy and food. Inflationary spirals are really toxic. The green transition will be very expensive, for governments, business and at a consumer level. The UK may no longer have the economy to pay for it at any of these levels.