Some dude comments

I wonder how he chose those countries. Probably threw darts at a map.

Saying stupid things is a universal habit, but you have to wonder: did he think before he spoke, or did he know that he could say it, issue a half baked "oh, sorry", and continue to be elected? Lack of meaningful accountability gives people a good excuse to be their worst selves.

On a more serious note, in twenty years here I've never once felt that a Japanese person has decided they don't like me for no other reason than I'm a foreigner. I have no doubt that there are Japanese who dislike foreigners, either for valid reasons or just because their own life sucks and they need someone to blame (and these are the target market for the more disreputable political parties). I mean, the people I regularly see in my neighbourhood are always friendly and we never fail to exchange greetings and small talk.

For most foreigners, the worst they can expect is being the target of mean words and so on. Lenny Bruce had a great line on that: "I'd rather be refused service than served as refuse"

I've borrowed this from one of our greatest comic geniuses and replaced the original word with "foreigner". I bet you could convince a lot of locals that this is dead serious.

Sir Hugh Maharggs: Foreigners can't swim... they attract enemy radar. They attract sharks. They insist on being placed at the Captain's Table. They.. get up late, they nudge people whilst they're shooting. They muck about. Imagine the fear of knowing you have a foreigner on board a boat - when you retire at night you think to yourself: "God. Will I wake up and find everybody dead?". You can't run a ship like that.

don’t you love your home country more than Japan?

I suppose it's pointless recommending MAGA to read, but you should check out Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et decorum est". A cautionary tale about mindless nationalism.

Iran president tells Tucker Carlson that Israel tried to assassinate him

I like the ambiguity of "him" here.

The letter to Bosnia and Herzegovina is addressed to "Her Excellency" and starts "Dear Mr. President".

Honestly, I sometimes think the current US administration is just playing one big trolling game. The only other option is that they just don't care.

"He try to jump out of window in good patriot fashion, but he slip and fall on gun which accidentally discharged. Is very tragic" announced state news.

I read an interesting explanation of this. If we compare the brutal pasts of Nazism, Communism and Christianity, Nazism was a pretty straightforward implementation of the ideology.

Christians and Communists are very alike in arguing that the past brutality wasn’t a true implementation of their ideology.

Not completely convincing but makes some sense.

That is indeed an interesting take on it. To look at it really perversely, the nazis didn't even try to hide what they were really about, whereas the religious groups will tie themselves in knots with their No True Scotsman fallacies, goalpost-shifting, and so on. ("Yeah, the nazis had "Gott mit uns" on their belts, and Hitler said "We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity ... in fact our movement is Christian.", but that's not Christianity, no sir, nothing to do with it!

Brings to mind an old Simpsons episode.

Burns was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was then transferred to a better hospital where doctors upgraded his condition to Alive.

No one should get their knickers in a twist over fascist symbolism while welcoming anyone who has praised ideologies that starved, tortured, and butchered their way through the 20th century.

So anyone who speaks well of any religious leader who oversaw / turned a blind eye to the sexual assault of children should likewise not be allowed in?

For instance, I could say "That new Pope seems like a good guy". However, the institution he represents has a pretty dark history. Do I get banned from entering?

*90s house, techno, hiphop, and drum and bass are all amazing.*

Photek's "Modus Operandi" is probably one of my Desert Island albums. I'd probably also include Orbital's "In Sides" in that list.

Good, the IDF has their name and number if they try again, they will meet the same fate with certainty as their fellow brethren

Just like their nuclear facilities were "obliterated", yet there are reports from the UN nuclear watchdog that they will be in a position to enrich uranium in a matter of a few months.

This is what happens when you promote an alcoholic white supremacist so far above his station that he gets vertigo to go with the delirium tremens

leaving behind idiotic tribal mentality.

Um, ever seen a video of Fatty Kim visiting a factory or suchlike? The only place you'll see a similar level of terrifying worship is a republican convention when Trump appears in front of a group of bleach blonde middle aged MAGA housefraus.

Surely he can raise the money with a few more bills, executive orders, etc.

Make it mandatory for all employees to "donate" half their monthly pay to the project

Strip away health insurance from anyone who might still happen to have any

Set up a webcam at the new Alligator Alcatraz and charge his followers to watch detainees being eaten by the local wildlife

Come up with some more tacky merchandise to sell at a 1000 percent markup

Go on the most insane right wing TV channel which will take him, and proclaim that it has already been built, but only the truest of MAGA can see it, for a modest one-off fee of five thousand dollars.

Yeah, but does it have any surf? That's all that really matters.

Oh, it does. Kim just glares at the water and it creates surf for him.

Looks good and what a way to beat the summer.

I'm sure we could crowdfund a one way ticket for you. Brutal dictatorships seem to be your idea of a good time.

"All citizens will enjoy this beach resort" announced the state broadcaster, which then forgot to turn off its mic before muttering "...on pain of death".

Japan surely doesn't want to live with the stigma of being known as "a country which thought it could deal rationally with Trump". China's already eating their lunch in so many other ways, but to be known as a "country which thought it could deal rationally with Trump" when your neighbour is "a country which had the measure of Trump from the very start of this tariff nonsense", that's going to sting.

during that time that would blow these two, now if you’re talking about Rush as a band you had three guys that were exceptionally talented and at the top of their game. In many ways you can’t get more musically synchronized the way, these three were

You can, but then you're getting into serious niche territory. Always thought that Rush generally struck a good balance between being virtuosi on their respective instruments, with making songs that were (comparatively) accessible, especially when the 80s started and they moved away from the dungeons and dragons stuff.

On the other hand you have bands like Meshuggah, who I love, despite not having the faintest idea what's going on musically. And they clearly aren't remotely bothered about mass appeal; presumably they have enough of a fanbase to keep themselves going.

The media had a field day playing up the "Oasis vs Blur" thing. Funnily, during this time they both released tracks which were, by their respective standards, not actually that good.

I liked the 90s for a different reason: there was a ton of superb stuff being released in what we could lazily call the "electronic dance music" field. Orbital, Prodigy, The Orb, FSOL, and on and on it went. I think there was a lot more innovation going on there than there was in straight up pop / rock.

America gives too much money to vested interests abroad. Much of it disappears into swamps of corruption and is siphoned off.

I bet that if the US started giving billions to Russia to continue its war (and I can see it happening; there's clearly no rule of law in the US any more and Trump openly does whatever he wants without consequence), you'd claim that the money was being spent perfectly and was all accounted for.

Don't see any other countries stepping up

Well, a cut of 40 per cent in global humanitarian funding is quite a shortfall to make up. I know that the current MAGA movement probably gets off on the idea of "those" people dying of starvation, but I would like to think that countries which still have a moral compass will try and do something.

Trump will probably respond to this with "only 14 million? We can do better than that".

We are truly living in odd times when Elon Musk comes across as making sense.

someone might know a little too much about this if it’s the first analogy that pops into their head.

It wasn't the first, merely the most apposite. And as you responded so fast, you obviously recognised the implications.

I'm reminded of a quote from a video game.

"People are ignorant. They'll feel better as long as someone is punished". Preferably someone against whom they can let loose their inherent racism and fear.

So, three years and more to take one region, and this is on the highly dubious assumption that they're telling the truth.

Russia will literally never stop this aggression unless they are forced to, by either economic or military means (or both). Given that Trump is apparently now unfreezing sanctions on Russian banks (presumably on orders from Putin), then that only leaves military. You can forget about diplomatic means too.

The rest of the world has to step up. History suggests that they won't; like I heard in a song once, "everyone cares, but only enough to buy a sticker". Otherwise we will continue with our impressive record of letting evil win.

What's next, India won't buy their curry?

The US has always been full of guns. It is only in the last 4 decades or so that US society has been degenerating to the point where mass school shootings etc are occurring.

Before that such things were literally unheard of.

Something changed

Google says the big jump was the 80s and 90s. Those decades saw both republican and democrat administrations, so if you're trying to clumsily insinuate that the uptick in shootings is a simple matter of who was president at the time, that's not going to work.

Here's an interesting hint:

The NRA's focus shifted in the late 1970s, specifically at the 1977 annual convention in Cincinnati, known as the Revolt at Cincinnati. This change saw the organization move away from its previous emphasis on "hunting, conservation, and marksmanship" towards a more politically focused approach centered on the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.