I love SE #asianmusic, and a 1989 article that fell out of an old book led me to John Clewley, from there to Rasmee Isan Soul and this wonderful track: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q6Q...

Sorry, American friends, but I have to agree.

What? A good side to AI?

Supreme Court justices sharply question Trump tariffs in hearing www.bbc.com/news/article...

> The rules are vague, the enforcement arbitrary, and the goal unmistakable: fear. Platforms now scramble to delete anything that might be interpreted as “gloomy.” Influencers second-guess every word.

"And with a nation full of Charlie Kirk acolytes looking to take their anger out on anyone who doesn’t treat him like a minor deity, there will be more of this in the future."

Sorry, I never liked rap.

#londonmetropolitanpolice #CrownProsecutionService Elon Musk’s post urging “the English to ally with hard men like Tommy Robinson and fight for their survival” appears to constitute incitement to violence and racial hatred under the Public Order Act 1986 and Serious Crime Act 2007. Please review.

"Due to being imprisoned for more than a month, Bushart reportedly lost his job in medical transport." Tennessee man spends a month in jail before charges are dropped over Trump meme posted in Facebook group for Charlie Kirk vigil www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Reagan and Trump both increased the national debt, both cut social schemes, both reacted badly to a global pandemic. Reagan was too religious, Trump pretends. Reagan waged a pointless racist war on drugs, Trump pretends to have a war on drugs and is murdering people. Both became demented.

JCP sticking up for foreign residents of Japan

#climatechange "The destruction to lives and livelihoods will continue to escalate until we end our fossil fuel addiction”. in-cyprus.philenews.com/internationa...

"When you paste and press Enter, you’ve just executed whatever the attacker put on your clipboard—often a PowerShell or shell command that downloads and runs additional malware": This new malware attack just wont go away

Really hoping to hear from a Korea expert about the layers of message in gifting Trump a “replica gold crown from the ancient Korean kingdom Silla”. www.smh.com.au/world/asia/a...

The thing these guys don’t get about net zero is that it’s not just a race against physics, it’s a race against other countries to win the post carbon business opportunities. Clinging to a dying growth model means missing the emerging one www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

"The White House says Takaichi told Trump that she’s nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize." Why not nominate him for the Nobels in literature and physics? He deserves them about as much as he does the Peace Prize. www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...

What does Trump have to say now? news.sky.com/story/israel...

It is hard to comprehend a worldview which doesn’t place the blame for an entirely unnecessary invasion and subsequent slaughter solely at the door of the invader. Unless you have access to cheap oil. Obvs. 🙄 Viktor Orban's dilemma - Russian oil or Trump's favour www.bbc.com/news/article...

Just published on FOSS Force: RSS, Not Algorithms: How Open Source Tech Can Reclaim Reliable News fossforce.com/2025/10/rss-...

"to the degree that firms operate and invest according to Trump’s political diktats rather than normal economic considerations, US productivity will suffer by an amount impossible to calculate" richardkatz.substack.com/p/the-mussol...

Notable that, while Japan-Russia relations are already in the deep freeze, Japanese officials are still anxious to prevent a further deterioration. I imagine they fear a further increase in Russian military provocations close to Japanese shores.

“We all know what the lobbyists want. It’s to increase their profits, with the price being paid by humankind.”

"António Guterres acknowledged it is now 'inevitable' that humanity will overshoot the target in the Paris climate agreement, with 'devastating consequences' for the world." #COP30 #ClimateEmergency

This is important 👇🏻

Many of the 1960s protest songs once again ring true...

Come on, then. Let's discuss UK-China - by Whipling toosimple.substack.com/p/come-on-th...

"national intelligence agency" - Japanese take on Putin's FSB?

Media Studies professor Masaaki Ito says the 外国人問題 ("foreigner issues") debate is complicated because people are conflating very different classes of foreigners. dot.asahi.com/articles/-/2...

Demented lunatic Trump plans to keep on killing open.substack.com/pub/jackcocc...

Russia is threatening Europe and blowing Ukraine to hell. China threatens to invade Taiwan. So, Trump sends the super carrier Gerald Ford to… Yup. You guessed it. Um. <checks notes> … Venezuela. Not long after a call with Putin…? Join the dots, people.

Here is the ad which infuriated Trump so much, he does not want to continue trade talks with Canada. I hope this gets a gazillion views. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pABU...

This is priceless: Canadian Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford is behind a new ad that runs on Fox News and Newsmax, which airs a 1987 speech by Ronald Reagan explaining why tariffs are bad for the economy. And Trump is furious! 😱😡💥

"Moscow is providing Pyongyang with military and technological cooperation. From Japan’s perspective, this makes Russia an accomplice to a regime that openly threatens Japan with ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, and which is known to have abducted Japanese citizens."

Priorities🙄 and notice the price has increased substantially! democrats.org/news/leavitt...

This is a fascinating read. ‘I have to do it’: Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China | China | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

There is some genuine unhappiness with the economic situation which San Sei To, like MAGA, use to whip up xenophobia. And similarly to MAGA, a great deal of what they say is outright lies.

Gui Minhai's daughter.

On International Human Rights Day, the EU calls for the immediate and unconditional release of EU citizen #GuiMinhai, and for his right to consular access to be respected. www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/... 1/4

Japanese govt. taps into anti-foreigner sentiments as if it were planned that way. bit.ly/47A4fLz #不法滞在者ゼロプラン #日本人ファースト

Interesting - I've never known anything about Takaichi's spouse. Frankly this is private and personal, but now I know, I'm curious that she doesn't support right to keep separate names Husband of Japan's 1st female PM Takaichi says he wants to support her 'stealthily' mainichi.jp/english/arti...

Kimi Onoda, who was born in the US to a Japanese mother and an American father, has been appointed minister for promoting an "orderly coexistent society with foreigners". Here she is pledging to create a Japan with zero illegal foreignesr: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDLX...

It took literally one day before LDP leaders began saying that what Ishin no Kai said was a "non-negotiable" part of their deal is "quite difficult." news.web.nhk/newsweb/na/n...

Japan shows no willingness to concede to Trump admin’s call for Japan to stop buying Russian energy. METI minister Muto Yoji says Russian LNG is “extremely important” to Japan’s energy security. He also expresses concern about potential impact on electricity prices. www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZ...

This morning my ChatGPT quota was inexplicably exhausted. It took a while but I pieced it together. Voice mode somehow got activated when I went to bed. The bot then engaged in a 10 hour conversation with my snoring dog, answering questions the pup wasn’t asking and praising him for his insight.

Poor Tamaki's been left out in the cold. A kindly Azumi of the CDP suggested he come and join them. CDP - Komeito alliance makes more sense to me though. An LDP-Ishin coalition takes shape | Japan Daily Briefing observingjapan.substack.com/p/an-ldp-ish...

The Israeli right just don't want any kind of settlement.

Trump and his cohort are determined to wreck our home.

My Word of the Day: Retributivists Advocates for punishment inflicted because an offender deserves it, in proportion to the gravity of their crime.

"Believe it or not — provided you are 18, have been in Japan for five years, have the means to support yourself and can speak and read Japanese at an intermediate level — getting Japanese citizenship is not as onerous as one might think." www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2...

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸