Japan is a Peaceful Country - Crime of the Week? Sharks in Parks! Shark Attack!

Japan is a very peaceful country. Ask the Japanese, ask anyone who has ever been here. The Japanese will tell you, "日本は平和な国" ("Nihon wa heiwa na kuni" - Japan is a peaceful country). It is. Japan is an extremely peaceful country. In the west you constantly have news about grotesque crimes, murders, bombings and wars, in Japan? News about ducks crossing a road in downtown Tokyo.

Left: My image of typical USA news. 

Right: Naked anime girl seems typical Japanese news 

The crimes that hit the news sources in Japan are completely out of this world when compared to the crimes that hit the news compared to, say, the United States. In the USA, the news is about riots, police brutality, government spying on citizens, Americans losing their freedoms, white collar crimes and idiocy about what kind of fashions movie stars are wearing. 

Ducks crossing busy streets in the world's most crowded city, 

Tokyo, was big news for several years in Japan.

Photo from NTV - Channel 4 Nihon TV (Japan TV) Network 

In the USA, there are roughly 17,000 murders per year. Japan, with roughly half the population of the USA has about 1,000 murders a year... Many of those murders are murder suicides so it is not exactly an apples to apple comparison. If there is a murder in the USA, it doesn't even hit the news unless the victim is a famous person or the relative of a famous person. In Japan, a murder usually becomes big news all over the TV and news networks for weeks after the incident.

The comparison of US news and Japan's news shows two countries that are as different as night and day. Here's things I skimmed from Yahoo news just now.


In the USA: 


*Police Beat Protestors
*Hillary Clinton Commits Fashion Faux Pas at G20 Meeting
*Teen Rapes 5-year-old at Ohio McDonald's
*More Catholic Priests Accused of Molestation
*Shooter Says Angel That Ordered Him to Kill Looked Like Olivia Newton-John


Okay. Yeah, that cops beating people up story has been going on for a long time. It's winter now, just wait until it warms up again and then we'll start seeing more of this. Hillary Clinton's fashion? Ugh. The only thing worse than kissing Hillary Clinton would be to kiss Imelda Marcos. Who cares what her fashion is? Why are Americans so concerned with what people are wearing? Teen rapes 5-year-old? At a McDonald's? WTF!? Priests rape kids? Same old, same old... Murder says angel that told him to do it looks like Olivia Newton John? Well aren't all angels beautiful like Farrah Fawcet or Olivia Neutron Bomb?

Now let's look at the news in Japan:


*Fukushima Nuclear Plant Toured by Journalists
*Three People Found Dead of Starvation in Saitama
*Search for Disaster Victims on Fukushima Coast
*Emperor Leaves Hospital After Surgery
*Dead 1.5 Meter Long Shark Left in Park Has Cops Fishing for Motive

Right. Dead 1.5 meter (about 4.5 foot long) shark left in public park?... Wait!.... What?!


Japan Times has the story: 

A dead shark found in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park has sparked an investigation into who brought it there, an officer at Yoyogi Police Station said Monday.

A park security guard called the police at 7 a.m. Sunday after finding the shark, which was covered by a blue tarp and measured about 1½ meters long, the police said.

The shark had been gutted and was found near a parking lot for bicycles near one of the entrances leading to JR Shibuya Station.

"The shark was not rotten, so I guess someone left the shark not so long ago," Hiroshi Okano, a deputy chief at Yoyogi Police Station, told The Japan Times by telephone. He said the police station is keeping its carcass at a storage facility there.

Okano wouldn't disclose any other details because the matter is still under investigation as an illegal dumping case.

On Twitter, dozens of posts from Feb. 14 to early on Feb. 15 said a shark was being exhibited in front of a sushi restaurant in Shibuya. The tweets later said someone had taken it away.

Only in Japan! And, actually, this is a pretty big story here in Japan. So what the deal is was is it seems that this shark was on display in front of a sushi shop. The sushi shops claims that some dumb gaijin (foreigner) told the sushi shop that we was an artist and wanted the shark to use to create some artwork. So, the sushi shops gave it to him. They say he must have dumped the shark in the park...

Uh, huh... Riiiiiiiight. Now, pun intended, but that story sounds really fishy! I don't believe that for a minute and it seems that the police don't either. It also strikes me as odd that the supposed perpetrator of this heinous crime is, of course, the unknown and shady foreigner...

Now, we all know that all foreigners in Japan are criminals, crack-addicts, sun-glass wearing untrustworthy, despicable characters (present company excluded)... But I don't know too many who have a hankering to be walking around carrying a 1.5 meter long shark under their arm... Also, considering that all artists (and musicians) are dirt poor, how is this artist going to get this shark home? On the train? And to think that a sushi shop is going to pay several hundred dollars for a fish (yeah, yeah, I know a shark isn't a fish) then just give it away to some guy walking up the street is a bit too much to believe.

Let me just say, "I don't think so."

I seems that the police don't believe this story either and are "grilling" (pun intended) the people from the sushi shop. It seems obvious to me that they had this huge shark that they didn't know what to do with and some Einstein there decided to dump it in the park and blame it on the scummy foreigners...

Heck, that's what any thinking person would do! 

Well, that's the sort of thing that hits the news in Japan.

Ok. Maybe I would call the police... Or at least the the Coast Guard or the navy!

The other thing about this that really surprises me is that the park attendant, upon finding the shark, would actually bother to call the police? Really? If it were me, I'd just get a big trash bag and throw it out on trash day. The other thing is that the police would actually bother with this. Do the police in Japan actually have so much free time that they'd launch and investigation as to where this shark came from?

Don't those police clowns have any real criminals to catch? No they don't... They only have traffic tickets to give out and sushi to eat, in between raiding prostitution parlors and arresting S&M dominatrix queens.

Nihon wa heiwa na kuni. Japan is a peaceful country. (With the police wasting our tax money).


Thanks to Marta Karpinska

Japan is Earthquake Capital of the World Visualization Animated Map

After the March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and subsequent Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, I was inundated with all sorts of ridiculous mails claiming that I was working for the nuclear industry or an "nuclear apologist." The more absurd ones were from people who claimed that the March 11 disaster was caused by HAARP or, as Benjamin Fulford claimed, "The USA detonating a nuclear bomb undersea off the coast of Japan."

All nonsense. I am no expert on HAARP but I like to think I know a tad bit about Japan. Japan has a hell of a lot of earthquakes. We had two yesterday that I felt. We have them almost everyday... Hell, we have hundreds of them everyday. Don't believe me?

Well, then watch this. Here is an animated map of earthquake activity in Japan in 2011. See if you can find where the nuclear attacks were:

Reasons Why I Don't Believe in it Anymore - Be Skeptical of Everything You Hear

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Ronald Reagan (1986)


I don't believe anything I see or hear on TV or radio and read in magazines anymore. Thirty plus years in mass media will make anyone very jaded and skeptical of everything coming out of the mouths of newscasters, scientists and politicians.

You wouldn't know it to read what I write about these days, but when I was a university student, I was pretty much a hard-core socialist, perhaps even a communist. Many people today are that way too but they don't like to use those words. Many people have been confused from decades of government run schooling.


I used to think - and I was taught in school - that the government is benevolent and needs to provide for people because the people are too useless and stupid to provide for themselves. That the people are stupid and useless is a pretty solid argument. But as I grew older, I began to learn that there is no such thing as a free lunch and for the government to take care of someone means that they are taking money from someone else.


You cannot keep taking money from the productive part of society and keep giving it to the unproductive part of society. We've been doing this for decades and not that's how we've gotten ourselves into the financial mess we're currently in.

Yep. Learn to live with it... Or marry a rich guy.

For example, the idea that the government should provide medical care, retirement care, or a so-called "free" education to everyone was some of the ideas that I believed were the duty of government. I believed those ideas because I went to government run public schooling. Of course, in government run schools, they will teach you that government run schooling is the best. That's what government's do. Is there a government in the world today that tells their public, "We are not the best government for you. Vote for another party!"


I clearly remember my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Demuth sitting us in class and saying, "The United States has the best and the freest government in the world. And the proof of that is that we have had the same government for 200 years." That, my friends, isn't true. We've had the same political system for 200 years, but not the same government for 200 years. If longest running means that it is the best (typical American exceptionalism type of twisted thinking and logic) then I don't think America even comes close. The longest running government in the history of the world is probably Mao's China. Can anyone verify that for me? Not that it matters.

Cooler than any US president. How many of them can say "Warhol did me"? 

I knew, even then, that what my teachers were telling me wasn't true. That's one reason why I don't carte blanche believe anything that teachers say and am very skeptical about their pronouncements.


Then, in high school, I was president of the Science Class. We were told that the entire world was heading into a new Ice Age. Scientists were absolutely sure about that one too. There were even some scientists who said that we should put ash and salt on the polar ice caps to melt them so that would warm up the earth. That was 1975. I even wrote a 140 page thesis on it for my senior year. I was proud of that paper. But guess what? Even though the scare last a few more years, the Ice Age never happened. I became skeptical of science.


I became a devout disbeliever when, not trusting the media I worked in, I studied the subject. This from the Business and Media Institute of America:

"Many publications now claiming the world is on the brink of a global warming disaster said the same about an impending ice age – just 30 years ago. Several major ones, including The New York Times, Time magazine and Newsweek, have reported on three or even four different climate shifts since 1895."

Yes. Big disasters sell advertising space and create revenues. Follow the money if you are ever wondering about the validity of anything you are told on the mass media.

I makes sense when you think about it; they can't even predict next week's weather with better than a 50% chance of accuracy, what kind of fool thinks they can predict the weather 50 years from now?


A few years later, I became old enough to vote. The very first time I had the chance to vote for president. I voted for Jimmy Carter because I didn't want war. Carter won the first time. I was happy. Then, during his tenure, inflation hit 22% and I was a university student. I realized that, at that rate, there would be no jobs even if I did graduate. Then when it seemed like he would lose re-election to Ronald Reagan, he committed a crime by sending the military into Iran to try to rescue hostages. The mission was called Operation Eagle Claw. It was a disaster. Two of the helicopters crashed into each other and eight US servicemen died. The mission was called off.

Ruins of a burnt out Hercules troop carrier helicopter in Iran April 1980.

This was the guy I voted for!? I voted for him because I didn't want war yet he was sending our military in on military adventures in countries that we weren't at war with? I have never voted again, even once, since then.


Political hypocrites! That's one more reason why I don't believe anything that politicians say and am very skeptical about their pronouncements.

After that I worked for a Republican congressman from California named Bob Largomarsino. I was his chief staff cameraman. Congressman Bob was a nice guy. I travelled around with him and took photos of him visiting old folk's homes and shaking hands with people or going to lunch with other people. In the two years I worked for him, I never once took any photos of him actually doing an work besides schmoozing people. Then Reagan invaded Grenada.

This photo was congressman Bob's favorite. Him sitting between Reagan and Bush I.

This photo hung in his office. I didn't take this one.

They said they were invading Grenada because US students were being held hostage. We'd find out later that this wasn't true at all and many nations, including our allies like Britain were angry and upset about the USA breaking international law.


"What's the land of the free doing invading tiny Caribbean nations?" I thought. That was one more reason why I don't believe anything that politicians say and am very skeptical about their pronouncements.


The litany of being told one thing but later on finding out that the facts are different from what we were told is long. I could never name them all. Rick Gee had a good short list of government lies: 

• Woodrow Wilson: won reelection with the prevaricating slogan, "He kept us out of the war." (Well, at least he did until after the election. Typical politician).
• Bush I: "Read my lips: no new taxes." (Well, maybe just a few).
• Ronald Reagan: knew nothing of the Iran-Contra shenanigans. (The Teflon President, indeed).
• Bill Clinton: "I experimented with marijuana a time or two and I didn’t like it, and didn’t inhale and never tried it again." (Do you know anyone who tried it but didn’t like it?)
• Bill Clinton: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." ("Hey, I just sat there; she did all the relating herself.")
• Vince Foster committed suicide (how convenient).
• Richard Nixon: "I am not a crook." ("I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.")
• Marijuana has no medicinal benefits. (Tell Peter McWilliams’ survivors that).
• Children are being molested in a compound in Waco (to protect them, we must kill them).
• "Let’s Roll." Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania because heroic passengers thwarted the hijackers. (That the U.S. Air Force shot down Flight 93 seems far more likely).
• Bush II: We must take the war on terrorism to Afghanistan because the Taliban are harboring Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks (never mind that the U.S. government had already planned to invade Afghanistan long before 9/11).

There's all sorts of others too (for too many to name) but another short list: Flouride in the water is good for you; the IPCC (a government agency by the way) says there is a "consensus on Global Warming" but there isn't at all; Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons; the USA is spreading democracy; we are the "good guys;" the Japanese government saying that there was no problem at Fukushima; being the news director of a major Japanese broadcasting station and telling people that SARS, Bird flu and Swine flu were going to kill well over 250 million people worldwide (in total, until today, the three of them together have killed less than 300 people) the list goes on and on... 


These are all the million and one reasons why I am very skeptical about the pronouncements of teachers, scientists and politicians. 

Photoshop did wonders for the Man Made Global Warming movement...

That's why whenever I hear some politician say that they need to tax us to "help the children" or "save the environment" or "stop global climate change;" whenever I hear that we must go to war to stop some country from harming their people (as if bombing those same people is helpful) or that, in the worse case of an Orwellian nightmare, that "We must go to war in order to have peace" I am very skeptical.


I think, in this modern age, we need, we must to have a very strong and healthy skepticism about anything we hear, see or read on the mass media and that includes the Internet.


To do otherwise is to be foolish and completely ignore the historical record.

First 100 Readers of This Blog Win Free Airfare for Two to Japan - No Hidden Catches! No Gimmicks! No Basis in Reality Whatsoever Either...*

"And, if you believe that..." the story goes...


"Dear winner! Congratulations! You've won $10,000!" At first you are surprised. Your heart skips a beat, then you read the fine print. It says,

"This could be you if you purchase over $250 of "Sports, Bikinis, Barbecue and Hiking Boots" magazine subscriptions over the next 6 months. As one lucky winner will...." Blah, blah, blah....

How many times has this happened to you? 

Your dreams dashed. Of course, it was too good to be true.


You know, in Japan, there is an old saying, "There's nothing scarier than something for free!"


Well you might remember a few months back the campaign announced in the Japanese media and all over the world about 10,000 people winning free airfare to Japan in a Japanese Government Tourism Bureau effort to support flagging numbers of tourists to Japan after the March Fukushima nuclear accident? Well the Japanese government was just kidding about the free vacation... (I reckon that you can deduce that I not the most dependable travel agent in the world either... Chuckle!)

Well, thank god I didn't write about that campaign when it was going on. Why? At the time, I thought something was fishy. Just like you thought something was fishy when you clicked to read this blogpost. Let me pat myself on the back and say that, in October of last year, at the time they announced this foolishness, my first thoughts were that the idea was waste of money; shouldn't we be spending that money on helping the people of Tohoku? What about the Fukushima disaster? And, with our finances in such disorder, where are we going to get this money from in the first place? I also thought, "Who's stupid idea was this?" 


Of course it is/was a stupid idea. A very stupid idea (too good to be true for anyone who "won" - and it was)... (No problem for the government idiots who thought of this... They aren't spending their own money. Why not?)  


But besides the practical concerns, think about the ineptitude: Talk about a BS contest! Imagine winning only to be told, "Oh yes, Mr. Something-or-other, congratulations but we were only kidding about the million dollars!"

The Wall Street Journal reports in Dream For Free Flights To Japan Over (article quotes highlighted in yellow, my snide remarks follow):


Back in October, Japan's national tourism agency floated a plan that seemed an ideal remedy to boost flagging visitor numbers in the wake of the March 11 disasters. 


What!? "..a plan that seemed an ideal remedy?!" What are the these people at Wall Street Journal smoking? Oh, yeah, I forgot. The Wall Street Journal are a bunch of big government wankers too. 


Free flights to Japan in 2012. A full 10,000 of them. 


Over flowing with cynicism: Cheap skates! I knew it! "Why stop at 10,000?" I said at the meeting, "Let's make it 100,000! No! A million, ten million! Free babies, bento and Banzai too!"


Now, as the country crunches through the detail of tight budget numbers for next year, the hope many had for visiting Japan in 2012 has evaporated into a pipe dream: There won't be any free flights next year, period. 


Well, duh. There ain't no Sanity Claus either.


The budget for them has not been approved. Whatever tourism authorities thought a good idea, Japan simply can't afford it, the government's budget planners have concluded. 


Evidence that more government planing will make our lives better!


The Tokyo-based Japan Tourism Agency didn't sugar-coat the decision in a statement on its website late Dec. 26: "The project titled 'Fly to Japan!' (to offer flight tickets to 10,000 foreigners with high potential to communicate Japan's attractions), which had been covered in a number of media in autumn this year, was not approved as a governmental draft budget of FY 2012."  


How about not sugar-coating a message to the Einsteins in the Japan Tourism Agency on their website by writing something like, "You're fired!"


Regular readers of this blog will know that I am extremely skeptical of any pronouncements by the Japanese government (or any government for that matter) and, at the time of this campaign's announcement, I remember thinking, "These clowns have a debt that is over 225% of GDP and now the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster to contend with. Where in the hell are they going to get the money to pay for this?"


Funny that.


Now, what do we who live in Japan and pay taxes for have to show for this idiocy? Well, I haven't any figures, but I know we spent lots of money on promotional items like posters, TV ads, and advertising in publications all over the world (besides the silly posters advertising this campaign that were hung in my local bar in Tokyo - go figure!) so we dumped at least a few hundred thousand dollars on that. Small change, right? No problem. Then, on top of that, we got this bad promotion (or good depending on how you look at it). 


These types of dumb government planned promotions are always a boondoggle. Let me recall a few for you that I remember:


In 1979, at the height of the trade wars with the USA, the Japanese government made stickers and posters and placed them all over Japan's train stations and in taxis. The stickers and posters said, "Import Now!" (as if the average Japanese housewife reads English and/or has any say as to whether or not pots and pans and textiles and steel are imported into Japan from the United States or not.  


Which is much like this campaign that I've seen at my local pub recently. The posters say, "Visit Japan!" I think, "Wow! What a brilliant idea! Promote visiting Japan to people who are already here! Saves them the airfare! Brilliant!"

This poster hangs in my favorite restaurant ... in Tokyo!

The next campaign that I remember Japan spending an exorbitant amount of money on was the Yokoso Japan campaign. Japan must have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this campaign making videos that were shown (and viewed) a few hundred times on the Internet and seen on American and European TV at times like 5:00 am on a Sunday morning. In fact, I hosted the one about Hiroshima (even though I don't live there!). Uh, don't expect me to show you that one, it was embarrassing (many of the English subtitles were spelled incorrectly and lots of other problems):

Oh well, I suppose we can console ourselves by saying, "At least they tried..." I wish they'd try with their money and not mine next time. People might think I am complaining about the incompetent government, and I am. But, at least in canceling this dumb campaign, they made the right decision. Why in the hell should I have to pay for Joe Six-pack to visit Japan? Does he pay for me to go on vacation to his country?




*That's tue: This contest is a farce and not real... Just like the vacation to Japan contest was also. Sorry.

Japan Finally Grows Some Balls: Oil Embargo Against Iran is an Act of War - Japan, China and S. Korea Opt Out

Update at bottom!


Good News! Centuries of American hegemony and imperialism have just been given a black eye. Japan, following China's and South Korea's announcement, has stated that it will not abide by an oil embargo against Iran. It is the right choice. 


I think that Japan would know a thing or two about how oil embargoes lead to war. The USA under Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted an oil embargo against Japan that lead to the moderate Japanese government of the time being ousted for a more hard line militarist government that soon lead Japan into total war.

A US enforced oil embargo against Japan in July 1941 lead to this in December 1941.

We have US presidential candidate Ron Paul repeatedly stating that embargoes lead to war and we have history as proof that embargoes lead to war too. Japan was the victim of a US led embargo in July 1941 which lead to the ouster of the then moderate Japanese government of Fumimaro Konoe to the hard core right wing nationalist government of Hideki Tojo that lead Japan to war with the United States and England. The militarists insisted, with good evidence, that the Americans were unreasonable and impossible to be dealt with. They came to power and the rest is, as they say, history. 


Here is what Ron Paul says about embargoes:

Embargoes and blockades are acts of war under international law. Americans should know this. That's why, in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy did not call the blockade of Cuba a "blockade" but called it a "Quarantine."


Considering embargoes, the following information came out at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials - the defense of Japan by court appointed US lawyers - and meetings with lawyers in Washington. These transcripts and points were covered up by subsequent US governments for decades.

The website of revisionist historian C.W. Porter, quoting word-for-word from official documents writes:

On December 7, 1928, a group of distinguished Senators gathered in the Capital Building at Washington D.C. to discuss ratification of the Briand-Kellogg Peace Pact, an instrument whose purpose was to “abolish aggressive war”.

Among those present was the author of the Pact, Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg.

During the course of the recorded discussions, the following exchange took place:

“Q: Suppose a country is not attacked - suppose there is an economic blockade...?

A: There is no such thing as a blockade [unless] you are in war.

Q: It is an act of war?

A: An act of war absolutely... as I have stated before, nobody on earth, probably, could write an article defining 'self defense' or 'aggressor' that some country could not get around; and I made up my mind that the only safe thing for any country to do was to judge for itself within its sovereign rights whether it was unjustly attacked and had a right to defend itself and it must answer to the opinion of the world.”

The above was quoted during the Tokyo Trial by American defense council to show that Japan's War of the Pacific, according to the very terms of the Brian-Kellogg Pact itself, did not and could not constitute "aggression".

Briand-Kellogg Peace Pact, signed by US president Calvin Coolidge 

in 1929, made embargoes an act of war.

Like I mentioned Japan has seen with her own eyes (China and Korea too) what happens when a nation is backed into a corner with an embargo. That's probably the biggest reason they want no part of it.

The article continues:

Japan’s War of the Pacific was a war of self-defense for the following reasons: 

- blockade is an act of war (p. 43,051);

- every nation is the judge of what constitutes self-defense (ibid); 

- self-defense is not limited to defense of the national territory (p. 42,239); 

- Japan was provoked into a war of self-defense (pp. 43,050-175);

The Americans froze Japanese assets (in violation of a treaty) and began to embargo oil. It was demanded, as a condition to restoring normal relations, that Japan sign an agreement with various other nations who had never before been party to the negotiations, including Thailand and Soviet Russia (pp. 43,678-98).

To obtain agreement with the other nations in accordance with this demand could have taken months or years; and might never have been possible. Japan had enough oil for a few months only. A conference was held at which it was decided that if there was to be war, it must come now; by spring Japan would be too weak to fight. In any case, the attack on Pearl Harbor was an act of utter desperation. The oil embargo meant the destruction of Japan’s independence and perhaps survival as a nation. (emphasis mine)

(Through an oil embargo) Japan faced immediate military defeat in China; total industrial collapse at home; and destruction through coastal shelling of all the major cities by any one of five traditional enemies (America, Britain, China, the Netherlands, and particularly the Soviets).

Oil had been supplied to Japan for two years in the teeth of hostile public opinion. It was believed essential to keep war out of the Far East;

When this did not work, Japan was forced into war, crushed with atomic bombs, and her leaders hanged for “aggression”. (Read more here).

Could anyone in the world be so naive to think that the USA isn't just itching for a war with Iran and is hoping that, with sanctions and illegal embargoes, that they can trick Iran into firing the first shot - like the USA did to Japan - even if it would be legally justified as "self-defense" under international law? Law or no law, you know the USA (a government who has ignored international law for years) would try to claim the moral high ground by saying, "But they fired first!"

One guess which is the US navy? How dare the Iranians

threaten us with their mighty dreadnoughts off the shores of their own country?

This information needs to become common knowledge for people, especially Americans (who will never be taught the truth in school or on American mass media), to realize that these sorts of actions, namely economic war in the form of things like oil embargoes, by the US government are acts of war and we the people must rise up and stop this madness. It seems that the USA is just waiting for an excuse to turn Tehran into a gravel parking lot. This must be stopped.

That China, Japan and Korea have put their collective foot down and said, "No!" is a great sign that the US empire is finally deflating; especially when you realize that, since 1945, Japan and South Korea have been the staunchest of American allies. This rejection of US will is a total embarrassment for the US government.


It couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of folks.


Yahoo News Reports in Japan Refuses to Stop Iranian Oil Imports:

Japan's foreign minister said Monday that his country would not stop imports of Iranian oil, striking a rare note of divergence with the United States during a visit to Washington.

After talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (war-mongerer) that focused mostly on North Korea, Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba highlighted Japan's sanctions imposed on Iranian institutions due to concerns over its nuclear program.

But Gemba said: "I conveyed my view that there is a danger of causing damage to the entire global economy if the imports of Iranian crude oil stop."

Think about it. Of course Japan has to say "No!" Not only do embargoes start wars, Japan just suffered through the nightmare of March 11, 2011. The earthquake, tsunami and then Fukushima nuclear disasters leading to half of all of Japan's electrical needs being stopped due to nuclear power plant's termination of service. Throw on top of that reconstruction costs and you have a Japan that cannot afford to pay higher bills for oil!


Oil is already over $102 dollars a barrel today! What will happen to Japan's economy if oil hits $250 a barrel as some analysts have predicted?

This is the kind of propaganda Americans are fed. What? How dare the Iranians taunt US warships off the coast of Iran! I wonder how Americans would feel if Chinese warships were buzzing the coastline of California?

Thank god that, like I said, Japan finally has the guts to stand up the the USA. Or, as Americans would say, finally Japan has, "Grown some balls!" I wonder if Obama will make ridiculous statements like Bush did with his "Coalition of the Willing" that included about 8 minor countries that were paid off to support the invasion of Iraq?


Well, Obama can make those statements, but when three of the world's top economic powerhouses don't join in, the USA is starting to look more and more like a paper tiger.


Not a moment too soon. 


UPDATE: What timing! Zerohedge confirms my thesis on the USA pushing Iran towards war with this report on Iran this morning in Hyperinflation Comes to Iran: 


Hyperinflation has struck again, this time at ground zero of the most sensitive geopolitical conflict in ages: Iran. EA WorldView reports:

An EA source reports that a relative in Tehran ordered a washing machine for 400,000 Toman (about $240) this week. When he went to the shop the next day, he was told that --- amidst the currency crisis and rising import costs --- the price was now 800,000 Toman (about $480). Another EA source says that the price of an item of software for a laptop computer has tripled from 50,000 Toman to 150,000 Toman within days.

, and gave America the green light to enter the war.

And so the opportunity cost for the Ahmedinejad regime to preserve its status quo gradually grinds to zero, as the entire economy implodes (courtesy of a few strategic financially isolating decisions) making further escalation virtually inevitable, in a 100% replica of the US-planned Japanese escalation that led to the Pearl Harbor attack.

...Need I say more? The military industrial complex (and criminal government) of the United States must be stopped from constantly destabilizing regions and causing wars. The true terrorists of our times are easy to identify... And they don't live in caves in Afghanistan... Washington D.C. is their mailing address.

Lady Gaga Rips Off Japan and Her Fans

I have a report that Lady Gaga has ripped off her fans who bought a "Lady Gaga wristband". The proceeds from those wristbands were to be donated to the poor folks who suffered in Japan from the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Seems like, as of this date, no proceeds have been forthcoming.

That event brought out tons of charlatans who used other people's misery for financial gain. You'd think that someone who were as rich as Lady Gaga would make sure that the money (I'm sure it's not a lot) would get into the hands of those who really need it instead of going towards her next wardrobe prupose.


But, like I have always stated, you have to be very careful with these "Pop stars" and their charities. Please refer to: "Clubbing Baby Dolphins and Out of Work Actresses":


As I have written before, people like Hayden Panettiere don't really give a rat's ass about any dolphins or anything like that, they only care about fame. 

Just like jerks like U2's Bono who prop up charities and claim to care about poverty (yet give only 1%) or Sting with his BS about rain forests or the next Hollywood clown who makes noise about endangered monkeys, it's all just blah, blah, blah... Yadda, yadda, yadda. These people don't really give a sh*t about these things. Their "charities" and work are all promotions capitalizing on other people's misery and they constitute tax breaks.

In Hayden's case, if she really did care about the Dolphins, she'd still be talking about it... But, she doesn't. She doesn't because, you see, the advertising budget for that film is over with and, well, she does have a movie star career to attend to.  


Far, far too often, these charities are just scams to evade taxes or just promotional gimmicks to make themselves look good.... But don't let my scorn for these fakes fool you. I also am a fair minded person, the Japanese Red Cross deserves heaps of criticism too.

Homeless and orphaned children in Japan after tsunami? Use their plight to rip off the public? Great idea! Cashing in on other people's misery! What an excellent marketing plan!

Well, now, we have Lady Gaga being accussed and sued in court for ripping off her fans for a charity to help the survivors of the March 11 disaster in Japan.

New York Daily News: Lady Gaga accused of pocketing Japan earthquake relief bracelet proceeds

"Lady Gaga has been a champion for relief efforts in recovering Japan, but now the singer is facing allegations she pocketed donations that should have gone to the ravaged country.

The federal class action lawsuit alleges Gaga (real name Stefani Germonatta) jacked up the shipping costs on the "We Pray for Japan" wristbands she designed and sold on her website after the March earthquake and tsunami, keeping a portion of the money from each sale despite her promise that all proceeds would go to directly to relief efforts."

In the July 14, 2011 issue of Tokyo’s English bi-weekly magazine, “Metropolis” is stated under “the Small Print - Going Ga-Ga”:

• A class action lawsuit filed in the US claims that Lady Gaga failed to donate proceeds of her “relief wristband” to victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

• The suit also alleges that the singer “charged buyers an excessive $3.99 for shipping within the United States, against the actual cost of only $.50 cents.”

Then, again, in Metropolis’s year end issue of December 14, 2011, it was reported again:

A class action lawsuit filed in the US claimed that Lady Gaga failed to donate proceeds of her “relief wristband” to victims of 3/11.

I have been searching for more information on this case but can find nothing to update the situation.

The best information I can find was in an article from Gossipcop.com. It was entitled, "Lady Gaga Accused of Charity Scam"

From that article:

Lady Gaga is being sued in a $5 million class action suit for allegedly scamming a Japan relief charity.

The singer said on her website that all proceeds from the sale of the “We Pray For Japan” wristbands were going to the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

But a Michigan law firm says that’s not true.

According to the lawsuit filed by 1-800-Law-Firm, Gaga sold the bracelets for $5, plus $3.99 for shipping and handling, and 60 cents for taxes, but jacked up the price of the shipping costs in an effort to pocket the extra money.

The federal suit also claims Gaga never disclosed how much of the $5 bracelets was actually going to Japan relief, even though she included the money she allegedly pocketed as part of her claimed donation.

The lawsuit says Lady Gaga violated a number of federal racketeering laws as well as consumer protection laws from the alleged scam.

Welcome to 2012... The scams and criminal activity of Wall Street and their like continue to trickle down to the average person.

I think 2012 is going to be one wild ride. Oh, and make sure to buy Lady Gaga's records. You might as well get in on the fun of being screwed over by corporate greed.

Lady Gaga, "Born this way"? Indeed.