On taking care of your parents. I think this, above all, is a great reason to return to the states. There is no one better at providing care than someone who cares. Your presence would make a great difference in that. It doesn't sound like an ideal situation you will be walking into, but I believe there is still great opportunity here. You may even be able to get paid for your parents care depending on what state your parents are located.
Back in the late nineties, my dad got into a car accident, and his days of walking again were over. He had rheumatoid arthritis and so the chances of mending a broken leg or whatever happened to him was not going to happen, although he certainly tried.
He had knee and hip replacements. I was there assisting him with PT at home and also taking him to hydrotherapy. He got to a point of being able to stand up and walk using special crutches, but then things went south when his immune system rejected his artificial knees.
That possibility is the only real silver lining in all this. But housing and more will be an issue. But, there are issues a plenty any route I take or find myself on.
Yes, there are issues. I find myself facing some myself. For instance: new medicaid rules means I have to get a new PCP and be seen by them. It makes sense though. Even if it is just so they can verify that yes, I have a missing limb, and no, there is no chance that limb can grow back.
PCP seems like something I should be able to recall, but I cannot.
There are some things that I think need not be verified once it is first established. A missing limb and its inability to grow back are among these. Do they think you are a lizard?
There are parts of me at times that are lizard like, like ashen scaly elbows, but otherwise I am not a lizard.
Thing is, and I have to admit this, many amputees live very rich lives, and one limb taken away doesn't mean that can stop them from climbing mountains, skiing, and outperforming people with all their limbs.
So much in this life, we don't know what we don't know. And we may not know enough to even know what to ask for.
Although they say that ignorance of the law is no excuse, what do you do when you have so many laws? We have people in Congress voting on legislation that they themselves have not read, so what does that say about the people for whom the laws are for?
Here in the States, there was a time when people worked for the same company for decades to chase that pension(as you well know). They paid into it as part of their employment, and the company in turn, rewarded their employees for their loyalty.
Not only do the polls show that many Japanese are unaware of their pension system, but it is obvious from your personal experience that you do as well. I wonder if you asked your class if they were aware of how pensions are paid, and whose responsibility it is to pay into them, what percentage would know?
The one factor he may have some pull with is that he has a unique perspective of being born in Japan, so his experience is different in that he views that you have to pay into the pension system as a given. Also, I do believe that some people probably avoid paying into it out of laziness, and perhaps with a bit of fear as well, which could very well be childishness. But I imagine you have not kept this issue to yourself, and have, in fact, questioned many about it, only to realize that the truth aligns with the polls: many do not know they should be paying into this system.
Regardless of their motives, which I usually steer clear of since I am not fond of ad hominem attacks, the truth remains that a lot of people's pension funds are not being funded for whatever reason. And this is a failure on the part of the government.
I have NOT shared about nenkin except here on substack. There are couple of reasons for this. One is the history I have with trying to share information. As I have shared before, I have long had to withdraw my pay from my accounts asap on each payday out of fear of them raiding my bank account for national health care payments. That is has long troubled me but when I first learned about FBAR and then FATCA, I saw the exact same arguments being made and my attempts to warn others about them led to the exact responses that we get when warning of the dangers of masking, risks having an untested substance injected, school closures and all the rest.
Another reason is that most I worked with or knew for other reasons prior to the panic are not on speaking terms with me over my anti Covid countermeasures stance. I am also loath to share with those I still am on good terms with as these issues may affect my continued employment. Whatever my reach with those affected by nenkin is, Substack will have to do.
I will respond to some of your other points for I think it is a good discussion, but later. Classes starting back this week, so busy again.
On X, the interval between dissent and blocking is quicker and quicker. They realize that those of us who know the truth (due to our ignorance) will not back down. And their only recourse is blocking, although if they said, "listen, I don't want to discuss this anymore" I will leave them alone. But they usually have to leave a final thought before blocking, usually with some ad hominem attack.
And both sides do this. I was in an argument yesterday after I asserted that Trump was our Lockdown president. He stated that all states decided for themselves their Lockdown policies, and yet I stated that very often there were outside pressures from above to comply. And there was the simple resistance to the Asch experiment that so many complied with.
If someone pulls a fire alarm in a movie theater, how quickly would people rush out. What about those few people who simply looked around, noting there was no smoke.
On this I disagree with you on. Yes, T did pressure states to lockdown, but he allowed the states to make their own choices as is the way our system is designed, the Federalist model. But you and I were pressured to do many things these past 5 + years and we are not in leadership positions. Governors are elected to make tough decisions, most failed. But not all.
By the same token, he could be called the “reopen” president as he later called for all states to reopen. Many choose not to. It is my belief that those states would have done what they did without any prompting from any president save some kind of ban on doing so. They proved quite able to resist the pressure to reopen. The fact that they continued for so long is offered as proof. If they so chose, they could have resisted the pressure to lockdown.
However, there is a bigger point here; the man has enough to deal with, do we really need to focus on such issues as these, right now? He not perfect, but is the best we have for the challenges we face.
Now, your most important point, I am not blocking you because we disagree on this. I am not ignoring your post and I am not deleting it.
You wouldn't be the first to disagree with me on this, and I do agree he is not perfect. And to be honest, his latest tweet today concerning the CDC is the most positive thing I have read from him on the subject of Covid. That he spoke for the first time not saying that Operation Warp Speed was the best thing since sliced bacon.
The argument that ignorance of the law is no excuse for not knowing the law, while it may have legal weight behind it, is a bogus argument. The U.S. tax code, including the regulations that implement it and the convoluted instructions numbers over 50,000 pages. The exact number is not known, but the right says it is around 70,000 and the left “only” around 40,000. The main difference being that the right includes all the publications and schedules in their count and the left omits these. The fact is, no one can possibly know what the law is regarding taxes and judges in tax court have stated on the record that one relies on the advice of the IRS at their own peril. Therefore, not even the IRS knows tax law. Yet, if you and I were ever to find ourselves targeted, not knowing the unknowable will not protect us.
This is possibly one of the most disturbing revelations. You would think that in a country where respect carries the day, self-respect would be paramount in that. (I do remember our previous talks on respect, and it is more nuanced than the way we in the West view "respect.") Yet, is there is a lack of self-respect in cheating as you only hurt yourself in the end?
If I decide, for instance, not to Google who the male lead is in "Silver Linings Playbook" because I can't remember their name, and then look it up anyway, am not cheating myself?
But I can see the sad rationale. Why perform math calculations is a calculator can do it? Why reason through a blog if Chat GBT can give you a breakdown of thinking?
That is a really scary one.
At times I too have succumbed to reading the AI overview of a google query. But I know and am certain that the AI overview is wrong about things, horribly, inexorably wrong. Yet many people simply think that a Grok, ChatGBT, or Gemini answer is a valid one. It isn't.
This too touches on so much? I will do a post on cheating in Japan for it is a big issue and one that may be of interest to all who are also interested in Japan.
When I was in high school, I too held the position that it was a wasted endeavor to learn math as we had calculators. I wish someone had corrected my faulty thinking then for I certainly learned the folly of that later in life.
But is looking something thing up cheating? Before Google and the public use of the Internet, We looked things up at the library or from resources at home, such as a DVD or music album. I do Google things but rarely find what I want. Apparently, there is not a single word of any human language that has not been used as the title of a Japanese anime or manga title or characters there of.
Most of my looking things up is through newspaper articles and or documents I have collected over the years. However, I do not use Chatgbt, grok nor any others. I trust them less than I trust Wikipedia, of which I have little trust for. I use that for dates of major events and spellings of peoples names and little more.
I agree. There is something definitely wrong with not learning basic math skills and maintaining those skills. One of the things I liked to do while driving was going over the numbers. Running my MPH, overall mileage left, and determining the changing ETA based on these factors.
While looking things up isn't cheating, I think that allowing something to do your thinking for you is. Like an English paper, if I get ChatGPT to do a topic, I haven't thought critically about it at all. Also Google is very useless. In the early days of Google, it was a little more useful but unwieldy as it would get caught up on sites that used SEO as an advantage. Then Google only became useful after the paid ads. Now Google finds little or nothing of use aside from, as you say, name spellings and certain dates.
I look things up, oddly on my email feed and in different sites I have bookmarked, that may not be easily found by a google search.
I sure hope you see. We can recreate a Civil War battle at the pension office. After that, we can go get a burger. We can film the re-enactment, upload it and maybe makes some money. That would be something I would watch.
If you film the next class, hopefully there will some firehose action. I think someone did that in a Japanese high school some years ago. I don't know if the teacher filmed it. I would have watched that, too.
Sounds like you have a lot on your plate.
On taking care of your parents. I think this, above all, is a great reason to return to the states. There is no one better at providing care than someone who cares. Your presence would make a great difference in that. It doesn't sound like an ideal situation you will be walking into, but I believe there is still great opportunity here. You may even be able to get paid for your parents care depending on what state your parents are located.
Back in the late nineties, my dad got into a car accident, and his days of walking again were over. He had rheumatoid arthritis and so the chances of mending a broken leg or whatever happened to him was not going to happen, although he certainly tried.
He had knee and hip replacements. I was there assisting him with PT at home and also taking him to hydrotherapy. He got to a point of being able to stand up and walk using special crutches, but then things went south when his immune system rejected his artificial knees.
I
That possibility is the only real silver lining in all this. But housing and more will be an issue. But, there are issues a plenty any route I take or find myself on.
Yes, there are issues. I find myself facing some myself. For instance: new medicaid rules means I have to get a new PCP and be seen by them. It makes sense though. Even if it is just so they can verify that yes, I have a missing limb, and no, there is no chance that limb can grow back.
PCP seems like something I should be able to recall, but I cannot.
There are some things that I think need not be verified once it is first established. A missing limb and its inability to grow back are among these. Do they think you are a lizard?
PCP = Primary Care Physician
OH, a doctor. Good lord, George Carlin would have a hay day with this.
There are parts of me at times that are lizard like, like ashen scaly elbows, but otherwise I am not a lizard.
Thing is, and I have to admit this, many amputees live very rich lives, and one limb taken away doesn't mean that can stop them from climbing mountains, skiing, and outperforming people with all their limbs.
Ashen scaly elbows---I love it! Thanks for making me smile.
So much in this life, we don't know what we don't know. And we may not know enough to even know what to ask for.
Although they say that ignorance of the law is no excuse, what do you do when you have so many laws? We have people in Congress voting on legislation that they themselves have not read, so what does that say about the people for whom the laws are for?
Here in the States, there was a time when people worked for the same company for decades to chase that pension(as you well know). They paid into it as part of their employment, and the company in turn, rewarded their employees for their loyalty.
Not only do the polls show that many Japanese are unaware of their pension system, but it is obvious from your personal experience that you do as well. I wonder if you asked your class if they were aware of how pensions are paid, and whose responsibility it is to pay into them, what percentage would know?
The one factor he may have some pull with is that he has a unique perspective of being born in Japan, so his experience is different in that he views that you have to pay into the pension system as a given. Also, I do believe that some people probably avoid paying into it out of laziness, and perhaps with a bit of fear as well, which could very well be childishness. But I imagine you have not kept this issue to yourself, and have, in fact, questioned many about it, only to realize that the truth aligns with the polls: many do not know they should be paying into this system.
Regardless of their motives, which I usually steer clear of since I am not fond of ad hominem attacks, the truth remains that a lot of people's pension funds are not being funded for whatever reason. And this is a failure on the part of the government.
I have NOT shared about nenkin except here on substack. There are couple of reasons for this. One is the history I have with trying to share information. As I have shared before, I have long had to withdraw my pay from my accounts asap on each payday out of fear of them raiding my bank account for national health care payments. That is has long troubled me but when I first learned about FBAR and then FATCA, I saw the exact same arguments being made and my attempts to warn others about them led to the exact responses that we get when warning of the dangers of masking, risks having an untested substance injected, school closures and all the rest.
Another reason is that most I worked with or knew for other reasons prior to the panic are not on speaking terms with me over my anti Covid countermeasures stance. I am also loath to share with those I still am on good terms with as these issues may affect my continued employment. Whatever my reach with those affected by nenkin is, Substack will have to do.
I will respond to some of your other points for I think it is a good discussion, but later. Classes starting back this week, so busy again.
It's freaking weird this response to any dissent.
On X, the interval between dissent and blocking is quicker and quicker. They realize that those of us who know the truth (due to our ignorance) will not back down. And their only recourse is blocking, although if they said, "listen, I don't want to discuss this anymore" I will leave them alone. But they usually have to leave a final thought before blocking, usually with some ad hominem attack.
And both sides do this. I was in an argument yesterday after I asserted that Trump was our Lockdown president. He stated that all states decided for themselves their Lockdown policies, and yet I stated that very often there were outside pressures from above to comply. And there was the simple resistance to the Asch experiment that so many complied with.
If someone pulls a fire alarm in a movie theater, how quickly would people rush out. What about those few people who simply looked around, noting there was no smoke.
On this I disagree with you on. Yes, T did pressure states to lockdown, but he allowed the states to make their own choices as is the way our system is designed, the Federalist model. But you and I were pressured to do many things these past 5 + years and we are not in leadership positions. Governors are elected to make tough decisions, most failed. But not all.
By the same token, he could be called the “reopen” president as he later called for all states to reopen. Many choose not to. It is my belief that those states would have done what they did without any prompting from any president save some kind of ban on doing so. They proved quite able to resist the pressure to reopen. The fact that they continued for so long is offered as proof. If they so chose, they could have resisted the pressure to lockdown.
However, there is a bigger point here; the man has enough to deal with, do we really need to focus on such issues as these, right now? He not perfect, but is the best we have for the challenges we face.
Now, your most important point, I am not blocking you because we disagree on this. I am not ignoring your post and I am not deleting it.
You wouldn't be the first to disagree with me on this, and I do agree he is not perfect. And to be honest, his latest tweet today concerning the CDC is the most positive thing I have read from him on the subject of Covid. That he spoke for the first time not saying that Operation Warp Speed was the best thing since sliced bacon.
The argument that ignorance of the law is no excuse for not knowing the law, while it may have legal weight behind it, is a bogus argument. The U.S. tax code, including the regulations that implement it and the convoluted instructions numbers over 50,000 pages. The exact number is not known, but the right says it is around 70,000 and the left “only” around 40,000. The main difference being that the right includes all the publications and schedules in their count and the left omits these. The fact is, no one can possibly know what the law is regarding taxes and judges in tax court have stated on the record that one relies on the advice of the IRS at their own peril. Therefore, not even the IRS knows tax law. Yet, if you and I were ever to find ourselves targeted, not knowing the unknowable will not protect us.
Cheating
This is possibly one of the most disturbing revelations. You would think that in a country where respect carries the day, self-respect would be paramount in that. (I do remember our previous talks on respect, and it is more nuanced than the way we in the West view "respect.") Yet, is there is a lack of self-respect in cheating as you only hurt yourself in the end?
If I decide, for instance, not to Google who the male lead is in "Silver Linings Playbook" because I can't remember their name, and then look it up anyway, am not cheating myself?
But I can see the sad rationale. Why perform math calculations is a calculator can do it? Why reason through a blog if Chat GBT can give you a breakdown of thinking?
That is a really scary one.
At times I too have succumbed to reading the AI overview of a google query. But I know and am certain that the AI overview is wrong about things, horribly, inexorably wrong. Yet many people simply think that a Grok, ChatGBT, or Gemini answer is a valid one. It isn't.
This too touches on so much? I will do a post on cheating in Japan for it is a big issue and one that may be of interest to all who are also interested in Japan.
When I was in high school, I too held the position that it was a wasted endeavor to learn math as we had calculators. I wish someone had corrected my faulty thinking then for I certainly learned the folly of that later in life.
But is looking something thing up cheating? Before Google and the public use of the Internet, We looked things up at the library or from resources at home, such as a DVD or music album. I do Google things but rarely find what I want. Apparently, there is not a single word of any human language that has not been used as the title of a Japanese anime or manga title or characters there of.
Most of my looking things up is through newspaper articles and or documents I have collected over the years. However, I do not use Chatgbt, grok nor any others. I trust them less than I trust Wikipedia, of which I have little trust for. I use that for dates of major events and spellings of peoples names and little more.
I agree. There is something definitely wrong with not learning basic math skills and maintaining those skills. One of the things I liked to do while driving was going over the numbers. Running my MPH, overall mileage left, and determining the changing ETA based on these factors.
While looking things up isn't cheating, I think that allowing something to do your thinking for you is. Like an English paper, if I get ChatGPT to do a topic, I haven't thought critically about it at all. Also Google is very useless. In the early days of Google, it was a little more useful but unwieldy as it would get caught up on sites that used SEO as an advantage. Then Google only became useful after the paid ads. Now Google finds little or nothing of use aside from, as you say, name spellings and certain dates.
I look things up, oddly on my email feed and in different sites I have bookmarked, that may not be easily found by a google search.
I sure hope you see. We can recreate a Civil War battle at the pension office. After that, we can go get a burger. We can film the re-enactment, upload it and maybe makes some money. That would be something I would watch.
If you film the next class, hopefully there will some firehose action. I think someone did that in a Japanese high school some years ago. I don't know if the teacher filmed it. I would have watched that, too.