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May 17, 2024
 

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TED RALL

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TED RALL
For TED RALL's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2014
A Hillary candidacy is a depressing thought
American women of a certain age are thrilled by the prospect of a possible President Hillary Clinton. Others see her as a throwback to another time, one that's never coming back.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2014
Obama is getting 'trolled' by the Islamic State
U.S. President Barack Obama's over-reaction to the videos of two American journalists getting beheaded gives one the uncomfortable feeling that the war-weary American people are again getting the bum's rush into playing the bad guy in the Mideast.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2014
Stupid advice for women worried about rape
Anyone who doubts that politically correct online activitists are out to lunch need only read up on their reaction to a nail polish that allows women to discreetly discover whether their drink has been spiked by one of several common 'date rape' drugs.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2014
U.S. riots raise issue of racial profiling
The Ferguson, Missouri, race riots over the shooting of an unarmed young black man by a white cop underscore the beginning of a national conversation in the U.S. about police racial profiling of African Americans.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014
What should the U.S. do about Islamic State?
The U.S. lost the Iraq War years ago. The sooner it accepts that there is nothing to be saved there and moves on, the better off it'll be. That includes refraining from attacking the Islamic State.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2014
Obama should follow Nixon's lead and do the right thing
Richard M. Nixon's White House efforts to cover up the Watergate scandal in 1972 look positively penny-ante compared to President Barack Obama's coverup of government-approved torture 40 years later.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2014
Never trust a realist when it comes to politicians
If you're looking for one big reason the U.S. seems to be on the wrong track, try the marginalization of idealism that coincided with the collapse of the peace movement and the American Left at the end of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2014
The pathetic state of infrastructure in America
The deliberate starving of public funding for America's roads, bridges, parks, schools, public hospitals, even hospitals charged with caring for U.S. veterans, reflects the economic and political system's ass-backward priorities.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2014
U.S. policy triggered latest border crisis
The U.S. does everything it can to screw up the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, then acts surprised when desperate people from there, including thousands of children, show up at the U.S. border, trying to escape the carnage.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2014
At some point, U.S. progressives must stand
You would think that, at a certain point, liberals in the U.S. with any dignity would get sick of being used and abused by Democratic Party candidates. Don't expect the dysfunctional relationship between liberals and Democrats to get any better for 2017.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2014
Why are 6,000 reporters keeping a U.S. nonsecret?
Why would thousands of journalists representing hundreds of press and broadcast media outlets agree to keep a CIA secret that wasn't much of a secret in the first place and that ceased being secret the second they learned about it?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2014
America's addiction to war
Somewhere out there in an alternative universe, we should expect a more rational reaction to Barack Obama's announcement that he plans to re-invade Iraq. Perhaps a half-dozen Cabinet members would rush into the Oval Office and bundle the president off to an institution that can give him the treatment he seems to require. Why are American politicians addicted to war?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2014
The damage done by 'moderates'
Every day the insipid overlords of America's inane corporate news media put out the same message: Extremism is extremely bad. But might the so-called moderates be worse?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2014
Why don't more American soldiers walk away?
American news media portrays Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and his apparent decision to simply walk away from the war in Afghanistan as bizarre and incomprehensible. Yet some wonder why it doesn't happen all the time.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2014
Drone memo author should be in jail
Finally we will get a peek at the twisted legal opinion that the White House uses to justify using drones to blow up anyone, anywhere, including American citizens on American soil, for any reason the president deems fit.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2014
Why censoring search engines is a good idea
The European Court of Justice deserves praise for ruling recently that a Spanish national should not suffer shame or embarrassment for his former financial difficulties every time an acquaintance or potential employer types his name into a brower.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2014
The once-mighty U.S. is in decline: Get used to it
Like fourth-century Romans, Americans are beginning to realize that they are no longer citizens of an unrivaled superpower. And they're kind of freaking out about it.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2014
How the mainstream loves to betray its heroes
Americans Donald Sterling, Cliven Bundy and Phil Robertson have more in common than dumb opinions about blacks. They're examples of working classism at work.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2014
Freedom of expression under fire in America
If you can lose your job in the U.S. as Mozilla's CEO did — because those in charge found his politics repugnant — there are only two options available to those of us who need to earn a living: Keep our opinions to ourselves, or lie about them.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2014
Unfortunately torture is an all-American value
Even when Americans rose up in 2011 to protest their government as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, torture was less than an afterthought on activists' menu of complaints.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
Kishida defends planned rule to revoke foreigners' residency
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a meeting of the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Human bone-like objects found at Nippon Steel plant’s molten iron pot, with one worker missing
Police believe it’s highly possible that human bones found in a molten iron pot at Nippon Steel's Oita factory belong to a missing male employee.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Man suspected of using smart glasses to cheat on Waseda University exams
The Waseda University campus in Tokyo. An 18-year-old male test-taker is suspected of using smart glasses to cheat during the university's entrance exam.
Japanese rap creates its mecca in Pop Yours
Tokyo-based artist Jumadiba says he forgoes the label of simply “rap” for his music because the Japanese rap scene isn’t confined to a particular sound.
Who’s toughest on China? Biden’s tariff tactic ups ante as election looms.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about new actions to protect American workers and businesses from China's "unfair" trade practices, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Ishin struggles to set itself apart from other parties
Nippon Ishin no Kai Secretary-General Fumitake Fujita (right) speaks beside Yui Kanazawa, the party's candidate in the Tokyo 15th district by-election on April 28. Nippon Ishin lost in this by-election as well as another in Nagasaki held on the same day.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.

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How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan
By Mai Yoshikawa

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