Joe Jones
banner
bengoshinojoe.bsky.social
Joe Jones
@bengoshinojoe.bsky.social
lawyer @ tyo / dc + avgeek + amateur historian
better a pig than a fascist
Reposted by Joe Jones
My 1st time in Japan, long ago, we saw this guy driving a tiny lil custom truck, singing a phrase through a loudspeaker. The melody was gentle, spiritual. We asked our translator “What’s he singing?” She said “He’s saying ‘baaaaked potaaatoooo.’ It is baked potato truck.” I think about that a lot.
May 30, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
You’re allowed to argue that black people and women are genetically inferior. But you’re NOT allowed to argue they are NOT inferior because that’s divisive. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/u...
May 10, 2025 at 6:26 PM
HND is a madhouse this morning. 25 minute line for security screening. Lines out the door of every duty-free shop. Never seen it like this before.
April 21, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Reposted by Joe Jones
"The heretic who showed up at the big religious gathering was awesome — lol."
(from Star Wars Celebration Japan)
April 19, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Joe Jones
Old North Church in Boston last night on the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's ride.
April 18, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
One of the most incredible protest signs I've ever seen. A Japanese American woman folded a huge origami crane to honor the children of Japanese American internment camps & protest current ICE camps.

📸 permission at the Vigil to Stop ICE Expansion in Dublin, CA 4/16/25

✊🏻 NEVER AGAIN IS NOW ❤️
April 17, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
It is an astounding opinion written by an 80-year-old, conservative Reagan appointee who — along with his former colleague, Judge J. Michael Luttig (a note that makes its own point about this moment) — once led what many considered to be the most conservative appeals court in the nation.
April 17, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
In fairness, USA and Russia both committed geopolitical suicide, China’s got its own problems, and a united Europe is far from a sure thing. Japan might win by default entirely by accident.
1980’s anxiety about Japan seems so quaint.
March 2, 2025 at 12:56 AM
While he’s at it, Trump should officially change the name of the language from “English” to “American.”
February 28, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
The Asahi editorial board out with a banger yesterday.

It ends with a question every single news outlet should be asking themselves: "I wonder what's in store for us?"
February 16, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Reposted by Joe Jones
the next time an originalist says anything about the Constitution, the appropriate response is:

You're implying that the Founders would support what you're doing. How do you know? Did you hold a seance? It is all well and good to think WWTFD (What would the Founders do?) but we really have no clue.
“I could’ve written about any number of the important rule-of-law and ethics questions arising out of the Adams/Bove affair. But the *real* issue to which I’ll dedicate my time is that Danielle Sassoon invoked her Scalia clerkship in her letter to the Attorney General.”

reason.com/volokh/2025/...
February 14, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
This cannot be constitutional. The idea that the American Bar Association cannot enjoy the participation of federal officials in events but the Federalist Society can is absurd.
February 14, 2025 at 10:30 PM
It’s a sad case but this woman was basically trying to commit child abduction. She needed to get full custody through the Hungarian system before taking the children across international borders.
ICYMI: Japan’s Foreign Minister defended the actions of the Japanese Embassy in Hungary, which helped lead to the woman’s death. Meanwhile, Hungary is moving to address the growing outcry over the crime.
Japan: Citizen Murdered in Hungary Filed DV Claim Three Years Ago - Unseen Japan
The Japanese government says it refused to grant the woman's kids new passports out of joint custody concerns.
buff.ly
February 12, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
Judge: Will the defendants please rise. [Judge explodes in a fireball like a bug hit with a magnifying glass]
February 12, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
February 10, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by Joe Jones
This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen.

Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”

globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca
In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.
globalnews.ca
February 9, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
Did some quick digging on the NIH website. NH stands to lose about $30 million this year in funding as a result of the 15% indirect spend cap. That's about 20% of the total allocated to the state.

reporter.nih.gov/search/JbRgA...

#NHPolitics
February 8, 2025 at 2:39 AM
“By The Economist’s count, 70 countries have now officially endorsed both China’s sovereignty over Taiwan and, just as crucially, that China is entitled to pursue “all” efforts to achieve unification, without specifying that those efforts should be peaceful”
www.economist.com/internationa...
China’s stunning new campaign to turn the world against Taiwan
Seventy countries have recently backed “all Chinese efforts” to take the island
www.economist.com
February 9, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
February 9, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
His actual disclosure… I’m guessing he was charging all of his campaign expenses to a Centurion card to collect points.
February 9, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Joe Jones
so fyi this is not a good sort of order to get. well, if you're plaintiffs' attorneys. if you're defendants' attorneys it's the best day of your life.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 8, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Reposted by Joe Jones
Prepping to teach Yick Wo today and came across this passage from James Bradley Thayer's "Cases on the Constitution" in 1894 (four years before Wong Kim Ark).
February 6, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Joe Jones
What's funny is that my wife's company in Japan has been focusing on DEI efforts consistent with Japan Inc.'s reputation as woke radical Marxists
February 6, 2025 at 2:50 AM
I thought I’d be in DC this morning. Instead, with DCA closed, I’m on the LIRR headed to Penn to take Amtrak…

Love these seats.
January 30, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by Joe Jones
The same people wailing about DEI literally can’t spell their own job title.
January 29, 2025 at 7:27 PM