Drone Octopus over Disney Hong Kong

Sent from my iPad

Alas, poor Zhu, I knew him well

I took this photo in October 2013. From the very spot I’d stood 
with then Mayor Zhu Rongji, in 1988. Peace Hotel, 8th floor.

Zhu Rongji, chief architect of the economic transition of China, ex Mayor of Shanghai and ex Premier of the People’s Republic of China, has died, aged 97.

I knew him well. Well… as well as I knew any senior leader of China. Apart perhaps, from another Mayor, the once Mayor of Dalian, member of the Politburo and near ascendant to the very top post in China, the now jailed Bo Xilai. 

I recall standing with Zhu, when he was Mayor of Shanghai, in 1988, in the 8th Floor Chinese dining room of the Peace Hotel on the Bund, overlooking the opposite bank of the Yangtze, then a swampy, dilapidated mess known as Pudong. 

“Pu” (浦 ) as in bank of a river and “Dong” ( 东 ) as in the east side. At the time, in 1988, still an abandoned and forgotten East Bank.

“We’re going to develop that into an international financial centre” he told me. 

“Sure”, I thought. Dream on, buddy.

But, to be fair to my own judgement, I should also say that by this time, I’d seen what changes had been wrought in the previous abandoned rice paddies of Shenzhen. Now a major business and trade hub of the world, with nearly 20 million people, right next to us here in Hong Kong. 

I knew not to underestimate what China can do when it sets its mind to it. And look at Pudong now. That’s it above. Zhu did that. For better or worse, one might say. I’d say better on balance, than the previous swamp. At the very least, startling. 

I was there in Shanghai on behalf of Sir Peter Abeles and his Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services Company. We wanted to do a deal with Shanghai to lease some of Ansett’s planes to Shanghai Airlines. 

Which we eventually did, with the help of Zhu.

The South China Morning Post’s article shows what a consequential figure he was. 

Zhu Rongji was a very decent man. A good leader in tough times in the torrid politics of a secretive society.

=============

ADDED: Pedants will note, as do I, that the quote from Hamlet — “Alas, poor Yorik, I knew him well —  is one of the most famous misquotes in literature. It’s I knew him. Not knew him well. Just that the misquote works better. (IMO).

This is Hamlet’s actual line:

Alas, poor Yorik! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it.

“It” being Yorik’s skull. The line is a memento mori. We all must die. A reminder we are all mortal. We humans beings the only animals, the only living things on this earth who know this. Yorik, once vital and strong, once bearing Hamlet on his back, now a skull. 

Zhu Rongji, once Major Changer of China, now “the late”.

Intimations of mortality. 

True Socialism has never been tried!

Classic in the genre of “No True Scotsman”. A fallacy. 

The Right: “Socialism never works”.

The Left: “TRUE Socialism has never been tried”. 

This is unfalsifiable. No matter which of the many countries have tried some version of communism or socialism, the answer will always be “it wasn’t the true version”.

Marxism claims to be scientific. But science requires that a hypothesis be falsifiable. 

IMO, the best evidence against socialism are the two split states: East and West Germany until 1989. North and South Korea up until today. In both cases, one people. Divided into a capitalist side and a Socialist side. We know what happened. 

One can easily find a satellite image of the Korean Peninsula taken at night. It’s pretty revealing. 

Inside the Democratic Machine | Evan Barker

Former Democratic Party insider, Evan Barker, left the Party, posted a Tik Tok resignation which went millions viral. She talks, with The Free Press, of her experiences as a fundraiser, in the heart of the Democratic Party.

“Personally I like ageing. With age comes…WISDOM” | Brad Pitt

Quote of the Day by Brad Pitt: “Personally I like ageing. With age comes…wisdom. Give me wisdom over youth any day.”

If it is true that with age comes wisdom — and who better to affirm that, than Brad Pitt? — then there’s an obverse. When you’re younger you’re less wise. You have less wisdom. Why give the vote to 16 year olds? Their brains are still developing, let alone wise. They don’t know nuffink!

On the cusp of my ninth decade, I’m inclined to agree with Brad. But “give me wisdom over youth”…. “any day”? Hmmm…. I don’t know, Brad.

There’s heaps of things about youth that are terrific. Devil-may-care, fearlessness, and lack of wisdom….

Brad’s quote reminds me of Confucius. My favourite lines, from the Confucian Analects:

三十而立

四十而不惑

五十而知天命

六十而耳顺

七十而从心所欲，不逾矩

Sānshí érlì

sìshí ér bùhuò

wǔshí ér zhī tiānmìng

liùshí ér ěrshùn

qīshí ér cóngxīnsuǒyù, bù yú jǔ

At thirty, you can stand firm; 

at forty, you’re free from doubt; 

at fifty, you know the mandate of Heaven; 

at sixty, your ear is attuned to the truth; 

at seventy, you can follow your heart's desire, without transgressing the rules.

Tally-ho! Hello Ireland!

Tally-ho, arrives at Fastnet Rock, Ireland, 99 years after she won her maiden Fasrnet Race in 1927. She’s due to enter next year’s edition of the super famous race. Which my sailing mate, and cross Africa mate, Gordie did in his TP-52 Zen, this year.

I have great admiration of young Leo Sampson Goolden. Signature intro: “Hi, I’m Leo. I’m a boatbuilder and a sailor”. True words. He’s so capable, so high end at both.

Well done Leo and crew! This is a huge accomplishment. Historic. Inspiring.

Tally-ho arrives at the land of my forebears. Who came from Northern Ireland. Which they were driven to, from their native Scotland by the forebears of my mother. We Scottish Forsyth’s became Irish Forsythes by adding the “e”. 

My father’s father, Andrew, was born to farmers in rural Ballymena, County Antrim, in 1877. He left for Australia in 1900. As soon as he could, iow. A young man in the Leo mould, my granddad Andrew created things: a transport service company, a retail company, a store named "Forsythes", on the corner of Pitt & Goulburn, central Sydney. Like Leo, Andrew was clearly a self-starter. 

Better get back to Leo, or I’ll sound like Alec Baldwin: in his infamous eulogy to Sam Neill, Baldwin mentioned Sam once at the beginning, then spent the rest of the time talking about himself….

I have huge admiration for any folks like Leo. Like his crew. Practical people. Down to earth. Common sensical. 

Tally-ho passes Fastnet Rock, 99 years after her 1927 win

Tally-ho welcomed by Irish wooden-boat enthusiasts, 
Baltimore Harbour, Ireland

I was proud of my lone effort at wooden boat building. But it pales compared to what Leo and his legion of helpers did over the seven years of total restoration. 

There is no nuclear waste problem

Dr Tim Gregory sure is nerdy-looking. The OG nerd. Which obviously makes him an expert in nuclear energy. But what’s with the hair, dude? The Beatles called in from the sixties and demanded their hair-style back!

Well, he really is nerd. And knows his shit. Simple, clear explanation of what Finland has done with deep geological repositories. Fascinating.

I’m guessing, from experience talking to them, that Greens will studiously avoid confronting a vid like this. Aka, “The Science”. At our current best level. 

Or if they do watch it, they’ll ask: “Yeah, but what if…”. Followed by some imagined outlandish peril. A non-refutable question. What if an asteroid the size of manhattan hits us? Yeah. What if? 

"But... what if the asteroid hit that exact spot in Finland where they've buried the waste? And what if it goes down, this asteroid, 500m, straight into the storage? I mean, what if??"

Well, you get the picture. For Greens there's simply nothing, no science, no evidence from actual experience, that will convince them that Nuclear isn't horrid, isn't dangerous. I wish they'd just own up and say, "I'm against it. It's my faith. It's my religion. Nothing you say or do will change my mind." Fine.. then I leave you alone. 

But they do keep saying "show me the evidence" that it's safe. And when you do, they ignore. That's it. That's my experience. 

Still, Tim be da man. The OG nerd on nuclear waste.

Elon Musk is literally carrying America on his back | X- Freeze

Elon Musk is literally carrying America on his back

At this point, the whole America vs China industrial race is actually

Elon Musk vs China

China is an entire industrial superpower

Thousands of companies, massive supply chains. Enormous manufacturing capacity, state-backed infrastructure....

And yet across many of the technologies defining the future, America’s strongest counterweight keeps coming back to one man: Elon Musk

EVs + autonomy: Tesla vs China

Humanoid robots: Optimus vs China

AI + massive data centers: SpaceXAI / Colossus vs China

Batteries + grid storage: Tesla Energy vs China

Lithium refining + battery materials: Tesla vs China

Advanced manufacturing: Tesla + SpaceX vs China

Space launch + reusable rockets: SpaceX vs China

Satellite internet: Starlink vs China

Logic + memory + advanced chip packaging: TerraFab vs China

Energy infrastructure: Tesla solar + storage vs China

Orbital AI compute: SpaceX vs China

Now zoom out and look at the stack:

EVs → batteries → energy → AI → robots → chips → manufacturing → rockets → satellites → orbital compute

These are not isolated businesses. Each layer increasingly feeds the next

Elon is literally building an American industrial stack capable of going head-to-head with the industrial power of China itself

One ecosystem vs an industrial superpower

Absolutely insane when you zoom out

H/t: X Freeze. 

Normies: You GOTTA vote in the midterms

Bridget Phetasy in her inimitable, exuberant, irrepressible style. With a serious message.

The Communists — aka the Democratic Socialists of America — are funded, locked and loaded, ready to go. Don’t lose focus, normies. “Right wingers”. Or they’ll be tossing the eggs from the nest, like the cuckoo. Yes, even mid-term Primaries count. You bet!

In passing, she glazes us Boomers. And serves it out to the Zoomers.

My 2018 warning about the DSA: Democratic People’s Republic of America 

Frangipani Skyline

Last night from our swimming pool. The tallest tower, mid-photo, is the 108-storey International Commerce Centre.

Fauci lies. He CREATED the pandemic

Above: main critic of Fauci, Senator Dr Rand Paul, talks to Stephen A. Smith

When I look back at my coverage of the Covid Pandemic, I'm pretty happy with what I wrote. It stands up well. 

On Anthony Fauci, for example, I see that I was early in seeing through the man. Who appeared this week at a Senate Committee to be grilled by Rand Paul, only to "Plead the Fifth" (aka, not answer), 111 times. 

I was early in coming to the judgement that Fauci was (and remains) complicit in creating the Covid pandemic, via the gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Which all credible observers and analysts are now pretty much unanimous was the source of the virus via the escape of an experimental virus. Which we might concede was an "accident" ... if we're being charitable.

And of course the reason Fauci denied the Lab-leak theory is that he was the main man responsible for it! It's just as much "the Fauci virus" as it was, per Trump, "the China virus". 

Fauci was at the very, very long-time head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Who, absolutely coincidentally I'm sure, had billions to give away to epidemiologists who supported his deceptions. His murderous duplicity.... 

Those were judgements I came to based on studies of what Fauci said and did during Covid, and the mountain of evidence, circumstantial as it was, for the Lab-leak vs Zoonotic origins.

There was a better way to deal with the pandemic than the Fauci way. What's more we knew it at the time. Even though Fauci crushed dissent and discussion of it. Shameful. (We know why, Tony. We know).

That alternative was published at the time as the Great Barrington Declaration. 

My first post of it was on 15 October, 2020 as "The Great Barrington Declaration". 

A principle architect of it, one of the three co-signatories, was then professor Jay Bhattacharya. He is now the Head of the National Institutes of Health, with oversight of the the very Institute that Dr Anthony Fauci headed for 38 years. 

I signed the Barrington Declaration in 2020. As did thousands of others, laypeople and professionals. We were all smeared as purveyors of "Disinformation", by Fauci and his acolytes. The media. But it's we that have turned out correct. Though we will hear nothing of that from the MSM, let alone an apology. Because the drill is: if the Left gets something wrong, it's "let's move on". Let's "not re-litigate what happened years ago".... But it remains important. The source of any major virus is always important to know. 

Fauci labelled professor Bhattacharya a "fringe epidemiologist" for having the temerity to suggest an alternative to the policies of lockdows, school closures, forced vaccinations, mandated masking and all the rest of it. 

Now that same "fringe epidemiologist" is the boss of the organisation that Fauci once headed. 

Oh the sublime Schadenfreude!

Dr Vinay Prasad gives more detail on the whole "Fauci thing". Prasad doesn't charm everyone, but he's knowledgeable and spot on: "Biden Covid Czar says it was Lab Leak". 

If you're interested in ancient history as it pertains to the pandemic, you can click on the Labels on the right: "Barrington Declaration", or "Coronavirus", or "Zero Covid Policy". 

Or in the Search Box on the right "Fauci". 

The Barrington Declaration is still relevant because if/when there is another pandemic, it's the road map of what we should do. For heaven's sake, NOT the Fauci roadmap. 

As Jay says: "there is nothing novel in the Declaration. It's what we've done with every pandemic in the past. It's the way we actually went about trying to prevent the spread of Covid that's the novel path." Talking here to The Goodfellows. 

I seem to be running a few laps glazing myself here. But, oh well, I'm nearly 80 and if I wanna I gonna. 

Xiamen 2014.

Mazu (妈祖), goddess of the sea

Xiamen. One of China’s lovelier coastal towns. From my 2014 visit. 

I first visited Xiamen in the 1970s. We were looking at sailing a boat out of a boatyard there, for delivery down to Hong Kong. The folks involved decided not to go ahead. Oh well.... Would've been a fun trip. 

I always liked Xiamen. Charming. 

By the way, it was one of Deng Xiaoping's first Special Economic Zones. His experiment with "Socialism with Chinese characteristics". Aka, capitalism. Well, sort of. In any case, not socialism. 

Zoomers flipping Republican

Many of them say they find the their new conservative friends, tolerant. Willing to listen to counter arguments.

One possible reason? Universities lean massively Left. In some faculties close to 100%. Any conservative student has to learn to get along. 

Many of these ex-liberal women say they now realise they were lied to.

It’s a fun watch. Maybe even for you, Miss (still) Lefty…

On the Certainty Principle | Dilbert

Certainty Brings Insanity

“What happened to the Democrats?” | Stephen Daisley

I love the writing of Stephen Daisley. The image of these Communist loonies, these “Hideous creatures”, as “Keffiyeh-clad Buffalo Bills”. Love it. 

The rest of his article is here. 

I’ll say it again: I warned you. I did warn you! About the “Democratic” Socialists of America. I warned you in 2018. 

No qualifiers in front of “Socialism”can  change the fact that it’s Socialism. Not “warm and cuddly”, not “unthreatening-and-not-at-all-dangerous”; and no, not even “Democratic”. It’s always Socialism. And, in my experience, Socialism = communism. There’s no practical difference. The DSA is consuming and reshaping, socialist-ising the Democratic Party. 

Result? The Democrats’ constituents today:

 

Today’s Democrats wouldn't tarnish their karma by attempting to win the votes of white men. They are strictly the party of unmarried women, status-conscious graduates, identity- and victimhood-based groups, and the unfathomably aggrieved offspring of assimilated immigrants. 

And their policies?

It used to be said that Democrats were for acid, amnesty and abortion. Today, they are the party of Palestine, pronouns and police abolition.

Bay to Peak

 

Looking East. From Discovery Bay to The Peak, Hong Kong. 

"Certainty brings Insanity"

An Occasional Reader accused me recently of being one of the 100% certain people.  I am one of "the stupid" according to a Bertrand Russell meme this Reader helpfully included. Or I'm "the worst" according to Yeats, below.

Of all the things that I'm roooly, roooly sensitive about being accused, perhaps being a "Certaint-ist" is one of the very worst. Right up there with being accused, by AI algos of being a "Luddite". 

Yet I often quote the W.B.Yeats line from "The Second Coming", one of the few I've committed to memory: 

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst 

Are full of passionate intensity."

Clearly quote this because I see myself as "lacking conviction", even if not all. I mean, lacking conviction, as in "not certain", absolutely not 100% convinced of a thing. 

Though of course having "passionate intensity" may not be a bad thing at all. One might not be all all "the worst" for having it, so it's a nuanced thing. But that's another issue. 

I repost my post from 22nd July, 2022, "Certainty brings insanity". And republish below:

==============

From Ann Althouse [*], I learn about the three Delphic Maxims. Shouldn’t I have known about these before? 

Does not knowing the Delphic Maxims make me an ignorant 72-year old? Or does is just mean I’m following Mao Tse-Tung, who said: “Live to old age; study to old age” (活到老学到老 Huo dao lao, Xue dao lao)?

Anyway, I do like them. All three, which are:

• “Know thyself”
• “Nothing in excess”
• “Certainty brings insanity”

I like that last one, which would be my answer to one of those quizzes “what’s your favourite hate?”. 

Which I’ve always thought my “favourite hate” is: “Blind Faith”. As in W. B. Yeats from “The Second Coming”:

“The best lack all conviction, 

the worst are full of passionate intensity”. 

Like religious nutters. Who will kill themselves while murdering innocents. How can we deal with those blinded by faith? Who have no time for other ideas, who are made crazy by absolute certainty?

As we see on the far Left and the far Right.

=====================

[*] Ann Althouse, 22nd July, 2022:

That's a cute little BBC animation that I found after that Bret Stephens column — blogged here — made me think about the old aphorism "Know thyself." Stephens was talking about the "self-satisfied elite" who didn't understand the point of view of the non-elite. It made me think: How dare these people regard themselves as elite if they are self-satisfied? They are not educated if they haven't looked into the functioning of their own mind, especially if they satisfy themselves with contempt for others.

Here's Wikipedia on "Know thyself":

The Ancient Greek aphorism "know thyself" (Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated: gnōthi seauton...) is the first of three Delphic maxims inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.... The two maxims that follow "know thyself" were "nothing to excess" and "certainty brings insanity." In Latin the phrase, "know thyself", is given as nosce te ipsum or temet nosce.

"Certainty brings insanity" is the least well-known of those aphorisms. It explains a lot!

Much more at that Wikipedia link, but — here — I'll just show  you this cool painting from the 1600s, inscribed with the Latin phrase [Nosce te Ipsum. Know thyself]:

“Commie by Your Name” | Bill Maher

Van Jones. James Carville. And now Bill Maher. Famous lefties. Famous influencers. Famous deserters.

Deserting the radicalised DSA-riddled Democratic Party. DSA, the parasitic Cuckoo dethrones the Wood Warbler Democrats. 

"The Second Coming" | William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

******

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

I'm predicting a total collapse of society

 

"AI Simply Explained In 12 Minutes" | Fawzi Ammache.

Somewhere, somehow, my devices must have decided that I’m a Luddite. That I need a lesson in AI. Because I expressed some worry over Artificial Super Intelligence. Hence the above in my algo.

Calma, calma, Forse. We’re not here to take over the human race. Watch the video. Relax, you wet-work human. 

My devices obviously don’t know about my “early adopter” history.

I bought an Atari desktop top personal computer in 1987. According to my Research Assistant, that was early days for Australia. We loaded up a game: Kings Quest IV, The Perils of Rosella. Fifteen 5.25” floppy disks. Fifteen! “Floppy disks?” say Gen Z, “wassat?”. It’s floppy, dude. Clue in the name.

We used to have things called Telex machines. Run by punched paper tape. Crikey! We moved to a hew gen telex machine with a little green screen. Wow! Then came fax. Remember them? Recent history. 

I supported, promoted, all these. I bought the first iPhone in Hong Kong in 2007. People thought I was silly. "What's with no keypad?" said our Xena crew when I showed them. 

I’m long Tesla and SpaceX. Pure, large, technical and AI plays.

Same with AI. I told our son, years ago, to get into it. User or loser. 

So… AI algorithm, no, I’m not a Luddite. Fie on thee!

But Artificial Super Intelligence? That bears scrutiny. As say some of today’s super intelligent organic beings. The likelihood of catastrophe is “”non zero”. According to them. 

So… maybe a New-Luddite?

A Door in the Wall | Russia 2013

I took this photo in Russia: an abandoned factory, in an abandoned town, in an abandoned countryside, of an abandoned ideology. Where lives were lived in quiet desperation. 

It was on our cross Russia trip, four men in a Voxy, from Vladivostok to Moscow in the Spring of 2013.

Last night I listened to a radio play on YouTube. H.G. Wells’ “The Door in the Wall”. Wells's door is “the” Door; it is his missed opportunities. This one above is just “a” door. One of many. Of many missed opportunities. In Soviet Russia and in today’s Russkyie Putiniskyie.

There are abandoned villages and towns all across the vast plains of Siberia. We drove through them.

This photo was served up to me in my daily feed. Just after I’d listened to the Wells story. But, no, I’m sure AI had nothing to do with it….

Your blogger. Rome 1975

Piazza del Popolo, Fontana del Nettuno, Rome, 1975.

As we wend our way from London to India, in our clapped out Ford Anglia. 

Imagine. Four young folks, Aussies, living in London, early twenties, two blokes, two sheilas. Boyfriends and girlfriends. I’d been given this Ford Anglia by an Aussie mate who was leaving London. Broke as he was, as we all were, this rusted pile of junk was too crappy, even for him, to bother trying to sell. 

So I decided to drive the “hippy trail”, London to India. Why not? I figured we’d go as far as we could and dump it…whenever and wherever.

I needed some company. “Shall we try it?” I asked my girlfriend, my mates. “You beauty!” they answered.

So off we went. Simple as that. A spare tyre strapped to the roof was all our prep. Oh, the magic of youth. The spontaneity. Oh, the stupidity. The foolishness.

We ended up making it all the way to India. The Anglia stopped right there in New Delhi. And never went again. It was like “well I’ve done my job, now get out”. We gave it away to the Delhi police.

Our route: London, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India. 

Number of pictures we took along the way: about seven. Imagine today. You’d have photos coming out your ears: on your phone, on your laptop, on your iPad… instagram, blogs, vlogs, dogs, YouTube, pix of food, people, silly cats and selfies… 

Still, I wonder how many you’ll treasure in coming years. Could you find them 50 years later?

How about 80 years later? 

I have been going through some pictures of my mum and dad and baby me, in immediate post-war Japan, 1946 to 1952. They’re 80 years old. Black and white and tiny. Yet still in perfect condition. Immediately accessible in a lovely, black-bound, black-paged photo album, 80 years old. With the photos labelled in white ink, steel nib, in my mothers’s young, very elegant calligraphy. 

I cannot find a single photo from the ski trek I did across Greenland in 2006. Sled dogs and Inuit. Glaciers and ice cliffs. High skies and a vast Whiteland. Sleeping in tents on the sea ice. Eating seal, polar bear and musk-ox meat. 

Photos? Many taken. Many beautiful. All Gone. Lost in the ether. 

Makes you wonder, dunnit? About the downsides of plenitude and ease. Of “convenience”.

Our ancient Anglia (aka "Wrangle") on the Khyber Pass
Afghanistan-Pakistan border, May 2025

Hamas ARE Evil

The long war. Reflections on cease-fire in Gaza. 

A long post below by Rod D. Martin.

A very good perspective. 

I believe Hamas are evil. They kill and maim Israelis, Jews preferably. They also kill and brutalise their own people. 

Gaza could have been beautiful and rich. It was Hamas, and the people that voted for them, who turned Gaza into the tunnel-riddled charnel house it is today. Who use their own people as shields. Then blame the sword. It doesn’t wash.

Which is why no Arab state wants them. Not Egypt. Not Jordan. Not Syria. Not Lebanon. Nor even their patron death-cultists, the IRGC in Iran. Nobody in the Arab world wants them. Because as soon as they are in a new country they cause mayhem and butchery. No one wants that. Not even a majority Palestinian country like Jordan. Only in the west do we want them. At least a loony lot of us appear to want to invite them into our society. Including, incredibly, many in the LGBTQ community.

I have believed Hamas are evil since I first studied them in 2005. I saw that they followed the ideology of the Nazis. They made nazism even worse. They fused a millenarian, supremacist, misogynist, homophobic ideology to it. They throw in a Sky God who will drown you in virgin beauties if you die in pursuit of “killing Jews wherever you find them” (per the Hamas Charter). Killing Jews and Christians. And atheists like me, too.

Read the Koran. It’s all there. Read the Hamas Charter. This is its foundational and guiding document. Then read the Israel Declaration of Independence. I point out the clear differences in motivation. 

Prove me wrong.

Disclaimer: I don’t buy Martin’s “Trump as a 4-D chess player” narrative. I wish it were true. But I doubt it.

Back to Rod:

Some of you are telling me the Gaza deal can't last. You're not seeing the whole board.

There are two default assumptions at work here. 

The first is that Islamist radicals can just spontaneously produce missiles, guns, and money from thin air. They can't. 

The second is just general black pilling, which is frankly stupid. So you're demoralized: big whoop. You'd have been more demoralized in the summer of 1940, or for that matter of 1942. And you'd have been just as wrong. Get over yourself. Look at the facts.

Ladies on the Black Sea, Israel

Jing, Eva, Michaela. 17 April 2017

DSA: who are they?

Lots of goings on about the Democratic Socialists of America. Which I warned about years ago. 

They’re doing the socialist thing. Which is to take over a party from within. As they did in china of the 1920s to 1940s. They took over, consumed and destroyed the Nationalist Party. They ate it from within.

Now they’ve doing the same with the Democratic Party of the United States. 

Their plans are not secret. They’re set out very clearly in the DSA website. 

These policies will destroy America. Go on prove me wrong. They would be a revolution. And virtually every revolution fails. Even policy by policy, we know from experience the same policies have failed, time and again every single time. 

Those who say “it’s no big deal. They’re a fringe”… you’re wrong. They’ve taken over a thousand elected local positions and hundreds at the national level. Their growth in membership and candidates is shockingly high. 

Xi Van Fleet says whenever you have the word “socialist” it doesn’t matter what qualifier you put before or after, it’s always socialism that the key word. “Democratic” in front of it doesn’t help. It’s socialism, stupid!

Scandinavian countries’ leaders are also at pains to stress: they are not Democratic Socialists. As excuse-making, truth-hiding DSA operatives keep trying to assure us.

 Noah Rothman:

The home of freedom. Now scared into silence by Islam

Laurence Fox at the Oxford Union. 

Watch them squirm…

Yikes! I'm famous!

Maybe I’m even an "influencer"

… yeah, right. Dream on, buddy.

But here's the thing. The other day I had a look at the metrics on this blog. 

First I'll set the table. 

I've never spent any time, since I started here in 2009, pushing the blog. I don't do any of the usual stuff you do if you want more clicks and  "engagement". 

I've not allowed Comments from the outset. Mainly because I didn't want the hassle of moderating them. And also I don't want my fragile ego bruised by criticisms. I just can't handle it. I do take email comments though, and engage with those, usually and eventually. 

I don't accept any ads, which would make Google itself push the blog. None of that.

So, I've not done any of the things you're supposed to do if you want to increase viewership. 

I started writing in 2009, just as a place to keep references to the subject I was studying at the time: namely Islam. Hence the blog's URL (“The Battle of Tours”) 

Every now and then, like every few years, I might look to see how many people were condescending to read what I write. It was like, some people. As in, more than zero, but less that a whole lot. 

Then the other day I had another look. And wow! Over recent 12 months I've had 3.4 million views. On some posts 70+ thousands. Crikey! 

That's nothing, of course, compared with most real influencers. But to me, it's a whole lot... 

It's a shocker really. I mean in a good way. Like, a surprise. So much so that I hd to double-check. It’s true. What's happened is a build up over time by word of mouth. 

AI tells me that blogs like mine, which have been going on, continuously for many years, on the subjects I cover, are relatively rare. Most everyone has gone over to Podcasts, YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitch, X, Rumble, etc..

Anyhoo. Congrats to me! And thanks to youze all, you Dear Readers, née Occasional Readers.  Mwah... 💋

African Equator

Our 2011 Classic Car trip from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cairo, Egypt. My blog about the journey here.

Note the elevation of Nanyuki: 6,389 ft. A lot of Africa is high altitude. For me, a surprise. Getting towards Ethiopia, we were up to 12,000 ft. Yikes!  We had to tune the carburettors of our Mighty Mustang.

“I’m alternately exhilarated and terrified” by ASI | Elon Musk

ASI = Artificial Super Intelligence. 

The Economist lady has done decent research in the AI stuff. But cops flak, rightly so, for what she says at the end to Elon. For which he gives her heaps.