The real existential threat to America: Leftist Political Violence

 

And no, it's not "there's violence on both sides". It's almost exclusively from the Left. From the Far-Left, if you will. 

The violence is against what they claim is an "existential threat" to "our democracy", from Donald Trump. 

But that's based on a delusion. That he's a tyrant. That he's Hitler. That the law enforcement officers of the state are Gestapo Goons. That people who vote for him followers are Nazis. All that is nonsense. It's objectively false. That vast swathes of Democrats truly believe it... doesn't make it true.  

Instead we have the Left trying to overthrow an administration that won two elections, the latest with both the popular and the electoral college vote. 

A democratically-elected administration that they try to overthrow, with lawfare, with obstruction on the streets, with obstruction in the Congress.

And with murderous violence. Repeatedly. 

While denying that it's a problem of the Left. As did Obama in his reaction. But. This is the problem of the Left. 

Josh Hammer is the senior editor of Newsweek. I've followed him for a while. I'm rather of his view on this whole thing, in the vid above. Which is, like, "whaaa? What are we doing?? This is crazy!"

Indeed it is. And the future of the Republic, the future of possibly the last bastion of western civilization, is at stake here. 

Why does the Left hate Elon Musk?

I've been meaning to write a post on "Why does the Left hate Elon Musk?" 

I would say that it's because he changed from a centre-left Democrat to a Trump supporter. So, word: Trump. 

Before that, the Left loved Elon. A major player in climate change, with his Electric Vehicles and Solar City. 

Then, he says he'll support Trump in 2024, and all that goes. They hate Elon. Just as they hate Trump. 

The reason why he migrated to support Trump, is that he thinks that reducing the national debt is an existential issue. Neither side has been good with this, but the Trump admin tried harder. They did. With DOGE, which was to tackle Waste, Fraud and Abuse. Which sent the left into paroxysms. Because, it turns out, the whole of the NGO, the non-profit, the charity sector is one big boondoggle to wash money for Democrats. But that's another story. 

Then there's a twist I heard about the other day from the likes of the creaky centenarian Democrat Strategist, James Carville, that they think Elon "stole the 2024 election" for Trump. Which is not true, because the swing states that Trump won, the 7 balance states, had zero input from Elon. What's more, the Dems spent way more money than the Reps, 1.5 billion to around 800 million. So there's that. 

Now there's another reason, by the insightful Cathie Wood, of Ark Invest. 

Namely that the Left hate that Elon is actually doing something for Climate Change. And if he manages to solve it, then there's nothing more for them to campaign on. A new twist on the stuff relating to NGOs. That they don't want to solve the problems they've been set up to tackle. For then the money flow stops. They have to stop feeding at the trough.

Cathie Wood just named the contradiction nobody wants to touch.

She compared Elon Musk to Thomas Edison.

Not as praise. As a pattern.

Wood: “I think he’s the Thomas Edison of our age… he wants to do the right thing to transform the lot of most of humanity.”

The media sees a reckless billionaire setting fires.

Wood sees the only person in the room building anything at all.

The gap between those two readings tells you everything about who controls the narrative.

Start with Tesla.

Wood: “Tesla was an environmental move, which I think a lot of people attacking his cars… they’ve forgotten.”

He built the exact machine environmentalists spent thirty years begging for.

Didn’t lobby for it. Didn’t write a whitepaper. Built it.

Forced every major automaker on Earth to abandon the combustion engine.

Then the second he won, the same movement made him the enemy.

Because the establishment never wanted the problem solved. They wanted the problem funded. And those are two very different things.

A solved problem kills the committee. Kills the nonprofit. Kills the careers built on managing the crisis instead of ending it.

Musk ended it. And they have never forgiven him.

SpaceX looks like an escape hatch if you never read past the headline.

Which is exactly what the press counts on.

Wood: “What we learn about material science and technologies… is going to help us here on Earth as well.”

Mars was never the exit.

It is the lab.

Build under conditions so brutal that every breakthrough changes what is possible back home.

You learn to keep a human alive in a frozen irradiated vacuum.

Fixing an energy grid on a temperate planet becomes arithmetic.

He is not running from the cradle.

He is stress-testing the technology that preserves it.

But that story doesn’t sell ads. Doesn’t move polling numbers. So they bury it under hit pieces and congressional theater and call it journalism.

Most people who reach his level stop building and start protecting what they have.

They buy senators. They buy newspapers. They buy silence.

Musk keeps picking the hardest unsolved problems on the planet and running straight at them.

That is what terrifies the establishment.

Not that he might fail.

That he might succeed without them. Without their funding. Without their approval. Without anything they can hold over his head.

A man they cannot buy is a man they cannot control.

So they do the only thing they have left.

They send the media after him.

Every legacy outlet runs the same playbook. Strip the context. Clip the quote. Frame the motive. Let the algorithm do the rest.

It has worked on every builder before him.

It will not work on this one.

They will spend their careers trying to tear him down.

He will spend his building the thing that saves them anyway.

The stones always come from inside the walls. From Dustin.

Park Palm Pond

Socialism has never been tried properly!

 

That’s what America’ young socialists say, when confronted with “socialism has always failed”. 

“But it’s never been tried properly!” 

Except that it’s been tried by at least 32 countries, since Marx foisted his dreary “Das Kapital” on the world. Including tried by the luminaries of socialism: Engles, Lenin, Stalin, Mao. And their success? According to AI it’s “none”. Not one or two, or “not many”. “None”. 

AI leans Left because it draws in sources that lean left. And yet, leftish as it is, AI still comes out with a clear and unequivocal answer to my Q: “how many of the 32 countries that tried socialism succeeded as socialist economies?”: A: “None”. 

Yet these neophytes, these Zoomers, think they can outthink the architects of socialism? That they will have better ideas of how to implement socialism than all 32 countries? That’s some chutzpah right there.

So our young American socialists go to another angle: “we want Democratic Socialism”.

Well that can’t work either. Because of this simple contradiction:

EITHER:

Socialism = state control of the means of production. Control = planning. Planning = no choice for workers as to what to produce = no democracy.

OR:

There is worker control in the factory = democracy = no need for state planning = not socialism. 

Nikos Sotirakopoulos talks about this in the vid above. Nikos is an ex Marxist. Like another of my all-time faves, Thomas Sowell. Who, when asked “why did you give up Marxism?” answered: “Reality”. 

“What about Scandinavia?” our young would-be socialists cry. Scandinavian countries are not socialist, as their leaders keep telling us. They’re market based economies with a lot of social support, paid for by high taxes. But capitalist all the same.

Should we worry a lot the growing attraction to socialism in America? YES. We should.

Polling:

68% of young Democrats have a “favourable view of socialism” (Cato, March 2025). 

Young Republicans by contrast: 5% have a favourable view of socialism (Harvard Youth Poll, November 2025). 

Where did they get the crazy idea to love on socialism these Democrat Zoomers? Mainly at school. Education by far-left leaning teachers. Amplified by Tic Toc etc..

Why don’t young Republicans lean the same? I don’t know. Natural scepticism perhaps? Parents who influenced? Peer groups?

Exonerating the Iranian regime. Why? | Eliza Le Bon

 

Click above for the X post by Elica Le Bon, Iranian-American activist 

Reza Pahlavi goes ballistic on the EU media

The Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi’s father, ruled Iran for 30 years. He modernised Iran. Focussed on education, health, women’s rights…. He also had Savak, his secret police arrest and torture opponents of his rule. A flawed leader. All the west can remember is the bad stuff. They recall nine of the good stuff. 

Meantime the western media seem unable to recall a single bad thing done by the Islamist theocracy since it overthrew the Shah in 1979. And proceeded to murder 30,000 of its leftist supporters. And commit even greater evils recently.

If it’s a choice between someone flawed and someone evil, you go for the flawed. So why is the western media like this? I don’t get it. 

Reza Pahlavi has words for the supine western press. Enamoured as it is with violent extremist Islam, in the shape of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Mad Mullahs.

Here is Reza Pahlavi:

I want to speak DIRECTLY to the people of Europe. In the past two weeks I held TWO MAJOR press conferences — one in Stockholm, one in Berlin. Over 150 JOURNALISTS showed up. We spent MORE THAN TWO HOURS with them…

And guess what? 

NOT ONE SINGLE of those 150 journalists asked about the 40,000 IRANIANS SLAUGHTERED on the streets of my country on January 8th and 9th! 

NOT ONE asked about the 19 political prisoners EXECUTED in the last two weeks.

When I told them 20 more are currently sentenced to death — CRICKETS. Not a damn question.

I stood right next to a grieving mother and father who lost their sons in that massacre and begged them to listen to their stories… 

NOT A SINGLE ONE of those 150 journalists asked them a thing.

Let that sink in.

My 40,000 BRAVE INNOCENT COMPATRIOTS who were butchered fighting for liberty? They don’t give a damn.

They are too busy criticizing America and Israel for taking out the dictator who’s been slaughtering our people for 47 YEARS — instead of going after the regime that’s actually doing the killing!

They’d rather dig up Iran’s history than talk about what’s happening RIGHT NOW or the free democratic Iran we’re fighting for. 

One EU parliament member even had the nerve to say Iranians aren’t ready for democracy. To that coward and to every fake journalist in the room I say this:

Iranians aren’t just “ready” for democracy… 40,000 of them just DIED for it! And I will NOT let their blood be in vain. 

SO HEAR ME LOUD AND CLEAR:

Whether Europe stands with us or not…

Whether your journalists do their damn jobs or not…

Whether your politicians grow a spine or not…  

I WILL FIGHT FOR MY PEOPLE AND MY COUNTRY. 

Even if we have to do this ALONE — we are fighting until IRAN IS FREE! 🇮🇷💪

#RezaPahlavi‌ForIran 

@PahlaviReza

H/t Neo

Another attempt on Donald Trump's life

This time at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. 

It was a teacher from California, now in custody with numerous charges. 

Conservatives are saying "this has to stop". 

They seem think that reasonable Democrats will realise that their non-stop rhetoric of hate towards president Trump has consequences. And that it ought to stop. 

What these commenters don't seem to realise just how far gone are very large and influential parts of the Democratic party. 

Who only want to see more of this. 

When you have Democrats celebrate the cold-blooded murder of a health care executive on the streets of New York...

When you have vast swathes of Dems bemoaning that the bullet in Butler didn't go "just an inch to the right" and blow out the brains of a presidential candidate on live TV...

When you have glee, joy, celebrations, singing, dancing, at the death of a young Republican Charlie Kirk, on live television...

When you have the media and senior Dems everywhere calling the president Hitler...

When the Dems and media label all Trump supporters as Nazis....

When anti-Trump activists call law enforcement "Trump's Gestapo", when they shout to "kill all cops“ and "kill an ICE agent"... 

When you have all this, these are not people the least bit interested in the message that "enough's enough".

No, for them, enough is never enough. Even the murder of a sitting president. For then it will be: we must take back all power from the democratically elected administration. And punish them.

"Elections have consequences". Today, this means: if Republicans win an election, Democrats will erupt in fury and violence. 

Their only regret about this California teacher failing to to kill Trump?... is that he failed to kill Trump.  

ADDED: 2.5 minutes of Democrats urging violence against Trump and Republicans.

To Infinity and Beyond! The SpaceX story

 

Southern Poverty Law Centre indicted. Good.

Good, I'm glad they've been indicted. They're a crooked outfit. A scm. 

The charge? Fraud. 

The SPLC did good work at the beginning of its existence. They were a bunch of lawyers who set out to sue the Ku Klux Klan to oblivion. They pretty much succeeded in that. 

So much so, that they ran out of "White Extremists" to go after. The Klan is pretty much non-existent. 

So the SPLC helped to create and fund White Supremacist groups. That's the charge. And that's how Joe Biden was able to say, falsely, that "white supremacism is the biggest terrorist threat to America".  

I've written about the SPLC for over ten years. They went after two brave ex-Muslims in Maajid Nawaz and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. That was most unfair and ridiculous. But just a small part of the big pic of how they went about fund raising, by funding extremist groups and then pointing to them: "See the challenge we've got! Money please!"

Here's some of my posts, going back over ten years. I've been leery about this outfit for ages. While, of course, the mainstream media is painting this a just the Trump admin going after them for "political reasons". What happened to "no one is above the law"?

Here are the guys from the Ruthless Podcast talking about it yesterday 

And the ALL-IN podcast at 1:00:32. SPLC "are basically running a grift", David Sacks. 

Byron and Mischief

 

In Siena Park. Discovery Bay. Hong Kong. Our Byron and the brown Vizla, Mischief

This way lie Dragons, Demons and Hell: the Murderous Lunacy on the Left | Briget Phetasy

 

If we celebrate killing people more people will be killed. If you make it heroic, the guillotines will be set up in town squares. 

I remember when the disgruntled insuree, Luigi Mangioni, killed Brian Thompson in cold blood, on the streets of New York. He was cranky that a claim for medical reimbursement had been denies by his insurer, whose boss was said Mr Thompson. 

I remember reading about this, and assuming that Mangioni would be severely criticised. That it's be something like "you may have your issues with the insurer, but killing the CEO is not the way to resolve them". Or something. 

But, nothing like it. The left immediately was on Mangioni's side and said that the killing was "understandable" and "justified". 

Famous people agreed. I remember, to my horror, seeing comedian Bill Burr on Colbert throwing up a peace sign and shouting "Free Mangioni". To cheers from the audience. 

Then came the killing of Charlie Kirk. Again, I assumed that this would be called out. Nothing like it. At least from the Left. Who could not stop themselves from celebrating. 

Donald Trump was nearly killed by an assassin. The Left was only disappointed tht the bullet was just a shade too far to the left, that it missed his brain. 

All of this is shocking. Though now, months later, I'm no longer shocked. Just depressed and horrified at where the Left in the United States has got to. 

That promoting, that celebrating, that enabling, that encouraging, violence for political ends, is not just fine, but noble and heroic. 

That way lies Hell. I've seen it in China. I've read about it in Soviet Russia. In North Korea. In Vietnam. 

Yet here we are in today's America, with the New York Times giving a fawning interview to a Merchant of Death, the radical Marxist Thug, Hasan Piker. 

Briget Phetasy is sound, common sensical. As is Mike Solana of Private Wires.   

Immigration: Lifetime contribution of immigration by country of origin

In the red: Middle East, Africa, Latin America...
See spreadsheet below for detail

This is just for the record. For reference. 

From a 2025 Netherlands IZA study of the net contribution of immigrants to the European Union, over the lifetime, by country of origin. Those in the red are countries of origin of immigrants to Europe who end up taking more from the state than they contribute to the economy. 

In short, all those coming from the countries above in red, are net takers from the state, over their lifetimes in the EU. Other studies, both in the United States and Europe, show the same pattern. 

It's not fully clear from the above chart, so here's the spreadsheet:

I meant to post this at the time of the debates over the corruption in Minnesota, tied mainly to Somali immigrants, hence highlighting them above. They're the largest drain of any group on the public purse. They also were the most involved in the multi-billion dollar fraud that was uncovered in Minnesota, the investigations of which are ongoing, at the Federal level. 

One must ask, surely, if such groups are not only a major drain on the state, but are also engaging in massive fraud, what on earth is the country doing continuing to let them into the country, let alone to encourage them. In spite of which, the pushback is always that to question the policy -- in America or the EU or Australia -- is that you're being "racist". Sure. 

Also for the record. Views of Mainstream Democrats re immigration and deportation: 

Mainstream Democrats THEN. Republican policy NOW

Why the different views now? 

Wow! Virginia referendum will hit HARD! Nuremberg ahoy!

1812 cartoon of the first "gerrymander" redistricting, favouring
Democrats, approved by governor Gerry. A dragon-like monster
later likened to a salamander, hence "Gerry-Mander".

Whaaaa? 

Have I landed on the most boring topic of the day? What referendum? Where? Why? WTF?!

Yeah, well. It was all about “redistricting”. Or, more honestly, about redistricting's evil twin: gerrymandering. 

A super quick primer: the United States lower house, the House of Representative is made up of 435 seats. The idea is that the number each party has broadly represents the country's voter split. 

So: in 2024 it was Trump 50%, Kamala Harris 48%. And that’s how the House seats broadly split: 220 to Republicans and 215 to Democrats. 

Each of the 50 states has a certain number of Representatives, based on its population, one representative for every 700k residents. So, a state with 7 million population gets 10 Representatives to the House. And it divides the electorates in the state (“districts” in the United States) so that they broadly represent the split between the main parties.

So far so good? 

Now to Virginia. With its population of 8 million it gets to choose 11 Representatives. Right now they’re split 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans. That’s in a state that voted 52% Democrat and 48% Republican in the last election. So the 6-5 split seems fair and reasonable, right? Just a bit more for the Dems. Per the overall vote.

Ok, so what’s the problem? 

It's the Gerrymander, Stupid!

Just two days ago, on 21 April, they held a referendum in Virginia to approve a proposal to change the borders of the 11 electorates. It passed by a slim margin. The result is that at the next elections, due this coming November, that the split of seats in VA will be 10-1. That’s 10 Democratic seats to just one Republican seat. 90% of the Representatives will be Democrats just 10% Republicans, in a state that’s purple, more or less split down the middle.

Plus four to the Dems; Minus four to the Reps. That's a swing of 8 right there. Enough, just by itself, to flip the House. To 219-216 to the Dems. On that one state alone. That's the HARD hit of this week's referendum. 

That's the gerrymander. The redistricting, not to get a fair outcome, but to get a partisan result. And here in VA it's been done to the max. 

How can this be fair? Is it legal?

No, of course it’s not fair. But it is legal. 

Current districts, (6-5) top, are to change to the bottom:
four divisions shifting from Red to Blue, (10-1), bottom

So what's the problem? 

If you're a Democrat, nothing. If you're a Republican, lots. 

This could be the start of other gerrymandering in other Democratic-controlled, but purple states (that is, evenly split Dem-Rep). 

The most immediate impact is on the November mid-term elections. 

This one state, this one move in Virginia, flips the House. Gives it to the Dems. That gives them leadership of all the House Committees. And of the majority vote in the House. That will stop dead what Trump is trying to do: keeping the border closed, deporting illegal aliens, reducing taxes and regulations, pushing meritocracy vs DEI, finishing Iran... 

More seriously it's the first step to the Dems winning the Trinity: presidency, senate and house in 2028. Then they will move to stack the Supreme Court with four more Justices, all Democrat, with converting Washington DC and Puerto Rico into States, giving them four more Senators and control of the Senate forever. 

James "it's the economy, stupid!" Carville, senior Dem adviser, has openly advised this. And more. 

This will lead to the Unaparty for America. A place run by a single party. This may be very congenial for Democrats, but obviously not for Republicans. It's not what we've always been told in western democracies that we're about: namely multi-party democracy. I like the fact that there's at least two parties. In my lifetime it's been one a bit left and another a bit right. And if you don't like one or the other, you can always, as Don Chipp said "kick the bastards out". What happens when you can't do that? Would even centrist Democrats like it if the only choice was a far-left Dem party, which is the way they're headed? 

Then there's the revenge. Democrats have said they're going to "go after" Republicans who "are complicit" in supporting Donald Trump and his administration. 

Nuremberg Redux?

Democrats have so convinced themselves that Trump is Hitler, that ICE agents are his Gestapo goons, and his MAGA supporters all Nazis, that they are now talking of a "Nuremberg-type" set of hearings to "bring to account" and jail all those who were "complicit" in helping the Trump administration. Including hangings, as per the original Nuremberg? Who knows. They're sufficiently deluded and filled with rage for revenge that nothing's out of court. 

They're saying it out loud. And who can doubt that any craziness is possible, in today's febrile climate?

A "Binational, Democratic, State" in Israel run by Hamas?? | Einat Wilf

 

Dr @EinatWilf

This is a response to all those who think that if Hamas takes over Israel, if the Intifada does work to overthrow the Jewish state, if Islamists rule "from the River to the Sea", then all will be fine and well. That there will be a return to some pre-1948 time when apparently all was sweetness and light between Muslims and Jews in this area of the Levant. 

People believing this, calling for this, include pretty much all the Left in the west, the media, all of Europe, all the Muslim countries. ie, pretty much everyone. Including the loopy fringe group of fundamentalist Jews, the Naturei Karta, recently seen on New York streets, together with Hamas and other "Palestinians" calling for the downfall of Israel, and shouting Allahu Akbar. Go figure. 

Einat Wilf I've posted about before. She's super shart. Intelligent, eloquent. And not blinded by any false delusions about what might happen if Hamas or the PA took over. Which, to be clear, would be genocide -- and actual genocide -- of all Jews in the area, just as a first up, followed by killing all Jews and all non-Muslims they could get their hands on. 

How do I know this? Because they say so. Over and over. It's part of their founding document, the Charter of Hamas. 

Fun stories about Islam: Angels & Demons. Slavery & Conquest | William Federer

 

I know most of this stuff. I learned something, after all, from 17 years of writing about it. From the Koran, to the Hadith, from Ibn Ishaq's Life of Muhammad, to the Umdat al-salik, the sacred manual of Islamic Sharia law. 

I've not heard Dr William Federer before. He's good at telling a fun and compelling story. A scary one, too. 

One we need to understand and treat seriously. Because, bottom line, it's "Islam must conquer the world".  That's the aim of the religious ideology foundd by Muhammad. Only then, according to pious Muslims, will there be peace. Islam style. 

That's it. That's the story of Islam and its aims. One we're witnessing, at a surge, in front of us now. 

Over to you, Dr Will. 

"THE ISLAMIC SLAVE TRADE IS WORSE THAN YOU THINK" | Ali Tabrizi

 

Ali Tabrizi is an Iranian-Australian YouTuber and everything he says on here about the Islamic slave trade is true and verifiable. 

Slavery in the Islamic states lasted far longer, and was far higher in number, than ever the Atlantic slave trade was. It was those hated European colonialists who stopped the slave trade in the Islamic middle east. 

It is revealing that the Left in the west refuses to acknowledge, let alone condemn, the Islamic slave trade. Which continues to this day. Eg, openly and legally in Mauritania. 

Just more hypocrisy. And wanting to highlight anything that weakens the West, like the now-defunct slave trade, while ignoring anything nasty about the Islamic world, like the still-continuing slavery. 

Hasan Piker the "rancid communist" | Rich Lowry

 

Rich Lowry does a good job here of taking down the horrid Hasan Piker. 

It's hardly believable, but the mainstream Democratic Party— the likes of the very mainstream Ezra Klein, editor of Vox — have taken to Piker. It's not just Piker”s visceral hatred of Jews. But his love of Mao, of Castro, of Stalin, of the most vile of the murderous communist tyrants, and his obvious desire to see this tyranny extended to the United States. 

What is wrong with these Dems?? This is waaaay different from the Dem Party of Bill Clinton or of Barak Obama. Even of a Hillary Clinton for goodness sake. It's off the charts Left.

The most I can do here, about this Dem insanity is... shake my head... Oh dear. 

And spread the insights of Rich Lowry. He's spot on. 

Hong Kong Sevens: win third Melrose Claymores

The new stadium for the famous Sevens Rugby tourney was sold out. 60,000 seats, chocker. 

Everyone had fun. The crowds were big, boisterous and behaved. 

Hong Kong won the Melrose Claymores Cup. A new comp for the Asian teams. 

That's a fun thing for us, and to raise our spirits. 

"Hong Kong Sevens a treat for the fans"

America is winning in Iran. And the Left hates it

 

Historian, Classicist, Stanford Hoover Institute Fellow, Victory Davis-Hanson, talking of the winning going on in Iran. 

But the wish for losing -- of America losing, of the West losing -- the wish for "Gleeful Defeat" amongst the Left and other Trump haters. Who hate a man more than they love their country. 

Phuket, Thailand. 2011

 

Anchored on our boat Xena, at Karong Beach, Phuket. Looking west over an Andaman Sea sunset.

Global Gender Divide

Just posting for Reference.

From a Financial Times article a few years ago by John Burn-Murdoch. It's here but paywalled.

It's a trend everywhere. Women going Left, men going (or staying) Right. 

More evidence: Young women are trending liberal. Young men are not, The Hill. 

Waymo is cooked! Tesla’s cooking!

Smooth, cool dude Tesla > carbuncled Waymo

Haven’t heard of Waymo? 

It’s a driverless taxi. Currently operating in a number of cities in the U.S. and expanding. It’s owned by Google. Deep pockets. So how could it go wrong? 

Answer: by being the car version of Kodak, which stuck by 35mm film when digital was the go. By being the car version of Blockbuster when Netflix was the go. By being the car version of a flip phone when iPhone was the go. By sticking with multiple, brainless, sensors when cameras and a brain are the go.

Waymo has got too many sensors. Not just cameras, but Lidar, Radar… gaydar and sonar…. Heh! 

They make the car look like a warty carbuncle. All these sensors and systems don’t make the nav better and safer. They make it more complex and more often conflicting. Which is the opposite of what the naysayers, the Elon-haters have been saying for years. And now have to eat crow. Elon was right all along. And Waymo was wrong all along. 

Tesla has cameras and a brain. Like humans with our two eyes and a brain. As @brivael notes:

Sébastien Loeb throws a 208 T16 at 180 kph down a muddy Corsican path in the rain with zero LIDAR. Two eyes, one brain. Evolution gave predators eyes for 500 million years, not lasers. There's a reason.

LIDAR is the equivalent of Marxism applied to the economy. More…

Elon commented on @brivael’s post:  

“People oddly assumed that I didn’t understand LiDAR, even though I oversaw the custom LiDAR development that Dragon uses to dock with the Space Station.”

In short: I confidently predict that Waymo will fail. If not in a year, then within five. And that Tesla with its FSD will dominate the driverless market. Which will be, per the cartoon above, a tsunami. A good tsunami! Getting around will be easier, safer, more efficient, better for the environment, and … cheaper!

And it will be so for everyone. As the Chinese say, for 男女老少, Nánnǚ lǎoshào, for Men and Women, for Young and Old. 

Dover, 2015

The new military superpower: Ukraine!

Ukraine is not just adapting to the new battlefield realities of robots, drones and AI. It's writing the text book. 

So says military expert Philip Ingram. I've seen other similar vids recently. We're seeing something new in war and we're seeing it most focussed in Ukraine. In Iran too, of course, but most advanced in ukraine. 

Who'da thought? 

And all of a sudden, it's Ukraine that's on top. Russia is losing more men per day than it can recruit. 400 a day it’s losing. To drones and robots. 

Ukraine’s 'drone wall', its “robot infantry” is rewriting the rules of modern warfare. 

In this week's episode of Battle Plans Exposed, military expert Philip Ingram MBE reveals a staggering new statistic: drones were responsible for 96% of Russian losses in March. 

From the surgical destruction of $25 million Tor-M2 air defence systems to the incineration of 'stolen grain' vessels in the Sea of Azov, the battlefield has become a 'panopticon' where Russian forces are constantly watched and relentlessly struck. 

Video Chapters 

00:00 Intro 

01:26 Ram II vs. Tor-M2 

02:21 TOS-1: Russia’s most feared weapon 

03:12 VOLGO-BALT 138: burning stolen grain 

04:36 Ukraine’s AI digital artillery 

07:22 Swedish RBS15 missiles 

08:44 Ukraine frontline update 

10:18 Fortress belt & Yampil chokepoint 

11:46 Russia's 96% losses 

12:22 Ukraine's drone wall 

13:16 Ukraine's drone units 

14:38 Ukraine's strategic strikes: Hitting Russia 1,000km deep 

15:39 Strike 1: Wiping out Orion UAVs at Kirov Airbase 

17:33 Strike 2: Drone Strike on Svitlodarsk 

19:08 Strike 3: Crippling Putin’s Armour Steel Production 

20:25 Strike 4: Penetrating Novorossiysk to Hit the Admiral Makarov 

21:45 Strike 5: The Sea of Fire at Nizhny Novgorod 

24:01 Technical Breakdown: Ram II & FP2 Long Range Drones 

26:37 Conclusion 

In this episode: 

The Drone Revolution: How $500 FPV drones are turning multi-million dollar Russian assets into "paperweights."
Digital Artillery: A look inside the "Crypt" - Ukraine’s AI-driven fire control system that’s outperforming Western legacy systems.
Deep Strikes: Ukrainian drones hitting Russian refineries and factories 1,000km behind the front lines.
Naval Shift: Swedish RBS 15 missiles and maritime drones making the Black Sea a "no-go zone" for Putin.

ADDED: “Russia thought it could win a war of muscles. It’s turned out to be a war of mathematics”. i.e. : Drones > Missiles. Robots > Men.

Saudi Arabia will attack Iran …

Click above for the Short. Prince Faisal in his perfect English accent

 Saudi Arabia will attack Iran …

… if attacks against Saudi continue. But Iran “doesn’t want diplomacy” says Saudi Prince Faisal, above. “I’m doubtful they have the wisdom” to stop war and negotiate instead. 

Arab nations are united against Iran. They support U.S. and Israeli actions against the Iranian regime. 

As the Riyadh Statement shows. Not just Arab, but nearby Islamic nations as well. 

The Prince Faisal Short, above.

Salt & Vinegar Chips. Spitting Chips. Sour Grapes.

Salt & Vinegar Chips. Spitting Chips. Sour Grapes. 

Take your pick. 

I'm talking about how pissed off China is that the largest high-end chip-maker in the world, TSMC, has done a deal with the United States to make their chips there. Beijing are super pissed off. 

How do they show their anger? Reveal their saltiness? Display they're spitting chips? 

Why, through the voices of pro-Beijing columnists in the South China Morning Post, of course! There's plenty of them these days. 

The most pro-Beijing, the most of a sock-puppet for Beijing is long-time columnist Alex Lo. Who writes two days ago, in his column: KMT Chief shows way forward to avoid blind confrontation with Beijing. [Internet Archive page]

Taiwan’s political pendulum is reversing. The government led by Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) William Lai Ching-te is increasingly discredited, not least for selling out the jewel of its semiconductor industry to the United States under pressure from President Donald Trump.

"Selling the family jewels"?? Hardly. They're increasing Chip capacity by manufacturing in the United States. Does it make sense? Surely it does. 

America is the largest customer of TSMC by a long way. America takes some 75% ot TSMC's output. Next largest customer is Taiwan itself with 9%.  Only then comes China, with 8%, a figure that's actually fallen in recent years. IOW America takes ten times the amount China does of TSMC's output. Of course it makes sense to manufature some of your product in your dominant customer's home. 

Committing some $US 500 billion to build facilities in America is just smart. 

But it smarts for China too. This is not TSMC "selling family jewels". It's TSMC being smart.

From China, from  Alex Lo, the OG Beijing sock-puppet, it's just... Sour Grapes. 

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

ADDED: My post on TSMC: the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Who's TSMC? From Grok:

TSMC produces the vast majority of the world's most advanced semiconductor chips (over 90% of leading-edge nodes below 5nm or so), which serve as the foundational "brains" powering everything from smartphones and consumer electronics to AI accelerators, high-performance computing, data centers, and modern military systems.

Without TSMC's manufacturing capacity and technological leadership, global supply chains for AI innovation, digital infrastructure, and countless high-tech products would grind to a halt, making the company a critical chokepoint for the modern economy and technological progress.

In short, TSMC is the indispensable engine behind today's digital world and the AI revolution.

You’re Not Allowed to Say This… The REAL Reason This War Exists | Mosab Hassan Yousef

 

I post this as a history lesson in Islam as the "final revealed religon". And what this means for all non-Muslims in the world.

A history lesson in "Why the Muslims try to kill or subjugate all Jews". 

I've been banging on about this since the beginning of this blog. 

Why? 

Because it's in all the doctrines of Islam -- the Koran, the Hadith, the Sirah, the life of Muhammad, the Sharia -- and in all the actions of Muslims when they attack via terrorist acts in the west. They make it clear. "We are not here in [the U.K., Europe, wherever] to take part. We're here to Take Over". 

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the so-called "Son of Hamas". Because he's the son of one of Hamas' foundational leaders. He's a hafiz -- one who has memorised the whole of the Koran. He knows whereof he speaks. 

Muslim believe, because Mohammad told them so, in the Koran, that Islam is the latest revealed Abrahamic religion and it abrogates -- it cancels -- the previous religions of Judaism and Christianity. This is a very dangerous belief because it leads to their attempts to physically silence, to kill, those Christians and Jews who continue to believe that they have the right, the obligation, to carry on with their religion. 

Iran Crumbles...

 

... and it's good news for the West. 

I am most certainly aware that that's not the view of the legacy media. That they're taking every opportunity to big up any perceived negatives against America; and to diminish any of the achievement of Operation Epic Fury. 

I find it disgusting that the European West, the American media, the media in Australia, the UK, the EU, can be against winning a defensive war on Iran -- defence against a burgeoning Islamist caliphate -- because they don't like the man waging it. 

I'm fully on side with winning this war. I know that America and Israel are trouncing Iran. But also that Iran's is not a finished regime. And that the main battle now is against the headwinds from the West itself. Weird and disturbing. And should not be so. 

Shame on pusillanimous leaders like France's Macron, Britain's Starmer, Italy's Meloni, Germany's Mertz and the Spanish socialist shill whose name I can't be bothered to remember. But who seems happy to have the Modern Moors reconquist Andalusia. Which, bottom line, is what this war is all about. Pushing back Islamist Jihadi attacks, of which Iran, its Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, are just the tip of the spear. 

Is that too tough to read? Too difficult to acknowledge? So be it. 

00:00 Long View on Iran War 03:02 Iran Weakened Militarily 04:24 Winners and Losers Russia Gulf 06:22 Global Fallout China Europe NATO 09:16 US Outlook and Conclusion

Victor Davis Hanson is an American classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the National Review, the Washington Times, and other media outlets.

Beach Barbecue

 

Great news for Tesla! | Herbert Ong & Brian Lutz

 

Great news for Tesla!

Great news for the world! 

The beginning of the transport revolution is here!

The Dutch regulator, RDW, just gave permission for Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) software to be used there. That will mean the rest of the EU 27 will soon do the same. The Dutch, and its RDW, are known as the gold standard in testing and licencing vehicles. 

About the Tesla FSD, the RDW said more than just "OK". They said Tesla's FSD was "the best system" they've tried and tested, rigorously, over 18 months. 

Likely other countries outside the EU will follow. China. Japan. Hopefully us here in Hong Kong, where Tesla's are super popular. 

The revolution is not just to the ease and increased safety in driving cars. It's another step to fully autonomous cars. And then to a whole new paradigm of how we get around. Cities will change. They'll get better, as we don't need so many private cars and so many buses and so many parking lots. Cities will get cleaner, more friendly, more relaxed. 

Things is gonna get better!