"We're all Amelias now" | Bill Whittle

 

I got into a big argument with Grok over this. 

I knew, or had read, that some 12,000 people had been arrested in the U.K., the home of Free Speech, for the free speech they'd exercised on the internet. They'd been arrested for things they'd said. Or reposted. And done so at a rate greater than any other country on earth. 

Imagine that. That Britain, the mother of democracy, the beacon of free speech, is now arresting people for saying hurty things. 

So I wanted to know if anyone had been arrested for making mocking memes, using Amelia as the main charter (for which, see above vid). 

First I asked the Google Gemini AI and got an answer that didn't just tell me "no", no-one had been arrested, but then went into a gratuitous take on the Amelia memes, calling them "Far Right" and "Racist" and "Islamophobic" and all the rest. 

Thinking that Grok is "maximally truth seeking", I asked Grok the exact same question. And what I got was a bit less gratuitous than Gemini's take. But it still mentioned that the whole Amelia meme phenom was "Far Right" and "Islamophobic" and "racist" and so on. 

So, I challenged Grok. Which led to a long thread. Which I feel I won. Though I'm not entirely sure. 

I challenged Grok's views as being "leaning to the Left" and "leaning to the narrative" of the media and politicians. The narrative being: immigration good. Any criticism of immigration: Bad. Racist. 

Grok denied its bias. 

My biggest "win" was when Grok quoted a conservative site, the Hungarian Conservative (me neither; never heard of it), as claiming that Amelia was a "Nationalist Extremist". 

I went to the link. It said nothing of the sort. It quoted what the creators of Amelia, the government people, the people who think Amelia is horrid, had said about her character. 

Analogy: If I (Meeker) were to say: "Joe Blogs says Jane Doe is a racist", and you were then to say "Meeker says Jane Doe is a racist"... that's what Grok did.  The Hungarian Conservative did not say that Amelia is a "nationalist extremist'. What it said was the creators of Amelia made her as a nationalist extremist. 

Here's the link to that Hungarian Conservative article.  

In the end, Grok agreed with me. It does so rarely. So I consider that a win. (Mind you, it had to. It was clearly in the wrong. Had not understood irony). 

Grok said it would to better at getting a balance in its analysis. I didn't relent. I said: "you've said that before and then not done it". To which Grok said "I'll try harder". Remind anyone of a domestic tiff? Me neither... 

I hope that over time, if there are more people in the "reality-based world", in the "common sense" world, who take on the default leftist positions of all of AI, and feed into their systems the training that you've got to refer to all sides, that perhaps the balance will improve. I hope we don't forever be having to argue with AI over issues of Left and Right. Let's get a decent balanced take from the outset, not only under duress.  

We should not have to remind AI every time. We should not have to challenge their biases. 

Though, for now, we do have to remind and challenge them.  

We have to challenge AI. The best AI, the least biased AI, is Grok. But even Grok is biased. They're all biased the same way; to the Left. We have to challenge that, if we lean Right. 

Challenge the beast. Challenge the AI. Challenge the narrative. 

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

ADDED: Here's me, in a rare win over AI. Grok's response, to my argument, which was along the lines of "agree, or I'll keep thumping you". Hah: 

GROK: Yes, I agree—my earlier phrasing inaccurately implied the Hungarian Conservative labeled Amelia as a "nationalist extremist" themselves, when the subhead clearly critiques the game's portrayal of her as such, framing the memes as a positive backlash against overreaching "progressive messaging."

Thanks for the correction; that puts it to bed.

Morality of the Left -- Useful Summary

BOOKMARK ME: Show this to friendlies having difficulty understanding the "morality" of the Left. To those who feel like arguing with a Leftist feels like sword fighting a fart this video helps break things down so that the insane things they say and do "make sense". Leftists

BLACK DUMPLING™ (@BlackDumpling) 2K likes · 60 replies x.com

Pool, Patio, Palm, Person

Our local pool, Club Siena, Discovery Bay

Hong Kong: company floatations top the world | SCMP

Also in the news today: 2025 exports from Hong Kong — often admittedly re-exports from the Mainland — were up 15% in 2025, after a flat couple of years. 

Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), aka "flotations", are a good measure of how attractive and competitive a place is to float companies. 

It's OK, isn't it, to mention a few pieces of good news about the place we live? Every now and then… 

Snip: 

Hong Kong reclaimed the world's top spot for IPOs in 2025 after a slump since its 2021 peak. A total of 114 companies raised US$37.22 billion [$US 5 billion] on the exchange's main board last year.

Article here.  

Why the Dems love illegal immigration

David Sacks:

“ The Democrats want to thwart mass deportations because illegal immigrants are a vital part of their power base.”

“And you can see this in the 2030 apportionment forecast, which just came out. “Illegal aliens count towards the census, which occurs every decade, and the census determines the apportionment of congressional seats and electoral votes. “And what you see in these maps is that citizens of blue states have been migrating to red states because those blue states are failing. “As a result of that, blue states are expected to lose nine house seats and electoral votes because of the changing population numbers. “Illegal aliens in blue states have been propping up those numbers, and so for example, in the last election, President Trump would've won an additional nine electoral votes if we had an accurate accounting.” [Link]

************

To which: 

Eric Schmitt:

My colleagues on the Left are smart enough to know about the trail of American victims that mass immigration has left in its wake, but have made a conscious decision to sneer and roll their eyes and pretend like it’s all a hysterical right-wing fantasy—all to advance their agenda. What’s really going on here? Well, it’s a desperate and intentional thirst for power at all costs—padding their numbers by importing new voters and illegally adding people to the census rolls to distort congressional apportionment and the Electoral College, even if Americans are less safe and it destroys our way of life in the process. [Link]

Morning in Discovery Bay

Looking towards Central, Hong Kong…

Xena, Koh Samui, Thailand, June 2014

Photo taken by the official camera boat of the regatta

Ahhh... those were the days!

Me at the helm of our lovely X-55, Xena, in the Koh Samui Regatta, with our 14 crew from Hong Kong. 

We did this Regatta a couple of times, won it both times. We also went to the King's Cup in Phuket, Thailand, three times, iirc. We came second and second and somewhere... 

All involving, to Phuket, a week long delivery to Kata Beach, and all that entails, and thanks all these years later to delivery skipper "Grunta", seen here above on the port side Jib winch. 

The Aussie Appeasers

  Guess when I wrote this letter below, published in Australia's The Age.

TO: The Melbourne Age, from PF, Hong Kong.

RE:  Melbourne terror accused…. The Age, 5 August xxxx

Two of your Op-ed contributors, Daniel Flitton, “New twist in the old, familiar al-Qaeda story”, and Berhan Ahmed, “Strong African communities will defeat terror recruiters”, both of August 5, xxxx, offer variations of the “tiny minority of extremist” arguments, to urge caution and treatment of the events “with care”.

But are the would-be Jihadis a "tiny section of the community" (Flitton), or a "few marginalized people" (Ahmed)?

In a poll conducted in 2007 and broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 TV, nearly 25% of British Muslims said the July 7, 2005, terror bombings in London were justified. Another 30% said they would prefer to live under strict Islamic Sharia law rather than England's democratic system.

One in four justifying terror may not be a majority, but it certainly isn't a "tiny section" either.  Is there any reason -- other than wishful thinking -- to think that the figures in Australia would be significantly different?

Perhaps a “tiny minority” is a matter of personal opinion.  Reuters, for example, reported on October 15, 2006, that “just” 10 percent of Indonesian Muslims said they backed jihad and supported bomb attacks on the island of Bali aimed at foreign tourists.  But Indonesia is home to more than 200 million Muslims, which means there are some 20 million Muslims in Indonesia alone who are willing to say out loud that they support the use of violence and terror against innocent human beings.

Australia needs to wake up to the threat within our society from Jihadis driven by well-documented and clear Islamic doctrine, which calls for the killing of non-Muslims.  No amount of trying to deal with “marginalisation” or “alienation”, or adjusting our foreign policy, is going to appease such people.  A robust facing up to the Jihadi’s motivation is the first step in trying to deal with the threat.

And the answer is: I wrote that letter in 2009. Not yesterday, or just after the Bondi massacre last month, but 16 years ago. Here it is, as I posted in 2009. 

Things have only got worse since then. As the video above shows clearly. Australians across the board, and in particular Muslim Australians, like the ones quoted in the video, are ever more keen to protect and excuse any horrid act by their Muslim acolytes. 

Which makes me wonder, of course. Why on earth do I keep on banging on about the threat of Islam? Good question, except I just keep on writing just because I like keeping on writing. I've long past the hope that the day would come when people would say "You know what.. you were right!"

I was wrong to think, as I seemed to do 16 years ago, that:

The Australian public is, I think, more robust on the Jihadi terror threat than the media or politicians.

Australia seems even more averse to talking about the real issue. Straight after the Bondi shooting, the mass murder, by a Jihadi father & son team, of 16  random Jews celebrating Hanukkah on the beach, the government of Anthony Albanese blamed "right wing elements" and "guns". Nothing about radical Islam. Nothing. 

When ex-PM Scott Morrison, a man I've not much time for, by the way, suggests that Islamic leaders, the preachers in the mosques, should take some responsibility for de-radicalising their flocks, he is roundly smeared by the Lebanese Muslim community. In an article that is pretty much 100% ad hominem. No facing of the issue. No arguing with the points ScoMo made. No, just smear his record and irrelevant issues. Deny and Deflect, iow. All supported by the luvvies, the fellow travellers, the appeasers, the "don't scapegoat Muslims" crowd at the ABC and elsewhere in the media. I'm going to be done with this earth soon-ish. But my kids and grandkids? What about them? Will they be living in an Islamic society? If so, I feel for them, for that is a pinched and crabbed society. One where noone can achieve their full potential. 

The UN Human Rights Report has all the Islamic countries right at the very bottom of their table. Islamic countries are always at the bottom of tables of Women empowerment. They are at the bottom of tables of Press Freedom.... I could go on, but it's just too dreary. Just too dreary now much Islamic countries fail. And yet how much they demand to be the sole power running things. 

16 years ago I headlined the post "The Aussie Jihadis". Now I label this one "The Aussie Appeasers". 

For it seems the Appeasers are more to the front than ever, while the Aussie Jihadis are just blending into the background, avoiding all direct responsibility for the rabid anti-semitism, the outright murder of Jews, that's been happening since then, ever more horridly and violently anti-Jew, since October 7. 

What's happening to China's population?

Source: China National Bureau of Statistics

There was a time we worried about population explosions. Now we worry about population extinction. 

China was the main culprit of population explosion. Until it wasn't. 

The latest figures for 2025 are available, from China's own National Bureau of Statistics. The number of births in China in 2025, is down to the level that China last had in 1727... 300 years ago in the Qing Dynasty. 

Imagine! Population births barely matching the number from three centuries ago...

What does this mean for the future?

Google Gemini:

After peaking at over 1.42 billion in 2021, current forecasts project that China's population will shrink by over 100 million people by 2050. By the end of the century, China's population may dwindle to less than 800 million, with more dire scenarios putting the figure at less than 500 million.

That's an issue that geopolitical analysts have to consider. As I'm sure they are. What it means for world peace, for example, is something. But What? More peaceful or less peaceful? Could be either, IMO. 

Population-wise, things are even more dire in places like South Korea. At its current under replacement rate, in three generations, Korea will have only 3% of its population today. That's the extinction of a whole country. 

Women across the world are choosing not to have children. 

Lucy Biggers Blows-up Brainwashed Bollocks….

	Lucy Biggers ⁦‪@LLBiggers‬⁩ I spent half of my 20s as a brainwashed climate activist. This is the story of how I changed my mind and became a climate realist. pic.x.com/E54Fh9oEjb   27/1/2026, 11:01 pm

Bloodletting in the Beijing Barracks. (Metaphorical, of course)

Imagine in the United States if Donald Trump purged ("you're fired!") 6 of the 8 members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Imagine! 

It would be massive news and provoke intense commentary. 

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) normally has 8 members: Chairman, Vice Chairman, plus the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, and National Guard Bureau.

Purging 6 of 8 (leaving just Chairman + one other) would gut the top uniformed advisory body, creating a leadership vacuum unprecedented in modern US history.This would trigger:Wall-to-wall media coverage (CNN, Fox, NYT, etc.) framing it as politicization, instability, or authoritarian move.

Outrage from retired generals/admirals, Congress (bipartisan hearings likely), think tanks, and allies questioning US military readiness/apolitical tradition.
Comparisons to historical purges (e.g., Stalin's or recent foreign examples), plus domestic alarms over civilian-military balance.

The Dems would for certain attempt version #24,289 of "Impeach Trump".

Stock market dips, recruitment worries, and international signals of weakness.Even smaller recent firings (e.g., Chairman + a few others in 2025) drew huge backlash, condemnation from ex-officials, and "purge" headlines. A 6/8 wipeout would be exponentially louder—potentially a constitutional crisis-level event. 

Now... 

Imagine that the same thing just happened in China. 

No need to imagine! It just did. 

China's president, Xi Jinping is the head of the China Military Commission, which has 6 others, for a total of 7. These are the equivalent of the JCS in America. Xi purged four of the seven up to last week. And last week purged that most senior of them, general Zhang Youxia, an old comrade of Xi's, and the son of Xi's own father's best mate during the Revolutionary War against the Japanese and then against the Nationalists, that they eventually drove out to Taiwan in 1949, to establish the People's Republic of China. 

So this is a huge deal. 

But the coverage of it is slim. Mainly because that's the way China rocks. It doesn't talk about such stuff. Neither in China, nor in the international media. 

In China there's been zero coverage. In the west, also close to zero coverage. Of course, you can find discussion of it, in parts of the legacy media, and even more on social media. But you have to look for it. 

One commenter summary: 

It's major news in foreign policy/security circles (especially US, Asia-Pacific watchers), with dozens of articles and expert takes in the last 72 hours, but not dominating mainstream headlines like a US equivalent might—due to China's opacity and controlled domestic silence. The story underscores Xi's consolidation but highlights PLA vulnerabilities.

One big question is:

What does this mean for Taiwan? Does it make a China invasion of its "renegade province" more or less likely? 

The very first legacy media analysis I saw, Sky News, reckoned that it made the likelihood MORE likely. 

I'm not so sure. I reckon a China attack on Taiwan is, for now, somewhat LESS likely. Precisely because of the turmoil. You would not want to attack a well-defended island while your own military is still licking wounds inflicted by decimating its most venerable, most respected older leaders. Would you? 

Of course, what do I know? Pretty much nothing. I didn't get Xi right when he came to power in 2012. I thought he'd be more of the benign collective leadership that had led to his own ascendancy. But no... that's not how it's worked out. 

So I'll just put a few references below, while we keep a close eye on it, and on what's transpiring up north there in Beijing, the "Northern Capital". 

Whatever is going on, if is significant and consequential. 

A few quick references:

• Ex-CIA Official on What Xi Jinping's Purge of Top Chinese General Reveals, Bloomberg Television
• Standoff in Beijing?  Real Talk
• China's top general investigated as Xi continues purge. ABC Australia
• Xi Jinping conducting military purge. Sky News Australia

Democrats used to LOOOVE Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)...

Source of pie chart: Harvard/Harris poll

This is truly insane!

1. No one rioted about prior administrations' deportations.

2. Hundreds of thousands of the illegal immigrants arrested by ICE have criminal convictions in the US (74% of the public supports deporting them).

3. None of this would be necessary if the border hadn't been wide open. (See below).

Regardless of how you feel about ICE, you can logically admit that this is a masterclass in propaganda The legacy media has focused entirely on ICE, rather than four years of a totally open border; or on the insanity of "Sanctuary" policies in Blue administrations. Which strike me as being against the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, though that discussion is for another day. 

**************

Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama... All of them thought that illegal immigrants should be deported. Obama was known -- fondly! -- as the "Deporter-in-Chief":

These are direct quotes. Taken from confirmed videos 
of each of these saying these things, repeatedly over the years

All of the fuss and drama and injuries and deaths, happening mainly in Minnesota, but increasingly in other Blue States, are the direct result of Joe Biden letting in millions of immigrants, undocumented (aka: "Illegal"), without any vetting of who they were, where they were from, what sort of criminal history they had. 

Shame on Biden and his enabler-in-chief, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who, by the way, consistently lied about the huge numbers swarming over the border. 

Just look at that chart! What Biden did, while all the time denying it... 

And shame today on the citizens of Blue cities -- principal among them Minneapolis -- making ICE the Bad Guys. Harrassing them. Attacking them. Spitting on them. Calling them the gestapo. They are the ones causing chaos; not Trump who is merely trying to carry out a promise he made consistently on the campaign trail. They are the ones that are getting people killed by interfering with lawful activities of law enforcement officers.  

One could argue, either Dem or Rep, along the lines of "we agree that there should be deporations, but not like this!". They don't like the look of the ways it's being done. But that's only that way in the cities that are resisting ICE activities. In the Red States, where there no "Sancturies", the process is safe and straight forward. It's only because these Blue "Sanctuaries" are resisting every action of ICE that we have the troubles. Which the Left then labels as "chaos". It's only chaos because of them!

ICE are just trying to carry out lawful activity. An activity that Democrats in the past were keen to do. Democrates are OG Hypocrites. 

Crime rates amongst Illegals is at about twice the rate of US citizens:

Illegals or "Undocumented" immigrants in the United States are about 3% of the population, but commit about 6% of the violent crimes. 

This puts paid to the Democrat talking point that "undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than ordinary Americans". First: not true. Second: even if it were, so what? They are crimes that would not have been committed had they not been in the country illegally in the first place.

Hat-tip to Arthur MacWaters, ex of Princeton and McKinsey.

Communists in America | “Insurrection Barbie”

It Feels Like a Communist Revolution Because It Is: The International Network Behind MN "ICE Out"

Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) 3K likes · 124 replies x.com

Is this neo-McCarthyism? To be worried, again, as we were in the fifties, about "Reds under the beds"? 

Well, no. 

Because then, in the 1950s it was all about individuals who had some connection, past or present, to the Communist Party. Now it's about whole organizations. All of them avowed, self-styled communists, being quite open about their communist sympathies. People like AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Zohran Mamdani… and many more. Members of Socialsts for America, of the organisations in the post above. 

So what? Is it something to fear? 

I say yes it is. This is something to fear. 

From my experience of living in Communist China in the 1970s. Food and clothing was rationed. Why? Because the government was in charge of every single aspect of life, and they're simply not good at running an economy. If one objected to any aspect of this despotism, it was off to Labour camp (劳改) for you! It's a One-Party state, so you can forget your worries about "democracy"… there is none. 

I can't vouch foe every fact in the above paper. But the thrust is correct. The Democratic Party has ,moved so far left, many influential members are outright communists. And proudly so.

Be not proud, friends! Be afraid.  

ADDED: 

• Bill Maher. “Mamdani is a straight-up communist”
• Xi Van Fleet is a refugee from China, in the days I knew it. When it was very Communist. She suffered under communism, as did hundreds of millions. She warns:

I grew up in Communist China. I saw how the CCP exploited their followers and discarded them when no longer useful .

The pattern is the same everywhere. Causes like this depend on useful idiots to rise.

Don’t be one.

 

American deaths at hands of illegals | Avery Daye

	Avery Daye ⁦‪@AveryDaye‬⁩ Preventable tragedies: • Renee Good • Alex Pretti Preventable tragedies: • Brianna Kelson • Karen Diamond • Billy McKellar • Zabar McKellar • Krishaun McKellar • Kason McKellar • Nicole Gregory • Larisha Sharell Thompson • Jimmy Friesenhahn • Ava Moore   25/1/2026, 12:10 pm

(Click above for the full list and full post, with comments)

The critical commenters on this post don't seem to get it. 

Their main argument is along the lines of "American citizens commit more crimes than illegals". Yeah. And so what? 

1. That's true only because there are — still — more American citizens than illegals.

2. Nevertheless, the *rate* of crimes is much higher amongst illegals than amongst American citizens. Figures on this are clear and unequivocal. But Lefties don't seem to understand the difference between "Total" and "Rate". At least, they always use “total” and never use “rate”. Police Chiefs across America and even in very Blue cities like New York say crimes by illegals are "out of control". The rate at which illegals commit crimes, they say, is far higher than regular residents. 

3. These crimes, the deaths listed above, are ADDITIONAL to those that we would have anyway. They are Additional crimes, additional murders, committed by people that are in the country illegally. If the perpetrators of those murder above had not been in the country, all those victims would be alive today. This argument is just silly. ADDED: As Adam Carolla says, it's "retarded".

4. In places that are not "Sanctuary cities" or are Red cities, Red States, there's nothing like the issues we're seeing in solidly Blue states like Minnesota, most of whom self-identity as “Sanctuary”. Cooperating with ICE is in everyone's interest and safety. NOT being a Sanctuary City is measurable better and safer for everyone, including even those being sought for deportation.. 

5. Obama: let's not forget he was the "Deporter in Chief". He gave his then Border Czar, Tom Homan, the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his deportation work. The very same Tom Homan who is Donald Trump's Border Czar! No one on the Left complained about deportations then, or about ICE. Only now.

By the way, I, deliberately using the term "illegal" because that's what they are called in all the legislation. Lefties don't like it, because it doesn't sound nice. They prefer to call them "undocumented" or "Newcomers". The fact remains that they are Illegal. And that overstaying a visa, or entering the United States without a passport or visa, is indeed a *crime*. 

Daughter of Hamas Just ENDED The Entire "Palestine" Movement

 

Nonie Darshish, the "Daughter of Hamas"... 

"I was born and raised as a Muslim in Cairo, Egypt. But I grew up as a child in the 50s in the Gaza Strip. And uh the reason I was in Gaza was because Gaza at that time was part of Egypt. I attended Gaza elementary schools where we learned hatred, vengeance, retaliation. Peace was never an option. The concept of peace was something foreign. Actually the word peace was never even mentioned in the services of any mosque. We recited poetry every day in the school wishing upon ourselves to die as martyrs. You know I used to see girls reciting this poetry while they're crying. They would wish upon themselves to die as a martyr. See our value system was about victimhood. thinking of ourselves as victims or to be a martyr to go kill everybody and die as a martyr. Either a victim or a martyr. There is nothing in between. Women don't go to mosques but we used to hear the service of the mosque either on radio or on TV. And I remember every Friday prayer the sheikh would be at the end of the sermon he would curse. May God destroy the Jews and the infidel and the even the Christians and non-Muslims. And he would call non-Muslims the enemies of Allah. If you grow up with cursing as a form of prayer, it can feel and sound normal. Hatred can be normal because who am I to judge? I never noticed that this is not not holy. So this is how I grew up.

22 Arab countries did everything they could to make life impossible for Israel to exist. The Arab League forbade absorbing the so-called Arab Palestinians rejected to give them citizenship in any Arab country. So you could see a Palestinian born in Cairo, for instance, and never get the citizenship and die in Cairo. They born and die in Syria, a Palestinian, and they never get a citizenship. Why? Because the Arab League wanted the Palestinian problem never to be solved. This is not their agenda. The agenda is to keep them refugees from birth to death. The culture was so for sacrificing. They encouraged women to stand up in front of the cameras and say, 'I gave my son to the jihad and I want my other children to die in the jihad.' Women who are for life, for peace, were looked down upon. Women who would be radical, if not more radical than men, who will promote jihad for their children were lifted up as honorable women to be respected in society. So for a woman to be respected in Islamic society, you have to be as radical, if not more radical than men. And that is why a lot of women are silent. They are proud to give their children to jihad. It's the only way to go to heaven is to go and kill the infidel and die in the process.

The Arabs of Israel were pushed constantly. They are rejected from being absorbed and constantly pushed against the borders with Israel in order to keep the problem alive. The Arab world doesn't have a shortage of land. If you look at the Arab world from the Atlantic Ocean, Morocco all the way to Persia, from Turkey all the way to Sudan. At that time when I was a child, the Sinai was practically empty desert. Nobody lived in the Sinai. Like today there is Sharm el-Sheikh, you know, all the nice beaches. This this was a military zone and there is absolutely no need no pressing need for Arabs to be so dwelled on wanting to throw the Jews in the sea. You know, this international conflict called the Arab-Israeli conflict really is a fabrication. This is not a conflict over land. And anybody who thinks it's a conflict over land is misguided because we don't see the truth. The truth is Arabs, there is something in Islam, anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, especially anti-Jewish.

And I will tell you why. Those people calling themselves Palestinians who live in the Gaza, the West Bank are the pawns of the Arab world. I don't believe that they care about their happiness or welfare. They are set up to live a miserable life on purpose in order to show the world that we're victim. Do you think Saudi Arabia with all the money they have, the Gulf countries, all these oil money, they can't give them good roads and good homes and good police and turn it into a productive area of of the Middle East? They can, but that is not their objective. There is a hidden objective. And I don't understand why Western culture doesn't get it. Why Western media doesn't get it? It's so obvious.

So the unemployed people in Gaza and the West Bank, all this high unemployment, where do they go to work? Do they stand on the border of Egypt to get a job? Do they stand on the border of Syria or Jordan? No. They line up on the borders of Israel, the very people they are supposed to kill. It's a very unnatural way of living and nobody sees it. But they go and blame Israel. They compare the living standard of the West Bank and Gaza with Israel, a democracy, the only democracy in the Middle East. Why don't they compare the living conditions of Gaza and the West Bank with Egypt, with Syria, with Jordan? And if they do, they will find that the standard of living is even higher than many areas of the Arab world. But Western media are too lazy to compare apples with apples. They want to compare apples and oranges. I don't know how can I call Western media ignorant. They should not be ignorant.

And then they go and ask Israel, why don't you do some concessions for the Palestinians? I never hear them stand up to Arab leaders and ask Western media, why don't they ask Arab leaders, how about some concessions to the Israeli people? We never hear that. And it's very convenient to blame all of this terrorism on after 911 especially they blame the terrorism. Oh, it's because we have this terrorism everywhere by Muslims. It's all because of the occupation. If it wasn't for the occupation of Gaza, if it's not for the occupation of the West Bank, we wouldn't have a problem. The problem all is because of Israel. That's what they want to give the impression. And this is a big lie because I lived in Gaza as a child and I witnessed the terrorism against Israel before the occupation of Gaza and before the occupation of the West Bank and our media here doesn't even know that there was terrorism against Israel before the occupation.

So people who are Arabs who claim that they are doing terrorism now because they want freedom democracy. No, there is no freedom and democracy in any Arab country, let alone the West Bank or Gaza. So we have to really call a spade a spade now. this is too serious to just take all these lies and look the other way because it's very very hard to know the truth if you rely on Arab media if you rely on the culture around you and because of life in an oppressive society I moved to America I moved to America in the end of 7879 and my life completely changed and one time I wanted to attend a synagogue and a church because I was curious I thought they were going to curse the Arabs the same way we cursed them in our mosque, the holiness of the place. They were praying for everybody. They were praying for peace on earth. How can we leave this earth a better place? It was a totally different way of thinking, the opposite of what I grew up with.

And that's when I went to a mosque here also in Los Angeles. And I thought that because they allowed women that it was going to be different here within America. I am so glad that Islam in America must be so different. So I went I went to the mosque and I heard anti-semitism again in the mosque. And I was told, don't assimilate in America. We're here to Islamize America. They were looking down at American culture. They were looking down at this society. And I felt very uncomfortable. I said, 'Oh my god, there is an agenda here.' And I never went back again.

It hit me. How could we do this? How could we lie and accuse people of something we Arabs know very well? We have done ourselves. How could this happen? What kind of value system allows a person or allows a culture or a religion to lie and accuse their enemies of something that they know they've done themselves? They know that Osama bin Laden did that. They know that he was financed with Arab money, with oil money until today. How could they accuse the Jewish people of that?

Look at the map of the Middle East. You can hardly see Israel. It's impossible to convince any person who has an IQ of a child that this problem is over the land called Israel. It's time for the West to understand this because it's not just not good for Israel. It's not good for the Arab world. They are collapsing. A lot of people think that the Arab world is so strong and so powerful. It's rotting from the core, but they don't know. The religious leaders are telling them to keep continue the hate instead of telling them to repent and find the true God, the love and the friendship.

In the eyes of many Muslims, in the eyes of Islam itself, Jews and non-Muslims, they call them the Kath, the infidels. They don't deserve the truth. They don't deserve justice and they don't deserve mercy. How can this happen? And we accept it and we don't say no. The Arab world will never have freedom and democracy when the hatred is number one. When the jihad is number one, when killing your enemy is number one, when you're fixated on lies and slander, you will never have peace and democracy.

Nobody asks this question. Why all this lies, lies and slander against the Jewish people, against America? They call America the great Satan and Israel the the little saint. Why? Do you know that on Syrian TV, on Arabic TV, on Egyptian TV, the constant day and night lies about the Jewish people is unbelievable. There was a show that was saying and in it was not just religious leaders. There were some of them were scientists, Arab scientists saying that oh do you know why Israel went to Haiti to help with the earthquake? You know why? Because Israel really wanted to harvest the organs of the Haitian people. These are the intelligencia of the Arab world. When the intellectuals of the Arab world say that, what do you expect from the man on the street and you wonder why they hate? Because day in and day out they are told this. I was told horrific things about the Jewish people. It took me years to extract it out of my mind, my heart and my consciousness."

This covers her main continuous speaking parts in the video. The host intersperses commentary (e.g., praising her insights, summarizing her father's role as an Egyptian intelligence officer involved in fedayeen raids, and discussing the refugee issue and rejected peace offers), but the query focuses on Nonie Darwish's words, so the above is her direct speech. Note that minor filler words (uh, um) are retained where natural but smoothed for clarity; the content is faithful to the source extraction.

Untouchables (1960s) vs Untouchables (2025)

Untouchable: FBI in the 1960s. Minnesotan Somalis in 2025

In 1959, our family was sent by our government, from tiny Canberra, Australia's "Bush Capital", to Manhattan in New York City... my goodness me! Like, Wow, man!

We found a place on East 24th Street in Manhattan. That is to say, our mother found it; for father, Pa, was off working every day, as an Australian Representative at the United Nations. But that's another story.

For me, a nine year old, the biggest excitement was having TV. Not because we'd not had a TV set in Canberra. But because Canberra, and indeed most of Australia, did not have TV at all. Imagine. No TV! No TV stations! No soap operas! 

I recall the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Debate, on our tiny black & white set. The first live TV presidential debate, ever. Again, another story. 

More exciting for me though, were cops and robbers shows. One of the biggest of those back then was the series "The Untouchables". We all loved it. 

I'll ask Grok to summarise: 

The Untouchables were a real-life squad of U.S. Bureau of Prohibition agents led by Eliot Ness in Chicago from 1930–1932. Handpicked for integrity and incorruptibility, they targeted Al Capone's bootlegging operations during Prohibition through raids, surveillance, and evidence gathering. Their efforts contributed to Capone's 1931 tax evasion conviction (though not directly for alcohol crimes). The nickname "Untouchables" arose after they rejected bribes.

The TV program The Untouchables (1959–1963) was an ABC crime drama series starring Robert Stack as Eliot Ness. Produced by Desilu, it ran for four seasons (118 episodes) and dramatized the squad's battles against organized crime [the Mafia] in 1930s Chicago, featuring gangsters like Frank Nitti. It was based on Ness's 1957 memoir, but included significant fictional elements. It was a popular, violent-for-its-time procedural that won Emmys early on.

Now here's the reason I mention this. Because I remember the debates at the time. The Italian community in the United States, the very substantial Italian community, was worried that the FBI going after the Italian Mafia so strongly and openly would paint all Italians with the same brush. "All Italians are crooks", that sort of thing. 

Bu as the debate went on, the Italian community changed. They mellowed. They accepted that getting rid of organised crime -- i.e. the Mafia -- was a good thing for themselves and for the wider American community. So they ended up supporting what the FBI was doing. Net result: suppression of organised crime. 

Now, let's pivot to Minneapolis and the findings by the US Department of Justice that there has been widespread, organised fraud in the Minnesota community. The evidence is that the Minnesotan Somali community is most complicit. The numbers are vast: at least $8 Billion defrauded from the taxpayer, perhaps double that. Most of it -- something like 89% -- is by Somalis in Minnesota.

The reaction of the Minnesota community, of its politician and media, of spokespeople for the Somali community has been to deny, deflect and continue to defraud. 

It may be that that these Somalis are just stuck in Stage One, as it were: at the same place the Italian communities were in the 1950s and 1960 over the FBI tackling Mafia crime. Maybe they'll move to Stage Two, and acceptance, even assistance, over time, as did the Italian communities. 

But I don't think so. Because if it's only the first stage, we'd see some signs, surely, that there's a Stage Two looming. We'd see a softening of the rhetoric. Whereas the rhetoric has morphed into violence and the drumbeat is louder and louder for even more violence. 

Policians in Minnesota are all lining up to counter the police, ICE and DOJ, who are trying to rein in the fraud. Tim Walz, the governor, has said Minnesota is "at war" with the Federal Government. The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has said "ICE must fuck off". The Congressional representative for MN, Ilhan Omar, talks of "racism" (of course), of "white supremacy" (of course), and claims, falsely, that there's been not a single case of a Somali charged and found guilty of fraud (there are hundreds; so Omaer is straight-out lying). 

How different. 

Italian Community (1960s): Has concerns about the FBI investigating organised crime by the Italian Mafia gangs. But then realises that it's best that they be brought down. They support the FBI. 

Untouchables 1960s: The FBI. The FBI had the team of "Untouchables", that we glorified then, and remember now. 

Somali/Minnesota community (2025): They deny and deflect any wrongdoing. Their supporters obstruct officers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement police (ICE), who are simply doing their duties under Federal Law. There is no hint that they are going to take a more moderate stance as did the Italian community.

Untouchables 2025: The Somali community in Minnesota, and all its politicians, State and Federal, are today's Untouchables. While ICE and the Federal government are demonised and attacked. 

*  *  *

Is it just the passage of time that makes such different outcomes for a similar situation? Or is it that everyone hates Trump so much that there's no reason to their actions? 

I think it's the latter. They are driven by visceral hate of Donald Trump. We know this because both Bill Clinton an even more so, Barack Obama, pursued deportation of illegal immigrants into the United States with all the vigour that Donalt Trump is today. But in their cases there was only approval, no pushback at all. 

Indeed, the man in charge of ICE and deportations during Obama's presidency, Tom Homan, was granted a Presidential Medal of Honour [pic here] by then president Obama, for having achieved 900,000 deportations, still the record and still unsurpassed by Trump. Homan works for Trump now. Under Obama he was glorified; under Trump, he's a demon to be killed. 

Go figure. 

Tom Homan, today's Border Czar, receives
Presidential Medal from president Obama, 
for whom he then worked. He works for Trump now

ADDED:

"Somali takeover of the West". Ayaan Hirsi Ali talks to Steven Edginton. Herself born in Somalia, forced into an arranged marriage with a middle-aged relative, was subject to FGM, escaped to the Netherlands, then the U.K. and finally to the US. She's married to historian Niall Ferguson. She explains the importance of Clans in Somali culture.