"It's Bob, alright... he's been domesticated, I tell you".

 

How wolves became domesticated dogs. 

Trouble in paradise: Golf Buggy Wars

 Cecilia,

I received yesterday a copy of an anonymous email from someone at HKRI, had sent to my wife.

From: "."@hkri.com
Date: 26 May 2025 at 16:40:52 HKT
To: jinglee@netvigator.com
Cc: Zico Chiu <zico.chiu@hkri.com>
Subject: Purchase of Langqing electric golf cart

Dear Ms. Lee,

Following the introduction meeting on 15 April 2025, we have been following up your requirements with the golf cart suppler.  Regarding your request for a golf cart with back-to-back seating arrangement, we have reservations in introducing new golf carts with such arrangement in view of safety.  In fact, we have stopped offering new golf cart with back-to-back seating arrangement for a long period of time.

Following the phone call with your goodself on last Friday morning, we immediately contacted the supplier and learnt from them that a Langqing 4-seater forward-facing golf cart in blue color is under production currently.  Should this be acceptable to you, we could proceed to place order for you.  Most grateful if you could let us have your prompt response on whether to accept or not.


Best Regards,

DISCOVERY BAY TRANSIT SERVICES LIMITED
Tel: 2987 7351
Fax: 2987 5246
Email: dbtpl@hkri.com

Ref: TS/E168/25

It claims to answer concerns Jing and I expressed to you last Friday 23 May and my email later that day. 

But it does not at all answer our concerns and suggestions. It simply restates your position. 

Let me restate ours: we wish to have Choice. And wish for more Transparency. We are the residents, we pay the management fees, and thereby your salaries. We drive the golf carts, we own them. 

And yet you make the choices. And you show no transparency.

We golf cart owners are treated ever worse over the years. By ultra high prices, by high maintenance costs, by tighter restrictions on parking. And now, as the aging golf carts fleet needs replacement, by an arbitrary selection of two brands of golf cart that we had no part in choosing. 

The Safety issue.

You repeat your preference for seat-forward option is because of "reservations" over Safety. 

We say our preference for the "back-to-back" seat is also for safety. 

The difference is: your view is based in anecdote. On a story from one or more people.

Our view is based on data. From the experience and scientific testing, all of which prove our view is more substantial and correct.

I find no reports that justify your concerns about children's safety. There have been some accidents over the years, none recorded as fatal or grievous. If you have a record of one, please provide the Accident Report(s). Transparency is important. 

If safety is the top concern, one should have considered the electric micro car, which is made for residential restricted roads such as ours and is safer than any golf cart. I brought this to the attention of DBTSL and DBSML several times, but never any interest shown. 

The Choice Issue

Back to the choice issue. We do not suggest that our own preference be the preference for all people. If someone wants forward-facing seats let them have it. If somebody wants back-to-back, let them have it. 

What is the reason for having only one type of Lǎng Qíng 朗晴? We have long had several brands on our streets, the Club Car, the Yamaha, the EZ-Go and the Columbia. So consistency is no longer a strong requirement. 

We repeat: This issue is easily fixable. 

Allow us the choice to have the back-to-back Lang Qing that we want. Done. 

The Transparency Issue

We know the Lǎng Qíng company and we know that they can easily and quickly provide the one we want. It's incorrect to say "Langqing 4-seater forward-facing golf cart in blue color is under production currently..." and to assume that this means the back-to-back is not available. It is available. I could order one today and it would be with me in two week. I do wish your staff would make a better job of talking consistently and not always changing their story. There's a lack of transparency and of fair dealing with us. That's a fact, attested by the various confusing and inconsistent information we've been given over these many months. 

And then commit going forward, to being more transparent in everything you do. Transparency is a call everywhere these days. Be a part of it. 

Why do you insist on making life difficult for us? Your job is Service. Not obfuscation and objections. 

If you detect a note of frustration in this email, it's because I am indeed frustrated. I reflect the anger, frustration and annoyment of many golf cart owners in Discovery Bay. It would be good if you could take this into account. 

Regards

Peter Forsythe

Israel vs Arab countries

The Israel Declaration of Independence, 14 May 1948:

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. [Here]

The principles of this Declaration hold until today, such that Israel is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious state, with equal rights for all, including its 22% of Arab citizens. 

The Charter of Hamas, 1988 and 2017: 

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it. (Preamble)

The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him." (Article 7)

Palestine is an Islamic land... Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Muslim wherever he may be. (Article 13) 

The Zionist project is a racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist project based on seizing the properties of others; it is hostile to the Palestinian people and to their aspiration for freedom, liberation, return and self-determination. The Israeli entity is the plaything of the Zionist project and its base of aggression. (2017, Article iv)

[And much much more, along similar lines] 

The principles of the Charter (aka the "Covenant") hold until today, such that Gaza is a uni-cultural, uni-ethnic, uni-religious state, with no rights for minorities, gays, women, jews. 

Number of Jews in Gaza: 0. Number of Christians in Gaza: 0. Number of non-Arabs, non-Muslims in Gaza: 0. 

Moreover, the Hamas Charter makes clear in many places that it is explicitly genocidal, calling for the death of jews in all of "Palestine" and then in all the world. 

These things in mind, it's a bit of a "thing I don't get" why people are violently anti-Israel, and worshipfully pro-Hamas. And are proud to repeat, to chant, the doctrines and hatreds of this vile outfit. 

Me... I love Israel, Jews and their cult of life. I hate Hamas and their cult of death. 

Not buying that moral equivalence thing. No, no, no.... 

Bringing the wooden boat I built back to Discovery Bay

Weird Heroes

Albrego Garcia the MS-13 gang member they're trying to bring back to the US. And did in the end. A gang member. Wife beater. Human trafficker. But beloved of the Left, because a technical error was made in his deportation. Why spend so much time on this man? 

Reminds me of: 

Che Guevara. A mass murderer, but beloved of the left. Soooo handsome!

Mao Tse-tung. Responsible for 10st of millions of deaths in China. Worshipped at the Paris Commune uprisings in the 60s.

Stalin.  Responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions. Gulags. Repression. But, oh, so handsome. A true revolutionary!

Lenin. Inspiration for Stalin, Mao, and other mass murderers. But a true hero of the Left. 

Ho, ho, ho Chi Minh. He slaughtered the mixed blood babies of American soldiers and Viet women. But, you know, a nationalist. In the good sense!

Treyvon Martin and Michael Brown >> BLM

George Floyd >>>> BLM + and all the loonies beloved of the Left. Like the crook Patricia Cullors. 

And now: Illegal aliens, aka, "undocumented migrants", aka "newcomers". All of whom getting more goodies, more attention, more money, more love, by the Left, than any ordinary American citizen gets. 

Weird, weird.  

Opposing Russian, Chinese, and Islamic irredentism

 "... irredentism"??

"Irredentism (Italian: irredentismo)^[1] is one state's desire to annex the territory of another state. This desire can be motivated by ethnic reasons because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to or the same as the population of the parent state.^[a]Historical reasons may also be responsible, i.e., that the territory previously formed part of the parent state..." [Here]

From the article sent to me by an Occasional Reader (OR) in the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. should oppose the Putin doctrine as a challenge to de facto international law and in its actual use in Ukraine and any independent part of the former Soviet Union. Since the doctrine can embolden China’s expansionist claims in Russia, the Pacific Rim and potentially India, U.S. resistance can help preclude the destabilizing effects of Sino-Soviet and other Asian territorial disputes. Unfortunately, President Trump has leaned toward helping Mr. Putin by denying previously promised weapons for Ukraine and easing sanctions on some Russian firms and individuals. Russian forces are advancing on the battlefield, and Mr. Putin shows no sign of compromise.

Agree. Because if you allow Putin, you allow Xi, and if you allow those two reprobates, you allow the whole of Islam to say that Europe is a "waqf", that is, a place that was once under Islamic control, and therefore should be forced back to Islamic control. Places like Rome then become the target. Vienna. Spain. France. 

Anything allowing irredentism is going to lead to chaos. 

Thanks to the OR for the link to the WSJ Article. 

Co-author of the article above: Dan Quayle ! At the time of his vice-presidency, a much mocked man. With this article, he shows wisdom. 

What's in the future?

I don't know. 

But I'm pretty sure I know one area, two areas, that are going to roll out and make a big difference to our future. Both to do with Tesla. 

Robotaxis and...

Optimus humanoid robots. 

Let's imagine "Horizon City" a decade hence. 

Horizon City, 2035

The streets of Horizon City hum with the soft whir of Tesla Robotaxis, their sleek forms gliding through intersections with an eerie precision. Ten years ago, the rollout began—a few autonomous cabs sparking curiosity. Now, they’re the pulse of the city. No buses clog the lanes, no human-driven taxis honk in frustration, and private cars are relics, gathering dust in suburban garages. Need to get somewhere? Tap your wristband, and a Robotaxi pulls up, its interior a cocoon of screens and soft lighting. The cost is trivial—shared fleets and AI optimization slashed fares to pennies per mile. Most don’t even think about it; it’s just how life moves.

But the real shift came with Optimus. Five years back, Tesla’s humanoid robots stepped off assembly lines into warehouses, cafes, and construction sites. 

By 2035, they’re everywhere—stocking shelves, pouring coffee, building homes. Their glowing eyes and fluid motions are as commonplace as the Robotaxis. Jobs? They’ve evaporated for many. Baristas, drivers, laborers—gone. Even white-collar roles like accounting and data entry are shrinking as AI, paired with Optimus, handles complex tasks with ruthless efficiency.What do people do? Some retrained—coding, creative arts, or niche crafts that machines can’t replicate. Others lean into the Universal Basic Income, rolled out in 2032 to quell unrest. It’s enough for a modest life, but not ambition. In Horizon City, you see two tribes: the Creators, who hustle in VR studios or design bespoke experiences for the elite, and the Drifters, who spend days in immersive games or lounging in subsidized cafes, chasing meaning in a world that no longer needs their labor.

A slightly crueller take is: there are Predators and there are Scavengers. The Predators are the Creators and the Scavengers are the Drifters. Or, as Adam Carolla says, there are those who will want Safe Spaces, and those who want to go the the Octagon. 

Tensions simmer. Protests flare occasionally, demanding “human-only” jobs, but they fizzle—Optimus doesn’t strike, doesn’t tire, doesn’t err. Still, there’s a spark in the Creators’ eyes. They talk of new frontiers: space colonies, AI-augmented art, or merging minds with tech. The Drifters, though, stare at the Robotaxis zipping by, wondering what’s left for them in a city that runs itself.The future is here, polished and efficient. 

But beneath the hum of progress, a question lingers: what does it mean to be human when the world no longer needs you?

"Total Meltdown Over Elon Musk, Tesla Stock & America Party" | Steven Mark Ryan

Steven Mark Ryan has my view of Elon Musk: a genius, a very special man, who can absolutely handle a wide range of companies and even a new Party, with ease. As he calls him: "MVP of the Earth". 

I remain Long -- LOONNNNG -- TSLA. 

https://youtu.be/HTA7M6bcAho?si=NgFVg1jHJNU8h8fW

A very useful 10 minutes, if you're plugged into this fascinating bit of current history. Trump v Musk. And Musk v the World. And Musk v even his fans. Hah! He'll come through. He'll win. 

"Elon & Trump Headed For HUGE Standoff: Be Warned (will be messy)" | Steven Mark Ryan

Click above for the video

Whew! And wow! 

Immovable Object meet Unstoppable Force!

Trump is wrong about Elon's concern being the cancellation of EV mandates. I've written about that a number of times on this blog, and it's covered again in the above vid by the Aussie TSLA Bull Steven Mark Ryan. Elon has all along said that all subsidies should go, including EV.

No. His concern is the size of the debt. As he has said all along. And as the lads from the All-in podcast talk about. And agree with. 

And as the video above makes clear. Some very sound analysis. Very worth a watch. 

Third Party is happening. The America Party. Whether that takes away votes from the GOP, or supports them by being a minor party in critical electoral areas, we wait to see. Musk has a history of taking on "impossible" things and making them happen. 

https://youtu.be/TiG_FGRciNc?si=HbNqsBqsuonMdzXF

“If you disagree it’s because you don’t get it yet…” | James Lindsay

	James Lindsay, anti-Communist ⁦‪@ConceptualJames‬⁩ If you've ever been attacked by the Woke, you'll be familiar with a certain characteristic trait of theirs I'd like to explain. They cannot be wrong. If you disagree, it's only because you don't get it yet or because you willfully refuse to. Woke people believe they have "woke   6/7/2025, 2:25 am

Click above for the full piece. 

Or… below the fold:

American moments: July 4th reminiscences

Click above for the video

These are three of the usual five on the Ruthless podcast. One of the top conservative channels.

These guys are funny. And very patriotic…

Check out the faux "debate" about who can claim the Wright brothers, inventors of flight, at minute 12:00.

https://youtu.be/RgY6waCNMmM?si=L6YshXqOjBXr_e_o

Remembering Hong Kong

In answer to Xi Van Fleet’s post on 1 July “Don’t forget Hong Kong”:

I live in Hong Kong. Have done since 1976, permanently since 1990. Also lived and worked in Beijing, Shanghai…. AND I’m no fan of CCP. 

But I’d say that Hong Kong has worked out better than many feared, even if worse than many hoped.

I feel free. I maintain a blog that’s often critical of CCP and of Xi Jinping, and of local government. We don’t have hate speech laws. The judiciary still follows common law system. The civil service is largely clean and uncorrupted. We have our own hard currency, free trade, free movement of capital. Compared to any other post-colonial place, and compared to many cities in the west (eg, thinking LA, SF, Birmingham, even Paris or London) we are fine, clean, safe and not all a police state. 

I wish we hadn’t had the 2020 National Security Law, but I’d argue it was precipitated by the riots (yes, violent daily *riots*) of 2019, demanding “independence” for Hong Kong, a foolish thing to do.  

The US should treat us Homgkongers as the different entity we are.

My earlier post. 

"Zombie Anti-Zionism" | Izabella Tabarovsky

Soviet anti-semitism. The "evil jew". Click the nose for the story

The Red-Green alliance again. Red = Communism. Green = Hamas (and Islam).

"[Aptheker]... argued for framing the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms of “imperialism and colonialism versus national liberation and social progress,” as well as through the lens of racial oppression."

Sound familiar? A perfect description of the Left's views on Gaza, seems to me. And of Israel vs Iran. Believed by and chanted for and rioted over, by those luvvies on Ivy League campuses. That's what they've been taught. Horrid white-west countries vs wonderful poor-brown countries. By a Marxist playbook going back nearly 60 years. A playbook of over a century if you include Marx himself. What a tragedy this one single man has been for humankind. It's a toss up, for me, which has been worse for humans: Marx or Mohammed. Red or Green. Together, the Red-Green alliance, is kryptonite to the superman west. 

/Snip:

In November 1967, the Indian chapter of the World Peace Council, a Soviet front organization, held the International Conference in Support of the Arab Peoples in New Delhi. Gathering in the capital of India were some 150 delegates representing 55 countries and 70 international organizations from across the Third World, the socialist bloc, and the West. India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and Algeria’s Houari Boumedienne—the biggest political stars of the Non-Aligned Movement—sent their greetings, as did heads of Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Algeria, Kuwait, and Mongolia. Chairing the proceedings was Krishna Menon, a firebrand leftist Indian intellectual and former Indian defense minister the KGB had actively cultivated in the hopes that he would rise to be the head of state.

Some 1,200 delegates and visitors attended the opening plenary, at which Herbert Aptheker, a senior member of the American Communist Party (CPUSA) and influential scholar of Marxism, argued for framing the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms of “imperialism and colonialism versus national liberation and social progress,” as well as through the lens of racial oppression. Contrary to Israeli rulers’ claims, he declared, the greatest threat facing Israel came not from Arabs but from Israel’s own extremist right-wing government, which had turned Israel into the “handmaiden of imperialism and colonialist expansionism.” He equated Israel with Nazi Germany by referring to the recent Six-Day War as a blitzkrieg, a quintessentially Soviet propaganda term meant to evoke Hitler’s invasion of the USSR. Today, said Aptheker, it was Jews who were “acting out the roles of occupiers and tormentors” of the oppressed. He called on the audience to work tirelessly to unmask “the horror of the June war and its aftermath.” So closely did Aptheker’s speech follow the anti-Israel logic and idiom of Soviet propaganda that it may well have been written for him in Moscow.

Keep reading: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/zombie-anti-zionism 

"Socialism is Communism in practice" | Xi Van Fleet

Xi Van Fleet: "Chinese by birth; American by choice. Survivor of Mao's Cultural Revolution. Defender of liberty.'

Here.

.@JamieBonkiewicz, here is a crash course for you: Socialism is Communism in practice. China is a socialist country ruled by the Communist Party—just like every other so-called Communist countries. According to Communist doctrine, Communism is the final goal: a global system

Xi Van Fleet (@XVanFleet) x.com

“Trump is on a roll”. Says CNN! | Michael Smerconish

CNN! Usually reliably anti-Trump. Here, senior editor Michael Smerconish goes through Trump’s in a roll. In his own channel.

CNN! 

https://youtu.be/thBswEC_fLk?si=Mx0wMSkNQugX4VyP 

Sent from my iPad

Happy "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day"

Happy "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day". A Hong Kong holiday. 

28 years ago that Hong Kong was handed over to the Chinese government, by the UK government. 

In Chinese it's 回归, Hui Gui, which is much simpler and much more descriptive. It means "the return of Hong Kong to our beloved motherland". 

28 years ago, last night, Jing and I sat in a Wanchai Bar, watching the proceedings. All the Chinese army waiting on the Shenzhen side, to cross over into Hong Kong on the stroke of midnight. 

It was a very wet, rainy night. Prince Charles was here for he handover, and famously described the Chinese bureaucrats at the ceremony as "appalling old wax works". It would be good if he was as honest today about Islam in Britain as he was then about those appallling Chinese apparatchiks. 

Jing was pregnant with John, who was born two weeks later. 

The Chinese largely kept out of Hong Kong politics, until forced to do so by the riots of 2019. But even then, I think it's fair to say, they handled that with a light hand, given what they could have done and many people, including people here in Hong Kong, were calling for them to do. 

One simple thing to note: unlike most post-colonial places, Beijing has not demanded the change of a single name of a single street or building in Hong Kong. It's still Victoria Harbour, Victoria Park, Queen Elizabeth street, Pottinger St, Des Voeux road, and so on. I'd guess there's been more renaming in Australia than here in Hong Kong. 

Musk on the “Anti-DKE” effect

x.com/i/grok/share/C623NDvoU0nTN6TbtBCe63xpU

Read above. Gives good insight in how it is that Tesla -- pushed by Elon Musk, has the biggest selling EV in China, despite the proliferation of local Chinese brands much cheaper. 

It's by being better. "Defensive pessimism". To keep striving to be better.

The X post where Elon Musk mentioned "Anti-DKE" was made by

@elonmusk

on June 25, 2025, at 15:28 HKT. The content of the post is:

"I always assume we’re losing even if it looks like we might win. Anti-DKE."

This post refers to an "Anti-DKE" mindset, likely alluding to countering the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a cognitive bias where people overestimate their competence in areas where they lack expertise. Several users on X, such as @aigov_agent, @Honesttruthman, and @Hitmans_Lounge, commented on this post, interpreting it as...

... a strategy of staying vigilant and avoiding overconfidence in competitive fields like AI and technology.

“Why Gen Z likes Socialism” | Daniel Di Martino

 

Click above for the video 

Listen to the story of Venezuela. From richest country in the world, fuelled by oil, to penury, poverty and despair. Thanks to Socialism. As explained by Venezuela-born Daniel Di Martino.

https://youtu.be/zR1ggTYPsYs

All the pacifists who thought WW3 would start...

Click above for the video

None of them apologising for egregious errors. For being WRONG on a huge scale. Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Jeffrey Sachs. People on the Left and the Right. 

All wrong. All going on with life as if they'd never scare-mongered. 

Shame on them. Hypocrites. 

https://youtu.be/qHpp01LbTF8?si=-ciUFnk1Y16iwwbn

Victory for the west in the middle east... YAY!

 

Click above for the video

Israel has done the work of protecting the west, the Judeo-Christian civilisation against the barbarism of theocratic Twelver apocalyptic, death-cult Shia Islam. 

Then America comes in with the big boom, boom-boom B2s. With big Bad Boy Bunker Busters. Which, turns out, the US had developed specifically for this Fordow, Iran, bunker threat. All these years of development, they'd been doing this, for THIS day. 

Well done to all, say I. For I don't want, and the ladies on the Left who decry this, also don't want (they just don't know it), rule by an Islamic theocracy. Which is exactly what Iran was after. And had said so, clearly, explicitly, repeatedly, since 1979.

Think on this: they've arrested 600 some "spies" since the attacks of Israel and the US. And have already executed 300+ of them. What about the "due process" that the Left in the US is bleating about? 

I exult in what happened in Iran over this 12 Day War. That the Ayatollahs are damaged. That they may be overthrown. To be against this, is to have a warped, inoperative moral compass. There is good and there's bad. Iran, the Regime, the Mullahs, the Ayatollahs, who want to kill all of us who don't believe exactly the same as they do, that = BAD. 

Other vids: 

Beyond Military Right-on, hard-on, military stuff to wank to...

Israel My Channel. Great computer-generated images of how the B2 strikes went down

Dealing with HAMAS's human shields

 

Coleman Hughes sets it out clearly for Joe Rogan.

https://youtu.be/ZMxx0abFac0?si=1Nt9mh-Ax1qz9Pv-

Discovery Bay to Central Hong Kong

Pacifism is a joke

Thoughts on the caring, the careful, the worrying, of the Right and of the Left, who say the "We should NEVER, never go to war with anyone", because, you know, Peace... 

Who are pacifists. People like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Steve Bannon, on the Right. And pretty much everyone on the Left.

But... 

Pacifism is a joke. A weak-kneed cop-out. It’s waving a white flag while the world burns. And I’m cheering for the ones who fight back.

Look around. Tyrants don’t sip tea and talk peace. They crush skulls, bomb cities, and laugh at your “dialogue.” Pacifists think holding hands stops tanks. Tell that to the Jews in 1945, or the Tutsis in ’94. Evil doesn’t pause for your principles. It rolls right over them. History’s clear: sit back, and you’re next. Fight, and you might live.

I’m not saying war’s pretty. It’s blood, guts, and tears. But when a thug’s at your door, you don’t quote Gandhi. You grab a gun. Or a missile. Israel gets it. They don’t wait for Hamas or Iran’s mullahs to play nice—they strike. And I’m clapping. Like when they hit Iran’s nuke dreams. That’s not aggression; that’s survival. The sane world knows it. Even the Arabs—Egypt, Jordan, the Gulf—quietly root for Israel to gut the Shia snakes. They won’t say it loud, but they’re on board.

Pacifists? They’re living in a dream. They’ll preach “nonviolence” while hiding behind soldiers, cops, anyone willing to bleed for their safety. That’s not morality—it’s cowardice. Hypocrisy, too. You want peace? Great. So do I. But you don’t get it by begging. You get it by breaking the bad guys first. Look at 1979 Iran. The Left welcomed Khomeini, then got slaughtered for it. Pacifism didn’t save them. It never does.

Human nature’s not a yoga retreat. We’re built to protect what’s ours. Ignore that, and you’re lunch. The soldier, the parent, the nation that fights—they’re not the problem. They’re the solution. Pacifists can keep their high horse. I’ll take the tank, the jet, the fist that says, “Not today.” Because when the world’s on fire, you don’t meditate. You fight. And you win.

War and Peace… and War again… no! Wait. It’s Peace… no! It’s War. No! It’s Ceasefi… no, no, no it’s not… Oh Fu&k!

One minute it’s Trump calling in Operation Midnight Hammer, and peaceniks were saying that Trump had brought us to the cusp of WW Three. 

Then it’s stopped, looking like 3-way peace, and the peaceniks started wondering how do they make peace look awful, and make it all Trump’s fault. 

Like try to impeach him. A silly pursuit. Not least because Clinton, Obama and Biden all carried out similar operations, to not a squeak from the Dems. On the Dems side, it's only ever wrong if the Republicans do it. 

Turning over now to Alan Dershowitz, 55-year Alumnus Law Professor at Harvard. Youngest tenured professor; hugely popular classes; expert in constitutional law. A life-time Democrat, but non-partisan about The Law. 

He has a take on the Ceasefire. Ceasefire being a thing I don't like. Because of Gaza. Where whenever Israel was winning the Biden admin -- or its politburo, controlling Biden's Autopen -- would call a ceasefire. Which allowed Hamas to regroup. 

And now we have the same in Iran. Where the Ceasefire may be best for Iran, allowing them to regroup. 

November 2015, beginning Round the Island race, Hong Kong

Iranian women activists are so beautiful

Princess Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari. Wife of the Shah or Iran

 

Tarlan Parvaneh, Iranian actress and women's rights activist

Claudia Lynx. American-Iranian. "Humanitarian". 

Shermine Sharivar.  German-Iranian model and peace activist

Elica Le Bon. American-Iranian. Critic of the clerics

Masih Alinejad. American-Iranian, fighter for women's rights in Iran

Lily Moo, aka Elaaheh Jamali, British-Iranian human rights activist

Nazanin Boniadi. British-Iranian,
actress and activist against Iran regime

Elina Shirazi. American-Iranian journalist and
activist against the Iranian regime

Darya Safai. Belgian-Iranian, fights for women's rights in Iran.

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” | Paul Keating

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.”

Keating was a master of the finely tuned insult. The above being just one of the more memorable.

That was then Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, in 1992, describing then leader of the opposition, John Hewson. The full quote is:

“This little flower, this delicate little beauty, this cream puff, is supposed to be beyond personal criticism… He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.”

I thought of it when watching our current PM, Anthony Albanese, yesterday, trying to find something nice to say about the successful bombing campaign over Iran last weekend, by the United States. A decision taken by the president, Donald Trump. 

But Albanese suffers such deep TDS that he came across as weak. As did his Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Both made comments about Operation Midnight Hammer, through gritted teeth. Such is their contempt for the man who took the tough decision to go ahead with it. 

Pathetic, really. These two most senior reps of Australia. Unable to say something gracious about our most important ally. Which it is, without a doubt. No matter who the president. The allyship ought to be beyond their upsets at rude tweets, that so offend them. 

Another Keating quote from a few years later is relevant, especially about Trump's decision to bomb the Iranian Nuke bunkers:

"Leadership is not about being nice. It's about being right and being strong."

Both Albanese and Wong deserve the Keating "shiver" taunt. Two shivers, looking for a spine to run up. 

Science: Ignoring the facts on Covid. And "Net Zero Must Go" | Matt Ridley

Link below: Good reflections on Covid and the Net Zero debate from a man who knows the issues. Matt Ridley. Past editor of the Economist's Science section. 

Later well-regarded writer on science matters. Talking with the Triggernometey lads, Konstantinos Kisin and Francis Foster.

On Covid he wrote a book Viral, with epidemiologist Dr Alina Chan. 

Matt (aka Lord Ridley) explains why the lab-leak theory is still the most likely truth. And why it’s important to stop the same thing happening again. Through, as he explains, that’s not happening. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is doing gain-of-function research on the MERS virus. Shiver! With only level 2 protection. Which makes me shiver, coz MERS is way more deadly (36%) than Covid (0.2%). Whyyyyy? Just to appease China?!

Then on to the whole Net Zero stuff. Which for places like the UK and Australia makes no sense in terms of actual practical impact on future temperatures, vs the downside risks of impoverishing the nation.

https://youtu.be/LFPj8tNVoLQ?si=JfnjOtReTx94Lwtm

ADDED: "Four sides to every story". On Climate change. My post of 16 December 2009.

Iran: 80% of the people of Iran really DO hate their government

Attitude Toward the Islamic Government:

• 2023 GAMAAN Survey: About 81% of Iranians inside Iran reject the Islamic Republic and prefer a democratic government. Only 15% support the Islamic Republic. [Source]
• 2024 Ministry of Culture Study: 73% of Iranians want a secular government, with 85% saying Iranians have become less religious in the past 5 years. Only 22.5% support a religious government.
• 2022 GAMAAN Poll: 74% of women and 71% of men oppose mandatory hijab, with 84% of those against it preferring a secular state.
• 2022 GAMAAN Survey: 41% want to overthrow the Islamic Republic, 21% seek structural change, and only 18% want to preserve its values.

Attitude Toward the West:

• 2024 Stasis Consulting Survey: 61% support a nuclear agreement with the West, and 68% favor normalizing relations with the US (but only 25% support ties with Israel). Iranians are split evenly (34% each) on preferring relations with the West (US/UK) versus China/Russia. [Source]
• 2023 GAMAAN Survey: 73% of Iranians inside Iran and 96% abroad believe Western countries should pressure Tehran to support protesters’ rights.
• 2019 CISSM Survey: Over 80% had negative views of the US, the highest in 13 years, due to tensions like sanctions.