Kowloon from Discovery Bay Ferry

Conservatives attack Trump

Briefly noting:

Centre-right media are now going after Trump.

Venerable conservative voices like the National Review and the Spectator have been critical of Trump in recent-ish times. Especially on Russia. e.g.:

• “Trump’s Strategic Blindness on Russia”. George Weigel.
• “Congress Must Investigate Trump’s Aid and Comfort to Putin”. Andrew McCarthy.
• “For Putin, Trump is the gift that keeps on giving”. John Lough.
• “The Starshield Whodunit”. Dan McLaughlin.

California’s Peculiar ‘N-Word’ Case Against Tesla | Will Swaim

It’s cases like these that drive companies out of California. 

The state’s lawsuit deserves closer scrutiny.

The French Riots: A Marx-Mohammad Alliance

“Ansar Allah” are the Houthis. The Red, white and black is their flag;
just missing a bit of green. Maoist Communist Union is… Maoist, communist.
This was in NYC on 7 October, celebrating the mass murder of Jews in 2023.
All same-same in France. The Marx-Muhammad Alliance.

These crazy French riots!

They may have begun as student-led protests at poor teaching or large class sizes. But they quickly morphed into the Red-Green Alliance for Hating on the West. 

Red being the Left, here represented by an opportunistic alliance of Marxist, Maoist, Anarchist groups, funded by international progressive NGOs. 

Green being the colour of Islamic terrorism, of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis. 

This Red-Green is a potent and poisonous alliance. An alliance of Marx & Muhammad. A highly dangerous one.

These black-clad, keffiyeh-wearing, Palestinian-flag waving young devils are the spawn of the M&M alliance. “Anti-semitism” doesn’t cover it. Pure Jew-hatred is what it is. Pogroms in Europe is what we’re witnessing. Danger and chaos is what’s brewing.

In my view this alliance is more dangerous than the Brownshirts of Germany’s 1930s. Germany’s Jew-hatred, its pogroms, were secular. Vicious and genocidal, sure; but secular. Today’s is not just secular, but has a potent injection of divine steroids. It’s turbo-supercharged by Allah, that Murderous Supernatural Superbeing. “The One”  (Muslims: point your index finger to the sky)… who not only encourages every Muslim to kill every Kuffar, (that would be me), but promises them eternal paradise if they fail.  What a deal! 

Once again: we warned you! We who studied the texts and the historic behaviours of Islam, warned about this decades ago, but were vilified as bigoted, racist and Islamophobic. France, the whole of Europe, have brought this existential danger on themselves.

Maybe they can reverse it. I hope so. But I doubt it. Islam don’t give up easy.

*********

“The French Protests in 9 Minutes”. Andrew Neil, ex BBC Anchor, resident in France, 

“The Suburbs Burned First”. Gregg Roman, Middle East Insider 

“The Pogrom Inside the Riots”. Noah Rothman. In full below the fold, courtesy of the National Review.

Happy Chung Yeung Festival!

So Fong, 82’ gaff-rigged schooner, built 1930

Chung Yeung. Aka, the “Double Ninth”.

A day for Sweeping the graves. Showing Respect for one’s ancestors. That’s the holiday today, here in Hong Kong.

Saving old ships. Respect for maritime heritage. That’s my post for today, here in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s maritime heritage is embedded in the fabric of the city, but many of its hand-built wooden vessels have been lost to time and urban development. PostMag discovers how one dedicated organisation is racing to preserve this inimitable slice of boating history.

But back to the Double Ninth. It refers to today being 9-9 on the Chinese calendar. And to the number “nine” being associated with the “Yang” of Yin-Yang, Female-Male, from the I-Ching (Yi Jing), The Book of Changes. (Which I once read and tried to study until I admitted to myself that, really, it’s a farrago of superstitious nonsense…).

In short today is a day for Men. Double-Men Day. Let’s hear it for men! Less controversially, representing Health, Auspiciousness and Longevity. 

I was once given $10,000 and asked for $1 in change. I asked why. The answer: Because that way I’ve given you $9,999. 

Obama Lies! (Too strong? Read on….)

• Jews in Israel are on their ancient ancestral land. Fact check: True.

• Israel is a legitimate state per United Nations resolutions. Fact check: True.

• Jews did not kick any Arabs off their land before Arab states invaded the newly created Israel in 1948. Fact check: True.

• Arabs in the Levant have repeatedly refused offers of land for their own Palestinian state. Fact check: True.

• Obama tells lies about all the above. Fact check: True.

I was a big fan of Obama. "Voted" for him both terms. ("Voted" because I’m not American). 

My S.O. never was a fan of Obama. Never. Now, neither am I. 

There’s his anti-Israel views, long standing, repeated above.

Another example: the race issue. On which he has form.

Up to Obama’s first term, racial relations in America were good. According to Gallup polling, over 70% of all Americans thought “Racial Relations are good”. By the end of his presidency those figures were halved. 

It’s easy to make the case that it’s Obama himself, aided and abetted by his wife, wot caused the drop. By Michelle saying she’d never been proud of her country. By Barack constantly harping on the oppression narrative. Both of them Harvard Law grads, both in top law firms, popularly elected President and First Lady of the United States, twice, but, you know, Oppressed. Like their daughters. (Watch Michelle Obama’s podcasts if you think I’m exaggerating).

An App gives me a readout of my health

I post this for my own record. So’s I can find it in future. Basically keep doing what I’m doing.

Message to Self: don’t take AI (SI) for gospel. It’s a shameless flatterer. I don’t feel “strongly favourable overall”. That said…

Summary

For a 77-year-old man, these results are strongly favorable overall. Your low Stress of 23%, high Energy of 79%, HRV of 70 ms, and SDNN of 67 ms suggest good resilience today. Recovery is 62%, which is good but only just above the moderate range; this is the one result that is less strong than the others.

Pulse

Your pulse is 59 bpm. This is slightly below the common resting range of 60–100 bpm, but it can occur with good fitness, relaxation, or during quiet rest. It is well above the urgent low threshold of 40 bpm.

Stress

Your Stress score is 23%, indicating a relatively calm physiological state at the time of measurement. This fits well with your low pulse and high HRV.

Energy

Your Energy is 79%, a strong result that suggests good capacity for normal physical and mental activity today.

HRV

Your HRV is 70 ms. For a 77-year-old man, this is a notably favorable value and generally reflects strong adaptability between heartbeats. Sleep, regular activity, relaxation, hydration, and measurement conditions can all influence it.

SDNN

Your SDNN is 67 ms. SDNN is another measure of variation between heartbeats, and this value supports the positive HRV result rather than showing a conflicting pattern.

Oxygen

Your SpO2 is 97%, which is within the usual healthy range of about 95–100%. This means the measured oxygen level in your blood was good.

Recovery

Your Recovery is 62%, placing it in the Good range of 61–80. You appear ready for normal daily demands, although this score does not suggest peak readiness for unusually intense exertion. Since your Stress, HRV, and Energy are all favorable, the comparatively modest Recovery score may reflect a sleep-related input or recent physical workload included in the app’s calculation.

Heart Age

Your Heart Age is 18 compared with your actual age of 77—a difference of 59 years in the favorable direction. The estimate reflects how positively the app weighs measurements such as your 59 bpm pulse, 70 ms HRV, and low Stress of 23%. However, such a large gap should not be interpreted as your heart literally being that of an 18-year-old; Heart Age is an algorithm-based wellness estimate, not a medical assessment.

Relationship

The strongest combined pattern is HRV 70 ms plus SDNN 67 ms alongside Stress 23%: all three point toward a calm, adaptable state. Recovery at 62% is the relative weak point, despite Energy being 79%, so normal activity appears reasonable today, while very demanding exercise may be better guided by how rested you feel and your usual routine.

Recommendation

Maintain the habits likely supporting these results: regular age-appropriate movement, adequate fluids, consistent sleep, and balanced meals. Recheck under similar resting conditions to see whether Recovery rises while HRV and Stress remain favorable. This interpretation is informational and does not replace advice from a healthcare professional.

Who needs Fire?

 

The Left goes mental over the Tesla Rocket Roadster.

“In what scenario is it necessary?”. Who needs it?” “Why doesn’t he end world hunger?” Or poverty, or sickness, or homelessness… and so, drearily, on…

Me? I prefer those who go “Wow!” 

To those who go “Wah…”. 

Tesla Roadster’s Monster Tech Flex

Of course the flying Tesla Roadster is a gimmick, but that sort of misses the point. It’s the tech flex! Which isn't a gimmick.

Tesla's bulk business is about advanced technology from EV to self driving, but decided to create the most ridiculous manual drive supercar.  Supercars are a gimmick almost by definition, based on how wild can you make them. 

The gimmick that can make the car literally fly, briefly, can make it corner like no other supercar and accelerate, literally like a dragster on a test track. It's got nothing to do with flying continuously, but having a car that will outperform every Lamborghini, Ferrari or McLaren with technology that they cannot replicate because it requires experience from space launches and computation that they don't have now nor will in future.

So Porsche, Bugatti, Aston Martin just became legacy prestige brands, like Rolex, Richard Mille or Patek Philippe. These cars celebrate the bygone age and the baroque, physical complexity of the internal combustion engine just as mechanical watches do for non digital, complex time-keeping mechanisms. 

But they won't be faster, any more than a mechanical watch keeps better time than a Casio. They are now, de facto, mobile jewellery and no longer supercars with superlative performance. And this affects their ability to market the bulk business of mainstream European internal combustion engine cars. 

It's the end of an era of industrial era manufacturing.

H/T: David Galbraith. I like the comparison with watches. The classic analog, vs cheaper, more accurate quartz.

So, of course “Elon’s Has the Last Laugh” as Rich Lowry says.

In Lowry’s vid… honestly the cheek of Gavin Newsom and AOC! Who between them have destroyed more jobs than Elon has created in his whole life. Then dumping on Elon, who single-handedly has created nearly 200,000 jobs. And counting.

AOC’s signature “achievement” was blocking Amazon from setting up in NYC, depriving the city of tens of thousands of well-paying jobs. 

Gavin’s signature “achievements” (plural) are to drive businesses out of California due to his high tax regime and suffocating regulations. The leavers include Tesla, hence Gav’s “Elon Bad” schtick.

Well done, Alex and Gav! Not.

Liberal women screaming…

… seems to be a thing.

Tesla tops the charts

 

Screenshot from Lars’ video below 

“Tesla Model Y was China’s best-selling vehicle of any kind in September …”.

“What’s remarkable is that the Model Y costs more than 3 times as much as the No. 2 and No. 3 best-sellers on the list. Yet still outsold them”

“Chinese love Model Y.”

From Best in Tesla with Lars Strandridder. Lots more info of worldwide Tesla sales at the video. In short: Tesla’s sales doing well everywhere.

Muslim Victimhood

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani whining that his hijab-wearing auntie was stared at in the subway, the day after 911. Like, the next day. With the Twinn Towers lying in smouldering ruins. He’s upset that his auntie gets suspicious glances from fellow passengers. 

That’s the epitome of Muslim victimhood. When all the figures at the time and even after 911, showed that Jews were attacked and vilified at much higher rates than any other ethnicity, including Muslims immediately after their co-religionist had killed 3,000 people on 911.

Norm McDonald mocked Muslim victimhood. And the suicidally empathetic who indulge it. He tweeted on 16 December 2016:

"What terrifies me is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims?"

Time for my regular reminder that “Islamophobia” is a confected word, designed to stifle criticism of Islam. At which it’s been remarkably successful. It was an invention of the Muslim Brotherhood who had noted how effective the word “homophobia” had been. Hence “Islamophobia”. 

Which Christopher Hitchens summed up as 

“Islamophobia is a word invented by fascists, used by cowards to manipulate morons.” 

Victimhood is very much a part of the Left’s playbook, a natural outgrowth of the Oppressor/Oppressed narrative. 

“The cloying cult of Muslim victimhood“, Brendan O’Neill.

At the link, or in full below the fold, courtesy Spiked.

Ilhan Omar to be deported to Dearborn Michigan…

/ Snip: 

The operation briefly stalled when an airline employee tried to argue that Dearborn was located within the United States. Federal officials reportedly advised the employee to visit Dearborn before making any further statements.

😂🤣!

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal immigration authorities announced today that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar would be deported from the United States to Dearborn, Michigan. 

 

A Department of Justice investigation had uncovered falsified records used by Omar to illegally gain American citizenship. Upon revoking her citizenship, the DOJ signed off on an immediate deportation order, and Omar was placed on a one-way flight to Dearborn.

"Omar will finally be gone from the country she so deeply despises," announced Border Czar Tom Homan. "We wanted to send her somewhere she would feel more at home, and this saved us about $1,400 on airfare. It's not every day you can carry out an international deportation on a domestic Southwest flight."

Civil rights advocates protested the deportation, stating that it was cruel to send a U.S. Representative to a dangerous third-world country. "In Dearborn, women are not allowed to move about freely or dress how they wish. There is no freedom of speech or religion," said civil rights lawyer Ben Adams. "It is beyond evil to send Omar to such an awful place."

At publishing time, immigration agents stated that they would not be returning the phone they had confiscated from Omar, but she could have her pager back.

H/T Bee. 

Elon’s Texas Empire

Like, Wow!

Anywhere else in the world one man is doing so much? Nope.

I do seem to be on a bit of a Tesla and SpaceX bender. Just there’s so much going on!

Driverless Cybercabs. Starship launches. Terafabs. Flying rocket cars….

Tesla Roadster: the flying rocket car

“Well, it worked!” Said Elon…

The World reacts!

Cultural Marxism is definitely a thing

The prodigiously eloquent Rafe Heydel-Mankoo gives us Cultural Marxism in five minutes.

I’ve written about Cultural Marxism since the beginning of this blog. The Left want to convince us that it’s a “just a conspiracy theory”, because they don’t want us to notice. Noticing makes it more troublesome for them to pursue it.

But the evidence is there, has been there and remains in front of our eyes. Cultural Marxism is a thing. It’s as crazy to claim Cultural Marxism is “just a conspiracy theory” as it would be to claim Socialism doesn't exist, and that claiming it does is “just a conspiracy theory”. 

The simplest distinction between Classical Marxism and Cultural Marxism is this:

• Classical Marxism is about Class. The capitalist class oppresses the working class. Everywhere and for all time. This was what Karl Marx gave us. Thanks a bunch, Karl…

• Cultural Marxism is about Race and Identity. White people oppress people of colour. Everywhere and for all time. This was what the Frankfurt School and the European post-modernists gave us. Thanks a lot, Antonio Gramsci.

The common factor in both versions of Marxism: Oppression. 

There are the Oppressors and there are the Oppressed. So… somebody like me, living in Jong Kong, I’m the Oppressor (because I’m white ). The 8 million Chinese Hongkongers who surround me, are the Oppressed (because the are People of Colour). Apparently. 

If I dispute this, that only proves it. The classic Kafka Trap.

Similarly, Israel is (deemed to be) white. Palestinians are (deemed to be) people of colour. Ergo: Israel oppresses Palestinians. No further argument or nuance is necessary. Not, for example, that Israelis, 0.2% of the world’s population, are surrounded by Muslim states, 25% of the world’s population. Doesn’t count. Irrelevant.

ADDED: A good book to read on this is Christopher Rufo “America’s Cultural Revolution”.

Also: Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay “Cynical Theories, Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity…”.

Hong Kong doing well

Odd title “What went wrong with Hong Kong” when the whole thrust is that things are going well. Which I agree with. Things are going pretty well here in Hong Kong. We remain a well-run city.

But which the usual suspects will try to trash. Legions of the Fifty Cent Army?

Buy and Hold SpaceX ! I mean it!

I really do mean it. 

Ron Baron is legendary. His Baron Partners Fund (BPTRX): concentrated, high-conviction growth strategies, top-performing U.S. mutual fund, heavily anchored by core holdings like Tesla and SpaceX. Since inception in 2003, 18% Compound Annual Growth. 

Also: it's easy to see where SpaceX gets its growth. Launches, Starlink, Data in Space (StarMind), Mobile, Super Intelligence (aka AI).

Commenter on the vid above is Steven Mark Ryan, with his "Solving the Money Problem" channel, an Aussie investor and Tesla Bull that I've followed for years. 

I know, I know! You have to see the other side of the story. 

You have to read the Bears. Those negative on SpaceX, or Tesla, or Elon Musk. 

I've done that. If you want the Bears awa the Bulls, go here.

Just remember, the Bears, aka Short sellers, have been destroyed over the years, on both TSLA and SPCX.

Be Long, friends. Be long TSLA. Be long SPCX. Be long Elon. Be an Elon Fan Boy, as I am. Follow the most consequential human being on planet Earth today. And on planet Mars tomorrow. 

Marco Rubio’s West-First foreign policy | Jacob Reynolds

An interesting essay by Jacob Reynolds. “Marco Rubio’s West First foreign policy”.

I posted Marco Rubio’s full speech here.

Reynolds notes that Rubio’s speech seemed to many “… suspiciously close to an accommodation with Russia and China, seen as the heads of their own ‘civilisation-states’...”. 

I’ve got no problem with that. At least the Chinese part. And I wouldn’t put 'civilisation-states' in scare quotes. 

Living here in Hong Kong since 1990 and in Greater China since 1976, it seems beyond obvious that there’s a 5,000-year history, often glorious, sometimes brutish, often inventive, sometimes derivative, but always most assuredly, a *civilisation*. A civilisation that has powerfully influenced and imbued surrounding Asia.

Two points:

First. “Accommodation” does not mean, or at least need not mean, compliance let alone kowtowing. A strong West, led by America, can and should deal with China forthrightly and robustly. Eg, on Taiwan. Even as it acknowledges a strong Chinese culture, its history and values.

Second. Rubio invokes the idea of Western Thumos, “the fire of passion, strength, courage, pride”, the opposite of “safetyism”. China’s idea is more the Great Mean. Harmony. Zhongyong Zhidao. The path of the centre. Safetyism. These two concepts are in opposition. But need not be in conflict. Surely they can complement each other. Am I wrong?

Essay below the fold, courtesy of Spiked.

10 compelling reasons to vote for Democrats in 2026

 Here are 10 compelling reasons to vote for Democrats in 2026:

1. You're tired of having a country: Countries are so blasé. The future belongs to apocalyptic wastelands.
2. You're so mad about gas prices that you want literally everything else in the world to get worse: It helps take your mind off your empty wallet.
3. Not nearly enough mutilated kids the last couple of years: A vote to put the Democrats back in power is a vote for transing more kids everywhere.
4. It seems like it's been forever since we had a good ol' fashioned impeachment: There's no party quite like an impeachment party.
5. You long for how great things were during the Biden administration: Those were the days.
6. You no longer have to love others personally, because you've outsourced that to the government: The more the government does, the less you have to do yourself.
7. You like it when numbers go up: Crime, taxes, illegal aliens — everything!
8. Hard times make hard men: Ruining the country is a 4D chess way of forging a new generation of American heroes.
9. Republicans won't force straight people to bake cakes for the gays: If they won't, someone else has to.
10. As a stupid person, you believe you can only be properly represented by other stupid people: Fair point.

I don’t know about #10. There are plenty of intelligent people who will vote Dem. Just that it remains a mystery. To me, at least. 

H/t the Bee

More Hong Kong good news!

My unofficial series “good news about Hong Kong”. There’s so much negativity out there, it needs some balance.

As in lots of fish!

The cross-harbour annual swim, cancelled for decades due poor quality water, has been back for several years. Such is the new cleanliness of the harbour. 

Pretty impressive when you consider the harbour is surrounded by 8 million people.

The Case for Democracy | Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio. The full speech. At the home of democracy, The Parthenon in Greece.

Rubio is the best and most eloquent spokesman for the West. For what we small “l” liberals stand for. For what we supporters of the Enlightenment and is values, believe and must fight for. 

Rubio is a bulwark for Democracy, for free speech and free markets in the face of growing anti-western rhetoric; of Anti-western victories in elections; growing anti-western violence, calling for a Chinese-style Cultural Revolution, redux.

And, no, the millions of people taking part in this wave of anti-westernism doesn’t make it right. Hysteria is hysteria.

/Snip:

“The ideal of many ideologies in our time has, frankly, become a world of perfect safety, devoid of risk or failure, with neither the glory of victory nor the shame of defeat. Too often these days, we build downwards. We design our standards to ensure no one will lose; we preoccupy ourselves more with the comfort of the worst than the potential of the best. We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre.

The men who made the Parthenon, they built upwards.”

Grok summary:

The Full History of the British Mandate of Palestine | Simon Sebag Montefiore

Via the Triggernometry lads: Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster. 

Simon Sebag Montefiore teaches.  He's got a new book out: "The Cauldron". 

Montifiore talks a good story. The history of the Palestinian Mandate.

This history is not disputed. It's just that it's (often) not known, or (just as often) ignored. 

Not known, or ignored by those who are on the side of Hamas terrorists. Who might claim to be for "Free Palestine", and "From the River to the Sea", but who are, knowing or not, calling for the annihilation of Israel and the genocide of Jews.  

Not known, or ignored by all manner of Jew-hating people, politely called anti-semites, who downplay even that euphemism by saying "I'm not anti-semitic, I'm just anti-Zionist". 

He mentions "Australian troops" being involved in fighting in Palestine in WWI. It was also New Zealanders. My maternal grandfather for one. A New Zealand farmer, he fought in Egypt and Gallipoli. The one and only time he ever left his North Island farm to travel overseas. He was wounded in Gallipoli and sent home, back to his farm in Waikato. 

Grandfather Anderson said: "if that's what overseas is like, I'm not going again".  

Islamification of Texas: can it be stopped?

Question 1: Is Islamification of Texas happening? Answer: yes. Evidence in the article linked below. Indeed it’s not just Texas. Minnesota is another clear example. 

TBF, the whole of America…

In 1991 a Muslim Brotherhood Memorandum set out its General Strategic Goal in America: “… a grand Jihad to eliminate and destroy Western civilisation from within”. Pretty clear. The Muslim Brotherhood has metastasised into hundreds of organisations throughout America. (And the rest of the West).

Question 2: Should it be stopped? Answer: it depends on who you are and your life views. If you’re a pious Muslim, obviously, “No” it should not be stopped because it’s a good thing. If you’re a “liberal” American, aka a bit of a Leftie, you’re going to be “no problem” and “it’s a free country”. 

If you’re like me, and you see encroachment of Islam and its values as a strong negative — as it has been throughout history, everywhere it’s happened — then your answer is, “Yes” of course it should be stopped.

Question 3: Can it be stopped? Here is the nub. Even if we all agree it should be stopped (a huge “if”), is the American system capable of doing so? It’s tough.

Lionel Shriver puts her finger on it in “The Islamification of Texas”:

With our ‘nation of immigrants’ propaganda, proud dedication to religious liberty and under-examined more-the-merrier vibe, most Americans are uncomfortable finding fault with what they perceive hazily as a race or ethnicity rather than a political ideology. Putting up barriers to folks of a certain faith seems un-American. Yanks conceive of foreign cultures mostly in terms of food – not as typified by female genital mutilation, cousin marriage, doctrinal contempt for outsiders, rape gangs, sexual abuse, real misogyny rather than the fake sort of the ‘down with the patriarchy’ crowd, anti-Semitism, homophobia and a peculiar propensity for blowing things up.

Commenters:

One: I've wrestled for some time with the fact that the sight of Sikhs in turbans or Orthodox Jews in their funny hats don't bother me, the sight of Muslims in their distinctive clothing does. I'm not worried about Jews clustering in Golders Green but am bothered by Muslims in Tower Hamlets. I have come to the conclusion that I am not a racist or anti all non-Christian religions. I just don't like groups that threaten or commit violence or which want to take over and change my country. I believe that most UK Muslims are not violent Jihadists, but equally that if the UK became an Islamic state many of them would be perfectly happy about it. [Link]

Another: Americas traditions of religious freedom don't apply to an aggressive proselytising political cult masquerading as a religion which has a stated aim of destroying America and the Constitution. See it for what it is - a hostile invading army - and act accordingly. [Link]

To this latter, I’m like: “Yes… and?”. I mean, what would “act accordingly” look like?

Dog Day Morning

Our Byron. This morning. Park Siena. Looking East to Central, Hong Kong 

Memory-holing "with Chinese characteristics" | Deng Xiaoping > Gang of Four

The Wall

I took the above photo in early 1977 — a political slogan just outside Beijing.. 

It was near the Evergreen People's Commune, where we language students were working, as part of our "Open Door Schooling" program (Kāimén bànxué, 开门办学). The blue plastic and bamboo structure is a greenhouse, removable come spring (in case you're wondering).

Here's what the white characters in the slogan mean:

"Thoroughly criticise the anti-revolutionary revisionist line of Deng Xiaoping".

In the middle, the black characters overwrite the three characters “Deng Xiao Ping”, and they are: "Gang of Four". 

A palimpsest of the times. 

There's the new characters "Gang of Four", but you can still see the old characters: “Deng Xiaoping". That’s a palimpsest; you can see the old through the new.

This captures in one photo the dramatic changes happening in China at the time.

Rewind a little what had happened in the previous few months. At the time I was studying Mandarin at the Peking Languages Institute (PLI), as an Australian diplomat attached to our Embassy, but with special permission to do full-time language study.

September 9th 1976: Chairman Mao Tse-tung died. 

We were walking along the main shopping street of Wangfujing when the news broke. People all around us suddenly burst out crying. It was kind of surreal. We had no idea what was happening. The Great Leader had died. The Great Helmsman had dropped the helm.

October 6th 1976: The Gang of Four was arrested. They had been in charge of China’s Cultural Revolution. They were the vanguard, the purest essence of Maoism.

I was at school, the PLI, when the news trickled out. At first our teachers didn't want to admit it. In retrospect, I think quite a few of our teachers were G-4 sympathisers. They were deeply rattled.

October 21 1976: Began three days of nationwide celebrations for the downfall of the Gang of Four. 

We took part in the celebs along the main east-west street, Chang'an Jie in Beijing. Crowds were huge and happy. Jubilant. Drums drumming, gongs gonging. 

Fireworks let off everywhere. So many they ran out of fireworks. 

Maotai liquor was drunk everywhere. So much they ran out of Maotai. 

Celebratory meals were "hairy" crabs, just then in peak season, tied in bundles of four: three male one female, representing the Gang of Four, three leftie dudes led by Jing Qing, aka "Madame Mao" the wife of Mao Tse-tung. And by then a hated ultra-leftie. 

The overthrow of the G-4 was a glorious happy exuberant time for China. While — as an aside here — in America today, Democrats fight to install the leftist society China giddily shrugged off fifty years ago. Jiang Qing has been resurrected in male form as Hasan Piker the Maoist Pied Piper leading the rats of the DSA-Dems to perdition. See them side by side:

The smug self righteousness etched into both faces.
Superimpose the faces and you have another palimpsest.

July 22 1977: The formal rehabilitation of Deng Xiaoping. 

Deng had been overthrown twice before; but he re-arose three times. This latest would be his final, as he ruled China for the rest of his life. But, delightfully, he did so with no formal title except “Chairman of the China Bridge Association”, Deng being a master of the bluff and counter bluff of Contract Bridge. He wasn’t Chairman of the Party, or Premier of the State. He ruled by the force of his personality.

The photo I took at top would have been right about that time. Explaining why the farmers couldn't do a more thorough job, like whitewashing the wall and starting over. Time pressure. You can imagine the local village head on the arrest of the G-4: "What should we do? Repaint the whole thing?". Locals: "No boss, there's no time. And anyway things might change again. Better just paint over Deng". Done. 

Deng himself  would have approved of such pragmatism….

It was Deng who set China on the path to "Open up and Reform". The "Four Modernisations". The whole panoply of what allowed China get rich. Which was, to be clear, capitalism. As I’ve said often on this blog: in the past 40 years, China has succeeded economically to the exact extent it has allowed the Free Market to flourish. Deng made that happen. He said: “To get rich is glorious”. “It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice”. “Look to the future”. Which homonym can also be read as: “Look to money”. The Chinese did so with alacrity.

Deng is the non-Bernie Sanders. Bernie the socialist; Bernie the darling of the Left. That’s not Deng. Dare we suggest Deng was the Trump of the times? Rough, crude, brusque, opinionated. Direct to the point of rudeness. The drainer of the swamp?

When I say Memory-holing "with Chinese characteristics", I'm referring to Winston Smith's job in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: which was to get rid of inconvenient facts from the past. To memory-hole them. "With Chinese characteristics" refers to Deng's reference to what they were doing as "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" to make the move to Free Markets more palatable. 

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

The characters on the wall:

彻底批判 邓小平  四人帮 反革命修正主义路线

Chèdǐ pīpàn Dèng Xiǎopíng  Sìrén Bāng fǎngémìng xiūzhèng zhǔyì lùxiàn

Thoroughly criticise Deng Xiaoping's Gang of Four’s counter-revolutionary revisionist line.

“Why I Quit the Dems. And So Should You!” | Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz talks to Brendan O’Neill. About “Why I Quit the Dems: And So Should You!” Subtitle: “Confession of a Reluctant Republican”. The latest of his many books.

Dershowitz is a famous lawyer. Professor of Law at Harvard for fifty years (1964-2013), the youngest-ever tenured, with the longest-ever tenure at Harvard.

He was a lifetime Democrat, as his extended family still is. His next-door neighbour in Martha’s Vineyard is Barack Obama. He was a lead on the “Dream Team” that defended O.J. Simpson. (Hmmm… on that last one).

In short: this is a man with impeccable left-Democrat credentials, now coming out as a “Reluctant Republican”. He calls it “the lesser of two evils”. 

 

This is exactly the reason one should vote Republican today. The lesser of two evils. Because the Democratic Party is being consumed before our eyes by the Socialists of the DSA in cahoots with Islamists. This being the most dangerous collusion I can imagine. The “Red-Green Alliance”. Socialism with Islamism. Authoritarianism Communism + the Divine Right of Islam. Beware, my friends! 

Dershowitz split from the Democrats — or rather they split from him — when he defended Donald Trump in one of his law-fare trials. Dershowitz did not defend Trump because he liked him. Far from it. But because he believes in the fundamental Constitutional right of any person to have the best defence available, a foundation of Western Jurisprudence, of Western Democracy itself. 

For holding to that principle, to that constitutional conviction, he was shunned by the Democrats.

By the way, I watched his journey to where he is today, in real time over the years, on his podcast, The DershShow. He was the most deeply knowledgeable commentator on the cases brought against Trump in New York by AG Letitia James and DA Alvin Bragg. Cases which have either collapsed or are collapsing, even in deep-Blue NYC.

The way it is today

If the Right are against something the Left will instinctively support it, however absurd and inconsistent that makes them look. Trump wanted to keep schools open during Covid, so the Left immediately switched and demanded schools close.

Open borders are demonstrably incompatible with 'safeguarding' women and girls but the Right want border control, so 'progressives' abandon women rather than admit it's a sensible policy.  

The same goes for gender.  When someone on the Right says a bald man in a dress is not a woman, even when it's blindingly obvious he is not, a Lefty activist will insist he's got a vagina.  

Net Zero is a dog’s breakfast of self harm, but England must plough on buying gas from Norway,  Australia must buy back gas we already sold to Japan, because the Right are against economic suicide. 

The masterpiece of Leftist derangement is Islamo-philia  - women's rights, gay rights, freedom of expression, humanism - all thrown out the window because the Right believes Islamic ideology is not progressive! Indeed that it’s a threat to Western values. 

In short, Elon Musk — the greatest entrepreneur of the millennium— is 'stupid' because the Left are incapable of controlling their hate. And so, hate on the world’s most consequential human.

Oh dear. What a hot mess.

Entrepreneurs are choosing Hong Kong

It's not often I see Hong Kong promoted as a place for people to come to live. As opposed to the many vids about coming to Hong Kong to do a bit of touristing. 

For business: sure. We're in the top three financial hubs of the world (the other two New York and London) and likely to become the biggest over the next decade. Things are happening.

 

We live here and are citizens. As in Permanent Residents, so we know about all the stuff that he mentions as we've done it all. We do find it a lovely place to live. Very cosmopolitan, very "east-meets-west", very safe, very open, very good (cheap, quick, efficient) transportation. For older folks like me, the health system is superlative. The tax system is simple and low. Yet our social safety net is robust and budgets in the black. In short, we are a well-run place.

A three-hour flight from our world class airport you’ve got China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Indonesia, and an easy hop to Europe.

He's right about the very high costs of accomodation. We're lucky having bought here over 25 years ago, and fully paid off. If you don't have accommodation, that's going to take a big chunk of cash. 

Bottom line: sure, give it a go. As he suggests. Whether or not you move here, a visit is always fun. Don't miss out on the walking trails if you do come. Most people miss this. But our Country Parks are fabulous and right on our doorstep. Super accessible. We're entering the best period for trekking, which is basically any time but summer. 

Bon Voyage! 一路平安! Welcome to Hong Kong. 欢迎来香港!

Discovery Bay panorama

 

Looking East to Central Hong Kong