Interesting article on X, about Elon Musk’s trip to Israel
Michael Eisenberg @mikeeisenberg אלון מאסק - למה הביקורת על ביקורו של מאסק היא לא במקום, מה עומד מאחורי הביקור החשוב שלו בישראל ומה זה מבשר על העתיד
מייקל אייזנברג
הגעתו של אלון מאסק (@elonmusk) לארץ עוררה מטבע הדברים לא מעט הדים. היו מי שביקרו את ראש הממשלה (@netanyahu שהזמין את מאסק) וגם את יו"ר המחנה…28/11/2023, 10:02 pm
Tuesday, 5 December 2023
Post by Michael Eisenberg on X
They claimed they didn’t push for HK independence, but…
.. they lied, because they did. “Self-determination” = independence.
And for that they brought the National Security Law down on us.
Thanks Pan-dems. Not
Greg Foreman’s Righteous Indignation: Democrats Supressing the Vote in Florida
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| Click above for the video |
Wow! Greg Foreman really loses it here, above. The Democrats are the OG of election deniers, he says. And how dare they claim they’re “saving democracy”, by “destroying democracy”. Hypocrisy of the first order.
Fascinating developments!
Monday, 4 December 2023
Post by Bill Maher on America Cultural Revolution
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Swiss delegate: “By supporting UNWRA we are only keeping this conflict alive”
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“Why MBS wants peace with Israel” | UnHerd
An interesting piece from David Rundell.
/Snip:
The 1945 meeting between American President Franklin Roosevelt and Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz, which laid the foundation for their nations' enduring relationship, is often portrayed as an exchange of oil for security cooperation. But in reality, oil was hardly discussed. The conversation aboard the USS Quincy, afloat in the Suez Canal, focused on Palestine.
President Roosevelt told King Abdulaziz how the Jews of Europe had suffered indescribable horrors at the hands of the Nazis: eviction from their homes, destruction of their property, torture of their families, and mass murder. Could the king help with their resettlement?
Read on...
The promise of Muhammad, the wonder of Islam
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“Trees versus grass; which is the better carbon sink?” | Earth.com
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| Grasslands, sucking up CO2 and putting it underground |
I thought I recalled an article years ago which suggested that grass is a good carbon sink. In some cases better than trees. So I went looking and found this article, clipped below.
I’m not suggesting here that we should be chopping down trees and planting grass. And neither is the article. Oh, no. Just that it seems from this University of California study, we must consider the type of forest and whether it's a carbon-sink or carbon-producer.
For some Californian forests, it seems it's the latter. In which case grasslands are better. And climate models need to take account.
Yet we've seen no talk around this. It's not part of "the conversation.”
/Snip:
Most of us learn when we are young that trees intake carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. And while this is a well-known and useful fact, we often don't dive much deeper than that. How efficient are trees as carbon consumers? In a world that is desperately looking for a solution to greenhouse gas emissions, are there more efficient natural ways to remove the carbon dioxide from our atmosphere? A new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters may just answer these questions.
While forests consume roughly a quarter of the human-caused carbon dioxide pollution worldwide, there are some forested areas that are now lacking in efficiency. Researchers from the University of California, Davis have found that grasslands and rangelands are better carbon sinks than forests in present-day California. Years of warming temperatures, fire suppression, and drought have increased wildfire risks – which has turned California's forests into carbon producers more than carbon consumers.
Trees store much of their carbon within their leave and woody biomass, while grass stores most of its carbon underground. This means that when a tree catches fire, it releases its stores of carbon back into the atmosphere. But when a fire burns through grasslands, the carbon fixed underground tends to stay in the roots and soil. READ ON...
“Look and learn” | David Dodwell in climate change
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He’s open minded enough to admit that there’s been progress. But note what he defines as progress! It’s people’s minds attuned to the narrative. It’s more international aid bodies getting more money. It’s more meetings like COP28. He makes no mention of the fact that there’s been a drop in carbon emissions by every developed economy in the last 20+ years. And that in all cases it’s because of natural gas replacing coal fired stations. He makes no mention of the fact that warming has some good effects: like Greenland folks positively loving it. And China having record grain harvests. And fewer deaths from the cold -- which has killed about five times the numbers killed by heat.
The alleged “subsidy” of $US 7 Trillion to the fossil fuel industry, I’ve shown before is a furphy. Most of it is made up of costs external to the production of fossil fuels, which may be fair enough, but are not costed in to the subsidies of renewables. So, goose, gander. And a lot of it is at the pump subsidy to the consumers. Like in France or in Indonesia. There’s no way they can be reduced without major social unrest and demonstrations as we’ve seen, for example, in France with the Gilets Jaunes. Moreover, those at the pump “subsidies” amount to refunding the taxes on the fuel that the government has taken from the well-head to the pump. So, not really a subsidy at all. Unless you’re a Green and determined to misrepresent it, because of the “Greater Good”. Right.
Glenn Greenwald has Israel Derangement Syndrome
Glenn Greenwald complains that he’s been called “anti-semitic” on X.
But he is.
Taking one of the definitions of anti-semitism: demanding more from Israel than from any other country.
Examples:
Thai Labour in Israel: about 50 Thai agricultural workers in southern Israel were taken as hostages. Many were killed. Greenwald and other jew haters hammered Israel for “indentured labour” and mocked Israel for abandoning its socialist Kibbutzes. But... but...
(1) They were not, are not, “indentured labourers”. These are people who have chosen to come to Israel because it offers them up to 20 times the wages they can earn in Thailand. “Israel is like manna...”:
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| From today’s cover story in the South China Morning Post “This Week in Asia” magazine |
Note: they come to Israel in preference to other Middle East countries because they have better protection. But there’s nothing said about that in the media, let alone by Greenwald.
(2) Importing temporary labour is something done all around the world. Australia brings in Pacific Islanders to help with seasonal crop harvest. England brings in eastern europeans. America brings in Mexicans and other Central Americans. Here in Hong Kong we’ve long had worker migrants from Philippines and Indonesia. It’s common and widespread. Not just Israel. But Greenwald hammers Israel for it.
He mocks Israel for not being the socialist “kibbutz” nation of the 60s. But then neither is anyone else that experimented with “communes”. Including China. Where I worked on a commune, the “Evergreen People’s Commune” just outside of Beijing, in 1976, for one semester of what they called “Open Door Schooling’, but which were abandoned, immediately after and don’t exist today. So why hammer on Israel, why mock Israel, for no longer doing the commune thing? Answer: because he hates Israel. It’s clear and obvious: he has Israel Derangement Syndrome!
Why is it only Israel that gets hammered for this? Answer: anti-semitism. Just as the calls for “following international laws on warfare” are constantly demanded of Israel (who already does) but is never demanded of Hamas (who already does not).
Israel-held Palestinian prisoners: Greenwald and other jew-haters claims the prisoners in Israel that are being swapped 3 to 1 for the Hamas-held hostages, are “illegitimate". Because, he says, Israel has a high conviction rate and many are “children”. But, but... many other countries have high conviction rates: the United States 91%, Australia 92%, Britain 93% and Japan 98%. Are these places also “illegitimate”?
The alleged “children” are teenagers, the youngest 17, and in all cases charged with crimes such as stabbing or throwing bombs at Israeli civilians.
Nor is Israel’s legal system illegitimate, which is another Greenwald slur. It has a system based on the British with some input from European systems. What of Hamas’? Based on Sharia. Which judge would you rather be tried in front of, Israeli or Hamas? Come on!...
I was shocked at how anti-semitic Greenwald’s posts on the Gaza War have been. He prides himself on “only the facts, ma’am” kind of outlook: that he cares about data, facts, figures. But not with Israel. He does no checking, before posting the lashes Israel hating smears.
Shame on Greenwald. He deserves every “you’re an anti-semite” charge.
Because he is.
ADDED:
Greenwald criticises the critics of the widespread “Pro-Palestine” demonstrations, in London, New York, Sydney, Paris. He criticises those who criticise the demos; the critics who call the demos “pro-terrorist”. He says he remembers in the anti-war demos of 2003, against the war in Iraq, that they were also criticised as being “pro-terrorist”. But that’s not that case. I remember those demos, and they were anti war. No one criticised them for being “pro-terrorist”.
The ones today anre indeed “pro-terrorist”: They support Hamas. Specifically and explicitly. Hamas is a terrorist organisation: according to the United States, Australia, Canada, the UK and the whole of Europe. At the demos, we’ve had to listen to chants of “gas the jews”, “Hitler was right” “finish the job” and “kill all jews”. The prevailing background chant, “Palestine shall be free from the River to the Sea”, which is a call to obliteration Israel.
Honestly: what is it with Greenwald? I’m shocked at his anti-semitic stance. I’m calling it anti-Jew. He may think he’s standing of free speech and the rights of Palestinians. But hs’s standing full square on the side of those who would do Holocaust 2.0, with pleasure, tomorrow.
ALSO: He has supported the vile idea that Israel’s tolerance to the LGBTQ community is “pink washing”, done just to deflect from its “oppression” of Palestinians. No one else is criticised for LGBTQ-friendly policies as being some kind of whitewash. Just Israel. Just the Jews.
Sunday, 3 December 2023
“Call for more nuclear energy…” for Hong Kong
Finally! They listen to me!
I've been banging on for ages about the need to get more nuclear electricity from China. It's where we get a big chunk of electricity already via the Daya Bay Nuclear Power station.
The only thing stopping us has been the likes of Friends of the Earth, who — despite the name — are no Friends of the Earth; they'd rather more carbon emissions than nuclear electricity, for purely ideological reasons. Not a bit of the "science".
Note Lam Ching-Choi’s comments on wind farms. We don't have the land, while offshore wind is (a) too expensive and (b) our prevailing winds are too weak (or waaay too strong in typhoon times…). IOW Renewables are not a really viable option for Hong Kong.
Natasha Hausdorff on actual International Law relating to the Gaza war: talking to the BBC
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| Click above for the video |
She makes her points well, clearly, cogently, convincingly.
The BBC cut her off at the end, determined as they are to have the final word, to make it of their narrative.
Saturday, 2 December 2023
UNWRA is corrupt and has been for decades
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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNWRA: the ONLY United Nations agency — the ONLY global NGO — that's dedicated to just one "refugee" group.
I put "refugee" in quotes because UNWRA is now dealing not with the original refugee of the 1948 war, but with their children, their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren. A war because Arabs living in the area refused a Two-State proposal that gave them 80% of the land which is now Israel. IOW, land about equal to the then demographic split of Arab/Jew.
Every other refugee group in the world — many millions after World War Two — was absorbed into surrounding countries. Including Jews, by the way, 800,000 of whom (MORE than the Palestinians displaced in the so-called Nakba) were driven out of Arab nations and welcomed in the new Jewish state.
But the Arabs (known only since the mid 1960s as "Palestinians") driven out by the war, were not accepted by surrounding Arab countries, all believing this would put more pressure to destroy the only Jewish state in the world, the only independent UN-approved country that they could not accept on God's Earth. Because it is Jewish.
And so it is to today.
UNWRA makes its living from the grim and tawdry business of encouraging ongoing victimhood. Many thousands of its staff are Hamas operatives. And their schools teach the most vile Jew hatred.
Calling UNWRA a United Nations body is like calling the Ku Klux Klan a Catholic body.
It's a sick joke.
“Minister hits out at claims city’s status in decline” | SCMP
Never a good sign when you've got to deny something like being "in decline".
It's like a version of "the lady protests too much".
Even while some of the points made by Treasurer Christopher Hui are spot on. And personally, we do believe that Hong Kong will retain its key financial role in Asia and the world, obo China.
Friday, 1 December 2023
“Beijing and HK condemn U.S. over proposed trade office legislation”
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This is the United States hurting our “One Country Two Systems” because it’s so obsessed with hurting China.
This is crazy. I join Beijing and Hong Kong in condemning the move.
It’s plain silly. And harmful to us.
Thursday, 30 November 2023
Elon Musk to Disney, Apple, IBM, et.al.: “Go. Fuck. Yourself.” And adds: “Is that clear enough?”
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Amazing ballsy stuff from Elon!
Words to live by: 
Taiwan: Do NOT press for “independence” — the status quo is fine!
After hotheads, mostly from the so-called "pan Dems", called for Hong Kong independence. We knew at the time that that was crossing a clear Red Line. But they didn't listen. Yet the pre-NSL status quo for Hong Kong would have been just fine. We had all our freedoms. Now, rather less….
Instead we now have the Chinese University of HK being upbraided for not adhering strongly enough to the NSL, and declaring itself "grateful" for the criticism. Sigh…
Taiwan parties, and the U.S. must listen to what Beijing says. The status quo on Taiwan is fine for all parties. Stick to it.
Beijing is deadly serious. NO independence. Not even any calls for independence. No, non, nyet, 不要!
We should have listened to Putin, and his repeated, extremely clear, calls to stop the eastward expansion of NATO. Putin had designs of Ukraine anyway, part of his Soviet revanchism, but the U.S. push on NATO sure was a trigger.
So: DPP, listen to Beijing and be serious. NO calls for independence!
Wednesday, 29 November 2023
“The Death of the Old Europe—and the Rise of the Right” | The Free Press
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-death-of-old-europe-and-rise-of-the-rightEurope is in shock. Geert Wilders—variously called "far-right," an "anti-Islamist populist," and the Dutch Donald Trump—won last Wednesday's election in the Netherlands. His party is now the biggest in the Dutch parliament. For years, Wilders has been an outcast, considered too toxic by mainstream politics and too extreme by the overwhelmingly liberal media. And yet he has won—and not by a small margin.
Europe is in shock. We are not.
That is because we are both Dutch—and because we both left the Netherlands because of the phenomena that have now brought Wilders to power.
What we have witnessed will tell you not just about how Wilders could win a landslide victory in one of the most liberal countries in Europe, but about what could soon be coming to countries like France, Germany, and other liberal democracies who fail to grapple with the dual challenge of mass migration and assimilation and ignore the very real concerns of their citizens.
Sent from my iPad
“CLP Power … to reduce charges by up to 16%” | SCMP
Electricity prices in Hong Kong going DOWN! How’s that! Where else is that happening?
Bringing our electricity charges to around $US 0.12 per kWh, just one-third of Australia, where price trends are sharply UP, as it moves relentlessly to subsidy-needing wind and solar.
We have ONE-THIRD the carbon emission per capita of Australia, because of a policy of nuclear and natural gas.
Australian Greens are infected with the “perfection is the enemy of action” gene. They are so focussed on renewables that any fossil fuel, ANY, is not OK, not even natural gas; which has been a great interim solution, not just here but in the United States as well, But Greens don’t like interim solutions. Only “perfect” solutions like wind and solar.
And the reasons the costs are going up is that we’ve been conned into believing renewables are cheap. They are not, when you take account of intermittency and the need for a whole new transmission system. Not to mention that in Australia, as in other places, people are getting fed up with the land needed for the solar and wind arms and the transmission lines taking up valuable farm land. Wind and solar take up 300 to 600 times as much land as nuclear. Land is not unlimited not even in Australia where its “abundance” is one of the arguments against nuclear.
But no, for them it’s “nuclear takes too long” (it doesn’t) and “nuclear is too expensive” (it’s not). Though it guess its movement of some sort that they don’t talk of their previous bugbears, waste and safety.
Tuesday, 28 November 2023
“Irish writer Paul Lynch wins 2023 Booker Prize with dystopian novel Prophet Song” | About Ireland descending into tyranny
When I saw the headline I thought: "hmmm… I wonder, would that be a Right-wing tyranny or a Left-wing tyranny?"
London to a brick, I thought, it's going to be about a Right-wing tyranny. And sure enough: of course it's about a Right-wing tyranny descending on Ireland!
But look at history of the last century. On the Right we have the German Nazis; the Italian, Spanish and Greek fascists; Argentina; Chile. But much more on the Left, we have the Stalinist Soviet Union, the Maoist China, the Kim Il-sungian North Korea. Right-wing tyrannies still pop up here and there, but the largest and most enduring tyrannies, the ones that have done the most damage to mankind, are the far-Left ones. You want to see a real dystopia in action today? Go to North Korea, as I've done. It's right there right now and has endured for three-quarters of a century. It's horrid, it's a tyranny and it's a dystopia.
But Paul Lynch can't "imagine" a far-Left dystopia, because that would never bag a Booker!
He claims he was taking a risk writing the book. Shucks, Paul! You're never at risk with the mainstream if you hammer the Right! Sounds like the claim you were "speaking truth to power" when you criticised Trump in office. You did it to the cheers of the media. Like Robert De Nero saying "fuck Trump" at the Oscars to wild cheers, then being called "brave"! What self-regarding nonsense.
Give me a break Paul. You knew that writing about a Right-wing dystopia was catnip for the pussies.
The irony is that the current Left-wing Irish government is debating a "Hate crime bill" that would silence dissent and crush freedom of speech. A genuine step to tyranny. Whither the Left-wing dystopia in Ireland? Don't go to Lynch for any thoughts, for like the good people at Booker and The Guardian, they all firmly believe the only baddies are on the Right!
Palestinian fantasies
David Bernstein @ProfDBernstein I've learned from "X" that the "pro-Palestine" movement lives in a fantasy world where, putting mythology regarding 10/7 aside (for the uninitiated, please note that every single one of these beliefs is utterly false)...
--There was a country called Palestine, where Muslims and a…26/11/2023, 10:12 pm
Deceitful Divisive Doonesbury
Thoughts:
It’s propaganda not humour
Attacks Republicans and people with concerns about vaccine mandates (who G. Trudeau would no doubt call “anti-vaxxers”).
The study quoted (an academic study! In cartoon!) has been shown to be wrong, by Vinay Prasad an epidemiologist and bio-statistician. The error is the “fallacy of range”. Using the same data one could show that Democrats have lagged Republicans in Covid vax uptake. Further, there were confounding factors not accounted for in the study.
Hence the Deceitfulness.
Who does Trudeau think he’s influencing? Only his own followers who are overwhelmingly on the Left of the Democratic Party. Who will only be further entrenched in their certainty that all Republicans are rubes.
Hence the Divisiveness.
Does this help anyone? No.
Monday, 27 November 2023
“Nuclear energy is a joke” | Chris Bowen
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Sent from my iPad
Gaza “Open Prison"
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Sunday, 26 November 2023
Sabotage of Chinese made wind farms — by the Chinese?!
From the Financial Times:
Last month two undersea cables and one pipeline in the Baltic Sea were damaged in what investigators believe were deliberate acts of sabotage. These are just the most recent examples of mysterious damage to sea-based infrastructure. But new risks are also emerging: Chinese companies are suppliers of wind turbines — whose offshore farms are connected to land by cables on the seabed — and will be crucial for the west’s energy transition. To ensure the west doesn’t become dependent on Beijing for our wind technology in the way it has historically relied on Russia for gas, we need to boost domestic manufacturing.
Since the cable sabotage took place, during the course of a few hours between October 7 and 8, Estonian, Finnish and Swedish authorities have investigated the damage sustained within their exclusive economic zones. A suspect has already emerged: the Hong Kong-flagged, Chinese-owned boxship NewNew Polar Bear, which was being escorted by a Russian-flagged vessel. This comes after two undersea cables connecting the Matsu Islands with Taiwan were severed by merchant ships earlier this year, and the mysterious explosions in the Nord Stream pipelines last September. These incidents are alarming because the west is so dependent on this maritime infrastructure: pipelines to deliver our oil and gas supplies, undersea cables carrying the data for our modern digital economies, and offshore wind to power the energy transition.
Wind power currently accounts for 17 per cent of Europe’s electricity, and this figure is set to increase: in an effort to counter the effects of climate change, the EU, Norway and the UK plan to double their offshore wind energy capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050. That will mean a rapid increase in construction, especially for offshore wind, which has only reached 16GW so far. The EU recently held a security exercise focusing on wind farms in the North Sea, and operators have begun sharing data from sensors and cameras with their respective ministries of defence in an effort to discourage sabotage.
The offshore installations themselves face both sabotage threats and the ever-present risk of cyber intrusion. Wind farms face a further, troubling vulnerability: dependence on China in their supply chains. Chinese-made wind turbines cost less than half the average price of those manufactured elsewhere — and while the number of European countries that are using them is still low, Chinese companies have declared their interest in participating in European wind energy auctions and in opening up production facilities on the continent.
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