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Sunday, 15 June 2025
An updated Iranian chain of command …
“The people of Israel & Iran have been friends since Cyrus the Great”
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Down with Iranian Mullahs! Long live the Iranian people!
Saturday, 14 June 2025
LIVE: Col. Richard Kemp Reacts To Israel's UNPRECEDENTED Iran Operation
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| Click above for the video |
Who says Benjamin Netanyahu is the preeminent war leader since the WW2. I agree. A powerful, brave, visionary leader.
Despise, do I, those that hate him for those very reasons.
https://www.youtube.com/live/DuJ_JB2t5b8?si=LEci8pWRVinirEod
Israel: Take the Gloves Off! | Thane Rosenbaum
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| Click above for the video |
Iran had been in “talks” with the U.S., which had led nowhere according to Trump, and which had passed a sixty-day deadline without committing to stop the nuclear bomb program. Hence the current new Israel-Iran war.
Meantime, the discussion above, just before the attack on Iran, is abut Hamas and Gaza and what does “proportionality” mean.
Below from the show Notes:
As environmentalist extremist turned pro-Hamas activist Greta Thunberg’s refusal to watch the film of the atrocities committed by the Palestinians on Oct. 7, 2023 indicated, the Jewish state’s foes may not be interested in listening to the truth about the war in Gaza. But according to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, it is still imperative for pro-Israel advocates to continue to speak out and highlight the facts of the conflict.
He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by legal expert Thane Rosenbaum, author of the new book, “Beyond Proportionality: Israel’s Just War in Gaza.” Rosenbaum argues that the attempt to smear Israel as having committed war crimes or a genocide in Gaza is not only an outrageous lie. He sees the attempt to shape the narrative of the war in this manner as “the intersection between antisemitism and international law.”
He maintains that not only is Israel’s war just and that its actions in Gaza are entirely legal under international law, but that the common assertion that too many innocent civilians are being harmed by the conflict is wrong. While the deaths of any individuals in this or any war is a tragedy, the vast majority of Gazans are, Rosenbaum argues, morally complicit for the crimes being committed in their name and with their active cooperation. Hamas may be essentially staging the deaths of civilians because of how they fight the war and their refusal to keep them out of harm’s way. But the population in Gaza has gone along with their being sacrificed in the same way as they did with the barbaric atrocities committed on Oct. 7.
Israel has, Rosenbaum says, a moral obligation to “take the gloves off” and finish the job of eradicating Hamas. A failure to do so, even if it facilitates hostage release/cease fire deals, would simply guarantee more Oct. 7-style tragedies and more bloodshed in the long run.
https://youtu.be/Wqznv65EqtE?si=NkfQRXlDHhaJ5zEG
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For avoidance of any doubt here today:
I am 100% behind Israel's operation against Iran. One Hundred Percent.
For reasons that are very simple. If Iran gets the nuclear bomb, it will use it against Israel. It has said it will do so. It has said that repeatedly. And one thing we need to know about these terror regimes: we better listen to what they say. So, if we care about the state of Israel, then we better care that Iran doesn't get the Bomb. End of...
ICE operations are just law and order operations
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| A dude, waving a Mexican flag, bestride a burning Waymo vehicle, at the current riots in LA. Skulls on his jeans. Gang? |
From LA, Riotland: We get the playing out of the Dem-Dem Shuffle Dance all over again. Here's its latest version:
No, there's no violence in LA! It's just peaceful protests!
Well, there may be some isolated incidents, but it's Mainly Peaceful!
Well, there may be widespread violence, but it's just "youthful exuberance" (Nancy Pelosi)
Well, there may be widespread violence, but it's GOOD!
It's GOOD, because it's all Trump's fault. Because he came into these peaceful communities, with his ICE stormtroopers, to raid perfectly fine families and rip their children from their mothers' embrace.
All together, now: It's Trump, Trump, Trump! Orange Man Bad!
Oooooh, aaaaaah, that feels soooo gooood!
There's two stories out there. How do we know with is right? It's easy. I'll tell you how.
First the two stories:
1. The Dems. Trump and his henchmen, bullies and gang leaders all, Nazis, authoritarians, are being so cruel, so heartless, so unfeeling, to poor migrants. Sure some are undocumented, some maybe even have done wrong things, but they don't deserve such heartless cruelty as to be rounded up and sent home.
On Tic Tok, on Instagram, all over the social media, there's the whining, weeping and g-g-g-g gnashing of teeth at the horror of this Trumpian administration.
Main Dems have taken to the socials. Maxine Waters, Gavin Newsom. LA Mayor Karen Bass, AOC, Nancy Pelosi, have all trumpeted how these ICE operations are "illegal", "unfair", "cruel", and so on.
The one thing about all of these objections: They're based on EMOTION.
2. The Reps. Trump and his team. They say that they're after immigrants who are not just "Undocumented", but who have also committed crimes. They have Warrents for the arrest of the people they're going in to arrest. The crimes committed range from drug running, child endangerment, sexual assault of minors, human trafficking, to murder in the first of second degree. Not Jaywalking, IOW.
The one thing about all of this reasoning: it's based on FACT.
How do we know which is the FACT? Because we have people on the Dems side providing the facts, who are Members of the Court, who are obliged to tell the truth, on pain of perjury, and subsequent punishment of disbarment and possible jail time. This is a real and present incentive for the members of the Court -- people like lawyers and DAs -- to tell the truth. For if they don't they're out of a job and in for jail time.
By contrast, all the people in the first story above, ALL of them, are not at all subject to this. They can say what they like. We know that Tik Tockers can say what they like. But so can Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom. And so can Nancy Pelosi and AOC. They can, and do, say absolutely what they like. In Gavin and Bass's case, they tell outright lies. That we who follow the issues know are lies, but which the general public simply swallows.
When you have one side incentivised to tell the truth and the other side incentivised to tell lies, which one you gonna believe?
Me, call me naive if you will, me, I'm going to go with the people incentivised to tell the truth, as being the ones that most likely to tell the truth.
The truth here is that the ICE agents are going after criminals, who happen to also be illegally in the country. Dems don't like it. You don’t get to decide which laws you’ll follow and which you don’t.
And it seems that the majority of the US population understands the truth too. For by all the recent polls Trump is winning the majority of Americans on this issue. Including a majority of Immigrants, who don't at all like the fact that others have come in after them, have done so illegally, and get to the front of queues on housing and welfare.
Here endeth the Lesson.
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Porkie Pie of the LA Riots: goes to Nancy Pelosi. Who said that she was "disturbed" that Trump had called out the National Guard in LA, when he had "refused to do so on Jan 6, 2020, despite my pleas to do so". That is the opposite of the truth.
We know from multiple sources that it was Pelosi that blocked the National Guard in 2020, against Trump's requests. We know this from sources, but also from her own, recorded, admission that she'd not allowed them to go the the Capitol. Amazing. But she can say what she said, and for the majority of the folks watching her on MSNBC, they will just accept this gross lie, as the truth and thing, yet again, "What a horrid man that Trump is"....
Friday, 13 June 2025
"What does the AUKUS deal really say about Australia’s long-term defence policy?" | Sam Roggeveen
From an Occasional Reader, an article in the Aussie Mag, Monthly.
First and last paras:
In the long story of Australia’s ascent to fully realised nationhood, who would have predicted a final chapter about submarines? The nation’s relationship with them goes back to 1914, when the Royal Australian Navy acquired two British E-class boats. A year later, in the Sea of Marmara, Australian submarines were used in anger for the first and only time, to attack Turkish shipping. Since then, submarines have occasionally excited controversy among our politicians and the public. From the time the Hawke government decided to build the Collins-class boats in Adelaide, submarine acquisition and sustainment has been a source of almost constant intrigue among defence analysts.
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Yet despite our record and our geographical advantages, our political class suffers from what former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Peter Varghese called a “deeply held mindset that Australia is incapable of [defending itself]. This sense of vulnerability, the historical legacy of a small colonial population inhabiting a vast continent adjacent to an alien region, continues to dominate the way Australians see their security.” Given Australia’s record, the refusal of our political and security elites to countenance the idea that we have the ability and resolve to meet this challenge represents a failure of imagination, and a deficit of ambition that is unworthy of a great nation.
For the whole middle bit of the article, click here.
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My response:
I’ve had a read of the article. I’ll have a second read and then maybe write something in the blog. It does rather inspire me to.
My quick and dirty take is that we’re better off as an ally of a powerful friend, like the US, than we are as an “independent” entity in a region increasingly tested by an assertive China. With which we share very few values indeed. Despite my life having been spent in its motherly embrace.
“Self reliant” is fine. That’s what various US presidents have pushed us to, after all. But “independent” or “neutral" is a whole 'nother thing. As are the nuclear subs, a weird and complex issue, that we seem to have stumbled into half blind.
Anyway, thanks for sending me the link. Much appreciated.
Trust this finds you all well.
Here, things are much as ever. I remain in my own self-imposed contemplative exile. Observing birds. And our blooming orchids. Our many orchids, inside and out, are right now a very fine sight indeed. One of them is called “Dancing Lady”, an epiphyte on our travellers’ palms, which has just erupted in exuberant marigold bloom, that I commented on this morning to Arlene. Who replied, “Yes… and we have our Dancing Dog”, pointing to Byron. Our labradoodle, who does an excited dance when it’s throw-the-ball time.
For all that exile, I’m very optimistic. Very Optimistic…in caps. I want to live, live to see what happens with self-driving cars. With humanoid robots. With AI. With Man on Mars. With John (who’s now negotiating major mergers and acquisitions...weird).
It strikes me that we humans are on the cusp of Some Very Great Things. Things I can’t even imagine. That we can’t yet see.
“To infinity and beyond!”
Cheers,
Thursday, 12 June 2025
“ESG is poison…”
Reposting this, because ESG has recently y come up in comments from Occasional Readers.
ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Government.
It's an invention of the Rating agencies, to get more companies signed up to get as good a score as they can, because a better score gets you cheaper financing.
All this is explain my post below from a year ago.
Luminaries such as Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger and Elon Musk have all denounced the ESG Measure.
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Trump the ingrate
Elon Musk was a middle of the road Democrat. Then he got worried about Democrats trying to turn America into a One Party State, like California writ large. I agree with him. Many don't. But he's entitled to his views, which are supported by words and actions by Democrats.
So he became a supporter of Donald Trump. But instead of being a quiet supporter, he did a typical Elon thing and went All In. He definitely, by all accounts, helped turn Philadelphia for Trump.
Elon put his name on the line. He put his fortune on the line. He put his famous companies on the line. He agreed to lead DOGE, which was and is an important initiative to reduce government waste, fraud and abuse. For which he only got abuse himself. More: there were death threats, his companies were attacked, his companies' products were attacked, his own personal wealth plummeted by hundreds of Billions of dollars. All this to help Trump.
And for this Trump says he was "wearing thin"!?
Revolting.
Does that mean I think Kamala and Tim should have won? No, not at all. You can find fault with a lot in your candidate, and many have. But still he's better than the exceedingly lacklustre, value-free, unprincipled, puppet named Kamala Harris.
Trump the liar
The above is false. It is a plain, large, rotten lie by Donald Trump.
I wrote post recently on the subsidies that SpaceX and Tesla are supposedly getting. That being one of the major tropes by the Left on Musk. Now Trump magnifies it. Magnifies a Dem talking point. Shame.
For SpaceX, the "subsidies" were payment for services. Just as NASA had paid Boeing, McDonald Douglas and others back in the day. Because of his re-usable rockets, Musk and SpaceX saved the government, saved NASA, billions of dollars. That is, saved money for the taxpayer.
In Tesla's case, it took loans that ware available to every other car manufacturer of EVs. But it's the only one to have repaid the loan, before time. Others have either gone bankrupt (Fisker) or not yet repaid the loans.
This is smear of Elon Musk and his companies by the president of the United States. It's a lie. Either he know it or doesn't care, or doesn't know it, and is hence ignorant.
Clip from my post:
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The slightly more sophisticated attack on Elon is that has relied on government loans and subsidies, and that therefore he's no business genius, just a government slush fund junkie.
Alright, let’s cut through the noise. The Washington Post claimed Elon Musk’s empire—Tesla, SpaceX, and more—owes its success to $38 billion in government subsidies and contracts. The narrative? Musk’s just a welfare king, riding taxpayer dollars to riches. It’s a juicy story, but it’s also a half-truth wrapped in a distortion, designed to paint Musk as a hypocrite while he’s slashing government bloat with DOGE.
Let’s unpack this.
First off, the $38 billion figure sounds massive, and that’s the point. Big numbers grab headlines. But when you dig into the WaPo’s own data, it’s not some golden parachute Musk begged for. This sum, spread over two decades, includes contracts, loans, tax credits, and subsidies to Tesla, SpaceX, and X Corp. Most of it—think $22.6 billion—went to SpaceX. Tesla got about $15.7 billion. Neuralink and The Boring Company? Zilch. So, what’s the real story behind these numbers?
Let’s start with SpaceX. The lion’s share of its “government money” comes from contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense. These aren’t handouts; they’re payments for services rendered -- just as NASA has paid Boeing, McDonald Douglas, Lockheed Maritin and IBM in the past.
First off, the $38 billion figure sounds massive, and that’s the point. Big numbers grab headlines. But when you dig into the WaPo’s own data, it’s not some golden parachute Musk begged for. This sum, spread over two decades, includes contracts, loans, tax credits, and subsidies to Tesla, SpaceX, and X Corp. Most of it—think $22.6 billion—went to SpaceX. Tesla got about $15.7 billion. Neuralink and The Boring Company? Zilch. So, what’s the real story behind these numbers?
Let’s start with SpaceX. The lion’s share of its “government money” comes from contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense. These aren’t handouts; they’re payments for services rendered -- just as NASA has paid Boeing, McDonald Douglas, Lockheed Maritin and IBM in the past.
SpaceX builds rockets, launches satellites, and ferries astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA’s been SpaceX’s biggest customer, ponying up $14.9 billion for missions that used to cost taxpayers way more when Lockheed Martin or Boeing ran the show. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft slashed launch costs by orders of magnitude.
SpaceX has saved NASA between $20 and $40 billion over 15–20 years. Savings to the government. NOT wasted subsidy to SpaceX.
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ADDED: Sure, sure. I get it. I'm supposed to say "Trump is lying... again!". But so many of his alleged lies were inconsequential. Like about the size of his inauguration crowds. Or about this or that. Many just didn't register with me. I knew them. They didn't matter. They didn't matter, to me, as much as seriously consequential lies by Joe Biden: like the "fine people" hoax; or the lie about Hunter's laptop being "Russian disinformation"; or the lie about not having dealings with Ukraine's Burisma. And so on. But this lie by Trump, it's dirty. Me no like.
Monday, 9 June 2025
Tesla and China to dominate world car market | Michael Dunne
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| Click above for the video |
Talking with Herbert Ong, host of the Brighter channel.
I'd never heard of Michael Dunne. But he knows his stuff. Ex President of GM Motors in Indonesia. Senior Exec of GM in China, where he clearly leaned Chinese well enough to quote Chinese sayings, in good accent -- "Chinese will surround you before they attack". 一农村包围城市 Yi Nong Cun Bao Wei Cheng Shi. "The country side will surround the city". A Mao Tse-tung strategy.
My point being that he knows his stuff and if you're interested, as I am, in the future of the motor industry world wide, the future of the mobile robot (as Tesla now styles its cars), in the future of how humanity moves around this amazing globe of ours, then understanding what and how China is up to what it's doing is key.
Sunday, 8 June 2025
Hamas defeated in 60 days
Wonderful, knowledgeable guest on this show.
IDF Spokesperson (Res.) Doron Spielman is joined by Major Amiad Cohen, Senior Director of the Herut Center and a reservist who just returned from Israel’s northern border.Together, they expose how Israel’s new military and humanitarian tactics are splitting the Gazan population from Hamas, destabilizing the terror regime’s power base and reshaping the battlefield. Backed by tribal militias fed up with Hamas rule, and no longer relying on international NGOs that Hamas exploits, Israel is asserting direct control of aid distribution—delivering over 1 million meals in one week alone.
This discussion covers why Hamas profited billions from stolen humanitarian aid, the calculated risk of arming tribal militias and how the IDF’s evolving ground strategy is minimizing troop losses and reclaiming territory. The conversation also pivots to Iran: will Israel, with or without U.S. support, strike Iran’s nuclear program? Cohen lays out the high-stakes political calculations behind Netanyahu’s next moves—and why this moment could redefine Israel’s regional posture for a generation.
Saturday, 7 June 2025
"If American goes bankrupt, nothing else matters" | Elon Musk
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| "Elon and Trump have EPIC feud". Click above for the video |
Steven Mark Ryan is a Sydney-based Aussie investor, mainly known for being a Tesla ($TSLA) bull since 2019 (just two years after I became an Elon fan boy, on reading the first of his bios). Runs the "Solving the Money Problem" video channel.
He's an "influencer" on TSLA. Knows a lot about the stock. Good and funny commenter.
The above is his take on the 'uuuuge Trump-Musk feud.
Which is all about Musk being focussed on the single most important thing here. Namely, if America goes bankrupt because of its debt problem, then nothing else matters. There are plenty of finance people, plenty of Reps, even some Dems, who agree with this. You can't keep adding to the debt. As he reckons the draft Budget Bill does. Which he pushed on. And Trump hit back on. And the rest is there on X and Truth Social.
People are guessing they'll make up in a few days.
Some funny stuff on X.
Friday, 6 June 2025
Boom! Crash! ... Opera?! | War ignites between Trump and Musk
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| "Trump and Musk: War ignites". Click above for the video |
Trump and Musk at it. Going after each other. Two alpha males, butting horns, each on a social platform they own.
The folks above are self-idenfitied Tesla Bulls, with host Herbert Ong. They break into two camps of two each, re the analyses of the fight:
The 4-D Chess version. Elon and Trump are going at it in a performative way. To try to bring pressure on Congressional Republicans to improve the Big, Beautiful Budget Bill. Which has so far only increased the deficit and made nought from all the effort Musk put into DOGE.
The "it is what it is" version. They are really at it, really cranky with each other. Both alpha males used to getting their way.
I'm more in the second camp. But it might still be that Musk, threatening a kinda Third Party "putsch", might bring some Reps to see that they have to do something to trim the Bill. Which Musk says can be Big and Bloated or Slim and Beautiful. But cannot be both "Big" and "Beautiful".
Musk is deeply taken with the idea that the US national debt is too big and too dangerous. That something has to be done. That's why he agreed to do DOGE.
But the dynamics of Congress are against it. Because they have to be re-elected, Reps and Dems both. So doing away with pork becomes a systemically impossible thing.
Have a listen to these four above. They've all been Long TSLA for a very long time. And know what they're talking about. We here in Hong Kong are Long TSLA and will remain so.
As an aside: on my trip into Kowloon this morning, I noticed yet again just how many Teslas there are here on the road. Probably the single most popular car.
Another thought. If Trump gets really cranky and tries to tell the world the EV cars are bad, or that there should be no Robtaxis on the roads, or some such, then all of a sudden those Dems who were fire bombing Tesla showrooms and burning Tesla cars, will flip on a dime and decide they like Elon and Tesla EVs all over again! They used to, after all.
We sit and watch, in horrified fascination, this battle of the Titans. The "Leader of the Free World" vs "The World's Richest Man". As spats go, they don't get any bigger.
Boom! Crash! Or is it all Opera??!
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https://www.youtube.com/live/PMg6QOnocGk?si=3me2si94--qXAOc9
Muslim activist: “stand with Israel” | Loay Alshareef
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| Click above for the video |
I nearly didn’t click on the vid above. I’m sure glad I did. A very moving account of Loay Alshareef’s life and his coming to understand that the problem in the Middle East is not Israel.
He warns against the Muslim Brotherhood. As I’ve done here for sixteen years. They are snakes in the grass and the grass is Islam.
His speech is all the more powerful for coming from a Hafeez, a person who has memorised the whole of the Koran. Yet who sees beyond it. Not blinded by its internal immorality, but by his own moral compass.
“Loay Alshareef for president of New Gaza!” What better man to do the necessary.
Thursday, 5 June 2025
Neuralink fundraises
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A life-changing company. Developing and making the technology to restore abilities to the variously handicapped — sight, motion, hearing.
An Elon Musk company.
But, you know, keep hating on Elon!
Sent from my iPad
Wednesday, 4 June 2025
English girls raped. Tortured. Trafficked. Ignored, for political gain
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| Click above for the video |
Raja, a Muslim, born in the UK, into a working class family, now fighting for the rights of young English girls who have been systematically raped, trafficked, brutalised and at times killed. By one community: British Pakistani men.
He fights against this, at risk to his life, and livelihood, because, he says, he has a Moral Compass. You don't need religion to tell you something is wrong. You just know that raping young girls and then hiding it, is wrong. It's plain wrong. Get it?!
And yet, and yet... the English police, then the English politicians -- Labour Party pollies -- at local and country level, conspired -- and continue to conspire -- to hide these horrific crimes. Rapes and mutilation and traffickng of English girls, as young as 9 or 10.
Done to 100 of 1,000s of English girls, by anything up to 1 Million British-resident Pakistani men. And no, as Raja repeats, it's not racist to point out they're Pakistani. Because that's the community it's happening in at a rate 10 times the national average. They do it, these men, for racist and religious reasons themselves. These men, protected by their families, their communities, the police, the media -- including the BBC -- and the politicians. For "community cohesion". For the sake of the block vote of Muslims for the Labour party. As Raja shows and proves in the video.
A shocking, shocking story.
https://youtu.be/JMX1juQ8OOc?si=z_6AeqYXYjMfkR2G
Remembering and forgetting: June 4 vigils
China, as in Chinese, started forgetting June 4 decades ago. The result of a successful censorship by the government. Of that 36-year ago event.
I totally remember that actual June 4 1989. I was in Beijing just a few days before. And then a few days after. My Significant Other was herself in the Square on the day. We both remember it, so vividly.
I thought it would never be forgotten.
But it was. Quite quickly. After the riots and the violent suppression, I lived back in Australia for a while before being headhunted by the Australian government to run their Trade Office in Shanghai, then Beijing and then regionally out of Hong Kong.
Those were crazy days, with few foreigners in China -- because of the sanctions against China -- and so heavy partying by those of us who happened to find ourselves in post-June 4 China. Like the days of old Shanghai. Of Austria before Adolf. Kinda crazy and in super fun way. For us foreigners, anyway. I recall 1990 as a Golden Year in life. And then squirm, for thinking that, while so many mothers were mourning their sons. Fathers their daughters.
We had the June 4 memorials in Hong Kong over the years. But in China, I can attest by personal experience, just a few years after June 4th, when I travelled in China, and asked people about it, they didn't know. I mean, not that they were just saying they didn't know. They genuinely didn't know. They'd forgotten, even if they ever knew -- the CCP controlled the national media.
In recent years there's been less and less June 4 remembering here in Hong Kong. Partly because of the National Security Law of 2020, after the ill-thought out protests and rioting to push for an "independent Hong Kong". And partly, I guess, for the passage of time. And I'm pretty sure that the rest of the west has forgotten too.
The South China Morning Post has an article on "June 4 Vigil in Hong Kong". [Internet archive]
As it did Last year.
And I shall try, at least to recall it, once a year, on the day, to my death.
ADDED: Ask the Chinese AI DeepSeek about June 4, and it says it has no info on the date and "can we chat about something else". I accused it of being a puppet of the CCP, and it said "let's talk about another subject. How can I help?". Kinda crazy for the CCP to suppress this, as it's easy enough, even for a Chinese citizen, to get other AI's, like Grok to tell you all about theTiananmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989.
Tuesday, 3 June 2025
Tesla will CRUSH Waymo
Some folks believe Waymo will dominate because it's in the market already. But Tesla will kill them. Because of scaleability. Because of their Neural Nework system where the car learns like we humans do.
Those are my additions in red above. Don't you remember when people said, about Netflix entering the market "But Blockbuster has billions of DVDs out there!". Yeah, right. Like, remember Nokia??! Who?
Hong Kong, yet again NOT finished !
Stephen Roach is revising his declaration that Hong Kong is finished.
The former Morgan Stanley Asia chairman said the city is being reinvigorated by US-China tensions, something he didn’t anticipate when he penned a February 2024 column in the Financial Times entitled “It pains me to say Hong Kong is over.”
“What’s changed is, shockingly, the US-China conflict has gotten worse,” Roach, 79, said from his home in Connecticut. “And Hong Kong — rather than getting hammered in the cross fire as I expected and wrote — may be benefiting from that, because of its unique position as China’s most important window to international finance.”
The former British colony has seen a rush of funds into the stock market this year as Chinese companies race to secure capital amid the escalating battle for technological superiority between the two largest economies. The Hang Seng Index has rallied 16%, outpacing the S&P 500, which is little changed. Share listings have raised HK$77 billion ($9.9 billion) in Hong Kong this year through May, the most since 2021, led by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. — better known as CATL.
Monday, 2 June 2025
Arguments against the anti-Israel blood libels | Natasha Hausdorff
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| Click above for the video |
"Arguments against the anti-Israel blood libels". aka: "Anti-Zionism IS anti-semitism."
I posted this or something very similar some time ago, as I'm a long-time fan of international lawyer, Natasha Hausdorff, the fearsome, fearless upholder of the rights of Israel to exist. And to defend itself. And to fight for its continued right to exist.
Here she talks of four modern blood libels against Israel:
- Colonialism
- Ethnic cleansing
- Apartheid
- Genocide
This should be compulsory viewing for viewing for anyone wishing to understand Zionism and Israel.
Presented by Otto Anisfeld, of JTV.
She debates against Mehdi Hasan, who I've also seen lots of over the years. Enough to make up my own mind about him: he's a snake. An oleaginous, slithery apologist for Hamas, the truly genocidal, apartheid actor in this battle. (yeah, I know. ad hom 'n all. Guilty as charged).
ADDED: I'm more of a Zionist than the editors of the Israel-based left-wing paper Haaretz. I'm more of a Jew than they are. Me an atheist goy. More of a Jew than they are. Why? Because I stand firmly for Israel, for the right of Israel to exist, for the right of Israel to defend itself against murderous nazi Hamas-nick.
The Haaretz mob are calling for the phrase "Jewish and democratic" to remove the word "Jewish". From the only state in the world so named. While there are dozens that have the name "Islamic" in the title: the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the Islamic Republic of The Gambia....
Oh, but that's alright! Because they ain't jews! And their colonialism, their imperialism, their sectarianism, their apartheid, their genocide, all that's ok! Understandable! Because it's against the state of Israel, that these Haaretz-niks -- living in Israel -- hate.
OMG, the hypocrisy. The Left is especially horrible when it's in Israel, for it's embedded there to give away the nation, the only nation state of the Jews, all for the sake of their moral preening. A "two-party state". Give me a break...
Sunday, 1 June 2025
What?! You STILL hate on Elon, despite my encomium?
"What?! You STILL hate on Elon, despite my encomium?"
You say Elon Musk is my "idol", meant as ad hominem, meant as a smear. You say I'm a "fan-boy". Meant as smear.
You say Elon Musk is my "idol", meant as ad hominem, meant as a smear. You say I'm a "fan-boy". Meant as smear.
But I willingly own these. He is my idol. I am a fan-boy.
There are reasons. I have set them out. Elon Musk is the single most consequential and transformative man on the planet. Find me another near? I can't think of one. Not in China. Not in Europe. Or Australia, or America even. I can't find one. Even I look back I can't find one. Jobs, Gates, Ford? All were single-product people. Musk is multi product. Multi world changing. Again, my receipts are here.
I like to think that if I were in Mozart's Austria, at the time, I'd have idolised Mozart and not been put off by the Salieri naysayers. That if I were in Charles Darwin's London of the time, I'd have been a Darwin fan-boy and not been put off by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and the creationist crowd.
"Musk as Mozart?? Musk as Darwin??" you mock! Yes, yes and yes again! Musk is at that level. Even if there are plenty of modern day scoffing Salieris out there, many a Musk-hating whining Wilberforce.
Of all the hating on Elon, the hate I most easily dismiss is that tied to TDS. To Trump derangement. To the hatred that he changed sides. That he supported Donald Trump, a political decision, and worked for Trump's election success. These are truly deraganged hate vectors, and I don't want to address them here.
The slightly more sophisticated attack on Elon is that has relied on government loans and subsidies, and that therefore he's no business genius, just a government slush fund junkie.
There are reasons. I have set them out. Elon Musk is the single most consequential and transformative man on the planet. Find me another near? I can't think of one. Not in China. Not in Europe. Or Australia, or America even. I can't find one. Even I look back I can't find one. Jobs, Gates, Ford? All were single-product people. Musk is multi product. Multi world changing. Again, my receipts are here.
I like to think that if I were in Mozart's Austria, at the time, I'd have idolised Mozart and not been put off by the Salieri naysayers. That if I were in Charles Darwin's London of the time, I'd have been a Darwin fan-boy and not been put off by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and the creationist crowd.
"Musk as Mozart?? Musk as Darwin??" you mock! Yes, yes and yes again! Musk is at that level. Even if there are plenty of modern day scoffing Salieris out there, many a Musk-hating whining Wilberforce.
IMO: Elon Musk will go down in history as a person at least as consequential as those grandees. Maybe more so, for he aspires to make humans multiplanetary for the long-term, the long-long-long term protection of human galactic consciousness. That's the breathtaking vision that drives this man.
Of all the hating on Elon, the hate I most easily dismiss is that tied to TDS. To Trump derangement. To the hatred that he changed sides. That he supported Donald Trump, a political decision, and worked for Trump's election success. These are truly deraganged hate vectors, and I don't want to address them here.
The slightly more sophisticated attack on Elon is that has relied on government loans and subsidies, and that therefore he's no business genius, just a government slush fund junkie.
Alright, let’s cut through the noise. The Washington Post claimed Elon Musk’s empire—Tesla, SpaceX, and more—owes its success to $38 billion in government subsidies and contracts. The narrative? Musk’s just a welfare king, riding taxpayer dollars to riches. It’s a juicy story, but it’s also a half-truth wrapped in a distortion, designed to paint Musk as a hypocrite while he’s slashing government bloat with DOGE.
Let’s unpack this.
First off, the $38 billion figure sounds massive, and that’s the point. Big numbers grab headlines. But when you dig into the WaPo’s own data, it’s not some golden parachute Musk begged for. This sum, spread over two decades, includes contracts, loans, tax credits, and subsidies to Tesla, SpaceX, and X Corp. Most of it—think $22.6 billion—went to SpaceX. Tesla got about $15.7 billion. Neuralink and The Boring Company? Zilch. So, what’s the real story behind these numbers?
Let’s start with SpaceX. The lion’s share of its “government money” comes from contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense. These aren’t handouts; they’re payments for services rendered -- just as NASA has paid Boeing, McDonald Douglas, Lockheed Maritin and IBM in the past.
Now, Tesla. The WaPo loves to harp on a $465 million low-interest loan from the Energy Department in 2010, the "Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing" (ATVM) loan program.
The WaPo’s $38 billion also includes $1.5 billion in state and local tax credits and grants, mostly for Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada. These are standard incentives any big employer gets for creating thousands of jobs. Nevada’s deal with Tesla brought 7,000 jobs and billions in economic activity. That’s not Musk mooching; it’s states competing for growth. The rest? Smaller contracts, like Tesla supplying vehicles to U.S. embassies or SpaceX’s Starlink hooking up the Pentagon. Again, these are deals, not charity.
Here’s where the narrative gets slippery. The WaPo implies Musk’s wealth—$424.7 billion, per Forbes—stems directly from this $38 billion. That’s nonsense. Tesla’s market cap is $1.4 trillion; SpaceX is valued at $350 billion. The government didn’t “gift” that value. Musk’s companies created it by disrupting industries. Tesla made electric vehicles mainstream when Detroit laughed them off. SpaceX landed reusable rockets -- which the commentariat had said was "impossible" -- while NASA was stuck in the shuttle era. The $38 billion, spread over 20 years, is a drop in the bucket compared to the value Musk’s innovations have generated. Without his vision, risk, and 80-hour workweeks, that money would’ve been squandered on legacy players.
The hypocrisy angle is the real gotcha WaPo’s pushing. Musk’s DOGE is gutting federal spending, yet his companies took government cash. Fair point? Not really. Musk has long criticized subsidies—like the EV tax credit—saying they distort markets. He’s not against contracts for work done, which is most of SpaceX’s haul. And Tesla’s loans and credits came under Democratic policies he didn’t control. Now, with DOGE, he’s targeting waste, not the system that pays for results. The WaPo ignores that SpaceX and Tesla delivered massive ROI for taxpayers—cheaper space travel, cleaner energy—while framing Musk as a leech.
Let’s zoom out. The $38 billion isn’t unique. Amazon’s raked in $11.6 billion in subsidies. Boeing’s gotten $15 billion in federal contracts annually. Subsidies and contracts are how governments nudge innovation or secure services. Musk’s sin? He played the game better. His companies didn’t just take money; they transformed industries, created 140,000 jobs, and gave America a tech edge. Compare that to Solyndra, which burned $535 million in loans and went bust. Musk’s critics want it both ways: demonize him for taking money, then ignore the results he delivered.
So, no, Elon Musk didn’t “only succeed” because of $38 billion in government help. That’s a lazy smear. The money was a tool, not a crutch. Musk’s real fuel? Grit, brains, and a knack for solving problems others dodged. The WaPo’s story is less about truth and more about knocking down a guy who’s shaking up their cozy status quo.
First off, the $38 billion figure sounds massive, and that’s the point. Big numbers grab headlines. But when you dig into the WaPo’s own data, it’s not some golden parachute Musk begged for. This sum, spread over two decades, includes contracts, loans, tax credits, and subsidies to Tesla, SpaceX, and X Corp. Most of it—think $22.6 billion—went to SpaceX. Tesla got about $15.7 billion. Neuralink and The Boring Company? Zilch. So, what’s the real story behind these numbers?
Let’s start with SpaceX. The lion’s share of its “government money” comes from contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense. These aren’t handouts; they’re payments for services rendered -- just as NASA has paid Boeing, McDonald Douglas, Lockheed Maritin and IBM in the past.
SpaceX builds rockets, launches satellites, and ferries astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA’s been SpaceX’s biggest customer, ponying up $14.9 billion for missions that used to cost taxpayers way more when Lockheed Martin or Boeing ran the show. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft slashed launch costs by orders of magnitude.
SpaceX has saved NASA between $20 and $40 billion over 15–20 years. Savings to the government. NOT wasted subsidy to SpaceX.
In 2006, NASA gave SpaceX a $278 million contract before its first successful launch—a bet on a scrappy startup. That gamble paid off. By 2012, SpaceX was docking with the ISS, something no private company had ever done. The government didn’t “subsidize” Musk’s success; it hired him to do what bloated contractors couldn’t. And what Boeing couldn't when SpaceX saved the astronauts stranded by the Boeing starliner on the ISS, back in March.
Now, Tesla. The WaPo loves to harp on a $465 million low-interest loan from the Energy Department in 2010, the "Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing" (ATVM) loan program.
Critical? Sure. Tesla was bleeding cash in 2008, post-financial crisis. But here’s the kicker: Tesla repaid that loan in 2013, nine years early, with interest. Compare that to the Detroit automakers, who got $80 billion in bailouts and still struggled. All the rest have not repaid their loans, not one. One loaner, Fisker, has gone bankrupt and will never repay. It was only Tesla that has given the ATVM program any credibility at all.
Tesla also earned $11.4 billion in regulatory credits—money from other carmakers who bought Tesla’s credits to meet emissions standards. That’s not a subsidy; it’s a market mechanism. Tesla built cars that hit green targets others couldn’t, so they paid up. Calling that “government money” is like saying eBay fees are welfare because you sold your old couch.
The WaPo’s $38 billion also includes $1.5 billion in state and local tax credits and grants, mostly for Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada. These are standard incentives any big employer gets for creating thousands of jobs. Nevada’s deal with Tesla brought 7,000 jobs and billions in economic activity. That’s not Musk mooching; it’s states competing for growth. The rest? Smaller contracts, like Tesla supplying vehicles to U.S. embassies or SpaceX’s Starlink hooking up the Pentagon. Again, these are deals, not charity.
Here’s where the narrative gets slippery. The WaPo implies Musk’s wealth—$424.7 billion, per Forbes—stems directly from this $38 billion. That’s nonsense. Tesla’s market cap is $1.4 trillion; SpaceX is valued at $350 billion. The government didn’t “gift” that value. Musk’s companies created it by disrupting industries. Tesla made electric vehicles mainstream when Detroit laughed them off. SpaceX landed reusable rockets -- which the commentariat had said was "impossible" -- while NASA was stuck in the shuttle era. The $38 billion, spread over 20 years, is a drop in the bucket compared to the value Musk’s innovations have generated. Without his vision, risk, and 80-hour workweeks, that money would’ve been squandered on legacy players.
The hypocrisy angle is the real gotcha WaPo’s pushing. Musk’s DOGE is gutting federal spending, yet his companies took government cash. Fair point? Not really. Musk has long criticized subsidies—like the EV tax credit—saying they distort markets. He’s not against contracts for work done, which is most of SpaceX’s haul. And Tesla’s loans and credits came under Democratic policies he didn’t control. Now, with DOGE, he’s targeting waste, not the system that pays for results. The WaPo ignores that SpaceX and Tesla delivered massive ROI for taxpayers—cheaper space travel, cleaner energy—while framing Musk as a leech.
Let’s zoom out. The $38 billion isn’t unique. Amazon’s raked in $11.6 billion in subsidies. Boeing’s gotten $15 billion in federal contracts annually. Subsidies and contracts are how governments nudge innovation or secure services. Musk’s sin? He played the game better. His companies didn’t just take money; they transformed industries, created 140,000 jobs, and gave America a tech edge. Compare that to Solyndra, which burned $535 million in loans and went bust. Musk’s critics want it both ways: demonize him for taking money, then ignore the results he delivered.
So, no, Elon Musk didn’t “only succeed” because of $38 billion in government help. That’s a lazy smear. The money was a tool, not a crutch. Musk’s real fuel? Grit, brains, and a knack for solving problems others dodged. The WaPo’s story is less about truth and more about knocking down a guy who’s shaking up their cozy status quo.
Don’t buy the spin. I don't.
Musk’s empire stands on innovation, not handouts.
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