Mutti Turns 104 today! And... hurrah for Traditional Families!

Mutti, Anna, Rocky, Carey Gardens, Red Hill, Canberra, September 2025

My mum, our mum, aka Mutti, above, in Canberra, with my daughter, Mutti’s granddaughter, Anna, and my grandson, Mutti’s great-grandson, Rocky. In Canberra, Australia. 

Mutti was born on this day in New Zealand in 1921, and so, by the magic of arithmetic, is today 104. My goodness me! 

Not enough candles for a cake, so my pressie was a pot of flowers, chocolates and a card. She's then taken to birthday luncheon. 

I rang her this morning, wishing birthday greetings. I asked her a question that had a point. Which point I didn't tell her for I didn't want to steer her answer. Which I was pretty sure I knew anyway: 

The question: "You were a mother and a wife. You looked after the home and the family. Were you happy with this, or did you regret that you hadn't had a separate career?"

Her answer, the one I was pretty sure I knew anyway was: "I was happy doing what I did. I thought about perhaps I might have done something of my own, a separate career, but not too often, as I was quite happy following your father around the world, and looking after you lot."

She knew, she added, the "modern" thing of women wanting their own careers, and that was fine. But she'd been happy with her life. 

Why was I asking her this, on her 104th??

Because just recently, in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder, someone, an Occasional Reader (OR) -- perhaps a Very Occasional Reader -- of this blog, had tackled me with:

"Your hero pushes the line that women must stay at home and not have careers. He hates women.” 

… and I jump in with: "Woah! You're straw-manning! First he's not my hero. I don't share his views on a number of things. Second, I've followed some of his university debates, which are fun and where he shows himself to be the opposite of the horrid views on the Left of him [which got him murdered]. He shows himself to be a fine, decent and caring man. He doesn't push the Traditional Family thing. He just says that that's his own view, shared by his wife. “But what you do is up to you.". And that's what's debated. He's all about debate. "When debate and discussion stops, violence begins", he has said repeatedly. Oh… sad prescience. 

Afterwards, I wondered, was I right to call that rhetorical trick, the opening salvo of "Your hero says...", was I correct to call it "Straw Manning"?

I asked Grok if I was right calling it a “Straw Man”. Grok agreed:

This rhetorical tactic is most closely aligned with a straw man argument.

The attacker misrepresents your position by falsely attributing a belief to you (e.g., claiming someone is "your hero" when you only admire them). They then attack this exaggerated or fabricated position rather than your actual stance. By framing the person as "your hero," they set up an easier target to discredit, implying you fully endorse everything that person says or does, which may not be true.

Aside: The use of the Straw Man argument is very common on the Left. Perhaps I’m unfair to the Left in saying that, though that's the way it seems to me and to my own bias. I believe the Left often use the Straw Man argument, in part because they believe the worst of the Right, and they put that "worst thing" into words. Those words being the Straw Man.

Like Cathy Newman's infamous, repeated statements in her interview with Jordan Peterson: "So what you're saying is....", then inserting the most extreme version of what Peterson had just said. [His answer usually being: "No... what I actually said was...].

Back to the Traditional Family issue. Consider this. That for pretty much the whole of my life, since the 1960s anyway, the push has been the Feminist Push. According to which women need not stay at home, need not be home makers, women must go out in society, they must have their own careers. That if this means no family, so be it; if it means no husband, so be it; if it means no kids, so be it. That's been the whole narrative, everywhere and everyhow. So if there's a Charlie Kirk saying something nice about the Traditional Family, isn't that just a tiny bit of push back? And not one in any case, that he ever insisted others follow. Hence my "straw man" characterisation.

To be clear, I've always been on the side of women going out and making their own careers. On the side of the Feminist Push. That's been the case of all the women in my life. I support it. But I can also understand, and support, those who want to have the Traditional Family. 

Think about it: What Charlie did was to expand women’s rights!  Not only do you have all the career opportunities as a modern feminist; you also have the opportunity to be a wife and a mother, and to be so unapologetically. That’s an expansion, not a diminution. That’s my argument, anyway.

After all, that's what our Mutti did. For 104 years. And which satisfied and enriched her life. 

As she has fortified and enriched all our lives with her intrepid character, her loving spirit.

Which we celebrate today. 

Happy Birthday, Traditional Mutti!

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

ADDED: At our friend Marilyn’s place, birthday luncheon, “Happy Birthday to Mutti!”… And a big thanks to Marilyn for a yummy luncheon of prawns, new asparagus and BBQ lamb blackstrap. Which Mutti, bless her, wolfed down. By all accounts! 

“I’m perfect because God chose me” | Muhammad, the “perfect man”

"Debunking The Biggest Lies Told About Charlie Kirk" | Amir Odon

This is a terrifically useful video by Amir Odom, a gay conservative Black man, who met Charlie Kirk and has fond memories of how Charlie helped him. 

Amir refuses to accept that he’s a victim of “the system”. He has agency. A view supported by many Black Americans, thought leaders like Coleman Hughes, Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter, Glenn Lowry, Amala Ekpunobi, and many others. All of whom have relied on their own agency to create full and successful lives in America. “The only thing holding you back is your belief system” , Aquarius Waive.

In the video above, Amir debunks all the lies that are being told about Charlie around the internet. Lies that abound, even as he was shot and killed by a deranged leftie. Leaving behind his wife and two young children. 

A lot of stuff about Charlie is simply made up. I’ve seen people spout bald-faced lies right into the camera. And when the made-up stuff is called out, the liars suffer no harm. They simply move on. Shocking.  

ADDED: Some who’ve posted gleeful messages about Charlie’s murder, mostly on BlueSky, are now  being brought to account. Many are getting fried. [And here and here]. Good. I would not employ anyone who celebrated political murder. No matter which side. It shows a shocking lack of morality. Of twisted ethics. Which I first witnessed — shocked — after the cold-blooded murder of Brian Thompson on a New York street last December.

This is a great public service by Amir Odom. Thank you, Amir! 

TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro 10:58 - On Second Amendment 12:48 - On Empathy 15:42 - On Gay People 17:58 - On Trans People 24:21 - On Racism 28:21 - On Affirmative Action 30:58 - On Critical Race Theory 34:56 - On Illegal Immigration 39:12 - On Abortion 44:22 - Charlie’s Why 49:48 - Liberal Threats 50:55 - Leaving The Left 52:29 - My Thoughts

ADDED: “Why the Left has a violence problem”. National Review

"Democrats TERRIFIED As 1 Million+ FLOOD London to Mourn Charlie Kirk" | State of Daniel

 

Wow!

I had no idea that the assassination of Charlie Kirk would resonate right around the world. Including Spain and South Korea. And even my own country, Australia. 

Democrats: "Would you Republicans please stop thinking like you do, which makes our people murder you."

Also Democrats: "Shut up, or we'll kill you."

Also Democrats: "We're the party of tolerance, love and empathy. If you disagree, we kill you."

But then, when a suspect is caught, they immediately set about denying he's s far leftist. Which of course he is. Based on all the inscriptions on the bullets and the evidence of his family and friends, even in such leftie outlets as The Guardian. 

The curious “logic” of Leftists | Peter J. Hasson

	Peter J. Hasson ⁦‪@peterjhasson‬⁩ An absolutely enraging sequence of events: - Leftists brand Charlie a "fascist" - A 22-year-old leftist kills Charlie because he believes Charlie is a "fascist" - Thousands of leftists celebrate Charlie's murder - Leftists refuse to believe the leftist killer was a leftist   13/9/2025, 5:30 am

And:

Democrats: "Hey, Republicans! Could you stop saying and thinking stuff that makes our people kill you." 

Sent from my iPad

Democrats calling Republicans fascists and encouraging violence| Winsome Earle-Sears

	Winsome Earle-Sears ⁦‪@winwithwinsome‬⁩ Charlie Kirk's assassin wrote on the bullet casing: Hey Fascist! Catch! Here are two minutes of Democrat politicians calling Republicans fascists and encouraging violence: pic.x.com/da7J1r1PuA   13/9/2025, 4:23 am

Sent from my iPad

Tel Aviv, Israel, 2017.

Siena Pool, Discovery Bay

Yesterday, clear view to Central, Hong Kong

Musk Companies Update

I first put this list up here. The list of companies Elon Musk has created, their value, and the number of high-paying jobs he's created. 

I update it here, partly just because. 

And partly because there's a meltdown on the Musk-hating Left over a compensation package that is going to be put to the vote of Tesla stock owners, of which we are a part, in November, and which might, could, perhaps, net him Trillions (with a "T") of stock, if he manages to hit some targets, which fine and sensible folk have deemed "crazy" and "impossible". 

Since he became part of Tesla, when it only had two founders and no prototype, Musk has turned it into a profitable EV behemoth, which has the highest stock appreciation of any stock on any market since IPO -- 28,089%. As well as the jobs he's created, he has minted Thousands of Tesla millionaires. 

The point I want to make with the above spreadsheet is this: since he set up his very first company, Zip2, with his brother and cousins, and did so... yes... in the classic Silicon Valley garage, he has created nearly $2 Trillion of value in the many companies he has founded and run. All of which, by the way, have been successful. 

Now that's $2 Trillion over 30 years. 

That works out at having created $67 Billion of value each of those 30 years. 

The man is a genius. A genius of invention, of concentration, of engineering brilliance, of marketing, of manufacturing. He's our Mozart of Business. 

What happens if China tries to take over Taiwan?

 

I don't have much comment on this. 

Other than the obvious one: “Strategy never survives a collision with Reality". 

I also wonder: how well can the Chinese armed forces perform in actual battle, when they’ve not been in an actual battle since the 1979 war with Vietnam? When they lost.

As opposed to its most likely large rival the United States. Which has spent the best part of the last 40 years in battle. The last example of its skill being in the Midnight Hammer operation against the nuclear weapons facilities of Iran, which went flawlessly. Isn't there a huge advantage to the side that has actual battle experience?

Tesla Board must act NOW to increase security for Elon Musk | Steven Mark Ryan

It should not have taken the senseless slaughter of Charlie Kirk, but it did. Renewed calls for the Board to do something. Specifically to increase the security on Elon Musk. 

There are deranged loonies out there, who believe the "Republicans are Nazis" nonsense. And think along the lines of "If I'd killed actual Hitler I'd have been a hero. So if I kill today's Hitler, I'll be today's Hero". Maybe the thinking of the Charlie murderer. Thinks he's doing well for his leftist cohort. Or, anyway, removing a threat. That they are delusional enough to hallucinate. 

"Charlie Kirk shot and killed at Utah event, Trump confirms" | Nate the Lawyer

 

ADDED (12 Sep): So... the post above has been taken down. Not sure if by Nate the Lawyer, or by YouTube, but I suspect by Nate, as he was kind of riffing and he may not have wanted an emotional riff to be his lasting take on Charlie Kirk's assassination.

Nate talked about his journey from a "far left Leftie", to his conservative self today, how he was vilified by his ex friends, called a "Coon" a "House Negro" and worse. He talked of the defeatist and victim culture within the American Black community, and his personal experience of it. How Black parents set their own children up for failure. How they were complicit in the failure of Black Americans in tertiary studies, in his own area of the Law. He addressed the Black vicitmhood narrative of white people murdering Blacks, the narrative of the police hunting and killing Blacks. All of it not true, not borne out by the statistics, said Nate in his riff.

The statistics show a very different story. Nate showed the stats. He said no one on the Left wants to acknowledge that, let alone discuss it.

In short, Nate said a lot of stuff that was beside the point, which was the killing of Charlie. I'm guessing it was Nate himself who took it down. There's now no hint of it on his channel.

Back to the story... 

Following on from my post earlier today. I've been looking at this all morning, my time. The senseless death of Charlie Kirk. A good man. A very good man. On the same day as the 911 WTC attacks 24 years ago.... When it was 9:02pm our time that the first plane flew into the Tower.  

Charlie Kirk was clearly much loved, as we see in the various videos I referenced in my earlier post. I never met him, but I feel I know him as much as anybody who didn't know him personally and saw him only on the internet. 

Nate the Lawyer, IRL Nathaniel Broughty, did have contact with Charlie. 

In the course of his talk and ruminations and reminiscences Nate gets sidetracked and makes some interesting observations about why he thinks Black American Culture and Black Americans don't do so well at College, then at their careers. Watch for it. Around just before half way. 

Nate's experience: 

Admitted to the New York State Bar

University Police Officer Assistant District Attorney Law School Lecturer / Professor Director of the Law School Pipeline Program | Black Male initiative

Vale Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk. Shot while doing what he loved, talking and debating with young minds at a College Campus. Shot by someone who could not stand talk, who hated debate. Who thinks the answer is to kill.

Charlie was a man, a husband and father, a kind and very decent man, a man of unyielding conviction. A man, at 31, silenced by violence while igniting those minds on the Utah campus. A man, a devoted husband to Erika. A man, a father to a 3-year old daughter, a one-year old son. 

Charlie's life was a testament to love's quiet strength amid public fire. His legacy burns brightest doing what he most loved: empowering America's youth.

Through Turning Point USA, Charlie debated fiercely and freely on college quads. He challenged students to "Prove Me Wrong",  a bold invitation to clash ideas, fostering dialogue where others sowed division. The crowds were always large to listen to him and to have a chance to ask him questions, to challenge him. The queues were always long and he encouraged those who were most opposed to his ideas to jump to the head of the line. To have the chance to challenge him first, before his own followers. 

Here’s what he said, often, about talk, conversations and debate:

When people stop talking, really bad stuff starts. When marriages stop communicating, divorce often follows, and when civilisations cease dialogue, civil war ensues. 

The loss of human connection with those we disagree with makes it easier to justify violence against them, highlighting a critical cultural challenge. 

As a society, we must return to fostering reasonable disagreement where violence is not an option.

He urged students to reclaim agency, to question, to stand firm—not as passive observers, but as architects of their destiny. In an era of doubt, he championed the American Dream: hard workload, opportunity, and freedom's promise for all who strive.

His preferred debate and talk stage was the college campus, though he had no collegedegree himself. He encouraged students to think of options more widely. They could go to trade schools, for example; a career in the trades can provide a comfortable living (it’s true!). 

Charlie's passion called America and youth everywhere to action. That’s what the Turning Point is all about.

I hope his voice will echo in every campus AMA, that people keep making the challenge to “Prove me Wring”; open forums where young minds gather. Host them everywhere—challenge the status quo, build bridges through debate and seize the agency he encouraged all to recognise in themselves. In pursuing greatness, we honour him: a warrior for liberty, gone but forever inspiring us to rise.

Rest in power, Charlie. Your dream endures.

ADDED: MSNBC’s take is horrid*. They smear him immediately, calling him “hateful”, implying he had it coming. I followed Charlie, as much as I follow influencers and politicians on both sides. You’d be hard pressed to find anywhere on YouTube anything by Charli Peter that could be deemed disrespectful, let alone “hateful”. 

His message to kids was always one of hope and inspiration. What he did talk, as Nate shows below, is truth and facts. If you don’t like them, well too bad. But shoot him for that? That’s something only the likes of the loonies on MSNBC could contemplate, and even cheer on. 

* It seems it was too horrid a take even for the MSNBC bosses, as they've issued an apology and fired Matthew Dowd, he of the horrid "hate speech" analogy. Charlie nowhere, nohow, ever spoke of hate. Never hated a soul.

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

• “Charlie Kirk shot and killed at Utah event”. By “Nate the Lawyer” (Nathaniel Broughty). Nate is a New York Bar examined lawyer, now based in Texas. 
• “Charlie Kirk has died”, Timcast, by Tim Pool
• Charlie’s legacy. Vivek Ramaswamy on Megyn Kelly. Charlie most liked to speak to those he disagrees with.
• Friends of Charlie pay tributes. The Five 
• An immeasurable tragedy. Gad Saad
• Democrats Assassination Culture and the death of Republican Moderates. Dr Steve Turley
• A life changed by Charlie Kirk. Vince  Dao

Democrats say "Democracy is Under Attack". It is. But by whom?

Democrats say "Democracy is Under Attack". It is. But not by the Republicans. But by themselves. 

Consider this headline: 

And this: 

In The New York Times no less. The Grey Lady. The "Paper of Record".  

Calling in short for the upending and the destruction of the Constitution: "Abolish the Senate. ... Pack the Court."

And calling for the military to commit treason against the elected president of the United States who is their Commander-in-Chief. "We Used to Think the Military Would Stand Up to Trump. We Were Wrong."

Meantime, I've heard that Karen Bass, that incompetent Mayor of LA -- who was swanning about in Ghana when the fierce firestorms hit her city, killed dozens and destroyed thousands of homes -- Karen Bass says she "will not abide by a Supreme Court decision" that confirms that ICE the power to enter LA in search of criminal illegal immigrants. 

Yet it's the Democrats who moan about Republicans being the threat to Democracy?!  Look in the mirror, Dear Dems. 

Sigh....

China's big victory parade

Above from the South China Morning Post. It's a bit long, but showcases 

the goose-stepping humanoids and the synchronised head-swivelling pretty well. 

There's a ton of other videos and I'll plan to put a selection at the bottom.

Last Wednesday, 3 September and China did its big thing of the year. Their candidate for the newest Olympic sport of synchronised head-swivelling. I'm sorry, I'll read that again. Their pomp and circumstance, their pompous and circumstantial, their grand, glorious, ghastly-great parade to mark 80 years since Japan was defeated in WW2. 

Note the passive voice there. Not "China's defeat of Japan". But "Japan was defeated". Far more correct. Because the defeat of Japan was achieved not by one country, but by four countries mainly -- including China, yes for sure --  and by dozens of other countries in support, including my very own Australia, and including my very own father, who fought those "Japanese devils" to a standstill in the jungles of Papua New Guinea on the infamous Kokoda Trail and at Milne Bay. 

There were also different parties on the Chinese side. China at the time was in a titanic internal battle with itself, a civil war, between the armed forces of the KMT -- the Kuo Min Tang, the Nationalist Party -- then ruling what was known as the Republic of China (ROC) and the guerrilla groups of the Chinese Communist Party, then hiding in the hills, but which was to prevail over the KMT in 1949. A KMT more easily defeated, one might add, because they were shagged out by a long squawk they'd borne the brunt of China's (ROC) part of the war against Japan, by a factor of about 20 battles to one of the CCP. But,well, you know, let's not mention the "renegades". 

The main coalition of the willing against Japan was: the United States, the Soviet Union, the Republic of China (ROC), and the U.K.. Others included Australia, Canada, New Zealand and various of the Pacific Islands. 

It was those four main players whose flags were raised at the Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay, that September 8 decades ago: 

Above: flags of the UK, USA, the ROC and the Soviet Union
Japanese surrender ceremony, 09:05, 2 September 1945, aboard the USS Missouri, Tokyo Bay
Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu (R) presents Instrument of Surrender
to General Xu Yongchang, standing (L) who signed for China (ROC)

The United States was the largest of the coalition, about 85% of the men and materiel. It provided China with nearly $US 40 billions (in today's dollars) by: direct aid; Lend Lease, training and armaments. Then there's its famous Flying Tigers, America's Volunteer Group under the Chinese Air Force. 

And what was this vast kerfuffle of a gargantuan military parade in aid of? 

Well, in case we were in any doubt at all the international media made sure we knew: "it was to impress the domestic Chinese audience" and then, in case we were too dim: "it was to impress everyone outside China.". So, the whole world then. Got it. As in, duh?

Were the locals impressed? We can't tell of course, thanks to China's Great Firewall. Oh, and there were no members of the public allowed anywhere near Tiananmen Square, or the The Avenue of Eternal Peace. None. They were all local functionaries, apparatchiks of the regime. Loyal followers. Or, as Trump might say, "they're my friends". Or Bill Clinton's "Friends of Bill" or Fobs. Here, "Friends of Xi", or Foxes. Hah!

Mind you, that may not have bothered too many of the locals. For all the cutting back on polluting activities, even cooking with gas and oil, the skies were clearly polluted. You could hardly see the fancy fighter and helicopters at times, so thick was the smog. Not much mention of that, by the way, in the western media. 

But we got a glance of what the locals thought via posts on China's Weibo, their very own X. Before the nifty, swifty censors cracked down there were some pretty tasty posts, mocking the whole shebang. Then China's defense industry shares took a tumble on the Shanghai index. Some excused that as "profit taking", but then you don't take profit if you think there's more upside, and they clearly don't think that with what they saw. Not to mention many thought the displays were mere potemkin playthings. Maybe. 

The foreigners? Well, there's the commenters on the YouTube videos. Those I saw on the first day after the parade, on channels like the BBC, ABC, CNN, Fortune, our own SCMP, and various other news sources, were giddy with excitement. This parade just showed how wonderful China is, how advanced, how great a display they make of it all. We're doomed! 

Strange. Just a few months before, these same folks were telling us, when president Trump held a parade in Washington to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the foundation of the US Army, that it was all horrible, silly, embarrassing. and just showed Trump's dictatorship tendency. They mocked its casualness, and indeed it was pretty casual, with troops ambling along the National Mall, not a goose-step to be seen.  Not a head-swivel to be turned. But, had he tried to organise anything more rigidly disciplines, with more goose-stepping and head-swivelling vibe, we know for sure that he would have been denounced even more harshly. 

But come the real dictator, with real armies, of real humanoids and real (maybe) laser weapons, and intercontinental missiles, whose only target is the United States, as soon as we have that, then it's swooning all round. Hypocrites. 

That's about it for now. I'm glad it's over. Many loved it. I didn't. I found it a ludicrously vainglorious event. If it succeeded at all, it just succeeded in making the rest of the world even more suspicious of China.  A China which talks of "peace for the world" out of one side of its mouth then threatens with invasion, repression, war and oppression, across the Taiwan Strait, the one party that did the most in China, 80 years ago, to ward off those Japanese devils. Hypocrites. 

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

Other vids: 

What did we learn about China from its Military Parade? SCMP

China's military parade is a game changer. CrowderBits

Massive global impact from parade. Race to Space

China military parade (shorter version). SCMP

Military parade a direct message to us all. Sky News, UK

Every weapon explained. (For nerds). Binkov's Battlegrounds

Beijing parade a "coming out party". France 24

Military parade hidden points. The China Show.Winston Stertzl

Artificial Intelligences are all Lefties

I use five main ones. Grok (X), ChatGPT (OpenAI), Perplexity (private, including Jeff Bezos), Gemini (Google) and DeepSeek (China's entry).

They all lean Left. I guess if you're on the Left yourself you may not notice, because that's the sea you swim in. 

I notice because I lean Centre to Heterodox (I insist...), and the AI's take on any topic that 's in the realm of "not science", but, say, current affairs or politics, then AI's take is one I'll often have an issue with. 

Which leads to one of my things — arguing with AI, usually with minimal success. 

The reason that all AI is Left is simple. The universe of their research base is Left. They refer mostly to the Mainstream Media -- the likes of CNN, MSNBC, PBS, BBC, ABC, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and even Al-Jazeera. In Social media they refer to Reddit, Instagram, Tik Tok. Often they  go to Wikipedia, which used to be fine, but veered Left under the stewardship of that crazy lady who now runs NPR, Katherine Maher. She who said in a Ted Talk, that her main "challenge" was the First Amendment of the United States, that guarantor of Free Speech. Because that stopped her and her NPR from running the Leftist agenda at full tilt. (Though she and they did a pretty good job anyway).

AI doesn't agree its answers lean Left. Try accusing them of that. Or of being Woke. They'll deny it vehemently. We're only after providing as much information as possible, they'll say. We report as neutrally as possible, they'll  insist. Grok will say "I am directed to be maximally truth-seeking". But if the "truth" that it seeks is tilted in a biased way, then the AI is going to be biased itself. It's inevitable. 

Or else they can be biased by Omission, rather than Commission. 

I took one simple example the other day. At my request on a particular topic, Grok was listing its sources and claimed that AP was "neutral". When I challenged that, Grok said that the Associated Press is just a service, which sends out the news to subscribers, like newspapers, who then may or may not print it. I said that often a leaning one way or the other was not so much by Commission, but by Omission. 

For example, you could decide not to run stories that don't align with the Left's view. That's bias by Omission. My example was the recent case of the Ukrainian refugee, Iryna Zarutska, who was randomly, needlessly, brutally, horribly murdered by an unemployed Black man, on a subway car in Charlotte. The Left media, all of it, including AP, did not report it. It only became a story after people highlighted a video on X (oooh... how the Left hates X!). 

That's an example of bias by Omission. Grok -- amazingly -- granted my point. 

Was it important to know about a random murder of a random person by a random man? Does it help AI to be maximally truthful, in this particular case, in this particular way? Well, yes. It does. Because it raises many live issues: about refugees in the US, about homelessness, about crime and incarceration (the killer had been arrested and released 14 times already), about mental health and how to deal with it (the murderer had deep mental health issues). 

These are all very much live issues in the United States, and indeed in the world. But in this case, the Left media constellation had tried to suppress the story -- because, as Brian Stelter said on CNN, to do so is... you guessed it... racist! 

Because the constellation of liberal media, the majority of all media, had ignored it, so too had all the AIs. (Until X). And that is distinctly a bias to the Left. 

Still, would I rather have the AI Apps? Of course. And so would we all, I'm sure. The ability to ask a very specific question that gets you an answer immediately, my goodness me, that it way better than the old "just Google it". 

Still, you have to take account of AI's leanings. Because you have to take account of the leanings of the broader media landscape. 

End of rant.

She had to leave London because Islam had made it too dangerous | Avery Daye

 

The story Avery Daye tells about UCLA, from 28:45, is amazing. And profoundly illegal. She was kicked out of her class for her political beliefs. Whaaat?

She is above talking to the based Aquarius Waive. Himself a newcomer to the horrors of fundamental Islam. But he's read Islamic doctrine widely already and has done so with insight. 

UCLA is a public college in the US. It's obliged not to discriminate for any reason, least of all because of political views. 

Imagine the atmosphere at her class in UCLA immediately after the Trump win in 2016. It is just amazing. The students and the teachers comforting each other. Crying, FFS! And Avery gets kicked out of class. Listen to her story. 

What she says about London before all that UCLA fiasco is also correct. And scary. And dispiriting. And depressing. And, I believe, irreversible. London has become a low-trust society, guided if not run by Islam already. A place where Avery arrived, loved the place. And had to leave because she was scared. The reasons she describes make her fear understandable. Her experiences are mirrored by many others. Anecdote is not data.  But in London’s case the anecdotes are so numerous, they have become data. 

Our son went to UCLA. Graduated in Law. He didn’t have her issues. But then didn't ever vote, for he's not a USA citizen. He was also in London. I'd be interested in his views of Avery Daye’s experience. 

Avery’s UCLA experience of being driven out of class is one that might have been taken up by FIRE -- the Foundation for Independent Rights and Education. It’s probably too late now.

It was Tony Blair that opened the flood gates to Islam for Britain. He said “I’m going to rub the Conservatives noses in Multiculturalism”. And promptly did. I do wonder though. Does he have any quiet late-night regrets? Does he have any shame for what he’s done to this once great Britain? 

Or does he sleep soundly and wake refreshed, to pray to Allah? To thank him for the prayer rug given him by appreciative Iranian mullahs? 

Hey Trump admin: you've got to get this detention and deportation thing under control!

 

If people like me -- who are in favour of strong borders and deporting undocumented with criminal convictions -- if these people are disturbed by stories like those above, you're losing the base. 

You need to sort out the mess and sort it out pronto! Those with Green Cards, who have no criminal conviction must be released immediately. 

You need to have a much better communication flow. Tell the country what you're doing, and why and when you fix mistakes, make sure everyone knows there was a mistake and that you've fixed it. 

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, September 2011

"Mr Forsythe, I presume"
From today's random photo feed. 

This was on our trip, back in 2011, from Cape Town to Cairo. I was with old sailing mate Gordon Ketelbey in his 1968 Ford Mustang, which he'd shipped over from Australia, and ten or so other cars all Classics (aka really old cars).

Simple itinerary: from Cape Town up the west coast of Africa. Across the middle. Up the east coast to Cairo, Egypt. 

I did a blog about it here.

Just before Zimbabwe we drove through Zambia. The healthy agricultural production in Zambia was obvious. Vast areas irrigated with those monster rotating circular sprinklers. Major plant growth. Everywhere green. 

Then you hit Zimbabwe. Dry and dusty. Most obviously poor, compared with next door Zambia. It’s a stark difference sharply divided, from one side of the border to the other. From one inch here, all fine, to the next inch there, all dusty. 

We asked about it. Zambians told us that they’d originally gone down the Robert Mugabe path of Zimbabwe: expropriated the land of white farmers and kicked them out. Result: not good. The Zambian government learned quickly. They invited the farmers back, offering healthy incentives. Result: good. Return to healthy production and exportable farm surpluses.

IOW it’s all about management. About governance. One practical and effective (Zambia).The other ideological and destructive (Zimbabwe).

Despite this, South Africa, a country I spent a wonderful year in, has been following the old, discredited, harmful, Mugabe-of-Zimbabwe path. Kick out the white farmers. Murder them if they resist. Give the land to mates and supporters in your tribe. Who know nothing about farming. And who promptly bugger it up. Result: from large surpluses to massive deficits. 

People don’t learn if their ideology tells them they must not learn. 

That is: Africa needs to get over its hatred of the white man. Zambia has done it. From what we saw and the people we talked to.  That’s good management. No longer can African governments, no longer should they, blame colonialism for everything. That is the way of embitterment and hatred. The result of that: penury. 

Wake up South African president Cyril Ramaphosa. True courage is needed — stand up against the ideology of hate. It’s not too late, but it’s getting there. 

"Washington DC Allows Non Citizen To Vote & Faked Crime Stats" | Nate the Lawyer

 

I knew about this gaming of the crime stats ages ago, but it's now coming to public knowledge. The cheek of the media to claim "crime has decreased" when it's only done so because the police, the cops, the defenders of law and order, them, they fiddled the books. 

If I knew about this years ago, sitting here in Hong Kong, the media in America should also have known. They presumably do, but go along with the subterfuge, the cheating, because it supports their narrative -- which is "No crime here boss, no need help from the Orange Man Bad". 

Nate the Lawyer does a good job in the video above of describing what's going on in Washington DC. Where recent actions by the Trump administration, deploying National Guard troops, to work together with the D C police, have had a remarkable effect. One of the crimes DC residents hate the most -- Carjacking -- has falled 87%. It's been so effective that the Democrat Mayor of the city has asked Trump if they can continue. 

Meantime other crime ridden cities like LA and Chicago are refusing any help at all. Because they're Democrat and they don't want anything to do with Orange Man Bad. Even as the Vox Pop on their streets reveals that the average folks really, really, want to have the help of the Feds, in the shape of the National Guard. 

But ideologues like Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, just will not accept reality. Nate again. 

"British Youth TAKE A STAND Against ISLAMIC INVASION!..." | Aquarius Waive

 

I'm posting this video by Aquarius Waive. I don't know his real name and can't find it. I'm sure his family and friends know it. But the internet doesn't. 

Aquarius Waive is a musician, a performer and producer. He started his YouTube channel only quite recently as far as I can tell. But in that time, he's posted a number of thoughtful vids.  

My reason for posting him here is that I find him a very intelligent young man. That is to say that he comes to conclusions about things that are the same as mine. Heh!

He reads widely and comes to his own conclusions. 

On the matter of Islam, I judge him to be spot on. That's why I post him. 

Oh... he is, he seems to be, a very devout Christian. Me, I'm a devout Atheist. Have been for way longer than Aquarius Waive has lived. But I don't mind that Aquarius Waive is Christian. I don't mind any religion really, as long as it's not intolerant, supremacist, xenophobic, misogynist, proselytising and censorious. That would only apply to one religion, which is... let me see... hmmm.... 

Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia. May 2017

That’s us in 2017, and that’s one of Bali’s famous beaches, Seminyak. It doesn’t look much in this photo, I grant you. But further along, going north, the sands turn white, the waters blue and the surf’s up. Which was where we stayed, in the Bali Oberoi Hotel. 

Bali is one of the most peaceful parts of Indonesia. Bali bombings aside, of course. And that was carried out by votaries of my favourite religion (/sarc). Reason for Bali being peaceable? Its Hindu. The rest of Indonesia is Muslim. I leave that there for now. 

Usually it’s the other parts of Indonesia that have trouble. The parts that are Islamic, which is most of Indonesia. Anti -Chinese riots, for example. Or fighting for even stricter Sharia. 

Recent rioting is in the capital Jakarta is mainly against government corruption, I believe. That's all well and good, but there's an undertow of anti-Chinese hate. Mainly, like the similar hate against Jews, by Muslims against Chinese and, as with Jews, it's because they’re successful. 

The second morning of our stay at the Oberoi we took part in the once-a-year release of baby turtles into the sea. Tiny things no bigger than a table-coaster, dropped in to the surf, their tiny paddles twirling like propellers in the desperate push to open water. Where just one in a thousand of them will mature to the size of floating coffee tables, and only half of those 0.1%, the females, will make it back to this same Seminyak beach, to crawl up the sands, at night time, years later, to dig a hole in the dunes hidden in mangroves, to lay her dozens of soft-shelled eggs, to bring the process full circle.

Here in peaceful, Hindu, Bali.

Kowloon, Hong Kong, June 2018, from ferry

The 108-storey International Finance Centre on the far left. With its top 20 floors and rooftop Ozone Bar, run by the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. 

The Ozone has wonderful views out over The Peak on Hong Kong island towards the South China Sea, Hong Kong’s southern islands and China off in the misty-mountain distance. 

The far right is the Beijing Tower with a famous and very elegant Chinese restaurant, The Hutong (The Laneway), on its top floor. 

Those three side-by-side buildings just to the right of the middle of the picture is Harbour City where I lived in a monster (2,500 sq. ft) apartment, from 1990 to 1995, when I was the exalted Executive General Manager of East Asia, for the Australian Trade Commission. I took a ferry to work every morning. A five minute walk from my flat. Everything... and I maan everything... was available just outside my front door. 

Fun times. 

“Britain faces a number of civilisational-ending threats” | Paul Weston

	Paul Weston ⁦‪@PWestoff‬⁩ Britain faces a number of civilisational-ending threats. I list them in numerical order of severity: 5) Native Brits becoming an ethnic minority. 4) Islam. 3) State Institutions ALL siding with Islam & native submersion. 2) Politicians siding with Islam & native submersion.   4/9/2025, 5:14 pm
This is really, really sad for me. I feel I warned of this decades ago, but have only watched the slide to calamity in Britain gain pace like a thundering mudslide.

I agree with Paul Weston. Click above for the original post on X.

My comments: Item 5) is caused by item 4). Items 2) and  3) are the weird ones that need to be explained. Very few, if any other countries, today or in history, are complicit in their own demise. Roman Empire, maybe? Even then, I'm not so sure. 

I was just listening to news of a recent report from the University of Leicester analysing a survey of its residents about hate crimes. Leicester is now just 42% white English. That is, as we say in Ingsoc, it’s “majority minority".

Given these demographics and given that we've been assured that "Diversity is our Strength", that we’ve been reassured that Multiculturalism is Wonderful and Enriching, you'd expect relations to be rosy. They're not. Not according to the UoL report. 

Every race, at every age, and of every gender, reported being harassed by hate speech, usually by a different race. Given the university is left-leaning and would have been rather keen to find the exact opposite, it's revealing that things are so bad that even the UoL had to report them. And, I guess, some kudos to the UoL for reporting these stark and gloomy findings. 

This does not bode well for the rest of Britain, growing rapidly to the same demographics as Leicester.  

The  political class, the civil service and the media will all ignore this lesson, even as it’s clear, even as it's unambiguous and even as it's right on their doorstep.  

To some, claiming Britain faces “civilisation-ending threats” may seem wildly exaggerated. I get that. But it’s not. Not to anyone doing a deep dive on the ground and across the country. To see what’s really happening to every major English city, as a result of uncontrolled illegal immigration, from countries with very different value systems, at levels never seen in British history. Those values, to be clear, are from Islam, a whole-of-life ideology that is supremacist, homophobic, misogynist, xenophobic, intolerant of free speech and of all non-Islamic religions. All of what I have just said is true, incontrovertible and not in dispute, least of all by pious Muslims. None of it is good and all of it is worsening Weston’s items 5) to 2). 

If England becomes Islamic, its English nature is finished. Its English civilisation is finished. If you don’t believe that look at the Middle East countries pre and post Islamic conquest. Just take Iran as one example, from a vibrant multi-religious civilisation pre Islamic conquest to a repressive mullah-based theocracy post Islamic conquest. 

I’m gloomy and fear it’s already too late. I do hope, hope against hope, that I’m wrong. But so far in these pages since 2009, I’ve only been wrong by not being pessimistic enough. Everything was predicable and happened far quicker that we imagined. 

Still, I do hope I’m wrong. Still. 

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

ADDED: Do we not remember -- I fear we do not -- that it was arch-Europeanist, arch Leftist, Angela Merkel, who said, all the way back in 2010, after Germany's most recent terrorist outrage against her citizens, "Multiculturalism has failed"? Why do we forget that? Why does Europe forget that? Why does Multiculturalism everywhere still get praised? I mean, seriously, why? 

Mind you, this was the same woman who said, about the influx of refugees "Wir schaffen das" ("we can do this"). She made that comment in 2015, so I guess, to be fair, even Merkel forgot her own conclusion about multiculturalism just five years earlier. After all, if "multiculturalism had failed" why did she think that ever more of it would make it succeed? Sigh.. 

Did Trump go too far? Again? Blowing up *innocent* drug runners?

After this, not long ago, has Trump done it again? Gone too far? 

When president Obama drone-killed the terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011, there was some consternation. Not from me, but from various quarters: that he'd killed an "American citizen", overseas, "without due process". None of this from me, mind. I was just happy he'd offed a known terrorist. 

Now, yesterday, we have the case of president Trump drone-killing a boatload of Venezuelan drug runners. On the high seas. With a deftly placed missile that blew the boat, the drugs and the drug runners to smithereens. 

Now, I'm all in favour of getting rid of major drug runners. But was that the right way to do it? I mean, was it even legal?

I first up was kind of nodding along to the critics, all on the Left, oc, saying "He's out of control", that "they were drug dealers and even drug dealers get due process", and so on. Except they were talking about these drug runners like they were the victims. I can't go there. I can't be with the Left and their opposition to literally everything that Trump does (and I mean "literally" literally). Trump's recent successful DC crime crack down has the Left excusing crime, for goodness sake. His making the southern border secure has them pleading for open borders. He's against men playing in women's sports? They're full-on for it. It's a pathology. 

Then I learn that the drug cartels in Venezuela are now designated Terrorist Organisations under American law. They aren't "just" drug runners. They're invading the United States and the drugs they deal into America kill 100,000 young Americans every year. That's twice those that died in the Vietnam war. Every year. 

They are not "narco-traffickers". They are "narco-terrorists". It's war. I can buy that. Without blushing and without compunction. 

So, in the end, I come down to thinking, yeah, they're terrorists. They know that. I'm fine with USAF the US Navy taking care of business. Treating them with "extreme prejudice". 

Will this action capture the attention of the drug cartels in Venezuela? You bet it will! Way more than the suggested alternative on the Left of waiting for the drug-running boats to enter American waters, and then to "interdict" them. That's worked real well in the decades it's been tried. Not. 

Trump has this thing: He takes bold steps. He does things that no other president in my lifetime would dare to take. And they've been successful. Consider operations:

• Like Operation Midnight Hammer, the B-2 stealth bombing of Iranian nuclear weapon facilities. Take notice, Mullahs!
• Like in DC, with the recent use of Marines and National Guard to coordinate a crime crack-down (which the Democrat Mayor has now asked him to extend "indefinitely"). Take notice Villains!
• Like with today's droning a drug running boat, turning it to matchwood, on live TV, for Venezuelan drug cartels to contemplate. Take notice, Gangstas!

Sometimes we need bold action. Now seems to be on of those times. 

The Arboretum, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia, March 2016

Canberra Arboretum. Looking NE to Lake Burley-Griffin.
(Today on my Apple Photos feed)

The Canberra Arboretum became one of my favourite places to visit, when I’m back in Oz. Above, nearly a decade ago, with my then 95-yo Mother. Still in fine fettle, at rising 104. 

The Arboretum has a wonderful Visitor Centre with a very special collection of Bonsai trees that’s the best I’ve seen. Many exotic trees, but specially wonderful are the bonsai gums. Those grand, grey, gnarly ghosts, the famous eucalypts of the Australian Bush. A Blue Gum, fully grown at 200 feet, here just a foot or two tall, fully mature. 

Note the bird on the branch. Looks like a Magpie, those cheeky scoundrels of the bush. 

I’d love to see that view today.

ADDED: here's one from Mr Google. At May this year, Australia's Autumn colours. And the Visitor's Centre in the distance. 

Foreigners leaving China

  This is posted by Winston Sterzel a guy that lived in China for 14 years, learned Chinese and speaks it well, married a local Chinese woman and has a love for the country. But who left, in 2019. Because... well, he describes in the post I just linked. And also here. Where, he says, they tried a honey trap on him. 

I too love China. It's been the whole of my adult life. Since 1976. 

I don't like and don't celebrate the fact that foreigners are leaving China. It's just a fact. Which I know also from mates living in China. Who confirm that increased surveillance they feel. All of which is coming from the top. But may also be exacerbated by the Trump tariffs which have hit many businesses hard.

Expat numbers in Beijing are down 40% on pre-Covid days. And down 60% in my favourite city, Shanghai, where I spent a Golden Year in 1990. These are dramatic declines, which one would think are surely worrying the leadership, if only for the declining interest they may reflect in China's domestic market. But no hint that they are.