Tension in East China Sea

 

Nancy promised to visit Taiwan and the mainland regime is furious. After Taiwan, there are those Japanese islands. 

Saw a twit in Chinese commenting about the regime's sudden turn from a very harsh antinatalist policy (one child) to a pro-natalist incentive policy. And the Chinese people take it all without protest. Leszek Kolakowski would say that both policies are correct, i.e. true Marxism is what the Party says at any given moment. 

P.S.: Nancy has erased Taiwan from her itinerary. China did frighten off America, which means that the conflict over Eastern Pacific is real. America is fighting for its lost hegemony. 

Contentment

 

Arthur Koestler writes in his autobiography that he experienced only one or two instances of happiness in his whole life, and he considers that fair in our times of sorrow. I too have had my portion of contentment, celebrating a granddaughter's birthday. Pic.: Yesterday.

Credit Suisse frittered away Bidzina's 800 million dollars

 

Bidzina Ivanishvili from Georgia is fighting Credit Suisse in Singapore. He claims  $800 million was frittered away by convicted fraudster Patrice Lescaudron, of CS. Why I am not surprised? 

The Crowe Memorandum Predicts WWIII

 

Crowe, a German-born British diplomat, wrote a memorandum of German-French-British relations seven years before WWI. He described the existing alliance system that unavoidably would lead to war. Kissinger uses this "realistic"  school of thought to call attention that the China-USA binary could operate - mechanically - to produce the same results. China would try to dominate its region and expel the Americans, while the Americans would restrict the transference of technology that one day may be used against them. Kissinger very nicely explains that it is all symbolic, there is no need that one of the parties actually does something, the mere fact that IT COULD is the same as IT DID. No one can wait for some actual move to take place, they must plan and act as if already did happen. Henry analyses the insignificant "bellicose" actions that developed into German/British hostility, and the worst seems to have been Germany's verbal support of the Boers during the South African war. Nothing at all. Today America is organizing a chain of allies in Asia, signing mutual defense treaties, and negating technology to Chinese companies, preventing future, POTENTIAL,  hostility. Bottom line: WWIII seems to be approaching.

I'll not be here nor there, not my problem.

The Future is American

 As Mearsheimer predicted, America is fighting like lion to regain its former position as global hegemon. China has been paralyzed, its GNP  this year is negative. No one knows if the COVID virus invention, developed in Wuhan with American financing and management, is an American bio-weapon (Ron Unz says so, and the decimation of the Iranian regimen attests to it). But we know that it has stopped China's peaceful rise. On the other hand, America's second rival, the European Union, has been embroiled in a hot war in Ukraine against Russia, neutralizing de-facto the powerful German export machine and ruining Ukraine and Russia. These things do not happen spontaneously, they are machinations causing America to re-emerge as the world hegemon. Moreover, China and Japan are indebted and their populations are falling. It is probable that the working-age population of China soon will be smaller than America's if we count Mexico and Canada as part of the North American market. America is sucking in workers from all over the world, its Southern border is unguarded and 3 million young people just walked in in 2022. In fact, America's future preponderance seems to have been ensured for the next generation. Apparently, Israel too is on the ascendance in its region. 

All this is happening while America is being engulfed by race conflict and growing chaos, under a senile President. But it doesn't seem to matter.   

Israel's Economic MIracle

 The latest table of The Economist says that Israel's GNP is growing at 10%. Ours is the fastest growing economy in the world. I live inside and am a part of this economy, yet feel no big prosperity. I do feel that summer fruits are 14 - 16 sheqel/kilo when used to be 5 or 6. I don't know what I'd do if Ella didn't feed me grapes. The Skoda Fabia I bought for 70,000 sheqel years ago costs today 108,000. And it is hot.  

China's 26th Dynasty

 

Today, the public officeholders in China are still referred to as “父母官,” literally meaning the “father and mother officials.” On the other end of the hierarchical spectrum, the people still address themselves as “老百姓,” literally meaning “old hundred surnames.” It is a term that emerged with the founding of the Qin dynasty that ended feudalism in China. The nobility and the slaves disappeared, and in their stead emerged the class of the “old hundred surnames,” a submissive population of probably the world’s first centralized state.



It is why the three student representatives, supposedly fighting for democracy, nevertheless knelt on the steps of the Great Hall while holding a petition paper over their heads—the typical manner of the subjects seeing the emperor—when petitioning for a dialogue with the government officials.

Many of China's government departments have "Letters and Visits" offices to receive complaints. The complaints system allows citizens to report grievances to authorities, who are then supposed to instruct other government departments to resolve the problems. It is a throwback to China's imperial days when citizens could plead their cases all the way to the capital if they couldn't get justice at home.

Today, the petitioners' thinking is heavily influenced by this tradition. They're looking for an upright and sympathetic official to personally intervene in their case. One recent survey found that only 2 percent of petitioners in Beijing had their cases resolved by the "Letters and Visits" system. But many petitioners have no other choice, as the local courts and media tend to be under the control of local governments. Petitioners complain that the "Letters and Visits" system often hands their cases right back to the local officials who cause the problems in the first place.

Brutalism is Back

 

Israel has many Brutalist public buildings, like Court Houses, the Negev Statue in Beer Sheva, and others. I never liked them, it seems to be lacking imagination, and sheer poverty. 

Yet, the Wall Street Times writes that "On balconies and in backyards, hulking stone chairs and chunky concrete tables are making their weighty presence known. The look, though not actually prehistoric, is one with a past. Brutalism, the modern-design movement more typically associated with no-frills 1960s and 1970s public buildings than patio furniture, has long been an aesthetic critics love to hate. So why, after years of trim minimalism, are designers embracing the monolithic look for the outdoors?"

Why? Because it is ugly in an impressive way.

President Biden COVID positive

 

He caught the virus on his Middle East tour. For a 79 y/o/ man it is rather worrying. 

Pic.: Vicepresident Kamala Haris. It seems to me that she will make a strong President. 

Stoned Bovine Art

 

The World as Anarchy vs Legality

 DER SPIEGEL: One of the basic assumptions of political realism (Mearsheimer) is that the international system is ultimately anarchic and that there is no authority above that of individual states. Does your experience confirm this assumption?
Kissinger (nearing his 100th birthday): No. The principle of sovereignty on which international relations were based in Europe, and via Europe, in the rest of the world, permits the evolution of the concept of legality in international law.  

The USA is working towards a world based on legality, establishing regional alliances like NATO, following the examples of the Athenian Delian League * and the Roman Latin Alliances. 

(*) The Delian League, founded in 478 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, with a number of members between 150 and 330 under the leadership of Athens.

Success in Eastern Turkestan

Recently released Chinese census data show that in 2020, Xinjiang’s #Uyghur population aged 0-4 was only 36% the size of that aged 5-9, notes @fuxianyi of @UWMadison. https://bit.ly/3ANy8rV

Pic: Uyghur fighters in Idlib, Syria. But the Uyghurs are going and soon gone. China has defeated its Muslim terrorism. A success for the Chinese and a lesson for the rest of us. 

Arik Einstein z"l

The Deep State plans to police Israel

From the Jerusalem Post: 

If the Israeli government won’t protect Jews at the Kotel [Western Wall], then perhaps Jewish Agency security teams need to be placed there.”

The Jewish Agency was the pre-State organization established by the British Mandate to serve as the native executive arm of the Colonial government. This system of indirect rule mightily helped the British colonialists to avoid frictions with the natives and was intended, theoretically, to become the nucleus of future self-government. The British had a vast and successful colonial experience and these intermediate bodies, supervised by British political officers, permitted efficient rule with very few colonials. For example, India was ruled with the help of traditional rajas and princes, while Nigeria was ruled by a dozen Emirs and Obas and so, controlled by their British political secretaries. Nigeria had then about 30 million inhabitants, ruled by about 3000 colonial officers, most of them from India. And the country was peaceful, infrastructure was built and finances were healthy. A paradise.

The Brits half-organized the Jewish Agency and gave it some powers, such as selecting the Jewish immigrants. They also tried to create a parallel Arab Agency, but the Arabs were unable to work together and they had no literate manpower to operate the Agency. 

After the Independence of Israel, the pre-State organizations lost their raison d'etre. The paramilitary armies were integrated into Zahal (by force), and so on. When I arrived in Israel, the bureaucracy that dealt with immigration was the Jewish Agency (I received a collapsible bed, a kerosene heater, and other basic home accessories.)  I was offered a job in the Hativat HaHityashvut (the settlement division) of the Jewish Agency and I was surprised that these pre-State organizations did not disappear but continued to fulfill State functions. 

The Jewish Agency still exists and stands ready - no, is hungry - to recover its governmental function. Israel is becoming more and more Orthodox and discriminates against Reform immigrants. American immigrants tend to be "woke" and vocal in their demands for gender equality and privileges for colored immigrants (such as Ethiopians). Now the Jewish Agency offers to police Israel to ensure American woke "rights', such as non-profiling American Blacks, and protect American non-Jewish sects. Rightist Israel and woke American Jewry are moving apart and fighting for primacy. The Jewish Agency, partly financed by American Jewry, still holds powerful para-governmental functions and operates - in a way - as a Deep State. It is not secret and not conspirational but aspires to protect the American way in Israel, and I mean their crazy woke extremist females. I do not write "women" because American Supreme Court does not know what a woman is because they are not biologists. And I do not wish to offend or insult Americans by calling any one of them a "woman". 

Bottom Line: I did not know that the Jewish Agency has security teams. I learn every day.      

James Thompson on Reality

Thompson writes:  

I do not wish to accuse my readers of being economists, sociologists or anthropologists, but I am willing to bet that some of you think that the way your parents brought you up, and the schools and community you were raised in, had a big influence on your later achievements in life.

A reasonable belief, but probably a mistaken one.

In fact, it is likely that all that matters is who your parents were, by which I mean your blood parents. Furthermore, conceiving you was the big step, and the rest was due to your being kept alive, and little more.

Pic.: Fate cutting the thread of life. The Greeks imagined three Moirai - spinners -: Clotho, Lachesis, and Anthropos, cutting short the length of human life. 

I want it

 

While I am healing from the COVID-19 attack, a Bavarian firm selling native volk stuff sent me an ad. They must have a very intelligent AI because I want it. When arrived in Vienna in 1956 after the Hungarian Revolution, we refugees were presented with used items, very clean and well kept. I loved my Alpine dead-goat-skin pants (aka lederhosen) and at this senile stage of my life, long for one.

I also wanted an American surplus military jacket but did not get one. My uncle lent me his but it had side openings that let the cold in. It was uncomfortable and wondered how American soldiers used it in winter. 

Another Backdown in China

 

A rare backdown. Beijing cancels China's first Covid vaccine mandate after less than 48 hours. The capital's residents had called the requirement an illegal limitation on their freedom and questioned how effective the vaccines are against omicron.

I think the backdown is a show of strength. But it also shows that they are a big bunch of crazy hypochondriacs.

The perfect present for Beijingers: Black lights—those lights that emit ultraviolet light—can quickly become a favorite tool in the hands of the right hypochondriac. When ultraviolet light shines, several everyday materials absorb that light and reflect it back. These materials include bodily fluids like urine and blood. If you have that friend who is obsessed with keeping their bathroom clean or is perpetually fearful that the family pet has peed somewhere in the house, this little high-tech flashlight can be a big help.

Ice Cream on Crete

 

Monster

 

He/She killed 7 persons in Chicago, four of them Jewish. Apparently, dressed as a female. 

Post COVID mental fog

 
I am healing from the coronavirus but I do feel the fog. Maybe it is the end of my working life. Who knows? There is a definite impairment of cognitive function. The Chinese discovered this two years ago.  So it appears that the Chinese strategy of total quarantine was justified. Now I have to live with it. 

Excess liquidity

 

Central Banks are creating too much liquidity and depreciating the real worth of their currency. The bourse's daily re-evaluation of the real worth of companies is based on the fear of losing money and therefore irrational and wrong. I have to think it all over. 

Why should I fear losing money? I need no more money. My children are all set up. Anyway, as Prof Thompson says  (https://www.unz.com/jthompson/social-immobility), apart from maintaining them in life, nothing that I can do will help them. It was obvious to me forever. 

In Jaszbereny Jewish Cemetery

 

On this day in July 1944, the ghetto of the Hungarian city of Jaszbereny was emptied and its inmates were transported to the central waiting station of the province, and then all together to the concentration lager of Auschwitz. Every year a very small ceremony takes place, and an invited rabbi says a prayer. This year, a Christian priest appeared and also gave a sermon. All over the world, Christians are appropriating our mourning. The Klein and the Kertesz are my families. Gyula (60 y.o.) was my paternal grandfather. My daughter was there and sent me the pic.  

War in Europe

Watching Hungarian TV news, I became aware that a war is going on in Europe and Hungary feels the hot breath of the Russian Army nearing its Eastern border. Origo channel has a very long report on Alexander Soros, who said that wars end with the victory of one side and that America is already more involved than it announced two months ago. Hungarians focus on Soros the hated speculator and his dynasty. They hate Jews in general. Hungary is suffering from inflation and is seriously worried. It is very hot in Central Europe. 

Himmel, Arsch und Zwirn! "How do I find out if I want to have children?"

German females are desperate for clear, authoritative orders from above, as I learn from the Zeit. They are thirsty for advice and direction, otherwise, how could they find out if they want to have children?"

I missed the answer because Zeit asked me for money. Life was freer and less confusing with the Leader. Journals did not hide their articles and asked for more money. The Jews spoiled all, the Jews are our disgrace, I am my own disgrace.

Eskom thanks all workers who reported for duty

 

Johannesburg - Power utility Eskom has announced that they will continue to implement stage 6 load shedding.  South Africa was such a beautiful, rich country. It is sinking stage by stage.