Fire in the Gulf

WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday (June 13) that intelligence reviewed by US officials showed that Iran was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, a critical waterway for the transit of much of the world's petroleum.

Iran's clerical leadership seemed rational, but firing tankers is suicidal. Something is going on.

The holes in the ships look like caused by small mines. Is somebody mining the Gulf? Iran. It may have been a work accident while maintaining the minefield. 

Destructive Destruction of Israeli Corporations

Only three years ago Israel's economy was dominated by ten or so "tycoons" - self made men who built up business empires. They were nice modest people, like Alovich, Fishman, Dankner, etc.  None had a yacht and none built a palace for their twelve racecars. They were not that kind of people. Yet the focused hate of the media and the left-wing parties succeeded in embroiling each one of them in judicial procedures and paint them as criminals or suspected criminals(pic. the former tycoon Danny Dankner behind bars) .

Government economists argued that the concentration of so much economic power in few hands was deleterious to the country in many senses, not only economical but political and social. So new legislation forced them to dismantle their organizations, sell parts to the public, etc. The resulting situation is that today big corporations have no dominant shareholders, the shares have been dispersed and owned by pension funds and insurance companies that have no interest in the management of the business. So we have central businesses like Bank Leumi, the largest of Israel, Bank Poalim, El Al, Bezeq the phone monopoly, etc. that today have no visible personal owners and are managed by anonymous directories.

I think that this situation is very bad, because the directories (composed by bureaucrats and diversified leftists NGOs) have no enterprising spirit, no sense of business and no desire to expand and improve. In this sense the Chinese Communists were more intelligent: they sold for peanuts their State enterprises to enterprising individuals that developed them into global emporia. And not only that: a physical person knows that he can be sued, is vulnerable and will lose his fortune if he makes mistakes; not like a commission that has no fear of consequences nor responsibility. I am sure the Chinese hate the rich owners of their factories as we do, but they know that factories need to be owned by somebody, and State ownership is the worst. 

Israel Prepared for Missile Attack

Israel is prepared for next missile attack. It has been divided into 17 alert areas, so hen the missile is coming, the targeted area will be alerted while the rest of the country can continue sleeping in peace. I am in the green area, we are not expecting a flying bomb in the near future.  We shall have 90 seconds to seek refuge. 

The Czar Nikolay

Trotsky in his history of the Russian Revolution analyzes the Czar the last of the Romanov dynasty. He was a good looking sportsman, a man without emotions, "'without insides" (said the monk  Grigori Rasputin), a mediocre nobody spending his time in paddling in a canoe and noting down in his diary that he had tea on the terrace.  Probably he was quite stupid, too. All the while his army was destroyed by the Japanese in Tsushima, and later by the Germans. Russia's defeat in WWI produced millions of embittered soldiers who had been brutally flogged "to elevate their fighting spirits" and had witnessed the incompetence of the noble officer caste and were more than ready for a change. They started to doubt the divinity of the Czar and that the Jews had killed the Son of God. The Jews they knew personally had fought courageously and seemed good leaders.

Trotsky describes the vacillating Kadets during the revolution and how the extremist, terrorist left - the Bolsheviks - seized the power. This minuscule political illegal organization was the most virile, daring and decided element in the whole Russian universe. The Czar was unaware of their existence, he did not fight them, he was pleasantly occupied in open air sports, attending the Orthodox Church ceremonies and drinking his tea in the terrace. Soon after the Russian nobility found itself driving taxis in Paris. "Europe had a debt to history, and had to pay it".  

Trouble in China

A million strong demonstration is marching in Hong Kong central street. They are resisting the extradition law, meaning they do not want to be under Chinese Communist dictatorship. Taiwan is able to maintain its independence now for seventy years. It is a bad example for China mainland, it means that separation is feasible. Will the Peking government order a military invasion and massacre? Anyway, trouble down the way.  

Nostalgy for an America that is No More

Pinkwashing Homonazism

"Cosas veredes, Sancho... " quote Don Quixote. You will see things...  never imagined things. Israel is being accused of promoting Gay Parades, etc. to pinkwash itself, to be seen as a liberal society, hospitable and friendly to everyone. To make a contrast with the surrounding Islamist societies, where women are kidnapped and sold as sex slaves and gays are thrown down from tall buildings (remember the Islamic State?).

What can we say? Nothing. We should not care about what our enemies say, they hate us and will turn everything on its head, we should keep doing what is right.

Personally I am tolerant of homosexuals, because of something that happened long time ago in Buenos Aires. A Hungarian Jewish teenager, only son of Auschwitz survivors, of my acquaintance, killed himself. For being different. Better have him dressed as a prostitute and star in a parade.