Links - 5th June 2026 (3 - China's 'Peaceful' Rise)

Xiaomi Japan Apologizes for ‘Inappropriate’ Atomic Bomb Ad - "The ad was intended to promote Xiaomi’s latest smartphone line, the Redmi Note 9 series, internationally. Around 45 seconds into the two-minute commercial, the ad shows a Caucasian man inflating into a balloon after eating a piece of sushi. After bursting through the roof, the man explodes into a mushroom cloud over a Japanese cityscape. The imagery, apparently aimed at promoting the phone’s “fast charge” feature, has been ridiculed for its tone-deaf allusion to Fat Man — the code name of the atomic bomb the United States dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II. While some Chinese netizens have condemned Xiaomi’s promotion as insensitive, others have sung its praises and called the company patriotic on microblogging platform Weibo.  “They didn’t forget the atomic bomb, we didn’t forget their invasion of China,” one Weibo user commented under a related post, referring to the Second Sino-Japanese War.  The now-deleted Fat Man ad is Xiaomi’s second publicity debacle in as many weeks. On April 25, the company’s vice president Chang Cheng made headlines after suggesting that the camera for a Xiaomi phone marketed to students could be used to zoom in on a basketball player’s crotch or spy into women’s dormitories. He later apologized."
From 2020

Deadly China air crash caused by fuel shut off - "Fuel switches on a Boeing 737 jet that crashed in 2022 killing 132 people appear to have been deliberately shut off, newly released data show.  Data from the plane’s “black box” flight recorder show that the engines were switched from “run” to “cutoff” at cruising altitude.  The information may bolster claims that the airliner was intentionally crashed. It was obtained by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which analysed it in Washington.  The data, first reported by CNN, provide the clearest insight so far into why the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed into a mountain in the remote Guangxi region on March 21, 2022.  There has been speculation that the pilots could have been responsible for what was China’s deadliest air disaster in decades. The NTSB analysed the data because Boeing is an American plane manufacturer and the results were released after a freedom of information request... The NTSB also obtained four voice recordings from the cockpit recorder, which was damaged, and sent them to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), but did not keep any copies.  Tony Stanton, an aviation expert at Strategic Air, an Australian consultancy, told CNN that the new data “does not by itself prove motive, intent or who moved the switches”.  However, what the data show is “very difficult to reconcile with a conventional dual-engine mechanical failure and is much more consistent with [human] commanded fuel shutoff”, Mr Stanton said.  There were three pilots on duty at the time of the crash: Yang Hongda, 32, the captain, Zhang Zhengping, 59, the first officer, and Ni Gongtao, 27, a trainee second officer.  Speculation has focused on Zhang, who had recently lost his captain’s rank, and Beijing has been accused of suppressing information.  The CAAC has previously denied that the crash was intentional, but has not addressed what caused the nosedive.  Last year, the CAAC discouraged the release of further information about the incident, because it would “endanger national security and social stability”."

New York Post on X - "Arcadia mayor Eileen Wang admits acting as foreign agent for China in plea deal"

Blume Industries CEO Balding 大老板 on X - "Here is what I want you to focus on because people will miss the important part. Arcadia is a city of 50,000 people in the never ending sprawl of the Los Angeles metropolis an hour west of downtown and China will invest in influencing that. How much do you think they will go after bigger targets like funding US think tanks, university China centers, and others. There is a reason they get university professors to lobby on their behalf to keep taking money from China. What you see is just the top if the iceberg"

Melissa Chen on X - "Americans need to contend with how poorly liberalism is designed to handle this.   Libs simply cannot bring themselves to admit that the relationship between a Chinese citizen (or diaspora) and the Chinese Communist Party is not the same as the relationship between an American citizen and the US government.   There is no wall. There is no Constitution telling the state it cannot compel the individual.   In China the individual exists to serve the Party. We wrote the opposite into our founding document. Government cannot force your speech, your allegiance, or your silence.   But liberalism’s one non-negotiable commandment is: Thou shalt not notice cultural or political differences  Especially if noticing them might make you sound mean and do mean things such as pass an exclusionary law.   So we’re told we must pretend every Chinese immigrant or student carries the exact same relationship to their government that Americans do. We must also somehow ignore the United Front Work Department’s explicit doctrine of using overseas Chinese as instruments of influence. We must treat espionage, propaganda, and infiltration as isolated “bad apples” instead of state policy.  You realize that China doesn’t have to beat us in a fair fight? It simply has to walk through the door that’s propped open with our own suicidal ideology.  Every time another Wang or Fang or CCP-linked “community leader” gets caught, the libs and progressives will shrug and do nothing. They refuse to even acknowledge the asymmetry.   Which is exactly how Beijing turns American values and systems into fatal vulnerabilities."

Blacklock's Reporter on X - ".@AnitaAnandMP's dep't tells China it regrets "mass grave" at Kamloops Indian Residential School: "@GAC_Corporate strongly urges China not to repeat Canada's past mistakes."  https://t.co/TuU2ItCb1x #cdnpoli https://t.co/RGsXzc8MTk"
"Just in case you were wondering if Anita Anand is an idiot, she has cleared up that question for us all.  No children were murdered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, but the Chinese Communist Party  starved and murdered more than 40 million people.  But in the relativistic Liberal mind we need to say we "regret" something that did not happen and pretend China has not engaged in real mass atrocities against minority groups and its own people."
Left wingers just hate their countries

NBC News on X - "The resignation of a Southern California mayor who pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign agent for China has sparked backlash and reignited fears of anti-Asian discrimination."
Hans Mahncke on X - "Every time something bad happens involving China, the same line gets rolled out by the fake news falsely claiming that there’s a backlash and fears of discrimination. The repetition is so consistent that the only possible conclusion is that China is funding the messaging."
jane_herriot on X - "I am sure that Chinese Americans are just as afraid and suspicious, considering they are the primary targets of CCP harassment."

Andy Ngo on X - "Who remembers that the late long-time California Democrat U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and former Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee had a Chinese spy staffer work for her for almost 20 years?"
Melissa Chen on X - "Oh it's even WORSE than this.  Far more scandalous than the CCP spy working as Dianne Feinstein's driver (who was never charged) is the fact that her and her husband, Richard Blum, raked in fortunes while she repeatedly voted to deepen economic ties with China.   Back in the 1980s, when Feinstein was mayor of San Francisco, Blum was already planting seeds in the People’s Republic. He served as director of Shanghai Pacific Partners, which struck a joint venture with Shanghai Investment and Trust Co. - a major Chinese government bank - to develop a $30 million high-rise retail and residential complex in Shanghai. This was one of the earliest big joint ventures between San Francisco interests and Chinese state entities.   (Would be nice if Blum had built high-rise residential complexes in their hometown of San Francisco, right? As mayor isn't housing one of her jobs? Lord knows SF needs it badly)  Blum’s personal stake started small and turned profitable. Feinstein, meanwhile, became one of the first American mayors to embrace the Chinese regime after normalization. Then came 1989 and the tanks at Tiananmen Square. While the world recoiled in horror, Feinstein rushed to Beijing, met with Jiang Zemin (whom she later called a “good friend” and bragged about dancing with), and essentially carried water for the butchers. She downplayed the massacre, claimed that China had “learned a lesson,” and even had the gall to equate it with Kent State in congressional hearings.   Her message was "there's nothing to see here, let's move on." By the time Feinstein entered the Senate in 1992, the family business was shifting into high gear. Blum’s China portfolio was about to go on a generational run.   In 1994, his firm co-founded Newbridge Capital, an emerging-markets private equity fund laser-focused on China and Asia in general. That same year, as Congress debated pulling China’s most-favored-nation (MFN) trade status over human rights abuses, Feinstein took to the floor to warn that sanctions would only “inflame Beijing’s insecurities.” She continued to insist that engagement and trade would moderate and liberalize the regime.   Conveniently, her husband was preparing to pour millions more into the same regime. When some colleagues pushed back in 1994 hearings, Feinstein played the whataboutism card: why single out China when Russia was in Chechnya and Liberia was a mess?   By 1995, she’d landed a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and used it to lecture that “China is changing” under Western influence. In 1996, Newbridge snapped up a 24% stake in a Chinese state-owned steel manufacturer for $23 million. Around the same time, a Newbridge managing director, Peter Kwok, turned up with consulting ties to a subsidiary of COSCO, the massive state-owned shipping behemoth tied to the People’s Liberation Army.   Feinstein continued to argue against conditioning trade on human rights, and in 2001 became a leading voice in support of granting the PRC permanent normal trade relations and WTO membership.   It would “pull China toward international norms,” she promised. We all know now how that would turn out.   Meanwhile, Newbridge was printing money. In 2002-2004, it orchestrated a $145 million deal for an 18% stake in Shenzhen Development Bank, one of the first Chinese banks open to foreign investors, becoming the largest shareholder and the first foreign entity to gain effective control of a state bank.   By 2003, the firm managed $1.2 billion; within five years, it ballooned toward $50 billion with offices in Beijing and Shanghai. Blum’s personal fortune swelled past $1 billion.   By the time of her death in 2023, Feinstein's net worth estimates ranged from the tens of millions (including a Hawaii condo, D.C. mansion, private jet, and massive Carlton hotel stake) while the family’s combined assets reflected the golden China bet paying off handsomely.  Feinstein sat on key committees that shaped US-China policy, while her husband’s funds poured capital into Chinese state-linked enterprises. If you want to believe that this is all just coincidental, then have I got a bridge to sell you.  In the process, she minimized the PRC's human rights atrocities, downplayed espionage threats in her own office, and helped usher China into the global trading system that hollowed out American manufacturing and enriched the CCP and her family.  All the while, the Blums enjoyed intimate dinners with Jiang Zemin (China's president) and his wife, invested alongside Chinese state banks, and at the end of it all, walked away billionaires. Feinstein was the smiling face of the bipartisan elite consensus that enriched themselves at the expense of the American public.   The driver is only the side piece here. The real betrayal was from within.   The worse part is that they aren't alone. They were simply better at it than most."

Former Vancouver Mayor Says Premier Eby Aware of RCMP Investigation Into B.C. Cabinet Minister Over Alleged Chinese Government Collaboration - "Kennedy Stewart, the former mayor of Vancouver, said in a broadcast interview Monday that British Columbia Premier David Eby is aware of an active RCMP investigation into a sitting cabinet minister suspected of collaborating with the Chinese government — and that senior NDP officials have been alerted to the matter with no apparent action taken... Stewart was initially interviewed in connection with a Global News report revealing that Chinese consular officials had pressured a Vancouver city hall employee to cancel a run of Shen Yun performances at the city-owned Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Shen Yun presents performances celebrating pre-Communist Chinese cultural traditions — programming the Chinese government has long sought to suppress abroad. The shows went ahead April 8 to 12, despite the consular pressure and bomb threats. But Stewart told Johal he believes British Columbia’s vulnerability to Chinese interference runs far deeper than a single incident at the civic level... Stewart, who served as Vancouver’s mayor from 2018 to 2022, said he had signed non-disclosure agreements when he reported the matter nationally, and acknowledged taking a personal risk by raising it publicly. “I am even taking a risk mentioning this to you here,” he said. When Johal asked him to confirm the individual remains in B.C. government today, Stewart replied: “Yes.” He described a pattern of foreign interference left unaddressed at both the civic and provincial levels, only leading to more Chinese meddling in Canadian politics. “You’re seeing what happens when you don’t address these things seriously — you’ll just get more and worse interference.”... The remarks came as Prime Minister Mark Carney pursues a diplomatic and trade realignment with Beijing — a pivot The Bureau has reported reflects longstanding interests within Canada’s corporate and political establishment — and as British Columbia remains a hotspot for suspected Chinese foreign interference operations in Canada... In June 2024, The Bureau revealed that an officer from British Columbia’s Organized Crime Agency had investigated a Vancouver Police officer in connection with alleged police database breaches — specifically, suspected misuse of the Canadian Police Information Centre — and concerns that sensitive law enforcement data may have been passed to Chinese officials... A separate CSIS document from January 2022 alleged that China’s consul general in Vancouver, Tong Xiaoling, stated that Chinese diaspora voters needed to be mobilized to elect a specific Chinese-Canadian mayoral candidate in Vancouver’s 2022 election"

China blocks Meta’s $2.5 billion acquisition of Singapore-based AI start-up Manus - "China has decided to block Meta Platforms’ US$2 billion (S$2.5 billion) acquisition of agentic AI start-up Manus, making a surprise move to unwind a controversial deal that has drawn fire for the leakage of technology to the US... The decision is likely to send a chill through China’s burgeoning artificial intelligence sector, and emerged mere weeks before a high-profile summit between US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping.  Beijing has tightened scrutiny of key AI companies in the wake of the deal, which has been largely completed. Initially hailed as a template for start-ups with global aspirations, critics have since lamented the loss of valuable technology to a geopolitical rival.  Beijing’s agencies have since moved to discourage a repeat of the Manus manoeuvre, which was completed with unusual speed... Those restrictions risk further isolating China’s recovering tech sector from the venture backing that has underpinned it for two decades, much of which was sourced from American pensions and endowments. .. It remains unclear what other action Beijing will take following its investigation.  Manus co-founders Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao had been barred from leaving China"
Damn American protectionism! This must be due to anti-Chinese racism!

Thread by @NetAskari on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "EXCLUSIVE: How the track foreigners in China - We got rare access to demo system developed by the Ministry of Public Security in China for the prefecture of Zhangjiakou, to track and surveil foreigners visiting or being residents ( actually it applies to most nationals as well, but in this case it seems to be aimed at foreigners ). It is officially known as "Dynamic control platform for overseas personnel".
The test-system is fed with real world data it seems. We confirmed with some individuals that the data in the system were theirs, including some data of our own. The system provides a wide range of functionality, not all implemented. In China, locals as well as foreigners have to be registered with local authorities. So your general whereabouts are known. If you are a traveler, usually this is done via your hotel. This is how it was for most of ht time in the past. Digital tools have streamlined this process, but also opened up a complete new possibility of real time tracking. Camera's with face detection can track your location in real time, going from one place in a town to another. But the system also stores your travel data, like when riding a train. Your seat, carriage etc. is kept on record for later analysis. This information can be access in real time and, as we later see, will go into a general profile of you. The system differs between residents who stay in the region for work or study and temporary residents, like Tourists and other travelers. It stores most data of the residents, like passport data, visa data and cellphone numbers. Each resident will receive a detailed profile that can be inspected via a "quick view", including a "risk factor". But the system provides much more details on the individual. It should be mentioned that this don't seem to be specific target persons ( we come to that later ) but just every foreigner in a region X. That includes medical records, movement data, job and residential information, consumption of petrol (?), daily routines and "social interactions".  This "social interactions" are interesting as the system has a relationship model functionality that puts people into relationship on how often they appear on visual surveillance footage together. In the case of this "demo", they seemed to have taken people with Pakistani nationality as their test case mostly. It also has a pre-compiled database of "fugitives", "key personnel", ( euphemism for people under dedicated surveillance ) foreign students and foreign journalists. This seem to be used to run interference against to warn local administration and security organs that those "special" visitors have made it to the town/prefecture/sub-district. All the data of the journalists in this database used were legit, but focused only on the foreign journalists based in Beijing. A statistical functionality has been also integrated ( albeit a little bit basic ). In the spreadsheets apart from classical statistical numbers on general visitor numbers, there is a particular focus on citizens from "5 eyes countries". That tracks with the general suspicion in the Chinese security bodies, that nationally equals to "general suspicion". But do the information just come from official surveillance tech that the police operates ? No. It also gets its data input from cameras from a ski lift access system. As Zhangjiakou is a popular winter sport location, why not incorporate this data stream as well !? This hints that not just "official surveillance infrastructure" is contributing to the overall system, but that sensors from other, more private settings are incorporated too. A journalist who was detected while skiing, was flagged immediately. A "bird's eye view" of the information is also available showing interconnection of different nationalities, how "travelers" are related to each other under "companion statistics". Plus general stats on violations, police cases etc. It should be mentioned again, this is a test demo and how much of it has been implemented in a functional way or have made it into real life scenarios, we don't know. If you want to get a proper deep dive come over here to read up on the PART 1 on the "Dynamic Control Platform for obsess personnel" ( PART 2 will be out soon too with more technical details of our investigation ). Judging by what we could find in the dashboard, the system was tested at around 2023 but some of the underlying data is from 2021. Although some minor changes were made on the UI this year, it seems by pretty much abandoned and has now been taken offline. -"

Melissa Chen on X - "This is 1984, Minority Report, Person of Interest and Black Mirror all rolled into one and cranked to the power of 1000.   This isn’t sci-fi. It’s already happening. In China.   Take a look at the “Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel” run by China’s Ministry of Public Security.   It’s a live demo system fed with actual data on foreigners and plenty of Chinese nationals too.   Real-time face recognition cameras track you walking from one block to the next. Your train seat, carriage, hotel registration, visa details, cellphone number, medical records, job info, daily routines, even how much gas you buy - all hoovered up and profiled by the system.  It builds relationship models based on how often you appear together with someone on CCTV footage. It flags key personnel, foreign journalists, students, and anyone from Five Eyes countries for special suspicion. It has risk scores, fugitive lists, and statistical breakdowns by nationality. Data is pulled not just from police cameras but from private sources as well. Even ski lift access systems are not exempt - one journalist gets spotted skiing and the system lights up.  Please understand that the false bogeyman of anti-Palantir sentiment in the West is pure projection.  You will hear influencers and comedians (eg. Tim Dillon) clutch their pearls over @PalantirTech  — a Western company building data tools that democracies can and do oversee, audit, and limit through courts, elections, and public scrutiny. Meanwhile they will ignore this.  This data platform is actually official CCP infrastructure. There is no moral equivalence here."

Melissa Chen on X - "EU Trade Chief: trade between Europe and China is unsustainable
At first, they mock Trump
10 years later, they all start to sound like him
The journalist rightly asks what serious actions they will take?
He says: more dialogue and engagement
This is Europe in a nutshell"

Melissa Chen on X - "Unbeknownst to most, the Europeans are now quietly cranking up a full-spectrum trade offensive against China. This despite Macron and Merz talking a big game about strategic partnership with Beijing at Davos. A Chinese state-linked security scanner giant with deep CCP ties - called Nuctech - is the perfect case in point.   The company specializes in security inspection equipment, including X-ray, CT, and other scanners for airports, ports, and borders. Because such scanners process sensitive information at critical entry/exit points, it raises alarms over espionage, data exfiltration, and sabotage. Imagine the scenario where weaker detection allows the proliferation of nuclear/radioactive materials.    Like many Chinese firms, Nuctech is subject to Chinese national intelligence laws that compel cooperation with the government.
USA:
> TSA banned Nuctech from US airports in 2014
> added to Dept. of Commerce Entity List in 2020
> lobbied allies against using it
Europe:
> Poland's Warsaw Chopin Airport is removing Nuctech scanners over security concerns
> Lithuania banned it
> Belgium restricted use in customs
> won many public tenders in Europe despite concerns
> UK Border Force actively uses Nuctech scanners for vehicle and cargo checks
The EU launched a full investigation of Nuctech for unfair trade practices - for receiving grants and subsidies that allowed the company to undercut EU competitors with excessively advantageous bids. This is how they got market share and now operates in 170 countries.   China's Ministry of Justice just blocked Nuctech from complying with the EU probe, calling it "unjustified extra-territorial jurisdiction" for demanding information inside China. This is the first use of new Chinese rules against foreign measures.   China then threatened countermeasures in retaliation and accuses the EU of overreach. The EU says its requests are standard. This escalates tensions and highlights how Chinese firms can be pulled between home-government directives and foreign regulators.  Nuctech isn't just one company - it's Exhibit A in how China's economic aggression and refusal to play by "free and fair" trade rules have now spurred Europe to act.   It looks like the era of naive engagement is over; even Europe is waking up"

Chinese university students told to spy on classmates, report says - "Chinese students at UK universities are being pressured to spy on their classmates in an attempt to suppress the discussion of issues that are sensitive to the Chinese government, a new report suggests.  The UK-China Transparency (UKCT) think tank says its survey of academics in China studies also highlighted reports of Chinese government officials warning lecturers to avoid discussing certain topics in their classes... some universities are reluctant to address the issue of Chinese interference because of their financial reliance on Chinese student fees. The report alleges that some Chinese academics involved in sensitive research had been denied visas by the Chinese government, while others said family members back in China had been harassed or threatened because of their work in the UK.  Those sensitive topics can range from science and tech to politics and humanities, the report says, such as alleged ethnic cleansing in China's Xinjiang region, the outbreak of Covid or the rise of Chinese technology companies.  Some academics reported intimidation by visiting scholars or other Chinese officials, as well as by staff at Confucius Institutes."

Melissa Chen on X - "This is a major new crackdown by China’s securities regulator (CSRC), which announced that it will confiscate all revenue earned by three overseas brokerages.  Why is this happening? Capital controls. The CCP is determined to keep money from flowing out of China unchecked.   Mainland Chinese investors face strict annual quotas (via SAFE) and regulatory hurdles for overseas investing. These brokerages had become popular workarounds, allowing easier access to global markets. Beijing views this as a threat to financial stability, currency control, and its broader economic command.   With a stroke of the pen, this is a regime that can seize revenues retroactively, shutter operations, and subordinate private enterprise to the imperatives of capital control and political stability.   Corporations rarely lose sleep over abstract moral questions. What truly commands their attention is risk.   Yet on China, far too many have badly mispriced that risk."

The Sirius Report on X - "Paranoia on steroids, What happens when you are an abusive hegemonic power in terminal decline: Everything that was given to the US delegation by Chinese officials was thrown in a bin before boarding Air Force One. Even delegation pins."
China snooping on UK using TEAPOTS with hidden listening devices planted inside - "China has tried to snoop on a civil servant using a teapot with a hidden listening device.  The bug was planted in a teapot that was given as a gift to a UK-Beijing embassy worker.  The device was only discovered when the pot smashed into pieces.  An insider said: “They were given a tea set as a parting gift by their Chinese hosts."

Thread by @thestustustudio on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "🚨 Hasan Names Singham, PSL, ANSWER, and Code Pink in One Breath  On stream today, Hasan Piker discussed the reported Treasury scrutiny and said the broader target is “probably Singham” and “his operation,” naming PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation), ANSWER Coalition, Code Pink, and “anything that he has ever financed.”  He then acknowledged that Roy Singham lives in China and has been “a funding vehicle” for political movements and activism in the United States.  That is exactly why this matters.  This was never just about one influencer’s Cuba trip. It is about the Singham-linked ecosystem, the groups it funds, the delegations it supports, and the political operations built around them.  Hasan didn’t refute the network. He mapped it.
Singham usually stays far from the public-facing side of the operation. His influence runs through subordinates, funding channels, and the groups orbiting his network.  That’s why it stands out when people inside that ecosystem mention him directly. Fergie Chambers, another far-left financier funding similar projects, offers a pretty revealing critique of the Singham network and how little transparency there is around Singham’s role.  And of course, it’s always worth hearing Singham in his own words.  I’ve made a few clips from the rare occasions where he has actually spoken publicly. And lastly, enjoy this supercut of Singham reflecting on his life. It gives you a crystal-clear look at his beliefs, worldview, and animating ideology."
Billionaire money in politics is only bad if it threatens the left wing agenda

Reddit Lies on X - "So it turns out PSL has a LOT of Reddit moderators (and therefore subreddits) under its control.
r/TheRightCantMeme r/GenZedong r/LateStageCapitalism
Effectively the entire "Tankie" faction on Reddit appears to be directly influenced by China. Thanks for the info, Hasan."

The New Blood Libel

The New Blood Libel - The Atlantic

"On the night of March 2, 2026, at about 10:45 p.m., a car pulled into the synagogue’s driveway. A person stepped out of the passenger side and aimed a handgun at the synagogue’s glass windows... This person emptied the gun, paused, then resumed firing, 20 shots in all. The bullets shattered nine panes of glass, their wooden framework gouged by bullet fragments.

Two months later, the synagogue’s windows remain boarded over. The synagogue’s rabbi, board, and other decision makers are pondering a new and difficult dilemma: how to fortify their house of worship against a world where Jews are again marked for violence by their neighbors.

This is the backdrop for the vehement response that so many Jews and friends of Israel have had to a column by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times last week, in which he alleged a systematic Israeli campaign of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Anti-Semitic violence in the Western world is quickening in tempo and intensifying in lethality. Much of that violence can be blamed on anti-Jewish incitement that draws on the deepest foundations of anti-Jewish myth...

It’s just one incident out of too many to summarize or even tally. The deadliest so far was the mass slaughter at a Hanukkah party on Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December, but perhaps only luck and good police work have prevented an even worse atrocity on American soil. In March, a man bearing an AR-15-style rifle crashed a car loaded with improvised explosives into a Michigan Jewish preschool near dismissal time. Just this past week, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced that federal prosecutors had thwarted a plot to commit mass-casualty attacks on Jewish institutions in Los Angeles and New York. 

The town of El Burgo, Spain, near Málaga, has a tradition called the “Burning of Judas” on Easter Sunday. In April, the image of Christ’s betrayer was replaced by a 23-foot effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, detonated to the cheers of townspeople and tourists. In November, protesters staged a parody Thanksgiving dinner at Union Station in Washington, D.C., in which figures wearing masks of Netanyahu, President Trump, and former President Biden pretended to drink blood and eat human organs and limbs, and wiped their mouths with Israeli flags.

As these instances suggest, the line between anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist is often merely semantic. Do you disapprove of Israeli policy? Then go ahead and depict the country’s prime minister as the betrayer of Christ. Do you believe that the Israeli government used excessive force after the pogrom of October 7? Then revive ancient accusations of Jews masterminding a political conspiracy and engaging in ritual murder and dismemberment. Eager to show solidarity with Palestinian grievances? Go ahead and shoot a synagogue.

After each incident, local politicians intone familiar formulas: This is not who we are. Anti-Semitism has no place in our city/state/country. These formulas ring false because they are false. After the first DUI, an inebriated motorist might plausibly say, “This is not who I am.” But after the sixth or eighth? Sir, an alcoholic is exactly who you are. If you want to change, you’d better accept the truth about your condition.

This is the concern that the critics of Kristof’s inflammatory Times opinion column have been trying to convey. Kristof claimed that Israeli prisons systematically engage in extreme sexual abuse of prisoners, including anal rape by dogs. He argued that this alleged systematic abuse is morally equivalent to the mass rape of Israelis by Hamas: “The Israeli government rejects suggestions that it sexually abuses Palestinians, just as Hamas denied raping Israeli women.”

Many critics have noted the column’s defects of evidence and sourcing. For example, Kristof relied heavily on information provided by Euro-Med Monitor, despite the fact that the NGO has reportedly deep connections to Hamas and a history of circulating false allegations, including that Israeli forces harvested the organs of dead Palestinians. Critics have also pointed out that the two named victims of prison abuse have changed their stories over time. One man who initially claimed in 2024 to have been “threatened” with sexual abuse insisted six months later that he had suffered it. The other named source, described by Kristof as a freelance reporter who prides “himself on his journalistic professionalism,” has a record of celebrating terrorists on social media.

Kristof wrote that he asked former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about these allegations of sexual abuse against Palestinians. “Do I believe it happens?” Olmert responded. “Definitely.” Yet Olmert later said that he has no knowledge to support Kristof’s claims of systematic sexual abuse and that the column misrepresented his views.

The most inflammatory charge in Kristof’s column was the report that Palestinian men were anally penetrated by dogs “coached to rape prisoners.” The rape-by-dogs claim seems to have originated as a pure invention by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. It was then recycled on social media by anti-Israel partisans who amplified the slur into an urban legend. In response to skepticism about the anatomical improbability of a dog penetrating a human, Kristof mentioned that he had found “three different medical journal articles” that discussed “rectal injuries in humans from anal penetration by dogs.” Kristof did not provide links to these articles, nor did he acknowledge that the medical literature actually discusses very rare cases of people initiating sexual intercourse with dogs, not of dogs engaged in assault. But this discussion misses the point. The tainted origin of this allegation, from sources that have previously promoted other fantasies, should have triggered that indispensable journalistic tool: the bullshit meter.

“Jewish space lasers” has become a joke. But the “Israeli rape dogs” slur has now gained credibility at one of the world’s most prestigious media outlets. Kristof’s critics have recalled past incidents in which the double Pulitzer Prize winner was betrayed by his reliance on deceptive sources, including identifying an innocent man as the author of the anthrax terror attacks of 2001. Yet the Times stands by Kristof’s work: “Details were extensively fact-checked, with accounts further cross-referenced with news reporting, independent research from human-rights groups, surveys and in one case, with U.N. testimony.”

For journalists, the most important question is always, “Is the story true?” If the story is true, its consequences are not the journalist’s concern. Our job is to inform society, not to protect it. But in this case, the story is very doubtfully true. It also happens to be a claim that will likely incite and justify acts of violence. 

Anti-Semitism has long trafficked in images of Jews as simultaneously uniquely cunning and uniquely disgusting. What could be more cunning and disgusting than training dogs to commit anal rape? The sexual abuse of men by animals transgresses the profoundest taboos protecting human dignity and purity. Those who believe Israelis and Jews capable of such an outrage might feel justified in wishing that such bestial monsters were wiped from the Earth—a shift from disgust to dehumanization to possible destruction that is well charted by social psychologists. 

Six years ago, the section for which Kristof works was keenly sensitive to even the most far-fetched theories of harm. In the summer of 2020, the Times published an op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton urging President Trump to act forcefully to quell disturbances that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Dozens of Times staffers tweeted objections to the editorial decision, many using the same phrasing: “Running this puts Black @nytimes staff in danger.” That op-ed, which convulsed The New York Times’ newsroom and led to the forced resignation of the opinion editor, James Bennet, is now prefaced on the paper’s website by a five-paragraph disclaimer that draws attention to disputed factual claims, criticizes the piece’s tone as excessively harsh, and regrets that it failed to include necessary context “given the life-and-death importance of the topic.” 

The wave of violence now besetting Jews in the United States and throughout the Western world apparently does not qualify as sufficiently “life-and-death” to expect this same scrupulous regard for tone, context, and accuracy from the newspaper’s columnists. Or maybe there’s something else going on, something simpler and stranger. 

Matti Friedman, a former Associated Press reporter in the Middle East, has observed that in the conflicts embroiling Israel and diaspora Jewry, many major Western media institutions have recast themselves as participants instead of observers. Stories harmful to Israel—false claims that Israel caused a famine as a weapon of war, or that an Israeli air strike destroyed a Gazan hospital—are reported credulously and corrected slowly, if at all. Stories that discredit Israel’s enemies, such as about Hamas’s crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, are reported grudgingly, if at all. Last week, Israel released the most thorough account yet of Hamas’s genuinely systematic and horrific sexual violence, an account that rests on video and other evidence recorded and shared by Hamas itself. Kristof’s column, which appeared the day before, blunted the impact of that powerful report. 

The October 7 attack was the most ambitious and best-organized undertaking ever waged by a Palestinian military force. Tunnels were dug and buildings booby-trapped at a cost of billions of dollars, including from donated aid intended to benefit Gazan civilians. On the eve of the fight, Hamas controlled an army estimated by Israel to be up to 30,000 people—far larger than the deployable ground forces of Great Britain or Germany. Operational secrecy was preserved with steely discipline, and Israel was utterly deceived and taken by surprise. Yet although the operation inflicted grievous damage, it ultimately failed in its goal of sparking a regional war to invade and overthrow the Jewish state. The failure left Gaza a ruin and tens of thousands of fighting men and civilians dead.

The slogan “Globalize the intifada” proposes a new mode of operations. Rather than wage a difficult and dangerous war against the highly armed Jews of Israel, the slogan urges anti-Zionists to target a more vulnerable population: the Jews of the diaspora...

One obvious response to the threats is for governments to fund new defenses around synagogues, schools, and community centers. American Jewish organizations spend an estimated 14 percent of their budgets on security, or about $765 million a year. These defenses exact a psychic toll as well as an economic one. The North American Jews of the 1960s and ’70s imagined that they had left the ghetto walls behind forever. Now new walls are rising around them, to protect against the violence stirred by campaigns of defamation...

There are Americans—and Britons and Canadians and Australians and Europeans, too—who remember that a society that turns on its Jewish minority eventually devours itself. The shots aimed at the windows of synagogues are aimed at larger targets. The advent of liberal modernity was announced by the dismantling of ghetto walls. The re-erection of those walls sounds a note of doom, and not only for the Jews." 

 

Links - 5th June 2026 (2 - Climate Change)

Melissa Chen on X - "Imagine if the United States had swallowed the Al Gore-style climate gospel back in the day...  You don't really have to imagine it. Because there's a natural experiment that took place and that alternative future that the US dodged actually exists.   It's called the United Kingdom.  I seem to remember there was a sneering attitude from coastal liberal elites hooked on TED talks when Sarah Palin came on the scene and said "drill baby drill."  They laughed and dismissed the idea of ramping up domestic fossil fuel production as backward and environmentally reckless. If it was up to them, they would have shut down fracking, choked off new drilling, slapped massive restrictions on oil and gas development, and chased the fantasy of rapid "green" transition at all costs.   Instead America did the opposite.  The result? UK households today pay 2X more than US households do for energy and their industrial electricity prices are among the highest in Europe.   Sure they've lowered emissions (technically they just outsourced it) but at the cost of creating a massive structural economic disadvantage. Energy is the foundational input for everything - steel, chemicals, fertilizers, aluminum, cement, refining. When your electricity and gas bills are 2–6× higher, you just can't even compete. So you end up closing plants, offshoring jobs, and watching your industrial base slowly bleed out.   So yeah, the UK's current predicament is exactly where the US would be in if the Green Lobby, Dems and Hollywood suckers had their way: energy-poor, import-dependent, economically hobbled, and geopolitically neutered.  The worst part is it's completely ideological. The UK could have had more homegrown energy supply to buffer prices and keep revenue flowing, but Ed Miliband refuses to exploit the UK's own shale or North Sea potential aggressively.  Decline really is a choice. Americans should be glad their leaders refused to make it."

Starmer: Miliband decides whether we drill North Sea - "Mr Miliband previously claimed that “new exploration licences in the North Sea, which some people are calling for, will not take a penny off people’s bills”... Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir Starmer of making a “reckless promise” not to drill in the North Sea, saying it would now have “catastrophic” consequences.  The Conservative leader told the Prime Minister: “Hiding behind the Energy Secretary is pathetic. Under his Labour Government we buy half the gas we use from Norway. Last year, Norway’s Labour government drilled 49 wells in the North Sea. How many did Britain drill? Zero.  “For the first time since 1964 under his Government, Britain drilled no wells. Why is energy security the right policy for Labour in Norway but the wrong policy for Labour in Britain?”... “The Jackdaw gas field could be up and running before winter. All that gas would be used here in the UK to heat 1.6m homes. That is enough to power Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex put together. So will the Prime Minister approve the licences or is the Energy Secretary running the Government?”"

CO2 row over climate activist Thunberg's yacht trip to New York - "a spokesman for German round-the-world sailor Boris Herrmann, the yacht's co-skipper, told Berlin newspaper TAZ that several people would fly into New York to help take the yacht back to Europe. Hermann himself will return by plane, according to the spokesman.  The paper estimated that in fact Thunberg's boat trip would end up being more polluting than if she and her companions had just taken flights to New York themselves."
From 2019

Meme - "2023 Retail Electricity Price vs Wind + Solar Share (All Countries) *clear positive correlation - the more wind & solar, the pricier electricity is*"
The cope is that wind + solar are expensive despite being intrinsically cheap due to "greed", but it's weird that in the greediest country in the world (the US) electricity is like a third of the cost as in Denmark, which left wingers love to hold up as a model, and Denmark also has slightly more than 3x the wind + solar share of the US
Besides "greed", a new cope I saw was "Rather matches the highest functioning societies. Smart countries tax energy, encourages conservation and efficiency. Smart." Greens actively want to tank quality of life and don't understand that green energy is a luxury good and virtue signalling (rather than the relationship being causal in the other direction)

Meme - "While the US and Europe were dismantling their industrial base, China was building two new coal plants a week, cornering the solar panel market, taking over battery manufacturing, and dominating electric vehicle production. China didn't listen to Greta, China used Greta."

Meme - Unbelievable facts: "Seven countries-Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo- now generate 100% of their electricity from renewable energy sources."
"Oh look, the most economically productive countries in the world are 100% renewable energy!"
What climate change hystericists envision as the future: either become a shithole with unreliable electricity or be on top of a volcano

MAVERICK X on X - "In April 2025 Katy Perry burned 498 tons of fuel to do space tourism. Today she arrived in Davos to raise awareness about the "environment.""

Meme - Chris Martz @ChrisMartzWX: "China isn't turning into a “green superpower.”  Any renewable energy systems they're installing only add to existing energy sources; they are not replacing fossil fuels at all.  China is increasing their use of ALL energy."
"China Primary Energy Consumption by Source 1965-2024"

Sean Feucht - "🚨REUTERS finally reports last nights massacre of Christians in Nigeria calling them “gunmen” (not Muslim jihadists) who killed Christians due to “climate change” not their faith.  The media is complicit and demonic with their lies!  WE ARE ON THE GROUND TO TELL THE TRUTH HERE!"
Gunmen kill at least 30 in Nigeria's Plateau state attack | Reuters
“Muslims massacre Nigerian Christians because of climate change” - Reuters. Trust the Experts! Of course, if Christians massacre Muslims, this will be proof that Christianity is evil and we need to do more to eradicate Islamophobia, like banning all criticism of Islam

Not everything has to be about politics – the time is right for an energy truce in Canada - "For a country blessed with an extraordinary abundance of resources, Canada seems strangely committed to fighting about them. Few topics inflame our politics like energy—oil versus renewables, left versus right, Alberta versus Ottawa. It’s a tug-of-war that’s been dragging on for decades, and every time it looks like we might finally pull in the same direction, we find a fresh reason to let the rope burn our hands again...   Energy is the oxygen of modern life. Everything—everything—depends on it. Hospitals. Food supply chains. Manufacturing. Digital infrastructure. Heating. Transportation. Even renewable energy systems themselves rely on hydrocarbons for mining, processing, manufacturing, and transportation.  Worldwide demand for all forms of energy is rising rapidly. Billions still lack reliable power. Countries we admire—like Norway, Sweden, Japan, and South Korea—approach energy not as an ideological purity test, but as a strategic national priority. They use what works. They invest where it matters. They innovate. They balance. They don’t spend precious time demonizing one energy source to elevate another. Why can’t we do the same?"

Meme - Fission Phil: "A common attack on #nuclear advocates is that we are trashing #wind and #solar. Wind and solar have so many limitations and drawbacks that simply talking about them is considered trashing them. Explaining why we need nuclear means telling the truth about renewables.
The fact is simply this. Wind and solar make the act of decarbonizing grids to completion harder because they are variable intermittent sources of power we can't call on. This is a physical fact that has been handwaived away since the original push to use those sources. Nuclear now has to be the technology that can integrate wind and solar into the grid. An example is @TerraPower Natrium. They are adding thermal salt storage tanks to deal with the randomness of wind and solar. Decarbonization would be a lot less complicated with just nuclear. People are just conditioned to view wind and solar as a sacred cow that cannot be criticized. I believe the hype around wind and solar is a dangerous lie and actually threatens efforts to decarbonize to the degree needed to save the planet from climate disaster. Now I am not saying we can't do some wind and solar where appropriate. But I am saying we can't continue to believe that wind and solar will do the grid heavy lifting. And saying otherwise is feeding delusion. We need to be clear and adamant in our criticism of wind and solar. If that is considered trashing it then so be it. We can't be coddling feelings over facts. Wind and solar are intermittent, energy diffuse, resource and mining intensive, invasive to ecosystems, needing of ungodly amounts ot transmission infrastructure, needing of replacement every 30 years at a maximum, have no real cheap storage solution, make grids more expensive in total, is unavailable during sever weather, requires lots of natural gas backup, has very low capacity factors and need to be overbuilt, is totally reliant on huge government subsidies, decreases spinning reserve for grid stabilization, cannot black start in an emergency, the list goes ON AND ON. We are not trashing them. We are telling the truth, and the truth is often uncomfortable. Now we can be kind in our truth telling to not turn people off immediately, and exercise a little more humility. But we shouldn't have to just tiptoe around the glaring issues with wind and solar just because the appeal-to- nature folks have more institutional power. /END"
Randy Andy: "What advocates of nuclear don't understand about RE fanatics is that they reject physics and objective reality altogether. They are not interested in proper scientific debate. They have a predetermined ideological outcome in mind (100% RE) and will say anything to further this."

Meme - "Total US Taxpayer Subsidy per Megawatt-hour Of Energy Produced (Subsidy and Production Data by Type of Fuel), 2016 - 2022
Hydro- electric - $0.44
Fossil  - $1.03
Nuclear - $1.21
Wind - $16.79
Biomass - $17.79
Geo- thermal - $17.93
Solar - $68.67
DATA: https://www.eia.gov/analysis/requests/subsidy/pdf/subsidy.pdf"
This doesn't stop left wingers screeching about oil and gas subsidies even though "renewables" get more subsidies than fossil fuels

Meme - "Climate activists saving hot water *3 women bathing together*"

UK climate aid cuts 'short-sighted', campaigners say - "Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told parliament that the UK's climate finance commitment would be cut to around £6 billion or three years – roughly £2bn a year, down from £2.3bn annually under the previous five-year arrangement. The overall aid budget has been reduced from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent of gross national income by 2027, with the government citing the need to fund increased defence spending. The previous £3bn earmark for nature and forest projects has also been scrapped... Campaigners from the Global South said the cuts represented a historic betrayal by one of the world's largest historical emitters. "For the UK to retreat to a historic low of 0.3 per cent in aid is an act of climate colonialism,” said Harjeet Singh, climate activist and founding director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation. “We in the Global South are being forced to foot the bill for a catastrophe we did not cause, while the very nation that built its wealth on the carbon of the Industrial Revolution strips away the healthcare, clean water, and education that the world's most vulnerable need to survive it”... "It is clear that climate finance has, to some extent, been protected as a priority within the overseas development assistance budget — it is now a larger proportion of a shrinking overall pot," said Gareth Redmond-King, head of the international programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank. "However, cutting that budget at a time of such intense global upheaval goes against the warnings from the government's own national security advisers and food experts, who all warn of the growing threats to our security and stability from the climate crisis." "We import two fifths of our food from overseas, and worsening climate change impacts hitting farmers at home and abroad are leading to shortages and higher prices on our supermarket shelves," he said... Andreas Sieber, head of global political strategy at 350.org, told The Independent the cuts were a political choice rather than a fiscal necessity. "Cutting aid to the world's poorest is not belt-tightening, but moral abdication," he said. "The real absurdity: this is a phantom debate. While ministers pick pockets at the bottom, they leave windfall profits from fossil fuel giants untouched, even as those same companies cash in on the price fossil fuel shocks hammering households right now." Earlier this week, former international development minister Gareth Thomas, the Labour MP for Harrow West, also issued a warning to the government that it was leaving the door open for malign foreign powers such as China to fill the space left by the UK... “Our security depends not just on a stronger military but also on building soft power so that our soldiers aren’t needed.”"
When you're upset the grift doesn't keep growing, still pretend to be deluded that burning money stops climate change and are ignorant about the country's fiscal crisis. They know China isn't as stupid as the UK, even though it exceeded the UK's historic emissions quite a while ago and became a bigger economy in 2005
Clearly a Chinese invasion will be repelled by the UK's moral superiority

Barbara Bal MBA on X - "It’s wild how progressives will try to cancel anyone who questions sky-high gas prices, calling us “anti-supply and demand” or even communists for daring to suggest affordable energy.  Yet they cheer this kind of cronyism: $206 million in taxpayer-backed loans to Liberal-supported “green” wind projects at sweetheart rates, while small businesses and families pay full price.  They don’t actually want true free markets.   They just want government control, tax and “global prices” for what they oppose and funding for what they support.  Thank you @LeslynLewis  for calling this out."
Climate change hysteria is a great way to make money, while climate change hystericists screech about oil company profits

Scott Harradine | Facebook - "There can no longer be any doubt. Our premier Doug Ford works FOR Enbridge Gas, NOT the province of Ontario, NOT the people of Ontario and certainly NOT the environment of Ontario. The #FordGovIsMostCorruptInOntHistory"
Ford’s latest bill collides with cities’ efforts to phase out gas in buildings - "Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province will have 1.5 million more homes by 2031 to address the housing and affordability crisis in one fell swoop. But some of Ford’s development ambitions concern observers who say his plan is hampering municipalities’ ability to ditch fossil fuels in buildings.  Across North America, municipalities have been considering, and in some cases passing, gas bans to force fossil fuels from new buildings. Montreal already has a ban, but legislation is stalled in other jurisdictions. In Vancouver, Mayor Ken Sim tried to kill the city’s existing ban and allow gas back into new buildings, but he was thwarted by popular pushback. New York state’s gas ban is being challenged in court and is on pause.   Municipalities in Ontario have taken a different route. Rather than enacting outright gas bans, multiple cities and towns have put green building standards in place. They are broader policies that capture EV-charging requirements, landscaping standards and more, but they also have emissions thresholds that get stricter over time. Toronto’s green standards would have led to very little gas use, the main source of emissions from buildings, citywide by 2030.  Those standards have come repeatedly under fire from the province, which says they slow down development. Now, new legislation — Bill 98, or the Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act — is snaking its way through the Legislature, and aims to kill green building standards for good, and in turn, the municipal ability to ditch gas.  Bill 98 fits into a trend exhibited by the Ford government, which caters to gas giant Enbridge, said Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner. In 2024, the province overturned a ruling from the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) that would have required developers to front the cost of new gas infrastructure rather than passing the cost on to customers. As with Bill 98, the justification was that the move would slow down housing development. Enbridge supported the province’s intervention, and said the OEB decision would hinder its ability “to bring affordable and sustainable natural gas to all Ontarians.”  The OEB’s ruling cited the affordability of heat pumps, and wrote: “The operating cost of a new all-electric house using a cold climate air source heat pump for space heating is lower than a new gas and electricity serviced house.”   Schreiner said the province is “putting the profits of oil and gas giants like Enbridge ahead of affordability for everyday people,” even as research shows that fossil fuel use leads to higher energy bills.  “Yet the Ford government, over and over again, undermines policies like the green building standards that create the conditions for builders to utilize lower cost solutions like heat pumps”"
Natural Gas or a Heat Pump? Where You Live Matters - "The graph below shows that natural gas is more affordable in 41 out of 50 states when comparing ENERGY STAR natural gas furnaces to ENERGY STAR electric heat pumps. As a rule of thumb, the higher the average annual heating bill, the greater the savings from natural gas."
Left wingers hate choice and want to immiserate people to bring on their revolution

Chris Martz on X - "The New York Times has reported that the east coast beaches may disappear in as little as 25 years from now. Just kidding; this was published in 1995."
Ron DeSantis on X - "Leftism as a religion."

The Kobeissi Letter on X - "Europe is in a full-blown energy crisis.  In fact, Europe's energy crisis has gotten so bad that the European Commission is now recommending Europeans to work from home.  They are also recommending using public transportation to cut fossil fuel use.  Meanwhile, new IEA data shows that Europe has just 6 weeks worth of jet fuel remaining as the Iran War shortage worsens.  As a result, many flights are expected to be cancelled on non-essential routes.  Between the Russia-Ukraine War and the Strait of Hormuz closure, Europe's vulnerability to energy supply shocks has been exposed.  We expect another wave of inflation in Europe."
Weird. Left wingers claim that doubling down on renewables like in Europe is the way to ensure energy security

Chris Mowrey on X - "the republican nominee in Virginia believes solar panels don’t work when it’s dark outside and windmills don’t work when “there’s no wind”. Stunning levels of incompetence and garbage."
Devon Eriksen on X - "Right wing propaganda is increasingly unnecessary. It can be replaced by verbatim reposts of what a democrat just said."

Science Magazine on X - "Climate policy has long fixated on how energy is produced, but a growing body of research suggests the real leverage lies in how it is used. In a new #SciencePolicyArticle, researchers argue that reshaping energy demand, through efficiency, electrification, and curbing excess consumption, could unlock faster, fairer progress toward net-zero goals. https://scim.ag/4cPAlol"
Jannik 🐿️ on X - "Everything that humans do and everything that makes them happy requires energy. No matter if it's food production, traveling, entertainment, industry... everything. "reshaping energy demand" is just an euphemism for artificial poverty and human suffering."
Climate change hysteria's goal is to immiserate humanity

Ontario Adds New Power 73 Per Cent Lower Than Former Government | Ontario Newsroom
Climate change hystericists keep boasting about the average price of electricity from these new projects being 8.8 cents per kwh and citing the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), but from the IESO Long-Term 2 RFP documents (both the initial results table and the Additional background, context and key information presentation, it's clear that this refers to the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and excludes system costs including storage and grid costs. LCOE is a terrible metric to use to measure the cost of power and experts recommend we stop using it. The true cost of "renewable" energy is much higher as it includes storage to backup unreliable "renewable" energy and grid upgrades to distribute it

Philippe Lemoine on X - "It's pretty remarkable how, within maybe 4-5 years, we went from a quasi-millenarist environment of fear about climate change premised on the idea that we were just a few years away from the end of the world to a situation where almost nobody talks or gives a shit about it anymore.  There may be a lesson here about the dangers of hyping a risk, which I think might soon become relevant to discussions about AI, because although the apocalyptic cult that developed about the risk posed by climate change was ridiculous, it's not as if the problem had magically disappeared either."
Clint Warren-Davey on X - "The reason no one talks about climate change anymore is because geopolitics came back.  Climate change was a political issue only at the height of the Pax Americana, the Fukuyaman End of History, where there were no real threats to American dominance.   Now nations and empires are on the move again.   Russia, China and every other country don't give a shit about the environment in any way.   They are doing what every state in history tries to do and amass hard power.   And the Western world is being forced, kicking and screaming, to care about war and statecraft once again."

BladeoftheSun on X - "The World's largest Wind Turbine 26MW. In its lifetime it will produce the same energy as burning 750,000 tons of coal. That's 44,118 truck loads. And that's just 1 Wind Turbine."
The Rational Animal 🤔 on X - "No one should be surprised but what he left out is that this turbine costs an estimated $50-80 million to build and install. It only produces power 35-45% of the time because wind is intermittent. Its output degrades 12-16% over its 20-25 year lifespan. It requires hundreds of tons of steel, concrete, fiberglass, and rare earth minerals mined largely in China (his favorite country). The other 55-65% of the time you need backup power, which comes from natural gas. And it exists only because of massive government subsidies.  A natural gas plant of the same 26MW capacity costs $26-39 million, produces more than double the effective output, runs on demand 24 hours a day regardless of weather, and lasts 30-40 years. Half the price. Double the output. No weather dependency. No subsidies required.  But this was never about the environment. If it were, you would care that rare earth mining for wind turbines devastates landscapes across China and Africa, that thousands of birds and bats are killed annually by turbine blades, that the blades themselves are non-recyclable fiberglass rotting in landfills, and that natural gas produces half the emissions of coal with none of these problems. You ignore all of this because environmentalism was never your goal. It is your vehicle. The destination is what it has always been: government control of energy production, which means government control of the economy, which is socialism. Rand identified this decades ago. The green movement is not a scientific movement. It is a political one, and its target is not pollution. It is capitalism."

Dealing with the Chinese

From 2016:

DO NOT
LEARN
MANDARIN

DO NOT DO IT

YOU WILL FOREVER HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE CHINESE, TRUST ME YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THAT
PLEASE MAN DON'T DO IT, THIS IS COMING FROM SOMEONE WHO SPEAKS MANDARIN AND LIVES IN CHINA YOU DON'T WANT THIS

LEARN JAPANESE OR RUSSIAN INSTEAD, TRUST ME, PLEASE DO NOT LEARN MANDARIN IT WILL FUCK UP YOUR LIFE BECAUSE NO BOSS IS GOING TO BE LIKE 'oh he has a degree in Mandarin and speaks
it really well, let's just have him not involved in any way whatsoever with China'.

The Chinese are absolute shit, they are the worst human beings that I have ever encountered on this planet, and I am EXTREMELY well traveled, including many shithole countries. Don't do it man, please take my advice,
learn Japanese or Russian or some shit instead, do NOT learn Mandarin

You won't realize the truth in what I'm saying until you're already here, but by then it'll be too late. Don't do it man, please, help me help you, learn something else!

Business related:
>constant dickery, backstabbing, underhandedness
>if they can lie, cheat, or steal, they will.
>constantly have to deal with cheats and thieves, the Chinese will rarely outright steal something from you, but they will never give you what you want for the money you spend, unless you spend a large sum of money; the Chinese even have a saying about this, 一分钱，一分货. It's basically expected that if you pay a low price for something you'll get scrap, even if it's supposed to adhere to a strict standard

Example 1:
>I work in the stainless steel industry. Friend is buying 201 grade steel (very common, basic grade) from a factory in Jiangsu. He asks me to inspect. Alright. I go to the factory, they assure me that they can produce within the required specification (tolerance of -0.25mm for thickness, aka 1/4 cm, the steel was 30mm in thickness so it had to be 29.75 or above to be within standard) and normal ASTM/AISI (standard international grade) chemistry, well alright my friend's buying this so I guess they're legit
>nope
>I inspect the goods, thickness if all over the fucking place from ~28.5mm-29.5mm, I confront them about the thickness and their claims that they could produce to standard,
>'oh anon because ASTM is an American grade we were obviously talking about inches, our mill only works in inches so we were talking about 1/4 an inch'
>lying through their fucking teeth, literally everyone else who wasn't part of the company backs me up saying that they were talking about mm, factory denies it
>check chemistry
>nickel content is less than 1/5 of what it's supposed to be on some sheets, chemistry is all over the fucking place, almost nothing is to standard
>oh anon, this is 201 *industry standard* steel, your friend should have specified that he wanted 201 *international standard* steel

cont, this is going to be long, I have several.

>there's only one 201 grade you fucking idiot, if you produce 'industry standard' 201 then you mark it as such like everyone else in the fucking industry you don't just call it '201' grade steel, you're literally committing fraud
>so sue us, the order's only worth ~$30,000, enjoy spending more on legal fees than you'll get from us :^)
>later was arguing with he production staff at their office, showed them the fucking American standard that said 'hey you're wrong on the thickness, you have to refund the money"
>one of the staff got into an argument with me over the meaning of 'up to', i.e. she thought 'up to 30' meant 'starting at 30 and over', rather than everything up to '30'
>no anon, your English is too poor to understand this
>English is my native language you stupid cunt you can barely string two sentences together
He didn't get his money back and didn't sue.

Example 2:
>same 201 steel order, hire a Russian company to do shipping since it's being shipped to Moscow, want everything to be seamless, no chance at fuckups
>our contract with the Russian company specifically states that they will take care of the packaging, because in addition to the steel being off standard it was also produced late, so it has to go on a high speed train to avoid being late; the high speed train has very specific packing requirements for steel, so we thought the Russians could handle it
>day of shipment comes (a Saturday), all documents in place, should be fine
>get a call on Saturday from the Chinese sub-contractor that the Russians hired to do the Chinese leg of the journey
>"hey so the goods didn't leave on Saturday."
>" ... Why."
>"Because the factory didn't package them."
>"WE HIRED YOU TO PACKAGE THE GOODS YOU INCOMPETENT FUCK"
>"Oh. Well, there aren't any forklifts in the area that can handle weights as heavy as this"
>" ... you're literally surrounded by warehouses, many of which stock stainless steel. Please explain how you are unable to find a forklift."
>"Well, we just can't find one. You have to find one."
>I ended up doing their job for them and finding them a forklift. Goods arrived a week late because the train only leaves once per week, friend lost even more money because he had to give additional discounts to his client. LUCKILY, the Chinese 201 grade happened to be the same as Russian local 'industry standard' 201 steel (I guess some shared Soviet thing?), so he didn't lose all of his money, only about 20%+
Sigh

Example 3:
>ordering goods from a large state-owned mill, purchase through a company that came recommended by the sales manager (you have to do this in order to take advantage of the export tax rebate that China has)
>we purchase, everything goes smoothly except for a small crisis at the start, where the company quoted $2600/ton, but when ordering time came around the goods jumped to $3000/ton, meaning we would have lost money on the order, so we had to negotiate with the sales manager and company late into the night to bring things down to $2800/ton, plus increase the price to our end customer (they weren't happy)
>this happens extremely often in China; they quote one thing then jack up the price after your client has signed the contract with you, knowing you can't back out or you'll lose reputation and possibly money
>March comes around, goods are produced on time, sales manager assures us that the goods will be in Tianjin Xingang port on March 9th at the latest, we'll then package the goods and have them ready for shipment on the 16th.
>March 5th rolls around
>'Hey guys, how're the good doing? Still on the train?'
>'No, they haven't left yet.'
>"What.'
>'Don't worry, we can still put them on a fast train to port, it'll take 3-4 days or so, you'll be fine.'
>'Alright, whatever, just make sure we're there in time for the March 16th shipment date.'
>'Yes, yes, of course'
>March 9th comes around
>'Hey guys, where are the goods? Already in Tianjin?'
>'Well, they haven't left yet." 
>After I'm done having an aneurysm, I call the mill's transport office and immediately have them cancel the train booking and instead put the goods on trucks and truck them straight to the port
>Goods arrive. Tianjin port is a bit funky, they have a government bureau which packages the goods, you can't package the goods once they're within port, it's like one giant bonded warehouse
>Company assures us that the goods will be packed according to specifications (going on Russian train system, they have special requirements)
>alright, cool
>Confirm with them that the goods are alright about 4 days before the shipping date, they've confirmed that the Russian shipping company has okayed the packaging job, I receive photos of the job, forward them on to the Russian company
>Alright, cool
>Day before shipment, I get a message from the Russian shipping company
>'Hey, we've been trying to get in contact with the Chinese company for a week, we've had no response, the packaging job isn't correct, there's no way the Russian train service will accept the goods'
>Trying to fight back another aneurysm
>immediately get in contact with the Chinese company, ask them who exactly told them that the packaging job was ok
>some fucking Chinese subcontractor who had no authority to do so
>GOD FUCKING DAMNIT
>ask the Chinese why they didn't get in contact with the Russian shipping company, the company had sent them numerous messages over the past week
>'oh well we were talking to you so we thought we didn't have to respond'
>long story short, the packaging job was shit, the coils we were shipping (10,000+lbs each) moved during shipment because of the shit job and damaged the container, we were delayed by one month in Vladivostok port while they fixed the container and redid the packaging, also had to pay all additional fees
>Chinese company refused to compensate us
It was at this point that I completely stopped trusting the Chinese in any way, shape or form.

Example 4:
This happened when the company was still new and just started working in China.
>Had another deal, we were buying common grade steel to be exported
>ok cool, everything's in order, no problems thus far
>We have an inspector in China to check the goods
>He apparently goes to the guy's warehouse in Tianjin and checks up on things, says the seller is legit, he even managed to negotiate a 2% discount, we trust him and go through with the deal
>No problems with import/export, the steel arrives at its destination in Russia, lo and behold the steel is not what we ordered at all, we ordered 304 and 321 steel, what we received was some sort of fucking 201 failed abortion shit, manganese through the roof, low nickel content, low chromium content, completely out of standard
>what in the fuck?
>ask inspector what exactly he did, again, in detail
>he just went to the guy's company office, they chatted for a while, Chinese guy served him some tea, negotiated a 2% discount and then left quite pleased with himself
>never visited the warehouse, never saw the goods in person, never even fucking checked the mill certificate to see if the goods were genuine
>fire him on the spot, never happening again
>I go in person to meet with the fraud, also contact our lawyers in China
>The fraud agrees to a refund only if we send the steel back to his warehouse in China and he has his inspectors look at it and say whether or not it's his
>yeah, okay, sure, great idea 10/10, fucking hell
>I suggest instead that he send a guy to Russia to look at the steel and figure it out
>'No, he's a peasant, he's too afraid to go overseas.'
>I'm going to fucking strangle our recently-fired inspector
>Have our lawyers look into the case
>Fun fun fun: if a Chinese guy commits fraud and sends you the wrong goods, it's not a criminal offense, only a civil offense
>your only recourse is to sue the company
>look into the company's finances 
>1m RMB registered capital, almost 100% assured that he's moved it out of the account by now since it does
>decide not to sue him because we'd be spending so much money on legal fees with almost 0 chance of getting any money back
The Chinese legal system is extremely weak. If you order say $100,000 worth of goods from someone and they literally send you trash that SEMI-resembles the goods that's worth maybe $1,000, there are almost
no penalties. They will not got to jail, they will not be penalized in any way, they will simply declare their company bankrupt and start a new one. Companies like this pop up all the time like mushrooms after rain;
you should never, ever, ever, ever, ever buy from Alibaba for this reason. Seriously though, a contract is hardly worth the paper it's printed on, if you do business in China you should ALWAYS have the jurisdiction be under a neutral law, like the UK or Singapore or whatever, also make sure that you never pay much in advance, and only pay the balance AFTER inspection and AFTER any goods you buy are either sealed or put into a bonded warehouse.

Example 5:
This happened long after I realized the Chinese were turbo-Jews on steroids:
>have a Russian client who constantly sends price inquiries over to our company, we constantly give him prices
>'No no no anon, these prices are too high, I can find better prices elsewhere'
>What the fuck are you talking about these prices are very far below market level, literally 10%-20% undercutting the Russian market
>'No anon, you see I can find better prices'
>'Okay. Good luck.'
>Russian friend purchases from some really fucking shady characters
>I strongly, STRONGLY advise him not to do this or at least let me check the mill certificates for him
>He thinks I'm trying to steal his sources or Russian clients
>Hey man, whatever, you do you. Good luck.
>He calls me a month or so later begging me to source his steel for him 
>turns out, all these amazing prices he was getting were from ...
> ... surprise, surprise, frauds
>he orders ~$200,000 from these guys, he has inspectors in China who inspect everything, it looks goods
>but, his inspectors left the shipping container in the dealer's warehouse, unlocked, for 2 days before shipping it to port
>when the goods arrived in Russia, the top steel sheet was all according to grade, but everything else was just common carbon steel, and rusty at that
>he ended up losing almost everything, he was able to resell the scrap for maybe $20,000 total
>feel kind of bad for him, but at the same time he refused all help and completely ignored my advice, so w/e
He was very apologetic afterwards though, I'm helping him again to avoid getting fucked by the goddamn Chinese thieves.

Anyway, non-business related examples:

>out at a club with a few friends, we're hanging around outside, as we're talking a guy about 30 feet to the left of us collapses and starts seizing
>Guess someone spiked his drink or something? I don't know.
>never bring my cell phone with my when I go clubbing, fuck
>run over the a small police station about 100 yards away
>'Please call an ambulance, there's a guy having a seizure over there, he needs help!'
>'no.'
>'What the fuck why not?"
>'It's not my job.'
>'...'
Eventually one of the other clubbers called an ambulance for the guy, but still, what the fuck? 

>Roommate extremely sick, delirious with fever, can't stand up or walk, have to take him to the hospital
>Call up my landlady, ask her if she can call a cab for us (gated community)
>'No.'
>'Why not?'
>'Point to the part of the contract where it says I have to hire cabs for you.'
>Jesus fucking christ, whatever
>Throw my roommate on my back, carry him out to the street, hire a cab to the nearest hospital
>Arrive in hospital, we wait in line behind this old woman while she's chatting with the doctor about some day-to-day bullshit
>Friend is literally about to vomit all over the floor, can you hurry this up?
>'Nope :^)'
>Christ's sake
>Wait 5 minutes for them to finish their chit-chat (again, I understand/speak Chinese, they were talking about banal bullshit, about the lady's grandson and sports), the old lady takes the pills and walks off
>Doctor attends to my friend
>Has to get him to piss in a cup and everything
>Have to help him piss in a cup and do all the tests and whatever
>All of a sudden, as I'm waiting for a test result in the doctor's office, nurse bursts through the door, asking if I'm someone's 'countryman'
>though she was talking about my roommate, I say 'No he's Canadian, I'm American."
>she grabs my arm and pulls me into the main hall of the clinic
>Some tall white guy is stumbling around, blood caked all over his head, probably just been hit by a car, he's completely out of it
>surrounded by a bunch of Chinese doctors and nurses and keep shouting at him in Chinese to sit down so they can run tests on him
>He obviously has a head injury, why the fuck do you think it's a good idea to surround him and yell at him in a foreign language?
>Whatever. They think that I speak his language cause we're both white
>I go over to him, he keeps getting back up after the Chinese doctors force him to sit down, eventually I just walk with him and we both take a seat near the wall, I talk with him to calm him down, find out he's from Sweden
>the Chinese call an ambulance for the Swedish guy to take him to a larger hospital (Beijing Uni hospital)
>they ask me to be his translator
>yeah sure it's not like my friend is dying in the fucking waiting room.
>I call a Russian friend to come take care of my roommate, after the Russian friend arrives I go in the ambulance with the Swedish guy
>they do all kinds of tests, hospital only accepts cash, by the time the doctor gives us the results I have maybe 80 yuan in my wallet left (spent 800+ on tests) 
>To the Swedish guy: "So, our test results show that you are bleeding into your skull as a result of what we assume is you being hit by a car. We would like to keep you in the observation ward overnight,
so if anything happens we can respond immediately. Again, your wound could easily be fatal.'
>me: 'alright, but I only have about 80 yuan, do you guys take cards at all?'
>' ... No. Here, let me patch you up, you guys can go.
>'What? I thought you said that this could be fatal.'
>'Yes, it COULD be fatal, but isn't necessarily fatal, let me clean and bandage up his head so you guys can head out.'
>literally lost all interest whatsoever in caring for the Swedish guy once he learned I was out of cash, refused to do delayed payment or anything like that, I had to pay up front in cash if I wanted to put the guy in the observation ward for the night
>mfw
Jesus fucking christ. In retrospect, I should have called the Swedish embassy the first time I figured out the guy was Swedish so that he could have received proper care, but still. This was by far my most fucked up experience in China, that urgent medical care was refused because I didn't have cash on hand ready to pay. It was completely fucked up. This, of course, is aside from the fact that both my friend and the Swedish guy were made to queue up every time behind people with minor injuries and coughs while one was about to fall over and pass out on the floor while the other was bleeding profusely from his head. It was so completely fucked up.

Anyway, I got a cab back home with the Swedish guy, the Swedish guy promised he'd take me out to dinner and pay me back for the medical expenses, but I never received a call after that night. After I didn't receive any call, I remember checking news articles in the weeks following to see if there were any reports of a Swedish guy dying in Beijing, but I didn't see anything. I hope he's alright. 

And one more example of Chinese dickery for tonight, there are a thousand other stories I could tell about this shit both business-wise and everywhere else, but I'll just work myself up if I do that:

>have a few friends who want to go to a nice place for the weekend, to a theme park that's a ways away from the city
>friend contacts a travel agency
>really fucking good prices, 250 yuan for the weekend
>fuck yeah, nice
>we get on the bus, go to the theme park
>long story short, the 250 yuan included: bus tickets. The advertisement and company both confirmed that the 250 yuan was for all expenses for the entire weekend but neglected to mention that those expenses were only those relating to the bus, not even joking
>what the 250 yuan didn't include
>hotels
>food
>actually going into the theme park i.e. paying the entrance ticket
>doing things inside the theme park, all of which costed additional $$$
>transportation to and from the theme park + hotel
>also had to pay additional money for wifi inside the hotel
>by the end of the weekend, the entire thing ended up costing about 2000 yuan per person
>travel company also had mandatory shopping outings at affiliated shops along the route, we all had to stop and hang out in the story for 15 minutes or so
But hey, good luck getting the company to change its advertising. No one gives a shit in China, after all, 一分钱，一分货. You get what you pay for, and even if they lie to your face about every single detail of the trip, the Chinese don't give a fuck because if you don't pay a lot of money then why should you expect them to hold up their end of the bargain? You get what you pay for.

Sigh

I can't wait to leave this place and go to Japan/Singapore. Seriously, I have the absolute utmost respect for Japan/Korea/Taiwan/Singapore now that I've seen how shit China is. They really did a bang-up job. 

To sum all this up:

Do not learn Mandarin. Learn something else that will enrich your life and take it in a direction that you want to go. I'm no going to lie, Mandarin HAS made me worth more money. Westerners who can competently speak Mandarin are in rather short supply and they are considered far more reliable than the Chinese for obvious reasons. However, you really want to think about where the language is going to take you, and the answer every single time will be mainland China. Because let's face it, no one else speaks Mandarin except for mainland China and MAYBE Singapore, but they speak English over there as well.

If you learn Mandarin, you will be forced to deal with these people on a daily basis. Please trust me when I say that you really, really don't want to do that. In retrospect, I would much rather have learned Russian or Japanese. If I had a time machine, I would go back to my first year of uni and fucking slap myself and force myself to sign up for Japanese courses instead. It's too late for me now, though. I speak Mandarin, and any company that figures that out will sure as hell be sending me to China so that such a skill doesn't go to waste.

It's not fucking worth it guys, please please PLEASE learn something else, something that will make you happy. Don't just think in terms of salary, think in terms of quality of life and personal satisfaction. China will kill you inside, I absolutely guarantee it. I have yet to meet the man who comes to China, does business here, and comes out a happier and more balanced human being. It just doesn't happen. I know several people who have been working in China for 20 or 30+ years. All of them hate China and have a strong dislike for any work involving the Chinese. There is a reason China has a huge problem with students going overseas to the West and never coming home.

Please don't learn Mandarin. 

People generally don't understand how differently China works from Western countries. They'll expect people to honor their agreements as they would in the West. Also, consider the following:

Your average yearly wage in China is just under $10,000. Let's say you're a trading company and with the advent of the internet you can easily market your business and issue quotes. Let's say that you get only two suckers every year, and you fuck them out of $50,000 each (small amount, that's one container of moderately priced steel). Congratulations, you just made 10x the average annual salary with almost zero repercussions. You're now a rich man in China.

You could do deals with these guys, but if you supply them the proper price for the steel, you might make MAYBE $1000-2000/container for stainless steel (and that's a pretty high margin for pricing without organising shipping, normal margins are 1-2% for that kind of job). If that guy is a small buyer and only buys two containers per year, you're going to have to wait decades to get the same amount of profit as you would just straight up fucking the guy. China is a conman's dream, lots of potential customers flooding in from all over the world looking for cheap steel that you can fuck with very little legal repercussions. 

Well, the thing is that you can find good quality, it's just that big mills (the reliable ones) only produce in certain order lots, and most of the times those order lots are out of reach for smaller traders. For example, if you're trying to buy Bao stainless steel and you're an ordinary trader without guanxi, you have to buy a minimum of 200 tons at I think 20 tons per dimension, i.e. if you want 2mm*1000*2000 sheets, you have to buy 20 tons, you can't just buy 5 or 6. Problem is, that makes your order lot a minimum of $200,000, more likely in the $350,000 pushing $400,000+ depending on the grade, which is simply out of reach for smaller traders. Thus, most guys have to turn to Chinese traders who stock this stuff, and that's where you start running into the con men. 

I'm not a bad businessman otherwise I wouldn't be in business still. Since those early encounters we've more than made up for our losses and turn quite a bit in revenue every quarter.

The examples I gave were growing pains of doing business in China, and this was with having connections in China. Unfortunately, the connections I had were only somewhat connected to the steel business i.e. they were manufacturers who often bought steel, and while I avoided a lot of shit on their advice, the steel industry is just filled with a LOT more cheats than one would expect especially when it comes to sheets and coils, which are easier to produce.

I mean, the Russian guy who got cheated was a veteran in the steel industry, he's one of the largest traders in Russia and has been doing this for going on 25 years, his father was in the business as well after the USSR broke up. Russia also isn't exactly known for being an easy market, but even he still got fucked by the Chinese. In fact, every single one of our clients was defrauded at one point or another, most losing ~$50,000, some losing more than $1m because people don't understand how different China is from Western countries.