Right Turns

Voters in Argentina and The Netherlands have been among the most consistent nations in the world of electing socialist minded leaders in office over the last 50 years or so.

In 10 out of the last 12 Presidential elections in Argentina the President has been from the Justicialist Party which was founded by Juan Peron and has always been known for its leftist, progressive policies.

It curried favor with voters and held power with large government benefit programs and a massive patronage system. Argentina's embrace of leftist policies have left the economy in ruins. 

What was once one of the richest countries in the world has been impoverished by inflation and a weak economy that for decades has largely been controlled by various socialists who argue that social justice should be the guiding factor in all government decisions.

The Argentine peso is worth only one-ten-billionth what is was worth 100 years ago when the socialists first gained power.

Meanwhile, inflation has increased 757% just since 2019. It has recently been running at 143 percent annually at the same time that the country's GDP is shrinking.

Source: buenos-aires-barbers-books-history-19900-inflation-2023-10-07

The Netherlands has been famous for its socially liberal policies for many years. In the early 1980's it was known for having the most the extensive social security and welfare state in the world. These policies eventually proved too expensive to pay for and benefits were scaled back by the 1990's. However, the Netherlands approved measures to legalize euthanasia and gay marriage in the 1990's consistent with its leftist, progressive leanings.

More recently the Netherlands has been one of a number of European countries that have permitted significant numbers of Muslim migrants to enter the country.

This graph shows the dramatic increase in immigration in recent years.

Immigration, emigration, and migration balance in the Netherlands from 1995 to 2022
Source: Statista

The Netherlands also has heavy representation of climate and animal rights activists among its Parliament 

This has resulted in legislative proposals beginning in 2019 to halve farm livestock production and severely limit the use of nitrogen fertilizers in the country. 

Both proposals would decimate the nation's farming industry and led to numerous protests by farmers over the last couple of years.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/16/nitrogen-wars-the-dutch-farmers-revolt-that-turned-a-nation-upside-down

When human beings are exposed to pain or feel threatened they turn away.

Such was the case last week in which voters in both Argentina and the Netherlands made pretty significant turns to the right in national elections.

In Argentina, voters elected a self professed radical libertarian named Javier Milei as the new President.

Milei famously liked to wield a chainsaw in his campaign events to symbolize what he said he wants to do  to the entrenched political bureaucratic class in Argentina.

Milei says he want to  cut state spending by 15 per cent of GDP, slash the number of government ministries by almost half, dollarize the $600 billion Argentine economy and eliminate the country’s central bank.

Those would be big, big right turns in Argentina.

Can he succeed?

If he does it will largely have to come from the force of his personality and his popular mandate from the voters (he won 21 of 23 Argentine states). However, his party only has small numbers in both the upper and lower houses of the nation's legislature. His party also does not have one of the 23 governor's seat.

In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party led by Geert Wilders won the most seats in last week's Dutch elections.

Wilders will have to obtain the support of other parties to gain the role of Prime Minister but there is little question that the Parliament in that country will have turned much further right than it was previously.

What were the major issues Wilders and the Freedom Party ran on?

A proposal for a binding referendum on leaving the European Union.

Withdrawing the Netherlands from all international climate obligations.

A massive reduction in immigration.

What I found particularly interesting in the Netherlands vote was what appears to be a massive move to Wilders and the Freedom Party in the last few weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel and the significant Muslim and far left street marches for Hamas/Palestine.

Do you think that the Dutch voters might be wondering whether they might be next considering the amount of Muslim immigration that has occurred around them in recent years?

There has been a trend recently in Europe in the rise in power of parties on the right which favor strong nationalist agendas that are also more socially conservative.

This chart shows the percent of legislative seats held by so-called "far-right" parties in various EU countries.

59% of the seats in Hungary are held by conservatives.

35% in Poland (the largest % of any political party).

30% in Italy (the largest % of any political party).

23% in the Netherlands (the largest % of any political party).

Will we see more right turns in Europe as the inevitable clash of cultures deepens in the wake of the enormous mass migration of Muslims into these societies?

If we don't see it then Europe is not going to look like the Europe we have known in a very short period of time.

Demographics will make sure of it at the rate things are going.

If you doubt this, as an example, take a look at this chart tracking UK migration trends since 1850.

To say it is UNPRECEDENTED is an understatement.

Will we see a similar right turn in the United States in 2024?

All I know is that some of the same underlying issues that appear to be driving factors in the votes in Argentina and the Netherlands are also present in the United States right now.

-Dissatisfaction with the economy and inflation

-Anger about the political class and government bureaucracy

-Frustration with uncontrolled immigration

-Increasing questions about climate change alarmism

-Shock over the recent anti-Semitic actions and pro-Hamas demonstrations around the world 

A lot can change in 11 months.

Do these issues fade, get worse or will they replaced by other concerns when we get to November, 2024?

In the end, turns in the votes of the people are determined by how the world turns.

Stay tuned.

There will surely be more twists...and turns.

And more drama.

That is the only thing that is certain.

Nowhere Else To Go

There’s a story that Joe Biden has referenced many times over the years about his first trip to Israel 50 years ago about the time of the Yom Kippur War.

In fact, Biden repeated the story a month ago when he visited Israel to express United States support for Israel in its war with Hamas to avenge the attacks of October 7.

The following passage about that Biden story is taken from a Jerusalem Post article in 2021 that was written just after Hamas had fired 4,000 rockets at Israel in 11 days. Ironically, its was that Hamas attack and the Israeli response that led to a ceasefire agreement that Hamas violated when it attacked Israel this year with many more rockets and much more killing and kidnappings.

As a freshman senator in 1973, Biden was granted a meeting with prime minister Golda Meir, who together with Yitzhak Rabin briefed Biden on the many threats Israel faced, showing him a series of maps.

“I guess she could see the sense of apprehension on my face,” Biden said in a 2010 retelling of the story. “She said, ‘Senator, don’t look so worried… We Israelis have a secret weapon.’ And I thought she only had said this to me, no one else in the whole world… And I thought she was going to tell me about a new secret weapon.”

So what is Israel’s secret weapon, Biden asked eagerly.

“We have nowhere else to go,” replied Golda.

"We have nowhere else to go."

I pointed out in a previous blog post that that the majority of the early settlers to Israel in the period 1948-1952 were from other Middle Eastern countries where they were seeking freedom from Muslim persecution and violence or were explicitly expelled from Middle Eastern Muslim countries.

The rest were Holocaust survivors from Europe.

When Palestinians and their ignorant acolytes in the West are asked where the Jews are supposed to go if "from the river to the sea" becomes a reality and Palestine expels the Jews, they typically state Eastern Europe or Russia. However, that is not where most of the people in Israel came from.

They came from the Middle East.

Of course, outside of Israel, there are almost no Jews living in the Middle East today as they have all been driven out.

The creation of the Israel state provided a convenient path by which the Jewish population could be removed from most other Middle Eastern countries.

They now want to also remove the Jews from Israel?

"We have nowhere else to go."

Credit: https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1727381751029530765

Just as interesting as the decline of the Jewish populations in Middle Eastern countries since 1948 is the growth in the Arab population in Israel and Gaza shown in the graphic above.

The Palestinians like to use a narrative that the state of Israel is occupying what was always an Arab land.

However, the historical record does not support the narrative.

For example, a census from the British in 1864 found that there were twice as many Jews as Arabs in Jerusalem in that period.

Source: https://twitter.com/truth_seeker_vp/status/1726980051940639129

There was also almost no one living in the area around Jerusalem (Jew, Arab or Christian) according to this account by Mark Twain written in "The Innocents Abroad"in 1867. 

It was a veritable wasteland that no one wanted to live in.

 "Stirring senses... occur in this valley no more. There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent – not for thirty miles in either direction." He goes on to describe Galilee, Judea, and around Jerusalem as deserts devoid of population. And for the country as a whole: "Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies... Palestine is desolate and unlovely... It is hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land."

A series of letters written by some travelers from Utah to the area around Jerusalem in 1873 confirms again that the majority of the population was Jewish. 

In fact, Jews and Christians combined, outnumbered Arabs by almost three to one.

 

Why do these historical records refer to Palestine if the Palestinians do not have the claim on the land they say they do?

First of all, it needs to be understood that Palestine has never been a country or nation state at any time.

Jewish people populated what is now Israel dating back to when the area was referred to as Judea.

Judeans or Jews were indigenous to Judea and Arabs were indigenous to Arabia.

Kings of Israel such as Saul, David and Solomon ruled over the land at least a thousand years before Christ was born.

The Romans started using the name "Palestine" (more accurately Syria Palestine) in the second century A.D. after an insurrection in the Judea territory as punishment to remove the link between the Jews and the province of Judea.

The British began referring to the area around Jerusalem as "Palestine" in the 1800's. The term "Palestine" had been used by the Ottoman Empire, which controlled the area for the 400 years before World War I,  to vaguely refer to area that spanned both sides of the Jordan River.

However, Palestine was never recognized as an administrative unit.

You can see that in these maps of the Ottoman Empire from both the 1860's and in 1915 right before the Ottoman Empire fell.

There is no reference to Palestine at all in these maps.

Source: https://zionism-israel.com/maps/Ottoman_Palestine_1860.htm?__cf_chl_tk=75.ucNuPlaWS3XfMTMHwpRJimOFJzDLfnmxyqP6PC7s-1701018287-0-gaNycGzNCfs

Map of Ottoman Administrative Districts-1915
Source: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/map-of-ottoman-administrative-districts-1915

Further, the Jewish faith dates back to 640 B.C. while Islam did not appear on the scene until some 1,200 years later in the area around Jerusalem.

You can see how inconvenient these facts are by looking at the following  video clips where some anti-Israel Jewish rabbis held a Torah reading in Washington, D.C. before a rally with Representative Rashid Talib in calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

A Daily Wire article provides some context on the event.

A planned Torah reading got awkward in a hurry when a group of leftist Jews gathered to publicly call for a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and the terror group Hamas.

The group, who refer to themselves as “Rabbis for Ceasefire,” joined with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — who has often faced criticism and was even recently censured for repeated anti-Semitic statements. Their plan was to bring “the Synagogue into the public with Shacharit [morning prayer] in front of Congress.”

But some who listened to the Torah reading – which was supposed to be done in Hebrew and then in English — quickly realized that something was a little bit off.

During the Hebrew portion, several pointed out that the woman doing the reading — among truly religious Jews, men typically do the Torah reading — dropped her voice to nearly a whisper when she got to the part that talked about God giving the land to his chosen people — the Jews — and their descendants.

Of course, that land is Israel.

You can view the original videos here on X. 

 

Talk about those quiet words speaking volumes!

It is clearly not a coincidence either that these rabbis feel comfortable in speaking the way they do under the umbrella of security and freedom provided by living in the United States.

The completed Torah is dated to around 600 B.C. This is 1,200 years before anything to do with the Muslim faith was ever considered by anyone on earth.

For those who want to see the actual reading of the Torah in Hebrew and English.

I have said it before in these pages.

There are over 1.8 billion Muslims on the planet.

There are only 15 million Jews.

How is it that those 1.8 billion Muslims (and it appears millions of other young, college-educated, so-called progressive Americans and European) cannot see to it that a small number of Jews are allowed to live on and enjoy a small strip of land on this earth in peace that they have inhabited for thousands and thousands of years?

If not in Israel, where?

Golda Meir understood everything too well 50 years ago.

There is nowhere else for them to go.

Deconstructing the Social Construct

We live in a world today in which we are told that gender is a social construct. It is not fixed and it is not determined by neurology or biology. It is fluid and the norms, behaviors and roles that are evident with genders are the result of societal expectations and standards.

Let's look at some data and test that argument.

Look at this comparison on various measures between 100 Girls/Women and the corresponding number relating to Boys/Men.

A few are undoubtedly due in part to social constructs.

The fact that 4,102 men died in combat in Iraq/Afghanistan for every 100 women is related to the societal norm that men serve in many more military combat roles than women.  However, it is also strongly related to the fact that men are GENERALLY stronger, faster and more aggressive than women.

The same can generally be said for the 1,058 men who die on the job for every 100 women. Men are generally represented to a greater degree in jobs involving heavy labor that involve more risk. 

Credit: https://twitter.com/eyeslasho/status/1725718201202249854

Is it a social construct that 145 boys repeat kindergarten for every 100 girls?

Might it be that the male brain develops later than the female brain?

Is it a societal expectation that 223 boys are expelled from school for every 100 girls?

Could it be that males do not develop the same emotional intelligence that females do at an early age?

Is it a social construct that 1,345 males are incarcerated in state and federal prisons for every 100 females?

The fact that males generally exhibit more aggressive and risky behaviors than females (especially at younger ages) is undoubtedly at play here rater than any social construct.

What you are seeing with most of the differences above are not due to social constructs but hard wiring in the biology, neurology and DNA of males and females.

To deny the biology and science underlying gender differences has reached the point that woke liberals are not even willing to define "woman" lest they be pilloried by the progressive left.

That includes a Supreme Court justice who refused to offer a definition in her confirmation hearing earlier this year.

Looking at the numbers in the chart above it would appear the females have a significant advantage in intelligence.

If you look at the college graduation statistics in the United States you would tend to believe that females have more brain power on their side.

For example, since 1982, females have earned 13.7 million more college degrees than males. 

This has now led to the fact that there are more women than men in faculty positions at postsecondary institutions in the United States.  35 years ago there were twice as many men in faculty positions as women.

Source: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1623382796029857793

However, most studies of IQ tests show that there is little difference in the average IQ between men and women.

The differences in academic performance in primary, secondary and higher education seems to have more to do with the fact the males mature emotionally, mentally and physically later than females.

When I looked into the question of male/female intelligence earlier this year I found that while the average IQ of men and women is about the same, there is a significant difference in the distribution of intelligence.

Female intelligence is clustered around the mean. However, male intelligence varies greatly across the spectrum. 

This graphic shows the different bell curves comparing men and women regarding IQ distribution.

Women are grouped very tightly around the mean. Men have far fewer around the mean with many more well below and well above average.

Walter Block in an article "The Truth About Gender IQ Differences" had this observation about a possible reason for why the distribution of IQ might be this way.

Differences such as these are often chalked up to cultural sexism, but the reality is that such imbalance is most likely biological. It is almost as if men are nature’s crapshoot, while women are assigned the role of insurance. Consider the biological role of women to give birth, and what it would have done to the population throughout history if the grouping of women around the mean were reversed. The population would be in trouble. More women at the extreme low end of the IQ curve would mean more that are not capable of bringing up the next generation. They would have been too busy occupying the mental institutions, jails, or living homeless on the street. More genius women on the extreme high end of the IQ would mean more drawn into demanding professions and less available for motherhood.

This is undoubtedly not a popular opinion to voice in today's world.

However, take another look at the graphic above.

That graph is not the product of someone's imagination. Those are FACTS. 

It is not a social construct. 

The logic of what Block says about the differences in men and women also makes a lot of sense when viewed viewed logically.

Men are nature's crapshoot.

Woman are nature's insurance.

What kind of world would we live in if it were the women who were hard wired to be aggressive risk takers who would have a much greater chance of ending up in prison, occupying the prisons, being homeless or dying young?

I am sure that there have been societies in the past in which women were assigned the role of hunters and were charged with defending the homestead whereas men kept the home fires burning.

However, those societies seem to not have survived.

I wonder why?

Nature, neurology and biology are there to protect us and the future of humanity.

What sense does it make to deny it? 

More Marriages and Entrepreneurs Needed

A lot is made of the fact that African Americans lag far behind American households in average household incomes and wealth.

For example,  African Americans in 2019 had a median household income of $44,000 compared to an overall median for all households of $63,000 and White households averaging about $66,000.

The argument is that this is due to systemic or institutional racism of some kind.

However, if that is that case why is it that so many Asian Americans, many of which are recent immigrants, are actually doing much better than native-born White Americans?

Part of the reason for the disparity in the numbers above is simply due to the fact that the percentage of African-Americans living in married households is so low.

Only 33% of African American adults are living in a committed, marriage-based household.

That compares to 57% for Whites and 63% for Asians.

Of course, married couples have the potential for two incomes to support the household and also enjoy the economic advantage that go with shared expenses. Two can not live cheaper than one but a couple can clearly live cheaper than two singles living separately.

Is white privilege or systemic racism the reason Blacks do not get married?

Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/11/06/the-landscape-of-marriage-and-cohabitation-in-the-u-s/psdt_11-06-19_cohabitation-01-05/

In looking at the data, it seems to me that another major reason for the lower average household incomes of African Americans is the relatively small number of entrepreneurs in this demographic group compared to their representation in the population.

For example, compare the statistics on Black-owned businesses to Asian-owned businesses in the United States in 2020 according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

There are five times as many Asian-owned businesses who are employers as there are Black-owned businesses.

The gap is even larger when considering the gross receipts of these businesses.

Asians generated $841 billion in receipts compared to $141 billion for the Black-owned businesses.

This is despite the fact that there are over twice as many Blacks in the U.S. population (12.6% of the total) compared to Asians (5.9% of the total).

This means that on a per capita basis there are about 10 Asian-owned businesses for every one Black-owned business in the United States.

The standard response to this difference would undoubtedly be that systemic or institutional racism is responsible for the lack of black entrepreneurs.

However, aren't Asians also people of color? They are certainly not part of any traditional white privileged power structure in the United States.

As stated above, most also have the additional disadvantage of being immigrants with language and cultural challenges.

Why does black entrepreneurship lag other races? (Hispanic entrepreneurs also are double the number of Blacks on a per capita basis as a percent of the population).

As a counter to the racism argument I recently came across an interesting study that indicates that businesses that identify as being Black-owned actually are at an advantage in attracting customers.

The study found that businesses labeled as Black-owned received 36% more page views, 52% more website views, 71% more calls, 34% more orders, and 36% more revenue than the average business.

Credit: https://twitter.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1681124963460284417

 

Source: https://www.nber.org/papers/w30932

Is racism a reason there are not more Black businesses?

This study suggests the the opposite is true.

There is another recent study that also contradicts the racism narrative.

It actually shows that Whites are the least racist group in the United States. They are the least likely to rate other races negatively and their own race highly.

Blacks are the most likely to rate their own race highly and other races lower.

Credit: https://twitter.com/profstonge/status/1695771984393601325

If racism is not the reason we do not have more Black entrepreneurs why is that the reality?

It is also a fact that in the years before World War II there were a lot of successful Black businesses in most large American cities.

These businesses prospered in an era when segregation was the rule in many locales and Blacks were not welcome at many White-owned establishments. This led to many Black entrepreneurs stepping up to serve their fellow citizens with all types of goods and services.

One prime example of this was the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma which came to be known as Black Wall Street for the number of successful Black businesses in that area that included banks, clothing stores, cafes and the like.

The success of those Black businesses created animosity from some in the White community which led to one of the most horrendous cases of race violence in American history in which the Greenwood section of Tulsa was destroyed.

A short description of what led to the violence and the impact.

But in 1921, race riots broke out that destroyed the community and its businesses. When a white woman alleged that a Black man had attempted to rape her, white mobs protested outside of the courthouse to demand justice. This quickly turned to riots in Greenwood and the streets and buildings went up in flames. Three hundred people died and 800 were injured. The only people arrested that day for the violence were Black people. Local and national news outlets misrepresented the riots as an uprising of violent Blacks citizens.

The community never recovered.  

Unfortunately, in the era we live in today, Black businesses are most likely to be destroyed in Black Lives Matter protests or other race riots that are centered in urban areas in which other Blacks are the perpetrators. 

Is this risk a reason why more Black entrepreneurs do not come forward to own businesses?

Is it lack of access to capital? If so, how do the Asians do it?

One theory is that the lack of Black entrepreneurship is caused by a cycle of dependency that seemed to take hold about the same time as the Great Society programs of the 1960's were introduced. The social safety net became so big that it left the spirt of entrepreneurship in the Black community entangled in it.

Asian immigrants were not so restricted by this cultural norm. They largely come from a culture where little is given or provided. They come from a culture with billions of people competing for scare resources and opportunities. You have to hustle to survive. That attitude accompanies Asians who come to the United States.

I saw the same attitude when I recently traveled in Greece, Egypt and Turkey. It was clear that people in these countries knew that they had to hustle to survive. They do not have much government support to fall back on.

I don't know what the answer is to facilitate and create more Black entrepreneurship in the United States.

However, I am certain that increasing the number of Black-owned businesses would have an enormous impact on reducing the income/wealth disadvantage that we see in the United States.

Our politicians would be well served in focusing on creating more entrepreneurs rather than focusing on putting more emphasis on initiatives and government programs that would create more dependency.

We need more African Americans with an ownership mentality.

We also need more African Americans who are married.

More marriages +  More entrepreneurs = Less income disparity for African Americans.

It is pretty simple math. 

Why is it so hard for the policymakers to figure it out? 

Making Sense of Self-Esteem

It is common to hear about 'white supremacy" these days.

The narrative surrounding "white supremacy" is that the White race believes they are superior to other races and use this belief system to marginalize and minimize others.

We are told that "white supremacy" is responsible for other races believing they are inferior and unable to reach their full human potential.

We have often heard that a lot to the problems in the African-American community are the result of low self-esteem that makes them feel inferior. It has often been said that low self-esteem among Blacks is the root cause of problems ranging from academic underachievement to crime in the African-American community

All of this can be traced back over 160 years ago to the subjugation of Blacks during slavery.

When the movie Black Panther first appeared in theaters in 2018 it was hailed as being a film that celebrated Blacks as rulers, inventors and creators. It gave agency to the idea of greatness and self-realization for African Americans instead of the Black suffering and pain that so often was part of Hollywood storylines.

An article in the New York Times magazine when the movie came out included this exchange of three young African American men consistent with the 'white supremacy" narrative.

In a video posted to Twitter in December, which has since gone viral, three young men are seen fawning over the “Black Panther” poster at a movie theater. One jokingly embraces the poster while another asks, rhetorically: “This is what white people get to feel all the time?” There is laughter before someone says, as though delivering the punch line to the most painful joke ever told: “I would love this country, too.”

 

If all of this is true, you would expect that Whites would have the highest self-esteem of any racial group in the United States and that African Americans would have the lowest self-esteem.

After all, the narrative says that Whites are reigning supreme and holding everyone else down in America.

It all makes sense until you see this.

Blacks have the highest levels of self-esteem of any racial group in America according to this survey data by You Gov.com.

Whites have the lowest.

Source: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1636769874708922368/photo/1
https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/3jsg5eennk/YouGov_Personality_Study_2021.pdf

Scientific research papers have also found that Blacks have the highest levels of narcissism of any racial group in the United States.

This is the an abstract from a study in the Journal of Research in Personality on "Racial Differences in narcissistic tendencies".

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656611000912

What is also interesting is that self-esteem scores among adolescents in the United States is highest among African-American teenagers and lowest among Asian Americans.

The chart below is from a published study found in the National Library of Medicine titled "Adolescent Self-Esteem: Differences by Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Age"

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3263756/

From the abstract of the study.Large-scale representative surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students in the United States show high self-esteem scores for all groups. African-American students score highest, Whites score slightly higher than Hispanics, and Asian Americans score lowest. Males score slightly higher than females. Multivariate controls for grades and college plans actually heighten these race/ethnic/gender differences. 

More perplexing is that Asian American students, who seem to have a reason to have the highest self-esteem based on their academic performance, have the lowest self-esteem.

African Americans teens have high self-esteem despite low academic performance.

Credit: The Wall Street Journal

 

If the purpose of promoting the narrative of "white supremacy" has been to create "white guilt" it appears to have been a success.

There might also be something in all of this that suggests that the mindset that one confronts life with is important.

Being told you are unique, you are a victim and deserve special treatment might not be setting someone up for success in life.

Is it a coincidence that parents of Asian heritage have a different mindset involving parenting than other American parents? 

I have written a couple of times in the past about "Tiger Moms" and their parenting style here and here. Amy Chua wrote an essay in The Wall Street Journal a number of years ago "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior". Notice what she says about the subject of self-esteem.

Western parents are too concerned about their children's self esteem.  Chinese are not. Asians assume strength in their children, not fragility.  Therefore, they push hard on them and hold them accountable for results.

Chinese parents believe their children owe them something.  Many Americans seem to believe that since they were responsible for bringing the child into the world that they owe the child in some way.

Asians believe they know what is best for their children and override their children's own preferences and desires. Chinese parents understand that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences.

Perhaps the ideas that took hold 30 years ago that we needed to make everyone feel good about themselves was based on a bad assumption?

Perhaps we should not have been handing out trophies to everyone in the league and telling everyone to celebrate their unique identity?

Could it be that those who are a product of a culture where you are just one of BILLIONS have a better understanding of what it takes to stand out in a crowd? 

They understand that not everyone is special. You become special through your hard work and your results.

Self-esteem is important but it means nothing if it is not based in reality.

You must also always look at everything with a humble mind and spirit. Chances are high that you don't know as much as you think you do. 

You are also likely to not be as special as your mother (assuming you did not have a Tiger Mom) told you were.

The following lesson was written down for us many, many years ago.

It endures more than ever today.

When pride comes, then comes disgrace,

but with humility comes wisdom.

                              -Proverbs 11:2

Poor Palestine

We hear a lot about the poor plight of Palestine.

However, there has likely not been a population of people in the world who have received more humanitarian aid but done less with it to advance humanity than Palestine.

Let's put that statement in some historical context.

After World War II, the United States developed an initiative called the Marshall Plan to provide economic support to help rebuild the European economies that had been devastated in the war. The funds were used to rebuild war-torn regions, modernize industry and make Europe prosperous again. 

$13.3 billion was provided to the Europeans by the United States over fours years beginning in 1948. That would be around $173 billion in today's dollars. 

18 European countries received the economic aid which was roughly divided on a per-capita basis but larger aid amounts were provided to the major economic powers of Western Europe (UK, France, West Germany) because it was believed that their revival was most crucial to the overall recovery of Europe.

At the time of the Marshall Plan, the populations of the European countries that received the aid was approximately 143.5 million.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, aid to Palestinians totaled over $40 billion between 1994 and 2020. Taking account of aid in the last three years and inflating the total amount to current dollars would equal about $50 billion. 

This aid has flowed in from European and Arab countries in addition to Japan and the United States. One source puts the amount of aid from the United States to Palestine at over $5.2 billion since 1994. This aid was provided for a population that was about 2 million that lives in Gaza..

If you look at the money we have given the Palestinians since the mid-1990's, and compare it to the Marshall Plan, you really have to wonder where all the money went? 

Did we get anything to advance the lives of Palestinians?

It seems that most of the money went for the tools of terrorism and to enrich the leadership of Hamas and the PLO

On a per capita basis, adjusted for inflation, Palestine has received 20 times more aid than the Europeans did to rebuild war-torn Western Europe under the Marshall Plan after World War II.

 

The Palestinians have received 20 times the money that was provided to rebuild Europe after World War II in per capita terms and the complaint is that Israel has been standing in the way of the progress of the Palestinian people?

Of course, despite all of this aid over the years, the average Palestinian continue to live in a state of poverty. New roads weren't built. Utilities are lacking. Economic infrastructure is non-existent. Much of the money seemingly was funneled to the tools of terror, to enrich the Hamas leadership and to teach the next generation of Palestinians to hate Israel and the Jews for their plight of poverty.

Timon Dias of the Gatestone Institute wrote an excellent article about all of this back in 2014  that provides some additional context on that question.

Dias quotes from a 2003 book by German sociologist Gunnar Heinshohn on a fundamental problem is the West's aid to Palestine through the United Nations Relief Fund for Palestine. (UNRWA).

Let me remind you that this was written 20 years ago.

Despite claiming that it wants to bring peace to the region, the West continues to make the population explosion in Gaza worse every year. By generously supporting UNRWA's budget, the West assists a rate of population increase that is 10 times higher than in its own countries. Much is being said about Iran waging a proxy war against Israel by supporting Hezbollah and Hamas. One may argue that by fueling Gaza's untenable population explosion, the West unintentionally finances a war-by-proxy against the Jews of Israel.

If we seriously want to avoid another generation of war in Gaza, we must have the courage to tell the Gazans that they will have to start looking after their children themselves, without UNRWA's help. This would force Palestinians to focus on building an economy instead of freeing them up to wage war. Of course, every baby lured into the world by our money up to now would still have our assistance.

If we make this urgently needed reform, then by at least 2025 many boys in Gaza -- as in Algeria -- would…be able to look forward to a more secure future in a less violent society.

We are in 2023 and absolutely nothing was done. 20 years of following the same failed policies and 20 years of growing more and more people who have been taught to hate Israel, Jews and the countries who have been funding all of this while Palestine's leaders built terror tunnels and enriched themselves.

To give you an idea of what it taught in those schools in Palestine that are funded by UNRWA take a look at this short video of interviews with Palestinian children.

Link to video.

This is what the United Nations is paying for and a lot of it has been with U.S. dollars?

I could not say it better than Dias did a decade ago..

If the entire Palestinian Authority leadership lives off an international welfare check that arrives only because the conflict still exists, there isn't much incentive for ending the conflict.

How much have those Hamas leaders siphoned off while their people live in poverty and they teach people to hate Israel? 

The New York Post editorial board put some facts out there last week to consider. 

The top three leaders of Hamas have $11 billion in combined net worth and don't even bother to live in Palestine.

Terror masters Ismail Haniyeh, Moussa Abu Marzuk and Khaled Meshal live lives of luxury in Doha, Qatar, with an estimated combined net worth of some $11 billion. 

Call it “Lifestyles of the Rich and Hamas” — and proof positive that the whole “oppressed” and “exploited” thing isn’t exactly what the “Free Palestine” ralliers think it is.

Poor Palestine...the Palestinian people that is.

This and That---November 13, 2023 Edition

A few random observations, charts and factoids to provide some context on what is going on in the world.

Follow the Money?

A common refrain we often hear today is about "poor Palestine".

This person asked an interesting question on X as to who is funding all of the pro-Palestine/Hamas protests in the United States and elsewhere.

Protests like we are seeing also do not occur organically without some organizational muscle behind the scenes.

One potential clue.

Politics Really Is Peyton Place

My younger readers are probably not familiar with "Peyton Place".  It was a 1960's prime time tv soap opera that had the usual soap plot lines of sex, infidelity, scandal and family frictions.

Does life imitate art or is it the other way around?

This was an interesting factoid I was not aware of until recognizing it this week.

Melania Trump is actually younger than Kimberly Guilfoyle (Donald Trump, Jr.'s fiancée.

In other words, Trump, Jr. is engaged to a women that is older than his stepmother. She is also nine years older than Trump, Jr. 

Melania is 24 years younger than Trump, Sr.

Guilfoyle is the ex-wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. She was married to Newsom from 2001-2006 when Newsom was Mayor of San Francisco.

Gavin Newsom. Age 58
Credit: Getty Images

They divorced in 2006 the same year it was disclosed that Newsom had an affair with his Appointments Secretary Ruby Rippey-Tourk. What makes it even more interesting is that his paramour was the wife of his close friend, campaign manager and deputy chief of staff Alex Tourk.

Gavin really lived up to Peyton Place standards.

He is involved in a "Me Too" sexual relationship with an employee and betrays his close friend at the same time. What a guy!

That brings us to two other players in the Peyton Place plot line.

Donald Trump, Jr.,  is the fiancée of Guilfoyle who is also the ex-wife of Gavin Newsom and the son of the 45th President of the United States and Hunter Biden who is the son of the 46th President.

Trump, Jr. divorced his wife and the mother of his five children in 2018 after 13 years of marriage. 

Hunter was divorced from his wife and the mother of three of his children in 2017 after 24 years of marriage..

Biden began a relationship with the widow of his deceased brother Beau in 2016 which continued until 2019.

Hunter has another child with a stripper who worked at a DC gentlemen's club who was born in 2018. Biden denied paternity but a DNA test that was completed as part of the lawsuit proved the child was Biden's.

Biden is currently married to a South African woman he married in May, 2019 within one week of meeting her. He has another child with her.

Bring back Peyton Place. We don't need any of the writers who were striking. The plot lines are already written.

English spoken?

Interesting to see that a greater percentage of the population in Barbados and Singapore speak fluent English than does the population in the United States.

Having visited about half of the countries on this list (including Italy, Greece and Turkey last month) this looks about right from my experience.

China Falling?

Joe Biden is meeting China's President Xi in San Francisco this week.

I am not sure about the full agenda but if I were Xi I don't know if I would be interested in any tips about implementing Bidenomics in China.

Xi has enough problems with his economy right now.

There are not many looking to invest in China these days.

Dating World Is Tough Out There For Guys

I hear a lot of young women these days complain that there are very few decent guys who ask them out.

A few clues as to why that may be the case.

What is left besides a $200 restaurant or a Taylor Swift concert (as long as it does not require a long drive)?

How about a Palestine/Hamas or BLM solidarity protest?

It seems there is an oversupply of young women in that demographic.

Credit: https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1721678599768379802/photo/1

It seems that some women also have a some pretty high standards on who they will date.

I was a little confused by the last item on the list.

Can a guy be a feminist?

If so, it seems to be the best way to keep you in the dating game with college-educated women.

Of course, considering where we are on so many college campuses perhaps these women are talking about other women?

In any event it seems like you have double the chances of getting a date with a college-educated woman as  a feminist as compared with being a Republican.

Credit: https://nypost.com/2023/07/20/ivy-league-lgbtq-numbers-soar-harvard-numbers-triple/

Thousands of years of human existence and it is only now that we are discovering all of this?

Equally amazing is that it is centered primarily in the elite universities in the United States.

Our future leaders?

Why should anyone be concerned?