One law for the rulers...

 

Look Back in Danger

Four decades in Hong Kong have given me a great admiratiuon for the Hong Kong people (if not, alas, for those who govern them). Yet despite their hard work, intelligence, and dedication to principle, one quality is curiously lacking - they seem to be totally unaware that vehicles can travel backwards as well as forward.  Any driver in Hong Kong trying to manoeuvre into or out of a tight parking spot can be sure that the second they start reversing, some idiot pedestrian will walk across their path a few inches behind them, seemingly blithely unaware that they are actually moving.  I'm not sure what accounts for this blind spot - posasibly the fact that many Hongkongers lack driving experience - but you can be sure that if one of these people who put themselves in harm's way actually suffered an injury, they would immediately blame the poor driver for it and not their own lack of caution.

Mind how you go.

On the Campaign Trail

As the Orange One hits the campaign trail again in what one can only hope will be a fruitless bid for a second term as president, we are faced once again with that curious question: why do some women (mostly whitre) vote for a serial liar who has a history of blatant sexism?  They even have their own website.  Well one answer may be provided by the lady on the right of the picture, who is demonstrating the intelligence of Women for Trump by not knowing which way up to hold her placard (no, I didn't doctor that part of the picture).

Stupidity aside, this article explores other reasons for the phenomenon, while this one argues that the female vote for Trump has been overstated.  And of course there are the diehard party faithful who would vote for a cockroach or slug if it stood as a Republican.  However, I think one big factor in 2016 was that Hillary Clinton was unpopular among a large segment of the female electorate - for some valid reasons, and a lot of invalid ones, like those bizarre pizza parlour child abuse conspiracy theories.  Some of that dislike was actually directed at her husband - following Tammy Wynette's advice to "Stand by Your Man" may actually have cost Hillary votes among those who profess "family values" most vociferously.

With Hillary out of the picture, and Joe Biden likely to pick an uncontentious woman as his running mate (Amy Klobuchar would be my giuess), it will be interesting to see whether Trump can keep his female support this time around.

All that education and still stupid as sh*t

You have to wonder what is wrong with Chief Executive Carrie Lam.  She's supposed to be highly intelligent - invariably number one in class, head girl at school, educated at top universities in Hong Kong and the UK, years of experience as a senior civil servant - yet it is clear she is as out of her depth now as Bob Dylan's Mr Jones..  The two biggest mass protests ever in Hong Kong, and she doesn't get the message.  Six months of violent clashes, and she doesn't get the message.  Now the biggest electoral drubbing in history for the pro-government parties, and she still doesn't get the message.  Public opinion polls show her popularity rating at  unprecedented lows, and that more than half of Hongkongers have zero trust in the police, and - need I repeat myself?

Hong Kong voted massively for change, yet all Lam continues to deliver is hand-wringing, platitudes and empty promises.  For all her talk of listening humbly to the people, I think the problem is that humility is not in her nature.  Southern District Councillor Paul Zimmerman's analysis seems spot on: instead of thinking "the people have spoken; I must respond", her attitude is "the people are attacking me; I must fight back".  That does not bode well for Hong Kong's future.

Shaking up British politics

Yeah, that sounds like a good excuse...

The Triumph of The Will

The Giulanification of Donald

Rudolph Giulani's argument is, like most other excuses for Trump, nonsense.  Giulani argues that Trump is under an obligation to maximise profit for his shareholders.  It is true that those in charge of a public company are so obliged, within certain legal and ethical boundaries.  But the Trump Organization, Donald's main business vehicle, is privately held.  As such, Trump can essentially do whatever the law allows him to get away with.  He could even choose to pay tax if he wanted to.

689 Explanations