Links 27 - special Christmas edition

shrinking kids and European superstates

Happy birthday, Sol Invictus

Today is the birthday of Sol Invictus, the Roman sun god.

PM Farage?

Could Nigel Farage be the next Tory prime Minister, asks TLDR news:

The prospect of PM Nigel Farage is another argument for Scottish independence, of course.

Tories shrink kids

ITV reports that British children are shorter than five-year-olds in other countries, and have been getting even shorter since 2010.

The graph shows how the average height of five-year-old UK boys has changed since 1990, compared to other nations. Note how height starts going down around 2010. I'm sure it's just a coincidence this is the year the Tories took power and definitely not a result of their policy of systematically and callously worsening the living standards of everyone who isn't rich.

It goes without saying that if Scotland was independent, we'd only be ruled by the Tories if that's what we voted for.

Tories increase malnutrition

@sgfmann on Twitter (I suppose we have to call it X now) points out the rise in malnutrition:

This is another win for the Tory policy objective of creating a society where only the rich have a decent life.

Ukrainian soldiers want Wiesel

Bernhard Kast notes that Ukrainian soldiers favour small tanks such as the German Wiesel and British Scimitar, because they are good at hiding in and travelling through woods.

I would also note that small vehicles are harder to detect which makes them more survivable.

Terrorism against Internet infrastructure?

Freddie deBoer predicts a future wave of terrorism against the internet:

If enough people come to feel that they have been cheated by their culture, believe that the internet is deeply implicated in their own misery, and have the example of a vanguard that starts the campaign of violence, I think that we could see a real, emergent, passionate anti-technology terrorist movement, in the 21st century, one that would owe something spiritually to the radical environmental terrorists of the turn of the century but who would enjoy certain practical advantages relative to that movement.

A lot of people think that the internet has driven generations into misery, that the smartphone is a device that pours endless loneliness, anxiety, self-consciousness, and turmoil into our brains; it’s hard to dispute these feelings because they’re plainly true. And I think enough people have watched as this has all happened - as basic forms of meaning and satisfaction have been strip-mined from our lives by companies who make more money for every person who loses their sense of purpose - enough people have watched in sadness and anger that some small sect of them will be moved to violence.

Certainly there are plenty of people who dislike the internet and the tech industry, as they now exist.

Israel is mostly killing civilians

Council Estate Media writes:

the proportion of civilian deaths in Gaza is higher than in any other conflict in the 21st century. It’s also significantly higher than the average casualty rate of all wars in the 20th century. According to the report, 61% of all dead are civilians, and this figure is probably a low estimate, given the Gospel AI system is targeting apartment buildings that are suspected to contain a single Hamas fighter. Human Rights Monitor believes the true figure is 90%.

According to Zionists, Israel has "the most moral army in the world" and is nothing like Nazi Germany.

The UK has now admitted sending 39 flights from Cyprus to Israel. It won’t disclose the number of US flights, but we know the Americans are using the base to supply weapons to Israel. Even worse, the government refuses to say if British troops are in Gaza so I’m taking that as yes, they are.

I'm actually quite angry at this. Not particularly because Britain's actions are immoral, though they are. But because it's not in our interests for UK to help Israel, since Israel only cares about itself and would never lift a finger to help Britain; as I wrote earlier:

is Israel on our side?

To answer this cast your mind back to February last year, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Immediately, European countries gave as many weapons as they could spare to Ukraine. They also allowed 4 million Ukrainian refugees to settle in Europe. This demonstrates that (in terms of Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations thesis) Europeans see each other as all belonging to the same civilization. In terms of the ingroup/outgroup dichotomy Europeans see themselves as one big ingroup.

At the same time, Israel gave no weapons to Ukraine. They refused even to sell weapons to Ukraine. They did let in some Ukrainian refugees -- but only Jewish ones. In terms of Clash of Civilizations, Israel is a civilization isolate. Or to put it another way, their ingroup is limited to their fellow Jews -- everyone else is to be treated transactionally, for what one can get out of them.

I am not, incidentally, criticising or complaining about Israel for this -- they are perfectly entitled to draw their ingroup wherever they want. I merely think that if they draw their ingroup to exclude us (by which I mean Europeans) then we should likewise draw our ingroup to exclude Israel.

The British ruling class on this as on a myriad of other foreign policy issues (e.g. Brexit) seem utterly incapable of acting in the UK's interests or even of understanding what those interests are. I can only hope that when Scotland becomes independent it will do better. It could hardly do worse.

The Death of Israel?

Chris Hedges forecasts the death of Israel:

Israel will appear triumphant after it finishes its genocidal campaign in Gaza and the West Bank. Backed by the United States, it will achieve its demented goal. Its murderous rampages and genocidal violence will exterminate or ethnically cleanse Palestinians. Its dream of a state exclusively for Jews, with any Palestinians who remain stripped of basic rights, will be realized. It will revel in its blood-soaked victory.

But by the time Israel achieves its decimation of Gaza — Israel is talking about months of warfare — it will have signed its own death sentence. Its facade of civility, its supposed vaunted respect for the rule of law and democracy, its mythical story of the courageous Israeli military and miraculous birth of the Jewish nation, will lie in ash heaps. Israel’s social capital will be spent. It will be revealed as an ugly, repressive, hate-filled apartheid regime, alienating younger generations of American Jews.

If I was in charge of Israel's grand strategy, I would regard the prospect of the West's loss of support for Israel as the biggest long term threat that country faces. If the West starts to see Israel the way they saw apartheid South Africa in the 1970s or 1980s, Israel will have a very bleak long-term future.

(It seems to be somewhat of a theme of this blog to point out mistakes countries are making in their foreign policy or grand strategy.)

MPs are less intelligent than 11 year old children

Noah Carl writes:

Eight MPs and five members of the House of Lords sat two SAT papers under strict exam conditions. The SATs are taken by 11 year olds in Britain. They assess basic knowledge in reading, writing and maths.

Incredibly, only 50% of those who took part passed the English test, and only 44% passed the math test. By comparison, 72% of school children passed the English test, and 71% passed the maths test.

The idea that MPs are just not very bright -- most of them have no skills other than bullshitting -- explains a lot about the failures of government policy.

Maybe we should require that candidates have passed Maths A level before being allowed to stand for parliament. Alternately, replace them with random 11 year old children.

A Federal European State

Good Times Bad Times looks at the prospects for a Federal European State:

It's time for Europe to become a military superpower, so that people like Putin can no longer threaten us.