The Good Samaritan II

And lo, it came to pass that while the man who had fallen among thieves still languished in his sick bed, hovering between life and death, The Good Samaritan sent in a bill for his services.

“Alas, I cannot pay this,” the man said, “for I am not yet well enough to work, and the thieves have robbed me of half my possessions.”

“That’s all right,” said The Good Samaritan, “I’ll settle for the other half.”

“But if I give you such of my wealth as remains,” said the man, “I will have nothing to hand down to my children, and they will surely starve.”

“Not my problem,” said The Good Samaritan. “It was your fault for allowing yourself to be mugged in the first place. You should know better than to try to walk between Jerusalem and Jericho. I happen to know the leader of the thieves very well, and if you’d only asked me beforehand, I would have arranged for him to take a mere quarter of your possessions, and you wouldn’t have had to suffer so much of a beating either.”

“I’m sorry, I did not know that,” said the man.

“That’s because you’re an arrogant fool,” said The Good Samaritan. “Now sign over the rest of your possessions to me, and be quick about it.”

And after saying these things, The Good Samaritan went down to the pub to have a drink with his friend the Chief Thief, and they laughed together about how they had between them taken the unfortunate victim for all that he had.

Video narrated by the author

Approval Ratings

It is necessary to distinguish between approval ratings and net approval ratings. The former simply measures approximately what proportion of the electorate approve of someone or something; the latter measures the proportion who approve minus the proportion who disapprove.

President Trump’s approval rating was recently measured by Emerson College Polling at 48%, and his net approval rating at plus 6. This reveals that around 10% of the electorate are neutral. If there were no neutrals in the USA, Trump’s net popularity rating could be as low as minus 4. In other words, he is probably not supported by the majority of the voters, though that is within the polling margin of error.

President Zelensky’s approval rating currently stands at 57%. If there were no neutrals in Ukraine, that would give him a net approval rating of plus 14. For his net approval rating to be plus 4 under these same circumstances, he would have a minimum approval rating of 52%. In other words, he would still be supported by the majority of the population.

Of course, it is quite tricky to hold an election when your country is one fifth occupied by an invading enemy, (where any expression of support for Kyiv can have fatal consequences), six and a half million refugees have fled the country, a couple of million have been internally displaced, and innumerable children have been kidnapped and taken to Russia.

For the purposes of comparison, The current UK government’s net approval rating has never been higher than minus 2 and is currently minus 54.

UPDATE: Numerous new polls were commissioned for the completion of Trump's first month. All four of the ones I've seen confirm that his net approval rating is in minus numbers.

Alexei Navalny - Patriot

Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison one year ago. Everyone knows the word ‘died’ is a euphemism.

His crimes? Telling the truth. Opposing Putin. Surviving an assassination attempt by the FSB. And latterly, opposing the invasion of Ukraine.

Having the nerve to go back to Russia just when the kleptocracy thought they had got rid of him.

The question even his supporters, let alone his enemies, repeatedly asked of him was “Why did you come back?” On the face of it, it looks like stupidity. He knew he would be arrested. The only issue was, would he be arrested openly at the airport or more quietly?

He struggled to make people understand. He had run for political office. He had toured the country promising to tell the people the truth. His example had encouraged others to make a stand for freedom and democracy. They had been persecuted and imprisoned like him. The bulk of those who supported him were not in a position to leave the country.

But most importantly, he had promised never to desert the people. There ought to be one politician in Russia who did not lie.

And so Navalny went back. And he was imprisoned. And every month a new fraudulent charge was brought against him and new sentences were handed down. He actually found it amusing that he could be accused of committing serious crimes while in solitary confinement. His persecutors could not break him. As long as he lived, his mere existence was a testimony against the regime.

He accepted that the dictatorship would probably kill him. He thought his death would speak louder than his life. In his autobiography, “Patriot”, the last entry in his prison diary was dated January 17th, 2024. In it, he still held fast to a simple philosophy. One day Russia would be free. One day the crooks and thieves would be gone, and his countrymen could breathe free air and flourish in peace.

We all owe it to Alexei Navalny’s memory to hold fast to that same philosophy. Even when the night is darkest and the power of the barbarians seems unstoppable.

Speak truth to power. Always.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PATRIOT

The Return of Appeasement

At what point should we expect US citizens to start singing “Buddy can you spare a dime” or dancing cheek to cheek?

Do I hear any takers for my Packard 745 or my Buick Marquette?

How about my dad’s old trilby or my grandfather’s fedora?

Forgive me for asking, but it appears the 1930s are back with a vengeance on the western shore of the Atlantic.

We began with tariffs, which, as I already noted, did a fantastic job of ushering in The Great Depression and shutting down large chunks of the world’s economy.

Now it seems we have resurrected Appeasement, the peace at any price policy which gave such encouragement to Nazism and Fascism, resulting in more land grabs and eventually the Second World War. Neville Chamberlain? Ha! Stand aside, loser. You may have invented the idea of excluding the victim from the peace talks, but you wait until you see me carve up the victim and hand over a fifth of their country without even a by your leave. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Hey, all you dictators out there! Just invade your neighbouring peaceful state, commit innumerable war crimes, and then come and talk to POTUS about how you can keep your ill-gotten gains, take time to replace your expended arms and ammunition, and get ready for your next aggression! Because everybody wants peace, right? And making peace is so easy if you give the aggressor everything he wants before the negotiations even start.

You know what? We’ll forget that you and the US both guaranteed the sanctity of your neighbour’s borders thirty years ago. We’ll just take your word for it that you have no more territorial claims. I mean, we know you broke your word twice already in that time, but we’re willing to let bygones be bygones. We’re going to trust you if you promise not to do it again.

And don’t worry about being an indicted war criminal, because we don’t recognise the court that indicted you. Hell, I don’t recognise the courts that indicted me. So we don’t even recognise our own courts let alone international ones.

And don’t worry about our European, Japanese and Taiwanese allies. Who cares what they think? If they want defending, then they should pay 5% of their national income to defend themselves. Like we do. Or don’t? One or the other, I forget which. And we have to defend on two fronts, not just one.

Just oblige me by not moving into the rest of Ukraine before I finish my term, huh? Don’t make me look bad, the way Adolf did to Neville.

Tariffs 2

I am afraid that DJT did not read my little article last week about tariffs. And that’s after me deliberately not entitling it “Economics for the economically illiterate.” I didn’t want to be provocative, you see.

I understand that the executive orders instituting the new US tariffs also contain anti-retaliation clauses. In other words, if the US tariffs are answered by corresponding tariffs against US exports, which is the usual, almost instinctive, reaction, The US will raise tariffs again in retaliation for the retaliation.

Welcome back to 1930, folks. Only, please remember that the last time the world travelled this road, it didn’t work out so well.