Xerxes

Right. I think we each need define what we mean by West. And Orient as well. For me West, is the heir to Greco-Roman world. All of it. The good and the bad and the ugly. But not based on colour. From that broader definition of West perhaps a narrower subbranch is today’ Western liberal order. Another subranch is its dark side equivalent, which we saw in the 1930s. To think of its, perhaps “people stock” are like the h/w. And Western ideal is like the s/w that runs the operating system. Thus you can have Japanese “oriental stock” (h/w) sporting a high end Western operating system (s/w). But that doesn’t make the Japanese people the heir to the Greco-Roman world.

you cannot just “click” on the filter on Excel to remove “the era” that you don’t like and/or doesn’t suit you. No more than other civilization(s). Ex: The Belgian people cannot just decide “let’s remove our atrocities in Congo from the historical timeline when we were led by King Leopold II and do a rest to improve our “Good Guys” KPI” Ex: Iranians cannot decide to say “1979 didn’t happen”. No it happened. Ex: did U.S. “not” commit genocide against the natives, because the final output benefitted the world on a net basis ? You take it all in. Bad and good. And you never do a “restructuring charge” to kitchen sink. Japan will always be the Orient, as well as South Korea. They just happen to have Western like democracies. Was Chile led by Pinochet turned into an Asian dictatorship, because they throw away their democracy and installed a one man rule.

Fallout is one of the best TV I have seen in a while. It got everything !!

I personally get my non-obvious non-North American news from The Economist. Unlike Businessweek which is very North American centric in terms of coverage, The Economist is very global. Think WSJ vs FT. It is always a week late, but not that I need to act on it.

not good enough. I don’t who is good guy and who is bad guy in Burma. They all look the same. I want a juicy conflict where I am able to walk on the street and able to point a finger to a random person and say you are a Bad Guy ! We can do that only in Gaza. It is so perfect and so unbiased.

@dealraker I don’t think anyone here is buying defense contractors based on defense budget increase or outlook of. Not me anyways. they are just great allocators of capital, going all the way back to the Last Supper in the 90s. That is why I own them. And their programs have long tails and runways. And in any case, they did fabulously well during the 2010s Obama years of defense sequestration.

Speaking of past AGM transcript on FIH, it is worth going back to couple year when they made an analogy to “Ford company stock that was chronologically undervalued trading in a foreign market. (I think Canada?)” That comment was made as an answer to FIH trading at a discount. And that is the case study that they have been looking at. Along those lines.

This was made few days before the $60B aid package. First topic is interesting. I was not aware that “glide bombs” were such a novel thing. The rest is pretty well known.

I need to retake my geography class. If bad guys* are in Gaza, than what is going in West Bank that is so bad, that your biggest fan wants to sanctions you for it. https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/22/middleeast/israeli-military-us-sanctions-west-bank-intl?cid=ios_app * bad guys = everyone in Gaza (Hamas or not).

+$60B signed off and no algorithm-driven pop on the open on the big defense names

I love it every time you mention this.

It is not about sharing values with the leadership and specific people on the top. If it were like that it would be doom to fail and last exactly as long as those people are in power. That is true both in the West and the Orient. Mao had cordial relationship with Moscow until Stalin died. It was downhill from there. it is however about having a common belief of what kind of world we should have. This kind of values goes beyond specific leaders and can last for a long time. But it comes with a price tag. One has to give to be part of that. Your point of view of Germany First is actually is no different than Trumpian point of view of America First. Russia, China, and Iran, today their values are based on very narrow interests of having a common enemy. That is not deep value. And is in fact highly brittle as it involves leaders and not countries themselves. An average Iranian, Chinese and Russian living in those countries have far different sets of value and sense of priority. An average European, Canadian and American have a much more aligned sets of value and what it is important. One is brittle while the other is long lasting. But like Cubsfan said, one has to give.

It is not complicated folks. Alliance based on deep value goes somewhere. Alliance based on opportunism goes exactly that far. PS: let’s hope Bibi and his pals also have some grand vision of Marshall-plan like plan in mind for post-War Gaza. That is not just blowing things up with no economic and development plans for the day after. Ok fair. The rich Gulf Arabs have to pay. They got too. They are the one that have been sustaining the dream. Let’s hope just like the Americans with Japan and Germany, Israel don’t have “designs” on actual lands and people living there. Just there to shape geopolitics. And nothing more.

“I am ready; aid or no aid”

Few years ago, I was in Beijing. Did Xian, Chengdu, Yunnan (best part of China), Guandong and came out of PRC via Hong Kong through the land border. The group I was with were mostly Europeans. And mostly British (I love the Brits for the their sense of adventurism), mostly my age, but with few elderly. One of them was a just retired Swede lady. She had taken the Transiberian train from Europe and passed through the land border into PRC and was in Beijing just in time to start this part of her trip around the world. That was 10 years and a few invasions ago. That how easy it was to get around. Today the same person wouldn’t dare plan a trip like that. But I have no doubt that the pendulum can swing that fast again. ——- On Isfahan, I actually been there. But barely remember anything. For now both of us, we got to make do watching YouTubers eating Isfahani food.

That is a little bit overdramatic. Europe is fine for vacationing. All the way to Poland. My biggest regret is not being able to see St Petersburg and Moscow and do the transiberian train. That is a goner for the next 10-15 years

Couldn’t agree more. That said this happens all over the world. But for some reason this Israeli-Palestinian issue gets a lot of oxygen, from both sides and their unconditional-unbending-supporters talking their pre-established talking points. A tragedy but not the only one in the world. I think I am going to start a thread about the end-game of Azerbaijani and Armenian. There were three wars in the past 30 years, and just like the three Punic Wars each shorter than the one before. The end results is exodus of Armenian from their historical lands, which was part of formal post-Soviet Azerbaijan territory. One of the many frozen conflict that came because Soviet Union disintegrated so fast.

That is fair. Cannot argue with the logic that one needs a sociopath brute to beat the other guy’ sociopath brute. I don’t have a problem with that logic. Though it aches my body. As long we understand we are not confusing him with some modern version of FDR, Woodrow Wilson or Sir Winston. Men with vision of not only today but the day after. Have a nice weekend

I recently re-watched House of Dragons S1, before S2 is released in June. I highly recommend people to re-watch. It has great re-watch qualities and a lot nuances that needs reminding before S2 kicks off. Cannot wait for the Greens and Otto Hightowers to fall. They are nothing but usurpers.

Thanks. Will start this weekend.

Not much different than Netanyahu himself. Who just happened to be democratically elected. So he gets a pass and Westerner are required to bend-knee and repeat and carry his words like gospel. Looks like he is got a new lease on his current job, and manage to get aid unblocked, divert attention from Gaza. Truth political survivor. I personally am an admirer of Moshe Dayan. The Israeli defence minister with the eye patch. Bygone era. That is when men were men. And soldiers were true soldiers. But that’s just me. Nowadays, people going around on twitter making meme on how their “truth” is more true than other side. Politicians just lie through their teeth. Anyways, enough of me talking in this thread. None of this is investment related.

Hamas has many factions. Haniyeh in Qatar was of its political wing. The military faction (that very possibly kept 10/07 operation secret even from its political wing) is led by the psychopath whose name escapes me. He lives on borrowed time and on his line of credit.

There are some unconfirmed Breaking News coming out of Tehran speaking on the condition of anonymity: Iran and Israel have now an understanding that a new large Starbucks flagship coffee shop is to open in downtown Isfahan. Israeli helped in clearing the area, Iranian put on some fireworks in the sky. This is a developing story …

Fake, but still sounds like him