My Quora blogs

On politics, on science and on SF. Set out as a page

Regular comments, on whatever I see as significant. Hosted by Quora, where I have more than 8000 followers.
I group them by subject, with the newest first. Some in more than one category.

Climate Change:
Terrible Weather in Asia, Hurricanes Annie and Able for 2021?, 2020 Worst Climate Year Ever,
East Asian Flood Disasters, Fire, Flood and Melting Ice, Strange Climate and Tall People, Russian Roulette Quite Often Safe?, Climate Change Much Worse Than Science Predicted, Beyond Thunberg: Getting Back to Healthy Growth, China floods (2016).

Global Politics:
Suicidal Zionism, Economic Earthquake in East Asia: West Barely Notices, Beautiful Parliamentarianism? Terrible Weather in Asia, Japan Deeply Regrets Having Lost World War Two, East Asian Flood Disasters, Restraining the Adventurous Rich, The Unexpected Rise of the New Right, Trusting the USA?, Was Soviet Communism Necessary?, Popular Poverty and the Very Rich Persons, Poland Losing Catholicism, Australia Does Not Understand ‘The Natural’, Ineffective Russian Assassins?, “If It Prospers, It’s Not Socialism”, Who Gave Victory in World War Two?, China Dares to be Equal, West Ignoring VJ Day, when Imperial Japan surrendered, More on Belarus, Belarus: End Game for Leninism, Japan Deeply Regrets Having Lost World War Two, Beirut Explosion: Killed by Unregulated Capitalism, The West Fails in Five Civilisations, Union Jackery, Leninism Within Broader Human History, The Morality of World War One, A World Made By Leninism, My Generation – We Aged Baby Boomers, Why Hilaire Belloc Reverenced Mussolini, Jews and Poland, Nazis No More Socialists than Bismarck Was, Covid-19 – a Cool War, Weapon?, An anti-capitalism forum, Why democracy fails in Northern Ireland, Bosnian Serbs Provoked in 1994, Failure of democracy in India, Being Watched in Public Spaces, Could Iranian anti-aircraft missiles be hacked by foreign powers?, Bad Arguments for Capitalism, Croats as Hitler’s People, Who Caused a Dreadful Decade?, The Internet as Secret Policeman’s Friend, War on Iran? Think About Iraq!, When Saddam Hussein Was a Western Hero, Inequality – the hard facts, Apollo 11 and Sputnik, China Rising, Greece – Not a Rightist Triumph, Euro Elections – not a Far Right triumph, Innovation Without Capitalism, Saddam’s Ghost in Sri Lanka, Deaths Caused by Hitler, Parliaments Different From Democracy, Economics – the Forgotten Answer, Syria – a Crime Against Publicity, The Nerve Gas Assassination – is the Russian government guilty?, The Historic Minimum for Sovereign States, What’s Wrong With Globalisation, How Bush Junior created ISIS and a wider social malaise, The Left do well in Spain (2015), Japan has never properly apologised for its war crimes.

Covid-19:
Covid-19 – the new ‘English Disease’, Covid-19 deaths a complete coincidence?, Did a virus finish the Neanderthals?, UN Secretary-General almost-openly denounces President Trump, God, Mammon and Covid-19, Belarus – People United for Covid-19, Instant Panic: Tory U-turns over Covid-19, Tory Failure – More than 50,000 Avoidable British Deaths, South Sea Bubbles & Lost Virus Wars, Covid-19: Europe Infected the USA, The Right to Spread Germs?, “I’m Too Macho For That Virus”, My Little Lockdown Crisis, A magic helmet to stop Covid-19?, US Covid-19 deaths – 10% China and 90% Trump, China Mocking the USA over Covid-19, It’s China’s Fault that the USA has One-Third of Global Covid-19 Cases!, Trump and the WHO: the Buck Stops Anywhere But With Me, Covid-19 – the West’s failure, Who has the most Covid-19 cases?, Reacting to Covid-19, Covid-19 – a Cool War Weapon?, An efficient authoritarian regime at my nearest large supermarket, Trump bungles and tries to shift the blame, Covid-19: Punishing the Innocent, Fear of Covid-19, Rumours, Information, and Covid-19, China Viruses – Covid-19 and ‘Wuhan-400’.

Britain & Ireland:
Beautiful Parliamentarianism?, Why Brexit?, Starmer & Labour’s Timid Tendency, Tories Faked an Official Restoration of Capitalism, New Labour, New Foolishness, Remembering that there is a Working Class, The Unexpected Rise of the New Right, The UK can handle a lot more debt, to save its real wealth, Pro-Brexit Labour Voters Put Boris Johnson In Power, Britain’s Labour Left Unfairly Bad-Mouthed Over anti-Semitism, Corbyn Falsely Accused, British Exams – an Algorithm ‘accidentally’ favours the Privileged, Ireland Remembers the Sins of English Liberalism, Tory Failure – More than 50,000 Avoidable British Deaths, False Claims of Russian Interference in British Politics, Real Cures for Anti-Semitism, Jews in Britain, MMT – the Magic Money Tree, No Statues of Neville Chamberlain, The Morality of World War One, Slaves and Statues in Bristol and Coventry, The British Labour Party and Feed-the-Rich Economics, Why Hilaire Belloc Reverenced Mussolini, An efficient authoritarian regime at my nearest large supermarket, How Society Makes and Unmakes Individuals, Will British Labour Now Reject the Young?, Why democracy fails in Northern Ireland, C S Lewis as hypocrite, Tory Failure in the 1990s, Irish General Election – another left-wing advance, Why the British Labour Party Lost in December 2019, Corbyn in 2019 did better than anyone since Blair in 1997, Tory Gains Mostly Due to Brexit Votes, Corbyn defeated by a mix of Brexit and Scottish Nationalism, British General Election – the Old and Failed Outvote the Young and Hopeful, British Election Now On, Beheading the Snakeheads, Yes, it is ‘England Alone’ for Brexit, England Alone – Boris Johnson’s Secret Aim?, Why the Labour Party Was Never Anti-Semitic, Arthur Balfour – Tory Thinker in Pre-Thatcher Mode, Fear of Socialism in the Labour Party, Race & Reformist Rioting – Brixton 1987, British Tories rely on the Old and the Uneducated, Awed by the Amazing Twentieth?, Burying a scandal from the 2015 General Election?.
Brexit (before December 2019): Brexit If It’s Cheap – the Disappointed Middle Ground, Brexit and an Indecisive Parliament, Inequality – the hard facts, Britain’s Brexit Party may have killed Brexit, Brexit at 28th March – playing ‘chicken’, Brexit on 22nd March, Brexit as at 22nd November 2018.

China:
Economic Earthquake in East Asia: West Barely Notices, East Asian Flood Disasters, What should Mainland China should be copying?, “It’s Not Free Speech If I Don’t Like It!”, China Trade Dispute – WTO rules against the USA, Mulan – the Disney Version, China Dares to be Equal, TikTok and Trade Wars, Xinjiang and the Invention of Uyghurs, China and the South China Sea, Real Politics at China’s National People’s Congress, How Mao Saved Vast Numbers of Chinese Lives, Is China Expansionist?, Memories of the Opium Wars, Beheading the Snakeheads, Will China Win the Trade War?, Governing China – the Role of President Xi, China Rising, Summarising Chinese history, More On Chinese History (1930s), China floods, Deaths Blamed On Mao, A Merry Jingle about China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2015),
Hong Kong protests: Hong Kong Opposition No Longer Tolerated, Hong Kong: Its Friends Encourage Suicide, Destroying Hong Kong So As To Save It, Was the latest Hong Kong shooting ‘Suicide by Policeman’?, Hong Kong Committing Suicide?.

USA:
Trump’s Easter Rising?, Trump legalises the killing of Iraqis by US contractors, Remembering that there is a Working Class, The Unexpected Rise of the New Right, Trusting the USA?, Will Trump Now Resign?, Reality? America Says No!, Disney Not Dumbo, Eighty-One Million US Voters Very Nearly Swindled, Trump Defending a Vanishing USA, Trump Against the World, Who Gave Victory in World War Two?, UN Secretary-General almost-openly denounces President Trump, China Trade Dispute – WTO rules against the USA, Kamala Harris: a Different Sort of African-American, ‘Hostiles’ – a much-praised 2017 Western that is actually silly, US Decline – not Fascism and not Fall of the Roman Republic, ‘Falling Down!’ – a Film About US Failure, Inequality – the hard facts, Apollo 11 and Sputnik, Trump and ‘Send Her Back’, Reagan Democrats Die Unloved, Honesty is so last-year for the USA’s National Security Agency, How Bush Junior created ISIS and a wider social malaise, USA Caused Mass Starvation in Somalia, The USA loses its middle class (2015).

Soviet Union & Russian Republic:
The Soviet Union’s Forgotten Positive Legacy, Was Soviet Communism Necessary?, Ineffective Russian Assassins?, Who Gave Victory in World War Two?, More on Belarus, Belarus: End Game for Leninism, Belarus – People United for Covid-19, Leninism Within Broader Human History, Marxism and the Soviet Experience, Was the Soviet Union an Economic Failure?, Leninists as Criminals?, A World Made By Leninism, Apollo 11 and Sputnik, Innovation Without Capitalism, Freedom as Misunderstood by Liberals, Deaths Caused by Hitler, The Russian Revolution Was Necessary, The Nerve Gas Assassination – is the Russian government guilty?, The Meaning of the Bolshevik Revolution, Where the Soviet Union went wrong, Russian military matching the USA? (2015).

Economics:
Economic Earthquake in East Asia: West Barely Notices, Doomed by Selfishness?, Tories Faked an Official Restoration of Capitalism, The Next Nine and the Damaged Majority, Restraining the Adventurous Rich, The UK can handle a lot more debt, to save its real wealth, Popular Poverty and the Very Rich Persons, Little Man Lost, Tragedies and the Tragedy of the Commons, “If It Prospers, It’s Not Socialism”,
We Have Plutocracy, Not Capitalism, God, Mammon and Covid-19, Feed-The-Rich Triumphs, MMT – the Magic Money Tree, Was the Soviet Union an Economic Failure?, An anti-capitalism forum, Bad Arguments for Capitalism, Capitalism as a theology, Beyond Thunberg: Getting Back to Healthy Growth, Inequality – the hard facts, Innovation Without Capitalism, Economics – the Forgotten Answer, Global Inequality Report, Why Inequality Has Grown So High, Awed by the Amazing Twentieth?, What’s Wrong With Globalisation, The false economics of Adam Smith.

Ideas of Freedom:
Beautiful Parliamentarianism? Was Soviet Communism Necessary?, What should Mainland China should be copying?, Please Be Spontaneously Obedient, “My Individual Rights Are Unlimited”, Prawns But Not Honeybees?, Little Man Lost, Tragedies and the Tragedy of the Commons, Reality? America Says No!, Disney Not Dumbo, Imaginary Privacy, The West Failing, Australia Does Not Understand ‘The Natural’, “If It Prospers, It’s Not Socialism”, Who Gave Victory in World War Two?, How the Baby Boomers Liberated Sex, Star Wars: the Nordic Generation, “It’s Not Free Speech If I Don’t Like It!”, Muddled Thinking About Mass Surveillance, Ireland Remembers the Sins of English Liberalism, The West Fails in Five Civilisations, Union Jackery, Leninism Within Broader Human History, Progressive Politics Actually Winning, Coolhearts, Plato Redefining Jesus?, US Decline – not Fascism and not Fall of the Roman Republic, Ursula Le Guin and State Power, Leninists as Criminals?, Free Will – is it ‘Negotiating With Necessity’?, My Generation – We Aged Baby Boomers, Nazis No More Socialists than Bismarck Was, How Society Makes and Unmakes Individuals, Why democracy fails in Northern Ireland, C S Lewis as hypocrite, Failure of democracy in India, Being Watched in Public Spaces, ‘Falling Down!’ – a Film About US Failure, The Internet as Secret Policeman’s Friend, Post-Liberalism, If Religious, Which Religion?, Inequality – the hard facts, Apollo 11 and Sputnik, Reagan Democrats Die Unloved, Innovation Without Capitalism, Freedom as Misunderstood by Liberals, Why not an App to stop children abusing Mobile Phones etc.?, Parliaments Different From Democracy, Economics – the Forgotten Answer, Honesty is so last-year for the USA’s National Security Agency, Human Realities and Fixed Physical Realities, Why Inequality Has Grown So High, The Historic Minimum for Sovereign States, Awed by the Amazing Twentieth?, Yes, 2016 did have a lot of celebrity deaths, The false economics of Adam Smith.

Science:
Venus and its Living Creatures, Muons in the Void, When is a Meson not a Meson?, Is ‘Speed of Light’ a Misleading Concept?, Brains In The Material World, Apollo 11 and Sputnik, Nobody Discovered Gravity, February 2019 Blog – Science, Cloned monkeys – don’t panic, Yes, 2016 did have a lot of celebrity deaths, Birth of a new species?

Human Evolution:
Two Brothers or Eight Cousins, Did a virus finish the Neanderthals?, Were the first Americans not quite human?, Lilith’s Children?.

Human Nature:
Leninists Against Sex?, Prawns But Not Honeybees?, How the Baby Boomers Liberated Sex, Diana Rigg and 1960s Sexual Politics, Human Realities and Fixed Physical Realities.

Racism (including anti-Semitism):
Disney Not Dumbo, Star Wars: the Nordic Generation, Kamala Harris: a Different Sort of African-American, Real Cures for Anti-Semitism, No Statues of Neville Chamberlain (Black Lives Matter), Slaves and Statues in Bristol and Coventry, ‘Hostiles’ – a much-praised 2017 Western that is actually silly, Jews and Poland, The White Race as an Illusion, Croats as Hitler’s People, Why do people care about Jesus’s skin color?, Why the Labour Party Was Never Anti-Semitic, Trump and ‘Send Her Back’, Race & Reformist Rioting – Brixton 1987, Deaths Caused by Hitler, Hitler as the 13th Chancellor, The Historic Minimum for Sovereign States.

Philosophy:
Imagining a Road Traffic Death Squad, Critique of Pure Murder (Trolley Problems), When is a Meson not a Meson?, Plato Redefining Jesus?, Free Will – is it ‘Negotiating With Necessity’?, Brains In The Material World, Strange Climate and Tall People, How Society Makes and Unmakes Individuals, C S Lewis as hypocrite, Russian Roulette Quite Often Safe?, Post-Liberalism, If Religious, Which Religion?, Capitalism as a theology, Arthur Balfour – Tory Thinker in Pre-Thatcher Mode, Human Realities and Fixed Physical Realities.

Fantasy and Science Fiction:
Disney Not Dumbo, Andromeda Reborn in Star Trek: Discovery?, Star Wars: the Nordic Generation, Diana Rigg and 1960s Sexual Politics, “It’s Not Free Speech If I Don’t Like It!” (Three-Body Problem), “Fear is the Mind-Killer”(Dune). But so is Hollywood, Mulan – the Disney Version, Planets of Ursula Le Guin’s ”Hainish Cycle”, Chapter by chapter study of Lord of the Rings, Blessed be the Cursed, The lynching of Cats, Ursula Le Guin and State Power, My Neighbour Totoro, Is the joke in ‘Joker’ a joke on those who think it is real?, Star Trek: Picard – Watch The Borg!, Star Trek: Death In Paradise, Star Trek: Borg To Be Wise?, C S Lewis as hypocrite, Picard Grown Old and Discontented, Seven of Nine for One, Has Game of Thrones ‘Stuck Us With a Pointless End’?, Game of Thrones and Other Tales of Wonder, Studying Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, My Short Science-Fiction and Fantasy, Star Wars – Some New Twists.