Another Brain Fart from Mr Mayor

It’s been a while since I had to scrape J off the ceiling, well at the moment given we are in France it would be…le plafond.

All was calm across the breakfast table until the dullard who somehow managed to become Taipei Mayor, had another mental ‘episode’ and insisted Saturday’s referendum on pork imports were nothing to do with trade with the United States. 

We are all well used to non sequiturs from this dumbbell, but frankly this latest brain-fart really takes the biscuit. I almost joined J… sur le plafond. 

No matter that pretty much all 23.57 million of his fellow countrymen and women know full well the referendum question is all about American pork imports and everything to do with trade with the United States, in his simple-minded way he felt the need to point out the referendum question doesn’t actually include the word American, or United States. 

Even by his own prestigious and far-reaching levels of unsurpassed stupidity, this is an attempt to clear a record high-bar of witlessness. He conducts a rhythmic symphony of stupid, which is generally only surpassed by the inane utterances of his minions and immediate family.

This is the guy who constantly boasts about how smart he is. I have many times pointed out Dunning-Kruger, his innate narcissism and accompanying God Complex. 

His latest claim that he was a frustrated genius at school because he could not skip grades and forge ahead - odd then, that he had to retake a university entrance exam - was cosmically idiotic. 

A true genius, Professor Stephen Hawking once said. “People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.”

Enough said……….

Tinkerty Tonk… 

我已經有一段時間沒有把 J 從天花板上刮下來了，現在我們在法國，天花板的法文是 le plafond。

今天早餐桌上的一切都很平靜，直到那個不知道用什麼方式成為台北市長的笨蛋 (dullard) 又有個精神方面的小插曲 (mental ‘episode’)：他堅稱週六的豬肉進口公投與美國無關，因為公投主文裡沒有美豬兩個字。

我們都已經習慣了這個笨蛋 (dumbbell) 的無厘頭推測，但坦率地說，這個最新的 brain fart 絕對拔得頭籌 (takes the biscuit)，連我都差點就加入J 衝上天花板了。 

儘管他的2357萬同胞們幾乎都心知肚明，豬肉公投的問題是關於美國豬肉進口以及與美國貿易有關的一切，但他頭腦簡單 (simple-minded) 地覺得有必要指出：公投文字並不包括美豬這個詞。

即使以他高人一等 (prestigious) 無遠弗屆 (far-reaching) 的愚蠢程度來看，這個發言清除了先前所有難以超越的愚蠢記錄 (clear a record high-bar of witlessness)。他指揮著一首有節奏的愚蠢交響曲 (rhythmic symphony of stupid)，這個曲目通常只有他的嘍囉 (minions) 和直系親屬可以超越。

這是一個不斷吹噓自己有多聰明的人。我曾多次指出此人的鄧寧克魯格效應，與生俱來的自戀和伴隨而來的上帝情結。

他最近聲稱他在學校是一個沮喪的天才，因為他無法跳級只是陪同學讀書，這簡直是宇宙級的愚蠢了：他不是大學重考嗎？

真正的天才史蒂芬霍金教授曾經說過：  “吹噓自己智商的人是失敗者。”

真是夠了………

Tinkerty Tonk 掰掰

Beware of FUD - Vote No

There is a well known editorial technique used in the media world called FUD.

It is not widely used, in fact it is only used by news-sheets at the lower end of the publishing spectrum, otherwise known as tabloids, or by so-called newspapers which are highly biased in their political views that they need to pander to party politics. 

FUD stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

It is a style which is not only the stock-in-trade of low-life sensationalist media, but also of unscrupulous politicians who will not stop short of lying or bending the truth to suit their political ends. 

Make no mistake, it can be highly effective, particularly among those who only take a passing interest in news or the world around them. This can be a substantial part of any population and I’m sure you personally know many such people.  

Such people are not unintelligent or dimwitted, it’s just that they have little interest in searching out the truth for themselves to double check what they are being told. Their lives are full of other things, or they simply don’t have the interest. In most countries over 25 percent of eligible voters don’t even bother to turn out for polls, such is their level of interest in politics or current affairs. There is not blame to attach, it is simply a fact of life. 

FUD can be extremely effective, particularly when both a section of the media and certainly politicians indulge in spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about certain subjects when they know full-well a good proportion of those who read or hear such utterances will just err on the side of fear, uncertainty and doubt, not bother or check, and just behave or vote in a certain way. 

The coming Taiwan referendums are a classic example of how FUD has been used during a seemingly democratic process to make people frightened, uncertain or doubtful that what their government is telling them is not wholly true. So voters will simply mitigate their fear, uncertainty and doubt by voting for something without having a full picture of the wider implications in their minds.

On Saturday all these fear factors will play out when people vote. Unless they truly understand all the implications of what they are voting for, the safest and strongest stance for democracy and the smooth continuation of current government policy is to vote 'no' and trust the government on all four issues. The referendums are opposition distractions based on political expediency, nothing more.   

I’ve written many times on how referendums are not a reliable tool that working democracies can usefully employ. Indeed, Saturday's clutch of four questions are riddled with the usual pitfalls and lack of context which will undoubtedly trip up many voters. Opposition parties have for weeks been waging a campaign of instilling fear, doubt and uncertainty via rumour and innuendo based around the frighteningly simple this-or-that style questions.

1) US Pork - Do you agree that the government should completely ban the import of pig meat, offal and related products containing ractopamine beta receptor hormone?

Note this is without the context of the wider implication of the possible follow-on impact of such a ban like Taiwan’s vitally important relationship with the United States. It is pretty much impossible to answer such a black-and-white question like this in an intelligent way. It points the way to one-dimensional thinking and the door open for political rivals to just say “vote yes if you don’t want this nasty additive in your food” and engender fear and uncertainty built around health issues. This highlights the very narrow and imperfect nature of referendums. The Pork question is a particularly egregious example of how badly a referendum question can be formed and lead to possibly bad consequences in the future.

2) Number 4 Reactor - Do you agree to unseal (restart) the no 4 nuclear power plant for business operations?

Again, with this question it is black and white and doesn’t get to the heart of what people are actually voting for. People may vote for this thinking it is just one nuclear power plant they are agreeing to, only for a future government to take it as a mandate to open the others or build new ones. This is exactly what has happened with the UK’s Brexit referendum with the Leave vote taken by the government as a mandate to make any deal they want with Europe and it has been an utter disaster. The nuclear power issue in Taiwan, and energy policy in general, is an extremely broad issue and should not be boiled down to just one yes/no question. It is an issue which should be addressed at a general election as policy, not boiled down to one power station. 

3) The Coral Reef - Do you agree that the third natural gas receiving station of CNPC will move away from the coast and waters of Datan Algae Reef, Taoyuan?

Again this extremely narrowly based question could lead of countless issues, delays and costs in the future, and I’m sure most people voting yes to this will do so purely based on emotion. If yes, the environmental lobby will have got its way and they don’t have to care about future energy needs. It will also allow them to oppose any future location the government chooses on environment issues and allow them way too much control over energy policy. This question will be answered based on the emotion of voters. It is an excellent example of why referendums should not control such decisions.

4) Referendums and Elections - Do you agree that within six months of the establishment of the referendum proposal, if there is a national election during that period, the referendum should be held on the same day as the election, provided that it meets the requirements of the referendum law?

Not only is this poorly worded and confusing, it risks mixing referendums and elections. There is no worse idea. Elections are supposed to be about broad policies and running the country. Bogging them down with tiny single issues would only add to confusion and misdirection as politicians battle to outdo each other with statement upon statement on every minute detail. Issues surrounding elections are difficult enough for most people to digest. Adding to them with a swathe of referendums is a road to confusion, lack of focus about what's important and works to weaken democracy, not to strengthen it.  

It’s clear I am against any referendum on principle, regardless of what I personally think of the issues involved this Saturday, Let’s look at what happened with the the Brexit poll in 2016 in the land of my birth, where the electorate was asked the simple black and white question - Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?

Many people voted emotionally without understanding the implications of such a move and many are disappointed and angry with the outcome and complain “This is not what I voted for!” The trouble is, of course, that they did know what they were voting for, they just didn’t understand, or bother to study, the possible implications of their vote. 

There are now almost daily stories talking about 'Brexit Regret.' A Google search ‘Brexit Regret’ reveals a huge crop of headlines such as...

Brexit regrets for UK fishermen as catch values halve

Why many British voters are having Brexit regrets

Brexiteer says he’d never have voted for Brexit ‘if we knew we’d lose our jobs

Regret for backing Brexit in Birmingham South-Asian community 

...and many, many more.

Current polls show 49 percent of people in the United Kingdom now think that it was wrong to leave the European Union, compared with 38 percent who thought it was the right decision. The rest are don't knows. In the actual 2016 referendum, leave won 51.9 percent of the votes and remain 48.1 percent.

I really hope that the lessons learned elsewhere will prompt a 'No' vote this weekend and there will be no regrets.  

Tinkerty Tonk...

Pork vs Pragmatism

Pragmatism is defined as - “A reasonable and logical way of doing things or of thinking about problems that is based on dealing with specific situations instead of on ideas and theories.”

In the relatively short time I have lived in Taiwan I have always got the impression from the people I meet that they are politically aware, but more importantly sensible and pragmatic. 

I’ve always had the impression that the majority would do the right thing, and have always been encouraged that they replaced the KMT with the DPP in 2016, then returned them in 2020 with an increased share of the vote. 

To me that result reflected a sense of Realpolitik - which is politics or diplomacy based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors - rather than explicit ideological notions or moral and ethical premises. Realpolitik is decisions based on wider factors, rather than just a single issue and is generally extremely practical. 

I’ve written about it before, but the referendum on pig meat from Taiwan’s friend the United States, is not only getting in the way of the wider aims of the government, it is allowing the KMT to score cheap political points. 

The idiocy of all these referendums aside, which ironically makes for less democracy, not more, a vote to ban the importation of US pig meat will damage the relationship with Taiwan’s biggest diplomatic ally and also play into the hands of China who would like nothing more than to see Taiwan/US relations damaged.

I’ve said before that every KMT victory on the political front takes Taiwan a step closer to ultimately having Beijing govern the island. If you are OK with Taiwan ultimately ending up like Hong Kong be led by the KMT, listen to what they say and vote accordingly.  

Or you can look at the bigger picture and what might be at stake and say no to this ridiculous referendum which is about a tiny issue, but a tiny issue that could have large ramifications. 

Just put up with the tiny inconvenience of looking at pork product labels and signs in restaurants, for the greater good of sound relations with the most powerful nation on earth that supplies Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and has openly stated it will help in times of future trouble.

Please don’t be narrow-minded and refuse to think of the broader issues, or be so selfish and self-centred you can’t be bothered to read a food label. It is, after all, only one percent of the country's pork consumption.. The issue is a tiny one and there are laws in Taiwan that it has to be labelled. You have a choice.

Think of the future and what Taiwan will be going through with China in the coming decades and as even now as their fighter jets invade Taiwan’s air space pretty much every day. 

Pork over protection...I know which way I would vote.  

Tinkerty Tonk...

The definition of pragmatism is to adopt a reasonable and logical treatment or way of thinking for a specific situation without being attached to ideas and theories.

As far as my experience living in Taiwan is not too long, the people I met gave me the impression that they are very politically conscious, and more importantly, they seem to be sensible and pragmatic.

I think most Taiwanese will do the right thing and have been inspired by this attitude. Therefore, they let the DPP replace KMT in power in 2016, and then let the DPP continue in power with more votes in 2020.

For me, the above results reflect a kind of Realpolitik, that is, political or diplomatic considerations are mainly based on specific circumstances and factors, rather than ideology or moral ethics as the premise. Real politics decisions are based on a wide range of factors, not just a single consideration, which is usually very practical.

I have written about my views on referendums before. I think referendums are generally stupid, and the irony is that many referendums will not only promote democracy, but will damage democracy. Of course you can disagree with my personal opinion.

Now let's take a look at this referendum on imported pork from American friends in Taiwan.

This anti-Lesbian pig referendum will not only hinder the Taiwanese government from achieving more important and broader goals than pork, but will also allow KMT to obtain a cheap political dividend. Banning the import of American pigs will harm Taiwan’s relationship with its most powerful diplomatic ally, and it will also make China happy, because China must hope to see the damage to Taiwan-US relations.

As I said before, every political victory of KMT will bring China one step closer to ruling Taiwan. If you think that under the leadership of KMT, it is not a big problem for Taiwan to become Hong Kong, then just listen to them and cast the votes they want you to vote.

In addition to the above options, you can also look at the broader vision blueprint, consider the possible pros and cons, and then say no to this absurd referendum. The safe import of pigs is actually a minor issue, but this minor issue may have a huge impact on Taiwan’s future.

After importing Laizhu, check the pork import label when buying food, and pay attention to the place of origin of the pork used in the restaurant. This procedure may cause some inconvenience, but this is to establish a good relationship with the most powerful country on the planet. That country provides Taiwan’s self-defense. Weapons, and openly stated that Taiwan will provide assistance when it is in difficulty.

Therefore, I would like to ask Taiwanese people not to be narrow-minded, not to blatantly refuse to broaden their horizons, and not to be too selfish or self-centered to bother to read food labels. After all, imported pork from the United States only accounts for one percent of Taiwan’s pork. This problem is really small. Moreover, Taiwan’s laws require that the source of meat must be declared. You can choose.

Even today, Communist aircraft invades Taiwan’s airspace almost every day. Taiwanese must think about the future and how they should respond to China in the next few decades.

Against the American pigs or the United States substantial protection? I know which one I will choose.

Tinkerty Tonk... Bye bye.

FFS!

In the UK today video showing Prime Minister Boris Johnson lying to parliament has gathered 40 million views on Twitter. To add some context, that is 66 percent of the United Kingdom population.

Johnson is a known liar, prior to his political career he was sacked for making up quotes when he was a journalist and after moving into political life he was sacked for lying about an affair with a journalist. 

So the opposition parties have plenty to attack him with, quite apart from his appalling mistakes over Covid and Brexit during his short time in office. 

The good ole US of A seems to be having similar issues with their ex-President still peddling the lie the last election was rigged more conspiracy theories about ‘deep state’ than you can shake a stick at. It is truly crazy in the US right now, and I won’t even begin to articulate an opinion, aside from saying it really is...unbelievable.

I won’t make this long so won’t go into places like Turkey and Belarus, and, come to that, Russia and China in terms of political aggression and craziness. 

I just thought it was interesting today when Mrs Smith was bending my ear about the KMT and their latest attack on the administration by targeting our friend Uncle Chen. 

I have to admit to having a soft-spot for Uncle Chen and if anyone wanted to drill my teeth or pull them out, he’s the guy I’d trust to do it. For some reason the KMT seem to view him as a kind of devil who, most recently, had the utter temerity...to attend a dinner party, sing a few songs on request, and have a glass of wine. 

The hypocrisy is astounding, as this is just what these KMT people do as well. Let them deny they have never drunk a glass of wine or had fun with Karaoke.     

Apart from making up lies about the women at the event, the KMT seems to be saying our dear Uncle Chen should resign because “he sways when he sings.”

If that is the opposition’s best shot at someone who is clearly a national hero, they really need to think again….FFS!

Tinkerty Tonk... 

More slapstick politics from the KMT

 

Living in Europe for a few months and being outside of the Taiwan bubble, has made me realise, with an even sharper focus, that while the politics here can be just as ridiculous and absurd, it is at least based on real and important events. 

The picture above is two days old and of the British Prime Minister Johnson, aka Boris the Buffoon, visiting a hospital in the north of England to see how staff were coping with the coronavirus pandemic. 

The more acutely observant of you will notice he is not wearing a face mask despite the obvious fact everyone around him is, and every entrance to the hospital was festooned with notices to wear a mask at all times. 

Now I hear the KMT has dug out a bit of video which is nearly 18-months old accusing Uncle Chen of not wearing a mask at a dinner, this at a time when all the restaurants in Taiwan were open and there was no mandate to wear masks. Much less wear them while eating.

Britain’s Buffoon-in-Chief is rightly being roundly criticised for doing something so crass and stupid within the walls of a facility full of Covid patients at a time when in the UK there are nearly 40,000 new cases of Covid every day. A total of 9.4 million cases and a total of 142,000 deaths. 

The UK opposition are quite right to be attacking Johnson for doing something so blatantly idiotic and setting such an awful example. It is exactly what they should be doing. 

Sadly not so the KMT who have managed to make a hash of things yet again and attacked Chen for doing nothing wrong. They really need to start paying better attention. 

I also hear, the KMT has now changed tack after being caught out with the date on the video, which they didn’t notice, and are now frantically trying to to change tack by pointing out he was standing next to a woman. 

Why, you may rightly ask, is that an issue? Well to the KMT, it seems the very fact she was a woman points to the fact she could be an escort. Even in terms of the most incompetent attempt at a smear campaign this is just lamentable.

It’s pathetic, and doubly so if when caught out for blurting out something they had clearly not checked, they descend into lies and smears in a sad attempt to salvage something from the wreckage.

I get frustrated that the DPP does not fight back harder sometimes with some dirty tricks of their own. Although I do applaud them for not joining the race to the bottom and scraping the bottom of the political barrel. The KMT do not look before they leap and skate on thin ice when they throw caution to the wind. They are penny wise and pound foolish and we should all take what they say with a pinch of salt (this for students of English idiom.)   

Tinkerty Tonk... 

One-upmanship

 

It’s always amusing to see tired old political tricks being played out by someone with little imagination or original thought. 

The Taipei Mayor seems to be having a fine old time of running through his well-thumbed copy of 101 Gags To Play On Your Political Opponents. You can imagine that horrible little smirk he often wears crawling across his face when he finds one he thinks might work. 

Although the reality is he is bereft of ideas and is simply going through the motions of indulging in a ruse he thinks people won’t immediately see through. He is wrong. 

His latest idea of separating diners between smoking and non-smoking - sorry, between vaccinated and non-vaccinated - is such a classic case of one-upmanship as to be glaringly obvious to even the most intellectually challenged. 

The comparison is a fine one as just as smoke drifts around a restaurant, the virus will too if an infected person sneezes or coughs. One top of which an infected person might touch a door handle, use the toilet, touch a tray and the infection is passed on. It is clearly just a daft idea. 

What he is doing is just trying to go one-up on the Health Minister. His thought process would go something like this. “People need to think I am smarter than anyone else in the current administration if I want to become President. So I have to counter everything they do with an idea of my own that will impress people.” Hence this latest idiotic idea of his. 

One-upmanship is designed to fool people into thinking you are better than them or another person. It is a very tired and worn-out political game and needs to always be disregarded. 

The Taipei Mayor really needs to stop copying other people’s techniques and ideas and come up with good original thoughts and analysis of his own if he wants to be taken seriously in the political arena. 

Tinkerty Tonk...

《高人一等的情結》

看到缺乏想像力或原創思想的人玩陳舊的政治伎倆總是很有趣的。

台北市長翻閱著他那本書頁起毛的《101種把玩政治對手的噱頭》，似乎非常自得其樂。你可以想像，當他發現一個他認為可能有用的方法時，他經常掛在臉上那種恐怖的得意笑容就會出現。

儘管現實是他沒有想法，只是沉迷於詭計之中，但他認為人們不會立即看穿。 他錯了。

他最新的想法是將吸煙者和非吸煙者區分開來。。。抱歉，他要在餐廳裡區分接種疫苗和未接種疫苗者，就是一個典型的高人一等心態，這即使對智力稍弱的人也是顯而易見的。

這種比較很好，就像煙霧在餐廳內部飄蕩一樣，如果感染者打噴嚏或咳嗽，病毒也會傳播。感染者可能會接觸門把手、上廁所、接觸托盤，然後病毒就會傳播。這非常明顯只是一個愚蠢的想法。

他正在做的是試圖對衛福部長進行反擊。他的思考過程會是這樣的：如果我想成為總統，人們需要認為我比現任政府中的任何人都更聰明。所以我必須用我自己的想法來反擊他們所做的一切，這會給人們留下深刻印象。

因此，他這個最新的愚蠢想法出現了。

One-upmanship 旨在愚弄人們，讓人誤認為自己比他人更好。這是個陳腔爛調的政治遊戲，需要徹底被忽視。

台北市長要想在政治舞台上受到重視，真的需要停止複制陳腐的伎倆，並提出自己的好的原創想法和分析。

Tinkerty Tonk... 掰掰。

Black and White Elections

In the main, us voters usually have to decide on a range of issues come local or national elections. The economy, foreign policy, healthcare, education, taxation, crime, roads and transportation, immigration, climate change, nuclear and energy policy, in fact a whole range of issues which we weigh and balance in our minds before casting our precious vote. 

However, it seems Taiwan is heading the way of the United Kingdom, and the forthcoming local and national elections will become more about voters casting their ballot with a single issue dominating all the others. 

The last election in the UK, for example, was all about Brexit, nothing else mattered and pretty much the entire political discourse during the campaigns was about Brexit. It’s still a major topic, mainly because it has been such an utter disaster, but Boris Johnson fought the last election on the basis of Get Brexit Done… and he won, convincingly. 

From what I hear the opposition parties are saying, the forthcoming Taiwan local elections next year, and the national election in 2024 will be fought pretty much on the single issue of China. The fact is the current administration is doing such a good job there is little else to dispute.  

Like the ex-Kaohsiung Mayor, who promised to bring in Chinese money, the latest utterances by Eric Zhu after Xi Jinping rushed-to-gush at his gaining the KMT Chairmanship, demonstrates just how close the KMT will bring Taiwan towards China. His comment that he “will seek common ground and respect differences, increase mutual trust and integration, strengthen exchanges and cooperation, and allow the peaceful development of cross-strait relations to continue” is telling. 

I really don’t like “integration” and “strengthening exchanges and cooperation” which likely means a flood of tourists if the KMT gain power, at the very least. The KMT would, like the ex-Kaohsiung Mayor, promise untold riches by allowing China more access to businesses and investment here and encouraging floods of Chinese tourists to ruin our national parks.   

It would seem to me that Taiwan politics is polarizing around keeping the current status quo and full democracy, or gradually being absorbed by China and ending up like Hong Kong, or worse.

Reading between the lines of various KMT and TMD statements, their administrations would  play into China’s hands in return for favours and, more likely, the support China would give them to keep them in power. Most likely, these would be economic to begin with. 

So, just like the Brits voting for Brexit Boris, my fellow Taiwanese residents will face similar single issue ballots in the coming months. 

We have elsewhere discussed the issue of age when it comes to voting patterns. In the UK, older people tended to vote for Brexit because of a misguided and rosy view of England’s past colonial glories. Older people with safe pensions and houses long paid for and no real worries, other than occasionally moaning their doctor could not see them at the exact time they wanted. 

I see the same pattern in Taiwan and it’s worrying. It is why it is vital young people get out and vote, otherwise the older generation will be making decisions that will affect the young when the old ones are long dead. 

If I were on the DPP’s campaign management team I would be pushing a slogan of “A vote for the opposition is a vote to do away with democracy in Taiwan and become like Hong Kong.”

The coming elections are a stark choice for voters. If you don’t want democracy any longer, vote for the opposition. They will surely sell you into the hands of Xi’s China. 

Tinkerty Tonk…