Admit it didn't work, and move on

This is what the global elite need to do. Do you think they will, or will they continue doubling down on their failed efforts? Spoiler - it's the latter. They do it with everything: the debt ceiling, DEI, and even apparently with Jeffrey Epstein.  Why would, in this case, the European global elite change their Modus Operendi of shoving their agenda down people's throats and then blaming the victims for the problem?

No surprise at all on the  global elites' on the approach.  What surprises me about all of this is three different questions I have: (1) Why didn't the global elite anticipate the response from people in response? (2) Why is the backlash finally happening now? and (3) Is this really the only play the global elite have thought out?

Here are my suspicions on the answers to those questions. (1) They did anticipate a pushback but they don't care because the agenda dictates going forward regardless. That begs the question "What is the ultimate goal of this agenda?" That I cannot fathom because there are no good outcomes from forced multiculturalism, forced ignore Epstein, etc. 

(2) This one is curious. A lot of people knew these policies were not going to end well, but did nothing; cowed into submission by ad hominem attacks of racism. But how did it get to the point where that no longer makes a difference? It could be because crime and economic reality have gotten so bad, there is no alternative but to rise up against these horribly thought out (or deliberately evil) policies. The thing I find ironic is that it is happening across the West at an approximately equal pace. MAGA, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Eastern Europe are all pushing towards more conservative policies. 

That could be as a result of natural pendulum swings politically over time but the pendulums in various nations seem to be synching up. Surely it is rather a result of a manmade interference in the natural flow of these societies. It's no mere coincidence that Western nations had started the DEI and unfettered immigration policies around a similar time frame as well. Perhaps it is only logical that the pushbacks would happen in relatively similar timeframes as well.

(3) The global elite may be rich and powerful, but they are no smarter than the rest of us and in fact, possible not as smart as common sense folk, having lived so detached from reality in their wealth, opulence and decadence.  Yet they are in charge. Ironic.

Canada's new (interim) Prime Minister heads to Europe

Justin Trudeau is finally gone. His replacement Mark Carney is from the same school of leftism. He's headed off to Europe to make friends, and avoid dealing with president Trump. Thankfully this man's tenure should be very short.

From the government-funded, ultra-liberal CBC's nightly news propaganda:

This guy is just a placeholder until the impending next election. The conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre should win big in that election, though president Trump is not making it any easier for him. 

Giorgia Meloni's based approached to Italian governance

It's awesome to see governments and people in Europe move right. In the case of Italy, their current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is doing a fantastic job leading the country back towards common sense governance.

Poland moving back to common sense

Polish farmers intensify protests against E.U. and their pro-EU Polish government.  They aren't alone in Europe:

Finland the latest E.U. country to swung right

Meanwhile in Finland, voters in yet another European country are turning to conservative parties. 

Trudeau gets lambasted in Europe

 And deservedly so:

The European migration crisis exposed

Paul Joseph Watson does some investigative journalism on the 'refugee crisis' in Europe.

Krugman tells half a story

The Krugman answer.

Paul Krugman, economist, propagandist, and Keynesian ideologue looks to Europe and sees a failure of countries' attempts at austerity in helping their economies - as if the problem was one that could be solved overnight.  The same liberal logic used to defend president Obama - the recovery will take time - doesn't get applied when Krugman looks at the success or failure of solutions that don't fit his world view.

Specifically, in early 2010 austerity economics — the insistence that governments should slash spending even in the face of high unemployment — became all the rage in European capitals. The doctrine asserted that the direct negative effects of spending cuts on employment would be offset by changes in “confidence,” that savage spending cuts would lead to a surge in consumer and business spending, while nations failing to make such cuts would see capital flight and soaring interest rates. If this sounds to you like something Herbert Hoover might have said, you’re right: It does and he did.

Now the results are in — and they’re exactly what three generations’ worth of economic analysis and all the lessons of history should have told you would happen. The confidence fairy has failed to show up: none of the countries slashing spending have seen the predicted private-sector surge. Instead, the depressing effects of fiscal austerity have been reinforced by falling private spending.

Furthermore, bond markets keep refusing to cooperate. Even austerity’s star pupils, countries that, like Portugal and Ireland, have done everything that was demanded of them, still face sky-high borrowing costs. Why? Because spending cuts have deeply depressed their economies, undermining their tax bases to such an extent that the ratio of debt to G.D.P., the standard indicator of fiscal progress, is getting worse rather than better.

(emphasis added)

The interesting point is that austerity measures don't produce results overnight, just as president Obama said there were scores of shovel-ready projects that would lift the country out of recession almost immediately turned out to be pure fantasy, it is fantasy to suggest that austerity, during a downturn would provide nothing but roses is a false claim.  Nobody suggested it would.

As for the lessons of history, in the early 1980s the deep economic recession under Reagan was deepened by the high interest rate policy which was designed to deepen the pain but significantly shorten the period of pain.  Krugman has not learned the real lessons of history - that long term solutions are not the best short term solutions.  Looking at the austerity measures taken in Europe in countries that had previously been on unsustainable paths, the long term is set up far better than additional stimulus efforts would have provided.  The point is - the results are not in this has just started.  True, it's painful, that's what happens withdrawal symptoms of an addiction.  But give it 10 years and you'll see an entirely different set of circumstances.  

The sad part of the proof will be this - if Krugman gets his way and Obama gets re-elected, the matter of proving the effectiveness of austerity measures will be easier because the United States will become the control group for the European austerity experiment. Spendthrift American government will end up being the cautionary tale Austrian school economists teach to a new generation of European economic students.

Italian Cruise Ship Looks Like Some Euro Economies

I haven't had a lot of opportunity lately to surf the Internet to look at blogs and opinion pieces of late, but I'm still left wondering if anyone else doesn't see the images of the Italian cruise ship run aground and half sunk, as more than just a little symbolic of the debt crises in the Euro zone economies.  Clearly the worst case is Greece, but with Italy having a debt -to-GDP ratio of over 1.1 isn't all that stable either.

According to Wikipedia,

According to the EU's statistics body Eurostat, Italian public debt stood at 116% of GDP in 2010, ranking as the second biggest debt ratio after Greece (with 126.8%). However, the biggest chunk of Italian public debt is owned by national subjects, and relatively high levels of private savings and low levels of private indebtedness are seen as making it the safest among Europe's struggling economies...

Nevertheless, debt is debt and it ultimately doesn't matter who holds that debt if it goes to high and a reckoning happens. The symbolic irony is a warning sign for Europe.  If you don't want to run aground you have to steer your ship out of the dangerous waters.  The problem is that for many passengers aboard the Cruise Ship Euro, the ride and the view are just too sweet to bother changing course.

It's Over: Obama loses Europe.

TKO.  Explained below.

This past weekend Tim Geithner made some unsolicited remarks about European debt. President Obama has followed suit. Both remarks have not been well received.  In fact, they've been harsh. Admittedly, that is deservedly so.  The president's White House is casting about for a villain, any villain, that it can use as a shield against criticism on it's woefully bad attempts at economic recovery.  If the Republican's won't do, blame Europe, if that doesn't catch on, maybe it reverts back to blame Bush.

Sarah Palin knows her history

Not only does she know it, she knows it well, and she knows it far better than President Obama knows his geography. Democrats had a field day with Sarah Palin's seemingly incorrect version of Paul Revere warning the British. The only problem for them is she's right.

Germany votes to pay Greece. Doom to follow.

There's some Euro-socialism for you - Americans didn't want to bail out their own banks or car companies yet Germany decides to bail out super-socialist Greece. The same Greece wherein people are rioting to not give up their cushy government subsidized lifestyles.

British pundit sees the end of the road for Barack Obama

Simon Heffer of the Telegraph, sees a screeching halt to Hope and Change in America. He's not alone. But to the horror of the American media, he's European.

Read his article here. The concluding paragraphs are concise and well put;

A thrashing of the Democrats in the mid-terms would not necessarily be the beginning of the end for Mr Obama: Bill Clinton was re-elected two years after the Republicans swept the House and the Senate in November 1994. But Mr Clinton was an operator in a way Mr Obama patently is not. His lack of experience, his dependence on rhetoric rather than action, his disconnection from the lives of many millions of Americans all handicap him heavily. It is not about whose advice he is taking: it is about him grasping what is wrong with America, and finding the will to put it right. That wasted first year, however, is another boulder hanging from his neck: what is wrong needs time to put right. The country's multi-trillion dollar debt is barely being addressed; and a country engaged in costly foreign wars has a President who seems obsessed with anything but foreign policy – as a disregarded Britain is beginning to realise.

..Vacuous promises of change are hostages to fortune if they cannot be delivered upon to improve the living conditions of a people. The slickness of campaigning that comes from a combination of heavy funding and public relations expertise does not inevitably translate into an ability to govern. There is no point a nation's having the audacity of hope unless it also has the sophistication and the will to turn it into action. As things stand, Barack Obama and America under his leadership do not.

(emphasis added)

Oh my, someone in Europe doesn't see President Obama and his team as sophisticated. The mainstream media are going to be apopleptic over this. 

Coming Soon: Islamic Europe, Islamic America

This War on Terror thing isn't over just yet. Is a time of choosing multiculturalism or democracy coming to Europe? If so, how long before the same problem comes to the United States?

The problem with hiding your head in the sand and pretending the problem doesn't exist, doesn't make the problem go away. It's not an issue of denigrating or denying another religion - it's a matter of standing up for your own, and your own liberty.

Multiculturalism and it's inevitable offshoot of political correctness encourage further pushes towards extremes - not just with Islam but with any distinct group wanting to be recognized as a legitimate standalone culture. It's the same concept that applies to gay marriage, polygamy or any other distinct group that wants equal rights and equal protections.

That's a frightening video. But the issue is not an isolated group of growing radicals, the issue is a steady shift in the Muslim mainstream towards acceptance of radical ideas, or at least empathy towards them. Islam is becoming more tolerant of it's own radicals. It is not however becoming more tolerant of what it considers infidels - Christians, Jews, Buddhists or any other "non-believers".Put another way, if Islamic nations were as protective of Judeo-Christian rights in their own nations, then the argument could be made that we have not done enough in the West to accommodate Islamic people. Of course the truth is not exactly that.

In that context, listen again to this speech by President Obama to the Muslim world. He talks about the mistakes of the West, and of America. Many of the ears he's (excuse the pun) preaching to, are deaf to his "New Beginning". They see Islam as not only the dominant religion of the world, but as the only religion and the only rule of law. Jihad Watch posted about this issue back in 2004 in a post about the apparently no longer existent Faith Freedom International.

President Obama is playing right into their hands. We in the West are not the crusaders the Muslim extremists want to portray us as, if this notion of Islamic rule is true. If it's true the West, America in particular are in the familiar role of defenders of liberty and freedom.. I'm not advocating the same approach of many of those Islamic extremist who want to "nuke Denmark". What I'm saying is that there really is a War being waged by Terror and a war on Western ideas and beliefs. If you don't want to fight back or at least, the very least, stand up to it and defend your way of living and your beliefs, you will end up with what you deserve. Perhaps without even a shot fired:

Capitalism Watch - September 28, 2009

I've decided to start a new, happier recurring feature on my blog.  I've got the depressing and often aggravating Dictator Watch. But there's been little good news features until now. Today is the first in a hopefully frequently recurring feature called Capitalism Watch.  I'll be posting snippets of good news items for the advancement of capitalism, with no apologies to Michael Moore, who just doesn't get it.

 It's been a good day for capitalism worldwide, moreso than at home in America.  From Europe there's the following news items.

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’ll press ahead with tax cuts and labor-market deregulation after winning re-election with enough support to govern with the pro-business Free Democrats.

With Germany struggling to recover from the deepest economic slump since World War II, voters spurned plans by Merkel’s Social Democratic challenger to raise taxes on top earners. Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s SPD had its worst postwar result in what he called a “bitter day” after sharing power with Merkel for four years and governing for the previous seven.

“There’s a clear sentiment in favor of economic changes, especially on income taxes,” Tilman Mayer, head of the Bonn- based Institute for Political Science, said in an interview. “Voters have turned their back on grand coalition-style compromise politics.”

Germany apparently is interested in the mantle of the greatest economy on earth, currently attempting to be vacated from the United States by both China and the Democrats in America.

In England, with an election looming next year, Gordon Brown's Labour party trails the conservatives by 17 points.

London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has won praise and prizes abroad for his handling of the global financial crisis - but at home his popularity is so low that he faces eviction from office next year.

As he picked up the world statesman of the year award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation in New York last week, Brown must have enjoyed the relief of a much-needed respite from his domestic woes.

Presenting the prize from the interfaith organisation which campaigns for human rights and religious freedom, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger hailed Brown's "vision and dedication".

Yet in Britain, with a general election looming by next June, just 28% of voters are satisfied with his personal performance, according to a MORI poll in August.

Equating conservatives with capitalism, is not always an easy leap to make, but the last time the conservatives were in power in Great Britain, while ostensibly lead by John Major, they were still the party of Margaret Thatcher.  You don't get much better bona fides than that. The conservatives are also the party of Daniel Hannan. That's pretty Thatcheresque.

Then there's France, where conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, faltering in the polls, has started the climb back, from a low of 32% last year, up to 43% by this past spring.  This despite the economic crisis and a series of pro-capitalism reforms that in labor-centric France seemed unfathomable a few years ago.  This despite an onslaught of an adversarial press at home and across Europe.

But i't not just Europe that gets it.  Here in North America, conservatism and an appreciation for business and capitalism is growing.  In Canada;

British Columbia is poised to push Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the cusp of a majority in the next federal election, provided that certain 2008 voting patterns continue.

Conservatives won 22 of B.C.'s 36 seats in the House of Commons in October of 2008. That was a gain of five seats over the 2006 election, and helped lift Harper to within 12 seats of a majority.

With Harper running well ahead in national polls and election rumours falling like maple leaves over Ottawa, Conservative political strategists are focusing their sights not on the seats Harper won in 2008, but on the five B.C. ridings in which his team racked up significant second-place finishes.

In Mexico, despite suffering setbacks in the recent setbacks in mid-term elections, conservative President Calderón has set out an ambitious agenda for the remainder of his six year term, bouyed perhaps by the the fact that a recent public opinion poll in mexico gave him an approval rating of 70%. He has even scrapped three government ministries, something seemingly unthinkabke in modern day America.

But his first battle will be over the 2010 budget. Tax revenues have plunged, jeopardising Mexico’s investment-grade credit rating. At the same time, recession has increased the demand for social spending. The draft budget announced this week involves a careful balance. It includes a temporary rise in income tax from 28% to 30% for the highest earners, a new 2% sales tax and a tax on telephones. Public spending will fall by 1.8% of GDP, with three ministries scrapped and other austerity measures.

That's just a few examples.  There have been others recently too.  Perhaps it takes decades for some of the obvious to sink in worldwide, but the effects of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher are still rippling throughout the globe.  That's good news for capitalism, and good news for freedom.