Happy Leif Erikson Day

For John, BLUF:  Yes, there really is a Leif Erikson Day, here in the United States.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Anglosphere: Celebrating Wrong Italian? (Columbus vs. Cabot)

From Free Republic, by Tancred, 10/13/2002, 1:02:58 PM.

Here is the lede plus three:

A few years ago I chanced to be in Buenos Aires on Columbus Day. It is a major holiday there, during which no business is transacted. I spent the day wandering about town enjoying the celebrations. One plaza held a Columbus Day festival in which passersby could enjoy demonstrations and samples of music, dance, crafts and foods of all the various Latin American nations, and of many of the source-nations of Argentina's immigration.

The interesting thing to me was the complete absence of anything representing the United States. This was not a coincidence. Columbus, and the holiday celebrating his landing in the New World, are seen throughout the Spanish-speaking world as having to do primarily with the extension of Spanish-speaking, Catholic civilization to the New World and the creation, through a conflicted encounter, of a new culture. It is, to coin a phrase, the creation of the Hispanosphere that is commemorated.

Traditionally, the role played by the United States in this narrative is not one of a joint participant, but rather an antagonist. In the narrative of Hispanosphere nationalists, Latin America is Shakespeare's Ariel, the graceful and sensitive artistic spirit. The United States, or "Gringolandia" as it is sometimes called, is Caliban, the powerful but ugly monster that dominates tragic Ariel.

Columbus Day in the United States carries an entirely different set of connotations. During the 19th century, Columbus was reinvented by Washington Irving and his successors as a sort of Yankee visionary entrepreneur before his time. His specific roots in time, space, and culture as a Genoese in the service of Spanish monarchs was downplayed; what was celebrated was his seeming prescience and capacity for self-reinvention.

Why do I say Leif Erikson Day?  Supposedly he led the first European Expedition to the Western Hemisphere.  On the other hand, there are myths of Irish sailors coming to the New World.  There is also evidence of early exploration from Europe, as presented in Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture, by Archaeologists Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley.  They argue that Solutrean groups from southern France and the Iberian Peninsula crossed the North Atlantic and into North America during the Last Glacial Maximum.  That was a long time ago.

But, Joohn Cabot should be celebrated also.  I think he got short shrift when I was in school.  A round of applause for John.

To mention this is not to take away from Indigenous Peoples' Day.  We should not avoiod the reality and history of those who were on the land before Admiral Columbus arrived.

However, first contact was inevitable, if it had not happened thousands of years earlier.  For example, the Chinese could have been first, with bigger boats but they chose to sail toward Africa, then shut it down in 1433, and then close their shipyards.  If Admiral Zheng He had elected to sail East, rather than West, then we could have blamed him.  Id the Polynesians could find and settle Hawaii, in the middle of the Pacific OOcean, why could China not find what is now Mexico.

Instead of whinging about the past, we should celebrate what we have.  Change was always inevitable.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

John Cabot to the Front

For John, BLUF:  Our Senioor Senator, Ms E Warren, would like to change Columbus Day to Indiginous Peoples Dsy.  Why today?  What did Indiginoous People do to spark the uniting of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Anglosphere:  Celebrating Wrong Italian? (Columbus vs. Cabot)

From Free Republic, by James C. Bennet, 12 October 2002.

Here is the lede plus seven:

A few years ago I chanced to be in Buenos Aires on Columbus Day. It is a major holiday there, during which no business is transacted. I spent the day wandering about town enjoying the celebrations. One plaza held a Columbus Day festival in which passersby could enjoy demonstrations and samples of music, dance, crafts and foods of all the various Latin American nations, and of many of the source-nations of Argentina's immigration.

The interesting thing to me was the complete absence of anything representing the United States. This was not a coincidence. Columbus, and the holiday celebrating his landing in the New World, are seen throughout the Spanish-speaking world as having to do primarily with the extension of Spanish-speaking, Catholic civilization to the New World and the creation, through a conflicted encounter, of a new culture. It is, to coin a phrase, the creation of the Hispanosphere that is commemorated.

Traditionally, the role played by the United States in this narrative is not one of a joint participant, but rather an antagonist. In the narrative of Hispanosphere nationalists, Latin America is Shakespeare's Ariel, the graceful and sensitive artistic spirit. The United States, or "Gringolandia" as it is sometimes called, is Caliban, the powerful but ugly monster that dominates tragic Ariel.

Columbus Day in the United States carries an entirely different set of connotations. During the 19th century, Columbus was reinvented by Washington Irving and his successors as a sort of Yankee visionary entrepreneur before his time. His specific roots in time, space, and culture as a Genoese in the service of Spanish monarchs was downplayed; what was celebrated was his seeming prescience and capacity for self-reinvention.

In fact Columbus did have some such characteristics; entrepreneurism is often a leap into the unknown, and he was neither the first nor the last to set out to seek one thing and discover another, nor to venture on the basis of mistaken calculations and assumptions. There was, it is true, a certain Enron-like quality to his mileage calculations.

Subsequently, this useful narrative was seized upon and expanded by Catholic immigrant communities eager to demonstrate that Catholicism was not inconsistent with being American. Italian immigrant groups found Columbus a particularly appealing figure; here was an Italian Catholic already elevated to heroic status by the Americans they sought to join. Columbus Day became established as an American holiday, but for reasons and with symbolism quite different from those for which it is celebrated in Latin America.

Now, of course, Columbus Day is under attack as a holiday in the United States by the forces of political correctness. This is primarily an effect of the Calvinist Puritan roots of American progressivism. Just as Calvinists believed in the centrality of the depravity of man, with the exception of a miniscule contingent of the Elect of God, their secularized descendants believe in the depravity and cursedness of Western civilization, with their own enlightened selves in the role of the Elect.

I like the thread in this article on the influence of Calvinist Puritans.  The idea of a sinful world and a few saved from this perdition.  This does a lot to explain the Woke Community.  The modern day witch trials are now the banning of individual sinners from social media.

The other thing I liked was the bringing up of Joohn Cabot as the true person to celebrate for the founding of English colonies on North American Shores.  I don't recall learning, in elementary school, much about John Cabot, as opposed to Christopher Columbus.  I am the poorer for it.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Russia Has Options

For John, BLUF:  There aare a lot of different opinions out there about Russia and Ukraine, but Ukraine may not be the issue.  It may be NATO or it may be the US presence in Europe.  And President Putin has a number of different option, depending on what his deep itch is.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Outlier: What if Putin’s Real Target isn’t Ukraine?

From The Cipher Brief, by Mr Tim Willasey-Wilsey,♠ 4 February 2022.

Here is the lede plus four:

We have a long history of misreading Russian intentions.  The classic example was the judgement by the British Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) that Russia would not invade Czechoslovakia in 1968; based on a westernised view that it would not be in Moscow’s interests.  Similar misjudgements were made in the prelude to Putin’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014.

Vladimir Putin calculated this winter as the ideal time to confront the West over those parts of the former Soviet Union which he believes should still be in Moscow’s sphere of influence.  Winter inevitably puts Europe’s energy market under stress.  Meanwhile NATO has just made a humiliating and chaotic exit from Afghanistan led by a United States president who is struggling in the polls.

Having identified the best moment Putin followed up by mobilising an army of some 130,000 troops in midwinter, distributed in pockets along Ukraine’s borders with Russia and Belarus.  Putin never places great belief in diplomacy but he is willing to go through the motions because he does set store by assembling retrospective justification for any future action.  In the unlikely event of a major Western concession, he would be willing to stand down the army but the strong probability is that he will use it to facilitate a tangible political and military result.

The assumption of everyone in the West is that Ukraine is the target for either an invasion or an incursion. However, none of the options looks particularly good.  Yes, Russian troops could probably dash the 240 miles from Belarus to Kiev and seize the capital.  But they would be unable to subjugate the whole of Ukraine, especially west of Kiev, and the invasion could lead to a long and costly insurgency.  Alternatively, Putin could try and capture Ukraine’s coast and the port of Odessa but it would leave a long strip of land to defend against future Ukrainian counter-attacks.

The other problem with attacking Ukraine is that it lets NATO and the West off too lightly.  President Biden made it very clear at an early stage of this crisis that NATO would not fight to defend Ukraine. Instead, all the talk has been of economic and financial sanctions.  This approach has made it easier for Western countries to show a reasonably united front against Putin, although differences exist over supplying weapons to Ukraine and the exact nature of the sanctions. So, the focus on Ukraine has not worked for Putin.  Although some of the responses have been divisive the overall tendency has been to unite Western leaders.  It has also enabled them to undertake some showboating with Macron engaging directly with Putin in diplomatic talks and others making high-profile trips to Kiev. But Ukraine may not be Putin’s main target. Putin’s beef is with NATO which, he believes, has made more inroads into central and eastern Europe than was ever agreed following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  In fact the two draft treaties which Russia published on 17th December last year demanded that NATO withdraw its forces and weapons from any country which joined NATO since 1997.  That would include Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.  It also embraces the three Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) whose secession from the old Soviet Union particularly rankles with Putin.

To see what alternatives President Putin might pick, read the rest of the short article.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Author Tim Willasey-Wilsey served for over 27 years in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He is now Visiting Professor of War Studies at King's College, London.

The Economic Future

For John, BLUF:  The economic future is a lilttle uncertain, and not because of fluxuations in the Stock Market.  Current events could damage the economy as we continue to endure a Pandemic and Russia and China threaten force to regain lost territory.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Mornings With Maria

Teases a Recession in 2023

I would have thought the pent up demand and the dearth of workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic would have sustained the economy for several years.

On the other hand, the Federal Reserve is concerned about rampant inflation, and is thus talkiing about a rate increase, perhaps in March.♠  At the same time, China's Chairman Xi, at a G-20, said the US should not increase interest rates.

Of course there is the issue of war and the impact on the petroleum market.  A spike in prices could be detrimental to the world economy.  Russia is a major supplier of petroleum to Europe and if that flow is cut off by a Russian invasion of Ukraine then European nations will bid up the price of oil to heat their homes and power their factories.♥

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  That means it will be more expensive to get a loan, including a home loan.
♥  The decisions of European nations to de-commission nuclear power plants now looks like a mistake in the near- and mid-terms.

Star Chamber?

For John, BLUF:  Whixh should be controlling when it comes to social/cultural issues, the welcoming nation or the culture of the immigrants coming in?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Denmark’s Ex-Immigration Minister Gets Jail Sentence for Ordering Separation of Child Brides From Their ‘Husbands’

Here is the sub-headline:

BBC:  “The verdict cannot be appealed and the jail sentence is unconditional, meaning that it must be served.”

Freom Legal Insurrection, by Blogger Vijeta Uniyal, 14 December 2021, 11:30am.

Here is the lede plus one:

On Monday, Denmark’s high-power court convicted Inger Stoejberg, who served as the country’s immigration minister between 2015-19, for ordering the separation of refugees couples if the woman was under 18.

Stoejberg’s 2016 order, as she argues, was aimed at stamping out the practice of child brides who were being imported into the country in the wake of the migrant wave. “A total of 23 couples were separated, with the wives ranging in age from 15 to 17 years,” Germany’s DW News reported.

Here is the really disturbing part of the story, which is why the title of this Blog:

The so-called Impeachment Court, specially set up for Stoejberg’s trial, “agreed that the order had violated Danish law and the European Convention on Human Rights,” the TV network Euronews reported.

It seems to me that if a nation has age restrictions on marriages they should be enforced on everyone.  Otherwise they should be changed to reflect what is being allowed for some.  A two tiered system is inherently unequal.

Considering that in the West young teenage bridges were accepted several centuries ago it might be the way to go, except that in our current culture education suggests that 18 is a reasonable marriage age for all.  Our culture expects youth to stay in school until graduation from high school.  It is a reasonable expectation for society today.

A special court for Ms Stoejberg seems fishy to me.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

"Died For Civilization"

For John, BLUF:  I am part of the generatoin that didn't even realize thare was an Operation OVERLORD when it happened.  But, I do believe it is worth commemorating each year.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Sixth of June - The Film

The cost to the Ground Forces, the Armies fighting in Operation OVERLORD was high, as was the suffering.  They were true heros and they died, as it says in the video, for Civilization.

It is wonderful to see the response each year from the People of the town of Sainte-Mère-Église.  From the movie, The Longest Day, my first thought is to the members of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment coming down on Sainte-Mère-Église and one para getting hung up on the church steeple.

In thinking about the Normandy Invasion it is useful to remember the Bomber Aircrews who flew costly missions over Germany so that our long-range fighters could break the back of the Luftwaffe, which made the landings possible and successful.

Hat tip to Keith Nightengale, Colonel, US Army, Retired, who is in the Credits.

Regards  —  Cliff

That Voter ID.

For John, BLUF:  The issue of if one should have to show an Identification to vote is a hot one and the rhetoric has been somewhat ugly here in the United States.  The term Jim Crow 2.0 qualifies as ugly in my book, thank you Mr President.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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America the Outlier:  Voter Photo IDs Are the Rule in Europe and Elsewhere

From Real Cldr Investigations, by Mr John R. Lott Jr., 1 June 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

Democrats and much of the media are pushing to make permanent the extraordinary, pandemic-driven measures to relax voting rules during the 2020 elections – warning anew of racist voter “suppression” otherwise.  Yet democracies in Europe and elsewhere tell a different story – of the benefits of stricter voter ID requirements after hard lessons learned.

A database on voting rules worldwide compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center, which I run, shows that election integrity measures are widely accepted globally, and have often been adopted by countries after they've experienced fraud under looser voting regimes.

Of 47 nations surveyed in Europe -- a place where, on other matters, American progressives often look to with envy -- all but one country requires a government-issued photo voter ID to vote. The exception is the U.K., and even there voter IDs are mandatory in Northern Ireland for all elections and in parts of England for local elections.  Moreover, Boris Johnson’s government recently introduced legislation to have the rest of the country follow suit.

Either the Europeans are terrible, racist, classist, anti-democrats or we need our Democratic Party Brothers and Sisters to go into their views with a little more detail,

One wonders if our Democratic Party Brothers and Sisters are so blasé about this because they figure they already control the voting systems in key cities and it all works for them.

In the mean time, we could go with dipping our finger in ink.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Bernie the Socialist

For John, BLUF:  It appears that Senator Bernie Sanders has no historic understanding or memory.  No historic feel, at least from a Western perspective.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Time-Warp Socialist

Here is the sub-headline:

Bernie Sanders’s vision has been refuted by reality—and history.

From City Journal, by Mr Guy Sorman, 26 February 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

Socialism these days is like the Hydra of lore: for every head chopped off, the monster regrows two.  One cannot escape this metaphor when watching Bernie Sanders’s seemingly irresistible progress toward the Democratic presidential nomination.  He defines himself as a socialist and clearly meets the criteria, starting with the historical models that he cites.  The European social-democratic template of the 1960s, as achieved in the Scandinavian countries (the so-called Swedish model) and in France and Germany, is Sanders’s blueprint for the United States.  Nostalgia likely inspires Sanders, at least to some degree—social democracy was at its peak when he was young.

The same nostalgia, mixed with a significant dose of ignorance, may explain his positive comments about Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba.  He could not bring himself to condemn totally a government that had launched literacy programs.  This is the classic posture of the “useful idiot,” Lenin’s term for intellectual admirers of Communist regimes.  Sanders shows no sympathy for Communism’s victims and voices no qualms about Castro’s violence.  And he gets the facts wrong:  Cuba’s people were educated before Castro seized power, and they had the most reliable health-care system in Latin America.  Sanders’s admiration for Castro and other dictators in the region—he often mentions Nicaragua—reveals an attraction for the aesthetics of violence, widely shared among leftists.  In Marxist parlance:  one can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.  Sanders, perhaps, would not mind breaking some eggs to achieve his goals.

Sanders touts the proverbial free lunch:  a free national health system and free education.  As free lunches don’t exist, someone would have to pay for all this—presumably the rich, though Sanders avoids giving specific figures.

This vision may sound new and attractive to the young, but it has all been tried before. In Europe, where we do have national health systems and national pension systems, the results have been ghastly.  The financial burden does not fall on the shoulders of the wealthy, because we don’t have enough rich people; all taxpayers foot the bill for national health-care service.  France finances Social Security, which includes health and pensions, with a withholding tax.  Consequently, France has a chronically high unemployment rate, around 10 percent, because the cost of labor is too high, a disincentive to recruit new employees.  The cost of labor also makes our products and services less competitive.  When British or French citizens go to the doctor or buy drugs, it looks “free”:  we don’t pay out of pocket, because we already paid, through our taxes.  Such public-health systems control how much doctors and other health workers can be paid.  In the United Kingdom, they are considered public civil servants.  In France, a general practitioner is paid 25 euros ($28) for an office consultation.

Senator Bernie Sanders seems not to have learned anything from the events of the last 50 years.  Nor did he learn from Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, who told us about the crimes of Joseph Stalin.  His understanding of Cuba and Fidel Castro seems flawed.  Willfully flawed.

One man off the beam is one thing, but millions of voters following him is another.  What are those people thinking?  More important, who was educating them over all those years?  It sounds like a failure of our education system.  Is this a reflection of the long march through the institutions?♠

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Funnily enough, in neither this article nor the Wikipedia article on the Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci was Democratic Presidential Candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg's Father mentioned.  The elder Buttigieg, a Professor at Notre Dame, was an influential translator of Mr Gramsci's works.

European Economic Success and Failure

For John, BLUF:  Not everything in Europe is perfect.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A European atlas of economic success and failure

Here is the sub-headline:

Economic growth was diverse across EU regions, yet it is crucial to control for region-specific factors in assessing growth performance.  We find that there are rather successful regions in many EU countries, suggesting that the EU can provide a good framework for growth.  Yet the worst performers are more concentrated in some countries, suggesting that country-specific factors can play a major role in regional development.

From Bruegel, by Zsolt Daria’s, Jan Mazza and Catarina Midoes, 3 June 2019.

Here is the lede:

Economic growth has been markedly different across EU regions. The fastest-growing regions of the EU between 2003 and 2015 were in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia the three Baltic countries and in the southern part of Ireland (Map 1).  On the other end, Greece experienced a particularly dramatic recession, while most regions of Italy and many regions in France, Spain and the United Kingdom are also among the slowest growing regions.

Europe is uneven in economic growth and Brussels isn't fixing the problems.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Woodrow Wilson and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles

For John, BLUF:  "Belief in his own righteousness" has been a problem for a large number of politicians and government servants.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Was the Treaty of Versailles a Victory for Democracy?

Here is the sub-headline:

Woodrow Wilson thought so.  But his belief in his own righteousness undermined his vision for world peace.

From The Old Gray Lady, by Professor Ted Widmer (distinguished lecturer, City University of New York), 28 June 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

June 28, 1919, dawned as a beautiful day; fair, with moderate winds, according to The New York Times.  It was a perfect day to see a baseball game, and 28,000 did, going to the Polo Grounds to watch the Yankees and Red Sox split a doubleheader.  New Yorkers could only envy the Red Sox, who had won the last World Series, and seemed poised to win many more, since they boasted “the mighty Babe Ruth, Boston’s swatting all-around player.”

It was hard to believe on this sunny day, but it had been precisely five years since World War I began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.  Since then, nearly 20 million had died, and entire empires, including Franz Ferdinand’s, had vanished.  But those painful memories were softened by the knowledge that nothing so terrible could ever happen again.  Because June 28 was the day that a new history would begin.

Across the Atlantic, outside Paris, another huge crowd thronged the old royal seat of Versailles, where a peace treaty awaited signature.  It was the culmination of months of work, led by the American president, Woodrow Wilson, who had promised to make the world safe for democracy.

There was great hope at that time.  Future North Vietnam-nam leader Ho Chi Minh traveled to France to plead for freedom for his Nation.  Not everyone got what they wanted.

[British Junior Diplomat] Harold Nicolson cautioned, “people who study the past under the conviction that they themselves would automatically behave better in the present are adopting a dangerous habit of mind.”  Perhaps it is better to retrieve what was valuable in 1919 — when America briefly stood for a higher standard — while taking care to avoid the obvious mistakes of a group of politicians who failed to rise above their circumstances.  Who knows how future historians will judge us, as the world slides toward a new era that feels palpably less democratic?

The author writes of America in 1919, "when America briefly stood for a higher standard".  That was a time when racism was on the rise, aided by a racist President, and that same President was so convinced of his own righteousness that he was unwilling to cut a deal with the US Senate.

Regards  —  Cliff

Paris is Burning

For John, BLUF:  The transition to the new economy, involving less carbon emissions, is going to involve some balancing.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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'This is the start of a revolution':  Paris rioters steal police assault rifle, torch dozens of cars and vow to 'stay in the streets until Christmas' as fuel protests continue into the night and spread across France - and even to Holland

Here is the sub-headline:

• 'Yellow Vest' supporters staged fresh protests on the Champs-Elysees which leads to the Arc de Triomphe
• They vowed to continue rioting until Christmas after riot police used tear gas and water cannon to fight back
• Dozens of cars were torched, the Arc de Triomphe was graffitied and shops and houses were ransacked
• French President Emmanuel Macron promised that protesters would be 'held responsible for their acts'
• It comes a week after rioters brought chaos to Paris in a movement against fuel prices and high living costs

From The Daily Mail, by Reporters Peter Allen and Tim Stickings, 1 December 2018.  There are lots of photos at the article.

Here is the lede plus five:

The centre of Paris was on lockdown tonight after masked protesters stole an assault rifle from police, clashed with riot squads and set fire to cars and Christmas trees on the Champs-Elysees in furious demonstrations against the French government.

Protesters said today's actions were 'the start of a revolution' that would eclipse the mass strikes and occupation of universities and factories in1968 when the country was on the cusp of civil war.

Fires and clouds of tear gas covered the French capital from early morning until late in the evening, in some of the worst violence ever seen in the French capital as more than 5,000 demonstrators brought chaos to Paris for the second week running.

As so-called Yellow Vest fuel price demonstrators marched along the opulent Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphe, home to embassies and luxury residences, they were joined by criminal groups included looters.

French President Emmanuel Macron has promised the protesters will be 'held responsible for their acts'.

Macron said today's demonstrations which have left dozens injured and hundreds arrested 'have nothing to do with the peaceful expression of a legitimate anger.'  He said 'no cause justifies attacks on police or pillaging stores and burning buildings'.

Second weekend in a row.  Fortunately, the French has Emmanuel Macron as President and not someone like The Donald.  I imagine it will all clear itself up in just no time.

Last weekend it spread to Belgium and this weekend it has spread to the Netherlands.

One observer, living in Belgium, noted that these demonstrations represent the divide, in Europe, between the Urban and the Rural.  I wonder if we are seeing somewhat the same divide in the United States.

For additional insights, see the blog ¡No-Pasaran!, "BLOGGER IN PARIS IN THE MIDST OF TEAR GAS CANISTERS RAINING DOWN ON THE CROWDS (video)", by Erik.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Mass Migration Sanctioned?

For John, BLUF:  If you can't control your borders you can't retain your nation.  Just ask Native Americans.  What they did to those before them the Europeans did to them.  Just think about Space Invaders coming here to colonize this planet.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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PC GONE MAD: Criticising migration could become CRIMINAL offence under new plan

Here is the sub-headline:

A LEADING MEP has warned EU citizens they could be “jailed” for criticising migration policies if a new United Nations agreement is acted upon.

MEP is Member of the European Parliament.

From Express (UK), by Reporter Thomas Hunt, 1 December 2018.

Here is the lede plus five:

The United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration seeks to make immigration a universal human right.  MEP Marcel de Graaff said:  “I would like to say some words on the global compact on migration.  On the 10th and 11th of December there will be an international congress in Marrakesh Morocco.  The participating countries are set to sign this agreement and although this joint agreement is not binding it is still meant to be the legal framework on which the participating countries commit themselves to build new legislation.

“One basic element of this new agreement is the extension of the definition of hate speech.

“The agreement wants to criminalise migration speech.  Criticism of migration will become a criminal offence.

“Media outlets that give room to criticism of migration can be shut down.

“The compact for migration is legalisation of mass migration.

“It is declaring migration as a human right so it will, in effect, become impossible to criticise Mrs Merkel’s welcome migrants politics without being at risk of being jailed for hate speech.”

The United States has withdrawn from the United Nations efforts, thus safeguarding the right of Native Americans (First Nation in Canada) to criticize Europeans and Asians) for mass migration to their territories.

On the other hand, this is about Europe, where free speech is nearing extinction.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

Real Drama

For John, BLUF:  I am for Brexit because I can't see how the British tradition of Common Law and the Rights of Englishmen can long under side beside with the Continental idea of Civil Law.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Moment of reckoning arrives as PM tries to sell Brexit deal to cabinet

Here is the sub-headline:

Theresa May hopes to secure support for the ‘product’, but tougher challenges await

From The Guardian, by Political Editor Heather Stewart, 13 November 2018.

Here is the lede plus five:

In the two years and four months since she arrived in Downing Street, Theresa May has become adept at kicking the Brexit can down the road – postponing the inevitable confrontation with the Tory right wing, and her intransigent DUP bedfellows.

She can delay no longer. Key cabinet ministers were summoned to No 10 on Tuesday night and a reading room was set up for them to pore over what May’s deputy, David Lidington, last week called the “product”.

For some weeks now, Brussels has been signalling the key obstacle to finalising a text of the withdrawal agreement – the divorce deal between the UK and the EU – lay not in EU27 capitals, but in Westminster.

The prime minister will learn on Wednesday around the cabinet table whether she has secured the backing of her ministers for the painstakingly drafted text and, most crucially, the Irish backstop.

Leave-minded ministers, not least the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, are known to have significant concerns about whether, and how, the UK will be able to extricate itself from what is meant to be a temporary, insurance arrangement but many fear risks becoming Britain’s de facto long-term trading relationship with the EU.

After weeks of increasingly bloodcurdling rumours about resignations and pizza plots, Downing Street is braced for resignations.  May could probably withstand losing a minister or two, as she did when David Davis and Boris Johnson walked out after Chequers.

The reason the establishment, the elite, dislikes Brexit, is because its success would indicate the hoi polloi, the common people, might, and could, take things into their own hands.

Heaven forfend.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

For John, BLUF:  We are talking economic migrants, and a sprinkling of MS-13 thugs and Islamic fundamentalists.  What should we do about this?  Just absorb them and thin them out by our much larger population?  Stop this set as a deterrent to others who may wish to follow?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Trump's Merkel Moment — and Ours

Out in the Punditry, and the News—is there a difference—and in the Democratic Party, there is a lot of criticism of President Trumps characterization of the thousands marching toward the US Southern Border.  As long as migrants are coming in penny packets there will likely not be a big uproar in this country.  However, let there be violence associated or larger groups start coming out of the failed states of Central America and then there will be an uproar.

From PJ Media, by Mr Michael Walsh, 22 October 2018.

Here is the lede plus three:

Three years ago, a horde of "migrants" from the Islamic ummah arrived suddenly in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, marching right through a sovereign nation without a care in the world.  They were on their way to the promised lands of old Christendom, and the glittering, helpless welfare societies that tried to offer cradle-to-grave security but too late realized that it forgot the cradle part, and only had the grave to look forward to.  Shortly thereafter, the Hungarians sealed their borders, built a fence, and enlisted other similarly minded countries in central Europe to join them in an adamant refusal to admit "migrants" masquerading as "refugees."

The Muslim army was raised and funded by unknown players, but it was welcomed by Angela Merkel, the worst German chancellor since you-know-who.  With no personal stake in the future of her country, the childless Merkel was suddenly hailed as Mutti Merkel by her new charges, who then promptly went on a orgy of cultural enrichment that will end with the total collapse of Merkel's government and, hopefully, Merkelism itself.  In retrospect, it's clear that the "migrant" horde should have been stopped at the Serbian or Hungarian borders and turned back by any means necessary; Europe is still facing the enormous consequences of Merkel's hideous error.

Now it's America's turn.  Thousands of economic migrants -- they make no bones about it -- are heading our way, insouciantly traversing the basket-case failed state of Mexico on their trek to El Norte and boasting that there's no stopping them.  The media, speaking for the Democrat party, acts as if this is some sort of natural phenomenon, like an earthquake or a hurricane, and the only "humane" thing to do is to accommodate them in America, no questions asked.

Luckily, President Trump is made of sterner stuff that either Merkel or the media.  He's announced he's cutting back on aid to the three worst, most dysfunctional and violent countries in Central America (Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador), has demanded that our friends the Mexicans stop them before they reach Texas and Arizona, and has even threatened to use the U.S. military to prevent the migrants from crossing into American territory.

I think Mr Walsh may be a bit over the top in his reporting, he is touching on a very real political nerve.

While folks saying that they are hundreds to thousands of miles away seems to suggest that they aren't really a threat, at some point in time they will arrive at the border.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Violence is Wrong

For John, BLUF:  Hiding from acknowledging the source of violence is wrong, and weak.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Violence Against Gays on the Rise in Europe

From PJ Media, by Mr Bruce Baker, 24 October 2018.

Here is the lede:

On October 22, about three thousand people rallied in central Paris “to denounce assaults on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and demand urgent action from the government.”  Among the many recent incidents that had sparked the protest, noted Reuters, were “the beating of a gay couple by their cab driver” the previous week and the murder in August, in the Bois de Boulogne, of a “transgender sex worker.”  Another report on the rally mentioned two additional, and particularly high-profile, incidents:  in September, an actor named Arnaud Gagnoud was beaten up after giving his boyfriend a hug outside a theater in Paris's 20th arrondissement;  on October 16, Guillaume Mélanie, founder of the gay-rights group Urgence, was gay-bashed in a Paris street.

People are people.  Everyone, as a human right, should be safe in their person.  This situation in Europe is ugly.  This brings to mind Germany in the 1930s.

Gaining social conformance by violence is just plain wrong.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A 911 Awakening

For John, BLUF:  Not everyone in Europe suffers from groupthink.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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How 9/11 Made a European Upper-Middle-Class Radical a Conservative

Here is the sub-headline:

‘Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.’

From The National Review, by Annika Hernroth Rothstein, 11 September 2018.

Here is the lede plus four:

On September 11, 2001, I was sitting on the floor of my sister’s living room, babysitting her one-year-old daughter.  We were lazily playing, with the afternoon news on the TV in the background.  The first thing I noticed was how the anchor’s voice changed.  The woman was saying “Wait, wait,” while staring to the side of the camera.  There had been a horrible accident, she said, as I watched the smoke pour out of the first tower.  When the second plane hit, I hoped beyond hope she was right.

I had just gotten back from a year in France. A few months earlier, I’d been standing in a crowded bar on Place de Clichy, celebrating my 20th birthday.  I remember that night, although several bottles of bad white wine say I shouldn’t.  I was surrounded by my peers, other upper-middle-class liberals who had fled to Paris to fulfill their fantasy.  We had come to this historical city to live the life of songs and books and Technicolor movies. We were radicals.  We were heroes.  We were going to change the world.

The people with me in that bar were a random sample of the political atmosphere of Europe at the time.  Militant feminists, pro-Palestinians, members of the autonomic environmentalist movement, and your run-of the-mill anti-government thugs.  Having a friend who had been jailed for rioting was as necessary as a Malcolm X T-shirt and a back-pocket paperback of Catcher in the Rye.  I gladly picked up that uniform, just as I picked up rocks and banners knowing that this was the ticket to ride.

Raised in a family of academics, this was a natural evolution on my part and a result of a serious political interest.  I identified as an intellectual and as a political thinker with a critical mind.  What I failed to acknowledge at the time was that my country was a controlled environment and that the spectrum on which political analysis took place was limited.  Not unlike The Truman Show, where the choices you think you are making were already made for you long ago, and any dreams of a different fate are swiftly corrected.

I left my one-bedroom apartment in the chic slum of the 19th Arrondissement in June 2001.  I was headed back to Gothenburg, Sweden, and the mass protest against the EU summit and George W. Bush.  I planned to be back in time to see the first leaves fall on the Champs Elysées.  Turns out, that didn’t happen.

What happened was the ends of 911.

Sometimes you have to adjust who you think of as friends.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Elites Miss the Point

For John, BLUF:  This is not a desirable outcome, but it is a logical outcome.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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In Sweden, the Elite Lost Touch with the People

From National Review, by Reporter John Fund, 9 September 2018 .

Here is how Mr John Fund winds up:

You’d think that elites would see a pattern when looking at Trump supporters, Brexiteers, or Europeans skeptical of mass migration; you’d think that the lesson would sink in by now.  But instead, in country after country roiled by populist uprisings, elites steadfastly are refusing to grapple with the legitimate sentiments of working-class voters, dissidents from politically correct identity politics, or workers unsettled by industry that has shut down.

Instead, the elites are continuing to roughly follow the example of candidate Barack Obama, who in 2012 famously tried to explain the attitudes of such people at what he thought was an off-the-record fundraiser:

They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Of course, there are elements in the ranks of Brexit supporters, Trump backers, and the Swedish Democrats that are nasty and retrograde.  But so long as elites continue to ignore the legitimate fears and grievances of ordinary voters, they will be both inhibiting a genuine public debate over solutions and encouraging even more of a backlash.

Leaders world-wide should be paying attention, but they aren't.  They are pressing on like it is Versailles in the early 1780s.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Bigger Than the Collapse of the Soviet Union?

For John, BLUF:  In this piece the author asks if greater powers are leading us to perdition.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Night of the Demon

From PJ Media, "The Belmont Club", by Mr Richard Fernandez, 29 August 2018.

Here is the lede plus one:

If anyone thought the 2016 revolt against the institutions was transient recent events may force a reconsideration. Instead of dying down open political war now permanently grips Washington.&Nbsp; Abroad, time has healed no wounds; immigration issues have not dissipated in Europe, on the contrary riots are rocking Germany.  The British are still rushing bald-headed toward Brexit with all the incalculable consequences that entails.  What can't be happening is.

According to sources quoted by the NYT "ideological agendas" have spread to the Catholic Church.  After the Vatican's ex-ambassador to Washington Archbishop Carlo Vigano claimed a gay and left wing mafia had been protecting sex abusers within the Church and naming Pope Francis as the Left's man an issue was reliably anti-clerical suddenly turned into conspiracy story.  Jason Horowitz in the NYT concluded that politics must be behind Vigano's allegations.

Yes, The whole world seems to be unable to focus on cooperation and doing right.  Self-centeredness seems to be on the rise.

Here is how the piece ends:

When the totality of cultural warfare and revolution now raging throughout the world is summed we may be watching an event bigger than the fall of the Soviet Union.  The event doesn't have a name yet, on the day we finally understand, it will. But understanding may prove the most difficult part.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world's darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Could it be true?

If you see four horsemen riding down the street, make a quick, but sincere, Act of Contrition.

Regards  —  Cliff

Environmental Improvement

For John, BLUF:  I am not sure banning straws is going to break the camel's back.  We are seeing the leading edge of a moral panic.  We are making progress and we need to remain calm and carry on.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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When It Comes To The Environment, These Are The Good Ol' Days

From Investor's Business Daily, a 2 August 2018 Editorial.

Here are three key paragraphs, excerpted by Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds in his blog post:

From 1970 to 2017, the six major pollutants monitored by the EPA plunged by 73%.  By comparison, during that time the U.S.’ economy grew 262% and its population by 60%.

The decline in pollution is steep. Carbon monoxide, down 77%. Lead, 80%.  Nitrogen oxide, 56%.  Ozone, 22%.  Particle pollution, off an average 38%. Sulfur dioxide, 88%.

Not included in the report, but equally if not more significant, is the fact that CO2 — the main greenhouse gas — overall has plunged 29% since peaking in 2007.  That’s been the relentless focus of global warming activists and the left-leaning power elites from their policy perches at think tanks, NGOs, and global government organizations such as the U.N.

Then Professor Reynolds goes on to say:

Meanwhile, Europe, despite all the sanctimony, is making no such progress.

Is it possible that for the Europeans it isn't so much about the results as it is about the process?  I recall a quip, attributed to a German Professor out of Heidelberg:♠

That Works Very Well in Practice, But How Does It Work In Theory?

By the way, here is the US EPA Report.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Attributed here to a Boston based magazine back in 1911.

Europe Finding Trumpism

For John, BLUF:  I think the selection of Ms Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for Congress is another sign that the mainstream Democrats are losing their grip.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Revolt Comes to Germany

From PJ Media, by Richard Fernandez (Belmont Club), 7 June 2018.

Here is the lede plus five:

It has been said a nation can have either welfare or open borders -- but not both -- in the same way one can have a cool air-conditioned room in a blazing desert or an open door -- but not both.  It is the inequality between the outside and inside temperatures that the door is intended to preserve.

The problem of keeping the room cool while leaving the door open is now consuming Angela Merekel's European Union as the refugee problem grows in political size.  Can the EU have no internal borders if it lacks an external one?  If there's no way of keeping benefits in, what is the meaning of out?

That in a nutshell is the problem posed by the 21st century European migrant crisis where millions, mostly "from Muslim-majority countries of regions south and east of Europe, including Western Asia, South Asia and Africa," have streamed into the continent.  They predominantly enter through nations bordering on the Mediterranean and Turkey yet disproportionately settle in the Northern European high-wage areas of the continent.  The resulting disruptions have fueled a succession of local rebellions from countries disproportionately affected by the inrushing tide.  Each straining member country is demanding at least a partial return of control over their internal border in order to cope.

That revolt has finally reached Germany. The New York Times writes that "the populist surge that has left Hungary, Austria and Italy threatening to close their borders to migrants has now spread to Germany, where it could even bring down Chancellor Angela Merkel and further unhinge Europe Union’s cohesion and stability."

The mutiny is led by her own interior minister, Horst Seehofer, a former Bavarian premier with a towering stature and plenty of beer-tent charisma, who sounds more in line with the nativist forces shaping politics in neighboring countries than with his own boss.

His region found itself on the front line of the refugee crisis in 2015, when Ms. Merkel opened the borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants who poured into Bavaria.

The Trump phenomenon is not about Mr Trump.  It is much deeper and it is much older than the period of his time as a Candidate and President.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff