Endgame

As the Irish deal completely failed to calm the markets, a slight feeling of panic takes a hold of Euro Intelligence: "We at Eurointelligence consider a default of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal a done deal".

The same pattern again. The EU agrees a pact, and the markets are panicking. This time it took them only a few hours. The EU’s credibility is sinking with each agreement.

We are now fast approach default time. Yields have been rising in Spain and even Italy yesterday afternoon, and the situation continued to deteriorate overnight. We at Eurointelligence consider a default of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal a done deal. The question is only now whether Spain can scrape through. Since the higher interest rates themselves have a massively adverse impact on the situation, the probability of a Spanish default/restructuring are increasing by the hour. Italy and Belgium have also made it on the Richter scale of investors – and there are extreme external scenarios under which the solvency of both countries could be also be questioned.

A sentiment which is echoed by the Financial Times: Insolvent – Greece, Ireland, Portugal and probably Spain.

Hang on to your seats everyone. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

Utterly deranged

Stuck in the middle of a long recession, that may turn out to be a Depression (with a capital 'D') after all, what is the best thing the Western world can do to make life easier for citizens?

According to 'scientists' at the Cancun climate summit, it is to halt economic growth in the rich world for the next twenty years or so.

I kid you not.

From the Telegraph, with emphasis added by me:

In a series of papers published by the Royal Society, physicists and chemists from some of world’s most respected scientific institutions, including Oxford University and the Met Office, agreed that current plans to tackle global warming are not enough.

Unless emissions are reduced dramatically in the next ten years the world is set to see temperatures rise by more than 4C (7.2F) by as early as the 2060s, causing floods, droughts and mass migration. (...)

In one paper Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the only way to reduce global emissions enough, while allowing the poor nations to continue to grow, is to halt economic growth in the rich world over the next twenty years.

This would mean a drastic change in lifestyles for many people in countries like Britain as everyone will have to buy less ‘carbon intensive’ goods and services such as long haul flights and fuel hungry cars.

Prof Anderson admitted it “would not be easy” to persuade people to reduce their consumption of goods

He said politicians should consider a rationing system similar to the one introduced during the last “time of crisis” in the 1930s and 40s.

This could mean a limit on electricity so people are forced to turn the heating down, turn off the lights and replace old electrical goods like huge fridges with more efficient models. Food that has travelled from abroad may be limited and goods that require a lot of energy to manufacture.

“The Second World War and the concept of rationing is something we need to seriously consider if we are to address the scale of the problem we face,” he said.

Prof Anderson insisted that halting growth in the rich world does not necessarily mean a recession or a worse lifestyle, it just means making adjustments in everyday life such as using public transport and wearing a sweater rather than turning on the heating.

“I am not saying we have to go back to living in caves,” he said. “Our emissions were a lot less ten years ago and we got by ok then.”

Of particular note is the turn of phrase that such rationing would change the lifestyle 'for many people in countries like Britain'. So, not all, then? Like climate activist to-ing and fro-ing around the globe in first class seats on big airliners to tell us we should ration our travelling?

Such proposals have nothing to do with science. I haven't seen the paper yet. From the reporting you get a sense it'll be dressed up all sciency, with math and tables and stuff. But when you look closer all you see is more conjecture based on false premises and presuppositions. Science is not about setting policy, that is politics. There is another, more apt word to describe what Anderson is engaged in: activism.

A year after Climategate, desperation over losing the 'narrative' is evidently turning into insanity. They are utterly deranged. Are they still taken seriously by anybody?

(via WUWT)

[UPDATE001] The Anderson and Bow paper can be found here (pdf; h/t Bishop Hill). The relevant bit in on page 23 of the file, where it states (emphasis mine - KV):

Only if Annex 1 nations reduce emissions immediately [35] at rates far beyond those typically countenanced and only then if non-Annex 1 emissions peak between 2020 and 2025 before reducing at unprecedented rates, do global emissions peak by 2020. Consequently, the 2010 global peak central to many integrated assessment model scenarios as well as the 2015–2016 date enshrined in the CCC, Stern and ADAM analyses, do not reflect any orthodox ‘feasibility’. By contrast, the logic of such studies suggests (extremely) dangerous climate change can only be avoided if economic growth is exchanged, at least temporarily, for a period of planned austerity within Annex 1 nations[36] and a rapid transition away from fossil-fuelled development within non-Annex 1 nations.

With note [36] reading:

In essence, a planned economic contraction to bring about the almost immediate and radical reductions necessary to avoid the 2◦C characterization of dangerous climate change whilst allowing time for the almost complete penetration of all economic sectors with zero or very low carbon technologies.

Remember Hayek: A planned economy equals a totalitarian regime. Not just deranged, but (extremely) dangerous to boot.

[UPDATE002] I should search my own blog a bit more often. This fool Kevin Anderson has been banging on about a planned economic recession for some time now. About a year ago he was the reason we started the 'cat's out of the bag' series of posts.

Wilders trial resumes on February 7

From the website from Rechtspraak:

The criminal case against Mr. Wilders will continue on Monday, February 7, 2011 at 10:00 before the court of Amsterdam. The session will start with a public procedural hearing where parties may state their wishes as to the how the case should progress. The court initially proposed to resume mid-December 2010, but too many parties involved in the trial proved to be unable to attend in that time period.

Fine in about two millenia

It is done. A deal for the Irish bail-out was reached last night. From the BBC: Irish Republic 85bn euro bail-out agreed. Or, as ATW would have it: Ireland Edges Into Euro Slavery…

Theodore Dalrymple ruminates on the enormity of the situation in the Wall Street Journal: When Irish Eyes Stop Smiling

I phoned a friend in Dublin in the way that one phones a friend in a city of 11 million people when there has been a serious accident in which 17 people have been injured, to find out whether he was all right. "Everything's fine," he said. "Just give us time, and we'll get out of this mess. About two millennia."

It's hard to imagine Irish wit cutting much ice with Frau Angela. Assuming a zero rate of interest and no population growth, every man, woman, child and baby in Ireland would have to pay back $250 a year for 2,000 years to clear the debt.

Details of the deal are few and far between. So much so, that even Richard North is wondering out loud What's going on? Some of the details can be found on EU Law, which includes this memorable quote:

[A] more practical approach is to see whether, after all, the EU rescue system can survive the waves of uncertainty. Spiegel International does just that, and notes that of all the possible next bailouts, one is a no-brainer. If Spain falls, so does the euro.

Remember those words in the coming days and weeks.

Obstacles to peace

The MSM in the Netherlands is not alone in its grossly lopsided reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and attempts to break the dead-lock. Robin Shepherd grows increasingly tired of the BB doing the same: BBC censorship of inconvenient truths about Palestinian rejection of peace reaches farcical proportions. How many of you had heard this bit of news (emphasis mine - KV):

Hard on the heels of a comprehensive opinion survey showing that most Palestinians support a two-state solution only as a stepping stone to a one state solution after Israel has been destroyed, and of a Palestinian Authority report denying any Jewish connection to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, we now have the third emphatic statement of Palestinian rejection of peace and its pre-requisites in under two weeks, this time from the Fatah Revolutionary Council.

Yesterday, the Council stated its implacable opposition to recognising Israel as a Jewish state, as well as to a peace agreement involving land swaps. The first issue is critical; the second important. If Palestinians will not recognise Israel as a Jewish state the conflict cannot come to an end since, as the afore mentioned opinion polls show, Palestinian society will only view any agreement as a temporary measure until the conflict can be resumed on more favourable terms at a later date. If they reject a priori the possibility of land swaps they are effectively saying there is nothing to talk about on border questions, in which case what is the point of negotiations in the first place?

The Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli government official as saying the following in response to the Fatah announcement: “I would ask the Palestinians the following question: If the Jewish state is fundamentally illegitimate in your eyes, what sort of peace are you offering us? “It is clear that their refusal to recognize the Jewish state’s legitimacy is the true obstacle to peace and reconciliation.”

All of which puts a considerable dent in the usual 'narrative'. The one where palestinians are trustworthy partners in peace. The one where the blame for failing negotiations is put on Jewish settlers and new apartment blocks in East-Jerusalem. As this completely underreported item shows: The fundamental prerequisite for peace between Israel and palestinians, recognition of the right for Israel to exist, is not met. And it is the palestinians who are not meeting it. Once again it is the palestinians that prove to be the real, enduring roadblocks on the way to peace.

(via Autonomous Mind)

They get their way again

Small update to this story about that stunning 'victory' our PM Mark Rutte claimed to have gained with regard to the EUnion budget.

Via EURef we learn that EU Commission has circumvented Dutch, British and Scandinavian objections to a rise in budget of more then 2.9%. And they've gone and done it by completely side-lining national governments.

The EU Commission has unveiled its new budget proposals - sticking to a 2.9 percent increase as demanded by EU ministers. But the commission has also added a "contingency fund" of up to €3.5 billion to be spent in the event of "unforeseen circumstances" – a sum which does not figure in the slated annual increase.

As Dr. North explains, that means that the budget to be approved remains at 2.9 percent above last years budget, while the actual sum spent by the end of the year will be close (or even above) the six percent increase demanded by MEPs. And do they get their way - again. Or, as Dr. North rightly observes: They're taking us for fools - again.

Can we call it a trend?

As parts in the south and north of the Netherlands experience the first snowfall, we are left with the distinct impression that Anthropogenic Global Warming is not what it's cracked up to be. Last year we had the first snow on December 19th. This year the first snow is a full month earlier, much like last years first snow was a full month and a half earlier then in the winter before that.

Is this just weather? Or are we witnessing a climate that is cooling? This winter is already shaping up as more severe then the winter of 2009/2010, which was colder the the winter of 2008/2009, which was colder then the one preceding it. That would make this coming winter the fourth winter in a row that is colder then the one preceding it. Can we call that a trend?

Dutch secret service infiltrated Geert Wilders his political party

Today Dutch biggest newspaper De Telegraaf ran a story on the infiltration of Geert Wilders his political Party For Freedom (PVV). According to former Party For Freedom parliamentary candidate Geert Tomlow (PVV) there were two infiltrators exposed within the party. A female infiltrator was exposed because she tried to obtain a list of all candidates’ names and addresses. And a second older male parliamentary candidate in training was exposed because he worked for the Dutch Military Intelligence services (MIVD).

Dutch Magazine Elsevier writes that Geert Wilders denies having exposed intelligence agents of the government (NL), but that he refused to comment on the reasons why they had to leave the parliamentary candidate training. Anonymous PVV party members however claim in the same magazine that there were several infiltration attempts by the Dutch Intelligence Services. They claim to have found 'things', but refuse to say what they have found.

In the past the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service have expressed their interested in the party of Geert Wilders. Former socialist integration minister Ella Vogelaar (PvdA) wrote in her book (Twintig maanden knettergek) that the head of the AIVD, Sybrand van Hulst "expressed his worries about the leadership in the integration debate and the Wilders issue" and that "he expected that the PVV soon would overdo it self and that at that moment the Socialist should be ready to take over".

Geert Wilders is a fast growing political movement, so problems with its candidates can be expected as new political parties attract all kinds of people. And it must be said the PVV already has received its fair share of criticism on its parliamentary members. But what if some of them are agents who are just there to discredit this opposition party...

On hiatus

Away for work until the weekend. Posting will be light. Cheers

It has begun: UK Campaign to leave the EUnion

It has been three years since Fjorman wrote his European Declaration of Independence. And now finally, we see the MSM moving in the same direction. At least in the UK. The Daily Express has started a campaign to call for Britain to leave the European Union.

After far too many years as the victims of Brussels larceny, bullying, over-regulation and all-round interference, the time has come for the British people to win back their country and restore legitimacy and accountability to their political process.

Following the debacle of the Lisbon Treaty – disgracefully imposed upon the public without the referendum they were promised by the three main political parties – many had expected matters European to take a lower profile in British politics.

But the opposite has been true as those on board the European gravy train have mounted one power grab after another.

At a time of austerity throughout Europe they have expanded their bloated budgets, pushing Britain’s disproportionate contributions even higher.

Read also the rest. It is a list of grievances that are very much NOT specific for the UK, but are equally valid for other member states, including the Netherlands.

And just to hammer the point home: Here's Nigel Farage in fine form yesterday.

EUnion crisis - more linkage

With the EUnion having mounted the head of Ireland over the fireplace, the hunters are out stalking Spain and Portugal. Here's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Spain and Portugal under fire as bond spreads hit record. With a special supporting role for our very own minister de Jager (which, in a rather amusing coincidence translates to "minister the Hunter"):

Dutch finance minister Jan Kees de Jager sent a further chill through markets, saying "holders of subordinated bonds in Irish banks will have to bleed" under the Irish rescue. The comment touched a neuralgic nerve, heightening fears that investors may be treated harshly under the bail-out terms for any other country needing a rescue.

EURef's Richard North is gleefully cackling "Burn, baby, burn!" and who can blame him? It is just for kicks that KV is sporting a new badge (right hand side column top).

Meanwhile Tim Worstall notices a peculiar phrase uttered by Frau Merkel in What you desire may not be what you get

I will not let up on this because the primacy of politics over markets must be enforced

To which Mr Worstall answers:

[T]the really important point is that while politics can influence markets, when it comes right down to it markets do have primacy over politics.

No, not because of some lack of will, not because of some lack in the political regulation of markets: simply because all of the people acting as they wish is more powerful than telling people how they should act is. If 500 million of us, the population of the EU, decide that something is so, there’s pretty much nothing that politics or politicians can do about it.

A point well worth to remember (and live by!). Helen Szamuely also has a point to make about the situation viz.-a-vis Germany and Ireland : They WOULD pick the wrong argument.

In Ireland the effects of the crisis are already making themselves felt in a not so surprising way. Via ATW we learn of increased emigration from Ireland, with a nifty graph showing that 2010 was the year when the best and brightest are leaving Ireland in their own pursuit if happiness. One more added knock-on effect of the assassination of Ireland by Van Rompuy and his henchmen.

Elsewhere, Bloomberg is advising Ireland to take the lumps like men: Bust Is Better Than a Bailout for Irish Patient.

It might sound like madness for a drowning man to refuse a lifebelt. But the decision the Irish make in the next few days will shape the future of their nation for a generation.

Ireland would be better off going bust than taking a loan. The conditions attached to a rescue aren’t worth it: Once it takes EU money, it will never get off the hook. And the Irish banks aren’t worth saving anyway.

(h/t Witterings from Witney).

And the latest, from Zero Hedge: It's Official: There Is Not Enough Money To Bail Out Spain.

[I]f and when Spain is bailed out, other bail outs will be irrelevant, as at that point the vigilantes will focus squarely on Germany. At that moment, nothing less than a complete dissolution of the currency union and an unmitigated monetization ala Weimar will save what is left of the productive powers remaining in Europe.

Oh. Happy. Days...

Dutch version of: "How to talk to a liberal"

Parliamentary member Martin Bosma of Geert Wilders his party for freedom (PVV) now has a column in the leftist Dutch newspaper named NRC. In his first column (NL) Bosma shows us how to talk to a liberal (if you must):

You’re tolerant, until it drives you crazy.

Let's not fool each other: "we don't like each other". According to you I am a populist. I'm extreme right. I incite hatred. Secretly I'm against democracy and really deep down I'm actually a fascist. If tomorrow they discover photos of me in lederhosen and a straightened right arm, you will say: "you see, I told you so. White trash."

It's not only that you don't like me. You also begrudge that I have a job. If only NRC subscribers would be eligible to vote (be honest: you sometimes dream about that), then my party only would get 4 seats. As I'm fifth on the party list, I would not be in parliament today.

You're preferences are different: the Green party (GroenLinks) and left-liberals (D66) would receive 51 seats. (With 37 seats for the Socialist (PvdA) you would make the socialist leader, Job Cohen, the new prime minister). That completely fits your lifestyle: the environmental friendly Toyota Prius, the ecological second home in Toscana, golf weekends with friends in London. For you the Islam is not a problem what so ever. Come on. You’re tolerant! And to proof it, you give that sympathetic Moroccan that delivers this newspaper an extra fat Christmas tip at the end of the year. You have zero tolerance for xenophobia.

And your children? Do you expose them to your multicultural ideals and do you drop them of each morning at half past 8 at that school full of immigrant children? Is your Charlotte, Seraphina or Henry having fun in a class full of Mohammed's and Ali's?
Ho, ho. Let's don’t lose our minds! If push comes to shove, you drive your trendy Dutch cargo tricycle just a few blocks further. That of course, has nothing to do with those Muslims over there, because you're not a racist. No. It’s because of that computer practice room. Or was it the color of the wallpaper or something like that? You're friends at the Minerva fraternity or at the local left liberal D66 section, nod understandingly. They understand, because they do the very same thing.

I just agree with everything you will disagree. I think multiculturalism is terrible. I don't like head scarfs and mosques. I don't believe in the climate hype and I think Al Gore is a charlatan. I get sick of Obama. But Christianity is a beautiful thing. I see EU nationalism as the reincarnation of the Soviet Union. And I have framed pictures of Regan, Solzjenitsyn and Jabotinsky on my work room walls.

I rather read Hayek and Ayn Rand than that I read Keynes and Etty (known Dutch leftwing columnist). I am pro-Israel (extreme right colonist leaders, as this paper likes to call them, are people that I like to visit). My solidarity is with the last people in Transvaal or Tarwewijk, not with the elites who send us millions of Muslims in our back yards. I also don't think that we should be proud that in The Netherlands we do not find one culture better than another. Because Dutch people don't believe that at all, it's something only the Dutch elite like to believe.

I also wrote it in my book "De schijn elite van de Valse Munters", that we are not just politicians, we are also missionaries.
That's why I wrote a book, that’s the reason for Fitna, that's why my party leader Geert Wilders is traveling the globe. And that’s why I write this dissident column every three weeks in this leftist newspaper.

Despite everything, I don't quit. You're also just a victim, of your upbringing, your education and your environment.

But I must admit, it’s unfortunate about those subscription cancelations because of this column. Well what can I say? Leftist people always like to be very tolerant, unless it's about people with a different opinion. Many others left De Volkskrant newspaper when they started publish more about those 'wrong ideas'. Reporters Joris Linssen and Kees Driehuis of the public broadcaster openly complained that the Volkskrant had too many ‘Wilders stories’.
All these people that then have fled to this paper, might now flee back again. I don't hope so, but there is nothing I can do about that. One could compare their fate with the Dutch people who have fled when their street or neighborhood gets taken over by the multicultural society. This way, multiculturalism gets us all on the move.

This column of Martin Bosma of the Party for Freedom is the second episode of a political exchange column. Last week Femka Halsema of the Greens started the first and next week Ton Elias of the liberal party will write on this location write. Every Wednesday one of them will write his column here.

Tooting our horn

In what may be called a new milestone, Klein Verzet made it into the US printed media!

Sam Schulman did a write up of the Wilders trial and how it went off the rails for the Weekly Standard magazine: Pretentiousness Kills - Lessons from the corrupt prosecution of Geert Wilders.

For the write up Mr. Schulman relied on the outstanding work Ferdy did in covering the trial for KV (once again: Thanks very much, Ferdy).

Mr. Schulman is one of the good guys, in that he 1) plugs KV in the article and 2) was nice enough to drop us a line to point it out to us. Thank you, Sam.

Yeah, I know. Tooting your own horn is not an endearing quality. But in this case I couldn't restrain myself. It is not every day that a lowly blog such as this reaches such heights.

Moving into evil territory

The influence of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) in the general assembly of the UN is making itself felt in increasingly disturbing fashion. Where once the UN was the paladin for Universal Human Rights, it is now moving in a direction that is decidedly evil: UN General Assembly Votes To Allow Gays To Be Executed Without Cause

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people were once again subject to the whims of homophobia and religious and cultural extremism this week, thanks to a United Nations vote that removed “sexual orientation” from a resolution that protects people from arbitrary executions. In other words, the UN General Assembly this week voted to allow LGBT people to be executed without cause.

Via Eeyore on Vlad Tepes, who adds:

I would like to offer the following to all who were surprised by the vote.

Stop studying Marxism to the exclusion of all else. Have a look at the largest voting block at the UN, specifically the OIC and its agenda. Ask yourself why the UN and UN HRC is so lopsidedly against Israel in every way. Then ask yourself what gay rights are like within Israel and in the 50 odd Islamic nations that surround it and then ask yourselves why you are surprised. I know gay people, like Jews, are not a hive mind but I can’t help but notice that most gay organizations are stridently leftist, and pro Islamic. It may be time for gay people to follow less blindly the leftist-Islamic narrative and determine what really is in your own interests.

I think it is about time for civilized countries to start to think seriously about abandoning the train wreck we used to know as the United Nations.

Sweden abolishes itself

Flagged up by reader Emile Fluornoy and reported on by Gates of Vienna: Sweden is about to adopt a sparkly new constitution that all but abolishes, in a legal sense, the Swedish nationality.

Some of the changes:

• The Riksdag shall vote about the Prime Minister after every election. Today, if there is an unclear parliamentarian situation, the government can continue to govern and it is up to the opposition to call for a vote of no confidence and force them to resign.
  […]
• The Swedish membership of the EU becomes a part of the constitution.
• It will be written in the constitution that the ability of Sami- and other ethnical, linguistic and religious minorities to keep and develop their culture shall be promoted.
• The current requirement regarding Swedish citizenship for some higher state positions is removed. One such position is the national prosecutor (riksåklagare) which might be held by non-citizens in the future. The requirement on Ministers to have been Swedish citizens for at least ten years is removed….

Apparently, Sweden isn't even waiting for a financial crisis to sell its citizens out to the EUnion monster. The Swedish political establishment is particularly pleased with the removal of the requirement that higher state positions are held by persons of the Swedish nationality.

We see great benefits to opening up for foreign citizens to have positions of power in society.

What would be the benefits for a citizenry to be ruled by a foreign power (or a power made from foreigners), one wonders. In the end it all comes to that tired old same-self mechanism that we see around the EUnion. The Swedish identity is no more. Instead we have 'persons of Swedish background'. Whcih is not to say they are not useful. As GoV observes:

Oh yes, one more thing before we forget — a special reminder for persons of Swedish background:

Don’t forget to pay your taxes!

Isn't that just the perfect description for all European peoples of old: You pay, while the foreigners play.

Ever more costly

In the Battle for the Budget we today had MEP Martin Schutz (p), leader of the socialist fraction of the toy parliament, making an attempt (NL) to appeal to the 'better judgement' of the government, and grant the toy parliament the powers of the EU budget they so covet.

It is not in the interest of the Netherlands as a trading nation if there is no money for a European diplomatic service.

Wut? Evidently the EUnion is trying to get its filthy mitts on more of our money to pay for what in essence would be the EUnions Foreign Ministry.

But how, pray tell, are the interests of the Netherlands going to be served by diplomats of a mercantilist, corporatist, wealth destroying entity that, by the words of its own president, is out to destroy nation states, including the Netherlands? There is absolutely no interest that could be served better by a EUnion diplomatic corps the our own body of Dutch diplomats. The fear that EUnion trade diplomacy may be detrimental to Dutch interest are not unfounded.

In fact, a good case could be made for getting out of the infernal 'European project' on trade policies alone. As told by MEP Roger Helmer, a former Industry Commissioner admitted that the regulations that must be complied with in the Single Market cost 5.5% of GDP, while the benefit of “free” trade within the Single Market are estimated by the previous Trade Commissioner,Peter Mandelson, at 1.8% GDP. That is: The costs incurred by complying with Single Market rules exceed the benefits three times over. What is that about the EUnion bringing prosperity? That seems to be brought only to the midgets and monsters in the halls of Brussels and Strassbourg, apparently.

But I digress. Mr. Schulz on the one hand tried some sweet talk about both CDA and VVD being respectable parties that 'have governed the Netherlands for decades'. Lauding PM Mark Ruttes reputation Schulz said he was 'quite optimistic', On the other he did his best to vilify the PVV, saying VVD and CDA are letting themselves become dependent on the PVV which 'is only out to destroy'. Giving in to his frustrations about the PVV and the way it is set up he wondered why none of the other fraction members are PVV members: 'Is it because they do not colour their hair?'.

Evidently, Schultz was trying to drive a wedge between the coalition and the PVV, ass-kissing the CDA and VVD while telling them what a frightful little part the PVV really is. That is to be expected. Schulz is a socialist and to a dedicated socialist the mere existence of a Geert Wilders, who choses freedom over Big State government, is anathema. But the way he goes about it defines him as a weasly little man. One a gentleman would not want to be seen in public with.

Elsewhere, the toy parliament had a plenary session on the Budget today. While there Mr. Schulz made it quite clear where he's heading.

The discussion is not about money anymore but about the direction in which the EU is developing. It is about the rights of Parliament as reflected in the Treaty of Lisbon... We are elected to deal with the EU and its budget. Now the national governments want control and monitor us. That is the wrong way around!

You got that? National governments wanting to control the money going to the EUnion and monitor its use, that is the wrong way around. The right way around, according to this weasel, is evidently the EP telling national governments how much tax money they require without governments asking stupid questions about accounts that are not approved even by EUnion accountants year after year after year.

In that same session El Presidente, Manuel Barroso, made a promise that is going to cost us, sad little EUnion subjects, even more dearly.

We will use our right of initiative to put forward proposals on own resources before the end of next June.

Which means that next summer, when everybody is off to the beach and reporting on EUnion affairs is at its yearly low, the EUnion will introduce the dreaded EUnion tax. And per Turnip there is not a damn thing national governments, or indeed the people, will be able to do about it, once the EUnion 'institutions' decide.

We said it was coming... The EUnion is becoming ever more costly. When are people going to rise up and say 'ENOUGH'!

Breaking: Plot for attack in Belgium thwarted

A plot for a terrorist attack in Belgium has been thwarted by the arrest of 10 people in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany have been arrested. They have Dutch, Belgian, Moroccan and Russian nationality. The three arrested in Amsterdam-Osdorp were of Moroccan descent, according to Elsevier (NL). The men, aged 25, 26 and 28, have been under observation for some time and now face extradition to Belgium.

The would-be terrorists arrested in Antwerp, Belgium are Moroccan and Chechen. Three of them are member of Sharia 4 Belgium, an jihadist outfit founded by the infamous Anjem Choudary, according to Belgian newspaper De Standaard (NL, which also has a video of the arrest of one of the Antwerp suspects).

'There was not yet a specific target for the plot,' according to a statement by the public prosecutor. 'The investigation also focused on recruiters, candidate jihad fighters and the funding of a Chechen terror organisation called the Caucasian Emirate'. A spokeswoman for the counter terrorism unit NCTb said there was no threat to attack targets in the Netherlands. Nor is it connected to the current alert in Germany.

According to the BBC reporting police had investigated both the alleged plot to attack Belgium, and alleged recruitment and fundraising for a Chechen militant group called "Caucasus Emirate". It was not immediately clear if this was a reference to the radical militants fighting to carve an Islamist state out of the Russian North Caucasus region.

[UPDATE001] Sharia 4 Belgium is mostly known for the disruption of a lecture by Dutch/Belgian writer Benno Barnard entitled 'Long live God, away with Allah'. At the time Gates of Vienna reported about the incident. Video of the evnt in here.

Yes we can!

The real eteneral president says again: "Yes we can!".

Please see here the South Korea CCT footage of how people have to run for their lives when North Korea today attacked their town.

Korea and Japan ask for an 'enormous retaliation', Obama his spokesperson named it a 'belligerent action' of North Korea, so what did Obama say today: 'Don't Bet Against America' (note also how he is applauding for his own statements)

Completely, utterly shameless

From the Daily Beast: Ground Zero Mosque applied for federal 9/11 grant.

Developers of the controversial Park51 Islamic community center and mosque located two blocks from ground zero earlier this month applied for roughly $5 million in federal grant money set aside for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Tax money well spent, you will all agree...

Sad but true

And what is your opinion on Israel joining the union?

“I would advise my friends in Israel not to consider such an option. The Union has always supported Palestinians. Israel has a lot of friends in Europe, but Europe is not a friend to Israel.”

This is Geert Wilders being interviewed in the Israeli Yedioth. The only niggle I have is the word 'Europe' where it should read 'the EUnion'. These two are not equivalent in any sense of the word. But for the rest: It is a sad, but oh, so true statement.

Gates of Vienna have a translation of the entire interview: “Israel Is Fighting Our War”.

Short and concise

Here's Tim Worstall concisely explaining why the euro is such an ill-begotten beasty:

The effects of changes in interest rates will be hugely different in places where the vast majority of housing is owner occupied (UK and Ireland) as opposed to rented (Germany, say). And hugely different where mortgages are floating rate (UK and Eire) as opposed to fixed rate (Germany).

In the former a lowering of interest rates reduces housing costs for almost everyone. In the latter it only changes costs for the marginal uptake of new housing purchases. Similarly, a rise in rates will lead to a huge reduction in spending power in the former model while having little effect in the latter. So whether it’s boom or bust, the effects are greatly magnified in one type of economy: something of a problem when those rates are being set for the other type of economy.

Right back from the late 80s this was obvious. As it happened, it turned out to be the low interest rates needed by the euro core countries that screwed over Ireland (aided, yes, but not caused by, the local corruption and banking stupidity). But if it had worked the other way around, if Germany and France had been facing inflation and thus interest rates were set to reduce that, then Ireland would still have been screwed over. Just the other way: whether you’re getting screwed missionary or doggy style you’re still getting screwed.

Single currencies in non-optimal currency areas just don’t work. Period.

Then you win

The week now passed has not been pleasant for Geert Wilders or the PVV. Several PVV MPs have had their dirty laundry aired. In quick succession incidents and 'scandals' surrounding five PVV MPs were revealed and/or rehashed. The PVV fraction in Second Chamber had to hunker down and weather a veritable storm of allegations and sleaze.

First there was Eric Lucassen, whose life was first made difficult by stories of neighbour intimidation and threats to passers-by walking their dogs. Later it emerged that while serving in the army, he had had sexual relations with female subordinates, causing him to be fired from the army after a military court ruled justified charges of sexual misconduct. Immediately in the wake of that PVV MP James Sharpe felt obligated to resign, because the insinuations about him made it impossible for him, he said, to function effectively.

In the mean time, more supposedly dirty laundry is going around on three more PVV MPs. Most of those have already been proven wrong, as for instance the false accusations of wife battery levelled against Dion Graus. He was acquitted before a court, but somehow our 'impartial' MSM consistently fails to note that rather important tidbit.

Further in regard to our MSM, it was quite disappointing to see the two new public broadcasters, WNL and PowNed, both of them great hopes for a right-wing voice on Dutch public TV and radio, did most of the leg work breaking the news and/or rehashing of all these allegations. Star-reporter Rutger van Castricum made a half-hearted promise that this was the start of a campaign to shine a light on MPs of all parties. But I have yet to see any sign that the MSM is serious about tackling the long list (NL) of PvdA MPs and representatives with actual convictions from an actual criminal court on their record. Or the ties to terrorism (Sam Pormes) and pedophilia (Herman Meijer) in GroenLinks.

Over on Gates of Vienna, H. Numan published an essay, basically arguing that one would have to be exceptionally brave, somewhat suicidal, or in possession of a considerable streak of masochism, to stand as an MP for the PVV these days. The left are mounting a campaign to damage members of the PVV where they can, and at the same time scaring off anyone contemplating standing for the PVV in the next provincial elections, next March 11. The left are doing at least some damage: In the polls the PVV are down five seats.

You may wonder why mere provincial elections would have the left in such a state as to mount this rather distasteful campaign. Dutch parliament consists of two chambers. Second chamber is equivalent to the House of Commons in the UK and the House of Representatives in the US. Its members are elected directly (more or less) and the outcome determines the coalition partners in a new cabinet. First Chamber is the Senate (equivalent to the House of Lords in the UK). In Holland members of First Chamber are not elected directly. Rather, they are appointed, based on the results of the provincial elections.

Currently, the new government and the PVV together do not hold a majority in First Chamber, which means that the left members (including those representing the government parties of VVD and CDA) are able to block any legislation sent up from Second Chamber. In fact, in the recent past several members of First Chamber have made threats (NL) to exactly that effect.

In polls before this week, the coalition was doing well, with the PVV doing extremely well. The three parties in the support construction between them held around 80 seats in the polls, a comfortable majority. If the PVV and coalition partners do equally well in the provincial elections, the left in the Netherlands will be finished. The coalition would control both chambers, leaving the left to powerless bleating from the sidelines. Or, to put it more positively, the current right-wing cabinet would have its hands free to put the country back on track, economically and socially.

The damage done to the PVV or the coalition looks to be not of a permanent kind. The most recent polls suggest that the five seats lost by the PVV went to the other two partners in the 'Danish' cabinet. On top of that is seems that the anti-PVV campaign is running out of steam before it has even well and truly started. Where the first scandal was played out big (really big!) in the Dutch MSM, subsequent 'scandals' received ever decreasing attention. The Dutch population seem to recognize the campaign for what it is: The left picking a low-down dirty street brawl, as a last ditch attempt to hold on to relevancy. Especially since much of the allegations, so breathlessly brought as big news by our despicable MSM , deflate to ignorable size after even a little scrutiny. When even minor altercations in a student sports team some twenty years ago are brought to bear you just know that the left is running low on ammo.

One of the more famous quotes of Mahatma Gandhi is: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win". It would seem that the PVV and Geert Wilders are about to move into stage four of that particularly insightful quote.

Suffer the little children

From Elsevier (NL):

Europarliament: Punish the Netherlands for resistance to budget

Prime-minister Mark Rutte (VVD) has been informed by Dutch MEP Derk Jan Eppink of possible sanctions against the Netherlands by the European Parliament, over the blocking of an agreement on the EU budget for 2011.

Derk Jan Eppink, who is an MEP for the Flemish party, is furious with the proposals. 'This shows the arrogance of some MEPs.'

The EP is planning to postpone a vote, which would mean the Netherlands would lose 10 million euros from Brussels, money that was designated for re-integration of unemployed from the graphical sector.

According to Derk Jan Eppink the idea was first proposed during a meeting of fraction presidents. Allegedly it was from Joseph Daul, president if the christian-democrat fraction in the EP, of which the CDA is a member. A definitive decision is expected on Monday.

So, the little darlings are still sour about the increase in budget they so desperately wanted, but didn't get (we wrote about it here). And what else do small children do, when denied something they want very much, but throw a tantrum, taking their ball home, bawling all the way about the injustice done to them?

Esther de Lange, MEP for the CDA, says she hasn't heard of those plans. But if they are real she characterized them as 'extremely childish'. An assessment I can only agree with, even if I think that is a really mild and too well-mannered characterization.

Then again, as adults we're supposed to be a little more patient with small children. But do we really want to trust them with our government? Our economy?

Fjordman has moved

You may have noticed there is a link to the Fjordman Files in the new pages header of the sparkly new KV lay out. I've moved the entire FF archive to its own dedicated page. The old link is now officially dead, so please update your bookmarks and/or blog roll links to the Fjordman Files.

First major US media support for EDL

From the KV mailbox, this news from Occidental Soapbox: Michael Savage is first major media figure to voice support for EDL

Michael Savage, host of America's 3rd largest radio talk show, let's off some steam and wonders why the British government insists on protecting Islamofascists from the grassroots anti-Shariah movement the English Defence League (EDL).

Surrendering a second time

For the second time in a bit more then a year, Ireland has surrendered to the EUnion. October last year saw the Irish succumbing to EUnion pressure to adopt the Turnip. And November this year saw the Irish government succumbing to pressure to accept EUnion bail-out funds. DDS economic blogger Willem Jan Hilderink imagines (NL):

An immaculately boring functionary holds a gun to the head of Irish MinFin Lenihan, ensuring him that either his brains or his signature will be put on the emergency funding document.

Hilderink is not optimistic that it will do much of anything. Soon, he writes, the markets will be rattling the gates of Portugal, Spain will be next, Italy is not safe. The emergency fund, whatever its size, can't safe all of the PIIGS.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen is faced with calls to resign. In the face of these he insists Ireland has not given up sovereignty. But many disagree with the Taoiseach, the Irish Examiner, for instance, who published a 'Declaration of Dependence' on the cover. The Irish Times is scathing in its commentary, asking whether the fighters for independence of 1916 really only died for 'a bailout from the German chancellor with a few shillings of sympathy from the British chancellor on the side'. A taste of the resentment brewing on the Emerald Isle can be had in the final paragraph of the commentary, with its ominous sounding promise (or is it a warning?):

To drag this State down from those heights and make it again subject to the decisions of others is an achievement that will not soon be forgiven.

Maybe not, but what can the Irish do? They no longer hold the strings of the purse. Those are held by the EC, ECB and IMF. And as His Grace explains thoughtfully: those who control the credit of a nation direct the policy of governments, and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people.

Some days ago we discussed a piece by Prof. Morgan Kelly in the Irish Time. In it he warned that the EUnions real concerns lie with Spain and Italy. Making an example of Ireland is an easy way to show that bailouts are not a soft option, and so frighten them into keeping their deficits under control.

There is nothing the Irish can do. There is no measure of sovereignty left with which the Irish can work for themselves. Instead, "The Germans" will impose financial priorities that are not in the interest of Ireland or the Irish, but will ruin the country and impoverish the people. This will now become a reality for Ireland. As prof. Kelly warned, Ireland can only rely on the kindness of strangers.

This is what it all amounts to: The money given to Ireland will not rescue Ireland. It will rescue the Euro, for as long as that will last. But in the process Ireland as a nation-state will have been destroyed.

All you members of the EUnion: Look upon Hibernia and despair! This is the reality of the EUnion post-Lisbon. Their precious single currency, the one big symbol of the EUnions economic and political ambitions is more important than the welfare of the people under its control. Hence, 'quiet assassin' van Rompuy and his henchmen will not flinch from traumatizing the inhabitants of entire member states. They have done it to Ireland. There is no special reason to assume they will not attempt to do so to others.

Which is why the EUnion must be destroyed. Before it destroys us.

Recommended related reading:
Ireland prepares to accept the 'Oliver Cromwell Package'
Just like the rest.
Irish Sovereignty 1922-2010

[UPDATE001] The surrender is now fact: Republic of Ireland confirms EU financial rescue deal. Funny though, the BBC is talking about 100 billion euros. Elsevier (NL) says it's it's 120 billion. Dutch state TV is saying 80 billion. So, which is it? Or is this a function of that wondrous EUnion accounting? You know, that accounting that failed to meet approval of real accountants 16 years in a row. After all, what is 20 billion plus or minus, when it is not you, the EUrocrat, who has to cough up the dough?

The cat's out of the bag III

IPCC Official: “Climate Policy Is Redistributing The World’s Wealth”

Climate policy has almost nothing to do anymore with environmental protection, says the German economist and IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer. The next world climate summit in Cancun is actually an economy summit during which the distribution of the world’s resources will be negotiated.

This is Ottmar Edenhofer interviewed by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 14 November 2010. Herr Edenhofer is the co-chair of the IPCC Working Group III. And he is not the least bit ambiguous about the goal of the UN climate 'policy'.

The climate summit in Cancun at the end of the month is not a climate conference, but one of the largest economic conferences since the Second World War. (...)

Developed countries have basically expropriated the atmosphere of the world community. But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy. Obviously, the owners of coal and oil will not be enthusiastic about this. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole.

Emphasis are mine. I don't think we've had a clearer indictment of the 'green' agenda yet. Not even by dyed-in-the-wool climate skeptics.

By Edenhofers own words: This has never been about the environment, or good stewardship or any some such lofty ideal. This has been about instituting a form of global socialism, of redistribution of income by a would-be global government. One that, yet again, we never had an opportunity to vote for or otherwise give consent to. So, can we start rounding them up for trial, jury and execution yet?

(Via WUWT)

Related reading:
The cat's out of the bag
The cat's out of the bag II

The blessings of a welfare state

Second generation Immigrants in Europe are de-assimilating. That is the conclusion one must draw from a paper new paper about immigration and assimilation in Europe. The paper includes data on employment rate of first and second generation non-European immigrants in the 3 major European countries of France, Germany and U.K. (emphasis in the original)

For women, the second generation is slowly assimilating. Whereas the first generation works 35% less than natives, the second generation works 27% less than natives, an improvement of 8 percentage points. (the figures are the non-weighted, arithmetic mean of the 3 countries, below I have put data in each one).

For men however the trend is the opposite. The second generation non-European immigrants are less likely to work than the previous generation! While the first generation work 10% less than natives, the second generation works 24% less, a deterioration of 14 percentage points.

So things are getting worse in the 3 largest European countries, not better.

The reason why the second generation does worse then the first may be even more disturbing, what with the implications for the immediate future of Western society:

Another, more troubling possibility is that the second generation are assimilating into a completely new culture. This is not the standard, successful western-European culture, but a new kind of mixed ghetto culture that emphasizes grievances, hostility to the host society, weak norms and a lack of a work ethic.

Which seems to be reason number 10e-6 + 3 to dismantle the welfare state.

Slowly rolling on...

You may have noticed a different feel to KV. I've been contemplating a newer look for KV for some time now. In fact, contemplation has taken a year and then some.

I've tried to come up with a slightly more modern look, while remaining true to the original. Hope you all like it.

Still working, or rather: contemplating something for the title bar. But in order to do a decent jib there, I will have to dive head first into the GIMP. That may take a while (another year, or so...).

I've had to up the width of the blog some to accommodate side-bars on both sides. It shouldn't be a problem. But if there are let me know in the comments. I'll see what I am able (and more importantly: willing) to do.

EUnion crisis linkage

There's all of a sudden a lot going on with regard to the Irish crisis, which has pretty much become a crisis of the EUnion. Even Big Mouth van Rompuy is saying so:

He is warning that the EU faces a "survival crisis", with the risk of contagion spreading from Ireland across the continent.

Frau Merkel is equally glum.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do a full post, trying to tie all strands together in a neat narrative. I can, however, give some linkage for you. Some of the highlights I came across today.

First, of course, there's Ireland. As Taoiseach Cowen is still refusing to accept EUnion 'aid', Market Ticker notices a peculiar sentence (emphasis mine).

The European Commission acknowledged that Ireland has come under pressure to accept a bailout.

However, a spokesman for Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn said the pressure was not coming from the European Commission but another player.

Market Ticker "Who's Ready For A Sedition Charge?", while advocating the reinstitution of an antiquated penal device. If you are wondering who that 'other player' might be, Vox Day gives you a clue:

Notice that the bailout is not, as it is improperly characterized, a bailout of Ireland per se. It is actually a bailout of the banks that invested in Irish government debt and it is intended to put the people of Ireland on the hook for it in much the same way that Americans were put on the hook for the cost of the TARP bailouts.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard describes the contagion the Irish new-found character threatens to cause, while the horrible truth starts to dawn on Europe's leaders. Evans-Pritchard is now openly calling the EUnion a 'proto-Fascist organization'. But hew warns for too much glee:

It will be hard to resist the temptation of opening a bottle of Connemara whisky and enjoying the moment. But resist one must. The cataclysm will not be pretty.

Just to give you an idea: Geenstijl links to a couple of charts indicating that the Netherlands holds 244 billion euros in PIIGS junk bonds, equal to 31% of GDP. Or, to put it in other terms: the position in PIIGS paper equals 60% of the annual budget of Dutch government (in toto!) for 2010. Makes those eye-watering budget-cuts of 18 billion seem a piddling amount, doesn't it?

Elsewhere, the urgent advise is for Ireland and Greece to ditch the euro, noting that:

The euro elite is utterly ruthless. In its mission to save the euro, it is ready to throw tens of millions out of work and in the process destroy businesses, lives and whole economies.

In the Eurozone, solidarity is running a bit thin. Frankly, it is a mess. Tired of the promises made by Greece that consistently come up empty, today Austria became the second country (after Slovakia) to withhold funds intended for the EUnions Bailout Package for Greece. Even the Estonians are turning away from the single currency. And Croatia is rethinking accession to The Project altogether (via).

For a nice overview of how we got into this mess, I refer you to Brussels Journal: The Euro: Chronicle Of The Currency Crisis Milton Friedman Foretold.

And to put insult to injury, the new EUnion budget is a non-starter, thanks to the insistence by the toy parliament, that an increase of more then 2.9% is necessary, and that the EP has a greater say in the budget, including setting 'own resources', by which they mean taxes levied by the EUnion directly. Resistance to these dreadful ideas came from the UK (good for you, Dave!), Sweden and, I am happy to say, the Netherlands. Barosso today went around squarely blaming the UK and the Netherlands for the fiasco, accusing both country for lacking 'European spirit', but our own FinMin, Jan-Kees de Jager, is thoroughly unimpressed.

We have been a generous partner but there are limits. It was very important for the Netherlands that the EU budget did not keep on going up. If we have to tighten our belts here, then they have to do it in Europe as well.

Have fun...

[UPDATE001]  Dr North of EURef has an inkling that the story to watch is the Battle over the Budget, rather then the Irish Crisis. The latter may be trumped up to distract from the real issue.

It isn't Ireland that is in big trouble so much as the euro and its institutions. But with Rompuy trying to dump on the Irish, one can only suspect the colleagues' motives and intentions. (...)

The point about the EU budget, of course, is that it is pointing up a tension between the Council and the Commission which we have seen building since the Lisbon Treaty

A little dot-connecting

Bishop Hill brings us news that in the US the investigation of Climategate is going on the back-burner: No US Climategate probe?

Darrell Issa, the Republican leader who has in the past demanded a probe into Climategate appears to have backtracked rather. According to The Hill, Issa is now saying that while he thinks there needs to be an inquiry into the emails, this will not be his top priority.

That is a bit of bad news. It it may however, be an indication that Mr. Issa has some bigger fish to fry. In his latest dispatch, the White House Insider, featured on KV earlier here, notes the White House is scared of Mr. Issa. Referring to a scandal that is still very much under the surface, but threatening to blow open, he writes:

WH staff involved in serious protective plan for President regarding incoming scandal. Very fearful of Issa. Told [White House] reps have already visited Issa office several times since election. Promises made? Issa is bright and loves attention. Could prove formidable vs White House. Staff sent to Chicago this past week and DA is heading there on more permanent basis in coming weeks. Why? Why indeed. PAY ATTENTION.

Could it be that Mr. Darrell Issa is clearing his desk for a job that is even bigger then going after those that perpetrated the Climategate scam?

You work for the state

Yes, you do! And so do I. On a normal working day it isn't until some time after lunch you start to earn your own money.

Burning our money directs us to an interesting page on the site of the OECD. On this site you'll find a link to a downloadable Excel file: Fiscal balances and public indebtedness (.xls). If you go to the very first tab, marked 'TotalOutlays', you'll see an overview of government spending as a percentage of GDP. For the 2010 in Netherlands that works out to 52.4%.

Of every 1000 euros you bring home every month, 524 euros are spent by government. Or in other words: On a standard 8 hour working day, you start to earn your own money only after lunch, and even then the first 15 minutes are for the government, on top of your entire mornings work.

In the past, revolts have happened over far, far less.

A fine principle well-stated

From Raedwald:

It's because I love Europe that I condemn with every breath I take the grotesque evil of the EU. The EU is evil in exactly the same way that the Soviet Union was evil; that in a pretence at securing the good of all, the freedoms of each are trampled upon, that power and its maintenance becomes an end in itself, that privilege and patronage are reserved to the ruling elite, and that any countervailing loyalties and allegiances are crushed. The corruption of power, the spoilation of national dignity, the cruel subjugation of human spirit and conscience are all works of true evil and counter to our shared Christian culture and heritage. Every one of us has a moral duty to oppose the EU.

Pat Condell: Freedom of Speech

... with Dutch subtitles, so everybody'll understand.

No further comment neede, methinks. (h/t Vlad Tepes)

Anti-nationalism

This seems to be a classic case of co-ordination. On the day that van Rompuy declared the days of the nation-state to be over, in the Dutch MSM much was made of the founding of the Spinelli Group (list of membership here).

On of its more prominent members are that other deeply 'federalist' Belgian, Guy Verhofstadt and leader of the European Greens and soixant-huitard Daniel Cohn-Bendit (the one that had the arrogance to place himself above a real head of state, president Vaclav Klaus). As van Rompuy was making his anti-nationalist statements in Berlin, the group thought it opportune to admonish the Dutch (NL), with Verhofstadt expressing his dismay over the support our current government enjoys from Geert Wilders' PVV. Anoter leading light, Groen-Links MEP Judith Sargentini just had to add "Also in the Netherlands we now see a government with a supporting party that turns its back towards Europe. Europe is however the solution to many of the problems we are facing, like the economic crisis".

That particular solution, of course, was preached by her boss, van Rompuy in Berlin at around the same time the Dutch press releases for the Spinelli group were handed out: We destroy the nation-state and all will be well.

The Spinelli Group, in case your wondering, was founded to 'oppose nationalism and populism'. It hopes to attract academics and authors to give form to a pro-European (pro-EUnion) atmosphere. The group is named after Altiero Spinelli, who's wikipedia entry starts of in a totally NOT surprising way:

Spinelli was born in Rome, and joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI)

Quite tiresome in its predictability, isn't it?

Elsewhere, the arrogant and rather sinister statements by van Rompuy, announcing the end of the nation-state, failed to make even a tiny splash in the Dutch media. Not one single source of our 'creditable' MSM thought it worthy to report the news that, by the words of its (not mine!) president, the EUnion isolated Euro-sceptics as the enemies of Europe leading us into war.

There is a precedent in history, that when a part of the population is declared an 'enemy', this 1) is not done by stable, democratic, benign forms of government and 2) doesn't bode well for the health and welfare of members of said group.

That our own MSM fails to register the words by the EUnion president, and fails to recognize the ominous implications of both these words and the initiative started in co-ordination, is just a little more proof that the MSM is just another arm of our would-be oppressors, is just as much an enemy of the people as van Rompuy is. Fourth estate as fifth column, indeed.

The truth Herman Van Rompuy is trying to hide

Autonomous Mind contemplates the real meaning of van Rompuy's arrogant and sinister statements of yesterday.

The reality is this. The biggest enemy – not of Europe but of the EU – today is fear. Fear that the people will see through the efforts of the political elite such as Van Rompuy, with their flags, anthems, judicial structures, and plans for an EU army, to subvert democracy and replace it with an unaccountable and untouchable bureaucracy that will control all those living within the borders of their artificial construct. Fear that the elite’s thirst for complete self serving, hegemonic domination of the people of Europe will be challenged and defeated.

Read it in its entirety!

Wilders trial update: Retrial judges announced

The court in Amsterdam today announced the judges that will sit at the re-trial of Geert Wilders. Additionally, it announced plans to soon resume the court trial against Geert Wilders. From the courts website (NL):

The court of Amsterdam is working to resume the case Wilders in the short term. The court is consulting with parties about the progress and planning of the case. The court combination that will re-try the Wilders case in the Amsterdam court are mr. A.A.M. van Oosten (president), mr. G.P.C. Janssen (senior judge), mr. J.C. Boeree (junior judge).

Elsevier (NL) reports there is still some discussion whether the trial should not be moved to another court, in Utrecht for instance, after the dismal performance of the Amsterdam court. But apparently the live-action Monty Python sketch-show last time around was not grounds for the Amsterdam court to consider this option.

Ceterum censeo Unionem Europaeam esse delendam

Yesterday in Berlin, the 'not-my-president' of the EUnion made good on his reputation as the quiet assassin of European democracy and of European nation states. In his "Berliner Europa-Rede" (pdf), van Rompuy stated:

We have together to fight the danger of a new Euro-scepticism.This is no longer the monopoly of a few countries. In every Member State, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the globalised world. It is more than an illusion: it is a lie! The time of the homogeneous nation-state is over.

Moreover, Van Rompuy knows exactly where love of country stems from and leads to:

The biggest enemy of Europe today is fear. Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war (“le nationalisme, c’est la guerre” (F. Mitterrand)). Today’s nationalism is often not a positive feeling of pride of one’s own identity, but a negative feeling of apprehension of the others.

That, apparently, is all that this mindlessly tedious dish-rag of man is able to conjure up, when he thinks of his home-land. No looking upon the landscape and feel ones heart fill up with joy of the recognition of home, the warm memories and the sense of belonging. No sense of the generations before him that have shaped his home and himself. No sense of the roots of his existence that lie beneath the soil. This man is all alone in this universe, adrift in a world where he belongs nowhere.

And if you don not agree with him, your one of those people that will lead our benighted continent down the path of war. Got that?

Maybe that is to be expected from someone like van Rompuy. As Gawain points out: Belgium never once was a real country. Just read this piece by Paul Belien on the history of that failing state. Even nowadays Belgium balances on a knives edge: Will the country split or not? But just because not-my-president hails from that artificial construct posing as a nation-state, that doesn't mean all Europeans feel the same. Don't think we are all Belgians.

Besides, van Rompuy is demonstrably dealing falsehoods. Both Gawain and Witney point out the continued thriving existence of countries such as Switzerland and Norway.

Ian Parker-Joseph (via reader defender) expresses admirably a sentiment that should be echoed around Europe (1). Certainly it should be a sentiment that needs to be nurtured in this damp corner of the world:

I will never be an EU ‘citizen’ – I do not consent. The unelected Van Rompuy, the quiet assassin of nations, has just declared war on the peoples of these Islands and the rest of Europe who will not quietly submit. I WILL fight if necessary to defend my homeland.

Dr. North also has some observations to make, the most important of which is: "This is a tribe so scarred by the experience of continental Europe and the rise of the Nazis that they can only see history in terms of a one-dimensional pastiche, and are locked into the mistaken belief that nationalism is evil. But that truly makes them our enemy. There can be no accommodation or compromise for they mean to destroy us".

That sentiment is echoed by Witney when he asks "Is not the EU the imposition of a creed in which 'decisions on what to produce and what policies to pursue are made in the interests of a collective society'?" and wonders what the differences between the EUnion and the USSR really are, fundamentally.

The one thing that is missing from all these, the one crucial observation that seems to be old hat to the hardened, gritty, genuine euro-sceptic (since they knew or suspected this all along) is the observation that van Rompuy dropped The Mask.

As far as I am aware this is the first time a EUrocrat comes out and bluntly states what the goals of the project have always been, ever since the timid days of the European Community and the European Coal and Steel Community: The abolition of European nations. The destruction of national identity. Gone are the days of economic co-operation. Van Rompuy is out to take away our home and our self-determination. His Berlin speech conveys that message loud and clear.

And for us that is a good reason to put up this new motto. And mean it!

Notes:
(1) Plus generously handing me a new motto for this modest blog (above right).

[UPDATE001] Autonomous Mind is tracking reactions around the blogosphere. Check it out. Van Rompuy may have done some harm to the project with his careless discarding for face-cover.

[UPDATE002] Archbishop Cranmer has a particularly astute observation to make:

As the EU’s auditors fail to approve the accounts the 16th consecutive year, our President told us that the age of nation states is over and the Euroscepticism leads to war.

Funny, that. His Grace thought it was a lack of democracy and the lust for power and geopolitical supremacy which led to war, and that the EU was shaping up perfectly to foment precisely the sort of oppression which leads to social breakdown and civil disorder.

The fuse is lit, the flame walks towards the powder keg

Here's a small but possibly significant update on the American Foreclosure fraud. Via Vox Day we learn that a judge in Arizona has ordered a New York bank to produce the paperwork showing ownership of the mortgage on a house that was to be foreclosed.

Expectations are that the bank in question will not be able to establish a proper 'chain of title' and hence will not be able to pinpoint ownership. Which means they will have to admit that securities sold by this bank are backed by little more then hot air. Market-Ticker cites one of the more succinct explanations:

..... that they gave multiple certifications to the investors in the mortgage securtizations that they did indeed have the trust assets. If, as it now appears to be the case, that many mortgage loans were not properly conveyed to the trust (as in endorsed by the originator and all the intermediary parties specified in the contract governing the deal, the pooling and servicing agreement, and finally over to the trust), then all those certifications were patently untrue. Since investors relied upon these certifications (no one in their right mind would have ponied up for these deals if they had had any doubt that the trust owned the mortgage loans) and the failure to convey the notes is a big cause of problems with foreclosures, it would seem that the trustees are very logical targets for investor litigation.

They also illustrate what they expect to be the end result with an appropriate video. I'll leave the last word to Mr. Day:

I've calculated that at least $3 trillion of the $7 trillion they [US banks] presently report as assets simply don't exist. The damage has already been done and it's time to start trying to staunch the bleeding rather than offering more pointless and costly transfusions.

Beyond sanity

Really, you cannot make this dung up: Iran blocked, but Saudi Arabia accepted for U.N. Women board.

This morning the U.N.'s new umbrella agency for women's rights issues elected its board members. The election had attracted controversy because two of the candidate countries were among the world's most notorious abusers of women's rights, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

This morning, with strong lobbying from the United States, Iran's election to the board was blocked. Human rights groups had strongly opposed Iran's election, pointing in particular to the recent death sentence of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for the crime of adultery.
The 54 countries who sit on the UN’s Economic and Social Council did, however, accept the membership bid by Saudi Arabia, where women are forbidden from driving and barred from many public places.

In fact, according to the U.N. Development Program's own Gender Empowerment Measure, Saudi Arabia is actually a worse country for gender equality than Iran. Neither does particularly well, but of the the 93 countries ranked, only Yemen scores lower than Saudi Arabia.

I mean: Come. ON! Saudi Arabia? Really?

We have had Ban Ki Moon invoking the Nazis, just because in Europe political parties that do not subscribe to blind trans-nationalism are gaining popularity. But a country where women aren't allowed to drive, aren't allowed out alone and aren't allowed the sunshine on their skin, that country gets to decide womens issues for the UN?

Doesn't this sort of prove the thesis that the UN is now officially beyond sane decision making?

Belgium abolishes itself

Esther has the goods. There really is no limit on the insanity, once it is given full freedom...

PVV biggest party among gays

Just wanted to share this highlight from DutchNews.nl:

The anti-Islam PVV has emerged as the biggest political party in an online poll by gay newspaper Gay Krant.

Some 22.3% of the 1,024 people who voted opted for the PVV, up from 16.6% in the previous poll which was held six months ago.

Support for the VVD Liberals fell from 20.1% to 16.6% with the D66 Liberal democrats rising to second place with 18%.

The rise in support is probably due to the increase in gay bashing incidents, often by youths with an ethnic minority background, website commentators said.

Personally I'd say that isn't so much the "youths with an ethnic minority background" as the extreme coddling of those yoof by political parties, mostly on the left, who fly gay rights high in their rethoric, but fail to act accordingly. Action. Louder. Words. Or some such...

The kindness of strangers

Ireland is in a bad place. That is what the Irish Times makes clear in an article entitled 'If you thought the bank bailout was bad, wait until the mortgage defaults hit home'. The article's writer , professor of Economics at University College Dublin, Morgan Kelly, spells out the island's economic realities. But it also, in a way, points out the wages of sin. The sin of joining the EUnion, betraying your people and handing your country to an alien power.

To ward off economic collapse the Irish banks have been bailed out to the tune of 70 billion euros. In order to finance the bail-out, the Irish government acquired massive loans from the EUnion Central Bank (ECB). In essence then, the situation is described by the writer as: 'During September, the Irish Republic quietly ceased to exist as an autonomous fiscal entity, and became a ward of the European Central Bank.'

Since September, a permanent team of ECB “observers” has taken up residence in the Department of Finance. Although of many nationalities, they are known there, dismayingly but inevitably, as “The Germans”.

Prof. Kelly describes how Ireland could have solved the banking crisis and be done, by terminating bank guarantees on the grounds that three of the guaranteed banks had withheld material information about their (in)solvency, in direct breach of the 1971 Central Bank Act. The way would then have been open to pass legislation along the lines of the UK’s Bank Resolution Regime, to turn the roughly €75 billion of outstanding bank debt into shares in those banks, and so end the banking crisis at a stroke, at the rather modest price of an unpleasant showdown with the European Central Bank.

But this is not what happened. Instead the Irish government trusted that “Europe will bail us out, just like they bailed out the Greeks. And does anyone expect the Greeks to repay?”. And thus the Irish Government has driven Ireland over the brink of insolvency.

That, however, is not the end of it. As bond yields and interest rates soar, the massive mortgage debt the Irish people have contracted becomes more and more unserviceable. People are going to extraordinary lengths – not paying other bills and borrowing heavily from their parents – to meet mortgage repayments, both out of fear of losing their homes and to avoid the stigma of admitting that they are broke.

But soon enough this may change, when the Irish realize that defaulting (strategic or otherwise) is less costly to them personally then keeping up financial obligations. Given the complete lack of integrity displayed by the banking sector before, during and after the financial crisis of 2008, Irish home-owners facing a choice between obligations to the banks and to their families – mortgage or food – will start choosing the latter.

Irish banks pass under direct ECB control next year, which means that the principle priority will not be the health or recuperation of the Irish economy, but rather that the new, overriding priority will be to get the ECB’s money back by whatever means necessary. The ensuing drop in the amount banks are willing or able to lend will cause property prices to sink and interest-rates to soar even further, increasing the number of foreclosures and mortgage defaults.

It didn't have to be that way, had it not been for one of the biggest contributing factors to the Irish woes: The EUnion. The real, staggering injustice in all of this is the difference in treatment meeted out by the EUnion to the Greeks on the one hand and the Irish on the other. This was pointed out already back in August by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard who wrote:

Ireland must now pay more than Greece to borrow.

Dublin has played by the book. It has taken pre-emptive steps to please the markets and the EU. It has done an IMF job without the IMF. Indeed, is has gone further than the IMF would have dared to go. It has imposed draconian austerity measures. The solidarity of the country has been remarkable. There have no riots, and no terrorist threats.

Yet as of today it is paying 5.48pc to borrow for ten years, or near 8pc in real terms once deflation is factored in. This is crippling and puts the country on an unsustainable debt trajectory if it lasts for long.

Yet Greece is able to borrow from the EU at 5pc and from the IMF at a staggered rate far below that (still too high for the policy to work, but that is another matter). These were the terms of the €110bn joint bail-out.

To add insult to injury Ireland is having [to] SUBSIDIZE Greece to meet its share of the rescue fund.

And why? AEP puts it down to the Irish being more civilized and responsible than the Greeks are. His advice comes in the form of an observation: It evidently pays to riot in Europe. However, prof. Kelly sees a measure of deliberation in the EUnions cack-handed and unjust treatment of Ireland: 'We are too small to matter'. Slowly strangling the Irish relatively tiny economy will not send shock-waves through the EUnion.

And besides, the ECB’s real concerns lie with Spain and Italy. Making an example of Ireland is an easy way to show that bailouts are not a soft option, and so frighten them into keeping their deficits under control. And there is nothing the Irish can do. Politically they capitulated when they accepted the Turnip. Financially, the Irish government capitulated when they chose becoming insolvent over a bank resolution, thus allowing in the ECB vultures that are overseeing the execution of the Irish bankruptcy. There is no measure of sovereignty left with which the Irish could save themselves. Instead, "The Germans" impose upon them financial priorities that are not in the interest of Ireland or the Irish, but will ruin the country and impoverish the people.

And thus we reach the end of our tale: Ultimately, but too late, the Irish realize what the reward for a 'Yes' vote means in practice:

Sovereign nations get to make policy choices, and we are no longer a sovereign nation in any meaningful sense of that term. From here on, for better or worse, we can only rely on the kindness of strangers.

(h/t EURef)

[UPDATE001] And if to hammer the point home:

The grief goes on as the yield on 10-year bonds rose above eight percent for the first time since the launch of the euro, 11 years ago. The cost of funding Irish debt has risen steadily since September, when the government admitted its bailout efforts of five banks would cost at least €45 billion, equivalent to €10,000 for every man, woman and child in Ireland.

That gargantuan bill, in turn, has made the projected 2010 deficit rise to 32 percent of GDP, the highest in post-war Europe.