Tipping Point

Was it Trumpism that caused not just conservative Americans but the average Joe and Jane here to throw open their windows and shout "Enough! I can't take it any more!"? There clearly is something happening to upset the progressive agenda in this country. Hampshire College has realized that it was a bad idea to get rid of the American flag. Colin Kaepernick looks like he has become persona non grata in San Francisco. Kellogg cereals are being boycotted because of the company's decision to stop advertising on conservative websites. Even Michael Moore seems to be straddling the political fence ... as difficult as that is for him to do. No longer does an "ist" accusation necessarily win the day. The "deplorables" have suddenly realized that, when they band together, they no longer need to be cowed by the race baiters and Soros-paid protesters.

This really feels like a sea change is happening not just in the United States ... but around the world. Obviously Brexit was symptomatic of this tsunami. Angela Merkel is booed in a German town-hall meeting and likely will lose her grip on the EU in the not too distant future. This weekend Italy may be joining Britain and the US in voting to reject globalism. The "new world order" that was destined to create an eternal [un]democratic world government and universal open boarders is fighting a rear guard action around Davos, Switzerland. Those arrogant globalists had been going balls out with their blitzkrieg progressive agenda ... unconcerned with the lives that they are leaving in their wake ... which now seems to be their undoing.

It sure looks like we are at a tipping point which will change the direction of world politics for at least a generation. Much of the justification for this globalism seems to have arisen out of the mayhem of the many wars of the last hundred years and the economic dislocation caused by the disparity between international labor costs. The latter differential is being diminished by automation and the former has been refocused into resisting the growing threat of a radical Islamic caliphate. Globalism of course is not dead but it is on life support. In the meantime I predict that nationalistic fervor will rule the day.

Who He?

Ross Douthat is now the conservative columnist for the New York Times (since David Brooks has finally let his inner self have its head) and is a clear find. I plan to start reading him on a regular basis since his political position seems to be very close to my own ... and he expresses it so much better.

I discovered him referenced on the Breitbart Internet news site with the following op-ed snippet. If you want the link, it is  HERE ... but it offers little more than the following burning logic:

The dangers of a Hillary Clinton presidency are more familiar than Trump’s authoritarian unknowns, because we live with them in our politics already. They’re the dangers of elite groupthink, of Beltway power worship, of a cult of presidential action in the service of dubious ideals. They’re the dangers of a recklessness and radicalism that doesn’t recognize itself as either, because it’s convinced that if an idea is mainstream and commonplace among the great and good then it cannot possibly be folly.

Almost every crisis that has come upon the West in the last 15 years has its roots in this establishmentarian type of folly. The Iraq War, which liberals prefer to remember as a conflict conjured by a neoconservative cabal, was actually the work of a bipartisan interventionist consensus, pushed hard by George W. Bush but embraced as well by a large slice of center-left opinion that included Tony Blair and more than half of Senate Democrats.

Likewise the financial crisis: Whether you blame financial-services deregulation or happy-go-lucky housing policy (or both), the policies that helped inflate and pop the bubble were embraced by both wings of the political establishment. Likewise with the euro, the European common currency, a terrible idea that only cranks and Little Englanders dared oppose until the Great Recession exposed it as a potentially economy-sinking folly. Likewise with Angela Merkel’s grand and reckless open-borders gesture just last year: She was the heroine of a thousand profiles even as she delivered her continent to polarization and violence.

This record of elite folly — which doesn’t even include lesser case studies like our splendid little war in Libya — is a big part of why the United States has a “let’s try crazy” candidate in this election, and why there are so many Trumpian parties thriving on European soil.

Of course, next I had to learn a little more about this man ... he has impressive credentials ... see: Wikipedia Bio. I have no clue if he is planning to vote for Trump, but I think he is leaning anti-establishment and therefore just might. But, from what I've read so far, I'm convinced he's "not for her".

Inured

Do you sense that we are growing accustomed to terrorist strikes? I do. Sunday, in Ansbach, Germany a suicide bomber from Syria blew himself up injuring 12 ... 3 critically ... and near Stuttgart, Germany, a pregnant woman was hacked to death by a machete wielding Syrian refugee and two others were wounded. The rest of the world has taken little note of these events ... see: Express Article and Yahoo New Story. German police are reluctant to say that these were terrorism ... but, then again, what were they? Pyromania and Misogyny? And this came just two days after an 18-year old Iranian immigrant killed nine youngsters at a McDonald's in Munich, Germany ... all the while yelling Allahu Akbar! I don't think this translates into, "I didn't get special sauce on my Big Mac!" Do you? And this all then echos the July 18 ax attack by a 17-year old Afghan/Pakistani immigrant severely injuring five people on a train near Nuremberg, Germany. Was he just practicing for his Boy Scout Trail Blazing merit badge? I don't think so. (These dire consequences cannot reflect well on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's policy of welcoming hoards of Muslim immigrants.)

And let's not forget Nice, France ... and that Muslim ice cream truck driver ...

As the pace of these attacks by those from the "Religion of Peace" quickens, it seems that much of the world is becoming inured to these brutalities and, because of some liberal-mind malfunction, is very reluctant to call them wannabe Muslim terrorism or motivated by ISIS. I find this bazaare and predictably quite dangerous.

Afterward: And another ... see: Daily Mail Article.

Being Briefed

"There has been a shooting at a large shopping mall in Munich, Germany ... and now more shots have apparently be heard in the city center and the train station has been evacuated. There are unconfirmed reports that at least six persons are dead. It is thought there are as many as three shooters. People in Munich have been advised to shelter in place. President Obummer is at the White House and is being briefed on the situation."

Thank God! The president is being briefed ... therefore everything is under control! Pretty soon we will hear that Obummer's "thoughts and prayers are going out to the German people" ... and that the president has been in contact with the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, and has offered to provide her any assistance that she needs to deal with this incident. Even though the motivation of these shooters is currently unknown. Ms. Merkel is expected to state that this mayhem and the other axe-wielding attack on a nearby train a few days ago have nothing to do with the hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees that Merkel had welcomed into Germany earlier this year and last.

It is also quite predictable that both Obummer and Merkel are prepared to blame this current atrocity on scary looking weapons of war. This will certainly be the focus and locus of their recriminations.

Soft Power (continued)

My eyesight is beginning to come back, so I can now add to my previous blog, Soft Power. I am far from even a novice in understanding the convoluted bureaucratic structure of the European Union ... see: Wikipedia Entry ... but I think I can see many of the political implications of this mare's nest of undemocratic governance.

Angela Merkel deserves much of the blame. (or credit) for the possible unraveling of the European Union. But as we can see, she is not giving up quietly. The consternation she deserves centers around the progressive lunacy that inspired her to invite hoards of Syrian refugees to come to Germany last year ... causing a migration catastrophe throughout Europe. Once these immigrants are in Europe,  EU rules allow them to relocate anywhere among its member states. Whether this was Merkel's boneheaded or calculated move is in dispute, but her public invitations caused a heap of turmoil that ultimately lead to Brexit ... see: Breitbart Article.

I know, I know that the latest theory is that it was the free flow of immigrants from Poland and other Eastern European EU members that caused most of the dyspepsia among working- class Brits. But, this might also be because these Eastern Europeans are real workers and were more visible than the tidal wave of Syrians and other Muslims who moved invisibly onto home relief throughout Britain. But the narrative that it was not these Muslim masses that triggered Brexit is, to say the least, self-serving.

I also know that some feel that what put Great Britain over the Brexit top was the new EU restrictions on electric tea kettles, toasters and hair dryers. That just may have partially been the case ... for from undeserved power comes unmitigated hubris. However, this whole EU muddle is full of cross currents including some who feel that even greater European integration (as indicated in my previous blog post) is not in the cards ... see: CNBC Opinion.

My personal opinion is that Merkel is power hungry and will not be sated nor satisfied with her loss of European influence. The EU (read France and Germany) are feeling petty and punitive after Brexit ... see: CNBC Story. It is even rumored that the EU has just notified Great Britain that, in order to maintain current trade relations, that the Brits will have to accept the free flow of immigrants like was in place before Brexit. Pretty tough talk, no? Thus, I surmise that Merkel's soft-power strategy is still her path forward.

Soft Power

What Adolf couldn't do with his Panzer tanks, storm troopers and blitzkriegs, Angela is doing with her soft power. Anyone who has traveled to Europe in the last five years can easily observe what country dominates the European Union ... Germany ... just notice the number of BMWs, Mercedes, and VWs on the roads throughout Europe. And now Angela Merkel, after the Brexit vote,  is taking it to the next level ... offering to consolidate their fighting, taxing and financial forces for the rest of the EU ... basically becoming the throne room to a pan-European superstate ... to read the alarming details, see: Daily Express Article.

More on this when my vision clears up after my recent eye surgery ...

On Hegemony

Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, recently said that the “U.S. can’t solve all the world’s problems anymore.” Wrong oh, fraulein … the hard truth is that the “U.S. can’t solve any of the world’s problems anymore.”

Greasing the Skids

Greece erupted in disturbing violence yesterday in response to the austerity measures that are being required of it to get the next round of bailout money.  I won't go into the details of this rioting ... you can read about it here.  The point of this blog entry is to reprise two data points I heard this AM on television.  First, in 2010 Greece passed a set of austerity measures to get the first round of bailout money - $61 billion.  It implemented not one of them.  Secondly, this time around the European Union (read Angela Merkel) is not taking the Greek Parliament at their collective word.  It is requiring the Greek party leaders to sign personal pledges to implement the measures that were passed into law yesterday before the $160+ billion of bailout money will be released to them (see: Wall Street Journal Article).

This sounds to me a little like the Treaty of Versailles that was foisted upon and humiliated Germany after World War I ... which many feel set the stage for World War II.  One wonders what this forced-fed dirt dish will eventually elicit from Greece?  Enter the drachma [stage right] ... ?