When stepping down in 1961 President Eisenhower warned of the collusion between the U.S. military and the Defense Industry. This collaboration caused the U.S. to spend its budgets in a way that served the narrow interests of the Defense Industry and Military leadership. Rather than on the security needs of the nation.
Winslow Wheeler, editor of "America's Defense Meltdown" argues with 13 other Defense Procurement experts that the complex also includes U.S. Congress, which for decades has failed to effectively oversee Defense Contracting. The result is U.S. defense spending 50 percent of global defense budgets, yet failing to achieve decisive results against tiny opponenents. For instance Al-Qaida is estimated to number approximately 70.000 members.
A few weeks ago Mr. Wheeler gave a presentation on the how and why of the U.S. Army inventory of weapons systems aging and shrinking in a time of high spending. Mr Wheeler is accompanied by two contributors to the book: Pierre Sprey, co-designer of the F-16 and A-10 jets, and Thomas Christie, former adviser to the Secretary of Defense on weapons systems testing.
View U.S. Defense Meltdown
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wave of robberies in The Netherlands
Number of robberies is rising sharply
In the first two months of 2009 the number of robberies up by 21 percent (Dutch) compared to 2008, reports Dutch newspaper "De Telegraaf". There were 579 reported burglaries in two months. The upward trend of 2008 is continuing and the police is helpless to positively influence it according to the Council of Police Chiefs (Raad van Hoofdcommissarissen).
Joe Public is sick and tired
The public blames the robberies on Muslims, Caribbeans and Eastern-Europeans. With the Credit Crisis the number of unemployed is rising, particularly in the aforementioned groups who are often not on permanent contracts if they are gainfully employed. So the number of robberies may well increase at a even faster rate.
Idle hands are the devil's workshop.
In the first two months of 2009 the number of robberies up by 21 percent (Dutch) compared to 2008, reports Dutch newspaper "De Telegraaf". There were 579 reported burglaries in two months. The upward trend of 2008 is continuing and the police is helpless to positively influence it according to the Council of Police Chiefs (Raad van Hoofdcommissarissen).
Joe Public is sick and tired
The public blames the robberies on Muslims, Caribbeans and Eastern-Europeans. With the Credit Crisis the number of unemployed is rising, particularly in the aforementioned groups who are often not on permanent contracts if they are gainfully employed. So the number of robberies may well increase at a even faster rate.
Idle hands are the devil's workshop.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
U.S. Fed prints money - economy will not revive
The U.S. Fed is expanding the money supply
The U.S. are trying to drown their nation in debt. The GDP of the U.S. is 14 Trillion U.S. Dollars. The Fed is creating a Trillion dollars which will be made available to private and business which they can borrow. This means an expansion of the money supply of 7 percent against GDP.
It remains to be seen whether the public will actually be foolish enough to borrow more money. The experience of Japan in the 90ies showed that the public preferred saving over spending in a similar situation.
But that will mean that the U.S. economy will continue to stagnate.
Thrifty Continental Europe
The situation in Europe is not too different. Kindly read an earlier post on UK money printing and interest rate slashing here.
The Anglo-Saxons have built up huge debts to finance their decade lasting spending spree. But European nations, which were thrifty saving up money and lending it to the Anglo-Saxons are in stagnation. The Anglo-Saxons at least had a party before the hang-over....
Analysis
The causes of the economic stagnation are for a considerable part demographic. As European and American societies are reproducing below replacement rate, the population is aging rapidly. The economic base of the welfare state is shrinking. High immigration is seen as a solution by the political classes, but in reality the third world colonists are an enormous drain on said shrinking public purse. Many of the immigrants are not working and if they are working they earn on average far less than indigenous population. They use up more public means than the indigenous. Think of high consumption of medical care, police, benefits, higher per capita educational outlays. The average net earnings of the total population (indigenous plus immigrants) are decreasing at the same time as the public expenses increase.
The blindness of the political class
The political class can not see the predicament their nation is in because they have outlawed reporting unfavourable facts and analysis and if it were reported to them they would refuse to grasp it as their liberal worldview makes it EVIL to form thoughts that are illiberal.
1984
George Orwell showed in his book 1984 how the the ruling party or Inner Party creates Newspeak. Newspeak is political correctness. The objective of Newspeak is to make political thought that disagrees with the ruling party's ideology impossible, because the language has been so degraded that nobody can form an alternative point of view anymore.
The memory hole. The memory hole!
George Orwell was a Trotzkyite Socialist. He thought the attempt by the Inner Party could be succesfull. It never occurred to him that when the Inner Party had impaired its ability to orient itself on reality by creating a false ideology reality would intrude on society in a vicious way. He believed that the Inner Party was powerful enough to use the media to such an effect that any changes to reality would be cast down the "memory hole".
The ability to react by an ossified social system
But how do you hide double digit unemployment and a decade of economic stagnation from the public and the party faithfull? What if the Inner Party, ossified by decades of unchallenged rule and exclusive reliance on bureaucratic process loses its faith and self-confidence?
Western Governments, bankers are frantically pushing their controls in order to revive the economy, which is the only prop of the present social system. But nothing is happening......the system does not respond. It will be a long time before it does.
The U.S. are trying to drown their nation in debt. The GDP of the U.S. is 14 Trillion U.S. Dollars. The Fed is creating a Trillion dollars which will be made available to private and business which they can borrow. This means an expansion of the money supply of 7 percent against GDP.
It remains to be seen whether the public will actually be foolish enough to borrow more money. The experience of Japan in the 90ies showed that the public preferred saving over spending in a similar situation.
But that will mean that the U.S. economy will continue to stagnate.
Thrifty Continental Europe
The situation in Europe is not too different. Kindly read an earlier post on UK money printing and interest rate slashing here.
The Anglo-Saxons have built up huge debts to finance their decade lasting spending spree. But European nations, which were thrifty saving up money and lending it to the Anglo-Saxons are in stagnation. The Anglo-Saxons at least had a party before the hang-over....
Analysis
The causes of the economic stagnation are for a considerable part demographic. As European and American societies are reproducing below replacement rate, the population is aging rapidly. The economic base of the welfare state is shrinking. High immigration is seen as a solution by the political classes, but in reality the third world colonists are an enormous drain on said shrinking public purse. Many of the immigrants are not working and if they are working they earn on average far less than indigenous population. They use up more public means than the indigenous. Think of high consumption of medical care, police, benefits, higher per capita educational outlays. The average net earnings of the total population (indigenous plus immigrants) are decreasing at the same time as the public expenses increase.
The blindness of the political class
The political class can not see the predicament their nation is in because they have outlawed reporting unfavourable facts and analysis and if it were reported to them they would refuse to grasp it as their liberal worldview makes it EVIL to form thoughts that are illiberal.
1984
George Orwell showed in his book 1984 how the the ruling party or Inner Party creates Newspeak. Newspeak is political correctness. The objective of Newspeak is to make political thought that disagrees with the ruling party's ideology impossible, because the language has been so degraded that nobody can form an alternative point of view anymore.
The memory hole. The memory hole!
George Orwell was a Trotzkyite Socialist. He thought the attempt by the Inner Party could be succesfull. It never occurred to him that when the Inner Party had impaired its ability to orient itself on reality by creating a false ideology reality would intrude on society in a vicious way. He believed that the Inner Party was powerful enough to use the media to such an effect that any changes to reality would be cast down the "memory hole".
The ability to react by an ossified social system
But how do you hide double digit unemployment and a decade of economic stagnation from the public and the party faithfull? What if the Inner Party, ossified by decades of unchallenged rule and exclusive reliance on bureaucratic process loses its faith and self-confidence?
Western Governments, bankers are frantically pushing their controls in order to revive the economy, which is the only prop of the present social system. But nothing is happening......the system does not respond. It will be a long time before it does.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Vlaams Belang leader publishes book on Islamization
Islamization and resistance against Islamization is becoming a prominent plank in the political platform of many self-respecting nationalist movements in Europe.
Mr. Filip DeWinter, the leader of the Vlaams Belang, a Conservative and Nationalist Party of Dutch-speaking Belgians published a book called: "Insha'Allah? The Islamization of Europe".
Esther of Islam in Europe made a transcript of a rather adversarial interview Terzake had with Mr. DeWinter and I gave her a hand.
Kindly find the Terzake interview and transcript here.
Mr. Filip DeWinter, the leader of the Vlaams Belang, a Conservative and Nationalist Party of Dutch-speaking Belgians published a book called: "Insha'Allah? The Islamization of Europe".
Esther of Islam in Europe made a transcript of a rather adversarial interview Terzake had with Mr. DeWinter and I gave her a hand.
Kindly find the Terzake interview and transcript here.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
WHITE MEN RULE!
At least for now they do.
This blog yesterday featured a story about Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst blocking the appointment of Mr. Teun Visscher as a police manager. This on account of him being a white male.
The news just came out that Mr. Visser is going to be confirmed as Police District Chief of the South Holland South (Ridderkerk) district after all.
This on account of heavy pressure on the Interior Minister whipped up by populist Dutch media such as newspaper "De Telegraaf" and weblog geenstijl.
For reasons which are probably entirely opportunistic these media managed to get the decision reversed.
The headline on geenstijl was: White Man - Guusje ter Horst: 1-0.
Charming!
This blog yesterday featured a story about Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst blocking the appointment of Mr. Teun Visscher as a police manager. This on account of him being a white male.
The news just came out that Mr. Visser is going to be confirmed as Police District Chief of the South Holland South (Ridderkerk) district after all.
This on account of heavy pressure on the Interior Minister whipped up by populist Dutch media such as newspaper "De Telegraaf" and weblog geenstijl.
For reasons which are probably entirely opportunistic these media managed to get the decision reversed.
The headline on geenstijl was: White Man - Guusje ter Horst: 1-0.
Charming!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Dutch High Court slams prosecution of Islam-basher
Dutch Islam basher prosecuted for hate crime
A Dutch citizen who put up a poster stating "stop the Islam cancer growth" (Dutch) was prosecuted after the public prosecutor received complaints from aggrieved citizens in 2004.
Today the Dutch High Court, the highest Court of Justice in the land, issued the verdict that the citizen was not culpable. The Court motivated its decision by stating that although the law objects to insulting a religious group, it does not object to insulting religious belief. This new jurisprudence of article 137c of the Dutch Penal Code (Dutch) has bearing on the case of Geert Wilders who is being prosecuted for fiercely criticizing Islamic belief and Islamic Scripture.
So it is possible to say "Islam is bad", but saying "Muslims are bad" still gets one in trouble legally.
The bearing of this verdict on the Wilders Case
This verdict of the High Court makes it less likely that Geert Wilders will in fact be prosecuted and convicted under Hate Crime Legislation as demanded by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal.
Such a shame. The Freedom Party was making hay over the prosecution of its leader Geert Wilders. Opinion polls showed that the Freedom Party (PVV) had become the biggest party in The Netherlands if election had been held recently.
A Dutch citizen who put up a poster stating "stop the Islam cancer growth" (Dutch) was prosecuted after the public prosecutor received complaints from aggrieved citizens in 2004.
Today the Dutch High Court, the highest Court of Justice in the land, issued the verdict that the citizen was not culpable. The Court motivated its decision by stating that although the law objects to insulting a religious group, it does not object to insulting religious belief. This new jurisprudence of article 137c of the Dutch Penal Code (Dutch) has bearing on the case of Geert Wilders who is being prosecuted for fiercely criticizing Islamic belief and Islamic Scripture.
So it is possible to say "Islam is bad", but saying "Muslims are bad" still gets one in trouble legally.
The bearing of this verdict on the Wilders Case
This verdict of the High Court makes it less likely that Geert Wilders will in fact be prosecuted and convicted under Hate Crime Legislation as demanded by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal.
Such a shame. The Freedom Party was making hay over the prosecution of its leader Geert Wilders. Opinion polls showed that the Freedom Party (PVV) had become the biggest party in The Netherlands if election had been held recently.
PC under fire by the press
The MSM Swan Song
The Mains Stream Media (MSM) in The Netherlands are losing their reader basee and can no longer attract advertising. Some organs of the MSM merge, others dissapear. The remaining newspapers are desperate for readers and some increasingly resort to populism in order to retain and attract readership. Newspaper "De Telegraaf" thus has started to regularly expose for instance Muslim crime, thus attacking multicultural society.
Their latest attack was last Friday when "De Telegraaf" exposed affirmative action (AA) in the police.
AA in the Dutch Police
The Dutch government has decided that the biggest problem that the police faces is not their ridiculously low ratio of solved cases to reported cases, but rather that there are too few high ranking women and immigrant police officers. So the government agreed on quotas for area police chiefs. Half of area police chief posts should be either female or immigrant. The implementation of the policy was entrusted to Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst. Minister Ter Horst is herself a Affirmative Action Labour Party apparatchik.
And when Minister Ter Horst was not having a lot of success in conjuring up acceptable candidates out of thin air, parliamentarians both from the Left and the "Right" urged her to to get on with the program and to be like "a apparition from Hell" if the police bureaucracy would resist.
The police organisation kept nominating white males due to a quaint urge to preserve its standards. Its questionable standards which result in only one out of five reported cases being solved, the lowest ratio in Europe. One slot had been kept open for 15 months, when the police organisation nominated another white male. Minister Ter Horst decided show some steel and blocked the appointment and to cancel the nomination party.
At this point the story was leaked to "De Telegraaf" and they published it with an angle of "White Males Cannot become Police Chiefs". This predicably caused fury both amongst the public and the punditry.
It feels so good to be angry
Pundits and commenters had great fun bashing Minister Ter Horst, Affirmative Action and PC. What they are ignoring is that the problem is brought on by the possibly wrong idea that all groups are equal in ability and will to fullfill certain societal functions. Perhaps white males are just naturally better police men than women and minorities. Otherwise white males may have a stronger feeling of v o c a t i o n to protect Dutch society. Perhaps there are other reasons I cannot think of.
Perhaps the Liberal belief of equality does not correspond to reality and should be jettisoned.
The Mains Stream Media (MSM) in The Netherlands are losing their reader basee and can no longer attract advertising. Some organs of the MSM merge, others dissapear. The remaining newspapers are desperate for readers and some increasingly resort to populism in order to retain and attract readership. Newspaper "De Telegraaf" thus has started to regularly expose for instance Muslim crime, thus attacking multicultural society.
Their latest attack was last Friday when "De Telegraaf" exposed affirmative action (AA) in the police.
AA in the Dutch Police
The Dutch government has decided that the biggest problem that the police faces is not their ridiculously low ratio of solved cases to reported cases, but rather that there are too few high ranking women and immigrant police officers. So the government agreed on quotas for area police chiefs. Half of area police chief posts should be either female or immigrant. The implementation of the policy was entrusted to Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst. Minister Ter Horst is herself a Affirmative Action Labour Party apparatchik.
And when Minister Ter Horst was not having a lot of success in conjuring up acceptable candidates out of thin air, parliamentarians both from the Left and the "Right" urged her to to get on with the program and to be like "a apparition from Hell" if the police bureaucracy would resist.
The police organisation kept nominating white males due to a quaint urge to preserve its standards. Its questionable standards which result in only one out of five reported cases being solved, the lowest ratio in Europe. One slot had been kept open for 15 months, when the police organisation nominated another white male. Minister Ter Horst decided show some steel and blocked the appointment and to cancel the nomination party.
At this point the story was leaked to "De Telegraaf" and they published it with an angle of "White Males Cannot become Police Chiefs". This predicably caused fury both amongst the public and the punditry.
It feels so good to be angry
Pundits and commenters had great fun bashing Minister Ter Horst, Affirmative Action and PC. What they are ignoring is that the problem is brought on by the possibly wrong idea that all groups are equal in ability and will to fullfill certain societal functions. Perhaps white males are just naturally better police men than women and minorities. Otherwise white males may have a stronger feeling of v o c a t i o n to protect Dutch society. Perhaps there are other reasons I cannot think of.
Perhaps the Liberal belief of equality does not correspond to reality and should be jettisoned.
Friday, March 06, 2009
Bank of England announces it will begin printing money
The all time lowest interest rate
The Bank of England (BoE) has announced it will cut the lending rate with another 5 points to 0,05 percent. This is the lowest interest rate since the BoE's founding in 1694 by William III of Orange.
Last resort of the "lender of last resort"
This is the UK's last resort. If it does not work, there is nothing to stop the descent into a deep recession, with the attending DOUBLE DIGIT unemployment.
Lessons are not being learned
Quantum Fund co-founder Jim Rogers criticized the U.S. governments policy of bailing out of failing financial and other firms. The bail-outs are impairing the learning ability of the economic leadership and are morally wrong. Those institutions who took the biggest risks are bailed out at the taxpayers expense. Smarter, more prudent leaders are not reaping the benefits of being able to pick up the assets of the failing companies when they go broke.
Those who created the mess are sitting high and dry
Leaders of U.S. Industry who took criminal risks are now walking around with hundreds of millions of Dollars in their pockets, while the U.S. middle class is going to be squezed once taxes are raised to pay off the huge Debts the U.S. Government is incurring in order to spend its way out of the Debt crisis. Basically the U.S. is taking more of the poison that got it into this terrible spot in the first place.
"They all took huge, huge profits. Who was the head of Citigroup? Chuck Prince? I mean, how many hundreds of millions of dollars did Prince take out of the company? How many hundreds of millions of dollars did other Citibank execs take out of the company? Wall Street has paid something like $40 billion or $50 billion in bonuses in the past decade. Who was that guy who was the head of Merrill Lynch (MERR)?
Right, Stan O'Neal. He got $150 million for leaving, even though he ruined the company. Look at the guy at Fannie Mae (FNM), Franklin Raines. He did worse accounting than Enron. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FRE) alone did nothing but pure fraudulent accounting year after year, and yet that guy's walking around with millions of dollars. What the hell kind of system is this?"
Global Social Unrest
Jim Rogers sees this Debt crisis as a global problem and forecasts global social unrest.
In my opinion this crisis will hit the nations with more ethnically and culturally diverse societies harder than more homogenous society. This crisis will do for the West what the Brezhnev years of stagnation did for the Soviet Union and Communism.
The Bank of England (BoE) has announced it will cut the lending rate with another 5 points to 0,05 percent. This is the lowest interest rate since the BoE's founding in 1694 by William III of Orange.
Last resort of the "lender of last resort"
This is the UK's last resort. If it does not work, there is nothing to stop the descent into a deep recession, with the attending DOUBLE DIGIT unemployment.
Lessons are not being learned
Quantum Fund co-founder Jim Rogers criticized the U.S. governments policy of bailing out of failing financial and other firms. The bail-outs are impairing the learning ability of the economic leadership and are morally wrong. Those institutions who took the biggest risks are bailed out at the taxpayers expense. Smarter, more prudent leaders are not reaping the benefits of being able to pick up the assets of the failing companies when they go broke.
Those who created the mess are sitting high and dry
Leaders of U.S. Industry who took criminal risks are now walking around with hundreds of millions of Dollars in their pockets, while the U.S. middle class is going to be squezed once taxes are raised to pay off the huge Debts the U.S. Government is incurring in order to spend its way out of the Debt crisis. Basically the U.S. is taking more of the poison that got it into this terrible spot in the first place.
"They all took huge, huge profits. Who was the head of Citigroup? Chuck Prince? I mean, how many hundreds of millions of dollars did Prince take out of the company? How many hundreds of millions of dollars did other Citibank execs take out of the company? Wall Street has paid something like $40 billion or $50 billion in bonuses in the past decade. Who was that guy who was the head of Merrill Lynch (MERR)?
Right, Stan O'Neal. He got $150 million for leaving, even though he ruined the company. Look at the guy at Fannie Mae (FNM), Franklin Raines. He did worse accounting than Enron. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FRE) alone did nothing but pure fraudulent accounting year after year, and yet that guy's walking around with millions of dollars. What the hell kind of system is this?"
Global Social Unrest
Jim Rogers sees this Debt crisis as a global problem and forecasts global social unrest.
In my opinion this crisis will hit the nations with more ethnically and culturally diverse societies harder than more homogenous society. This crisis will do for the West what the Brezhnev years of stagnation did for the Soviet Union and Communism.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Freedom Party Voter Profile Normalizes
The old voting pattern of the Freedom Party
Voter research two weeks ago showed that the profile of people who want to vote Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) is increasingly conform to the Dutch average. While earlier Freedom Party voters had lower average incomes than the Dutch average, well-educated and prosperous voters are incresingly indicating that they want to vote for the Freedom Party.
The issue for the new base of support: Freedom of Speech
The issue that fires these new Freedom Party voters most strongly is Freedom of Speech. Voter research shows that the Dutch middle class is becoming increasingly concerned about the State encroaching on the Freedom of Speech. The Netherlands has seen such encroachment in the arrest of Dutch Cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot and the prosecution of Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders.
Voter research two weeks ago showed that the profile of people who want to vote Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) is increasingly conform to the Dutch average. While earlier Freedom Party voters had lower average incomes than the Dutch average, well-educated and prosperous voters are incresingly indicating that they want to vote for the Freedom Party.
The issue for the new base of support: Freedom of Speech
The issue that fires these new Freedom Party voters most strongly is Freedom of Speech. Voter research shows that the Dutch middle class is becoming increasingly concerned about the State encroaching on the Freedom of Speech. The Netherlands has seen such encroachment in the arrest of Dutch Cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot and the prosecution of Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Geert Wilders' Freedom Party is the greatest!
According to a poll (Dutch) released yesterday Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) has the largest share of the votes if elections would be held now. The Freedom Party polled at 27, while the next biggest party polled at 26.
This low point of the Christian Democrats shows the fractured nature of the Dutch political landscape. The advances made by the Freedom Party were mostly at the expense of the other "right wing" parties. It will be very difficult to put governments together, governments will consist of three or more parties, be unstable and they will lack clear mandates.
Minor parties such as the Christian Union and the Greens will have enormous leverage during negotiations over coalitions. I forecast new limitations on abortion and stricter limits on euthanasia.
The graph of the poll is linked here.
Earlier polls:
15 February 2009: Freedom Party polls at 25 seats
8 Februari 2009: Freedom Party polls at 23 seats
13 March 2007: Freedom Party polls at 18 seats
This low point of the Christian Democrats shows the fractured nature of the Dutch political landscape. The advances made by the Freedom Party were mostly at the expense of the other "right wing" parties. It will be very difficult to put governments together, governments will consist of three or more parties, be unstable and they will lack clear mandates.
Minor parties such as the Christian Union and the Greens will have enormous leverage during negotiations over coalitions. I forecast new limitations on abortion and stricter limits on euthanasia.
The graph of the poll is linked here.
Earlier polls:
15 February 2009: Freedom Party polls at 25 seats
8 Februari 2009: Freedom Party polls at 23 seats
13 March 2007: Freedom Party polls at 18 seats
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)