Turkey leaves the Pro-Western alliance

Caroline Glick has a post up at the Jerusalem Post explaining that Turkey is not a Pro-Western country anymore:

Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis.

It isn't that Ankara's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility toward Israel and its effusive solicitousness toward the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan, the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Muslim democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the likes of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, al-Qaida and Hamas.

What made Turkey's behavior this week different from its behavior in recent months and years is that its attacks were concentrated, unequivocal and undeniable for everyone outside of Israel's scandalously imbecilic and flagellant media.

.....

In February 2006, when Erdogan became the first international figure to host Hamas leaders on an official state visit after the jihadist group won the Palestinian elections, Jerusalem sought to explain away his diplomatic aggression. Israeli leaders claimed that Erdogan's red carpet treatment for mass murderers who seek the physical destruction of Israel was not due to any inherent hostility on the part of the AKP regime toward Israel. Rather, it was argued that Ankara simply supported democracy and that the AKP, as a formerly outlawed Islamist party, felt an affinity toward Hamas as a Muslim underdog.

.....

But Turkey wasted no time in making fools of them. On Monday, 11 Turkish government ministers descended on Syria to sign a pile of cooperation agreements with Iran's Arab lackey. The Foreign Ministry didn't even have a chance to write apologetic talking points explaining that brazen move before Syria announced it was entering a military alliance with Turkey and would be holding a joint military exercise with the Turkish military. Speechless in the wake of Turkey's move to hold military maneuvers with its enemy just two days after it canceled joint training with Israel, Jerusalem could think of no mitigating explanation for the move.

.....

Erdogan's anti-Israel and anti-Semitic blows were followed on Tuesday evening by Turkey's government-controlled TRT1 television network's launch of a new prime-time series portraying IDF soldiers as baby- and little girl-killers who force Palestinian women to deliver stillborn babies at roadblocks and line up groups of Palestinians against walls to execute them by firing squad.

.....

TURKEY'S BREAK with the West; its decisive rupture with Israel and its opposition to the US in Iraq and Iran was predictable. Militant Islam of the AKP variety has been enjoying growing popularity and support throughout Turkey for many years. The endemic corruption of Turkey's traditional secular leaders increased the Islamists' popularity. Given this domestic Turkish reality, it is possible that Erdogan and his fellow Islamists' rise to power was simply a matter of time.

But even if the AKP's rise to power was eminently predictable, its ability to consolidate its control over just about every organ of governance in Turkey as well as what was once a thriving free press, and change completely Turkey's strategic posture in just seven years was far from inevitable. For these accomplishments the AKP owes a debt of gratitude to both the Bush and Obama administrations, as well as to the EU.

The Bush administration ignored the warnings of secular Turkish leaders in the country's media, military and diplomatic corps that Erdogan was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Rather than pay attention to his past attempts to undermine Turkey's secular, pro-Western character and treat him with a modicum of suspicion, after the AKP electoral victory in 2002 the Bush administration upheld the AKP and Erdogan as paragons of Islamist moderation and proof positive that the US and the West have no problem with political Islam. Erdogan's softly peddled but remorselessly consolidated Islamism was embraced by senior American officials intent on reducing democracy to a synonym for elections rather than acknowledging that democracy is only meaningful as a system of laws and practices that engender liberal egalitarianism.

In a very real sense, the Bush administration's willingness to be taken in by Erdogan paved the way for its decision in 2005 to pressure Israel to allow Hamas to participate in the Palestinian elections and to coerce Egypt into allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to participate in its parliamentary poll.

In Turkey itself, the administration's enthusiastic embrace of the AKP meant that Erdogan encountered no Western opposition to his moves to end press freedom in Turkey; purge the Turkish military of its secular leaders and end its constitutional mandate to preserve Turkey's secular character; intimidate and disenfranchise secular business leaders and diplomats; and stack the Turkish courts with Islamists. That is, in the name of its support for its water-downed definition of democracy, the US facilitated Erdogan's subversion of all the Turkish institutions that enabled liberal norms to be maintained and kept Turkey in the Western alliance.

As for the Obama administration, since entering office in January it has abandoned US support for democracy activists throughout the world, in favor of a policy of pure appeasement of US adversaries at the expense of US allies. In keeping with this policy, President Barack Obama paid a preening visit to Ankara where he effectively endorsed the Islamization of Turkish foreign policy that has moved the NATO member into the arms of Teheran's mullahs. Taken together, the actions of the Bush and Obama White Houses have demoralized Westernized Turks, who now believe that their country is doomed to descend into the depths of Islamist extremism. As many see it, if they wish to remain in Turkey, their only recourse is to join the Islamist camp and add their voices to the rising chorus of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism sweeping the country.

Then there is the EU. For years Brussels has been stringing Turkey along, promising that if it enacts sufficient human rights reforms, the 80-million strong Muslim country will be permitted to join Europe. But far from inducing more liberal behavior on the part of Turkey, those supposedly enlightened reforms have paved the way for the Islamist ascendance in the country. By forcing Turkey to curb its military's role as the guarantor of Turkish secularism, the EU took away the secularists' last line of defense against the rising tide of the AKP. By forcing Turkey to treat its political prisoners humanely and cancel the death penalty, the EU eroded the secularists' moral claim to leadership and weakened their ability to effectively combat both Kurdish and Islamist terror.

At the same time, by consistently refusing to permit Turkey to join the EU, despite Ankara's moves to placate its political correctness, Brussels discredited still further Turkey's secularists. When after all their self-defeating and self-abasing reforms, Europe still rejected them, the Turks needed to find a way to restore their wounded honor. The most natural means of doing so was for the Turks writ large to simply turn their backs on Europe and move toward their Muslim brethren.

.....

Read more on Turkey joining Iran and its allies.

Snouck's Commentary: The fact that Turkey is now becoming an ally of Iran makes it obviously impossible for Turkey to stay in NATO or to join the EU. However, the treasonous leadership of NATO and the EU will allow Turkey to stay in those supra-national organisations.

Dutch elite loses confidence

The ruling government

The Dutch Christian Union (CU) is the junior partner of the three party Dutch government coalition of Christian Democrats (CDA) and Labour (PvdA).

All established Dutch political parties have a think tank. The Christian Union have appointed a expert on the Islami world as the director of their think tank. He studied Islam and Christian - Muslim relations in Egypt for seven years. His name is Gert-Jan Segers.

Mutual suspicion

Last Wednesday the Volkskrant, a left wing newspaper published an interview stating that:

the general population had lost faith in the Multicultural ideology. It turns out that the sentiment behind Wilders (Dutch) has deep currents. There is so much suspicion. The Muslims are bad people. They do not want to assimilate. The sentiment is broadly shared. It exists within our Protestant group (Dutch) and also within other social groups where I attended meetings. Bad stories abound.

A Dutch glasnost

Mr. Segers expresses a wider and wider shared feeling of despair at the state of the multicultural society anongst the political class in The Netherlands. Multiculturalism is a Marxist creed, with the belief in equality as the most basic political belief. And the dominance of economic relations as the foundation of societal relations. The current state of the debate is comparable to the Glasnost enabled debates in the Soviet Union about Marxism-Leninism between 1985 and its demise in 1989.

Wilders goes international

At Amnation Lawrence Auster has the news that Wilders at the end of the speech announced a plan to form an international organization, the purpose of which will be

to break the chains of political correctness and cultural relativism.

Mr. Auster then continues to spell out that Mr. Wilders states that:

(1) Islam is the problem (not "radical Islam," "radical extreme Islam," or "Islamo-fascism").

This is the way to counter the immigration fuelled onslaught of Islam in Europe.

Immigration is a Conspiracy to destroy Europe

Muslim immigration into Europe

The Left co-operates with Muslims in order to injure the rights, the future of indigenous Europeans through Muslim immigration. This is the charge of historians such as Hans Jansen or Bat Ye'or. The latter wrote:

This strategy, the goal of which was the creation of a pan-Mediterranean Euro-Arab entity, permitting the free circulation both of men and of goods, also determined the immigration policy with regard to Arabs in the European Community (EC).

This charge is now confirmed by Mr. Andrew Neather, a top Labour Party advisor.

In a recent article in the Evening Standard Mr. Neather wrote:

It didn't just happen: the deliberate policy of ministers from late 2000 until at least February last year, when the Government introduced a points-based system, was to open up the UK to mass migration.

and:

mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural.

The UK and the EU have thrown the gates wide open. The combination of white birth rates below replacement levels, high rates of immigration from Muslim countries and above replacement level Muslim in Europe birth rates dooms Europe to fall to Islam.

The main way to avoid this fall is to stop Muslim immigration and to remove the heart and lungs of the Muslim colonies already in Europe.

Germany: Pro-Bavaria constituted

October is a good month to mention that the Pro-Deutschland or Pro-Germany movement has seen the birth of a new branch. It is the Pro-Bayern (German) or Pro-Bavaria branch.

Für Heimat und Vaterland! - For Home and Nation!

DSB Bank: Small enough to fail

A bank goes broke

A week ago this blog featured a story of a minor Dutch bank that got in trouble as a result of its high risk business strategy. This Monday the fate of the bank was settled: DSB Bank is officially bankrupt (Dutch). The immediate problem for the bank was its insolvency. Depositors were insecure about the ability of the bank to protect their savings. The deposits were withdrawn from the bank as quickly as was possible and the bank lost most of their their reserves. In order to be rescued the bank needed about a 100 million Euros from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) which is tasked with guaranteeing the banking system in The Netherlands. One of the four big banks, ING, had already received a 10 Billion bailout earlier in the year. Minister of Finance Wouter Bos did not support DSB. He insisted that DSB was responsible for itself. Which it is.

Comparing a big bank with a small bank

The question which has to be answered next is why ING was not responsible for itself in a similar situation. The answer is that ING is too big to fail. As an example of this bigness, about a quarter of all Dutch payrolled employees receive their montly wage on an ING account an a similar share of Dutch firms are using ING bank accounts for their transactions. If the bank would fail the other banks would not be able to administer the application for new private and business accounts quickly enough. Millions of Dutchmen would not receive wages and dozens of thousands of companies would not be able to pay their bills. The dislocation of the economy would cripple Dutch society.

The advantage of the small bank for society

By contrast DSB is a bank with a small market share in private accounts. Account holders can swith to other accounts without swamping the big banks so there is hardly any economic dislocation. And thusly the finance minister and the head of the national bank saw no reason to save DSB.

Is it good to have four big banks?

The new situation is that the big four banks (RABO, ING, Fortis, ABN-AMRO) in The Netherlands have been strengthened by the fall of DSB. The Dutch banking system has become more monolithic as a result of this. The very fact that the governments was able to let DSB go under shows that it is preferable to have a larger number of smaller, local banks than the current system where only four banks rule the roost.

Jews in a Multi-cultural society

Jewish High School Principal

On the website of the Global Institute for Jewish Affairs I found an interview with Henri Markens, a Dutch Jew and community representative. Mr. Markens is also the former principal of a Jewish High School in Amsterdam-South, the area in The Netherlands with the highest concentration of Jews. He was the principal of the Joods Lyceum Maimonides until 2006. In the interview he speaks rather candidly of the issues confronting the Jewish community in The Netherlands these days.

On Muslim immigration:

The immigration of Muslims and the rise of Islam in the Netherlands have created problems for the Jewish community and will continue to do so. There are about one million Muslims in the Netherlands. Their influence on the political system is increasing. This cannot be positive for the Jews. The more power the Muslim community gains, the more it will weaken the Jewish community's relations with a number of ministries.

The Jewish community faces increasing anti-Semitism. This has led to enhanced security measures. It also threatens to intensify attitudes based on fear.

On the encroachment on the constitutional right of citizens to have their confessional schools* by the state as a result of problems with Muslim integration:

I showed in particular to Verdonk, who was then integration minister, and Hirsi Ali that the Jewish community is fully integrated into Dutch society yet has still maintained its own identity. This contrasts with the integration problems of parts of the country's Muslim community.

When Hirsi Ali visited the school, the main discussion took place with the students. She claimed that the school only has the right to exist if it accepts non-Jewish students as well. The pupils disagreed strongly with this. They criticized her approach and said that they have the right to their own school and to live in their own culture, as long as they do not offend anyone else.

One of the reasons I invited Hirsi Ali to the school was to show her that the problems she knows from the Muslim world do not occur among Jews. The Muslim population in the Netherlands is only partly integrated into Dutch society. Muslim youth are a source of trouble in many cities, especially Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

I do not exclude the possibility that in the future there will be political attempts to abolish religious schools, or at least put major limitations on them. I wanted to preempt that by showing politicians how our school functions within the Jewish community and Dutch society.

The future of the Jewish community in The Netherlands:

I am not optimistic about the future of Dutch society. In 2003 we had visits at our school by Rob Oudkerk, then alderman of education from the Labor Party, and Lodewijk Asscher, who is now deputy mayor of Amsterdam representing the same party but at that time was the party's faction chairman.

We told them how our pupils experience the increasing anti-Semitism in Amsterdam. This trend still continues. In 2005, near the metro station in Amstelveen where many middle-class Jews live, one of our pupils was beaten up by three or four non-Western immigrants. He was wearing a Star of David. An incident of this kind at that place was unusual. It is much more common that such things happen in Amsterdam proper. The closer one comes to the center of the city, the more dangerous the situation becomes.

The phenomenon is more severe than the beating itself. I consider mental abuse to be more serious than physical harm. The consequences of the beating can be healed in an hour or at most a few months. The emotional abuse is frightening and one starts to behave accordingly. In the past a number of students wore kippot when traveling from school to the Amsterdam central station. Today this is no longer possible.

On Mayor Cohen, the ethnically Jewish Mayor of Amsterdam:

In 2003 our school celebrated its seventy-fifth year. The mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, gave the opening speech at the festive ceremony. Although he is halachically Jewish, it was clear that he doesn't identify in any way with the Jewish community. He did not say ‘we as Jews' but ‘you, as a Jewish community.'

In that he differs greatly from one of his Jewish predecessors, Eduard van Thijn, who was mayor of Amsterdam from 1983 to 1994. On the occasion of a lecture on National Memorial Day on 4 May, he told of his experiences during World War II and in his school years. He mentioned that he had had little connection with Judaism, his parents having abandoned any Jewish practice and even concealed their identity as Jews. When he became mayor, however, he realized his true identity and started to take lessons in Judaism.

When Cohen visited our school we spoke about the problem of anti-Semitism, which preoccupies us. He knew that our pupils were beaten occasionally. I let pupils who had experienced this tell him about it. He gave the impression that he was not at all shocked. In this context he presents himself as a man with no emotions who says he is trying to keep a society together, when in reality it already has not been together for a long time.

This makes me think about the late Schelto Patijn, Cohen's predecessor, who was Amsterdam's mayor from 1994 to 2000. He was not only very pleasant but also showed a genuine interest in the Jewish community. As far as security was concerned he was always open to the specific needs of Jews as he knew that these were real. I once said to him-the only non-Jewish mayor Amsterdam has had for a long time-‘it almost seems that you are Jewish.'

His approach was totally different from Cohen's. In recent years there has been much more need for the security of Jewish buildings than in Patijn's time. As the mayor is head of the police, one must address him for extra protection. Cohen referred us to the education and interior ministries. They referred us back to the Amsterdam municipality. Ultimately both the municipality and the ministries helped us, but it took a very long time.

The rest of the interview with Henri Markens on Jews in Holland

* Article 23 of the Dutch Constitution

Dutch Politicians seek PC input from universities

Facing immigration waves

Nations faced with a wave of immigration from a different civilization have to gain understanding of the invading civilization. European nations have been flooded with Muslims for the past 40 years. As a result there is a great need to inform policy makers, administrators and the public at large.

Lucis: a Dutch light on Islam

In response to this need a new institute for the study of Islam (Dutch) was opened in the University of Leiden, The Netherlands on October the 14th. One of the speakers invited was the Mayor of Amsterdam: Job Cohen (Labour Party). Mayor Cohen's city has a large Muslim population, you see.

Mayor Cohen's New Insights

At the opening of the institute Mayor Cohen charged that university experts (Dutch) do not manage to get the correct opinions accross to key audiences. In Mayor Cohen's view this is the cause of "politically incorrect" debating by Dutch politics and media. Mayor Cohen calls these views of Islam "views lacking in nuance". Job the Mayor called upon the fellows of the new institute to make sure that

their scientific knowledge and insights will not remain enclosed by the wall around the academic world. Universities have a societal responsability. Islam is more than a religion. It is a political factor and a social, cultural and historical phenomenon. There is so much to say about this Islam that scientific reflections may be of help. Reflections on Islam encompass the Muslim world and the everyday world which Muslims inhabit. Questions that ought to be answered are: is Islam a religion of violence? Is the Netherlands Islamizing? Is Islam be unreformable and therefore backward? Can Islam live together with Western democracy and the rule of law?

Mayor Cohen's Shtick

all attention in debating Islam in The Netherlands goes to "radical" Islam, although radical Islam is only a minor part of the totality of that religion. Moreover the debate is polluted with matters such as crime and anti-social behaviour. Because Dutchmen are not ridding themselves of this one-sided view the average Muslim is left in the cold.

What is the significance of Cohen's presence at LUCIS?

The fact that Mayor Cohen was invited to the opening of the new Leiden University institute indicates that he was involved in securing its funding. The other speakers at the opening are all connected to the academe and there is the Dutch Secretary General of NATO Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Mr. De Hoop Scheffer and Mr. Cohen are not noted for their knowledge of Islam. But they are known for their expertise at managing purse strings. And he who pays, calls the tune. In his speech Mayor Cohen made clear which two messages he wants to hear from the LUCIS institute. One: he wants LUCIS to tell HIM what ISLAM is really about. He wants the institute to answer questions such as:

"is Islam a religion of violence?"

This is a remarkable question for someone of Job Cohen's convictions. It may be an indication that Mr. Cohen is starting to doubt the multi-cultural creed. But to the general public Mr. Job Cohen wants another tune played. He is clearly instructing LUCIS to influence the media and the debate in such a way that the tendency of

... Dutchmen ... not ridding themselves of this one-sided view ...

is countered. Thus LUCIS is the latest effort to fool the Dutch public while handing the class of political experts and managers real insights.

What is the significance of Job the Mayor?

Well, Mr. Job Cohen is the mayor of the biggest city of The Netherlands. A city with nearly a hundred thousand Muslims. Right now his party, Labour, is doing exceedingly bad in the polls and at an all time low. In fact Labour is down to about a third of their usual votes and may occupy not even ten percent of the seats in Parliament if the polls are anything to go by.

Mr. Cohen's next step up

Mr. Job Cohen is an unusually gifted administrator and there are many people in the Labour party who want him to join the leadership of Labour at the national level. He could even be the new leader of Labour in the next round of elections. No matter what the exact distribution of seats is going to be, all mayor political parties will be culled and Labour will be a necessary part of any broad, multi-party coalition which will be formed. This three- or four-party coalition will NOT include Geert Wilder's Freedom Party (PVV) and will try to implement the usual Multi-Cultural policies that the political class has managed to foist on the Dutch public for the past 40 years.

How does LUCIS fit in all this?

And then LUCIS, the new Ministry of Truth, will come mighty handy to Mr. Cohen and his political cronies in The Netherlands and in NATO.

Wilders free to travel to Britain

Wilders barred the place across the pond

A year ago Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders was denied entry to Great Britain for debating Islam in the House of Lords. This on the grouds that he was a danger to community relations.

Judge overrules Minister of the Interior

Yesterday a British judge overturned the decision to bar entry to this peaceful man. A democratically elected politician.

Anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders should not have been refused entry to Britain to attend a screening of his film Fitna earlier this year, a British immigration tribunal ruled on Tuesday.

Snouck's Commentary: That dhimmi woman Jacqui Smith, then Home Secretary, turned her country into a laughing stock, when she blocked Mr. Wilders. And with this decision Britain regains some of its honour.

Moroccans want to fight Moroccan crime

A group of ethnic Morroccans in The Netherlands is self organizing. It is their goal to counter the stupendous Moroccan crime rate.

Esther at IslaminEurope has the News.

Snouck's Commentary: This is another proof of the fact that those who insist that the people who point out that crime has a color are in the wrong.

Dutch bank DSB in heavy seas

DSB bank sinking?

A minor and politically well connected bank in The Netherlands in in deep problems after its solvency came in doubt in the past week. Last Sunday Finance Minister Wouter Bos, (Labour Party) had emergency regulations imposed on DSB bank. The bank was bleeding liquidity as the public was doubting whether the bank was solid. The Dutch public was shocked when accounts were frozen and people could only draw limited amounts of money to pay their bills.

Political connection reflect badly on the Government

DSB bank was a bank with aggressive sales policies for instance in the field of mortgages and insurance. They had several VVD politicians on their Board of Directors amongst them Gerrit Zalm, former Finance Minister. During the Financial crisis Gerrit Zalm was recalled by the government as a special advisor. He is regarded as one of the most influential advisors of the Ministry of Finance. With the demise of the DSB bank the authority of this advisor and the Minister of Finance and the Government as a whole have taken a serious hit.

The judiciary, the police, the banks, the Government. All institutions seem to be failing the Dutch.

Row over Wilders splits Unions

Sunday this blog featured a story about talks between Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV). On Monday this story was already overtaken by events.

FNV will not talk pensions with Wilders

The FNV trade union federation said on Monday it would not take up Geert Wilders' invitation for a meeting to discuss ways to campaign against the government's plans to put up the state pension age to 67.

The statement follows a major row over an interview with FNV leader Agnes Jongerius in the Volkskrant on Saturday in which she says she is open to talks with Wilder's anti-immigration party PVV.

'The commotion over last weekend gives the impression that the FNV was looking for an alliance with the PVV,' the country's biggest union group said in a statement. 'A meeting would strengthen this wrong impression even more.'

In the interview, which was approved by Jongerius herself, she says she is open to talking to the anti-immigration party.

'Wilders' solution for the pension age increase - an end to immigration, the expulsion of all Muslims and and end to left-wing tinkering - is not mine,' Jongerius was quoted as saying in the paper. 'But I will happily talk to the PVV. Up until now they have brushed off every approach. But on budget day PVV MP Tony van Dijck said we must talk. ...that talk will absolutely take place.'

Resignation calls

The civil service union Abvakabo in particular is completely opposed to any form of working together with the PVV. Some union branches have said they will call on Jongerius to resign unless she distances herself from the remarks.

'You do not talk with the group like the PVV,' Peter de Pagter, of the Amstel-Kennemerland branch of Abvakabo was quoted as saying in the Volkskrant. 'It is a racist organisation.'

Websites are also full of shocked FNV members sayin they plan to quit. Other people say they will join the trade union because of its new stance on the PVV.

What happens here shows the amount of institutional and societal opposition to the new nationalist political contender, the PVV. It wil be quite a while before the PVV will be able to exert power commensurate to their level of electoral support.

Dutch nationalists courted by Labour Unions

As a result of the looming electoral collapse of the Labour Party and the growth of the support for the populist and nationalist Freedom Party (PVV) institutions in Dutch society are starting to court the PVV as a part of their political activity.

The Chairman of the Labour Party affilliated FNV (Federation of Dutch Trade Unions) Agnes Jongerius is seeking an alliance with the PVV (Dutch). The goal is to twarth the plans of the Cabinet to raise the pension age to 65 from 67. Geert Wilders has declared himself against the plans to raise the pension age. He linked the issue to the cost of immigration, which are estimated at 216 Billion Euros since 1970.

The trade union chairman said she would ally with satan in order to stop raising the pension age. The government is expected to decide on the raising of the pension age by the end of this week. The growing leftist party SP is also dead set against raising the pension age.

In a reaction to the plans of the FNV Labour Union the Christian CNV was opposed to cooperation with the blond satan Geert Wilders. Deputy Chairman Bert van Boggelen of the CNV said that there should be no alliances with political parties which wish to "exclude" groups of the population. The CNV has earlier shown to be a supporter of multiculturalism against the wishes of its membership. In 2006 the Christian Labour Union CNV initiated a proposal that the Muslim festival of Eid ul Fitr was to be made a a national holiday. To the shock of its membership.

The Chairman of the Union of Civil Servants (Abvakabo) Edith Snoey also opposed the move by the highest echelon of the Labour Unions. She said that the only contacts should be limited to the parliamentary contacts of the Labour Unions.

US Govt interferes with bloggers

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released new guidelines limiting the freedom of US bloggers. The caps are on freedom are in the field of endorsement. For instance on reviewing a book or a movie.

October 10, 2009
Wake Up! - The FTC is screwing with bloggers

If you are a blogger in the US your life is about to change big-time.

You have just entered the Twilight Zone...

New FTC guidelines (read full version) described in the official press release state:

1 - "the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service."

and

2 - the revised Guides reflect Commission case law and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement - or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media."

My reading of this is very disturbing.

Here is a possible scenario:

1. You - a "social media" "celebrity" "blogger" (this is anyone who has more than a few followers on Twitter or some number of subscribers to their blog RSS feed) reviews a book, product, or service - making it an "endorsement"
2. You got a copy of the book to review, or got a free trial of the product, or a free trial of the service
3. You did not mention the freebie in your blog post
4. If someone does not like your blog posting you can be sued

Read more at Search Engine Watch.

Freedom Party wins another seat in Brussels

Freedom Party (PVV) is on a roll!

It took a while. But Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) will get a 5th seat in the EU Parliament (EP) in Brussels. According to the otherwise desastrous Lisbon Treaty The Netherlands will get an extra seat in the EP. This seat will go to the second biggest fraction, the PVV. This will make the PVV as big as the Christian Democrats (CDA) in the EP. It is an portent of things to come in The Netherlands.

Ethnic Dutch and Muslim youth polarizing

Esther at the IslaminEurope - News blog has written an abstract of a internet survey commissioned by a Dutch anti-terror bureaucracy (NBTc) on radicalisation of Muslim youth and ethnic Dutch youth. You can read the article on group radicalisation here.

Amsterdam provides jobs to Muslim criminals

Criminal records obstruct Muslim employment

The Amsterdam municipality has a policy which requires all those hired by the municipality to have a conduct certificate. Many Muslim youth have criminal records and they can not obtain the certificate and hence no cushy municipal jobs for them.

Allah intervenes on behalf of those who believe

Allahkarim! Allah is Merciful. And he appointed a messenger and sent him to the densest concentration of Muslims in Amsterdam: Amsterdam-West. His name is Achmed Marcouch, the mayor of the borough Amsterdam-West. Mr. Marcouch the Messenger is powerful! His words bent law and justice! Thus spoke the Messenger at the time appointed by Allah:

These youths do not know the paths to employment. Ya Allah! We want to touch these youths with a bad employment record and who do not know how to find jobs. We created the agency "Mo Money". Bismillah "Mo Money" will assist youths making applications and support them even after they landed a job.

Snouck lies!

My readers will say this cannot be true. Okay, I made up the "Allahkarim" and "Bismillah" and "Ya Allah" and all that malarky. But the rest is the Christian Truth! The plan is cooked up by Ad Agencies TBWA and Hot DNA and is financed by Mr Marcouch´ borough Amsterdam-West and Job Agency Tempo Team.

Tyrrano-Anarchy in action

So you see how it works. If you are functional and employed you are taxed by the state. Your money is taken from you. In return you are not protected by the state. The state gives the money to those who are violent and prey on the law-abiding. The lawless are also assisted to do what the law-abiding do without state assistence.

Is it not time that the state would crack down on criminals, expells them and restore justice, law and order while lowering the tax burden on the law abiding citizens of The Netherlands? Dutchmen can now vote for such a program: the PVV's. In the polls it is the biggest party already. Meanwhile the media are rife with speculation on the collapse of the Labour Party, the party of Marcouch the Messenger.

Dollar loses reserve status

Seignorage and Empire

Every era has a reserve currency. This reserve currency is the currency all trading partners accept as payment. The state that produces the reserve currency is said to possess seignorage. This is the profit associated with the ability to buy real things with money that was created out of nothing.

What happens if an empire loses the possession of seignorage?

The US Dollar empire

Between say 1713 and 1929 the Pound Sterling was the reserve currency. After 1945 the US Dollar was the global reserve currency, backed up by the vast productive power of US industry. The US Dollar had been pegged to gold at 35 US Dollar an ounce between 1934 and 1972. After 1972 the US Dollar along with all currencies in use were backed by trade flows. Currencies were floating up and down. Money could be created by central banks by expanding credit.

But the position of the US Dollar had weakened by unpegging it from gold. More and more international trades were done in currencies like the Deutschmark and the Yen. Despite the weakening position of the US Dollar commodities like oil, rubber, coffee and goods like airplanes and arms continued to be traded in US Dollars. A problem of an international trading system with floating currencies is the inherent insecurity of international merchants and traders. They never know what their returns will be, which hinders trade. This also disrupts the taxes that are levied on their trade, which fill the coffers of states that manage the international order.

The US milked the US Dollar for what it was worth, recklessly expanding the money supply with cheap credit. This way the elites could keep expanding an intrusive managerial state and a international empire with roughly 800 Army, Navy and Airforce bases around the world.

The beginning of the end of the US Dollar as a reserve currency

But expanding the money supply by easy credit led to a succession of boom bust cycles in the 1990ies and thereafter. After every bust the US flogged the economy back to life again by expanding credit. The biggest bust came in 2007. The political and monetary elites reacted by giving the same treatment again. The FED created the biggest expansion of credit thus far, to prop up their hollowed out financial institutions, vastly expanding government debt, adding to the household debt and showing up in a unbalanced trade balance with Asia.

The American public is eyeing the new debts warily. And the international trading partners of the US are increasingly wondering about the worth of the currency that is created so recklessly. The trading partners must worry about the ability of the US taxpayer to service the government debt burden in addition to their private debt burdens. Not to mention that the interest on the debts are choking off buying power of US households. Unless said households increase the rate at which they take on new debts, which they prudently seem unwilling to do.

What is the alternative?

There is no currency to take the place of the US Dollar in international trade. To set prices, act as a medium of exchange and a reliable unit of value. Now however a new currency is being worked on behind the scenes.

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil

No Dollars for oil, because the US Dollar is an increasingly unreliably unit of value.

moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency

This would provide a solution for the unit of value, pricing and exchange medium challenges a new currency would face. The Middle East, Russia as suppliers of raw materials plus Asia and Europe as suppliers of finished goods would possibly be able to manage their trade flows in this way.

The timeline

When will the new currency come about? It will take 9 years.

The current deadline for the currency transition is 2018

In the mean time gold will be used as a stop gap to fill the place of the US Dollar. Expect the gold price to rise against the US Dollar. It is now at more than 900 US Dollars for an ounce, up from 35 US Dollars per ounce between 1934 and 1972.

The consequenses for the US

If oil would be traded in a new currency, it would be a big hit for the US. The US Dollar would lose reserve currency status. The demand for US Dollars would fall and the exchange rate would fall. The central government of the US would lose the profits of seignorage. Prosperity for US citizens would drop as import prices rise. In the short term the shock to the US political and social system would be sharp. On the other hand US made goods would become cheaper and manufacturing and employment in the US would actually increase in the MEDIUM TERM at the expense of Europe and Asia.

Collapse of the Empire

Political conflict in the US will intensify if the government will not be able to create money at no cost. Politicians will have to cut budgets. This would break up the internal or external empire of the US. Possibly both.

The internal empire

The internal empire is the empire which the US proper has become. The territory of the US now contains in addition to the White core nation plus Blacks millions of Asians and dozens of millions of Mexicans plus significant numbers of other unimportant minorities. Without cheap money to pay for an expanding military, bureaucracies and welfare millions would be without jobs, status, income and access to healthcare in addition to the number who are already there. Politically it would cause all these groups to become more confrontational and to view politics like a zero sum game, a game were one party´s loss is the other parties gain. Especially the Mexicans and Whites are likely to collide over the possession of some of the Southern states of the US.

And this coincides with the rule of the nation´s first non-white President.

The external empire

The external empire are the network of military bases the US maintains around the globe, dominating the world militarily and politically. Without cheap funding the political elites could decide to withdraw in the manner of the Soviet Union withdrawing from Central Asia and Eastern Europe in 1989.

Withdrawing from the external empire would cause wars breaking out accross the globe, in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Conflict which were hitherto surpressed by the US would come to the fore. Getting the situation under control requires a new empire or several new empires.

People will be nostalgic for the lost US empire, in the way they are nostalgic for the Soviet Union of the Yugoslav Federation.

Brussels, Capital of Europe, Capital of Anarchy

Video with an interview of two Brussels policemen on the impossibility of maintaining law and order in a city with large Muslim population groups.

The question of Western Decline

The deeper causes of the decline of the West?

The blogger Randall Parker recently raised the spectre of another bubble, cause by low savings by the American public. He wondered if the underlying problem might not be national economic decline of the US and inquired about the possible causes.

Shifting ethnic demographics

A commenter calling himself Glenn Beck mentioned as an important underlying cause the

2.) Shifting ethnic demographics that are depressing our human capital

In The Netherlands the issue of the financial decline of the nation as a result of mass immigration has now become political.

Asking the right questions

This blog featured an article in July about this question being asked by the Freedom Party (PVV):

In the last month Freedom Party MP (PVV) Sietse Fritsma has been asking Dutch government ministries what their immigrant related costs are and how they relate to the costs of native Dutchmen. He has also asked questions about the revenue of the state related to immigrants. He has forecast the result that immigrants ON AVERAGE cost more than they bring in.

The question by the Freedom Party (PVV) about the cost of immigration was not answered by Eberhard van der Laan, the responsible Minister. Despite the fact that article 67 of the Constitution instructs ministers to answer questions from Parliament. Mr. van der Laan argued that he did not want to devide the population in groups and have costs and revenues calculated accordingly.

An estimate goes mainstream

A mainstream Dutch magazine Elsevier calculated the cost of immigration at 13 billion Euros annually out of a 877 billion GDP. The tally was a total of 216 billion, for a limited number of items, excluding for instance the total damages of the high immigrant crime rates.

Throwing in pension age to make the brew more potent

The resistance against calculating and making public the costs of colonization by non-westerners of The Netherlands is strong. The PVV is going to make it one of the most important issues in their campaigns and is now connecting the issue to the age that citizens can start their pensions. The other parties want to raise this age in order to counter the effect of the aging of the population. This will extent the interest of the electorate from to right wing voters to include left wing voters and possibly make the PVV a national party.

Western decline is population decline

All Western countries will have to deal with these questions eventually. The decline of economies and the resulting inability of the state to provide income and services to its clients will force these issues to the forefront.

Contrary to what political elites tell the public, immigration is not an economic gain for receiving nations. The problem of aging populations will not be softened by third world immigration, but exacerbated by it.