The failure of EU´s supranationalism could trigger the rebirth of a succesful Europe!

Dr. Oliver Hartwich has again written a very readable analysis of the European malaise:

It is plain to see how Europe’s ’union’ is falling apart in front of our eyes. And the EU only has itself to blame for this development.

Why is it that European countries are increasingly returning to nation-state thinking? It is obviously because they no longer trust the EU to make a positive contribution to their problems.

Over the past decades, Brussels has become synonymous with a distant bureaucracy that, despite its far-reaching competencies, is failing to find answers to Europe’s most pressing challenges. The EU has not made convincing progress on fighting the economic and monetary crisis. It is not showing a pathway out of the refugee and migration crisis. It has no attractive vision of where it wants to take the continent.

Out of this frustration comes the widespread desire to seek refuge in national solutions. In doing so, Europe may not be returning to a situation where war between neighbouring countries become a possibility. That, at least, seems something that Europe has fortunately left behind. But the peaceful spirit of co-operation certainly does not exist anymore either.

For the EU to survive this crisis of trust, there is only one option. It needs to respect the growing dissatisfaction with its institutions and stop its integration agenda. It may even be forced to turn back the clock and return some powers to its member states, such as the right to discriminate against other EU citizens when it comes to eligibility for benefits.

But such a strategic withdrawal might be a price worth paying for protecting some other features of European integration that are worth keeping.

Instead, what the EU is doing seems the complete opposite. Instead of a strategic withdrawal, European elites still want to push integration even further. They are unwilling to concede that such increased integration is responsible for precisely the backlash the EU is experiencing at the moment.

As ironic as it seems, it is the EU’s overreach that could turn out to be its own undoing.

And it could be the failure of the EU’s supranationalism that will trigger a widespread return of the nation-state.

My commentary:

Dr. Hartwich is right in his analysis about the failure of the EU, but he does not quite seem to realize that a return of the nation-state is not a bad thing - on the contrary! Unification, supranationalism and "empire" are the root causes of the problem, and the less of these there are, the better! And if the present nation-states are divided into even smaller units (an independent Scotland, Catalonia, Bavaria etc.) we will have a better Europe!

The European Union has a serious corruption problem

The European Union is not the kind of clean and uncorrupted place that many people in Europe think:

The EU likes to portray itself as a good and modern place to do business, despite the hiccups of the euro crisis and other distractions. Between this self-image and reality nevertheless lies a gap, and nowhere is this more evident than in spread of corruption around the continent. ---

If almost three quarters of businesses report widespread corruption, then surely this must be a serious issue, even though it is not one that receives much coverage. What is even more striking are the large differences in perceptions of corruption across Europe.
In Italy, 98 per cent of respondents reported widespread corruption, but only 11 per cent of Danish companies did. Italy and Denmark are the two extreme points in this survey around which other countries cluster.

The most corrupt places are in Italy’s loose geographic proximity. Spain (93 per cent), Greece (96 per cent), Romania (95 per cent) and Bulgaria (91 per cent) are all Southern European countries. Meanwhile, the least corrupt places such as Sweden (43 per cent), Finland (31 per cent), Britain (41 per cent) and maybe even Germany (though at 51 per cent perceived corruption) are all in central and northern Europe. ---

It is worth pointing out that corruption does not always mean bribes and kickbacks. In fact, these were ranked relatively low as the most common occurrences of corruption. Far more prevalent are favouring friends and family members in business, tax fraud and funding political parties in exchange for influence of public contracts.
Perhaps least surprising in the Eurobarometer results is the sector-by-sector analysis. By far the sector most affected by corruption is construction and building, in which 49 per cent of respondents across the EU said corruption was a problem for doing business. This was followed by engineering, electronics and motor vehicles (39 per cent) and financial services, banking and investment (35 per cent).
Another result of the survey which should be embarrassing for the EU is the anticipation of criminal sanctions. Almost two thirds of companies (62 per cent) stated that they would find it unlikely that corrupt people or businesses would be imprisoned or heavily fined. In fact, only 41 per cent believe that such people or businesses would even get caught.
The picture that emerges from this latest Eurobarometer survey is an unsettling one. It shows how the rule of law and clean business practices are not nearly as strong in Europe as one might have expected. After all, most EU member states are mature, developed economies with reasonably functional legal systems. We would instinctively expect them to score much better in corruption surveys.
Yet only in a handful of these countries does corruption seem to be under control (and practically all of them are Scandinavian).

Here you can read the entire article.

China and COP 21: A return to fossil free transportation?

China has joined the "historic" COP 21 climate change agreement. The ruling Communist Party government is now seriously considering a return to this proven - 100% fossil free - mean of
transportation:

 

 

PS

 

The Prince of Wales and other royal greenies might also be interested. And, yes, this could very well become the prefered mode of transportation for the top EU bureaucrats ... :-)

Marc Morano on the "historic" Paris climate deal

Climat Depot´s Marc Morano´s comment on the "historic" climate deal in Paris is worth citing:

I spent the last week in Paris marveling at how so many believe a form of modern witchcraft: That a UN agreement or EPA climate regulations can alter Earth's temperature and the level of storms. But now I realize that if they truly believe the UN has solved 'climate change' even skeptics should rejoice! Now that the UN treaty has 'solved' global warming, can we all just move on to something else?

Angela Merkel is Time´s "Person of the Year" 2015

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been chosen "Man Person of the Year" by Time Magazine.

Time always tries to find the person, who "for better or for worse...has done the most to influence the events of the year". This year the Time judges obviously opted for a person in the second category, thus putting Frau Merkel in the group consisting of such luminaries as Vladimir Putin, Deng Xiaoping and Yuri Andropov ...

Dan Hannan: "The renegotiation farce"

British Conservative MEP Dan Hannan at his best!

Hype Olympics: World leaders in Paris in order to save "the future of the planet and the future of life"

"Today is an historic day. Never has a conference received so many authorities from so many countries. Never, I say never, have the stakes of an international meeting been so high, for this is about the future of the planet and the future of life."

Francois Hollande at the opening of the COP 21 global warming jamboree

Never, I say never, has there been so much empty hype at any gathering as today in Paris! The sooner this wasteful and totally useless climate hype show is over, the better - also for the environment!

Pope Francis - A strong believer in the global warming religion

Make no mistake, Pope Franics is above all an ardent believer in the global warming religion. This is what the Pope - in reality a leftist greenie - told his listerners a couple of days ago:

Pope Francis is warning that it would be “catastrophic” if special interests get in the way of a global agreement to curb the fossil fuel emissions blamed for global warming at a meeting next week in Paris over climate change. In a speech to the African U.N. headquarters on Thursday, Francis said the Paris negotiations mark a crucial step in developing a new energy system that “corrects the dysfunctions and distortions” of the current model of development and fights poverty.                 Francis has made ecological concerns a hallmark of his nearly 3-year-old papacy. But on Thursday, he took particular aim at those who deny the science behind climate change.

The BBC on new 20 country poll: "Public support for a strong global deal on climate change has declined"

Kudos to the BBC for bringing us the findings of the new GlobeScan poll, which confirms that years of mainstream media global warming propaganda has led to even greater skepticism among ordinary people:

Public support for a strong global deal on climate change has declined, according to a poll carried out in 20 countries.

Only four now have majorities in favour of their governments setting ambitious targets at a global conference in Paris.
In a similar poll before the Copenhagen meeting in 2009, eight countries had majorities favouring tough action.
The poll has been provided to the BBC by research group GlobeScan.
Just under half of all those surveyed viewed climate change as a "very serious" problem this year, compared with 63% in 2009.

The findings will make sober reading for global political leaders, who will gather in Paris next week for the start of the United Nations climate conference, known as COP21.

Another royalty speaks out about global warming: The King of Sweden calls for a global ban on bathtubs

Fighting global warming seems to have become a truly royal cause. It seems that Sweden´s King Carl XVI Gustaf does not want Britain´s Prince Charles to be the only royalty who gets good publicity by talking about the dangers of climate change:

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has called for a ban on bathtubs to help cut emissions in an interview ahead of UN climate talks in Paris.

“All bathtubs should be banned. Just imagine it!”, he exclaimed in an interview published in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper on Saturday.

 

Carl XVI Gustaf said that the idea had come to him the day before the interview, as he was going through his morning routine and was forced to run a bath, because the room in which he was staying lacked a shower.

  

“It took a lot of fresh water and energy,” he said. “It struck me so clearly: it’s not wise that I have to do this. I really felt ashamed then, I really did.” 

 

Later in the interview, he cautioned that the suggestion was a little “lighthearted”. 

 

“But there is a truth there,” he maintained. “Those small details have an enormous effect.”

Read the entire article here

Now Swedes are wondering whether the Swedish delegation at the forthcoming COP 21 climate jamboree will put the Royal Bathtub Ban on the agenda in Paris.

Sweden: More and more young people treated for Climate anxiety

Year in and year out mainstream media have been scaremongering about the existential threat of global warming. No wonder then that large numbers of young people in Sweden, and probably elsewhere, are in desperate need of professional help in order to treat their Climate anxiety:

Over the past four years Annika Tibblin encountered them in the work as a psychotherapist.

- There are just as many men and women, but all have been between twenty and thirty years. They represent a completely new therapy group - those seeking therapy for Climate anxiety, which in itself is not a medical diagnosis, but is a cause of anxiety that I had never encountered in my past professional life.

According to her climatic anxiety is different than ordinary "personal" anxiety, in which, for example, a person condemns himself as a result of an unhappy love relationship or a life crisis. Concerns over climate concerns everyone's existence here on earth and is therefore experienced as overpowering.

- Those who have sought therapy for climate stress talk many times about the thoughts of the climate makes them paralyzed. The turmoil is affecting major life choices. Many do not know if they dare to have children because of concerns over the future of the earth.

The "underlying root cause" behind Prince Charles´s enviromental radicalism

Political leaders, experts and journalists are desperate to find out how to deal with deadly muslim terrorism. So far, nobody seems to have a clear answer. Fortunately, there is one person, Britain´s "bonnie" Prince Charles, who knows what this is all about:

Prince Charles has pointed to the world’s failure to tackle climate change as a root cause of the civil war in Syria, terrorism and the consequent refugee crisis engulfing Europe.
The heir to the British throne is due to give a keynote speech at the opening of a global climate summit in Paris next week where 118 leaders will gather to try to nail down a deal to limit rising greenhouse gas emissions.
The prince said in an interview with Sky News, to be aired on Monday and recorded before the Nov 13 attacks in Paris, that such symptoms were a “classic case of not dealing with the problem”.

“Some of us were saying 20 something years ago that if we didn’t tackle these issues, you would see ever greater conflict over scarce resources and ever greater difficulties over drought, and the accumulating effect of climate change which means that people have to move,” he said.
“And in fact there’s very good evidence indeed that one of the major reasons for this horror in Syria, funnily enough, was a drought that lasted for about five or six years, which meant that huge numbers of people in the end had to leave the land but increasingly they came into the cities.”
--
Asked in the interview, which Sky said was filmed three weeks ago, whether there was direct link between climate change, conflict and terrorism, Charles said: “Absolutely.”
“We never deal with the underlying root cause which regrettably is what we’re doing to our natural environment,” he said, noting that far greater problems lay ahead if climate change was not addressed immediately.
Even in a time of austerity, the world could not afford not to act, he said.
“I mean the difficulties in 2008 with the financial crash – that was a banking crisis. But we’re now facing a real possibility of nature’s bank going bust,” he said.

PS

"Funnily enough", it seems obvious that the Prince himself is a product of global warming. Just a few months before he was born, the UK experienced an extraordinary heatwave, which quite possibly could be the "underlying root cause" for the kind opinions he is now expressing:

At 4pm on 29 July 1948 the Olympic Flag was hoisted 11 metres up its pole and 2,500 pigeons were released into a hot and sunny afternoon with nary a film director in sight.

That day in London there was virtually unbroken sunshine and the temperature soared to 32.8 deg C, as it did on the previous and following days, in the midst of a week-long heatwave across the UK.

Archived charts reveal that there was a sausage of high pressure from southern Scandinavia to eastern Europe and the Black Sea. Previous days had seen a high pressure centre over the Baltic extend a ridge south-westwards to join with the Azores High, and in that still air the heat had built, with subsequent south to south-easterly flows drawing more hot continental air into Britain.

This short spell of intense heat was highly unusual for not only the 1940s but the 30s and 50s as well. For a quarter of a century between 1932 and 1957 this was the only year in which the temperature anywhere in the UK reached 35 deg C, which it did at Milford, Surrey, on 28 July.

COP 21: "The most important conference in the history of humanity"

The expectations of one high priest of the global warming cult are not small for the soon to start
COP 21 jamboree:

President Francois Hollande now has the opportunity to host a conference that could for the first time address the real threats to our environment and if it does so, this will be the most important conference in the history of humanity.
Why?

Because if this conference fails, the consequences will be unpleasantly profound for the future of all humanity.

---

Captain Paul Watson is a co-founder of the Greenpeace Foundation, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and a former national director of the Sierra Club in the United States. He is in Paris for COP 21.
The captain obviously did not follow his own advice:

 

"We need to stop flying, stop driving cars and jetting around on marine recreational vehicles"

Paul Watson

Niall Ferguson on the fall of the European Union

Harvard history professor Niall Ferguson has written an interesting column, comparing the fall of the Roman Empire with what happens in Europe today:

Peter Heather’s The Fall of the Roman Empire emphasises the ­disastrous effects not just of mass migration, but also organised vio­lence: first the westward shift of the Huns of central Asia and then the Germanic irruption into Roman territory.
In his reading, the Visigoths who settled in Aquitaine and the Vandals who conquered Carthage were attracted to the Roman ­Empire by its wealth, but were ­enabled to seize that wealth by the arms acquired and skills learnt from the Romans ­themselves.
“For the adventurous,” writes Heather, “the Roman Empire, while being a threat to their existence, also presented an unprecedented opportunity to prosper ... Once the Huns had pushed large numbers of (alien groups) across the frontier, the Roman state ­became its own worst enemy. Its military power and financial sophistication both hastened the process whereby streams of incomers became coherent forces capable of carving out kingdoms from its own body politic.”
Uncannily similar processes are destroying the European Union today, though few of us want to recognise them for what they are. Like the Roman Empire in the early 5th century, Europe has allowed its defences to crumble. As its wealth has grown, so its military prowess has shrunk, along with its self-belief. It has grown decadent in its malls and stadiums. At the same time, it has opened its gates to outsiders who have coveted its wealth without ren­ouncing their ancestral faith.
The distant shock to this weakened edifice has been the Syrian civil war, though it has been a catalyst as much as a direct cause for the great Volkerwanderung of 2015.
As before, they have come from all over the imperial periphery — North Africa, the Levant, South Asia — but this time they have come in their millions, not in mere tens of thousands. To be sure, most have come hoping only for a better life. Things in their own countries have become just good enough economically for them to afford to leave and just bad enough politically for them to risk leaving.
But they cannot stream northwards and westwards without some of that political malaise coming with them. As Gibbon saw, convinced monotheists pose a grave threat to a secular empire.
It is doubtless true to say that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Europe are not violent. But it is also true the majority hold views not easily reconciled with the principles of our liberal democracies, including our novel notions about sexual equality and tolerance not merely of religious diversity but of nearly all sexual proclivities. And it is thus remarkably easy for a violent minority to acquire their weapons and prepare their assaults on civilisation within these avowedly peace-loving ­communities.

Communist China tortures lawyers

Communist China´s human rights violations should not be forgotten!

Beijing prosecutor and lawyer Tang Jitian was on the grounds of a Chinese black jail last year, investigating a case, when local police officers handcuffed and attacked him.

 

“I was first strapped to an iron chair, slapped in the face, kicked on my legs, and hit so hard over the head with a plastic bottle filled with water that I passed out,” Tang said to Amnesty International of his sudden detention. Three other lawyers with him received the same treatment that day.

 

Under the ever-tightening censorship policies of China’s central government, human rights activists and lawyers in the country have found themselves subject to a brutal, sweeping crackdown this year. On Nov. 12, human rights organization Amnesty International released a new report that tells Tang’s chilling story—as well as dozens of others from lawyers who’ve also been assaulted by the Chinese government.

 

These personal accounts come to light at a crucial time: Next week, China will answer questions from a United Nations anti-torture committee at a conference in Geneva—the UN’s fifth probe into the country’s torture practices.

Garry Kasparov: "Trying to ally w Putin to fight ISIS is like giving yourself cancer to fight a cold"

Garry Kasparov ‏@Kasparov63 6 hrs6 hours ago

Trying to ally w Putin to fight ISIS is like giving yourself cancer to fight a cold. He supports terror, Iran, Assad, & wants more refugees.

 

Garry Kasparov is of course right. Sadly, the weak US, UK and German "leaders" are again doing their utmost to please this dictator, who has blood in his hands.

US presidential candidate Marco Rubio: "Putin is a gangster"

 

 

Florida senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio is the right man to handle Vladimir Putin!

Rubio in a speech:

"As soon as I take office, I will move quickly to increase pressure on Moscow. I will impose a new round of sanctions on The Kremlin’s senior leadership and other Russian entities, including Gazprom, and will work with Europe to exclude Russia from the SWIFT interbank payment system.

I will immediately provide Ukraine with lethal military assistance and increased intelligence sharing to ensure that Putin’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty comes at a price.

I will impose visa bans and asset freezes against high-level Russian officials, and move to isolate Russia diplomatically by ceasing efforts to engage Moscow on issues not essential to resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

Under my administration, there will be no pleading for meetings with Vladimir Putin. He will be treated as the gangster and thug that he is. And yes, I stand by that phrasing."

Edward Lucas on the claims that the Ukraine crisis was NATO´s and EU´s fault

A number of foreign-policy expterts have blamed NATO and the EU for the crisis in Ukraine. Edward Lucas looks at how the predictions made by political scientist John Mearsheimer and others have fared:

The Ukraine crisis is the West’s fault. That has been the contention of a slew of foreign-policy experts, notably the distinguished political scientist John Mearsheimer, who wrote a much-quoted piece in Foreign Affairs in August last year called “The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin.”

For those who missed it, Mearsheimer blamed the crisis in Ukraine on NATO enlargement, saying that Russia had adamantly opposed it (which is not true); that it breached undertakings given to the Soviet Union (also false); and that Putin feared that the “coup” against Yanukovych was a prelude to a NATO base in Crimea (also untrue).

Mearsheimer also argued that the EU had been “marching eastward” and therefore provoking Russia and that the West was recklessly promoting democracy with the aim of turning Ukraine into a “Western stronghold on Russia’s doorstep.”

The counter-arguments to this are well known. The biggest is that they remove from Ukrainians and others any say in their own future. They are just counters in a board game played by others. As Mearsheimer argues, might is right and countries Ukraine’s position just have to get used to it.

That is both inaccurate and morally dubious (given how much the countries of the “bloodlands” have suffered in the past century). It is right to say that Russia, not the West, gets to decide what constitutes a threat to Russia. We can’t help it if Russia’s ex-KGB regime is afflicted by paranoia. But if Russia’s threat-perception becomes the paramount and unchallenged factor in regional security, we are in effect assenting to a new Yalta.

Read the entire article here

Finally something to celebrate at the Paris COP 21: "Global warming has been good to Champagne makers"

A few thousand bottles of vintage champagne are ready for the COP 21 delegates in Paris.

The famous Maxim´s will be one of the main venues for these much appreciated "side events" ...

As Paris gets ready to welcome the 50,000 or so delegates to the megalomaniac COP 21 climate jamboree, due to begin on November 30, there is finally some good news to report.

When US President Barack Obama, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the likes arrive in the beginning of the meeting for a photo opportunity (the French idea is to have heads of state present only in the beginning of the conference in order to make statements) they can wholeheartedly enjoy the champagne offered by their host, President Hollande, knowing that global warming has been good to this noble wine:

As France prepares to host world leaders for talks on how to slow global warming next month, producers of the northeastern French region's famous sparkling wine have seen only benefits from rising temperatures so far.
The 1.2 degrees centigrade increase in temperatures in the region over the past 30 years has reduced frost damage. It has also added one degree in the level of alcohol and reduced acidity, making it easier to comply with strict production rules, according to champagne makers group CIVC.
"The Champagne region and Germany are among the northerly vineyards which have managed to develop thanks to warmer weather," Jean-Marc Touzard, coordinator of a program on wine and climate change at French research institute INRA.
"Even if I feel very concerned by climate change, I have to say that for the moment it has had only positive effects for Champagne," Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, president of the group that bears his family's name, told Reuters at the company's Reims headquarters.

Obama: "Large part of this Earth" could become uninhabitable 25 years from now!

US President Barack Obama thinks that "large parts of this Earth" will become uninhabitable in "our lifetimes" if global warming is not reduced. The average life expectancy in the US is about 79 years ( 78.8 in 2012), which, considering that Obama was born in 1961, means that large parts of the Earth would be uninhabitable as soon as 2040.

We all know that there has been no global warming for almost nineteen years now. This means that there has to be a hell of a lot of warming during the next 25 years to make "large parts of this Earth" uninhabitable by 2040! Does Obama really believe in this rubbish? I do not think so, but he surely thinks that this kind of scaremongering makes him popular among greenies and other "progressive" global warming believers.

Dr. Oliver Hartwich: "Merkel´s irresponsible decision has created an existential challenge to her own country"

Angela Merkel´s open doors refugee policy has seriously weakened Germany and the entire EU:

Nothing is fine in Europe these days. Since Angela Merkel singlehandedly opened Germany’s borders to refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and any other nomads, the continent has been plunged into chaos. First and foremost, Merkel’s irresponsible decision has created an existential challenge to her own country. But it also threatens to wreck the European Union -- or at least turn it into an entirely different organisation. --

Before too long, we can expect Turkey to use the leverage presented to it by the refugee crisis to extort more concessions from Merkel. And how ironic would that be: to see liberal Britain depart from the EU while authoritarian Turkey joins – and both of them essentially because of the same reason.
Merkel’s political stupidity has exposed her to blackmail from Turkey – and from Greece. Again, it is completely ironic how the balance of power has shifted in Europe. Only half a year ago, it was the Greek government that was humiliated in Europe and had to give in to Germany’s demands. The refugee crisis has changed that too. --

What this shows is how much Merkel’s policies have reduced Germany’s standing. Not so long ago, Germany was seen as strong and Merkel as one of the most powerful politicians in the world. Today, the British are preparing their departure from the EU, Turkey cannot believe its luck to be dictating its demands to Berlin, and even Greece may feel encouraged to stand up to Germany.

We are witnessing a fundamental shift of power within the EU. This shift of power has weakened Merkel’s Germany and it will eventually lead to an EU that is very different from the EU that we knew.

It is indeed the end of the EU as we knew it. Britain out, Turkey in and Greece debt free: who would have thought what seismic shifts the refugee crisis could trigger in the EU’s power play?

Read the entire article here

New poll: Americans refuse to be worried about global warming

Despite the continuing scaremongering by the warmist establishment, a clear majority of Americans refuse to be worried about global warming. The new AP poll must be a huge disappointment for the alarmists:

However, fewer than one in four Americans are extremely or very worried about it, according the poll of 1,058 people. About one out of three Americans are moderately worried and the highest percentage of those polled — 38 percent — were not too worried or not at all worried.
Despite high profile preaching by Pope Francis, only 36 percent of Americans see global warming as a moral issue and only a quarter of those asked see it as a fairness issue, according to the poll which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
"The big deal is that climate has not been a voting issue of the American population," said Dana Fisher, director of the Program for Society and the Environment at the University of Maryland. "If the American population were left to lead on the issue of climate, it's just not going to happen."

The problem with today´s politicians: " If no one is in charge, no one can be held accountable"

Markus Somm has written an excellent article in the German blog Die Achse des Guten.

Here is my quick translation of part of it:

Perhaps nothing has made more clear what´s wrong with the present day politicians, than the refugee crisis. Maybe it took this tragedy to open the eyes of the citizens of Europe. Too many politicians enjoy being generous, to help people and to save the world, mostly with money that is not theirs, mostly with decisions the consequences of which they must never wear because they lie far in the future. They often say 'yes, rarely say no.That as so many politicians in the refugee crisis almost instinctively call for international coordination, makes one suspicious. It is symptomatic. When something is "coordinated", as it is always said, it means that a great number of people take part in the decision making - or not - in any case so many that nobody longer understands who has decided what. In other words, who is responsible for what. The present generation of politicians have masterfully managed to blur responsibilities: therefore they are so happy to avoid the decision-making processes of the nation state, where they are clearly seen as rulers, and take refuge in the higher spheres of the supranational, where all and no one are responsible. Who decided? Who's to blame?Nobody knows. Is it the EU? The Commission, the Council of Ministers, the UN and the OECD, or the G-8? Or is it the parliament? If no one is in charge, no one can be held accountable. Borders determine a territory, but they also show where the responsibility lies. Therefore borders are less popular with some politicians. In the EU the view, to know no limits, under the heading Schengen, was made almost a raison d'etre. The more difficult it is now to defend these borders, even the Schengen external borders that had never been lifted on paper.

How true!

If you speak German, you can read the entire article here.

Putin is right on global warming!

There are not many issues on which I agree with Vladimir Putin. However, here is one:

While Western media have examined the role of rising temperatures and drought in this year's record wildfires in North America, Russian media continue to pay little attention to an issue that animates so much of the world.

The indifference reflects widespread public doubt that human activities play a significant role in global warming, a tone set by President Vladimir Putin, who has offered only vague and modest pledges of emissions cuts ahead of December's U.N. climate summit in Paris.

Russia's official view appears to have changed little since 2003, when Putin told an international climate conference that warmer temperatures would mean Russians "spend less on fur coats" while "agricultural specialists say our grain production will increase, and thank God for that".

The president believes that "there is no global warming, that this is a fraud to restrain the industrial development of several countries including Russia," says Stanislav Belkovsky, a political analyst and critic of Putin. "That is why this subject is not topical for the majority of the Russian mass media and society in general."

 

 

Dr. Oliver Hartwich on Germany´s existential crises created by Angela Merkel

New Zealand based Dr. Oliver Hartwich, who is very familiar with German politics, describes the utter failure of Angela Merkel´s open door policy:

Initially, there was a degree of optimism that among those seeking refuge in Germany might be young, skilled and motivated potential workers. For a country that is looking into a demographic abyss this was seen as a good news story. Ageing Germany does indeed need some rejuvenation.

However, the profile of migrants does not justify such hope. It is estimated that about 20% of them are illiterate – and practically none speak any German. Even the German Federal Labour Minister recently admitted that only one in 10 of them will be easily integrated into the workforce. Conversely, this means that 90% will, at least for an initial period, be dependent on welfare.

The bill of the refugee crisis will thus be huge. How high precisely is anyone’s guess. Marcel Fratzscher, president of the DIW think tank in Berlin, believes it is going to cost €10 billion this year. But it could also be €20-30 billion, according Clemens Fuest, head of the Centre for European Economic Research ZEW. And even that figure might well be too low since Mr Fuest based it on just 800,000 refugees a year. More recent estimates now see that number at almost twice that level.---

A telling event happened at the beginning of this week at the German-Austrian border. Without even informing the German authorities, the Austrian government transported 70 busloads of refugees to the border, pointed them in the direction of Germany and basically left them there.

If that is the spirit of European integration, the EU might actually cease to exist. They are still holding emergency summits in Brussels, of course, but these do not produce any binding outcomes. In the end, it is every country against every other country.

As if Europe did not have enough problems to deal with before the refugee crisis, it is now faced with an even greater challenge: To deal with millions of underqualified migrants; to keep some kind of policy coordination going between Europe’s capitals; to address the cultural problems of integrating people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds; and to convince the domestic population that all of this may somehow be worth it – or at least that there is a moral justification to embark on this project.

Ms Merkel’s response to all of these challenges has so far been a vague “We will cope.” She has never asked whether her people really want to cope. And this oversight is backfiring on her.

Her personal popularity is plummeting like a stone and her party has lost six percentage points in the polls over the past couple of months.

As someone who has been following German politics for a while, I remember some pretty extraordinary events. But not even German unification 25 years ago brought such an existential crisis on the country as Frau Merkel’s lone decision. Unless she finds an exit strategy from the chaos she has caused, and unless she finds it soon, this will not end well.

Read the entire article here

Deadly diesel wins again

No matter how big the scandals are, there is nothing that stops the German (and other European) car industry:

Carmakers have won delays to a more stringent “real driving emissions” test, which will allow them to belch out more than twice the legal limit of deadly nitrogen oxides (NOx) from 2019 and up to 50% more from 2021.
The introduction of the tests has been delayed by a year by the European commission.
Revelations about Volkswagen’s use of “defeat devices” to manipulate current NOx tests and studies showing that just one in 10 cars meets current limits, appear to have had little effect on the voting.
Only the Netherlands opposed the proposal, which passed after heavy lobbying from the car industry and EU countries such as the UK, Germany, France and Spain, which are currently facing court action from the EU for failing to meet NO₂ standards.

Read the entire article here.

French Society of Mathematicians: "The battle against global warming: an absurd, costly and pointless crusade"

Kudos to the French Society of Mathematicians for speaking out about the global warming hoax!

Here is a brief summary of the paper the FSM has published:

All public policies, in France, Europe and throughout the world, find their origin and inspiration in the battle against global warming.

The impact on the entire field of scientific research is particularly clear and especially pernicious. No project can be launched, on any subject whatsoever, unless it makes direct reference to global warming. You want to look at the geology of the Garonne Basin? It is, after all, an entirely normal and socially useful subject in every respect. Well, your research will be funded, approved and published only if it mentions the potential for geological storage of CO2. It is appalling.

The crusade has invaded every area of activity and everyone‘s thinking: the battle against CO2 has become a national priority. How have we reached this point, in a country that claims to be rational?

At the root lie the declarations made by the IPPC, which have been repeated over the years and taken up by the European Commission and the Member States. France, which likes to see itself as the good boy of Europe‘, adds an extra layer of virtue to every crusade. When others introduce reductions, we will on principle introduce bigger reductions, without ever questioning their appropriateness: a crusade is virtuous by its very nature. And you can never be too virtuous.

But mathematicians do not believe in crusades; they look at facts, figures, observations and arguments.

Read more here.

The end of the Angela Merkel era is in sight

The truth about the incompetence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is finally coming out:

"Angela Merkel has been Germany’s Chancellor for 10 years, but this is the first time that she is facing serious challenges. Merkel may have survived the euro crisis without a dent in her popularity but Europe’s refugee crisis is leading observers to a hitherto unthinkable question: what if Merkel stumbles over the uncontrolled influx of migrants into her country?

There are problems for Merkel on two fronts. Domestically, her long reign in the opinion polls is drawing to a close as people realise the consequences of her open borders policy. There are now between 5000 and 10,000 migrants arriving in Germany every day. Meanwhile internationally, Merkel faces a double confrontation. On the one hand, EU partners are furious with Germany’s unilateralism. On the other, she now has to beg Turkey for help in containing the flow of Syrian refugees." --

"It is not the first time that Merkel has burdened Germany with the results of her policies. Her decision to switch off nuclear power stations cost energy consumers dearly. Her guarantees for other eurozone countries will haunt German taxpayers for generations.

For years, Merkel drew her political capital from a very simple positioning. By being boring and unexciting, she portrayed a sense of security. The Germans felt safe in her hands, almost irrespective of what she did (or failed to do). But it is hard to feel safe when the country is flooded by more than a million of people in a year and all the head of government has to offer is the slogan “We’ll manage."

As I have often argued in this column, the public’s trust in Merkel’s abilities, let alone achievements, had always been misplaced. She did not achieve half as much as people were willing to give her credit for. However, she was a master of political strategy and communication.

In the current refugee crisis, Merkel again tried to get away with spin and calculation but this time her plan has backfired. Her signal to open Germany’s borders to an unlimited number of migrants was strong, and no matter how much she tries to take it back, she is unable to stem the flow of people into Germany."

Read the entire article here.

"Der Spiegel": Germany has been spying on its closest allies

Angela Merkel two years ago:

"We need trust among allies and partners," Merkel told reporters in Brussels. "Such trust now has to be built anew. This is what we have to think about."
"The United States of America and Europe face common challenges. We are allies," the German leader said. "But such an alliance can only be built on trust. That's why I repeat again: spying among friends, that cannot be."


Well, now it turns out the "honest" Germans have themselves carried out extensive spying on their closest allies:

The German newsmagazine "Spiegel Online" has reported that Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) eavesdropped on communications of several of its allied countries until late 2013.
According to reports, these operations may not all have taken place under the guidance of the US National Security Agency (NSA) but also under the BND's own initiative. Earlier this year, it had been revealed that the NSA commissioned the BND for years to spy on German targets using so-called "selectors" - search criteria used to flag activity with vested interests for the NSA.. The NSA was reported to have supplied the technology involved in this method of intelligence gathering.
The latest disclosures, however, might imply that the BND added its own choice of selectors to the list - an act which would fall outside its constitutional mandate and qualify as illegal. The BND is already under scrutiny for the legalities of doing the groundwork for a foreign spy agency by collaborating with the NSA..
Further setbacks for the BND
According to the report, Germany used thousands of such selectors in total, which ended up flagging communications of allied states. France and the United States were reported to be among the nations affected by the intelligence breach.

France´s top meteorologist challenges the global warming establishment

Great news from France! The country´s top meteorologist challenges the global warming establishment:

Every night, France's chief weatherman has told the nation how much wind, sun or rain they can expect the following day.

Now Philippe Verdier, a household name for his nightly forecasts on France 2, has been taken off air after a more controversial announcement - criticising the world's top climate change experts.

Mr Verdier claims in the book Climat Investigation (Climate Investigation) that leading climatologists and political leaders have “taken the world hostage” with misleading data.

In a promotional video, Mr Verdier said: “Every night I address five million French people to talk to you about the wind, the clouds and the sun. And yet there is something important, very important that I haven’t been able to tell you, because it’s neither the time nor the place to do so.”

He added: “We are hostage to a planetary scandal over climate change – a war machine whose aim is to keep us in fear.”

His outspoken views led France 2 to take him off the air starting this Monday. "I received a letter telling me not to come. I'm in shock," he told RTL radio. "This is a direct extension of what I say in my book, namely that any contrary views must be eliminated."

Read the entire article here.

Finally som good news from the Norwegian Nobel Committee - They did not choose Merkel!

The Norwegian Nobel Committee is to be congratulated this year:

A senior Danish lawmaker is applauding that the Norwegian Nobel Committee didn't give the 2015 Peace Prize to German Chancellor Angela Merkel who had been viewed as a favorite for the prestigious award.

Soeren Espersen of the Danish People's Party, which supports Denmark's one-party, minority government, wrote Friday on Twitter: "Joy that Merkel didn't as predicted get the Peace Prize. She has thrown Europe into one of the largest migration disasters in modern times."

 

Russian journalist: Putin´s 15 years have been "a monumental moral catastrophe"

Kashin to Putin: "Whoever comes after you will have to create Russia
 all over again, from scratch."

Oleg Kashin, one of Russia´s most prominent independent journalists, who in 2010 was nearly killed in an attack, has written an open letter to Vladimir Putin and his puppet Dmitry Medvedev, which should be read by all the western leaders who are eager to co-operate with the Russian dictator:

But don’t flatter yourself: the last 15 years haven’t been a revival for Russia, and the country hasn’t risen from its knees. This time has been a monumental moral catastrophe for our generation. And both of you, Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev, are personally responsible for it.
In Russian society today, even obvious questions about good and evil have become impossible. Is it OK to steal? Is it OK to cheat? Is murder ethical? With each of these questions, it’s become customary in Russia now to answer that things aren’t so simple. All your good works have left the nation demoralised and disoriented.
But you carry on, managing your problems without even realising that you’re digging the hole yourselves. “Things aren’t so simple” is what the angry crowd will tell you in unison, when it comes time for you to run away. I suspect that you’re afraid of this crowd, but just remember that it was you who created it, and you’ve got nobody to blame but yourselves.

Having cut yourselves and your elites off from society, you’ve also cut yourselves off from reality. There’s a wall separating you from the rest of us, and everyone on our side shudders each time the next one of your goons decides to show what a thinker he is by stepping up to a podium and talking about how the population is being controlled by computer chips, about the “Euro-Atlantic conspiracy,” or about how the Americans are weaponising cellular research.

Whoever comes after you will have to create Russia all over again, from scratch. This is your only service to history– what you’ve spent 15 years achieving. Your favourite justification for all this (the only one, there are no others) are the troubles of the 1990s, but it’s important to understand that you preserved and strengthened everything about this period that we’ve come to hate today. You didn’t fix anything. You only made it all worse.

Janet Daley on why Viktor Orban is vilified in Europe

Hungary´s Viktor Orban has lately been vilified by the politically correct class of politicians and journalists. But are they right?  The Telegraph´s columnist Janet Daley gives her take:

The voters who put him in office, it seems, hugely approve of the Orban policy. Imagine that: a European leader who actually chooses to represent the views of his own electorate rather than please the unelected commissioners of the EU. The obvious implication on the broadcast news was that this rise in approval within his own country was somehow indecent: a crass populist stance targeted deliberately at a benighted population. Either Mr Orban was a nasty piece of work who was opportunistically appealing to his countrymen’s worst instincts, or the desires of the Hungarian people were beneath consideration – or both.

Let’s just hang on a minute. Before we are pulled into self-righteous judgments about other peoples and their leaders, we might consider what is at stake. Maybe we need to ask precisely what elected governments are for in modern Europe, and whether a population has to sign up to certain assumptions and attitudes before it is entitled to democratic government. There is an unspoken argument here that goes beyond the immediate refugee problem or that other threat to EU unity, the future of the eurozone. If democratically mandated national leaders can be condemned for being genuinely in tune with their own electorates, what does this amount to?

Read the entire column here.

In the wake of the VW scandal: Some facts about Germany

Next time you hear Angela Merkel, or some other German politician or opinion maker, lecture other governments or leaders, remember this:

It is a common misconception to believe Germany is a place for ‘whiter than white’ business practices. That is, of course, how Germany likes to see itself and how it likes to advertise itself to the world. Self-righteousness is a virtue invented in Germany. Just look at the ways the Germans have tried to teach other nations lessons on fiscal policy, energy policy and now refugee policy.

The problem is that there is a gulf between this self-image and the reality of German life. The Germans are probably not worse than everybody else. But they certainly aren’t better, either.

Until not so long ago, bribing foreign officials was regarded as a commonplace business practice in Germany. Only in the late 1990s did Germany change finally its laws. Until then, believe it or not, it was not just acceptable but in fact tax deductible to pay out kickbacks as long as it secured lucrative international contracts. German tax law recognised bribes as nützliche Aufwendungen (‘useful expenditure’).

A culture of corporate corruption rocked several large German companies in recent years. The most prominent case was probably Siemens and shook the company between 2006 and 2008. Dealing with it cost Siemens close to €3bn and led to an exchange of the company’s top management and supervisory board. Siemens has since recovered and installed a chief compliance officer but it was a painful process to get there. Deutsche Bank has also been shaken by its involvement in the LIBOR rigging scandal and is still dealing with the consequences.

Das Auto

The beginning of the end for China´s ruling Communist Party?

This is far more important than Greece! The beginning of the end for China´s ruling Communist Party?:

Chinese equities have suffered the sharpest one-day crash in eight years, sending powerful tremors through global commodity markets and smashing currencies across East Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The Shanghai Composite index fell 8.5pc despite emergency measures to shore up the market, with a roster of the biggest blue-chip companies down by the maximum daily limit of 10pc. The mood was further soured by news that corporated profits in China are now contracting in absolute terms, falling 0.3pc over the past year.

"Putinism" - Anne Applebaum´s outstanding analysis

An outstanding lecture on Putinism:

 

Anne Applebaum´s report on Putinism

Strongly recommended reading!

Botched Russian Navy missile launch

Russian frigate Ladny´s botched missile demonstration at the Crimea Navy Day parade:

Here is a list of other recent Russian military accidents:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_military_accidents

The price of EU:s global warming fixation: Hundreds of thousands Europeans "will suffer a premature death"

Here is another major - and deadly - European failure:

for more than a decade EU member states have tended to encourage the rise of diesel vehicles, with favourable tax regimes and pricing structures.
This has been one factor in bringing down greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels used for road transport, as diesel engines are more fuel-efficient than their petrol counterparts. But it has had an unintended consequence in the form of greater air pollution, because diesel engines spew out more particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide than petrol-driven cars, giving rise to breathing difficulties in vulnerable people, such as children and older citizens.

Failed European environmental policies has led to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths:

Hundreds of thousands of Europeans will suffer a premature death in the next two decades as the result of governments’ failure to act on air pollution, Europe’s environmental watchdog has warned.
In 2011, the latest year for which figures have been reliably collated, more than 400,000 are estimated to have died prematurely as a result of breathing toxic fumes, despite recent improvements in some countries.

A new report just out gives the death figures for one European city, London:

Nearly 10,000 people died in a year as a result of air pollution in London, a study has found.

Experts from King's College London combined the effects of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and a particulate matter known as PM2.5 to look at the total impact on the city's health in 2010.
The scientists said combining the pollutants "reveal a higher health impact than previously estimated".

Finland acts against possible Russian threat: New Rapid reaction units close to Russian border

Great news from Finland:

HELSINKI — Finland's Armed Forces Command has added a quick response dynamic with plans to locate rapid reaction units (RRUs) to military districts that fall under the command of the country's four military provinces.
Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö described the initiative as necessary to strengthen operational readiness and bolster Finland's overall defense and deterrence capabilities against rising regional tensions over Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.
The focus of deployment for the RRUs, which constitute a new feature within Finland's territorial-based, infantry-centered defense strategy, will be military districts close to Finland's 833-mile border with Russia.

Obama´s "war on coal" has a silver lining?

President Obama and other western leaders - brainwashed by the huge warmist lobby - are waging a "war on coal". But maybe this senseless campaign against the coal industry will have a silver lining:

If the use of this valuable energy resource is going to be dramatically reduced, there will be plenty of it in store when it is really needed, maybe already in the 2030s!

The earth is 15 years from a "mini ice-age" that will cause bitterly cold winters during which rivers such as the Thames freeze over, scientists have predicted.

Solar researchers at the University of Northumbria have created a new model of the sun's activity which they claim produces "unprecedentedly accurate predictions".

They said fluid movements within the sun, which are thought to create 11-year cycles in the weather, will converge in such a way that temperatures will fall dramatically in the 2030s.

Solar activity will fall by 60 per cent as two waves of fluid "effectively cancel each other out", according to Prof Valentina Zharkova.

In a presentation to the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, she said the result would be similar to freezing conditions of the late 17th century.
“[In the cycle between 2030 and around 2040] the two waves exactly mirror each other – peaking at the same time but in opposite hemispheres of the sun," she said.
"Their interaction will be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other.
"We predict that this will lead to the properties of a ‘Maunder minimum'".
Maunder minimum, indicating low sunspot activity, was the name given to the period between 1645 and 1715, when Europe and North America experienced very cold winters.
 

New definition of the European Union

The Empire has no clothes

I don´t often quote the BBC, but now it is time to do it:

"In fact, many younger Europeans probably can't remember a time when the EU was anything other than a study in sustained crisis management."

Jamie Coomarasamy
Presenter, Newshour