Trying not to start the public floggings
Over at Day By Day, Chris Muir is holding his annual fundraiser. Please go over there and make a contribution. I’d hate my first-thing-in-the-morning read to disappear through lack of $$. Plus, Chris is one of the better (if not the best) of the online political satirists, and excellence should be rewarded.
Via Stephen Green at Insty comes this thought-provoking article by Michael Korfman, which you need to read first for the rest of this to make any kind of sense. It’s one of the best takes on the geopolitical situation with respect to Russia and the U.S. that I’ve seen for a while, so it’s worth the time. And the fact that much of his analysis is based on historical precedent makes his hypothesis even more compelling.
While looking at the reasons why Russia is doing what it’s doing, Korfman makes this comment (and it gives rise to my only quibble with his piece):
This theory of victory stems from the Russian assumption that the structural balance of power will eventually shift away from the United States towards China and other powers in the international system, resulting in a steady transition to multipolarity. This strategy is emergent, but the hope is that a successful campaign of raiding, together with the greater threat from China, will force Washington to compromise and renegotiate the post-Cold War settlement.
I don’t understand why Russia would “raid” the Western democracies to cause the focus of power to move towards China, which seems on its face to be a perilous activity for Russia. After all, the United States is never going to invade and annex Siberia — which the Chinese are going to do, eventually and inevitably, as soon as they become strong enough — and with the loss of Siberia’s oil and mineral resources, Russia is going to be left far weaker even than it is already.
Unless, of course, the Russians are gambling that China will first try to establish hegemony in the South China Sea, and that if the U.S. has been weakened even slightly, that China will follow that course instead of invading Siberia. It’s a big gamble.
Failing that eventuality, I don’t have a counter-answer as to why Russia is being a pain in the ass; I do have a solution to counter their activities, which is to raid them back. For starters, I see a hugely-favorable trade agreement with Georgia, a massive U.S. military entrenchment in the Baltic states (with some offensive and not just defensive capability) and a “boys will be boys” attitude towards CIA mischief aimed at undermining Russian beach-heads (a.k.a. their embassies) in every country in the world. Two can play at the raiding game, and we need to show the Russians that we can, and will. Yeah, it leads to dangerous brinkmanship; but it’s also a way to stop their shit-stirring, or at least think twice before doing it.
As Cousin Avi said in Snatch: “Russians. I should’ve known. Anti-Semite, slippery Cossack sluts.” Truer words were never spoken, and we shouldn’t forget them.
Wow. So Michigan, once the very epitome of a union-controlled state, has kicked ass with a new law:
This week the Michigan House of Representatives took up a measure to put an end to a rule called the “prevailing wage,” a requirement that forces all construction projects initiated by state government to pay workers the same wage union members make even if the workers hired for said projects are not members of a union, MLive.com reported.
The measure passed, but how it became law is extremely impressive:
The petition submitted to the House could have been allowed to become a ballot measure, and likely that is what Protect Michigan Taxpayers expected to become of their petition. However, the state legislature always has the option to submit a petition straight to the state house and that is what the Michigan Senate did when they heard the petition and then voted 23-14 to enact its provisions. That prompted the Michigan House to take up the idea and they passed it as well, 56-53.
Indeed, since the petition met the required number of signatures to be considered and since both houses of the legislature voted to approve it, this repeal doesn’t even have to go to the Governor’s desk for a signature. It will now simply be put into service.
Hence, Michigan’s prevailing wage rule is a dead letter.
Hubba hubba. Now go and read the rest of the article, which argues quite persuasively against the concept of federal employee unions.
Why G6.5 and not G7? Because CanuckPM GirlyBoy Trudeau is really only worth half a country, as witnessed by God-Emperor Trump’s comments on tariffs:
Or, as The Last Refuge ungrammatically puts it, “Tariffs are only illegal when the U.S. does it”.
If ever there are two photos which reflect the difference between the Obama and Trump administrations:
The body language is priceless. (On the right, that’s John Bolton trying to keep a straight face. Even the JapPM is unimpressed.)
Trump thinks: “I wish the Kraut bitch would shut up. I’ve got a 2.30 tee time.”
Your suggestions as to what he’s thinking, in Comments.
“Leftist propaganda is usually split into two halves. The first half invokes a victim group of some sort, for whom we are expected to feel sympathy for their plight. The second half invokes hate towards a group that is portrayed as deliberately doing down, punishing or disadvantaging the first group. This process is a kind of emotional dialectic – a thesis and antithesis of oppressor and victimhood. Whilst the sympathy of the Left for the victim group sometimes comes across as strained, contrived or even hypocritical, the hate is expressed in a heartfelt and visceral way. This technique is one of the reasons why a debate with a Leftist nearly always departs from any cool rationality and descends into emotional irrationality and contradiction of terms. Emotions are used in this way because emotions are very, very powerful political tools for manipulation of peoples’ actions. Whole revolutions have been justified using this technique.” — David Eyles, Country Squire Magazine
Read the entire article: it’s magnificent.
Thus spoke Italy’s new Minister of the Interior, addressing Italy’s migrant population. I have to say that I’ve been fascinated by the recent elections in Italy — it’s been quite Trump 2016-like, with populism, anti-illegal immigration and all the pearl-clutching horror from all corners of the political establishment that the stupid voters could possibly have elected so monstrous a couple of parties, the Liga (League) and the 5-Star Movement. Both parties campaigned hard against what they see as the ruin of Italy caused by “foreigners” (migrants and the EU).
Yeah, screwing up Italy should be left to the Italians. Their track record in this regard has been exemplary.
In fact, the only difference between 2018 Italy and 2016 U.S. is the Italian voters’ outright hostility towards the EU’s control of the Italian economy (and they have a point) — which was only exacerbated by the outright threats of the EU government towards the new government (see below).
But support for the election results has been pretty much universal in Italy:
Offering the new government cautious support was Italy’s small, far-right neo-fascist CasaPound party, which held its own Republic Day commemoration on Saturday. Banners featured images of a crossed-out EU flag and ‘#exIT’ written underneath, a reference to calls for Italy to leave the 28-nation bloc.
That, in fact, was what caused the political establishment to end their attempts to overturn the election results: a new election, from what I can understand, would have turned into a de facto referendum on continuing Italy’s membership in the European Union — and it’s quite clear that this scenario was frightening enough, and the “#exIt” outcome likely enough that the U.S.-style “Resistance” to the election outcome collapsed. Here’s the background to all of this:
The latest manifestation of this battle of wills between an authoritarian Brussels and individual nations trying to uphold democracy came this week with a set of extraordinary events in Italy.
After national elections in March, Italian voters committed themselves to what to the EU elite is the ultimate heresy. They voted in their millions for politicians who said they were prepared to abandon the European single currency.
The result was that two populist parties, the League and the Five Star Movement, came together to try to form a government.
There is little surprise that the Italian people are increasingly fed up with EU membership. Italy has struggled since adopting the euro currency 18 years ago.
Deprived of the ability to manage its own economy, there has been no cumulative economic growth since then.
In recent years, Brussels has imposed unelected technocrats to run the Rome government with savagely austere economic policies. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs.
Most outrageously, European commissioner Guenther Oettinger said the crisis would teach Italians not to vote for ‘populist’ parties next time.
Without a shred of evidence and in a manner akin to those behind Project Fear in the run-up to the EU referendum in the UK, he said menacingly that the financial markets would punish Italy and that votes for anti-EU candidates risked destroying the Italian economy.
In other words, if Italians do not vote the ‘right’ way the next time they go to the polls, they will be punished.
I’ve often thought that if the EU were to collapse, it would be because the Germans got sick of supporting the rest of Europe and went home. I was wrong. What started (and was crushed by Germany) in Greece has spilled over into Italy, and the Italians don’t seem to be in a mood to be bullied. (I was also wrong about getting tough on illegal immigration. I always thought it would be the French who would start — or at least threaten — mass deportations.)
This is big news. It’s the first time since the establishment of the EU — and all its forerunners — that a genuinely populist party (or coalition of populist parties, in this case) has been elected in Western Europe. (It’s akin to Britain’s UKIP winning a general election.)
Like the Italians, I don’t buy the threats of global financial collapse. For one thing, the Italian economy isn’t big enough to cause it, and the only “downside” would be if Italy’s solo efforts cause the euro — the single currency union — to collapse because other countries (e.g. Greece) follow suit.
Someone pass the popcorn. This will be interesting. And Viva Italia!