Greece is the Word: Here We Go Again, Or Socialists Run Out Of Other Peoples Money And Still Can't Figure Out Who's Fault It Is..

There isn't any doubt that the IMF imposed austerity programs have been a leading cause of the deterioration of the Greek's standard of living and the subsequent violent social unrest.  Unfortunately the new government is most shortsightedly confusing the symptoms with the disease.

Rather than face the harsh realities of bankruptcy, enduring the pain of restructuring, exiting the EURO and moving forward, both sides have engaged in playing blame games, avoiding responsibility and postponing the inevitable.

The truth is there is more than enough blame to go around.  Previous leftwing Greek governments saw joining the EURO  zone as the ticket to every good socialist's dream; the ever expanding welfare state and the government dependent population.   Their fellow traveling leftist bureaucrats in Brussels willfully ignored the utter unsuitability of the Greek economy to join the common currency union, more concerned as they were with their fetid dreams of a united Europe and their own centralized control.

Like all socialists of every strip, they live in a world constructed of an unrealistic and unattainable dream.  Namely that economies and economics can be infinitely forced to conform to their political will.  Unfortunately ignoring history and its lessons doesn't change them.

So now the socialist bureaucrats in Brussels have an internal rebellion on their hands.  A rebellion born of former Greek governments borrowing and spending their way to reelection after reelection and lining their own pockets in the process, all with the complicity of Brussels.  But now the unattainable dream is unravelling faster than a ball of yarn set upon by a litter of kittens.

 The socialists in Athens think that they can selectively abrogate all or part of Greece's debt without consequences for the entire financial house of cards.  The failure of the Credit Default Swaps on Greek debt alone could push the likes of Bank of America and J. P. Morgan/Chase into a naked and undeniable insolvency that will make 2008 look like a joke.  But the bureaucrats in Brussels are continuing on with their unattainable dream by threatening Athens that if they don't come to a new agreement with the Troika, the ECB will cut off the Greek banks from any further funding.  Threatening the bankrupt with bankruptcy is either the pinnacle of absurdity or hubris.

Sadly the new government in Greece is only partially right.  There is no solution for Greece within the context of the ECB or the European Union.  Neither is there a solution in returning to the Drachma and hyperinflation in order to continue the welfare state just so a new batch politicians can buy their reelections and line their pockets.

The reality no one wants to deal with is that there is no viable solution for any of us within the context of private central banks and trying to solve the problems of too much debt by going further into debt.

Only the repudiation of national debts, ALL national debts and the return to asset based currencies will set the world on a path to a production and employment driven recovery.

Alexander Hamilton's reports on banking and manufacturing were right two hundred twenty five years ago.  They still hold powerful lessons for today.

Russian Agression Expands Again

The Ukrainian coastal city of Mariupol came under artillery attack yesterday from so-called "rebel forces" in eastern Ukraine.  There are conflicting reports on the number of fatal casualties ranging from 10 to 21.




Hands Up!  Don't shoot (back)!
It's only artillery fire.

Given that the rebel leaders have announced their intentions to expand the territory under their control this aggression is not the result of the local population requesting to be "liberated".  Rather it is nothing more than Russian expansionist desire to create a land bridge to connect to the recently annexed Crimea.  Mariupol lies in the center of their path and of course the needs of "Mother Russia" come first and foremost.  But then Russian oligarchs have been paving the pathways of their political policy in south-eastern Europe with dead Ukrainians for over three centuries.  Why should the 21st century prove any different.

The Deadliest of Political Correctness.

 

Frankly I am sick and tired of all the hypocrisy and kissing of the backsides of the so-called "good Muslims".  Do they exist?  Yes.  The Mayor of Rotterdam Holland is a great example.  He is that rare example of an assimilated Muslim who identifies himself as a Dutchman first and  foremost.  And a courageous one at that.  By his recent statement admonishing that if any of his co-religionists don't like western and specifically Dutch culture to "please pack your bags and go!" he has put his life on the line for what he believes is right.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is fed up with seeing some Imams, of no particular influence,  get trotted out on network TV shows to speak out of both sides of their mouths.  Out of one side they condemn the perpetrators of whatever ghastly new attack and claim that they are not really Islamic.  Then out of the other they insist that the victims of this violence must have respect and tolerance for the religion from which the violence grew.  We are being played for fools.

Hamas recruits giving the Nazi Salute.

It's all just so much Taqiyya (lying for the sake of Allah).  As Yasser Arafat once said; "I'm willing to kill for my cause. Do you think I wouldn't lie for it?"

In Islam, the Sunna (from which the Sunni sect draws its name) means "to follow the example of Mohammad".  Well the recent attacks in Paris are a perfect example of Sunna and prove the lie of the Imams claiming that the perpetrators are not Islamic.


Leading up to Mohammad's siege of  Medina and the wholesale slaughter of its residents, a famous Jewish poet of the day, Kab Ashraf, among others, wrote pieces that ridiculed and criticized Muhammad.  These works soon found wide circulation in the towns and villages of Western Arabia. Muhammad's response was to send assassination squads into Medina and other Jewish enclaves to kill anyone who would dare criticize Muhammad and his movement.   Thus we have the roots of the use of terror by Islam in order to frighten critics into silence.  After the assassination of Kab Ashraf a delegation of Jews from Medina was sent to Muhammad to complain of his cruel fate at Muhammed's hands. Muhammad replied: “He hurt us (Allah and his messenger) and insulted us with poetry, and one does not do this among you (Jews and polytheists) but he shall be put to the sword.”

So then the assassination of Theo Van Gogh, the attacks against the Danish cartoonists and now the wanton murders in Paris are nothing more than a contemporary exercise in the practice of the Sunna.  Anyone who denies this or makes feeble excuses for it are fools or simply practicing Taqiyya.

Islam is now and has always been a political/military movement covered with a veneer of "religion".   In form and function it is little different than Japanese Shintoism that manifest in Kamikaze attacks and suicidal Banzai charges. (There is a reason Gen. MacArthur insisted that the post war Japanese constitution specifically excluded Shintoism from having any place in the new government.  A history lesson we forgot when we allowed the new governments of Afghanistan and Iraq to be bases on Sharia.)


Shoulder Patch of
the 13th Waffen SS Division.
Note the Islamic Sword

 Such  Imperial death worship (with Muhammad as titular "emperor"), coupled with violent hatred of the Jews was manifested in the long time residence of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in Berlin during WWII and in the greatly feared Hansar SS division that was comprised mostly of  Muslims from the Baltic region and some that entered Europe through Syria and unoccupied Vichy France.

The grand Mufti reviewing his troops of the 13th.
Division. Note the traditional Turkish headgear.
The Mufti referred to them as the "Cream of Islam."

The Bush administration had us fighting this determined enemy with one hand behind our back.  The current administration has undertaken to make sure we have both hands tied.

On a more hopeful note, the Jihadists have created a Frankenstein's monster in the lone self directed jihadist.  The uncoordinated and extremely violent attacks like those in France, the gang rapes that have occurred in Sweden and Germany have begun to take their toll of the consciousness of growing numbers in Europe.  The backlash to decades of "tolerance" and the creation of Islamic "no go" zones, that are the breeding grounds of this hatred and violence,  have spawned new movements that will only grow in size and political influence.  We can only hope that their growth is tempered with wisdom as well as political fervor, lest violent retribution become the order of the day as the deteriorating economic situation in Europe piles frustration upon frustration.
                             





 

 

A New Excuse For War

According to rumor, as published in London's "Daily Mail", France's most wanted woman, Hayat Boumeddiene, has somehow escaped to Syria.  If any definitive evidence comes forth France will no doubt issue a formal request for extradition.  Syria's Basher Assad best think very carefully about his response.  Obama and the UK's PM Cameron have been chomping at the bit for over a year to wage war against Syria and this is the opportunity they have been looking for.

With anti-Islamic movements and demonstrations growing across Europe, if Assad refuses the request, France will fall, almost by default, into a war alliance with the US and the UK.  The combination of Hollande's dismal poll numbers and the historical perceptions of France's influence in Syria, won't give him much choice.

If Assad follows past precedent, namely his father's long standing refusal to extradite indicted Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner, who was Adolf Eichmann's chief secretary, the die will be cast and the propaganda machines on both sides of the Atlantic and the English Channel will kick into high gear.  Western Ground forces in the Levant will become all but an inevitability, with French forces in a figurehead lead.

Hopefully Assad will make the wiser decision and turn Boumeddiene over to the French, (if she is there and/or the rumor hasn't been manufactured precisely as causes belli for war), and averts more war and US direct involvement in a bottomless cesspool of death and destruction. 

Another False Dichotomy

There is a false dichotomy between the Brown and the Garner cases.  Brown was clearly a drug addled and or not to bright strong arm thug with a history of using his size to intimidate people. That said we can’t be absolutely sure the police officer wasn’t abusive in his manner and tone when he told Brown and his companion to get out of the .middle of the street. I have no doubt that Brown’s criminal behavior and inclinations contributed to the tragic escalation to then occurred, I can't be certain that the police officer’s attitude wasn’t a contributing factor. Neither can we be certain that police cynicism from dealing with countless previous Michael Browns is unjustified or none contributory.

In contrast the Garner case grew out of “Atlas Shrugged” like absurdities. New York State and New York City have raised and raised and raised the so called “sin taxes” particularly those on cigarettes to such absurd and punishing levels that the city has become a smugglers paradise. Some 60% of all cigarettes are bootlegged in. But rather than reducing tax rates to discourage smuggling and actually increase revenue they have upped the ante on absurdity by not only outlawing the sale of single cigarettes but turning local law enforcement into revenuers enforcing such foolishness.

Not content at having collected taxes at the distribution and retail levels they apparently see the sale of single cigarettes as commerce beyond their reach for taxation. It therefore must be made illegal and such a heinous crime as to warrant violent arrest as opposed to simply issuing a summons.
So what if Garner had a series of petty arrests?   He wasn’t guilty of anything other than filling an economic niche for which there was a demand. A demand created by the state’s and city’s absurd levels of taxation.

Apparently this was not the first time Mr. Garner had been subjected to this kind of petty harassment and for whatever reasons he had had enough. The police clearly over reacted and tragedy ensued.
If amongst all of NYC's myriad problems, enforcing this kind of stupid law is a high priority for the police, then they clearly have too many cops, with too much time on their hands and a badly skewed perspective of what their jobs should be.

I fully recognize the need for police in our society but I will never believe that they are all some heroic bastions of virtue.  They are people like any other and possessed of both virtues and vices, and arguably subject to vice and the temptation to it by the very nature of their power over ordinary citizens.  We have enough real and serious crimes in our cities.  The last thing we need is for the police to be manufacturing them simply to pump up their arrest statistics.