European disappointment

1. Mother Merkel is disappointed with the European response to the migrant crisis. She also believes the refugees will return home, after the war is over.

Where to begin...?

- The "European response to the migrant crisis" is the same "European response" to pretty much everything in these last few years - Me, me, me, me, what's in it for me, who cares about you? In fact, Merkel and Wheely Boy Schauble are the main responsible parties for this mindset in the first place. They enjoyed it when it suited them. As can be seen with Portugal now, they still push it unabashedly (more on this below). I fail to see where's the cause for disappointment. As the saying goes, you reap what you sow.

- Return home? To go through the hardship of rebuilding a destroyed shell, in a land that will remain dangerous and that can become outright deadly again with a flick of the switch? When they just have to stay put and enjoy a much less dangerous life? Tough decision, hey? I don't know, I could be wrong, but this seems like a very long shot. I'd say we just have to wait and see, but... just see the next bullet.

- "After the was is over"? Are you serious? Do you really expect this to ever be over? Those with power have been killing each other for more power for as long as I can remember, all the while using the Shoe and the Gourd as a pretext to stirr up the mindless mobs. Where does the "over" step in?

Of course, when the most powerful individual in Europe is allowed to say "after the war is over" and the result isn't collective laughter from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea, it just goes to show that we're no less mindless. I'd like to hear Mother Merkel mention some details of this brilliant plan to get the war from "raging" to "over" before she gets to the point of telling me all about the "happy ending".

2. Portugal is on the brink of destruction. "Says who", you ask?

- Rating agencies, with their remarkable competence-backed predictions.

- The European Comission/Eurogroup/IMF, the minds behind the remarkable austerity programs and all the remarkable recoveries these engendered.

- The remarkable geniuses who ruled Portugal for the last 4 years, and whose Budgets have been as criticized as the current budget, by all the above-mentioned parties, with a remarkable difference - the sky wasn't ready to fall then.

We can forget the rating agencies, these are unsupervised entities whose past record of sucess clearly shows it's not competence that guarantees their continued survival.

Our ex-Dear Leader and his cohorts are equally dismissable here, as we would not expect any sort of honest behavior from them. That is something they have in common with our current Dear Leader and his cohorts, obviously.

As for the IMF... heh, I've talked about their "remarkability", already. They haven't stopped being a dogma-spouting organization, so no news here.

Now, as for our European Overlords, here lies the interesting part of this story. Remember when they presented a united front against Greece, last year? The issue was not the money, just like the issue with Portugal now is not the money.

The issue is always the same - There can be no alternative. This is especially true now, with Spain hanging on the balance. Greece served as an example to Portugal, and Portugal will be used as an added example to Spain.

It's Berlin's way, or the highway (paid with European subsidies, I expect).

I've been choosing the latter with my vote (minus the subsidies), and will continue to do so. Who knows? Maybe someday we will win.

On patience and competence

Our Paradise City neighbors (in this case, Germany, Austria, and Sweden) have lost their patience with Greece's failure to keep all those Economy-enhancing refugees within its borders. According to our Paradise buddies, Greece has all the means required to protect its borders, and some remarkable creature going by the name of Johanna Mikl-Leitner even said "Greece has one of the biggest navies in Europe. It’s a myth that the Greek-Turkish border cannot be protected".

Naturally, this fine Dunning-Kruger specimen stopped short of specifying what does "protect the border" with the Navy means. Does it mean shoot and sink refugee-filled boats? Fire warning shots in the hope they'll turn back? Who knows? Who cares? Just go ahead and protect them borders, I say.

Of course, you don't hear this kind of BS talk directed at Turkey, where this tide comes from. Nah, when it comes to Turkey, our hard-line Elected Accountants are less impatient, and are willing to cough up the money with no "upfront measures" required.

I find it amusing when I read that Europe has been shattered by the refugee crisis. Europe has been shattered when its members decided their most important goal was looking out for #1, instead of committing to an actual union.

There is no solution. This trifecta of incompetence appears to be rallying against Greece (in an echo of Wheely Boy Schauble's "let's kick Greece out temporarily" BS), but in fact their shots are aimed at the refugees. The only way to keep the refugees in Greece will be with prison camps (concentration camps, if you will). Even if the Greeks wanted to keep the refugees, the refugees do not want to stay.

You think "concentration camps" is hyperbole? Just read this: "There was a widespread perception (...) that Greece had not done enough to process migrants properly, including setting up camps or hot spots where refugees could reside before their relocation" (the emphasis is mine). "Camps" where "refugees could reside". This is so beyond stupid that I lack words to say anything more.

Almost a year ago (in March, IIRC), I became aware that Greece was making a huge mistake in not preparing their exit, not only from the Euro, but also from the EU. By July, when I wrote it here, I had little doubt about it. And now, here we are again. Because this is now the script for the EU: Do as you're told, or you'll be kicked out.

It's not a matter of money, of "fiscal responsibility", of "political consequences". It's a matter of total contempt for each other. In Germany, Austria, or Sweden (or here in Portugal, or anywhere else in Europe), no one gives a damn about what happens to the Greeks, if they're kicked out, or if they're forced to "retain" the refugees. We can't see beyond ourselves (either as nations or as people), and provided we're OK, let everyone else be damned.

Our Elected Accountants make their little show of having run out of patience, in the hope that no one notices that they have, in fact, run out of competence. Yes, today I'm feeling generous, and I'm assuming they had any, to begin with.

If there was ever any doubt...

... about the true goal behind the "don't let the migrants leave their entry country before they're fully registered" nonsense, now our Austrian buddies have finally cleared it.

I've always said the goal was to impose the mess onto Someone Else(TM). And Austria's latest "suggestion", to "temporarily" (hah!) kick Greece out of Schengen, proves my point to perfection.

As I usually say, we just have to wait, and the varnish will eventually crack and the BS will start oozing out; or, in this case, pouring.

United, German style

Join me on a little comparative exercise.

Item 1.

• Greece is in trouble.
• Greece turns to its EU community for help.
• The community says "Sure, but here are these rules you must obey, in order for us to help you".

Item 2.

• Germany is in trouble.
• Germany says the solution is an Europe-wide gas tax.
• ???

What's that you say? It's not Germany that's in trouble, it's Europe as a whole?

First of all, how nice of our German/Swedish/Whatever neighbours to suddenly remember this quaint little concept of "Europe as whole". It is, however, remarkable that they only remembered it when they decided they require a bit of a contribution.

Second, last time I checked, the human mass composing said immigration rush was headed mainly for Germany. So, I believe it's fair to say it's Germany that's in trouble.

Yes, I know, I've heard all about the marvelous future that awaits Germany, when all these brilliant immigrant entrepreneurs begin contributing to the Economy.

Anyway...

The same people who said "We can't just give Greece handouts" are now saying "There's trouble happening, and everyone needs to chip in".

Hypocrisy at its finest. And then I get to hear how should have more respect for these "rulers".

Arab Spring - Foresight? We can't even get hindsight

Some EU officials believe this refugee crisis, and the divisions it has created throughout Europe are going to destroy the EU. Apparently, someone said "If Schengen collapses, this will be the beginning of the end of the European project".

These people have not been paying attention for the past 4-5 years.

On a related note, Switzerland now joins Denmark in their "Refugees must pay their way in" scheme.

And the series of brain-dead Arab Spring review articles continues. This is my fave:

Moreover, the growth of Isis and its affiliates since 2014 has shown how extreme Islamist movements can take advantage of spaces where government has broken down. Indeed, Isis’s emphasis on the physical control of territory – which distinguishes it from al-Qaida – is a logical consequence of the power vacuums that emerged in many countries affected by the Arab spring.

Has shown...? As in "we needed this to happen to become aware of this possibility"?

I could mention the fact of having someone who was actually there, who alerted us to this "possibility", and who we, to this day, still call delusional. And he was definitely not the only one.

I'll admit I didn't see an outcome like the Daesh, I thought the radicals would get to power from elections, and then turn all those countries into religious states. 

But the rest? Even I knew this was more of a probability than a possibility. Not because of a flash of genius (which I very much doubt I possess), but because I tend to read opinions and views from as many different sides as possible. Because I don't tend to call someone "delusional" based solely on the "side" they're on. I listen to the words, and then look at the actions, and then make my opinion.

In the end, I find myself perpetually returning to that Bertrand Russel quote:

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

Caveat: I don't know if I'm all that intelligent.

I do know that most of the cocksure people I see do, most definitely, fit the above definition.

EU-style coherence

Our Democratic European Buddies are worried about Poland. More exactly, worried that "The binding rulings of the constitutional tribunal are currently not respected".

How odd...

I could've sworn these are the same Democratic European Buddies that spent the last few years shooting barbs at the Portuguese Constitutional Court for preventing the "much-needed reforms" they think Portugal needs (which are different from the "much-needed reforms" Portugal actually needs).

Bad Poland, Bad

We are not amused. We are, in fact, quite outraged, I should say.

Apparently, the cover of a Polish magazine that equates the EU's "crime de la crime" (misspelled? Where?) to Hitler & Co. has left the amazingly competent (as in "it's amazing they have so little competence") EU officials in shock.

I won't defend Poland's argumentum ad nazium, but I'm neither surprised, nor shocked, much less outraged.

The EU is reaping what it sowed, and when someone says Poland should be put under supervision, because it's a “systemic threat” to EU values, I can't help but wonder.

What EU values would these be, pray tell...?

Are these the same EU values where members compete with each other on fiscal policies? Do these EU values include the sanctity of "under-the-table" agreements to attract investment, thus diverting it from other members?

Or could these be the values that justify that the Northern Efficient Productive part of the EU didn't actually give a rat's behind about how their money was managed by the Lazy Southerners? You know, "Wheelie" Schauble's "They did it for years!!!!1!!!! And I knew about it and did nothing".

Or are these, perhaps, the same values that resulted in crashing the Southern European economies to save Northern European banks?

Actually, this last point brings another question - wasn't Poland a valuable EU partner when it was time to arm-twist the Greeks?

Hey, here's a thought - we sent Turkey some of our "EU values" (a large number of millions of said values, actually). Maybe we could the same with Poland, right? No...?

This is the normal development in a community whose most important value can be summed up as "What's in it for me?"

Any seed of cooperation that ever existed in the EEC/EU (and, looking at its history, whatever did exist can be charitably described as "fragile") was destroyed a couple of decades ago, when someone decided that "budget" was more important than "leadership".

Oddly enough, we got neither. Who could've predicted that, hey?

What I learned from Cologne

After reading a fair number of opinion articles about Cologne's New Year events, here's what I've learned:

• It's wrong to generalize and say "All refugees are rapists".
• The correct sentence is "All men are rapists".

Memories from the Arab Spring

Holy blindside, Batman...

All together, now...

Who could've predicted that?

As usual, I don't even know where to begin...

Not only did the "Western Elected Accountants" display a complete and utter incompetence at the simple task of predicting the outcome of a power void in the Arab Spring nations. But even now, with the benefit of hindsight, we are presented with gems such as this:

“The committee will want to consider whether Gaddafi’s prophetic warning of the rise of extremist militant groups following the collapse of the regime was wrongly ignored because of Gaddafi’s otherwise delusional take on international affairs. The evidence that the committee has taken so far in this inquiry suggests that western policymakers were rather less perceptive than Gaddafi about the risks of intervention for both the Libyan people and the western interests.”

At least, they don't say "western leaders". This statement is already delusional enough without adding mythical creatures to the mix, all the while labeling as "delusional" the one who, strangely enough, correctly guessed the outcome of the "Democracy-spreading Fest" that was the Arab Spring.

And the reason why our Elected Accountants were "rather less perceptive"? I'd say it's because they're superior, obviously. Because we're the Civilized West, and everyone else must bow to our superiority.

Reading this text, seeing Blair's position, the way he uses the support of "the US and the EU" as a mantle of superiority... is priceless. And, as is often the case when I look at out Elected Accountants And Other Elites, it brings to mind the Dunning–Kruger effect. These terribly incompetent people show time and again that they live in a state of illusory superiority.

The only reason for their success is cronyism. There, and there alone, lies their competence.

And this just shows, again, how wrong the whole "Mother Merkel Personality of the Year" affair is. This entire refugee crisis was provoked by the West, in what is a contender for the greatest display of incompetence in History. It's a tragic sign of how far we have fallen that we can even consider to give accolades for this. Angela Merkel's role (and not only hers, but that of every other western elected accountant) was similar to that of the Spanish old lady that "restored" the "Ecce Homo" painting - they completely botched this affair beyond recognition in 2011, and are now playing the moral superiority card because... refugees.