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.

Banif and our hard-working European buddies

As the Banif soap opera unrolls (or should I say unravels), we now hear that our hard-working European buddies have been "most concerned" about Banif, for "quite some time" (at least, three years worth of "quite some time") and that there were "frequent contacts" between Lisbon and Brussels during this "quite some time".

Possibly for ordering pastéis de nata.

It all brings to mind Wheelie Boy, the German Finance Minister, when the Cyprus crisis blasted. I'll never forget good old WB going "Cyprus has been at this for years", and then surprinsigly leaving out what he - and all the other people who knew that "Cyprus had been at it for years" - had done to correct the problem. I can tell what all those marvelous hard-working people did, and I won't even have to bore you with details; fortunately for all of us, the English language has one word that neatly resumes all the effort put in by WB and other likewise hard-workers: Nothing.

And that is also what we have here. Our hard-working European buddies have been "most concerned", in "frequent contacts" (here's hoping they enjoyed their pastéis de nata), and... nothing happened.

Our ex-dear leader and his remarkable team sat on their asses for, at least, three years, and our hard-working European buddies... did the exact same thing.

It's good to know we're finally as efficient and as productive as our hard-working European buddies.

PS: Yes, yes, another Mea Culpa from the IMF. Who cares?

More European by the minute

Finally, we know the plan for dealing with the migrants, and I must say it's very European. No, that's definitely not a compliment.

We begin our display of European solidarity by telling the migrants that they either accept our "redistribution scheme" or we'll send them back (I'm eagerly waiting to see what this will entail). So, even though most of them want to go to Germany, Sweden, et al (aka, Paradise), they'll actually go to, say, Bulgaria, and like it. And they'll only have any sort of social support in the destination we choose for them. So, if they leave, say, Bulgaria, and head for Paradise, I suspect they'll be in a situation akin to illegal immigration.

If they don't accept, then they can apply right where they are. Which, mostly, means Greece and Italy. Most definitely not Paradise.

So, once again, our hard-working Northern buddies show their solidarity by making sure the mess is Someone Else's Problem(TM).

Oh, and 3K million euros for our Turkish friends, because only with this money can they stem the migrant tide. And let's also resume Turkey's EU membership negotiations, because, as we can plainly see, it's a country that shares so many of our values.

Or should that be valuables?

The A-hole award

Time is an ally. It's not without its problems, the main one being... it takes time.

But I'll usually wait things out and, more often than not (sometimes, quite unfortunately), reality and my opinion will eventually align.

Today, Turkey shot down a Russian war plane, which had, allegedly, violated its airspace.

As I've said previously, the Asshole in this Syrian story is not Russia. It's Turkey.

Turkey doesn't give a rat's ass about ISIS, provided they just go screw themselves somewhere else. When this "ally" of ours finally moved to do something in Syria, it bombed the Kurds, the only faction on the ground that was actually fighting ISIS effectively.

And the timing for this is not innocent, either. Russia has been trying to approach the West, because it has a few goals of its own to achieve, and won't be able to do it without a global consensus. And the Paris attacks have created a favourable context for that approach, one more favourable than we have seen in years. So, even though Russia could just "mis-aim" a couple of attacks as a payback, I don't believe it's in their best interest to do it now.

My bet? They'll take the slap in the face, take note, and wait. Time is an ally.

Speaking of timing, and on a related issue, I haven't quite decided what is the meaning of the power line sabotage in Crimea. Early days and all that. It could be Ukraine taking advantage of this same context. Or it could be something else. Just because Russia is not the Asshole in the picture, doesn't mean they're trustworthy. Let's give it some time.

Also on a related - and quite ironic - note. Our Asshole "ally" is the same Asshole the EU is ready to hand over hundreds of millions (and relax visa requirements, to boot).

I'll bet Greece is really happy, now.

After the tragedy...

Suddenly, everyone agrees on what has been bloody obvious for anyone graced with a brain cell count totaling above zero - dealing with terrorism requires an united front.

Of course, that's not going to happen. Oh, yes, we will get some sort of alliance between "our side", aka, The Good Guys (USA, UE, NATO, whatever), and "their side", aka, The Bad Guys (Russia, Iran, who else?), in order to fight The Even Worse Guys.

But, obviously, this alliance will be mined with political maneuvering from all parties, each more focused on gaining something from this situation, than on eliminating the threat.

From Russia's side, the concern about terrorism is a pretext for keeping an important ally in the Middle East, and creating some sort of leverage to keep the current Ukrainian status quo.

From "our" side... where do I begin?

The USA/EU are more concerned about making sure Russia loses its Syrian ally than about anything else.

I still maintain Ukraine is a trophy that keeps Berlin and Moscow butting heads, and I'm yet to see anything that proves me wrong.

I see our Ellected Accountants exhorting Russia to "change its strategy in Syria", all the while having friendly conversations with our Turkish "friends", who spend their time mostly bombing the Kurds, who have been the only force capable of effectively fighting ISIS right from the start. Worse, it's because of our Turkish "friends" we're not giving a higher level of support to the Kurds. That we have the gall of criticizing Russia when we have "allies" like Turkey clearly shows where our priorities lie.

Not to forget Yemen, naturally, where other "allies" of ours are carrying out a devastating bombing campaign, worse than anything the Russians have done; but that's OK, because they're on our side, and we're The Good Guys, right?

I know it might look like I'm defending Russia. Not really, though. I have no illusions about the Russian goals, here. What I never expected to say was - Yeah, the Russians are awful, but, man, when I look at our side... we're even worse...

This last decade has been extremely educational.

Congratulations on the Nobel Peace Prize

Congratulations not just to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, by all accounts a deserving recipient of the Prize.

Congratulations also to the Nobel Committee. After the jokes that were the awards to Obama and the EU, it's refreshing to see the Prize going to someone who is actually... what's the word...? Ah, yes... worthy.

Early in the morning on Oct. 9, I was listening to the news, and someone was interviewed saying Mother Merkel was a serious contender. And I braced myself for another Nobel Peace Joke.

Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. A rare event, it's true. And one I would expect to experience more often, given that I'm a natural pessimist - if you always expect the worst, you should get plenty of good surprises.

Unfortunately, as pessimistic as I may be, the World always finds a way to make me look like Mary Poppins.

But not this time.