[PJMedia] Defamation isn't always easy to prove in court. If it were, the New York Times and the Washington Post would be launching GoFundMe pages and holding bake sales to pay off their legal bills. Most prominent Republican candidates and politicians probably have at least a dozen legitimate defamation lawsuits against various mainstream media outlets that they'd file right away if they had a decent chance of winning.
With publications like the Times and WaPo, the line between editorial opinion and journalism was obliterated years ago. They're not news organizations, they're one big op-ed. The editorial boards of both use their respective opinion sections to launch attack narratives that will, more often than not, be reinforced by their "journalists."
Prior to the political ascent of Donald Trump, Sarah Palin had been the most maliciously maligned Republican for years. In 2017 — nine years after she'd been on the GOP presidential ticket — Palin had had enough and decided to take the New York Times to court. Palin failed in that effort but is now getting a chance for a new trial.
The New York Post:
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Palin can try again to prove that the Times should be liable for a 2017 editorial that incorrectly linked her to a mass shooting six years earlier that killed six people and seriously wounded Democratic U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Lawyers for Palin argued that U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who oversaw the February 2022 trial, wrongly excluded evidence of the Times’ actual malice and wrongly instructed jurors to disregard some of that evidence.
A judge putting his thumb on the scale during a trial to be unfair to a hated Republican? Who ever heard of such a thing?!?!?
Again, defamation suits are an uphill battle. Sarah Palin and her legal team may have a dual purpose here, however.
More from the Post:
Media critics, and Palin herself, have viewed the case as a possible vehicle to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision that set a high bar for public figures to prove defamation.
It's a safe bet that the Times wasn't running opinion pieces about the desperate need to change the Supreme Court back then.
[FoxNews] Jen Sey clashed with 'aggressively conformist' San Francisco elites during COVID
"Elitist jerks and hypocrites" at Harley-Davidson, and other brands such as Bud Light, are responsible for the woke-inflicted meltdown marquee American companies have suffered in recent years, an entrepreneur in the trenches of the corporate culture wars tells Fox New Digital.
"It's Business 101. You don’t disrespect your core consumers and you certainly don’t alienate and abandon them in the search to grow and expand elsewhere," said Jennifer Sey, a former senior marketing executive for Levi Strauss & Co.
Sey, the former Levi’s executive, witnessed the corporate culture wars from the trenches of the boardroom battlefield. She was a C-suite celebrity in 2020, charged with managing, polishing and growing the iconic Levi’s brand. Founded by German immigrant Levi Strauss in San Francisco in 1853, Levi's jeans have enjoyed global prestige as a symbol of American culture and opportunity.
But then the "lifelong Democrat" was shaken out of her corporate comfort when she opposed the city’s, the state of California’s, and her own employer’s onerous responses to COVID-19.
"I was a leader in the community and I was just vilified for speaking out against school closings," Sey said. "I was demonized because I cared about keeping schools open. I mean, it became an unlivable place for me."
Sey was forced out after a 23-year career at Levi's in 2022.
"San Francisco is the most aggressively conformist place you can fathom," she said. "It is not inclusive. It is not logical. And it is not progressive."
"Canceled," she claims, by corporate America, she was unable to land an executive-level position that reflected her sterling credentials.
Sey relocated to Colorado and launched XX-XY Athletics, a performance apparel company, in March. She's now a warrior against wokeism. The name of her company is itself an act of defiance against the notion that womanhood exists on a spectrum of sorts.
"The message is that there is empirical truth. Biology is true," Sey said. "It’s very simple, actually. There is XX and there is XY. We can corrupt the truth with language all we want. But at the end of the day the truth is that sex is binary."
The corruption of long-held truths and the embrace of radical ideology that drove her out of Levi's, and has driven customers away from Harley-Davidson, Bud Light, and other revered American brands, is the product of many factors, she believes.
"The elites adopt all these crazy far-left positions to assuage their guilt about having tons of money and privilege," she said.
"The other thing is that these companies are now populated by Gen Z employees from a woke education system and from woke universities who were raised in safe spaces and want you to know their pronouns," she added.
Executives fear running afoul of the surrounding mob, inciting their social-media outrage, and jeopardizing the wealth, privilege and perks they pretend to reject.
[Breitbart] This August marks the fifth anniversary of the Business Roundtable’s redefinition of the purpose of a corporation to serve “stakeholders” (think Black Lives Matter, the LBGTQ+ agenda, and more) shifting American businesses leftward, and diluting the lifeblood of successful enterprises — making products that people want to buy, ensuring those products are of high quality, earning a profit, and delivering robust shareholder return.
Daniel Cameron, the CEO of the 1792 Exchange and former Kentucky attorney general, said the 1792 Exchange serves to push companies back toward political neutrality, or “common sense,” in Cameron’s words. The 1792 Exchange CEO lauded the growing number of corporations that have increasingly abandoned leftist environmental, social and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Cameron told Breitbart News Daily host Mike Slater, “We’ve seen Tractor Supply, I want to give a shout out to their CEO, Hal Lawton, we’ve seen John Deere, we’ve seen Harley Davidson, we’ve seen Brown Forman (Jack Daniels), others making a decision, and we see many in the tech space again leading the charge back to the middle on issues like ESG and DEI. They’re getting rid of those DEI policies because they know at the end of the day corporations don’t need to be built on diversity, equity, and inclusion, our corporations need to be built on merit, excellence, and intelligence.”
Cameron also noted that five years ago, the Business Roundtable, which he said serves as an organization of the CEOs of the largest corporations, decided to redefine the purpose of a corporation away from its profit-motive and toward serving leftist stakeholders such as Black Lives Matter.
He said this leftward move has caused many of these corporations to back “Black Lives Matter, you got Dylan Mulvaney … you get Disney making judgments and decisions to fight a common-sense law in Florida.” He noted that major CEOs and corporations have given $82 billion to Black Lives Matter.
The 1792 Exchange CEO also noted that Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, wanted to destroy the fossil fuel industry within the next couple of decades.
“This is all because of, and stems from, the fact that the Business Roundtable wanted to change and redefine the purpose of a corporation,” Cameron remarked.
#1
The greatest failing of the "social elites" is that they view the individuals of the masses as interchangable, the same, you can just sub one for the other. They're not.
So they get mad at people for not being theoretical contructs.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/28/2024 9:29 Comments ||
Top||
#2
IIRC, Levi's was one of the corporate pioneers of Woke.
I had heard WNBA has banned kneeling during the anthem. Obviously doing a search for that brings up 8 years of why kneeling is super cool, but if so that would be a significant policy development.
#5
As has been said "get woke and go broke." Business and government policies driven by "DIE, green, and woke" tend to ignore markets and engineering which is a certain path to disaster and the bottom. The inmates are running the asylum.
#6
Just look at the result differences between Acolyte and Concorde vs. Godzilla Minus One and Black Myth: Wukong*.
*Wukong is a just released game which will likely out pace sales of Hogwart's Legacy and Zelda. It was got after by the DIE agents for its lack of diversity - Chinese company making a Chinese game set in the like 1500s China Mythology and they were told to piss off even after being threatened. Concord is a shooter game which cribbed other shooters and advertised itself as a game for today's Modern Audiences. Huge budget, some peak number of players at a time in the low hundreds.
[FoxNews] The USS Ronald Reagan left its home port of Japan after nine years in May and will be replaced by the USS George Washington later this year.
The Pentagon claimed it can "walk and chew gum at the same time" when asked how long the U.S. will go without an aircraft carrier group in the Indo-Pacific region.
Walking while chewing gum is easy compared to driving a ship surrounded by other ships. Or so I’ve heard.
Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder was asked by Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin Tuesday how long he expected there would not be an aircraft carrier strike group in the Indo-Pacific. She also asked if not having a carrier in the region was risky.
"Well, look, you know, as we look at global force management and as we look at requirements around the world in support of our national security interests, we're always taking great care to make sure that we can cover those commitments to include, in our priority theater, which is the Indo-Pacific region," Ryder said. "And, so, we have a significant amount of capability there to include a large naval presence."
Two carrier strike groups — the USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Abraham Lincoln — are in the Middle East as part of America’s commitment "to support Israel’s defense against threats from Iran and its regional partners and proxies," according to the Pentagon.
Both carriers are in the Gulf of Oman.
Ryder told reporters the two carrier groups would remain in the region to provide additional capability and capacity to protect U.S. forces, support Israel’s defense and be ready for a variety of contingencies.
In May, the USS Ronald Reagan departed from its Japanese home port, wrapping up nearly nine years of deployment in the Indo-Pacific, where it played a key role in the U.S. effort to bolster defense ties with Japan and regional partners.
#3
Maybe if you quit game of 'proportional response' and actually conduct war you wouldn't need to have ships lingering around places.
How about Germany V.2, take out all the Yemenis POL ability and then take out bridges and rail yards. Suddenly, stuff stops moving. You can get back to other issues while they use camels to drag stuff.
#5
So.
When was George Washington originally supposed to set out?
I love it when our Top Men talk like snotty 2nd graders when asked a proper question. Reminds me of my conversation with a local solid Democrat when she said today's kids shouldn't enter the military.
#9
/\ Mothballing Merchant Marine ships should assist with the upcoming mission impossible. There's really nothing we can do for them, the Taiwanese that is.
The transfer of soverienty began rather slowly then accellerated just before the Orange Man's 2025 enauguration. Timing really is everything.
#10
The basic objective of our military is to win wars. Endless wars, woke policies, and leaving wars before they are finished, and baling out of Afghanistan and leaving people and billions of dollars in equipment behind weaken our ability to achieve our main objective. We should not piss away our strengh.
#14
How soon can we get this war on Iran kicked off? It's long past time. Why can't the CIA engage in the conflict initiation phases we know they're capable of? No more Iran, no more Hamas, no more Hezbollah.
[ZeroHedge] Have you noticed an unusual number of vehicles in the parking lots of major retailers in your area at night? If you look closely enough, you will see that many of those vehicles actually have people sleeping in them. At this point, millions of Americans are sleeping in their vehicles every night. This is happening even though we are being told that the economy is just fine. But of course the truth is that the system is failing all around us.
In particular, the cost of housing has become extremely oppressive. In fact, housing in the United States has become more unaffordable than it has ever been before.
This week, I was stunned to read about a 33-year-old man named Ishan Abeysekera that is paying $2,100 a month to share a house with 23 other people…
In a city as notoriously expensive as New York, it’s common to see people in their late 20s and early 30s living with roommates to help manage the high cost of living.
But Ishan Abeysekera has taken that to the next level with his current living situation in Brooklyn: a communal building that he shares with a whopping 23 other people.
There are millions of others in a similar position. In recent years, “van life” has become quite trendy, and more than 3 million Americans now fall into this category…
“Van life” or “van living” is a term that is becoming more popular around the country. People packing up their lives, moving into a mobile unit and exploring the states.
According to Yahoo Finance, the number of American van lifers has increased by 63% over the last couple of years, going from 1.9 million in 2020, to 3.1 million in 2022.
Sounds scary. But given that the current American population is heading toward 346 million, that’s less than 1% of the population is living in their vehicles — how does this compare to recent economic downturns, like 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and the dotcom bubble of 2001?
In the old days, if you lived in a van down by the river you were considered to be a bum.“
A lot of these people have jobs, and a lot of these people would not be officially classified as “homeless”.
Our South Side Assoc. is seeing more and more seniors on the streets and camping in wooded areas.
Having sat down and spoken with a few actual homeless that we have helped, and not the increasingly common $$$ grabing pan-handelers.
I have learned a number are drawing Social Sec. and few even have modest retirement checsk coming in. But their income COLA did not keep up with DC Swamp inflationary spending.
Given the way the DC Swamp is handling this, a person could get the idea DC has writen off the seniors.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Vladimir Dobrynin
[REGNUM] On the evening of August 23, another terrorist attack occurred in Germany: a man armed with a knife attacked citizens in Solingen. Three people were killed, at least eight were injured, five of them seriously. Quite expectedly, the terrorist was detained in a center for the accommodation of "refugees."
He wasn’t actually — he’d been hiding elsewhere when he walked up to a police car and turned himself in. But he had been living in a refugee center some 800 meters from where he started pouncing on passers by. Another Syrian man was arrested during a raid there earlier in the day.
The event is especially flavored by the fact that the victims were visitors to the "Festival of Diversity", dedicated to the 650th anniversary of Solingen, a city that has long been famous for its blades.
Such sacrifices are the price that Europeans are paying for a very targeted policy of their governments. Its essence was voiced literally two days before the Solingen massacre by the member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) Fabio Panetta: European countries must increase economic immigration if they want to overcome the problem of population ageing and achieve sustainable economic growth.
And all this is happening against the backdrop of courts in England rubber-stamping sentences for participants in anti-migrant protests, which in some places have already turned into pogroms.
It is hardly surprising that the opinions of the ruling elite and the common people do not coincide. Europe opened its doors to "labor hands" from the Middle East and Africa long ago and wide open. In the expectation that the newcomers will consider themselves obligated to the good white masters for the rest of their lives for a bowl of soup and a roof over their heads. They will work not out of fear, but out of conscience, without taking into account their own needs and interests.
OLD AGE IS NO JOY
Europe has long been facing the problem of an aging population and the replenishment of the workforce, which creates a disproportion in the ratio between those working and those retiring.
Life expectancy is growing. However, this "medal", which emphasizes the high level of economic development of European society, also has a reverse - negative - side.
According to economists, for every citizen who has retired due to years of service, there should be at least two pairs of working hands in the country's economy. Otherwise, pension payments can only be provided by reaching into the pocket called the budget. Which will force the state to borrow more and more on the domestic and foreign markets.
Or you need to come up with something. Something that promises a quick achievement of the goal and does not require large investments.
In the spring of 2000, the UN issued a report, “Replacement Migration: A Solution to a Declining and Aging Population?”, in which it outlined a recipe for prosperity: “To maintain the required level of pension contributions, Europe needs to accept at least 1 million immigrants per year. ”
It's simple, isn't it? Instead of racking your brains over increasing the birth rate of the native population and the long-term expectation of the younger generation to grow up (it turns out that children don't start working immediately after birth, but after almost two decades), you just need to accept a certain number of foreigners who, by definition, should be grateful for the opportunity to live in a developed society.
50,000 EUROS PER YEAR PER MIGRANT
The very first fulfillment of the annual reception quota (2015 - approximately 1.5 million so-called refugees, a million of whom chose Germany as their dream country) really scared the hospitable hosts.
The "new arrivals" were given social benefits - supposedly for a time, but it is well known that there is nothing more permanent than something declared temporary. The regularity of the subsidies issued, allowing them not to work, only increased the number of those wishing to move from the place that Josep Borrell later called the "jungle" to the "Garden of Eden", as he himself defined it.
The guests quickly settled in, but instead of getting used to the traditions and norms of the hosts, they began to dictate their own terms. There is no need to talk here about how the newcomers established their own rules - it is enough to recall the Christmas (on the eve of the onset of 2016) attacks by refugees on German women in Cologne, Berlin, Dusseldorf and other cities - a total of about 1,000 cases of sexual harassment, robbery and rape.
Or about how in France and Belgium, visitors - at the slightest thing wrong, in their opinion - burn cars. Or set off explosions at the airport. Or run over passers-by with trucks.
But it makes sense to remember that the European press, having barely exhaled words of condolence to the victims, immediately begins to prove that the aliens are good. And that there is no more evil from them than from the natives.
The media prefer not to publish unpleasant data, such as those cited, for example, by the retired French officer and public figure Jacques Guilman: of the “million” who arrived in Germany, only 5% were able to integrate into the labor market, to the chagrin of employers, while the rest live on social benefits or stand in line for them.”
In 2019, the book The Scramble for Europe by American journalist Stephen Smith
…born in America but educated in France and Germany, Mr. Smith edited the French newspapers Libération and Le Monde, where he specialized in Africa before becoming a professor at Duke in 2007...
was published in Spain. In it, the author promised Europeans “a quick solution to the continent’s demographic problem through the arrival and reproduction of Africans on the lands of the Old World.”
The American tried to calm the Europeans by saying that they shouldn't think that the guests are coming expecting to live on the fat social benefits of the Old Continent. No, there are some of them, of course, but they are few. The bulk of those arriving are middle-income people.
"Despite the fact that in many African countries the annual income per person barely reaches 1,000 euros, those going to Europe cannot be considered beggars. After all, in order to get to the final destination of their journey, the applicant must pay a decent amount of money - at least €2,500 - to various intermediaries and organizers of trans-Mediterranean traffic. A low-skilled worker or a poor person simply does not have that kind of money. This means that the European Union gets highly educated people practically for free."
Highly educated for Africa or the Moslem Middle East means what, exactly? Because in 2015 their German hosts were shocked at what the asylum seekers from Syria were unable to do.
Meanwhile, each envoy from Africa is the implementation of the program "one in writing, seven (eight, nine, etc.) in mind." His task is to gain a foothold, to legalize. Having received documents for a temporary/permanent residence permit for himself, he immediately begins the process of "family reunification" - this is how members of his large family become Europeans, who, without putting things off for too long, begin to rapidly contribute to solving the demographic problems of Europe.
The author was embarrassed to mention that, for example, the French state spends about €50,000 per year on each of the foreign immigrants (health care, social services, financial assistance in paying for rented housing, etc.). He also kept quiet about the fact that the notorious 2.5 thousand euros for the person sent to Europe were collected by the entire village.
"THIS WILL END BADLY"
There are many people in Africa, and the population growth is rapid: currently, about 1.4 billion people live on the Black Continent, and by 2050 there will already be 2.5 billion. Africans will be able to easily support European demography and bring it out of the slump.
According to Smith's calculations, by 2050 the number of Africans in the EU (not only those who have moved there, but also those who were born on its territory) could well reach 1.250 billion. The number of native Europeans (in the EU plus Britain), on the contrary, will decrease - from 510 to 450 million (thanks to childfree, the "conscious motherhood" program, same-sex marriages, etc.).
"Measures that encourage the influx of legal foreign workers are a rational response from an economic point of view, " said Panetta, who is also governor of the Bank of Italy. " The entry of regular immigrants must be managed in a coordinated manner within the European Union, strengthening the integration of foreign nationals into the education system and the labor market."
The UN expects the working-age population (15 to 64 years old) to shrink by an average of 0.7% year-on-year over the next decade. It is expected to decline the most in Italy (an average of 1.3%) and the least in France (0.1% year-on-year). This is fueling debate about the need for more immigration to the Old Continent to expand the workforce.
“With populations ageing, net immigration will need to increase significantly simply to maintain the current working-age population,” Capital Economics analyst Adrian Prettejohn said in a note to clients. “It is true that immigration could, in principle, be reduced by policy decisions. We have seen popular support for anti-immigration parties increase in many European countries in recent years. But in practice, we doubt that governments will be willing (or able) to significantly curb immigration, given labour shortages and the damage to the economy that would come from not bringing in workers from outside.”
The company's analysts believe that the most significant reduction in the working-age population will occur in France (-1.9%), Italy (-2.5%) and Germany (-3.4%). And these data differ greatly from UN forecasts.
“The decline in the working-age population will directly translate into lower GDP, and the eurozone’s poor demographic outlook supports our view that the eurozone will lag other advanced economies in the long term,” Prettejohn concludes.
The governments of most EU countries (with the possible exception of the Visegrad Four) are satisfied with this economic justification for supporting and increasing the influx of migrants into Europe. But the population is increasingly expressing concerns that “this will end badly.”
Law-abiding Germans, Spaniards and Italians try to avoid sharp corners when commenting on the actions of the authorities. But they already see the "time bombs" and are cautiously trying to point out to the authorities that they are planting them under Europe with their own hands.
BICKFORD FUSE
Continental media are gradually changing their view of what is happening. But without risking to rebel against the current EU migration policy, but simply broadcasting and posting on the pages the very same concerns. For now - of individual groups of the population in individual locations. The position of the press is "we are not against the authorities, but just in case we hint that there may be problems."
The Spanish El Mundo recently reported in its headline that “the smallest municipality in the autonomous region of Galicia welcomes 280 Malian citizens who are being accommodated for permanent residence.” The greeting, however, as it turns out when reading the article itself, was only expressed by the head of the administration of the settlement of Mondariz-Balneario. The residents of this settlement very reservedly expressed, in the language of diplomats, disappointment.
The native Spaniards can be understood: the population of Mondariz is 703 people. And here the authorities are creating a colony of foreigners, 40% of whom are Galicians. And the autonomous government is debating in full swing how many more migrants can be sent here and to neighboring villages - 400 or 1000?
The locals understand that peaceful coexistence will not last long - everyone read about the massacre in England on the Internet. The incident in Solingen added doubts to the souls of the Spaniards.
Yes, for now the Iberian kingdom is calmer than France, but judging by how the Spaniards are creating migrant enclaves and diasporas with their own hands, the fuse has already been lit.
In Germany, the picture is similar. Berliner Zeitung notes that "Berliners are reacting painfully to luxury apartments for refugees in one of the city's districts."
For the "new Germans" who came from Turkey and Syria, three apartment buildings for 61 families are being built in one of the fashionable areas on Kirchstrasse, a street in the northern part of the German capital. The housing conditions are higher than for the average Berliner. Rents in the area start at 1,400 euros, but for the refugees, everything is free.
"The area of gardens and cottages will be adjacent to a "shelter" for migrants, " Robert R., the owner of one of the chalets, shared his thoughts with the publication's correspondent without getting out of the pool. " Our supermarkets are quite far away here, there is no municipal transport, and it is also unclear what the newcomers will do. They will very quickly become marginalized. My neighbors and I are afraid that migrants will engage in robbery and theft here, and they will have to forget about a quiet life."
"Many Berliners lack living space, and visitors get everything - first and foremost, for free," Robert's neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, expresses his displeasure. The reason for this desire is understandable - who wants to get into trouble with the state, but when it comes to a repeat of the "Cologne Christmas nights" or the "Solingen massacre," Berliners will have to show their faces.
And few doubt that the neighborhood will not be peaceful. Especially if they remember that the capital already has 117 refugee reception centers and new ones are being built.
IS THERE A WAY OUT?
Several years ago, the issue of allocating funds for the "development of Africa" was actively discussed at the top of the European Union. The idea, in principle, was quite reasonable: to invest money in the economy of the Black Continent, the education of its inhabitants, to provide them with jobs and a decent existence on their land, thereby reducing the flow of illegal immigrants to Europe. If necessary, select the best and most qualified of those who were trained, and let them into the EU countries.
The talks ended in nothing: according to the official version, the COVID pandemic got in the way, and the supposed “African” money went towards injections and masks.
A similar idea has surfaced now: Austrian writer and leader of the Identity Movement Martin Zellner said in an interview with the Polish publication Myśl Polska that “Europe needs remigration.” He dedicated his new book to this issue.
According to Zellner, who is also considered the ideological leader of the German party Alternative for Germany, the issue of remigration is currently very popular both in the AfD and in the French New Right.
"We now use the term as a blanket term to describe a major change, a 180-degree turn in the whole migration policy. We think we have had too much migration. We cannot bear the consequences of immigration economically and culturally.
So remigration is a general concept to return and repatriate illegal immigrants, limit immigration to Europe, and stop the flow of people who do not help our economic system and are a cultural burden on us, says Zellner.
— It is also about creating incentives for unassimilated people and the parallel communities they have formed to return to their homeland. So it is a very broad definition. In my book I present a concept that could save Europe — make Germany German again, Italy Italian again, Austria Austrian again. I would say that it is an avant-garde concept. Yes, it is something more radical than what we have today in mainstream politics. However, I believe that it will definitely become a very important idea for our politics in the future.”
Martin Zellner proposes leasing entire cities in Africa for 100 years, where immigrants could be returned. And also building new megacities on the free territories, where people returned from Europe would live, work, receive an education, develop culturally, and so on.
In fact, according to the author of the remigration concept, it is “much cheaper and more profitable for Europe than accepting migrants and trying to assimilate the unassimilable.” In Africa, money is ten times cheaper than in Europe, he claims, so the program is not at all utopian, as its opponents believe.
#3
Yes, for now the Iberian kingdom is calmer than France, but judging by how the Spaniards are creating migrant enclaves and diasporas with their own hands, the fuse has already been lit.
Think of it as the government as the rancher and thier constituents as the cattle.
#4
"According to Smith's calculations, by 2050 the number of Africans in the EU (not only those who have moved there, but also those who were born on its territory) could well reach 1.250 billion."
Bizarre calculation. The current number of people living in the EU is around 440 million. Current forecasts for 2050 see a small decline.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/28/2024 9:10 Comments ||
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#5
EC, I'm afraid that decline is for the native, white Europeans and NOT the immigrants. European and American leaders have made a catastrophic mistake.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2024 11:50 Comments ||
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#6
Unchecked immigration, cheap labor, and socialist political systems. More cattle urgently needed.
#7
Sarcastic thought experiment: If you adopt an agricultural approach to livestock management it becomes clear. The cost of existing herds of high-end dairy and beef cattle for feed and maintenance on a per animal basis is massive. Simply cut the fence line and let lesser quality strays thicken the herd for free and weed out the costly animals for market and rendering plants. Bigger herd at a much lower cost per animal and the bonus, they are far more willing to accept lesser maintenance quality. Sound familiar?
Text taken from a V Kontakte post from Reports from the Novorossiya militia, authored by by Russian political scientist Vladimir Kornilov.
[VK] Notable articles are now coming out in the West about the arrest of Pavel Durov. They are trying to explain to Western readers who he is and what Telegram is. And it is clear how the authors of these opuses are trying to "cross a hedgehog with a snake", explaining why in some parts of the world Durov's brainchild is a "criminal instrument", and in others - a "torch of freedom and justice".
For example, Le Figaro publishes an article in which it reminds the French audience that Telegram is actively used not only by "patriots of Russia" (this, apparently, should seem like a dirty word), but also by the Russian opposition. In particular, the newspaper recalls the role that propaganda Telegram channels played in the attempt to overthrow the legitimate government in Belarus in 2020. There is obvious regret expressed about the prospect of losing such an instrument of influence in “totalitarian” societies.
Western journalist Natalia Vasilyeva, who worked for a long time as a special correspondent for the Associated Press in Moscow and is now based in Istanbul, has now introduced Durov as almost “the chief of communications of the Russian army.” And just a few years ago, she published such touching reports about the fight “for freedom of the Internet” in Russia, commenting on rallies in defense of the same Durov.
The lamentations of the fugitive Russian liberals are especially funny. University of Chicago lecturer Konstantin Sonin* also tries to present Telegram as almost the main means of communication for the Russian army, but then says that “many oppositionists and opinion leaders are puzzled by Durov’s arrest today: Telegram was their main platform for disseminating their messages.” The dilemma, however, is for our liberals. That is, they would be happy to put a noose on freedom of speech in Russia, but they act according to the principle “Why us?”
The same is said in a column published today in the British newspaper The Times. The author, well-known columnist and radio host Hugo Rifkind, explaining to readers what Telegram is, writes (hold on now): “It’s a social network with almost a billion regular users around the world, and you’re probably not one of them. That’s because you don’t live in a repressive state that regularly restricts more common forms of communication. Also, you are probably not a criminal, a child rapist, or a paranoid political extremist."
And here Rifkind writes about the same dilemma: in countries "with pernicious regimes," Telegram is a great tool for delivering the "right" (from the West's point of view, of course) messages. But is it worth putting up with the fact that in the West it is used for the "wrong" actions?
What do all these publications and the emotional turmoil of Western propagandists mean? In essence, they are directly calling for Durov to be slapped on the wrist by completely banning Telegram in the territory of "democracies." Why, really, if there are enough more elite-controlled means of communication there? But in "totalitarian" states, it is necessary to continue "sowing democracy," of course, having strictly cleansed the information space of "wrong opinions."
In other words, the authors of the publications are essentially proposing to turn the platform into something like the Voice of America** of the Cold War era, when this propaganda structure carried the "only correct opinion" behind the Iron Curtain, to the countries of the Soviet bloc, but had no right to broadcast in America itself - this opinion was considered harmful there. It looks like this is the scenario that will be offered to Durov.
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Imagine a world where SAUDI ARABIA is a beacon of press freedom and France has become an instrument of censorship/tyranny…
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kirill Semenov
[REGNUM] “Whoever controls the seas controls the world,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on August 24 at the commissioning ceremony of the TCG Pirireis submarine, the first in the Reis-class submarine series.
All hail the coming neo-Ottoman sultinate, Sultan Recep Tayip Erdogan I, “the much beloved”, presiding.
In his speech, the Turkish leader emphasized the importance of control over the seas for world domination: “In order to live on our lands in peace and tranquility, we must have a strong and effective navy.”
Erdogan also added that “Ankara’s friends are watching the country’s steps with admiration, while its opponents are watching with fear.” He recalled the “Blue Homeland” doctrine and emphasized the strategic importance of the submarine force in strengthening this Turkish concept.
From the statements of the Turkish leader, it is obvious that for the Turkish Republic, the foreign policy concept of the "Blue Homeland" is still extremely relevant and determines its guidelines. It underlies, among other things, the programs for building the fleet and international activities.
Therefore, of course, Turkey’s foreign policy itself is not formulated due to some immediate needs and challenges, but is based on developed and implemented geopolitical doctrines that ensure the advancement of its long-term interests.
"STRATEGIC DEPTH" BY AHMET DAVUTOGLU
The Blue Homeland concept was adopted after the implementation of some of Turkey's previous geopolitical constructs reached a dead end. However, this does not mean that their implementation has been abandoned altogether. On the contrary, they all ultimately merge with the Blue Homeland and form a broader geostrategy for Ankara.
Therefore, the undoubted strength that has given Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) an advantage since its first victory in the parliamentary elections in 2002 and to this day is the presence of a clear conceptual foreign policy line.
Turkey's new goal, couched in slogans and policy documents that year, was to restore a "spiritually oriented" political regime, based on a culturally Muslim but at the same time socially and economically highly developed society, whose ideological and geopolitical orientations had been lost during the years of secularism and movement towards the West.
Combining elements of the Kemalist agreement (the “National Vow”) familiar to all Turks, as well as moderate Islamist and purely pragmatic views, Turkey began consistent work on the formation of a new geopolitical and geo-economic order in the region.
Its foundations were carefully worked out in his work “Strategic Depth” (2001) by the leading ideologist of the AKP, Professor Ahmet Davutoğlu, who later became the Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Prime Minister under President Erdoğan.
The first geopolitical doctrine, which formed the basis of modern Turkish policy, was called “Strategic Depth”. At the same time, most aspects of this geopolitical concept are relevant for Turkey to this day, “Blue Homeland” in its provisions is a part of it, which arose from the direction that spoke about bringing Turkey to the “front lines” of the Black Sea and Mediterranean basins, and subsequently to more distant waters.
Davutoglu believed that Turkey should stop aligning its foreign policy with NATO interests. In his opinion, Brussels assigned Ankara only the role of a buffer state, a “defender of NATO’s geographic perimeter” and an “executor” of the alliance’s regional objectives. This prevented Turkey from realizing the potential of its geostrategic position and deprived it of that very “strategic depth.”
Turkey's new strategy in the 21st century envisaged the use of potential in the East, the development of the Middle Eastern and Islamic vector of Turkey's foreign policy. At the same time, NATO membership would also be preserved, as would Ankara's ties with the West. Together, this was intended to ensure its interests in Europe and the Balkans, as well as in the Middle East and the Islamic world as a whole.
That is, now it was not Turkey that was supposed to become a “buffer” and “military frontier” for NATO and Europe, but the opposite: Brussels and NATO would be used by Ankara as a reliable European rear in the consistent advancement of Turkish national interests in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, where all funds and resources were supposed to be thrown.
It should be noted that observations of Ankara’s actions in the international arena indicate that much of what was laid down in this concept has been successfully implemented.
Among the first practical steps taken by Turkey to implement this doctrine, in particular, we can recall the refusal to provide its territory for the US and British operation against Iraq in 2003. At that time, the role of an outpost of the West already contradicted Ankara's interests. Therefore, Turkey did not interfere in the conflict with Saddam Hussein and continued to solve its own, rather than American-British, problems in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The next stage of the implementation of the “Strategic Depth” was the concept of “Zero Problems with Neighbors”. The actions in this direction were summarized in May 2010 on the pages of the presidential magazine “Foreign Policy” in the article “Turkey’s Problem-Free Foreign Policy” authored by the same Davutoglu, who was already the Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time.
In fact, it was within its framework that the very same “family friendship” between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Recep Tayyip Erdogan was established, and the first attempt to reconcile with Armenia was made within the framework of the so-called “football diplomacy”, when Turkish President Abdullah Gul (the real head of the executive power at that time was Prime Minister Erdogan) first visited this country in 2008.
Finally, an important aspect of “Strategic Depth” is the so-called “rhythmic diplomacy”, that is, Turkey’s entry into all sorts of organizations – from the G20 to the application to the SCO, first announced in 2013, and to BRICS in 2024, as well as the formation of the Organization of Turkic States on the basis of the Turkic Council.
And those very “chairs” on which, according to a number of Russian Turkologists, Turkey should have been sitting uncomfortably all this time, appeared precisely in the doctrine of “strategic depth” called “multi-vectorism.” Ankara has been comfortably seated on them since 2002.
This multi-vector approach was manifested, for example, in the fact that Turkey’s relations with the United States, which were seen primarily through NATO membership, should not conflict with the development of partnership ties and good-neighborliness with Russia.
Also, the process of Turkey's integration into the EU, which was still considered achievable at that time, could have been balanced by the creation of its own or participation in existing integration initiatives with states in the Middle East and Eurasia. This also concerned military ties with NATO, which should not have prevented Ankara from creating its own alliances without the participation of the West.
In particular, the plan to create an Islamic military coalition to fight terrorism as a military alliance of Muslim states originally belonged to Erdogan.
However, the deterioration of relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia led to Riyadh intercepting and announcing this initiative in 2015, but it was never able to bring it to completion. To this day, it remains largely “on paper.”
NEW STRATEGIC MEANINGS
Of course, the "Arab Spring" forced Turkey to violate many of the principles of the "Strategic Depth" doctrine. It had to abandon "zero problems with neighbors" in favor of confrontation and interference in their internal affairs. This also led to Davutoglu's promotion of more offensive initiatives, which, among other things, cost him his own resignation.
At the same time, during the “Arab Spring” in 2013, a new geopolitical aspect appeared in Turkish geostrategy, which was voiced by Ibrahim Kalin, at that time the chief adviser to the Prime Minister of Turkey (then Erdogan held this position), namely “Precious Solitude”.
This thesis replaced the “zero problems with neighbors,” with which Ankara began to sever relations after it supported the “Arab Spring” processes. First of all, this concerns Syria – the break with it occurred after the start of the civil war there – and Egypt, where Turkey’s ally President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown by the military, and Ankara severed relations with Cairo.
As Kalyn stated, sometimes “you have to stand alone to defend the values you believe are right,” and if that stance could be described as loneliness, it would be “precious loneliness.”
This position also reflected not only the sharp deterioration of relations with many states in the Islamic world and the Middle East – primarily with the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Israel – but also with most NATO allies who did not share Ankara’s ambitions during the Arab Spring and refused to support them.
On the other hand, after Davutoglu went into opposition, the AKP's Islamic-oriented foreign policy of the Arab Spring period was complemented by the nationalist, strongly anti-Western views of the secular nationalists with whom Erdogan entered into an alliance.
Both the AKP's Islamists and nationalists have united to support policies driven by Turkey's foreign policy ambitions, announced in 2002, to become a new global power.
The Blue Homeland doctrine, developed by secular nationalist officers, was taken as the basis of Turkish geostrategy. It justified Erdogan’s previous policies in the Eastern Mediterranean and Libya. Afterwards, it also became the justification for “breaking” the attempts to “encircle” Turkey by a number of Eastern Mediterranean countries with which Ankara had various territorial or ideological disputes.
Instead of the steps to support various Islamic forces in the Middle East in their quest to come to power, which had no continuation, Turkey began to be more concerned about the consequences of the "Arab Spring" itself. As well as the anti-Turkish steps of the states of the region and their desire to unite against Turkey itself, depriving it of that very "strategic depth".
Egypt, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, and to a certain extent Lebanon, all joined forces with the support of France to confront Turkey. The main goal is to prevent it from accessing the rich resources of the Eastern Mediterranean, which, according to the Turkish side, they decided to divide among themselves, thereby “trampling on its legitimate interests.”
Certainly, the growing importance of the Eastern Mediterranean’s energy reserves and the competition to exploit them have added a new dimension to the already tense relations between Turkey and Egypt, and through it with Greece. Athens has taken advantage of Ankara’s isolation in the region to forge close, anti-Turkish relations with Cairo, the Gulf states, and Israel, as well as with France and the United States.
Thus, despite the unconditional presence of elements of the “Strategic Depth” doctrine in Turkey’s foreign policy, the “Blue Homeland” doctrine began to crystallize out of it. It envisaged Turkey’s closer attention to the Eastern Mediterranean, primarily the Aegean, but also the Black Sea and the establishment of Turkish dominance there.
"The Blue Homeland" is a collection of various works by Turkish naval officers, but the most famous of the authors was Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, who outlined it back in 2006.
In fact, Turkey's active participation in the Libyan conflict in 2019-2020 was the first step in implementing this concept. Then Ankara created its foothold in this North African country and began to extend its maritime borders from there to Anatolia, cutting off the gas fields of the Eastern Mediterranean from Greece and the EU. Hence the escalation around the Aegean Islands, on whose demilitarized status Ankara insists.
Finally, the leading role of Turkey in the Black Sea basin was also confirmed by the "grain deal". By closing the straits to NATO and Russian ships, it turned Turkey into the only guarantor of the security of Ukrainian grain transportation in the Black Sea. And that is why it insisted so much on prolonging the deal. It must be said that Moscow also tried to play along with the Turkish leadership for a certain time, not leaving the "grain deal", despite the fact that it was obvious: it was not working.
TURKISH DOCTRINES AND RUSSIA
If we pay attention to Turkish foreign policy doctrines, it becomes obvious that the post-Soviet space occupies a far from priority place in them.
And the Organization of Turkic States, which is often considered almost as the first step towards the creation of a “Turkic NATO” and the “Army of Turan” against Russia, is merely a manifestation of what is called “rhythmic diplomacy,” that is, Turkey’s participation in any organization that is possible in the Eurasian space.
Probably, the point of intersection of interests of Russia and Turkey is primarily the Black Sea, since it is here that Ankara intends to increase its efforts within the framework of the implementation of the “Blue Homeland” concept.
In this regard, it cannot be ruled out that Ankara will block the Black Sea straits for Russian Navy ships for a long time, using the current situation to its advantage. That is, Turkey will seek to secure the status of the only "open sea" force in the Black Sea basin, whose fleet will have no competitors there.
Turkey may also likely seek to secure for itself the status of guarantor of Ukraine's maritime security after possible peace agreements that would end the fighting and oblige Kyiv to reduce its armed forces.
This will suit Ankara, which will undertake to ensure the security of the Ukrainian coast itself, without being interested in the restoration of the Ukrainian Navy. And if they are restored in one form or another, it will be at Turkey's expense: whether or not to transfer the Ukrainian corvettes built at Turkish shipyards to the customer will be decided by Ankara.
On the other hand, following this logic, Turkey is still not interested in any appearance of NATO ships in the Black Sea, including under the pretext of supporting Ukraine. Therefore, the closure of the straits will also affect the fleets of NATO countries, as is currently the case. Ankara will keep them locked up as long as possible.
Thus, Turkey intends to ensure its dominance both in the Black Sea and in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Turkish naval construction programs must reflect the task of the superiority of the Turkish Navy over the Russian Black Sea Fleet, over the Greek Navy in the Aegean Sea, as well as over the fleets of Egypt and Israel.
And all this is being done by Ankara for the sake of its own national interests and so that Turkey becomes an increasingly significant player in international affairs.
Posted by: badanov ||
08/28/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
You mean the inland sea that's right next to Turkey? How evil!
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Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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