Valborg 2016 – Seeing in the 1st of May

April 30, 2016

For once it wasn’t snowing or raining on the eve of the 1st of May.

It was still a bit chilly though and the warmth of our local Valborg night (from the German Walpurgis night) bonfire was welcome.

Historically Valborg is derived from the Viking fertility celebrations that took place around April 30th, where the arrival of spring was celebrated with bonfires at night. The actual purpose of the fires was to scare off witches and evil spirits. A practical use for the bonfires was also to scare off predators such as foxes before the livestock were let out to graze on May 1st. In the Middle Ages, the pagan Spring ritual became associated with Saint Walpurga who was declared a saint during this time of the year.

A welcome to beautiful May.

Sköna maj, välkommen
till vår bygd igen!
Sköna maj, välkommen,
våra lekars vän!

Valborg 2016

Local variants of Walpurgis Night are observed across Europe in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland and Estonia.

 

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Donald Trump has to choose a woman and Hillary Clinton cannot

April 30, 2016

As the Republicans begin to accept, albeit reluctantly, that Donald Trump is going to be their candidate and as it becomes clear that Sanders has been eliminated, the choice of possible running-mates is coming to the fore.

It is pretty obvious to me that Hillary Clinton cannot chose a woman as her Vice Presidential pick. To be elected as the first woman President is already a risk. To have another woman as her running mate as well would be going over the top. She would risk alienating all the patriarchal minorities she is going to depend upon. A two-woman ticket, in the US of today, would almost certainly lose. It would be far too risky and Clinton just does not take risks.

Second, and more importantly, Clinton cannot afford, and will not tolerate, another woman who takes the feminist spotlight away from herself. Clinton’s feminist credentials are rather weak. She needs the comparison when juxtaposed with a man to get up to be just passable. Any woman she chose as her VP would almost certainly have stronger feminist credentials and would hog the feminist limelight. Clinton’s ego would not, could not, intentionally allow her to accept a position in the shadow of someone else.

Clinton needs to project an image of strength and resolve (which she does not naturally do). For this she requires a man as her running mate. She needs him to be perceived as being strong but subservient to her. In fact, all her closest advisors need to be men for the image of her strength to be enhanced. Not unlike how Indira Gandhi or Golda Meier or Margaret Thatcher chose in their heydays.

Just as Hillary Clinton has no choice but to avoid a female running mate, Donald Trump is, I think, forced to have a woman as his. His weakest support is with women and that support is necessary. But interestingly he needs an intelligent, feminine – rather than a feminist – partner. I merely observe that “intelligent and feminine” always trumps “feminist” (no pun intended) and even overrules “attractive”. A “feminine” female never needs to fight all the battles that a feminist does. “Feminine” always makes “feminist” look envious. She will need a track record for “smartness” and pragmatism. She will therefore have to be an experienced politician but feminine enough to eclipse Hillary Clinton. She will have to be feminine enough to make the feminist attacks seem like sour grapes or just envious “whining”. Trump has a track record of appointing women to high positions in his business empire and the voters will need to be reminded of that.

Ted Cruz has announced Carly Fiorina as his VP pick, but it seems a desperate bid for publicity against a rampant Trump. Fiorina herself would not qualify to be a Trump running mate. Sarah Palin’s name has been mentioned but I suspect she carries too much baggage. Condoleezza Rice has also been mentioned but she carries even more baggage. South Carolina governor Nikki Haley (nee Nimrata Nikki Randhawa and of Sikh origin) is not impossible and neither is Cathy Rodgers, a five-term Republican congresswoman. Susana Martinez is the Governor of New Mexico and in addition to being intelligent and feminine is also of Hispanic origin. Joni Kay Ernst is the junior Senator from Iowa and a combat veteran who has seen service in Iraq.

Trumps Picks

My guess would be that whoever he picks, in addition to being intelligent, feminine and with a track record in politics, will also probably represent an “immigrant” constituency. Which would take Nikki Haley and Susana Martinez to the top of the possible list.

 

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Corbyn’s Labour party “is not anti-semitic”, except when needed for class war

April 29, 2016

During the early days of the labour movement and the growth of industrial Europe, it was not only the right-wing view that Jews were grasping trades-people to be looked down upon which fuelled anti-semitism. In the beginning of the 20th century, Jews were identified with banking and finance and epitomised the Great Enemy in the class struggle against capitalists. A strong strain of anti-semitism was nurtured within the hard-left as being an integral part of the class-war.

The hard-left (the loony left) core at the heart of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party still believe that capitalism is the religion of the Jews and they are all fundamentally and ideologically anti-semitic. That group traces its history of Jew-hating to the rise of capitalism and long before the creation of Israel. After the First World War, the anti-semitism that was part of the class-war became associated also with a racial opposition to Jews. The hard-left version of UK anti-semitism thus shares the same roots of Jew-hating as that which fired up the National Socialists in Germany and which was exploited by Hitler. After the Holocaust and WW 2, anti-semitism was politically incorrect everywhere. The collective European guilt allowed – and encouraged – the robbing of the Palestinians and the creation of Israel. It was only 2 generations later – and since the 1980s – that the new strain of anti-Israel, pro-Palestine anti-semitism could grow. This strain of the disease is automatically carried by any Muslim who supports Palestine or Palestinians. In recent times the hard-core, loony left in the UK have found it convenient to cloak their own anti-semitism, which originates from class-war roots, under the guise of being pro-Palestine and in support of all things Palestinian.

Nowadays the UK Labour party contains many Muslim (mainly of Asian origin) members. A large section of these newer members (though not all) have little knowledge of the rise of the labour movement and the identification of all Jews with the Great Enemy – Capitalism. These members trace their antisemitism to their support of Palestine and the consequent opposition to anything Israeli (including the Jewish population of Israel). They are engaged in a religious war – not a class war. The UK Labour party contains many anti-semites of these two strains; a newer religious strain and a classic class-war strain which hides under the religious strain.

Jeremy Corbyn is trying to revive the class-war. That also provides an environment for the class-war based strain of anti-semitism to prosper. It still has to be hidden under the cloak of being pro-Palestinian. But that, in turn, allows the religious strain of the disease to grow. So when the UK Labour party MP, Naz Shah (of Pakistani origin and a somewhat lurid background), expressed her anti-semitic views she represented the new religious strain. She was suspended from the party for that. But she was suspended by a very reluctant Jeremy Corbyn. But then Ken Livingstone (“Red Ken”, “Loony Ken”) came out in her support and Corbyn was forced to suspend him as well. He actually suffers from the class-war strain of the anti-semitism disease, though he too conveniently hides under the pro-Palestine version of the disease.

Now Jeremy Corbyn himself is a closet anti-semite of the class-war kind. Before he became leader of the party he came close to coming out of the closet when he supported radical and even extremist proponents of the Palestinian cause. Now, as leader, he cannot afford to be so politically incorrect. Nevertheless he could not just suspend his long-time friend and class-warrior, Ken Livingstone, for saying what he himself believed. To try and create a balance he got the chief whip to give the MP who publicly confronted Ken Livingstone a real dressing down. Corbyn did not do it himself of course.

class warriors (incidentally anti-semitic) image Daily Mirror

class warriors (incidentally anti-semitic) image Daily Mirror

But the message was clear.

So when Jeremy Corbyn says that the Labour party “does not support any form of anti-semitism”, he means except when it is the class-war kind and it is kept hidden under the guise of something else.

 

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Islamists abandoning the sinking Swedish Green Party

April 28, 2016

It seems quite clear that after the recent revelations, islamists no longer see the Green Party as a useful vehicle for promoting the caliphate or the introduction of Sharia law. No doubt there is a witch hunt going on within the party. The word has gone out to islamists, it seems, to abandon the sinking Green ship. It may be a deliberate strategy to leave the party before they are asked to leave.

Swedish democracy, which already unduly favours minorities, is being strained by having the Green Party in government.

Sweden currently has a government of the minority for the minority. A minority in which a minority Green Party has more say than they are entitled to. And a Green Party in which a minority radical islamist element has far greater say than they are entitled to.

It started last week with Mehmet Kaplan of the Swedish Green Party being sacked (“resigned”) as Housing Minister from the coalition government. But on every day since a new name of an islamic politician sneaking out (or being  smoked out) of the Green Party has emerged. The two leaders of the Green Party (mouthpieces) Åsa Romson and Gustav Fridolin have not resigned. Instead they have called for a “new start” and have asked their discredited nominating committee to investigate whether the party should be led by others or whether they should continue with a renewed mandate. By stating that they are prepared to continue they are trying to limit the calls for them to step down.

Most of the calls for resignation are directed against Åsa Romson who has been very accident prone in her choice of words (comparing the Mediterranean to Auschwitz, placing Auschwitz in Germany, calling 9/11 “an accident”….). However it has been Fridolin rather than Romson who seems to have been largely responsible for the infiltration of the Greens by radical islamists. His blind charge to get a multicultural membership – come what may – is now backfiring. Of course he is very young (32) and has very little experience, and it shows. As Education Minister in the coalition he has demonstrated his childishness.

The list of islamists leaving or taking a time-out or being forced out is growing:

Mehmet Kaplan – started the Swedish Muslims for Peace and Freedom, tried to promote the Erdogan line, consorted with Turkish right-wing groups, compared Israel to the Nazis, invited hard-line islamists to speak to the Swedish parliament, has publicly used the four-finger Muslim Brotherhood. Resigned as Housing Minister

Yasri Khan – Current Chairman of Swedish Muslims for Peace and Freedom. He was being proposed by the Green Party nominating committee as a member of the Steering Committee, refused to shake hands with women, refused to condemn capital punishment for apostasy, refused to condemn the treatment of bloggers in Saudi Arabia. Withdrew his candidature and stated he was leaving the Greens.

semanur taskin

Semanur Taskin – Leader (mouthpiece) of the Young Greens in Stockholm. Also a member of  Kaplan’s Swedish Muslims for Peace and Freedom and an Erdogan supporter. A very confused lady who supports the hijab but also sees the hijab as a symbol of oppression. Wants to introduce gender segregated swimming pools. Has abandoned the sinking ship that the Green Party is.

MP-politikern Derya Uzel Senir sa inför valet 2014 att hon och hennes parti aktivt skulle arbeta för att motverka ett erkännande av det armeniska folkmordet. Foto: Miljöpartiet

Derya Uzel Senir – Deputy to the Stockholm city council and a member of the Labour Market Board, Also a strong Erdogan supporter and a Armenian genocide denier. She has taken a time-out from all her Green party duties.

Kamal Al Rifai

Kamal al-Rifai – He is/was the Green Party deputy in Burlöv Municipality. He is also the leader of the Syrian Association in Malmö and has invited the controversial Saudi imam, Salman al-Ouda (one of Osama bin-Laden’s teachers) to speak (preach) at a fund raising event. He says he is no longer involved with the Green Party.

 

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Ted Cruz will not get a job as a sports commentator

April 27, 2016

It is now arithmetically impossible for Ted Cruz to win the Republican nomination by his own efforts. He is pinning his hopes on a contested convention and – somehow – coercing enough delegates to be able to beat Trump.

Improbable.

Another job Ted Cruz is never going to be offered is that of a basketball commentator (or a commentator for any sport for that matter).

From the Ted Cruz sports picture book

From the Ted Cruz sports picture book

 

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Major disconnect between record votes for, and media opposition to, Trump

April 27, 2016

There are very few (if any) media outlets which support Donald Trump’s candidacy. Most are quite scathing about him. Yet he seems to be getting more Republican votes than any other candidate ever has. With the numbers actually turning out for Trump, it is impossible that many of his supporters are not also consumers of the media denigrating him. The media, every time they attack Trump, are also saying that all his supporters are imbeciles.

This is only a reminder of the basic truth that the media are not representative of anything other than themselves. Which raises the question whether having a one-sided and unrepresentative representation of the population – as is apparent with the media and the US electorate – enhances or degrades democracy? But Trump’s successes in the face of virulent media opposition demonstrates a disconnect of massive proportions between the US electorate and their media.

trump voters

Politico:

With his five blowout wins Tuesday night, Donald Trump has passed Mitt Romney’s popular vote total from four years ago and is on a trajectory that could land him more Republican votes than any presidential candidate in modern history – by a lot.

Trump surged to 9.9 million votes, according to totals that include Tuesday’s preliminary results across the northeast and could rise further as the final votes are counted. That’s already more than 100,000 more than Romney earned in the entire 2012 primary season and tens of thousands more than John McCain earned in 2008.

Trump is certain to pass McCain’s total next week in Indiana, but more importantly, he’s positioned to easily pass the modern record-holder George W. Bush — who collected 10.8 million votes in 2000.

That presents an uncomfortable reality for anti-Trump forces: they’re attempting to thwart the candidate who is likely to win more Republican primary votes than any GOP contender in at least the last 36 years, and maybe ever.

In an email to POLITICO, University of Minnesota political science professor (and Smart Politics blogger) Eric Ostermeier noted that only eight candidates have won more than 7.5 million Republican primary votes since the advent of the modern primary and caucus system. Ronald Reagan won about 7.7 million votes in 1980, the fewest other than George W. Bush’s 7.6 million in 2004, when he didn’t face a primary challenge.

George H. W. Bush clocked in at 8.2 million votes in 1988 and 9.2 million in 1992, while Bob Dole earned 8.4 million in 1996.

I am more than a little cynical about the media. So I suspect that we shall see them beginning to start backing away from their vicious opposition to Trump as his chances of becoming the Republican nominee increase. That should be by June this year. We shall then see them even beginning to become mild supporters by about September or October. It is a little too risky for any media outlet to openly court IRS investigations under a future President Trump. After all, there is not a single media outlet without reported losses. And all those “apparent losses” are always a tax offset for the owning entity.

 

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BRICS is dead, long live MICKI

April 26, 2016

Brazil (-3.7%) and Russia (-1.3%) are experiencing negative growth and South Africa (+0.7%) is stagnating. Which leaves only China (+6.5%) and India (+7.5%) from the BRICS motor. But Indonesia(+5.1%), Kenya (+5.8%) and even Malaysia (+4.4%) are growing and it is time to bury BRICS and start talking about MICKI (Malaysia, India, China, Kenya and Indonesia).

(Map by Focus Economics)

MICKI - Emerging Markets (map by Focus Economics)

MICKI – Emerging Markets (map by Focus Economics)

 

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7-8 IS terrorists have entered Sweden – warns Iraq

April 26, 2016

Next to Belgium, Sweden has sent most radicalised muslims from Europe to join IS. And many are coming back – with murderous intent.

BBC: Swedish intelligence service Sapo is investigating a possible terror threat to the capital, Stockholm …… Iraqi authorities had informed Sweden that seven or eight militants from the so-called Islamic State group had travelled to Sweden, newspapers reported.

According to Swedish newspapers, soft, civilian targets in Stockholm are the object of the terrorist missions. Seven or eight IS terrorists are said to already have entered Sweden. The security service are in a state of heightened readiness though the terror alert level has not been increased from its current level of 2 (on a 5 point scale).

Just a month ago a NATO general warned of the terrorists returning to Europe masked by the refugees.

…. In testimony to the Senate armed services committee, US general Philip Breedlove said that the Islamic State terror group is “spreading like a cancer” among refugees. The group’s members are “taking advantage of paths of least resistance, threatening European nations and our own”, he added. …. Breedlove distinguished between “criminality, terrorist and foreign fighters”, and said that he has seen news reports saying as many as 1,500 fighters have returned to Europe.

……. congressional estimates of how many foreign fighters have traveled to Syria vary widely, with 1,500 toward the higher end of numbers of fighters reported to have returned to western nations.

The IS goal of bringing Europe into the caliphate is by creating muslim societies which can be isolated from and run in parallel with the societies where they exist. Establishing no-go areas within isolated ghettos where Sharia law can be imposed is part of that. Effective no-go areas are already  evident in many large European cities (Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm and Malmö to name just a few). The liberal, left promotion of multiculturalism – rather than integration – over the last 4 decades has only helped IS in this goal of creating separated, isolated, parallel societies where their word can hold sway. The sudden focus on integration – rather than multiculturalism – is welcome but has come far too late. It may be too little. One of the key elements of integration is in providing immigrants and refugees with gainful employment rather than living on social handouts. And the trade unions are the biggest obstacle not only to recreating the thousands of “low-paid” jobs which don’t exist any longer, but also in hindering small employers from taking on non-unionised labour.

 

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Why is the Swedish Green Party still in government? (Green Party probably infiltrated by extremists)

April 22, 2016

UPDATE! It seems my assessment that the Swedish Green Party has been infiltrated and some sections hijacked by islamist extremists is shared by researchers at the Centre for Asymmetric Threats and Terrorism Studies at the Swedish National Defence College.

Aftonbladet: Lars Nicander, Director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College, fears that the Green Party has been infiltrated by Islamists.
He draws parallels to the Soviet Union who tried to infiltrate political parties and organizations during the Cold War.
“People who seem to have links with or sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood have obviously gained a foothold in the Green Party”, says Lars Nicander.

How on earth can the Social Democrats continue to have the Greens within government? 

The 4 finger Muslim Brotherhood sign used in Egypt has been used by a number of islamists within the Green Party.

Kaplan apparently making the Muslim Brotherhood sign Image: Expressen

Mehmet Kaplan apparently making the Muslim Brotherhood sign Image: Expressen

That radicals and extremists have always looked for cover within existing parties or organisations is a phenomenon which has taken off after the fall of communism. Former communists usually find a hiding place among so called Social Democrats or other left-of-centre parties, since it is no longer politically viable to retain the name “Communist”. In Sweden for example, the former Communist Party has tried to rebrand itself as the “Left party” though the members remain essentially communist. Radical left sympathisers have also found a cloak of respectability within supposedly environmental organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund, The Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the like. Many of the programmes and actions ascribed to these organisations have effectively been hijacked by hard-left extremists who have no other home.

The same technique of hiding within sight under the cover of an existing organisation as used by the loony left is being adopted by radical islamist groups in Europe. They cannot openly form radical islamist parties in Europe, but they can join other organisations which are naive enough and gullible enough to allow them in. They are helped in this infiltration exercise by the reluctance of anybody to scrutinise them too closely, because – by the rules of political correctness – that would be racist. In Sweden it has been the Green Party which has been the most naive and gullible and so keen to avoid any charges of being racist, that it has been heavily infiltrated by radical islamists. There are some local sections of the Greens which have not just been infiltrated but have been hijacked by extremists.

The fall-out from the last weeks revelations of the extremist connections of the Green Party’s Housing Minister, Mehmet Kaplan, which led to his resignation are now exposing some of this. The head of the Swedish Young Muslims, Yasri Khan was a member and was being nominated for the Greens governing body when it was revealed that he would not shake a woman reporter’s hand. The naivete of the nominating committee (combined with an amazing cowardice) borders on gross negligence. Though his view of women was well known within the party, as was his reluctance to condemn the death penalty for apostasy, it was not shaking the reporter’s hand which exploded in the media. He had little choice but to turn tail and run. He subsequently withdrew his candidature for the governing committee and even said he was leaving the party. Both Khan and Kaplan have very strong connections to Turkish far-right and Erdogan support groups. They and others have even inveigled local sections of the Green Party to make trips to Turkey in support of Erdogan supporters. Erdogan’s supporters seem to be very well represented in the Party.

In any event, the reaction of feminist Sweden to the reluctance to take the hand of “unclean” women has exploded like a bomb in the face of the Green Party. The contemptuous part was that the “mouthpieces” (euphemism for leaders), Romson and Fridolin, did not – and still do not – quite understand how their party has been infiltrated and hijacked. Their own set of values too are highly suspect. They are both probably too young to have any conception of what the Nazis did to the Jews. For some inexplicable reason, the nominating committee are not being sacked on the spot for their gross incompetence. And now the Party is reduced to sending out instructions to the entire party – as if they were a bunch of rowdy toddlers – on how they are to behave, in the form of an open letter. The letter is signed by Fridolin and Romson — who could perhaps do with some behavioural therapy themselves.

The Greens came into the coalition government in 2014 even though they had the support of just 6.9% of the voters. That itself gave them a power position entirely out of proportion to their support. The Social Democrats needed them to stay in power. Their support is crumbling and yet Steafan Löfven and the Social Democrats have not the courage to dump them. To make matters worse the Moderates – who are in opposition but do not oppose – have not the courage either to face an early election by causing the government to fall.

Sweden currently has a government of the minority for the minority. A minority in which a minority Green Party has more say than they are entitled to. And a Green Party in which a minority radical islamist element has far greater say than they are entitled to.

 

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With Obama as a declared “friend”, the UK better watch it’s back

April 22, 2016

Barack Obama has not distinguished himself regarding strategy or actions in 8 years of trying.

Now he has inserted himself into the UK Brexit process. Since he has selected to support the anti-Brexit camp, it gives the Brexit campaigners a real boost to their credibility.

David Cameron must have asked for the support from his special friend, but he may well find that this is the most counterproductive move he could have made.

Brexit Obama

“I have no strategy” Obama on Brexit

 

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