The Decline of Western Civilization

[Tidewater]

Not sure where to place this, but the EU might be in trouble.

The EU has negotiated a trade deal, called Marcosur, with Brazil, Argentina, Para- and Uruguay. Germany and the Nordics want it adopted. Poland is opposed. France and Italy is 15.countries representing 65% of the EU population must ratify for the deal to go through.

Merz says if the deal is not adopted, Germany won't be able to pay its share into EU coffers.

German conservative leader: Without Mercosur, Berlin can’t pay more into EU coffers​

"Germany contributes around €47 billion to the EU budget annually, corresponding to around 23.6 percent of its funding and over 1 percent of Germany’s gross domestic product. If Germany maintains roughly its current share of the budget, its annual contribution would rise to around €67.3 billion in the next fiscal cycle."

Holy cow. That is a hunk of change.

 

[arthurdawg]

Not sure where to place this, but the EU might be in trouble.

The EU has negotiated a trade deal, called Marcosur, with Brazil, Argentina, Para- and Uruguay. Germany and the Nordics want it adopted. Poland is opposed. France and Italy is 15.countries representing 65% of the EU population must ratify for the deal to go through.

Merz says if the deal is not adopted, Germany won't be able to pay its share into EU coffers.

German conservative leader: Without Mercosur, Berlin can’t pay more into EU coffers​

"Germany contributes around €47 billion to the EU budget annually, corresponding to around 23.6 percent of its funding and over 1 percent of Germany’s gross domestic product. If Germany maintains roughly its current share of the budget, its annual contribution would rise to around €67.3 billion in the next fiscal cycle."

Holy cow. That is a hunk of change.

Wow... I'd be a bit miffed if I was German.

 

[Tidewater]

Wow... I'd be a bit miffed if I was German.

The European Union is a complicated deal. If I was a European, generally, I'd favor the EU. There are economic benefits to a continent-wide customs union. There are also costs. And Brussels seems hell-bent on making membership as burdensome as possible, and ironically, over relatively minor and unnecessary things. Brussels seems to have convince themselves that EU membership is such a good deal that they can impose any burden, no matter how large, on member states.
I would not be surprised if more member states decided the costs of membership outweigh the benefits and secede from the Union as Britain did. And Brussels needs to pause to consider whether this particular policy is worth risking another secession or not.

 

[arthurdawg]

The European Union is a complicated deal. If I was a European, generally, I'd favor the EU. There are economic benefits to a continent-wide customs union. There are also costs. And Brussels seems hell-bent on making membership as burdensome as possible, and ironically, over relatively minor and unnecessary things. Brussels seems to have convince themselves that EU membership is such a good deal that they can impose any burden, no matter how large, on member states.
I would not be surprised if more member states decided the costs of membership outweigh the benefits and secede from the Union as Britain did. And Brussels needs to pause to consider whether this particular policy is worth risking another secession or not.

The bureaucracy of the EU makes US healthcare look like a sleek fast well oiled machine. Given that the alternative is to be a small European country facing competition from China and the US alone, the benefits should indeed be great. I hope they don't let the whole thing come crashing down.

 

[92tide]

When I was getting ready to do my long runs in the early AMs this past Summer, I would always reach for Immodium in order to forestall the dreaded "runner's trots". However, I always had the package open and pill extracted the night before.

Why would you put that kind of medication in blister packs that are nearly impossible to open without a knife or scissors.

i used to keep Imodium in my first aid kid for ultras, just in case. trying to open those blister packs with cold hands a few hours into a race could be frustrating to say the least

 

[Its On A Slab]

i used to keep Imodium in my first aid kid for ultras, just in case. trying to open those blister packs with cold hands a few hours into a race could be frustrating to say the least

I'm not sure it's even possible. I always get the scissors out the night before a long run or a race - just so I don't struggle with opening it.

 

[92tide]

I'm not sure it's even possible. I always get the scissors out the night before a long run or a race - just so I don't struggle with opening it.

I eventually learned to pre open them and dump them in a small baggie with my ibuprofen and salt tabs

 

[CrimsonJazz]

GERMANY’S “WELCOME CULTURE” COLLAPSES: MAJORITY NOW WANT IMMIGRATION HALTED & DEPORTATIONS RAMPED UP

A new poll just dropped, and it’s a political earthquake: a majority of Germans now support an immigration moratorium and mass deportations.

The poll shows that 81% of Germans state that illegal immigration was “far too high” or “rather too high” over the last 10 years, and only 5% view the levels as appropriate.

Another 75% say illegal migration has been bad for Germany.

Yes, in Germany… the same country that once opened its doors to over a million refugees in 2015, which was promoted by Angela Merkel, her CDU, and the left.

However, after years of failed integration, rising crime headlines, housing shortages, and mounting public frustration, the mood has flipped hard.

Nowadays, 53% of Germans favor a total moratorium on all new immigration and immigration overall, as well as the return of a large number of migrants to their homelands, otherwise known by many on the right as “remigration” or mass deportation.

It’s official… the once-celebrated “welcome culture” has turned into: enough is enough.

Berlin’s political class can’t keep ignoring this shift, because the public clearly isn’t.

Source: @zerohedge, Remix News, YouGov

https://twitter.com/x/status/2001963217170669952

It's about damn time.

 

[arthurdawg]

Merkel was a pretty cagey lady... But she called the immigration wrong.

1 million people with very different cultural values would be a lot for the US... Too much for a monoculture country of 80 million.

 

[Tidewater]

I think for immigration to work, and just about any society requires a certain set of preconditions. Immigrants to Germany must:
Learn the German language.
Accept the supremacy of the German constitution.
Assimilate to German culture.
Embrace ideas like the rule of law, the value of the individual, freedom of opinion.

If immigrants cannot accept those conditions, then they cannot be allowed into the country without seriously injuring the host country.

 

[Tidewater]

Jacques Louis Davis painted the Lictors Bearing to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons.

Brutus was the Roman Consul and he discovered that his sons were conspiring with Tarquinius Superbus (deposed Roman king) to return Tarquin to the throne in Rome. For this, Brutus ordered his sons executed for treason. Once executed, lictors bore the bodies to Brutus' home for burial. Brutus, in the foreground, pointing to his brain to indicate the triumph of reason (loyalty to the Roman republic) over emotion (loyalty to family).
This is a very Western concept.
Painted by Jacques Louis David during the First French Republic to inspire Frenchmen to similar selfless acts for the benefit of the Republic.

 

[Tidewater]

Here is an example of suicidal empathy.
An Egyptian democracy activist named Alaa abd el Fattah was arrested by the Egyptian junta and imprisoned for a decade.
Some of this family members lived in the UK so they demonstrated to get the British government to secure his release. The Tory-led government even awarded him UK citizenship to facilitate the release from prison.
The Labour-led government brought him "home," recently. PM Keir Starmer issued a statement saying how happy he was to have e; Fattah "home."

Then someone looked at his twitter history. Alaa abd el Fattah Tweets

2010: ___ and ___ (account name) don't worry we were only discussing how it will take over your town and rape your women, us terrorists tend to do that.

2010: SamIDaoud yes, I consider killing any colonialists and especially Zionists heroic, we need to kill more of them.

2013: Sounds like you need more fear. Random shooting of white males should convince them racism costs lives.

2011: Police are not human. They don't have rights. We should just kill them all.

2008: I should never ever ever allow myself to read Thomas Friedman again. Now all I can think of is joining bin Laden and killing a few Americans.

2010: this is proof we need more suicide bombings

2007: I __ing hate white people. They don’t understand sharing or community. A blight on the earth they are. Good thing they stopped breeding.

2010: Dear Zionists, please do not ever talk to me. I’m a violent person who advocated the killing of all Zionists including civilians so ____ off.

2011: I'll switch to something else, advocating, killing police, hating white people, assassination plot against Saad el Din Ibrahim.

2012: dear international PhD student, by the way, I'm a racist. I don't like white people so ___ off.

2010: so the brilliant British dogs and monkeys really think terrorists will reveal their plans on Twitter.

2010: you telling me British history is not pure BS? Do they tell them about how they enslaved the fifth of humanity? Massacred millions?

Unknown date: oh, I only hate whites.

2010: I thought being sexist against men is allowed? I'm proud of being racist against whites.

2010: jmayron once again proves humanity will not be redeemed until we commit genocide against all white people (some of my best friends are white).

2012: If we can’t kill the officers, let us found a terrorist cell to kill their children and torture their mothers.

Unk: I seriously seriously hate white people, especially those of English of Dutch or German descent.

2010: Because no medicine can reverse God’s will, he should subject his anger at good for creating those dirty homosexuals.

2010: can we get back to killing Zionists please? They seem to be more violent when we stick to non-violence.

Unk: also why from time to time I remind people that I rejoice when US soldiers are killed and support killing Zionists even civilians.

Oh boy.
He does not sound like a very nice man.
I would like to be a fly on the wall when Starmer had read those tweets and then had a chat with his advisor who had urged the PM to bring el Fattah to the UK and welcome him "home." That conversation would be entertaining.
In fairness to Starmer, I do not believe he knew about these tweets when he welcomed el Fattah to the UK. But someone should have probably checked this guy's twitter history before they awarded his UK citizenship and brought him to the UK

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I think for immigration to work, and just about any society requires a certain set of preconditions. Immigrants to Germany must:
Learn the German language.
Accept the supremacy of the German constitution.
Assimilate to German culture.
Embrace ideas like the rule of law, the value of the individual, freedom of opinion.

If immigrants cannot accept those conditions, then they cannot be allowed into the country without seriously injuring the host country.

I've told this before, but, back in 1969, I found myself in a train compartment with a German lawyer, traveling up the Rhine. When he found out I was a lawyer, conversation turned to current events and politics. The big thing then was "The Turkish Question." (That's right, immigration was a huge issue back then.) He alluded to Germany being an amalgam of invaders, no matter what folk think of them, and then said "Wir werden sie absorbieren." ("We will absorb them.") I didn't contradict him. I just thought they hadn't done a bang-up job to that point. Now, the problem is 100x worse...

 

[Tidewater]

I've told this before, but, back in 1969, I found myself in a train compartment with a German lawyer, traveling up the Rhine. When he found out I was a lawyer, conversation turned to current events and politics. The big thing then was "The Turkish Question." (That's right, immigration was a huge issue back then.) He alluded to Germany being an amalgam of invaders, no matter what folk think of them, and then said "Wir werden sie absorbieren." ("We will absorb them.") I didn't contradict him. I just thought they hadn't done a bang-up job to that point. Now, the problem is 100x worse...

I remember that anecdote.
For me the issue is that there is a throughput to the assimilation process. If you were to take one Afghan family and drop them into Hooterville, they will assimilate inevitably. The Hooterville Public Library was led by a Afghan man who brought his family to America in the 1970s. The second generation was American as my kids (with all the good points and bad of being an American; my daughter and his son were friends in high school).
Drop that same family into an already existing Afghan community of 20,000 and the new-comers can continue to speak Pashtun, work at a business where most employees speak Pashtun, attend the mosque with dozens of other Afghans, buy Afghan food from an Afghan market, etc. and the assimilation process will never end. They will simply become Afghans who live in the US.
I think the assimilation process depends on variables like density of immigrants of the same ethnicity, duration of stay, and the degree of national pride the receiving country feels about their own culture and country.
Italian or Polish immigrants 125 years ago, may have lived (for a while) in ethnic neighborhoods for the support network that entails, but were eager to become Americans. Newly arrived immigrants spoke English at home (or learned as fast as they could) and demanded that their children speak English at home and try to become Americans. And Americans were much more self-confident than today in terms of their culture and demanded immigrants become Americans.
Today we have folks in the United States who say the United States has no culture at all (e.g. Jennifer Welch, "Americans have no culture except multiculturalism"), the United States is an evil country, and we have immigrants waving Mexican flags in protests inside the United States against the United States.

A young Colombian woman, naturalized citizen of the US, says if there is a war between Colombia and the US, she would side with Colombia.
In other words, American society today is much less self-confident and much more likely to adopt the US= oppressor-foreigner=oppressed construct.
Those are just four data points, but that is not a sign of a healthy polity. We have 51 million people not born in the US (naturalized citizens, green card holders, visa-holders, and illegal immigrants) and we are not assimilating them fast enough. I think we need to slow down the intake for a while.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

A must watch. This video is over 30 years old.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2007922484004216835