The dangerous game of demographic change: Reagan’s lost bet on Hispanics

Engineering an electoral success with demographic changes does not necessarily pay off. Ask the Republican Party in California.The legacy of Ronald Reagan’s presidencies in the 80s is rather divisive: Republicans consider him the hero that defeated the Soviet Empire, leading the US to an era of prosperity and optimism; Democrats on the other hand regard him as an uneducated simpleton, who curb-stomped workers’ rights, ushered in the era of neoliberalism (to which they have by now converted entirely) and if he succeeded in anything it was merely by luck.

There is something, however, that Democrats can thank him for and Republicans should blame him for: turning California blue (i.e. democratic) forever. The IRCA (Immigration Reform and Control Act) of 1986 regularized illegal immigrants who had entered the country before 1982, provided that they could prove a degree of knowledge of the English language, American history and political institutions. The estimated number of illegal immigrants benefiting from this amnesty is approximately 3 million. Continue reading

The disintegration of the West: Europe

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Although Europe still remains one of the wealthiest and best-organized regions of the globe, there are visible political and economic cracks.
The disintegration of the European Union is inevitable; France and Germany, once the leading nations, are themselves in full decay. While the Germans saw themselves holding the high moral ground by letting
in one million Africans and Asians, their Eastern neighbours in particular watched in horror, so much so that their opinion was not sought. In this Gefira we take a closer look at the events as they are unfolding now. Europe, driven by a suicidal ideology which, to top it all, is implemented by a weak leadership, is heading for a geopolitical, demographic and economic crisis. Tension is building up not only along the continent’s borders but also in European nations, leading up to secession movements inside the Union (Brexit) and inside individual EU member countries (Scotland and Catalonia). In order to defuse the euro crisis, the new French president wants to further EU integration while more and more Europeans are losing faith in Brussels’ bureaucracy and its failed leadership. Read more subscribe:

Will the yuan win the currency war?

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For the last weeks the world’s geopolitical situation has been deteriorating because of the tensions around North Korea and renewed talks about re-imposing sanctions against Iran. The sanctions imposed against Kim Jong Un’s regime do not affect Europe or the United States, but are unacceptable for China, which is North Korea’s almost exclusive supplier of goods. We did not need to wait long for the response: China introduced oil futures contracts, payable in the yuan, which could be exchanged for gold on stock exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong. By using these contracts the United States dollar as well as the economic sanctions against Russia and Iran can be bypassed. Read more subscribe:

Italian migration crisis: the big picture

Gianandrea Galiani interviewed by Daniel Moscardi

Gianandrea Gaiani is the director of the highly respected online magazine analisidifesa.it and an expert on immigration. He is a regular contributor to a number of Italian newspapers and appears frequently on numerous TV channels as an on immigration and security topics. He’s also the author (together with Giancarlo Blangiardo and Giuseppe Valditara) of the recent book (in Italian) Immigrazione, tutto quello che dovremmo sapere (Immigration. All you need to know about”).

Gefira asked Gianandrea Gaiani in an exclusive interview about his views on the latest developments in the arrivals from Libya and Tunisia and the current approach of the Italian government. Outspoken and anything but politically correct, Gaiani hits the spot about the recent change of policy of the Italian government on the NGO’s code of conduct as well as Italy’s achievements and (so called) “partners” in Libya.

GE: What caused last summer’s change of course by the Italian government and its approach toward the NGOs and the arrivals from Libya in general?

GG: The answer is quite simple. The disaster for the PD (Partito Democratico), leader of the current government, at the June administrative elections, sounded an alarm, showing clearly that when it comes to immigration, many center-left voters steer clearly to the right. A swift change of course was badly needed, with the obvious intent of reassuring disenchanted and alarmed Italians that the government was in charge of the situation.

GE: The numbers show that the arrivals have diminished significantly but that’s just that. We are still very far from the pre-2011 numbers.

GG: That’s because the government, on the other side, has to keep being complacent to the industry of immigration. It’s a network that profits – and thrives – on new arrivals, and this network galaxy is NOT happy if the arrivals complete stop. And their votes are also badly needed by the current government.

GE: A network made of? Continue reading

Turxit: Turkey’s departure from NATO will dismantle the alliance

War is merely the continuation of policy by other means, according Clausewitz. As the last blow to the relations between Turkey and Europe, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has said EU states will cut pre-accession funds to Turkey.The US and Europe’s leadership is uncompromising in its dealings with Ankara. Germany quit Incirlik Air Base this summer and the Dutch authorities deployed a heavily armed unit to the streets with permission to ”shoot in case of need” during an unofficial visit of the Turkish Minister Kaya this spring. The minister wanted to hold a political rally for the Turkish diaspora. Officially, Turkey is a NATO member, but de facto the alliance does not exist anymore. However, nobody in Brussels will admit this because without Turkey the coalition is like a bucket without a bottom. If Clausewitz is right, war within the alliance seems inevitable. Continue reading

Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different outcome

May the First in Moscow, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, East Berlin or Bucharest. People, i.e. workers and peasants with flowery tributes and posters are marching along the tribune atop which they can see their beloved leaders, first or general secretaries of the communist or socialist workers’ or people’s parties, surrounded by trusted and battle-hardened comrades of the international Marxist-Leninist movement. The radiant people in the parade are waving red flags and carrying huge portraits of the holiest of the holy – Marx, Engels, Lenin – hand in hand with large puppets of the damned: Josip Bros-Tito, Harry Truman, Konrad Adenauer and many others. The demonstration is held in support of, yes, you guessed it right, peace and democracy as well as social justice and against such backward ideas as bigotry, fascism, Nazism, nationalism, religious faith, tradition, authority (Marx, Engels, and Lenin excluded), and the traditional family.

It’s not a May Day parade this time. It is a carnival parade. And it is not Moscow, Warsaw or East Berlin in the late forties or early fifties. It’s fifty or so years later in the West. In Dusseldorf, to be precise. A similar parade held every year and well-attended by the citizens of, as they firmly believe, a free world. A parade in favour of, yes, again you guessed it right, democracy, progress and freedom. A parade against those who endanger these values. Against the present-day Trumans, present-day Adenauers, the present-day Titos, traitors to the sacred cause. Continue reading

Italy’s parallel fiscal currency: all you need to know

By Marco Cattaneo,
from Basta con l’Eurocrisi

There is an increased talk in Italy about fiscal money as an instrument to resolve the economic crisis, which is not over yet. Despite the optimism shown by the Italian government and the EU, the Eurozone economy is far from being in an acceptable condition, and this applies in particular for Italy.

In 2017 Italy’s real GDP will grow by 1.5% compared to the previous year, which is 6% less than what it was in 2007, ten years earlier! Within the same period unemployment has doubled, the number of people in poverty tripled from 1.5 million to almost 5, and this trend does not seem to be reversing. The Italian economic system is working far below its potential: this gap has been created first by the global financial crisis of 2008 and then by the austerity policies “prescribed” by the EU in 2011. Italy can solve this problem by introducing an adequate quantity of purchasing power in its economic system. It can’t do it by issuing euros, nor (due to the mechanisms of the Eurozone) by increasing the state deficits.

All these difficulties stem from the fact that Italy is not an issuer but a user of the currency, the euro. The introduction of a fiscal currency might help to bypass the constraint that Rome cannot print money and maintain the impression that the euro works. The fiscal money concept goes back to chartalism theorised by German economist Georg Friedrich Knapp at the beginning of 1900 and then expanded by the economists adhering to the “Modern Monetary Theory” (MMT). Continue reading