Nation State or International Integration

 

The election this fall is not about Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Taliban, or other security. It will not be about most of the items the media is talking about. What it is about is the economy, jobs, employment, wages, and everything about the economy but not in the obvious ways being discussed. Where will this next Presidency balance? The main item is which way does it benefit the United States most, continuing internationalism or returning to nationalism.

 

The media and most politicians are pushing this global economy, global integration, global cooperation, global solutions while hiding a dirty little secret, they are selling global as the solution while having the United States and the advanced nations pay for everything while equalizing the global playing field, whatever that means. We had a debate last night and we heard more of the same. Clinton claimed more globalism and taxes on the rich and Trump tried and may have meant to sound like Reagan. What they were not telling the people is that Clinton was using the same internationalism where the world matters more than the United States so in order to equalize the world the United States and the advanced world has to bleed to allow the rest of the world to catch up and then all will be well and how wonderful the world can be. Trump is actually claiming that every nation take their own and put them first and attempt to allow the nations who are leading the world to continue to be the leaders and then assist other nations in making gains and follow and give them access to advances as they are able to implement these advances. So, which way will work best. That depends on which nations one decides should be permitted to advance their own interests than to share with the world.

 

Internationalism is wonderful if your country is on the receiving end and not so wonderful if you are being bled to bring the other nations up to their level. The problem with that are many of these nations that are presumably being given advances in order to raise them to the same level are led by dictators who are enriching themselves and not making their nations any closer to the advanced world as that does not directly benefit them. What these dictators are not being intelligent about is that had they advanced their nation they would have enriched themselves in the process. They are not even thinking nationally rather than internationally. Internationally is a recipe for disaster as it inhibits the leaders from leading and demands that the least efficient be granted the largess while the leaders are placed in financial straight-jackets. Internationalists place a stop sign where all nations must park their own business and park their nation by the side of the highway and wait for the rest of the world to reach an equal position. The problem is that many of these nations, which they are waiting for to reach the same point, are themselves broken and not gaining and will never catch up as they are not even making any effort to reach the next level. Internationalism believes that making all nations equal will solve the world’s problems and inequalities, despite it not ever bringing the rest of the nations to first world status.

 

 

World Map with Borders Deemphasized

 

Nationalism is the opposite view which allows each nation to advance at their own rate and still demands that the first world assist the developing nation but does not demand they try to make equal those nations so dysfunctional that they are the closest thing to an economic black hole as can be found. Nationalism rewards each nation for their efforts and allows each nation to gain at their own speed. Allowing the leaders to lead gives other nations a target and proven path they can emulate but without national gain by the wealthiest nations to blaze the trail for the others to follow. The basis for nationalism is it allows each nation to set their own monetary policies and is against unifying monetary policies as such a system is flawed and destroys the lesser productive nations which has been proven by the European Union Euro which has benefited Germany while leaving Greece behind. Nationalism allows each country to do the best for their own people and society. That does not mean that nations which are developing should not be aided and it is in the interest of the most advanced nations to assist those nations who are developing and making the right choices and allowing them to benefit from the experiences of those nations who have traveled those roads before them. But those nations which are completely dysfunctional cannot be assisted as long as their governance is broken and until the nation decides to change their dysfunctions there is no reason to throw good money after bad.

 

Internationalism is a wonderful, feel-good policy filled of kind words and low on actual results. Internationalism demands that all nations be made to give according to their ability and the funds are granted to countries according to their needs. Internationalism demands open borders allowing free immigration with no limits or criminal and other background checks or other limits or restrictions. The policies sound as if they will allow all nations equal opportunities in word while defining this policy as bringing all nations up to the same level and making things fair for all nations. The truth is that this is accomplished by tearing down the greater nations while benefitting some of the least deserving nations who are corrupt criminal enterprises more than they are actual functional nations. Rewarding the worst while impeding the best prevents progress and will constantly restrict progress and the discoveries of new technologies and new systems which would result in assisting those nations seeking a better future to implement the proven methods. To get an idea on the difficulties caused by internationalism there is a perfect example which we can observe, the European Union. How has that equal currency been working for over half of Europe who are not Germany or Britain but are Greece, Spain, Italy and even France and many of the former Warsaw Nations. The common currency has taken the small differences of economic production where the agrarian economies which work on a different production level having to survive with the same policies of the industrial and other highly developed nations.

 

World Map and Relative Wealth of Nations

 

Permitting each nation to perform at their highest level and to their full potential will set target paths for other nation to follow along the proven road set by the highest performing nations. Progress is the fuel that raises all nations in turn. Progress provides the test paths and allows developing nations to benefit from their more advanced nations but only when they decide to advance. No nation could be forced to grow their economy and advance their national infrastructure and when a nation refuses to advance itself then forcing the rest of the world to wait for such a nation to reach an equative level is ridiculous and counterproductive. Internationalism is wonderful idea if it could function as promised. Nationalism is the dirty sounding word which is accused of being selfish because it benefits the wealthy nations and prevents developing nations from ever reaching the top level. The obvious fault is that accusation is completely false. If nationalism prevented up and coming nations from ever becoming the top nations were true then China would have ruled the world, Spain would be a leading nation, Greece would be the top nation in Europe, Egypt would be the most advanced nation in construction and engineering, Persia would still control East-West trade routes, Portugal would be a great power with colonies throughout the world, and the Hittites would be the great power in the norther worlds of Europe through to Turkey. Top nations change and have changed throughout the history of the world while nationalism was the rule of the world. Internationalism has caused massive stagnation as the world as a whole is not permitted to advance because the leading nations are held back presumably for the benefit of the lesser nations. This will always be a supported philosophy as there will always be more developing and undeveloped nations than leading nations as only a few nations will be in the top ten percent, which is why it is referred to as the top ten percent. Internationalism has been working so well over the past twenty to thirty years since 1979 while the rest of history was pathetic and without economic advancement advances by all nations and we are still using salt as a currency, aren’t we? The progress from salt as money to salt as something on almost every dinner table was a result from nationalism, not internationalism.

 

Compare the two with eyes open and the preferable form, open competition or controlled advancement, the choice could provide opportunity or a slow decadence and eventual decimation. Internationalism is welfare on an international scale much in the form of the Soviet Union and the initial Plymouth Rock Colony which would have starved if not for the Native Americans who grew and hunted for surplus for the winter and had sufficient to teach and feed the Pilgrims. After that experience of all get all they need, while most gave nothing in effort, they introduced a new program where each family kept a percentage of what they grew and the remainder was shared, the amounts of food skyrocketed. That is the balance which nationalism can produce, the most advanced achieve at their highest level and those developing nations learn from those leaders and in time some will replace them as they eventually falter. That is the secret of effort based economies, the people or nations at the top changes with time when another makes decisions which make them even more profitable as the other sinks under likely bureaucratic waste. You decide.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The European Union Actually Planning Empire

 

It turns out that there is actual evidence issued in European Union (EU) documents spelling out their designs to extend their domain and control over the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and on to Central Asia and Middle of the African Continent. These plans existed before the British voted to depart the EU with their Brexit referendum. Still, the EU will likely attempt to exercise this extending of the areas wrapped up in their web of dictatorial control and this may be part of the plan with the admitting of the refugees from MENA areas as their plans would incorporate much of the Muslim and Arab worlds in their extended governance. The actual released plans are in a PDF format titled Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe A Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign And Security Policy. The “European Union Global Strategy Executive Summary” begins as follows:

We need a stronger Europe. This is what our citizens deserve, this is what the wider world expects.
We live in times of existential crisis, within and beyond the European Union. Our Union is under threat. Our European project, which has brought unprecedented peace, prosperity and democracy, is being questioned. To the east, the European security order has been violated, while terrorism and violence plague North Africa and the Middle East, as well as Europe itself. Economic growth is yet to outpace demography in parts of Africa, security tensions in Asia are mounting, while climate change causes further disruption. Yet these are also times of extraordinary opportunity. Global growth, mobility, and technological progress – alongside our deepening partnerships – enable us to thrive, and allow ever more people to escape poverty and live longer and freer lives. We will navigate this difficult, more connected, contested and complex world guided by our shared interests, principles and priorities. Grounded in the values enshrined in the Treaties and building on our many strengths and historic achievements, we will stand united in building a stronger Union, playing its collective role in the world.

 

The wordy introductory summary continues for three more pages of droning boredom which one can read at the link above followed by approximately fifty or so more pages. The one thing which is made evident is that the European Union, a.k.a. Germany and Herr Merkel are looking at the first step to world conquest by absorbing the Middle East and the oil fields and Northern and Central Africa because that is as far as Germany got the last time they tried a somewhat more violent conquest of the world. This time they are taking, as we noted the other day, an economic conquest by simply out producing the other member states such that the Euro reflects German output thus making every other nation relying on German largess to remain financially solvent. This has been made excessively evidenced by the recent years as Greece would have starved and not been capable of even fueling their police vehicles without German ‘loans’ which came with demands for altering the societal work ethic and other actions by government and population to suit demands and desires of the German government. Greece proved more stubborn than expected but the Germans did accomplish impressing the idea that without the favors from Germany the Greek society would have collapsed and thus they owed Germany their warmest and most earnest gratitude, but the Greeks drew the line short of obedience. Still, it is evident not only in Greece but Italy, Spain and, to a lesser extent, France all are left looking at German economic output and work ethic and realize that as goes Germany, so goes the European Union.

 

The main sticking point at the moment is that should petroleum prices rise the EU economy would slow creating problems even for Germany. Further, raw materials are another essential requirement for the EU economic engines and assuring these will continue without interruptions or financial instability driving the EU economies accordingly. Should the EU expand their influence and control such that the Middle East oil and the raw materials found in Central Africa then the EU would become pretty much completely self-reliant and finally be capable of production controlling everything from top to bottom making everything flow without problems, price difficulties or any slowdowns to their economy due to lack of control over needed supplies of petroleum and raw materials as these would now be under EU control and Germany would have their production assured by which they could continue further expansion of the EU until they become that one world governance which has been so elusive.

 

Their documents themselves refer to global strategies. It claims so right in the title where it states theirs is a “Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign And Security Policy” and nothing less. Their contents list as below:
A Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy: “Shared Vision, Common Action:
A Stronger Europe”

 

1. A Global Strategy to Promote our Citizens’ Interests
2. The Principles Guiding our External Action
3. The Priorities of our External Action
3.1 The Security of Our Union
3.2 State and Societal Resilience to our East and South
3.3 An Integrated Approach to Conflicts and Crises
3.4 Cooperative Regional Orders
3.5 Global Governance for the 21st Century
4. From Vision to Action

 

It is easy to see that theirs is an ambitious project and they are looking to expand their influence and they are willing to take any necessary steps and have already decided that they are to be the main world power and to slowly but inexorably swallow area after area starting with the petroleum supplies of the Middle East and the mines of central Africa and are willing to take on the nations of the Sahara Regions in order to spread into Central Africa and the access to raw materials such as iron and bauxite mines.

 

Natural Resources in Africa

 

Add to this the resources, especially petroleum in the Middle East and Central Asia and one can see why the EU and Germany desire expanding their influence and control over these areas. This one simplistic map tells the story better than we could with a thousand words.

 

Petroleum Supply to Matching Petroleum Demands

 

There really is not much one can add to what the EU released when their document became public, and we thank this revelation for putting to rest what the real intentions for their future and the future of the world the back room boys of the EU have in mind. Their delusions of grandeur and expectation to slowly expand their region of influence until they hold sufficient sway over production, raw materials and petroleum reserves that they will hold the controlling influence over virtually all manner of production and world economic health and indicators. Their claim that their intentions are for a global influence if not outright control is made amply evident but raises some serious questions. The first and most obvious question that comes to mind is exactly how does the EU plan on expending their control over these areas? We have some doubts as to the likelihood that these areas nations would be all that open to simply being subsumed by the EU no matter how generous the initial offers. We can be fairly assured that some nations such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Jordan would not be all that open to joining the EU and kowtowing to Germany’s heavy-handed running roughshod over other nations as they have with the less productive nations and even other near equals such as France and Britain, possibly one of the reasons that the British people felt the need to break with the EU, expecting other nations to pick up whatever slack these economies had as compared to the high productivity of the German heavy productivity. This pressure is less obvious for those nations outside the EU and have not received much coverage, but with Brexit the realities may slowly come to the fore and be revealed even faster should the EU, instead of executing expansion into new territories, begin losing member nations as others decide to head for the exits and try controlling their own borders, trade and currencies instead of being dictated from Brussels which sits more in service to Germany than anything else.

 

Then again, as most of the EU nations have abandoned their own currencies and have been using solely the Euro that the cost and burden of returning to their own currencies, as we have noted previously, would prove problematic and possibly so burdensome as to be prohibitive. The EU may be saved by a combination of prohibitive costs and challenges for individual nations returning to independence from the EU and inertia which would have leaders rather continue with what is already in place than challenge the independence from the EU which could be fraught with unforeseen challenges. Time will tell but the reasoning for why the EU desires to add these additional regions and the raw materials and petroleum reserves would be tempting under any circumstance. As for the feasibility, we would estimate they are somewhere around nil as the nations outside the EU, especially the Islamic nations, are not at all likely to take kindly to any pressures or attempts to compromise their independence by the EU which they already view as a colonialist aggressor. The funny reality is that Islam and the Arabs themselves have a far greater history of colonialism and their colonial pursuits are alive and well today across the MENA nations other than Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States which were the original Arab lands historically until the expansive thrusts which came soon after the advent of Islam and the Medina Quranic directives which spawned that expansive colonial expansion which they still retain to this day. Nobody can predict the future with any assurance of knowledge or prophesy but we will stand for now by our predictions that the EU should be more concerned with their own house before attempting to add additions to that home. Isn’t it just wonderful to live in interesting times just as a Chinese curse threatens?

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Brexit Opposition Proves There is but One Side

 

Both progressives and conservatives are ridiculing the British for voting to leave the European Union (EU) and reestablish their borders, control of their economy and implementing their own independent immigration law as well as seeking their own trade deals. All of these and more were denied Britain while mired in the EU. There should have been less surprise as the British have for all their history been an independent sort and always a bit apart from the rest of Europe. But there was another item which has become very evident since the Brexit vote, almost everybody was piling on the scorn all claiming that the British had gone absolutely and madly insane voting to leave the bureaucracy that is the EU because the cold and moderating decision making by the overlords in Brussels simply was and always would be superior than anything any elected government can produce because elected governments often change between conservative and progressive thus often working against themselves alternating directions as the governing coalitions change back and forth. This had, for reasons that escape us, brought out condemnations from progressive leftists and right wing conservatives which are an unusual occurrence as these two sides never seem to agree on anything. So, what is at work here to get these presumably opposing sides of the political arena to agree?

 

There has been a theory which is often relegated to the perpetually discontented that there is little difference between the two opposing parties in the United States, the Republicans and the Democrats. The only difference is the speed in which they are driving off the cliff. They claim the left is Thelma and Louise at the end of the movie driving off the cliff with the foot to the floor going as fast as the vehicle will go while the right are driving in a Model A Ford which is only capable of going 35 MPH thus creeps over the cliff, but over the cliff both sides are taking us. We are somewhat less familiar with the particulars of European politics but are willing to bet that Europe too had its perpetual malcontents who feel the same way, just with more parties to blame. Then there is the Israeli politics where if you are happy with the government, just wait a few minutes and it will pass. But the editorial cartoons, editorial articles and even what today passes for news reports all questioned the sanity of the British body politic, or at least those voting on Brexit favorably. No matter what newspaper or news broadcast and the vast majority of talking heads all were scratching their heads and completely gob-smacked over the yay vote on the Brexit referendum. Some even went so far as to question the sanity of David Cameron in keeping his promise to hold a public referendum over remaining in the EU as promised during the campaign. One must respect David Cameron for holding himself to keep what he promised after his party won an outright majority thus not requiring their forming a coalition with another party on who they could claim demanded no referendum as a condition for joining the coalition. Sometimes winning is losing and the Brexit vote was exactly that because the Conservative Party won an outright majority making Cameron Prime Minister and leading to Brexit, forcing Cameron’s resignation.

 

 

All the immediate ramifications aside, the reality is the reactions to Brexit passing has revealed that there are things that the left and the right can come together on, even if they did so independently with their shock, amazement and disapproval of the British decision to leave the EU. Some who came out a little upset had previously denounced the EU bureaucracy as a dictatorial menace threatening all of Europe with its edicts and such and now they were lamenting that Brexit could signal the end of the EU many guessing who would be the next to leave the sinking ship which was obviously the EU. We have our reservations on this automatically leading to the death of the EU as there will always be a remaining core even if France were to depart. Brussels can always count on Germany remaining along with Belgium along with Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Greece and likely others as other than Britain the other nations mostly retired their currencies in favor of the Euro so leaving the EU would leave them facing a potentially cost prohibitive task of recreating the national currency. The previous paper currency would probably need updating or face an untenable threat of counterfeiting as their older bills probably lack the newer intricacies newer paper money use to prevent easy counterfeiting of their money. Still, if a nation planned their leaving of the EU, plus the fact that exiting the EU can take at least two years, an exit could be managed providing the government was stable enough that they would not need fear too many challenges. But what would possibly be the promise the EU proffered that would be so tempting to both ends of the political spectrum that there would be such agreement?

 

Many people probably have long forgotten one of the selling points originally given for the establishing of the precursor and then finally the making of the EU. The theory was that this was going to be the making of a “United States of Europe” which could rival the United States in economic force and be able to hold their own against the United States and also China on the world market. This was probably wishful thinking but there was a secondary reason spoken of in whispers and hushed tones as if it were some taboo subject, one which must not be permitted the light of day. The EU was to be another unifying economic and governance organization. The United States already represented one of the “great blocs” and the EU would be the next such bloc and it was thought that Russia and China with a few satellites would be a third and this would leave Africa, the Middle East and South America to form one or two other blocs. The oil cartel OPEC came to be seen as one and the South America trading bloc which to a limited extent included India made another loosely grouped bloc. The aim behind the EU was for them to challenge the United States in the coming unifying of these blocs going forward in the next stages where these trading blocs would also begin to take on governing as the EU had with bureaucrats smoothing out any differences allowing for unifications of currencies, trading and governance. Eventually these separate blocs would start to merge into one world-wide trading bloc leading to a unified governing bloc and soon thereafter a world body of bureaucrats who arranged trading formalities and mechanisms which also controlled a unified currency and would supersede the individual government through holding a veto power over legislations and the first task the bureaucrats would face would be unifying the legal systems and laws beginning with trade laws, tariffs and expand from there. The eventual aim was to be that new world order which would be called anything other than new world order, but it would be a world government which would be made up of experts and specialists who would be given the powers and other needful supervisory roles which would grow until the system was inescapable and all national borders would slowly be erased and the world would be unified into one super-governance.

 

There would be a few nations who would require additional pressures in order to force them into the mold of a singular ruling bureaucracy. The United States, Canada and originally, and once again, Britain would be the potential standouts whose strong self-defining histories would make incorporating them into such a system would present special problems. The idea that the Islamic world was not also viewed as a potential set of difficulties is another overlooked problem. Then there was one other nation that from all the lists and presumed alliances and the institutions which were to be formed and slowly merged all left out one nation. They were most definitely refused an alliance in the Middle East, Europe would not offer them a hand, they were nowhere near Asia and the United States had more often than not been in an adversarial role despite accusations of the United States being all but controlled by this nation and Africa and South America likely have no intention of including them. That troublesome country would be Israel. Europe has admitted Israel into projects if Israel adds far more than anyone could argue that they were not an asset to the aims, and thus Israel is accepted in order to advance European interests. With Brexit the world has thankfully taken a giant step back from bureaucratic Gehenna and potential liberty and freedom have taken a step towards safekeeping into the future.

 

Beyond the Cusp