Programming note: Tomorrow, Tuesday, I'll be hosting another of our global get-togethers, Clubland Q&A, in which I take questions from Mark Steyn Club members live around the planet. That's at 4pm Eastern in North America, but do, as they say, check local listings for your particular time zone.
Sunday was not just Father's Day but the 65th anniversary of the June 17th 1953 Volksaufstand - the people's uprising - in East Germany. Over a million people in hundreds of towns marched against Soviet puppet Walter Ulbricht under banners declaring "We want to be free, not slaves." Russian tanks put down the rebellion, with some difficulty, and that was that - for thirty-six years.
Bertolt Brecht, East Germany's playwright (and lyricist of our Sinatra Song of the Century #95), wrote a mordant and droll poem on the events - "Die Lösung"(The Solution):
- After the uprising of the 17th of June
- The Secretary of the Writers Union
- Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
- Stating that the people
- Had forfeited the confidence of the government
- And could win it back only
- By redoubled efforts.
- Would it not be easier
- In that case for the government
- To dissolve the people
- And elect another?
It took 62 years and Walter Ulbricht's fellow East German, Angela Merkel, finally to "dissolve the people and elect another", with her decision to fast-track Germany's demographic transformation and admit one and a half million young male Muslim "refugees".
Yet the people have "forfeited the confidence of the government" in almost every developed nation except Japan, and around the western world the state has been busy dissolving them and electing another through mass immigration.
Their job is almost complete - to the point where the citizenry are increasingly dissolving themselves and signing on with their successors. Ouest France reports on a Frenchman born in the Loiret who converted to Islam:
Au mois de mai, un attentat visant «un club libertin» a ainsi été déjoué avec l'interpellation d'un homme «converti à l'islam et radicalisé» à Châteauroux (Indre), selon une source proche de l'enquête.
«Un engin improvisé a été découvert le 13 mai à son domicile et l'homme a reconnu avoir voulu en faire usage contre un club libertin», a précisé cette source.
Which means:
In May, an attack on a 'swingers' club' was thwarted with the arrest of a man who had 'converted to Islam and radicalized' in Châteauroux (Indre), according to a source close to the investigation.
'On May 13th an improvised device was discovered at his home, and the man admitted that he wanted to use it against a swingers' club,' said the source.
I went to a Muslim swingers' party. We all toss our detonators in the ring and swap each other's virgins.
Still, it's striking the way so many chaps who "convert to Islam" mysteriously "radicalize" near simultaneously: you'd almost get the impression it's a two-for-one deal.
These stories are the more obvious signs of the dissolution of the people: One of the livelier members of the new people is affronted by an obvious provocation - a satirical magazine, a Jewish school, a pop concert, a swingers' club; it's an ever longer list... But we think we know how to handle that: increase the budget of the security services, more surveillance, more databases, more manpower swooping down in the nick of time...
But, in between such stories, the softer, slyer, suppler dissolution continues unseen and largely unreported. My sometime editor Mary Wakefield has an interesting if rather agonized column about how the dwindling numbers of non-Muslim pupils in certain English schools can't seem to make any Muslim friends:
Quite by coincidence and on separate occasions, in the past month I've met two (non-Muslim) women whose children have had trouble at Muslim-dominated state schools. The kids made friends easily in their first term, said the mothers, but as the months went by it became harder to stay pals. Their schoolmates never invited them home, nor would they come round for playdates or parties. The friendships faded away and the kids were left confused. One of the two mothers I met had decided to move house: new catchment area, new start. She felt guilty, she told me, because she'd been keen her son have friends of all faiths. But he was one of only two non-Muslim boys in his class, and he was lonely.
So there's now only one non-Muslim boy, who presumably feels even lonelier. Although I'd wager he'll go too - and, to invert Rupert Brooke, there's yet another corner of an English field that is forever foreign.
When you raise the topic on Brit-mum websites, says Mary, the general reaction is that the real problem is your Islamophobia. But she detects at the equivalent Muslim websites a certain infidelophobia:
Sound Vision Foundation is a popular website specifically designed to help Muslims living in the secular West. It seems to be the very opposite of an extremist outfit, offering practical tips for liberal Muslim parents in Britain and the USA. It has a motto in rainbow colours: 'Helping tomorrow's Muslims today.' But Sound Vision is quite clear about the importance of restricting your child's friendships with non-Muslims.
Ah.
Miss Wakefield sympathizes:
It's hard to ensure the survival of a religious community in a secular country.
Au contraire: You don't have to be a French swingers' club when the revert walks in for a blow job to appreciate that it's hard to ensure the survival of a secular community in an increasingly religious country - especially when that new religion is both universalist and self-segregating, and increasingly assertive about imposing its mores on the public space, whether via dancing policemen or Halal Airways.
While we're noting anniversaries, today marks the 78th anniversary of Winston Churchill's speech to the House of Commons on June 18th 1940, a few weeks into his premiership and at a very dark hour, It was for the most part informative and businesslike, save for his thanks to Britannia's lion cubs:
We have fully informed and consulted all the self-governing Dominions, these great communities far beyond the oceans who have been built up on our laws and on our civilization, and who are absolutely free to choose their course, but are absolutely devoted to the ancient Motherland, and who feel themselves inspired by the same emotions which lead me to stake our all upon duty and honour. We have fully consulted them, and I have received from their Prime Ministers, Mr Mackenzie King of Canada, Mr Menzies of Australia, Mr Fraser of New Zealand, and General Smuts of South Africa-that wonderful man, with his immense profound mind, and his eye watching from a distance the whole panorama of European affairs-I have received from all these eminent men, who all have Governments behind them elected on wide franchises, who are all there because they represent the will of their people, messages couched in the most moving terms in which they endorse our decision to fight on, and declare themselves ready to share our fortunes and to persevere to the end. That is what we are going to do.
And he concluded with a famous rhetorical flourish:
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'
What remains now of "Christian civilization" in England? Or of "our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions" - such as, say, Church of England primary schools in which all but two boys are Muslim. There are many communities "far beyond the oceans ...built up on our laws and on our civilization", but in the ancient Motherland Bertolt Brecht's words seem more pertinent than Churchill's.
And which men in a new Britain will still say "This was their finest hour"? For when you lose your future, you also lose your past.
Unremitting mass immigration is an existential threat. If your local politician doesn't get that, elect another.
~We had a busy weekend at SteynOnline, starting with a look at the surprising number of Mark Steyn Show guests in the news. Our Saturday movie date was Munich, Steven Spielberg's travesty of a great George Jonas book, and our Song of the Week bellowed out the all-time great World Cup anthem. We also celebrated Father's Day with a stirring contemplation of impending paternity. If you were attending to your own dad over the weekend, or enjoying the ministrations of offspring, we hope you'll want to check out one or more of the foregoing.
Thank you so much for all the Mark Steyn Club subscription renewals this last month. As our second year begins, I know very well that I would not be here without the support of our members around the world, for which we are all profoundly grateful. For more information on the Steyn Club, see here - and don't forget our limited-time Gift Membership.
Oh, and do give a thought to our inaugural Mark Steyn Club Cruise from Montreal to Boston this September. We'll be attempting some seaboard versions of The Mark Steyn Show, Tales for Our Time, our Sunday Poem and other favorite features. If you're minded to give it a go, don't leave it too late, as the price is more favorable the earlier you book.
Catch you on the telly tonight, Monday, with Tucker live across America at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific - and around the globe tomorrow for our Clubland Q&A at 8pm GMT.
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So, that mother still felt guilty for finally taking her very lonely and unhappy child out of a school full of racist, religionist and intolerant mohammedans because she really wanted her son to mix with children of other religions. Really ? Sometimes you just can not fix stupid. One would think that if you were a caring mother, that a sense of danger and self-preservation would kick in and you would put your son's mental and physical well-being ahead of your loony lefty virtue signalling. Still, at least she was not totally brain washed. She did finally move him out of that dreadful school, however belatedly. This example seems to be a microcosm of wider society in the Occident where a sense of danger and self-preservation seem almost non-existent.
Re Tommy Robinson:
He is among the few standing in front of the invasion.
What is the msm in England saying about 20,000 people demonstrating in London?
I read that Robinson is in solitary... Islamic inmates screaming death threats all day.... and he is losing weight. No extra food is allowed.
When will honest Brits shed the fantasy of the "royals" and over throw the Saxe-Gotha- Altenburg Scam which is the genesis for both World Wars - and now the ruination of the English people?
The names Windsor and Mountbatten were marketing ploys to distance the thugs behind the castle walls from the tyranny of that bloodline for centuries. We/they are tutored that the "crown" doesn't dirty its hands with day to day management - But Gestapo tactics are their forte. Whether its a pesky daughter in law or a revolutionary voice like Robinson - jack boots for the crown are assassins.
Anybody remember the martyr Kevin Crehan? He died in prison for putting bacon on a Mosque doorway- sentences to 12 months of torment by the Gestapo at Westminster. They murdered this early patriot in furtherance of multi cultural madness.
The message to good Brits is "Any who protest will be thrown to the Muslims in the prisons"
So for all the arm chair warriors who wonder what they can do ... who lament the state of the world because of the 3rd world invasions that threaten our very lives - you can remember Kevin Crehan - and curse the name Windsor - for the monsters they are.
And what of Canada? We think of that neighbor as just a vanilla suburb. Yet, they are hard core post modernist tyrants. Jordan Peterson and Lindsay Shepherd are recent high profile victims of Canadian "values".
Just as Sweden feeds its daughters to the Islamic wood chipper, Brussels, Germany and the Empire are now the enemies of the Good - advancing the interests of evil.
Hail to the queen?
Communism failed when they ran out of other people's money.
Secular Civilization is failing because it's running out of other people.
I think Mark already wrote about that somewhere already. With secularists so desperate that they are importing Somalis in the hope they'll have children who turn out like Frank Sinatra, you know that the end is near.
The political class in the West are very much like Nero, fiddling while they watch Christian civilization burn, and declaring the conflagration is made beautiful by the flames while singing about Christian civilization's great historical achievements.
Mark, I fear it is already too late over there. Islam will soon conquer that once proud island. And over here, the hoards from South and Central America, along with Mexico, are displacing the founding peoples of this once great land. Donald Trump is doing his best against long odds but is doomed to fail in time. Our future is also lost because, as with Muslims over there, invaders over here, likewise, have no intention of joining US and assimilating.
An American stock trader stationed in London was on Fox Business this morning saying his informal survey of Brit cab drivers and people in elevators and bars indicates they won't be dominated. Their ancestors defeated Merkel's ancestors in the 40s when all seemed lost.They have what it takes to prevail. Americans have a history of success, too. Churchill observed that Americans always do the right thing after trying all the alternatives. We're beginning to realize, once again, the alternatives don't work.
I agree with your comments David. England has faced many existential threats over the centuries, so has France. The vast majority of Americans believe in their Constitution and their way of life. The MSM's and the government's attempts to pretend the people of the UK will placidly submit to Islam is in vain. Look at the support for Tommy Robinson, who is a voice of reason and Patriotism. What is bizarre is how the media is on the government's side, instead of the People's.
The media phenomenon is interesting. Somehow they've become predominantly leftist. Maybe right thinking people all got real jobs and no longer had time for reporting what others did. Talking about others and acting in fiction may be all that the ones who specialized in ethnic studies are capable of. They got the media by default. Anyway they gravitated to a leftist monolith and took the opportunity to preach their cloistered vision of a world under their control. They're on a mission, you see, and support any government that shares the leftist vision. Vigorous opposition to any government that thinks differently, of course. Their appearance of control of the message is an illusion. They're just talking to themselves. Most people know better, of course, and find more rational messages elsewhere. They can't stop it, and it drives them nuts. Good entertainment.
The English-speaking peoples saved the Europeans from themselves, but alas, we all seem to be following them into the abyss this time round. Great Britain in particular.
And don't forget Kevin Crehan - the early martyr who died in prison at the hands of Muslims... he was sent to jail for a year for BACON on the door of a mosque.
If we don't value and celebrate these heroes... if we don't scream it from the rooftops... we will perish.
Kevin Crehan gave his life for OUR CHILDREN ... and the world bows before that filthy old woman of Windsor.
100% David.
You've been reading too much rubbish on the internet CW. Queen Elizabeth and her family are exemplary examples of service to humanity. I suggest you read up on that on the internet, it is much closer to reality.
Putting bacon on a mosque doesn't qualify as heroic. People who behave stupidly in support of a good cause damage their cause, undermining the objective. Sometimes suicidal rage serves to galvanize the survivors. Usually not. Success comes from good tactics, not mindless vandalism.
Hmm, a general sense of doom seems to prevail here. I can only agree. Agree and bring up a more trivial question: in what sense is what Brecht wrote a poem? If that's a poem, so is this comment.
Mark replies:
In fairness, it's a bit more poem-like in the German.
Poetry always invites critics.
Great to read extracts of Churchill's stirring words where he spoke boldly about Christian civilisation (we only say western civilisation now but it's almost wholly based on Christianity) ... but I think I've made the point before ...
Christian civilisation implies that there are Christians living out their belief ...
It staggers me that people somehow think that a secular world that has no time for God will honour Christian principles over the long term - short term yes but as society progresses other ideas/ideologies will take hold ...
If Islam was not one of the main issues in post-Christian Europe, do you really think it would all be hunky dory & there wouldn't be another theology/ideology taking advantage of the spiritual vacuum?
As the words to U2 song the Wanderer sung by Johnny Cash goes ..."I stopped outside a Church house, Where the citizens like to sit, They say they want the Kingdom, But they don't want God in it"
were you worried about being separated from you children when you tried to smuggle kinder eggs into the USA?
I watched Lindsay Graham feign outrage today. While Laura, Jeb and George helped change the subject over the weekend - from the ongoing coup on our Presidency to - Concentration Camps for Mexican babies.
Well, where is the poison gas? 250 a day are rushing the border - unaccompanied - while FBI director Wray just gave the thumbs up to Mr. Mueller.
Trump is our last line of defense for what's coming. Failed states still breed like rabbits, producing clutches of low IQ children year after year. According to Laura Bush, that's our problem now.
I'm on the front line half the year in New Mexico - just north of Albuquerque. Teachers are grave. These kids are not only ungovernable, but unteachable. There isn't enough money to teach in languages from Somalis, Congo, Syria, Iraq, PLUS all of Central America. I understand enrollment for the coming year is up again for illegals that speak NO English.
Our country and our Commander in Chief are being hijacked as I type. The DOJ, FBI, and the entire DC machinery are at work here... because the larger issue is that WE Americans are being supplanted with 3rd world populations - in what can only be called a Faustian bargain to save the planet. From us.
It's kill or be killed time - as we break out the steaks for summer grilling, and eye those new 2019 Audi's
The reason this is working is because they aren't really killing "us" in this process. Instead, they are killing a way of life, or a civilization or society. Despite the obviously grim and inevitable conclusion, that future remains too far off for most people to sacrifice fighting against it today. And the declining birthrate of the population most adversely affected serves to further diminish any motivation to fight back. Essentially both sides make a Faustian bargain.
Ouf. The neo-Robespierre-wannabe at the grill, still preaching genocide, now with brats and burgers?
Mark is so, so wrong. Gay marriage was our finest hour. No, wait. Transgender bathrooms was our finest hour. No, wait. Men having babies was our finest hour. No, wait. Three-parent families are our finest hour. No, wait. Children made from the genetic material of 3, 4, 5 persons will be our finest hour -- the best is yet to come!!!
The (self-initiated) debasement of Western culture continues.
Meanwhile, most of the original Western population is in the Club Car playing online games ("I'm already a 'Wizard Level VI' in Fantasy World!" - "Oh yeah? Well I'm 'Assistant Executive Director of Diversity Implementation Services in a Fortune Top-100 Firm' " - "Yeah - So What? My Iggles won the Superbowl!" - etc.).
The rest of the "Western population" is in the Caboose, standing on the Back Platform, looking backwards: "Everything will be okay over time - it always ends up okay for us. Ignore that Cultural Invasion extremism - they'll ALL become Americans / Englishmen / Danes / Swedes / Frenchmen / etc. when they see how TOLERANT we are..."
"United they fall, but divided some of them stand a chance."
That is truly Mark's rallying cry. This is all well past a tipping point. The only hope is that the declining number of participants in what we call western civilization will somehow begin migrating themselves into a country where they can gain critical mass and vote for what is needed to perpetuate their way of life. It is naive in the extreme to believe that all of these western countries could ever return to what we call western civilization.
The western civilization is committing suicide and dying in its place of birth.The western culture is being discarded and being replaced by 7th century tribal barbarism, The western culture will not be completely lost it has been adopted partially in the countries of far east that are not using the Latin alphabet and is protected by the totalitarian regimes of China and Russia. It may sound illogical but western style democracy and the Western legal system is self destructing it destroys Western civilization including the Western style legal system and western style democracy
I am getting more and more worried about the future of Canada and seriously thinking about leaving for another local not sure where yet. Our Supreme Court is all it's wisdom basically said there's no freedom of religion when it come's to Christian values which are the cornerstone of the western values and of the Country itself. In an idiotic ruling against Trinity Western University the " Supreme Court" rules that gay and transgender rights take precedence over religious freedoms and that the Ontario and BC Bar associations are within there rights not to accredit students who would graduate there. I wonder if those associations will ban practicing Muslims who don't share their progressive values I think the answer to that is self evident.
A disgusting ruling, indeed. Equally nauseating was the recent announcement by our federal government of changes to the application requirements for federal funding under the Canada Summer Jobs program for youth employment. Applicants must now explicitly attest that "both the job and the organization's core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as other rights. These include reproductive rights and the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression."
Yep, you got it. All applicants, including faith-based charities, must now specifically endorse the existence of "reproductive rights" should they wish to receive federal government funding, in addition to a whole laundry list of other so-called rights that no one knew existed until twenty minutes ago. The only rights that seem to have been completely forgotten by Employment and Social Development Canada are the rights of people of faith to freedom of conscience and religion which, unlike the right to free and easy abortion and freedom from discrimination on the basis of "gender identity or expression", are and have been forever explicitly enshrined in our nation's Charter.
This government-mandated enforcement of ideological conformity has been loudly condemned by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Rabbinical Council of America, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the Canadian Council of Christian Charities, and yes, interestingly enough, the Canadian Council of Imams, all to absolutely no avail whatsoever.
Well the madness is incubating in Alberta also.
The other day I came across a leaflet from the Calgary Board of Education. It was recruiting for Kindergarten (incidentally, I believe that comes from the German 'children's garden'). I took a photo of the front and the back of the leaflet because the image was quite striking and I believe speaks volumes about what kind of students they would like to see, and what kind they wouldn't.
https://postimg.cc/gallery/3228dsy4s/
For starters, the ratio of girls to boys is 2:1, 6 girls and 3 boys.
There are only 2 white children, a boy and a girl, and the boy is out of focus and all but invisible.
Of the non-white childern, 2 are asian, 1 appears to be Indian, and the rest appear to be black.
If they had speech bubbles like in the cartoons, they would probably all be in different languages and
Here's an article produced by the Communist Broadcasting Club in 2016, concerning the education changes being pursued by the hard left NDP provincial government.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-begins-six-year-overhaul-of-education-curriculum-1.3636519
Of course they're focussed on "climate change, the history of indigenous people and residential schools, and gender identity" but hey, it's not all like that. "The department is looking at teaching computer coding to students." So if they can find the time, the budget, and the motivation, then they might even teach the kids something useful.
And the president of the Teachers' Association is right on board. "We can see from the unfortunate circumstances in other countries, in other areas, that now more than ever we need to teach about inclusion, and to teach about equality and social justice,"
As far as justice goes, here's another article about the Gay Straight Alliance that the government has forced upon families.
https://thebridgehead.ca/2017/11/27/coward-david-eggen-refused-to-answer-questions-about-girl-who-could-have-died-under-bill-24/
But hey, she's probably white so who want's her kind around anyway?
The real battle for this society needs to take place in the universities. The Left has taken them over and is now in a position to indoctrinate new generations with whatever they want. Until the universities are regained the root of the problem in the West will not be addressed and Law graduates will think 'Justice' really means 'Social Justice'.
I grew up in Japan but have lived in USA since 1962, the daughter of missionaries. I found it interesting when you wrote of the reduction in the local demographics in all countries except Japan, Mark. Isn't it interesting. I've never read anyone condemning Japan for refusing to take in Arab "refugees" or any immigrants, for that matter. Do they get accused of islamophobia? Are they accused of being racists or is that just reserved for us white folk? They have way too many people as it is. I can't ever picture them having a school where a Japanese child is the only one in the class.
The demography of Japan collapsed same as that of Germany following WW2 in which it lost a large percentage of its men. The Japanese population is shrinking and they don't accept immigrant substituting them with robots but this can go only so far and they will have to accept immigrants most likely from Korea which are close to Japanese racially and culturally
I wonder if that topic ever came up off the record in these North Korean negotiations.
Great column Mark. Tremendous speech in Toronto last Friday. Now if a Canadian politician could muster even half of your rhetorical skill and fortitude we might have a future!
How deeply moving and poignant.
It has been interesting to ponder for a few years that the end game if the Western Oligarchs is to import the ultimate:
New citizens who(the importers fecklessly hope) will be less recalcitrant than the old domestically developed voters.
It will not work out as the cynical oligarchs wish it would.
Look at Colombia, standing up against decades of hard and soft communism:
Teachers who are indoctrinators. And terrorists using DNC style campaign marketing to sell the idea that narco-terrorist murderers and mercenaries are actually great guys ready to "reform" Colombia.
Yet the people saw through it and nade the chouce for liberty and civil society by overwhelming majorities.
Today's bizarre Western hating vile oligarchs filling governments and the UN should actually be shaking in their boots.
The pushback is coming.
This IS the pushback - anemic because Americans aren't willing to die to save their children from the invasion.
So long as there is full employment and shiny new cars, Americans will grouse on the internet and withdraw to their smaller and smaller circles. I just don't think we have it in us to save ourselves.
What I only learned recently is that the French Revolution came only after several years of failed crops because of a Grand Solar Minimum - which has also begun again in 2017. We are entering into a mini ice age - unrelated to claims of global warming.
The combination of minute changes in the polar axis - combined with a reduction of sun spot activity - irritates tectonic plates [ see world headlines about recent tectonic and volcanic activity] - which in turn cause failed crops and famine from summer snows, falling temperatures and summers without sun in the extremes of both hemispheres.
Our news no longer reports anything but the ongoing coup on an unpopular interloper in DC. But hail is growing, summer is delayed, volcanoes are erupting, and plates are shifting ..... while we argue over emails and servers.
In the larger picture - I thank any of the reasons we have a leader such as Trump in these times. Things are going to get far more dicey as famine and over population continue to empty 3rd world shtholes.
We are looking at a mini ice age until at least 2025. You tube and Google have plenty of scholarship on this growing threat - but the greater threat is that we will be over run by 3rd world detritus - and won't take up arms to defend our country or leaders until the scales have tipped too far in favor of global concern for other peoples children.
We are approaching kill or be killed time. Yet, very few, but in places like Kos, Lesbos, northern suburbs of Paris, and Sicily - understand what needs to be done to man the front lines for a wave of humanity that will be coming very very soon.
Kill or be killed time. None of us wants to believe those days are back... at least for Americans. But we've got what THEY want - and they mean to take it. Steal it. And murder us in our beds if necessary.
I think 2020 is the target year for solar minimum summer - few crops, and lots more angry migrants.
Don't believe me? Do some homework.
Relax. Solar cycles run every 11 years, but we don't have calamities every 11 years. None more than usual, anyway. The struggle for survival persists even in the best of solar seasons, but most of us succeed.The only reliable prediction is that some will always predict calamity, but, we always manage. We're smarter than the Sun.
Well-said David.
CW. One thing I have observed over a lifetime, is that "the sky is falling" predictions are never correct. There are always threats, but we get through. In your Last Stand, you can retreat to a never-needed cold-war era nuclear-blast bunker.
I'm not worried about 11 year cycles. Our present dilemma is how to educate people about record breaking weather "anomalies" in a political environment where record snowfall and crop losses in Canada and Australia, baseball size hail in Colorado and Oklahoma are all but ignored.
We are experiencing breathtaking tectonic activity, plunging temperatures - record breaking out of season snowfall - yet people yawn and prescribe Ambien or the gym for old cranks who notice.
I spent a lifetime in Colorado - and yes, the climate swings abruptly - especially on the Eastern plains. But nothing like this. 25000 dead cows from hail and snow in SUMMER across the New Mexico Texas Colorado borders... is a BIG deal. An Unreported big deal.
We will just have to wait for drama closer to home as this 250 year Grand Solar Minimum wreaks havoc on tectonic plates. Nobody seems to quite understand how solar minimums tickle the plates... but the evidence is there in the historical data. Hawaii and Guatemala are just the first in a cycle which is quickening
... Yellowstone is our nightmare... every so often that caldera acts up and kills trees across a larger and larger area. Hikers see pines burning from underground smoke.
If North Carolina or MIssouri become active, it will get everyone's attention.
I think you better check your sources for accuracy CW.
If an asteroid hits Yellowstone we're all doomed. But that's not likely, either. Always remember weather is not climate. Weather changes fast, climate does not, regardless of solar cycles. Those who confuse them would benefit from reading Mark's great "Disgrace" book.
CW: As usual you have it correct on climate-gate. I implore those on this site who seem to be unduly influenced by the PC thought police on climate change to educate themselves by reading "The Politically incorrect guide to Climate change". The extent of the wholesale corruption of science by the left is truly mind numbing. Continue to speak out against this idea that the relentless attack on western civilization from within
is somehow turning around with Trump's election. Not the case at all - it's become more virulent than ever. Stand your ground.
The 18th of June is also the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon Bonaparte prompted a series of immensely destructive wars with an extremely incoherent manifesto at best. Millions died, as a result of his pointless ambition, without ever knowing why. Is that so different from the prophet of islam and his impact on the world?
Not so different Owen. History has hundreds of examples of Napoleons, from all races, religions, and continents. Thankfully that sort of conduct is not tolerated in modern society, at least not in the Western World. Hence, Hitler and Nazi Germany were put down. Western Civilization is unique in history, and represents a historical improvement in the ability of human beings to co-exist in relative peace and security, with stability. It is constantly under threat from Tyranny from within and without, as that is humanity's de-fault tendency. Some culture or religion or other ideology invariably thinks they know what's best for everyone else - or else.
Top form Mr Steyn, that may get me prising my wallet open again in August.
We've gone from our finest hour to the abyss of self-degradation in less than half a century. It must be unparalleled in human history that a people have allowed an alien presence to rape its underage daughters with impunity for 40 years.
I'd be interested in your reflections on a letter from Hull Gaol by a well known Luton FC fan.
If you haven't stumbled upon it, there's a link in the description of this video of my own reflections if I'm not in breach of club etiquette in posting it?
https://youtu.be/hs6jWYCzWpA
This is a link to the same letter from Tommy Robinson, but it's much easier to read and is read aloud also.
https://youtu.be/JeF1_SKRwmU
How bad is it in Europe? Bad enough for me to be rooting for the swingers and their survival. Rah rah, yay team, etc. We're doomed.
Mark - But they don't get it do they? A couple of years ago I was in London for five days. I am an unreconstructed Anglophile and I have always rejoiced in being in London and visiting those familiar, but always noble, places.The Houses of Parliament, the British Museum, Nelson's Column, HMS Belfast, The National Gallery, St. Paul's, Churchill's War Rooms etc. I am not particularly religious but when I visited Westminster Abbey the Westminster Boys Choir was rehearsing and I sat there with a rapt crowd just overwhelmed by the beauty of the Anglican hymns.
(Also on that trip, I also had one of my credit card numbers cloned at a London pub/restaurant and two tickets to Karachi, Pakistan charged to it.)
Yet the British "leadership class (so-called) seems not only oblivious to these treasures but actively hostile to them. How did that happen? How did "the best people" (again so-called) become so cut off, not only from their people, but from their past? My mother's family went through the Depression, World War II and "Austerity England" with grit, humor and fortitude. They grumbled (and voted for Attlee) but the thought of abandoning the idea of "being British" was completely alien to them. They're all gone now and all that seems left is a people wallowing in a listless depression and a self-despising gloom. There is also anger in many quarters but that is instantly pounced on (and usually suppressed) by a completely useless national constabulary and a huge "human services" bureaucracy that seems to be everywhere whenever you open your mouth. (See Tommy Robinson.) At least the Nazi's were a visible enemy that could be fought in the light of day. The strangling smog of "soft despotism" is now everywhere in Old Blighty. Very sad!
Another reason for rejoicing, John, is The British Library. "Opened in 1998, it's one of the greatest repositories of library materials with more than 150,000,000 items, some dating back over 3,000 years." —from Virtual Venue Visit: The British Library. (3:32mins)
When the British people become the minority in their own country, I wonder who will be the future custodians of all of these materials. Who will guard and protect this special structure holding the documentation and treasures of most all of the of the world's civilizations? Do the folks who work and visit there wonder the same thing?
It seems designed for state-of-the-art everything: conferences, dinner receptions, prestigious events, award ceremonies and they even cater to dietary restrictions. When did all this catering begin when one just needs to do research? Before the West started losing their countries, they started losing their senses.
Protect it? They'll burn it down.
Maybe it will become the UK center for Advanced Islamic Studies? (They did repurpose Hagia Sophia, after all). The British Library is apparently also considered a premier academic institution. The catering to food preferences is already built in! They should not have troubled themselves with all the notable author conference rooms seeing that these authors will be likely phased out of the educational curriculum, if they haven't been already. Well, I guess it's easy enough to switch out the British literary giants' names for those of the imam giants. Something that picayune won't daunt them.
In a very real sense Brits are already a minority because it's not just a numbers game. One very succinct point I recall from Mark's 'America Alone' was that one young fervent Muslim willing to die and more important willing to kill for his beliefs offsets any number of feckless Europeans who believe in nothing, will not fight for any cause - even their own freedom of expression. This is why Mark highlighted the 'Time Machine' some time ago. Brits really are the new Eloi and like many others on this site I fear it's too late. If the totally insane democratic party ever regains power it will be lights out for America as well.
There's currently an illuminating Windrush exhibit in the British Library. When you encounter it, you see a large yellow placard with this quote:
'Wat a devilment a Englan!
Dem face war an brave de worse,
But me wondering how dem
gwine stan
Colonizin in reverse.'
Miss Lou, 'Colonization in Reverse'
Wow! Illuminating, I'll say.
Same as what they did to the ancient Alexandria library.
If they get control - they will burn it down to destroy history. But 'Ol Blighty' isnt going to roll over and die. A big back-lash is coming, from the grass-roots, as the media seems to be on the side of the lefty Globalist government, not on the Peoples'.
The tie-in of Brecht's lyric with Merkel's government (and every western government) was heart-stabbing. Hope your audience continues to grow, Mr. Steyn -- yours is a rare voice.
As I've been following Britain's heartbreaking death spiral into totalitarianism, I've been asking myself what duty do I as a U.S. citizen have to true freedom loving British people. I've been asking myself this because I fear that those true British Patriots will not have the strength, politically or otherwise to stop this. Citizens from other Commonwealth countries and even the U.S. volunteered (for the RAF etc) to face an external totalitarian threat in Nazi Germany. My gut feeling tells me that we still have some obligation here, even though this is largely self imposed. I don't know in what format this would take or exactly how it would be received of course.
The Trumpster might show the way to do that Nathaniel, with time. There will be Solidarity across the Western World.
As an Englishman I find your post quite moving, Nathaniel, but slightly misplaced. I don't think Americans owe Britain anything they don't also owe to themselves, most of all, but also Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders etc. There's a civilizational legacy of, as Churchill memorably put it, the 'English-Speaking Peoples.' Based on English Common Law, classic liberalism, and innumerable freedoms, it is perhaps the greatest civilizational legacy mankind has achieved.
If our generation lets it slip through our fingers, history will not be kind to us (assuming any more histories will be written).
"Conversion" is usually a submission of weak minded people to a perceived sympathetic idea - a fad. In many groups, Islam is the "new black" with increasing numbers jumping on the trendy social bandwagon to support a perceived underdog. That bandwagon seems to be losing steam in Germany, as Frau Merkel faces increasing political resistance to her national conversion efforts. The multi-culti fad will decline, as all fads do, in Germany and elsewhere as people realize they were better off as they were.
David, the conversion process starts with a fad indeed, with "tolerance", food and fun, etc..
Totalitarianism is walking, indeed waltzing into Western civilization and its civilizational battlegrounds (schools, the arts, comic books, colleges, government) with a battle cry of "diversity", a mandatory celebration of said "diversity", and with a smiley face. It enters with iron-clad, blood-curdling militancy and complete honesty of aims and goals and means on other battlefields (see Europe). That is why I tend to take the raging mullahs at their word ("we want to annihilate you, convert you and drink your blood") rather than Western leaders (there are exceptions) "
("those cowards", "enough is enough", "we will apprehend those responsible", "we are better/stronger" than this/them", "we will not let them change us/our way of life").
There are many tactics, there are many tools all being employed on all fronts.
I'm going to put a link here to the "Taking the Hijab Challenge" article I just read as an example of the former.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/ramadan-women-faiths-hijab-challenge-show-solidarity/story?id=55872171
Frau Merkel declared herself that multi-kulti failed. The only problem is that she released the jinni out of the bottle but realized too late that she can not put it back into the bottle. She and the German population that followed her are captive of the jinni. The "refugees" will not leave any of the west European countries voluntarily and return to the place from where they came. This will require Lethal force and conviction same as that of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castil which is highly unlikely
AB, the end game is inevitably either submission and surrender by the Germans - replete with "jizya" - or assimilation of the immigrants into German culture. I'd bet on the Germans.France is less certain.
Fran, tyranny is is a fundamental aspect of human nature. Many need it, being easier to deal with than self responsibility, and many use it as a convenient mechanism to gain and maintain control over others. The big dog always wins because the other dogs find it too difficult to resist. Overcoming our nature takes great effort and great risk. By the way, there was a muslim woman on Fox Business this morning who is campaigning to ban burkas in europe. There are always a few willing to resist tyranny. Often there are enough, but history shows that's not always the case.
Right-on David.
Although not even that sly, this has to be one of the more sinister attempts by lslam to inveigle unwitting infidels to take a leap of faith. These women seem completely oblivious to the fact that "showing solidarity" is a creepy euphemism for dhimmitude, if not conversion. It's sickening to read.
"It's just so nice, isn't it? I'm thinking of taking the "ultra" challenge, and donning the full burka for a month. And I'll upload my burka selfies. It's so nice to show sharia solidarity, isn't it?"
Sadly we will share the same fate if the Democrats/Berniebros/elites are able to continue undermining Trump to the point of eventual defeat. It is really quite a shock to the system to realize how truly feckless our political class has become. But, thats what you get when you turn over things to a bunch of lawyers, endless double-talk and buck passing.
Words of wisdom Lawrence: While I appreciate the optimism from those on this site who feel that things are turning around in the west I'm not confident at all - certainly not in Europe. It is a shock to see virtually all of our media joining with the democratic party to form a single far left America hating entity. Few conservatives seemed to notice the sea change that took place in '08 with the MS media. With the long awaited Messiah running all pretense of fairness was thrown out and this single entity was created. Certainly the generally liberal media always favored the Dems but there was some effort to appear non-partisan. No more. I'll continue to pound this point - the left now totally controls our entire educational system along with the powerful entertainment industry and virtually all of our media. It's become obvious that they also control the upper echelon of the CIA, NSA, and FBI. Don't believe it? Just listen to Clapper, Brennan and Comey on CNN and MSNBC. So forgive me for remaining pessimistic. If they succeed in bringing down this president it's all over.
I risk sounding like a skipping CD - but again - if you want to know how the world works, talk to a Nanny in Aspen, a bartender at the Grand Canyon Lodge, [Yellowstone will do too] - a whore in Anguilla or a Telluride Realtor.
These people are situated among the elites in such a way that their knowledge is exact, but their megaphones small. Those of us who have spent a lifetime on the margins of power, know exactly what the prescription is for what's coming.
Brussels and Stockholm are poised to force feed their daughters to the cause. And Mr. Putin -- enemy of the state - is poised to resist along with other Eastern Block countries determined to turn back the black mass at their door step.
And we wonder why all the villains are Russian this last decade?
True Roy. But the MS media does not represent a large percentage of people. And youth have parents and grand parents to educate them as well. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. We'll get through.
Stop watching and listening to the MS media; I stopped because it was too frustrating; i check in occasionally to see what nonsense they are promoting as the next threat, or to see the latest strategy for destroying Trump; but Mark follows it to dispel the nonsense and reveal the evil strategies to Conservative citizens worldwide, so I get the latest MS nonsense through him- that's enough.
Bollards! You forgot more bollards!
The tide has turned in Europe. My only question is: will it be as powerful as in the Bay of Fundy or just a Bristol Channel spring tide?
David Jory - Great reference. My mothers family come from Weston-super-Mare just outside of Bristol. I have spent a lot of time in Weston and have observed the Bristol Channel at low tide and when it is in "full flood." Not much to choose from except that at full flood the River Avon gets a little more water flowing under the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Locals in Weston used to say that the miles of mud flats left when the Channel recedes give off an "ozone" that has healthful properties. Maybe it's true because I always feel pretty good when I go there. Of course that could be the Somerset Cream Teas and John Smith bitter that I regularly consume.
Brilliant stuff (as usual), Mark