MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘EU’

Assange Arrested, Brexit Squashed – Just Another Day in the Empire – Gold Goats ‘n Guns

Posted by M. C. on April 16, 2019

https://tomluongo.me/2019/04/12/assange-arrested-brexit-squashed-just-another-day-in-the-empire/

And down goes Julian Assange, right beside Brexit. If there was ever any doubt that The Powers That Be are unrelenting in their cruelty just look at the 24 hours starting on Wednesday.

First Theresa “The Snake Oil Lady” May kicks 17.4 million voters into the weeds.

And then she oversees the arrest and judging of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

The timing of this is important beyond dovetailing it with her Brexit betrayal. They had to go after Assange now, because Theresa May’s time in office is ending.

A Jeremy Corbyn-led government would not grant the U.S. it’s prize.

Corbyn, for all of his faults, would be a breath of fresh air in the unraveling of the ‘special relationship’ between the U.S. and U.K. in foreign policy for as long as he lasted in office.

Still think Theresa works for anyone other than her owners?…

But nothing surprises me about the evil of Theresa May anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

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Where some see a monopoly, others see an opportunity | The Daily Bell

Posted by M. C. on April 5, 2019

And it’s a big world… if you’re not finding the right choices (or customers) where you are, perhaps it’s time to look elsewhere.

https://www.thedailybell.com/all-articles/news-analysis/where-some-see-a-monopoly-others-see-an-opportunity/

By Joe Jarvis

The 1970s was the heyday for rural America according to a third generation hog farmer.

But as farms became more and more consolidated by Big Agriculture, profits dropped. The margins on food got smaller so it became harder to compete.

And by 2001, he went bankrupt.

Now he’s back on his feet because he is a raising a different kind of hog–a specialty kind that fetches twice the price.

And it’s actually comparatively easy for people to afford specialty food products these days. In 1960 Americans spent about 17% of their income on food. Now it is only 6.4%.

If consumers care to, they can spend twice as much as typical on better quality food, and still save money compared to 50 years ago.

Meanwhile, big brands like Nestle are spending less on innovation for new products. And start-up brands are taking larger shares of the market, especially for healthier foods with higher quality ingredients.

It’s anyone’s guess what factors came into play to create a stronger demand for healthy foods. But the point is that when the market showed a weak spot, entrepreneurs pounced.

Food is just one example… Read the rest of this entry »

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Can the EU Survive Its Own Censorship? – Gold Goats ‘n Guns

Posted by M. C. on March 28, 2019

https://tomluongo.me/2019/03/27/can-the-eu-survive-its-own-censorship/

The EU’s new, comprehensive new Copyright Directive passed the European Parliament ensuring the way we use the Internet will change in the future.

And not for the better.

The controversial parts are Articles 11 and 13, the “link tax” and the “upload filter” requirements. For a good run down of how terrible these new rules are look anywhere on the internet but this article at Gizmodo (who I hope doesn’t charge me a link tax for doing so!) will do.

I would also watch this video from Dave Cullen, a resident of Ireland, i.e. the EU, as to what he thinks this means.

Dave makes a number of fantastic points about the ramifications of Articles 11 and 13 which I will not dispute.

The arrogance and pig-headedness of EU MEPs to push this through without even listening to arguments for Amendments speaks volumes as to how much this legislation was bought and paid for.

And you know who was doing the buying. The same folks currently behind destroying Brexit — The Davos Crowd. I don’t want to put too fine a point on this now, since I’ve covered all this recently (here) and in the past (here ).

Controlling The Wire

But there are very valid reasons why this push for control of information flow from the EU is yet another example of their desperations to keep control of what I’ve in the past called The Wire:

In short, The Wire is the main conduit through which we communicate with each other. Even money is The Wire. What are prices if not information about what we are willing to part with our money in exchange for?
Without The Wire modern society fails. So, government can’t shut it down but neither can it allow unrestrained access to it.
Electricity, commerce, communications, everything, goes over The Wire.
This isn’t a radical concept but like all important ideas, once it is presented to you you can’t unsee it.


Control of The Wire is the only fight that matters or has ever mattered in society. The Internet is The Wire writ large. Therefore, it only makes sense that control of it is paramount to maintaining any control over society at large.

The corporate oligarchs are in fear for their projects. They want desperately to maintain control. They’ve worked for decades to evolve the nation-state into the new shiny transnational superstate the EU exemplifies.

The new Copyright Directive is designed to erect barriers-to-entry and shut down opposition speech by outsourcing the enforcement to the platforms hosting the material.

And those platforms are only too happy to do this because they get to crowd out any potential competition. So, while their costs increase slightly, they are now immune to the competition which would grind out their margins to zero over time, as any unfettered market would.

Remember, that in all human endeavors profit is an ever-elusive thing. With incentives properly aligned someone is always attracted to the profit someone else is achieving and will figure out a way to build a better mousetrap, as it were, grinding out that profit.

If you can short-circuit this process via control of The Wire then you can guarantee a profit for your past work for far longer than you would otherwise.

This is known as rent…

But to me this feels like just another desperation move by old men fighting the last war to hold onto The Wire that’s slipping out of their fingers, writing laws out of date before they are even implemented.

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Britain – Hard Exit or Cancellation of BREXIT | Armstrong Economics

Posted by M. C. on March 18, 2019

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/britain/britain-hard-exit-or-cancellation-of-brexit/

After months of political deadlock, the House of Commons voted by 413-202 last week to ask the EU to delay Britain’s exit. Prime Minister May has simply refused to listen to advice and keeps hoping that Parliament will surrender to her. Normally, after such a defeat, Prime Ministers would resign. But May withstood a no-confidence vote last year and cannot be challenged until December 2019. If the EU tries to force Britain to surrender, then there remains the risk of a hard-exit come March 29th, 2019.

The EU is fighting for its survival. To see Britain crumble would bring them great joy and they could use this against Italy or anyone one else who dares to think about leaving. Indeed, in recent days there has been a chorus of warnings coming from the key EU figures. They are kicking Britain when it is politically impotent and they are demanding that any British request for an extension of the two-year negotiating period must come with a “credible” plan for next steps. This appears to be deliberately trying to force Britain to capitulate and remains in the EU as a second rate member at best.

The European Council president, Donald Tusk, has said the EU wants a “reasoned” request for an extension, while Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament Brexit co-ordinator, said there must be a “clear opinion” from the House of Commons on what it really will accept. The vote in itself won’t prevent Britain from a hard exit. Actually, under the law, Britain will leave the EU on March 29th, with or without a deal. What the Eu is now gambling on is that Britain will be unable to come up with any plan that they would accept so they hope the stark choice between a hard-exit and an outright cancelation of Brexit altogether will mean the EU wins with the latter.

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Khan

Planet Londonstan

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WHAT A BREXS*ITSHOW Theresa May’s Brexit deal crushed by MPs AGAIN meaning we’re no nearer to quitting EU after 993 days

Posted by M. C. on March 13, 2019

Chaos has been the natural state of the UK for a long while.

The last thing May wants is Brexit. What May is selling is a Brexit plan that effectively keeps the UK in the hands of Brussels with the help of EU loving Angela Merkel.

Fake Brexit. This is such a mess, I think the UK will end up worse than when they started.

Why would any population clamor to be ruled by a far off bunch of banksters, thieves and bureaucrats?

Keep the banksters, thieves and bureaucrats domestic like we do in the US.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/brexit/8615679/brexit-deal-vote-latest-theresa-may-fails-majority/

BRITAIN was last night plunged into chaos once again as MPs voted to kill off Theresa May’s Brexit deal by 391 votes to 242.

Now 993 days after the referendum, and with just 17 days before Brexit, Brits are still in the dark about when or if we will ever leave the EU.

Furious MPs blasted the uncertainty – saying the “wretched soap opera of Brexit continues” as the country heads “back to square one”.

And Cabinet ministers were summoned for a crisis meeting at No10 to work out how to move forward.

Parliament has repeatedly voted against Mrs May’s strategy for leaving the EU on March 29 – last night the Commons laughed and cheered after the the fresh chaos was confirmed.

But without a clear alternative on the table, the latest defeat opens the door to a range of wildly different outcomes – from a cliff-edge No Deal to a second referendum which could cancel Brexit entirely.

Tonight MPs will vote on whether Britain should quit the EU without a deal in 17 days’ time.

But they are expected to oppose the idea – and will instead back a delay to Brexit in a further vote likely to take place on Thursday…

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The Myth of Western Democracy – PaulCraigRoberts.org

Posted by M. C. on December 18, 2018

The question before us is whether the Western peoples are too brainwashed, too firmly locked in The Matrix, to exhausted to stand up and defend their freedom.

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/12/16/the-myth-of-western-democracy/

Paul Craig Roberts

How does the West get away with its pretense of being an alliance of great democracies in which government is the servant of the people?

Nowhere in the West, except possibly Hungary and Austria, does government serve the people.

Who do the Western governments serve? Washington serves Israel, the military/security complex, Wall Street, the big banks, and the fossil fuel corporations.

The entirety of the rest of the West serves Washington.

Nowhere in the West do the people count. The American working class, betrayed by the Democrats who sent their jobs to Asia, elected Donald Trump and the American people were promptly dismissed by the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as “the Trump deplorables.”

The Democrats, like the Republicans, serve power, not the people.

In Europe we see the squashing of democracy everywhere.

British prime minister May has turned Brexit into subservience to the EU. She has betrayed the British people and has not yet been hung off of a lamp post, which shows how acceptance the British people are of betrayal. The British people have learned that they do not count. They are as a nothing.

The Greeks voted for a leftwing government that promised to protect them from the EU, IMF, and big banks, but promptly sold them out with austerity agreements that destroyed what remained of Greek sovereignty and Greek living standards. Today the EU has reduced Greece to a Third World country.

The French have been in the streets in revolt for weeks against the French president who serves everyone except the French people…

The question before us is whether the Western peoples are too brainwashed, too firmly locked in The Matrix, to exhausted to stand up and defend their freedom. Resistance is happening in France and Belgium, but the government that sold out Greece hasn’t been hung off of lamp posts. Americans are so brainwashed that they think Russia, China, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Venezuela are their enemies when it is perfectly clear that their Enemy is “their” government in Washington.

Except for my American readers, Americans are locked in The Matrix. And they will kill in order to stay in The Matrix, where the controlled explanations are reassuring. Anyone who looks to Washington for leadership is an idiot.

Washington is a master of propaganda. Washington’s propaganda has even infected the Russian government, which from all reports stupidly believes that accommodation to Washington is the secret that will make Russia successful.

It is a foolish government that relies on agreements with Washington.

What it comes down to is this: If acceptance of provocations avoids war, that is the correct policy, but if acceptance of provocations encourages more provocations until war is unavoidable, then a more robust response to provocations is the correct policy. A more robust response introduces caution into the process, whereas acceptance of provocations encourages the aggressor.

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sheeple

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Hillary Clinton Shamed for Libya Incursion as She Schools EU on Migrant Crisis – Sputnik International

Posted by M. C. on November 24, 2018

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201811231070059835-clinton-libya-eu-migration-crisis/

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly stood by her role in the 2011 intervention in Libya, which divided the country in two and opened the “gates of Europe” to migrants fleeing poverty and conflict. Now that she’s urging the EU to curb migration to prevent the rise of right-wing politicians, critics are accusing her of hypocrisy.

Hillary Clinton has called on the nations of Europe to curtail immigration to stem the tide of right-wing sentiment on the continent.

In an interview with The Guardian, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate suggested that “Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame.” Clinton drew attention to the “rise of populists, particularly on the right, in Europe and the Americas.”

She suggested that politicians like Angela Merkel, the architect of Europe’s open-door immigration policy, were “very generous and compassionate”, but insisted that the EU must clamp down on support for refugees because “if we don’t deal with the migration issue it will continue to roil the body politic.”

Read the rest of this entry »

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An Easy Alternative to the Brexit Agreement | Mises Institute

Posted by M. C. on November 18, 2018

No nation needs to sign a 500-page agreement in order to leave the EU profitably. It simply leaves the EU, abolishes tariffs and quotas, and starts trading.

I was reading somewhere recently that it took 6 months to split Czechoslovakia in to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. That includes seperating currencies.

https://mises.org/power-market/easy-alternative-brexit-agreement

Gary North

Prime Minister May says that she has reached an agreement with the European Union.

The agreement is 585 pages long. Every time politicians vote to implement a 600-page document that was written by high-level bureaucrats, the liberties of the citizens of that nation decline. The devil is in the details, and there are a lot of details for the devil to get into.

She got it through her cabinet. Now she has to get it through Parliament, which is going to be a challenge. The pro-Brexit people hate conciliation, and the Remainers don’t want to agree to anything remotely like Brexit.

She was never a big fan of Brexit. She is going along with the whole thing grudgingly. She has stalled an agreement for almost 2 years.

If Parliament won’t vote for her agreement, then Britain will depart from the EU on March 29. It’s automatic.

I have a solution. Parliament does not have to accept any agreement. No agreement is necessary.

Here is my Brexit solution. Parliament votes for this law. Read the rest of this entry »

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If Czechoslovakia could be split up in six months in 1992, why should Brexit take six years? | BrexitCentral

Posted by M. C. on November 8, 2018

https://brexitcentral.com/czechoslovakia-split-six-months-1992-brexit-take-six-years/

Written by

Two years, four months and a few days ago, on 23rd June 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU. The date of the UK leaving is currently set at 29th March 2019 – almost three years after the vote. It could be postponed further. In the case of a transitional arrangement that could last until at least the end of 2020, possibly even beyond the general election in 2022. That would be an enormous six years after the historic vote.

EU mandarins as well as Whitehall mandarins will tell you it must be this way because the relationship the UK has with the EU is too complex to untangle sooner.

However, history offers a different angle. World War I lasted four years, World War II lasted six. Perhaps it’s easier to conquer and then lose an entire continent than to separate two jurisdictions peacefully?

Instead, look at Czechoslovakia,… Read the rest of this entry »

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Is Tony Blair a Traitor to Britain to Help Politicians in EU? | Armstrong Economics

Posted by M. C. on October 18, 2018

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/britain/is-tony-blair-a-traitor-to-britain-to-help-politicians-in-eu/

by Martin Armstrong

ANSWER: Yes.  Tony Blair is out there pitching for another Brexit referendum as Prime Minister Theresa May, who also did not want to exit the EU, will be unable to secure a parliamentary majority and this seems to be an intentional plot to overturn BREXIT. Even the propaganda they use with regard to trade is misrepresenting the entire scheme. Britain is FAR BETTER off under BREXIT than remaining within the EU. Any trade deal is subject to the veto of any one of 28 member states. Britain CANNOT reach an independent trade deal for its own people for the French have always vetoed Britain. Let’s face the facts. Britain loses EVERY major case in the European court. This is all about protecting governments – not about what is best for the people. Britain will collapse with the EU if it does not break the chains which bind it.

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