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Antonio Tajani. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
The same boring drama has been playing out on the political stage for decades: the progressive liberal left already gets everything it wants, yet it demands more; the useless “conservative” “right” either puts up no resistance, or gleefully sides with the liberals. Another episode of this drama could be seen recently in the United States and in Italy.
United States
With both the Republican and Democrat parties having held their conventions, the US presidential election circus is now well and truly in town. A wise strategy for Donald Trump would have been to say and do absolutely nothing while the Democrats and their nominee, the mellifluous Kamala Harris, put their liberal extremism on full display. Instead, Donald Trump took advantage of two occasions to open his mouth and ram his foot into it. No one puts his foot in his mouth like Donald Trump. No one. You can check the records. Many people are saying this.
On August 16, Trump had some comments for the media. Speaking about his immigration policy, Trump said:
“We’re gonna close the border, and we’re gonna get the crooked ones out, the bad ones out, and we’re gonna let a lot of people come in, because we need more people, especially with AI coming and all of the different things, and the farmers need [immigrants], everybody needs [immigrants].”
Not one word of that rambling run-on makes any sense. Almost every other utterance contradicted the one before it. Trump’s going to “close the border” but “let a lot of people come in.” He says in the US, a country with a population of over 330 million, “we need more people” because “AI is coming.” The advent of AI means that “farmers need” more people. Of course, of course.
Trump’s statement was bizarre, incoherent, and illogical. To say in the same breath that a country needs “a lot” more people “especially with AI coming” is definitionally incomprehensible. Trump isn’t stupid, so why did he say this? Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock isn’t stupid either, and this is what he had to say about the relationship between AI and population size:
“I could argue, in the developed countries, the big winners are countries that have shrinking populations. Now that’s something that most people never talked about. You know, we always used to think that shrinking population is a cause for negative growth. But in my conversations with the leadership of these large, developed countries that have xenophobic immigration policies—they don’t allow anybody to come in—shrinking demographics…these countries will rapidly develop robotics and AI and technology and if the promise of all that transforms productivity, which most of us think it will, we’ll be able to elevate the standard of living of a country, the standard of living as individuals, even in countries with shrinking populations. And so the paradigm of population growth is going to be changing, and the social problems that one will have in substituting humans for machines, is going to be far easier in those countries that have declining populations.”
Fink made those declarations at the World Economic Forum this past winter. There is much to ponder in them. First of all, where are these developed countries with declining populations? There are very few. Most of the world’s countries, particularly Western first world countries, have seen non-stop population growth thanks to mass immigration. The only population decreasing in these countries is that of the natives. Secondly, which are these “xenophobic” countries that “don’t allow anyone in”? Perhaps he was playing his part in the boring drama. Perhaps here we have our liberal progressive who already has everything he has ever wanted, and is well-positioned to make sure he will continue to get what he wants in the future, complaining that those stodgy Europeans are still making a fuss about taking in migrants and refugees. Maybe the “xenophobic” first world countries he was alluding to are Denmark, Hungary, Poland. Or maybe he was referring to Japan and South Korea. Whichever countries they are, it would be good to know…just in case one needs to flee to one of them someday.
Then we get to the substance of what Fink said. Essentially, the BlackRock head honcho stated the totally obvious: with the ascendance of robotics and AI, millions of humans are going to lose their jobs to this technology, and a big population will become more of a problem than a boon. Anyone with but two functioning brain cells has known this for ages. The importing of millions of random third worlders has never been more unnecessary. Another question worth pondering is why Fink deemed it appropriate to make these comments now, after decades overseeing and investing in the experiment of mass immigration. What does he know about the coming future that we don’t?
Whatever his motives for saying them, the contrast between his words and Trump’s couldn’t be starker. Trump blithered like someone who has no idea what AI is and what it’s going to do to our economies, our job markets, and our very lives. Fink spoke like someone who at least has a grasp on this. Trump absurdly used AI to justify letting “a lot of people come in.” Fink used AI to assuage fears of population decline and its affect on productivity.
But Trump wasn’t finished making absurd remarks. Three days after his first foot-in-mouth feat, he went to Michigan where he showed off his unmatched ability yet again:
“We are gonna close down the border, day one. Just so you understand, I am not a radical. At all. I’m just a common sense person that was successful in what I did because of the same thing: we are going to let people—and we want people—to come into our country. A lot of people. We need them. We need them for jobs. We need them for everything. We want people to come in, but they have to come in through a process. They have to come in legally. And we can let a lot of them come in.”
On that last repetition of letting “a lot of them come in”, the crowd Trump was addressing began to applaud.
Replace me harder, Daddy! Replace me faster! But the safe-word is “legally.” OK?
Again, none of Trump’s statement made any sense. It’s not “common sense” to let a lot of people come into your country. America does not “need” immigrants—presumably ones from Latin America—for “jobs” and for “everything.” And letting in “a lot of people” as long as they come in “through a process” makes “closing down the border” a complete irrelevance, not to mention a false promise. And we haven’t even addressed the fact that Donald Trump had previously expressed his favor of that classic “legal immigration” trope: stapling green cards to immigrants’ diplomas.
Where or from whom is Trump getting these ideas? It seems like he is a full-throated (when his foot is removed) supporter of Matthew Yglesias’ goal of filling America with one billion people. Or maybe he’s had more conversations with Elon Musk than just the one that was broadcast on X. Musk has frequently expressed his concern at declining birth rates and suggested that countries need vast amounts of people. Maybe Musk has convinced Trump of this too? Or perhaps when Trump says “we’re gonna let a lot of people come in”, he means that America is going to insistently recruit high IQ, highly skilled workers from Europe and East Asia to propel America’s technology and engineering sectors. All of these explanations are rotten on the inside, however. They are the farthest thing from “America First”. Whether the “lot of people coming in” are dusty Dominicans, hungry Haitians, or nerdy Norwegians, the American is being passed over for someone else.
Italy
Meanwhile, in Italy.
The leftist forces in the transalpine country have long been trying to change Italy’s citizenship laws from a ius sanguinis policy to a policy more resembling the ius solis of the United States or France, wherein being born anywhere in those respective countries’ territory automatically makes one a citizen. Now it appears that Italy’s so-called right has decided to stop putting up any resistance to the left on this matter of utmost importance, and instead join the left.
It all started after Italy’s female volleyball team won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. On this golden team is a black African woman named Paola Egonu. As ever, her presence on the team, especially a successful team, was utilised by liberal progressives as a justification for infinite immigration from the African continent. Along with that typical posturing, the liberal progressives also add the demand that the Africans already in Italy be given an easier path to citizenship so that even more of them can be eligible to play for Italy’s national sports teams. This too is a rather old and boring drama that has been playing out for years and years.
Former general and recently elected member of the European Parliament, Roberto Vannacci, isn’t so impressed with Egonu’s volleyball skills. On more than one instance, Vannacci has swum against the current and publicly refused to agree that a Nigerian woman is an Italian just because she obtained Italian citizenship. His stance was, of course, met with finger-wagging opprobrium from the liberal political establishment and the media.
Among those aghast at Vannacci’s defiance was Antonio Tajani, Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and leader of Forza Italia, the conservative centre-right party once headed by Silvio Berlusconi. He chivalrously proclaimed himself Egonu’s white knight by posting on social media: “Courage Paola. You are our pride.” He also added, “My commitment against any form of discrimination is maximum.”
At first glance to an uneducated eye, Tajani might seem like an Italian surname. It is not. It is an Arabic surname found mostly in Morocco. So we have on the stage a man who is, in part, ethnically non-Italian and non-European, who leads a conservative centre-right party, and who talks just like a hectoring liberal leftist schoolmarm. And this man was not finished delivering his lines. In an interview with Il Messaggero, Mr. Morocco said that Italy should put children born to immigrants on a fast track to citizenship, especially if they are enrolled in Italian schools. This idea is known as ius scholae and is another goal of Italian leftists, immigration extremists, and diversity zealots who want to subvert Italy’s default “by blood” citizenship standard.
Tajani then went on to say that Italy needs more African students. “I think the numbers of African students studying in Italy should be increased,” he said at a conference of Catholic businessmen in Rimini. Why? No reason. Just ’cause!
Well, that’s not entirely fair. Tajani did give this reason: “The strength of our country and its economic potential comes from the ability to integrate people who come from the outside. Great openness, without discussions of ethnicity or race is what makes a nation competitive.”
One can imagine Tajani saying those meaningless words in a voice like that of the robots which Larry Fink knows are going to replace us.
The Financial Times reports that:
Forza Italia lawmakers have said they seek to start legislative work next month on early naturalisation of children educated in Italy. The bill will aim to improve their rights and protections before they come of age.
Reminder, this is a conservative party on the political right. They are doing the left’s work for them.
Adding to the disgusting smell surrounding all this garbage from Forza Italia is the fact that Italy already leads the entire European Union in citizenships granted to foreigners. Yet it is never enough. Like a relentless termagant wife, the immigration extremists and diversity zealots nag and nag until they get what they want, and then they demand even more. It’s never enough. And like a husband who’s had his coglioni snipped away (possibly at the Democrat National Convention), the Italian “conservative” is all too eager to placate his bitching wife.
One might be tempted to say, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” but a different saying is worth noting: “A friend stabs you in the front.” (Oscar Wilde, by the way).
The conservative establishment, whether in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Canada, or many other Western countries, repeatedly stabs us in the back. If friends stab you in the front, what does that make conservatives?
11 comments
Slightly off-topic, but I’d be interested in what C-C readers think about Putin’s offer of “asylum” to conservative, traditionalist Westerners looking to escape the insanity in our countries. Is he genuine? Is it a propaganda coup? Does he need cannon fodder or the money western immigrants would bring with them? Is he trying to revitalize the Russian economy?
I don’t plan on leaving my country, but – what are your thoughts?
Years ago, before the invasion of Ukraine, some German retirees left the cities they lived in because of the rate of crime by Islamic immigrants. A lot of them moved to cities in Russia.
I think it is propaganda, part of a longstanding strategy of presenting Russia as a “based” and “trad” country to disaffected Right-wingers in the West. I hope no one is actually naive enough to take the offer.
I am an actual Russian, and I can give an answer briefly.
He is certainly NOT genuine. No chekist can be trusted, ever. If he tells us that today is Wednesday, you’d better check it out. 🙂
Putin sometimes says things which are good and true, but the actions largely do not follow the words. (I even suspect that it was his script from the beginning.) He is a “Russian Biden”, if we judge by his policies.
I can assure you that if some Russians gather openly and build an independent community somewhere, we would be raided by the police with a 95% probability.
It’s likely that they won’t have equal standards for you, because you are not a part of the Russian society and, therefore, do not have any leverage on the government whatsoever, but I’m not sure. What I am confident of is that they would try to force-vaccinate you, for example, if they are given an order to do it.
Concerning political participation – you would be offered none, and if you try to engage in political activities of Russia, they would certainly punish you.
If we compare to Germany, I have a personal anecdote – a good friend of mine has successfully received political asylum in BRD (in 2014). He was a municipal deputy in a large city at home and became a target of the state. They tried to sentence him, first with a totally fabricated issue – they raided his office in violation of the law and then claimed that he had beaten 19 police officers. 🙂 Then the prosecutors used Article 282 of the Penal Code, which is “promoting ethnic, racial, social discord”, under which essentially any living creature with two legs can be sentenced to prison, depending on the will of the state apparatus. Although it is a “fascist” article, my friend eventually was allowed asylum, even in Germany! (Today it is likely that the outcome would be different…)
There are, of course, benefits for Whites moving here from the West. We don’t have blacks (but there are too many people from Middle-Asian countries, who belong to the category of Pakistanis and Afganis). If you work in science, technology, engineering, actual production etc., you would most likely have 98-99% Russians as colleagues. Schools and universities are normal, even sociology and psychology departments. 🙂 People are normal, there is much less degeneracy present. They generally don’t trust the government or “the Science”. And people don’t give a damn about silly regulations. Nobody would call the police if you say that the Holocaust® narrative is absolutely laughable or if you call someone a nigger. During Covidiocy, the absolute majority of people didn’t give a damn about masks, vaccines amd distancing. If they were forced to take a vaccine, most likely they paid for a fake certificate, which is available everywhere. I know some Russlanddeutsche have flown here to obtain (fake) vaccination papers, so it must have been a problem in Germany to bypass all that. I think you get the idea.
In any case, running and hiding is not an option. I think that Germans can learn Russian faster than the English, but it is a difficult language nevertheless. And life is different, people are different. You have your countries, your relatives and friends are there; if you run, social life suffers greatly. Of course, it’s also a cowardly thing. So, running (anywhere, not only to Russia) is generally not recommended for you, unless you face criminal prosecution or severe threat of violence.
Anyway, it depends on the situation. If you have just released 2 million secret government documents, hiding in Russia would be highly reasonable… 😉
Not likely, unless I come across something really interesting during one of my researches. 😉
I actually started to learn Russian years ago (haven’t kept it up, so I’ve forgotten much of it by now) and didn’t think it was that difficult. Perhaps it’s a question of motivation. I needed it for a biography I was writing, so…
Yes, the vaccination paper tourism even made it into the news here. The establishment was not amused.
So what is your take on Putin’s motives? Is it only propaganda, or is there something else going on?
Like I said, I’m not leaving Germany. I thought about it long and hard, and I’ve come to the decision that this is where I will make my stand. It might kill me – probably quite literally – that those GINOs (Germans in name only) who have no sense of roots in the soil are doing their best to destroy my country, but at least I’ll die on said soil. 🙂
I think it’s mostly propaganda, but on behalf of the West.
Talk is cheap. They understand that 99,9999% this invitation won’t result in an influx of thousands. And I don’t believe that they would allow a lot of you in anyway.
They are definitely not doing it for economic reasons. Even if 1 million conservatives from the West come here, it won’t influence our economy so much – it depends on other sources. And I would tell that it operates in a different mode now, but generally it doesn’t look like war condition. Inflation is approximately on the prewar level, there are no shortages. So, that’s not it.
It’s also not for the war efforts. I have served conscription, and I know that they are VERY hesitant to give weapons to normal people. And they don’t know much about those coming in. Imagine a KKK division with tanks and artillery, which gets pissed off by the regime – it would be very funny, but unlikely to see… 🙂
On the contrary, the Ukrainian side uses explicitly Right-wing organisations in the conflict from the beginning in 2014. And they were instrumental and essential in the coup of 2013-2014 (I saw their agitation two months before the Maidan actually started). I also know that they have been using foreign volunteers – Poles, Swedes, Germans. The principle is to let them fight, while the Ukrainian government can focus on snorting cocaine and stealing your money. Logically, it looks more probable that the Ukrainians would try to invite more, but it’s also not very likely.
Your rulers also want normal countries like Poland and Baltic states to get involved in the war, but that’s a different matter.
By “propaganda on behalf of the West” I mean that Putin is not independent as a politician. It’s a long story, so I’ll just state some theses.
Russia has been under occupation governments since 3 March, 1917. They have had different stock holders (Great Britain, Germany, America etc.) in different proportions at different times, but that’s the case. After 1991 it became clear with Yeltsin, but Putin is this regime’s continuation. He was elected with the help of a Jewish oligarch Berezovskiy – there is a good book about him by Pavel Khlebnikov, which I recommend to get an idea of our politics in the nineties. Then Putin purged some oligarchs (including Berezovskiy himself), but it doesn’t mean he is not their puppet. And of course, there are a lot of ties between him and foreign oligarchy. I don’t know how they control Putin and high-level government officials exactly – maybe it’s a combination of blackmail and some personal bonuses. Whatever, they have got property and money in the Western countries and can be influenced from abroad. For example, remember the start of the plandemic – first Putin said that they are not going to perform lockdowns, but then, all of a sudden, changed his decision.
A part of Putin’s role has been to play a “Russian Hitler” for the West, at least since 2008. It’s one thing if he acted according to his words, but he doesn’t! And it would be beneficial for him to employ what people want – nationalist policies. He could also position himself for the West as some kind of Biden, which would be mush more accurate, thus having favours there. Instead, it looks as if he is trying to troll as much Western regime media as possible. 🙂 Therefore, I conclude that the rulers of the West need him as a scarecrow. Remember, when people in America elected Trump, they were talking about some “Russian hackers” for his whole term! For me, this narrative was ridiculous from the very beginning, and I have experience working for Russian three-letter agencies (we have engineered some surveillance devices for them on my previous job). Or when he financed the National Front in France. He could give this money to Russian nationalistic organisations, like RONS. Instead, RONS was banned in 2011. But some stupid journalist from NYT can claim that, if you support X, you are for Putin=literally Hitler… In fact, this “Putin” trick explains all. I have even seen claims that Putin ordered to develop and release CoV-19. Or that he is responsible for the Japanese earthquake of 2011 (he must have blown a nuclear warhead). Literally!
All his invitations and speeches should be approached with these considerations in mind. Most of them are just talk. Some are deliberately misleading. Generally the aim is to taint the subject with Putin’s name.
And there is also another aspect. It’s true that there are some political parties and media outlets (like RT) in several countries financed by the Russian sources. I know that there was a party called “Die Einheit” in Germany, which aimed explicitly at the Russlanddeutsche. They had money from Kremlin, flew here to discuss something. They didn’t gain enough votes in the elections, but at least the efforts are clear. There are also a lot of bloggers, for example, Sergey Filbert with his channel “Голос Германии” (The Voice of Germany), who were invited to Russia some time ago. I think it’s done not to influence the policies, but mostly to intimidate your governments and get some dividends from them. “If you don’t approve the project of Nordstream pipeline, we publish something nasty about Herr X, Y and Z, and get people to the streets to protest next time”. Something like that. It’s unlikely that Putin has higher considerations than some material gains for him and oligarchs’ team.
Also, the situation is changing now. Maybe the Chinese bought him, or something else happened – I don’t know. Maybe it’s just this crappy post-WWII system finally disintegrating. But even if the masters have changed, the playbook has not, and it won’t change for several years, probably.
This would be a good article to share with non-subscribers, and yet it’s behind a paywall?
One of the worst arguments for allowing in immigrants is that they have good athletes who can help various sport teams. Another bad argument is that they provide different types of food for people to eat.
That’s just what I was about to say. “We need African migrants because sportsball.” How precious.
‘Tajani’. The giveaway is that J is not part of the formal Italian alphabet.
On Friday, former President Trump posted to Truth Social: “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”
Can you trust anything this guy says? (Rhetorical question).
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