Is it safe to say the EU is on the clock? The UK left, one of the Scandinavian nations has rebelled against requirements to take in Muslim refugees and the Eastern Block nations have as well. Now we have France starting to realize that taking in these folks is suicide. Germany and Italy are facing similar demographic crises to what China is facing which makes me think their days as the strongest economy in the EU are numbered.

Germany and France, as has been the case for about a thousand years, run Central Europe. It just depends how their local politics/violence plays out, and it is tough to say 'on the clock' right now for the EU overall as the EU is, largely, run by Germany today.

The German and French aristocracy, in short, will continue to rule Europe one way or the other.

LOYAL AG said:

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Is it safe to say the EU is on the clock? The UK left, one of the Scandinavian nations has rebelled against requirements to take in Muslim refugees and the Eastern Block nations have as well. Now we have France starting to realize that taking in these folks is suicide. Germany and Italy are facing similar demographic crises to what China is facing which makes me think their days as the strongest economy in the EU are numbered.

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I've just been sitting over here wondering when the EU economic meltdowns would start up again. It almost went completely under just from Greece going under. How in the world are any of their financials right now after COVID? Most of them have been shut down off an on through this entire ordeal.

It feels like that whole area is a ticking time bomb that the virus news cycle has papered over. And we are going to wake up in a few weeks with notice that one of the PIGS is defecting and getting the hell out in order to manipulate their currency or maybe one of the eastern countries finally gets fed up with Brussels overreach and leaves.

aggiedent said:

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I've said this a couple times in the last year, but it's true. We need to shelve the French jokes about losing wars and start looking at ourselves.

We're the ones who are losing perhaps the most important war in our history and we seem to be willingly going down that path. The French military and government at least recognize the problem and are willing to confront it without backing down.

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Have to agree. While it's somewhat self-serving because it allows them to take a jab at us, their government has publicly stated that our BLM nightmare is a toxic, racist culture that needs to be stopped.

And we are openly embracing it as some kind of cultural salve. We are finished.

CyclingAg82 said:

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Things are getting serious, should have read Mark Steyn's book 10 years ago.

"America Alone" by Steyn detailed what was happening in Europe 10-12 years ago. but what will happen here.

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Pat Buchanan's "Death of the West" is even older than that and talks about this topic as well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/world/europe/france-antiterrorism-bill.html

I assumed we did this already (as far as algorithmic surveillance). The factors that might go into the French algorithm are a little amusing to speculate on (Islamic - check; lives in banlieue - check).

Quote:

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. . .
The French government, responding to several attacks over the past seven months, presented a new anti-terrorism bill on Wednesday that would allow intense algorithmic surveillance of phone and internet communications and tighten restrictions on convicted terrorists emerging from prison.

Prepared before the latest terrorist attack the fatal stabbing five days ago of a police employee by a radicalized Tunisian immigrant the bill assumed greater urgency in a country where feelings of insecurity have spread.

"There have been nine attacks in a row that we could not detect through current means," Grald Darmanin, the interior minister, told France Inter radio. "We continue to be blind, doing surveillance on normal phone lines that nobody uses any longer."

The draft bill, prepared by Mr. Darmanin, came in a political and social climate envenomed by Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, who applauded a letter published this month by 20 retired generals that described France as being in a state of "disintegration" and warned of a possible coup in thinly veiled terms.
. . .
The letter might have remained a fringe outburst by a group of retired officers it was later signed by more than 1,000 retired military personnel, according to the magazine but Ms. Le Pen propelled it to national prominence by appealing to the generals "to join our movement and take part in the battle that is beginning."

Their analysis of the ills of French society was precisely hers, she said, and it was incumbent on all patriots to "rise up for the recovery and let's say it the salvation of our country."
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The letter, published on the 60th anniversary of a failed coup by generals opposed to France's granting independence to Algeria, amounted to a distillation of the extreme right's conviction that France is being torn apart by the kind of violence that last week killed the police officer, Stphanie Monferm.
. . .
The retired generals alluded to the "suburban hordes" a derogatory reference to the mainly Muslim immigrants gathered in aging tower-block developments around major French cities who they said were detaching segments of the nation "to transform them into territories subject to dogmas opposed to our Constitution."
. . .
Ms. Le Pen has been engaged in what French commentators call a "banalization" operation aimed at making her look more mainstream. Her outburst clearly did not help this effort. An attempted pivot in a radio interview, in which she said that all problems should be solved peacefully, betrayed her unease.

Mr. Darmanin's draft bill would, if approved by Parliament, pave the way for increased use of computer algorithms that allow the automatic processing of data from phones and web addresses to detect potential terror threats. This use, patchy and experimental until now, would be enshrined in law, and intelligence services would be able to keep the data for research purposes for up to two months.
. . .
Concern about infractions of civil liberties in the fight against terrorism have been growing for some time. Arthur Messaud, a lawyer for an association that defends personal online rights and freedom, told France Inter the scope of the new measures was unclear. For example, would all instant messaging be monitored?

The draft bill would also allow the government to monitor terrorists who have completed their prison terms by requiring them to live in certain areas, limiting their movements and barring them from going anywhere like a sports stadium that presents "a particular terrorism risk."

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