Gute Nacht, Frau Merkel!

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the reign of idiocy concocted by international banksters and imposed in Hitlerian fashion by Frau Merkel.

The elections today were as much about Merkel as they were about Sarko and the Goldman Sachs stooge who has been following orders in Greece.

Enough is enough!

Occupy democracy

There's lots of good reading in today's Globe and Mail.

In fact, I may have to put off the usual Saturday chores just to get through it.

The front page screams with typical Canadian hubris that what Canada needs more than anything else is a million new immigrants.

Yup. The world's best and brightest need to be brought here.

You know, like the Nigerian doctor who saved Junior's life during a difficult opening act. While we're all hugely appreciative for what the man did for us, at the back of my mind I've always wondered, don't they need doctors in Nigeria?

There was a time when many of the world's best and brightest actually had some interest in coming here.

I think those days are long behind us.

In fact, many of the children of the best and brightest who came here a generation or two ago are now heading back to China and India.

The idea that a million of the best and brightest are coming our way is wishful thinking, and I suspect that our Globe headline writers understand that.

What will come our way are plenty of new immigrants willing to take all those jobs that the million and a half unemployed Canadians stubbornly refuse to do. Now that amendments to our "temporary" work visa program allow new immigrants to be paid 15% below the prevailing wage, employers and policy-makers will be even less inclined to solve the imaginary "labour shortage" by investing in Canada's unemployed.

Which brings me to the title of this post.

I strongly suspect that headlines around the world will on Monday morning be proclaiming that the sky is once again falling. Elections in Greece and France will have dealt a severe set-back to the prevailing world-view that a handful of corrupt bankers and ratings agencies need to be saved from themselves at any cost.

That the costs are inevitably borne by the small people, the 99%, goes without saying.

In much of the so-called developed world the 99% have for far too long been bribed, lied, and intimidated into voting against their own best interests.

If that can change in France and Greece this weekend, maybe it can eventually change in Canada and in the US.

Occupy democracy!

Storm clouds over Europe

Round one of the French presidential election went today and the only real surprise is the unexpectedly robust showing of Marine Le Pen, the far right candidate.

In Europe the term "far right" is generally interchangeable with the term "neo-fascist".

So while there are no storm troopers in the streets just yet, give it time.

The Wall Street Journal brushes off Le Pen's showing by claiming "this is a turn democracies often take when politicians have no answers for high unemployment, rising debt, and economic decline."

So it's nothing to worry about then. It's just a turn democracies often take...

You know, like in Italy in the 20's.

Or Germany in the 30's.

Certainly nothing to worry about.

The WSJ makes it clear what they worry about. Those damned socialists! Hollande beat Sarkozy and will need the support of the Left Front to triumph in the second round on May 6. That means full steam ahead for the socialist "fantasy" program of a living minimum wage and a 75% marginal tax rate on the highest income earners.

That would amount to "jumping off the socialist cliff" according to the Wall Street Journal.

They'll take the fascists any day.

All the news that's fit to print or all the news that comfortably fits?

If you've followed the French Presidential election campaign at all you'll know that one of the most exciting or terrifying developments, depending on your point of view, is the emergence of the Left Front.

The Left Front is an amalgam of left-wing groups loosely organized around the Communist Party. Its leader Jean-Luc Melenchon has promised a 100% tax on incomes over 300 thousand euros. He's also promised to turn France away from the German-dictated austerity agenda that is crippling Europe. He's the most exciting voice in the Presidential race.

So how is it possible for The Globe and Mail to publish a half page feature about the French Presidential election today without once mentioning either Melenchon or the Left Front?

The wimpy radicalism of the NDP

Andrea Horwath wants to shift more of the financial burden of our fight to slay the deficit onto the "super-rich".

But she doesn't want to give offence.

So she's suggesting a 2% surcharge on folks earning over a half million a year.

Far from not giving offence, that confiscatory two percent earned her a scathing rebutal in the Globe.

Contrast that to the proposal put forward by Left Front Presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in France.

How about a 100% surcharge on everything over half a million bucks?

Obviously he's not concerned with giving offence!

Sarkozy's Gadaffi links exposed

President Sarkozy has been having a tough time of it in his campaign for re-election.

One day he's moving to the left to thwart the inroads made by the Socialist contender. Next day he spouting anti-immigrant nonsense in an appeal to the far right. He's all over the map.

So this won't help his cause. A French news site claims to have documents proving that Sarkozy's last campaign, the one that made him President, was financed by none other than Muamar Gadaffi.

You remember him, don't you? The Monster of the Maghreb. The Tyrant of Tripoli. The guy who Sarkozy suddenly turned on in 2011. No wonder Gadaffi had to go.

Giving 50 million euros to the aspiring leader of France should at least buy a little friendship. Makes you wonder what other NATO leaders have dirty little secrets that they hoped would disappear with Gadaffi.