Are narcissists taking over politics ? - Trump in the White House, with Geert Wilders, Marie Le Pen and Frauke Petry waiting in the EU wings

Xenophobia is growing in Europe

Xenophobia is growing in Europe, with France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Greece, Denmark and Sweden all electing far-right nationalist candidates.

Like Trump did, they unite voters with a platform of blocking migrants from the Middle East and Africa. More blatant demonstrations of anti-Semitism flared up in Greece, with its Golden Dawn party donning Nazi-like uniforms and symbolism.

Cas Mudde, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, commented on the parallels between European and American politics. “I see the phenomena as very similar. Trump is the functional equivalent of the far right in Europe; he performs the same functions in the political system, and attracts the same kind of support… white, nativist, lower-educated and those very unhappy with the establishment.”

Looking at Europe we see that also there a narcissists group of populist political personalities have benefited from the great disparity between the "have and have's not" and distrust by  the people of political parties who are not serving the people, but rather corporate interest.

Following focus is on three countries which will be  holding national elections this year where ultra-right narcissist  politicians have made major inroads. 

In the Netherlands: Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician who founded the right-wing Freedom Party, also endorsed Trump, tweeting, “Make the Netherlands Great Again.”

Wilders, who also bears a weird physical resemblance to Donald Trump, applies similar nationalistic rhetoric with confusing undocumented statements, sprinkled with vague plans.

France: French Jews who also hold Israeli citizenship will have to give up one of their nationalities if Marine Le Pen, the far-Right French Presidential candidate, wins the presidential election this spring.

The leader of the anti-immigration Front National said she would bar the French from holding the citizenship of countries outside the European Union, except for Russia, which she described as part of “the Europe of nations.”

Germany: You can tell well in advance when Frauke Petry, the leader of Alternative für Deutschland, a burgeoning new right-wing party, is going to give a speech. AfD members put up posters all over a town’s main streets declaring, “Frauke Petry Is Coming.” As the appointed hour approaches, police assemble, and usually demonstrators, too, protesting against a woman known to her enemies as “Adolfina” and “die Führerin.”

More than a century ago, philosopher George Santayana reminded us that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

His words ring true today.  The growing rise of Nationalism on virtually every continent should give cause for great concern.

Following World War II, the global goal was to create political and economic structures and forge alliances like the UN, EU, IMF, WTO, NAFTA and the recently signed Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership to bring peace and prosperity to the world.

In many ways, these efforts succeeded. More people than ever now have the means to travel outside their native countries.  Global investments have given rise to vastly improved living conditions in poorer countries.  Political structures like the EU have led to the creation of powerful new markets for global commerce.  Modern communications now transcend borders in Nano-seconds, bringing the world ever closer together.

But, achievements like these have come with a price: The re-emergence of Nationalism throughout the world was also caused by the disruptions brought about by globalization.

Global Trade must become Fair Trade again, not one controlled by large corporations who get unfair tax breaks and special favors from the local governments where they operate.

Nationalism is a powerful force and can at times work positively. It can be the glue that holds people together especially in challenging times.  It celebrates a country’s culture, history and religion.  It instills national pride and a sense of strength, but also, unfortunately, at times, creating scapegoats, real or imagined. The latter is happening today

Don't be fooled by the "nationalistic talk" of Wilders, Le Pen, Petry, and many other so-called nationalists - they definitely are not true nationalists and will sink all of us in Europe into a deep hole if they ever are elected and allowed to rule by you the voter. Worse of all, if you do elect them, you might never again get the power to vote them out of office.  Just look at Turkey today and see what  has happened there. 

Or see how Donald Trump has performed the first weeks of his Presidency. Scary stuff.

For example, the common US belief today exposed by Donald Trump that China has claimed the bulk of jobs lost in America since 2000 is not true. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, roughly 700,000 of the six million US manufacturing jobs lost in the first decade of this century went to China. The rest disappeared because of decreased consumer demand after the 2008 global financial crisis and technological advances that made many jobs obsolete.

Job losses aside, perhaps the biggest impact of the 2008 global financial crisis is that it intensified a worldwide backlash against globalization and the ever increasing disparity between poor and rich that had been festering for decades, further bolstering the steady global tilt toward Nationalism.

But not all is lost - if you get involved. Staying at home and complaining will not work. Go to local government, city and town meetings, ask questions, protest if you don't like what you hear.

Don't vote for politicians and parties who have not delivered what they promised.

Support parties which focus on your needs: more jobs, better education, health care, a clean environment, alternative energy  and cutting military spending' 

For it to succeed, real European integration—of which much more will be needed if Europeans want to retain stability and current levels of economic well-being—needs to learn a crucial trick from the nation. In much the same way that the power of the nation made people look beyond the blood bonds of family and tribe and elevate solidarity to a higher level, so European integration needs to surpass citizens’ attachment to the nation and raise it by one level. 

The trick is not to dismiss the lower-level identity and try to make it superfluous. The way to go is to leave the nation undamaged by adding another layer that can become politically and emotionally meaningful.

This rising nationalism in Europe also demands that leaders on the left look beyond austerity to a more robust economic policy built on investments in infrastructure, jobs, and education.

EU-Digest

Democracy and Secularism go hand in hand and freedom of religion is part of that equation - by RM

Secularism - the only way Democracy can work

The word democracy means only that the people rule. Other than, perhaps, requiring freedom of speech and equal access to the ballot, indispensable requirements of self-rule, the notion of democracy sets no limits on what the people may do in their sovereign capacity.

All liberal constitutional democracies in the world impose restrictions on what private activity government may and should regulate, including, of course, religious behavior, and what values it may assimilate, and enforce, as its own.

There are several broad generalizations that can be made about the role and place of religion in liberal democracies. First, in a liberal democracy, citizenship is not dependent on adherence to an official religion or even a state approved religion. Religion, therefore, should never be the constitutive element of citizenship.

This principle is today accepted universally in the Western world. Equally well accepted is that in a liberal democracy the government may not penalize citizens because they profess a faith that is not shared by a majority of their fellow citizens. It is also settled that in a liberal democracy citizens enjoy the freedom to express their religious views, and to form institutions consistent with those views, without fear of punishment or civic disability.

Liberal democracies also assume that citizens should not be prevented from practicing their faith and that the government ought not to interfere with the religious decisions of citizens or their institutions.

This last principle is not always observed, at least as a matter of enforceable legal principle. In the United States the principle means only that the government may not single out religious practices for regulation. In the name of equal treatment of religious and nonreligious citizens, the courts have increasingly refused to recognize a special right to exemption from ostensibly neutral government regulation for religious practice, even though the constitutional text surely sounds as if one were intended. 

It is likewise universally accepted that liberal democracies cannot compel the doing of religious acts or attendance at worship services, although there is less than full agreement over the extent of this principle as it applies to children in state-run schools. Whether the state can compel participation in some form of prayer services, and, even if not, what constitutes coercion to participate in religious activities, are unfortunately still sharply disputed questions.

It should, in our opinion, however, be widely recognized that Secular Democracies can not and must never allow for any kind of worship in public schools financed by taxpayers monies. On the other hand, it should not deny that right to private schools financed by private funds.

The United States is the most religiously diverse country in the world. In no other nation can you find as many varied religious groups, beliefs and practices as there are there. The Founding Fathers recognized in their own times the great theological differences among not only different religions, but also among the many Protestant sects.

They saw the tyranny that government-sponsored religion wrought. That is why the US has a secular constitution – and Bill of Rights—that provide strict protections for religious practice and safeguards against government-endorsed religion. The US  secular government and protections of religion are what have allowed religion to flourish and grow there.

However, there has been a constant stream of legislation and executive action to impose religious ideas into law with the mistaken belief that what is good for one group of religious people should be good for everyone.This is absolutely not permissible in a Secular Democracy.

The truest test of religious freedom within a Secular Democratic State is not the ability of every religious group to do as it pleases, but for every individual to be able to freely choose his or her own religious or nonreligious path without recrimination or consequence.

Bottom-line - religious freedom should be an equal part within every Secular Democracy but nothing more or less than that. 

EU-Digest  

EU tells Trump to mind his own business

The European Union has urged the United States to respect the principle of “non-interference” in each other’s affairs.

“We do not interfere in US politics […] And Europeans expect that America does not interfere in European politics,” Federica Mogherini, the EU’s top diplomat, told reporters in Washington on Friday.

She later repeated her remarks at the Atlantic Council, a think tank that promotes strong transatlantic ties.

The two-day trip was Mogherini’s first visit to the US capital since Donald Trump became president three weeks ago.

Her remarks followed comments by Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, Trump’s frontrunner to become ambassador to the EU, that the bloc is anti-American and that he would prefer for the US to trade bilaterally with European countries.

Malloch echoed statements by Trump in the past who had repeatedly praised Brexit and efforts by populists in other EU countries to leave the European Union.

Mogherini said the new administration had not decided on a new US ambassador to the EU yet.

While in Washington, Mogherini had talks with senior members of the Trump administration, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“We had very good meetings about common interests and common priorities”, the former Italian Foreign Minister said. “I have the impression that policies in Washington at this moment are still in the making.”

Mogherini underlined the intention of both sides to work together closely, but she also acknowledged disagreements on topics like multilateralism, free trade and “maybe some human rights issues”.

Mogherini also said she was reassured in her talks with the Trump administration that the US was committed to the full implementation of the Iran nuclear deal.

“I heard the intention to make sure that the deal will be a hundred percent implemented”, she said.

Read more: EU tells Trump to mind his own business | Euronews

Nobel committee chairman says Turkey world’s largest jailer of intellectuals - Stockholm Center for Freedom

Veteran Swedish writer and Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Literature Per Wästberg said Turkey has become the largest jailer of intellectuals and journalists in the world since, according to a PEN International report, 151 journalists are behind bars.

Speaking with the Spanish El País daily after visiting İstanbul as part of a PEN International delegation that sought to stand in solidarity with 151 journalists and writers currently in Turkish prisons, Wästberg expressed concern over the Turkish government’s crackdown on dissenters, including journalists and writers, and labeling them as terrorists.

Read more: Nobel committee chairman says Turkey world’s largest jailer of intellectuals - Stockholm Center for Freedom

Scotland - Independence beckons: Scottish independence now neck-and-neck, new post-Brexit poll shows – by Matthew Tempes

Support for Scottish independence in the wake of the Brexit referendum is now effectively neck-and-neck, according to a new poll released Wednesday (8 February).

The survey, for the Herald newspaper in Glasgow, puts support for independence at 49% and for the status quo at 51%, excluding don’t knows.

It comes against a backdrop of British Prime Minister successfully getting through a parliament a bill allowing MPs to vote on a final Brexit deal – but with very little consultation or safeguards against a so-called ‘Hard Brexit.’

Whilst still showing a theoretical victory for the status quo, it is within a statistical margin of error – and compares with the 2014 referendum result of 45% for independence and 55% against.

The seismic vote by the UK as a whole – but not Scotland, Northern Ireland or Gibraltar – to leave the EU  last year has brought fresh pressure on the Scottish National party minority government in Edinburgh to hold a fresh referendum.

That has increased with confirmation from Theresa May that Brexit will mean leaving the single market, and – as yet – no deal on the rights of EU workers in the UK, and vice-versa.

Alex Salmond, the SNP’s former leader, first minister, and foreign affairs spokesman for the party at the Westminster parliament, tweeted the result with the words “Game On.”

Read M<ore: Scottish independence now neck-and-neck, new post-Brexit poll shows – EurActiv.com

The Netherlands Trump Admirer and Muslim hater Geert Wilders tweets fake picture of political rival

Trump and Wilders:"we are
the modern Biblical version of Samson"

Dutch far-right and anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim MP Geert Wilders, known for his comments attacking Islam and Muslims, has triggered a fight over fake news, after posting a Twitter message showing a digitally altered picture of another party leader at a rally.

Some five weeks before key elections in The Netherlands, Wilders on Monday posted the fake picture of D66 leader Alexander Pechtold supposedly at a rally with Muslims holding up signs reading: "Islam will conquer Europe" and "Shariah for The Netherlands", referring to Islamic law.

Wilders' anti-Islam and anti-immigrant platform has helped propel his Freedom Party (PVV) to the top of the opinion polls in recent months in advance of the March 15 vote.

In his tweet, he accused Pechtold, who heads the pro-European, social-liberal D66 party of "demonstrating with Hamas terrorists".

Read more: Geert Wilders tweets fake picture of rival | Netherlands News | Al Jazeera

The Netherlands - banking industry: ABN Amro to slash below board level management from 100 to 40

ABN Amro is planning to reduce the number of senior managers from around 100 to just 40 and is shaking up its executive board to make the bank ‘more client-focused, agile and efficient’.

Among those leaving is Chris Vogelzang, who had been tipped to take over when Gerrit Zalm stood down as chief executive. The managerial jobs to go will run across the level below the executive committee.

The 40 jobs remaining ‘will have a stronger involvement in the strategic direction and the leadership of the bank than before,’ the bank said in a statement. The composition of the ‘top 40’ will be reviewed every year.

‘Over the past few years, the number of bank staff has been reduced considerably but there has been no change in the number of senior managers,’ chief executive Kees van Dijkhuizen said. T

he bank will also have a slimmed down executive board made up of CEO Van Dijkhuizen, chief risk officer Wietze Reehoorn and a new financial boss who has yet to be appointed.

Read more: ABN Amro to slash below board level management from 100 to 40 - DutchNews.nl