Pain Spreads To Germany’s Second Biggest Bank: Commerzbank Scraps Dividend, Fires 20% Of Workforce

With Deutsche Bank mercifully missing from overnight headlines for the first day in almost two weeks, it is time to bring attention to Germany’s second largest bank which, as we first reported earlier in the week citing a Handelsblatt leak, confirmed it is also going through a historic rough patch. This morning, Commerzbank said it plans a wide-ranging business restructuring that includes scrapping the bank’s dividend for the rest of the year, terminating nearly 10,000 jobs – roughly 20% of its workforce – and merging two large units.

“The focus on the core business, with some business activities being discontinued, and the digitalization and automation of workflows will lead to staff reductions amounting to around 9,600 full-time positions,” Germany’s second-largest lender said.

The plan, according to the WSJ, is a strong sign new Chief Executive Martin Zielke is determined to shrink the partially state-owned bank amid a protracted period of ultra-low or negative interest rates and weak client demand.

While the overhaul and liquidity “shoring” was previously reported in recent weeks, it came as a surprise because the bank portrayed the picture of an institute that is done emerging from an extensive overhaul when former Chief Executive Martin Blessing in November last year said he would leave the bank. However, now the bank is merging its investment bank with the unit that caters to small and midsize enterprises. The renewed efforts to streamline Germany’s second-largest bank mark the first moves Mr. Zielke, who took the helm at Commerzbank in May.

There is a silver lining: the 20% headcount reduction will be offset by the hiring of 2,300 new workers as the bank efforts to make workflows more digital.

The bottom line: the restructuring will cost about €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) and it will book a €700 million loss in the third quarter. It added that it would therefore scrap dividend payments for “the time being.” It paid €0.20 a share in May for 2015, the first dividend since its €18 billion government bailout in 2008, and originally planned to pay a dividend for this year.

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Bank Of England Governor Warns Of ZIRP/QE “In Perpetuity”

Just yesterday we wrote about how central banks are “running out of road” to be able to provide any meaningful incremental “stimulus” to the economy (see “Bridgewater Calculates How Much Time Central Banks Have Left“).  As Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio pointed out, at some point in the not so distant future, the ECB and BOJ will have purchased every eligible security possible.  Even if the central banks do continue to expand the scope of their existing programs, eventually they will simply run out of securities to buy.  

Ok fine, central banks are “running out of road”, however at the same time they are terrified to rip (or even peel) the band-aid off. This has put the system in an unstable equilibrium: on one hand, central bankers – as even they admit – need to hand over the growth impulse to governments, yet on the other hand, they are terrified of even the smallest change to the status quo as they know they may undo some 7 years of “wealth effect” creation overnight.

 

How much longer can this charade continue?

 

While many would be quick to answer “indefinitely” that is not true, because with every bond, ETF or stock, purchased by central bankers they come to the point where they either monetize the entire lot, or they increasingly impair the functioning of the capital markets (just ask the dozens of marquee hedge funds that have shuttered in recent years).

We concluded that post by summarizing Dalio’s analysis which suggested central banks could continue the party for another 4-5 years.

Which means for those market participants who have already torn most of their hair out from participating in a centrally planned “market” where nothing makes sense, get ready because, the insanity may last another 4 or 5 years longer

QE

 

But, at least one central banker thinks she can do much better than that.  If Bank of England deputy governor, Minouche Shafik, has her way then interest rates will hover around 0% in perpetuity and other forms of quantitative easing will become the “standard tool of central bankers.”  Per the Telegraph:

Deep structural forces have combined to depress the level of interest rates at which the economy would be in equilibrium, obliging us to rely ever more on monetary policies that were once considered unconventional.”

 

The neutral rate of interest “is closer to zero than it used to be. You can see from charts that historically, interest rates have always been at around 5pc, going back hundreds of years… even in ancient Babylon,” she said.

 

“Something has changed in the last decade with big forces of demography, global savings and investment, and the neutral rate has fallen and is likely to stay low for a very long time.

Despite the fact that the Bank of England just cut its base rate to a new record low of 0.25% last month, Shafik expects the next move will be another cut as the Bank tries to combat a Brexit-related economic slowdown.  Yes, because previous cuts have provided such meaningful, measurable economic improvement…why not. 

“There is no doubt in my mind that the UK is experiencing a sizeable economic shock in the wake of the referendum. Any reduction in openness or need to reallocate resources will necessarily imply a slower rate of potential growth for the economy,” said Ms Shafik, noting a hit to business investment as well as flows of foreign funds into the country.

 

It seems likely to me that further monetary stimulus will be required at some point in order to help ensure that a slowdown in economic activity doesn’t turn into something more pernicious.

But if you’re worried about who will ultimately take the BOE reigns and keep the centrally planned bubbles going, infinity is, after all, a long time for any mere mortal to maintain control, we ask you to fear not as Shafik will be leaving the BOE soon to head up the London School of Economics where she can teach a whole new generation of central planners the art of bubble making. 

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“Freedom Has A Price” – Holland’s Wilders Rages “Let’s Lock The Door To Islam”

Authored by Geert Wilders, originally posted Op-Ed via Breitbart.com,

Yesterday, I visited Maassluis. It is town near Rotterdam, where the indigenous Dutch inhabitants have become the victims of immigrant youths of Moroccan descent.

Cars have been demolished, houses vandalized, people threatened. The Dutch no longer feel free and safe in their own city. When the local radio station interviewed some of the victims and referred to the perpetrators as Moroccans, it received an anonymous letter: “You are racists! Your time will come! I won’t take care of it because I am too old. But our boys are the new soldiers.”

Maassluis. It is just one of the many Dutch towns and neighborhoods terrorized by Moroccan or Turkish youth gangs. Others are Schilderswijk, Oosterwei, Kanaleneiland, Zaandam, Helmond,… Not surprisingly, a poll shows that 43% of the Dutch people want fewer Moroccan immigrants in our country. These people are not racists; they are decent people, patriots who love their country and do not want to lose it.

The great Ronald Reagan once said that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” These wise words are more true today than ever before. We are the free men and women of the West.

Freedom is our birthright. But if we fail to defend it, we are bound to lose it. And, sadly, that is exactly what is happening today.

2016’s Black Summer of Jihad, with terror attacks all over the free world, teaches us that the enemies of freedom are already among us. The ruling elites all over the Western world have accepted millions of people into our countries without demanding that they assimilate.

Many of these immigrants acquired our nationality. But some do not care for our country at all. They do not love it. They do not respect it. Nor do they respect us and our values.

They carry our passports, but they do not belong to us. They spit on our identity and behave like conquerors.

This is particularly true of many immigrants with an Islamic background. That is not surprising. Islam is a totalitarian ideology aimed at establishing tyrannical power over non-Muslims.

Islam commands its followers to make all nations submit to Islamic Sharia law, if necessary through the use of violence and terror.

Last week, we had an important debate in the Dutch Parliament. We discussed the future of our country. I pointed out that we will have no future if we do not de-islamize the Netherlands. Our time is a time for action.

Islam is an existential threat to our survival as a free nation. It violates all the basic principles and freedoms of our Constitution. It discriminates non-Muslims, who have no rights under Islamic Sharia law.

It discriminates women, who according to the Koran are worth only half a man. There is no freedom of religion under Islam. Apostates deserve the death penalty, the Koran tells Muslims that Jews are pigs and monkeys, and Christians have to submit or die.

There is no freedom of speech in Islam either. Criticism of Allah or Muhammad is punishable by death. There is no right to personal integrity. Islam advocates cruel corporal punishments, such as whipping, amputations, stoning, beheading. There is no right to live in peace and dignity. Islam orders war until the whole world has been submitted to Allah.

Some seem to think that by allowing freedom to the enemies of freedom we prove that we stand for freedom. The opposite is true. By refusing to draw boundaries to our tolerance, we are handing away our freedom. If we continue being naive we will lose everything.

By depriving Islam of the means to destroy freedom, we are not violating freedom; we are preserving it. We should not turn freedom into a snake eating its own tail. Freedom requires a democracy willing to defend itself.

We need a political freedom agenda. It looks like this.

We must end all immigration from Islamic countries. There is more than enough Islam in our countries already. Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, expects 77 million immigrants to enter Europe in the next half century. Most of them are Islamic.

If we do not stop them, we will be facing a catastrophe. We will be colonized and Islamized. We will cease to exist. We can already see how disruptive relatively small groups are. Research by the University of Amsterdam showed that 11% of the Muslims in the Netherlands are prepared to use violence for the sake of Islam. This is more than 100,000 people.

The more Islam we get, the more dangerous and less free our society becomes. Let us keep our countries safe. And lock the door to Islam.

We must also stimulate voluntary remigration of those who are already here. And those who stay must adopt our values; they must assimilate and integrate.

It is not extremist to demand that Muslims, who want to live in our midst, renounce the hateful doctrine and texts of Islam and abide by our laws. If they commit crimes, act against our laws, impose Sharia law, or wage jihad, we must expel them. My party wants to strip all criminals with dual nationalities of their Dutch nationality and expel them to the country of their other nationality.

These measures are part of our de-islamization plans and have been on our party platform for over ten years.

And, finally, in order to remain free, we must honor our freedoms by using them. That is why I will never give up my freedom of speech. Not in parliament nor anywhere else.

I have been dragged to court for asking party members at a meeting whether they want more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. 65% of Dutch Moroccan youths have been suspected of criminal activities. They are six times as often suspects of violent crime as indigenous Dutch, and 22 times as often of hold-ups and street robberies.

They also constitute almost 80% of the Dutch jihadis traveling fighting in Syria for IS. Just last week, a Dutch Moroccan was arrested in Rotterdam for supplying French jihadis with Kalashnikovs and explosives. Nevertheless, according to the public prosecutor, asking Dutch voters whether they want more or less Moroccans in the Netherlands is a criminal offense.

But no matter the outcome of the trial, I will keep speaking. No judge will ever be able to silence me. And no jihadist will succeed either. For twelve years already, I have been on the death list of several Islamic terror organizations, from al-Qaeda to IS and the Taliban. I am under 24/7 protection by the police. I live in a safe house, am driven around in armored cars, have to wear bullet proof vests in public, and have to stand trial in converted bunkers. But I will never shut up.

The more they try to do so, the louder I will speak.

It is time to raise our voices. Let them sound like thunder: Freedom has a price. The price is to always defend it, no matter the consequences. To be brave and let no-one bully us into submission. So, let us do our duty and ensure that Reagan’s warning never becomes a reality: Extinction is not an option! Freedom or Islam. You cannot have it both ways. There is no middle way.

Geert Wilders is a member of the Dutch Parliament and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV)

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“Ominous Shades Of 1987” – HSBC Shows Why 17,992 Is The World’s Most Important Number

With Saudi devaluation bets soaring, Chinese money-market rates popping, 2 debates and an election looming, and the most systemically dangerous bank in the world flashes the reddest of red warning signs, HSBC's Murray Gunn's conclusion bears paying attention to. Between wave-trending signals and disturbing technical trading patterns, Gunn warns of "ominous shades of 1987" for the markets.

The Dow Jones Industrials index has turned lower from a Head & Shoulders neckline re-test. A similar pattern occurred at this, often bearish, time of the year in 1987 before the index fell dramatically.

 

With other technical analysis evidence pointing to a potential significant top, the price action should be monitored closely over the next couple of weeks.

 

Pressure eases above 18,449 but a close in the Dow below 17,992 would be a clear warning that a steep fall could be underway.

 

Source: Bloomberg, HSBC

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Brickbat: Phantom Tickets

NY platesLast year, Joseph Youngstein’s 2004 Dodge Durango was stolen and totaled. He turned the plates in to the New York Department of Motor Vehicles and got a receipt saying they’d been destroyed. So he wonders why he keeps getting tickets issued to the old license plates. He is also angry that his new vehicle, a Chevy Equinox with completely different plates, got booted because of all the tickets on the old plates.

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Robots Will Soon Take Over Building London Skyscrapers, Major UK Construction Firm CEO Warns

Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Alison Carnwath, chairman of one of the UK’s largest construction firms, says the Era of Robots is at hand.

Thousands of builders will lose jobs as machines take over building London skyscrapers.

 

era-of-robots

Skyscrapers in the City of London could soon be built by robots rather than by people, according to the boss of one of the UK’s biggest construction firms.

 

The result would be huge productivity gains as more work could be done by fewer people – but also mass layoffs as traditionally labour-intensive construction projects hire fewer and fewer staff.

 

“We’re moving into the era of the robots,” said Alison Carnwath, the chairman of Land Securities, the £8.2bn FTSE 100 construction company.

 

Speaking at the Institute of Directors’ annual convention, the veteran businesswoman said the pace of technological change has taken her by surprise.

 

“Five years ago I’d have smiled wryly if somebody had said to me that robots would be able to put up buildings in the City of London – I tell you we’re not that far off, and that has huge implications,” she said.

 

“Businesses are focusing on [productivity], they want to reengineer how their people can work, they recognise that technology is upon us and is going to destroy thousands of jobs,” said Ms Carnwath, who has been on Land Securities’ board since 2004 and has been chairman since 2008.

UK Construction Jobs

uk-construction-jobs

There are 2.3 million construction jobs in the UK. Not all those jobs will vanish. And not all the jobs that do vanish will happen at once. But the writing is on the wall for any kind of repetitive task that can be automated.

Robotic automation will happen far faster than people realize. If tens of thousands of UK construction workers lose their jobs, the same percentage in the US will do so as well.

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IRS Report Reveals How Obamacare “Spread [$11 Billion] Of Wealth Around”

If folks don’t like their healthcare then they can give us all their money so we can give it to other folks.

New IRS disclosures from the 2014 tax year reveal the specifics of how the so-called “Affordable Care Act” helped to facilitate Obama’s desire to, as he famously told “Joe the Plumber”, “spread the wealth around.”  To be precise, in 2014, Obamacare spread $11.2BN of wealth around, in the form of healthcare premium tax credits, with nearly 80% going to taxpayers reporting less that $35,000 of adjusted gross income.  Moreover, the average tax filer received $3,600 of healthcare premium support with those in the lowest tax bracket receiving over $5,500 per person.

Equally disturbing is the fact that 8.1mm tax filers, those who elected to forgo health insurance, were hit with $1.7BN in Obamacare penalties…call it the “young and healthy tax”.  Ironically, 40% of the penalties fell upon people making less than $35,000 per year…the very same people that Obama apparently intended to “help”. 

Here’s how the subsidies and penalties broke down by tax bracket (the original IRS table can be found here):

ACA Penalties

 

Of course, the real tragedy of Obamacare is that even if those 8.1mm young and healthy people wanted to buy health insurance, many of them have now likely been priced out of the market as premiums have soared and coverage “options” have vanished as insurers have pulled out of exchanges all over the country (something we discussed at length in a post entitled “Obamacare On “Verge Of Collapse” As Premiums Set To Soar Again In 2017“).  In essence, while the bill has seemingly “helped” the 3.1mm people receiving subsidies in the chart above it has trapped the 8.1mm young and health people with a permanent tax increase as they are now even less likely to buy health insurance after Obamacare has driven up the rates astronomically.

But, of course, the Obamacare penalties will only get even worse from here.  According to The Washington Free Beacon, in 2014, uninsured individuals were required to pay the greater of either a flat penalty of $95 for each uninsured adult or 1% of their household’s adjusted gross income.  That said, the penalties are set to increase in 2016 to the greater of a flat fee of $695 or 2.5% of AGI.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, taxpayers are expected to pay penalties of $4BN in 2016 and $5BN annually from 2017 through 2024.

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), also pointed out the irony in the fact that Obamacare is now penalizing many taxpayers who can no longer afford healthcare simply because Obamacare itself has driven up premiums to such an extent they’ve been rendered completely unaffordable.

“It’s not surprising that the Obamacare mandate numbers are worse than the administration first claimed,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.). “Obamacare penalizes taxpayers who can no longer afford insurance that Obamacare made unaffordable.

 

“As Obamacare continues to unravel, things will only get worse,” Cotton said. “The legacy of Obamacare is skyrocketing premiums, unaffordable deductibles, the destruction of the individual insurance market, and tax penalties on Obamacare’s victims.

With that, we’ll leave you with this blast from the past…

 

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These Are The Best And Worst U.S. Cities For Rising Home Prices

In its latest update looking at July home prices, Case Shiller pointed out that ” the housing sector continued to expand” at just around 5%, a pace that has held since early 2015.

Once again that was an understatement: in 15 of 20 of the tracked metro areas, the pace of home appreciation over the past year was 5% or higher, or more than twice the pace of core inflation. And with rents continuing to soar across the country, in many cases at a double digit clip, not to mention exploding healthcare costs, one wonders just what the BLS “measures” with its monthly CPI update.

In any case, for those lucky Americans who can afford to own a house instead of being stuck renting the New Normal American dream (where they are prohibited from peddling fiction as their annual rent increases by 10% or more each year), here is the breakdown of the top US cities with the highest and lowest home price appreciation.

At the top, with annual price increases of between 9% and 12%, we find the usual west coast (and thus closest to China) suspects for the second month: Portland, Seattle and Denver, with the cities closest to Vancouver not surprisingly continue to see the highest Y/Y growth. What is surprising is that what until recently was a superstar in this category, San Francisco, has seen its annual price increase drop to just 6.0% from 9.3% in February.

On the other end once again are Cleveland, Washington and, the worst performer of all, New York.

Of course, one can debate whether the city with the fastest home price growth, in this case Portland, is “best”, for those who already own a house, or “worst”, for those who are trying to buy one and find it increasingly more unaffordable.

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Obama Responds To Veto Override…

Despite all his cajoling and fearmongery, President Obama lost his veto-override virginity today… and is not happy. Speaking at a CNN town hall this evening, the president said that Congress “made a mistake,” and, as The Hill reports, trotted out the tired old excuse that despte their noble intentions, this elimination of sovereign immunity could have unintended consequences.

As The Hill reports, the override, the first of Obama’s tenure, is a major blow to the president and raises questions about his diminishing sway over Capitol Hill and foreign policy four months before he leaves office. While more stoic than his press spokesperson Josh Earnest’s earlier outrage, Obama’s calm demeanour during tonight’s CNN townhall hid his bitterness which was exposed by his carefully chosen – and well-rehearsed – words…

the measure sets a “dangerous precedent” in international law that could have negative consequences for the U.S.

 

“It’s an example of why sometimes you have to do what’s hard,” he added. “And, frankly, I wish Congress here had done what’s hard.”

 

But, he conceded, “I understand why it happened. Obviously, all of us still carry the scars and trauma of 9/11.”

Obama reiterated his longstanding argument that the measure carries serious unintended consequences, despite the noble intentions of its supporters.

The president said the measure could erode the concept of sovereign immunity, leaving  American citizens and assets abroad vulnerable to lawsuits if foreign countries pass reciprocal laws.

“The concern that I’ve had is — has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia per se, or my sympathy for 9/11 families,” Obama said.

 

“It has to do with me not wanting a situation in which we’re suddenly exposed to liabilities for all the work that we’re doing all around the world.”

As usual his words articulately obscure what he is really saying… between the lines… How dare Americans make me accountable for my actions?!

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How The ‘Deplorables’ Can Save America

Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

In my last article, “The Deplorables – Who We Are And What We Want,” I examined the basic philosophies that define what I call the liberty movement; the same group of Americans that Hillary Clinton admonishes as part of her “basket of deplorables.”

It is important to recognize that only foolish progressives actually take Clinton’s claims at face value. Clinton seeks to characterize a large subset of conservatives as narrow minded when she mentions the “deplorables.” But, it is how she defines “narrow minded” that is the crux of the thing.

When people like her talk about “racists,” they are referring to conservatives who want a secure southern border. When they talk about “Islamaphobes,” they are referring to people who want to stop Islamic refugees from being bused into the country without being vetted or philosophically and morally acclimated to our way of life. When they talk about sexists, they are usually referring to all males in general, because remember, social justice warriors (SJWs) claim that we are “subconsciously sexist,” even if we think we are fair to women. When they talk about homophobes, they are referring to Christian bakers who do not want to participate in services for gay weddings despite the fact that they should be perfectly free to refuse association with anyone at any time for any reason.

What Clinton and social justice lunatics are really referring to when they use these attacks are those people who want to be free to think and do as they see fit as long as they are not violating the constitutional rights of others. No one in Hillary’s basket is actually narrow minded, but she and her cronies pigeonhole them as narrow minded anyway.

Clinton is not actually worried about real racists, or real sexists or real homophobes. What she and the establishment are worried about are true conservatives, because our principles are not built on hate; they are built on reason and truth. It’s easy to defeat a movement driven by hate; it’s next to impossible to defeat a movement driven by truth.

It is absolutely essential for liberty activists to understand that the goal of the establishment will be to redefine the core of our movement. If they can repaint us as hateful, then we can be beaten. If they can fool us into acting against our principles in the name of winning by any means, then once again, we can be beaten. If we are able to retain our principles and repel the propaganda, then we will NEVER be beaten. Even the greatest war machines on Earth can be crushed by the force of a principled rebellion.

As my readers know well, I do not hold much optimism for America in the short term. Our economic status is dismal. In my article, “Brexit Aftermath – Here’s What Happens Next,” I warned that global markets would be experiencing a slow grinding decline into the U.S. elections. This is now occurring. It is my belief that international financiers and central banks will pull stimulus support from the global economy just before or just after the elections. I believe that the establishment will attempt to blame conservative movements for the fiscal crisis they created.

By extension, and as I have been predicting for many months, I believe that Donald Trump will be allowed into the White House. Whether Trump is aware of this dynamic or not, I do not know. The point is, our fight is just beginning, and it has nothing to do with a Trump presidency.

The U.S. cannot be saved from financial crisis; instability is a mathematical certainty. It is how we respond to this instability that will determine our success or failure. Here is what we “deplorables” must accomplish in the next decade if we are to rebuild America and defeat globalism.

Put An End To Economic Harmonization

Economic harmonization is nothing more than a globalist phrase meaning the socialist redistribution of wealth. Globalists and progressives will assert that capitalism is the cause of all our ailments. They will say it leads to an unfair allocation of wealth into the coffers of a select few through the “natural” evolution of corporate power. In reality, most socialist nations work side by side with corporations, and even the existence of the legal corporate model is owed to government interference in free markets. That is to say, there is nothing natural about corporations.

It was western governments that fabricated special legal protections for corporations including corporate personhood and limited liability. Without government protection, corporations could not exist at their current level of dominance. Therefore, bigger government and more government intervention in free markets will likely only serve to secure even greater empires for the corporate elite.

These empires can only be dismantled by removing government as a factor in free markets, and allowing true competition in business to return instead of corporate favoritism. As a part of this shift, the middle class must be allowed to thrive through innovation and production. Taxation designed to redistribute wealth only seems to harm burgeoning entrepreneurs and stifles their ability to use good ideas to compete with larger businesses and their superior capital.

Economic harmonization will eventually result in equality — it will make everyone equally poor. Only a handful of elites will ever be able to pursue economic success within this kind of framework.

The End Of Forced Multiculturalism

We’re tired of Cloward-Piven strategies used by cultural Marxists to undermine western principles and heritage. The bottom line is, some cultures are completely incompatible and they should not be roommates. Are we racist for holding this view? No, we’re just being practical. One look at the scheisse-storm hitting Europe right now and only an idiot or a Leftist with an agenda would argue that mass immigration of contrary cultures is a good idea.

Uncontrolled migrations of peoples from socialist nations into nations that desire free markets will only make the effort towards free markets impossible. Illegal immigration by people who only want taxpayer funded entitlements and that import their socialist ideals as they invade is counter to the health of a liberty-based model.

Harshly theocratic cultures also will not be able to integrate into a society that respects individual freedom. Social justice groups assume that religious freedom requires us to remain apathetic in the face of unchecked theocratic immigration (as long as it is anything other than Christian).  But, potential immigrants and illegal immigrants do not have legal rights under the U.S. Constitution. Religious freedom has nothing to do with immigration.

For example, fundamentalist Islamic culture does not mix with the traditional Western ideals of liberty and free market participation. Period.

Leftists are willfully blind to the distinction. Globalists understand the problem full well and they intend to exploit it. Their goal is to import counter-ideologies en masse in order to annihilate the last vestiges of the West.

Why? Because this is about eliminating the final obstacle to total globalization. They seek to wash out conservative and classical liberal thinking to make way for a collectivist system that outlaws sovereign philosophies as “barbaric.” It is not exactly an “ethnic cleansing;” more like an ideological cleansing of true conservativism.

We aren’t going to allow that.

This is why many in the liberty movement do in fact support a ban on all immigration into Western nations until the damage done by the multicultural cabal can be mitigated. Some may argue for a limited ban on the immigration of certain groups (including Muslims) and this is an issue where the “deplorables” diverge.

I personally don’t know how such a selective ban could be enforced without an insanely large, intrusive and expensive immigration bureaucracy designed to investigate and weed out millions of people not allowed under such a law. A simpler solution would be to freeze ALL immigration for a period of time (perhaps 10 years or more).

This would eliminate the need for the U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services (USCIS). The $3.2 billion allocated to that entity could be spent better securing U.S. borders.

Frankly, there is nothing wrong with denying citizenship to immigrants for a period of time. The extreme left acts as if open immigration into our country is some kind of human right. It’s not.

A Less Inclusive Republican Party

It is perfectly healthy to be discriminating against ideologies and people that are destructive to inherent freedoms. I remember after Barack Obama took office for a second term that the common argument by Democratic and Republican elites alike was that it was “time for the Republican Party to be more inclusive" if they ever wanted to win the White House again.  What that really means in translation is, it was time for the Republican Party to move completely away from conservative values and be more like the Left.

In reality, the Republican Party needs to stop accommodating socialist and globalist ideals and be more selective in who its friends are, and who its leaders are. Either that, or the party needs to go the way of smallpox and die so that more honest political organizations can take its place.

The Eradication Of Language Policing

We “deplorables” have seen political correctness and social justice fear mongering turn our society into a simpering cesspool of terrified effeminate spineless men, deluded miserable vitriolic women who think they are men, and the rest of us who are supposed to walk on eggshells whenever the PC police are around while being sure to use the “proper pronouns.” I think not.

I think instead, the deplorables are going to say whatever the hell we feel like saying. Why should we concern ourselves with the irrational feelings of others? Why should we censor ourselves just to satisfy the ignorant notion that language shapes environment? Language is irrelevant to our internal monologue. Changing the language is not going to change our souls. Thus, controlling it is pointless and only serves to oppress the public.

We’re not going to refer to anyone by a gender other than what their genetics dictate. We don’t care if you wear make-up and a wig and a tampon. If you were born with a Y chromosome, then you are a man. Your personal freedoms do not include the right to force others to recognize you as a woman, a “trans,” a diva, a porpoise, etc. Your feelings do not matter. We are no longer going to participate in your gender role-play fantasies.

Some of us may at times play with race related jokes and have fun at the expense of other groups. We might argue that women actually don’t make very good Ghostbusters or that movies pontificating about slavery are becoming extraordinarily boring. We will probably refer to illegal immigrants as illegal immigrants and stare at beautiful women like we have x-ray vision.

Understand, there is nothing you can do to stop us, so you might as well spend your time doing something more constructive, like dropping out of gender studies and enrolling in a real college course.

No More Recognition Of Victim Group Status

For decades now it has become trendy for anyone besides white heterosexual males to blame all their failures on white heterosexual males. With all the gnashing of teeth over “white male privilege,” we might forget that the only groups with privileges under the law are victim groups. So much government preference is being given to these groups that almost everyone is now clamoring to categorize themselves as a victim in some sense.

The “transgender” movement is the culmination of this insanity; primarily because there is no such thing as a transgender person except the extremely rare occasion when someone is born with both male and female genitalia. Gender is biological, it is not fluid. You cannot argue with nature about your gender. Laws that govern gender issues should follow biological standards, not hollow psychological standards.

Today, anyone can simply say they are a victim group by virtue of what amounts to a mental illness. It is time to stop treating this mental illness as a civil rights issue. In turn, it is also time to stop government from designating privileges to groups based on arbitrary victimhood. Everyone today has equal rights under the law. Everything else should be based on merit. If you fail, then it is your own fault. To foster the notion in our society that the evil white man is to blame for all the inadequacies of every loser in the world is to do more harm to those losers than good. Instead, let them take responsibility for their failings so that they might actually strive to do better.

Limited Government

There are only a few reasonable purposes behind government — to defend the inborn liberties of the populace, to repel foreign invaders and to secure a sound monetary framework. That’s about it. But while we deplorables see these as limited powers and responsibilities, socialists and globalists see these as excuses for an infinitely expanding government behemoth.

For example, you can build a functioning military based on the militia model, in which every able-bodied citizen rises to the defense of their community and nation in the event of attack. This would be a cost-effective and less intrusive model.

Or, you can build a massive standing army with hundreds of bases around the world and a police state here at home, all funded by an unsustainable fiat money and debt system. This would be the big government model, which socialists argue is what government should do to fulfill its role.

Government can also be used to force private associations in the name of protecting the "rights" of others. A Christian taxpayer might be forced to fund entities they oppose, like Planned Parenthood (which receives around $500 million in tax dollars per year). This is the problem with open-ended nanny government; the individual freedom to associate is violated in the name of protecting the victim status of others.

This comes from a “fluid interpretation” of the Constitution and the role of government that allows expansion to be rationalized. To put an end to this would require we “deplorables” to assert a literal and limited interpretation.

True Free Markets

The establishment has spent the better part of the past 30 years trying to convince the world that globalism is a natural extension of the free market. It’s not. The fact is, globalism is a system thrust upon the people, not an organic evolution of economics.

True free market philosophy would dictate that if a model is destroying the wealth standards of a society, that society would naturally abandon it. If a model is elevating corporations, which are a product of government charter and are artificially supported by taxpayer dollars, then this is not conducive to real competition. If a model is allowing those same government chartered corporations to export jobs while destroying any chance for smaller competitors to fill the void through unfair taxation and other laws, then this creates economic instability. Without government intervention, globalism would not exist, because no society with a free market would naturally seek to destroy itself.

The “deplorables” want the end of all welfare, including corporate welfare and the concept of the “too big to fail” company. We want the end of government intervention in business and special favors for corporate elites. We also want the end of central banking and fiat debt based currency. It’s funny, but the mainstream media constantly accuses us of seeking an unfair world, but we are actually the only group of people working for a level playing field.

This concept terrifies progressives and corporate elites alike because without a socialist welfare system and special treatment for victim groups and companies, all success would then rely on merit. This means, they would have to work harder than most, or be smarter than most or be more naturally gifted than most in order to be more prosperous than most. Take a look at the millennials permeating the halls of universities today — those that espouse socialist ideals –and you will find yourself struggling to identify a single person with exceptional merit or work ethic.

Take a look at all the banks and corporate monstrosities that should have collapsed eight years ago due to terrible business practices. Under a free market, they would be failures, and rightly so.

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As mentioned in my first article on the “deplorables,” these changes– which represent a redress of grievances over decades of American corruption –will not take place without years of struggle and sacrifice. Again, this is not about a Trump presidency or any other future election. This is about action on the part of regular men and women, average conservatives, everyday. This is about self sufficiency, localized economies, the return of individual producers, the refusal to comply with social justice-based laws and legislation, the return of community-based security rather than reliance on state and federal security, local efforts for border security, the punishment of criminal financial institutions, etc.; all of which will probably come at the cost of a fight with the establishment.

While you are welcome to vote for whatever candidate you please, remember that central leadership is not the solution. Self leadership is the solution. We do not need a hero on a white horse. The future is in OUR hands. Only by the efforts of millions of liberty champions in large and small ways can America return to prosperity, and to freedom.

via http://ift.tt/2cMn7Mk Tyler Durden