Goodbye Sweden

  

This is the last post on this blog. I am leaving Sweden for good shortly, and will no longer be following its descent from what was once the third most prosperous country in the world. Frankly, it’s just too damn depressing. 

I was born and raised in Sweden, which leaves a cultural mark even though I moved to USA in the 1990s and have spent the better part of my adult life as an American. Coming back for a few years has been a shocking experience.

When I was a child, Sweden was a dull yet very safe place to live. Yes, there was a heavy blanket of socialism and collectivist values covering everything, but there was a core of pragmatism beneath the redness. The intention and goal was always to benefit the citizens, even though they went about things in a backwards manner. 

 

Prime minister Löfven 
Today, it’s as if the inmates are running the asylum. The politicians are participating in a chicken race of “goodness” where everybody tries to one-up each other in caring for the citizens of OTHER countries while Swedish retirees, school children, handicapped and other vulnerable categories of people are thorougly ignored. Violence is exploding. Jihadist Trojan horses are flowing through the porous border along with the tens of thousands ID-less refugees. 

But what makes me the most pessimistic about Sweden’s future is how the social fabric itself has been undermined. 

Now, to be clear, it is my opinion that modest immigration is healthy for society and beneficial for trade, cultural development and so forth. Protectionism as a concept is counter-productive, while free trade and the ability for skilled labor to go where they’re in demand is beneficial for everyone.

Having said that, what Sweden is doing is something completely different. The once homogenous population has been forever altered by a rapid and massive addition of people from vastly different cultures and value-systems. 26,8% of the population is now foreign-born or with at least one foreign-born parent, and the national census bureau estimates that some 150 000 per year will arrive to the country of just 9,8 million residents.

There simply is no possible way to absorb and assimilate such volumes of people, period. Then you are merely creating ethnic enclaves, which due to incompatible language, culture and job skills become ghettos, which in turns brews crime, misery and extremism. Once the inflow has exceeded the capacity for absorbtion, further immigration only makes the problem worse. 

It’s like someone having read that a cup of green tea per day is healthy, so they make it a policy to chug four gallons per day, every day. It’s a good thing overdone to the extreme until it becomes toxic.

Then you have the Swedish school system. There really is no nice way to put it; it’s a complete disaster. The minister of education is a man-boy who spends his time making Youtube-videos showing heart-signs with his hands to boost school results, while university-level students can’t read and comprehend the course literature. 

  
Education minister Gustav Fridolin
Since there is a delay in the changes in the school system, it is only in recent years the full impact of the knowledge-averse “progressive” school system is starting to be felt. Hard facts are largely irrelevant; the important thing is to sit in a group and discuss things until a consensus is reached. But with no hard facts to base the conclusions on, it becomes an exercise in futility because it’s all random assumptions and opinions. As a university-level history student (!) was quoted as saying in newspaper Svenska Dagbladet the other day: “Why would all these dates matter? Who cares in what order things happened?”

That’s not exactly fertile soil for creating the researchers and engineers of the future.

Financially, Sweden is an oddity in that it never had its real estate correction when Lehman Bros went belly-up and the housing market everywhere in the West crashed. Sweden just kept steaming ahead, which means housing is ridiculously overinflated. In Stockholm, the real estate prices increased 19% and in Gothenburg 24% in the last 12 months alone — from an already sky-high level. 

  
Tear-down abandoned house from 1932 with small, unremarkable lot in the outskirts of Stockholm. Current bid: 7,5 million SEK, or close to $900,000.

As a result, personal debt of the Swedish population is at an all-time high. To keep all this afloat the normal mortgage interest rates are at 2% with central bank Riksbanken at -0,25%, and yet a significant portion of the borrowers are hanging by a thread. If and when foreign banks and investors decide it’s time to turn their backs on Sweden (as happened in the early 1990s) there’s going to be a lot of pain.

Then you have the financial obligations going forward. Like much of the western world, there is a demographic change where fewer tax-paying adults are to support a glut of retirees. What makes it especially dire for Sweden is that in addition to the old Swedes, there’s also a ton of elderly immigrants that are granted “family visas” based on younger relatives having been granted asylum. They’ve never paid a dime in taxes, yet enter the system with full benefits from day one. In theory, this would be made up for by the younger relatives working and paying taxes. Sadly, this is not the case; while ethnical Swedes have a 82% employment rate, immigrants only have 57% with non-Europeans coming in at just 51%.

If Sweden was a person, it’d be like the guy with three mortgages, seven maxed-out credit cards and four collection agencies chasing him that just signed a lease for a brand new BMW X6. Simply put, there’s a lot of red ink in the future; it just hasn’t been fully realized yet.

Finally, there’s the sorry state of the Swedish defense. After decades of constant slashing of the defense budget, the extent of Swedish ambition is to stall an invader for a week in a limited area. This with war raging in Europe, Russian missiles pointed at Sweden in Kaliningrad, and Russian submarines and bomber jets openly thumbing their nose at Sweden as they intrude on Swedish territory on a regular basis. The power vacuum in Scandinavia is so tangible you can almost hear a sucking sound as you fly over it. This, too, will require massive investments when the penny finally drops amongst Swedish politicians.

So while I can’t claim to be any kind of authority on macroeconomics or social predictive models, I see red lights across the board. 

In some ways, I’d compare the country to a farm. Previously, Sweden acted like a sensible farmer and planted wheat here, carrots there, potatoes over there et cetera, by implementing free schooling, sound infrastructure investments, state-financed research and so forth. A few decades later, they reaped the rewards and climbed the prosperity ladder.

In the late 1960s, this pragmatic line was abandoned as leftist idealist Olof Palme took over. But there was plenty to harvest from previous years, so Sweden continued to be the land of milk and honey for a good long while. Then things started drying up, and the process has been one of gradual erosion and decline since the 1990s. 

The famous Swedish health care system is a good example. 120 000 hospital beds in the late 1960s became 20 000 today. Cancer patients are put on waiting lists for months. Entire emergency wards shut down for summer. The crumbling Swedish railroad system is another symptom I examined in-depth last year. The aforementioned defense that now consist of about three fat generals and a rusty rifle (bullets withheld for budgetary reasons).

A sensible farmer would see the problems for what they are and hurry to plant new seeds, so as to return to bountiful harvests of wheat, carrots, potatoes etc. Instead, the Swedish politicians goes by dogma and plants what they think SHOULD grow. So they plant M & Ms, hot dogs and pretzels. The results won’t be fully evident for a few years yet, but as the last reserves of the old harvests are depleted, things will get… Interesting.

From what I can see, there simply is no plausible scenario where these social tensions and future financial committments will not lead to a downward spiral of hardship and strife. I hope I’m wrong. I really do, because I have friends and family I care about that will remain here to see it all play out. 

But I won’t. I’ll be back in the US being mad at Obama for being a lying scumbag. And if Trump manages to get elected in 2016? Whoo boy. A racist ignoramus who takes pride in the worst qualities of a cranky eight-year old should make George “Dumbo” Bush seem like Abe Lincoln by comparison. So every country has its problems. USA has its corrupt yokel in office, just as Sweden has Stefan Löfven. 

I’d like to thank you for having followed this blog and your many insightful comments. It’s been a wild ride at times with heated debates, but it’s been fun — even when I got hatemail from both left-wingers and right-wingers over the same article. 🙂

So thank you, and good luck whereever you are.

  

Feminist economics

  

Swedish feminist party FI didn’t make it into parliament in the 2014 election, so the threat of mandatory feminism indoctrination camps for all men is postponed for the moment. But they did gain seats in many local governments, including capital Stockholm where they recently participated in establishing the new guidelines for dealing with returning ISIS fighters (free housing, full financial support and lifetime coddling).

In Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city, FI representative Linda Hiltmann took place in local government after the 2014 election. Here’s a clip from a local newspaper captured by Jan Sjunnesson that speaks for itself:

  

“Economy is a tool for achieving politics, and politics should not be constrained by budgetary limitations. Feminist politics emanates from the needs present, and we believe that you can’t establish a budget and then allocate resources.”

If she deals with her personal finances the same way she runs the city, I imagine her household budget must be something else. 

Meanwhile, on a completely unrelated note:

  
“Increased tax for Malmö residents in 2015”

“Riots are caused by police doing their jobs”

 

Last night was yet another flare-up in infamous Stockholm ghetto Tensta. A crowd of 50-something masked thugs were hurling rocks and molotov cocktails at police and fire fighters. But noone was killed and police only had to fire warning shots in the air, so no big deal. Ho-hum, in the “new normal” of Sweden.

What makes it noteworthy is how state media Stockholm P4 chooses to frame the situation. Apparently, police has been putting efforts into quelling local gang activity by making some arrests in the past weeks. So the headline becomes:

  

“Major police operations cause of the riots”

The subheadline reads: “It’s not surprising”

  
So… A riot is caused by the police upholding the law. It is not caused by a big group of thugs deciding to make molotov cocktails and toss them at the police.

This treacherous way of framing such reports is designed to lead to the subconscious conclusion: “Well, if the police would just stop doing their job, then there would be no riots.”

And a battered woman’s black eye is caused by her having burnt the eggs. It is not caused by the violent husband, because she brought it on herself. Right?

Police: Yes, there ARE No-Go Zones in Sweden

 
The issue of whether there are No-Go Zones in Europe or not has been somewhat controversial, mainly because the term has not had a clear-cut definition when applied to civilian cities. 

The original term is military lingo for hot areas controlled by the enemy, where it is suicidal to venture without sufficient firepower to match that of the enemy. This describes the situation of police officers pretty well; you have to enter the area in force or stay out, since a lone patrol car WILL be attacked.

Jacob Ekström is a police officer working in these areas. He has this to say in the latest issue of Forsking & Framsteg, the premier scientific journal in Sweden:

“The situation is slipping from our grasp,” he says about infamous enclaves Tensta and Rinkeby. “If we’re in pursuit of a vehicle, it can evade us by driving to certain neighborhoods where a lone patrol car simply cannot follow, because we’ll get pelted by rocks and even face riots. These are No-Go Zones. We simply can’t go there.” [My bold]

The article goes on to chronicle the rapid rise in gun-related violence in a country that was essentially unarmed up until just 15 years ago, the evolution of criminal gangs and clans from the middle east as an alternative societal structure, and how the “exclusion areas” (i.e. ghettos) have grown from 3 in 1990 to 156 in 2006.

The reporter brought the status report by Ekström to Lars Korsell, researcher and head of the organized crime unit att the national crime prevention bureau.

“Yes, it is pretty sensational that there are enclaves where Swedish law no longer applies,” Korsell replied slowly and ponderously.

I encourage you to read the article in full using Google Translate or similar; it is sobering to get a comprehensive overview based on hard, solid facts and statistics.

Then there’s the religious interpretation of No-Go Zones. It is my understanding that parts of London, Paris and other major European cities with large muslim populations have a shadow justice system based on Shariah Law. Posted signs prohibiting alcohol, music, revealing women’s clothes etc. enforced by volunteers patrolling the streets, sometimes even wearing vests bearing the name “Shariah Police”.

   
 

When I wrote about the police report of 55 No-Go Zones last year, I was referring to the former. To the best of my knowledge, there are no Shariah patrols in Sweden. But there are several essentially lawless areas where the police concedes that they have indeed lost control. There are also a few areas that I’m not certain why they made the list, to be honest. Such as Täby; a well-to-do white enclave outside Stockholm that is hardly known for drive-by shootings. Still, the bulk of the list is accurate in my opinion.

But what has been most striking is that there have been literally hundreds of Swedes popping up in various places claiming it’s all made up. The emails I have received and the forum posts have been so similar in wording it’s tempting to put on the tinfoil hat and suspect some kind of concerted effort. But by whom? And to what end?

Things really kicked off in January, when there was a guy on Fox News that made the ludicrus claim the entire city of Birmingham, the second largest in the UK, was a shariah-controlled No-Go Zone for non-muslims. He has since issued a public retraction and apology. 

This, the horde of leftist trolls decided, meant EVERYTHING was a figment of the imagination. Suddenly there were no clan-controlled areas, no sharp increase of arson, no need for ambulance drivers to wear bulletproof vest and riot helmets, or anything else mentioned in any of the articles that have been published on the matter… All because one guy made a dumb claim.

The well-documented incident in Landskrona last year where two police officers were cornered by a mob of 50+ thugs and the fellow officers were ordered NOT to enter the area due to the risk of riots… Suddenly didn’t happen. Neither did the inofficial courts of Södertälje. Or the spike in rapes that now puts Sweden at #2 in the world. Or the #1 spot in the world for school arsons. All of it, poof, gone.

Anyway. To deflect yet another storm of leftist trolls howling about the fictious nature of No-Go Zones, I’ll round off by adding the list of sources I usually copy & paste in my response. The trolls invariably go quiet or get even more belligerent. The number of factual responses to date: Zero. 

Most sources are in Swedish but can easily be run through Google Translate by anyone.

 

Typical leftist Internet troll 

• National newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, explicitly using the term “no-go zones”:

http://www.svd.se/opinion/ledarsidan/55-no-go-zoner-i-sverige-minner-om-parallellsamhallen_4051399.svd

• National newspaper Aftonbladet on the rampant ISIS recruitment taking place in these areas:

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article20427940.ab

• Dr Magnus Ranstorp on the rapid growth of radicalized Islamists (in English):

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/23/from_the_welfare_state_to_the_caliphate_sweden_islamic_state_syria_iraq_foreign_fighters/

• An article about the police incident deserting their own and ceding control to criminals in Landskrona. They literally use the term in the headline, adding that the police are now pulling out of the area:

http://hd.se/landskrona/2014/07/28/kriminella-far-fritt-spelrum-i/

• The local police chief explaining why the officers are not to exit their vehicles and make arrests:

http://www.hd.se/lokalt/landskrona/2014/07/28/brottslighet-kan-lagforas-inifran-polisbilarna/

• More from the police chief on how they now deal with the area:

http://hd.se/landskrona/2014/08/01/polischef-svarar-om-prioriteringar/

• Also, if these areas do not exist, why is the ambulance union demanding military-grade protection gear to enter them?

http://mobil.svd.se/nyheter/ambulansfacket-kraver-skyddsutrustning_svd-4094045

• Another article interviewing the ambulance union chief on why they need bulletproof vests, helmets and similar gear:

http://magasinetneo.se/artiklar/det-ar-definitivt-ett-nytt-fenomen-att-vi-ar-sa-utsatta/

As for the police report, it clearly states that there are indeed informal courts and parallel justice systems (page 12, third paragraph (3.4.3)). Anyone who has read about Södertäljenätverket knows how broad the extent of this clan-based influence can be.

http://polisen.se/Aktuellt/Rapporter-och-publikationer/Rapporter/Publicerat—Nationellt/Ovriga-rapporterutredningar/Kriminella-natverk-med-stor-paverkan-i-lokalsamhallet/

The vehicle checkpoints are mentioned on page 15, fourth paragraph (3.5.3). 

On page 13, second paragraph (3.4.4) you find the frequent attacks on police. Here is just one of many news stories on how police have to install shatterproof glass on their vehicles because they get rocks hurled at them whenever entering these areas: 

http://www.svt.se/nyheter/regionalt/abc/nya-super-rutor-ska-skydda-polisen-fran-stenkastande-gang

There are numerous newspaper articles, police reports and even Youtube videos by the gangs themselves bragging about how they’re chasing off the cops from “their” area, but I think this list should be enough. 

But of course, the trolls are free to believe all this is made up. My humble suggestion is merely putting that stance to the test by wrapping yourself in an Israeli flag and taking a walk through Rosengård, Husby or Biskopsgården a nice saturday evening and see what happens. Any takers?

Sweden used as warning example by Norway police

  
As a current resident of Sweden, I sometimes find myself questioning my own sanity. All these problems I blog about are right there in the open for anyone to see and getting worse by the year, yet media and politicians act as if everything is hunky-dory. Most people on the street also appears to be completely oblivious to details like the enormous increase of burning cars in the ghettos, the 1472% increase in rapes and the ever bolder gangs choking their enclaves with drugs and violence. 

So I find myself wondering, am I missing something? Why aren’t people reacting? Is it really reasonable that so many are in a state of denial? Or am I somehow misinterpreting all this?

That’s why it’s oddly reassuring that the neighboring Nordic countries are in the same boat. Denmark has voiced concerns about the utterly weak background check of immigrants from the middle east, fearing radical Islamists entering Sweden as asylum seekers with the intent of building Scandinavian terror cells. My very first post on this blog was about a Danish politician openly pleading for Sweden to come to its senses.

Norway isn’t too pleased either, and they dare speak openly about the problems brewing in the cities of their neighbor.

In a new report called “Oslo 2022,” the Norwegian police explicitly use Sweden in general and the town of Södertälje as a warning example. This prompted Aftonposten, one of the major Norwegian newspapers, to do two articles on Sweden’s out-of-control immigration.

In the first part, Norwegian reporters traveled to Södertälje outside Stockholm. Entitled “We all live in the same town, but not in the same world,” the article chronicles a town in complete segregation where the immigrants gain ground every year and everyone who can escapes. Violence, drugs, lawlessness and decay eats away at the town like a cancer. 

“Why is this allowed to happen?” the reporter asks.

“Because the Swedes are weak,” says 36-year old Simon Melkemichel. “The Swedish identity will be wiped out in 20-30 years.”

The second part is called “Sweden has lost control over their immigration” and has representatives for the Norwegian government comment on the fact that, well, Sweden has lost control over their immigration. What makes it noteworthy is the difference in tone compared to the Swedish political debate.

As in Denmark, the Norwegian leftist worker’s party have a very different view on immigration than the Swedish sister party Socialdemokraterna (currently in power). In Norway and Denmark, they make a point of restricting the inflow and checking the backgrounds carefully. 

In Sweden, there are literally no limits, and any background check beyond scratching the surface is considered racist and shut down by management as has been repeatedly revealed by bloggers like Merit Wager. 

Not surprisingly, the police report and the articles have ruffled quite a few feathers in Sweden’s political and medial elite. But equally predictably, the Swedish response is not to acknowledge the problems, but to whine about the mean Norwegian pseudo-fascists having the gall to criticize Sweden’s enlightened stance.

While it doesn’t do squat to fix anything, it’s at least reassuring that I’m not the one losing my mind.

Rewarding Jihadists

  
The Swedish capital of Stockholm has released its new policy document for dealing with ISIS fighters returning to the city after having had their fill of rape and beheadings of civilians. At first blush it seems strange that such a document would be all of 9 pages. 

I mean, “Shoot!” should only take up one page, even with a large font.

Oh well, let’s see how Stockholm intends to handle terrorist-trained and combat-hardened fanatics. Here are a few translated highlights to capture the gist of things:

“Post-perspective: When a person wishes to leave a violent extremist grouping or coming home from combat overseas, it is crucial to provide customized inclusion efforts. Even then, it is important to have a local cooperation between various actors. Voluntary organizations can provide targeted support and advice. Even faith communities working with advice, but also psychosocial support.

When it comes to people who participated in combat there is likely to be great need of health efforts. Therefore, it is important to establish cooperation between social services, social psychiatry and drug units, as well as health centers and psychiatric services (trauma, PTSD, etc.)

When it comes to security, it is important that cooperation between social services, income support, employment and other efforts by the Labour Department, as well as assistance with job placement.
Finally, the accommodation issue is a prerequisite that must work. Therefore, cooperative housing companies needs to be included in the post-perspective.”

To summarize: The city of Stockholm will make it a priority to provide the returning ISIS fighters with housing, free health care (physical and mental) and full financial support, until they have received earmarked jobs. All this of course fast-tracked past the line of law-abiding immigrants and indigenous Swedes. 

Since they now provide all the recruitment incentives for joining ISIS, the only thing missing is a city-run recruitment office. Oh, wait. That would the Employment Office, where it was recently revealed that tax-paid clerks were recruiting for ISIS. Sorry, my mistake! 

Then it’s time to make proactive efforts to discourage radicalization. The solution, the city concludes, is to pour tax money into muslim organizations already in contact with the at-risk persons:

“Support to associations and other stakeholders locally
There are examples of local actors which can contribute to efforts locally. For example, the Islamic Association and the mosque in Rinkeby-Kista has initiated education for interested parents and youths in the Järva area. It is very important to support such local initiatives. It is also important to involve local associations, some of which have contact with residents that the  authorities do not come into contact with.”

As journalist and blogger Per Gudmundson points out, the Islamic Association of Sweden is a remarkably poor choice for “fighting Jihad” since it is the Swedish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Their official motto reads:

“Allah is our goal, the prophet is our leader, the quran is our law, Jihad is our way, and death for the honor of Allah is our greatest desire!”

Gudmundson notes that they are in active combat in Syria at the moment, in coalition with Jabhat al-Nusrah which is a branch of al-Qaida. 

Sweden to combat Russian subs with underwater gay neon sign

  
Sweden has had regular visits by Russian submarines snooping around the waters outside capital Stockholm for decades. The difference is, back in the 1980s they had helicopters, destroyers and manpower to hunt them properly, whereas now the defense cuts have scaled the response back to having an overweight general shake his fist at the water for 20 minutes per business day (10 minutes on Fridays, due to union regulations).

Clearly, the time has come for alternative solutions, and pacifist group Svenska Freds has just the thing: An underwater neon sign to scare homophobic submarine captains away!
  
The sign reads: “Welcome to Sweden. Gay since 1944.” which indicates the year homosexuality was de-criminalized. 

Well, if nothing else, I have to tip my hat in recognition of “thinking outside the box”. 

Swedish vice PM: Fortune seekers equal to holocaust victims

  
Åsa Romson, vice prime minister and leader of extremist party Miljöpartiet

Last week I wrote about the estimated million Africans attempting to cross the mediterranean in search of a better life. There are pockets of unrest, but not all-out war as is the case in Syria. And regardless, it’s questionable if you’re still “fleeing for your life” when you’ve traveled through 3 peaceful countries and choose to get on a rickety boat to reach Europe. At that point you’re an economic immigrant, not a refugee. 

Official Swedish policy doesn’t agree with my assessment. Pretty much everything counts as grounds for asylum these days including poverty (77% approval rate of all asylum applications), which is incredibly costly and has thus forced the Swedes to make dramatic cuts to the foreign aid to the REAL refugees of war. 

To summarize: Sweden is decreasing support for the people literally dying in miserable refugee camps in the desert, to take in an ever-increasing number of economic fortune seeker from non-warring places that merely wants to get a free ride on Sweden’s generous welfare system. This makes Sweden a “humanitarian superpower,” according to the ruling class.

Their problem with the current system is twofold: The inflow of fortune seekers is too slow (!), and the boats crossing the mediterranean occasionally sink. Both problems are solved by letting the poor people apply for asylum at the embassies and consulates around the world. Then they can simply fly directly to Sweden and settle into their cozy new life the same day their application is approved. This is called “Opening legal ways into Europe,” in political Newspeak.

Sweden has less than 10 million citizens. There are literally billions of poor people in the world. It’s like a rowboat that seats 3 being commandeered out to save everyone aboard a cruise ship with 5000 passengers.

Despite the mainstream media and some political parties beating this “legal ways” drum relentlessly, there is resistance. Fortunately, there seems to be just enough people that recognize how absurd the idea is to prevent it from becoming reality. So far. 

As the topic surfaced in a live TV political debate last night, the vice prime minister from extremist green party Miljöpartiet, which advocates entirely open borders, made a remarkable statement: 

“We are turning the mediterranean into a new Auschwitz!”

Say what? Is she really comparing the infamous Nazi death machine to Africans that voluntarily hop on boats in the hope of getting a better standard of living? I mean… Really?

Yup. When pressed by the media after the debate, she stubbornly refused to back off her statement. 

Somehow, it feels like not much needs to be added when a person in all seriousness is arguing that the two are perfectly comparable and on par with one another. Nor is anything need to be said about what kind of person would use the holocaust as an argument to support their own hubris and misguided humanitarianism.

Not surprisingly, the Jewish communities in Sweden don’t share the vice prime ministers sentiment. 

Conservative Swedes uprising

  

There is a grassroots revolution brewing among the conservative Swedes, and it may hit the flashpoint in the immediate future. The result could be a dramatic game changer in Sweden, with repercussions being felt in the other Nordic countries for a long time to come. 

But first, a recap of events. In the September 2014 election, the conservative Alliance led by the Moderates (M) that had ruled 2006 through 2014 lost power. This loss was in no small part thanks to former PM Reinfeldt’s determination to abandon traditional conservative values and openly embrace immigration literally at the expense of everything else. 

  

Fredrik Reinfeldt 

As a result, hundreds of thousands former conservative voters were more or less forced to the nationalist party Sweden Democrats (SD) as they were they only ones left fending for decreased immigration and a return to fiscal sense. Unfortunately, the party came with unpleasant baggage such as white supremacist roots and current Machiavellian leadership. Thus, many traditionally conservatives stayed put hoping for the best when new M leader Anna Kinberg Batra took the helm. This hope was soon turned into moot; she’s basically a spineless carbon copy of Reinfeldt.

  
Anna Kinberg Batra

But the “conservative” parties’ incompentence pales in comparison to the epic fiasco that is the current prime minister. As the “conservatives” lost power, socialist Stefan Löfven formed a weak coalition government with green populist party Miljöpartiet (MP) that had never before been in government. It was a disaster from day 1, but things didn’t come to a head until the first budget was to be presented. 

  
Current socialist-green government

Nationalist party SD, which was now the third largest party, made it clear well ahead of time that they would topple any budget that ignored their demand for decreased immigration. A reasonable request considering Sweden has only 2% of the EU population, yet receives almost 20% of the total inflow of refugees. They even went so far as to issue an open letter to new prime minister Löfven that they would support his budget should he just cut immigration by half. This would still make Sweden the most generous country in Scandinavia, and the state tax coffer would get a breather. No sale. 

Löfven refused to even meet with SD. He put his socialist budget out there. And as promised, SD voted it down. The shock, anger and surprise was almost comical. “Whaaa..? They didn’t cave? They actually did what they said they would do? How DARE they..!?”  

Löfven reacted like a child who just lost the game. He issued a snap election, where the stupid voters were supposed to give him the majority needed to single-handedly push through his budget. So there!

Except… The voters kept piling into the SD camp. From 12.9% in the September election, they were already polling around 15% in early december. Since the snap election wasn’t to be held until March 2015, there was a very real chance they’d be closer to 20%, and that would REALLY mess things up.

So Löfven called on his traditional enemies in the conservative Alliance and struck a deal instead of holding the promised snap election. In the infamous December Agreement, they basically recreated the old Italian Acerbo law of 1923, granting a minority government freedom from opposition. This is what Mussolini’s fascist party used to grab power and create a dictatorship despite being a minority. Conservative think tank Heimdal summed it up best: This is civil treason!

Since then, the “conservative” parties have sat on their hands while the lefties have made full use of their freedom. Progressive tax hikes on fuel, abolished deductions, drastic increases in welfare entitlements, and of course increased foreign aid to Hamas (“Palestine”)… The party is just getting started, and the “conservatives” have agreed to stay passive and perhaps shake their fists a little for the look of things until 2018.

Meanwhile, more and more displays are flashing red in the Swedish economy as well as the societal fabric itself. The Swedish currency is in free fall, the housing market is so inflated the slightest vibration can make the bubble pop, and the current as well as future obligations of literally hundreds of thousands unemployable immigrants are painting a stark picture. 

But the rudder is firmly tied down. The anti-democratic December Agreement succeeded in shutting out SD from any influence whatsoever. The Alliance is bound by it’s promise to do nothing. And Löfvens Socialdemocrat party is so weak it is entirely dependent on extreme left fringe party Vänsterpartiet (V) which has been granted the role of kingmaker despite only having a few percent of the vote. Which allows the extreme left to make whatever demands it sees fit. 

This situation is of course utterly absurd. 

It defies reason WHY the “conservatives” would rather let all this happen than just sit down with SD. Because they could, at any given time, shake off the shackles of the December Agreement and declare their own government with passive support by SD. The conservative voters want to see reduced immigration. And they certainly want to see an end to the leftist madness now taking place, so it’s hardly a stretch to see this obvious solution happening. Except, of course, the party leadership with M in particular stubbornly refusing to even consider the option.

But now there’s a grassroots revolution taking place within M. More and more voting districts have openly declared their rebellion against the bizarre December Agreement, and the local leaders are on a full-on collision course with the top brass in Stockholm. Being a spineless amoeba, Kinberg Batra continues to downplay the rebellion and do the depressingly familiar politician-dance around the issue, but the cat is out of the bag. 

So what we have is a fork in the road in front of us. Either the grassroots manage to set their foot down hard enough that the top brass changes course and revert back to old-school conservatism. This may mean a shift in government, where the lefties are unceremoniously kicked out and a real conservative government passively supported by SD can begin to roll back the madness. Failing that, at least there will be real opposition again to stop further overtaxation and moronic foreign policies. 

The other possibility is that the top brass stomps out the grassroots. Mass expulsions of key members in the rebellious voting districts would quench the uprising, but it would also mean mass exodus of regular voters. All the remaining traditional conservatives who has thus far clung on to their old parties in the hope for common sense to resurface, would leave en masse to join the only champion for sense left standing. If the party leaders in Stockholm choose this route I think it is perfectly reasonable to expect SD to clock in over 30% as the single biggest party in the 2018 election. 

Personally, I fear Sweden will choose the latter option. This means three more years of financial mayhem, followed by a tremendous amount of power being handed to a group of opportunists whom I personally wouldn’t trust one iota. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

Sweden’s solution to mediterranean deaths

  

This scene is from the Balkan wars of the 1990s. A summer’s breeze compared to what is now coming from Africa.

Imagine a Danish person who is unhappy with his current life. Then he hears about Canada being this swell place to live. So he sets out in a rowboat from the Danish coast to start a new life. To everyone’s surprise, he doesn’t get very far before he runs into trouble. 

Now, imagine a world where Canada has an absolute responsibility to come and rescue the Dane, no matter how much closer to European shore he is than North American. And after he is brought safely to Canada, he is owed automatic permanent asylum as well as his entire extended family, which is also entitled to lifetime welfare on the Canadian taxpayer’s dime. If Canada refuses any of the above, it is proof that Canada is a fascist country.

Welcome to Leftist logic 101; we have merely substituted the Mediterranean with the Atlantic.

The past few weeks have been filled with debate about the deaths of migrants crossing over from Africa in search of a better life. Since the coast guard off the European countries are obligated to rescue ships in danger, the smugglers pack people onto unsafe wrecks and send them off to be rescued. Inevitably, some sink before the coast guard reaches them. It’s tragic. But is it Europe’s fault?

Yes and no. For the no-side, you have to accept some personal responsibility when you deliberately endanger yourself. The Dane trying to reach Canada in a rowboat is obviously an idiot. When you hit your thumb with the hammer, not even a lawyer would sue the manufacturer. 

Some argue that these are desperate people fleeing war. Yes, there’s a few pockets of unrest in Africa. Nobody can argue the need to run when bullets are flying around you. But when the person has reached safe haven in a peaceful country and yet continues to travel, the argument no longer holds water. For example, the number of people fleeing Gambia is on the rise. So they cross the border to Senegal, a democratic country at relative peace. But instead of stopping there, they choose to travel through Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, and then get on a dinky boat to reach Europe. Are they still fleeing for their lives at that point?

  

Starving refugees?

For the yes-side of the European fault discussion, we have the honey pot aspect. Here is where Sweden plays a major role. Two years ago it became official policy that anyone claiming to be Syrian or Eritrean was owed automatic permanent residency with all welfare perks that come with it. ID is not required; you merely have to make the claim and present a semi-plausible story. It would be hard to come up with a better incentive to the world’s poor seeking a better life. All you have to do is get to Swedish soil, and you’re set for life at a with a standard of living previously unimagined. 

  

Contrast this with Australia’s approach. “No Way: You will not make Australia home” is the policy wherein they simply refuse anybody to set foot on Australian soil. Instead, anyone attempting to migrate gets transferred to Nauru or Manus island. Those who have legit cause for seeking asylum get their due process, while the fortune seekers are unceremoneously turned away.

The number of confirmed deaths on the mediterranean has quadrupled since 2008. This year is predicted to be a record-breaker, with an estimated million migrants waiting to cross on the African side. The first few months of 2015 has already clocked in 30 times (!) the deaths of the same period in 2014. Meanwhile, as far as I’ve been able to find by Googling the news, Australia has decreased the death toll into single digits — primarily by people sabotaging their own boats in the hope of avoiding being escorted away.

So Europe has a problem, and the Australian approach holds great appeal for solving that problem. That means increased coast guard presence in the mediterranian to turn back boats to Africa, while removing the incentives for attempting the journey to begin with. Makes perfect sense to 28 of the 29 EU members.

But of course, the world’s Humanitarian Superpower don’t want anything to do with that approach. “Sweden shall fight for establishing legal ways into Europe!” said prime minister Löfven in the parliament EU committee. In other words, the Swedish government want to open up for asylum application at the embassies and consulates around the world. 

Now, combine this with that Sweden now considers poverty a de facto grounds for asylum. Bascially anybody worse off than a Swede in any way is to be let in, period. This can be clearly seen in the percentage of approved applications for asylum; from hovering in the 20-30% approval range in previous years, to suddenly hitting a whopping 77% percent. Ponder this for a second. The criteria for being granted asylum is now so watered down that more than three out of four that make it to Sweden are granted asylum.

To summarize: The rest of Europe wants to shut the door and remove the incentives for risking life and limb to cross the mediterranean. Meanwhile, Sweden wants to open up for everybody in the whole world to apply for asylum, based on their generous criteria where almost everybody gets approved.

There is an estimated 2,5 billion people living in poverty in the world. India alone has a few hundred million living in absolute squalor. Perhaps Löfven should use India as a test balloon and start an airlift of, say 100 Boeing 747s at 500 each per day. That’s 50 000 poor but happy Indians arriving at Arlanda airport every day to be absorbed by the country of less than 10 million. 

Let’s give it a month. If everything works out, he can go global with this inspiring initiative to end the world’s ills by bringing them all to Sweden.