90 Miles From Tyranny

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

This Is How You Make An Angry Feminist...Even Angrier...

Sweden Cancels Traditional Christmas Show; Promotes Islamic Events

“Oh Holy Night,” a traditional Swedish Christmas concert that has aired on state TV on Christmas Eve for decades, has been canceled this year, according to Swedish news reports.

Promotions for the largest outdoor Christmas concert in Scandinavia — and possibly the world — have been shelved at the same time the promotion of Islamic cultural events has been dramatically increased, according to the Swedish news reports that provide a lengthy list of similar outrages against traditional Western values in Sweden.

Is the case of the canceled Christmas concert another example of Swedish and Christian traditions being suppressed in order not to offend migrants who don’t subscribe to traditional Western values such as Christmas?

Swedish liberals are world beaters at this game. According to Voice of Europe, earlier incidents featuring Swedes annihilating their own traditions in favor of Muslim culture include:

Replacing Lucia, a folk character, with a black boy. According to the ancient Swedish Pagan Yule tradition, Lucia has always been a long haired, blonde, beautiful woman — now she is a young Somalian boy
Putting a woman in a hijab on the annual Advent/Christmas calendar
Canceling the traditional student choirs’ appearance on TV at Valborg (Swedish traditional spring celebration)
Forbidding students to wave the Swedish flag at school on graduation day
The introduction of a “prayer for diversity” at National Day celebration events

Left-wing Swedes have also been promoting the unpatriotic idea that Sweden’s National Day should not be celebrated. TV and national newspapers have been full of this leftist rhetoric in recent months.

At the same time Muslim culture and traditions have been intensely promoted:

On Midsummer’s Day (Sweden’s most important and traditional holiday) TV4 decided to let a woman in a hijab teach Swedes how to cook properly
Ramadan is now celebrated with public events in several Swedish cities as well as on state TV
Authorities are allowing Islamic call to prayer (at 110dB), while at the same time forbidding Christian churches to ring their bells

Sadly, this situation is not unique to Sweden. Similar things have occurred, and continue to occur, across much of Western Europe.

In order to save ourselves and our culture we need to start speaking up. We must stop accepting the destruction of our culture, traditions, and...

Trump's Approval Rating Is Better Than You Think

Polls: Despite the overwhelmingly negative coverage of his administration, President Donald Trump's approval rating is as high or higher than half of the previous six presidents at this point in their first terms. You won't believe who scored better.

Trump has been enjoying a rare string of good news. The economy is humming and the jobless rate just hit a 49-year low. Trump won an intense battle over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. He secured a replacement for Nafta. His poll numbers are edging up. And Republican prospects in the midterm elections appear to have improved.

But according to the Gallup Poll, Trump's approval rating as of his 632nd day in office was 44%.

Is that good or bad? That depends on the context. Trump has never polled well. Gallup had his approval rating at 45% the day he took office.

The mainstream press focused intensely on Trump's initial rating, which was well below those of any president since Gallup first started tracking this in 1945.

Even Gerald Ford's approval rating 90 weeks into his accidental presidency was 71%.

But the press lost interest in such comparisons as time went by.

Perhaps one reason is that, by this point in their first terms, approval ratings for most presidents had declined. Sometimes sharply.

As a matter of fact, Trump's approval rating is now higher than, or tied with, three of the past six presidents at this point in their first terms.

He's currently tied with Obama (at 44%), and above both Clinton (41%) and Reagan (42%).

Obama's approval rating on day one was 67%, but steadily declined as his economic policies failed to re-energize the economy, despite the massive stimulus, while he forced through the highly unpopular ObamaCare.

Clinton's eroded after he broke his promise on tax hikes.

At this point in Reagan's first term, the economy was in a painful recession, and unemployment was above 10%.

Needless to say, each went on to win re-election handily.

But look at who scored higher than Trump: George W. Bush (67%), George H.W. Bush (56%), and Jimmy Carter (49%). W. was coming off his sky-high approval rating in the wake of 9/11, which peaked at 90%. He ended his second term at 34% approval. George H.W. had just started building up troops in preparation for liberating Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm. Carter had recently signed the Camp David Accords.

What does all this mean?

First, it means that anyone who thinks Trump's low approval ratings today are a problem for his re-election prospects is mistaken. There's no correlation. Three presidents with ratings as low or lower than Trump's served two terms. Two with...

Davos just declared that America is great again.

The World Economic Forum, which hosts the annual conference of global elites in Switzerland, said on Tuesday that the United States is the most competitive economy in the world.

The U.S. has not held the number one spot since 2008, when the aftermath of the financial crisis and bungled recovery efforts left the U.S. economy limping.

“The United States, as one of the world’s great innovation powerhouses, is very well positioned in this new competitive landscape,” the Forum said in an article explaining its ranking. “It ranks first overall in the world in three of our twelve pillars; business dynamism, labour markets and financial system. It comes second in another two; innovation (behind Germany) and market size (behind China).”

The U.S. is followed by Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan in the top five. The top ten includes the Netherlands, Hong Kong, the U.K., Sweden, and Denmark.

Roughly 70% of the U.S. score originates from data supplied by international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank, which typically are produced with a two to three year lag, according to the Forum.

“Does this mean that the US’ ascent can solely be attributed to the far-sighted structural reforms and innovations of its previous administration? The answer here is a very firm no: some of America’s strengths predate even that period. Likewise nor can we dismiss the efforts of the current administration: if 70% of the report’s weighting comes from hard data, the remaining 30% represents the views of America’s business leaders: if they are positive about America’s competitiveness then their views will be very much based on the here and now,” the...