Russia Has Problems

I asked a Russian friend how the financial and economic crisis had affected the regional art center in the Urals where she works. She said that she and her colleagues were coping with typical Russian resignation, and had made “нет дениг, нет проблем” (”No money, no problem”) their motto. _SeekingAlpha

No money, no problem? Maybe so. Certainly humans can learn to survive under a wide range of deprivations. But what is really happening in the post-Soviet era of Russian existence?

The Sayano-Shushenskaya dam disaster is widely considered to be a harbinger of potential problems. The direct economic consequences are severe, reducing Russian electrical generating capacity by 2 percent; this in fact understates the impact because the dam was an inframarginal (i.e., relatively cheap) source of power. The costs of repair are very high. Estimates run to $1.25 billion, but being estimates, being early, and being Russia, it is likely that the final bill will be much higher than that.

...But as bad as the direct cost of repairing this one dam is, the prospect that Russia is just waiting for many additional shoes to drop is even worse. And all at a time when there is no slack whatsoever in the budget; the state investment funds are being depleted rapidly, the budget deficits are forecast to be at the very upper limit that the country can run without risking grave risks to the currency, and Russia plans to return to the debt markets soon to cover its existing shortfalls. Nor can the country rely on foreign investors to step into the breach. The combination of poor economic prospects and a history of mistreatment has exacted its toll.

...In brief, Russia faces a yawning capital gap. The country has lived, after a fashion, on the Soviet inheritance, from huge hydro stations to massive gas fields. ”Deferred maintenance” became a modus operandi. The Sayano-Shushenskaya disaster is just a vivid illustration of the consequences of this. It makes me wonder what the true rate of Russian growth in recent years would be, if the true depreciation/consumption of capital were taken into account. The country has consumed much of its seed corn.

The country’s major source of cash–the energy business–has lived off the Soviet inheritance as well, so Russia can’t look to that for succor; indeed, that sector needs a massive infusion of capital too. Foreign investors won’t step up. Compared to other countries, Russia invested relative little as fraction of its GDP even during the seven fat years.

So, no money: big problems. _SeekingAlpha

What Russia needs, is to eliminate corruption and bring the "rule of law" to a relatively lawless state. Then it could open investments to foreign capital, and obtain the needed infrastructural improvements that can save the economy -- in the short term.

In the long term, Russia needs to become a country where young men and women can feel safe to marry and raise families, knowing that their children have a good chance at freedom, prosperity, and safety from crime and an arbitrary government.

Without all that, Russia is doomed.

Demography of Eur-Apocalypse

The old European is likely to live comfortably, to go abroad on vacations and have plenty of time for hobbies and entertainments. And to be child free, or perhaps one or two indifferently pampered children, if they can find the time. The new European is likely to be named Mohammed, to have twice as many children, if not twice as many wives, and to spend less time entertaining himself at operas and on vacations, and more time building a future for his family.
_Source

In a democracy, he who sires and raises more future voters than his neighbor will be the father of the future. But where violent movements such as Islamism and Islamic Supremacism are involved, just a small minority of citizens is enough to irrevocably alter the future of a society.

Muslim areas will expand as black holes of crime, governed by no police but Muslim police. There bombs will be built, rabid sermons delivered, stolen cars dropped off at chop shops and drugs smuggled through for distribution outside its borders. Murders, gang rapes, and every sort of crime will happen there without knowledge or recourse. These black holes will also pour forth a constant outcry of racism. And every now and then when the mood strikes them, the "youth" will pour forth to burn and loot. Source

As cars, neighborhoods, and large parts of cities burn, so does any hope of a peaceful and prosperous future for society at large. Peace with the violent disaffected inside-outsiders will only come with surrender of enlightened western rule of law, and equality under the law. Under the new regime of "peace", the majority is held hostage to the violent and intolerant minority.

As long as the European birth rate keeps falling, and Europe's borders remain open, and its politicians remain unwilling to begin exporting its former guest workers back to their countries of origin, Europe is doomed. The date may be unknown, but the trajectory is all too unfortunately clear.

When it comes to Muslims, Europe, Israel, America and every country infected with the Islamist plague retains only one real option, to deport them or to surrender to them. _FPM

Why Most Journalists are Biased Leftward

The following excerpt is from an article posted at a Psychology Today blog. It is well worth reading in its entirety.

As it turns out, the preponderance of journalists are Democrats. And socialism, with its idyllic, “progressive” programs, has formed an increasingly important role in Democratic policies. Who wants to investigate a possible dark side of your own party’s plank?

We’ll get to that. First—why are most journalists Democrats?

Unsurprisingly, self-selection plays an important role in choosing a job. People choosing to do work related to prisons, for example, commonly show quite different characteristics than those who volunteer for work in helping disadvantaged youths. Academicians have very different characteristics than CEOs—or politicians, for that matter.

Harry Stein, former ethics editor of Esquire, once said: "Journalism, like social work, tends to attract individuals with a keen interest in bettering the world.” In other words, journalists self-select based on a desire to help others. Socialism, with its “spread the wealth” mentality intended to help society’s underdogs, sounds ideal.

Most journalists take a number of psychology, sociology, political science, and humanities courses during their early years in college. Unfortunately, these courses have long served as ideological training programs—ignoring biological sources of self-serving, corrupt, and criminal behavior for a number of reasons, including lack of scientific training; postmodern, antiscience bias; and well-intentioned, facts-be-damned desire to have their students view the world from an egalitarian perspective. Instead, these disciplines ram home the idea that troubled behavior can be fixed through expensive socialist programs that, coincidentally, provide employment opportunities for graduates of the social sciences. Modern neuroscience is showing how flawed many of these policies have been—structural differences in the brains of psychopaths, for example, help explain why remedial programs simply helped them become better at conning people.

Academics in the social sciences tend to give short shrift to the dramatic failures and corruption within US educational system or unions. (Think here of the Detroit Public School system, or the National Education Association, whose former officers have written: “The NEA has been the single biggest obstacle to education reform in this country. We know because we worked for the NEA.”) Instead, because of their ideological biases, professors often emphasize that corporations are the bad guys, while unions and the government—at least the type of government that supports higher paychecks for social science professors and jobs for their students—are good. This type of teaching makes the Democratic Party and its increasingly socialist ideals seem naturally desirable, and criticism about how those ideals will supposedly be met less likely. (How many social scientists predicted that the billions spent on busing and the Projects would worsen the situations they were meant to solve, as ultimately happened?) It’s no wonder that journalists enter the profession as Democrats, then keep their beliefs intact through all-too-common tendencies to conform. _PsychologyToday

Follow the link and read the whole thing.

Journalists and other college educated leftists are blind because they enrolled in an academic program of self-blinding. They came by their biases in a step by step progression, by intentional programming.

Anyone who reads their drivel uncritically runs the risk of unconsciously following the same program of brain blinding and brain binding. Soon, if no contravening forces apply, an entire society can become mentally blind and subject to electing clowns as president. It could happen.

Any Analysis That Neglects Intelligence Is Sham

The respected magazine The Economist often presents economic and political analyses of various countries and regions. The Economist's looks at "Arab Backwardness" over the years neglect a very important consideration: intelligence of Arab populations.

Here are some Middle Eastern IQ and literacy rates to look at:

COUNTRY .... LITERACY RATE......AVERAGE IQ

Bahrain................. 85 ................... 83
Egypt ................... 51 ................... 83
Iran ..................... 71 ................... 84
Iraq ..................... 58 ................... 87
Israel ................... 95 ................... 94
Jordan .................. 86 .................. 87
Kuwait .................. 79 .................. 83
Lebanon ................ 83 .................. 86
Oman .................... 64 .................. 83
Qatar .................... 79 .................. 78
Saudi Arabia ........... 71 .................. 83
Syria ..................... 70 .................. 87
Turkey ................... 82 .................. 90
United Arab Emirates . 79 .................. 83

Canada has a 97% literacy rate, the USA has a literacy rate of 99%.
Canada has an IQ average of 97 and the USA has an average of 98. Source

The religion of Islam is a perfect fit for illiterate and unintelligent tribal peoples, such as arabs. Please be aware that the Arab world is genetically diverse and based upon the speaking of Arabic and / or the dominance of Islam. It is the legacy of past conquests and bloodshed.

Cousin inbreeding of low intelligence tribal people combined with rigid tribal and religious customs create and perpetuate a population of superstitious and violence - prone persons. Expressing surprise at the backwardness of such people without acknowledging such obvious underpinnings reveals The Economist as devious, manipulative, and / or incredibly credulous. But The Economist shares such traits with the most esteemed of modern academic and think tank geopolitica.

This "half blind" method of global and regional analysis typifies the modern approach to scholastic research. The next level will leave it all in the dust, of course. But for now, this willful ignorance is one of the great shames of modern human between-levels civilisation.

Backward and unintelligent people will conquer nations of far more intelligent and civilised people, if given the chance. The current government of the US appears intent on making such conquest appear easy. Whether such an appearance will be valid or not, it will lead such primitive people to believe that they can topple the "Great Satan." This makes war and violence far more likely than not.