This week, everything happened at once, Part 1

Finding topics for WWW is like waiting for the streetcar. [They have streetcards in Fort Mudge? Ed.] You wait for hours, then three of them come along at once. In August there was nothing, but in this first week of September I couldn't keep up with reading, let alone writing.

Farewell Liz. We hardly knew ye.

On Thursday, Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and all her other realms and territories, "passed". It's a symptom of the sickness of our society, of our fear of death and the afterlife, that we no longer say someone "passed away", let alone "died". People just "pass", like ships in the night.

It's hard to be snarky about Elizabeth. I am old enough to remember the death of her father, King George VI, and her coronation in 1953. Since then, she was just... there.

She was a rock, keeping calm and carrying on, with that British stiff upper lip, in spite of the turmoil caused by her dysfunctional children and grandchildren, and the problems of not-so-great Britain and the moribund Commonwealth.

The leftist press in the UK and Canada have trotted out a rainbow parade of oppressed indigenous peoples -- Jamaicans in Britain, First Nations in Canada -- to complain of the evils of slavery and colonialism. Never mind that slavery was abolished in the British empire before Queen Victoria (Elizabeth's grandmother) ascended to the throne, or that most of the colonies became more or less independent at least six decades ago. The POCs are still victims, demanding compensation for the abuse of their ancestors.

The one colony which has yet to gain its independence, whose people are still suffering under the yoke of the British, is Northern Ireland. Irish patriots killed Elizabeth's uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, but the stubborn English persist in trying to prevent the reunion of Ulster with the Republic. Sinn Féin say they will "work with" the new king, Charles III, to resolve the impasse, but I say, don't stay tuned.

Footnote: The Queen's last official act, on Tuesday, was to swear in Liz (no relation) Truss as the new prime minister of the Disunited Kingdom. By all accounts, Ms Truss is as woke as they come, a champion of diversity, inclusion, the European Union and the New World Order. She will get along very well with Charles, king of the tree-huggers, who is actually a member of the WEF and a regular attender at Davos. Don't looks for either of them to try to Make Britain Great Again. 

Worth viewing: "Africa is not poor because of colonization" - Dr. Jordan B Peterson and Magatte Wade discuss how economic freedom dictates the success potential of countries, and how Africa's fixation on colonialism, rather than incompetence and corruption, being the cause of their modern day struggles, locks the continent into abject poverty.

Your elections this weekend

We concern ourselves, here on WWW, mainly with American and Canadian politics. But Walt has a soft spot in his heart [head? Ed.] for certain other countries -- especially Ukraine -- and a more-than-passing interest in still others. This weekend there is news from two of those "others", of elections that herald profound changes, maybe good, maybe not.

First to Northern Ireland, aka Ulster, which has been struggling for a century to rid itself of the British imperialists. [Your bias is showing. Ed.] Leading the fight to reunite the counties of the North with the rest of Eire is Sinn Féin, the political arm of the IRA.

Within minutes of taking his seat in Stormont (aka the Northern Ireland Assembly) in 1998, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness pointed his finger at Ian Paisley, leader of the Protestant Baskets Democractic Unionist Party, and declared, "We've arrived. Change is coming and there's nothing you can do about it." He was right!

Almost complete results from Thursday's election show Sinn Féin poised to replace the DUP as the largest party at Stormont, with its leader, Mary Lou McDonald becoming first minister. That will be a first for a nationalist party. A unionist party -- pledged to keep Ulster a part of the so-called United Kingdom -- has always been the largest in the Assembly, and previously the parliament, since the formation of Northern Ireland in 1921.

Voters in the Philippines go to the polls on Monday. I like the Philippines, and Filipino people, but they do seem to have trouble electing good governments, as a result of which the country suffers from poverty caused by incompetence, corruption and general misrule.

Part of the problem is the Filipino attraction to celebrities, even stronger than that of Americans. Only in America (some say) could movie stars and media personalities become governors, senators and even President. Not so! In PI they elect movie stars and singers, sure, but also boxers, beauty contest winners and celebrities of all stripes. Ordinary people -- the "Jose Rodrigues goes to Manila" types -- don't stand a chance. 

If you watch the excellent GMA video of "Lupang hinirang", the national anthem of the Philippines, you'll see, at about 2:10, a nice image of a nun holding a rosary and celebrating the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. Millions of Filipinos from all walks of life marched along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), the main artery of Metro Manila, to end the dictatorship of President Ferdinand E. Marcos and begin a new era marked by true freedom and democracy.   

Now, on May 9th, it looks likely that the same people who celebrated President Marcos' downfall will put his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., back into the presidensity. That's him -- little "Bongbong" (one of those Filipino "doorbell names") -- in the camo outfit, in front of his adoring father and Mother Imelda of the 1000 Shoes.

Young Mr Marcos has been busy rehabilitating the image of his kleptocratic parents. In his TV ads, as the voices of a choir soar to a crescendo, he raises a fist to his chest and speaks into the camera: "Together, we will rise again." 

Should Bongbong be successful, it will cap one of the most remarkable resurrections since Lazarus. He has benefited from a campaign to reshape the narrative around his father, casting him not as the brutal dictator that he was, but a patriotic hero who oversaw a period of economic stability and growth for the Philippines. As the country struggles with the Wuhan flu and economic stagnation, many hope to see a return to this mythical golden era.

While Mr Marcos’ supporters argue that he should not be judged for the sins of his father, opponents fear he will continue the authoritarian trend started by outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, who launched a brutal war on drugs, locked up critics and attacked the free press. Mr Marcos has been boosted by the endorsement of... wait for it... Sara Duterte, the President's daughter, who is running for vice-president (elected separately in the Philippines). 

Polling in the final week of othe campaign suggests Junior could win in a landslide. For the poor people of the Philippines, it looks like back to the future... and they will have no-one to blame but themselves.

UPDATED: Ireland wakes up! Sinn Fein wins big in weekend elections

UPDATE ADDED 22/2/20: For a good in-depth analysis of what the success of Sinn Féin could mean in terms of the long-awaited unification of Ireland, Walt recommends "Is some revelation at hand? Brexit and Sinn Fein's success boost talk of Irish unification", in The Economist, 13/2/20.

Walt is almsot always happy to report on a nationalist political party doing well at the polls, because nationalism (IMHO) is natural to human beings. Globalism is unnatural. People prefer being with other people like themselves, in their own country, on their own land.

The Irish, after an inexplicable interlude in which they flirted with internationalism, diversity, inclusivity and all that rubbish, appear to have woken up, and I don't mean that in the liberal way! Since June of 2017, the government of the Irish Republic has been headed by Leo Varadkar, who has served as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and Minister for Defence.

Mr Varadkar is ethnically Indian, and openly as gay as 18 balloons. It was therefore a bit of a surprise that when former Taoiseach Enda Kenny decided to quit in May of 2017, Mr Varadkar stood in the election to replace him as leader of the governing Fine Gael party. Although more party members voted for his opponent, Mr Varadkar prevalied, and was elected leader, thus becoming, at age 38, the youngest- (and gayest-) ever Taoiseach.

This weekend the plain people of Ireland (Hello Myles na Gopaleen!) had a chance to express their opinion of Mr Varadkar and his government, and surprised the pundits by (apparently) voting in roughly equal numbers for Gael, the opposition Fianna Fáil, and... wait for it... Sinn Féin, a left-wing party committed to reunification of the island. Sinn Féin is regarded, unofficially at least, as being the political arm of the Irish Republican Army.

Its many critics accuse Sinn Féin of having failed to repudiate the role of the IRA in the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. The plain people of Ireland apparently don't have a problem with that, as exit polls show the party in a virtual dead heat with the two parties that have governed since the country won independence (for all but the northern part of the island) almost a century ago.

Ballot counting is still under way as I write, but with 96% of first-preference votes tallied, Sinn Féin had 24.1%, Fianna Fáil 22.1%, Fine Gael also 22.1%, the Greens at 7.4%, and small left-wing parties and independents comprising the rest. The Grauniad calls the result "stunning".

Preliminary vote tallies suggested Sinn Féin could win around 36 seats, up from 22 in the outgoing Dáil, far exceeding its own expectations. It appealed to young voters in particular, who felt left behind by a booming economy and chafed at soaring rents, homelessness, insurance costs and hospital waiting lists.

The predicted outcome means some type of coalition government is almost inevitable, with Sinn Féin likely to be a central player in the negotiations to form one. Until now, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have refused to work with Sinn Féin because of its links to the IRA. Now, though, the centrist parties' resolve may weaken as politicians reckon with the reality of Sinn Fein's strong showing.

But their sudden grudging acceptance of Sinn Féin may come too late. Sinn Féin says it's ready to talk about forming a government... to everyone but the two major parties! "I want us to have a government for the people," said Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald. "I want us to have, ideally, a government with no Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael in it. I have started the contact with other parties to explore over the next days whether that is a possibility." Stay tuned.

Recommended viewing: Michael Collins, starring Liam Neeson, a mostly-true story about the struggle for the Irish Republic. Here's the trailer.



You can just fast forward past the love story part, with Julia Roberts in as horrible example of miscasting as I've ever seen. That aside, Michael Collins is a great movie about a great Irishman.

Why the Brits voted to leave the European Union

The dust has not settled yet. Arguments rage as to what Brexit means. Was it the beginning of a populist revolution against the elites, or a triumph for xenophobia and suicidal narrow-mindedness? Or both? Walt will try to sort it out, and divine some lessons for North American politicians.

To begin with, it wasn't "the British" who voted to leave the European Union. The people of Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain. The people of Northern Ireland also chose the "in" side, although not so decisively. It was the English and the Welsh who wanted out of the dysfunctional European "community".

That doesn't mean, though, that the Scots and Ulsterpersons voted against resurgent nationalism. The Scots now appear to be in favour of separating from the Disunited Kingdom. A second refendum on the issue is expected in due course, giving the Scots an opportunity to stay in the EU and take control of their country back from the English. The people of Northern Ireland voted along nationalistic and sectarian lines, with the pro-UK Protestants voting with their compatriots in England, and the Catholics voting to remain in the EU, which might well entail uniting Ulster with Eire, at last. Sinn Fein has already called for a vote on that proposition.

So we see that nationalism was one of the key factors motivating the voters on both sides. Those who voted "Out" had other things in mind. This week's Economist cites polling done by Lord Ashcroft (a Conservative peer) which suggests that "opposition to multiculturalism, social liberalism, feminism, the green movement, the internet and capitalism all translated into votes for Brexit."

Euroscepticism is about more than immigration, says their columnist. "It is unmistakably cultural, ineffably emotional. There is a feeling, he writes, "that the world is increasingly unknowable and uncontrollable.... It also has to do with the wider world: fears of terrorism, the erosion of national identity, the erasure of borders (and) politicians in the grip of shadowy international forces." Hence the Leave campaign's winning slogan "It's time we took back control."

There would seem to be some hard lessons in there for the political and other elites of North America -- the USA more so than Canada, since Canucks won't get a chance to upchuck the Trudeau Koolaid until 2019. So let's see if any of the issues identified by Lord Ashdown are in play in the Land of the Free(?).

Nationalism versus globalism? Not a problem for La Clinton, since Americans don't seem to want their country to be great again. What about multiculturalism, social liberalism, feminism? What right-thinking person could be against those things? Look at all the "progress" that's been made under 7 years of Obama's maladministration. Who could want to undo that?

How about that green movement? Ah yes. Let's all put solar panels on our roofs, charge up our battery-powered cars and wind up our radios and TVs. Leave the oil in the ground. Decommission the nuclear power plants. (We know from The Simpsons how risky they are!) And will the last treehugger to leave the room please switch off the lights... Oh... wait...

I confess that I didn't understand Lord Ashdown's finding that those who voted "Out" were against the internet, unless he meant that to be a metaphor for "progress" generally. I'm all for the internet, insofar as it empowers the likes of YVT to get our ideas out there, in spite of the control of the lamestream media by the PC police and "shadowy international forces".

As for being against capitalism, if by that is meant resenting being in the thrall of the said "shadowy international forces" -- Hello Goldman Sachs! -- then I'm against that too. What about you? If you too are opposed to liberal globalism in all its guises, who are you going to vote for in November? The choice couldn't be more clear!

Further reading (on the last point, about globalization and capitalism): "Not just bigots and boors oppose trade deals" by Linda McQuaig in the Toronto Star.