Tag: Clown World

Economics, Reconsidered

In which the Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Emeritus, at Princeton and 2015 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences begins to wonder if perhaps everything about the mainstream Neo-Samuelsonian economics he has been utilizing as his basic conceptual model is wrong:

Economics has achieved much; there are large bodies of often nonobvious theoretical understandings and of careful and sometimes compelling empirical evidence. The profession knows and understands many things. Yet today we are in some disarray. We did not collectively predict the financial crisis and, worse still, we may have contributed to it through an overenthusiastic belief in the efficacy of markets, especially financial markets whose structure and implications we understood less well than we thought…

Like many others, I have recently found myself changing my mind, a discomfiting process for someone who has been a practicing economist for more than half a century…

I am much more skeptical of the benefits of free trade to American workers and am even skeptical of the claim, which I and others have made in the past, that globalization was responsible for the vast reduction in global poverty over the past 30 years. I also no longer defend the idea that the harm done to working Americans by globalization was a reasonable price to pay for global poverty reduction because workers in America are so much better off than the global poor. I believe that the reduction in poverty in India had little to do with world trade. And poverty reduction in China could have happened with less damage to workers in rich countries if Chinese policies caused it to save less of its national income, allowing more of its manufacturing growth to be absorbed at home. I had also seriously underthought my ethical judgments about trade-offs between domestic and foreign workers. We certainly have a duty to aid those in distress, but we have additional obligations to our fellow citizens that we do not have to others.

I used to subscribe to the near consensus among economists that immigration to the US was a good thing, with great benefits to the migrants and little or no cost to domestic low-skilled workers. I no longer think so. Economists’ beliefs are not unanimous on this but are shaped by econometric designs that may be credible but often rest on short-term outcomes. Longer-term analysis over the past century and a half tells a different story. Inequality was high when America was open, was much lower when the borders were closed, and rose again post Hart-Celler (the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965) as the fraction of foreign-born people rose back to its levels in the Gilded Age. It has also been plausibly argued that the Great Migration of millions of African Americans from the rural South to the factories in the North would not have happened if factory owners had been able to hire the European migrants they preferred.

Economists could benefit by greater engagement with the ideas of philosophers, historians, and sociologists, just as Adam Smith once did. The philosophers, historians, and sociologists would likely benefit too.

I can’t cast too many stones in the eminent Prof. Deaton’s direction. I, too, once believed that free trade was economically beneficial to both nations involved in the trade. I, too, once believed that the free movement of peoples was a net benefit to the economy and the well-being of the peoples involved. And while I was always deeply skeptical of, and completely opposed to, globalization, it wasn’t until fairly recently that I recognized the satanic thread that runs through and inevitably connects liberty, democracy, the liberal Enlightenment values, and economic liberalism to obvious evils like globalism, imperialism, techno-authoritarianism, and Clown World.

But the lies, some of them centuries-old, are shattering. They are being broken apart by finally being tested against real-world consequences. And in the aftermath of their discrediting, an entirely new economics, one that is not based on a false model of a perfectly rational economic man, will be constructed.

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Ireland Rejects Clown World

A referendum in Ireland demonstrates the way in which “representative democracy” is now entirely unrepresentative of the will of the Irish people.

ITEM 1: Ireland will be taking a “step backwards” this week if it votes against two changes to the constitution that are designed to remove “old-fashioned” language about women and formally recognise families beyond those involving marriage, the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has said. In a double referendum on Friday, the Irish public will be asked to support the deletion of two clauses in the 1937 constitution, including the “women in the home” provision, and the enshrining of two proposed amendments. While the “double yes” vote is in the lead, polls predict a low turnout and indicate that 35% of voters are still undecided. Speaking in Bucharest on Wednesday, Varadkar said the referendum amounted to “a value statement about what we stand for as a society”.

ITEM 2: Proposals to reword Ireland’s 1937 constitution to get rid of outdated language about the role of women and the nature of the family have been comprehensively rejected in a double referendum. All the major political parties had supported a “Yes-Yes” vote, and the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, had warned that any other result would be a setback for the country. But when the results came in on Saturday they were a resounding “No-No”. There were two simultaneous referendums, each designed to change parts of a constitution that was written in 1937 under Catholic church influence. Article 41 refers to the role of women in the home and defines the family as a unit based on marriage. The government said the language was old-fashioned and did not recognise unmarried couples so it asked voters to endorse two changes. The family amendment would have widened the definition of family to include “durable relationships” and the care amendment would have replaced the reference to women in the home with a new provision recognising the role of carers.

An overwhelming, resounding no: 67% rejected the family amendment, versus 32% who voted yes, and 74% rejected the care amendment, versus 24% who voted yes. Turnout was 44%. It was a stunning defeat not just for the government but the entire political establishment. Sinn Féin and the other main opposition parties had supported “yes, yes” as did many institutions and advocacy groups.

The fake “democracy” of Clown World has got to go. It has absolutely no basis to claim that it is “the will of the people”, which is its only justification vis-a-vis the supposedly “authoritarian” systems of China and Russia. Clown World’s “representative democracy” is, contrary to its advertising, an anti-aristocratic, anti-national system of foreign imperialism.

It is neither representative nor is it democracy. It’s just another satanic inversion.

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Is This Really News?

BREAKING: The federal government has been illegally surveilling and building profiles for Americans in secret portal called DSAC for those who oppose firearm restrictions, lockdowns & vaccine mandates, and or support border security and are labeling them as domestic extremists.

I’ve lost track of the number of government lists I’m on, and that’s just the US government. Look, all of this stuff is completely illegal, unconstitutional, and proves that the whole thing about “the Land of the Free” is total and absolute nonsense. But it’s not as if we didn’t know this already.

The material surveillance state erected by Clown World is wicked, nefarious, anti-American, and wrong. It needs to be exposed and it needs to be eliminated entirely. Even so, don’t forget that all the men and machinery of the surveillance state is but a pale shadow of the spiritual surveillance that is actively seeking to peck away at your soul every single day. So don’t stress yourself worrying about either the material evil or the spiritual evil. They exist. They have always existed. Do what is right, speak the truth, and fear God only.

And remember, it’s pretty clear that they fear us. Perhaps you should give some thought as to why that might be.

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The Fake Science of Sugar

How fat and cholesterol were substituted for sugar and turned Americans into an unhealthy herd of waddling land-whales.

A doctor explains how the groundwork for the Food Pyramid nonsense and the encouragement to reduce fat consumption and increase carbohyrdate consumption of the 1990s was laid by the corruption of scientistry in the 1960s.

In 1967, a single scientific study revealed the true culprit of the diabetes and heart disease epidemic was sugar. NOT saturated fat or cholesterol. So why wasn’t this information made common knowledge? They covered it all up. The sugar industry knew the results of these studies would tank sales and cost them billions. So the Sugar Research Foundation paid three Harvard Scientists $65,000 each to “prove” sugar was harmless. The scientists were some of the most respected nutrition experts in the world. Dr. Frederick Stare was the chairman of Harvard’s Department of Nutrition. Dr. Mark Hegsted was a scientific advisor for the USDA. Dr. Robert Gandy was a pioneer in dietary research.

The scientists dismissed multiple long-term studies. The first study proved sugar caused deadly arterial plaques. This was ignored. Another showed heart disease skyrocketed on a high-carb diet. The scientists dismissed it, claiming “these diets are rarely consumed.” The consequences of this scientific manipulation are horrifying. The truth about sugar and its effects on obesity, diabetes, and heart disease remained in the dark for years. Well-meaning doctors prescribed their patients low-fat, high-carb diets for decades. These dietary suggestions are to blame for the obesity crisis in America.

The USDA urged Americans to trade butter for margarine. Margarine is now accepted as an artery-clogging poison. And another massive shift was to “healthy” low-fat foods loaded with hidden sugars. As a result, U.S sugar consumption tripled. So did Big Sugar profits. And not surprisingly, so did type 2 diabetes and blood sugar issues. In 1980, only 1 in 50 Americans had a blood sugar problem. Today, that number is up to 1 in 3. High blood sugar kills roughly 3.2 million people per year.

In other words, as with immigration and third-world overpopulation, the seeds of the castastrophic crises we are experiencing across the West were planted in a very small period of time between 1960 and 1967.

During the mid-20th century, Borlaug led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and India. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India, greatly improving the food security in those nations. These collective increases in yield have been labeled the Green Revolution, and Borlaug is often credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply.

Add the names of Frederick Stare, Mark Hegsted, and Robert Gandy to the infamous list that includes Norman Borlaug, Philip Hart, and Emmanuel Cellar of men whose objectives and actions contributed the most to the downfall of the West and its transformation into Clown World.

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The End of Demonetization

The BRICS alliance – which is to say Russia and China – is taking direct aim at the ability of Clown World’s credit system to demonetize individuals, organizations, and nations of which it disapproves:

The BRICS group of emerging economies plans to create a payment system based on digital technologies, Yury Ushakov, a senior foreign policy aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has told TASS in an interview published on Tuesday.

According to Ushakov, the system would be “outside of politics” and would not depend on national agendas or the fiat currencies of countries around the globe.

“We believe that an important goal for the future is the creation within the BRICS framework of an independent settlement payment system that would be based on the most modern technologies, such as digital currencies and blockchain,” Ushakov stated. “It would be comfortable for any state, person and business, and would not require significant costs.” The presidential aide did not specify the details or the time frame for the development of the new system.

Now, this could certainly be a case of exchanging King Log for King Stork. But it appears the Russians and Chinese have learned from watching the demise of the UK and the USA, and that neither of them are eager to assume the crown of foreign corruption that history teaches inevitably comes with empire and ruling over foreign peoples.

And this will be a very good thing for both the BRICSIA alliance as well as the persecuted people and organizations living under Clown World’s increasingly despotic rule. As with sanctions, the practice of demonitization is going to backfire with catastrophic results for the organizations that engage in it, as they will no longer be able to compete effectively with more trustworthy competitors upon whom their clients can rely.

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The End of Economic Ideology

There is no more economic Left or Right in Clown World. Because once a government starts primarily distributing national resources on the basis of identity groups and foreign interests, everyone on both extremes of the ideological divide realizes that there is no more national interest, any appeal to it is pointless, and therefore there is absolutely no point in working toward anything but maximal distribution to their own identity groups.

On Sunday, 58.2% of Swiss voters, and a majority of cantons, backed the “Better living in retirement” initiativeExternal link, which will grant an additional 13th monthly pension payment to help retirees struggling to make ends meet in the face of rising living costs.

Support for the 13th monthly pension payment initiative was exceptionally high. What is your analysis of the Swiss vote?

This is the first time that Swiss voters have clearly accepted a left-wing initiative in the field of social policy. The success can be explained by the fact that it was not just a left-wing vote. The initiative also resonated widely with centre-right voters and, above all, the conservative right. And, in their case, it was less about solidarity and compensating for the poverty of pensioners and much more about ‘now it’s my turn’.

Where does this idea come from?

It is a protest against the past excesses of the economy – the fall of Credit Suisse, the high salaries of managers, the past rescue of UBS and the rescue plan for [the energy company] Axpo. There is a widespread sentiment that Switzerland is able to mobilise very large sums of money for crises like the Covid-19 pandemic for big businesses, while ordinary people do not benefit. The population has the impression that business readily helps itself to any profits while passing on losses to society. There is a now willingness to change this.

It was perhaps another argument, which was very popular in conservative circles, that helped to topple the country’s most conservative strongholds, particularly in German-speaking Switzerland: if the Swiss authorities are capable of spending billions of francs on development aid and welcoming refugees, then we should do the same for pensioners. Even the country’s most seasoned political scientists are at a loss. Never before has an initiative from the left and the unions sparked such sympathy among right-wing voters.

This is why both liberalism and conservatism are dead across the West, and have been replaced by globalism vs nationalism combined with international identity politics on the foreign policy side and pure identity politics on the domestic side.

What is the point of being fiscally conservative or not spending every last bit of money on yourself while it lasts if the politicians are just going to use it to import refugees, send the money to Israel or Ukraine, or bailing out failed corporations if you don’t? It’s an irrefutable argument, and this is why Clown World will inevitably, and necessarily, turn against its own sacred cow of democracy before it collapses.

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The Intrinsic Danger of the Truth

Clown World wants its mindless subjects to believe that the people who keep correctly warning them about the lies and false histories of Clown World are an emerging threat vector:

In a world increasingly dominated by sensationalism and misinformation, conspiracy theories have found fertile ground to flourish. Dismissed by many as the ramblings of a paranoid few, these theories have long been relegated to the fringes of society. But the experts now warn that they are witnessing the emergence of a new threat vector: conspiracy theorists being proven right.

The exposure of government surveillance programs like PRISM, the revelations surrounding the secret experiments of MKUltra, and the acknowledgement of covert military operations like Operation Gladio, have all served as a sobering reminder that conspiracy theories are not always baseless. Darker still, we’ve even learned that the US government experimented with syphilis on Black folks and were the ultimate cause of the high rate of STDs among non-white populations.

More recently, the lab leak theory regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic has yet again sparked totally unnuanced “conspiracy theorists were right” discourse. While initially the lab leak theory was clamped down on for being a dangerous conspiracy theory, the hypothesis has — more or less by random chance — been the one to recently gain traction in expert opinions.

And while the true origins of the virus remain unclear, the fact that a modern conspiracy theory could potentially hold elements of truth has raised alarm bells among guardians of democracy like journalists and experts.

The specter of true conspiracy theories heralds profoundly dangerous implications for our ability to function as an open, inclusive, and equitable democratic society. As once-dismissed theories find validation, shadows of doubt are cast upon the credibility of the mainstream institutions and experts who set out to protect us to begin with.

The satanic nature of Clown World can always be identified by its invariable inversion of the truth. When Christians who hope to convince people to accept salvation from Hell are accused of doing so out of hate, when anti-vaxxers who try to convince people to avoid being injected with harmful substances are accused of doing so out of selfishness, and when those who speak the truth are accused of misleading people and spreading misinformation, it is very clear that wickedness is at work.

Furthermore if the truth casts doubt on the credibility of mainstream institutions and experts, then everyone is correct to reject those unreliable institutions and experts, and more importantly, ask questions concerning the nature of that unreliability.

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The Great Bifurcation Widens

Both China and India are making it very clear that they will not stop doing business with Russia, and more importantly, that they are neither impressed nor dissuaded by the additional sanctions being imposed upon them by the EU, the UK, and the USA.

The EU last week agreed on a new package of sanctions against Russia that for the first time targets Chinese and Indian companies accused of “supporting Moscow’s war efforts,” the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The measures of the EU, which will be its 13th package of sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s military operation against Ukraine, were followed by the UK and the US. Britain announced a new package of sanctions against Russia that includes three electronics companies in China, Reuters reported on Friday.

Then, the Biden administration announced on Friday more than 500 new sanctions against targets in Russia, which reportedly include measures against Russia’s main card payment system, financial and military institutions and entities outside of Russia…

When it comes to the Ukraine crisis, China’s position has always been consistent. China is not a party directly involved, and it did not choose to be a bystander or add fuel to the fire. China will continue to play a constructive role in bringing an early end to the conflict and restoring peace in Ukraine.

There is nothing to criticize regarding the pursuit of peace, and it is believed that this thinking is shared by many other emerging countries.

Fundamentally speaking, Western sanctions against Russia are actually illegal and unilateral actions, which have not been approved by the UN. The US and its European allies, regardless of how powerful they are, do not represent the entire international community. It makes no sense for them to escalate sanctions and exert pressure on other countries by targeting normal economic exchanges between Russia and other countries.

What Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said recently on the sidelines of the Munich conference may just show the view of all those who have not participated in Western sanctions against Russia.

Jaishankar said, “If I am smart enough to have multiple options, you should be admiring me.” He said that India should not be criticized for having multiple options and reaffirmed its stand and commitment to buying Russian oil.

The world is not ruled by the US and its European allies only. Their goal of containing Russia is their own business, and they have no right to demand other countries sacrifice their development opportunities to serve Western strategies. When it comes to how to deal with Russia, emerging economies should have the right to consider and choose from their own interests.

What has happened over the past two years has proved that unilateral sanctions and extreme pressure have not only done great harm to the global economy, but have also disrupted the international order the West has been trying to maintain.

Including Chinese, Indian firms in Russia sanctions unreasonable, GLOBAL TIMES, 25 February 2024

It’s going to be a difficult year for everyone in the West, and things are going to continue to get more difficult as the flow of free money continues to dwindle away to nothing and the ability of the Fed to export inflation to the rest of the world disappears as the majority of the global population exits Clown World’s economy.

But with these harder times comes opportunity, as those organizations that are not built on debt and have genuine success based on genuine customers will have the opportunity to grow steadily as their competitors continue to fail. Just to give one example, think about how many alternatives to this blog have vanished over time, while the traffic here is steady and offshoots such as Sigma Game are already averaging 7,500 views per day in its first month.

Just as success isn’t distributed evenly during credit bubbles, failure isn’t distributed evenly during economic contractions. The key is to focus ruthlessly on your core market, be persistent in your performance, and constantly strive to improve your quality while your competitors are cutting corners and trying to raise their margins to make up for their declining sales.

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The Axis of Asymmetry

Pepe Escobar observes that Clown World is losing on every front to the unrestricted warfare being waged by the BRICSIA+ alliance:

The Axis of Asymmetry is in full swing. These are the state and non-state actors employing asymmetrical moves on the global chessboard to sideline the US-led western rules-based order. And its vanguard is the Yemeni resistance movement Ansarallah.

Ansarallah is absolutely relentless. They have downed a $30 million MQ-9 Reaper drone with just a $10k indigenous missile.

They are the first in the Global South ever to use anti-ship ballistic missiles against Israel-bound and/or -protecting commercial and US Navy ships.

For all practical purposes, Ansarallah is at war with no less than the US Navy.

Ansarallah has captured one of the US Navy’s ultra-sophisticated autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), the $1.3 million Remus 600, a torpedo-shaped underwater drone able to carry a massive payload of sensors.

Next stop: reverse engineering in Iran? The Global South eagerly awaits, ready to pay in currencies bypassing the US dollar.

All of the above – a maritime 21st-century remix of the Ho Chi Minh trail during the Vietnam War – spells out that the Hegemon may not even qualify as a paper tiger, but rather as a paper leech.

None of this should have come as a surprise to the strategists of Clown World, except they were so accustomed to lying that they no longer have the ability to ascertain the truth and their arrogance caused them to actually believe in their nonsensical rhetoric about being Special or Exceptional.

As events proceed, it is becoming abundantly clear that it is China that is winning WWIII, because the events closely follow the strategy laid out in Unrestricted Warfare by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui in 1999. You cannot possibly understand anything about what is happening, or how systematic the undermining of every foundation of Clown World has been, without reading that book.

The Chinese strategy goes well beyond conventional military issues; that is the literal meaning of “unrestricted” in the title. And it is fundamentally asymmetric; Escobar doesn’t mention Qiao and Wang’s book in his article, but his use of the word strongly suggests that he is familiar with it. The two Chinese colonels defined the concept thusly:

ASYMMETRY—SEEK NODES OF ACTION IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM THE CONTOURS OF THE BALANCE OF SYMMETRY

’Asymmetry’ “fei junheng” as a principle is an important fulcrum for tipping the normal rules in beyond-limits ideology. Its essential point is to follow the train of thought opposite to the balance of symmetry “junheng duicheng” and develop combat action on that line. From force disposition and employment, selection of the main combat axis and the center of gravity for the attack, all the way to the allocation of weapons, in all these things give two-way consideration to the effect of asymmetrical factors, and use asymmetry as a measure to accomplish the objective.

No matter whether it serves as a line of thought or as a principle guiding combat operations, asymmetry manifests itself to some extent in every aspect of warfare. Understanding and employing the principle of asymmetry correctly allows us always to find and exploit an enemy’s soft spots… This use of asymmetrical measures which create power for oneself and make the situation develop as you want it to, is often hugely effective. It often makes an adversary which uses conventional forces and conventional measures as its main combat strength look like a big elephant charging into a china shop. It is at a loss as to what to do, and unable to make use of the power it has.

So, it’s now clear that China is using its allies in Russia, Yemen, and elsewhere in much the same way that Russia was using the Donbass militias, Wagner, and the Chechens in Ukraine. Even Gaza may be a front, although whether it was created, anticipated, or was simply a fortuitous coincidence is impossible to know at this juncture. And this means we not only have not seen the main axis of the conflict, it almost certainly means we haven’t even begun to understand the full extent of the asymmetrical probings for more of Clown World’s soft spots or the consequences of the exploitation of those that are revealed.

Speaking of those soft spots and the exploitation thereof, Escobar makes a prediction that I have not previously seen.

The endgame: only a West Asian Special Military Operation, to the bitter end, will settle the Palestinian tragedy. A translation of what happens across the Slavic Axis of Resistance: “Those who refuse to negotiate with Lavrov, deal with Shoigu.”

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The Revival of Swiss Neutrality

Switzerland’s futile attempt to host Ukrainian peace talks this summer is already dead prior to arrival thanks to the government’s foolish decision to try to take sides in the Russian-NATO war without being willing to admit that it is no longer a neutral party to the conflict.

Russia is unlikely to take part at the outset of a high-level Ukraine peace conference which neutral Switzerland plans to host in the coming months, Swiss President Viola Amherd was quoted as saying by a newspaper on Saturday. Amherd’s interview with the Neue Zuercher Zeitung daily was published a few hours after Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told the United Nations that Bern aimed to hold the conference “by this summer” after the idea was floated in January.

When asked whether Switzerland had since received any more positive signals from Russia, Amherd told the newspaper: “Right now, it looks as though Russia will not take part in a first round of the conference.
“We’re in the process of starting off with a very broad alliance consisting of the BRICS countries, countries from the Arab world, as well as from the global south.”

China has already made it clear that it will not be participating either. And, if Switzerland is foolish enough to give into Clown World pressure and go along with the latest EU, UK, and US sanctions on China, it will soon find itself being regarded as a hostile nation by the two most important military powers on Earth, which would be an incredible achievement of total diplomatic incompetence given 500 years of successful neutrality that survived everything except living next door to Napoleon.

Fortunately, 91 percent of the Swiss citizenry favors a return to true and comprehensive neutrality, and signatures are being gathered for a constitutional referendum that would prevent the satanic globalists and corrupt would-be eurocrats in the government from further involving the nation in Clown World’s self-destructive schemes.

The current world situation dramatically demonstrates the need for a country like Switzerland to mediate between war and conflict parties and to provide a platform for negotiations. Nevertheless, certain domestic circles and also foreign diplomats are trying to put pressure on Switzerland to fully participate in sanctions against Russia and to allow arms deliveries, if not directly then at least indirectly. The narrative of these neutrality diluters is always the same: Switzerland’s neutrality is an outdated model and must be reconsidered or adapted or even ditched. In light of the emerging amalgamation of security policy and foreign policy of the EU and the European arm of NATO, the calls for a “relativization of neutrality“ in favor of a misconceived solidarity are getting louder and louder. These gravediggers of neutrality must be countered with the following:

  1. The perpetual, integral and armed neutrality is absolute and geared towards emergencies. It cannot be modified easily and at will on the basis of a current event. Thus, there is no such thing as “Putin neutrality” or the like. The perpetual, integral and armed neutrality guaranteed to us at the Congress of Vienna, also with Russia’s explicit approval, sends an unmistakable signal to other countries and our partners that we will reliably and fully adhere to our neutrality in the long – term and will – if necessary – defend it with our armed forces.
  2. The concept of neutrality is fundamentally directed towards wars. In a war, there are always attackers and defenders. It is therefore intellectually dishonest to relativize neutrality in relation to the Russia-Ukraine conflict or even to ditch it in order to position ourselves unilaterally against an aggressor. For a neutral state, the “good-evil” scheme is suspended, which enables it to offer its good offices. The fact that Putin claims Art. 51 of the UN Charter for himself in order to rush to help an ally is possibly covered by international law but certainly problematic, but nevertheless not unusual: China and the USA have also frequently drawn on this problematic article, the latter without there ever having been an outcry. In this context, especially in a neutral state like Switzerland, there should be careful consideration in order to avoid double standards.
  3. Our elites know well that neutrality is deeply rooted in the Swiss people. Therefore, they believe they have to operate in a hypocritical manner, propagating neutrality internally while acting in a partisan manner externally. For example, the Federal Council has recklessly offered hand to sanctions against Russia, such as the blocking of Russian bank accounts in Switzerland. This has done massive damage to both, our credibility and our business location: a large number of foreigners have withdrawn their capital from Switzerland and transferred it to other countries. It is certainly legitimate to discuss the value of neutrality. However, this should be done with the involvement of the sovereign, the Swiss people, namely at the ballot box.
  4. Our armed neutrality has effectively protected us from external aggressors, especially during World War II. It is not an outdated model, as some try to make us believe, but on the contrary an inspiring model for the future: based on credibility, continuity, predictability and reliability, we secure our prosperity and security, especially for our young generation. The Swiss People does not expect the Federal Council and our politicians to engage in power politics, but rather to protect our people and safeguard our prosperity. This is the very duty of the Federal Council: to integrate our neutrality policy into our foreign policy and to explain our neutrality in a comprehensible way in the foreign policy arena. In the area of good offices, in receiving a large number of refugees – as is currently the case from Ukraine – as well as comprehensive offers for negotiations, Switzerland is and will be able to make major contributions to global peacebuilding and peacekeeping. We must not easily give up this trump card!
Homage to Swiss Neutrality, PRO-SCHWEIZ

Pro-Schweiz has until May 8, 2024 to obtain the 100,000 signatures required to put the initiative on the ballot. (Note to the Bears: if you’re not a Swiss citizen, you can’t sign the petition, so don’t even think about it. Note to everyone else: yes, it is absolutely necessary to spell that out.) And although the media has been ludicrously describing the concept of constitutional neutrality as a “right-wing” objective, it has substantial support among the Left and Green parties as well.

The Federal Constitution is amended as follows:

Article 54a Swiss Neutrality

1. Switzerland is neutral. Its neutrality is perpetual and armed.

2. Switzerland does not join any military or defense alliance. An exception is made for cooperation with such alliances in the event of a direct military attack on Switzerland or in the case of actions preparing for such an attack.

3. Switzerland does not participate in military conflicts between third states and does not take non-military coercive measures against belligerent states. Exceptions are Switzerland’s obligations to the United Nations (UN) and measures to prevent the circumvention of non-military coercive measures by other states.

4. Switzerland uses its perpetual neutrality for the prevention and resolution of conflicts and is available as a mediator.

Call from Left and Green Supporters: Yes to the Neutrality Initiative!, SWISS STANDPOINT, 24 January 2024

Anyhow, people all around the world should hope that the failure of the 2024 peace summit will serve to remind the Swiss people of the way in which their historic commitment to neutrality will much better serve the world than their becoming a small and voiceless cog in the Clown World machine.

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