Our Sick and Lunatic Elites
Part 4.325.678 of gaslighting galore: Nordic journos tripping over themselves telling people about one thing while meaning something else entirely
A few days ago, friend-of-these pages and fellow Substacker (if that’s a word)
wrote a nice and very informative piece about excess deaths in Ireland, which I highly recommend:
I’m a wee bit inspired by his title—and, of course, kudos to The Bard for them—especially when we consider the ‘state’ of what passes for ‘the Left™’ and ‘Liberals™’ these days.
Today, I’l bring you a few anecdotes from Norway, which should do away with any ‘sentimental’ or other notions—mostly, sanity, in my opinion—about the mental and other stances of the liberal-left these days.
As always, translations and emphases mine.
Norway to Deport Fighting-Age Ukrainian Men
First up, a brief reference to the ‘humanitarian™’ Nordic ‘superpowers’, which exist mostly in the imagination of certain groups of people dwelling up North. Here is a telling example from two weeks ago when, on 30 May, Norwegian state broadcaster NRK reported (sic) the following:
Hundreds of Ukrainians may be told to go home
The UDI [Norwegian Directorate of Immigration] is starting asylum processing for Ukrainians who did not live in their home country when the war started. Among them 370 men of ‘fighting age’.
‘We must ensure that we have a sustainable level of arrivals to Norway,’ says Minister of Justice and Public Security Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) [that is a member of the ‘Socialist Left’]
Since then, more than 77,000 Ukrainians have applied for collective protection in Norway, according to the UDI’s updated figures.
Ukrainians who were living in other countries when the war broke out are not covered by the scheme, but have nevertheless been allowed to stay in Norway because the obligation to leave the country for Ukrainians has been cancelled.
This obligation is now being reintroduced for Ukrainians. At the same time, the UDI is now starting individual processing of these asylum applications.
We are talking about 800-1000 people who may ultimately be told to leave Norway.
I think this snippet suffices: apparently, the gov’t has suspended certainly sections of the law in the wake of the Russian ‘special military operation’ and permitted Ukrainians to immigrate from third countries. It seems that they now will have to leave.
I’ll share one more quote by Justice Minister Mehr from the report:
Conscription and service in connection with a war are not circumstances that in themselves provide grounds for asylum in Norway. However, this must be assessed specifically in the individual case.
Cut through the BS and take note: if the gov’t (re)introduces ‘service’ or ‘conscription’, no other (Western) gov’t will let those affected escape and claim asylum.
If you’re of ‘fighting age’ planning to ‘get out’, well, good luck.
Also, I’m really wondering if the above rule applies also to, say, Russians who fled the country to avoid being drafted into Mr. Putin’s army.
Lest I forget, we ‘soft humanitarians’ in the West cannot consider deporting criminal Afghans, Syrians, and their ilk because ‘it’s unsafe’ in these places, which is kinda true (and, no, we’ll not get into discussions about why it is so right now), but then again, we should also take note of the considerations of Norwegian authorities in the case of these Ukrainian men (via the UDI’s website):
Following an individual assessment, applicants from Ukraine may have a well-founded fear of persecution upon return to Ukraine, cf. utl. § Section 28 paragraph letter a.
The UDI has not yet assessed the security situation in all parts of Ukraine, but assumes that the level of indiscriminate violence in several areas will be so high that returning there will entail a real [not a ‘fake’] risk of treatment in violation of utl. § Section 28 first paragraph letter b. However, in the UDI’s assessment, there are areas in Ukraine where it is safe for people to return provided that they do not have an individual basis for protection.
Oh, look, there are ‘safe areas’ in Ukraine, isn’t that awesome? According to the NRK piece cited above, these are in the far western oblasts, or regions.
I suppose we may be able to deport, e.g., criminal Syrians to Damascus as the capital (apart from the area around the Iranian embassy) ‘is safe for people to return’. Ditto with ‘safe’ areas elsewhere, right? Right.
Meanwhile, Norway’s Liberal Party (Venstre) Demands ‘Permanent NATO Bases’
If you thought, well, the above sounds bad to moronic, wait until we get to the ‘real’ and ‘hard’ issues of foreign policy. Published, also, by state broadcaster NRK, at around the same time in late May we learn that Norway’s oldest political party, Venstre, demands permanent NATO (US) military bases on Norwegian soil.
We Want Permanent Foreign Military Bases in Norway
Following Russia’s warfare in Ukraine, the Liberal Party believes that allied forces should be allowed to set up military bases on Norwegian soil. This is contrary to Norwegian base policy.
‘Norway used to be a narrow strip of NATO land in the north bordering Russia. Now the whole of Northern Europe is becoming a joint operational area for NATO. This means that we have to completely rethink our defence plans.
That’s what Sveinung Rotevatn, deputy leader of the Liberal Party, says. Tomorrow he will present the new election programme for the party.
The programme proposes for the first time to:
‘Update Norwegian base policy to allow for a greater presence of allied forces on Norwegian territory, especially to enable permanent co-operation with our new NATO allies in the Nordic region.’
This is, of course, BS for two reasons: on the one hand, it sounds reasonable but if you believe that the Nordics didn’t already pool their military forces before Sweden and Finland joined NATO, I may have a bridge to nowhere to sell to you.
And, second, two years ago (11 Aug. 2022), NRK somewhat more accurately reported on precisely these things:
Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden have established a framework for cooperation on materials and services for defence purposes in peace, crisis, and war.
The Nordic countries also concretise the treaty they signed in 2015 with a framework that describes the principles and guidelines on how the nations can assist each other to develop, support and strengthen each nation's security of supply.
Minister of Defence Bjørn Arild Gram (Sp) believes that binding co-operation across the countries can solve challenges in defence policy.
‘Nordic co-operation is important in itself, and we have now strengthened the framework for entering into binding co-operation across the countries. Such future agreements will be able to solve several common and fundamental challenges we face in defence policy,’ says Gram in a press release.
Mind you, all of the above issues related by defence minister Gram were put in place before Sweden and Finland acceded to NATO.
Even earlier than August 2022, cooperation among Nordic countries was intensified, as related by yet another NRK piece (which I’ll skip here) from spring 2022.
In other words: there’s nothing new under the sun here, with perhaps the exception of very forgetful legacy media ‘journos’.
Hence, going back to the above-cited piece, this is all about something else:
Ever since 1949, Norway has said that we do not allow foreign powers to set up military bases within our borders.
But the Liberal Party is not the first to propose a change. Two years ago, Sylvi Listhaug said that the Progressive Party would be alright with foreign military bases in Norway.
Oh, look: someone else was ‘there’ even earlier.
And, last but not least, this is what all the fuss is about:
Earlier this year [in 2024], Norwegian Defence Minister Bjørn Arild Gram (Sp) signed an agreement with the US ambassador to build eight new ‘agreed areas’. There, the US can construct military infrastructure.
Join me tomorrow when we’ll check out Norway’s next ‘economic fairy tale’.
Very kind of you to recommend my post, thank you!
Replace Norway with Sweden and you can use the same text.
Disgusting is the most polite way to put it.