Summertime

From across the pond — which is drying up now, and will soon be a puddle — our Dutch correspondent H. Numan sends a digest of the overlapping crises that current bedevil the political class in the Netherlands.


The government on summer vacation

Summertime

by H. Numan

Summertime, and the livin’ ain’t easy.
Fish are jumpin’ and the water is low…

I paraphrased George Gershwin’s song to fit our modern times. It’s summertime, and life behind the dikes is worrisome. I’ve got two news stories for you this time. Let’s start with the summertime scare.

We have to be scared into the desired global warming behavior. What used to be normal, a fun time, is now presented as a horror, evidence of global warming. Well, it’s just summer. A bit hot, that’s all. Nothing unusual. However, that is not how the Dutch media present it. Worry! Be afraid! The sky is falling!

The weather maps — you may have noticed it elsewhere, too — are intentionally rigged. In the past a weather map showed sea in blue and land in green. The weather was shown with symbols, plus the temperature. Nothing scary about it. That won’t do in our global warming times. So the weather map today is different. The map is red with temperatures as gradients of red, from light red to black. That’s better! Now people will be worried sick.

Next, a lot of attention is given to the Rhine River. It’s going to run dry, we’re told. Sorry to disappoint. Remember geography in 6th grade? Allow me to refresh your memory. “There are two types of rivers: glacier- and rain-fed rivers. Glacier-fed rivers tend to have less fluctuations. Whereas rain-fed rivers run highest in spring and autumn, after the melt and rains. During summer and winter they tend to have much less volume. Examples are the Rhine (glacier-fed) and Meuse (rain-fed) rivers.”

In other words: nothing to worry about. It’s completely normal for rivers to run low or dry during a warm summer. There is nothing unusual with the unusual. During summer, the Rhine always runs lower. The Meuse occasionally runs dry, or close to it. That’s not a sure sign of global warming. Just a hot summer.

The media also acts as an overly protective mother. People are warned to stay indoors. Which is fun, because Dutch houses are not designed for really hot weather and don’t have airco. Relax, take it easy. As long as you stay indoors. You’ve been locked up during Covid, you know the drill by now. Wear insanely strong sun blockers, if you have to go outside. Don’t forget to hydrate. Because global warming!

I’ve got (real) news for you, folks. Yes, the climate is changing. Nothing usual, it always does. But not as globalists tell you. The KNMI (Dutch weather bureau) keeps weather data religiously. Nothing will ever be deleted. But… they are more than happy to exclude what they don’t like, and sanitize the remainder so it fits the desired narrative. For example, they exclude temperature readings before 1890 in their calculations ‘as they are irrelevant’, that sort of thing. They don’t delete it, they merely ignore it. What’s left is data that proves global warming.

A Dutch scientist, Syp Wynia, had a look at KNMI data, but from a different angle. He looked at the prevailing wind direction over the last century and the consequences. His conclusion? The prevailing wind direction is now south-west most of the year. It used to be the prevalent direction during spring-summer-autumn. In autumn-winter, the wind changed to the northeast, bringing cold fronts from Russia.

Over the last 40 years, he found much less wind comes from the northeast. What are the consequences? Northeasterly winds bring cold dry weather. Southwesterly winds bring warm wet weather. During summer not much changed, but our winters are about 20% wetter than 40 years ago, and not as cold. Cold winters with snow and ice are now rare. Temperatures hover around freezing or a few degrees above zero. And it rains a lot more in winter. That raises the annual temperature considerably in coastal Europe. As you can see, no carbon emissions are involved. Actually, we have no idea why this happened. Even if we eventually discover why, that doesn’t mean we can change anything about it.

The next piece of news is our very wobbly cabinet. There isn’t just one crisis they have to survive. A plethora of crises has to be managed, right now. Tossing money at it or looking the other way won’t work this time. I doubt prime minister Rutte and his cabinet can do that. Here’s a selection of the most urgent problems. Not all of them, mind you. That list would be way too long:

1. Inflation is sky high and consumer trust at a record low.

Inflation is at the highest level in four decades, and consumer trust is completely gone. Everybody now realizes the worst is yet to come. Winter is coming!

2. Gas prizes are crazy high.

Not for the reason you think. Gas prizes are high everywhere; that’s not it. The reason is how the Dutch government charges for it. The Dutch natural gas rates are the highest in the world. But for Dutch consumers only. Belgians pay half the price the Dutch pay for natural gas. Where do they buy that cheaper gas? In Holland! The government hitched the prices for natural gas to the international oil prices. For Dutch only. Internationally they’re more than happy to give a very steep discount. That worked when the prices were low and we had plenty of gas. Now that we’re running out of it, and prices are higher than the Eiffel tower, it doesn’t. More than a million Dutch are staring at real poverty.

3. Not enough houses.

The previous governments have passed highly restrictive environmental legislation and privatized social housing. The inevitable result is that nobody can afford a house, unless you have a well above-average income. Renting is also unaffordable. The result is that people have to stay with their parents until they are over 30, whether they like it or not.

Unless you are a refugee, that is. The city of Utrecht (GL or communist council) houses refugees only. If you’re Dutch, you’re out of luck. Don’t complain; that makes you a racist. Only racists want poor refugees to sleep in the cold. Surely you’re not a racist, right? Go sleep on the streets; you’re not a refugee!

4. The farmer crisis.

I reported about that recently. Nothing has been solved; negotiations have yet to begin. The government wants the former agricultural minister Remkes to be the negotiator. That sounds reasonable, until you realize he is the man who started the crisis. Under his tenure the sloppy nitrogen regulations became law. That’s akin to sending Reinhart Heydrich to Prague to negotiate with the unruly Czechs there. It clearly shows the desire by the government to eradicate the farming industry.

This crisis is probably the biggest one, and most likely to cause the cabinet to fall. The Christian Democrats are — finally — seriously worried about their very existence. They are the first coalition partner to try to ease the situation, but D66 (progressives) and the prime minister absolutely refuse to give in, not even an inch. This causes real friction in the cabinet.

5. Refugee crisis.

They are coming in in ever-increasing numbers. The official refugee center in Ter Apel is overloaded. People have to sleep in the fields. Riots among the refugees happen daily. They complain just about everything. Even the food is not good enough. The government is forcing smaller cities and villages to accept the overflow, but there are no takers.


This is particularly worrisome for PM Rutte, as his own party elite is now withdrawing support. Local party bosses started to complain openly, a sure sign Rutte is loosing their support.

Progressive (read: communist) cities are especially eager to give refugees preferential treatment, but that doesn’t sit well with most less progressive Dutch. However, the PVV (Geert Wilders) has been defused, so don’t expect a lot from them. Not supporting refugees is racism. Nobody wants that stigma.

The cabinet has another problem: they are effectively a minority cabinet. Yes, any legislation they want they can pass, just like Biden does. Unlike America we don’t have midterm elections. In theory that means Rutte can do whatever he wants until 2025. In reality, they poll consistently under 55 seats, and going down. (A majority is 76 seats.) Not that much has to go wrong to force them into resignation.

Also remember that severe shortages and price hikes are usually the precursors of serious turmoil, if not outright revolution. Pim Fortuyn was relatively unknown before he went into politics. The reason for his sudden rise was the loss of value of the guilder against the euro. That created some hardship, but nothing remotely compared with now. Back then we’re talking two percent, today we’re lucky if it stays below 25%. That’s an order of magnitude worse.

It’s the French Revolution all over again. Nobody minded having to buckle up a bit. What really pissed off the population was that they had to pay for everything when they had nothing, while the nobility partied like always. Some things never change.

— H. Numan

Key to Dutch parties:

FvD   Forum for Democracy
    Forum voor Democratie
    Conservative, populist, Euroskeptic
 
VVD   People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy
    Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie
    Center-right
 
PvdA   Labour Party
    Partij van de Arbeid
    Social democrats
 
PVV   Party for Freedom
    Partij voor de Vrijheid
    Classical liberal, Islam-critical
 
SP   Socialist Party
    Socialistische Partij
    Left-wing populists, former Maoists, to the left of communists
 
CDA   Christian Democratic Appeal
    Christen-Democratisch Appèl
    Christian democrats, center-right
 
D66   Democrats 66
    Politieke Partij Democraten 66
    Centrist social liberals
 
CU   ChristianUnion
    ChristenUnie
    Christian Democrats, left-wing, only “conservative” in being ostensibly religious
 
GL   GreenLeft
    GroenLinks
    Environmentalism plus hard left
 
SGP   Reformed Political Party
    Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij
    Christian right, advocates a Christian theocracy
 
PvdD   Party for Animals
    Partij voor de Dieren
    Animal rights
 
Denk   Denk
    Denk
    Turkish
 
50+   50PLUS
    50PLUS
    Pensioners’ party
 
VNL   VoorNederland
    For The Netherlands
    Classical liberal party
 
PPNL   Pirate Party of the Netherlands
    Piratenpartij Nederland
    Anti-copyright, transparent governance
 
JA21   Right Answer 21
    Juiste Antwoord 21
    Right-of-center
 
 

8 thoughts on “Summertime

  1. Do you think the movement of magnetic north from Canada to Russia has anything to do with climate change as that has a big impact on the earth. Earth’s tilt hasn’t changed?
    A survey in 2007 by a Canadian–French international collaboration determined that the North Magnetic Pole was moving approximately north-northwest at 55 km per year. According to the latest IGRF, the Pole is currently moving in the same direction but at a slightly reduced speed of about 45 km per year.

    Was this another Putin plot to steal Santa Claus? LOL

  2. As you said , if one does not suffer psycho , narco or alco , then they give you your basic welfare grant and tell you to sleep outside where you are bound to be fined for that and by the 3rd time you will go to jail. Meanwhile the psychos et al are housed in the Salvation Army and other buildings every nigh throughout winter , hot food and drinks , clothing and washing and laundry, while you , the sober one , clean of mind and heart , get to sleep outside at subzero and if its not freezing then its raining. I endured that one season only and swore to myself never again. So every autumn I would hunt for a cheap 6 month return ticket to Cancun or Africa and stretch whatever I had left for 6 months while winter in Europe. I would do management of the Tulum Spider Monkey Sanctuary for free just to get food and a place to sleep , Then off back to Holland in spring and the same happened again and again for 20 years. Then came Covid and I got evacuated from Belize back to Holland and then after 9 months I got a flat in South Holland . This time they included the homeless of sober habits into a private Hostel and gave us priority housing. So the past winter was wonderful and warm . As an ex South African (first generation) , I know what to expect in Holland with this massive influx of Moslems et al. But as you said, when I tell and warn them I am racist. Im proud to be a racialist and I believe the Dutch and all other monocultures must be smashed to pieces before they regroup and , after coming to their senses, fight the enemy within till death.
    Stay close to your friends , but even closer to your enemy.

    • As of now , the Dutch are still living too comfortable and are still in nappies when it comes to forming a strong resistance , whether legal or underground. The Morrocan Drug Gangs are prolific as well as others . they all have weapons. The native Dutch none. Time will tell, and it doesnt look good. Our birth rate is 0,8 and their birth rates are 4,2 . So in 15 years time , with the non-dutch population and demographics , we will be a minority below 50 % , and that is not counting the present influx of refugees and their children still to be born in the next 15 years.
      Things truly look bright for Europe , hey!

      • Thank god for nerve agents. And that islamists prefer to congregate in ethnic and religious ghettos.

        Should the will and the intestinal fortitude ever be found by decision makers it will matter not what the birthrate of the orcs is.

        • A fight to the bitter end is inevitable. But, first, the worse the better.

          Priority housing and benefits for foreigners and my having to sleep outside . . . what? . . . would light me up like a Roman candle, but that’s just me.

          I’ve watched Europeans reject opportunity after opportunity after opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to vote in nationalist, white, anti-primitive parties but the Dark Force is strong and voters choose fairy tales, lies, and feebleness told by their contemptible political and financial class. Everrryy bleeding time.

          The party girl in charge in Finland is emblematic of the childishness of Europeans. Party hearty even if it makes you look like a dissolute ass.

    • Mike, why don’t you live back in South Africa? Your skills could be used when the electrical grid goes down, well except in the western part of the country run by the Boers that is expanding and more whites are going to by the day.

  3. So the Cabinet’s foot-dragging has resulted in a Rutte on the road to solutions to Holland’s problems. So now the ‘solutions’ are being poured out on the road which are only making the Rutte deeper.
    BTW, as for climate change, but no folding money, the Pacific Ocean was the coldest that it has been in almost 50 years. When the ocean is cold water does not evaporate to form the clouds that bring rain. The Little Ice Age, which ended in 1850 according to some, lasted almost 1,000 years and destroyed the southwestern United States and the northwestern area of Mexico and wiped out three Indian tribes that we know of and possibly several more. A warmer planet with more carbon dioxide is what is needed for food growth that would meet the needs of our present population levels, that is of course a well-fed and prosperous planet is what is wanted.
    Psst..the greens don’t like people, they only like trees, so a cold ice-covered planet is better.

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