Trump 2.0 - Crash the U.S.

 

Pence's trip just keeps going haywire

Vice President Pence on Thursday met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London and discussed brokering a bilateral trade agreement between the United States and United Kingdom post-Brexit.

Johnson said it would be “fantastic” to deepen economic ties between the two countries but noted that the National Health Service (NHS) would not be up for sale as part of a bilateral trade deal.

Johnson also joked that the U.K. is not “keen on that chlorinated chicken” — referring to the American process of washing chicken in chemicals that is banned in the U.K. — and goaded opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over his opposition to Britain’s plans to leave the European Union.

Pence offered support for Johnson’s plans to exit the EU and described the relationship between the two countries as “historic and special” and “embodied in the very warm and personal relationship that you have forged with President Trump, with myself, and with our administration."

  The Hill

That chlorinated chicken remark could cool the relationship down.

Vice President Pence was greeted by a series of rainbow flags this week as he arrived in Reykjavik to meet with President Guðni Jóhannesson of Iceland.

Pence met with Jóhannesson on Wednesday at Hofdi House, across the street from the IT company Advania, which had lined its entrance with several rainbow flags, according to The Guardian.

And a nearby office housing the headquarters for the Efling trade union swapped out the flags typically flying outside to display rainbow ones.

“We just felt the need to celebrate diversity today and wanted to show that by flying the flags,” Ægir Már Þórisson, Advania’s director, told the news outlet Iceland Monitor.

  The Hill

But that's not all...

Photos of Pence’s meeting with Jóhannesson show the president wearing a rainbow bracelet on his right hand, which was visible when he shook hands with Pence.

Getting the message, Pence?

The most socially advanced country on earth?

Yeah, it's not us.

A new law in Iceland that makes it illegal to pay men more than women has come into effect from Monday, 1 January. One of the key reasons the Nordic island has pushed through the law is that nearly half of its parliamentarians are female lawmakers.

[...]

This is part of Iceland's earlier announcement that the island intends to eradicate the gender pay gap by 2022. According to the World Economic Forum's 2017 Global Gender Gap report, Iceland already has the most gender equity than any other country in the world, a position it has held for nine consecutive years. In the rankings, Iceland is followed by fellow Nordic nations Norway, Finland and Sweden.

  IB Times

Don't fuck with Viking women.

An economy mostly driven by soaring tourism and thriving fisheries, the legislation has found little to no opposition from any corner of the Nordic nation, which already has a law requiring private companies to have at least 40% women on their boards.

Go ahead and make it 50.

Yet, there have also been concerns that Iceland's reputation being at the forefront of gender equality does not fully translate into equal rights for women since the country faces a high number of cases of sexual assault against women. According to the figures of Eurostat, Iceland has one of Europe's highest per-capita levels of reported rapes.

Get on that, Iceland.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Iceland Minister Rats on FBI

The US sent a “planeload of FBI agents” to Iceland in 2011 to frame WikiLeaks and its co-founder Julian Assange, according to a former Icelandic minister of interior, who refused them any cooperation and asked them to cease their activities.

In June 2011, Obama administration implied to Iceland's authorities they had knowledge of hackers wanting to destroy software systems in the country, and offered help, then-Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson, said in an interview with the Katoikos publication.

However, Jonasson said he instantly became “suspicious” of the US good intentions, “well aware that a helping hand might easily become a manipulating hand.”

  RT

The rest of the world knows us so well.

Later in the summer 2011, the US “sent a planeload of FBI agents to Iceland seeking our cooperation in what I understood as an operation set up to frame Julian Assange and WikiLeaks,” Jonasson said.

[...]

“Since they had not been authorized by the Icelandic authorities to carry out police work in Iceland and since a crack-down on WikiLeaks was not on my agenda, to say the least, I ordered that all cooperation with them be promptly terminated and I also made it clear that they should cease all activities in Iceland immediately,” the politician said.

[...]

“If I had to take sides with either WikiLeaks or the FBI or CIA, I would have no difficulty in choosing: I would be on the side of WikiLeaks,” he said.

Should this guy be in a witness protection program?

Jonasson says that while the country debated whether to grant asylum/citizenship to Ed Snowden, “Iceland is part of NATO and such a decision would be strongly objected to by the US.”

Indeed, and with attending consequences.

Here's the entire interview at Katoikos.

When asked how Iceland managed to come through the 2008 financial debacle in decent shape, Jonasson said this:

"Iceland was assertive. Who was to pay for the private debts of the banks, the taxpayers or the investors and capital owners? The British and the Dutch governments tried to force us to make the taxpayer foot the bill, but in the end this was taken to a referendum and the majority of the people said “No, we are not paying”.

[...]

"[I]n times of crisis limits should be place on the extent to which difficulties in the world of finance can be shifted onto the shoulders of the general public. What we did – and this proved to be crucial in saving us from ruin – was to make a clear dividing line between the real economy and the world of speculation. We did not allow the taxpayer to pay for the mistakes of the bondholders.

[...]

"In Iceland the bankers, or “banksters”, as they were often referred to, were prosecuted and held accountable. Many of them are now in prison.

"I’m not joyful about that, but it is important in the eyes of the public that justice should be served."

  Ogmundur Jonasson @ Katoikos

And what about national security in today's world?

"Before meeting security challenges, we must ask why we are facing these challenges. And in seeking the answer we should get hold of some useful working tools: I suggest a mirror."

I like this guy.

The Pirates May Be Running Iceland

The radical Pirate Party, headed by Birgitta Jonsdottir, was asked to form a government with other parties by the country's president, Gudni Johannesson, AP reported Friday, citing the president's office.

The two parties who came first and second in the parliamentary election in late October, the Independence Party and the Left-Greens, respectively, had already held talks to assemble a coalition, but to no avail.

[...]

According to Jonsdottir, the main issues on the agenda for the island nation are health care reforms and fishing rights, which have become sticking points for the lawmakers trying to form a coalition. The country has also suffered from troubles in its economy, after its banks collapsed during the 2008 global financial crisis.

  RT

Just a reminder that our banksters didn't just ruin our own economy.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Go Pirates

The Pirate Party may sound like a novelty political outfit, but this former ragtag bunch of internet activists may be on the verge of winning Iceland's parliamentary elections Saturday.

The party was founded less than four years ago and promises a radical platform.

[...]

Its origins can be found in 2006, when a Julian Assange-style figure named Rick Falkvinge founded the Swedish Pirate Party with the radical agenda of tearing up internet copyright laws.

Falkvinge chose the name as an attempt to take ownership of the term "piracy," which he felt had become an unfair slur against people who shared music and movies online.

Now there are pirate parties in more than 60 countries — although before this weekend none has threatened to take a seat in government.

[...]

Its main aim is to involve Icelanders far more in the country's democracy, shifting power away from what it sees as an unaccountable political elite. To do this, all of its policies are crowd-funded, with members suggesting, debating and voting on each manifesto pledge through an online forum.

[...]

Its members insist that all decisions should be based on evidence — rather than religious or cultural traditions — including their pledge to legalize all drugs. The party wants all government information to be readily available to the public, allowing "the powerless the power to monitor the powerful."

[...]

The majority of polls over the past 18 months have predicted the party will win the most votes on Saturday — a radical pirate victory in the land of the Vikings.

  NBC

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Panama Papers Fallout: Britain PM Cameron in Trouble

Iceland's PM has stepped down after huge public protests in the streets.  I'm pretty sure Cameron won't (and so far, the protest is much smaller),  but let's see.

Live video stream

Story

I Don't Know How This Works

Iceland’s prime minister has resigned after questions were raised about his finances in the “Panama Papers” leaks, a member of the Icelandic government has said.

Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson is the first political figure to step down from office as a result of the scandal; he is expected, however, remain as leader of the Progressive Party.

  Newsweek

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's Sunday

If global warming is going to bring the temps down up there, I'll be considering the move.

Bankster Justice

No, not here, Silly. Iceland.

In stark contrast to the record low number of prosecutions of CEO’s and high-level financial executives in the U.S., Iceland has just sentenced 26 bankers to a combined 74 years in prison.

[...]

The prosecutions are the result of Iceland’s banksters manipulating the Icelandic financial markets after Iceland deregulated their finance sector in 2001. Eventually, an accumulation of foreign debt resulted in a meltdown of the entire banking sector in 2008.

Massive debts were incurred in the name of the Icelandic public, to allow the country to continue to function, which are still being repaid to the IMF and other nations eight years later by the citizens of Iceland. In contrast to the U.S., Iceland has chosen to hold the criminals that manipulated their financial system accountable under the law.

[...]

The majority of those convicted have been sentenced to prison terms of two to five years. The maximum penalty in Iceland for financial crimes is six years, although hearings are currently underway to consider extending the maximum beyond six years.

[...]

In the U.S., not a single banking executive was charged with crimes related to the 2008 financial crisis, even though the U.S. itself precipitated the crisis.

  Raw Story

Too big to jail.

Icelandic President, Olafur Ragnar Grimmson summed it up best in his response when asked how his country recovered from the global financial crisis.

“We were wise enough not to follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies of the Western financial world in the last 30 years. We introduced currency controls, we let the banks fail, we provided support for the people and didn’t introduce austerity measures like you’re seeing in Europe.”

A Snowden Possibility?

The Icelandic Parliament reportedly has a bill that would give Snowden Icelandic citizenship.

  RT

Now THAT would be awesome.

UPDATE:

The proposal to give Snowden Icelandic citizenship received limited support in Parliament on Thursday, the last day before summer recess, with only six members of minority parties in favor out of parliament's 63 members.

Ain't It the Truth?

Icelandic meat inspector Kjartan Hreinsson says his team did not find any horse meat, but one brand of locally produced beef pie left it stumped. It contained no meat at all. "That was the peculiar thing," Hreinsson said in a telephone interview Friday. "It was labeled as beef pie, so it should be beef pie."

This being Iceland, the people responsible will be punished and go to jail, just like all those Icelandic bankers did. By that measure, if you pulled that scam in the United States, you could wind up Secretary Of Agriculture.

  Charlie Pierce