Leader: Democracy is government by the people
Politicians and leading media in Sweden seem to understand less of what democracy really is. Democracy is greek and means government by the people. Democratic basic values say that Britain should leave the EU as the British people so have decided. Those opposing to Brexit are really enemies of democracy. The EU has also been critical to democratic decisions taken by the Polish and Hungarian peoples.
Alternative media gaining market shares. C G Holm interviews Mikael Willgert
Taxes support public service media (three companies controlled by the Swedish government) with almost 1 billion dollars a year. But the number of viewers and listeners are declining. Instead commercial cable companies like Netflix and Viaplay are taking market shares as are small alternative media, basically distributing via the internet. These alternative media outlets concentrate on quality and seriousness. Contra interviews one of the leaders in the market, Mikael Willgert at SwebbTV.
The Public inheritance fund by Helge Eyser
In 1928 Swedish law abolished the right for cousins to inherit. Instead money from estates without close relations and without wills were forwarded to the Public Inheritance Fund, which used to give money to the education of young people. Now much of the money is allocated to more or less political organizations and some have been allocated to violent islamists.
Islamists behind a majority of terrorist crimes by C G Holm
Every month approximately 1,000 people are killed in approximately 250 acts of terrorism. Contra has analyzed the excellent summary of terrorist acts available on the Wikipedia.
Wind power is dangerous – Part two by Filip Björner
December 24 2015 a windmill weighing 400 tons fell to the ground in the village of Lemnhult, the mill was one of 32 in the largest windmill park in Sweden. The accident was in no way unique. Contra asks what dangers are connected to wind power. Here we publish the second article summarizing windpower accidents.
Wildfires in Brazil by C G Holm
The Brazilian people was fed up with corrupt leftist politicians and elected a pentecostalist right-wing military officer as President, Jair Bolsonaro. Immediately leftist media and leftist politicans around the globe attacked the new President. It is hard for leftists to accept that the outcome of democracy is the choice of the people, and not what they would like to see. During this summer Brazil and its president have been attacked for wildfires in the Amazon despite the fact that the number of fires are lower than in the years of 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. And the number is lower than in Africa. But in Africa there are no libertarian presidents to blame.
Putin’s Russia challenging the West by Tommy Hansson
Putin’s Russia is a country not easily classfied according to traditional criteria. The Moscow regime could be decribed as a bybrid between Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. Putinism is not only a political and military challenge to the West, but also an ideological challenge.
On climate (book reviews)
Three new books dealing with the climate are reviewed. All three are critical against excessive alarmism. The professor in dynamic meteorology Lennart Bengtsson has written the book Vad händer med klimatet (What about climate?). Elsa Widding has worked both in the government office and in two of the three major Swedish energy companies. She was fed up by fake information on the climate, quit her job and started to write Klimatkarusellen, vilka frågor kan besvaras? (what can we say about the climate?). Finally the geologist Gregory Wrightstone describes the facts in diagrams and figures in his book The science that Al Gore doesn’t want you to know.