The big econ benefit of the EU are in “free trade” — the lack of which is a key reason the US Articles of Confederation failed. Among the college educated, the vast majority “speak English”, or at least studied it for years and passed tests.

All “countries” are full of, or at least have many, people who are proud of their countries. For what people of their ethnic identity have done, good things. By imperfect people, but with good intentions and good results.

No big “nationalist” change in Slovakia, a bit on the contrary because as one nationalist party has been rising, the ruling socialists have been caught in corruption scandals, so the “Progressives”, more secular humanists, have won a small plurality among the 30+ parties running — only 6 of which passed the 5% threshold, including my KDH (Christian Democrats) but not the other two Christian parties, who don’t like the new KDH leader, since he’s a bit controversial and willing to do publicity stunts. If Brexit happens, Slovakia gets 14 seats, and KDH will get one more — the algorithm for deciding was bad so SAS, with a few less votes, got 2 reps now, and KDH only 1.

Algorithms are boring, but often very very important.

https://www.election-results.eu/national-results/slovakia/2019-2024/
These results at the bottom show some of the European groups, tho not yet “nationalists”.

The good news is that they are getting really impatient and they are seriously overplaying their hand. Just look at the last decade in the U.S. The sheer contempt and even hatred that the left has for the people they disagree with could not be more evident if they were wearing armbands and goose-stepping around.

I get the impression that their hysteria has a very strong parallel to certain events in the 20th century, except this hopefully people will see it coming and head it off. We can’t count on the young, or the media-besotted, but knowledgeable people like Neo and the commenters here can hopefully get the word out. The cultural war isn’t so cold any more, but there’s hope we can keep it from getting hot.

Only the Italian region voted against the new restrictions. My guess is that there was an economic threat connected to a failure to approve.

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I hate to tell Mr. Cohen, but their adventure with the EU has brought them neither power nor influence. Call me starry-eyed, but I have an idea that the Brits, if they can just check the socialist elements among them, will get along just fine.

P.S. Somebody tell T.Friedman to go see what it’s like to live in China. Excerpt from a posting at

https://bigthink.com/stephen-johnson/a-look-at-chinas-orwellian-plan-to-give-every-citizen-a-social-credit-score :

Some citizens have already suffered punishment, such as Chinese journalist Liu Hu, who discovered he was banned from flying because his name was on a list of “untrustworthy people”. In 2013, Liu was arrested for defamation after publishing posts that were highly critical of government officials, a crime for which he was ordered to apologize. The court found his apology insincere.

“I can’t buy property. My child can’t go to a private school,” he told CBS. “You feel you’re being controlled by the list all the time.”

Other potential punishments for low-score citizens could include slower internet speeds, restricted access to businesses, and being prohibited from entering certain professions.

A massive network of surveillance cameras will also help to record and measure citizen behavior. It’s estimated that China has 176 million surveillance cameras in operation now, with plans to more than double that by 2020. The stated goal of this surveillance infrastructure is to deter criminals, but so far there seems to be no crime too small to punish. For instance, Chinese officials in Fuzhou have been publishing the names of jaywalkers, and it’s been reported that citizens might soon be punished for being seen smoking in non-smoking areas or driving poorly.

If it sounds like Orwellian doublespeak to hear the Chinese government say the plan will foster a “sincere” and “mutually helpful social atmosphere,” you’re not alone.

The story of Liu Hu is all over the Internet.