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Opinion

Does Scottish gov’t turmoil signal the end of the ‘green’ agenda’s stranglehold on Europe?

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Former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf

From LifeSiteNews

By Frank Wright

‘Green’ politics is now understood as a campaign for electoral and national suicide. With the coming European elections the writing is on the wall for globalist ‘progressives’ across the continent.

The First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, quit on live television on April 29, following the collapse of his left/Green Party coalition government. A power sharing agreement between his bizarrely named Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Greens was broken over the SNP’s retreat on Net Zero commitments.

Despite his camera savvy assertions, Yousaf’s departure has nothing to do with either duty or principle, which he stressed in the speech announcing his resignation. It is the result of a feared public backlash against higher taxes, over-regulation, and the madness of progressive “green” policies which prefigures a European political realignment.

READ: Net Zero’s days are numbered? Why Europeans are souring on the climate agenda

Yousaf’s coalition with the Greens fell apart because his SNP had recognized that the extreme Net Zero agenda was unrealistic, and could deliver only electoral suicide. The SNP under Yousaf had abandoned its “decarbonization targets” in early April, with Green co-leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie describing Yousaf’s attempts to ditch extremely unpopular policies as “an act of political cowardice” and a “betrayal.”

As a result, the Greens withdrew support from the SNP, which fell one seat short of a majority in 2021. A new deal with a new leader is unlikely, and the chaos spells doom for the SNP with an election coming this year. The SNP remains in power – for the time being – albeit in a minority government.

Wider lessons for globalist ‘greens’

The lesson from Scotland is that the liberal parties of Europe face electoral meltdown. A recent report from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) warned of a “sharp right turn” following EU elections in June:

Inside the European Parliament, a populist right coalition of Christian democrats, conservatives, and radical right MEPs could emerge with a majority for the first time.

The future spells doom for the doomsayers, it seems, with the globalist agenda under severe threat. The existence of the globalist EU itself may be threatened, with Unherd saying in December that this decade may be the EU’s last.

The ECFR report continued:

This ‘sharp right turn’ is likely to have significant consequences for European-level policies, which will affect the foreign policy choices that the EU can make, particularly on environmental issues, where the new majority is likely to oppose ambitious EU action to tackle climate change.

Germany next?

The SNP’s partnership in power with the “green” zealots mirrors that of the government of Europe’s former economic and industrial powerhouse, Germany.

The crisis-hit Scholz administration relies on the support of a Green party whose policies have not only devastated the economy with deindustrializationlockdown debt, and soaring energy prices, but have also, as in Scotland, advanced a raft of extremist “progressive” issues, such as the promotion of the “trans” movement, opposition to border and immigration control, with both Green parties pursuing policies strongly resented by the public.

Greens Go Further! Green Party campaign leaflet, Berlin, 2021

Scotland’s Greens sought to ban wood-burning stoves, and Germany’s Greens were met with similar outrage with their decision to ban gas-fired central heating, and mandate the use of heat pumps. Yet the money for the subsidies required has run out – as “green” policies have helped to destroy the economy.

The Greens succeeded in closing the last of Germany’s nuclear power stations in August 2023, but the policy of replacing home heating which works with an expensive alternative that does not, was met with widespread opposition.

As a result, it is not just heat pump sales that have plummeted in Germany, but the sales pitch of the international “green” lobby.

Faced with defeat in the European elections, which the ECFR blames on “national parties start[ing] to respond to the changing opinions of their voters,” many parties of the liberal establishment are rowing back on Net Zero commitments – as well as on other issues beloved of the shock-haired shock troops of “progress.”

The face of globalist progressives

The co-leader of the Scottish Greens is Patrick Harvie, whose social media accounts notify readers that his pronouns are he/him.

The causes he supports are an object lesson in how Net Zero is not the only crazy agenda aggressively pushed by the Greens, whose policy platform is increasingly seen as electorally toxic. He is a self-described member of the so-called “LGBTQ+ community,” identifying as “bisexual.”

Like many progressive fanatics, he strongly supports the futile and avoidable destruction of the population and nation of Ukraine.

Here he is in 2020, championing the prescription of hormones and surgery to sexualized children as “trans healthcare.”

Naturally, he repeatedly describes Christians with disdain, labelling the Christian Institute as a “hate group.” The institute “campaigns for “the furtherance and promotion of the Christian religion in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.”

As Britain’s Telegraph reported, explaining the background to the collapse of Yousaf’s SNP-Green coalition:

Harvie’s determination to indulge his permanently-angry purple-haired activists even at the expense of the Scottish Government’s credibility was probably the last straw for many senior SNP ministers, if not for Yousaf himself.

Harvie is a strong advocate of abortion. He and his party describe the reminder that the lives of unborn children have value as “misinformation and intimidation,” as they seek to afford “dignity and privacy” to women killing their children, “as they are at every other medical procedure.”

SPUC, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, pointed out that the measure to legally enforce “buffer zones” around abortion facilities was “opposed by 70 percent” of the Scottish public.

The Greens in Scotland, as in Germany, vehemently oppose any attempt to control mass migration – however weak and belated.

The Greens have also refused to alter their stance on the now discredited notion of “gender affirming care” for children.

Against scientific advice, the Greens prefer to support the views of the “trans community,” saying “lived experience” is a better guide to reality than the clinical evidence that prescribing hormones and surgery to confused children is wrong, and causes irreversible harm.

The U.K.’s Cass Review, published in mid-April, cited a lack of “evidence based guidelines,” noting that pro-transgender organizations such as WPATH had exerted considerable influence in the adoption of the Dutch Pathway – a template which resulted in rapid access to hormones and surgery including for children.

Cass said in her introduction, “Although some think the clinical approach should be based on a social justice model, the NHS works in an evidence-based way.”

The rejection of the fast track to “puberty blockers” mirrors a similar preference for evidence-based decisions in Western electorates.

The Godless, nation-wrecking policies of national suicide have produced enough evidence of the motives, methods, and monumental disaster of the globalist Green agenda. It is anti-natalist, pro-open borders, anti-family, and seeks to promote the sexual distortion of the lives of what few children we still have. In a final irony, is also destroying the economic prosperity on whose subsidies it relies for its own survival.

Happily, “green” politics is now understood as a campaign for electoral as well as national suicide. This realization has spelled the end of the appalling Scottish coalition government, and with the coming European elections the writing is on the wall for globalist “progressives” across the continent.

Humza Yousaf’s left/Green government was just the first Green-backed coalition which has ended in disaster. It will not be the last. For the reality based community, the best news is yet to come.

International

Bongino announces FBI will release files on COVID cover up, Mar-a-Lago Raid and more

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Quick Hit:

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced that the bureau will begin releasing information on a number of controversial investigations long shielded from public view.

Key Details:

  • Bongino said the FBI is clearing information on high-profile cases, including COVID, Crossfire Hurricane, and the Trump Mar-a-Lago raid.
  • The bureau is actively working with the DOJ on releasing Epstein case details and cracking down on child sexual abuse content.
  • Bongino dismissed media attacks on FBI Director Kash Patel as “verifiable lies” and accused the press of fabricating stories.

Diving Deeper:

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino disclosed on Saturday that the bureau will begin releasing information previously kept under tight wraps, including cases that many Americans believe were swept under the rug for political or institutional protection.

Bongino, a former NYPD officer, Secret Service agent, and outspoken conservative commentator, took to X to announce that his office has already started cooperating with Congress and the public by providing long-requested information. Among the cases he cited: the attempted assassination of Rep. Steve Scalise, the Nashville Christian school shooting, the Crossfire Hurricane probe, and the COVID-19 origins and cover-up.

“This isn’t business as usual anymore,” Bongino wrote. “We’re clearing information to Congress, and the public, as quickly as possible.”

One of the most politically explosive revelations relates to the FBI’s handling of the Mar-a-Lago raid, an unprecedented move to search the home of the sitting president’s top political opponent, President Donald Trump. Bongino’s announcement signals that internal communications and case files may soon be scrutinized by congressional investigators and the public alike.

Bongino also confirmed that the agency is working closely with the DOJ on the Epstein case, noting the overwhelming volume of child sexual abuse material that must be reviewed. He emphasized that protecting children remains a core mission of the FBI under his and Director Kash Patel’s leadership.

“Operation ‘Restoring Justice,’ where we locked up child predators and 764 subjects, in every part of the country, is just the beginning,” he wrote. “Think twice if you’ve targeted children, because you’re next.”

The deputy director didn’t hold back in pushing back against media reports that characterized Patel’s leadership as unserious or performative. “The media continue to entirely fabricate stories,” Bongino wrote, describing reports about Patel skipping briefings and attending sports events as “a verifiable lie.”

He defended Patel’s work ethic, noting that the FBI director routinely works 10–12 hour days and meets with top counter-terror officials and global law enforcement partners.

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Health

Trump signs executive order aiming to slash prescription drug costs up to 90%

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From The Center Square

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“Most powerful executive order on pharmacy pricing and health care ever in the history of our nation.”

President Donald Trump hosted a press conference with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and other health administration officials Monday morning formally announcing an executive order aiming to drastically reduce what Americans pay for their prescription drugs up to 90%, according to Trump.

The order seeks to reform how much the U.S. pays for pharmaceutical drugs compared to other countries. On average, Americans pay nearly four times more than other countries for their prescription drugs, effectively subsidizing pharmaceutical companies’ research and development costs for others around the world, according to the administration.

The order was immediately met with skepticism by some critics.

“If Trump is serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release, he will support legislation I will introduce to ensure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., posted on X after the press conference, touting his own legislation and saying Trump’s order will be “thrown out by the courts.”

“If we come together, we can get it passed in a few weeks,” Sanders said.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner and Johns Hopkins surgical oncologist Marty Makary was one of the officials who spoke at the press conference Monday morning.

“We didn’t take an oath to heal patients and then watch their life get ruined financially with their home, mortgage, retirement going down the drain with Go Fund Me campaigns, raising money from church communities and synagogues and friends they haven’t seen in 20 years to try to raise money – for what?” said Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary.

“For a system where Americans have been getting ripped off by 10, 12, 15 times higher prices than we see in other countries?”

Makary and others said the “fundamental problem” with American prescription drug costs is a lack of competition in the global marketplace, with Americans comprising only about 4% of the global population but supplying at least two-thirds of drug companies’ revenue globally.

“The fundamental problem in health care is that we’ve had non-competitive markets,” Makary continued. “We can do little things around the edges, or we can transform those markets into competitive markets, and that’s what this executive order does.”

The order intends to secure the “most-favored-nation” price for pharmaceutical drugs for the U.S., or the lowest price among its economic peer countries, through a series of actions. It instructs the U.S. secretary of commerce and the U.S. trade representative to “ensure” that other countries aren’t engaging in practices that “[force] American patients to pay for a disproportionate amount of global pharmaceutical research and development.” Kennedy is to work in coordination with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz and others to develop most-favored-nation target pricing for pharmaceutical companies. It also directs Kennedy to devise direct-to-consumer purchasing programs for drug companies that abide by the president’s most-favored-nation pricing mandate for the U.S.

Oz called the order the “most powerful executive order on pharmacy pricing and health care ever in the history of our nation.”

If drug companies don’t comply, then the order directs Kennedy to create a rulemaking plan to impose the targeted pricing, or certify to Congress that the U.S. can import the drugs that remain too expensive under certain importation waivers. Certain drugs may even have their FDA approvals revoked by Makary.

Kennedy said some politicians, including Sanders, have been promising to “equalize” what the U.S. and Europe pay for pharmaceutical drugs for years, while knowing they can’t deliver on the promise because of the deep entanglement between the pharmaceutical industry and Congress. And even though he too has been promising to do something about the issue for years, he didn’t think he would see a solution emerge in his lifetime.

“I’m just so grateful to be here today. I never thought this would happen in my lifetime,” Kennedy said. “I have a couple of kids who are Democrats, who are big Bernie Sanders fans. When I told them what was going to happen, they had tears in their eyes, because they thought this was never going to happen in our lifetime.”

Kennedy and the other health administration officials who spoke praised the president for being willing to stand up to the industry and its powerful lobby, which has one to three times as many lobbyists in Washington as there are members of Congress and the Supreme Court, according to Kennedy.

“We finally have a president who’s willing to stand up for the American people,” Kennedy said.

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