Wow

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2023

With something this draconian, this beyond all comprehension, I guess “Wow” is about all you can say, huh?

Holy smokes.

But it’s for real.

The European Commission on Tuesday said it had approved two Dutch plans worth a combined 1.47 billion euros ($1.61 billion) to buy out livestock farmers to reduce nitrogen pollution, saying they are permissible under state aid rules.

The Dutch need to reduce excess nitrogen levels, caused in part by decades of intensive farming, a problem that has led to courts blocking important construction projects until the issue is resolved.

I mean, even Reuters is calling them “schemes.”

…In the schemes approved by the European Union’s executive body on Tuesday, the Netherlands reserved the money to compensate farmers who voluntarily close farms located near nature reserves.

And it is a “scheme” between the EU and the Dutch government, which knows it’s in real trouble with its citizens (witness the stunning farmers’ party gains in March) and had better ram this through before another election throws them out of power. Where the skullduggery and collusion comes in between the EU and Dutch government is the language in this agreement. The EU is allowing the Dutch to offer up to 120% of a farm’s value, an over-valuation that would normally be considered an “illegal government incentive.” They’ve come up with a semantics workaround or trade-off by demanding that farmers who take the “offer” then agree to be banned from farming forever in Europe. And the “voluntarily give up their farms” is a hoot because there’s no “voluntarily” about it. It’s an offer so good you can’t refuse because they are taking your farm, one way or the other.

Odd those particular details haven’t made any of the wire services reports.

The EU has given the Dutch government the green light to buy out 3000 #DutchFarmers offering them 120% of the market value, ‘incentivising’ them to sell ‘voluntary’ (if they don’t, they’ll be expropriated later).

Oh, and they won’t be allowed to start over elsewhere in the EU. pic.twitter.com/iuj220PEjK

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) May 2, 2023

The situation is certainly grim, with all the forces of the WEF, EU, and government arrayed against the initial 3000 Dutch farmers slated to be eliminated.

…It forms part of the Hague’s wider strategy for slashing nitrogen emissions in half by 2030 to comply with EU targets.

On Tuesday, the European Commission approved the Dutch government’s proposals under the bloc’s state aid rules.

Brussels ruled that the buy-outs would not give farmers who receive them an unfair leg-up against international competitors on the Single Market and thus violate EU regulations.

Justifying the move earlier this year, Christianne van der Wal, minister of nature and nitrogen policy, said that the Netherlands had to cut nitrogen emissions from farms to build new housing and produce green energy.

“There will first have to be nitrogen cuts before there is room for new development such as new houses and sustainable energy investments. It is our economic lockdown,” she said.

“My message is not the message [farmers] want to hear.”

She has previously described the scheme as “wildly attractive”.

How does a once sovereign nation reach a point in self-abasement where it allows unelected bureaucrats in a building somewhere to dictate whether they can continue to be absolutely the most efficient and innovative providers of sustainable agriculture in the world? To be able to enforce punitive measures like building moratoriums if the Dutch don’t “comply”? How they allow some smug creature in an office to economically “lock-down” your country, while smugly dismissing the ghastly and devastating effects of imposing their climate insanity on your own citizens, without any push-back at all blows my mind.

Lapdogs. Globalist lapdogs.

EU approves Dutch plan to buy out farmers for 100-120% of what the gov't says farms are worth.

What will the farmers do then? Who will feed the Dutch?

Learning nothing from Sri Lanka, the EU goal is to cut fertilizer use 50% by 2030.

Disaster looms.https://t.co/1l6mMod7Vu

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) May 3, 2023

Considering Dutch farmers produce and export far more than they consume, the short-sighted, arrogant diktats of the Brussels aristocrats seem incomprehensible and most assuredly ill-advised. You truly have to wonder if the EU commissioners have any notion of where Europe’s food comes from, less mind what feeds the rest of the world.

This exercise in the unbridled power of an unelected bureaucracy should chill every American to the bones. This is exactly where Democrats and Progressives are dragging us.

"Democracy is pretty much dead."@EvaVlaar on the EU overlords screwing over Dutch farmers.

Watch The Mark Steyn Show here: https://t.co/PVV5kYsHI0 pic.twitter.com/iank0lPxoY

— Mark Steyn (@MarkSteynOnline) May 3, 2023

There might still be a chance of the people revolting. The wins of this past March do provide a ray of hope glimmering in the distance.

…“I also highly doubt that prohibiting them to start over elsewhere in the EU is even legal. The whole idea of the EU was supposed to be about freedom of movement and freedom of workers. This is some next-level USSR stuff,” [Eva] Vlaardingerbroek added.

The plan to shut down thousands of farms is by no means a done deal, however, given that it would need to be managed mostly at the provincial level. This may be complicated for the fledgling Rutte government as the upstart tractor protest backing Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) party not only became the single largest party in the Dutch Senate in March but also one of the largest parties at the provincial level where many of the farms are located.

There have also been some cracks within Rutte’s coalition, with the CDA party expressing doubt over the general nitrogen emission crackdown following the surprise victory of the BBB party.

Amazing how politicians are all about stomping all over people in the name of the latest idea until the people start stomping back and those cushy government jobs are threatened.