One of the more infuriating character traits possessed by the globalist progressive elite is a willful contempt for cause and effect. And in both the EU and the United States, that contempt is producing tragic and deadly results.

We begin with European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker. “Borders are the worst invention ever made by politicians,” he stated during a globalist-promoting speech at the Alpbach European Forum in Austria. “Solidarity must be given to refugees and their children.” Juncker also bemoaned nationalism, insisting that “we have the duty not to follow populists but to block the avenue of populists.”

In other words, globalist elitists know best, and the will of ordinary people who cling to “quaint” notions of national sovereignty and democracy must be thwarted.

Juncker, like so many of his arrogant fellow travelers, firmly believes there is no downside to multiculturalism, as in the idea that all cultures have equal merit and viability. For them, the difference between a democratic republic and a totalitarian theocracy is little more than a semantical distinction. One, for example, that can apparently be overcome by sufficient amounts of Muslim “refugee” immigration, and the inevitable assimilation elitists firmly believe will occur as a result of good intentions.

Not exactly. In the Bodensee district in the Baden-Wurttemberg state of Germany, young girls who wish to swim at public pools are being issued temporary tattoos spelling out the word “NO” following a number of sex attacks. Sex attacks that Women’s and Family district representative Veronika Wascher-Goggerle insists have nothing to do with Muslim “immigrants” and their culture, but rather the insecurity of the girls for whom tattoos “are an incentive for young swimmers to think about the issue.”

Think about what, exactly? This “solution” is reminiscent of the progressive hashtag campaign #BringBackOurGirls that allowed a lot of celebrities and the first lady to express their concern about the kidnapping of hundreds of girls by the Boko Haram — even as it did absolutely nothing to bring them back. Of the predominant traits shared by leftist elitists across the globe, none is more enduring than the idea that good intentions trump disastrous results.

Disastrous results that will never directly affect them.

Thus in France, a number of outdoor festivals and sporting events have been canceled this summer, due to fears of yet another terrorist attack, and France’s inability to provide sufficient security. Moreover, “Islamist attacks have scared off thousands of tourists from Paris and its top attractions, helping rob the French capital of about 750 million euros ($850 million) in revenues” Reuters reported. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault believes a “financial relief plan” of $1.5 million Euros to promote the nation as a tourist destination will get things back on track.

Seven terror attacks in 18 months, claiming just under 230 lives, suggest otherwise.

Such progressive elitist fecklessness afflicts the United States as well. “U.S. citizens traveling to Iran should very carefully weigh the risks of travel and consider postponing their travel,” said a warning from the State Department issued this week. “U.S. citizens residing in Iran should closely follow media reports, monitor local conditions, and evaluate the risks of remaining in the country.”

Why the warning? To “highlight the risk of arrest and detention of U.S. citizens, particularly dual national Iranian-Americans,” the State Department explained. “Foreigners, in particular dual nationals of Iran and Western countries including the United States, continue to be detained or prevented from leaving Iran.”

Unfortunately the warning came too late for American Gholamreza Shahini, who was allegedly detained for his participation in the 2009 Green Revolution, collaborating on a TV interview with the U.S. State Department-backed Voice of America, and blasphemy for “insulting the revered” on Facebook, according to a soon-to-be-released indictment by Iran’s Revolutionary Court. He joins two other Americans, a Canadian woman, and two Britons who have also been detained since the beginning of the year.

The beginning of the year was when the Obama administration paid Iran $1.7 billion, of which at least $400 million was cash, even as they insisted it was not a ransom for the four Americans released at exactly the same time. Unsurprisingly, the New York Times knows what “really happened was this: President Obama announced the $400 million payment along with the release of the Americans in January, the day that the nuclear deal was implemented.” In other words, the resolution of a 37-year-old dispute and the release of prisoners negotiated by separate teams who both reported to the State Department was a coincidence. This despite the reality State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted it was “correct” to state the administration would not give Iran the money until the prisoners were released.

And now, the “most transparent administration in history” is stonewalling a congressional inquiry regarding how the additional $1.3 billion was delivered to the Ayatollahs. Nonetheless, investigative reporter Claudia Rosett has discovered another astounding coincidence: “Congressional investigators trying to uncover the trail of $1.3 billion in payments to Iran might want to focus on 13 large, identical sums that Treasury paid to the State Department under the generic heading of settling ‘Foreign Claims.’”

One thing is certain: Iran has perceived the initiative as a ransom payment, and has acted accordingly. And while the Obama administration can continue denying the obvious, the travel warning is blatant acknowledgment of inconvenient cause and effect.

Still worse progressive-enabled cause and effect? “Nearly 700 inmates have been released from Gitmo, and more than 200 have returned to the fight or are suspected of doing so, according to the Director of National Intelligence,” reveals House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX). “And that’s just who we know about.”

What’s worse than giving hardened terrorists a chance to kill Americans? Giving them additional chances that Obama apparently sees as a “reasonable” tradeoff for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison facility leftists hold in contempt. This absurd cause and effect elicits McCaul’s ultimate question. “What commander in chief lets the enemy return to the fight in the middle of a war?” he asks.

One, like his equally bereft EU counterparts, willing to embrace bankrupt ideology that engenders deadly reality.

The progressive globalist agenda portends an even grimmer future that must be forcefully challenged before Western culture ends up on the ash heap of history.

Overwrought? Muslims are younger than native Europeans and have a greater birthrate. Most support Sharia Law and would love to see it supplant EU law. Leftists who envision a borderless North America say nothing about where constitutional protections begin and end. As Juncker defines the term, the Constitution is a “populist” document. Does it merit the same “blockage” Juncker and his fellow progressives support?

People on both sides of the Atlantic need to thoroughly understand the elitist contempt for the cause and effect they see as nothing more than another impediment to be swept aside in pursuit of their one-world agenda. When an “acceptable” level of chaos and carnage becomes the norm, it will be too late to stop them.