Tag: Angela Merkel

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U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Iran Sanctions Snapback, America’s Energy Competition with Russia in the EU, Chancellor Merkel U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell occupies one of the most critical positions in American diplomacy, not only because Germany represents the EU’s largest economy and has disproportionate influence on the continent, but because of […]

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Dennis Prager on the Self-Righteously Suicidal West and False Morality

 

For this week’s Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had nationally syndicated radio host, columnist, author of numerous books, teacher, film producer and co-founder of PragerU, Dennis Prager, on the podcast to discuss among other things:

  • How Dennis Prager ended up a conservative as an Ivy League-educated Jewish intellectual from Brooklyn, New York — contrary to so many of his peers
  • How perceptions of human nature divide Left and Right
  • Whether government has filled the void of religion for the increasingly secular and progressive American coasts
  • How the good intentions that underlie Leftist policy prescriptions lead to horrendous outcomes — and emotion versus reason on the Left and Right
  • The false morality underlying European immigration policy with respect to the Muslim world, and Prager’s criticism of Jewish support of mass immigration consisting disproportionately of Jew-haters
  • The self-righteous suicidalism of the West
  • The Leftist bias of social media platforms and PragerU’s legal battle with YouTube/Google

You can find the episode on iTunes, everywhere else podcasts are found, download the episode directly here or read the transcript here.

The good news for Angela Merkel is to be re-elected to a fourth term as German chancellor. The bad news is fashioning a working coalition of political parties divided over taxes, immigration, and climate policy. Hoover Institution senior fellow Russell Berman examines the options available to Germany’s chancellor, including any changes to her roles on the European and world stages.

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It’s really coming to a head isn’t it? The demographics/immigration drama that has been playing out for the last few decades. Two things happened this last week that didn’t change the situation on the ground at all, but were symbolic indicators that such change may be coming. First, Steve King’s “other peoples’ babies” tweet. The […]

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The News York Post is breathlessly reporting that President Donald Trump and German PM Angela Merkle did not shake hands during their photo op.   I admit that I grew up in the Dark Ages when men were men and women were women (no cross-overs acknowledged).  So did The Donald.  We were taught that it […]

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My first experience of German elections here in Berlin has been beyond confusing. While trying to understand what’s going on around me (with very limited German language skills) I’ve come to realize the parties involved are probably just as confused as I am. Some quick facts for those not well acquainted with German politics…Tomorrow Berliners […]

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Europe’s Refugees, One Year On

 
Refugees-welcome-Aufkleber_Hamburg-Horn

Image Credit: GeoTrinity – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

A nation possessed of a strong economy and a confident society can absorb a great many immigrants, especially if those immigrants chose their new home at least as much as they escaped their old one. In contrast, a nation with relatively little opportunity and a deep identity crisis will struggle to integrate newcomers, especially if those immigrants fled conflict for any place that’s reasonably safe. Just a little past the one-year anniversary of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy that admitted more than 1,000,000 migrants/refugees into Germany — and many more to the rest of Europe — we’re seeing this play out in real time.

Angela Merkel Doesn’t Think That’s Funny

 

merkel burqaOne time my husband and I were having a fabulous dinner with friends — he from France, she American. We laughed about everything all night long, until someone made a joke about food. Our Frenchman instantly sobered up. “Food,” he said reprovingly, “is not funny.” Which of course caused the rest of us even greater hilarity.

Mark Steyn has a blistering, brilliant essay on the case of the German satirist facing a criminal inquiry from the German government (at the request of the Ottoman Empire Turkish government) for making a joke about a goat and Recep Erdogan:

A free society does not threaten a guy with years in gaol for writing a poem. If you don’t know that that’s wrong, you should just cut to the chase and appoint yourself mutasarrıfa of Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman sanjak of Berlin.

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I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen any discussion of Time’s Person of the Year. Perhaps this is because many here at Ricochet were unaware Time is still being published. So, they went with a person of the year who leads Germany and isn’t Hitler. Good for them. But why do you think […]

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The European Union is Imperilled by Elites Who Ignore Legitimate Problems

 

shutterstock_55503436Both the Euro Crisis (brought to the fore again by the recent Greek elections) and the anti-Islamic marches (originating in Germany but now moving around Europe) highlight two key problems facing Europe today: currency woes and immigration.

Let’s take the monetary crisis first. There are two competing narratives about who is to blame. One is that it’s Northern Europe’s (most conspicuously, Germany’s) fault for being too hard-working, productive, and thrifty. They keep their government spending in check and the people work hard enough to afford their social spending. In contrast, the Southern European countries—most conspicuously, Greece—are lazy, unproductive, and profligate. They produce very little but enjoy extravagant social programs courtesy of the German taxpayers. In order to fix their own predicament, the Greeks need to work harder and start living within their means.

The other narrative is that the Eurozone is a currency scheme set up for the benefit of the Germans. Germany is an export machine that needs to keep its currency down in order to maximize exports. By shackling its money to that of its weaker neighbours, it ensures that its own currency is weaker than it would be if it still had the deutsche mark, enabling it to export more. Moreover, because the currency of weaker economies is higher than it would otherwise be, Southern Europeans can buy more German goods than they could if all they had were liras and drachmas. So now the Greeks are told to cut government spending by the Germans because they bought too many Audis.

Why Europe is No Help, Or, Okay, Now What?

 

Even if President Obama demonstrated an appetite for imposing serious sanctions on Russia, it’s not at all clear that the European Union would support him. Why? From the London Spectator:

[T]he gaping rift between the EU and America stands exposed. The Washington hawks gained almost no traction in western Europe, where there was little appetite for conflict. Even if Russia didn’t supply a third of Europe’s oil and gas, other commercial ties still bind. EU trade with Russia was £280 billion in 2012. America’s total was a twelfth of that, little of it in hydrocarbons. No wonder the hawks have been frustrated that the EU won’t do more.