Angela Merkel doesn't blame herself for making Germany dependent on Russian energy, blames the Chancellery plumbers instead

 

Besides Alexander Solzhenitsyn, lots of people in America and elsewhere have been very friendly with Vladimir Putin over the years

 

Germany remains the cause of and the solution to all of Europe's problems: Flip the switch to "On" and Germany's need for Russian gas ends

... in 2010, when Germany was generating more than 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear power plants, Chancellor Angela Merkel extended the phaseout schedule to the mid-2030s. As other politicians had promised in the past, the extension was framed as a “bridge” to help the nation generate cost-effective power until renewables could take over. 

But just a few months later, the Fukushima disaster struck. Germany’s anti-nuclear movement had already been enraged by the phaseout delay; the disaster only fueled their opposition. Germany swiftly closed most of its nuclear reactors and reestablished 2022 as the deadline for the phaseout — called the atomausstieg.

More.

The green ideology in Germany must go, just as Merkel has.

 

 

I'd love to go back to my home country, except things have kind of gone downhill since Neanderthal remains were discovered in 1856

Merkel muss weg!

Merkel did not see that coming

Germany rebuffs Trump, reverses pledge to increase NATO spending as economic growth slowdown looms

Germany Plans to Renege on Pledge to Raise Military Spending, Defying Trump:

The government has yet to endorse the draft, which will be put to the cabinet on Wednesday. It will again approve the final plan in early summer before parliament has the last word.

Yet while this means the figures aren’t cast in stone, an economic slowdown, its expected impact on tax revenues, and the reluctance of both parties in Ms. Merkel’s coalition to fight for unpopular military spending or appear to appease Mr. Trump, make a reversal unlikely.

Trump is Angela Merkel, making the problem worse at the border with irresponsible statements at SOTU address, border deal signing and CPAC encouraging people to come here

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em: Hillary now laughably blames fear of immigrants for her loss, says Europe must curb immigration, thinks the people crave tyranny!

Now we're sure she's a drunk. 

Both Clintons used to say this crap about immigration to America back in ancient times when they ruled in Washington, even as they did NOTHING to reduce the levels of legal immigration into the United States, levels which were dramatically ramped up by their predecessor, George Herbert Walker Bush.

They don't give a damn about Americans. Immigration is only a problem to them because it puts the wrong people in power.

Hillary Clinton: Europe must curb immigration to stop rightwing populists:

“I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,” Clinton said, speaking as part of a series of interviews with senior centrist political figures about the rise of populists, particularly on the right, in Europe and the Americas.

“I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message – ‘we are not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support’ – because if we don’t deal with the migration issue it will continue to roil the body politic.” ...

Clinton urged forces opposed to rightwing populism in Europe and the US not to neglect the concerns about race and identity issues that she says were behind her losing key votes in 2016. She accused Trump of exploiting the issue in the election contest – and in office. ...

“The whole American system was designed so that you would eliminate the threat from a strong, authoritarian king or other leader and maybe people are just tired of it. They don’t want that much responsibility and freedom. They want to be told what to do and where to go and how to live … and only given one version of reality.

The guards of a tyrant are foreigners: Merkel more popular among refugees than Germans

Germany's Merkel fails to form coalition government after AfD upset in election

From the story here:

Merkel was weakened after an election in September as voters angry with her decision in 2015 to open Germany's borders to more than a million asylum seekers punished her conservatives by voting for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) far-right party.

There is little appetite for a second vote, especially as the main parties fear that the populist AfD would win more than the almost 13 percent of votes it secured in September.

German AfD comes in a strong third, Social Democrats crash, Merkel forced to form coalition with FDP and Greens

The UK Telegraph reports here:

The SPD’s decision to return to opposition has limited her options, with a three-way coalition with the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens the only obvious option.

However, the FDP is unlikely to countenance the EU reform objectives of France's Macron, and the Greens want to shut down the coal plants Merkel relies on after she shut down the nuclear plants in the wake of Fukushima, which the FDP opposes, making life very difficult indeed for Frau Merkel.

Meanwhile the anti-Islamist AfD is set to take seats in the parliament, the first time the right has been represented there since 1961.

Come on Germany, do the right thing

France's Emmanuel Macron is with her

Frau Merkel is "more attractive than you think"

Marine Le Pen rocks the vote: France will be led by a woman, either me or Frau Merkel

Yeah baby.

See it all, here.

Trump says he and Merkel have something in common, both wiretapped by Obama

What did he say?

I'm still giggling.

Wikileaks' "ORCA100" has been trying to wake-up John Podesta and Hillary Clinton to the horrors of Muslim immigration: They won't be able to say they weren't warned

Multikultistan: A house of horrors for ordinary Germans

What's the difference between a German and a shopping cart? A shopping cart has got a mind of its own

While most centrist & leftwing politicians lie liberally about (esp. Continental) Europe's Immigration Disaster, Angela Merkel & Wouter Bos once blurted out the terrible truth, thereby sounding just like Pim Fortuyn

ORCA100 also has some other interesting e-mail contacts in addition to John Podesta's:

sbrown@politico.eu,

cwinneker@politico.eu,

jplucinska@politico.eu,

bsurk@politico.eu,

jbarigazzi@politico.eu,

ehananoki@mediamatters.org,

pdallison@politico.eu,

abernath@law.georgetown.edu,

podesta@law.georgetown.edu,

tyler.kingkade@huffingtonpost.com,

antonia.blumberg@huffingtonpost.com,

roy.sekoff@gmail.com,

whitney@huffingtonpost.com,

stuart@huffingtonpost.com,

maygers@huffingtonpost.com,

david@huffingtonpost.com,

cindy.vanegas@huffingtonpost.com,

louise.ridley@huffingtonpost.com,

aubrey.allegretti@huffingtonpost.com,

eamonn@helprefugees.org.uk,

nharvey@doctorsoftheworld.org.uk,

kate.sheppard@huffingtonpost.com,

igor.bobic@huffingtonpost.com,

stephen.hull@huffingtonpost.com.

Wow, Ross Douthat joins PEGIDA, calls for Germany to close its borders, deport refugees and kick out Merkel

In The New York Times, here:

". . . [P]rudence requires . . . closing Germany’s borders to new arrivals for the time being. It means beginning an orderly deportation process for able-bodied young men. It means giving up the fond illusion that Germany’s past sins can be absolved with a reckless humanitarianism in the present. It means that Angela Merkel must go — so that her country, and the continent it bestrides, can avoid paying too high a price for her high-minded folly."

Someone gets to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: On the weekend Schauble was a devil, but now he's a misunderstood genius!

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard erupted on Twitter on the weekend when Schauble leaked the Grexit memo in Brussels:

Now Schauble is a misunderstood genius who had it right all along:

'Wolfgang Schauble is one of the very few figures who has behaved honourably in this latest chapter. ... [H]e is entirely right to argue that a velvet divorce and an orderly exit from the euro for five years would be a “better way” for Greece, as he did on Germany radio this morning. ... Mr Schauble has been pushing for Grexit since 2012, and probably earlier. He genuinely thinks it would better for all concerned. When he floated his plan, he meant it. ... Even if [Merkel] was irritated by the Schauble paper – and her skirmishes with the irascible finance minister are legendary – she appears to have latched on to it as a useful negotiating ploy. The trick worked. It terrified Mr Tsipras into submission. ... Mr Schauble’s original and honourable intentions have been entirely misunderstood. The world’s verdict is that Germany's benign and enlightened statecraft in Europe over the past 60 years has given way to Bild Zeitung reflexes, the hegemony of crude populism. One can only feel sympathy for German diplomats who must clean up the mess and explain how this tangle of conflicting agendas spun escaped control.'

The Euro for Europeans but Germany, Raus!

Seen here:

German actions have not themselves been entirely pure. In 2002, Germany, along with France, began the process of easing the strict rules of the Maastricht Treaty when it was able to get an exemption from the cap on budget deficits at 3 percent of GDP, essentially scrapping the Stability and Growth Pact. German banks also had their eyes wide open in awarding loans to Greece and the other weaker European economies, throwing prudential caution aside. In fact, some major financial and corporate entities have allegedly facilitated deceptions by earlier Greek governments or to have been involved in outright corruption in connection with some loans. Then, there is also the inconvenient fact that outstanding German debt is itself well above the 60 percent cap in the euro zone ground rules. Another inconvenient fact is that just 11 percent of the facilities extended to Greece have been used to support the Greek state, as the facilities have ultimately been used to prop up the banking sector in the lending countries.

Although Germany was not responsible for the financial collapse of 2008 that set the stage for the long crisis in the euro zone, its neo-mercantilist economic and trade policies, which one Philippe Legrain dubbed Merkelism, has exacerbated the situation and impeded an effective response. Germans take justifiable pride in the excellent quality of their industrial products, which produced yet another record trade surplus of €215 billion in 2014, second only to China. Yet, large balance of trade surpluses in Germany mean that other European countries are running large balance of trade deficits, which exert downward pressure on those other economies. The counter that other countries should attempt to be more like German industry rings only partially true. Once again, Germany is itself not adhering to European rules in that a trade surplus of 7.4 percent of GDP well exceeds the target cap under the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure. Even worse, that cap was set abnormally high as, on the flip side, euro zone countries are not supposed to run trade deficits greater than 4 percent of GDP. The very rules build in and sanction a balance of trade advantage to Germany. This advantage is enabled not just by German industrial competitiveness but by the fact that the euro confers a much more favorable exchange rate than were Germany still operating under its own independent Deutsche Mark. This fact has led some commentators to brand Germany a stealth currency manipulator and even for the country itself to be removed from the euro zone.

Angela Merkel Is More Attractive Than You Think