Germany
July 20, 2018 — John Hinderaker
I know, I’m jumping the gun on tomorrow’s Week In Pictures. But here’s the thing–I can access a preview of Steve’s post, which will go up in the morning, and these cartoons by Michael Ramirez aren’t included. So I offer these three cartoons, all created very recently, with a clear conscience. Michael envisions the Senate battle over confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, a completely unexceptionable nominee, to the Supreme Court. I
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July 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I agree with John’s analysis of the approach President Trump is taking at the NATO summit. In this post, I want to highlight the inconsistency, noted by John, between the left’s criticism of Trump’s approach and its claim that he is soft on, and maybe an instrument of, Putin. Trump has made two main points in Europe. First, key NATO members aren’t doing enough in the area of defense. Second,
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July 9, 2018 — Steven Hayward
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hanging on by her fingernails in Germany right now, as the backlash against migrants reached a critical mass in recent weeks. The cabinet minister who confronted Merkel and forced immigration concessions, Horst Seehofer of the “conservative” CSU party based chiefly in Bavaria, has seen his own poll ratings collapse in the aftermath of the political crisis. But this is just as likely to be the
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June 10, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy of admitting into Germany hundreds of thousands of purported “refugees”–out of a misplaced sense of guilt, apparently–has been a disaster. The policy is appropriately unpopular, even more so following the latest outrage, the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl by an Iraqi whose plea for refugee status was turned down. The New York Times reports, with surprising objectivity: It was a gruesome murder:
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May 21, 2018 — Steven Hayward
I have stumbled across the funniest thing I’ve read in a long while, and the fact that I don’t read much German makes it all the better. The German newspaper Zeit had an article last week explaining how Donald Trump should be understood as an epigone of Leo Strauss. All I can say is they’re a little late to the party, because that’s what the paranoid left said about George
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April 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Hitler’s Germany virtually annihilated its Jewish population and made a strong run at annihilating Europe’s. Post-war Germany thus took pains to enforce a “Never Again” creed. But that ended when Angela Merkel decided to admit more than a million asylum seekers from Muslim countries. Now, Merkel admits that Germany confronts “a new phenomenon” as the refugees “bring another form of anti-Semitism into the country.” What in God’s name did Merkel
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February 22, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Did you know that Germany is now in its fifth month without a government? Frau Merkel, the colossus bestriding Europe according to Davosman, has been unable to gather a coalition with enough other parties to reach a governing majority in the Bundestag, since she rules out including the new Alternative for Germany Party (AfD), which has gone from nowhere to winning 92 seats in the last election, and which, according
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January 8, 2018 — Steven Hayward
It’s been a tedious chore to track the slow motion train wreck of Germany’s energiewende, or “energy revolution.” Climatistas here have long touted Germany as the model we should follow. Think of it a renewable energy uber alles. Well there’s a problem, and you don’t even need to know German to get this headline from two days ago: Fortunately we have Benny Peiser (a German native) at the Global Warming
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November 28, 2017 — Steven Hayward
As noted here a few days ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel is having trouble putting together a coalition government in Germany following a terrible showing in the last election. The German result was similar to the recent French election in one respect: it represents a repudiation of the main ruling parties. There is one big difference: while the French economy continues to stagnate, the German economy is arguably the best in
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October 21, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The Czech Republic’s parliamentary election represented yet another rebellion against Europe’s political elites. The winning party, ANO, is considered centrist and won nearly 30% of the vote. Its leader, Andrej Babis, is a billionaire and has been described as a Czech Donald Trump. The Associated Press reports: The centrist ANO movement led by populist Andrej Babis decisively won the Czech Republic’s parliamentary election Saturday in a vote that shifted the
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September 27, 2017 — Steven Hayward
It is a truism of economics and political science that “institutions matter.” Just ask Hillary Clinton about the electoral college, for example. Right now we are seeing an object lesson in the hazards of institutional design of parliamentary government playing out in Germany. Angela Merkel is the Theresa May of the continent, a person who ought to be fatally weakened by the election result. Check out this chart of the
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September 24, 2017 — John Hinderaker
Europe has never been as committed to democracy as the United States. Its elites let people vote, but some issues they are not willing to allow to be decided by the masses. Thus, at quite an early stage, European liberals decided that immigration was too explosive an issue to be committed to the democratic process. Europeans were going to get mass immigration whether they wanted it or not, and anyone
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June 30, 2017 — Steven Hayward
SOFIA, Bulgaria, June 30—What the heck, I may as well get my Rebecca West on and file an old-fashioned “foreign correspondent” story from the the Balkans, where I’m visiting for several days that have included a seminar for graduate students and young professionals at New Bulgarian University, and yesterday a “strategic briefing” for business and political leaders, about which more in a moment. One of my favorite ledes from Whittaker
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May 31, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
To those who have it in for our president, it’s obvious what to make of it — President Trump’s bluster and ignorance have alienated one of America’s most important allies and, in the words of the Washington Post, “sent tremors through Washington’s core postwar alliances.” But is the war of words really Trump’s fault? I don’t think so. One issue of contention is Germany’s unwillingness to meet its financial commitment
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February 19, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
As I discussed yesterday, President Trump sent his “A Team” to Europe to demonstrate America’s commitment to NATO. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Vice President Mike Pence all traveled to a major conference in Munich for that purpose. Kelly, Mattis, and Pence said the right things. Pence, who told the conference he was sending a message of reassurance directly from President Trump, stated that the
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February 18, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump sent his “A Team” to Europe to demonstrate America’s commitment to NATO. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Vice President Mike Pence all traveled to a major conference in Munich for that purpose. However, key European officials, along with honorary European John McCain, used the occasion to vent over Trump. Apparently, the Europeans would rather grandstand to their domestic audiences and demonstrate their moral
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December 31, 2016 — Steven Hayward
Looks like Angela Merkel may be starting to get it. From the BBC: Merkel: Islamist terror is ‘greatest threat’ to Germany Islamist terrorism is the biggest challenge facing Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in her New Year message. Referring to the deadly truck attack in Berlin by a Tunisian asylum seeker, she said it was “sickening” when acts of terror were carried out by people who had sought protection.
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