On the European Front
I swear, we had nothing to do with it!
News from Germany: Change in Germany’s migrant policy is being suggested by Merkel’s CDU replacement, Annegret-Kramp Karrenbauer. Remember, Merkel’s party lost votes in the recent elections, so she has to step down. Germans are fed up with being pushed around by Angela’s protegees.
In Germany, Friedrich Merz, another potential replacement for Merkel, wants to discuss whether the post-World War II asylum doctrine should stay in Germany’s constitution.
Merz is planning to run for office to replace Merkel next year. He stands for a more right-wing approach to immigration than Ms Merkel, as does another leadership contender, health minister Jens Spahn. The party is seeking to reduce the appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has capitalized on discontent over immigration.
In Poland, NATO drills proceed against unspecified Russian threats. (Dated 11/17/2018)
It not only involves Poland, but four other countries as well. The base where we will be putting our troops is at Katowice, where the recent climate conference was held. To accommodate all the people attending the climate conference, Katowice had to have annex housing built, the equivalent of a small city.
In France, the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests which occurred over the weekend inspired similar protests in Brussels, Belgium, and in the Netherlands. Russia-linked social media accounts are being accused of encouraging these protests. However, the Kremlin on Monday denied involvement in the “yellow vest” protests that have rocked France, after reports that Russia-linked social media accounts are waging a campaign to encourage unrest. Poor old Vlad can’t catch an even break.
https://www.france24.com/en/20181210-france-yellow-vest-russia-denies-involvement
Nothing to see here. Move along.
And Hungary is now accusing Soros of interfering in their elections. Katalin Novak is a Hungarian minister interviewed in the video by France24. (A little eye-candy for you guys, too, but she does have a family.)
This follows the Central European University in Budapest finally closing its doors and leaving, after legal and rhetorical fights with the Hungarian government (mostly with Orban). Viktor Orban’s party won a third term in the April elections. There is more on Hungary vs the EU at this link: https://www.france24.com/en/tag/hungary/
The dissension rose from CEU’s issuing US degrees with no US university campus, prompting CEU through Soros’s foundation to set up a campus at Bard College in New York.
The Grauniad’s take on this is biased, refusing to acknowledge Hungary’s sovereignty and dissing its anti-immigration stance – which is the Grauniad’s problem, not ours. They also note in a sidebar that Soros’s Open Society Foundation is pulling out of Turkey. Looks like Soros and his cash aren’t as welcome as he expected. But the Grauniad seems to think that Hungary should just knuckle under to Merkel’s demands. This comes after all the hell Hungary and the rest of eastern Europe went through, until the Iron Curtain fell.
And now, Merkel is going to be replaced in the Spring election. And Brexit is slowly getting underway. There is even a hint of a Frexit. Looks like we’ve come full circle.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Foreign Policy, Liberals suck, Protests/Rallies
“Katowice had to have annex housing built, the equivalent of a small city.”
How very ‘green’ of them. 🙄 I’ve been looking for photos of all the private jets parked at the conference, but have come up empty so far.
I can’t find the photos of the private jet parking area, either. However, reports from recent “climate change” conferences noted that private jet landings increased by 30% at the nearest airport servicing the host city.
How do you say “Bwhahahahaha” in French?
“L’ebwahahaha?” But I think you have to put a Maurice Chevalier-type accent on the pronunciation.
Like so:
Lots of info in all that there Ex-PH2. Good stuff to know.
Unless the migrant person is not willing to assimilate into his/her new country, adopt their ways, and become a citizen of that country, it generally doesn’t bode well for the native inhabitants.
We really do not want a shooting war with the Russians. This whole sabre rattling is not good for either side. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact spent 100s of Billion to keep the peace during the Cold War. Maybe that’s the only thing that kept the Europeans from continuing the conflicts that had been ongoing since the fall of the Roman Empire.
World gubmints need to look at the French riots. After a while people get fed up with more and more taxes. Off with their heads. And who is to say that the political opposition is not stirring this up for their benefit? Who’d thunk?
Soros and his ilk will continue to do whatever they can, where ever they can to advance their agendas. The Hungarians have been bit on the butt in the past and have decided that they can depend on no one but themselves.
“..is not..” should be “..is..”
“But the Grauniad seems to think that Hungary should just knuckle under to Merkel’s demands.”
Yeah, remember what happened last time Hungary let Germany call the shots? It didn’t go so well.
Yes, and I believe that Hungary remembers that quite well, too.
Soros’s whining about not being welcome in Hungary, and the EU trying censure Hungary because of Orban, and the restlessness elsewhere in Europe may be the end of the EU altogether. All of those news items seem to indicate that a huge change is coming in Europe.
It’s even more interesting that Russia is having the finger pointed at it by someone besides the USA.
You see the pictures of the French gendarmes showing up in armored vehicles with the EU flag on it?
I’m thinking the leaders there are really, unbelievably out of touch. However, they did vote Macron in just last year. Elections have consequences and all that. He was pretty open about being a globalist Merkel loving weenie.
Germany had a huge Turkish immigrant population back in the early 70’s when I served there. In fact, the labor agreement prevented club managers from firing a third county employee if they were pregnant and there was another reason. They really took advantage of the protection to exchange time for money with no work. To unload one real problem at the NCO Club which was outside the gate, we put a carton of cigarettes under the front seat of her car then tipped off our local friendly Polizi who found them. She was thrilled to resign if we dropped the charges, the Polizi kept the cigarettes. I can only imagine what it’s like now that the German population as a whole is being impacted by a protected class.
“impacted by a protected class…”
And that protected class is what has prompted the rise of the AfD, the far-right conservative party that will now take its seat in the German government.
Macaroni is now urging private employers to give bonuses to employees. The guy is nuts. He and his gov’t tax people to death and then assume that private employers have a huge stash of cash to pay off people to stop rioting and being pissed off at the gov’t. No merit bonuses. Just bonuses. Those employers who can’t provide bonuses or choose not to do so or do but based on merit now become the bad guys and the targets of wrath. That’s the plan, anyway.
He reduced taxes on wealthy people, but wanted to put an extra tax on diesel and gasoline fuels, which hits the farmers, truckers and cabbies harder than anyone else. That’s what started these protests.
He’s like Trudeau, the Great Giblet of Canada: doesn’t have a clue, and really doesn’t care.
Is Trudeau also married to a pedo?
No, Trudy Trudeau’s wife is younger than he is, fortunately.
Oh, while I’m thinking about it, the province of Ontario has voted in a conservative governor.
One step at a time….
“The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its annual Revenue Statistics report this week, and France topped the charts, with a tax take equal to 46.2% of GDP in 2017.” WSJ Today
That’s about 20% greater than the US and higher than Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Suck me blue. (Or something like that.)
For some reason, gun licenses in Germany are -way- up.
The EU bureaucrats are working hard to prevent the peons from arming themselves. But the peons seem to be not buying the assurances.
I am hearing from some contacts that illicit gun ownership in Europe is -much- higher than admitted, and often involves military grade surplus from the world wars. And, perhaps the Balkan mess.
Things may get just a bit interesting in the not-terribly-distant future.
Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice.