With Bitcoin and the alts slightly recovering from this weeks big manipulation, we are low on trading. Let' s do some world!
No Germany, no EU. Living in Europe I think cooperation between European states is very necessary, but ever since the Maastricht treaty the project got out of hand. The Lisbon treaty was a final blow against rationality. The idea of creating a European Federal State is delusional. The way the EU developed is a disaster. Germany is for many reasons the most pro EU country in Europe. Without doubting motives - Most Germans are very nice, polite and respectful people and have high standards of hospitality and fair play. Politics is something different however. In politics Germany went desperately wrong by keeping Merkel at all cost. The cost of innovation, discussion and plurality. In the USA a president can be in power 8 years - Merkel is on the way to her 16th year. That is poisonous and political life in everyday Germany is proving that. Fear and nepotism are rampant and media has become part of a CDU establishment that still has it shoes polished by the socialist party but is trying hard to exchange this for the green party. Meanwhile the EU narrative has been cemented with France (with a new Aachen declaration) but it lacks any support. Brexit happened and many EU citizens believe because Merkels obvious arrogance in politics. France is in Yellow Vest turmoil and in fact the only EU ally the German regime has left. Many people in EU countries however do not like, and are even afraid of, Germany and France playing the same cards. I once predicted Italy would be out of the EU sooner than Britain - but that was in the times Theresa May was stalling. I did not expect Boris Johnson keeping his word - but he did. He is prepared to take out the UK on WTO terms if necessary. By now even the bureaucrats in Brussels, unsuccessfully negotiating their budget, have come to understand that the UK will benefit from Brexit while the EU will suffer under it. It' s a matter of time before the EU collapses. The unity they propose is not wanted by EU populations. It is forced upon them by their political class and if a democratic vote would be allowed, the EU would cease to exist.
What is the German dilemma? (Apart from EU trouble). German elites, main stream media and establishment have heavily set on two issues: climate change (Energiewende) and Migration. The Merkel denunciation of the Dublin II treaty has seriously undermined Germanies position and comes at a huge cost. There are many reasons the German elites (that tell the CDU what to do) wanted a huge influx of undereducated migrants and waged battle against rational immigration laws (like Canda or Australia). Germany was one of the few countries in Europe without a minimum wage. Finally a minimum wage was fixed on 8.50 Euro (less than ten bux). This outraged German industry, that is all about export and used to having Eastern European workers working for 4 to 5 Euro max. The export success of Germany is only half based on good products: the other half is the lowest wage in the EU. Germany is a country were after 40 years of working your pension will not even cover the rent and old folks collect bottles at garbage cans and deliver newspapers to stay alive. The energy issue made Germany the most expensive country for electricity and natural gas in Europe. Not only that: it made supply unreliable. So energy has to be bought from France, that still operates nuclear facilities. This is EU! Germany free of nuclear power buying nuclear power from France. Completely insane.
With Merkel in almost eternal power some issues came up. Everybody accepts the stagnation, animosity towards innovation and delusional foreign politics. The issues that arise are political. Two recent events triggered a lot of discussion: the Thuringia elections and subsequent results and just a day ago the mass shooting at Hanau (a town near Frankfurt).
To understand this: In Germany the chancellor is not elected by polls. People basically choose parties and after the election these parties negotiate to make a government, usually finding a majority by having two parties or more supporting the government. Representative democracy it is called - and the main characteristic is that parties represent people and decide on the jobs. Nobody has a direct mandate from the people. Whatever you think of this system (I think it is flawd), it was always capable of producing a government that could rely on obedience from the electorate.
In the case of Germany: either the socialist SPD or the Christian democratic CDU took the lead. But something disruptive happened. Their number went down. At fisrt they reacted by merging together (in German: Grosse Koalition). The Merkel government is ta government where the traditional biggest parties, socialists and Christian democrats) went together. The result of course was predictable: shopkeeping, hiding differences. This contruction could count on the silent support of two other parties: the liberals and the greens. They got their rewards by being included into the juicy functions in the bureaucracy for staying loyal. A difficult game for German liberals, who lack public support, but a very rewarding game for the green party. It is on track becoming bigger than the socialist party and already is heavily overrepresented in German bureaucracy. Merkels CDU was on track by simply replacing the socialist with the greens, but elections did not give them the numbers to play that game.
So Thuringia! The numbers are not there to play the "correct" game. In Germany there are two parties with a stain. The "Linke" is a socialist party left of the traditional socialist party (SPD) and has roots in the SED, the governing party in the former GDR. The AfD is a quit new party on the right wing without any traditional roots and heavily loved by people that judge the CDU has moved too far to the left. In a reaction the ruling CDU put the secret service (Verfassungsschutz) on them and links them to fascism. Since Germans are very paranoid about fascism, this narrative works to an extend and even without any base in reality thisn AfD is labeled fascist.
There was no problem, in Germany when some combination of CDU, FDP, SPD and GREEN is in the numbers. They can be considered one faction. In whatever combination they rule, the nepotism work for all of them.
What happened in Thuringia? A prime minister was elected with a democratic 100 correct vote. But AfD elected the poor (FDP) guy. So Merkel intervened and already after a day in office he had to step down. Not only he - many people more, some for even congratulating him on his new job... Everything about this is problematical. Merkel does not have a constitutional right to interfere with Thuringia elections. But she does and main stream supports her doing so. That is a real paradox because Merkel and her CDU (and all the left and green) blame the AfD for not belonging to the democratic spectrum (despite having 25% of the vote and respecting the constitution). To get them of the scene they violate the democratic constitutional principle themselves. Much like Merkel brushed aside the Dublin II treaty for convenience. Breaking the law from a left wing angle seems OK in Germany. Morally right. Breaking the law out of a moral principle against people obeying the law is justified. That is the Merkel standard.
The way thing probably will go down is that the CDU will make some shadow deal with the Linke (SED successor party). The horseshoe principle (always having enough power in the middle to prevent anz necessity talking with the extremes) will be abandoned by taking a left turn. Merkel was a GDR apparatchick and turns back to base. Kohl refused to have her on his funeral - not that hard to guess why.
That brings us to Hanau. Violence. A nutcase shot 11 people and though being an unpolitical fruitcake with probably right wing sympathy, the Merkel system was quick to take political advantage. The actions of this person were attributed to the vague notion of "right wing extremism" and the government became all action. Just days before in Thuringia Antifa had free play on the FDP would be prime minister of Thuringia. Left wing terrorism is condoned, right wing terrorism condemned. That is Merkel Germany.
Does Germany have a terrorism problem? Not enough data to either say yes or no. Enough data to show that people from the left and the right radicalize. Intimidation and violence become more accepted. That is sad: violence only hurts and distracts. It is also logical: the Merkel regime went into nepotism and ostracism. It did not listen - it put all criticism aside.
What would cure Germany - maybe - is direct election of it's chancellor and limiting the position to eight years. Also listening to opposition instead of sending the secret service after them would be a good thing. The AfD has high quality persons (many ex CDU) that can draw good legislation. The Linke is not the old SED - one can talk to them without trowing labels at them. The FDP, the small liberal party, also has some very gifted people that could help a lot to structure innovation. There is no lack of quality and rationality in people. The problem is the narrow interest that had the luxury of running Germany by large party majorities, having it in charge of all national and local government. They failed and loose their majorities - but are not inclined to listen. Their answer is repression. Buying time, hoping the trend will reverse. That is why the Hanau shooting is gratefully picked up upon and blamed on AfD that has nothing to do with it and did not even inspire it.
The near future does not look that bright for Germany. The UK will outperform the EU massively. Even the bureaucrats in Brussels understand that. The French president asks a lot for his obedience and the Italians saved the day for the establishment but will be voted out when the elections they want to prevent at any cost will finally take place.
Old Europe. No totalitarian idea ever survived. Not Stalin. Not Hitler. Not Napoleon. Diversity cannot be organized in unity. That should be the lesson of all this. Diversity can only be managed by negotiated treaties. That is why Macron, Merkel and other globalist European politicians will never succeed. That is why the political EU will fail. Nobody wants it. People are not stupid enough already to accept it.
<br /><center><hr/><em>Posted from my blog with <a href='https://wordpress.org/plugins/steempress/'>SteemPress</a> : https://cryptmove.com/2020/02/21/a-german-dilemma/ </em><hr/></center>