Germany's Refugee Crises

Discussion in 'West Mall' started by Musburger1, Oct 21, 2015.

  1. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    Lots of caviar, smoked salmon, vodka, Cuban cigars, and girls. Geesh, what a rube!
     
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  2. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    The poor Germans
     
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  3. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    Well, they don't call themselves the Communist Party. They call themselves Die Linke, which is German for The Left. However, if you called them communists, most of them wouldn't argue the point. They are a merger of multiple hard-left parties, the most significant of which was the Party of Democratic Socialism, which was the successor party of the Socialist Unity Party that governed East Germany prior to reunification.

    Die Linke basically considers itself the true democratic socialists of Germany, as the Socialist Unity Party claimed to be. They think the Social Democratic Party (SPD) (which is the mainstream center-left party) are a bunch of corporate sellouts, and frankly, there is a degree of truth to that. They're to the left of the conservative parties, but they still mostly advocate the neoliberal policies that have governed Germany and the rest of the continent for decades. Furthermore, they're still generally favorable to the United States and to economic capitalism (albeit a managed capitalism) in general. Furthermore, like the Democratic Party in the US, they've become more corporate and less labor-oriented in recent years.

    Die Linke is overtly anticapitalistic and anti-American, and though they're pro-EU, they mainly support it as a means of undermining national governments and redistributing wealth across the continent and beyond. They basically favor a complete reordering of Germany's economy along socialistic lines and overhauling their foreign policy away from NATO and the West and toward more left-leaning global entities. Not surprisingly, their bases of support are mostly in former East Germany and in a few of the poorer pockets of the big cities in the West.
     
  4. Horn6721

    Horn6721 10,000+ Posts

    Mr D
    What are some of the left leaning global entities that Germany would actually possibly align themselves with? Surely not Russia which leaves China doesn't it?
     
  5. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    Some of the old school Die Linke people like Russia because of nostalgia for the glory days of the Soviet Union. However, most of the younger ones are hostile to Russia and not particuarly favorable to China, because China plays ball with the United States at least on the economic front. They advocate playing ball with countries like Venezuela, Cuba, and Muslim countries, but keep in mind that communists aren't big fans of the nation state in general. If Die Linke had its way, the UN would pretty much run the world.
     
  6. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Here is WSJ on some of the differences between Le Pen and Macron (re: FR election)

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/french-election-puts-possibility-of-frexit-on-the-agenda-1487183427

    "..... Mr. Macron’s hope must be that he doesn’t need to provide too much detail on his economic plans, given the way the center ground has opened up for him in the campaign, offering him a strong chance of making it to the second round. Mr. Macron may also be betting he can then go on to beat Ms. Le Pen because too many voters view her as divisive and a threat to democracy for her to win. But the risk for Mr. Macron is that under the spotlight of the campaign, even a cautious, detail-lite plan might be enough to frighten voters. Ms. Le Pen’s best chance might come if Mr. Macron were beaten into second place by Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon—a not impossible scenario, say some experienced French political observers. Faced with a choice between the hard left and hard right, it isn’t clear which way voters will jump."
     
  7. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Paris is now using "strategically placed boulders" in the streets to try and stop immigrants sleeping all over the place. They are using limestone rocks near the Gare du Nord, the Eurostar station from where trains depart for London

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Denmark’s parliament passed a resolution that Danes should not become minorities in Danish communities

    “Parliament notes with concern that today there are areas in Denmark where the number of immigrants from non-Western countries and their descendants is over 50 percent..."

    “It is parliament’s opinion that Danes should not be a minority in residential areas in Denmark”

    http://www.ft.dk/samling/20161/vedtagelse/V38/index.htm
     
  9. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    The vote was pretty revealing. Lots of absences and a very close vote.
     
  10. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    I love Copenhagen. Would hate to see it turn into a shytehole

    [​IMG]
     
  11. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    Never been to Copenhagen, but I hear it's a great place to visit. The Danes don't have the white guilt that the rest of Western Europe has, so I doubt they'll let Copenhagen get too dumpy.
     
  12. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    I spent a month there one week
     
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  13. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    It's on my list of places to go, but a few things hold me back. First, Mrs. Deez prefers small towns and mountainous areas to big cites. (I like both.) For example, she'd much rather go on a drive through the Swiss Alps and visit tiny villages and hike some beautiful mountain trails than hang out in downtown Zurich.

    Second, hauling a 2 year old around is tougher in crowded cities.

    Third, Mrs. Deez fears the Muslim man more than I do, and since the "migrant" crisis, she associates the big cities with them. I'm less politically correct with my language than she is, but she worries about them more. To get her to go to Prague last Christmas, a friend of mine who visited several months earlier had to tell her he didn't see a single Muslim during his visit.

    Finally, Copenhagen is expensive as hell. I can afford to go, but do I blow a bunch of cash to visit a place that's going to be a pain in the *** and that my wife isn't going to enjoy? Probably not.

    To give you an idea, she has planned our next trip, and we're driving to Spodnja Sorica, Slovenia and renting a place up there. It'll be a spectacular drive through Austria, and it's in the mountains and far away from most human beings.
     
  14. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Be careful. People are watching. This is all i can say
     
  15. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    I have every confidence that they are.
     
  16. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Media in US yells "The Russians!"
    In France, they yell about "Les Américains"


     
  17. nashhorn

    nashhorn 5,000+ Posts

    Cuba? Really, Cuba?

    And as an aside, I go with the wife's tourist preferences. Heck you couldn't do much entertaining with the appeal JF posted about anyway. :catfight:
     
  18. BevoJoe

    BevoJoe 10,000+ Posts

    Does she like to shop? If so, she'll love Copenhagen! It's pricey but all of the Nordic countries are, at least they were when I was living and working in Norway. When my wife went to Copenhagen with me some years back, we stayed at the D'angleterre. They screwed up my reservations, so they put us up in a suite and across the hall was Itzhak Perlman, practicing for a concert later that evening. So we sat outside his door and got a free concert.
     
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  19. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    That is totally cool. My dad's a violinist by trade, so I grew up hearing Pearlman quite a bit. Greatness.

    As for Mrs. Deez, she shops when she needs something, but she doesn't like recreational shopping. Personally, I don't either, but I like going to big cities for the historic sites and don't mind mixing in shopping. That wouldn't be enough to sell her on them though. For example, she wants to visit Norway, but she wants to go to see the fjords. She has no interest in Oslo.
     
  20. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

  21. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    • Like Like x 1
  22. BevoJoe

    BevoJoe 10,000+ Posts

    Maybe they were armed with wine bottles and day-old baguettes.
     
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  23. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    And perfected sneers
     
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  24. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    [​IMG]
     
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  25. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    This is the real crisis of the 21st century - the failure of responsible westerners to procreate. We should be having global conferences in this, not climate change.
     
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  26. Seattle Husker

    Seattle Husker 10,000+ Posts

    Well, we still need the global conference on climate change but the procreation rates of western countries is a real problem.
     
  27. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    I shouldn't have said we shouldn't talk about climate change, but we should be putting a much higher priority on changing westerners attitudes on procreation. I'm not Catholic and don't think birth control is inherently wrong, but I think it does have its downsides.
     
  28. Horn6721

    Horn6721 10,000+ Posts

    Be oboe
    That is an incredible story. Proves the point that the coolest happenings in one's life just happen.

    Did he make any horrid screeches?
     
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  29. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    There is an overnight train between Bergen and Oslo. You can visit both cities and see the fjord that is off the train line outside of Bergen. Start in Bergen, take train to Oslo, get off at fjord stop, take bus/narrow gauge train to fiord, take boat on fiord, return to main train line by nightfall, take train to Oslo. Simple.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  30. Brad Austin

    Brad Austin 2,500+ Posts

    There are secondary reasons for reduction in Western procreation some may overlook.

    The divorce rate is through the roof, especially compared to Muslims. Western fathers unfairly go through personal, emotional, and financial hell for many years after a marriage that ends in unfriendly divorce. I truly believe this makes some men hesitant.
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2017

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