Mar 172015
 
 March 17, 2015  Posted by at 2:37 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,


Jack Delano Union Station, Chicago, Illinois 1943

I need to start of off the bat with an update to this piece, which I started writing yesterday, since I now know that Angela Merkel actually did invite Alexis Tsipras on Monday. It only took her two months…. But that doesn’t take away anything from my point that Merkel has been sorely lacking and missing, it just goes to prove that point.

And if she doesn’t get her act together very quickly (why not ask Tsipras to be in Berlin tomorrow morning?!), this will, I’ve said it before, go down as her main legacy. She will be known as the person who let Europe slip into war, for no good reason whatsoever. Here’s what I started off with last night (Oz time):

The increasing ugliness of the ‘negotiations’ between the Greek Syriza government and the rest of the eurozone, which is ruled by the German government, needs to be halted and put in reverse. There is an urgent need for a detente, for cooler heads and for trust. And there is only one person who can act to create these things: Angela Merkel. But Merkel is nowhere to be found or seen.

The increasing ugliness of the propaganda war the west is waging against Russia and its president Vladimir Putin, also needs to be halted. There is an even more urgent need there for a detente, for cooler heads and for trust. There is only one person who can act to create these things: Angela Merkel. But Merkel is AWOL.

There are German voices in the Putin case that call for reason and quiet, and that have labeled people like NATO head Stoltenberg, NATO General Breedlove and US State Department ‘Assistant’ Victoria Nuland more or less insane. But Merkel’s voice is not among them, nowhere to be heard.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble was born in 1942. That means he was alive when German troops committed the worst of their war crimes and atrocities on Greek soil, and on Greek people, which the Syriza government says it wants to receive war reparations for. But Schäuble high-handedly poo-poohs these demands, claiming everything has been settled decades ago. As if he were talking about things that happened 1000 years ago or more.

They did not, Mr. Schäuble, they happened during your lifetime, and no level of high-handedness, not one level of it, is appropriate here on your part. The only appropriate reaction is humbleness and the highest level of respect you are capable of. Whether there’s a legal issue is something for legal experts to decide, but until then, you have no right to poo-pooh anything.

Besides, you’re a finance minister, and this is not a finance issue, it’s far too sensitive to be regarded as such. The only person who should indeed address it is your boss, Angela Merkel. But no-one’s seen her around.

Merkel should have told Schäuble weeks ago to keep his trap shut, but she has instead allowed him to antagonize Athens even more. And blame the Greeks for that.

It may already be too late when it comes to the Ukraine issue. Angela should have intervened a long time ago. She did not. She suddenly turned her back on her friend Vladimir, for reasons she never explained, and allowed US and NATO hotheads to completely take over European politics. Never a good idea, for obvious reasons.

And now she may be stuck with the consequences: a war on her doorstep. Which, in reality, has of course already started. 6000 Ukrainians are gone, millions have been forced to leave their homes. Angela Merkel could have prevented most of this from happening. Blood on your hands, girl.

She let Schäuble get out of hand with his hugely out of place and out of whack comments on Greece’s financial situation, on Varoufakis and on the crimes perpetrated by his parents’ generation in not just Greece, but certainly also in Greece. Comments not befitting the European Union’s de facto political and economical leader. And that has left space for extremists to come in and take the lead over from Merkel.

Likewise, she’s let Breedlove and Nuland take the lead in the Ukraine issue, while she could have easily defused it, leading to a situation where Putin this weekend made it a point to say that he felt so strongly about Crimea, he would have been ready to alert his nuclear capacity. That the western press chooses to put that fact in entirely different, and far more threatening terms, was and is only to be expected, for Angela as much as for you and me.

The most powerful woman in the world had better stand up now, or it will be too late in both instances.

Greece will be forced into a Grexit or Grexident, neither of which EU leaders have anywhere near the grip on that they try to convince us they have; more countries will leave after Greece, and financial markets will start betting on just that.

And the US and NATO will force Ukraine into a full blown war theater, something Merkel should never ever want to her immediate eastern flank, and something that was always entirely preventable is she had put her foot down.

Is Angela going to be the umpteenth tragic lady with a tragic footprint in history, or will she wake up in the nick of time, stand up, and say: no more of this?! We’ll soon know.

(posted from Melbourne Tullamarine Airport)

Home Forums It’s Time for Angela Merkel to Stand Up

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  • #19891

    Jack Delano Union Station, Chicago, Illinois 1943 I need to start of off the bat with an update to this piece, which I started writing yesterday, sinc
    [See the full post at: It’s Time for Angela Merkel to Stand Up]

    #19892
    palloy
    Participant

    You didn’t spend much time writing about why Merkel might be AWOL. Do you think maybe someone was FORCING her to go quiet? Who would do such a thing? Well, we all know who has an interest in “winning” against Russia – the US. And we all know the World Bank, IMF, international banking elite have a strong interest in all debts being paid in full.

    So that’s the motive, now, what about the means? How could the US possibly threaten Germany with something sufficiently dire that Merkel is forced to go along with the NATO anti-Russian push, despite Germany’s dependence on Russia’s energy and profits from Russian trade? And what could WB/IMF/banking cartel threaten Germany with, bearing in mind the hopeless state of EU finances and their complex interdependencies?

    Any study of Merkel’s political life will acknowledge that she is very good at bringing parties together and finding ways to bring about compromises. So when she has to placate a war-like US and crash-like financial institutions and 28 independent-minded European states, not to mention the German political parties, do you think that would be best done by making loud speeches all the time, or working behind the scenes to use what little bargaining power she has against these massive forces?

    #19897
    Dr. Diablo
    Participant

    Sure, and as we know, Merkel, like many leaders, may not be in charge of anything. Or not anymore. A deeper state has taken over, one that understands “math” and “survival.” And perhaps some of the events are not as they appear, for example, Germany wants, needs, and is requiring Greece to leave the Euro. Germany doesn’t WANT the Euro, or at least not the southern Euro. All northern countries have recalled their gold for a move to a gold-“backed” northern Euro, and therefore their much-vaunted Euro project, for which men like Schauble have trampled everyone on the continent, is dead. But worse–much worse–than dead is that they will have to *admit* it is dead, and/or they were wrong. So it’s not whether you win or lose, but where you place the blame. On Greece. Likewise, Greece is aware of this role they’ve been cornered into and are pushing the blame just as violently back on Germany and the EU. In which case, Merkel’s actions make perfect sense.

    In Russia’s case, Russia has the GDP of Italy, and their bourse is the size of Apple Computers. They can’t exactly face down NATO and the United States. Unless you want a nuclear war–which the U.S. clearly does–then the U.S. can only collapse in on itself. That takes time. And once you’ve got the giant in a Putin-judo hold, the only thing you can do is wait for it to pass out. And that takes time. What would you want from Germany, an occupied nation with 54,000 U.S. soldiers and heavy arms located there, and the NSA integrated throughout their military and communications system? To kick out the yanks? The loss of the airbase would cripple the U.S. as a world power, you can’t just revoke their visa and think nothing would happen.

    So wouldn’t it make more sense to make strategy with Putin, slowly bleeding, discrediting and withdrawing from the U.S., building the Brics Bank, the Rus-Swift, the non-US fiber network, as well as giving the people of Europe time and events to illustrate why the change must be? But that takes time.

    As far as I can see, the U.S. is losing, and with the U.K. joining as charter member of the BRICS bank, they’ve turned a corner into a blind alley. All the world–and Merkel–has to do is wait. When your enemy is destroying himself, let him. So what do you expect her to do? Everyone in Europe knows the score. Just let nature take its course. There’s no point in saying anything. Europe knows what she’s saying by not saying anything at all.

    #19898
    TheGreekOne
    Participant

    While Dr. Schäuble and his voters try to establish their God-given moral and ‘real’ German Superiority over the puny ‘lazy Greeks who live beyond their means’, the Islamic State has established a foothold in Northeastern Libya. This means the Islamists are now 200 n.m. away from the southern shores of Crete. Ok, maybe for Schäuble and his ilk, Crete and Greece “is not Europe, so they can have it”, but they seem to forget that they are certainly Europe’s Grand Sea Wall against the Islamist threat. (After a collapse, next stop, Vienna, anybody?) So does our dear Doktor Schäuble really wants to cause a Greccident, reduce the country and its army to ruins, have everybody off with their heads and send film crews to Athens to record the misery he throws to anyone who defies him? Does our friend, the good Doktor know that if he goes that way, his people will be fighting the Caliph and the Wahabis in Munich, in a few years? (If he doesn’t, it is indeed time for Chancellor Merkel to step in and save her country from the whims and folly of a bitter old man who knowingly drives Europe to ruins.)

    As far as war stories go, my dad also lived during the Occupation. He has seen first-hand the things that the generation of Schäuble’s father and grandfather did to the people of this land. Torture, dead bodies on the streets, shootings, killings was everyday life. In the end, my family was forced to abandon their home and escape to the Free Town of Galaxidi to save themselves from the Germans who were looking for them. When the German Army left, they’ve returned to find their home ruined and my grandfather’s extensive library nearly destroyed and burned. You see, it was not that long time ago. My dad still remembers it to this day.

    Very recently, our good friends in the State Department released nearly 400,000 pages of Wehrmacht war diaries and all sorts of official documents which prove criminal acts of war committed by the German Occupation Forces, during their stay in Greece. This material was salvaged by the Allies after the war. It proves that orders were given to have people tortured and killed, that ancient artifacts were destroyed or looted, that gold and precious metals were excavated, and that money was stolen from people on a regular basis. These are acts that were not covered by the previous arrangements for one reason only: Crimes against Humanity are not subjected to a statute of limitations or to prescription. This new evidence, never seen before in public, sheds new light to the hardship, torture and destruction caused by the German Occupation Forces to the people of Greece. This is the actual basis of Tsipras’ claims for war reparations. The rest is plain noise.

    Nowadays, Germany suddenly seems to have stopped being ashamed of its dirty past – which isn’t really limited to the Holocaust only – and seeks to form a new Empire (the 4th Reich) in the middle of Europe, yet again – we all know what this means, right? Our good friend, the Doktor, is in fact one of the key leaders of the German revisionist movement, that after the Re-unification of the country aims to return Germany to its former glory, guilty-free, imperial and Über Alles. He has published relevant writings and called for this in public, on many occasions. Of course, he would deny this as ‘poppycock’, before emphasizing that ‘the lazy Greeks live beyond their means, steal from the good Germans and all deserve to die a horrible death’, for the 1,000th time (the racist stereotypes are back in the public German political speech. Thanks to our good Doktor, ‘Greek’ rapidly becomes the new ‘Jew’. German cabbies like that a lot!)

    But there is only one thing: Despite him and his selective memory, people do remember. And Memory is a powerful weapon in the fight against all sorts of tyrants, who dream of imposing their hegemony on others.

    #19902
    John Day
    Participant

    Good insights and contributions, all!
    Thank You.

    #19904
    Raleigh
    Participant

    Read an interesting article on the mafia that runs the U.S. – don, consiglierie, under boss, capos.

    “During the two terms of the Reagan administration (1980 to 1988), it was common knowledge that Bush Sr was the boss who led US policy. He officially became the don in 1988, and ran his own operation with pretty much the same crew until 1992. James Baker was the key consigliere to don Bush Sr, but he also listened closely to the Talleyrand of US politics, consigliere extraordinaire Henry Kissinger. Bush Sr’s under boss was Donald Rumsfeld who picked his capo in the person of Dick Cheney. George W. Bush or Bush Jr, when his turn came, kept most of the old don’s crew with some minor changes and additions. Cheney became the under boss, while Rumsfeld took the vital Pentagon portfolio.

    Before George W. Bush’s turn, the Clinton dynasty came along in 1992, courtesy of WallMart, and with the firm intention, as an obligation to their sponsors, to facilitate a global corporate imperialist agenda. With the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), don Bill Clinton went the extra mile for the benefit of his friends in transnational corporations. Bill Clinton became a favorite of Wall Street’s investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs, by being instrumental in the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which was voted in 1933 during the Great Depression in the aftermath of the 1929 Wall Street crash.

    Don Clinton’s under boss was Leon Panetta, and the lead capo was Rahm Emanuel. When dona Hillary Clinton lost what she viewed as being her turn in the driver’s seat, both the Clinton and Bush mafias made sure that young capo Barack Obama, who had not patiently waited for his turn in the limelight, was surrounded by trusted hands. One can imagine the deal imposed on Obama by Bill and Dick. The Bush mafia would keep the Pentagon for the time being; Hillary would run US foreign policy from the State Department; don Bill’s under boss Leon Panetta would become Obama’s CIA director (2009 to 2011) and boss of the Pentagon (2011 to 2013). Clinton’s trusted lead capo Rahm Emanuel became Obama’s under boss. Don Bill did not stay idle after the 2008 election; he became Obama’s lead consigliere, with the occasional help on geopolitical dossiers such as Ukraine from… Brzezinski, of course.

    …the premise of the upcoming 2016 US presidential election “fight” is already set. It will be a rematch of an old time classic: Bush against Clinton, dona Hillary versus don Jeb. For good measure, and to give American consumers of elections a sense that their democracy is not an illusion, there will be unelectable challengers in the fake primaries. This will be strictly for entertainment purposes and to indulge the so-called American left. On a short list of likely seat warmers for Hillary are Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, perhaps even Joe Biden. On the Bush side of the ring, the supposed primary challengers will be harder to find: perhaps Mitt Romney again or phony Libertarian Rand Paul.”

    The Bush-Clinton Mafia

    Gives you an idea of what Merkel is up against, and these guys don’t play around. She can’t want a war, but if she doesn’t step up, she just might get one. Always remember the line from the Untouchables, where Sean Connery is fighting the crooked police chief. The police chief tells Sean Connery to just go along. When Connery refuses to, the police chief says in his Irish accent, “You’re a dead man, Jimmy.”

    #19905
    rapier
    Participant

    I assume that European voters are as disengaged as American ones if not quite so ill or mis informed and the parties in power are as parochial as the American ones too so that real political pressure to stop the Ukrainian madness or turn East economically is unlikely. There is no such thing as political leaders anymore. Just operators who seek the elite institutional consensus. Those are the only people who can rise to political power now and Merkel is no exception.

    Assuming a good portion of corporate elites are in favor of shifting away from the US, the intelligence/military strategic elites are probably with the US 90% so that is the path of least resistance. I will be shocked if Merkel leads away from the current path. Try to finesse the situations maybe but that’s about it. Push back a bit but don’t shove, and just hope things work out.

    #19907
    jjhman
    Participant

    I simply can’t imagine what people are smoking when they fantasize that the US “..wants a nuclear war” and somehow holds Germany hostage with 54,000 troops there.

    The US is currently going thru one of it’s periodic fits of stupidity but, in the long run is no more evil or criminal than any other government in the history of the world. At worst it is a prime example of the corrupting nature of being the biggest kid on the block. Even at that who has done better at it? No one that’s who.

    #19921
    Dr. Diablo
    Participant

    Interesting.

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