Yeah, right, I am sure the German voters would think that, too. Your ideas about what is ‘not unreasonable’ are pretty immature…
Ukraine wanted to forge an economic agreement with the EU. Their pro-Kremlin president opposed it and was forced out in a popular uprising and is now under protection in Russia. Since then Russia has been supporting groups of separatists to undermine the legitimacy of the current president. The election in Crimea was done under duress and is not internationally recognized.
Conspiracies about untoward US involvement in eastern Europe ignore the fact that Russia has very little to offer these countries. In recent years a number of countries have made overtures about joining the EU or NATO; they were not coerced but hope to enjoy peace and prosperity through greater relations with the West.
Russia has been engaged in a propaganda war, labeling its opponents as nazis and fascists, but it is they that are trying to revive a sphere of influence and dominate other peoples without their consent.
Europe’s stand to uphold Ukrainian sovereignty did not come without a price, but that difficulty does not lessen its rightness.
Similarly with Syria, which for decades has intrigued to undermine and dominate embattled Lebanon, a multi-ethnic multi-sectarian nation that has attempted to practice democracy in a power sharing arrangement between Christians, Shiites and Sunnis. A country that has accepted many thousands of Palestinian refugees and more recently about a million refugees of the Iraqi war and the Syrian civil war.
And with Russia’s help Syria has been engaged in the wholesale slaughter of up to a half-million of its own citizens.
I too find Israel’s treatment of Palestinians deplorable, and I hope that cooler heads will prevail among Israeli leaders and the Palestinian representatives as well as regional powers in the Arab world whose rhetoric encourages intransigent hardliners and marginalizes moderates and reformers on both sides.
I don’t deny that at times we have been less than honorable in our foreign affairs, but I reject an assertion of moral equivalence between Russia and the US. The US still enjoys moral authority around the world, and many look to us for leadership and assistance in times of crisis and disaster. We spearheaded a movement of sanctioning Russia to uphold Ukrainian sovereignty, we initiated a process by which the world’s powers resolved the issue of Iran’s nuclear program peacefully, and we led a process that culminated in almost 200 nations agreeing to work on limiting the emission of green house gases and supporting clean energy. We assembled a 65-nation coalition of allies and adversaries to combat ISIS, which hopefully will serve as the basis of a long-term regional defene and economic alliance. We have been among the first, if not the first, to respond in times of national disaster.
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From the Defense One and Economist articles cited by @inversion it appears that DT is partially correct: Germany pays less to NATO than it’s pledged to. Point to Trump. The articles do not address whether NATO agreements stipulate that shortages must be made up, so it’s unclear if the charge of Germany’s owing money is accurate. Let’s judge that as a neutral element of his tweets.
But none of the NATO countries owe money to the US for NATO. That’s false. Given that Germany and the others are allies I take 2 points for this inaccuracy. Then there’s the question of whether or not this is something that should be aired via twitter, especially since Trump said nothing of this to Merkel publicly. The answer is No. I deduct 5 more points for juvenile diplomatic (sic) behavior.
Score: -6 to Trump. Not good in any way.
I don’t think you’re being fair. Markel and Germany have been the subject of much criticism with regard to the fiscal positions that they have taken in the aftermath of the Crash of 2008 to the detriment of other European nations.
But in this context, on the question of European unity and support for international law in the face of Russian meddling and adventurism, she has emerged as a strong effective leader and ally.
And at this particular time, when the Trump administration seems to be involved in raising tensions and undermining European unity in favor of what TPM’s Josh Marshall has termed a “blood and soil nationalism,” she deserves our support.
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I agree with you first point, I shouldn’t use Trump’s statements as a basis for any argument. He is too crazy, a liar and is completely off the wall.
So this is my opinion of Germany and Merkel. Germany has under spent in defense for too long. They have a strong economy and fiscal situation, and should use their resources in coordination with the other European powers, Turkey and the US to provide for the common protections of NATO countries and to be able to act outside of their borders without a complete dependence on the US. In the context of NATO, no country should be the critical linchpin, as obviously no country can be entirely relied upon.
I don’t hold Merkel in the same regard that you do. She is an extremely intelligent, educated and canny politician, who grew up under harsh circumstances. Her refugee policy has been amazing. Amazing!! Her policy of pushing multiple EU countries into a depression has been deplorable and has dramatically weakened the EU. If she and her cohorts in the EU bank do not stop, she may well destroy the EU. In point of fact, the recession/depression she has forced on several countries has likely been a contributing factor in the breakdown of the common European front on dealing with the refugee crisis EU wide.
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Because there is much more at stake here. It truly is a decision between Merkel – an admittedly flawed but nonetheless sane and effective leader – and a dangerous ideologue from the Alternative for Germany that seeks to defeat her. The same for LePen and any number of right-wing or nihilist extremists seeking to upend the European Union and western order.
I understand some of your concerns and share them, but you must understand that Merkel’s far right wing opponent, Le Pen, Italy’s Five Star movement, and Hungarian neofascists pose a much graver threat. We need to maintain our perspective if we hope to achieve reforms.
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I’m much more afraid of Trump being assassinated, for the reasons you cite: " Financial and political instability would be set in motion. Imagine Trump’s and winger-extremist psycho-antics in the wake of such an event. Chaos would ensue."
At this point, Trump’s value to the movement he seems to represent is largely symbolic. He was an energetic, charismatic figure who provided wind for the Republican sails and galvanized a demoralized base.
If he can be martyred while his support is still extremely high among his base, the movement conservatives backing his agenda can wave his bloody shirt, dispense with the inconvenience and setbacks his stumbling ways all too frequently occasion, and technocratically proceed under the halo of the sainted Trump and his noble cause, and unimpeded by the actual Trump’s pratfalls and distractions.
We need to let him do as much damage as possible with all the Republican support he can muster in order to discredit Republicans for a generation or two. We can recover from the damage he did as soon as he is marched out of the White House and in to the nut house.
Those charts are a bit misleading and I’m beginning to regret even posting them. According to Daalder, member countries have until 2024 to fulfill the 2% pledge. This thread mentions about any NATO dues
and all 28 countries are up to date.
Trump is also helping keep Europe and Australia from electing Nazis. Most people instinctively despise Trump. Wilders’ popularity was rising until Holland got a good look at Trump. Then it fell through the floor. Same thing happened in Australia. Pence doesn’t trigger the same level of revulsion until you take a deeper look, which makes him a greater risk in that regard.
The risk to European unity is Germany and Brussels. The policies of fiscal repression and domination that Merkel’s allowed her conservative elements to pursue will inevitably collapse the EMU. It’s only a question of when. Then we’ll have chaos. The color and flavor of that chaos will depend on how well inoculated the public is against the far right. Trump is acting as a vaccine for now, but that won’t last forever.
The issue of Merkel’s popularity or the debts owed to NATO by certain members are separate issues that have really nothing to do with the pig ignorance and insulting nature of our highly incompetent President.
If the Boor were removed from the equation, diplomacy would ensue and our own past aggressions, faux pas’ and mistakes along with Germany’s and other members would be dealt with in today’s world. What Merkel is now and is doing now is very important and righteous actually. I believe that America has the high ground but not nearly as high as it could be. We’ve made plenty of bad calls IOW over the years and despite leading in many ways, we have no right to cast stones.
Trumpity’s attempts to distract have been recognized and should be quickly dispensed now because all that comes from him and team bullshit is the old shell game.
As Dr. Maddow has realized, focus on his actions and not his distractions.
The tweets are red meat and a cowards way of sort of punching back. When Dumbo is wrong and caught he’d be best, at least in national interest, just to at least shut up or better, admit it. He can’t punch a fact and win or tweet it away.
All that this is about is our President being wrong, again, and embarrassingly so, again, and going the bully route as opposed to trying to wise up.
He has compounded his stupidity and crudeness and taken our nation down another notch.
This isn’t leadership or the moral high ground and no one, outside of his own financial issues that is, will follow.
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It truly is a decision between Merkel – an admittedly flawed but nonetheless sane and effective leader – and a dangerous ideologue from the Alternative for Germany
Trump’s abuse of Merkel is more likely to help her in that election than not – if the Germans even remember it by then. Don’t conflate opposing the fiscal oppression in the EMU with support for the far right. That’s a mistake that will, with certainty, destroy European unity. The far right feeds on oppression and resentment. Remove the oppression, you weaken the far right. Keynes tried to warn us of that after the treaty of Versailles. He was right.
Love that his hair clashes with the jail jumper.
I agree that the fiscal policies espoused by Merkel and others have been harmful, and that in general the politics of austerity are partially responsible for high unemployment and the rise of far-right euroskeptic parties.
However, I think the EU has recently begun to re-examine those policies – even the IMF is advocating for stimulus and arguing against austerity – and I think a reassessment of the EU structure of governance is necessary.
Paul Krugman in recent years noted how the US’s ability to recover from the recession better than the EU did stemmed from its ability to control its own currency and marshall resources to boost demand. His column refuted Republicans’ claims at the time that Europe was in poor shape because of its welfare state mentality, and that then-President Obama was mistaken in following Europe’s path to fiscal insolvency. Rather, Krugman noted, Republican federalism and deficit hawkishness would result in the same fecklessness that marred European attempts at recovery.
That said, I feel that while I agree with some of your criticisms of EU governance and do support reform, I feel that Europe is in too fragile a state right now to sustain an attack by the far right demagogues. Granted, Austria, and presumably the Netherlands, have rejected a far-right candidate – and I am not prepared to give Trump any credit for that, or for unintentionally serving as a cautionary tale – but the German and French elections are far from assured. I am hoping that sane candidates will prevail and we can have this debate about reform afterwards without toppling friendly governments and installing extremists.
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I have long criticized the fiscal austerity post-2008, and I do not want the resulting misery to become a political cudgel wielded by the far Right.
But I am also afraid of a political movement that exploits populist memes but which also has a more illiberal, maybe sinister agenda.
The French elections will give us a clearer picture on that. But…meanwhile Italy is a ticking time bomb. Not because of its politics but because it’s on the verge of collapse and no possible “bailout” arrangement could “rescue” Italy.
People in both the U.S. and in Europe are open to a much more progressive path forward than is commonly recognized. Although I was never a fan of Sanders, he did show us that voters are open to a progressive solution. It doesn’t have to be a choice between Reagan or Genghis Khan. It can perhaps be FDR.
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Yes, I am very concerned with the fragile states over their, and that’s why I am afraid of these demagoguing extremists – they have a political opening.
Uh huh. Sure is immature to expect rich countries benefitting from something as part of an alliance to pay their fair share towards it. 
The thing I keep coming back to is that the middle-class prosperity of the 1950s (rightwing dream) was largely (mostly?) due to the progressive policies. Strong labor unions enabled a single wage earner to support a family of five, with healthcare and a pension. A 90% top marginal tax rate redistributed wealth back into society. Veterans received educational financing.
We’ve become fearful of even mentioning the economic principles of progressivism – that labor is an asset, for example. We allow ourselves to be browbeaten by those who call taxes confiscation and redistribution, when the net redistribution in our society is upwards, not downwards. Far right has this opening because progressives are not stepping up to seize it.