Die Welt: Germany says goodbye to the market economy

Make no mistake: This lady is a de facto social democrat!

Already in September last year I wrote about the "social democratization" of Angela Merkel's Germany. This process is happening even faster than anticipated. There is less and less room for the market economy. Germans should be worried:

The GroKo (Merkel's "great coalition") redefines the social market economy: The adjective becomes the main word, while leaving less and less room for the market economy.

The massive government intervention in wage setting means a turning point for the local economy. Further regulation of the labor market will follow. And the rents are also in the focus of the coalition. Here a "rental brake" is to dampen the supposedly anti-social effects of the real estate boom. In the energy sector, market forces are already overridden, and the government has no convincing plan for how they want to deal with the consequences of these interventionist policies. --

If the social politicians of the SPD and Union continues so rigorously to shrink the market economy, Germany's best times will soon be behind us.

Valery Gergiev is a complete Putin stooge: Criticizes brave Karita Mattila

A conductor turned propgandist.

There should not anymore by any doubt about the fact that Russian (Ossetian) conductor Valery Gergiev is a complete Putin stooge. This formerly leading conductor is now one of the leading propagandists for the dictator in the Kremlin:

According to him, Russia did not incorporate the Crimea, it was the will of the people, which manifested itself in a referendum.

"In Ukraine there are too many Nazi elements," he argues, and maintains that the overwhelming result of the referendum was that the Crimean Peninsula residents do not want to remain under the "fascists".

The same applies in his view to many east Ukrainians.

"Russia has received tens of thousands of refugees from Eastern Ukraine." --

"I do not want to be a messenger in this and take another role than my role as a musician. I strongly recommend also to Karita Mattila, that she does what she is best at: singing an acting."

Gergiev continues to reflect on Mattila even more vehemently.

"How can she look into the eyes of those mothers whose children were killed? Many, many children died in the Ukrainian army's needless bombardment. There are no attacks against Kiev from eastern Ukraine, but from the centre they go to the east in order to annihilate these people. Why is the military used to destroy the country's own nationals, who have an Ukrainian passport ? "

The entire interview in the leading Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat here (in Finnish).

PS

My message to the LSO and the Munich Philharmonic: The only decent thing you can do is to get rid of this man as soon as possible! A continued involvement with this conductor turned Putin propagandist will tarnish your image and credibility for years.

And, I say it again: Kudos to Karita Mattila, who dares to speak out!

A great day for Europe: Jean-Claude Juncker nominated as the next President of the European Commission

"I am not a dwarf"
Jean-Claude Juncker

 

Today is a great day for Europe: EU leaders have nominated former Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker as the next president of the European Commission.

Finally, a fresh and inspiring new face in the Commission!

Juncker, who is known for his bold initiatives and visionary thinking is exactly the right person to lead Europe into a bright and prosperous future.

We cannot wait to hear more about Mr. Juncker's exciting reform programme. Fortunately, the Telegraph, citing sources in Brussels, gives us a foretaste of what we can expect:

Sources also described how Mr Juncker “chain-smoked” through a series of meetings on Thursday and disclosed that he is attempting to get rules changed so that he can smoke in buildings in Brussels.

The Telegraph also discloses why France has been one of Juncker's strongest supporters:

One senior diplomatic source has said he “has cognac for breakfast”. 

The BBC's new diversity programme is clearly discriminatory

(image by Wikimedia commons)

“The BBC gets much right on diversity, but the simple fact is that we need to do more. I am not content for the BBC to be merely good or above average”

Lord Hall, Director general, BBC


It turns out that the entire BBC will soon get the BBC World Service "treatment":

One in seven BBC presenters and actors is to be black, Asian or minority ethnic within the next three years, it has been announced, as Lord Hall pledges to improve diversity.

Lord Hall, the director-general, has promised 15 per cent of on-air BBC staff will be black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) by 2017, along with one in ten managers. --

 

Speaking at the BBC’s Elstree Studios, Lord Hall promised the corporation aimed to be “beyond reproach” on diversity issues, as he announces a new group of advisors including comedian Lenny Henry, athlete Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, and broadcaster Baroness Floella Benjamin.

He has now confirmed a set of targets for the BBC, to be fulfilled over the next three years.

 

Read the entire article here

 

By prioritizing one minority group, BAME, Lord Hall clearly discrimates against all other minorities, which should be offered the same chance to work as presenters, actors and managers at the BBC. Here are just a few examples of minority groups which without doubt should be included in the new diversity programme:

• UK's 8 million illiterates (The World Literacy Foundation says that one in five of the UK population are so poor at reading and writing they struggle to read a medicine label or use a chequebook.)
• Obese people (one in four adults in the UK)
• 25% of people in the lower social brackets who are smokers
• Ale drinkers (31% of the adult population)
• Tea drinkers(53 per cent of the Brits rely on a traditional cup of tea, at around 8am on average, to help kick start their working day)
• Dog owners (31% of UK households)
• Fishermen(Over 4 million in the UK)
• Britain's 978000 carpenters
• The UK's 300000 bridge players
• People with a black and white TV Licence (12,076 in 2013)

 

New opinion poll: A British exit from the EU looks likely

A very promising sign:

British people would vote to leave the European Union by a large margin under the current terms of membership, according to a new Opinium/Observer poll.
But David Cameron could turn public opinion round and keep the UK in the EU if he is able to negotiate new and improved terms of membership, the survey suggests.
Opinium found a total of 48% would definitely or probably vote to leave under present rules, while 37% said they would definitely or probably vote to stay in.
However the poll suggests the tide could be turned if David Cameron, who has promised to hold an in/out referendum by the end of 2017 if the Conservatives win the next election, does manage to secure a favourable renegotiation of terms.
In that event, 42% say they would either definitely or probably vote to stay in, against 36% who would probably or definitely vote to leave. There is widespread scepticism, however, over Cameron's ability to achieve a satisfactory renegotiation. Only 18% (including 34% of Conservatives) think he will win the necessary concessions.
(bolding by NNoN)

For the sake of a better British - and European - future, let's hope that the result (if the referendum will actually take place) will be a resounding no. (By a better European future, I mean a gradual unravelling of the present undemocratic and overbureaucratic EU).

The Economist on Russia's aggression in Ukraine: "Not to respond to renewed Russian meddling would be dangerous and wrong"

A correct Ukrainian description of Putin: Khuilo (dickhead).
(image by Wiki)

The Economist's editorial should be a wake up call to all appeasers in the west (such as David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Francoise Hollande). The dictator of the mafia state Russia must be stopped before its too late!:

Not to respond to renewed Russian meddling would be dangerous and wrong. If the rebels start losing ground, the Russians may step up their support. Mr Poroshenko still plans to sign the trade deal with the EU that was spurned by his predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, last November, triggering the Maidan protests in Kiev that led to Mr Yanukovych’s departure. Ukraine’s government needs further support. The EU should accelerate efforts to become less reliant on Russian energy. That implies guarding against a gas cut-off by completing interconnectors that allow supply from the west as well as the east, searching for new gas sources and building more terminals for liquefied natural gas. It also means that the EU must pursue vigorously its antitrust case against Gazprom, which operates as a monopolistic arm of the Russian state, not a normal firm.--

A third round of sanctions is also needed. The goal of the first two rounds was to persuade Mr Putin to stop meddling in eastern Ukraine. So far he seems to have shelved thoughts of full-scale invasion, but he is intervening more than ever. Appeasers fret that fresh sanctions could provoke more Russian hostility. Yet, as NATO’s deputy secretary-general has noted, Russia has already chosen to treat NATO as an adversary, one reason why countries such as Sweden and Finland are considering joining (see Charlemagne). There is much scope for further Russian revanchism in places like Moldova or Georgia.
Experience shows that the only way to deter bullying is to stand up to it, even if that comes at a price. Having threatened a third round of sanctions, the West should make good on its threats—unless and until Mr Putin stops nakedly interfering in eastern Ukraine. Anything else would be an invitation.

Germany, France and the UK are unwilling NATO allies in the fight against Putin's aggression

In spite of some tough words, Germany, France and the UK are unwilling to do very much against dictator Vladimir Putin's aggression. Business interests dictate their lame response:

Yet the bigger surprise of March's Crimea crisis came from the west with Berlin's muted response to Russian aggression, and its rejection of Warsaw's calls for a stronger NATO response.

The German language has a new phrase for the political and business establishment's attitude: Russlandversteher, or "understanding Russia." Over half of Germans claim to "understand" Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea and the bloody conflict it is fomenting in Ukraine—in part blaming America's support for Kiev's democrats for provoking the Kremlin. A similar number oppose further sanctions on Russia. Chancellor Angela Merkel's rhetorically harder anti-Putin line finds little support in Germany.

For the past 25 years, the Poles were told that the new Germany would have their back. After German unification and the eastward expansion of the EU and NATO, as the reassuring slogan went, "When Germans now look East, they see the West"—namely Poland. Germany trades and invests more with Poland than with Russia. Yet Berlin's present approach evokes the memory of a Germany that once carved up Central Europe with Russia. No one's talking of another partition of Poland, but it's sobering to hear Polish officials grumble more about Berlin than about Moscow.

Further west, the continent's divisions get amplified. The French are moving ahead with the $1.6 billion sale of two Mistral naval assault vessels to Russia later this year over the objections of Washington and the newer NATO allies in Poland and the Baltic states. Britain has sold the City of London along with its soul for a pot of dirty Russian money.

 

Thus, the US remains Poland's only real ally, even under a weak president. One must hope that the next US president is somebody closer to the Reagan legacy than Barack Obama and somebody who would put real pressure on the main European NATO allies.