Robert Zubrin asks, "Are the Germans nuts?" Oogiook asks, "Who is Giuseppe Conte, really?" And Gabi Mitchell reports from Jerusalem on Biden's trip to the Middle East.
I get Mr. Zubrin's frustration, and polemics that please the people who agree with you can be fun and cathartic, but they're generally not a great way to shift debate. The difficult, frustrating and generally unappealing job of the public expert in a robust democracy is to provide options and to help make a persuasive case for the best ones.
Cosmo Globalist's appeal is that it brings info and thoughts that we might not otherwise come across. We see plenty everywhere about the extreme/fixed positions in German politics, but I'd be very interested to read a nuanced piece on what I suspect is a complex overlap of political issues for "ordinary" Germans - how they got here, what the key points of domestic politics are, how Germans group around these issues (e.g. by economic class? by geography?) and what the various political players can/are/will be doing about it.
German leaders are nuts. Beware of those notorious earthquakes and Tsunamis in Germany (sarcasm). Germany is probably the planet’s most qualified candidate to oversee safety of nuclear power. Merkel responded emotionally, not logically to Japanese nuclear disaster. Merkel also responded emotionally to the migrant crisis in the absence of a necessary European border/immigration infrastructure. I give Germany a break on the issue of arming Ukranians because that is involvement in war and an invitation to Russian retaliation. Not that Putin needs an invitation. I side morally with Ukraine autonomy. At home in USA, we also pretend that involvement in war (sending war machines to Ukraine) is not noticed by Putin.
"At home in USA, we also pretend that involvement in war (sending war machines to Ukraine) is not noticed by Putin."
Can you illuminate this further? Most of the criticism of Russia came prior to the invasion (small GDP, overall military quality) and I've seen significant criticism of their strategy after the initial offensive failed. But I haven't seen anyone pretend that Putin is blind to the fact that his attempt to take advantage of modern sensibilities has gone unnoticed. That would be a surprising take.
The American “pretending” is not that Putin is blind to the fact that we notice his war crimes. Providing military hardware is an action of involvement that goes beyond “noticing Russian invasion.”
The Germans used to be notorious for Realpolitik. It seems, however, that they've transitioned to Unwirkliche Politik: policy that hurts others while hurting Germany itself.
I agree but anti nuclear advocacy goes way beyond Germany and way beyond even the left spectrum of politics. I would argue there are many conservatives who are at best ambivalent about nuclear energy on proliferation and security grounds.
There may be conservatives who oppose or are ambivalent about nuclear power, but the organized opposition to The Atom is almost all on the Left. Thus we have the seriocomical spectacle of Germany's Greens supporting the restarting of coal-fired power plants to fill in for decommissioned nuclear reactors. This is the acme of irrationality.
It'll be interesting to see what happens when Germany hits the wall on energy. A very correct, orderly and bureaucratic revolution perhaps...?
I agree but something I find almost more interesting is someone like Gavin Newsom now reversing position to become more pro nuclear. In fact going a bit off topic if I was someone strongly supporting a possible DeSantis for President candidacy as some people here in the comments I suspect do, to see someone like Newsom ruthlessly betray his own team(and that is how anti nuclear advocates increasingly see Newsom) I would be kind of nervous as to how a DeSantis vs Newsom matchup might look.
I get Mr. Zubrin's frustration, and polemics that please the people who agree with you can be fun and cathartic, but they're generally not a great way to shift debate. The difficult, frustrating and generally unappealing job of the public expert in a robust democracy is to provide options and to help make a persuasive case for the best ones.
Cosmo Globalist's appeal is that it brings info and thoughts that we might not otherwise come across. We see plenty everywhere about the extreme/fixed positions in German politics, but I'd be very interested to read a nuanced piece on what I suspect is a complex overlap of political issues for "ordinary" Germans - how they got here, what the key points of domestic politics are, how Germans group around these issues (e.g. by economic class? by geography?) and what the various political players can/are/will be doing about it.
German leaders are nuts. Beware of those notorious earthquakes and Tsunamis in Germany (sarcasm). Germany is probably the planet’s most qualified candidate to oversee safety of nuclear power. Merkel responded emotionally, not logically to Japanese nuclear disaster. Merkel also responded emotionally to the migrant crisis in the absence of a necessary European border/immigration infrastructure. I give Germany a break on the issue of arming Ukranians because that is involvement in war and an invitation to Russian retaliation. Not that Putin needs an invitation. I side morally with Ukraine autonomy. At home in USA, we also pretend that involvement in war (sending war machines to Ukraine) is not noticed by Putin.
"At home in USA, we also pretend that involvement in war (sending war machines to Ukraine) is not noticed by Putin."
Can you illuminate this further? Most of the criticism of Russia came prior to the invasion (small GDP, overall military quality) and I've seen significant criticism of their strategy after the initial offensive failed. But I haven't seen anyone pretend that Putin is blind to the fact that his attempt to take advantage of modern sensibilities has gone unnoticed. That would be a surprising take.
The American “pretending” is not that Putin is blind to the fact that we notice his war crimes. Providing military hardware is an action of involvement that goes beyond “noticing Russian invasion.”
I suppose I have yet to meet anyone who seems to missed that. If you have a preferred example, please send it my way.
The Germans used to be notorious for Realpolitik. It seems, however, that they've transitioned to Unwirkliche Politik: policy that hurts others while hurting Germany itself.
I agree but anti nuclear advocacy goes way beyond Germany and way beyond even the left spectrum of politics. I would argue there are many conservatives who are at best ambivalent about nuclear energy on proliferation and security grounds.
There may be conservatives who oppose or are ambivalent about nuclear power, but the organized opposition to The Atom is almost all on the Left. Thus we have the seriocomical spectacle of Germany's Greens supporting the restarting of coal-fired power plants to fill in for decommissioned nuclear reactors. This is the acme of irrationality.
It'll be interesting to see what happens when Germany hits the wall on energy. A very correct, orderly and bureaucratic revolution perhaps...?
I agree but something I find almost more interesting is someone like Gavin Newsom now reversing position to become more pro nuclear. In fact going a bit off topic if I was someone strongly supporting a possible DeSantis for President candidacy as some people here in the comments I suspect do, to see someone like Newsom ruthlessly betray his own team(and that is how anti nuclear advocates increasingly see Newsom) I would be kind of nervous as to how a DeSantis vs Newsom matchup might look.