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On July 02 2017 07:07 m4ini wrote:Show nested quote +On July 02 2017 00:48 bardtown wrote:
Jesus. Stop looking for excuses to be offended. I neither said nor implied that he wouldn't approve. Would be dumb af anyway considering that he asked for something like that, rather than a german Staatsakt. What you tried was a cheap jab trying to score some "you show em" points with the other "eu is literally hitler" people.
Though afaik there was some weird controversy regarding whether kohl actually asked for that, or whether his wife made it up to piss off some other people. I kind of forgot half the details here. I know that there was a bunch of weird shit going on with regards to Kohls burial and ceremony.
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On July 02 2017 07:11 Simberto wrote:Show nested quote +On July 02 2017 07:07 m4ini wrote:On July 02 2017 00:48 bardtown wrote:
Jesus. Stop looking for excuses to be offended. I neither said nor implied that he wouldn't approve. Would be dumb af anyway considering that he asked for something like that, rather than a german Staatsakt. What you tried was a cheap jab trying to score some "you show em" points with the other "eu is literally hitler" people. Though afaik there was some weird controversy regarding whether kohl actually asked for that, or whether his wife made it up to piss off some other people. I kind of forgot half the details here. I know that there was a bunch of weird shit going on with regards to Kohls burial and ceremony.
Yeah i know. His wife didn't want him to be buried next to Hannelore, and there's some weird shit with his son etc (didn't really follow).
I do genuinely believe he'd want this though.
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Germany3128 Posts
On July 02 2017 07:11 Simberto wrote:Show nested quote +On July 02 2017 07:07 m4ini wrote:On July 02 2017 00:48 bardtown wrote:
Jesus. Stop looking for excuses to be offended. I neither said nor implied that he wouldn't approve. Would be dumb af anyway considering that he asked for something like that, rather than a german Staatsakt. What you tried was a cheap jab trying to score some "you show em" points with the other "eu is literally hitler" people. Though afaik there was some weird controversy regarding whether kohl actually asked for that, or whether his wife made it up to piss off some other people. I kind of forgot half the details here. I know that there was a bunch of weird shit going on with regards to Kohls burial and ceremony.
I don't want to talk tooooo bad about some still living people but I was at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2014. It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. Helmut Kohl 'wanted' to promote the new edition of his book :"Vom Mauerfall bis zur Wiedervereinigung" ("From the fall of the Wall to the reunion"). What followed was one of the saddest thing I've ever seen. Kohl was already in a wheelchair and could barely talk anymore (and that is graciously formulated). He had trouble speaking a whole sentence the whole 'interview' and every time he got a question his newest wife would answer, or stub him until he got to formulate half a sentence. I don't know how to convey how sad it was. He was looking like my grandfather, who couldn't move or talk anymore at the end of his life, yet Kohl was forced to do so, by his newest wife for some book sales. It was so fucking sad. It became pretty obious that all this show was her doing.
I know I went off on a tangent but I just wanted to say that I wouldn't put it past his wife to force some shit as long as she got some advantage out of it.
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His wife also ousted Kohl's long time chauffeur according to Die Zeit. She isn't portrayed as a saint, that is for sure.
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What possible cause is there to be offended by somebody pointing out the symbolism of something that is plainly symbolic? The entire point of the symbolism is to convey a message. How can it be offensive for someone to point out something done intentionally, with pride? I have been and will continue to be critical of the EU, but I have far more respect for people with the courage of their convictions than people who skulk and pretend the EU is something it isn't.
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As far as we know, the shooting has nothing at all to do with the mosque. Avignon's parquet (prosecutor) has confirmed that it just happened accidentally close to the mosque, and that it seemed to be a gang related shooting.
A bit silly that medias, including Le Monde where I read that it was not ideologically or religiously motivated can't help themselves and have to write in their title that it happened next to the mosque. Talk of pouring oil on the fire.
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title a bit (a lot) clickbaity but it is quite symbolic I guess?
U.S. no longer a 'friend' in Merkel election program
In their campaign program for the German election, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have dropped the term "friend" in describing the relationship with the United States.
Four years ago, the joint program of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), referred to the United States as Germany's "most important friend" outside of Europe.
The 2013 program also described the "friendship" with Washington as a "cornerstone" of Germany's international relations and talked about strengthening transatlantic economic ties through the removal of trade barriers.
But the words "friend" and "friendship" are missing from the latest election program - entitled "For a Germany in which we live well and happily" - which Merkel and CSU leader Horst Seehofer presented on Monday ahead of a Sept. 24 election.
Instead, the United States is described as Germany's "most important partner" outside of Europe. CDU officials were not immediately available to comment on the change in wording.
The change in wording underscores how relations between Berlin and Washington have deteriorated since U.S. President Donald Trump entered the White House in January.
During his campaign for the presidency, Trump said that Merkel was "ruining" Germany with migration policies he described as "insane".
He has repeatedly denounced Germany's trade surplus with the United States, accused Berlin and other European partners of owing "massive amounts of money" to NATO, and unsettled western partners with his decision last month to pull out of the Paris climate accord..
A survey by the Pew Research Center last week showed that just 35 percent of Germans have a favorable view of the United States, down from 57 percent at the end of President Barack Obama's term.
Merkel is due to host Trump and other leaders at a G20 summit in Hamburg later this week.
In place of the 2013 passage about strengthening economic ties, the 2017 program refers to historical U.S. support for Germany after World War Two and in the run-up to German reunification.
The new CDU/CSU election program also repeats a line that Merkel used in a speech in Munich in late May after a difficult summit of G7 leaders, where Trump resisted pressure from six other nations to stay in the Paris agreement.
"The times in which we could fully rely on others are, to a certain extent, in the past. We Europeans must take our fate into our own hands more decisively than we have in the past," the program reads.
While affirming Germany's commitment to the NATO military alliance, the program says that the EU must be in a position to defend itself independently if it wants to survive in the long run.
It also adds a special section entitled "Germany and France as the Motor of Europe" which vows to "reinvigorate the friendship" between the two countries.
"We are ready, together with the new French government, to further develop the euro zone step by step, for example through the creation of its own monetary fund," it reads.
But it also rules out the mutualization of debt in Europe and says that "solidarity" will only be possible if EU countries stick to the rules of the bloc's Growth and Stability Pact.
source: www.reuters.com
I think Merkel + Trump agree'd to talk before the G20 meeting? Something like Thursday iirc? Will be looking forward to see how that goes but I'm expecting the air in the room to get real chilly from the atmosphere
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The hypocrisy of Europe is driving me insane. We'are all pro-europeans, one country, yayy. Then, 100,000 refugees since January and Italy naturally asks for help: Macron refuses to help, Rajoy closes his harbours and Austria deploys 4 armoured vehicles at the border. And you wonder why people want to see this union dismantled?
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On July 04 2017 19:42 SoSexy wrote:
The hypocrisy of Europe is driving me insane. We'are all pro-europeans, one country, yayy. Then, 100,000 refugees since January and Italy naturally asks for help: Macron refuses to help, Rajoy closes his harbours and Austria deploys 4 armoured vehicles at the border. And you wonder why people want to see this union dismantled?
For once I agree with you. Macron's hypocrisy on this matter is spectacular, in words he's all about "being human with refugees because our values blablabla," in acts he does little/nothing to help + French cops spend their time chasing refugees and making their life a misery for nothing. People who help refugees near the Italian border are harassed by cops/justice, sometimes even condemned/fined...
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On July 04 2017 19:42 SoSexy wrote:
The hypocrisy of Europe is driving me insane. We'are all pro-europeans, one country, yayy. Then, 100,000 refugees since January and Italy naturally asks for help: Macron refuses to help, Rajoy closes his harbours and Austria deploys 4 armoured vehicles at the border. And you wonder why people want to see this union dismantled?
How would a dismantling of the EU help that problem?
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On July 04 2017 19:42 SoSexy wrote:
The hypocrisy of Europe is driving me insane. We'are all pro-europeans, one country, yayy. Then, 100,000 refugees since January and Italy naturally asks for help: Macron refuses to help, Rajoy closes his harbours and Austria deploys 4 armoured vehicles at the border. And you wonder why people want to see this union dismantled?
Not sure if it's okay to criticise Austria when they have more refugees per capita than Italy.
+ Show Spoiler +Can't find any neat graphs for 2016 or 2017. I'm aware that the main path goes through Italy now so Italian numbers are probably much higher than prestented below but I still think their asylum per capita rate is lower than Austria's. ![[image loading]](https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/DB17/production/_88578065_asylum_claims_per_capita_624gr.png)
If you don't like refugees and migrants you should consider being "grateful" since closed border with Austria means they're no longer encouraging people to break Italian laws by welcoming everyone coming from your territory.
Certain other countries + Show Spoiler + definitely deserve a lot more criticism than Austria.
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Those are just applications though, afaik Hungary for example didn't accept a lot of them. Last I've seen a statistics on this topic Sweden was the #1 in the accepted refugees per capita statistic by far.
EDIT: Though I now see what you meant, kinda missed the point. ^^
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Yeah you really couldn't have picked a less informative measure to indicate how many refugees a country has. To imply that Greece and Italy have below the EU average is laughable. To imply that Hungary is accepting the most refugees is equally laughable.
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Jeez, can't a country march with its army to the border of a highly, historically disputed territory and not be bothered for once.
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That's why we can't have Poland nice things!
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We want to take more refugees in Portugal but nobody wants to come. 
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The best way to have lower per capita applications is to be far from the Turkish border and have a lot of people.
An absolute number is a far more useful one in this case because "per capita" doesn't really mean anything.
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That's the problem with the whole situation. EU law means they should be applying in the first country they reach, and yet somehow Greece and Italy have less applications than the EU average. A small fraction are satisfied with having reached Europe, while the overwhelming majority want to reach NW Europe. The migrants don't want their applications to be handled at the EU level because they won't have any say in which country they end up in, and the EU nations don't want it to be handled at the EU level because they don't want to be forced to take migrants. So Italy is on its own with thousands of migrants who don't really want to be there in the first place. P.S. I would move to Portugal.
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EPT
