That means to have the greater leverage, to have the upper hand.
Trump triumphs over the EU: Why the Americans have always had the upper hand over Brussels – The “deal” between the two economic superpowers is a clear victory for the US. The Europeans lacked the potential to threaten.
On China.
“On this point, Donald is right — there is a serious problem,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, as she slammed Beijing for disrupting global trade with subsidies to boost its own companies – accusing the CCP of “weaponizing” its leading position in the production and refinement of raw materials used for cars, batteries and wind turbines.
She then encouraged Trump to join forces with US allies to address China’s trade imbalances, rather than punishing them with his own tariff scheme.
“When we focus our attention on tariffs between partners, it diverts our energy from the real challenge — one that threatens us all.”
If you were catastrophically inept at your last job, it’s time for you to get a promotion.
Everybody’s doing it. See Ursula von der Leyen who got promoted to President of the European Union after bungling her job as German Defense Minister – and two or three other jobs before that.
Germany’s Baerbock elected as UN General Assembly head – Former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was voted in as president of the UN General Assembly. Meanwhile, Germany’s tough migration policy has been dealt a setback in court.
And it was just starting to get fun, too.
EU offers USA deal on free trade – The EU has proposed to US President Trump that all tariffs on industrial goods be abolished on both sides. We are ready to negotiate, said Commission President von der Leyen.
Germany’s COVID management: World wonders what’s gone wrong – A year ago, Germany was effusively praised for its coronavirus response. Nobody would think to do that now. If anything, the international view today is a mixture of astonishment and schadenfreude.
As reported earlier… “Germany is the architect of the European failure because Germany and Merkel were behind pushing for the European process that was a failure from the beginning.”
Europe “ought” to work. But it doesn’t. Then the real world bites back.
Who cares? You didn’t vote for me. As a matter of fact, nobody did. Other than non-elected officials like me, that is.
You can’t fire me. And I don’t quit. I’m not a quiter. I’m a loser maybe, but I’ll quit when I decide to, thank you.
Germans unhappy with EU’s handling of vaccine scheme – Roughly half of Germans believe the EU has handled the coronavirus vaccine rollout badly, according to an opinion poll. It comes as separate research finds a majority want an end to the country’s lockdown…
The United Kingdom has given at least one jab to 31% of its population, while Germany has so far at least partially vaccinated 7.63% of its population (that actually means more like 3.5, of course), according to figures compiled by Our World In Data.
That is marginally above the EU average of 7.60 people for every 100.
26 soldiers, eight beds.
German military. Get it? There is no German military to speak of. The lady currently running the EU saw to that. A mid-size American city’s police force is more effective.
“A symbol of hope” – German military aid arrives in Portugal – A German military plane carrying over 20 doctors and nurses together with ventilators and hospital beds arrived on Wednesday in coronavirus-stricken Portugal, where a severe rise in cases has prompted several European nations to offer help.
The German team will manage a new unit of eight ICU beds in a private hospital in Lisbon, Hospital da Luz, which was equipped but lacked the staff to operate, Health Minister Marta Temido said at the military base where the plane landed.
“Eight beds may not sound like much, but it is a lot for a health system under significant pressure.”
It really is fun to watch her. I think she’s gone mad, by the way. But this is the world that Angie Merkel & Co. want.
The incompetent Eurocrats are in a horrible hole. So why are they STILL digging?
For politicians across the world, the past 12 months have brought challenges few could have imagined. And inevitably, every government has made its share of mistakes. But for some people, determined to hold up a magnifying glass to Britain’s failings, there has always been a shining beacon of honesty and competence — the EU. Time and again, they insisted that France, Germany and their Continental neighbours put Britain to shame…
The EU’s vaccine shambles has been well chronicled, from its failure to sign a timely deal and secure supplies to its mendacious attempts to blame the British/Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and its ham-fisted attempt to close the Irish border. So I don’t intend to rehearse all the gory details. What has shocked me, though, is that instead of apologising, the Brussels elite have doubled down on their mistakes and evasions. Having found themselves in a hole, they have been digging more furiously than ever…
Despite her pompous presidential title, Mrs von der Leyen is not a serious politician. Most German commentators see her as a serial failure, whose time as their defence minister was blighted by her risible inability to arrange proper aircraft procurement. She was parachuted into the Commission presidency as Angela Merkel’s creature, a pliant puppet who would do her mistress’s bidding. But if Mrs Merkel had known what was coming, she would surely have made a better choice.
Isn’t Europe doomed to be led by Germany?
Germany is doomed to lead Europe – The EU’s biggest member is in charge, whether Germans like it or not.
Walk into any meeting in Brussels and, most likely, a German will be leading it. In the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the former German defence minister, is in charge. For the next six months, German ministers will be cajoling their peers into signing off legislation as the country takes over the EU’s rotating presidency. In the European Council, where the bloc’s leaders butt heads, it might technically be Charles Michel, the former prime minister of Belgium, heading it. But it is Angela Merkel—longer in post than the leaders of France, Spain, Italy and Poland combined—who is the undisputed top dog. The EU’s main response to the covid-19 crisis—a flagship €750bn recovery fund paid for with debt issued collectively by the EU—is based on a plan cooked up in Berlin and Paris. The Germans are running the show.
How did Henry Kissinger put it? “Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world.”
PS: German oddity 5. Young adults in Germany have never known another chancellor other than Angela Merkel. She has been in office since 2005.
Not Donald Trump withdrawing American troops.
The Germans want a free ride and they’re offended at having finally been caught.
The Sorry State of Germany’s Armed Forces – Trump’s calls to withdraw U.S. troops from the country are impulsive, but Germany isn’t blameless.
The German armed forces are in a sorry state, and that’s not because Germany, more important to NATO’s efficacy as a collective defense pact than any other European member state, lacks the means to fix this problem. It does not.
Germany’s gross domestic product, valued at $4 trillion, ranks fourth in the world and first in Europe. The country is also Europe’s technological powerhouse. Indeed, in 2018, the World Economic Forum hailed it as the world’s leader in technological innovation.
And yet the German military remains riddled with problems. A damning 2019 report (available in an English-language summary) issued by the Bundestag’s then commissioner for the armed forces, Hans-Peter Bartels, summed up the problem.
PS: Please note here that the woman who ran the Bundeswehr for years and years and proved to be unable to fix it is now the woman EU technocrats (voters weren’t asked) have chosen to fix Europe.
Observing Hermann 