Crazy Talk at the Republican Debate

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDSEPT. 17, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/18/opinion/crazy-talk-at-the-republican-debate.html?comments#permid=16119460

The GOP has been living in a parallel universe, where "data" and "facts" are nuisances to be ignored or even made fun of. Most people in the US , even in the world, judging from my daily read of German press, are just shaking their head about the Reality Show that is the current GOP primary.

And "the press", journalism and the media are a big part of the reason for the Trump phenomena and for the "parallel universe" existence of the GOP - the nonsense spouted by most of the candidates is never seriously challenged - a rather weird interpretation of the "fair and balanced" doctrine, and a "business decision", especially by the cable TV media, that sensational, even dumb sensational statements, gets viewer share and ad revenue. Our news media, especially, but not only the cable media, spend by far most of their time speculating, with the help of an endless stream of talking heads, about political tactics, rather than reporting on real events and facts, and amplifying in their sound chambers every ridiculous comment made by a candidate.

CNN now seems perplexed by the continued "success" of Donald Trump - but they are largely the unwitting tools of this "success" by giving media coverage to every ridiculous comment made by him - starting with the whole "birther" episode. Donald Trump is an extreme example of what happens when our news media concentrate on hype and speculation at the expense of "news" and reasoned analysis.

Will the World Come To Europe?

by Ross Douthat

Sept. 8th, 2015

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/will-the-world-come-to-europe/?comments#permid=16024402

And your point is?...

You seem to implicitly argue for the Fence/Wall solutions of Hungary and Trump - b.t.w., perhaps Mr. Trump should travel to Hungary to give them his invaluable advice on how to build a WALL - not just a puny fence - and have someone else, in their case probably the Greeks, pay for it.

There have been huge migrations of populations in the past, and what we consider the "homogeneous, national identities" of nation states today are the results of these past migrations and mixing and assimilation of one culture into another. The US is turning more and more Latino, which is happening more or less naturally - yes, there are tensions with people like Trump fanning the flames, but it will continue to happen. How well we deal with it is up to us, and our political elite (not a comforting thought when one looks at the bevy of GOP candidates).

The same goes for Europe - Germany, in spite of its archaic and counter-productive "immigration" laws, has assimilated large numbers of Italians, Greeks and Turks, more or less peacefully, originally to satisfy its needs for labor to fuel the "Economic Miracle". There are demographic trends in Germany (and much of Europe) which require immigration and assimilation of "foreign" cultures. Again, how peacefully that happens is up to the people and their political elite. 

Let's hope for the best, because this process cannot be stopped!

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One more comment on this topic: watching the Euro Soccer Qualifying games, it is interesting to see the names on the various national team players, and how many are "foreign" names: Yesterday the German national team, and today the Swiss.

Admittedly, this is not entirely representative, but interesting none-the-less..

Integration of "foreign" nationalities and cultures is certainly possible, and even desirable.

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I guess I'm having a discussion with myself :)
But anyway, one more point.

The current estimate is that 800,000 refugees will arrive in Germany this year (official estimate); unofficially this estimate has already been expanded to 1,000,000.
If one applied that to the US, it would be the equivalent of 4,000,000 "refugees" arriving in the US this year.

I hesitate to imagine how the US would react to that kind of an influx.

Jeb Bush, Family Ties and a Museum That Never Materialized

By STEVE EDERSEPT. 6, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/us/politics/jeb-bush-family-ties-and-a-museum-that-never-materialized.html?comments#permid=16017222

The "Bush dynasty" is a cautionary tale about the hubris and arrogance of a family, and the devastating effect this can have on a country willing to believe the fairytale. Bush Sr. was a reasonably competent president, who, through his political connections, and only through his political connections, was able to amass a family fortune; not the least of these family connections was the completely corrupt Saudi royal family.

Like many families who aquire wealth - often through only marginal contribution of their own - come to beieve that they have special priviledges and special skills. In the Bush case, whatever qualifications Sr. may have had, it certainly did not get passed on to the next generation. The notion of family entitlement, enforced especially by matriarch Barbara, it seems, together with the family connections, gave us the dumbest, most desasterous president in my lifetime.

And now we have the brother, Jeb, who has been correctly described by Donald Trump and "low-energy" - that, in my view, is a very polite description.

On the Democratic side, the fact that Hillary is running, does not represent the same kind of "dynastic aspirations" as in the Bush case. She has proven to be qualified entirely on her own - although the e-mail issue leaves one wondering about her judgement. She was on the forefront of Universal Health Care, she was a successful Senator and Secretary of State.

Lesson: beware of mothers pushing their sons on the basis of their fathers history.

The End of the Republican Party?

By Ross Douthat

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 1:03 PM

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/the-end-of-the-republican-party/?comments#permid=15977519

What we are witnessing, I believe, is that conservatives are being caught up in and strangled by their own web of long running ignorance, lies, deception and devicive propaganda. They have bombarded their followers with this nonsence for decades, to the point where the rank and file have come to actually believe this nonesense. Trump has become the "pied piper" who takes all these idiodic conservative slogans, prejudices and lies and is leading a significant portion of the conservative true believers over the cliff.

No, I don't believe that the GOP will cease to exist because of this. But this will be a lesson for the more sane elements within the GOP (they do exist, see all the people who have chosen to depart from Senate and House) to realize, that spreading lies and misinformation and dogmatic nonesense has consequences: people will actually come to expect that you will deliver on the idiotic promises you made (reduce taxes, shrink government), and that you actually have a solution to the non-existent cataclysms (ObamaCare, Planned Parenthood) you have shouted about.

The actual record of GOP administrations in terms of deficit, taxes, big government, and solving social problems is dismal.

Between Iraq and a Hawk Base

G.O.P. presidential candidates are struggling to craft a foreign policy that can please the gung-ho and win in 2016 — without overpromising military force.

By ROBERT DRAPERSEPT. 1, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/magazine/between-iraq-and-a-hawk-base.html?comments#permid=15969264

Conservative/neocon foreign policy is characterized by an appalling lack of knowledge about history and a frightening arrogance about what America should/can do in the world. Even without the lessons from the decades of British arrogance and stupidity in their foreign policy in the Middle East, the lessons of the US's recent blunders in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan should suffice to show that WE, the US, have singular responsibility for destabilizing the entire region and unleashing the fanaticizm of the itra-Islam religious and tribal conflict there. The lack of acknowledgement of these FACTS by conservatives is either wilfull ignorance our arrogant stupidity.

Combine this with the woefully inadequate and ingnorant recommendations by our "intelligence" organization (remember "slam-dunk") and the extremely bad advice from our military leadership, and you have a recepie for more disasters. We completely underestimated the level of effort required to permanently "pacify" Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The supposed "national interest" we have there is completely fictional. "Fight them there to keep them away from our shores" has proven to be completely backwards: Only by going "there" and wreaking havok have we inspired "them" to come here and retaliate.

We have a fatal weakness, that when it comes to supposed "national security", our civilian leaders always defer to military advisors.