Free Republic

Via the pool report: He thanked families like Chrysler, Hershey, Heinz, Einstein, Steinway, Steinbeck, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig for prosperity and inspiration. He said young Americans "will always be grateful for Levi Strauss for their blue jeans." "Americans will also be grateful especially for some very important German immigrants Anheuser Busch." Obama said he was "thankful to Angela" who he said had yearned for the freedom in her youth, and said she had pointed out during their lunch the train tracks where the Berlin Wall used to run. He said she had helped her dreams become true for millions in...

MSNBC host and Obama sycophant Chris Matthews blamed the sun for spoiling the president’s speech in Berlin today. “I think a lot of the problem he had today was the late afternoon sun in Berlin ruined his use of the teleprompter and so his usual dramatic windup was ruined,” Matthews said immediately after the speech. “I think he was really struggling with the text there.” Speaking behind a glass bulletproof shield, Obama appeared to be using the text of the speech rather than reading off of teleprompters.

Five years and 50 years. As President Barack Obama revisits Berlin, he can't escape those anniversaries and the inevitable comparisons to history and personal achievement. His 26-hour whirlwind visit to the German capital caps three days of international summitry for the president and marks his return to a place where he once summoned a throng of 200,000 to share his ambitious vision for American leadership. That was 2008, when Obama was running for president and those who supported him at home and abroad saw the young mixed-race American as a unifying and transformational figure who signified hope and change. Five...

Just a few days ago, the man whom many Germans now see as one of the greatest villains in the world visited Berlin. Keith Alexander, the head of the world’s most powerful intelligence operation, the National Security Agency (NSA), had arranged meetings with important representatives of the German government … Why is the German government reacting so calmly to something that it should find alarming? Perhaps because these revelations are nothing new for it? Because the Germans would like to enjoy the same capabilities that PRISM affords the Americans? Or because our friends from the other side of the Atlantic...

Reader Bernd from Germany (not Bernd Lucke, AfD anti-euro party leader) has emailed me several times since Friday about polls conducted by the German tabloid Bild. Emphasis must be placed on the the word "tabloid" because intellectuals and academics do not tend to read the paper, nor even acknowledge its existence. Nonetheless, Bild is the number one readership paper in Germany, by far, with about 20 million readers daily. And a poll is a poll, not a slanted news article. The Bild is not a supporter of AfD in the least. If the poll is pro-Afd biased, it surely was...

One of the dumbest things a country can do in a recession is raise taxes. Yet, after pronouncing the end of austerity, Italy's "grand coalition" government, led by Enrico Letta, is going to hike the VAT. Why? It seems they need to hike the VAT to pay for a decrease in property taxes. Recall that Silvio Berlusconi was only willing to take part in Letta's grand coalition on condition property tax hikes were rolled back. Letta agreed to do that, but now Letta says Italy needs revenue hikes to make up for it. Grand Coalition Splintering Curiously, the International Business...

Germany launched construction of a partial replica of a Prussian palace in the heart of Berlin on Wednesday, embarking on a delayed and often-criticized €590 million ($783 million) project to recreate a building dynamited by East Germany’s communist rulers. Germany’s Parliament voted 11 years ago to reconstruct the 18th-century palace, which was demolished in 1950 and later replaced by East Germany’s Parliament building—itself now knocked down. When completed in 2019, the new palace will house a modern museum containing Berlin’s collections of African and other non-European art. … Rebuilding the palace is a step toward “healing the wounds” left on...

Germany has dropped its opposition to starting talks on an EU-US free trade agreement, leaving France alone to battle for exemptions for European artists. “Today, Germany has withdrawn its concerns and will approve a negotiating mandate for the EU commission on Friday,” German economy ministry spokeswoman Julia Schwartz said on Wednesday (12 June) at a press conference in Berlin. EU trade ministers are to take a decision on the Union’s free trade blueprint at a meeting in Luxembourg at the end of this week. … Germany had earlier sided with France in saying that “culture” should be exempt from the...

The German government is demanding explanations from the US after it emerged that its secret spying program PRISM collected more information from Germany than any other EU country. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to raise the issue when she receives US President Barack Obama in Berlin next week, her spokesman said on Monday (10 June). Data privacy is a very sensitive topic in Germany and the cluelessness of Merkel’s government about the affair may become an issue in September’s elections. … Germany’s hawkish interior minister—a Bavarian Christian-Social politician whose party is standing for re-election both on regional and national...

German outrage over a U.S. Internet spying program has broken out ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, with ministers demanding the president provide a full explanation when he lands in Berlin next week and one official likening the tactics to those of the East German Stasi. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman has said she will raise the issue with Obama in talks next Wednesday, potentially casting a cloud over a visit that was designed to celebrate U.S.-German ties on the 50th anniversary John F. Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech... In a guest editorial for Spiegel Online on...

German outrage over a secret U.S. Internet spying program is building before a visit by Barack Obama next week, with senior members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's government demanding a full explanation from the president when he lands in Berlin. Merkel's spokesman has said she will raise the issue with Obama in talks next Wednesday. That could cast a cloud over the visit, designed to celebrate U.S.-German ties on the 50th anniversary of a famous speech in which President John F. Kennedy declared: "Ich bin ein Berliner". Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said reports the United States could access and track virtually all...

For years, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan was generally considered an example of “moderate Islamism”, a loose label that was generally based on a comparison with other Islamist dictatorships, like Iran, or with the various semi-secular autocratic regimes that dot the Arab and Muslim world. There was never a comparison with a liberal Muslim democracy, simply because none existed. In other words, Erdogan earned his credential as the moderate, Islamist democrat in the Middle East, partly because of his success in Turkey, but also due to the lack of any democratic competitors. Admittedly, it was not just the west that...

In a throwback to its darkest past, the German government recently decided to back an initiative which singles out Jewish-owned businesses and targets them for detrimental treatment. Joining 13 other European Union members, Berlin has reportedly agreed to support efforts aimed at applying special labels of origin to products manufactured by Jewish owned factories in Judea and Samaria. The goal is to harm the livelihood of Jewish businessmen and entrepreneurs as a way of undermining the settlement enterprise. Needless to say, goods made by Palestinian-run plants in the territories will not similarly be branded.

A dam has broken on the flood-swollen River Elbe in eastern Germany, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes around the city of Magdeburg. Water levels in Magdeburg stood at 7.44m (24ft) on Sunday, nearly four times higher than normal (2m). In Hungary, water levels on the Danube in the capital Budapest are believed to have peaked and officials say defences should prevent flooding in most areas. At least 15 people have died in the floods in Central Europe. Analysts say the damage will cost billions of euros to clean up. The authorities in Germany are investigating an anonymous...

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I received still more emails from French and Canadian readers on preserving culture. Since it's a slow news day, let's take a look at them. Olivier writes "Wouldn't a true conservative pay at least some respect to local cultural norms instead of trying to impose some economic diktat from on down?" Talk about getting things ass backwards. It is the social police attempting to impose cultural and economic diktats to preserve the local bookstore and the local farm to the point of absolute absurdity. Email From Canada Reader Mike from Canada writes ... Hi Mish, I totally agree with the...

The Netherlands may represent the first time that the counterjihad stars have aligned in a single country. Wilders’ popularity is rising and tolerance for Islamic terror is declining. More than three quarters of the Dutch (77 percent) believe that Islam is no enrichment for our country. More than two-thirds – 68 percent – say that there is enough Islam in the Netherlands. It is striking that a majority of voters from all political parties (from PVV to VVD, CDA, D66, PvdA, SP and 50plus) share this view. PvdA is the Netherlands Labour Party. SP is the Socialist Party. ... Maybe...

Germany has submitted a proposal on regulating carbon dioxide limits for cars that campaigners say is a “desperate attempt” to weaken EU emissions limits. The proposal calls on EU member states to allow carmakers to “bank” credits earned by producing electric cars, in order to make heavier, more polluting vehicles. The European Commission has proposed limiting average fleet emissions to 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer (g/km) from 2020, down from the 130 g/km limit set for 2015. But in what many saw as a capitulation to the German car industry, it decided to reinstate a “supercredits” scheme in which...

German government document gives backing to EU efforts to put “Made in Israel” label only on products from within pre-1967 lines. … Foreign Ministry officials downplayed as “nothing new” an answer the German government gave to a parliamentary question last month supporting EU efforts to specially label goods originating in Israeli-controlled territory beyond the Green Line. Berlin, the officials said, was merely falling into line with other EU countries which were pushing this issue. …

Hezbollah has 950 members in Germany, including 250 in the capital, a reported released by Berlin’s domestic intelligence agency released last week showed. A Hezbollah-controlled orphans organization in Lower Saxony state used to raise money for the families of suicide bombers targeting Israelis, the 140-page German-language report examined by The Jerusalem Post also showed. The Lebanese terrorist organization had some 900 members in the Federal Republic in 2010, and 950 in 2011, around the same number it has now. … In a 2009 study of Orphans Project Lebanon, Alexander Ritzmann, a political analyst and senior fellow with the European Foundation...