Merkel Party Humiliates SPD Rivals in Last Test Before Election

bloomberg.com ^ | May 14, 2017 | Arne Delfs

[katana]

CDU vs. SDP ... Germans appear to be selecting the frying pan instead of the fire. Slow simmered rather than fire broiled, but cooked nonetheless.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Once refugees enter Germany they have certain basic rights. Eventually one would want to see the country where they came from stabilized so they can return. So it is difficult to demand that they assimilate.

Rules on basic immigrants from Europe like Irish, Dutch, French, etc, are now expected to quickly get a job and learn German.

[Yardstick]

Okay, so basically pro immigration. We also see in the article that the FDP guy used his speech to distance his party from right wing populism.

So the top three parties in this regional election were all pro immigration to one degree or another. It’s not until you get down to the smaller, fringier parties that the immigration skeptic position appears.

That explains why Merkel continues along the same course. There is no political pressure to do otherwise. Looking at it from the outside you’d think it would be different, but there you have it.

[Nero Germanicus]

There’s a long history here. Kaiser Wilhelm II was one of the foremost Islamists of the late nineteenth and early 20th century. The Kaiser established a German foreign policy based in part on the concept of Islamic Jihad (Holy War) as a way of ending British colonial domination of the Middle East. There are pictures of Kaiser Wilhelm dressed in a Turkish military uniform and of course Turkey (The Ottoman Empire) was a member of the Central Powers along with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria.

[HamiltonJay]

Only because the military decided to coop... Obama sat by and happily handed Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood

[ckilmer]

An interesting thing that no one seems to understand is that drought hit both Syria and Israel in the year 2000.

The Syrians rolled over and died. their farms dried up. their farmers were bankrupted and forced off their farms. They moved to Syria’s cities where they became cannon fodder for civil war and then refugees for Europe.

The Israelis responded by setting up desalination plants with record low costs of $500@acre foot.(To understand this the most recent desalination plants in Spain were built in 2014 to feed the greenhouses there that feed Europe. they cost $1000@acre foot. A new desalination plants in San Diego USA costs $2000@acre foot.)

The Israelis send the desalinated water to their cities, clean it up to brown water standards and send the water to their fields and farms. As a result they have become water independent forever. this is a feat of biblical proportions.

Singapore has done the same thing. In the last year or two they have boasted of bringing their desalination costs down to $450@ acre foot.

To understand this, its helpful to remember that greenhouses use water so efficiently that desalinated water can be used when it costs $1000@acre foot as is done in Spain. Or $500@acre foot when cleaned to brown water standards and used in open fields via drip irrigation—as is done in Israel.

However, when the costs of desalinated water gets to $400@acre foot—high end fruit and nut trees and bushes become profited via drip irrigation on any desert on planet earth.

When desalinated water gets down to $300@acre foot. then all fruit and vegetable crops can be grown outside via drip irrigation. (but not field crops like corn and wheat)

There is a kicker to this story. Most deserts are underlain by brackish water—which is mildly salty water. This water can be desalinated for roughly half the cost of sea water.

That means that at current costs for desalination in Israel and Singapore brackish water under any desert on the planet can be desalinated at $250@acre foot and used to irrigate crops via drip irrigation. If green houses were used —then the desalinated brackish water would be a complete windfall.

Here’s a still greater kicker. Solar prices fell by a third between 2009-2015. They’re currently at or less than cheapest natural or coal electrical generation costs in desert countries. However, six years from now—if solar costs continue to fall around current rates—then solar will cost less than one half current rates.

Since electricity costs are 1/2 or more of desalination costs—then the fall in electricity costs via solar will bring desalinated sea water costs to under $400@acre foot. Which would make many kinds of farming via drip irrigation profitable on any coastal desert on earth.

This sort of information will be helpful to planners when they go about setting up safe zones in Syria for refugees. That is the safe zones would be best in places with either big underground fresh or brackish water aquifers or near the coasts.