Trump vs Merkel Equals the Constitution's Freedoms vs the EU's Unelected Globalism

Dear Readers, I'm posting early today because we are in the midst of a recurring wave of disruptive storms. You can spool down to read yesterday's blog, if you haven't read it yet. Sorry. Things should be back to normal tomorrow. • • THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS THE CONTINUING SPARRING BETWEEN TRUMP AND MERKEL. • And they are set to meet soon. • • • A TRADE DISAGREEMENT. The Express UK reported on Wednesday that President Trump has been attacked again by Angela Merkel in their trade war of words just days before they meet again in Hamburg at the G20 meeting. The Express says the relationship between the Chancellor and the President "is already rocky after Trump claimed Germany was damaging America’s economy by flooding the country with foreign goods." But Merkel is now claiming that Germany creates more American jobs than it disrupts. Speaking at The Economic Council of her party, the CDU, Merkel said : “The fact that we have 10 times as much direct investment from Germany in the United States than there’s American investment in Germany has, of course,...a strong effect on the many jobs we create. [The US] should also take into account that BMW has its largest production site not in Germany but in the United States...and exports more cars from there into third countries than Ford and General Motors combined.” The Chancellor’s retaliation was met with raucous applause in her home crowd as she began to defend German industry. • Merkel was responding to Trump's claims at an earlier G7 meeting that her country is “very bad” on trade. Trump’s team said that Germany is exporting significantly more than it imports -- and that the new President wants more US products to be purchased. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the US expects a “larger share” of the German market. The US has also repeatedly criticised Germany’s record current account surplus and called for rapid change. Earlier this year, Trump expressed concern over the trade deficit with Germany and the trade gaps which stands at about $67.8 billion per year, between the two nations. In May, he tweeted a warning to Europe that it “will change”. The White House claims Germany is unfair with trading policy -- yet it cannot meet the 2% payment for NATO membership. • Merkel's comments are part of the growing EU frustration towards the Trump administration as EU member states are infuriated by the policies of the President, especially Trump's refusal to continue with the Paris Accord on climate change. • • • MERKEL IS STRONG IN GERMAN POLLS. But, the German business newspaper Handelsblatt calls it "Merkel's House of Cards" as Germany prepares to vote in September national elections. Germany's conservatives are dominating the opinion polls, but a dearth of concrete policy proposals could give the Social Democrats another opening, according to Handelsblatt : "With just three months to go until Germany votes in federal elections, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have presented little in the way of concrete policy proposals. The party still hasn’t adopted a campaign platform and doesn’t plan to do so until July, leaving a tight window to get the word out before voters head to the polls in September." Yet Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, a powerful figure in the party and close confidante of Merkel, shows no sense of urgency : “The people trust the CDU and above all the chancellor to a high degree -- and for good reason. As a governing party, we are carrying great responsibility in turbulent times. That’s why our work, the responsibility taken for the country and Europe, currently stands in the foreground. The SPD chief only offers the illusion of a solution.” • The polls seem to agree -- Merkel's Christian Democrats have little reason to worry as conservatives are riding high with 39% support, a commanding lead in Germany’s multi-party system, compared to just 24% for the Social Democrats (SPD). Merkel’s personal approval rating stands at 64%. • But, Handelsblatt says : "When it comes to taxes, however, the Christian Democrats are potentially vulnerable. Many voters expect relief from one of the highest tax burdens in the world, especially given that Germany has generated massive budget surpluses in recent years. The Social Democrats, for their part, want to slash taxes for the middle and working classes, while increasing the top rate and taxing large inheritances more heavily. There’s a conflict brewing among the conservatives about how to react to their opponent’s tax proposal. The Social Democrats surprised many with their aggressive plans to scale back the solidarity tax, which was implemented in the wake of German reunification to help finance the reconstruction of former East Germany. Under the SPD proposal, the middle and working classes would be exempt. Only big earners would pay the tax until it is phased out altogether." But, Finance Minister Schäuble is proposing income tax relief of €15 billion and supports gradually phasing out the solidarity tax by 2030. "It is possible to get rid of the solidarity tax earlier," he said, "but that would leave less financial space for other priorities -- such as refugee, environment, housing and education policy." • • • THE EU TAKES ON BREXIT AND MRS. MAY. Both Donald Tusk, head of the EU Parliamant, and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, suggest the offer made by Prime Minister May -- that would permit all Europeans who have lived in the UK for at least five years to remain after Brexit -- was not good enough. Mrs. May told EU member states at an EU summit in Brussels last week that all Europeans who have lived in Britain for five years will be offered 'settled status.' At least one EU nation disagrees with Juncker and Tusk -- Spaniard Antonio López-Istúriz White, Secretary-General of the European People's Party, said the offer by the Prime Minister was appreciated but he was “confused” at the lack of clarity. He said: “We are a little bit confused because we heard, let’s say, that the music was good during the council last week but the details, the letter, we are still yet to have a look into it." • This is just the beginning of the Brexit negotiations, but expect lots of disagreement from various EU states over how to respond to the UK Brexit package of proposals. And, as long as a year ago, five European countries made noises about following Britain’s lead in leaving the EU in their own Brexit -- France, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Hungary. France seems out of the picture now that the French have elected EU-megasupporter Emmanuel Macron as president. • Merkel's Germany faces having to pay an extra $3 billion a year to the annual EU budget once Britain has left. Fears for the future of the EU prompted German government officials to propose in 2016 that Britain be offered “constructive exit negotiations.” Making the UK an “associated partner country” of the EU was also on the table, according to the German newspaper Die Welt. • But, as Brexit negotiations get underway in June 2017, there remains little of that conciliatory talk from Germany, as some feel Merkel is giving PM May the cold shoulder at every opportunity after the quasi-disastrous snap election called by May, in which she lost her outright majority and is governing now in a coalition with the Ulster Unionist Party. • • • MERKEL's NEW FRENCH PARTNER IS IN TROUBLE ALREADY. More than a third of French voters already disapprove of the job Emmanuel Macron is doing as president, according to a snap Ifop poll. The poll for the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche found that 35% of French voters were “unhappy” with their new head of state, compared to 31% in May. Macron, 39, won the presidential election last month with more than 60% of the vote. In addition, his center-left party, La République en Marche (LREM), clinched an absolute majority in parliament less than two weeks ago, giving him free rein to push through his ambitious reform agenda. A massive 64% of French voters told pollsters they “approved” of the job Mr Macron was doing as president, but Macron is facing a power struggle in both the center and left of the political groups that he represents. The number of voters unhappy with Edouard Philippe, Macron’s conservative prime minister, has also risen this month, the poll showed -- 32% of voters said that they “disapproved” of the job Philippe was doing as prime minister, compared to 24% in May. Philippe's approval rating, however, is also rising : 64% of voters said he is doing a good job, compared to 55% in May. • The dissatisfaction is undoubtedly related to the fact that Macron was forced to partially reshuffle his cabinet last week after three of his ministers quit when their party, the Modem – which is allied to the president’s LREM party -- was accused of using EU funds to pay party workers. The fraud claims came as a blow to Macron -- who promised during his campaign to restore confidence in French politicians and fight political sleaze -- and have shaken confidence in his leadership. A separate opinion poll by Odoxa also published on Monday also reflected the sharp drop in confidence with the new government. The poll for L'Express, la presse régionale and France Inter found that only 37% of voters think that France will be in a “better state” by the end of Mr Macron’s five-year term than it is now, 21% of those polled said that France would be “worse off” under Macron and 42% said that “nothing would change” and that France would not be better off in five years’ time. • So, Chancellor Merkel's cozying up to Macron may not be the best strategy over the longer term. • • • GERMANY IS FOR GERMANY. Added to Merkel's problem with Macron is his promise to make France the center of his policies. Nikolaas de Jong wrote in American Thinker last weekend that : "In the mainstream media, the policies of the German prime minister, Angela Merkel, are often portrayed as a form of atonement for Germany’s past sins of imperialism and genocide. Letting in a million refugees is supposedly the absolute negation of the Holocaust, and pressing for further European cooperation is seen as the opposite of Germany’s old attempts to violently bring the rest of Europe under its control. And for these very reasons, progressive politicians and intellectuals around the world are now looking up to Merkel as the defender of pluralistic Western values." But, asks de Jong : "Are the Germans really such idealistic supporters of the European project? It is more probable that in reality they see the European Union as an ideal instrument to control the rest of Europe. Indeed, in 1997 the British author John Laughland wrote a book about this subject, The Tainted Source: the Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea, which is still worth reading for anyone who wants understand what kind of organization the EU actually is. According to Laughland, the Germans are such big supporters of the European ideal because they know that all important decisions in a confederation of states can ultimately only be taken by or with the approval of the most important state -- in this case, Germany." De Jong concludes : "Far from being the defender of Western values like individual liberty and individual rights, the modern Germany is acting in a very German way indeed. After an adjustment period of some decades following the Second World War, during which the country had to atone for its past misdeeds and keep quiet, Germany is once again trying to impose its rule and a new form of its vicious ideology on Europe and the West. It is of crucial importance that we all recognize Merkel’s policies for what they are, and take decisive action to stop her. • • • TRUMP IS THE ONLY LEADER WHO CAN RESTRAIN GERMANY. First, President Trump is holding the UN's feet to the fire. Amerian Thinker's Jeffrey Ludwig wrote on Monday : "For many of those who participated in its founding, [the UN] was conceived as an alternative to national sovereignty. This push by Democrats for a United Nations was a continuation of the work of Woodrow Wilson. In his push for a League of Nations at the end of World War I, he was defeated in the Senate by Henry Cabot Lodge and the Republicans who clearly saw the League as a threat to US sovereignty. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt picked up the cudgel and, with the help of Winston Churchill, pushed the supranational UN onto center stage." Ludwig raises key points : "Who in their right mind would be willing to sacrifice the beautiful mores and legal/cultural independence of the US on the altar of a remote and bureaucratic 'globalism?' " • The answer to that question is Barack Obama, who acquiesced in the UN's overtaking of US sovereignty in matters as farflung as Iran and global warming. But, Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear that the will not sacrifice any part of American independence and sovereignty on the altar of UN globalism. Progressive Democrats support the UN because they support globalism and a Global Village, but Ludwig warns : "they imagine themselves as being in charge of the US which in turn will captain the ship of this 'global paradise.' Of course this will necessitate changes. We will export some of our better ideas, but we shall also have to 'import' cultural norms of other countries. Thus, what was considered 'uniquely American' up to 82 years ago will have to be 'modified.' The deplorables do not understand that all progress involves change....deplorables do not understand that ideas like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have to be differently conceived to apply to all the nations of the world. Likewise, faith, freedom, and family. Likewise 'private property.' To promote peace and security for all, under our wise guidance of course, we have to evolve. We evolve to place greater and greater trust in those who have evolved most in terms of consciousness. The evolved consciousness of our elite global leaders has been learned largely at the uniquely evolved institutions of higher learning. It is no accident that so many presidential candidates and aspirants have graduated from Ivy League institutions." • When the Progressive Democrats accuse Trump and the Deplorables of racism, xenophobia, and economic exploitation, as Ludwig puts it : "...one can see how the America First nationalism -- the patriotic nationalism -- of President Trump is anathema to the left. Since the US is a rotten racist country, then Trump’s nationalism makes him a racist to their benighted understanding. His desire to reduce the debt is not a prudent philosophy of governance, but an attempt to serve the interests of an exploitative capitalist class, the top 1%. His desire to protect our borders is part and parcel of the so-called imperialist impulse of Manifest Destiny that led us, illegitimately, to take control of the Southwest and crush Mexico in the Mexican War of 1848. In short, his patriotic nationalism connotes for these uninformed and brainwashed illiterates everything the left finds wrong with the US. • • • But, DEAR READERS, we know that President Trump has none of this mean-spiritedness in him. His calls for all Americans to have jobs, be safe in their homes, communities and country, and have reasonably-priced and excellent quality healthcare are the words of a President who is trying to bring America together and re-establish her freedoms and liberties as the standard for the world. By rejecting what President Trump stands for, violent Progressive Democrats show their true colors -- support for "a global alternative where left-wing leaders, bureaucrats in Brussels and Geneva, and islamists bring the out-of-control exploitative US to heel. The global control will put some brakes on the US imperialism, racism, and exploitation. To them, the idea of the US as the land of opportunity, of freedom and of hope is hogwash, and must be suppressed," says Ludwig • These Progressive Democrat goals and ideas are a threat to the very national identity of America and that of all the rest of the world's freedom-loving people. President Trump was elected against huge odds because of his insistence that America stands for her ideals and is worth saving and regenerating. He is trying to correct the deep inroads made by anti-nationalistic anti-American ProgDems when they controlled of all of the federal government. He is making progress. And the ProgDems -- imprisoned by their own false values -- are enraged. Trump, when he announced we were pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords, revealed in unmistakable terms that US sovereignty is still a valid principle, and that America's interests should and do come first. In his speech, he said, “...our withdrawal from the agreement represents a reassertion of American sovereignty.” • So, while Chancellor Merkel and all of Europe are bearing down on Prime Minister Theresa May and the effort of the British people to be once again free to puruse their own uniquely British values and ideals, NEVER FORGET that they are eyeing AMerica, that they fundamentally disagree with the Constitution's view of individual liberty and responsibility, and that they will turn on America and bring her to heel if and when they can. But, the many American Deplorables, led by their determined and resilient President, Donald Trump, will not yield. Chancellor Merkel and the EU elites can take that to the bank !!!