from Oscar Lafontaine
Slowly but surely, the mood in Germany is changing. Day by day, fewer and fewer people are prepared to go along with the ongoing warmongering. They learn of the great suffering being caused in Ukraine and hear the daily demands of CDU chairman Merz, FDP politician Strack-Zimmermann or Green Party MP Hofreiter to supply more and more weapons to Ukraine. Unfortunately, after initial hesitation, the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz repeatedly gives in and delivers. Our Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock once again took the cake when she justified her demand to supply Ukraine with more weapons and Leopard tanks by claiming that German weapons would save lives. Words fail you.
Older people still remember that Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union cost the lives of 27 million people, including many millions of Russians and Ukrainians. On January 27, 2014, the 95-year-old survivor of the siege of Leningrad, Daniil Granin, reminded the members of the German Bundestag of the inscription by a Russian soldier on the walls of the Reichstag: "Germany, we have come to you so that you will no longer come to us."1 And now we are supposed to supply weapons again so that the killings in Ukraine continue endlessly, Russians are killed with German weapons and Ukraine wins the war against Russia?
The well-read do not believe that Russia is solely to blame anyway. They remember Gorbachev's promise not to expand NATO eastwards. They know that the US organized and financed a coup on the Maidan in 2014 to install a puppet government that would push for Ukraine's final admission to NATO. It was too tempting for the hardliners in Washington to imagine that, after the missile bases in Poland and Romania, they could now also install missiles on the Ukrainian-Russian border. In this context, the shameless US tale that the missiles would be stationed in the Eastern European states to intercept Iranian missiles is unforgettable. And of course the Western propaganda press printed these stupid statements without questioning them, let alone criticizing them. The Pentagon can spread any lie it wants - the Western media will swallow it. Missiles without warning times are like the knife on the neck of the respective opponent. They are a credible threat to eliminate the political leadership and military command centers of the enemy in one fell swoop. "It is not he who first takes up arms who is the instigator of disaster, but he who compels it," wrote the Florentine Nicolo Machiavelli 500 years ago.
The policy of détente shaped by Willy Brandt, which brought us peace and security for decades, has been abandoned step by step.2 Since it came to power, the traffic light government has unreservedly supported the aggressive policy of the USA. One sanctions package after another has been adopted to punish Putin. The economic war against Russia waged with sanctions began in 2017 at the latest, long before the Russian army invaded Ukraine. The Senate and Congress in Washington passed a law aimed at rolling back Russian influence in Europe and Eurasia. In 2018, the USA turned its attention to Nordstream 2.3 The law stipulated that the US sanctions decisions would in future be international law and that violations would be prosecuted under civil and criminal law in the US. Clause 257 of this law stipulates that the aim of this law is to prioritize the export of US energy resources over other export flows in order to create new jobs in the USA. Back in December 2017, Democrats and Republicans threatened the Swiss company Allsees, which laid the pipes for Nordstream 2, with destruction if it did not stop work on the pipeline within 48 hours. The company gave in. At least the then Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern had the courage to denounce these US laws as a "blatant violation of international law".4 A courageous German Chancellor would have called the blowing up of Nordstream 2 a declaration of war on Germany.
Many German citizens are now realizing that these sanctions are above all a shot in the arm. Sure, the Russian economy is suffering and experiencing increasing difficulties, but here in Germany energy prices are shooting through the roof. Many people can no longer pay their heating bills and electricity prices and don't know what to do next. The German economy fears a wave of bankruptcies and is calling on the government to find a solution. But - and very few people dare to say this: without Russian raw materials and energy supplies, we will not be able to maintain our prosperity. More and more people will become impoverished and countless businesses will close. Unemployment will rise. The traffic light coalition is driving the German economy to the wall with its eyes wide open. That is why this government is the stupidest we have had since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded.
1 German Bundestag: "Speech by Daniil Granin", 27.01.2014, online at: https://www.bundestag.de/parlament/geschichte/gastredner/rede_granin-261326
2 The text is an extended version of a speech given by Oskar Lafontaine on September 17, 2022 as part of the 34th Pleisweiler Gespräch of the NachDenkSeiten. The topic was: "The end of détente? If you want peace, you have to free yourself from the USA", available online at https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=88304
3. O. A.: "Die Sanktionsspirale der USA gegen Nord Stream 2", in: Atlantik-Brücke, 02.11.2020, online at: https://www.atlantik-bruecke.org/die-sanktionsspirale-der-usa-gegen-nord-stream-2/
4 Federal Foreign Office: "Außenminister Gabriel und der österreichische Bundeskanzler Kern zu den Russland-Sanktionen durch den US-Senat", 15.06.2017, online at: https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/newsroom/170615-kern-russland/290664
About the authorOskar Lafontaine *1943 is independent and was Minister President of Saarland, SPD candidate for Chancellor and Finance Minister in the Schröder cabinet. Lafontaine was previously a member of the SPD, WASG, PDS and Die Linke parties.
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39 Responses
INVOLVEMENT!
Sarah Wagenknecht has brought people onto the streets. Some are already talking about this being the new "cross-front" (Compact etc.) Meanwhile Ballweg is still sitting innocently in Stammheim! Nobody, not Wagenknecht, not Jürgen Todenhöfer and also not Dieter Dehm, made this connection in their Munich speeches.
Why is this so important? Because it decides where the "New APO" marches.
Because without a genuine bourgeois opposition on the streets demanding the fundamental rights that the constitutional reform claims (Art. 146), it is a thing without ground.
The entire new extra-parliamentary "lateral thinkers' front", which has been largely crushed between the particular interests by the imprisonment of Mr. Ballweg, is now "at the mercy" of actors who operate on a wafer-thin public platform and ultimately crave votes. As long as there is no media power to ensure that J. Assange is released, a "Ballweg" is only a minor matter.
However, the question at hand:
-The question of how to create lasting peace in Europe is strongly rooted in questions of constitutional law.
-The establishment of German sovereignty; a genuine peace treaty with the abolition of the current NATO troop status. This requires a policy in Germany that does not demand "Ami Go Home" without considering that the necessary power over the "services" does not currently lie with any federal government. (The knife at the neck of the supposedly powerful has always been the "secret service").
Even Willy Brandt never acted against NATO as long as he was in government!
- A. Dulles himself explained in his biography how the CIA influenced the newly founded BND (Gehlen was only one instrument).
In this sense, all services, especially the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, never and at no time worked for our basic rights, but always for the preservation of US power.
That is why the demand "Amit go home" is cheap in the context of O. Lafontaine's remarks, because the consequence, according to his own speech, is a "European NATO" (D and RF).
However, this would not mean more sovereignty in the above-mentioned sense, but "business as usual" under different auspices. Ultimately, it stabilizes US interests. This does not even mention the EU as a stirrup holder for US interests in Europe.
Conclusion: The liberation of the Germans from "hostage-taking" is a "fundamental" "constitutional task". This will certainly not be achieved by electing new parties.
The Germans have a long way to go!
Dear fellow citizens: "don't look for new leaders, but work on this topic yourself.
No politician has ever really "led" in a civic and liberal sense. Because that doesn't work. What does work, however, is that EVERYONE must now rise up and stand up for the freedom of our country and peace in their own environment.
Not for parties and individual interests, but for ALL citizens in an overarching sense.
Well, simply thought, once again, yes. What does Mr. Lafontaine want? Peace? Putin took Crimea and we, the West, watched.
Then Vladimir said to himself, if they don't do anything, it can be a bit more. The situation is undeniably precarious. But should the West stand by and watch Russia take over a neighboring country by force?
It is the same pathetic game as in Georgia and soon in other Eastern Bloc countries. Seemingly oppressed Russian minorities "ask for help" instead of simply returning to their homeland, where life is supposedly so worth living. No, they are being incorporated. And Mr. Putin doesn't care about human life, culture or religion. He lives in his castle, is one of the richest people in the world and mocks the decadent West. While his people suffer.
Dear Mr. Selensky, the West is asking Ukraine to capitulate. Our heating costs are too high and driving a car at these prices makes no sense.
no fun either. Forget about Ukraine!
And finally. All those who are in favor of peace there should please call Mr. Putin - I doubt that he is willing to talk and withdraw his troops.
Good evening.
This article is primarily about war.
The difference between war and self-defense lies in the fact that an aggressor (warrior) physically attacks another person - in whatever way, there are countless different means and possibilities - and a self-defender is forced to react to a hostile attack by an aggressor if he does not want to suffer physical harm.
Hostile attacks are therefore clearly characterized by the use of coercion and violence by one person or group of people against another, peaceful and friendly person or group of people.
If within a community a person or group of persons simply claims the special right, as a privileged special person or group of persons, to inflict physical harm on other persons or groups of persons within the community, i.e. to use coercion and violence against them, e.g. to rob them, imprison them, temporarily kidnap them, etc., would that be a demonstrable injustice, a crime, an act of war, verifiable by any outside observer, or not?
As I understand it, an intact, peaceful, friendly and decent community would protect the peaceful members of the community who are exposed to an unfriendly attack and not only provide them with self-defense against the aggressor and his hostile attack, but even help them if necessary. You can observe this all over the world, for example, when a purse snatcher tries to flee with his loot, many of the people around him immediately turn their attention to what is happening and even try to stop the thief and return the stolen goods to the victim. If a fellow human being falls, others come to his aid. Etc. The list of examples is endless and shows that we humans are actually social beings.
How the state as we know it is structured and functions, what tasks politicians and civil servants perform, needs no further explanation. Therefore, I am merely amused and amused when a person from the privileged special group or individual executors openly and foolishly criticize coercion, violence, crime and war, while in some cases they themselves have spent their entire lives so far doing nothing other than waging coercion, violence, crime and war against peaceful fellow human beings at home and sometimes abroad.
Every person is free to live in the world that they personally consider to be reality or that they talk themselves into believing or sugarcoating, but it is also clear to everyone whether a fellow human being is an aggressor or a peaceful and friendly member of the community, no matter how much and how often they try to convince themselves of the opposite and confirm it from the outside.
I can only kindly urge every fellow human being to reflect independently and honestly on their own actions. Every physical aggression, every hostile attack on another person's private property, leads to physical human suffering, to physical damage and, on top of that, to demonstrably negative effects/consequences for the entire community.
A community that accepts, and for the most part personally participates in, inflicting physical harm on peaceful fellow human beings is not a peaceful, free, friendly, humane and decent community.
Wouldn't it really be time to evolve as a human race, or at least as a community, instead of fighting non-stop over who gets to belong to the privileged special groups and mistreat and physically harm everyone else?
If you are not prepared to clean up after yourself, you don't need to get upset about the dirt in front of other doors!
The Baerböckchen surely only confused TIER-panzA with In-TIER-sivbÄtten, that should be seen with her but please be generous ... Or just sarcastic.
It's bad when you don't recognize your own political children. Fortunately, I am not yet completely calcified and know what positions Mr. Lafontaine represented and that green socialism also owes its rise to people like Mr. Lafontaine. I will now thankfully dispense with his lectures. His work has contributed to the fact that red and green carnival commanders are now steering the ship full speed ahead towards the reef.
Rather refrain from careless verbal reflexes and give examples. I can't think of any off the top of my head.
No? Where have you been in the last 30 years? You haven't heard anything about industry can go, nuclear phase-out, dual citizenship? Lafontaine's heart beats on the left, remember? Do you also think the Left is something other than the SED? Are you perhaps also a fan of the Rosa Luxemburg offcut with whom Mr. Lafontaine is associated?
You are exposing yourself and I won't let you shut me up.
The war, or rather a war, seems to be deliberate, and it is often 'overlooked' that the financial system is at the end of its rope in terms of
The collapse of government bonds in England recently gave us a taste of what is unstoppable.
Martin Armstrong, a former hedge fund manager in a class of his own, not only brings the latest
corresponding historical examples, in the article (link attached), he sums it up perfectly.
By the way: why is a district class political comedian like Lindner already talking weeks ago about the fact that, after the pandemic and war, we need a
new form of company ?
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/un-icc-now-guarantee-world-war-iii-is-the-only-solution/
to the last comment: ... because I believe and think that it is bought. Anyone who raises his diet six months before inflationary consequences KNOWS that inflation is coming. Although it is
are actually just price increases, albeit powerful ones, as wages are not in dispute. The "insiders" have to work or leave. So they are not strong in character. Money and power are the dark side of capitalism. The taxpayers need people like Lindner and
the rest of the government.
Oh yes, we will have a new form of society, but not the ones who want it. After a hard time, they will be completely superfluous.
War is not a means of politics
If I remember correctly, one of the reasons Oskar Lafontaine gave back his SPD party membership was because the SPD had abandoned the increasingly globally accepted guiding principle that "war is not a means of politics" and supported the war in the Balkans. Oskar Lafontaine was simply not prepared to give up this little plant of international politics, which was slowly but increasingly recognizably flourishing at the end of the 20th century, without a fight. I admired him for this attitude. The social legislation under Schröder and the red-green government (see https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/abgang-im-streit-lafontaine-kuendigt-spd-austritt-an-a-357334.html). Then as now, it was clear that the influential arms industry and arms lobby would not give up their lucrative sinecures without resistance. The arms industry and arms exports are a key pillar of many national economies, including ours, even if this industry does not actually contribute anything to value creation.
Let's be honest, how many people in the world long for a world without wars and weapons, but how few are prepared to stand up for it? Why has this always been the case and why is it still the case? Because too many believe the lies with which they are sent to war. The Russian soldiers are killing in the name of Putin, the Ukrainian soldiers are defending the power of Zelensky. Hardly anyone has ever conveyed this more forcefully than Hannes Wader in his anti-war song "Es ist an der Zeit" (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu0PPSiB96o). It is interesting to note that this song was not only played in West Germany, but also, as you can see, in the GDR. Perhaps a first sign that there was a certain longing for peace in both East and West. This is probably what made peaceful reunification possible in the first place. But instead of sharing this experience with the world, we are now supplying tanks to war zones.
In the Ukraine war in particular, a number of storylines and motivations are becoming confused. This makes it so easy for those in power, with the support of the press and media, first and foremost the ÖRR, to withhold essential parts of the truth from the people. In addition to the facts presented by Oskar Lafontaine, which in my opinion tend to be too critical of the USA and too friendly towards Russia - after all, Putin started his brutal war of aggression with an infamous lie or deception - the tiresome topic of energy and its distribution has once again contributed mightily to the emergence of the current crisis. The Nord Stream pipelines were not built because this was the easiest way to deliver Russian gas to Western Europe and Germany in particular, but because Ukraine wanted to make the maximum profit from deliveries via its territory and it became apparent several years ago that Ukrainian and Russian nationalism and the associated national interests would clash ever more violently. Disadvantages for the considerable Russian-speaking part of the population can only be understood in this context. Furthermore, our increasing dependence on Russian gas was a consequence of the energy transition, which all established parties now unconditionally support. The USA was not entirely disinterested in pointing this out early on, but was deliberately ignored and probably with good reason, as the Greens' call for a move away from fossil fuels and the demonization of the vital trace gas CO2 as one of the narratives that most strongly characterizes the present ultimately comes from the USA (see https://www.zeit.de/2022/25/hal-harvey-lobbyist-klima-elektromobilitaet). The fact that no life on earth is possible without CO2 and that its concentration was in decline for 50 million years before the industrial revolution (see https://bildungsserver.hamburg.de/treibhausgase/6088114/kohlendioxid-erdgeschichte/Fig. 1), is neither taken into account nor is this fact widely known. The CO2 content 50 million years ago was several times higher than today's level (1500 ppm instead of 280 ppm pre-industrial or 416 ppm today). Nevertheless, the CO2 narrative of deadly CO2 endangering the existence of mankind must not be questioned. If one dares to do so, climate research will run out of immutable truths faster than science itself is willing to admit. There are recognizable gaps in the evidence for the so-called CO2 thesis, and the argument itself is not really conclusive (see https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/weltgeschehen/article242114461/Museum-in-Barcelona-Protest-gegen-Coca-Cola-Klimaaktivisten-bespritzen-Vitrine-mit-Mumiensarg.html#/comment/245962410 ff.).
Why is this so important in the context of Russia and the Ukraine war? Because Russia, with its economy dominated by fossil fuels, must fear a fall into absolute insignificance if so-called renewable energies become established globally. Although this is not immediately in sight, it is also not as impossible as nuclear energy lobbyists would like to make us believe (see assessment in the article "Potential of wind energy - kinetic energy versus flow energy of the wind", in the book project "Generation Project Energy Transition", published in 2022 by Herbert Niederhausen, p. 153/154). The only thing that is impossible is the energy transition that Germany has embarked on, as there is simply a lack of potential and it is becoming increasingly clear that wind energy also makes a significant contribution to climate change rather than climate protection. Even TV professor Lesch and the ZDF are slowly becoming uneasy about wind energy (see concluding remarks on https://www.zdf.de/wissen/leschs-kosmos/energie-in-der-kriese-der-ultimative-stresstest-100.html; from min 27:25).
Another storyline that has led to the Ukraine conflict is the eternal conflict between the so-called free world and authoritarian regimes, which increasingly include Russia. This storyline is also confusing, as the so-called Woke movement (see https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/wokeness-gesteigerte-form-der-political-correctness-ld.1534531), which pits the collective against people's individual interests and lifestyles, freedom is also coming under increasing pressure in the West, in some cases even more so than in the notoriously unfree regions of the world. The handling of coronavirus and extremely repressive coronavirus measures were probably due to this. The "eternal" justification for the use of military means for freedom, based on the Second World War, is therefore being abused in the Ukraine war by Baerbock, Hofreiter and many others as rarely before. If Ukraine achieves a military victory over Russia, which is increasingly seen as possible, this will also be sold to us as a victory for the Western military, which has recently "shone" with defeats. In any case, the hastily decided 100 billion in special debt, cynically disguised as special assets, which are to be invested in the so-called turnaround, speak volumes.
If we do not want to accept the establishment of a permanent and persistent trouble spot in the middle of Europe, which will claim many more unfortunate and predominantly innocent victims and re-establish war as a political tool, the only option is to accept Russia's offer to negotiate, even if this thwarts the lines of action and interests of the Democrat-ruled USA.
In my opinion, there is now only one PURPOSEFUL AND QUICKLY REALIZABLE COMPROMISE:
o Russia completely relinquishes the occupied territories and supports the reconstruction of Ukraine after the resumption of energy supplies. To this end, the Nordstream I and II pipelines will be repaired and put back into operation. The current flaring of significant amounts of Russian gas is completely unacceptable.
o The West is questioning its narrative of climate change and giving research the guideline of investigating the objective causes of climate change instead of making every effort to prove the CO2 thesis and defaming or even depriving of its existence any researcher who looks beyond this narrative. At the same time, this will hopefully give us the time to plan the transformation of our global energy systems, which is already necessary due to the scarcity of global resources, with an engineering and scientific mind, i.e. without the panic that is currently spreading, and to implement it in the medium to long term.
o Ukraine becomes neutral. The deployment of NATO weapons systems or Ukraine's accession to NATO will be permanently excluded. Russia can use its naval bases permanently and without hindrance. In return, Ukraine will be the first country to be fully protected by the international community. If this model prevails, humanity will hopefully soon be able to reallocate pointless or counterproductive military spending to the survival of humanity in terms of climate protection, nature conservation/preservation of biodiversity, marine protection and the global fight against overpopulation, poverty and hunger.
o The negotiations are celebrated as a victory of global diplomacy and humanity over death, destruction, war, military and nationalism and not the other way around.
Please let us believe together in a victory of reason over nationalism and militarism and the renaissance of enlightenment against the narratives of the climate religion, even if there is currently no party that has set itself this goal. But what is not yet can still be..........
Dear Dr. Aßmann,
my head is spinning, but thanks for the comments anyway!
Unfortunately, I don't believe in the victory of reason in my lifetime, and that's because people are the way they are. Eternally divided families do not come together, even though there are rationally perfect solutions and models for everyone involved. People as clever as you have already made suggestions and designed models for Israel and Palestine.
But let's not give up hope, even if banners in light blue and yellow are hanging in our city, both on public buildings and in all kinds of other places, with all kinds of slogans and also with the inscription: STOP PUTIN. And everyone is applauding, probably feeling just as good in their one-dimensional view as the "completely immunized".
I think it will take a long time. Too long for many people.
Dear Mr. Linsner,
Here are the core statements again, organized and without too much prose, so that your head doesn't "buzz" quite so much while reading:
o It was already a consensus once and should be again: "War is not a means of politics"
o People have to be lied to in order to senselessly kill people they might find very sympathetic in private
(personal note: have dealt professionally with Brazilians, British, Chinese, French, Canadians, Croats, Italians, Austrians, Poles,
Portuguese, Spanish, Russians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, US-Americans,..... understood very well and therefore never accepted the hatred between nations)
o The arms industry is a huge business, but apart from the risks, cf. the shooting down of MH17, it does not create any added value for the people and the environment.
certainly no security
o Many storylines have contributed to the Ukraine war
cf. current argumentation on the missile strike in Poland:
- "if Russia hadn't launched missiles, ..... nothing would have happened" or:
- "if Russia hadn't started the war, if it hadn't launched missiles, nothing would have happened" .....
However, the next logical step is then taboo:
- Ukraine would not have aspired to NATO membership, would not have curtailed the Russian minority's language and would have armed itself with the help of the USA,
If Russia had not started the war, if it had not launched missiles, ..... you guessed it ..... nothing would have happened!
o As you can see, the woulda/woulda/woulda considerations make no sense at all; the fact is, there is a war going on and with it war propaganda
o We should learn from history, i.e. never again fall prey to nationalists, militarists and ideologues
o The climate region is currently and globally probably the most aggressive ideology of all
o The climate as a whole is still not understood. Even the first simple questions make researchers break out in a sweat
o The evidence for the CO2 thesis is incomplete; contraindications are suppressed,
alternative causes of man-made climate change are forgotten, cf. "Terrestrial Stilling", which leads to a reduction in evaporation and
precipitation distribution (see https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/stilling-global-wind-speeds-slowing-1960)
o Current climate protection poses incalculable risks to the climate through wind energy
o The panic of doomsday fanatics helps neither in understanding the climate nor in sound climate protection
o Plants in pre-industrial times had already significantly reduced their growth at 280 ppm:
s. https://bildungsserver.hamburg.de/klimawandel-und-landwirtschaft-nav/2203496/kohlendioxid/
o More CO2 makes the world greener: see https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/co2-macht-die-welt-gruener-a-1089850.html
o The artificial scarcity of fossil fuels is likely to cause further conflicts. The Ukraine war is likely to be just the beginning.....
o The inevitable transformation of our energy supply must be carried out with an engineer's mind instead of from the gut of
philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, lawyers, ...... and unskilled workers
o The envisaged all-electric society far exceeds the earth's resources, including copper, due to its one-sidedness;
This will also promote distribution struggles in the future, i.e. conflicts and wars
o We will therefore always need a healthy mix of electrical and chemical energy (in future: so-called eFuels)
o The current energy transition has not passed the first practical test; we will still have to import energy in the future: https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/plus241190153/Der-Fall-Uniper-entlarvt-das-Maerchen-von-den-omnipotenten-Oeko-Energien.html
o If the world ends, it will be because of the overkill potential and not because of CO2 emissions
o The outcome of the war in Ukraine is open and harbors incalculable risks for us all (cf. missile strikes in Poland; overkill potential)
o A negotiated solution is always better than continued murder and incalculable risks that leave the world holding its breath
o A negotiated solution can only be achieved if a diplomatic rather than a military solution is pursued, and
all find themselves in the compromise ..... also Russia
o A military victory, including the corresponding hero myths, would be fatal for the future of humanity
o The associated global armament (cf. the inane concepts of the turn of an era and the special Bundeswehr assets)
robs the financial and material resources required for the future tasks of mankind
o Reason is possible and always an option, see German reunification; the decisive factor is the will or the will of the people.
the willingness to approach one another
Conclusion: We should learn to be optimistic again as a nation of poets and thinkers, entrepreneurs, inventors and engineers instead of pessimistic doomsday prophets, panic-mongers, asphalt stickers and cold warriors.
Dear Dr. Aßmann,
Thank you very much for your efforts and your comments. Does it give me courage to compare your target state with the actual state? I'm doing my best to be a little more optimistic about the future 🙂
With best regards.
It's like at school, the stupid ones always sat at the front. 🙂 I actually wanted to stay out of this, it's a never-ending pull and stretch. But I would like to ask Dr. Aßmann one question. Do you really believe that the peaceful reunification of Germany was the result of the will of the people?
Steffen,
Reunification could only take place peacefully because both sides - the FRG and the GDR as well as their protecting powers - were not prepared to use military means to overcome the state of division. Neither in the FRG nor in the GDR did aggressive nationalists have sufficient power to actively declare war on the stalemate in which both sides had settled. As a result, the struggle with each other never went beyond mutual propaganda. Incidentally, this distinguishes the state of mind of the Germans from their former brother nations, the Russians and Ukrainians, who grew up in the glory of the victorious Soviet army and still believe in the honor of a glorious victory. We Germans thoroughly lost this naive belief in 1945. We can only hope that the military element will never return to German politics. If the other nations weren't stupid, they would take this as an example instead of flirting with their military potential like the USA, Russia, China and many others and spending huge sums of money on what is at best pointless and more likely highly dangerous high-profile armaments. History has shown that in the end this always leads to murder and manslaughter.
I wish all readers a happy new year and hopefully a more peaceful 2023
Roland Aßmann
O. Lafontaine: "... That's why this government is the stupidest we've had since the Federal Republic of Germany came into being." Whether this government is really the stupidest or whether it is just the best externally controlled government to date, that is the question as I observe its actions. But Mr. Schwab could still work on Annalena's or Robert's wording, there is still a lot of room for improvement. /#Satire off.
The people in this government may be stupid, but their actions have nothing to do with stupidity, they are following a plan. In my opinion, these are deliberate politicians and therefore criminals.
@EuRuF
Politicians are first and foremost human beings with all their strengths and weaknesses and, as a rule, not criminals!
That is why it would not help to replace them. What we need in a free and democratic basic order are functioning structures. This includes a critical press/media landscape that monitors the government, as well as an independent judiciary. Hardly any other phenomenon has brought the weaknesses of the current structures to the surface like corona. When all institutions pull together, citizens are left helpless and at the mercy of others. People have already had to experience this before in the two dictatorships on German soil (and unfortunately not only there). We have only had a small taste of what it is like when the state loses credibility and begins to operate with repression and fear. We should learn our lessons from this.
Soon the GAS will run out, the power cut will join it and the catastrophe will take its politically intended course. No human being in the FRG will be spared. The political puppets and their followers will themselves become victims of their ideological blindness. Death will find a richly laid table and will make fat prey. Once again, a few individuals have managed to plunge millions of people into ruin of unknown proportions. Nothing, nothing at all will work anymore. Those who have never thought about the political situation in our country or blindly believed the media will be the first and loudest screamers. Social parasites and many refugees will swarm over our country like locusts and leave devastation of the worst kind in their raids. The level of brutality will cost far too many people their lives. What comes next? History teaches us that there have always been and will always be people who bring us to our senses. Who have the tools for a new beginning, also to bring the perpetrators and their followers of this planned misery to justice, mercilessly and without exception.
It has been quite a long time since sentences like: "We will emerge from this crisis stronger than before.
It really must be serious.
It never ceases to amaze me that people are always the first to recognize the grievances,
when they are no longer in office.
This is probably due to the fact that it is better from the "observer's perspective".
succeeds.
Yes and no, Ms. Franke.
As an observer from a distance, you can really see things better. Totally agree with you.
For me, the even more important reason is that the fall height is lower. How much does a person have to lose if they take a courageous stand? If I'm still in the middle of the political-media hamster wheel, perhaps even at the start of my career, many people tend to be cowards. Reputation and money ... that's what most people are after. The fear of losing both is great.
Things look different at the end or after a career.
Would Peter Hahne be so "courageous" today if he were still a ZDF presenter? I dare to doubt it.
Frank Plasberg from ARD is currently quite "critical of the media", saying in an interview that the public broadcasters often broadcast over people's heads. How courageous after his last TV appearance. Not at all. For me, that wasn't courageous self-criticism, but gratuitousness and begging for absolution too late.
There are also plenty of examples of this for politicians. I'm taking Lafontaine out of the equation a little, because he also liked to get into trouble during his career.
Dear Mr. Löcke,
In my opinion, nothing can be achieved in politics, because it is not driven by common sense, but by
ideologies and lobbying. I don't want to write any more about this. I have also tried my hand there and
After a short time I realized how the business works. The only thing guaranteed once you've made it is a full account and all the associated amenities. In the long term, I don't see any room for maneuver for the individual. Everyone involved in this system is allowed to follow the motto:
"Whose bread I eat, the song I sing". There is no more leeway than that. There are enough examples of people who have dared to go against the tide
and this has not gone down well with them. A good example of this is Karin Kneissl, the former Foreign Minister of Austria. She now lives in Lebanon because she herself was massively harassed and threatened in other EU countries.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karin_Kneissl
Yes and no to your observation as well, Mr. Löcke.
Of course, Mr. Hahne would not be so courageous if he were still actively "in business", no question.
I see things a little differently with Mr. Lafontaine: without wanting to fall into the mode of "you-know-what-theories", one must not forget what happened to Mr. Lafontaine during the 1990 election campaign - whether it was a "single mentally ill" woman, one may believe it or not.
In any case, I no longer want to rule anything out ...
Who can help us? Nobody will help us if WE don't help ourselves! Because WE only get what WE deserve. WE elected these people. WE let them get away with incompetence, corruption and criminality. WE let them get away with destroying democracy, the rule of law and society. If WE finally realized that WE should be the sovereign, then nobody would have to rush to our aid.
If WE could understand that governments are powerless as long as WE do not join in or look away from their dirty game, then the spook would come to a quick end. If WE could see through the basic principles of propaganda and mass psychology, phenomena such as the "pandemic", "climate protection", "racism", "energy transition", "digital central bank money", "gender justice" and ultimately war could never take place in the way they are being organized. If WE were aware of our power, the criminals would not come to power.
If WE go along with it, look the other way, let it happen because we want to benefit or believe we have to be part of it, then WE are responsible for what our governments do on our behalf. These people are appointed by us, they have to represent our interests, they are accountable to us, not the other way around. As long as WE do not recognize this and always put up with everything these lunatics come up with, WE ourselves are to blame for the misery. If WE want to live a life of dignity and truth in this country, WE should realize that WE, as taxpayers and (non-)voters, are responsible for what happens in this country. Until recently, this country may have had a free and democratic legal system (or at least a functioning illusion of it). If WE let everything happen and allow everything that makes up this basic order to be cleared away, then we are accomplices or followers and should not complain. If we want to live a life of truth and dignity, then the very first civic duty is to stop participating. Let's stop supporting these madmen directly or indirectly - then sooner or later the theater will stop. Whether actively or passively, WE can do a lot, each in our own way...
If we don't fall into their arms - then we are not just victims, we are also perpetrators.
Dear Mr. Reschke,
a suuuuper comment!
Applause for your words/lines!
Can WE only hope that the German people will finally wake up before it is too late, or perhaps it is already too late and we can only do damage limitation?
If we manage to do that at all!
It's sad how far WE have already sunk!
Creating peace without weapons!
Weapons have never brought peace!
Dear Ms. Westermaier,
I gladly share your pacifism.
However, the sentence "Weapons have never brought peace!!!" is only partially correct. Because weapons in the hands of freedom-loving people have ended various wars and also defeated fascism. Weapons have also often helped freedom movements against violence and oppression to victory. Just think of the fight against slavery. There have been and still are struggles beyond the pure preservation of power, i.e. for higher and morally justifiable goals.
In an enlightened and globalized world, the military and weapons should no longer be necessary. But for this we would need a substitute mechanism for violence to distribute the earth's wealth fairly and for the benefit of all. This is not possible simply because of the extremely different conditions, the multitude of states and interests and, in particular, the limited intellect of the global leadership. And by global leadership, I don't just mean political leadership. Industrial, media, legal and scientific leadership worldwide is also geared towards self-interest. The lubricant of this development is money, wealth and participation in power and thus social recognition.
Industry has shown that global cooperation is possible and how it can be organized without having to resort to the questionable methods of socialism or even communism. However, the global corporations have a decisive advantage over politics: they can choose the people. Anyone who does not play along, i.e. does not accept the internal rules, is out. Politicians, on the other hand, have to deal with all people. They cannot simply separate themselves from one part of the population, even if this part only causes trouble. Despite all the differences of opinion about the war in Ukraine, most people should be aware that it was nationalists on both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian border who fueled this conflict and made it what it is today: an open wound in the middle of Europe.
If we want to overcome the current situation, there are only two options in my opinion:
1. follow the dream of Baerbock, Hofreiter and many others, fight the battle against real or supposed (?) fascism once again and in doing so suppress the fact that Moscow is not Berlin and the Kremlin is not the Führer's bunker, whose options in the end were exactly zero, even in their own perception. Even if the Russian leadership can no longer do anything in the end, it is still enough to destroy the world. It would not be the first collective suicide in the turbulent history of mankind.
2. put their own ideology to one side and finally start purposeful peace negotiations. This would also have the charm of showing that, at least in the West, politics still has supremacy over the military and that the military has not gained supremacy over politics. Please note the subtle but necessary difference between the two groups, i.e. the military and the interest groups representing the interests of the military.
In the interests of us all, we can only hope that our politicians will finally regain their wits and recognize the dead end inherent in the first option. However, when I see the stubbornness with which politicians ignore the negative facts about the energy transition and wind energy in particular, I have massive doubts that they have the ability to see reason. In this sense, Oskar Lafontaine was certainly right when he spoke of the "stupidest government since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded". Even if many people don't seem to realize it, we will collectively pay for all the debts, omissions and stupidities that this government is piling up.
Dear Mr. Lafontaine,
To a large extent, your comments are common knowledge and undisputed. As you certainly know very well from your own experience, the policy represented by the ministers, depending on how knowledgeable and assertive they themselves are, is largely determined by the civil servant management level in the ministries. I think that former political science students in the Foreign Office without academic degrees have little other function than being mouthpieces. The same applies to proven bankruptcy experts in the Ministry of Economics. However, I would expressly not like to see these connections limited to these two ministries. The backers mentioned are essentially outside of public perception and political control by the Bundestag. Everyone should consider for themselves whether this can be right. For example, a German state secretary was invited to the Bilderberg meeting this year. What was discussed there is not known. It can be assumed that the people who set the tone in the German government know exactly what they are doing, at least in part, and that their actions at the level of the official office holders look like incompetence. The press, led by the Atlantic Bridge, completely ignores these connections, so that the average citizen has no choice but to believe that we are governed by stupid people. In my opinion, this is clearly not the case. You only have to take a closer look at the federal government to realize it. Sarah Wagenknecht asks uncomfortable questions and calls for a realignment of established politics. No matter how realistic you think publicly available surveys are, she now has a lot of support among the population, which fortunately is not just made up of ordinary citizens, or perhaps better, standardized citizens. So we can have hope. Right and left no longer seem to have the status they once had; now it's more about the collective or individuality. Many people have already become more or less aware of this - which is a good thing.
Yours sincerely, H.W..
Very good comment! Thank you for that. Dr. Dieter Zorn
Thank you for the flowers, the state secretary in question is Jörg Kukies, he was one of the heads of Goldman Sachs Germany until he moved to the Ministry of Finance under Olaf Scholz in 2018, probably at a considerable loss of income, and he has been supporting Robert Habeck's work since 2021. We can all be grateful that the Anglo-American financial industry is selflessly sending top executives to the German government that we indirectly elected for the good of us all, at least that's how the Süddeutsche Zeitung sees it.
How are we supposed to understand what you are saying here?
We not only have a very stupid government, we have a very dangerous government that tramples on its own people, who are allowed to pay for everything and the gilded elite Ukrainian refugees come here with cars that cost more than 100,000 euros, have never paid anything into our social system and get everything for free from us German taxpayers without being asked?!!!! Where do we live !!!!?
Stop complaining. You voted for them.
NO, I did NOT vote for them!
Incidentally, the vast majority of eligible voters did not vote for any of the traffic light parties either, if you include non-voters and voters of minor parties. And those who did vote for them fell for lies, such as the Greens' campaign slogan in the 2021 federal election: "No weapons in crisis areas".
We do NOT deserve these horror clowns. So stop saying "it's your own fault", it's counterproductive!
It is not Putin who is living out his so-called omnipotence fantasies, no, some insatiable sick brains want to live it out. Everything is so riddled with paedophiles, money-grabbers and, last but not least, elites who want to play God. You're in the best Hitchcock movie of all time. As a normal thinking person, you can't really believe that there is so much malice.
When someone like Lafontaine talks about the worst government ever, it takes things to a whole new level. He has already done enough damage during his time in office and has messed things up by acting hesitantly.
Yes, and Ms. Krone-Schmalz is now also being pilloried. It's unbelievable what's going on here! I would hit the street stickers on their glued-on paws with a sledgehammer. But two days ago I was informed that even these young fanatics are being paid by the WEF. No wonder. Now there's already advertising about Metaverse. Who needs that? You really have to ask yourself whether the vaccination was there to send the elderly to the afterlife. So that some poor lunatics can live out their vicious fantasies. But Putin, yes, Putin is to blame for everything. Bärbock and the others went to school with Schwab, no wonder. You just have to ask yourself what benefit they get out of it apart from the money they're collecting at the moment. Our government is nothing but sick, degenerate creatures. Fathers of the people instead of representatives of the people. You don't want to live in a world like that. Time to get out the clubs and pitchforks.
That's right!
"Nothing is certain except death"
Bruno Müller
Unfortunately, I can only agree that this government, all of them, is leading us people in Germany into the greatest catastrophe. Starting with Lauterbach and ending with Habeck. A chancellor who no longer remembers, doesn't ask for tax money back, laughs at people because they have now switched their ovens from oil to gas and doesn't know how sad he should look, simply unbelievable. k Can't you put an end to all this? Add to that a constitutional court that always hangs its flag in the wind and all this has nothing to do with a constitutional state. I don't even know where to begin or end. Ms. Wagenknecht is a ray of hope, as is Ms. Weidel. Mr. Gysi is not burying his head in the sand either. I've been taking to the streets in Frankfurt am Main for almost 3 years. Here, too, the next unjust thing, the ÖRR does not report. We don't exist at all.
Who can help us?