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| Europe |
| WTF of the day from the New Yorker: Germany considers itself in a father-son relationship with America? |
| 2018-06-12 |
| Last year, the German Foreign Office embarked on what two sources described to me as its first-ever effort to produce an America strategy aimed at answering that question, with the goal of producing a strategy document similar to those it has for adversaries. "Essentially, it’s an overhaul of German foreign policy," a senior German official told me, "since the key assumption being called into question is the total reliance we have on the friendship with the U.S." Work on the new strategy began after Trump’s Inauguration but accelerated last spring, after the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, returned from Trump’s initial foray into international summitry rattled by him and announced that "Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands." The painful realization, the senior German official said, was that "we might get to a situation where we see Americans not only as friends and partners but also as competitors and adversaries. We don’t want to do that. That is how we treat other great powers around the globe, like Russia and China." You already treat us as competitors and adversaries. Why else do you rip us off on trade? Why else do you freeride on American security guarantees and laugh all the way to the bank? Constanze Stelzenmuller, the German debater on the panel, compared Trump’s foreign policy to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel "The Handmaid’s Tale" and said the Europeans were the handmaids. As for Trump, she said, the American President seemed to be treating his allies like a girlfriend he could abuse, slapping her around as if that would make her more likely to accept his marriage proposal. We don't want a marriage, you assholes. We want a divorce. Trump already asked very nicely for you to stop cheating us and to start paying your fair share and you got into a snit, told him off, and outright refused. Nowhere in Europe has that subconscious been more rocked than in Germany, where its close relationship with the United States has defined the country’s remarkable resurrection after the Second World War. "It took Germany the longest of all partners to come to terms with someone like Trump becoming President," the senior German official told me. "We were very emotional, because our relationship with America is so emotional‐it’s more of a son-father relationship‐and we didn’t recognize our father anymore and realized he might beat us." This is the one that showed me these people live on another planet. WTF? Father-son relationship? I have literally never heard this before. Germany and the rest of Europe looks down on America and Americans. Now suddenly we are the parent figure? WTF? Inasmuch as that metaphor can be addressed, Dad is kicking his adult loser son out of the basement and the son is crying and suing Dad in court. A recent poll found that only fourteen per cent of Germans now believe the United States is a reliable partner, compared with thirty-six per cent in Russia and forty-three per cent in China. Good! Excellent! Outstanding! Go partner with them instead. Please! It's like none of these people realize, despite it being explained to them at length, that they are ripping us off on trade and free riding on NATO. Trump is putting a stop to this (finally!) and Europe is going to have to pay for itself. "But that's not fair!" Yes, it is fair, and that's why you're objecting. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy |
| #20 It always comes down to the definition of fairly. |
| Posted by: Clem Kadiddlehopper9000 2018-06-12 22:55 |
| #19 They are making billions of euros in European countries. Why shouldn't they be taxed fairly liked everybody else? Amazon currently pays a lower percentage of taxes than a small local bookstore. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2018-06-12 20:24 |
| #18 All that whining about being "ripped off" is ludicrous. Think Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft. No U.S. complaints about their dominating positions worldwide. But the EU sure loves to tax them. |
| Posted by: ClemKadiddlehopper9000 2018-06-12 20:07 |
| #17 Germany will have to pay more for defense and is already on its way to do so. But this is not a trade issue. In your opinion. From over here it isn't. In the end someone has to pay the price. It's just playing games with accounting books. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-06-12 18:58 |
| #16 We had to pull this "Father Figure" off of Europe twice. The Hunn.... |
| Posted by: newc 2018-06-12 18:45 |
| #15 Every second German car on U.S. highways is actually built in the U.S. and the percentage is rising. About 70% of German cars built in the U.S. are exported. So where's the rip off? EU tariffs on passenger cars are higher (10% vs 2.5%), but proposals to lower them have been ignored by the U.S. The U.S. charges 25% on imported trucks (EU 10 %). TTIP would have abolished those tariffs completely. The U.S. walked away. All that whining about being "ripped off" is ludicrous. Think Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft. No U.S. complaints about their dominating positions worldwide. Germany will have to pay more for defense and is already on its way to do so. But this is not a trade issue. These days the most brutal dictator in the world gets a warmer reception than America's closest allies. Well it seems you can do without allies. Good luck. China is smiling. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2018-06-12 18:30 |
| #14 Building cars in the US was started by the Japanese after the big oil embargo in the 70s introduced Americans to quality construction, low gas mileage, one price (not a multi-window display of extra charges) cars. The threat of auto states and unions for tariffs and quotas was headed off by the Japanese agreeing to quotas (for which the cut out the cheapest cars and moved up in class cause the public were buying them anyway). They then started up plants across the country, just in case in the future the issue resurfaced. File under - smart business. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-06-12 18:02 |
| #13 That scene, right after the big light saber fight, where Darth Trump raises his mask and says, "Hans, I'm not your real Dad." |
| Posted by: SteveS 2018-06-12 17:29 |
| #12 Can someone please tell me how Germany is ripping off the U.S. in trade? By building German cars in the U.S.? I'm getting really tired of this BS. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2018-06-12 15:06 |
| #11 We already used it twice! |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2018-06-12 10:28 |
| #10 If USA are the father, you've been sparing the rod too long. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-06-12 09:21 |
| #9 I guess when you live in liberal fantasy land, anything is possible. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2018-06-12 09:16 |
| #8 The funny drunken Uncle? No, the one that gropes you then steals your spoons and jewelry. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2018-06-12 09:15 |
| #7 More like the uncle no one ever talks about... The funny drunken Uncle? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2018-06-12 08:23 |
| #6 Germany is the George Constanze of geopolitics. They should let others make the decisions. |
| Posted by: Rjschwarz 2018-06-12 08:09 |
| #5 Father son relationship and the son wants their allowance NOW! Waaaahhhhh! |
| Posted by: Rjschwarz 2018-06-12 08:08 |
| #4 Reading the headline, I expected the Germans to consider themselves the father figure. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2018-06-12 08:07 |
| #3 More like the uncle no one ever talks about..... |
| Posted by: Clydelo Fromoethelydo 2018-06-12 07:52 |
| #2 Muscular square-headed blond big ended women in girdles. Wieners and kraut for breakfast...oh..and don't forget the wonderful Tuba music. |
| Posted by: Phort Hupererong9548 2018-06-12 03:42 |
| #1 From people I have talked to and what I have read: the Bavarians like us, the Prussians think we are a menace, and the Easterners are mad that the Cold War is over and the US is to blame for everything bad... Also, the Old Order aristocrats are still mightily pissed off that the Age of Colonialism is over and they suspect that the US had a large part in that, too. We are their Father Figure...? How, bizarre! |
| Posted by: magpie 2018-06-12 01:14 |