Ms. Magoo on Tour
Angela Merkel is currently on a world tongue bath tour. The occasion is the release of her evidently quite turbid memoir.
A recent stop was in DC, where she was interviewed by Barack Obama. If held at Gitmo, this would be considered a Geneva Convention offense, but people actually stood in line for and paid for the privilege of attending. Of course, they are swamp denizens, and Merkel is a kindred species and Obama is their lord.
In her memoir confesses to not a single error in her long tenure. Zero. Kein!
The lack of self-awareness here is staggering. Germany is currently a basket case. Its economy has been in a prolonged recession. It is in political chaos and social ferment, due in no small part to the mass immigration of recent decades. The phrase “Germany is the sick man of Europe” has considerable currency.
Virtually all of Germany’s current travails can be laid directly at Angela Merkel’s feet. The two biggest problems besetting Germany are energy (which is a major cause of the broader economic malaise) and immigration, both of which are the direct result of Merkel policies. Energiewende (which I have pilloried for over a dozen years) with its renewables obsession and the closing of nuclear plants due to (checks notes) a tsunami in Japan has made German energy among the most expensive in the world. Not a good thing for an energy intensive manufacturing economy! The perversities of the post-Syrian War immigration wave are impossible to ignore–although the German government strives mightily to suppress opposition on the issue.
These were signature Merkel policies. Bad in substance, they were also served up with a huge dollop of supercilious sanctimony. Merkel condemned (and continues to condemn) anyone who opposed them as intellectual and crucially moral inferiors.
In brief, Angela Merkel is the Ms. Magoo of German politics (and world politics, given how she was and is lionized outside of Germany). A blind bumbler who left a trail of chaos and destruction behind her, all the while touting her achievements. “Merkel, you’ve done it again!”
The adulation she is currently receiving suggests she is an exception to Enoch Powell’s dictum that “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.” And that may be Merkel’s true genius. That she saw what was coming and stepped aside to let others clean up the mess and take the blame. If so, well played!
But that would require a degree of self-awareness that Merkel apparently does not possess. She seems utterly sincere in her belief that she did no wrong, and indeed, did everything right.
But a lack of self-awareness is the most prominent trait of her class. As I’ve written since Trump emerged on the stage in 2015 the establishment/elite/ruling class is completely unaware of the baleful consequences of their overlordship, ignorant of how much they are despised by the hoi polloi, and clueless about their impending doom. Even as it stares them in the face, as evidenced by Trump’s decisive victory and the political chaos in France, Germany, and the UK.
Yet on and on they go, as supercilious and sanctimonious as ever.
We see it in the US in spades, with the Democrats’ complete inability to comprehend or come to grips with the massive repudiation they received a month ago. Obama is the best illustration of this, projecting on Trump and his voters all the horribles (e.g., vote rigging, lawfare) his party has committed, and failing to acknowledge that DEI, wokeness, mass immigration, climate extremism, etc., etc. etc., are widely detested.
These people need to go away. But they never will leave voluntarily. In their narcissistic self-regard they view themselves as God’s gift and their legacies as glorious.
So do to them what they hate most: mock them. Mercilessly. And start with Ms. Magoo.
What a coincidence. Today at Marginal Revolution a commenter remarks: “the best university system in the world was, for many generations, Germany’s … It’s just another part of German culture that was destroyed by the Austrian dauber. Though its final destruction required the amazingly stupid policies of Merkel, the former Young Communist.”
Comment by dearieme — December 8, 2024 @ 1:02 pm
You know the story about computer controlled jets.
One pilot and a dog. The dog there to bite the pilot if he tries to fly the plane.
Same with politicians. If they just let the economy sort itself out, it’s all fine. When they try to take the controls, it all goes to sh¡t.
Today’s news is that the British Ministry of Defence is developing EV tanks. We’ll win wars by the Royal Corps of Virtue Signalling!
Comment by philip — December 8, 2024 @ 4:40 pm
I suppose an EV tank avoids the engine noise of a conventional tank and the large IR signal. But does it avoid the clatter of tracks? It won’t be a stealthy tank otherwise.
And I suppose it will “brew up” with particular vigour.
Comment by dearieme — December 8, 2024 @ 6:47 pm
I suppose an EV tank avoids the engine noise of a conventional tank and the large IR signal. But does it avoid the clatter of tracks? It won’t be a stealthy tank otherwise.
And I suppose it will “brew up” with particular vigour.
And another thing: won’t it be even heavier than a conventional tank? How will it do over boggy ground?
Comment by dearieme — December 8, 2024 @ 6:48 pm
Further, will a heavy EV tank be air-transportable? Even if the tank is a bit stealthy presumably it will have to be joined often by a vehicle carrying a diesel generator. That won’t be stealthy, will it?
Are tanks now obsolete or nearly so? Will the EV tank be self-driving? Questions, questions.
Just as the only reasonably safe warship is a submarine, clearly a safer land-based vehicle than a tank would be an EV “mole”. It could burrow around and deposit explosive charges to be used later for blowing up the enemy.
Comment by dearieme — December 8, 2024 @ 7:23 pm
‘But a lack of self-awareness is the most prominent trait of her class … We see it in the US in spades, with the Democrats’ complete inability to comprehend or come to grips with the massive repudiation they received a month ago.’
The natural order of things is for error correction in response to feedback. Sometimes the feedback is subtle, sometimes violently blunt. When error correction via feedback does not occur, error correction occurs via the removal of the erring organism from the biosphere. But error correction always happens.
Given this, there is a strong incentive for an organism 1) not to commit errors in the first place, or 2) if one does commit them, to correct them ASAP and learn from the experience.
That this ISN’T happening is deeply worrying, as it indicates a malfunctioning epistemological apparatus, and raises the prospect of the removal of the organism afflicted with the faulty epistemological apparatus (ze Chermans, the US, Aussies as well (we are suffering from it severely, if not as prominently because no one cares much what goes on down here)) from the biosphere.
I’m not really happy about this. But as ze Chermans themselves say, ‘Those who will not listen will be made to feel’.
I hope the mocking does the trick! Cos buggerall else seems to work.
Comment by Ex-Global Super-Regulator on Lunch Break — December 8, 2024 @ 7:41 pm
I realise it’s quite a display of cheek to request a product of someone who supplies the community for free from his goodwill, and events have moved (are moving!) faster than almost all of us could have imagined, but I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on Syria, Turkey, Erdogan, Iran, Israel, etc.
Comment by Ex-Global Super-Regulator on Lunch Break — December 8, 2024 @ 7:43 pm
As with the Bourbons, so with the political elite; in particular the Democrat elite and in especial particular the progressive elite: they forget nothing, they learn nothing.
Comment by Pat Frank — December 9, 2024 @ 12:21 am
“These people need to go away. But they never will leave voluntarily. In their narcissistic self-regard they view themselves as God’s gift and their legacies as glorious.”
Funny, this precisely describes the Trump regime, doesn’t it? I might borrow that line Craig – thanks.
Comment by David Mercer — December 9, 2024 @ 1:40 am
Nice to see Biden sorting out the Middle East just in time for Christmas and the end of his term. Trump’s response? Some AI generated rant bleating about Obama’s red lines – I reckon the only red lines he ever saw were those on his ass left after his visit to Moscow
Comment by David Mercer — December 9, 2024 @ 1:46 am
@David Mercer. You are confusing “in spite of” with “because of.”
Comment by cpirrong — December 10, 2024 @ 11:27 am
@Ex-Global Super-Regulator on Lunch Break. My gift to humanity! 😉 Thanks for appreciating it!
I will try to put together some thoughts. One initial response. The main insurgent force is widely claimed to be Erdogan’s creature. This is wrong. His main proxy force (the Syrian National Army) is focused on fighting the US proxy–the Kurdish forces in Syria.
Another initial reaction. When the rebels were racing to Damascus it brought to mind the scene in Lawrence of Arabia when the Arab irregulars were racing to that city in September 1918, and the Ottoman army collapsed like Assad’s has. The “victory” soon degenerated into chaos and tribal conflict as colorfully depicted in the movie (and described in Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom). I expect that the aftermath of Assad’s overthrow will not be much different.
Comment by cpirrong — December 10, 2024 @ 1:48 pm
@Ex-Global Super-Regulator on Lunch Break–Yes, error correction works either by recognition and cognition, or by Darwinian mechanisms. The progressive left seems to be spurning the first alternative, and that is definitely disturbing because they can do tremendous damage as they thrash about on their way to extinction. So anything that can snap them back to reality is valuable. Mockery is just one of our weapons. Maybe we need nice red uniforms too.
Comment by cpirrong — December 11, 2024 @ 4:59 pm
@dearieme. The EV tank is beyond stupid.
To add to your already long list of potential problems, note that EV cars are much higher than ICE equivalents because of the bulk of the battery pack. A high profile is a negative for a tank. More visible. Larger target area.
Then there’s the issue of charging, and a charging infrastructure. What, are they going to set up wind turbines? Not too conspicuous those. And they take up a lot of space and make great targets. Similarly with solar panels. And think how long it would take to pack up, move, and set up all that when advancing or retreating.
EV passenger vehicles are also expensive to insure primarily because any damage to the vehicle (even a fairly minor accident) tends to damage the battery packs which have to be replaced in their entirety.
And then there are battery fires. In WWII the Germans called the M-4 Sherman tank (widely used by the British) “Tommy Cookers” because their gasoline cooked off much more readily than diesel. (“Ronsons” was another nickname). But those fires would be nothing compared to an EAV going up in flames after a hit.
No, it is obviously a totally mad idea. The fact that the UK is pursuing it (and the US is considering it) shows just how monomaniacal the climatistas are in pursuing their ideology. Every consideration is ignored in their single-minded pursuit of Net Zero.
Comment by cpirrong — December 11, 2024 @ 5:10 pm