Politics Episode 7: Remake of Episode 4

[Gfted1]

Now Merkel has very long history as leader and she might get reelected again. Who wins the German elections remains to be seen. Merkel earlier years have been good, but this recent mandate as leader have been a fiasco to Europe. You can blame Brexit on Merkel politics.

Huh, I just checked, and no term limit for the German prime ministers!

[Hurlshort]

I don't understand how any country operates without term limits.

[Gromnir]

I don't understand how any country operates without term limits.

well, the XXII amendment weren't added to the Constitution until 1947, so am guessing even if are limiting to US history, one can find some basis for figuring out how such a thing might work.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps our snarkiness is high today 'cause am not sure if we is being punk'd by gifted and am having needs deal with others we know is doing the brainfreeze bit unintentional.

[Ben No.3]

 

Now Merkel has very long history as leader and she might get reelected again. Who wins the German elections remains to be seen. Merkel earlier years have been good, but this recent mandate as leader have been a fiasco to Europe. You can blame Brexit on Merkel politics.

Huh, I just checked, and no term limit for the German chancellors!

Yeah, pffffttt, why would we need that. We never had any problem with particularly power ambitious chancellors, I assure you.

[Ben No.3]

I don't understand how any country operates without term limits.

Money, mostly. But I don't think that's any different for you.

 

On a more serious note, Germans are known to be notoriously atttached to one particular government they like. We had many chancellors for 2, 3 terms in a row. German voters are risk averse and like to stay with one person, I think one whole reelection campaign was once won with the slogan "no experiments"

Edited June 6, 2017 by Ben No.3

[Gfted1]

ps our snarkiness is high today 'cause am not sure if we is being punk'd by gifted and am having needs deal with others we know is doing the brainfreeze bit unintentional.

I'm not punking you Gromnir, I think we just have poor communication with each other.

[Gorgon]

 

 

Now Merkel has very long history as leader and she might get reelected again. Who wins the German elections remains to be seen. Merkel earlier years have been good, but this recent mandate as leader have been a fiasco to Europe. You can blame Brexit on Merkel politics.

Huh, I just checked, and no term limit for the German chancellors!

Yeah, pffffttt, why would we need that. We never had any problem with particularly power ambitious chancellors, I assure you.

 

In other news there has been a fire in the Reichstag. She's competent enough and there is something to be said for stability right now

 

Hey Americans, what's it like to have the retarded kid everyone picks last for football for president. 

[Bartimaeus]

I actually think it's more likely he has an early form of dementia. If you go back 20 years and see how he talked then, he's much more of a lucid, clear-spoken, and intelligent speaker. I wouldn't say he's quite a totally different person, but it's at least possible to follow and understand him. Nowadays, the majority of what he says is just endless nonsense or platitudes that you can only get the very basic gist of - anything more than that you're going to have to really construct yourself for him. IIRC, he's the oldest president ever elected and he's lead a pretty horrendously unhealthy life-style*, so I guess it wouldn't be that much of a surprise if that were the case. But to answer your question, I would say it's "not good".

 

*This is the guy that believes that everyone has a "finite amount of energy", after all, and that your body breaks down once you start to run out of it so exercising is obviously terrible for you.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[Wrath of Dagon]

 

 

 

Now Merkel has very long history as leader and she might get reelected again. Who wins the German elections remains to be seen. Merkel earlier years have been good, but this recent mandate as leader have been a fiasco to Europe. You can blame Brexit on Merkel politics.

Huh, I just checked, and no term limit for the German chancellors!

 

Yeah, pffffttt, why would we need that. We never had any problem with particularly power ambitious chancellors, I assure you.

 

In other news there has been a fire in the Reichstag. She's competent enough and there is something to be said for stability right now

 

Hey Americans, what's it like to have the retarded kid everyone picks last for football for president.

 

Fortunately Obama's gone now.

[Zoraptor]

DWS is a grade A moron. They had to get rid of her to have any chance at all.

 

And then they immediately stuck her on Hillary's team. That set the tone (deafness) for her entire campaign.

 

I don't understand how any country operates without term limits.

 

I'd say that if you have a properly functioning electoral system then you don't need term limits. Power entrenchment comes mainly from political parties and bureaucrats anyway, and they aren't effected by term limits except for whoever is the figure head.

[Meshugger]

I like how the arguments made by those who try to show an image of being more dignified than most being nothing more than of the same kindergarten sandbox quality. "Your president soooo dumb" indeed.

 

So fellas, what's up with Qatar? Has Trump given the green-light to the other gulf-states to invade?

[Terminator]

 

Politically not commenting USA politics since I live in Europe, but I am not happy with Merkel EU politics at all. Hopefully Shulz will replace Merkel in upcoming German elections. What has that to do with Finland my country? Germany holds much power indeed within EU. Shulz party is like "left middle", but the important thing is that Shulz has realistic chance to replace Merkel as Germany leader and Shulz party wants clearly different immigrant policy then what Merkel wants.

 

Now Merkel has very long history as leader and she might get reelected again. Who wins the German elections remains to be seen. Merkel earlier years have been good, but this recent mandate as leader have been a fiasco to Europe. You can blame Brexit on Merkel politics.

Mostly agreement. To blame Brexit solely on Merkel is a bit harsh though. But her inability to find a European solution for the refugee crisis and her disastrous policies concerning Greece indeed weigh heavy. Although specifically concerning Brexit, I'd say there are more causes to it.

 

True there are also more causes for it, but I agree with the problems you said.

 

 

Now Merkel has very long history as leader and she might get reelected again. Who wins the German elections remains to be seen. Merkel earlier years have been good, but this recent mandate as leader have been a fiasco to Europe. You can blame Brexit on Merkel politics.

Huh, I just checked, and no term limit for the German chancellors!

Yeah, pffffttt, why would we need that. We never had any problem with particularly power ambitious chancellors, I assure you.

 

Heh a bit fun comment . I actually like this music a bit. In the war Finland and Germany fought against Russians. I have been in the Finnish military and would kill if there would be war, but I do hope for peace. Hitler rose to power with politics. I rather see some sport event between countries then another big war.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDhkFHC8tO4

Edited June 6, 2017 by Terminator

[Bartimaeus]

I like how the arguments made by those who try to show an image of being more dignified than most being nothing more than of the same kindergarten sandbox quality. "Your president soooo dumb" indeed.

Yeah, I wanted to be mad at WoD's "I know you are but what I am", but Gorgon was pretty much asking for it.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[Gfted1]

Yeah, pffffttt, why would we need that. We never had any problem with particularly power ambitious chancellors, I assure you.

Imagine my surprise when I learned there is such a thing as a President of Germany! Whoda thunk it? I thought Merkel ran the place.

[Bartimaeus]

She does. The presidency there is more or less ceremonial. I think they have some miscellaneous responsibilities and powers, but really...

 

(e): The easiest analogue would probably be VP of the U.S.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[Gromnir]

She does. The presidency there is more or less ceremonial. I think they have some miscellaneous responsibilities and powers, but really...

 

(e): The easiest analogue would probably be VP of the U.S.

vp senate tie breaker has gotten considerable use over the years.  is actual pretty darn significant.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah. I was talking more the scope of importance and responsibilities. The position is just not very important in of itself, and it usually doesn't matter who's currently sitting there - if it's a Republican presidency, then the fact that it's any other Republican is usually good enough, and the same for Democrats*. The three most important things about the VP is the effect it has upon your election chances, providing a clear successor in the case of tragedy, and their influence/power in the Senate. Nobody really thinks much of the VP until they actually do something - for example, tiebreaking a vote. Biden didn't tiebreak a single vote during his entire time as VP...but apparently, Pence has already done 3?

 

*We should really go back to the old days of having a VP (and some cabinet members) from the opposite party instead of the "kick out everyone regardless of how competent they were and stick in your own cronies" system that we've been stuck with for a while now. Mueller, the former FBI director currently investigating Trump, is one of the few exceptions I can think of where the new president didn't immediately oust a prior administration guy when the the first opportunity came: Obama asked him to stay on after his term expired, which he did for two years. I guess the FBI position is a little different than others, though, and there's probably more examples of that sort of thing out there.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[Elerond]

She does. The presidency there is more or less ceremonial. I think they have some miscellaneous responsibilities and powers, but really...

 

(e): The easiest analogue would probably be VP of the U.S.

 

Veto power over new federal laws is quite significant power, although Germany's presidents usually use it only to prevent laws that they think are in violation of constitution and it has been only used eight times total by all the presidents I think.

[Bartimaeus]

 

She does. The presidency there is more or less ceremonial. I think they have some miscellaneous responsibilities and powers, but really...

 

(e): The easiest analogue would probably be VP of the U.S.

 

Veto power over new federal laws is quite significant power, although Germany's presidents usually use it only to prevent laws that they think are in violation of constitution and it has been only used eight times total by all the presidents I think.

 

Good to know. Is the president usually of the same party/extremely cooperative with the Prime Minister, or is not too infrequent that they're from a different party? What would it take to override said veto? (e): Article with more information on it. Apparently, the president is not really supposed to have the right to veto a bill, per se, but nevertheless does technically have it, and according to the wording, the only circumstances where it's maybe supposed to happen is where they feel it goes against the Constitution, as you said. Interesting and odd. That power would probably be used and abused to its limit here in the U.S. if we had a presidency-PM system like that, and if they were from different parties.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[Zoraptor]

So fellas, what's up with Qatar? Has Trump given the green-light to the other gulf-states to invade?

 

Trump's a moron, Gulf States are all hypocrites (except Oman, and to an extent Kuwait), news at 11.

 

Not like Qatar is a saint; but their sin isn't sponsoring terrorism, it's not toeing the Saudi line- and that's it.

[Sarex]

Guess they are done with Syria and Qatar is next on the chopping block.

[ShadySands]

Meh, Qatar has probably the largest US base in the whole Middle East

[majestic]

 

 

She does. The presidency there is more or less ceremonial. I think they have some miscellaneous responsibilities and powers, but really...

 

(e): The easiest analogue would probably be VP of the U.S.

 

Veto power over new federal laws is quite significant power, although Germany's presidents usually use it only to prevent laws that they think are in violation of constitution and it has been only used eight times total by all the presidents I think.

 

Good to know. Is the president usually of the same party/extremely cooperative with the Prime Minister, or is not too infrequent that they're from a different party?

 

The German president is elected by the Federal Convention which includes members of the Bundestag and the federal parliaments. I think that's supposed to actively reflect the current political climate in Germany but the whole system is just confusing. Anyway more often than not the government candidate wins the presidential election and even if not the president is supposed to act in an unbiased fashion.

 

The underhanded deals and backstabbing that precede the elections are kind of fun though. From an outside perspective it does appear as if finding a suitable candidate that wants the job is, uhm, actually hard.

[Terminator]

You can all talk about presidency here and there. However understand this. Finland and Germany president have almost no power compared to say USA president and this also without regarding the fact that USA is a superpower.

 

Chancellor of Germany

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancellor_of_Germany

"Today, the Chancellor is the country's effective leader.  In German politics, the Chancellor is equivalent to that of a prime minister in many other countries.

 

Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 by Paul von Hindenburg. Upon taking office, Hitler immediately began accumulating power and changing the nature of the Chancellorship. After only two months in office, and following the burning of the Reichstag building, the Reichstag body passed the Enabling Act giving the Reich Chancellor full legislative powers for a period of four years – the Chancellor could introduce any law without consulting Parliament. Powers of the Chancellor continued to grow until August 1934, when the incumbent President Paul von Hindenburg died. Hitler used the Enabling Act to merge the office of Reich Chancellor with that of President to create a new office, der Führer; although the offices were merged, Hitler continued to be addressed as "Führer und Reichskanzler" indicating that the Head of State and Head of Government were still separate positions albeit held by the same man."

 

Please stop thinking in the lines of USA terms of who has most power in Germany please. I am not going into USA politics, but fact is that Trump could in theory if he wanted to start World War 3. You can not compare USA president power to that of Germany president that would not be fair. Finally I respect all USA presidents and you Americans choose who will be elected as USA presidents.

 

Here is a fun fact for you that I heard. Trump has in his room a red button. Visitors who don't know what that red button is for get sometimes nervous

when he press that. However that button is simply sometimes a wish like now I want some service bring me coffee please. That said do not underestimate the power of USA presidents!

Edited June 6, 2017 by Terminator

[Gfted1]

Actually, iirc, the red button summons him a Pepsi.