A (37:26)
Topics that deserve our attention at this time of the year, but also that deserve the kind of extended discussion we don't normally have time for. I want to begin with some something much in the news. Germany and Refugees Germany is the strongest and biggest economy in Europe. It has enjoyed falling unemployment throughout this crisis right after the immediate hit. It has done much better than any other country in Europe, economically speaking, over the last six or seven years. Done much better than the United States by example, in terms of its economic well being and growth. But it is suffering from problems of its own. Number one, it has an aging population like many European countries, and it is so successful economically that it could use more laborers, particularly young people with a decent education, who can get right to work. It wants those people and it needs them, number one. Number two, it has Raised terrible memories of suffering at the hands of the Germans, particularly during their Nazi period, when it did a number of things recently, crunching down on the Greek people who wanted not to suffer austerity and anymore. But had the Germans thrust it down their throats unwillingly. Number two, it has gotten itself into a terrible reputation when it was exposed that one of their largest companies, Volkswagen vw, had been systematically lying and cheating to government inspectors to get away with dumping much more air pollution that causes asthma and lung cancer on the people of Europe just to make more money. And that this was unaware, according to the German government, of anything about it. This is not doing well for Germany. Last, it was decided by the French and the British and the Americans to start bombing Syria. Having failed in the previous several years to get rid of a government they don't like there something they are expressly forbidden to do by international law, they started bombing Syria. It didn't seem to do much to undo that government which is sitting in power now, just as it did before the bombing started. And it certainly provoked the ISIS movement to do what it does does. But it also had another effect. It terrorized the population of Syria. And for the first time in many, many years, an enormous number of their citizens, more than a million, began leaving Syria because between the bad government they suffered from and now the terrorizing bombing coming from the United States, Britain and France, which Germany did nothing to prevent or oppose, they're moving out of Syria and they're going to Europe in the hope of escaping the whole mess of the Middle east that they find so fearful. The Germans would like to see them settle in large numbers in Germany. Why? First of all, it solves the labor shortage problem for Germany or at least goes a good distance in. In that direction. It makes Germany grow even more economically because of the arrival of these people and gives Germany then a future, larger dominance of Europe than it already has. Next, it solves Germany's problem that it's looking charitable after the VW scandal, after the horror of what it did to Greece, after it now looks like it has not just an iron fist and a boot, but maybe a little bit of a heart. That's good for something, too. So Mrs. Merkel, the leader in Germany, is bringing in people. But of course, it frightens the German working class because they know that these people coming in are used to much lower wages and that there will be no question that. That German employers will take advantage of the desperate needs of burdened refugee communities gathering inside Germany to get lower wages on everybody in Germany. So there's a growing question and a growing hostility. Well, it's all nice and good if you take in refugees, but where is the protection for Germans already there from the consequences that capitalism usually dumps on local working classes? And the answer is there's no protection offered by the German government. So there's opposition. And Mrs. Merkel is discovering it's not so easy to pull this off. In terms of her own popularity inside Germany, this struggle is therefore far from over. She will paint everybody who opposes refugees coming in as some sort of anti humane human being. That's a cheap shot, especially for someone who presided over the anti humane Volkswagen activity, the anti humane crushing of Greece with austerity and so on. But she'll try, because that's what politicians of her sort normally do do. It is a big question now how this will play out not only in Germany, but in every other European country as they struggle with this refugee onslaught. But let's never lose sight of the fact that with a difficult government in Syria for many, many years there was no refugee exodus. The refugee exodus begins with with the bombing of Syria by the United States, Britain, France, now Russia added to it. That has produced the terrorization of an entire nation's population, leading millions of people to leave their jobs, leave their homes, leave their neighborhoods, their families, their friends, their language, and go to a strange part of the world where. Where they have no idea what kind of reception they will get. This is a terrible result and the Europeans are now deciding what to do. But demonizing the refugees is a kind of ethical nightmare that it is painful to observe. Staying with this same topic for a moment, let's look at France. France was this site on 13th November of a horrific behavior on the part of local people enraged about a whole set of issues that have to do with how immigrant communities are treated in places like France. They took it into their own hands to kill innocent people who had really very little to do with any of this. As an act of grotesque desperation. No words are necessary. We've discussed this in this country for the last ten days, unremittingly. You don't need more from me, but what I want to talk about is the reaction of the socialist government of France to those horrific and criminal behavior events of 13th November. The government led by Francois Hollande, a socialist, and supported by the socialist majorities in both the Senate and the national assembly, the two houses of the French Parliament, have been grotesque. Number one, hit with more bombs. Syria. There's no evidence that any Syrian had anything to do with. With anything that happened on the 13th of November. This is simply a government having been caught, unable to protect its citizens from this kind of action, trying to look tough and mean by doing something that is both stupid and counterproductive, as well as murderous for the people that suffer from it. Bombing somebody. And in Syria, especially, if you're honest and know that bombs don't discriminate very well between the innocent and the guilty, which is why we have a million and a half refugees from Syria in the first place. But to look tough. Rather like George Bush landing on that aircraft carrier wearing a flak jacket did after the invasion of Iraq by the United States. This tough guy attitude is supposed to win you votes. And boy, does Francois Hollande need them. Like Bush, he was really low in the opinion polls. Most Americans thought little of him. Most French people thought little of Francois Hollande. He had disappointed the French badly, and let's see why. Because it matters. He had promised to prevent austerity in France. He had promised to tax the rich in order to be able to do that.
