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Can You Imagine a Leader Like This in the U.S. Now or Anytime?

edited April 2020 in Off-Topic
https://theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/04/angela-merkel-germany-coronavirus-pandemic/610225/
Born in West Germany in 1954, Merkel was raised in a small East German town to the north of Berlin. Her father was a Lutheran pastor and a target of surveillance by East Germany’s security service, the Stasi. A brilliant student, Merkel learned early on “not to put herself in the center of things” lest she expose herself or her family to undue scrutiny, according to Stefan Kornelius, her official biographer and the foreign editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Merkel, who had by then earned a doctorate in quantum chemistry, was working as a research scientist. Soon after, she left her job to join a new political group that had formed in her neighborhood, thus quietly launching her political career. She rose in German politics and, through sheer smarts and a series of well-timed tactical maneuvers, ascended in 2005 to the chancellery, the head of Germany’s federal government. Her trajectory was dramatic and uncommon—for a woman, for an East German, and for a trained scientist with no background in law or civil service.

Why did Merkel leave what appeared to be a promising career for the uncertainty of politics? In a New Yorker profile of her, George Packer called the decision “the central mystery of an opaque life.” Kornelius attributes the drastic change to a realization that, as a scientist from poorer and under-resourced East Germany, she would be “outpaced” by her western peers.

Merkel has never spoken publicly about why she left science, but perhaps that is because it never really left her. Scientific thinking—her deliberate probing of each new bit of information, her cautious consultation with experts—remains integral to Merkel’s daily decision-making process and her political persona. She is undoubtedly aware that her measured, modest handling of Germany’s affairs is at least partially why she has, for almost 15 years now, enjoyed the support of a country whose historical reverence for scientific achievement and great minds (think Kant, Einstein, innumerable others) is forever balanced by an acute wariness of charismatic leaders with big ideas (think Hitler).

Prior to the pandemic, Merkel’s political star had been waning. She had become known, according to Kornelius, as the chancellor “who avoided things, much less as the one who built things.” Yes, she had prevented Europe from falling apart during the financial crisis and led the continent as it grappled with the subsequent migration crisis. But of late, she had been left politically sidelined by the domestic rise of populism, the far right, the far left, and by autocratic leaders around the world.
And
But unlike in Italy, where more than 22,000 have lost their life to COVID-19, or in the United States, where the death toll has surpassed that figure and continues to rise rapidly, total deaths in Germany have been inching up from 4,000. To put this in perspective, more than twice as many New Yorkers have lost their life to the coronavirus as have individuals in all of Germany to date.
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Comments

  • Not in my lifetime but I'd sure fight to see it happen.
  • Seems to me the Electoral College must die. It will be a slow process to get this done, but the next leader here must must must must must make it a priority to kill that thing. Seems to me that the Repugnant Party will have to die and maybe rise from its ashes as something very different, very reasonable, very willing to pay attention to science and to people's NEEDS. The current drive to RESTRICT the vote on their part is a clear sign that they have nothing to offer. They have to win via tricks.

    The Demublicans likewise must stop being afraid of REAL progress.

  • Merkel gave a C19 briefing the other day and wonderfully explained in simple words how moving from 1.0 to 1.1, 1.2 infection rates would impact their health system by various months. The unempathetic idiot Tweety Amin couldn't do that ... he just wants to be there for the optics and to look 'strong' for the cameras. He's absolutely loving his 'free' 3 hours of coverage a day -- and the pathetic MSM is more than happy to give it to him, having learned nothing from 2016.

    I agree COMPLETELY that the Electoral College needs to die immediately. 2000 was a hint of what was to come, and when the majority of votes cast are ignored by the 'College' there's a problem for a so-called 'democracy.'

    To be nice I won't comment on the GOP's platforms/philosophy other to say that as CONservatives they are always looking backwards on most (if not all) of their issues and prefer doubling-down on their ideological ideas like how 'trickle-down' works thinking that this time, it's going to work, trust us!
  • bingo.
  • Our leader thinks injecting disinfectant like Lysol into the body might work:
  • edited April 2020

    Our leader thinks injecting disinfectant like Lysol into the body might work:

    Injecting disinfectants is by far the stupidest thing he's ever said since 2016 .... and that's saying something. Step right up and take ol' Doc Mengel----er,Tweety's (latest) miracle cure!! (And I bet some folks will absolutely try it because he said so.) Of course, if he gets into a war with NK or Iran, nuclear weapons also throw off a lot of heat and light that can 'disinfect' our bodies, too.

    Frankly, I think he should take the first shot -- do it live on TV, think of the ratings!!! (and as he said, think of the 'job' it'll do on his lungs!) Likewise, those supporting this idiot should be happy because this is an effort that they can do this on their own and thus avoid any more 'government handouts' in the name of 'freedom' and 'liberty.' /end rant

    BTW notice how fast he and Faux 'News' dropped the hydroxycloroquine recommendation.......
  • Now we know what Gov. Kemp had in mind. Light is a disinfectant. Reopen the tanning salons. Turn them way up so that the light penetrates all the way to the lungs. And they even use UV light, something Trump explicitly mentioned.

    It doesn't make any less sense than injecting Lysol.
  • edited April 2020
    Looks like Trump has been tanning too much with the raccoon eyes from wearing his sunglasses. Maybe that it is how he thinks he is immune to getting Covid-19.
  • TheShadow said:

    Looks like Trump has been tanning to much with the raccoon eyes from wearing his sunglasses. Maybe that it is how he thinks he is immune to getting Covid-19.

    He lives in the WH bubble, so he is well-protected anyway. So he figures he's invincible.

    Remember he rarely never goes outside the EOP protective bubble anyway even when there's no pandemic. Golf, his chintzy hotel, a quick photo-op somewhere, and back again.
  • Now he's claiming the disinfectant remark was sarcastic and directed at reporters even though it's evident that it was addressed at his staff member Dr. Birx without a hint of sarcasm:


    https://cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/04/24/birx-reaction-trump-disinfectant-vpx.cnn

    It must be more fake news by the "lying liberal media."
  • edited April 2020
    I have a lot of respect & sympathy for Dr. Birx & Dr. Fauci. I'm a retired physician & gave up being medical director of a small hospital ER because of the administration & instead went into private practice where I didn't have deal with people without sense. I can't imagine what this would be like.
  • https://marketwatch.com/story/this-new-evidence-shows-nicotine-might-prevent-smokers-from-catching-coronavirus-2020-04-24?siteid=bnbh

    "They plan to conduct further clinical trials if authorized by French health authorities. The authors of the study do not however advocate smoking as a panacea for coronavirus, because of the health issues linked to nicotine usage."

    However, look at the next press briefing to have our leader advocating that every adult be sent a weekly carton of cigarettes & that it will be everyone's duty to smoke to make America great again.

  • edited April 2020
    On a couple of tv stations, local news or CNBC, his press entourage said that his comment was "taken out of context" and it was also said he was "joking". Ironically, he is the joke.
  • I can't bear him ANY LONGER! Aaaarrrggghhhh!
  • zenbrew said:

    https://marketwatch.com/story/this-new-evidence-shows-nicotine-might-prevent-smokers-from-catching-coronavirus-2020-04-24?siteid=bnbh

    "They plan to conduct further clinical trials if authorized by French health authorities. The authors of the study do not however advocate smoking as a panacea for coronavirus, because of the health issues linked to nicotine usage."

    However, look at the next press briefing to have our leader advocating that every adult be sent a weekly carton of cigarettes & that it will be everyone's duty to smoke to make America great again.

    "Health issues linked to nicotine usage" - actually the authors warn about health issues linked to smoking, not to nicotine usage. (Though there is mention of a possible risk due to nicotine cessation.)

    Nice find, and an interesting report. Worth reading through the translated study paper for clarifications. The study shows correlation not causation. Even granting causation, the theory that nicotine is the key factor is an educated guess based on known effects of nicotine, not on data in the study. Finally, the proposed research is (as also mentioned in the Marketwatch piece) to test the use of nicotine patches.

    You've nailed fearless leader's keen powers of observation. He will see no need to read beyond the statement that smokers have lower incidence of COVID-19 (assuming he reads anything). Send those cartons out, *cough*, indeed.
    Because this is a cross-sectional study, we cannot confirm the causality of this association. We cannot also identify which of the many compounds of tobacco exerts the protective effect of smoking on COVID-19. There are however, sufficient scientific data to suggest that smoking protection is likely to be mediated by nicotine.
    ...
    Nicotine and the nicotinic receptor (and not the smoke of cigarettes per se, which is responsible for a very heavy public health burden with more than 78,000 deaths per year in France) may be indeed involved in the pathway leading to viral infection, and particularly in the most severe forms of the disease. Nicotine administration, e.g. via a transcutaneous route may be tested as a therapy to recapitulate the protecting effect of smoking against SARS CoV2 infection.
  • edited April 2020
    He spent a hell of a lot of time at the podium trying to be 'sarcastic' yesterday, then....during a national pandemic. Nobody's going to buy that walkback except his cultists, Fox Noise, Sinclair, and OANN.
  • edited April 2020
    Trump is surely beyond belief. It is a tragedy after all that has happened we cannot say with certainty he will lose the next election. It's a race between the stupidity of Trump and the incompetence of democrats. Why the !@#%%^&* did they go through impeachment process when they knew they didn't have the votes? Every time Trump gets off scott free it makes them stronger. Not to mention Dems have really not fended an electable candidate for a while now.

    Time for a third party.
  • It's been time for a 3rd and 4th and 9th new Party for a long time. Even when you just go to buy ice cream, you get about 90 different flavors and styles to choose from.
    *********************************************
    "Why the !@#%%^&* did they go through impeachment process when they knew they didn't have the votes? Every time Trump gets off scott free it makes them stronger. Not to mention Dems have really not fended an electable candidate for a while now."

    They impeached him because he is a criminal. The majority in the Senate is enabling that criminal. Anyone who cannot see that belongs to Hillary's class of "deplorables."
  • Dems opened so many investigations and promised Trump will be out, fired and...he gets stronger.

    So, please keep it up, open more false investigations, more Lib media anger and lies and...watch the best reality show I have seen for years.

    In the past, I voted both Dems and GOP but it's a delight to hear the Dem's anger, lies and out of control comments for another 4 years.
  • edited April 2020
    @FD1000 What Dem "lies" specifically? Please spell them out. Regarding your remarks that it is "a delight" to see the opposition suffer, what happened to a view that we are all Americans in this together? It sounds like you are "hate voting":https://nytimes.com/2018/03/01/opinion/negative-partisanship-democrats-republicans.html Do the president's own constant prevarications, recorded endlessly on video tape, concern you at all, or do you just revel in making your fellow Americans suffer, even if you realize you've elected someone who thinks injecting disinfectant might cure covid-19? Do you honestly respect this president and think of him as a person of integrity?
  • Bingo. A straightforward answer might be hoped for, but will you get one?
  • @FD1000 who said - "Dems opened so many investigations and promised Trump will be out"

    And who blocked them at every opportunity to get the relevant and necessary documents needed to make their case?
  • It's time for Mitch McConnell to be voted out. Hope it happens this year!
  • TheShadow said:

    It's time for Mitch McConnell to be voted out. Hope it happens this year!

    McC is slime, dripping from an eavestrough onto rotting bird cadavers.

  • FD1000 said:



    ... it's a delight to hear the Dem's anger.

    that's quite a motive to live by, and here I thought you had some wisdom to offer
  • No, just more bile to pour.
  • edited April 2020
    Anti-intellectual. Anti-ethics. Anti-maturity. Any supporter of the Orange Fart who even claims to own a conscience is lying. THERE'S some bile. "But it ain't bragging if it's true."
  • Howdy folks,

    I said it months ago and it's worth repeating, 'Trump and eat shit and die and everyone who supports him can eat shit and die.'

    Do I make myself perfectly clear?

    and so it goes,

    peace and flatten the curve,

    rono
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