Big article in the German paper this morning about Blinken

[DFW]

This is the first positive article about an American foreign minister (i.e. Secretary of State) that I have seen in a European newspaper since John Kerry left with Obama's cabinet.

The article went on and on about his experience, qualifications, and expressed hope for a renaissance in US-EU relations. Where Pompeo was considered such a useless clown that I don't think I have seen his name mentioned in the European media in the last six months, the EU is suddenly full of praise, both of Blinken himself, and of Biden for making such a wise choice. a LOT of relief here.

[DonaldsRump]

1. It is amazing how happy my friends around the world are that Trump is out

I can imagine that Angela Merkel is doing cartwheels with Biden's victory...and Vladimir Putin is quaking in his miniature boots.

The world's natural order is restoring itself.

[panader0]

2. That's very good. I didn't know anything about Blinken prior to his nomination,

but everything I've learned about him is positive. He speaks French, so perhaps Macron will be
pleased with the pick too.
How is the virus in Europe these days? Are you able to travel for your job? Be safe DFW.

[DFW]

17. The virus is doing just fine, unfortunately

It is spreading again. I have canceled work trips to Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland, but I can't put them off forever. I have two trip scheduled this week, but both are within Germany, so I don't have to spend hours on paperwork. Unfortunately, many of the planes and trains I take have been reduced and/or canceled altogether. On Thursday, to make my appointment in München (Munich) on time, I have to get up at 3:15 in order to get a taxi downtown to make my 4:44 AM train down there. It's five and half hours down there, and five and a half hours back when I'm done in the afternoon, plus an extra ¾ hour for the wait and commuter train to my little village outside Düsseldorf. I'm trying VERY hard to not have anything else on the program for Friday! France, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain are on almost full lockdown. Economists are terrified at what will happen to inflation in the aftermath of governments having to print money right and left to pay for all the unemployed and sick, but virtually ALL governments (including ours) are having to do it, so no one is really singled out--yet. Bitcoin--that inscrutable sorta-currency has soared from $4000 to over $18000 since the first of the year. That's not an accident.

[malthaussen]

23. What about the UK?

How will Brexit affect your work, if at all?

-- Mal

[DFW]

28. I haven't been up to the UK in years

I hear their infection rate is pretty bad, but I rarely have occasion to go there. Last time I remember being there was 2012.

[Laha]

34. Interesting that you mention Bitcoin, I've been watching it closely.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more people talking about the current bull run. It's about to break past its previous high. I cashed out at its last peak because I needed to pay rent. I wish I had more money to play with now.

[grantcart]

3. Did they mention his step father's history?

[DFW]

9. Yes they did

Made quite a big deal of it here in Germany, in fact.

[Kid Berwyn]

16. Germany has moved forward, because they work to remember the past.

As you know, DFW. Denkmals — memorials — museums, sculpture, drama, literature and throughout the nation, people are reminded of history, especially the Holocaust.

[DFW]

18. Here in the West, this is true.

The formerly "socialist" East is still catching up. The socialists claimed that in "their" Germany, all traces of Nazis and Nazism had been wiped out. They used to claim that there was no need of any further watch for latent fascist tendencies, since there were no more fascists in their country. When the wall fell, all inhibitions were removed, and the smoldering, repressed rightist tendencies sprang to life unhindered, except when they egregiously overstepped the line.

Here in the western part, the rise and fall of the Third Reich was discussed in schools in great detail, and children were taught in schools that it was something to avoid ever happening again. The East taught their kids the old Frank Zappa line "it can't happen HERE!"

My two girls went to a nearby elementary school here near Düsseldorf that used to be our town's headquarters of the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo). As a fitting turn, after the war, it became the Anne Frank elementary school, where all the attending children learned about Anne Frank, and what happened to her.

[reACTIONary]

21. Wow! This is the approach...

... that we should take in teaching about the Confederacy. I wonder whether there is a strong anaolvy between the US North and South and the East and West Germany. I wonder how it will play out when Korea unifies.

[BlueMTexpat]

22. It is so true that Germany

as a whole has taken and continues to take impressive steps to mitigate the TRUE EVIL of the Third Reich to the extent that such can be done.

This is one of the many reasons why the Trump Era has been so heartbreaking for me.

I actually met with and interviewed some Holocaust survivors and some who risked their lives to help them then, aka "Les Justes" or "The Righteous." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_Among_the_Nations

For several years, I worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to implement their German Forced Labor Compensation Program (GFLCP) and Property claims.

The funder of GFLCP was the German Stiftung EVZ (The Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future): https://www.stiftung-evz.de/eng/the-foundation.html

IOM worked together with several European partner organizations and the Jewish Claims Conference (JCC)* to implement the Stiftung's mandates. https://www.stiftung-evz.de/eng/the-foundation/facts-and-figures.html

It was one of the most fascinating international claims/compensation programs I have ever worked with.

---------------
*The "JCC" actually prefers this name: "Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany" (Claims Conference). http://www.claimscon.org/

[Lonestarblue]

4. Our allied leaders appreciate intelligence and competence, not buffoonery.

When we can travel again, it will be nice to be proud once more that we have decent and smart US leadership instead of people whose election we have to explain because Europeans could not understand how Trump was chosen. Nor could I, for that matter. I am liking Biden’s cabinet so far.

[NJCher]

5. Ah!

You just ‘splained something. Why all these international calls have been coming in. My spouse’s business is in specialty foods, mostly European but also Latin America. Was wondering why all the excitement.

[Hortensis]

6. So nice to hear. Sanity. His excellence is reflected in a very different way

from the dark side, via Fox and Friends, this morning (I check their take now and then). They avoided any mention of what Blinken brings to the job by reporting entirely on biased media coverage going on sickeningly about how wonderful he is, with focus on playing soccer and guitar. Fox viewers learned Blinken's uploaded two of his songs to Spotify.

[Yeehah]

7. I wonder if our European allies will ever really trust the US again after the Trump disaster

The same type of fascist-wannabe could be elected in four years. The USA is brimming with hateful, uneducated people who wish to flock to a "strong man" leader. Mass propaganda on tv and radio tells them what to think. The mass corporate media, including MSNBC, etc., has a strong right-wing bias, and there is no liberal alternative to Fox "News," OAN, etc.

[Mike 03]

12. They are probably sympathetic because they are dealing with the same

monster of Democracy-threatening populism right there in the EU (i.e., Hungary, Poland, far right resurgences in Germany, Italy, France, Matteo Salvini, Berlusconi, Nigel Farage, etc...). We really need each other right now, to figure out some strategy to beat these dictators back. They also have Russia, Turkey, Georgia and Moldova breathing down their necks.

They are all-too-familiar with what we are facing.

[DFW]

15. They are indeed familiar with it

They had it before we did. They just never expected it to show up on our shores. They thought the whole idea of America was to not become the worst of what they were capable of. When they see images of children in cages and cops shooting unarmed black guys on their TVs, that notion is dispelled, and instills great fear over here. The very idea of "open carry" gun laws freaks them out. To a European, a guy openly carrying a gun through the streets and in restaurants IS the very threat their own gun restriction laws were to designed to protect them from.

[DFW]

13. The short answer is "no, but...."

They are so far willing to give us a chance, since we always seem to bounce back from the abyss. However, the Trump abyss was deeper and dirtier than we have ever experienced before, and the possibility that we might go back there is always lurking in the back of their minds. Only a back-to-back victory by two different Democratic presidents will begin to reverse that suspicion on any kind of a sustained basis.

The European media is well aware of Fox and National Hate Radio, and they report on it often. Most of Europe has had government-controlled propaganda media at one time or another, whether fascist or socialist. Either way, it was the elite leadership of the state tightly controlling what was allowed to be said and printed. I've had Franco's border guards search my luggage for anything printed "no atente al estado (their phrase for seditious material)," and I've had border guards in East Berlin's "real existierender Sozialismus (real existing socialism) " confiscate every publication and newspaper I had on me before letting me into their little paradise. Europeans know full well by now what controlling the media means to a totalitarian regime (i.e. everything).

They know that Biden is full of good intentions. So was Obama. How do you think the Iranians will react when Biden wants to start up talks again? They will fear, and not without good reason, that any deal reached could be abrogated in four years by another nut case. It's up to us to prove we won't elect (or allow to be elected) another Trump in four years. Same for the Paris climate accords. Having a foreign minister fluent in French won't hurt, but if the 2024 elections go the way of 2016, the 2021-2025 period will be looked upon as a small oasis in a very dry and hostile desert. We need for reason to show a little staying power in the center of North America before anything resembling confidence returns.

[disndat]

20. I wouldn't be surprised

if Putin and Trump worked together to put these populists leaders in their places to
weaken the democracies in Central Europe and give Putin a stronger hand.

[2naSalit]

25. I get the feeling that...

That is exactly what has been going on. Bannon and friends, snewty and others have been sliming all over Europe for just that purpose.

[area51]

33. Interesting, thank you. I always enjoy reading your posts. n/t

[DFW]

38. Thanks. Not all share your view.

So I appreciate the vote of confidence.

[Ligyron]

39. Well, here's another.

Only spent a couple years in Deutschland as a G.I. But was suitably impressed and always curious now to hear 1st hand what’s happening there.

[Cosmocat]

30. No

90% of the good will we engendered from saving their ass in two world wars and being a reasonably decent world powers for half a century have been shot.

They knew W was a dipshit, but thought it was an aberration, and we got good marks for BHO.

To go so far into the fascist crazy was we did with 45 after having W trounce around like a rooster with Dead or Alive, with us or with the terrorists, etc. there is no denying that this country is half fucking stupid AND they can see what happened with this election - we BARELY beat the would be dictator while giving the jackasses who created and backed him 100% more seats in both chambers of congress, as well as the firestorm of conspiracy theory driven entities like OAN that are growing in prominence to the extent that traditional right wing "think tanks" are being choked out.

Yeah, they will give Joe some flex because they know him and him and he and his hires will be solid pros.

BUT, they know how fucked up and unreliable we are now.

[ananda]

8. Is this the one called The End of "America First"?

... in Der Spiegel

[DFW]

11. No, this was in today's Rheinische Post

It's our local Düsseldorf paper. We haven't seen Spiegel yet this week.

[Mike 03]

10. Such a relief.

Add this to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's kind and reassuring overtures yesterday and it really is beginning to feel like we've reached the light at the end of the tunnel.

[lastlib]

14. I hope it's the beginning of a great long trend!

We need our friends in the world. And our friends need us! We can never again lock ourselves away from the world. It just does not work. It will be good to have people in place that our allies and adversaries alike will respect.

[marble falls]

19. Even more relief in the US.

[barbtries]

24. thank you for sharing this.

i could almost feel the tension physically drain from my body reading this, and i literally am trying not to cry.

[Illumination]

26. This is just awesome! Great to hear some positive news again! How refreshing!...

..... ..... ..... .....

[Lucky Luciano]

27. If I were appointed SoS, they would be singing my praise too. The bar is lower than the Dead Sea.

[DFW]

29. You think THAT bar is low?

During the summer of 2016, I was asked if I were interested in the post of Ambassador to Germany.

Now THAT'S a low bar. And Blinken got the nod because Biden had long been aware of his smarts and experience. If it were just the languages, even I could have gotten the job. I speak French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Dutch, German, Swedish and Russian. And a little English. Of course, I would be a little quick to tell a sleaze ball that he is a sleaze ball, and that isn't the best trait for a diplomat to have!

[BobTheSubgenius]

31. I knew nothing of the new SoS until he was appointed.

Naturally, I read up on him some, and was Impressed. With a capital "I."

Obama and his administration was able to turn a LOT of world resentment against the Bush admin's high-handedness, bluster and bullying in surprisingly short order, and more countries and leaders followed suit as he continued weaving his graceful way through international politics and foreign policy.

I was never even close to as worried about international relations as I was, and still am, about the internecine conflict within.

[Alhena]

32. Always interested in your Germany posts ...

Without being too outable, do you mind telling us what you do there? You said you provided election coverage for a German radio station and were offered the US ambassadorship, so you obviously have a pretty high stature there.

Letzes Jahr habe ich mit dem Deutschl lernen wieder angefangen, weil ich die deutsche Kultur und Gesellschaft sehr toll finde. Es ist erfrischend zu sehen, dass nicht die ganze Welt auf dasselbe Level herabgesunken ist wie hier.

[DFW]

36. Well, don't read more into this than there was

I wasn't offered an ambassadorship. I was asked if I were interested, and would I accept it if offered. It never went beyond that for obvious reasons, so I never got to find out if it would have, had Hillary been allowed to take office. I'm sure they had plenty of other talent they were canvassing as well.

Beyond saying I am station chief for am American outfit, I'd rather not go into detail. The readers of this board are mostly good people, but we get visitors who are not all completely benevolent.

Die Welt scheint vollkommen fähig, tiefer herabzusinken als man vermutet. Leider! Warte es ab!

[alfredo]

35. I don't think McConnell will allow any Biden pick to get a vote.

[DFW]

37. I don't think he'll try to block the cabinet

If he does, he'll be telegraphing his intentions a bit early, and set Biden and his legal team to legally appointing as many people to "acting" positions as he possibly can, bypassing the Senate altogether. The last thing McTurtle wants is irrelevance. If he says "NO" from day one, he'll be giving Biden a heads-up on his whole four year strategy, and get Biden and the Democrats into a war mode before McTurtle is ready to have one. McTurtle will be forced to give in where he doesn't want to, such as financial rescue bills and tax increases, just so he won't have to take the rap for the economy and the government coming to a screeching halt.

[alfredo]

42. He can't complain about Biden using the acting secretaries.

[dlk]

40. I've enjoyed reading these posts

Biden’ choices have so far been impressive. My concern is that if we don’t get a handle on the pervasive and damaging propaganda that has saturated our media, the next iteration of Trump, will likely be more competent and take us even further down a dark path.

[Cha]

41. Great! I'll never forget Germany Warned

about trump in January 2016!

[Larissa]

43. Pope Francis refused to meet with Pompeo

https://www.vox.com/2020/9/30/21495579/pope-francis-mike-pompeo-vatican-meeting

When President Donald Trump’s top diplomat can’t get a meeting with God’s ambassador, you know something is wrong.

While on a weeklong trip to Europe, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo planned to sit down with Pope Francis during a visit to the Vatican. But the Catholic leader refused the photo ops and handshakes with America’s top diplomat out of one major concern: That he’d be a pawn in Trump’s reelection efforts.

“Yes, that is precisely why the pope will not meet American secretary of state Mike Pompeo,” Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, told Italian news agency Ansa on Wednesday.

[ShazzieB]

44. Good for Pope Francis!