Anybody here know much about German politics...?

[Bigmack]

My little 77 yr old neighbor lady arrived yesterday from Germany, and I drove her back from the airport. We caught up on mutual news, and when we got around to politics, this high-school educated German hausfrau gave me a rant that could have come from DU. She understood what's happening in the US... actually, to the US, from the fundies to the Republicans to the wars to the debt to the "culture wars".

Apart from being amazed that everyday Europeans are following the decline of our Empire, I was disheartened by her observations that when she was growing up, her parents knew that Hitler was going to destroy the country, but, as she says "We could do notting."

We really are powerless... the Powers That Be are determined to carry out their Free Market/Empire/Oligarchic experiment to the end, and nothing we can do can change that.

I know I'm old and cynical, but show me any candidates.. hell, anybody allowed anywhere near real Power in this country .. that plans any major changes to the power/policy structure.

Please don't try to Cheerlead me.... but if you think I'm wrong, tell me where.

[Cali_Democrat]

1. This article best describes our current situation

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/2011_a_brave_new_dystopia_20101227

[ZombieHorde]

2. I only know what I learned in a comparative politics class. nt

[msongs]

3. no changes coming from Obama down thru congress, just more corporatization n war nt

[jwirr]

4. Sometime when you talk to her ask her if bottom up change was

possible. I do not mean that it can keep the status quo, would it have been possible to rebuilding our local communities and at least survive. I also think that these corporate asses are denying the effect of oil depletion and climate change on their great plans.

What she says about no power to stop Hitler is very scary. I have been feeling that way about this for a long time and the more I learn the more helpless I feel. We are up against real power with the corporations,military and ignorance.

[Bigmack]

5. Everybody... even Krugman...

and my own personal god, Roubini, never seem to take Climate Change and Peak Oil into their consideration and prognostications.

I think.. way down deep... Krugman, Roubini, and Stiglitz and all of them have an underlying faith that the market will take care of it, and somehow the energy situation and the climate will work out. Somehow.

Man... do I feel odd when I say that powerhouses like those guys aren't taking two big factors into their accounting. They've got degrees and awards up the wazoo.

[jwirr]

6. I like those three economists also. They have been trained to take

what is current and look at the economy. The eco-economists are trained to look at the effects of nature on the economy. I think that is the difference.

[Capitalocracy]

10. It's just hard to determine exactly what will happen.

They'd have to get together with scientists who specialize in these things, it would be a major project but probably one we should look into.

Just looking at how bad the economy could get without the climate/peak oil disasters, and how bad those disasters could be, putting them together starts to feel like constructing a post-apocalyptic dystopia.

[HopeHoops]

7. I'd like to see them incorporate some S. Korean politics and beat each other with schnitzengruben.

Fifteen times is the limit.

[Mira]

8. DUzy. I'm losin' it.

(My mother is is Germany, and at 86 follows American politics and says what "she" is saying as well)

[lfairban]

9. Mostly, they are worried about the financial crisis in the EU.

They are one of the few EU countries that are in good financial shape. Italy crashed, and Ireland is on the bring of default, and Spain may follow. I think they declined to issue EU bonds that would bail the faltering countries. I don't know much about their internal politics, just what I hear on the BBC.

Whereas our problem is the US, their problem is mostly Europe, and partly the US.

The BBC seems to talk about the US a lot, maybe German news stations do too.