Xenocide  - 2016-05-19
"I still want to give her a stroke." OH GOD, SOMEONE STOP THIS WOMAN.
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Bobonne - 2016-05-19
Whatever your politics, this seems like a pretty real moment worth preserving, that everyone should see.
So, five stars.
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Anaxagoras - 2016-05-19
I am s0 impressed by Merkel. Politics is all about accumulating & spending political capital, and skilled politicians successfully calculate how to spend just enough capital so that they remain in office. Within certain limits, I'm totally OK with that process & am OK with politicians cynically calculating how much political capital they can afford to spend on various issues.
But every now and again, situations arise that morally require politicians to forego the calculation & just do what's right even though doing so will probably cost you your office. IMO, the refugee crisis is such a situation, and apparently Merkel thinks so too. Good on her.
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Hazelnut - 2016-05-19 She did right ethically, and her heart was in the right place, but I fear letting in so many was miscalculated. The resulting backlash is awful.
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Anaxagoras - 2016-05-19 I'm not so sure. Yes, the backlash is awful, but that's the cost of doing the right thing in this situation. The refugee crisis is an honest-to-God humanitarian crisis, and I'm not impressed with the weaselly half measures & stingy commitments that countries like Britain, France, or the United States have done.
And of course, the outright hostility of countries like Hungary is an outright embarrassment for all of humanity. Fucking assholes. (To be fair, many Hungarian citizens have behaved courageously & nobly by helping the immigrants, even though doing so is now against Hungarian law & they're risking jail by doing so.)
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Hazelnut - 2016-05-19 I truly, deeply hope you're right.
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Anaxagoras - 2016-05-20 That depends. Are the immigrants Turks or Syrians?
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wtf japan - 2016-05-19
Merkel is flawed, but I have a great amount of respect for her as a person and a leader. Germany is an incredibly diverse country, politically speaking, and up until the recent crisis, she had done an amazing job managing the Bundeslaender. Too bad none of the America presidential candidates have her combination of pragmatism and compassion.
Also, in before poetv's resident edge-lords start revving up their beyblades.
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Nominal - 2016-05-19 Your paranoia seems unfounded.
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Binro the Heretic - 2016-05-19
It's hard to be a cold-blooded bureaucrat while staring directly at the human beings most affected by your decisions.
Unless, of course, you're a complete sociopath.
I can easily imagine the Donald expressing disgust at the young lady's tears and mocking her for the delight of his asshole supporters.
"What, you're crying now? 'OH, BOO-HOO-HOO! People won't give me free things!' Let me tell you, nothing is free in this world. If you wanted peace and freedom, you should have stayed where you were and fought for it, not come over here trying to take ours. That's what I would have done. Get her out of here. Just get her out of here. No, don't hit her. The press gets mad at me if you hit her."
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Anaxagoras - 2016-05-19 I don't think so, actually. Not because Trump has a conscience, but because the optics of doing that would be *terrible*, even to his supporters.
In that situation, I suspect the Donald would use the occasion to ostentatiously show sympathy and demonstrate what a wonderful kind man he is. Of course, the only policies he would enact would be ones that kept immigrants out.
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Maggot Brain - 2016-05-19 He'd turn it into a plug. "Somebody giver her a tissue. You know, Trump Tissue is twice as absorbent as leading brand and are made right here in America."
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Binro the Heretic - 2016-05-19 Have you SEEN Trump supporters? Do you think they wouldn't be delighted if he made a Syrian weep? These are the people who sucker-punch Black guys from behind and douse teenage girls' faces with pepper spray and cheer for his racist bullshit.
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Anaxagoras - 2016-05-19 Good point. I stand corrected.
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yogarfield - 2016-05-19
http://i.imgur.com/96m6hTEh.jpg
Jesus Christ.
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Maggot Brain - 2016-05-19
Germany: Having an identity crises since 1866.
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Chancho - 2016-05-19
And now all of the shitheads who ruined the Middle East are moving to Germany. She'll be back to wearing a hijab and getting her ass kicked soon enough thanks to Merkel letting every gang-raping pig into the country.
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Nominal - 2016-05-19 If all the people who ruined it are the ones moving out, does that mean it's going to turn into a paradise democracy?
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