BS: Angela merkel

Subject: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 06:34 PM

I have just read an article that suggests that Angela merkel has surPassed Obama as the true leader of the"free world". I am inclined to agree, what do others think?

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 06:44 PM

Did you ask what "free world" means?

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Ed T
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 06:52 PM

I dont see any current world leader that garners much influence, respect or leadership beyond their own borders. Internationaly, a void exists.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 07:23 PM

Maybe the article was just referring to the fact that Merkel is not going along with US plans to provoke a war with Russia over Ukraine. That's pretty bold of her. It's the Germany that can say no (to borrow a phrase from Akio Morita).

That sort of thing has happened before. During the invasion of Kosovo, for example, Supreme Commander Wesley Clark (later a "peace" candidate for US president) ordered UK troops under General Michael Rose to attack the Russians at Pristina airport, and that was disobeyed.

Maybe Europeans in general are getting more assertive now, as US power wanes and the US Congress looks more and more like a car full of circus clowns.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 07:31 PM

Er, Germany needs Russia big-time. Just thought I'd mention it.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 07:34 PM

And that is precisely why Angie is sucking Putin's D big time.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 07:35 PM

Sorry, that should have been a small d.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 07:54 PM

Don't tell Putin he has a small d fer chrissake.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: olddude
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 08:09 PM

Looking at my taxes free is not the word that comesto mind

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 08:19 PM

Looking at all those people who receive way below a living wage, all those people on zero-hour contracts and all those people who have to use food banks, I wonder how free they all feel.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 02:50 AM

One wonders how winter in the Ukraine will feel if Putin does turn off the gas tap.

And as for US lawmakers, one simply has to wonder why they are allowed out of their padded cells -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/25/1366902/-GOP-Lawmaker-Cancer-Is-Fungus-Can-Be-Flushed-Out-with-Baking-Soda?detail=email

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Musket
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 03:45 AM

I suppose Merkel is like any other leader. On some matters her influence is good and on some others, less so.

Forcing the Euro to work may be a long term good thing. Driving expansion with currency a part of the deal less so. Some currencies couldn't begin to assimilate to the Euro but were dragged in by political will rather than real value.

On the East, her influence on Russian diplomacy may be what we need to prevent too much sabre rattling on both sides. She is about the best chance we have to convince Putin that NATO isn't a threat to Russian borders. His desire to widen the distance between NATO forces and his border is in itself logical. That he is a populist who has built up his credibility on being strong requires tact and jaw jaw not war war.

The difference between her and other Western leaders is that she isn't impressed by inept military advice. Using incompetence to sort out the world hasn't worked in the middle east and won't in the old cold war zone either.

She gets that.

I am not politically aligned to her and some internal German policies under her stewardship are suspect but she is possibly the only statesman in power at present and her influence may save us all from stupidity yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 09:07 AM

I agree with much of what you say Musket. I believe she has a lot of credibility among other leaders and that Putin has a grudging respect for her. She is a realist, that is for sure. As for Germany needing Russia, I think there is a mutual need between Russia and Germany, they do a lot of business together.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 11:52 AM

I'm glad to see Merkel calming things down here. It may indeed be an example of pragmatism regarding German economic ties to Russia, but then again they do say that strong economic and trade links are the only real way to prevent wars in this day and age. Money talks after all. Pity about the ongoing crazy world domination aspirations of the US - but maybe as its economic might wanes in the wake of the rise of that of other nations, that will too begin to wane. One can hope.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Ed T
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 01:07 PM

Putin was stationed in East Germany for five years, as a senior KGB intelligence officer -immeditely before the fall of "the wall". He speaks German. This direct German experience should put him in a good position to understand the German government's philosophies.

Merkel, and Germany's president are both from the former Soviet-controlled East Germany. She speaks Russian. I suspect these factors may put her in a better position to understand Putin and his philosophies than other western leaders.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Ed T
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 01:10 PM

It is also possible that the west (for example, Obama and Merkel) has played a "good cop/bad cop" role with Putin?

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 01:40 PM

Merkel is a puppet, as are all the elected western leaders, is she goin to repay to GREECE, The loan that Germany owes [dating from the second world war], yet she is trying to tell Grrece they must repay their current debt, that is because her string pullers, the bond holders in anglo irish bank and the nmultinational businesses have told her what to say

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Musket
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 01:44 PM

I'll have a pint of what Dick is on.

Can't wait for Ireland to finish paying us back. For a prat, Osborn negotiated a nice high interest rate. About the only time he has showed a pair of balls.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 03:21 PM

I am not on anything.
anyone that believes that big business and banks do not control politicians, is in my opinion naive.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 05:19 PM

Add another political opponent or critic of Putin to the list of those who have been assassinated: Russian Opposition Politician Boris Nemtsov Killed In Moscow

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 15 - 07:39 PM

Not to defend crackpot GOP congressman, but that baking soda cancer cure that Richard mentioned was actually advanced by Italian oncologist Dr Tullio Simoncini (now practicing in Denmark, I believe, because the Italian medical establishment found his methods too unorthodox). There are quite a few other oncologists using his method now, but the mainstream is still opposed to it.

The idea is that tumors grow in response to fungal infections, to replace tissue damaged by the infection. Simoncini claims that he injects a baking soda solution directly onto the tumor, using a catheter, and it kills the fungal infection and the tumor starts shrinking.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Musket
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 02:54 AM

Most chemicals that cause reactions when mixed with other chemicals kill off mutating cells. I reckon most of the contents of the cleaning cupboard will do the trick .

However, excision is not the aim of chemotherapy. Surgery is quicker and without side effects. Chemotherapy selectively renders at risk cells inert. The iodine based antiseptics used during surgery have the exact same effect according to Mrs Musket (consultant surgeon and regional clinical lead for cancer for NHS England.). She reckons Simoncini tried submitting a paper but BMJ and The Lancet rejected it as flawed.

As someone who used to be saddled with trying to balance NHS budgets that can't be balanced, I for one would be shouting from the roof tops if we could get a licence to pop down to Tesco rather than write cheques to the pharmaceutical industry...

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 03:44 AM

"Can't wait for Ireland to finish paying us back"
And Ireland would have a zoofull of Celtic Tigers if Britain ever got round to compensating her for the centuries of abuse and the mess left behind when they were kicked out.
Goes for India, Malaya, Palestine, vast areas of Africa..... and anywhere else that the Empire loyalists once boasted "the sun never set" (and forgot to add, "or the blood never dried".
All ex-colonies and dependencies are owed a huge debt that will never be repaid, more often than not, for the mess left behind when the bad tenants left.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Musket
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 05:11 AM

True but the loan was a loan.

I doubt I could raise a mortgage and then tell Barclays that as they funded the carpet baggers that ripped off and got their hands on my (I think) great great great Grandfather's farm, that they can bugger off.

Ireland is a modern country and part of The EU. If they spent more than they had, and let me tell you that when I sold my house in Blackrock in 2003, I knew then the Irish economy couldn't handle itself, then as a sovereign country they had to address it. My comment was that for once, we ensured the British tax payer wasn't suffering for their rash handling. We need to take lessons from the yanks and use a Marshall Plan approach. Or would if we has a government that could stoke its own economy but that's another story.

Still, the '90s was a good time for those of us flogging construction plant into Ireland.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST,crackpot
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 08:30 AM

Musket, I've only read a little about Simoncini and baking soda, but I think his theory is that cancer cells aren't genetically mutating, that they're just confused by the fungal damage into thinking that they need more replacements than they actually do, and that the amount of baking soda he injects doesn't harm any human tissue but just kills the fungus so that the human cells below the fungus are no longer confused.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 08:51 AM

"Ireland is a modern country and part of The EU"
And was doing quite well until it decided to walk the British path and let the bankers have their head - Crash, bang, wallop, what a balls-up (as the song nearly said.
Heard someone refer to Angela Merkin a few days ago - hope it catches on!
A FUTURE FOR EUROPE
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Musket
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 02:06 PM

It isn't my technical field Crackpot. I sincerely hope we can find cheap non patentable methods for slowing cancers down. As we successfully cure or avoid other life limiters, cancer will become more prevalent. It is a natural factor of long life in most of us.

But I had heard of this and recalled speaking to Mrs Musket and what I said above largely comes out of that conversation. Just because his paper was flawed doesn't mean he isn't onto something. But even I can see that at this stage, by he isn't onto enough to substantiate the comments by the US Congressman.

Jim. Ireland walked the Irish path. Has done for 90 years or so... I doubt many Irish people would go along with saying the Dublin government gets its lead from Westminster. I have few financial interests in Ireland now, just a few shares in a company I set up in Palmerstown, but even I know what I used to deal with and what Cowan's nickname of Biffo stood for...

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 02:50 PM

"Jim. Ireland walked the Irish path"
Nope - it walked the path set out by a treaty that left Ireland divided with all the rich bits (particularly the land) still paying taxes to Mother Britain - gawd bless 'er.
I'm not absolving the behaviour of those in charge, but it doesn't alter the fact that Britain owes a lot of money to a lot of ex colonies.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST,crackpot
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 04:26 PM

Alternative practitioners say that the tests needed to get FDA approval are very expensive, and that no one can afford such tests except drug companies counting on large profits made possible by patents. If that's true, then inexpensive cures are unlikely.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: michaelr
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 05:37 PM

Well said, Jim (3:44).

As a German-born person living in the USA, it appears to me from afar that Angela Merkel is quite a level-headed leader in the EU - which is exactly what she needs to be heading its largest economy. She has that in common with President Obama.

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 07:07 PM

UK licencing and submission to NICE hardly costs in itself but like FDA or other foreign licencing, there is an R&D cost in clinical trials, because you don't bring things to market until they perform better than either placebo or current alternatives.

The pharmaceutical industry will of course protect patents and there is no profit to claw back your costs in such compounds. A bit of a catch 22 of course but Whilst I am certainly no apologist for a cynical marketing strategy by the whole industry, I do feel comforted by the clinical trials regime. Therapeutic positive treatment needs side effects to be studied too.

After all, if it weren't for such studies, Pfizer might not have put their angina pill on the market as it wasn't too effective, but then, Viagra was found to have a certain side effect that altered their marketing strategy....

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 Feb 15 - 09:00 PM

I agree with Jim, which is unusual

Subject: RE: BS: Angela merkel
From: Musket
Date: 01 Mar 15 - 03:21 AM

White Rabbits!