The American Politics Thread

Edited by SteveG - February 13 2017 at 13:58

And the nightmare continues!

the stupidity of the Trump administration is apparently seeping through even to non-political US-organizations. it is an absolute ignominy for the USTA to have the banned first verse of the Deutschlandlied, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" ("Germany, Germany above all") sung before the matches started.

only the third verse of the Deutschlandlied is used for the national anthem of Germany. here a translation of this third verse:

"Unity and justice and freedom
For the German fatherland!
Towards these let us all strive
Brotherly with heart and hand!
Unity and justice and liberty
Are the foundation of happiness;
Flourish in the radiance of this happiness,
Flourish, German fatherland".

this should be well known, even to the USTA. so was this really stupidity or cunning strategy? no matter, either way it is an ignominy.

when Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the lyrics they had a completely different meaning. Germany did not exist back then; it was split into many small principalities. so the lyrics originally were for the unification of these principalities, which was more important than anything else in the world to von Fallersleben. that was what "Deutschland über alles" originally was about.

the Nazis did of course reinterpret these lines as meaning Germany was superior to all other nations. the music was originally written by Joseph Haydn for the birthday of emperor Francis II. the lyrics were "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" ("God save emperor Francis"). (on a side note: since "erhalten" may mean "save" or "preserve" in German but also "receive" these lyrics have an ironic double meaning).

for a short time after WW2 the Germans used Beethoven's "Ode an die Freude" ("Ode to Joy") as national anthem. on March 7th 1990, seven months before the reunification, the German constitutional court declared that only the 3rd verse would constitute the text of the German national anthem of a reunified Germany. the first verse of the Deutschlandlied has NEVER been officially used after WW2 (until now by the USTA).

I used to be an American citizen for the first 30 years of my life. in 1993, at age 24, I moved to Germany for professional reasons and became a German citizen in 2000 because I wanted to be able to vote here. since German law allows double citizenship only in specific cases, none of which applied to me, I had to give up my American citizenship then.

anyone who is familiar with modern Germany, as I certainly am after having lived here for 24 years, knows that the singing of the 1st verse of the Deutschlandlied was extremely offensive. someone compared singing "God save the Queen" instead of the national US-anthem to this incident on YouTube, but it does not even come close. to the German team it must have felt like a slap in the face

Edited by BaldJean - February 14 2017 at 06:42

JJLehto wrote: WOW.  Flynn resigns.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/michael-flynn-resigns-as-national-security-adviser/2017/02/13/0007c0a8-f26e-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.c0753a6198c9 This is over the conversation he had with Russia in December, (which did happen), seems he gave "incomplete information" about its nature ie lifting the sanctions, to the WH. Not only is this possibly actual treason, but this means the National Security Adviser to the President....lied to the WH, about a meeting he had with a foreign diplomat over major policy.  Yeah nothing wrong there I also find it odd Flynn would do this on his own, and not tell the truth to his own VP and others. Sorry, I can't believe he wasn't acting on Trump's behest and thus taking the sword, Oli North style. OR Trump really had no idea and Flynn went rogue.  Yup no other to put this scenario, some real shady stuff

Anyway, the pieces keep adding up:

Kepler62 wrote: I live right on the Canadian/US border. I mean right on the bordeer. Right next to the Peace Bridge on the Niagara River r. I can see Buffalo from my living room window. I come across Americans often and for the most part they don't give a tinker's cuss about politics juust as we Canadians couldn't care less. The world is in such a mess that I am just here for the ride for the next 50years or so. But you have to admit you can't beat this dog and pony show for it's entertainment value. I like listening to Lewis Black's commentary but he has a hard time because Trump does his job for him just like Ceorge W. Bush did.

Our fearless leader met with Trump yesterday and the Canadian media were going ga ga ga. Trump was humouring the kid with  some feminists sitting around a table. I flicked around the channels and the American media didn't mention this event once. They were more focussed on that lunatic in North Korea firing off a test missile and Flynn's resignation. What is so funny is that we know more about American politics than we know about Canadian politics. I couldn't even tell you who the opposition leader is except that Kevin O'Leary wants to get a piece of that pie. It seems business as usual though as I watch the traffic on the Peace Bridge from my front window. You don't have watch SNL to get laughs you just have to watch the news. I find the actual news funnier than the parodies. Quite honestly I don't even find the parodies funny at all. 

twseel wrote: I do wanna pop in and disagree with what you and Micky(I think) said about paying more attention to politics. The wave of populism going around worldwide has been largely fueled by people working eachother up to be more critical of politics, telling eachother change is necessary when times really aren't very bad at all in real life(yes, some inequality, some immigrants, but still not nearly as bad as many other points in semi-recent history) and going in uninformed, suddenly expecting the government to the settle the issues they've come up with with force and speed, even when they'll obviously(for anyone caring about economics and stuff) their solutions are very weak on the long term. The 'failing' of democracy lies mostly in people expecting politics to solve their problems, even when there's simply no way anything can turn an immigration crisis or low consumer confidence into a good time, I wish people would see that and accept that even their best choice will only make the times slightly less bad(if you conceive them as bad in the first place). I hope people will forget about politics a bit in the coming four years so they can see what a solid system they actually have set up for themselves, one that you're really not supposed to tear down, one you're supposed to cooperate with to improve both sides, and one you're supposed to trust to some extent, even when you don't understand it.

this three monkeys attitude is in my opinion not only terribly naive, it is downright dangerous. just closing the eyes and hoping it will all turn out right is what helped totalitarian regimes all over the world to get into power and keep it.

Trump is beginning to undermine the basis of the American democracy; several commentators (including me) have pointed out the warning signs. the time to act is  now, not later.

ceterum censeo pricipiis obsta


Edited by BaldJean - February 15 2017 at 04:55

Hmm. Mob mentality or not, twessl, Trump draws for two main reasons. His outrageousness and, as you said, the middle working class that are truly fed up with getting screwed and are desperate enough to try Trump.