EU seems to be in danger...

[Puppy]

Germany Expecting up to 300,000 More Syrian, Iraqi Migrants in 2017 Through Family Reunification Rules
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/07 ... ion-rules/

While Syria's war is almost over ... Wouldn't be better to start rebuild their own home country ? No, German social security support is too tempting and comes for free

[Puppy]

German media failed to report refugee crisis honestly, study finds
https://www.thelocal.de/20170721/german ... udy-claims

[Thinkpad4by3]

German media failed to report refugee crisis honestly, study finds
https://www.thelocal.de/20170721/german ... udy-claims

What else is new, they all want clicks and ad revenue.

[Puppy]

Lidl erases Church crosses from Greek emblematic landscape on food packaging
http://en.protothema.gr/lidl-erases-chu ... packaging/

[Ibthink]

Who cares? Must be a slow news day today or maybe some people just need to produce some outrage.

[RealBlackStuff]

All it probably did was cause some free advertising for Lidl.
I bet nobody else (other than a visitor to Santorini) would have noticed it.
That Antoine is a jerk... (and Puppy must have too much spare time, to scrounge up such nitpicking...)

[ajkula66]

Who cares?

I do.

The idiocy of political correctness bothers me deeply, be it cigarette removed from McCartney's hand on the cover of "Abbey Road" a dozen or so years ago - boy that one did not go well - or removing crosses from the pictures of holy places. I'm not going to eve touch the latest monument drama...

[Ibthink]

Well, where to draw the line of "political correctness"? What about Hitler or Stalin monuments, was it also wrong to remove them because its political correct to do so? Extreme example, but its basically the same thing with the statues of confederate generals and politicians.

Political correctness has always existed and it will always exist. The only reason why there are some many complaints about it on the right is the perceived "left wing dominance" in culture - if the tables were turned, it would be the left complaining about it.

A private company (not the state) decided to photoshop a picture on a product packaging...that not noteworthy, not even a little bit. Thats the equivalent of a sack of rice falling over in China.

[ajkula66]

Well, where to draw the line of "political correctness"? What about Hitler or Stalin monuments, was it also wrong to remove them because its political correct to do so? Extreme example, but its basically the same thing with the statues of confederate generals and politicians.

I'm not going into that debate but will just repeat the old saying that those who forget their history are deemed to repeat it.

Political correctness has always existed and it will always exist. The only reason why there are some many complaints about it on the right is the perceived "left wing dominance" in culture - if the tables were turned, it would be the left complaining about it.

I'm not perceiving this as a "right" vs. "left" issue. What I have a problem with is the very concept of things getting moved around because they could possibly hurt someone's feelings. Idiocy of this kind is omnipresent all over the political spectrum worldwide, unfortunately. Late, great Frank Zappa made quite a few valid points during his testimony in front of the Congress back in 1985. Whoever doesn't see the connection between the two may want to sleep on the idea. And re-think it over with a clear head.

A private company (not the state) decided to photoshop a picture on a product packaging...that not noteworthy, not even a little bit. Thats the equivalent of a sack of rice falling over in China.

That same company could've chosen a zillion other Greece-related pictures and not have to remove anything from them...

[Puppy]

Political correctness has always existed and it will always exist.

This is not about correctness but fear. The article becomes headline in local media lately. First question raised is: would they did the same in case of an islamic building on the picture? Hardly. While Stalin or Hitler (or Lenin) had clearly negative impact on society, do you think the same belongs to the symbol of (still) major religion in EU? Who actually feels offended by that symbol? You know the answer ...

[ajkula66]

This is not about correctness but fear.

One could argue that it's about both.

Furthermore, that the political correctness is presenting itself as being about the fear of offending a particular group, but is actually used to silence those who don't subscribe to groupthink.

As for Hitler, Stalin and the rest of the crew who "lost the right" of honourable mention...here's an interesting piece dealing with the issue:

http://observer.com/2017/08/statue-remo ... dhi-lenin/

[coolcat37]

Lidl erases Church crosses from Greek emblematic landscape on food packaging
http://en.protothema.gr/lidl-erases-chu ... packaging/

This happened in Belgium and I am not at all surprised they did it. But let's stay political correct here. Remember we have no voice and only are allowed to think what we are allowed to think.

I really am curious as to who Ibthink really is or what his credentials are.

[RealBlackStuff]

Google is (not always) your friend...

[Ibthink]

This happened in Belgium and I am not at all surprised they did it. But let's stay political correct here. Remember we have no voice and only are allowed to think what we are allowed to think.

I really am curious as to who Ibthink really is or what his credentials are.

Lol. I have to say I really pity people like you, who think everything is a conspiracy. Could it be that I just disagree with you? Nah, there must be something "nefarious" going on if someone doesn´t agree that taking off some crosses on a food-packaging is the biggest problem we have.

This is really sad...but it is to be expected, I guess.

[coolcat37]

This happened in Belgium and I am not at all surprised they did it. But let's stay political correct here. Remember we have no voice and only are allowed to think what we are allowed to think.

I really am curious as to who Ibthink really is or what his credentials are.

Lol. I have to say I really pity people like you, who think everything is a conspiracy. Could it be that I just disagree with you? Nah, there must be something "nefarious" going on if someone doesn´t agree that taking off some crosses on a food-packaging is the biggest problem we have.

This is really sad...but it is to be expected, I guess.

Curious about your credentials. I mean if it turns out you're for instance an expat who's been living in Germany for the last 15 years, I would give less attention to what you have to say than, say some oldtimer German who's been living in that region for 70 years and whose family tree dates back a couple of centuries. I don't know how that sits with you but hey

and btw before you call me a racist or whatever (which i am not), i would expect the same treatment if I were somewhere else. Say, if I move to a country in South-America, and live there for 10 years, I would not expect to have the same kind of cultural and historical baggage than someone who grew up there and whose family also was originally from there.

[RealBlackStuff]

Knock it off, will you?

[Thinkpad4by3]

Cool down coolcat. Ok, I just HAD make that pun

[Puppy]

Marseille train station 'terror' attack: Knifeman 'shouting Allahu Akbar' stabs two people to death before being shot dead by police

According local tv BFP both victims are women.

[alisan]

Watching what's happening all around the world, from the growth of extremism, radicalism to the neo-nazism, nationalism, fanaticism, etc... I would say, the whole world seems to be in danger, and EU is not an exception. Unfortunately history teaches us that a rise has been followed always by some kind of "dark ages".

[RealBlackStuff]

And living in a country where the boss seems to have nothing better to do than play with his cellphone, waste time in a golf resort and call people names, is not very future-inspiring either.

[Thinkpad4by3]

And living in a country where the boss seems to have nothing better to do than play with his cellphone, waste time in a golf resort and call people names, is not very future-inspiring either.

Wasnt the purpose of the Electoral College to aviod exactly this situation?

[Ibthink]

I think I have heard once that the purpose of the electoral college was to make the election possible at all. Because the USA were founded in a time when a dude on a horse was still the fastest way of communication/travel. America is a large country after all, so having the states vote for deputies who meet at one place to vote was one way to solve that problem.

A flawed and outdated system that led to a fool and narcissist being elected. Although attributing that just to the system is too simple, of course, but it played a role.

[Thinkpad4by3]

I think I have heard once that the purpose of the electoral college was to make the election possible at all. Because the USA were founded in a time when a dude on a horse was still the fastest way of communication/travel. America is a large country after all, so having the states vote for deputies who meet at one place to vote was one way to solve that problem.

An flawed and outdated system that led to a fool and narcissist being elected. Although attributing that just to the system is too simple, of course, but it played a role.

True, but it also was designed to help the uneducated at the time not pick a bad leader out of a pure guess or stupidity. Well, I guess it failed the US pretty badly

[TPFanatic]

Trump has his flaws and Clinton would not have been good either. Plenty of quotes from her new book shows how poor her character is. She would continue Obama's festering of hate that the 2016 president had to inherit. At least Trump can make deals with Democrats because the Republican party is incompetent.

The electoral collage is needed to give influence to small states. The president is POTUS to all the states, not just the big ones. More states wanted Trump and that's why he got elected.

[Ibthink]

The electoral collage is needed to give influence to small states. The president is POTUS to all the states, not just the big ones. More states wanted Trump and that's why he got elected.

I have seen this argument a thousand times now, but its not true. All the electoral college does is give influence to the swing-states, which is why almost all the campaigning takes place there. If it was designed to protect the interests of smaller states in an election, it fails at doing that.

Its just not really democratic when one vote counts more than another. Nothing can change that. Every indirect voting system is flawed that way. It happened four times now that the US-president was elected by a minority.

[Thinkpad4by3]

Trump has his flaws and Clinton would not have been good either. Plenty of quotes from her new book shows how poor her character is. She would continue Obama's festering of hate that the 2016 president had to inherit. At least Trump can make deals with Democrats because the Republican party is incompetent.

The electoral collage is needed to give influence to small states. The president is POTUS to all the states, not just the big ones. More states wanted Trump and that's why he got elected.

Why should the small states have more rep. One person should equal one vote. Is it that difficult?

[shawross]

Trump was elected because the "Global Bankers" deemed him suitable. Trump is indebted to these bankers and they control the media. These bankers backed Clinton and Trump and any differences between them are more superficial.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/world-ban ... ld/5353130

[ajkula66]

A flawed and outdated system that led to a fool and narcissist being elected. Although attributing that just to the system is too simple, of course, but it played a role.

Let's face it...a bunch of people who have done little but harm were elected using a "proper" one person one vote rule. Both Hitler and Milošević fall into that category. Not to mention quite a few in between, or after...

I personally know quite a few Sanders' supporters who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Mrs. Clinton and stayed home on Election Day. She was arguably the weakest and most flawed candidate her party had presented in quite some time.

Trump...he was different from the rest of the pack. And that's why he won. We'll see how all of that plays out, although I'm not all that optimistic given the structure of the current White House.

[TPFanatic]

Global Bankers

they control the media

Do these Global Bankers also control Fox News and Breitbart?

[Ibthink]

Let's face it...a bunch of people who have done little but harm were elected using a "proper" one person one vote rule. Both Hitler and Milošević fall into that category. Not to mention quite a few in between, or after...

Hitler (or rather, his party, because we vote for parties in Germany, not persons) never got a majority through a fair election. He was named Chancellor by the Reichspräsident Hindenburg and then used this power to turn a democracy into a dictatorship.

Of course, no voting system can help if people are stupid or just anti-democratic. But in a democracy, it helps if the system is at least as fair as possible. Otherwise, this just leads to frustration, anger, disillusionment etc. - feelings that are shared by many Americans these days apparently.

I agree that Clinton was a terrible, terrible choice for the democratic candidate. But this is again why the voting system in the USA is so wrong: In a different country (such as many European democracies), there are more than two relevant parties and if one of the bigger parties chooses a terrible candidate, people can vote for a smaller party instead. Not happening in the USA because its political system is built in a way where it favors two big parties - and where votes for a third party are essentially wasted.

The Simpsons knew about this problem 20 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRdNOQcfp-8