President Trump and Chancellor Merkle have Press Conference.

"Ok I will take questions. Fine...find what the fuck do you want Acosta?"
"Mr. President is it true that Special Counsel Mueller has direct evidence of you colluding with Aliens from Area 51. It seems it was revealed that there is dossier that proves that you got  a Cleveland Steamer from one of those green whores from Alpha Centuri."
"Jeez you are a fuckin' idiot. I will leave you to Frau Merkle."
"What worries me Jimmie is how your poor mother is going to take this."
"Waaaa you can't tell my mother."
"Orderlies. Please come in take care of this."
"Thank's Frau Merkle."
"No problem Mr. President. He is obviously as crazy as a shithouse rat."

Angela Merkel clear favorite for Nobel peace prize

The winner to be announced next Friday. Although the nominations are kept secret an expert who publishes a shortlist of likely winners, someone who guesses well with inside information named Merkel as favorite.

National Review believes this is folly and says so and why. The piece is entertainingly scathing. Example:

Quoting from Bloomberg and commenting.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany has to get used to the mass influx of refugees as she confronted increasing pressure from within her own party to limit the number of newcomers the country accepts.

Will have to get used to.

Authoritarians are what they are.

The writer has contempt for Angela Merkel, contempt for European union and its leaders, and contempt for Peace Prize committee. That's how I know you'll like it.

What we're seeing is nothing short of dissolution of Western culture. A pope discussing climate change and gay marriage while Christianity disappears from the Middle East even as the Middle East comes up and surrounds Rome. Merkel knows what she is doing, and not the "sad sack apparatchik" described. She knows the future of Germany rests on high immigration to support an aging population, her problem is spelled out quite clearly in numbers, and if that means less Germany and more Islam then so be it. It's that or perish. That is the choice informing Angela Merkel decisions about what to do and what not to do about immigration. The author is right, though, the committee cares nothing about any of that, this is their contribution to the great dissolution we witness. The squandering of birthright. So much of the movement of people initiated by our own politicians, our government's actions and its inactions. Our country really is partly, in many ways largely responsible and really is damned both for doing and for not doing.

Related: [merkel, zuuckerberg, immigration] Picked up on mic at dinner, Merkel chides Zuckerberg over hateful posts about immigration. Zuckerberg says Facebook is doing something about that.

If looks could kill, Putin would be dead

One assumes heads of state possess some degree of propriety, at least one should be able to presume such, but no, so many are just oafish chavs in expensive suits. 

The YouTube version is subtitled (cc) if this one is not. Check it out on YouTube if you like and see what this no-class jerk says.

Not knowing what Putin said had some viewers taking a stab at translation. One viewer on another site remarked that Putin said that he hadn't seen the Sia Chandelier video. That got a good laugh.

The Sia Chandelier video is controversial because it depicts a young girl of twelve years of age dancing in skin-colored leotard and to admit being fascinated, admit liking the video is tantamount to admitting being a paedo-perv.

So pretend you don't like it. 

The song is about Sia's addiction to alcohol. It is a powerful and beautiful song. The dancing is showing Sia's state of mind, the house, her spirit, in the grip of addiction, a naked girl buffeted between moods of happiness and depression. Swinging by the chandelier is doing whatever she wants under influence of alcohol, shown in the dance. Sia contemplates suicide in real life, shown by the curtains drawn to the girl's neck and waving goodbye. Finally calmed, still depressed but learning to live without addiction. The lyrics clarify the dance, the dance gives form to the lyrics and the immature girl appropriate. The dance is outstanding.

Merkel backs US on the sanctioning of Russia

“If Russia continues on its course of the past weeks, that will not only be a great catastrophe for Ukraine. It will cause massive damage to Russia, both economically and politically,” [Chancellor Merkel] said. “None of us wants it to come to this, but we are determined to act. Let me be absolutely clear; the territorial integrity of Ukraine is not up for discussion.”

...Russia cannot suspend oil and gas exports without cutting off its own source of foreign revenue. Any such move would destroy its credibility as a supplier of energy, accelerating Europe’s long-term switch to other sources.

Russian companies have $653bn (£392bn) of foreign dollar debt, and must roll over roughly $150bn this year. Yields on five-year bonds have already spiked 200 basis points, even for blue-chip firms. The rouble has fallen 11pc this year after dropping 8pc last year, making dollar debts harder to repay. “It is going to be very difficult to roll over these bonds, and it will be at much higher cost,” said Mr Ash.

Capital flight reached $63bn last year. Former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said this could reach $50bn a quarter as the crisis deepens. The central bank has already raised interest rates sharply to stem outflows, pushing the economy into recession.

...“Russia could cut off 2.5m barrels a day of refined products such as diesel that are hard for Europe to replace since it has run down its refineries,” he said.

Germany is in an awkward position since it exports $50bn of cars, machinery and industrial goods to Russia each year. There are 6,200 German companies in the country with vast sunk costs. Last year alone they invested $105bn. Germany’s trade group BDA said a tit-for-tat sanctions war would be “painful” for Germany but “life-threatening” for Russia.

Igor Rudensky, head of the Duma’s Economics Committee, said sanctions will boomerang. “They are a double-edged sword, and Western states should be very careful,” he said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beyond the tinkering the US and NATO have committed in Ukraine, there is the larger issue of encroachment. Yes US and NATO have made a move to bring Ukraine toward the west, with Russia's sharp retort being the stealth occupation of the Crimea to protect the integrity of their only warm water naval base at Sevastopol.  As far as I know, Putin still denies the troops in Crimea are Russian, as he did in this press conference:

"QUESTION: Mr President, a clarification if I may. The people who were blocking the Ukrainian Army units in Crimea were wearing uniforms that strongly resembled the Russian Army uniform. Were those Russian soldiers, Russian military?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Why don’t you take a look at the post-Soviet states. There are many uniforms there that are similar. You can go to a store and buy any kind of uniform.

QUESTION: But were they Russian soldiers or not?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Those were local self-defence units.

QUESTION: How well trained are they? If we compare them to the self-defence units in Kiev…

VLADIMIR PUTIN: My dear colleague, look how well trained the people who operated in Kiev were. As we all know they were trained at special bases in neighbouring states: in Lithuania, Poland and in Ukraine itself too. They were trained by instructors for extended periods. They were divided into dozens and hundreds, their actions were coordinated, they had good communication systems. It was all like clockwork.  Did you see them in action? They looked very professional, like special forces. Why do you think those in Crimea should be any worse?

QUESTION: In that case, can I specify: did we take part in training Crimean self-defence forces?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: No, we did not."


Does this necessarily mean Russia has cause to annex Crimea, if Crimea itself votes to become part of Russia? Ukraine is a buffer country for Russia, so naturally it is one for Europe.