Yves here. During the runup to the crisis and for many years thereafter, we would do takedowns of particularly rancid, dishonest or just plain stoopid policy recommendations. One favorite is Why Larry Summers Should Not Be Permitted to Run Anything More Important than a Dog Pound. Another is Memo to Shaun Donovan: Your Nose is Getting So Long You Need to Get a Hacksaw.
But incompetence and corruption have become so pervasive that we have largely abandoned this exercise, but have welcomed Alex Christoforou’s Clown World for taking on these deserving targets. Ursula von der Leyen has been one of his regulars.
Some readers were questioning the value of elite education in a post we featured yesterday. As we indicated, it can take otherwise mediocre but at least adequately bright and hard-working kids and polish them to a level of social skills where superficially they appear more competent than they are. Anthony Blinken was a prime example. Von der Leyen comes from a family that had been elite bureaucrats for 500 years, and also had Angela Merkel’s sponsorship. Various Politco stories give the impression that von der Leyen has been a very effective empire builder at the European Commission. As we’ve said repeatedly, “smart” people often underestimate how far apparent mediocrities who are well-endowed with cunning can get.
By Yanis Varoufakis, economist and former Minister of Finance of Greece. Originally published at Der Frietag; cross posted from his website
Failure, corruption and warmongering: Ursula von der Leyen is awarded the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen for her contribution to the EU – because in Europe utter failure is not only tolerated, but celebrated!
It is one of life’s guilty pleasures when one’s cynical prejudices are confirmed. One such moment, when I allowed myself a long, hard laugh, came as the news arrived that Ursula von der Leyen had been awarded the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen for “her services to the unity of the Member States, in the containment of the pandemic, for the unity of the Union’s determination to defend itself against Russia — and for the impetus towards the Green Deal.” It was now official: In Brussels, nothing succeeds like gross failure and, even worse, nothing is rewarded more generously than corruption.
Let me begin with the above rationale for the Prize: Mrs von der Leyen’s “impetus towards the Green Deal”. Can they be serious? Future historians will zero in on the so-called Green Deal as an example of what is wrong with the European Union: smoke and mirrors masquerading as majestic policy initiatives. Indeed, when it was announced, and after studying it carefully, I rushed out an article in The Guardian to warn against the Green Deal on two grounds: first, the money it promised to invest in the green transition was simply not there and, secondly, the heralded deal was rather… brown – in that it aimed at greenwashing far more than at greening Europe. Four years later, the Green Deal was declared a gross failure and was unceremoniously ditched in favour of Ursula von der Leyen’s next white elephant: the folly of building up a European military-industrial complex under the codenames Re-Arm Europe or SAFE.
Why is it folly to think that von der Leyen’s Commission will spearhead a European military-industrial complex? For three reasons, as I have explained elsewhere. First, as in the case of the Green Deal, the money is not there and the EU cannot credibly commit to finding it given its steadfast refusal to form a proper fiscal union. Secondly, even if money were not a problem, the EU lacks the federal institutions to construct a top-down, paneuropean military-industrial complex, instead of the existing patchwork of nation-state based companies that compete with one another with the backing of their national governments. Thirdly, even if neither money nor a federal-like set of institutions were a problem, Europe would not be able (I hope!) to emulate the United States’ capacity to wage one war after the other to ensure a constant demand for weapons and munitions.
Two terms as President of the European Commission, two gross and rather costly failures. But these failures would not be enough to burnish Mrs von der Leyen’s credentials and seal her rise to the lofty heights that justified granting her the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen. No, for that splendid Prize to be awarded, she needed to add certified corruption to her gross failure. Thankfully, she did!
Showing a remarkable determination to break the law both in her own country, Germany, and in the European Union, Mrs von der Leyen succeeded in being sanctioned in both jurisdictions for treating the public with contempt in pursuit of her own interests. As Germany’s defence minister, she desperately tried to conceal her involvement in shady defence contracts by sabotaging the Bundestag’s investigation in the matter through the “illegal and deliberate” deletion of her phone contents. As European Commission President, the EU top court found her culpable of repeating the unlawful practice of deleting her phone records of illicit personal exchanges with heads of global corporations – on this occasion with the CEO of Pfizer with whom she negotiated, on Europe’s behalf, lucrative COVID-19 vaccine deals.
With these findings pointing to despicable behaviour under her belt, and her majestic policy failures (the Green Deal, Re-Arm and SAFE) on hand, Ursula von der Leyen was almost a shoo in for the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen. Almost but not quite! To push through the finishing line she needed to add another credential to her curriculum vitae: she needed to become the cheerleader of Israel’s army. Thankfully for our European Commission President, the opportunity arose after Hamas attacked Israel on 7th October 2023. Immediately, Mrs von der Leyen sprang to action.
Without any authority or authorisation – since neither foreign nor defence policy is in the purview of the Commission President – she landed in Tel Aviv, not as a campaigner for an immediate end to war crimes on all sides, nor as an ambassador of Peace & Reconciliation or as an advocate of International Law or as a believer in the simple idea that the Geneva convention is humanity’s last hope in the darkest of hours. No, she went there to pose in front of Israeli tanks poised to enter Gaza with the air of a proud cheerleader on Grand Final day. She went there as an enabler of the war crime of denying two million non-combatants water and food, as a cheerleader of an air force intentionally targeting people’s homes, as a facilitator of the war crime of transferring a million people to other parts of Gaza where they were also bombed.
Thus, Mrs von der Leyen’s exhausting work was done, her triple whammy of failure-corruption-warmongering completed. She was now the prime candidate for the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen, which she received gladly. Without a hint of irony, I believe that it was well deserved and fully consistent with that particular prize’s background and history. After all, whether deservedly or undeservedly, the long dead European Emperor whose name the Prize carries has, for many years now, been appropriated by the inanest of Europe’s leaders in a frantic search for self-aggrandisement. To make the point, let me take you back to a dull autumnal afternoon when two suited men exuding authority entered Aachen’s Cathedral.
The calendar read September 15th 1978 and the two men were there to pay their respects to the remains of Charlemagne, the 9th Century Frankish King who had briefly re-united the Roman Empire and whose spirit encapsulated, for traditionalist Central Europeans, Pan-Europa or Mittel-Europa – a borderless Christian European realm.
Standing above the Christian warrior’s grave, and next to his ancient throne, the two pilgrims sought to quell their considerable trepidation caused by what they had just done: commit their two countries, France and Germany, to bundle their money together with an agreement, they had signed earlier that day to create the so-called European Monetary System (EMS) – the euro’s precursor.
“Perhaps while we were discussing monetary affairs”, said one of the two to an Italian journalist, “the spirit of Charlemagne brooded over us.” His name? President Valéry Giscard d’ Estaing of France. The second pilgrim appealing to Charlemagne’s ghost for its approval of the monetary union with France was German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
Setting aside the awful Euro-kitsch aesthetic of two leaders visiting the tomb of a Christian warrior king to steady their nerves over creating perhaps history’s most pathetic monetary union, it is heartening to realise that the EU has a long tradition of soap opera-like celebrations of failure. After all, the exchange rate mechanism that the two men established back then failed spectacularly but Europe still celebrates them to this day. As for the euro, which was born as a result of the calamity that was the EMS, it also proved a calamity for Europe and Europeans. And yet, in 2002, the committee awarding the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen chose to award that year’s prize to… the euro!
In this European Union, where nothing succeeds like failure, especially when laced with corruption and most recently warmongering, Mrs von der Leyen is the most deserved recipient of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen.
Excellent article thanks Yves,
Yanis has quite a sense of humour!
Agreed. Acid political humor gives the best morning liftoff in these glorious times.
“Without a hint of irony…”
Applying tons of sense of humour is probably the only viable, and at the same time sensible, way to talk about vDL. During her tenure if someone has read about her on the MSM, and more particularly the conservative-friendly MSM, as most of these really are, uncritical praise of vDL has been the vomitive consensus. This is very telling, isn’t it? vDL required or needed continuous praise very much as an absolutist monarch would ask for no matter how awful for the populaces do they turn to be. The prize was the natural way to follow.
But I do remember (or am really imagining this?) MSM that I took notice of mocked her. She was not a real success story in German politics. As Minister for Family she was in a safe spot to be groomed for higher positions. I am not sure what she was doing as Minister of Labour if not just a prolongation of Merkel.
But once she became SoD that did not work out for her unlike for Pistorius e.g. now.
Of course also due to Merkel´s time ending.
A – sanitized – overview of her time before EU:
via Wiki Germany
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen
“(…)
Party
Ursula von der Leyen has been a member of the CDU since 1990. From 1996 to 1997, she was a member of the CDU Lower Saxony State Committee on Social Policy, and subsequently also a member of the CDU Lower Saxony Doctors’ Working Group. At the CDU Federal Party Conference in Düsseldorf in December 2004, following the surprise defeat of Hermann-Josef Arentz in the first round of voting, she was elected to the CDU Executive Committee, a position she held continuously until 2019. From November 2010, she served as Deputy Federal Chairwoman of the CDU.[19] From 2014 onwards, she received the lowest number of votes of all Deputy Federal Chairmen, with 70.5 percent (2014), 72.4 percent (2016), and 57.47 percent (2018).[20][21][22] Following her election as President of the European Commission, von der Leyen announced in July 2019 that she would immediately resign from her party office and would not run for re-election at the next CDU party conference.[23] In November 2019, Silvia Breher was elected as her successor.
Beginnings in Local and State Politics (2001 to 2005)
From 2001 to 2004, Ursula von der Leyen was a member of the Sehnde City Council and chaired the CDU parliamentary group there. She was also a member of the Hanover Regional Assembly and chaired its Committee on Health and Hospitals.
In the 2003 state elections, Ursula von der Leyen won a direct mandate for the Lower Saxony State Parliament in the Lehrte constituency. On March 4, 2003, she took up her post as Minister for Social Affairs, Women, Family, and Health in the Lower Saxony state government led by Minister-President Christian Wulff. On January 1, 2005, despite massive protests, Ursula von der Leyen ensured that Lower Saxony became the first German state to abolish the state blindness benefit. In 2007, it was reintroduced by her successor, Mechthild Ross-Luttmann (CDU), albeit at a significantly reduced level.[24]
Because she joined the federal government, she resigned her state parliament seat in December 2005.
(…)
Federal Politics (2005 to 2019)
Minister for Family Affairs (2005 to 2009)
On August 17, 2005, Angela Merkel appointed her to the CDU/CSU’s team of experts for family and health affairs for the 2005 federal election. On November 22, 2005, Ursula von der Leyen was sworn in as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth in the federal government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, the.
Member of the Bundestag (2009 to 2019)
In the 2009, 2013, and 2017 federal elections, Ursula von der Leyen ran in the Hannover II constituency, but was always defeated by her SPD competitors. Von der Leyen was elected to the German Bundestag via the Lower Saxony state list. After her election as President of the European Commission, she resigned her mandate on July 31, 2019, and Ingrid Pahlmann succeeded her in the Bundestag.[25]
Minister of Labor (2009 to 2013)
Following the 2009 federal election, von der Leyen was again sworn in as Minister for Family Affairs in the Merkel II Cabinet on October 28, 2009.
Following the resignation of Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Franz Josef Jung, on November 27, 2009, von der Leyen was appointed his successor on November 30, 2009.[26]
Minister of Defense (2013 to 2019)
On December 17, 2013, Ursula von der Leyen became the first woman to hold the office of Defense Minister in the grand coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD.[27] On March 14, 2018, she was reappointed Federal Minister of Defense by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the renewed coalition of CDU, CSU, and SPD in the Merkel IV Cabinet.[28]
Following her election as President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen stepped down as Federal Minister of Defense on July 17, 2019.
(…)”
Where the EU goes, the UN surely follows with the election as general assembly president, the equally incompetent and stupid AnnaLena Baerbock, whose utterances in favour of Ukraine and Israel, amongst other comments, ought surely to have disqualified her as in any way an objective and impartial candidate.
No! Really?! At least the mainline media had the decency not to report it.
A very revealing aspect of Varoufakis` thoughtful and accurate analysis can be found in the paragraph about the shortcomings of the EU to develop ” a European military-industrial complex”: There is neither a “proper fiscal union” nor does the EU have “the federal institutions” which are needed for a top-down approach to create a Euro-MIC.
Thank god almighty! From the viewpoint of the citizens of the EU member nation states it is a to be welcomed case of serendipity that the Brussels evil empire falls short of its possibilities. One conclusion seems obvious to me: Neither should the integration process be deepened nor should the EU “institutions” reformed – a well functioning EU would be a doomsday machine in the hands of von der Liar and the likes. On the contrary, the right path for a renewed democracy and for the welfare of the european citizens lies in the “breakaway from the centralized neoliberal, technocratic, bureaucratic, mercantilistic governance of Brussels” (Wolfgang Streeck).
On the other hand it’s not like the trend back to nationalism is all that appealing either, understandable though it may be, as you point out, under the current dismal conditions. Varoufakis is generally in favor of integration while critical of the incompetence and corruption of its current institutions.
The overwhelming consideration for me in the dichotomy of national sovereignty versus international political and fiscal integration is the global climate crisis, for which there is it seems no hope in centrifugal conditions. The root cause of what makes integration so unappealing, as you described, is the corruption of the public institutions by concentrations of capital/power. And, btw, Varoufakis self-identifies as communist.
Schopenhauer:.… Varoufakis` thoughtful and accurate analysis can be found in the paragraph about the shortcomings of the EU to develop ” a European military-industrial complex”:
The reality of this EU defense spending plan is even more contemptible than Varafoukis thinks, if Adam Tooze’s piece in today’s FT is correct–
The Emperor Has No Tanks
https://www.ft.com/content/f450f1e7-4344-4ab0-afd7-d190ffd1e462
https://archive.ph/5ibR7
‘…The decade before Russia’s invasion was not a “lost decade” for Europe’s soldiers. According to SIPRI data, the cumulative spending of Europe’s Nato members over that period came to over $3.15tn, in 2023 dollars. Vastly greater than Russia. Today it is commonly agreed that Europe needs more deployable fighting forces. But Europe already has 1.47mn men and women in uniform — that is more active-duty troops than the US….
‘Imagine if Europe in that time had spent $3.15tn on the energy transition. Four Biden-style IRA programmes back to back. But then imagine that for all that spending we received a landscape studded with a picturesque assortment of solar panels and windmills but hardly any usable clean energy and no coal phaseout. It would be a scandal. And then imagine that our first idea, when faced with a new energy crisis, was to double spending on this aimless enterprise.
‘… a cynic will say that expostulating about Europe’s baroque militarism is childish. Only the very naive think that military spending is primarily about national security rather than profit. Waste is not a bug — it is a feature.
‘….Europe’s (new) defence plans … will impose significant strain on already stretched budgets …This isn’t a common sense, long overdue scaling up of an otherwise healthy military machine. This is a multitrillion-euro wager that more money will somehow fix a broken system.’
~~
Me: As always, Orwell’s dictum applies —
War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent
Thanks for the Tooth..ah Tooze!
Someone should tell him to look up the few sane articles written for US Army War College and Parameter Magazine. US officer corps has for several years now stated that the US Armed Forces are not fit for modern warfare. Just to quote these short examples of insight:
Confronted with Ukraine-style war US could not uphold pressure with 50k most likely getting killed per month (or even a fortnight I think). The same amount they lost in 20 years of war against terror. And this: officer training is outdated. Their conduct was based on supremacy in all areas of ISR, airpower, AD. With – as US officers still say – “near-peer” adversaries that would fail and end in catastrophe.
“More cooperation”? He speaks like the virgin does of pregnancy (as a German proverb goes.) They have tried cooperation for 80 years. It never worked.
“Focus on lesser models?” This is not a supermarket, mate.
Clearly he doesn´t understand what military affairs entail.
It´s about a fundamental culture as such which doesn´t exist here.
And actually that´s not a problem.
Why doesn´t he address the very first point he starts with, RU aggression? It´s a fiction, dude.
But he completely omits that eventually.
AG: But he completely omits that eventually
What do you expect? Of course, Tooze neither grasps nor addresses military affairs and Western geopolitical aggression towards Russia. One doesn’t expect him to; he’s a mainstream economic historian, who wrote a post-mortem book on the GFC full of worshipful admiration for his primary source, Tim Geithner, and he’s now commenting in the FT.
And that’s the point here, actually.
Firstly, his mainstream commentator status doesn’t take away from his criticism regarding the staggering sums the Europeans have already sunk into defense spending — four Biden-style IRA programmes back to back? — in order, forex, for the German army when Von Der Layen was German defense minister to carry brooms in place of rifles during training maneuvers.
Secondly, he’s a mainstream guy — and Anglosphere EU supporter — who’s now nevertheless prepared to admit in that mainstream bible FT that as regards the EU and NATO: ‘… a cynic will say that expostulating about Europe’s baroque militarism is childish. Only the very naive think that military spending is primarily about national security rather than profit.’
In other words, this is a mainstream guy saying in the FT that NATO and the EU are staggeringly inept at anything besides corruption.
This is Björn Seibert, VdL´s head of the Commission´s Cabinet:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B6rn_Seibert
The German version, the English site is shorter. In case just use google translate.
Read it closely because this is the type of German pseudo-smart that will tell you that he became such a big shot thanks to merit-based selection. Which puts into question not only the merits that in Germany are categorized as such.
Excerpt on his affiliations:
“(…) He is listed as an Associate of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs[7] of the Department of Government[8] at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a Research Associate of the Security Studies Program at MIT. He has also been a Non-Resident Fellow at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a Research Associate at the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) at the U.S. Army War College, a Research Analyst at the Foreign and Defense Policy Studies Program at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and a Teaching Fellow at the Department of Government at Harvard University.[9] He was also a Visiting Scholar at the EU Center of Excellence in Washington, D.C.(…)”
In short, Seibert is a complete utter idiot who has no – to quote a Martyanov term – serious education.
No surprise that Seibert was behind the idea to sanctioning Russia and this entire war incompetence.
I haven´t looked into the true story how he became VdL´s trusted man. I assume it was “family” connections.
This is not a new phenomenon. German elite´s have long been anointed due to connections and/or saying the right things.
The only well known sociologist on this subject, Michael Hartmann, has been writing several books about this misunderstanding that those who have influence in the FRG have it due to some special form of serious competence.
I know from my own past in the highly class-conscious school system in Bavaria how these things work.
1) You are keen on getting good grades which has nothing to do with serious skills.
2) You are starting to do networking and get yourself into the adequate circles. This I could already observe in 7th grade. In a time when school papers were still printed and the nature of social networks was still benign compared to today.
This goes up to the highest industrial level. German industrial history after 1945 has been an array of failures and frauds.
There is an excellent yet totally fringe essay film about German industry and white-collar crimes (“Hat Wolf von Amerongen Kursdelikte begangen”/”Has Wolff von Amerongen committed Bankruptcy Crimes?” 2004) which nobody here will know.
In an abstract form it discussed this issue of families who mostly had become rich due to 1933+ and were using FRG as a playing field for highly corrupt conduct. A fact systemic to the German economy and nutshell for the endemic quality of corruption, nepotism, fraud in German elite society. VdL is a specimen of this tradition.
A few of those names researched for the essay film see this good review:
“(…) Wolff von Amerongen (…) Alfons Müller-Wipperfürth (…) Hermann Krages,
Heinrich Knoop or Herbert Quandt, but also (…) extravagant ones like Anita
Gräfin Zichy-Thyssen, Fritz Aurel Goergen (mentioned eleven
times) or Knut von Kühlmann Freiherr von Stumm-Ramholz.
The stories attached to these names imply large scale fraud
and several suicides, commerce with arms and whitewashing
money. On this level, the film – and its narrator Matthias Hirth
– basically recounts the history of west-german and European
commercial felonies, a history of rise and fall, ob hybris and
woefulness. Shakespeare meets industrial capitalism, administrative lingo
meets the poetry of the faff diyers.(…)”
e.g. CVs German versions:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Wolff_von_Amerongen
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfons_M%C3%BCller-Wipperf%C3%BCrth
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Krages
Above mentioned Seibert is the kind of PMC people like Wolff von Amerongen would have used in their own time. And these two groups create unholy alliances. Once the geopolitical frame is not given any more the system fails due to its natural deficiencies.
Compliments to Yanis Varoufakis. This article is like the a delicious slice of galaktoboureko: crispy, smooth, sweet (but not too sweet), and definitive — nothing says “dessert” like galaktoboureko.
Like Schopenhauer who comments above, I will point to this: “First, as in the case of the Green Deal, the money is not there and the EU cannot credibly commit to finding it given its steadfast refusal to form a proper fiscal union. Secondly, even if money were not a problem, the EU lacks the federal institutions to construct a top-down, paneuropean military-industrial complex, instead of the existing patchwork of nation-state based companies that compete with one another with the backing of their national governments. Thirdly, even if neither money nor a federal-like set of institutions were a problem, Europe would not be able (I hope!) to emulate the United States’ capacity to wage one war after the other to ensure a constant demand for weapons and munitions.”
For the last day or so, I have been contemplating Yves Smith’s excellent article, posted yesterday, “John Helmer: Putin Hits Pause Button,” its insights, and the many incisive comments on events.
The question is: Now why would Putin seem to pause? (And as with Mercury in retrograde, it is likely that indeed Putin is *not* pausing.)
Simple answer: Consider Russia’s enemies. Consider their behavior.
Russia is prosecuting this war more or less on its own. Sure, the Russians may be getting some matériel from Iran or China, but the Russians aren’t like the USA / EU, cleaning out the junk drawer to ship crappy old weapons to their proxy. So: At a basic level, consider supply lines. The Russians are more secure.
But the big buzzing confusion, which the Russians seem fully aware of is this: What a set of adversaries.
Who could ask for more ridiculous “enemies”? Ursula von der Leyen, as detailed here by Varoufakis, the daffy and slimy aristocrat who wants to re-create the European economy into a giant arsenal = powder keg.
Trump. I’m not interested in amateur psychoanalysis. Let’s just call Trump “The Man *Not* with a Plan.” Whose frenemy, the drug-addicted Musk, is trying to take him down faster than any Russian plot could.
Macron, the most self-serving of the self-serving French elites. Merz, the very stereotype of why Germans are already divided among three states — Germans are frantic and, errrr, impulsive. Starmer and gang — like so much of the Anglosphere, just smart enough to do damage.
So why wouldn’t Putin wait, as the group that resembles the typical U.S. high-school clique of mean girls and bad boys who don’t understand cause-and-effect tries to make a decision?
When Giorgia Meloni is starting to look like the rational one among EU leaders, the mind boggles. Why drop an Oreshnik?
The rotted structure of EU / USA / NATO is what may crumble here. Recall the Oracle of Delphi and the fall of the great empire.
PS: Russia has plenty of its own troubles. Agreed. It isn’t exactly a functioning democracy, but then, seeing videos of fully armed military personnel in masks raiding taquerias, nor is the U S of A. Yet the Russian government has people in place who are capable. Lavrov, of course (think: Blinkie Blinken). Who would you rather have a nip of vodka and some blini with caviar with — Maria Zakharova or Hillary Clinton?
PPS: If the Russians do want to bomb the hell out of something, the two U.K. bases on Cyprus are the logical target. They are nothing but mischief, against the Cypriots, against the Arabs of the Levant, and against all logic.
PPPS: If I were Putin, watching von der Leyen, I simply wouldn’t want to get in the way of her failures. And now Ursula the Life-Giving has a thing about wolves. Sheesh.
I’ve become rather enamoured by Yves reviving the phrase “… the gang that can’t shoot straight”.
And instead of a real lion to scare enemies, the EU has settled for Useless an’ fonda Lyin’. Or maybe she’s just the N*zi analogue of Crazy Joey Gallo.
Galaktoboureko, taquerias, vodka, blini, caviar…don’t read NC comments on an empty stomach, I reckon.
DJG, Reality Czar: The rotted structure of EU / USA / NATO is what may crumble here
That scenario is exactly why the frenzied escalation of Western intel agencies’ complicity in Ukraine’s last-ditch efforts against the Russians, such as this drone strike against Russian stategic bombers, has been inevitable.
Western ‘policymakers’ themselves have said in so many words that Putin and Russia must lose in Ukraine, and be seen to lose, because otherwise Western hegemony is over. So anybody expecting anything but this escalation from them at this point was, politely, naive. Furthermore, we’ll probably see worse before this is over.
In the historical novel “I, Claudius” by Robert Graves, he talks about the idea of how an egotistical leader wants to be always loved. So how this may play out is that when their time comes near to its end, they will caste around for somebody to replace them who is actually worse. That way, when that person succeeds to be the leader they will make a hash of things and people will look back fondly to the previous leader and really start to miss them. Thus over the years I have wondered if this was a reason why Angela Merkle chose Ursula von der Leyen to rise in the German government in spite of the trail of incompetence and corruption that followed her whatever job she did. That people would think better of her in the end. Still, going by the same train of thought, when Ursula von der Leyen finally retires – or leaves in a wooden box – maybe she will choose Annalena Baerbock to follow her. :)
It was argued VdL messed up so immensly as SoD that the original plan to plant her as coming chancellor failed and only way salvaging her career was EU. But I don´t know if this really is true and she wasn´t intended for EU long-term.
The Charalamange Prize is not the same as the Presidency of UN that Annalena received. She fell so hard up that the sky shook and the clouds evaporated in aninstant…
You mean God pissed Himself because she was now The Competition, Lucifer with a perm?
Great article and great comments. Perhaps the only diff with the US is that we don’t treat our politicians with quite so much reverence– although Brandon and Orange Man were preceded by Obama who got something of a pass by breaking the presidential color barrier. If they should establishment an American equivalent of the Charlemagne Prize then Pelosi would doubtless nominate herself. The title of her book, sitting perpetually unborrowed on the library’s ebook shelf, is The Art of Power.
“Gelato” Nancy does not simply ‘lend’ things. She leases them.
Seems she has no takers–even for free.
This rather reminds me of the conversation had here on NC about I think an Aurelien piece some days ago – the one where he opens waxing nostalgic about the erstwhile state of the British bureaucracy and social service. The breakdown of standards – standards of quality and conduct and character, things which needn’t be formally established but which were inherent to a functioning high civilization, and which cannot be retrieved once dissolved – across western systems is as responsible for von der Leyen as it is for any other inept management. The system now, in the name of efficiency, effectively selects for a heady brew of just-smart-enough, wille zur macht, and outright sociopathy. Frankly, we don’t even know how to make a better citizen now, let alone elevate them to a position of power and responsibility.
Yanis is merely presenting a latest iteration of this same cycle that exists everywhere that humans are around the planet. If it isn’t Useless fond of Lying receiving such an award it will be Oz’s candidate for its worst ever, amoral, prosperity gospelling Prime Minister to receive Australia’s highest honour https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/06/06/scott-morrison-kings-birthday-honour-crikey/.
Just a thought: as a Greek, Varoufakis can’t possibly think very highly of Charlemagne….