The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1473974
How Merkel's green agenda caused economic collapse of Germany Remember how the world, espe- cially the American media, fawned over former German Chancellor An- gela Merkel? The adoration was so over the top that in 2015 Time magazine named Merkel its "Person of the Year." It de- scribed her as the "Chancellor of the Free World." Time owes whatever readers it has left a solemn apology. Today, Ger- mans are suffering the bitter fruits of nearly ever y major economic and geopolitical decision Merkel made as chancellor. Start with the German economy that she attempted to reset for the 21st centur y, which is reminiscent of how Joe Biden explains to infla- tion-wear y voters that we are going through "an incredible transition." But Merkel's Germany was ahead of us in its "transition." Today, the German economy is in tatters. A re- cent headline from Business Insider summarized the chaos: "German In- dustries Could Collapse Due to Rus- sia Natural Gas Supply Cutbacks." The Daily Telegraph recently de- scribed Germany as "the sick man of Europe." Things are getting so desperate that the Germans are now considering rationing gas for their major industries to keep the lights on. How did one of the five wealthiest countries in the world so quickly ca- reen into this economic ditch? It was Merkel's vision of a new Germany. Merkel was the one who made the decision a decade ago to move Germany away from fossil fuels and nu- clear power and instead "go green." Her green energy crusade, which environmentalists her- alded as a model for the world, nearly bankrupt- ed the German manu- facturing economy un- til the entire solar and wind energy debacle was scuttled. (Sadly, Biden apparently never got that memo.) It was Merkel's decision, against the advice of then-President Donald Trump, to build the Nord Stream pipeline. When Trump sagely warned in 2018 that Germans would rue the day they became overly re- liant on Russian President Vladimir Putin's energy, Merkel's administra- tion openly scoffed. Putin isn't the only one getting rich from Merkel's blunders. She negotiated trade deals with China, blatantly undermining Trump's strat- egy of economically isolating the Beijing menace. She chose to align Germany with rogue and militaristic regimes in Russia, China and Iran. This helped undermine NATO and Germany's post-World War II close ties with the United States. She refused to pony up the 2% of GDP that Germany owed NATO for Europe's de- fenses, and she bristled when Trump demanded that be raised to 4%. Per- haps if the Germans and Europeans had heeded Trump's advice, the de- bacle of Ukraine wouldn't have happened. The American media, during all this time that Merkel was steering Ger- many over a green energy cliff, took Merkel's side in her open dispute with Trump. Susan Glasser of the New Yorker snorted in 2018 that Trump had "made war on Angela Merkel and Europe" and the NATO countries were "run(ning) out of pa- tience with the President." That statement is foolish today, given the collapse of the euro and the economic downturn throughout the continent. Even as an environmentalist, Eu- rope's savior was a flop. Merkel hog- tied German industries to expensive and unreliable "renewable" energy by spurning natural gas and closing nuclear plants. The experiment failed miserably, and now Germany is vast- ly increasing the share of its power OPINION Submit Letters to the Editor: Letters must be signed and received by noon on Mondays. Email: editor@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Race for the Cure By Star Parker Give Me a Break John Stossel Eye on the Economy By Stephen Moore The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, July 20, 2022 C-3 Open borders cost lives; Biden doesn't care Fifty-three illegal immigrants died in a tractor-trailer in San Antonio on June 27 after unlawfully entering the U.S. Later, it was revealed that multiple additional smuggling incidents had resulted in migrant deaths as smug- glers attempted to evade law enforce- ment. Many have rightly blamed President Joe Biden's open-border policies for these deaths and said that the current administration con- tinues to reward smugglers' actions and fails to do anything about the consequences. Former acting Customs and Border Protection Commission- er Mark Morgan said, "They know full well the costs of their open-borders policies, but are pursuing them anyway—all for po- litical benefit and pursuit of their personal ideology." The death toll for the June 27 inci- dent far surpassed the 10 illegal im- migrants who died inside of a truck in 2017 or the 19 who died in one in 2003 in or near San Antonio. Under the administration's poli- cies, more illegal activity is occur- ring at the border and more mi- grants than ever are dying. In fact, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan has asked why there has been no outrage over the 700-plus migrants who have died while illegally cross- ing into the U.S. under the Biden administration. He says, "The most vulnerable people in the world are putting themselves in the hands of criminal car tels to take advantage of what Biden, [Depar tment of Homeland Security] Secretar y Alejandro May- orkas, and this administration have promised." In addition to those discovered dead by a municipal employee at about 6 p.m. on June 27, 16 addi- tional migrants were found alive, but hot to the touch and under heat-related distress. Of those 16, four were children. All were r ushed to the hospital and updates on their well-being have been released peri- odically. So far, investigators with the De- partment of Homeland Security have apprehended three smugglers and confirmed that the operation in- volved aliens from Guatemala, Hon- duras, and Mexico. After questioning the smugglers, investigators learned that the truck had encountered mechanical issues, prompting the smugglers to pull over and abandon the vehicle with the migrants still locked inside. The migrants had no access to water, and the truck was sweltering in triple-digit temperatures with no air conditioning. The employee who discovered the abandoned vehicle heard sounds of distress coming from the truck and noticed a body on the ground next to the trailer's par- tially open cabin door. The three smugglers apprehend- ed were charged in connection with the operation. One was under the in- fluence of methamphetamines while driving the tractor-trailer. "This is the worst human-smug- gling event in the United States," said Homeland Security agent Craig Larrabee, adding that smuggling op- erations are directly linked to cartels, whose members have "no regard for the safety of the migrants." The cartels maintain a vast amount of control over the U.S.-Mexico bor- der, exploiting it for drug and human smuggling. According to Border Patrol agent Fidel Baca, the billion-dollar busi- ness of human smuggling keeps the cartels busy. He said the car- tels sometimes charge more than $10,000 per person to smuggle illegal aliens into America, only to abandon them if their operation is in jeopardy. A Customs and Border Protection report released last year concluded that the cartels make up to $14 mil- lion a day through smuggling. The Biden administration, mean- while, continues to use U.S. taxpay- ers' dollars to house illegal immi- grants in hotels, while defunding Immigration and Customs Enforce- ment facilities and encouraging il- legal immigration and dangerous smuggling operations. That sets a dangerous prece- dent and allows cartels to exploit migrants, telling them: "The U.S. border is nonexistent. Come as you please, and stay as long as you'd like." Even Mexican humanitarian workers say, "It would be hard to devise a system that benefits these car tels more than the current one does." Not only have the president's bor- der and immigration policies created this crisis, the administration contin- ues to lie to the American people and to refuse to accept responsibility for it. Evidence to the contrar y notwith- standing, White House press secre- tar y Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that "the border is closed" when talking about the tragic June 27 deaths. With the tractor-trailer having been found in Texas, roughly 150 miles from the southern border, that's patently false. An open border and incentives for illegal immigration are not only det- rimental to America's security, but are also life-threatening to the illegal aliens who attempt the journey as a 'Agency': an important new book about America The Gallup polling organization seems to ser ve up endlessly bleak news about how Americans feel about God and countr y. I wrote recently about their report of the historically low percentage of Americans that say they believe in God. Now Gallup reports that a histor- ically low number of Americans be- lieve in ourselves and our countr y. The percentage of Americans who now say, per Gallup, they are "ex- tremely proud" of their countr y is at a historically low 38%. And the average percentage, 27%, of Americans that have confidence in our major institutions is at an all-time low. Inflation, slow growth and weekly reports about pointless violence do not inspire good feelings and confi- dence. But the good news is we can still speak freely and express ourselves. Often, it takes courage to say publicly what you see and feel is wrong. But you can do it. We have a wonder ful example in a new book from American Enterprise Institute scholar Ian Rowe, Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for All Chil- dren to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Path- way to Power. Rowe is well positioned to speak about our countr y, what works and where the problems are, as the son of Jamaican immigrants who strug- gled so their sons would "make it" in America. He has an MBA from Har vard Business School, a Bachelor of Sci- ence degree in computer science engineering from Cornell University, and a diploma in electrical engineer- ing from Brooklyn Technical High School. He's now a senior fellow, fo- cusing on education and upward mo- bility, family formation, and adoption, at one of Washington's leading policy institutes. He is also an education entrepre- neur who was just profiled in The Wall Street Journal. Rowe is the co-founder and CEO of Vertex Partnership Academies, which has been hired to launch and manage a new charter high school in the Bronx that will give education opportunity to mostly Black and His- panic students from low-income fam- ilies. Per the WSJ profile, in the local school district where the school is being launched, only 7% of students, only 4% of Black students, entering the ninth grade are ready for college four years later. However, Rowe and Vertex are be- ing sued by the United Federation of Teachers. The teachers union claims that the school is a new school, rath- er than an extension of an existing network, and new charters are pro- hibited in New York City. Given Rowe's extensive successful experience running charter schools, and the dismal performance of pub- lic schools in this district, this lawsuit is sad commentar y that improving education for youngsters is not a priority for the United Federation of Teachers. Rowe's core thesis in his new book "Agency" is that our national discourse is woefully polarized and flawed. One side argues that it is up to individuals, through force of char- acter and will, to take personal re- sponsibility to overcome challeng- es and obstacles to achieve and get ahead. The other side, which Rowe calls the "blame-the-system" perspective, argues that institution- al obstacles, rooted in racism and class, are insurmountable, even to the most highly motivated and well-intentioned. Rowe argues that both are missing a key element crucial in human real- ity, which he calls "agency." Agency amounts to the intermediating insti- tutions that provide the framework that enables and unleashes in indi- viduals "morally informed free will." He calls this intermediar y en- abling reality F.R.E.E. -- Family, Re- ligion, Education and Entrepreneur- ship. These elements are developed and explained in the course of this won- derful and important book. Heritage Viewpoint By Erin Dwinell Dictator envy Some Western leaders envy dicta- tors' powers. President Donald Trump said, when North Korea's Kim Jong-Un speaks, "his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same." President Barack Obama told re- porters it would be so much easier to be the president of China. Canada's foolish Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said he admires Chi- na because "their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime." These are stupid and dangerous fantasies. Some people have a "utopian dream that if only someone at the top could just point us in a certain direction, everything would go well," says histo- rian Johan Norberg in my new video. "People like a strong leader," I point out. "A strong leader of their own imag- ination," Norberg responds. One example he gives: "Thomas Friedman of The New York Times fa- mously said that he wanted to be Chi- na for a day to solve global warming." If Friedman were dictator, he could solve global warming? I doubt it. Yes, China has built lots of wind turbines. "But those wind turbines don't pro- duce more power!" Norberg points out. "Around 30% of them are not even connected to the grid. And why is that? Because they didn't build them to make money. They built them because they wanted to meet a political goal." So China has useless wind tur- bines and, for power, builds more coal plants. Another example: American media said we should look to China to con- tain COVID-19. NBC's Chuck Todd asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, "How un- comfortable is it that perhaps China's authoritarian ways did prevent this?" Fauci replies that China "prevent- ed a broader spread." But China's "'Zero COVID' pol- icy turned into a nightmare," says Norberg. China locked people into homes. One city even killed COVID patients' pets. China is still the one countr y that will not acknowledge that we may have to learn to live with COVID. "That's what you get with dictators," says Norberg. "If govern- ment is big enough to give you any- thing, it's big enough to take ever y- thing away from you." At the beginning of the pandemic, America imitated China's lockdowns. The mayor of Los Angeles threat- ened to shut off power to people who did not follow his orders. There was lots of political bickering about what our COVID rules should be. People don't like the bickering, but Norberg calls it one of democracy's strengths. "Because it means that we see dif- ferent things and we bring different ideas to the table." By contrast, "when we have one guy at the top, they begin to fall for their own propaganda." That's probably what led to Rus- sia's invasion of Ukraine. "Putin thought that his own military was in excellent shape," says Norberg. "Ukraine was seen as a joke of a coun- try, a place of latte-drinking comedians." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zel- enskyy was a comedian before becom- ing president. Putin assumed Ukraini- ans "would just run away the moment they saw muscular Russian paratroop- ers," says Norberg. "But it's been a disaster for them." In freer countries, Norberg points out, "journalists (and) people online would've seen those problems and brought them forth." But Putin's advisers fear telling him the truth. It's fun to watch one of his flunkies groveling. I understand why his adviser stam- mers. Pointing out a problem might get him jailed, if not killed. It's why dictators get bad information. They make bad decisions because there's no open dissent. "That's what happens when you centralize," says Norberg. "You lose individual initiative ... local knowl- edge. If you can mobilize ever ybody in one direction, sometimes they mo- bilize us all over the cliff." I'm glad America has a govern- ment with limited powers. "Democ- racy cannot guarantee the best gov- ernance, but it can prevent the worst from happening," concludes Nor- berg. "That is enough. That's really what freedom and democracy are about. It doesn't guarantee us heav- en, but at least it makes us sure that we won't end up in hell." John Stossel is creator of Stossel TV and author of "Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media. See AGENDA on page 4 See BIDEN on page 4 See AMERICA on page 4