09/7/22

The German Blunder, Chancellor Merkel’s Disaster

In late September 2018 — four years before the Russian invasion of Ukraine — the American President gave a speech, a prescient and foretelling speech, at the United Nations in which he cautioned the German nation not to become dependent upon Russia for its energy needs.

President Donald J Trump in a reflective moment before giving his best foreign policy speech at the United Nations at the high point of his tenure.

In that speech the American President said:

Reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation. That is why we congratulate European states, such as Poland, for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia to meet their energy needs. Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.

He was referring to the completion of NordStream II and the continuing operation of NordStream I.

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02/1/21

The View From Afar — Spain/Germany #6

You will recall we are canvassing the world to get an idea of how folks think about themselves, their own businesses, their own countries and the United States.

Today, we speak to a very special correspondent in Madrid who is the Chairwoman of the Board of a truly global company. She is from Germany, but lives in Spain and speaks several languages. She is educated in the United States (electrical engineering) and is running an almost 100-year-old manufacturing business heavy on R & D.

I have watched her (hey, I’m supposed to be helping her, not just watching) meet and master some of the hardest challenges in such an enterprise with grace and aplomb while pushing and shoving into what is mainly a male dominated industry.

She is the mother of lovely girls and makes a mean snowman. Will drop her work to make a snowman with her kids on the fall of a snowflake in Madrid where it never snows.

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