One of our favoritest movies on Earth and a holiday tradition in our house is Christmas in Connecticut, with Dennis Morgan and Barbara Stanwyck, along with an absolutely unforgettable cast backing them up. Everyone is a treasure.
One of our favorite lines from the movie sprung immediately to mind when I read what new German chancellor-elect and Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz had done this morning.
In the movie, Morgan and a buddy are WWII sailors who have been rescued after floating for days at sea after their ship was torpedoed. Their story, quite naturally, becomes a cause celebre, and all the nurses at the hospital where they're being taken care of are a' twitter about them.
It doesn't hurt Morgan is a babe. His buddy Sinkewitz, not so much.
But Morgan is being fed gruel, while his raft buddy - whom Morgan had unselfishly kept alive by feeding him more of the rations stashed on the raft - is getting steaks and meals fit for a king. The entire time they were adrift, all Morgan did was dream of eating, and he is over 'the lovey raw egg' floating in his milk meals. He asks his buddy in a private moment how he's swinging the piled-high meal trays.
The answer is 'The old Magoo.'
This means:
The act of pretending that you plan to marry your nurse in order to trick her into feeding you steak.
Morgan holds off until his diet reaches that one bowl of oatmeal too far, and his stomach forces him to finally pull the 'old Magoo' on Mary, his nurse.
He is eating at last.
Shipmate Sinkewitz assures him that 'The old Magoo got you in, and the old Magoo will get you out.'
In the recent campaigns leading up to the snap German elections yesterday, Merz had played tough on the immigration issue plaguing Germany with exploding crime and depleting already shaky national coffers. In an effort to court voters across the spectrum, he'd even done the unthinkable - reach across the aisle to break the cordon sanitaire isolating Alice Weidel's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party from any participation in German governance no matter how many seats they racked up in regional elections.
The non-binding resolutions he proposed with Weidel - which ultimately failed - caused an uproar of protest not only because of AfD, but from people who thought closing the borders and other 'anti-immigrant' measures would be too harsh, even though they were proving to be overwhelmingly popular with German voters.
...And, by Georg - he went through with it.
German CDU party breaks “firewall” by cooperation with AfDs
The leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic party (CDU), Friedrich Merz, received criticism yesterday after his party set forth a proposal to limit migration into the country with the support of the hard right Alternative of Deutschland (AfD) party.
Merz’s party introduced several motions and a draft bill to parliament to modify the country’s immigration and asylum laws in the run up to the forthcoming elections to be held on the 23rd of Feb next.
The two non-binding motions call for heightened security measures and the closure of German land borders to irregular migration in the wake of a series of fatal stabbings across the country where the suspects are migrants. ...
Every stabbing, car-ramming, and riot in the streets made the populist AfD's position even more so, and its showing in the polls even stronger.
Gays don’t like being told by recent Muslim migrants that their rights and lives are unacceptable. 🤷🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/ucwUNLHsks
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) February 24, 2025
Merz's CDU was steadily losing poll points as AfD climbed.
For survival's sake, he had to buy into a palatable enough version of their schtick to attract voters who were squeamish about voting for the 'extremist right-wingers' but damn sure wanted something done about the illegal immigrants knifing their neighbors and using all their tax money up.
So he did.
And won.
Until he didn't.
Less than 24 hours after winning.
Merz pulled the old Magoo on the German electorate like he was born doing it.
🇩🇪‼️ Is this the quickest U-turn in political history?
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 24, 2025
After the CDU campaigned on strict immigration measures to take votes away from the AfD, chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz told a press conference the day after the election that "none of us want to close the borders."… pic.twitter.com/Ngxt98ag3r
...After the CDU campaigned on strict immigration measures to take votes away from the AfD, chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz told a press conference the day after the election that "none of us want to close the borders."
"I want to make it very clear that none of us are talking about border closures," he said, "although this was claimed at times during the election campaign."
His party is expected to agree on a coalition with the previously governing SPD — a so-called Grand Coalition — despite that party recording its worst-ever election result as voters flocked to the left and right.
NONE OF US ARE TALKING ABOUT BORDER CLOSURES
How 'bout them apples? Even American Democrats wait longer than 24 hours before the shiv goes between your ribs.
Not to mention, Merz is going to crawl back into bed with Olaf Scholz's thoroughly thumped Social Democrats (SPD) because he has to grovel in order to find a coalition partner whose letters do not begin with AfD.
Alice Weidel, for her part, has already blasted the craven move, warning Merz if he's committed what she calls 'election fraud' by lying flat-out to German voters and her would-be supporters, AfD will come down like the thunder, empty as that threat now is. There won't be national elections for another five years...
Macron tried to dance with the far left and his government collapsed. With every Islamic murder, Merz’s grip on power will erode. The German people need to be the forcing function to effect change, effectively forcing the AfD into leadership.
— Russ Protti (@russ_protti) February 24, 2025
...if Germany lasts that long.
With the second largest party in the Bundestag shut off from participating in governing, and the two entrenched mainstream parties once again at the helm, things remain exactly, ruinously the same.
Germany’s Firewall: Protecting Democracy or Blocking It?
— Tanvi Ratna (@tanvi_ratna) February 24, 2025
Amid a historic voter turnout of 83%, AfD doubled its vote share to 20%.
Yet, an establishment-imposed "firewall" keeps the right-wing locked out of power.
The "Brandmauer" (firewall) stems from Germany’s post-World… pic.twitter.com/OqcYUvdpAG
...Voter turnout hit 83.5%, the highest since 1990's reunification, signaling the electorate's intent for change. Yet, despite AfD’s mandate, a “firewall”—an unwritten rule barring mainstream parties from working with the right—ensures they stay out of federal government.
...This clash between voter will and elite consensus mirrors America’s own populist struggles, i.e. the Deep State's efforts to marginalize Trump’s base- aided by lawfare and legacy media bias.
Similarly, Germany’s establishment clings to its taboo even as AfD’s rise mirrors MAGA’s appeal: sovereignty over globalism. But its cracks widen as voters demand change. Elon Musk’s pre-election AfD nod cemented this as a transatlantic populist wave.
Germany's political firewall may sustain today. But, if elites continue to override voters, does it really protect democracy—or subdue it?
No one is going to stand for Germans lecturing them on anything ever again. Not about their fascist tendencies, not about Elon, not about disinformation, not about nuthin'. They can zip those lecturing lips.
There is one difference between the movie and the real-life swindle just pulled on German voters.
The old Magoo may have bought this election for Merz, but it won't get him out of what's coming.
Beege Adds: We came within a hair on our chinny chin chins of another four years - and the real possibility of 'in perpetuity' - of this sort of European censorship and erosion of rights. Only the American people voting fearlessly yanked us back from the brink of a British/German-style modern tyranny cloaked in a hollow 'democracy.' A massive portion of what defeated Democrats this past November, and what scares them to death to this day, is the free flow of information and ideas at sites like ours here at HotAir, with informed, active readers and our VIP members/commenters. We can't do it without your support and would love to have you onboard to help us keep up the FIGHT - which just happens to be the promo code for our 60% off membership special!
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