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Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

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Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#161

Post by lippel82 »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #133
KingOfCoders wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In Germany she's well known for nepotism" As a German this is not "well known" to me, do you have a source? Until now I thought one Accenture manager was the godfather of a child of a deparment manager in the ministry of defence and Accenture got an consulting gig? I didn't know until now she was giving jobs to her relatives.

One of her kids works for one of the big consulting companies she loved to hire. But more importantly, the people working for her on the government side were often super close to the consultants they hired. As the minister, she takes responsibility for what is going on in her ministry - and that was full of friends giving contracts to friends.

To be fair, her son worked in the silicon valley office in a very junior position at the time. That's very far removed from the German public sector consulting. She has seven well educated children, they have to work somewhere...

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#162

Post by thefounder »

iterativ wrote: post #149
skocznymroczny wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conservative doesn't really mean much anymore on its own. CDU might be considered conservative by Western European standards, but it's liberal by Eastern European standards.

They want more or less government spending ? They accept that the structure of the family will change ? Example, families with more than two parents (that is a real possibility due to overpopulation). They want less or more police ? Reform the prison system (even dissolve it), maybe ? What are their views on immigration ? Multiculturalism ? Should we tax the wealthy more or less ? Of course, there are different polit…

>> Example, families with more than two parents (that is a real possibility due to overpopulation)"

For some reasons I thought Europe has an aging population issue and demographic decline not overpopulation.

>> families with more than two parents

I never heard of this unless you consider divorced people.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#163

Post by rusticpenn »

mtgx wrote: post #35
secondcoming wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only became apparent to me yesterday on another forum how much central Europeans, especially Germans, seem to quite dislike von der Leyen!

She only became president because Merkel forced the issue. I think Frans Timmermans (an excellent option!) had a chance to win it before that, as well as Vestager (the antitrust champion in the previous EC). They gave Vestager the VP job to pacify her and her allies. Also, somehow, Vera Jourova, which has been absolutely terrible in her job in the previous EC, especially with the terrible Privacy Shield she negotiate…

She was pushed out, so that she cannot succeed Merkel. She was promoted out of her target job.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#164

Post by danmaz74 »

fxtentacle wrote: post #107
_Microft wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm german and it's the first time I hear someone calling her corrupt or nepotistic.

I'm surprised. I thought by now it was common knowledge that the corruptible involving her son and other more distant family members has cost the taxpayers 100+ millions.

I've got no idea about her being corrupted or not, but for sure citing "common knowledge" doesn't prove anything.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#165

Post by lippel82 »

fxtentacle wrote: post #160
lippel82 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did her son have to do with anything? And quite frankly, even though the optics were probably not very good, I don't know of any corruption on the part of Ursula von der Leyen that was conclusively shown.

She hired the company where her son was working using taxpayer money. And then that company paid commission for it to her son. So she indirectly paid taxpayer money to her son.

Her son worked in the silicon valley office in a very junior position at the time. That's very far removed from the German public sector consulting. And where did you get that bit about commissions? I'm pretty sure that McKinsey doesn't pay any commissions whatsoever to junior consultants.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#166

Post by Joeri »

jariel wrote: post #68
raxxorrax wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With von der Leyen being president, I am pretty sure we make the wrong decision. Yes, some Europeans might think she looks sympathetic, especially those that don't know her well because of language barriers. That she is on the position is testament to the democratic dysfunction of the Union. Officially she is in a conservative party, which eastern European countries liked very much. If we want to take democracy serio…

"That she is on the position is testament to the democratic dysfunction of the Union." ??? That she has her position is the most glaring evidence of 'democratic dysfunction'. Nobody voted for her, she was unknown before the election. The very few people that voted in the EU elected voted for something else, after the election 'the true powers' decided to push the ostensible candidate aside, and behind closed doors wi…

Nonsense. Von der leyen was proposed by the council, consisting of representatives from every country, and by extension representative for the voters in every country. She was then confirmed by a majority of the EU parliament, which is directly elected by the citizens. Every EU citizen voted in those elections, or had the opportunity to. So, if only a “very few” voted that is on them. If their elected representatives did things they didn’t like (like confirming von der leyen), that is on them also, in the next parliamentary elections.

What you are complaining about is that she was elected by newly elected representatives, but not directly elected by citizens. I find this to be hairsplitting and meaningless in a context of representative democracy.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#167

Post by ArkVark »

orbifold wrote: post #95

As someone that has invented novel algorithms I still feel Patents are a net negative especially for software. I just wish EU would be a better place for „startup“ innovation. My experience with the university infrastructure in that area isn’t great:

The EU is not a great place for innovation, period. Here are the major problems:

1. No common language

2. Incredibly high taxes, particularly sales taxes

3. Unfinished transition out of Communism in many Eastern Countries

4. Preference for cheap illegal labor instead of automation

This could be solved by:

1. Formalising an 'EU English' language so that schools teaching it can open up around the continent and families can move from one country to another without having to pay for extortionate international schools

2. Eliminate payroll taxes, limit sales taxes to a maximum of 10%. Deport all illegal immigrants (who are huge burdens on the State and society) and raise pension ages to 70 in order to save money. Limit bachelor degrees to the top 20% of the population and Master's degrees to the top 10%, to encourage people into the workforce earlier in life. Raise taxes on land and pollution.

3. Limit EU funding for countries like Bulgaria that have not transitioned to modern Democracy or Bureaucracy.

4. Withdraw from the UN convention on refugees, deport all illegal immigrants, pay and help North African countries to guard their own coastlines, and replace migrants with robots and automation.

This will immensely boost the living standards of the average European, but hurt bureaucrats and old-money.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#168

Post by kazen44 »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #157
david_arcos wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is one: https://european-pirateparty.eu

> that are taken seriously

the pirate party is actually seen as a serious political party in both european aswell as local/national politics.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#169

Post by addicted »

orbifold wrote: post #96
_Microft wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm german and it's the first time I hear someone calling her corrupt or nepotistic.

She did a bunch of pretty corrupt stuff while defense minister. She pushed for internet censorship.

I strongly disagree with internet censorship, but how is that "corrupt"?

Pushing for something that may be objectively terrible and is agreed by everybody is objectively terrible, may be terrible, but it is still not corrupt.

Words have meanings, and for that to be corrupt it would also require that the person pushing for it was doing so not because they believed it was the right thing to do, but because they were doing it for nefarious reasons such as having been bribed, or only because it would personally enrich themselves.

Re: Germany will violate international agreements with Unitary Patent, says FFII

#170

Post by kazen44 »

Joeri wrote: post #166
jariel wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That she is on the position is testament to the democratic dysfunction of the Union." ??? That she has her position is the most glaring evidence of 'democratic dysfunction'. Nobody voted for her, she was unknown before the election. The very few people that voted in the EU elected voted for something else, after the election 'the true powers' decided to push the ostensible candidate aside, and behind closed doors wi…

Nonsense. Von der leyen was proposed by the council, consisting of representatives from every country, and by extension representative for the voters in every country. She was then confirmed by a majority of the EU parliament, which is directly elected by the citizens. Every EU citizen voted in those elections, or had the opportunity to. So, if only a “very few” voted that is on them. If their elected representatives…

also, in european politics, direct election of officials rarely happens. (unlike in american politics).

People usually vote for parties and the persons within them, not an individual.

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